Galaxylights, Coachella, Lightning-Bolt-Necklaces. 2023 was the year of Skandoval. On March 3, One Cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated hundreds of conspiracy theories, thousands of podcast episodes and millions of dollars in revenue. I'm Jody Walker, host of An American Skandoval. One retrospective story told in three salacious parts. Listen, December 26, on The Ringer Reality feed. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network, which has been quiet over the last couple of days because it is the holidays. I hope you had an awesome Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I had a fantastic weekend. I got to see the Celtics beat the Clipper's asses on Saturday. I got to see the Celtics beat the Lakers asses on Monday. It was the best 48-plus-hour stretch of Celtics basketball in the city of Los Angeles that I've seen since I've moved here. I was delighted. I had a great time. I took my daughter to both games. Really fun. Almost as fun as the new Rewatchables we put up on Sunday night, under Siege, me and Kyle Brandt breaking down the Apex Mountain of Steven Segel's career. And the Apex Mountain probably of diehard ripoffs.

I think we decided it was either under Siege or Cliffhanger in the Finals. But if you haven't seen that movie, I highly recommend it. We had a lot of fun breaking it down. So you can check that out on the Rewatchables feed. Coming up on this podcast, cousin Sal and I taped in right after The Ravens Diner's Game, Sunday Night, Christmas Night. Our families hate us. We don't care. We're delivering a podcast to you this next. First, our friends from Brojit. All right, we're typing this. It is about 8:35, Christmas Night. I can't remember us doing too many Christmas pods, Sal.

Do you think people bet on what time we tape? Because you unnecessarily announced the time every time we start. And now I'm thinking maybe it is necessary. Maybe people are betting on our start time, which that would make me happy.

That would be fun. So 8:35 would be minus 200 every podcast.

Over on there.

8:39. I lied. It's actually 8:39. I wasn't even honest. I hope we don't have to refund any bets. Just watched Ravens Niners where the Niners were either five and a half or six all week. A lot of people had them and teases and parlays and moneyline stuff. And then there was some Ravens momentum as the week went along. A lot of people pointing out how the Ravens had led every single game, heading into midway through the fourth quarter. Niner is not a good comfort behind team. Brock, Purdy or Washore. And within two hours, the Niner's bandwagon crashed into a telephone pole. It was brutal.

The whole effin' day was brutal. It was a Christmas massacre where Gdell and the gambling gods got together and shoved it up our Christmas Keisners because everybody had that moneyline parlor. I mean, you at least had the Chiefs and Eagles on it. And the Chiefs, I mean, we'll talk about that game. And then when they don't show up, I thought one of those smart people who liked The Ravens, I'm like, All right, but we already saw our upset. We're not going to do it again. And then I doubled up on The Niners, Eagles, and Oh, boy. It's good, though. I'm putting on the gifts now. The kids know I'll put on the gifts like this iPhone pending, Chiefs covering on a money line parlay, otherwise we'll be restocked by the end of the day.

Well, we started out. So the most obvious parlay of the weekend was Bills, Chiefs, Eagles, three teams, 10 point teams. I stayed away from it. I thought the Bills would easily hit. And the new Coach theory kicked in. We'll talk about that later. So then we have the Chiefs. All of a sudden, they're losing to the Raiders on Christmas morning Pacific Time. The Eagles barely squeaked by. So it's like, all right, there's going to be some normal state of night with the Niners. I truly honestly believe the Niners is healthy. We're the best team in the league. Can I throw this theory? I pretty got hurt last week. He had that stinger. And they were like, Oh, he's fine. And then he had the same thing happen today in the fourth quarter. But is it possible Purdy wasn't healthy for this game? Because this was not the Purdy we've been watching all year. I thought, wasn't just the interceptions? He had bad luck on maybe one and a half of them. But there were other passes where he was behind people. There was a couple of others that could have been picked. I just thought he looked terrible, and it didn't add up to what we've seen this season.

Either that or he wants to be right. When he says Christian McAfrey is the MVP, he's like, All right, let me step aside and let my running back take over here.

Because- You got to believe me, McAfrey is the MVP.

I told you I'd be great if he comes on Press conference. I told you, people.

See how bad I was?

Back off now. I could have 10 picks today. Yeah, he's down to 19 to 1. He was what? Minus 200 to start? Now, Fandal has Lamar as the favorite at minus 180, McCaffrey plus four. And Brock Purdy is like six. He's behind Jack Prescott. But you might be onto something. I don't know what to think. I still think they're number one in the NFC. It helps that the Cowboys didn't look good, helps that the Eagles didn't look good. Maybe the Bucks are catching up to everybody. I don't know. But I still think they're the best. They just don't want to face the Ravens and the Super Bowl.

