The Ringer Sunday pregame show is my favorite Sunday morning show. You can watch it on YouTube TV. Just subscribe to it on YouTube TV. It pops up at 11 AM ET, 8 AM PT. You can watch it on Fandil TV. You can watch it on Fandil's Fast channel as well. Jj, Rahim, House, Cousin Sal, for an hour and a half, breaking down all the games that are about to happen in the NFL on Sunday. Special guest, I pop on there from time to time. Playoffs were blown and out. We're going to be Saturday, Sunday, the first two weeks. We're going to be live in LA on Saturday and Sunday in round one. So be ready. The Ringer Sunday Pre-game Show. Subscribe, follow, check it out. We're also brought to by the Ringer podcast Network. Put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. We did Home Alone 2, a classic Christmas movie. We did that on Spotify as a video podcast, so you can watch it on Spotify. You can watch on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. You can watch a lot of the clips and videos from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube Hope you had an awesome holiday.

The sports was really fun. We were about to talk about all the basketball and the rest of the Million Dollar Picks, which we did a little early batch, me and house, on Tuesday for YouTube only. Probably should have given more of a heads up on that. But we wanted to get some Christmas pics in. We did really well. Now we're going to keep the magic going later in this podcast. After we talk hoops, after at the very top, I'm going to talk about this Jimmy Butler Miami situation for a second. Then last but not least, my daughter, who always comes on near the end of every year to do her Teen Culture Awards. It's a bittersweet year because she's coming on. This is the last year we're doing Teen Culture because this is the last holiday she's going to be a teenager. She turns 20 next year. We had a lot of stuff to cover. It was very, very fun. We actually did it as a video piece this year, too, which you'll eventually be able to watch on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel, along with all the other stuff we're doing on here. It's all next.

First, our friends from Pearl Recording this Thursday mid-afternoon. It is after I had already recorded the rest of the podcast, but something happened with Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler that I had to mention here at the top. House and I had talked about Jimmy a little bit later. We took out the part that isn't relevant anymore because Pat Reilly came out and he said, Definitively, the Miami Heat are not traded Jimmy Butler. He's going to be on this team for the rest of the season. Came out and said it. Put it out in a state so people could read it. We don't see NBA teams do this that often, but I think it speaks to a bigger picture thing that we've discussed on this podcast a couple of times now this month with this new first apron, second apron, and how much harder it is to do decades, the NBA is starting to look a lot more like the NFL. It is so much harder to deal somebody during the season than it used to be, which is what Reilly said. We're not dealing him during the season. We'll figure it out during the offseason.

Butler is 48 million, and then $2 million player option next year, which odds are he's going to exercise because nobody has cap space this summer. The only team is Brooklyn. He's going to go to Brooklyn. They're going to be rebuilding and just sign Jimmy Butler. I mean, it's conceivable. I just would have bet on it. Pat Reilly is looking big picture and looking at an NBA that now operates way more like the NFL, where it's way harder just to do big, complicated deals. He didn't like the deals that were out there, and they clearly kick the tires with a bunch of teams. Houston, I think, came out and said they weren't interested. I think they're holding out for Dieran Fox, which House and I talk about in a second. But you go around Golden State, what's the point of them trading for Jimmy Butler? They're not even really a contender right now. They're going to give up all these assets so they can try to be the the fifth best team in the West on a very short window. I'm not doing that if I'm Golden State. I'm sure Phoenix would talk about Bradley Beal for Jimmy Butler, but why would Miami want to turn Jimmy Butler into Bradley Beal?

Why would they want to do any of these trades? They already have somebody who, when he's pissed off and playing well, he's a top 30 guy. They're not just going to take more contracts. You go around the league like, what if Sacramento wanted to make some crazy bid for him with De Rosen and Keegan Murray in a first-round pick? Well, do you want the Rosen's contract for the next couple of years after what we've seen from him this season? You just look through the league and you can't find the trade. I think that was the situation Miami was in. Houston was the one team that made sense, and it just didn't seem like they were interested in him. I think Raleigh is trying to flip this. The narrative is so strong that something was going to happen that he went the other way and he was like, No, he's going to be here the whole season. Now, Jimmy knows he can't go anywhere. If he could really just blow this up now, that's not great for him. That's going to make teams less excited to sign him in the summer. It could veer the other way where now Jimmy's like, Well, if I'm going to be here, I might as well make the best of it.

He could start playing better. Other stuff might happen There might be some team, some Star might get hurt, some situation might go sideways, and then Miami in the early February can go, Listen, we didn't think we were going to trade him. We thought he was going to be here all year. But then this offer happened, and they cover their places. But Pat Reilly, I think he's late '70s, early '80s now. It's like that old Seinfeld joke when old people are just like, Fuck it, and they just start backing out of the driveway. They don't care if somebody's coming, I'm I can get out of the driveway. Here I come. Pat Reilly has been at this point for a while, and it's really fun to watch somebody like that run an NBA team. He had obviously had it with these Butler trade rumors and just was like, You know what? There's no good trade for this guy. We're keeping him. Here's my statement. It was old school and I loved it. But this soap opera is probably not over, I'm guessing. Anyway, we are now throwing to me and Joe House talking basketball, million dollar pics, and I'll be wearing a different shirt.

You can look forward to that. All right, we're taping this. It is 10:30 Pacific Time. Joe House is here. It's a stripped down BS podcast this week. Two pods this week. We did something for YouTube. We put some million dollar pics up there. A lot of sports yesterday during Christmas Day. How did you handle the family Christmas Day, how to consume sports while also pretending to be a family member part of Christmas?

Well, the nice thing is my family tradition, we get together with my parents in the house we grew up with. I've been with my brothers, my sisters.

I've stayed in the attic of that house many times.

You have. We just do that the first part of the day. We were done by kickoff, one o'clock. When we got home, my wife and my kid wanted to play with his stuff. My wife went right back to And so I was left alone to watch whatever I wanted to watch. I had full control of the dial with Netflix. Great job, Netflix.

Not great job by the games, but the broadcast was fine. Then the NBA had a really good day. I was thinking, though, the Wemby-Nicks game was so good. And I was just thinking big picture about there's been so much what's wrong with the NBA stuff. And some of it's founded, some of it's stuff we've been complaining about forever, and then some of it is real issues, which is basically, how do you find these under-30 American stars that people are going to give a shit about like they care about Steph and LeBron? And yet the Steph LeBron thing last night was the solution and the problem at the same time. Because it was the same thing for the Olympics, too. It was awesome watching those guys. Hey, the old guys, look at it. They still got it. But it's still coming at the expense of everybody else. Even yesterday, it's in that eight o'clock. It's in the best spot. It's after football's over. That's the signature game. It's a signature game, and it's basically two 500 teams, and it's guys that have been in the league since 2003 and 2009, respectively. And yet, OKC wasn't on Christmas Day.

Giannis wasn't on Christmas Day. Wemby was buried at the beginning of the day. This It's like, you're doing this to yourself, but at the same time, I get it because Steph and LeBron was awesome. So I don't really know what the answer is. It's like you could go glass half full, glass half empty on it. But the fact that the Steph LeBron game was so good and sucked up so much oxygen from the day is actually part of the problem.

Well, this is the predicament for the rest of the season. I mean, this is what happens when you're in a transition moment and the most resonant stars The Olympics really validates the idea of putting those guys on the main stage because the Olympics were effing incredible. Right. Those last two games, the semifinals and the finals were incredible, and it was because of those guys. If you want to let them have their retirement journey, which is really what we're on, I think, with LeBron. This is probably- He looks better since the eight-day sabbatical. Well, who wouldn't?

Curry looked great.

Yeah.

Well, you say this is the journey we on, though. I still go back, and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but the Olympics are a chance to showcase some of the younger guys and give them some new memories that they can make a foundation of experience with them as superstars. And yet those moments went to the old guys. Christmas still going to the old guys. And I just think they're stuck in the middle. I remember when we were in college in the early '90s, this transition felt a lot more organic to the Jay, Barkley, Hakeem, Drexler, all the Stockton and Malone, Sean Kemp, GP. It just felt like it was organically shifting generations. It doesn't feel as organic this time around.

Well, only because we don't have an American superstar that's jumping up and grabbing the ring. The guy that jumped up and grabbed the ring is effing Wemby. He served notice. 12 noon, Madison Square Garden, Christmas Day. Welcome to the world. Everybody's been talking about Wemby. Last season, this season, he keeps having these inspiring milestone performances right out of the gate. And yet the mother effort was flopping on Monday. I know. We got to send him no. Joel and B got kicked out. And drumming got kicked out and drumming got pulled back in the game. I mean, if we're going to... We need a guy who's going to come out and kick ass and not fall over when the wind blows.

Well, he is French.

That's part of the problem. It's literally part of the problem.

Well, Wemby... I was talking about this with Van and a couple of other people on text this week. Wemby has two things going against him that historically has not been great for somebody really captivating the American public. One, he's tall. Tall people in our lifetime. It's never really totally worked. It's hard to identify with centers.

That's why Shaq is a one of one.

Yeah, but even Shaq, we were there in the '90s. Shaq was pretty polarizing in the '90s, right? People were Well, he was a huge superstar. He put up huge stats, but it took a while.

And also crazy charismatic.

He was, but it took a while. I really feel like it was the three Lakers titles that was like, All right, Shaq's arrived. But remember, there was Did you feel like the '96 Olympics, some of the movies he did, some of the rap albums, the Lakers underachieved?

I know, but did you feel like he was the most popular guy in the league?

I didn't. It was MJ's League, and then MJ retired, and we were like, Who's going to be next? I don't think anyone thought the answer was Shaq.

Shaq understood this, which is why he went to LA, and it was Shaq and Kobe, and that was an unbelievable era.

Yeah. But the point is Shaq has probably become the closest, but it's He's really a perimeter guy. Sure. That's why the Ajay DeBança. Anyway, the Wemby thing, he's got that and he's got the foreign thing, which is another huge thing. We've never really seen a foreign guy captivate this country. We can see worldwide, it might be great.

Who is the most popular? Who would you say is the most popular? We've had some great ones. You're the historian.

Well, Hakeem, I think, was the best foreign player of all time, right?

Okay, sure.

Dirk.

Yeah, right there.

Giannis is in there. Jokuj.

Yes.

None of them are face of the league. Jokuj right now is on the best offensive heater this decade of anyone in a long time. Part of that since he's not Mr. Personable. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see with Wembe. We've just never seen it. We've watched a lot of centers come into the league since we've loved this league. Walton was probably that one, and we were kids when that happened. But when Walton and the Blazers, That felt like he was the face of the league for a year, but Kareem never resonated. We watched Ewing come in. It just never happened for him. He also wasn't amazingly fun to watch. Samson had a blip, and then it just wasn't going to happen with him. You go on and on. It just centers are tough. Dwight Howard, Yau.