I did million dollar picks. I was going through with Kevin Wilde on Thursday's pod. And I was reading him, Aaron Shatz had this DVOA stat heading into this game that the Niners were third all time in DVOA through 14 games. 0-7, Pats were one, 91, Washington was second, and the 84, bears were fourth. 85, bears were fourth. The Niners were third. I was like, I'm not getting scared off by this Ravens thing. I believe in this Niners team. I think this is a really, really, really great team. But on that list, the Ravens were 11th all time heading into this game. This year's Ravens? Yeah, this year's Ravens. And that was the case for them. This year's and now that's going to be even better after this game. So the case for them was like, yeah, the Niners are great, but this Ravens team is pretty great, too. And then you look at the games where really they could be undefeated with four or five other plays. So it's a hindsight 2020, but this was, I think, the best they've looked all season. I thought their defense was absolutely flying around. You could feel it instantly.

And then Lamar is a cheat code. The receivers were making plays. And the thing that shocked me was that they were able to run the ball. I thought when the rookie went out last week, I thought that was going to rob them of their speed from the running game. And it didn't. It didn't seem to matter.

Didn't matter. I felt like they caught the 49ers off guard a little bit. Like you said, batting down passes, they did everything right. But I still think it's the same team in that... Who was it? How someone said that, Hey, LiveLine, Niners plus 540 here. Our ball loves to blow these games. I don't want to say you came close to blowing it, but there is always that in the back of your mind, like that could happen. No lead is safe with this team. I'm going to stick with that for the Ravens, but probably should be the one C going forward.

So they get a safety, the Niners, when Lamar scrambles backwards so fast that he runs into the umpire and the end zone and throws it against the intentional grounding. I've been watching football my whole life. I've never seen that play. That was the first we've ever seen of that. I felt bad for the umpire, too. But so it's too nothing. I did, too. Yeah.

By the way, people are like, Whoa, they call that? How could they call that? The ref is like, Yeah, the ref is part of the game. How many times have we seen? What we have seen is refs get hit with passes and the ball is intercepted. It all counts. And that play started at the 20. So how is that ref supposed to know five yards deep in the end zone isn't a safe spot for him? But God, yeah.

It would have been much fun here if it was a way older ref because that was actually younger and seemed like he was in pretty good shape and he just lost his balance. But it would have been fun if it was the 69-year-old guy who probably should have retired two years ago who just gets pulled over. So anyway, they get two points on that. And we've talked over and over again over the years of whether that's enough points for a safety. It just feels like that's a more important play than what you get credit for. So it's two points. And then they pun from the 20 and the guy booms the pun and the Niner's returner just drops it out of bounds. So all of a sudden, it's Niner's ball in their 20. Heading into that drive. When the Ravens had the ball, they were inside their own 20. So it's basically two points, but now the Niners are on their own 20. And then all of a sudden, the Ravens were winning and just this whole game felt off. I felt like they should have been able to run McAfrey. To me, this was a McAfrey game, and they were trying to make it a kiddo in the receivers game, and it worked a little bit.

But I just feel like there's another version of this game where McAfrey has like 37 carries.

Yeah. And who do they play? Washington next week will probably have six touchdowns and that'll be that. But yeah, I think you're right. I don't know if the safety should be more or maybe they should pun from the 10, right?

Or pun from their own end zone. Yeah. It's just not the 20. It's just they should have enough of a penalty sometimes. Yeah. Or maybe they should have to kick off from their 20 instead of punting.

Yeah, while the ref runs into the kicker. Yeah, I like all that.

So yeah, the big thing from an MVP standpoint was this is Purdy's award heading into the game. Now it's Lomars to lose. And I don't really see a scenario where they played Pittsburgh in the last week, he'll be fine in that game. And then this week, they're playing... They have another good game this week.

They're playing Miami. It's the Dolphins, right? Well, Miami. Yeah, this is the one. Yeah.

Yeah, but he'll be at least good in that game. So to me, the MVP is a wrap. I think Purdy has... Wilde and I talked about this little on Thursday. Purdy is unequivocally the content MVP, not just of the NFL this year, but I think of all professional sports. Yeah. Everybody has some take on him. It shifted a couple of times during the season. We had that stretch when they lost the three straight where people were like, Nope, see? It's not real. And then he bounced back and was awesome again. And now all those people get to change their mind. And nobody I don't think is really right. It's like the great unknown. I don't know if there's a right Brock Purdy opinion.

He did have great numbers, though. What do you have? 29 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and now Lamar has like 19 and seven. I know he has six rushing touchdowns and a bunch of rushing yards and everything. But yeah, if you went by pure numbers and you weren't going to give it to a running back, Purdy was a good pick. But man, I don't think we've ever seen odd shift like this this late in the season from minus 200 to 19 to 1, we've never seen that. And yet I was rooting for that fifth interception. What do we call that? The Peterman? We call the four the De Lom.

It's the De Lom.

Oh, the De Lom had five? I thought he had four.

I thought the De Lom was basically... It was five turnovers, whether it's four or five. It's got to be the full De Lom, I think, is if it's five picks.

Just straight picks. I looked at the guys with five intersections. I wanted to make a big deal out of it. Then I saw my guy, Romo was on there. I'm like, Oh, maybe I won't even bring this up. But there are as many guys in the Hall of Fame as there are, Nathan Peterman. Well, Eli will get in, I'm sure. And the Payton Manning and Russ and Fiv, some good Kurt Warner is on there.

braided had a four-interception stinker during his 0-1 season. The first year is a starter that definitely threw some water on the braided versus blood sub thing. But yeah, I mean, so the Ravens had the best record in the League.

They're in the driver's seat now for the one seating the AFC. They just got to beat Miami next week, which won't be a walk in the park, but Waddle's got a high ankle sprain. There's been some offensive line injuries. Their defensive line, I don't think Miami is quite the same team maybe six weeks ago. They're definitely more beatable. So the Ravens can get the one seed they got to buy. You'd have to go through Baltimore the first two rounds. Then there would be in Vegas for the Super Bowl, which I think a Dome would be good for that team because they're fast. To me, I think they're legit favorites now.

I didn't even see what the odds were. I was screaming about the Niners at plus 220 all week. Now they're only plus 230 and the Ravens are plus 460.

So that's right now? Yeah, I feel like.

That's on Fandle. I feel like they haven't- They disrespected this win here. They just haven't updated that yet. Really? You think they leave it open like that? I don't know.

I think they should flip that. Yeah, you're right. They should be updating that. How are the... How do they... It's bizarre. That doesn't make sense. I think it was Rahim who said on The Ringer Gambling show, the best bet all week, if you thought the Ravens had a chance to win this game, was the Lamar MVP odds.

I.

Said that. Because it was... Oh, you said it.

Plus 440. I said it. We've talked about that on against the laws. It was five to one. We're saying if you like the Ravens to win Sunday or Monday night, you might as well take the MVP ads instead. Yeah.

So they were like plus what? Plus 200 to win the game today? Yeah. But the MVP ads were five to one. Now I'm going to say it's pretty much a wrap. I don't think Sam Darnell did enough today either.

To get in the- To win MVP?

No, he came in... As we're doing this pretty... It was pretty 19:01 when you looked at this earlier.

Yeah, it was just 19:01 when I looked. He's dropped to sixth. Yeah, it's crazy.

Oh, my God!

We've never seen a shift like that from one game, and yet it makes sense.

Maybe we weren't monitoring this week to week like we used to. I mean, maybe we're monitoring it more closely, but I don't remember it's swinging week to week like this. It feels like since week four, it's been... I remember that one year when Russell Wilson, after four or five weeks, and we were doing, Oh, Russell Wilson, he's number one. Maybe this is the year. But this is where it's been like, each week there's a new guy. That week seemed like it was five months ago. It was like two weeks ago. Yeah.

I think when there's no homes in the mix and no Rogers and no braided, it really is anyone's game, right?

Yeah. Well, on the Ravens side, this felt Super Bowl-like, this game.

Yeah, definitely felt like a playoff game.

If it's not San Francisco, who is it? Because it's probably your stupid team. Why? Could this be a Baltimore, Dallas?

What? Based on this weekend? No.

I don't know. Was that a bad... Was that a horrible loss for you? There were some moral victory pieces in there. That drive, Doc had was about as good as anything I've seen from Doc in his career. That was a clutch drive that if his defense holds up, we're talking about, Oh, my God, Dallas. They finally arrived. Here we go. And instead, you gave up the game-wining drive.

Yeah. I feel like I don't trust the coaches more than anything. And I praised McCarthy last week, and I hated him for handing off to the fullback on first and goal. Not even really the full-back's fault. It never got to him. And I didn't like the defense for the fewest pressures in three years. And then Dan Quinn, we were joking about, Hey, do you let the Dolphins score from the 40? But there were no man's land with four and a half minutes left. Don't let this be their last drives. Don't let them line up for a field goal. That's exactly what they did. They gave them five-yard passes all the way down to the 15 or 20. And yeah, that sucked. So I thought they didn't play great, but they were still in a good position to win. But again, I don't know if that game mattered as much. You just don't want to keep losing games like this is the problem.

That game and this Ravens Niners game felt like the level of play was a little bit higher than everything else we watched over the course of the week. To me, those all felt like teams I could see in a Super Bowl. And now they'll have a little bit of flaws. I think the Ravens, they're running game at some point against the wrong team. The fact that they don't have an awesome running back is going to hurt them a little bit. But Lamar, three, four times a game just creates something out of nothing where that's something the Patriots, like with the quarterbacks we've had the last couple of years, when you don't have that quarterback who could just create a wow boy out of nowhere, he does it once a quarter. But I thought those four, especially with what happened with KC today, what Buffalo looked like, you go through and it's like, those are probably the four best teams.

And Philly looked like a loss today. I mean, basically went back and forth between maybe covering a giant number and losing the game outright between the team-.

Well, that's a long touchdown late was just outrageous. That can never happen. The giant touchdown? Yeah. You're trying to prove to us you're a serious Super Bowl contender and you're ready to ship and then you give up this long touchdown. And even at the end of the game, you're barely holding on to this eight-point win where the giants have the ball and they have a chance to at least tie it. That game did not make me feel better about the Eagles.