Well, Yau was incredible and beloved by- Global.

A billion people. Globally, he became great. I think the thing that I'll tilt for Wembe is if he keeps just having crazy games like the one yesterday. He's going to just have these 40.10 block. He's in the playoffs. He's putting up like 40, 15. If it's just stuff we've never seen before, that might actually work, but it's going to take a while.

It needs to be on that national stage.

We had them as... I think, did you go under for them before the year? I went under.

I went under. I look at that roster even today. Still say under. There aren't guys on that roster that make me say, Oh, yeah, this is a 500 team that's going to be threatening for the... They're going to be in the play-in mix, and they're going to be potentially fighting for an 8 seed. I look at that roster, and I don't get there.

They're an 11 seed, but they're 15 and 15 in a really hard conference. There's a feistiness. They play defense.

They play defense. That's true.

They have a guy who's not afraid of whoever the other team star is. I'm prepared to chalk that up to a loss, that San Antonio thing. I think they'll get over 35. Also, there's trade possibilities with them, too. There was a lot of the Dierren Fox stuff started last weekend. It really should have started a month ago. He's this year, he's free agent after next year. The team feels like the Derozen thing just it's not happening. They tried. You started thinking of Fox, and the Fox stuff is so much more enticing for teams like Houston and San Antonio than Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler is 35. He's been unhappy the whole year. Fox is a different animal. If you're Houston and you could turn Fred Van Biet in your pics and Terry Houston in a Fox, you're doing it. If you're San Antonio and you have a chance to add Fox to your mix and you think you can resign him and put him with Wemby and Castle and some of your swings and you just give up the pitch trobe you have. You're probably thinking about that. But to get a top 15 guy who's a point guard, who's in his prime.

This is about as interesting of a trade piece as we've had, not counting when Durant suddenly becomes available, but a younger guy on his way up. I don't know. You're thinking for DC? We trade all your pics? No. Five takes a Jordan pool plus seven swaps? No.

It makes no sense whatsoever. I also really wonder about Fox to San Antonio because it's like, where do you get this season? Where are you next This season.

It's a decade play. It's not a this season play as much as we now have a guy. We need a perimeter guy, preferably a guard, somebody who can handle his business, run the team, play off Wemby, who's a clear, awesome number 2. I mean, Fox is about... He's a top 20 player. That's about as good of a number 2 as you're going to get, right? And he's available, potentially. If I was the King, I wouldn't trade him. I would be like, No, we're keeping you, sorry.

That makes more sense, honestly, because they're still right in the thick of things, playoff-wise.

I mean, for sure- They have a Derozen issue, though. I think they might have bought a car that the odometer was turned back on.

It happens sometimes.

It was like, I thought this car had 95,000 miles on it. Maybe it was 195,000.

Where are we? I don't mean to derail it. Where are we this week in Jimmy Butler?

I think he'd be gone already if there was a trade. I just don't think there's a trade. The most notable thing that seems to have happened the last couple, maybe the last week or so, is that Houston doesn't seem interested in him. They're like, We're good.

That is interesting. Because Washington is out there auditioning players. Balanchunas, Brogdon, Kha Kuzma can't get on the floor.

Kuzma being in any trade rumors is hilarious. You've been watching him. I don't know what his trade value is, but I'm guessing it's low.

No, it's high because he has an incredible contract. He was like, You know what? Just a few years, 20 million bucks. Sounds great, man. It's an incredible contract that he signed. He's very valuable if you can get a version out of him, get him to be committed to playing.

If you can get a version out of him that hasn't existed for two years. Yes. The Warriors have been mentioned with Butler, and I just... I don't know what the point house because I just don't know if that's making a huge difference for them. You could talk yourself, Curry, Drayman, Butler, the old guys, let's make a run. But I just think the league's too good. They started out strong. They've gone the other way. They have a lot of tradable pieces that the minutes are all over the place. Buddy Hield now all of a sudden scores five points a game. Podsamski is in the same asset. I don't know why Miami would want their stuff or want to pay Kominga however much. I don't know what else. You had under for them, right?

I had under for them, and it's because they had pieces that they added in the offseason that were supposed to create depth. Melton got hurt. But none of the pieces really to move the needle. Oh, Buddy Heel is a shocker. Buddy Heel is only averaging five points. He couldn't stick in Philly. Two different states. Philly needs a guy that could score from the perimeter. I feel like the Golden State situation It requires what we got with the Christmas game, which was Steph Curry scoring eight points in 26 seconds, and then they lose on a layup. It wasn't just a hard... Reeves, it was O'Lay. It was O'Lay defense. My man got right to, Come on. They are where they are.

I think we talked about this before the air when we were trying to figure out overrunners. With the West, there were so many good teams. Some teams were just going to end up not being happy. Right now, it's Sacramento and it's Golden State. And San Antonio is a little better than we thought. Denver is a little worse than we thought. Minnesota is a little worse than we thought. But we knew it was going to be some... The NFL was way more easy to figure out this year, I think, than the NBA. The Celtics, you went under, I went over. And I am not going to overreact to anything with the Celtics yet. You were on it a little more about how hard it is to repeat that was part of your under case, right?

Just in terms of bringing that energy, there All their core guys went to the Olympics, except for Jalen Brown, who wasn't invited. But going from the finals to the Olympics to an NBA regular season, and 58 wins in this era is still excellent. If they win 58 games, and they certainly can, I still win my bet at 58 and a half, 59 and a half, whatever the total was. But it's just hard. It's a slog. I don't begrudge them going through peaks and valleys over the course of a regular season. My Rock on wood. They'll be plenty healthy come April. Really, the only thing that was interesting to me in terms of a regular season outcome is, is Tatum going to put himself into that MVP conversation? Is this the right moment for that even?

Yeah. Well, so glass half full. Tatum and Brown are healthy. Athletically, physically, they seem great. Brown's little hero, Bolly this year. Their shooting stats are down with him a little. I haven't loved that. There's little stuff I don't love, but nothing I'm super concerned about. They lost to Orlando on Monday night. This depleted zombie magic team. Orlando played great. I watched the game. The Celtics tried hard. They played well. Orlando just played awesome. They made big shots. They were super feisty. They were really fighting, and it was a really good game. It was an okay loss. The Philly game yesterday, that was Philly treated like a game seven. They came in, they really wanted to prove something. They couldn't have played harder, and the Celtics couldn't match it. I'm not weird about that either. I think Whites has been the same all month. Holiday was hurt. Porzinkas keeps getting these dumb little injuries. Pritchard sometimes just doesn't show up. Yesterday, he sucked. I'm not going to really evaluate the Celtics team until the West Coast trip next month. That's when we'll know. That's when we'll have a feeling for them. I don't love that they're four back from the Cavs.

Those are the big NBA storylines to me. It's just Milwaukee is better. Milwaukee, I think, has moved back into contender-ish feeling. Denver clearly needs to do something, and I don't know what the fix is for them. Phoenix, I guess, is the one what's going on with this team that we thought was a contender. It just seems like they have the worst centers in the league, and they can't keep these guys in the same court. But for the most part, I don't think there's been any major surprises this year other than Minnesota being as bad as they've been, even though they won yesterday.

Yeah, and they may yet figure it out. They won yesterday because Luca went out. When he went out, he's going to be out for an extended stretch, which is concerning. But the West, the thing that makes it super hard for the teams we're talking about, your Lakers, your Denver, your Golden State Warriors, your Minnesota Timberwolves, is the early good performance by Memphis, the early good performance by the Clippers, and the Houston. Exactly. Our anticipated. We all liked Houston. I'm surprised. Did anybody take the Houston over as a lock?

I think you and Rusillo both did. Oh, great job. Yeah. The surprise is where Houston, Memphis, Clippers, and then just San Antonio being a 500 team. If it's okay, I'm still a little dubious of the Clippers. They're only 17 and 13.

I mean, it is okay.

They're only 17 and 13, and they put a lot on Harden. I also think the way the NBA did this NBA Cup schedule combined with the Christmas schedule, which, hey, news flash, I'm going to criticize the NBA again. I just think they've completely mangled all of this. Why aren't their Christmas Eve games? Why are they just punning on a day where there's no sports? Why are they punning on these days when there's clearly no sports? When instead of they load up the Monday, there's 14 games on Monday. You can't even watch them keep track of anything. And then Tuesday, nothing.

It is weird because Christmas Eve is such It was an underrated night. I went out to dinner, and the place we went to was popping. It was butch to nuts packed from when you walked in, the bar is packed. People want to be out. An NBA game is super fun. Have a couple of games in a bar. To go with your family. Go with your family to an NBA game and then dinner, whatever. It's weird.

The reason I bring that up with the Clippers, the way they've structured this December thing, I think it's been good for the old guys. People like LeBron, Harding, Curry, you're not playing four and seven. You're not playing five and eight. You're not having these back to backs. You're not nursing these little injuries because you're not playing that much basketball. But now we're about to hit this stretch, especially when we get to January, where the schedule just gets really hard and it's going to advantage the young guys. It's going to advantage a team like San Antonio that has Wemby and Castle and Vassell and all these young dudes. I think it's going to hurt a team like the Clippers because the amount of The amount of offensive responsibility they're putting on Harden, I don't know if it's sustainable once we get into these 16 games in 29 days territory before February. So I'm watching that. I think it's good for teams like Oklahoma City, Houston, Memphis, even a team like the Celtics that are built around two younger guys, Cleveland. But then you look at a team like Orlando, 19 and 12, but really depleted. Once you're depleted and you get into these schedule things, a nightmare.

Milwaukee, it's good for it because Yannis is an alien. Atlanta, it's good for it because they're built around all these young guys. Indiana, a team that we bet on earlier this week. I think it's good for them. Anyway, I would watch out. If you had to pick a final, who would it be?

Boston, Oklahoma City.

Yeah, I haven't wavered on that either.

To move off of it. Yeah.

Did Philly do anything yesterday that intrigued you big picture, or you're just not going to take it seriously?

No, I do take it seriously, and it does intrigue me. They're fighting hard to get an identity, and that level of competitiveness that they showed against the Celtics on a national stage. I thought it was promising. It was good. Yeah, seven and three over their last 10. There's still the different NetDifferential still isn't great, but they're still minus four net differential. They're pushing in the right direction. If they could just get two of those three guys healthy for a stretch of time. Every time all three of them play, it's an absolute bonus. But they're headed towards... I could see them rip something off in January, be right around 500. Then as February turns into March, they're a couple of games above, and then they're a real formidable payoff, though.