What odds could I give you that a participant in last year's Super Bowl doesn't want to play off game this year? The Chiefs or Eagles don't win. They both have a home game. Do they survive that home game? Because if I'm on the other side, I see those Chiefs. If I'm the Browns, I'm like, Oh, God, yeah. We got a Max Krasby. We got two max Crosbys on our team. I love to play my homes. We'd love to chase them around. And Eagles, I don't know, throw the rams at them or a team like that, they'd be in trouble too.

All right, let's take a break. I want to talk about The Chiefs. All right, so we had the three games today where it starts out with Chiefs Raiders, which I got to be honest, I just thought the Chiefs Defense would win this game by itself and the Chiefs would just have the ball a lot. Wouldn't be that fun of a game. It came out at 10 o'clock in the morning, West Coast time. Just seemed like your classic. It's 9 to nothing in the third quarter and the Raiders have 50 yards rushing. That's what the game was, except for the Chiefs offense part. The Raiders, what was that stat? When was Aden O'Connor's last completion?

In first quarter.

In first quarter, that was it.

But the Chief- Yeah, nine completions the whole game. Bazarre game.

What did they do? They- 4.2 yards per play for the Chiefs. I thought the body language was... We're typing this as the Suns are playing the Mavericks right now. The Suns have the worst body language in the NBA right now of any good team. The Chief's body language, I can't tell if it's... We have married couples in our lives who are like, Oh, they're fighting again, but it feels like a bit. Deep down they love each other. And then there's the married couples where you're like, Oh, man, they're fighting again. This is fucking awkward. Bob might be sleeping on our living room couch tonight. To me, the chiefs have more married couple that still loves each other fighting energy, but the body language is awful.

It's so funny you say that. My wife and I think of that just by looking at the Christmas cards. We could tell the body language. We don't have to see them at the party.

But- Christmas language. Christmas card body language doctor.

Yeah, just analyzing the cards. But yeah, you're right, man. They were awful. He's running for his life. He had to make every play work. I thought Romo called a good game. I was like, He's going to have to make it work with his legs if they're going to win this. And yet the Raiders didn't score an offensive point and they won that game, didn't complete the pass. If you saw that box score, how much would you have put on the Chief's money line?

It was one of those where you could have gone to quickly take a shower and you come back and the Raiders have 15 more points or.

Whatever that.

Would happen. I've made this point before, but I'm going to make it more strongly now. This Chief's team really reminds me of Brady's last season with the Pats, where it all looked the same. Structurally, it was the same, Belichick, braided, the Pats had just won the Super Bowl. And we knew something was wrong the entire second half of the season, but didn't want to admit it. Then they lost the Fitzpatrick game. Pats were 12 and four that year. They lost in round one, 20 to 13 to Tennessee. Kc is nine and six this year. The Pats lost. They went four and four in their last eight, including the playoff game. The Chiefs are three and five in their last eight, which is I couldn't believe that when I was like, Man, they're probably 500 in their last eight. It's worse. They're three and five. The Pats had the crap running backs. It was like Sony, Michelle, Rex, Berkhead, the last years of James White. Chiefs, same thing. It's like, Oh, my God, Isiah, Pacheco is out. This is like a huge thing for them. They had no Tyreke this year. Pats didn't have Grant because that was the year he retired.

Edelman is the Kelsey of that Pats team. And then the rest of the Pats receivers, it was like, Philip Dorset, washed up Josh Gordon. Jacob Myers was a rookie. That was the year they thought they were going to get Antonio Brown and it fell through. And it just reminds me of that where the homes had really great moments in the game today, but his receivers are never open. And he's just buying himself 8, 9, 10 seconds and it just doesn't matter. And to me, it's not an overreaction to say, I just think this team, I just don't think they have it. To me, this is a let's bet against them round one situation officially.

Yeah, I'm with you. I thought going into this week, I'm like, All right, Andy Reed, Smart, maybe like Popovich, maybe my basketball talk. But maybe he's like.

He knows- I knew you'd bring basketball. Jesus Christ.

By the way, I didn't even know there was a game going on now. Should we postpone it? Should we.

Watch that? No, it's fine. Maverick's game? Yeah, no, it's fine.

But I was thinking Andy Reed, maybe he's learned and it's like, All right, we don't want to peak too early, which is what some of these teams do. So they'll turn it on today. I thought it was the day they would turn it on. I honestly don't think like my homes is confident going to any of those receivers. He had a head start with Cedarius, Tony being out. He didn't have to worry about that disaster show. But even so, they did nothing offensively, really bad.

The a pass receiving yards a year, Edelman had 1,100. So that's basically where Kelsey is going to end up. Their second receiver, the 2019 Pets was James White with 645 yards. Right. Door set, 397, Jacobi Myers 359, Josh Gordon 287. And they traded for Muhammad's the new midseason. He gave them 207. When you don't have the weapons, you don't have the weapons. To me, I was thinking in my head, this is more like the 2006 Pats where braided dragged them to the A-C title game with nobody. It feels more like 2019. They don't have it. They had a great run. This is a five-year run, but somebody's going to beat them.

The way they're- I still don't really get it because they won a Super Bowl without Tyree Kill, right? So it doesn't completely add up, except it all just goes away at once.