Well, we'll see because they have a West Coast trip coming up, and then a whole bunch of games in January. Just in January, from January first to the 19th, they have 11 games, and that's not counting two games at the end of December, too. The way they're constructed, there's no way Embiid is going to play more than half of those games, I would assume. I don't love what I've seen from Paul George. I'd like to throw my voice into that chorus. Just doesn't look as comfortable. He doesn't seem 100% healthy to me, so I want to wait a month on that. But competitively, they looked really good. The Caleb Martin is just like a Celtics killer at this point. I don't know what it is about Boston, but he rises the occasion on it. Their season looked dead. Now they're 11 17. The problem for them is they have no room for error.

That's right. No more margin for error at all.

Yeah. Like that one more maxi three-week ankle sprain or Embiid goes out for a month, and all of a sudden you're looking at the 10th playoff spot because there's teams like Chicago and Detroit haven't really gone away. I don't know if those are trade teams or not. Everyone thinks Chicago is, but they're not going to be able to trade Levine. Who's taking Levine at that money?

Somebody desperate enough.

Maybe it's Vucevic Sure.

I'm trying to think how they could hurt themselves.

It would be trading one of those two guys.

You're Denver and Golden States, right? Those kinds of situations where it's like one last gasp. Let's see if we can do it. Or maybe the Lakers. If the Lakers keep scuffling around 500, they still have that one trade piece with the pick.

One thing that's a little different with the Lakers is Max Christie, who looked like a zero. He's actually been pretty good for them for the last Last couple of weeks. He's been okay. He's been passable. They can play him in crunch time. He might actually make an open shot. He can play defense a little bit, but it's something they didn't have a month ago. Anyway, all right, that's our NBA report. We're going to take a break, come back with a Million Dollar Picks. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points could be worth more than 30 points. Now, you can get a 30% profit boost from the Ringer with FanDuel's 30 on 30 during Friday's NBA action. We're teaming up with America's number one Book to give you a 30% profit boost. When you either pick a point to score more than 30 points or bet on our new exclusive 30 on 30 special markets like any game, just go nuts. I'm looking at Friday's slate. I always tweet my pics on my Twitter account on Friday because I like to look on Friday morning, see this plan, see what the matchups are. You can join me. Ride my pics or just make your own.

Look for 30 on 30 in the FanDuel Sportsbook app or head to fanduel. Com/bs for your chance to score a bigger payout this Friday. Don't miss your chance to find out how much more 30 can be worth with FanDuel's 30 on 30. And speaking of FanDuel, don't forget about the Ringer Sunday pregame show on FanDuel TV and FanDuel Fast channel and on YouTube TV. Anyway, you must be 20 plus in President's Select States or 18 House of President DC. Opt and required. Bonus issued as now with TravelPerk. Profit, both tokens, restrictions apply, including any token expiration and max wage or amount. See terms at sportsbook. Fando. Com. Game problem? Call 1-800-Gambler or visit rg-help. Com. All right, million dollar We're already up house. We won $300,000 on Christmas Day, thanks to the Ravens.

Merry Christmas.

And thanks to the chiefs. We still have a Seahawks bet. We're taping this before the Seahawks game, but we have a Seahawks bet with Baltimore minus nine and a half of exhausted. The Seattle Moneyland, that was plus 312, so we could be up another like 155K after tonight. I like some of the games this week. I know you already did Ringer and Gambling Show. I didn't hear it yet because it's not up, but The big game and the hardest one to figure out in a while, and I think the most even great matchup we've had all season is this Vikings-Packers game in Minnesota. The Vikings, it's around one, one and a half. Right now, it's Vikings, one and a half. You could make really strong cases for each team. I think there's a lot of public love and affection for the packers right now, which would make me a little nervous for them. Green Bay lost to them earlier in the year, and Green Bay is 10 and 2 in the last 12 weeks with two Detroit losses. People are leaning Green Bay in this house, and we have to treat it like a playoff game.

It means more to Minnesota because if they can win this, they beat Detroit next week, they're the one seed. Green Bay is pretty locked into the five or six seed. Not sure it matters. Where are you leaning on this one?

I'm inclined to look at that Green Bay side, mainly because of just how effective they've looked on both sides of the ball. Their defense has just been so impressive. They're able to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. They're still generating turnovers. There was skepticism earlier in the year, I'll put my hand up, about their defense was producing what felt like an outsized number of turnovers, and that was the way that they were able to look so good defensively. But they've continued to do so. Now it looks like their offense is healthy, and now, Jacobs, they're really leaning into that run game. It looks like last year where Green Bay went on this run at the end of the season when Aaron Jones was finally healthy. He led the NFL over the last five weeks and into the playouts, Aaron Jones for Green Bay in rushing. I feel like they're gearing up in the same direction with Jacobs. It's not intended to be disrespectful in any way, shape, or form towards Minnesota. The line, I think, is super fair. I think the money line is minus 108 for both teams. That's how we even sense in the book.

I think that's totally appropriate. Green Bay outgained Minnesota the first time they played by- I watched that game, though.

That game was over. They were up four touch downs, and then there was a lot of garbage time stuff with Green Bay, and it belatedly somewhat became a game, but not But it was a lot of end of the game shit.

These teams tend to split against each other. Just historically, it's an important division game. My lean would be Green Bay, but if the Vikings go win, who's going to be shocked?

I guess where I've landed in this game is if it was in Green Bay, I would like Green Bay. Because it's in Minnesota, I like Minnesota more. I just think these teams are dead even. You throw in the home field. There's one other piece with Minnesota, though. First of all, I do think they're better than people realize. We've talked about this a bunch on this podcast, but they became a yeah, but team. We've had yeah, but teams before that I thought was justified. There was that Cousins Vikings team a couple of years ago that we were like, What? This team's not good. What? This record's ridiculous. Look at it they played. The Vikings are 8-0 with Hawkinson, which I think matters. The The Vikings are sixth and DBOA, Green Bay is third. The Vikings are second against the run. They're first in creating turnovers. They have a top five pass rush. But the thing I really like the most about them is these two receivers they have with Hawkinson. I always feel like they can get a drive if they need it. If this game's in the fourth quarter in their home, I just like their chances to go down the field.

One stat that I think is, I saw this and I was like, How is this the best total? But it They lead the league in least amount of percentage they've trailed when they're on offense in the game. They've only trailed for 22% of their snaps on offense. They've been trailing in the game, which basically means they're always ahead, they're always in charge, they're always in the lead, which is good for home. But then they also have the ability at the end of the games to get a drive if they need it and to make a big play if they need it. Green Bay is going to do cover two. Their defense actually matches up pretty good with the Vikings. But I I like this Vikings team. To me, it's like, if you believe in this Vikings team, you have to take them this week. If you don't, you're basically saying, I don't believe in this team.

I don't know. Do we go that far?

Yeah, I think this is a playoff game. I do. I think this is playoff rules this week. I think we have to approach it like playoff manifesto.

I don't know. What's Green Bay doing if it really is a playoff game?

I'm saying for Minnesota, it's a playoff game. They win this game. They have a chance to be the one seed. They play Detroit. There's also, Conspiracy Bill would like to enter this for one second? Go ahead. There's no Sunday night, week 18, NBC game right now. It's either Minnesota, Detroit or Rams, Seattle, which we might not get if the Rams just beat Arizona this week, which we're going to have coming up a million dollar pick. The only other possibility is Minnesota, Detroit, but Minnesota has to win this game. If that doesn't happen, now we're into... Who'd you have? Carolina versus Atlanta?

Yeah, Atlanta. If Atlanta loses this week.

Carolina, Atlanta, Sunday night.

Yeah, but that would be good because then you'd have Bryce Young against Michael Pennex.

How is that good to have Carolina Atlanta as the last game of the season? That's not good at all. Carolina has four wins.

It would be hilarious is what it would be. I just wonder. Carolina is just funky, but go ahead.

I just wonder, do they Does Minnesota get some calls in this game?

Well, they will be at home. They'll get home calls, you expect for sure. This one is just a stay away because it's. We're not staying away. I don't get any value on you. Can't stay away.

We have a big little nest egg of million dollar pics, and this is the best game in a while. We have to put a bet on it. Go ahead. Let me give you something that I thought was interesting. Green Bay since week five. They're nine and two with two Detroit losses, right?

Yeah.

Here's who they beat. Matthew Stafford in week five with no Puka, no Cup.

Yes.

Kyler Murray, C. J. Stroud, no Collins. In that game. Trevor Lawrence barely beat him. He had his best game of the year. Threw for 300 plus yards against him. They went by three. Caleb Williams. They were up. Chicago was up the whole game and should have won, and then Green Bay won it late. Brandon Allen on San Francisco, Tua on cold weather on Thursday night, Thanksgiving, Gino Smith, and whatever the fuck was going on with the New Orleans quarterbacks last week. Those are all their wins. They haven't played anything remotely approaching Sam Darnold, Hawkinson, Addison, and Jefferson, and Aaron Jones. This is by far the best complete offense they've played since week four.

Now do Minnesota.

Why don't Minnesota is the same thing? But I'm saying you can't use that case against Minnesota and then not use it against Green Bay.

Well, I think they're in very similar positions because this is a gigantic step up in class for Minnesota. Minnesota's defense hasn't seen anything like this Green Bay offense. Look at these offenses that Minnesota has seen since they lost to the Rams in week six or seven, whatever it was. They played the Colts with Anthony They played the Jaguars. They played the Titans. They played the bears. They played Kyler and the Cardinals, which was a huge comeback game, right? The Cardinals were up. That should have been a Cardinals' win.

Not a great Vikings game.

They got Kirk Cousins and the Falcons in his triumphant return to Minnesota, which ended his career in Atlanta and maybe his career in NFL football, and the bears and the Seahawks. The best game, the best win was going into Seattle and coming down to the wire and going I'm sorry to be this.

Both teams' most impressive win the last two and a half months was Seattle, who also might not be good.

Well, they're good enough to be fighting for a playoff spot, but yes. If We're going to do that, we have to do it for both teams. The interesting thing to me, you made the case for Minnesota's offense looking good. You want them with the ball at the end of the game. I think I would say the exact same thing about Green Bay. To me, it's not that dissimilar from the handicapping of that Thursday night Detroit Green Bay game where it came down to which team had the ball at the end. It's a great game.

I don't think there's a wrong answer. I just feel like people have tilted more toward the packers, and I feel like it's dead even.