Well, Kelsey's worse. There's no question. Yeah. He's worse. He's not getting open in the same ways. And I don't know, they seemed a little more banged up on both sides. They've had some injury luck. And I don't think they hit the draft this year the same way. Last year they crushed the draft. And all those dudes were helping right away. It doesn't seem like they've had the same success as you.

Do you think if you ask Kelsey if he could be himself from 2020 or himself from this year, what would he say?

Does he get Taylor to.

This year? No, no. He's himself from 2020.

I think he'd probably be in better position. Oh, back then. So he doesn't have Taylor Swift in 2020.

No, Taylor Swift. But he's a.

Good football player again. He's super happy. He's a two-time champion and he's dating Taylor Swift. All right. He's taking right now. I wish I had known that. He's probably thinking like, Man, I don't know how much more I want to do this. When he whipped the helmet down, right? Right now, they're the three seed, which means they would play Buffalo. There's two incredible possibilities right now. So we have the 13 seconds rebatch because Buffalo is the sixth seed right now. The other one, Detroit against the Rams. Stafford going to Detroit.

Homecoming.

Goth going against McVeigh. I don't even know what's the signature game that first weekend? It's a Sunday night game, right? Well, there's a Monday game. It's a Saturdays. There's three in a row.

Isn't there a Monday.

Game, too? But Monday is not the signature game.

No, they usually think.

Of the four or five. It's like, Oh, this is the game. That'll be like... Well, I mean, that might be your team. That could be Tampa Bay, and Dallas.

Yeah, or that could be Monday, too.

Because I was thinking, Rams Detroit would be the Saturday night game. Big Rams at Detroit. And then the Sunday game. The KC Buffalo is the biggest audience game. That's the central character.

Well, another, yeah, for sure. Another great one. And now we may have to wait until the second round to see it. Brown's Ravens, Flacko going back to Baltimore.

Oh, man.

That's a fun one.

That'd be tough to get them if.

They couldn't get the one. It's the only way. Well, yeah, that's not going to happen.

Right now, we could get Cleveland, Jacksonville in round one, which I think is the shakies game, right? Flacko against injured, losing his confidence, Trevor Lawrence. We'll talk about him later. But I think Cleveland has a chance to be favored in that game.

I think you're right.

Because Jacksonville has been garbage at home this year anyway. I think that's like a Cleveland by minus one and a half.

Something like that. Who's betting Jacksonville, actually?

Nobody. So Eagle's giants today, Tommy DeVito got whacked. When was the last time the Eagles played a good game? That you felt like, Oh, the Eagles. I'm scared. I mean, going back to October, right? Pre-hallowe'en?

I can't. I mean, even like they almost lost twice to Washington, who doesn't play anyone good anymore. Yeah, you're right. It had to be October.

It's still weird. I've said this before, but there's a weird flow to that team. It's like a lack of urgency. They won't like, Oh, they're hustling up. Oh, they changed the pace. It's just everything's deliberate. Everything seems exhaustive. Then they are like, All right, we'll throw to AJ Brown. Everything is so begruging with that team. I don't really understand it. And then defensively, even Tyrod Taylor was picking them apart. So that was a bad game for them. Going backwards to yesterday's game, Flaco is now three and one. The Browns are 10 and five with nick Chubb going down week one, right?

That was the Monday night game week one. Yeah.

Then they've started four QBs and they're 10 and 5. They're pretty much locked into the five seat unless they fuck up the last two weeks here. But this Flacko story, I think, is I think the most unexpected story of the year. I'm not counting like injuries like Aaron Rodgers getting hurt, something like that. Flacko coming back from the dead. We were having fun betting against Joe Flacko like three years ago. I don't even remember the last time he's been truly competent. What's crazy is he just looks good on this team. It makes you wonder, are there just certain teams or offenses for a quarterback? Because he didn't look like this in The Jets. The play action looks awesome. He's revived Amari Cooper, who murdered a million fantasy teams over the weekend. But it really feels legitimate when you watch it. I don't think it feels fluky, do you?

He has a look on his face. You're right. He's confident as if he had a team meeting and said, Hey, our defense is so good, you're going to allow me one or two picks, and I'm just going to be a gunslinger, and I'm going to find Amari Cooper, Elijah Moore. Cooper, when I saw, and you and I both went against him in fantasy and it crushed us. He broke the record for receiving yards for a Brown, which was 38 yards, I think, before. Now, 265, which is crazy. But he might, to think about it, he and Cooper could be one of the top three hookups in going into the playoffs. And Baker and Evans could be one of the other two. It's crazy what's going on this year.

It doesn't make sense. They've had injuries on both lines. I think Stefanski has to be Coach of the Year. I don't think there's any question now. There's a McVeigh case that's probably down to those two with two games left.

But I think- Four quarterbacks. Four quarterbacks is nuts.