I think- Well, Minnesota is favored.

Well, they get the minus one and a half because they're home.

But I'm just saying it's not- If this was in Green Bay, Green Bay would be minus one and a half over Minnesota. True. But the public hasn't jumped in yet with a big perspective.

So you're thinking it's a stay away?

I mean, if you want to put something small in it so that you can say, We did it, and it's fun, and then Minnesota wins, it's like, Excellent. Now we have Minnesota and Detroit, and 18 for the one seat. That would be awesome. Wait a second.

We're taping this at 11:17 Pacific Time, December 26, Thursday.

True.

The line has completely flipped. It's now Green Bay minus one and a half over Minnesota.

Somebody stepped in. That's a syndicate play. Somebody stepped in.

That's a syndicate play. The line moves three points, and now it's Minnesota minus 102 plus 1.5 and Green Bay minus 116.

Somebody's taking a stand.

Does that make you nervous or what?

I honestly think that we're going to see one or two more of these over the course of the next two days. I bet the rival syndicate will come in.

You think Green Bay is going to get to minus two and a half.

No, I think somebody will come back in in the other direction. I got you. It's going to flip again.

Vikings being plus one and a half means they're now in tease territory.

Yeah, that is. You would want to do it right away. Right away. Do it now.

Well, we can do it right away. We're taping million dollar pics as we speak.

Good point.

Any interest in throwing them in with the Miami Dolphins in Cleveland?

There's going to be rain. So you tease Miami down to Miami down or we could basically do...

What is Miami? 6.5?

Yeah.

Yeah. To a half. No, tease Miami down to Moneyline and do Miami plus 7.5..

The only thing that would concern me about the Miami situation- Well, there's a lot of things that concern me.

I don't know. You're going to go with only?

The single most prominent is if DTR, anything happens to him at quarterback. What I I want to see is where Jameis is listed in terms of death.

I was on Brown's Reddit today, which is one of the darkest places in the internet. Oh, poor guys.

It's just absolutely brutal.

There's even on Brown's Reddit, there's even, Should we make a run at Kirk Cousins this offseason. No. Yeah, that's a thread on Brown's Reddit. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's dark, man. It's some of the darkest shit you'll see. But Brown's Reddit was saying that apparently Jameis is hurt, If anything happens with DTR, it's Bayly Zappie time?

Oh, well, now I'm feeling better. Okay, now we can do Miami. Fine. Now we're good.

Or it's Bayly Zappie, injured Jameis, or it's DTR who has one breakdown and nine career picks.

Well, I thought they already said that DTAR is going to start. My concern was that DTAR would start. Something would happen to him, and then Jameis would come in and throw a four-touch- DTAR is playing not 100% healthy, though. Well, I want certainty that Jamis will not come in because Because if Jameis comes in, then I feel like that's a dead loser bet.

For some reason, you're worried about Jameis. To me, I'm not worried about Cleveland's offense in this game. I'm worried about the Dolphins in the Rain just doing a- I understand. Classic Dolphins stink bomb.

We don't have to put them in a teaser. I mean, there's another good legs. Dallas is a pretty good teaser leg.

Well, the reason I brought them up for a teaser is just... At some point, these teams, the franchises are steering steering them toward a top five pick, right? I don't think the Giants want to win. The Raiders are stupid. They couldn't help themselves last week. But there's certain teams that I just feel like are good with not winning another game.

Yeah, Giants for sure.

Cleveland, to me, feels like one of them. If you're Cleveland Bayly Zappie is the move this week. We had Bayly Zappie on the paths. He is not a competent quarterback. You want to put him out against Miami next week. You want to bench or you want to rest like a defensive starter who's a little banged up. There's subtle stuff you can do to make sure you don't win again. For sure. Because there's a couple... Tennessee plays Jacksonville. Both those teams are 3-12. One of them are going to be 4-12 after that game, so Cleveland can jump up a spot there. The Pats might beat the Chargers for all we know. They might be able to nudge up. That was what I was thinking about. And plus, Miami really needs the game. They're still in the playoff race.

Yeah, still in the race for sure.

Because I have another tease I want to do with the two LA teams.

Okay.

So maybe we'll mark down something with Vikings Dolphins just for fun. Next one, and I'm split on this one, too, is bangles, broncos. You said on the Ringer gambling show that you like Sinti at home minus three in what's going to be bad weather. They're technically alive still. Denver needs a game. This is weirdly a playoff game in some ways. Right.

No, I think both teams will treat it like a playoff game. And this is exactly why my handicap is in favor of the Cincinnati bangles. That's why I prefer the bangles. I like the team with the players that have actually played in the playoff, the team that doesn't have the rookie quarterback. And Bo Nix, D-Nuts. They have been throwing the football all over the place, and we're seeing the version of him that makes sense, right? He's throwing multiple pics every week, Bo Nix, D-Nuts. The Denver Broncos, the only thing would be with their defense, they're getting Reilly Moss back. They had two of their last three games. They gave up 32 points to Jamis. They gave up 34 points to Justin Herbert. Their secondary who's getting eaten up. If Reilly Moss comes back and he's able to go up against Jamar Chase, that's an incredible matchup. But I love all the other weapons that Cincinnati possesses.

Moss is back, by the way. I was checking in with my buddy Gus. My buddy Gus, who My only person in my life who truly knows the Broncos. He was telling me when Moss got hurt, we're in major trouble. This guy, Levi Wallace, is a disaster. Levi Wallace has been cut. Released. He's not even on the team anymore. So long, Levi. Moss is back. I feel like that I know it's one guy, but I really feel like that's going to flip their secondary in a major way. He's an important guy, there be no doubt. There's some other cases for them. Do you have more on your case? Because I was going to add some cameras. No, that's it.

I'll stop now. I mean, since Danny hasn't been good at home, so I prefer to not lay any points at all. Just let them win the game. Cincinnati Money Line was my preferred play.

Last six weeks, Denver's fifth in DVOA despite some of the secondary stuff and despite some of the turnovers by Nicks. Cincinnati's 29th against the run, their defense. Cincinnati's 30th QB hits. Basically, this is the perfect team for Denver to play with Bo Nicks with the way how up and down they've been. This is a team that will not pressure him, hit him. They're just not going to do anything. Denver's defense, they're first in hits, first in hurries. They're going to be able to pressure the... The bangles, the offensive line, not exactly like a juggernail. No.

I mean, a strip sack fumble last week against the Browns that helped me lose a nice teaser bet on the Cincinnati team total. Bella, she was 24.

Well, then the Dallas game the week before, Dallas was going beat them.

Dallas is going to beat them.

Dallas is pressuring them and doing stuff. I look at since he's wins, here are the quarterbacks. Have you done this? No. Quarterback since he beat this year. Andy Dalton, Danny Dimes, Deshawn Watson and Thompson Robinson. Same game because I think that was the one Watson got hurt. Minchou, Cooper Rush, Will Levis, Thompson Robinson. It's not great. I don't think since he's good is where I'm really landing. I understand. I think we think they're good because Burrow is good. No other real aspect of their team is good other than the receiver is in Burrow. Now, you can make the counter case when they have Jason Higgins together with Burrow. They've just been really good and been able to move the ball. I get it, but I like the Denver plus three.

I don't mind the points. I really don't mind grabbing the points. There was a minute when it was three and a half and that got stashed up. It's down to three. And I really do understand the case. It's a rookie quarterback on the road in a playoff game.

In bad weather.

But if you want to argue the other side, they've been good on the road. The Denver has been good on the road this year. They beat Tampa in Tampa, they beat the Jets in New York.

Ten days rest.

Yeah, extra rest for Sean Payton.

Nine days rest. They're playing Saturday.

It's extra rest for them and short rest for Sinsi because Sinsi's on Saturday game.

Sean Payton versus Zack Taylor.

Yeah.

Well, Zack Taylor did- Mark an attempt.

Did coach in the Super Bowl.

This one I love. The all LA Money Parley.

Yes, this is Wonderful.

Great. Rams, home for the Cardinals. All the Rams have to do is win, and they win the NFC West. Chargers at the paths. All they have to do is win. They're minus four and a half. There's some subtle cases against them, Their offense isn't that good. They have trouble getting first downs. It's the type of team, even if they had a lead, Drake May in the second half doing stuff. There's a Lad McConkey piece that I don't think can be undersold with the fact that the Pats had that pick, traded back three spots for a guy who basically doesn't play, who had played three snaps. Mcconkey's, just him running a mock in this game is almost a lock. I don't know what the player props are for him. But Chargers Rams need the game. Rams need the game. It just feels like a classic LA money parlay, and it's minus 114 on Fandle, and I would like to partake.

Well, let me ask you this. Let's go ahead and do that, and let's do it in a meaningful increment because we both are believers, and that's some fantastic... The other side to this, remember how good favorites have been. Money Line favorites have been absolutely crushing this season. Favorites It's 75% since week five in terms of outright wins. And favorites have been covering it nearly 56 or 57% since week five. Both of those are, you look back 25, 30 years, and those rates are all the way up there. So we're just doing the thing that's staring us in the face that helped us make money last week, helped us make money on Christmas. We're going to make some more money on Saturday. But I want to just add another wrinkle. Let's go ahead and do whatever you want on that Ram's chargers. We have to put the Colts in. Colts have to be a leg in every money line parlay that we do. Really any combination, the Colts have to be in every one of them just on the money line. Colts beating the Giants outright has to be an element of it.

Well, and that goes back. I had the Colts. That goes back to what we talked about earlier, which is certain teams are just done winning games this season.

The New York Giants are one of those teams.

The Giants are like, we're out. We are done.

We are done. It's a wrap.

You had them in the Ringer Sunday pregame last year.

Last week. Yeah. I was choosing. It was dumb. I had already chosen Carolina as my underdog.

No, it wasn't bad bet. It was plus 350. It was right. You knew within a quarter. It was like, oh, the Giants are done for the season.

The Juhlok pick six. That was it.

That was the end of it. Are you saying we anchor strategy a little bit with Chargers, Rams? Anchor strategy. To me, the anchor is the Colts because I'll put the Colts with anybody.

The entire across the plate.

Here's what makes me nervous about that. Anthony Richardson, I just can't get there. If there's any quarterback who's ready to just single-handedly kill all of our week 17 parlays and teasers, it's him. I just want to He succeeded with caution.

Think about that. Him, not Michael Pennix last week, but Anthony Richardson this week.

Yeah. A couple of things with that Rams game really quick. Rams are sixth in DBOA last six weeks. Thanks to Aaron Shatz for that. They've won eight of their last 10. I don't think people realize how grim this Cardinal situation got, missing both of their starting tackles on offense. They're pulling practice squad guys in that are now going to be starting for them. James Connor is hurt, might play, might not play. Their defense is falling apart. Hubbard had 152 yards last week. Carolina scored 36 on them.

Sure did.

It just is grim, and there's a reason the line is where it is. Because initially I was like, Oh, Cards upset, maybe. And I looked at all the numbers. I was like, oh, my God, this is no way they're winning.

Layer on top of that, all of the McVeigh stuff, 15 and 2 against the spread in his last 17 December games, 25, 10, and 1 all time in December. Mcvay. The Rams against the Cardinals. The Rams kick the Cardinals' ass. 12, 4, and 1 against the spread over the last eight years against Arizona. 10, 2, and 1 when they're a favorite against the spread, the LA Rams. I'm laying the points with them. They're in the money line They are part of our anchor strategy. We love the Rams. Their defense also kicking us. Last two weeks held both the Jets and the 49ers under 10 points. Now you say, Oh, look at where those offenses to the most disappointing teams in the NFL, but still holding NFL teams on the road to under 10 points, that's impressive.

Chargers Pats. The case for being nervous about this would be that Pats played well against Buffalo for about an hour and a half last week. I would just point you to 10 horribly game-managed, coached, executed plays. They can't help themselves. They surprisingly did not have a lot of penalties last week. Those penalties will come back. The Pats are just incapable of playing three good hours in a So for them to beat the Chargers, the chargers would really have to fuck the game up. I don't know if they're a fuck the game up team.

I mean, that would be you would have Jared Mayo beating Jim Harbaugh.

You would have that. You would have a team that would decide in week 17, maybe we shouldn't throw backward passes inside our own 10. Maybe we should punt down 10 with eight minutes left. Something would have to dramatically change with the penalties, the coaching, the execution. I could see them potentially backdoor covering that minus four and a half, but I did not see them winning.

Yeah, good. We're on the same page.

All right. Then the last one I want to talk about, you mentioned the Colts Giants. I mean, we don't need to talk about that. Eagles, Cowboys, that line has dropped, too. It was 10, nine and a half all week. Now it's seven and a half on FanDuel. I had had a bet that I mailed you last night or this morning.

Hold on. I see six and a half.

Oh, shit. It's still dropping, huh? Something's going on. Yeah, six and a half. Well, Hertz might not play as what's going on.

Okay, there we go. There's enough uncertainty.

Yeah, I wanted to do an alternate bet Dallas to four and a half when it was nine and a half. It was plus 172. That's now plus 126, which I still like more than the six and a half. If we had the Cowboys and we do an over of, what, 37 and a half? I don't know.

What are you thinking? The total is at 39 and a half in that game as it is. I I'm worried. What are you worried about? Just messing with that game at all. At all? Yeah. What version?

Do you think all the value is gone because of the Hertz thing?

Yes, that's exactly what I think. I would have loved Dallas. I loved Dallas at eight and a half. I loved him at nine and a half. The 10 was an incredible number. Now down to six and a half, I don't want to mess with it because Philly got enough with Picket of... Picket can play now. He got three quarters of real life NFL football, high stakes, high leverage, and they'll run an offense. What are you doing right now?

Did you just make a Kenny Picket case?

No. It's just like Philly being ready for the game case. That's what I mean. That's all I'm saying. He's not a guy that's playing with the first team starters for the first time in practice this week. That's all. That's all the observation that I'm making. I have had enormous success riding with the Cowboys, and I'm so upset that they lost to Cincinnati on that Monday night stupid punt thing.

Their defense since Parsons has come back has been legit good, and their secondary is legit good.

Legit good.

So I could an interest in Dallas plus 10 and a half with the over of 30 and a half at minus 115?

Oh, sure. That, yes. Yes. Because now we're talking. Those are the numbers. Okay, great. Yeah, I'm into that.

That's a good one. Yeah, because I don't want to tease Dallas with another team. I want to confine it to the game. Great.

Good. Me either. That's fine.

Dallas.

Dallas is like nothing better than the go beat Philly.

Dallas plus 10 and a half with the over of 30 and a half.

Philly's done, right? There's nothing for them to play for.

I think it would be insane for them to play Jalen Hertz. I don't understand why they would do that at all.

I totally agree with you. Just play picket. I agree.

All right, it's time. Million dollar picks. Part two, holiday week. We're already up $300,000. Plus, we have this Seahawks bet coming that we could win. All the Seahawks have to do is win on Thursday night, and we're up another $155. Come on, Gino. Come on, Gino. Our big bet. We are doing an all LA parlay, the LA Rams, to finish business against a Cards team that is arrow pointing down. Rams have been really good last six weeks. Rams, just to beat the Cardinals, just to beat them. That's it. All they have to do is win the game. Parlayed with the LA Chargers in New England against my beloved New England Patriots who are feisty but are incapable of playing well for three straight hours. Chargers Reims just have to win minus 114 house. Are we going big?

We love LA.

By the way- We love it. I've somehow figured out a way to be more furious that the Pats won this game and knock themselves out of a top five pick. I don't want the Pats to win anymore. Let's just get weapons. Let's finish in the top two, and then we can trade back for a team that needs a quarterback and get a lot of assets from my guy, Drake May. Please don't win this game, Pats. We're putting $250,000 on that. Chargers, Rams, minus 114. We talked a lot about bangles versus Denver and Cincinnati in the rain. Sinsey minus three, SINSEY with no good wins whatsoever. Sunsi a team that just loves to shoot themselves in the foot. I'm going to take adjusted Broncos plus seven and a half.

Oh, Okay.

I'm going to put that with the chargers and the RAMS for 50K. That's plus 169 house.

That's fine. You want to be in business. You want to be in business with Bo Nicks these nuts. I'm not going to get away with that business.

It's a Sean Payton, Denver. That's your business. The secondary is good again. Just a little sprinkle.

Love it.

Two more that we like. The Cowboys going against this Eagles team that Jalen Hertz wouldn't know what's happening. The line is dropping as we're taping the pot on Thursday morning. The line dropped from nine and a half to six and a half for the Cowboys, plus six and a half. We're going to bring them back up to Cowboys plus ten and a half with the over 30 and a half minus 115. 100k?

That's fine. I mean, if you want to do smaller, that's fine, too.

50k? Let's just put 50K. All right, 50K in there.

Just a little divisional rivalry. It'll be fun. Philly hates Dallas. It'll be great. I mean, Dallas has been playing so good over the last six weeks.

The Parsons effect.

Yeah.

Michael Parsons, the The only guy with a podcast is playing well. The only athlete podcast is actually succeeding at sports these days.

Jerry might have to buy that podcast for $250 million so they could afford to pay him and keep him under the selling cap.

What would happen if Jerry formed a media company and then just paid $100 million for the Michael Parsons podcast? That would be interesting idea house.

It's a collective bargaining agreement violation, I'm sure, but still.

Last one, Colts against the Giants. We both love the Colts.

We do I love the Colts.

The Giants do not want to win football games anymore.

They do not. They're good.

They have told us. They're done. It's a wrap.

It's a wrap.

Colts, first half game. They have to win the first half. They have to win the game, combined with the Vikings plus seven and a half because we have to have some scratch on this incredible Vikings Green Bay game. We argue about, you like Green Bay a little bit more. I like the Vikings a little bit more. The line has shifted. It was Vikings minus one and a half all week. As we're taping this, it's Green Bay minus one and a half now. We're going to grab Viking points, bring them up to plus seven and a half. That is minus 113. I would like to put 100K on that if we could.

Okay, fine. I don't mind rooting for a close game between Minnesota and Green Bay. That's fun.

Then We also have this Dolphins game that we can completely stay away from. Dolphins against the Browns in the Rain, some Bayly Zappy potential. Also, two in bad weather. Dolphins need the game. Probably Is that a stay away?

I think it's a stay away. Okay.

I'm fine staying away from the Dolphins.

Good.

That's it. We should mention, one of the reasons I like Minnesota is because the NFL needs a very good Week 18 Sunday Night game. In Minnesota, Detroit would do the trick. Collinsworth, they'd have to hose them down.

Well, I can't wait to see them.

This is Sam Darnal, Mike. I haven't seen anything like this.

We got him with my guy Jaden Daniels and Michael Pennix this coming Sunday night, Atlanta in Washington, 8:30 on NBC, primetime Jaden against the Pennix. We're going to see it.

Notice we steered clear in that game.

That is a stay away.

I wish you the best. Thank you. Anyway, we are up 1.764 million for the season pending the Seahawks game, and hopefully the LA Parlay will take us over the 2 million mark. Those are the holiday edition, part 2 Million Dollar Picks for Week 17. House, I hope you ate a lot yesterday.

I did. If we hit this LA Parlay when I'm out there two weeks for the Ringer pregame show, we'll celebrate with an LA Parlay.

With the LA Parlay of Food?

Yeah, we'll go to MoMA Ruku for lunch, and then where are we going to go for dinner?

I have a Smash burger.

Major Delmo I met. Major Delmo.

I have a Smash burger place for you.

All right.

I have an Indian food place for you. I have some wrinkles for you for this trip. You've been saving them up.

What a Can you do salads for the week before you get here?

I'll try my best. You got to really clear the intestines. I'll try my best. I got a lot of good stuff planned for you.

I can't wait.

How it's great to see you. Happy belated Christmas.

Happy holidays to all.

All right, we are taping this the day after Christmas. It's an emotional time here on the BS pod. My daughter Zoe Simmons is here. We're doing the end of the Year Teen Culture Awards, which I think we've done every year for the last three years. We might have missed one. You've been doing this since, I don't know, you were 12, 13, something like that. But this is the last year. You're 19. Next year, you're not a teenager.

Yeah. No awards for next year. Really appreciate this one the way you have it.

No, we'll call it the 20 something Awards next year.

I feel like you have It retires itself at that point.

You're hanging it up?

What's going to happen? Seeing Culture Awards. All right. Turn into a New Leap. This is it.

We call it the Young Woman Awards? What do we call it?

The Young Woman Awards? I don't know. I think not.

Young Adult Awards?

We'll see if If it figures itself out next year. For now, this is looking like it.

Thanks for putting no thought into that. All right, so End of the Year Awards. We have a whole bunch of categories. I'm just going to set you up. Most important category every year is the TV show of the year. What was it this year?

This year, we selected Tell Me Lies as my TV show for the year. Reason being, this is probably the most emotional a show has ever made me.

Why?