Plus waving Josh Dobbs, who probably would have been the fifth one. I mean, this is a team that started PJ Walker for a couple of games and then cut him. How many teams have cut a guy that started for them multiple games? And then Garrett, I think, is the defensive player of the year. But they really kicked Houston's ass. And that was a fun one I bet on Cleveland. Houston's in major trouble when we go to the AFC wildcard stuff, Buffalo is up to the succeed. We have Indy, Pittsburgh, and Huston all at eight and seven. Then Denver screwed up and they're at seven and eight. But Indy is the wildcard to lose because they already beat Pittsburgh. I think they beat Cincinnati, too. Pittsburgh is the one that's the most screwed. But Indy has Las Vegas next week and then Houston at home in week 18. That's a good game. So it seems like they control their destiny. Meanwhile, what were the odds that Vegas would still be alive heading into week 17 in the playoff fund? Because they're technically still alive and have beaten a couple of these teams.

I saw something that they're at 80 % if they win their last two to get in. And it's not an unwinnable game. Like you said, they're at Indy. And then now I'm lost there. What's the last game? The Broncos, home against the Broncos. So they could be nine and eight and get in.

So the more nine and eight teams, I think, the better it is for them. There's also a crazy scenario where KC loses their last two and the Raiders are still technically alive for the AFC West. I was all excited because my big preseason boost for Fandle was that San Francisco, KC, Philadelphia all make the playoffs, Parlay, which they boosted to plus 130. And I've hit the last two in basketball and we hit last year's in football. So this is the one we did together for this year. Nice. And I was all excited to tweet it out today. Hit another one. We're in a.

Four- Oh, we're good.

-four-parlay streak. Are we good? Yeah, we're good. We're good. I don't feel awesome with KC yet.

What do we think, though, about this Antonio Pears? I know he's getting a lot of praise, and I like the guy from what I see, but you're not going to find a more bizarre stretch of three games that the Raiders have played. They don't score at home against Minnesota. Four days later, they put up 63 against the chargers. And then today they don't score any offensive points and beat the Chiefs on the road. I guess it's the coach. I don't know. I don't know what to think of this team. They could by 40 the last two or win by 20.

Yeah. To me, I'd be a little nervous. I always feel like the interim NFL coach is like starting to date somebody right before you go away for freshman year of college. Hey, let's have some fun, but you don't want to lock it down. We have no idea if this guy should be somebody that coaches for the next four years. They hated McDaniel so much. How do you even weigh that variable? You could feel with the chargers this week. The Chargers with East and Stick, almost beat Buffalo. And those guys were flying around like it was the Super Bowl. I don't.

Know how to get that. We love Bissachi, right? Was that his name?

Bessachi? Oh, Pitboss Rich.

Yeah, for the Raiders. Special teams coach.

Vegas is somewhere in there. But if the playoff started right now, Miami against Indianapolis, KC against Buffalo, Jacksonville, Cleveland in the AFC, and then in the NFC, it would be Philly, Seattle, Detroit, Rams, Dubas. Tampa Bay, Dallas. Admit it, deep down you're like a whiff, scared of the bucks.

Not that deep. Not very deep at all. Like you do one of those tiny kid shovels to get there. I think three weeks ago that line was probably seven, seven and a half. And now it's probably three and a half, four. It's Cowboy's favorite, right?

Probably Vegas then.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't love that. Oh, it's in Tampa, though.

It's in Tampa. Yeah.

Well, Dallas will be favorite. So it'll be somewhere between three and a half and four and a half. Do you know what they signed Mayfield for before the season?

What was it? I don't know.

What do you think it was? Take a guess.

Was it more than what I lost tonight on the Chiefs and 49s?

It was exactly the same number. It was one year, $8.5 million.

Oh, a little less.

That's the signing of the year.

Yeah, that's great.

I mean, he's been with the eighth, ninth, 10th best quarterback in the week this year. He beat Trevor Lawrence pretty badly. There's excuses now about he's got a shoulder sprain. I don't know how that explains the last few weeks with him. And they're probably going to, I would say, have to give him a new contract. That's not the way Mike Evans. So this might be one of those fool's gold situations where you're like, All right, everybody back. Here's money. And then you go sixth and 11th next year. But the Trevor Lawrence thing, Lombardi talked about this on his podcast last week, and I wrote it down wondering about how he'd look this weekend. He looked terrible. Would you pay him? He's going to be due for the $250 million extension.

That's this year? The offseason?

Has he shown you basically anything to make you want to give that money? I was thinking like, Oh, NBA, I'm bringing it in. It reminds me of the Bradley Beals situation a little bit that Washington was in where it was like, he's our franchise guy. It's the going rate. You got to pay him. And nobody felt good about it. I don't know how you'd feel good about giving Trevor Lawrence $260 million.

It is very weird because we see all these backups come in and the Tommy DeVitos and they leave you with very little hope. But then you see, like we just talked about Baker and Flacko and how these guys, maybe if they're in the right situation, they can thrive. Maybe Calvin Riddley really turns things around for them. I don't know. I would say no right now to signing him.

You'd say no. And then by February, you're going, Well, he didn't have his left tackle two different stretches during the year. He lost Christian Kerr halfway through the year. He lost Zane Jones right before their biggest game of December. You could start making excuses left and right. They're going to end up paying them.