Because it depicts It's not specifically a super toxic college relationship. I think it struck a core within a lot of people my age, especially as a college student. The show actually casted people that look like the age that they're supposed to be playing.

That's a big thing for you that- For me, that's the most important thing that a TV show can do.

The people on the show have to look like the age that they're trying to play. That actually makes it a much more emotionally difficult situation.

Like, Sex Lives and College Girls. I'm I'm not sure those girls look like college girls.

I haven't even watched it yet because I've seen the cast, and it's just like, this doesn't look like people that I'd be running into in my ethics class next week. This is not... These people are the older people coming back to college trying to figure it out.

Tell me, Lies. There's a lot of sex in it, let's be honest. It's not a show I would watch with you. That's okay.

That's for sure. But with my girlfriends, my best friend from college, my roommate, we would sit there and wait for each episode to come out every week and watch it together with our headphones individually in our computers and just completely jaw on the floor every single time.

Oh, wait, because you don't have a TV. We don't have a TV. So you press play at the same time?

We'd like, sync it up. But it was, I mean, jaw-dropping every single episode It got so crazy. But the manipulation of the main character, Steven, that he does to his little girlfriend, Lucy, is like, he almost makes you think that you're crazy because of how good of a manipulator he is. But the show is incredible. That was made true with all the attention it got on TikTok. They actually renewed it after they were going to cancel it before it got all the attention.

It did get pretty much canceled. Tiktok really saved this show this year. Can you explain how TikTok saves a show? Because this is, and there's some other parts that we're going to talk about later with this, but TikTok taking a show either in a good way or a bad way.

It's weird because now that social media is such a prominent thing, even a shitty TV show can become super popular, even a shitty song, no matter what it is, if people will band behind it, that's what makes a song or show successful. I've been talking about it a lot with my friends, and it feels like a lot of producers of TV shows and songmakers or whatever it is, they're trying to appeal to the social media eye rather than the critics or the other people that actually establish whether a show or a music video is good enough. It's more about if you get the TikTok people behind you, that will make you successful.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I mean, it's definitely made the content that's being put out there worse because it's catered to all of these people that have short attention spans or whatever it is. But this show caters exactly to people like me who found it through TikTok. I didn't even know about the show until I saw a little clip of it on TikTok, and I binged through the whole thing.

It checks a lot of Zoe boxes, including we go back and forth in the future and everybody's older and younger.

Yeah. I like a little time sequence. But the show is phenomenal. It was easily my top number one show this year. I think as a college student, that really was what hit home for me.

That's great. When I was in college, 90210 hit Home with All of Us, which is a relative normal show, you're saying for your generation, a super toxic guy fucking with all these different people on the show This has really resonated with your generation.

That thing has never been depicted. It also uses social media as a tactic of manipulation that the main character uses, which a lot of TV shows don't incorporate social media. It's like a blacklisted, you can't do it because that will take the characters out of the show, whatever. But people like me, we're always on our phones. It's not realistic to have a TV show that doesn't incorporate the use of manipulative text messages or Snapchats or whatever it is. This show actually has that. Or non-texting. Right. Or ghosting. Or being ghosted. It's like this is the most realistic depiction of a toxic college relationship, which is why I loved it so much.

Do you think you like toxic relationship shows because all of your relationships have and non-toxic. It's pretty normal.

I think so. It's like, Oh, this is what it's like. But I know it hit home for a lot of people.

Okay. All right. That's TV show of the Year. Favorite content of the Year. Do you want me to read the list? Yeah, go ahead. You can just go. Well, some of this has to do with shows you've binged because you like binging shows. You like either you're doing homework while the show's on or late at night.

I like white noise shows is how I'd put it.

Well, number one is the Gilmore Girls, which you finally stumbled into. What was it about this show?

Well, I stayed away from it because I knew I would love it. I tried to start it a few different times and was bored while watching it. But this year, again, my roommate was like, You need to watch this show. You will love it. I sat myself and I watched the first season. The first season wasn't the most interesting because Rory, the main character, was a fresh high schooler in New Haven, Connecticut. I was like, What is this? This is not my jam at all. But then as the show continues on, it feels like a warm hug is how I describe it. I think a lot of Gilmore Girls lovers would describe the show as just a warm, comforting, when you're in need of feeling like you're around family or you just need your spirits uplifted, that's where you go.

Mom, daughter show.

Mom, daughter show.

Which- What would be your Mom, daughter show?

Just Mom getting madder over it for a while. Ours would be a lot more realistic. This thing about Gilmore Girls is it's supposed to be a perfect world. Lorelai had Rory when she was 16 years old. There's a really short age gap between them, which makes their relationship more like sister to sister. But the show itself is incredible. It's definitely unrealistic, but there's It kept me interested for seven seasons.

Each episode- Didn't it stay too long, though? The last two seasons were not great, right? Yeah.

I mean, some parts could have been cut out, but honestly, the last two seasons were my favorites because Roy was in college, going through college, which once again is my favorite form of TV show when the main character is going through college. She was having boyfriends and all these different things and whatever. I actually like the show as it progressed, but I loved Gilmore Girls just as something to fall back on when college days were getting hard.

Well, one other binge watch show is This is Us.

I don't like when you watch shows that are sad because you assume the mood of whatever the show is, which, thank God, you didn't assume the mood of Tell Me Lies.

But This is Us, it's an emotional journey. So you were an emotional person as you watched this.

Yeah, but this is different. I don't think it was a Grey's Anatomy COVID situation where I was just completely put out and unable to act every day. This show definitely hits the hits the heartstrings. But in a good way. I loved this show. It kept me interested, and it was so unrealistic to the point where I almost wasn't emotionally affected by it because it's like, when would this ever happen, ever? Right.

Okay. Next one, the unfiltered podcast.

This is one of your favorites. It's basically unfiltered. Basically unfiltered. What is it? It was the merging of two different podcasts that I really like on Spotify. The Unfiltered podcast is hosted by Zane Hijazi and Heath. They were two of David Daubert's best friends who diverged and made a podcast. Then the other one was pretty basic, hosted by Remy Cruz and Alicia Marie. They joined forces and made this podcast altogether. That's what it is.

What do you like about it? You're not telling us anything.

We don't know who these people are. I was just explaining what it was.

Well, Remy Cruz has a salad that you pointed out. We're walking around LA.

It's a tuna bowl. A salmon bowl. But I've loved all of these YouTubers. It's more of a nostalgic thing for me because I've watched them since I was 13, ever since I started watching YouTube. They join Forces, and they have a Patreon page, which I really love. They'll go and they'll film a high episode or a Muck Bang episode or them going to… On Halloween time, they went to the Halloween Scarefest, whatever. It's just a really fun, airy-light podcast where it's girls versus boys, and they'll do challenges and stuff. But it's just easy to watch. I like it.

Video pod.

Video pod.

We Live in Time is the next one on the list. I don't even know what that one is.

That was the movie that came out.

Oh, the cancer movie?

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pew. I love Loved this movie. I saw this a month or two ago. Needless to say, I think mom will watch it 15 times when she finds it, but it was great. I love Andrew Garfield. I love Florence Pew. I love a British accent. Everything about the movie was phenomenal.

I tried to watch this movie with the two of you and left after 40 minutes. Yeah.

Which I don't know why because it was also a cooking movie, which is like, that's everything that I need. Cancer, cooking, Andrew Garfield, British accent.

I'm in. Wow. That's your algorithm. I skipped that one. Blink Twice, Channing Tatum.

This was great. Did you see this one?

I did.

I really loved this movie because I'm a big psychological thriller person. I prefer that much more than I do a slasher. You love Get Out as an Alzheimer for you. Right. I love Get Out. I love all those types of movies. This one I thought was phenomenal. And I love when a movie takes me on a vacation. This movie was on a great or things started to get weird. We didn't exactly know why. It revealed itself. Channing Tatum's gorgeous. It was a beautiful combo of things. I loved this movie.

Speaking of going on vacation, you did a White Lotus rewatch that you put on favorite content of the even though you've already seen the show.

A hundred times. I would watch it again and again. I think this is the single best TV show series ever.

What? Ever? Okay. The GOAT.

To me.

Granted, you've missed a lot of great TV shows. You didn't watch Sopranos, you didn't watch Mad Men, Breaking Bad.

I said to me, I didn't say to anyone else.

I'm just saying there's some meat on the bone.

This is my number one. Rewatching it back, all of the little details and the things that I missed the first time I watched it, it's like, wow, this show is phenomenal.

The Therapus podcast?

Therapus.

Therapus.

Therapus. Therapus. This pod is great. I think this is a perfect example of new upcoming podcasts that are trying to take the TikTok vibes and bringing it over to a podcast. This is hosted by Jake Shane, but he just brings on all of his celebrity friends, like Sophia Richie, who I love, all sorts of different celebrities. He does this segment called the Tell me what's wrong. He'll have his fans send in a bunch of things that have happened to them, crazy things, and then him and the celebrity will give them advice on how to deal with it, and then they'll prescribe them with different things to fix that situation. But he's just so funny and light and airy. I love his podcast. I enjoy listening to it. I like happy things.

When you say the TikTok piece of it, so it's a lot of people trying to self-diagnose, figure out what's wrong.

Yes. It's an interactive podcast where his fans are basically the basis of the podcast. He's answering people's questions and giving them advice with a celebrity, which I think is super effective. It's personable. When I listen to it, I feel like I'm his friend.

La, where is he taping that out of?

La.

Okay. Waited for an invite from Jake from Therapus. Jake Shane. Therapus or Therapus?

Therapus. Therapus. Like Octopus.

The idea of you. Another content of the year choice for you.

I think mom watched it about 50 times over.

Yeah. Should I have that concerned about that? That she was obsessed with the movie about a woman meeting a younger guy?

In Hathaway is phenomenal, and she only gets more beautiful. This movie, it had to happen, and they executed it perfectly. It was about time that a movie like this came out where a celebrity falls in love with a hot mom whose life has fallen apart.

I like that. I happened to watch this one with mom, and The ending was pushing it.

Yeah, it was pushing it.

Can we spoiler alert the ending? People have probably seen this. They agreed to break up because she's what, 15 years older and he's becoming a pop star. Basically, they break up because it's screwing up her daughter. Her daughter's having an issue with it. She's like, Five years from now, my daughter's in college. Give me a call. It's like, All right. Then she's watching some TV show when he's on. He's like, I'm going, no, it's five years later. Of course, she's still single, even though she's gorgeous. No guys can be seen for her. It makes no sense. Just hanging out on a Thursday night, sees it, and then all of a sudden, he shows up at the end and they have a look. It's a happy ending. Happy ending. Then he gets to go through menopause and all the great Old Lady stages with her. Happy for both of them.

Interesting, the daughter piece in that movie, like a selfish mom making a decision to get involved with a celebrity and then ruining her daughter's life, which actually happens a lot in real life. I liked it.

Your last one for favorite content of the year. I see long legs is out there.

I didn't realize you liked long legs. We're really doing this again. Oh my God.

You like long legs, Zoe?

I like long legs.

You guys love this. We saw this together in the theater. I was not as big of a fan, but you and Ben were- Yeah, I don't know why.

I saw it four times. Did you really? I did. I saw it four times.

Well, you're a bad judge with movies because you have a movie theater Right.

Right around the corner.

Fifty yards from where you go to college, so you can just go at 10:00.

But I thought this movie was really good. Out of all the horror movies that came out this year, this was my number one. Again, because I really don't like gore. I haven't even seen Smile 2 yet. I know you guys I've seen it, and I should see it. Smile 2 is good. But there's something unappealing about it to me.

You know why Smile 2 is good? Because the lead actress is great.

Right. But that's just not my... Longlegs was much more my type of movie. I also like being on the side of the detectives. I like trying to figure it out with them. I thought the girl that played the main character was phenomenal.

You liked Heretic, too.

Heretic, yeah. Heretic? I love Hugh Grant. I think he's great. Seeing him in this light was really interesting. It added a lot of depth to him as an actor.

You like detectives chasing something creepy. Something's wrong with the house has been a staple.

The whole vibe of that movie was good, too. Just the way it was filmed, the lighting, every attention to detail was hit the checkbox for me.

All right, we're going to take a break and then come back with the rest of your awards. All right, so we're continuing the Teen Culture Awards. Last year, we're ever doing this. My daughter turns 20 next year. New category show you'd most want to go on. What's the answer?

This was the Mystic Kitchen's Last Meal Show, which I've binged every single episode, even of the celebrities that I don't care for. I find it the most interesting thing that I've ever my life.

Because you think about how weird your last meal would be where it's like, cotted cheese, pickles, hummus.

That, but it's such an intimate thing to find out about a celebrity. This is the last thing that you would eat. I was watching I'm trying to think of a good episode that I really love. But I mean, every celebrity that goes on there, it's just like, what are you putting on your plate right now?

You feel like compared to Hot Ones where it's just people, like their mouth burning from chicken. Chicken wings. You want to know. You feel like this is a window into their actual personality.

It's like this is the last thing that you would put into your body on the planet. I think the host, Josh, I don't know how to pronounce his last name. He's great, too. He's really intelligent.

What's your last meal then?

I wish I would have had more time to think about this one. I think a huge Caesar salad with some chicken on it would absolutely be up there.

But you'd have to have pickles.

Right. Pickles, cottage cheese, all the works, hummus, carrots. But that's like, am I really going to eat that on my last meal? I think I'd need a huge cheese board and a Caesar salad with chicken on it and a Diet Dr. Pepper and a milkshake.

All right, the last meal. I'll check that I'm going to break out stars for this year for you. You had three people. Trinity Rodman.

I love her. I watched her on the Call Her Daddy podcast last week. Not only was that episode super moving, I just think she is so smart and so cool and so normal, considering her entire situation. As for a celebrity, this is the one person where I'm like, wow, I could actually see myself being friends with her. She's so normal and cool and She's so stylish, and I just I really love her. I idolize her, honestly.

We really need her for the US Women's World Cup.

She's a phenomenal soccer player on top of it, which is just- She's the best forward we've produced, probably since Abby Wamback. She's great. I truly love her.

I think What did you like about that episode? Just the way she talked about her dad or just her perspective on Fame? What was it?

I think that was a really tough topic for her to talk about, and she'd obviously never talked about it for a reason. The dad? Yeah. Even while having that really tough conversation, she still remained so classy. Even though she was airing everything out, she was never speaking poorly on him because she knew there was no point in doing that. I just appreciated the way that she approached that situation the way she held herself. I just think she's going to be... Obviously, she's already really successful, but she's going to continue to be super successful.

I like her, too. Next one is Sophia Richie.

I love her. This is Lionel Richie's daughter.

She's just a guest? What does she do? Does she have content?

She has a TikTok. Her wedding was the royal wedding last year. It was like there was so much stigma around it. She looked beautiful and she's phenomenal, but she's an influencer type. I don't know how to categorize her. I don't want to because I I don't specifically know what she does.

What do you like about her? Is she funny? She's hilarious.

She's the most normal celebrity that similar to Trinity Rodman that I've ever witnessed. She's just so normal and down to earth, but I also really like her style and the way that she dresses and carries herself. I like to emulate the outfits that she does. She's the epitome of an influencer to me, how all the influencers should be.

Normal people are coming back.

Right. Normal people are. She's funny.

Crazy, not as successful in 2024. Right. Graden Cutler and Haley Batchelder?

Who are they? Haley just joined the Call Her Daddy Force or the Unwell content, but she has a new podcast on Spotify, which I really love, called Extra Dirty.

But it's the reason I- Extra Dirty? What does that mean?

Because it's like a sex podcast. It's like how Alex Cooper used to be before she got married. Before she found love. Right. But I really like her. I think she's super funny. She started off in short form videos on TikTok talking about all of her quests out in New York City, the guys that she would meet, the things that she'd do, whatever. I don't relate to her all that much, but I really like watching her content a lot. And Graydon's her best friend who's always making weird food combinations, which you know I love.

Okay. Storyline of the year, you went with the TikTok band.

I just thought this is so interesting. Because what's going to happen all of these influencers? I really don't know.

You mean if TikTok goes away in April?

Right. It's all of these people that have given up their jobs and have been making their livelihood by making TikTok videos, now what happens to them? I genuinely don't know.

Instagram reels?

I guess so, but I'm never even on Instagram reels like that. I like Instagram reels, but TikTok, it's such a well-oiled machine. It really reels in. Now that there's this whole TikTok shop thing, which is Amazon equivalent, I can see how it's so detrimental to little kids because all of these videos will be promoting things that you can buy on TikTok shop. You'll literally watch the video and you can click on the thing at the bottom and you're purchasing something all of a sudden. It's definitely an evil thing, but I'm most curious to see what will happen to all of these influencers and people that have devoted their lives to making TikTok videos that are no longer going have any job.

I'm good with TikTok going away. Favorite developments. You mentioned Patreon earlier. You're talking about special Patreon only. I love Patreon.

This is special content. This really feeds into the secrecy, feeling like your friends with your favorite influencer. Obviously, I have to pay $10 a month or whatever to have the Patreons of the people that I'm subscribed to. But it's so interesting because it's almost like a world prole into what old YouTube looked like before all of the monetizations and whatever were put in place. It's like you can really just lay it all out with no care at all.

Okay. So you're saying I should start a Patreon?

I don't want to. I don't know if I want to see whatever you do on Patreon.

Thank you. Spotify video is another one. You were talking about you like when Spotify, which is good because we're tripling down on this, but you like either watching or listening to a podcast depending on where you are.

Yeah, I think it's a great advancement. It's really helpful to see the person that's talking's face. That's just something that I connect their words so much better with whoever they are by watching the video. I'll just put it up on the treadmill if I'm If I'm working out or if I'm in the car, I won't watch the video, but I like that you have the option. I think that's a really good advancement.

All right. Well, you're going to keep getting it. Most fascinating trend. Two things here. You have the last days of original influencer content. What does that mean?

I think we were talking about the canceled podcast when we- Well, so we can cancel podcast down as the other piece of that.

You're talking about there's the end of some era that people don't even know it was an era.

People know. It's like the YouTube Vine era of all of the way that old social media used to be, the way that influencers used to behave. It was so much more raw and upfront, and people were openly crazy. Tana Mojo was the face of that when I think of old YouTube, because she's just the epitome of... She's been everywhere and done everything, similar with Trisha Patez.

People beefing, getting canceled, coming back, declaring war on each other.

It's like the cockroach syndrome where it's like you can just be openly crazy, and there was really no problem with it. You'd get canceled, and you'd come back, and it would just be a continuous loophole, where now cancel culture is like you're canceled for whatever it might be, and you're done. But the Canceled podcast, similar to its name, it really was the last era of that. It felt like because Book Scofield and Tana Moja would air out all of this shit that happened, all these crazy stories of living in LA, going out in Hollywood, whatever it was. Now Tana is in a happy relationship, so is Book, and they just are diverging into this regular influencer, whatever the new Spotify world of influencers is.

Do you have to basically not be in a healthy relationship to be a good podcaster?

Apparently so, or just to be an interesting influencer.

Because I asked you what would happen if Alex Cooper just got divorced and you got super excited. You were like, whoa, if she started dating again, that would be amazing.

Well, that was her whole bag. All of her podcasts and stories were about having random hookups and running around New York City and being a degenerate and whatever. Now she's happy and super successful, and I'm so happy for her. But her content definitely reflects that.

She's doing more interview stuff.

I love It was her story about hooking up with the Red Sox guy. Her story about her times in Paris. When she does the old stories about everything that used to happen to her, I was like, Wow, this is good content. I miss this.

Next category is couple I want to break up because I'm jealous. This is easy. Couple I hope they break up, I guess. You're not literally hoping for a breakup. No.

But I'm just jealous. I wish I could be Olivia Jade. She He's dating Jacob Alorty, but she never talks about it, which is really interesting to me. You're dating one of the hottest guys on Earth.

He's tall, which you love.

Right. And Australian. He's not in any of her content. She's still alive. I love her YouTube videos. I'm a big fan of Olivia Jade.

Interesting. Big comeback for Olivia. Yeah.

She's also a good influencer where she just keeps it classy. She's not too crazy. I really like her content a lot.

And a hell of a rower. Right.

Okay. But I do like her a lot, and I'm jealous of her.

Grossest internet moment of the year. You had the Sydney Sweeney body shaming stuff from a couple of weeks ago.

I don't want to say grossest. I was gross style, grossest. Like, wow, society is really horrific. Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah, this was awful because I saw TikTok videos alluding to it, but not the pictures. Just being like, wow, what happened to Sydney Sweeni? Like all this stuff. I was expecting to see something horrible, and she just looks completely normal.

She's filming a movie about a female boxer.

She's actually putting some muscle on. She looks similar to how most females look. I was just like, this is ridiculous. That in this day and age, with all this cancelation stuff, people will still talk like that. I found that super- What did you think of her post-dismartening.

Refuting all the...

Did you see the post she did? I've always been a big fan of her. I think she's wonderful in White Lotus, and I love before Maria, and her straying away from the character that she usually plays is an interesting thing to me. I'm excited to see the movie. I thought that her response definitely made me like her a lot more.