Don't you just tag them? You tag them one year. You do what you do with all these guys, and then you see.

But wouldn't they get in a situation like what Baltimore was in with Lamar? Yeah. Where you're like, Hey, if somebody wants to make an offer, but nobody really wants to spend time making offer because it's like the Lamar situation, which has been remembered a little bit incorrectly as the months go along. But you could have gotten them, but it was up to them whether they wanted to take.

The two first- They could match. And if you believe the real conspiracy theories that everyone was in collusion and so they weren't going to allow anybody but the Ravens to get them anyway. No, I would love to make fun of the Atlanas and who screwed up the most by not getting the Mar.

Washington, Atlanta. Atlanta, Washington, Carolina were the three. Because Carolina could have just gotten the Mar and instead they traded all that draft capital for Brice Hill. But we've never seen, I guess the last time this happened, ironically, was with Flacko. When Flacko won the.

Super Bowl, and.

Remember, all of a sudden he was due for that big contract. And all of a sudden he was making like, what was it? It was like 25 million a year or some crazy number at the time. Got a hundred million plus contract numbers like, Oh, my God, that's so much money for Joe Flacko. It didn't turn out that great. So this situation, he's young enough and you can make excuses and you can point to the chargers come back last year. But to me, he has not been one of the best 15 quarterbacks I've watched this year. I would not put him in the top half.

Would you? God, no. And this was the year to break out, right? This was the year that he should have jumped to the top five. It's insane.

Speaking of quarterbacks with Science of the Live, Bryce Young, almost beat. I had a roller coaster ride of the day on Saturday. I had Panthers-Packers. I was convinced the Panthers had a chance to beat the Packers. Bryce was terrible for the first hour of the game. He's just missing guys. You did.

It great. You killed them on our text exchange, and then you praised them on Twitter.

That's the way to do it. I killed them a couple of times on Twitter. No, I had a couple- Oh, on Twitter, too. -took a couple of shots at Twitter, too. He fell way behind and then got super comfortable in the second half. And all of a sudden, it was like, this is it. This is what they saw when they gave this guy. It's against Green Bay's defense and Joe Barry, who I was thinking of, like Ben Johnson is the hot coaching candidate, head coaching candidate, the lines of an offensive coordinator. Joe Barry is the cold head coaching candidate. He's not hot at all. He's rigid. But Bryce was picking them apart and they come down and they tied the game. And now there's two minutes left. The Packers are down, it's third down or whatever. They chuck it down to Dobbs, who's done nothing the whole game, catches it, rolls over and loses the ball. Most of the time, this isn't a catch. But this time, it was like he caught the ball in his back and then he rolled over. But it didn't count. And all of a sudden, it was Packers that kept the ball and they kicked the field goal, but they almost beat them.

But if I'm the Panthers, at least I have some hope now. And they're still going to end up with the- I agree.

They have two line men in the bottom 10 of all line men. So it's not all Bryce Young's fault. You got to give them a minute to survive. But that's why I love this sport. I really do. Everybody's trying. The Panthers are trying. Not that they would get a pick anyway, but they're a bad team. They could have gone two and 15, whatever. This Maverick's game, not what's standing. The NFL is the best. Everybody's trying, Simmons.

Well, then you have the Pats who... Let's take a break and we'll talk about them. All right. So Kyle, we had some family over for Christmas Eve, including Nephe Kyle. And intentionally didn't put the Pats game on, but was monitoring it. They take a big lead. And I'm just like, You got to be kidding me. Really? We're going to screw this one up. We're going to fall out of the top three because Belchick, who might be leaving in three weeks and he's on his way out, is just going to grab a couple more wins with Billy Zappet and then tell us to fuck off. And then Wilson comes back. Kyle and I now leave the table. And we sneak over to an adjacent room that has a TV and we're watching. And the Broncos come down, they score, they get the two point. And this is it. We've done the job. This is the most honorable loss you could have with the Pats. Now, Bailey Zappy is going to take us home and throw a pick or get strip sack. Nope. Brought him down. Our rookie kicker, who is the worst kicker in the League, who had already missed an extra point in the field goal.

And it's like, Well, at least this guy will fuck up for us. Now, 56 right down the.

Middle.

In the altitude. Perfect. And it knocked us out of the top three. And Washington, who came back to almost beat the jets and didn't. Now the Patz are fourth. And now you know what? I'm at peace with it now. Good. I'm done.

This was a.

Dumb bit anyway. Maybe Jayden and Danae would be better than the other two guys. I'm fine with it.

Whatever. Yeah. How do you know? And by the way, Kyle, turn the TikTok camera on your sofa a second. You're rooting for the Patriots in this situation. You could pretend you're not.

But you are. I promise that you wasn't.

Let him answer, Kyle.

No, he wasn't. He was not rooting for them. I was not. The worst part was that all the women in our life, basically the grandmas, were asking why we wanted them to lose. We had to then explain it too, so that was not good. They're like, Wait, but I don't understand. We're like, I don't want to talk about it anymore. They're like, But just tell me why you want them to lose. It wasn't good.