Well, two people you didn't really like. Feud of the Year. Although I guess you're on the Blake Lively side. Blake Lively versus Justin Baldon. This was a big thing.

This situation is gnarly.

This has been a nine-month story on the social media, and now it blew up again.

Well, there's been a lots of back and forth because originally when the movie was being promoted, Blake Lively was promoting the show up in your florals to the movie, and Justin Baldoni was taking more of the domestic violence awareness side.

But they also weren't promoting it together.

Right. People were really criticizing Blake for being insensitive of the entire intention behind the movie, but turns out that there was some reasoning behind it. I think the situation is horrible. Looking at the intimate details of it, it's really, It's really weird.

I know all the mainstream journalism media angles reporting on it. What is the TikTok Instagram version?

Well, people have been saying that he was being very strange during all of their sexual scenes. Even the girl that played the younger version of Blake Lively, he was making really crude comments about her sex scenes with the younger character that was supposed to play Atlas. On top of that, he walked in her trailer nude.

This is all alleged, we should mention.

Multiple times. Yeah, alleged. But a lot of really disgusting sentiments came out of this, just really uncomfortable, seemingly minor versions of sexual abuse, but it's really- Well, the fact that she had that meeting and put all that stuff in there, from now on, you will no longer add kissing scenes. People are really trying to turn it on Blake Lively at the beginning, Blake Lively is an asshole, and she's mean to reporters, and everyone was turning on her, but it seems like there was a lot more to the situation. It's really sad.

What's your generation's relationship with Blake Lively?

For a second, there, people weren't liking her, but I think she's widely loved because of Gossip Girl and all of the movies that she's done. I mean, I like her. She's a friend of Taylor Swift.

That movie did really well. I think she's in good shape.

Yeah, but I don't know. She's not within my area.

All right, we're going to be delicate with this next one. Uh-oh. By the way, mom's take on Justin Baldoni was, I never liked his face.

Yeah, I don't like his either.

That was it. You just never trusted his face.

He played the role that he played a little too well. Yeah.

2025, Career advice is the next category. I just have in the notes, Dangerous Disney. You don't like when the Disney stars hit this phase when they get older, and then they have to prove how dangerous they are.

Well, it just seems like this is a common thing that happens between Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo and all of these really popular Disney influencers that are now trying to desensitize themselves and escape from the Disney world.

By being super provocative.

In a lot of ways, it works, and I support it. But then there's times where it's just like, this feels like it's over the top, like you're trying to prove something here. Sometimes it's feeding into that Disney thing is not always a bad thing. I just I think that sometimes it's a little too trying to get out of the box.

Do you feel like Zendaya did that?

No. I think she played her cards perfectly.

Yeah. I think she's the role model, right?

Because she's super sexy. I think she's beautiful, but she was a Disney star for a long time, and she shifted over to being who she is now from who she was then.

It would help that she's an awesome actress and got an iconic TV show.

In a lot of movies and stuff. But that's the way to do it. That's the poster way to do that.

I don't know what the answer is, but I have written down makeup tip of the year.

I don't even know if we came up with this one.

You don't have one? All right, we'll move on to the next one. College food and Drink, weird budget MVPs. All right. This is stuff when you're in college, you're racing around, especially like you, you're playing Sports, you have only 30 minutes to eat, 20 minutes to eat, 10 minutes to grab something. I have a bunch of food here. So what do you want to start?

I want to start off by saying Starbucks saved my life.

Okay.

The dining hall usually closed before soccer practice would be over, and there were countless times where the Starbucks next door to me would provide my meals. I think I ate strictly Starbucks for probably two months straight.

You support the Starbucks?

I support Starbucks.

I wrote down Starbucks egg bites.

Yes, absolutely.

Spinach fedda wrap. Yes. Macho Latte was a big one for you this year?

I love a Macho Latte. I'm obviously a college student and I need as much energy as I can get. And coffee, sometimes I'm just not in the mood for it. Macho, it actually gives me the caffeine boost that I need without the come down. Because sometimes from coffee, I'll get tired a few hours after having it. Yeah. Matcha makes my entire body feel fantastic. And it's a good, healthy energy boost because it's green tea.

In that Starbucks that's next to your dorm, there's probably, what, 10, 11 people that work there.

How many of them knew who you were? We're friends. I have a friend every morning that I say hello to. It's wonderful.

Chompsticks?

Oh, yes. Chompsticks. I'll put hummus on them.

Can you explain what chompsticks are? Because most people don't know.

It's a meat stick. I guarantee you most people know. It's like a long meat steak. It's like a jerky. Yeah, it's a jerky, but it's made out of turkey, and it's delicious. Me and mom were on the ski mountain the other day, and she was appalled because I was putting mustard on my chompsticks. But chomp Chomstakes, I don't regret it one bit. Chomstakes are my MVP in 2024.

That's the answer to the question, weirdest thing I did with my food in 2024, putting mustard in a public place on chomsticks.

It's up there, or the pickles steps in, the cottage cheese with the hummus. I don't know.

Yeah, that was the last MVP was hummus, pickles, and cottage cheese. You would just walk to this Trader Joe's in Boston, buy a bunch of weird food, and then cram them into a small college refrigerator.

Into my little fridge. No one would touch that fridge in my suite. They all knew. They opened it up It's like, this is a crime scene. None of them wanted any of the food.

Yeah. There's like, is there any pizza there?

Yeah. That's why I'm good as a roommate because no one wants to eat my stuff. Even if anyone was trying to eat my things, no one would want to.

Last category. Advice to my younger self as an athlete and future strong woman.

Oh, future strong woman.

I don't know. I was projecting.

You're projecting.

Things you learned now that you're 19 and a half, things you wish you could have told yourself at age 12, 13, 14.

Sure. Well, I think on a relationships standpoint, because that was partially what I was thinking of when we wrote this down, and this is advice that I give to my friends a lot of the times. In a relationship, you have just as much power as the other person, and succumming to whatever they want at all times is super unhealthy. I think that that's definitely something that I've learned over the years, just not folding over. I've definitely become a lot more feisty since I've gotten to college. I think in middle school, as you know, a lot of people walk all over me because I am a nice person, and I would allow that to happen. But standing up for yourself is something, obviously, that you learn with age.

It's been nice to have you home when we taught you how to be bullied again. But me and mom just telling you what to do and yelling at you. Exactly. It's good complaining about you.

Right. As a soccer forefront or just sports in general, I think you cannot continue on if you don't love it. That's something that I have learned to be true. I've gone through injury last year where I thought I might have to quit. There's been lots of times in my life where it's like, I don't want to miss any more birthday parties or any more friend playdates. I feel like I'm losing friends. I don't want to do this sport anymore. Pushing through that and knowing that you have the love to push through the sacrifices is the most important thing. You won't make it if you don't.

Yeah. It's interesting because I think that's the number one thing I learned as a parent, too. That if the kid doesn't love it, there's nothing you can do as a parent.

You can't make someone love something. You'll burn them out.

You had two real injuries, and each time you could have said, I don't want to play anymore. It's not worth it. But each time you really wanted to keep playing and you fought to get back and healthy, which you did again recently. But other people were there.

Well, I've seen it happen time and time again where it's people I've played with that are dying for it to be over. Because it's like they either feel like they were forced to do it or like they were doing it for somebody else. In part, I'll always play for you because I know how much you love to watch me play. But I mostly play because of how much I love it. If I didn't love it, I would not be able to do it for as long as I have.

Yeah, and you're in a more physical position, too. It's not like your body's pretty banged up by the end of the season if you're playing big minutes.

Right. But I think that also feeds into the Giving yourself the right nutrients and being a healthy person in general. Because there's a lot of, I don't know, on TikTok, especially, it's like what I eat in a day as a fat person is literally all over my For You page There's a lot of people promoting really unhealthy eating or what I eat in a day as a skinny person. These are literal headlines of videos that I've watched. This lady Liv Schmidt, who was canceled all year because she was overweight and promoting an unhealthy eating style. It seems like she's adapted a more healthy eating style. But with social media and with TikTok, there's a lot of promotion of the way that people eat. It's not anything like we've ever had before because social media was never so big.

It's also making people think about food more than maybe they would.

It becomes people's entire universes. I've definitely dealt with that. As an athlete, it's important to give yourself the right nutrients. I think that's important, too. That's what I've learned.

The more time we have with social media, I do wonder if it reemphasizes things that are potential problems anyway. Right. Like food, or if you think you have some hang up or something wrong.

Well, yeah. It's like people self-diagnose themselves all the time. People change. It's hard because when you feel like you're in a really tough place and you don't know what's wrong with you, and then you see somebody else that might be having similar symptoms to you and you finally feel like you're being heard or you found the solution, that's a really gratifying feeling. But in the end of the day, it's probably not what you have. It's like people go down this rabbit hole, and social media is not something that we were intended to have as human beings. It's like you have all of this insight on people's lives that you would never cross paths with otherwise. It creates a really weird universe for a lot of people like me where it's like, I'll be seeing all these food videos or all of He's like, whatever source of videos that I normally wouldn't ever see or pay attention to. It's just weird.

Well, one other thing you learned in 2024 is you could be a good nurse.

A good nurse? Yeah, I could, honestly.

I think I could- Your boyfriend hurt his leg. He was in a cast for six weeks, and you had to take care of him.

Yeah.

But you did. You did a good job. I did. It seems like you did a decent job.

I tried my best, but that's something I had to learn. Rolling someone around wheelchair is not as easy as it looks.

You finally got to be in a Grey's Anatomy episode. I know.

I almost pushed him in traffic a few times.

All right. Anything else before we go?

I don't think so.

Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Good to see you. That was it for Teen Culture. I guess we'll have to come up with another name if we do this again.

Yeah, we'll fix it up.

You turned 20 in beginning of May. I don't know what we'll call it at that point.

Yeah, we'll figure it out.

All right. Good to see you.

Bye.

All right. That's it for the Thanks to Joe House. Thanks to my daughter, Zoe Simmons. Can't believe I was able to book her. Thanks to Souruti and thanks to Kyle. Thanks to you guys for listening. Don't forget, Sunday, me and the Cus are going to be going live on YouTube after all the Sunday games, and you can watch the Cus and everybody else in the Ringer Sunday pregame show that morning. I will see you on Sunday night. Enjoy the weekend. On the wayside, let her run, say, I don't have a seat down on the wayside, let her run, say, I don't have a few years with them.

On the wayside, on the wayside, let her run, say, I don't have a few years with them.

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