Well, I'm not a grandma. I'm not a grandma, and I need you to explain it to me. You could tell the difference between Drake May or Caleb Williams or Jaden Daniels. I mean, come on at this point. Don't you feel bad? That old man is freezing. You think he wants to lose.

Those games? I know. On the sidelines? No, he's trying to catch you. I get it. It was actually funny to try to explain this to Kyle's wife, who knows nothing about sports. And she didn't understand why we're rooting against our team. So we're trying to explain to her. And I said this whole path season was like being on a seven-hour date with the worst person you've ever been on a date with. But at the end of the day, there's a chance you could win $50,000. So you're just trying to make it through the date, make it through the date, make it through the date because there's this prize at the end that will at least make the shittiness worth it. And then at the six hour mark, the waiter came over and said, We've decided not to give the $50,000 out.

That's pretty good.

That's good. Wait, Kyle, she semi-understood that. I think that you landed the plane with that one. I think she got it.

She's like, Kyle, does Bill need money? What does he really need $50,000?

What is that about? I don't understand that.

What happened?

Yeah. So it's really hard to explain to non-sports people the process of rooting against your team. But the thing is, when you get one of these guys, five years later, you don't remember the season. The year, the Celtics, we tanked that whole year. We ended up with the fifth pick anyway. We're trying to get Durant, but we're able to trade it for the KG trade or the Ray Allen trade. But I don't remember anything about that season. Now I remember being miserable when it's happening, but they just come and go. I would say the one thing that was cool was reading the stories the next day and seeing some of the clips. This team really is playing for Belichick. It's not nothing. And I don't understand whether it's the guys that they've either drafted or signed to come play if it's a certain character type or whether they really like the guy and respect him and his accomplishments. But they're still going. Some of these teams fold as we hit this part of the season, but they have not.

I mean, think about Belichick and your bad data equation. He must be like, Man, I did so much for this team and these fans, and now everybody's rooting against me. Now they're taking my $50,000 prize away from me, which is a wins record.

I know. But the thing is, I still want him to come back as coach. And I'm still hoping that that's how it plays out. And that would be... So there's two ways to look at either he's trying to establish a foundation with the guys we have because he feels like he's coming back next year or he doesn't give a shit because he's leaving. But I still feel like him giving up the player personnel stuff and just being the coach is how this should land. He's better than any other coach they're going to get. A couple of other things from the weekend before we go to Guest of the Lions. Lions, Vikings, you watch a lot of that where you're busy. I did. Yeah, it was fun. Did you see enough football this weekend or do you have.

Too much- Yeah, I think it beat me up a little bit. I think too much, actually. I would never say that. But I started Thursday and what is this? Monday was still going. Right.

Another lucky Lions win. The Lions continue to leave. I think the NFC, other than Philly, the Leave You Cold team as you watch them. Nick Ballins had four picks. Right. And Minnesota still almost won. They lost Hawkinson during the game. They lost Addison during the game. They have the worst set of running backs, probably, of all the possible playoff teams. And they were still hanging around, hanging around, hanging around with the chance to win. And Mullins just killed them. I went through the games. I think they'd have a chance to be 11 and four with cousins. Since he went out, they lost to Denver by one. They lost to the bears by two. They lost to St. Se by three in a game they had last week and they blew. And then they lost the Slions game. I really feel like they could have won all those games. And it's weird to think that Cousins, this guy who was like, Mr. 500, and nobody took that seriously, really until the quarterback show on Netflix. But now it's like that could have been one of the key injuries of the year. When he went down, I was like, Oh, my God, Minnesota, we lost a possible division champ.

I don't think anyone thought that, but I actually think they could have won the division championship.

Yeah. Well, I mean, last year they won all their one-score games, right? And then this year, the only pushback I'll give you is, Cousins was on his way to losing a lot of one-score games. So maybe luck wasn't on his side. But yeah, there are specific games you think he could have pulled out, including.

This Detroit game. Well, he definitely would have won that 12-10, Bears game. Yeah. I think he would have won the one last week against Sincey. And this Lion's game, definitely, a hundred %.

I thought they were going to win, Minnesota. They were down 10. I checked that live line. I'm like, all right, I'm going to put a few on it. What the hell does it matter? I'm losing anyway. And then what was it? Fourth and 21, when he completed to Jefferson? I was like, wow, this team could go far. And then just one under-thrown pass too many.

Jefferson had three absolutely unbelievable plays in that game that made me think like, Tyreke wins the best receiver title this year, but Jefferson is not far away.

Not going away.

The bills chargers, we mentioned that earlier, the new coach theory. So they covered... Does the new coach theory, is it for covering games or for actually winning outright? I couldn't remember. Did we I think.

It's covering. But it was a couple of things, though, because it's a scary proposition. But when the team wins by 20 the week before, which is the Bulls did to the Cowboys, team loses by 20, really 40, as the Chargers did to the Raiders. You got to take the underdog in that situation and you add the new coach thing to it. And it didn't make any sense, but the Chargers were... And by the way, it seemed like a pro-Charger crowd there for the first time ever. I don't know.

I thought this was going to be a 50,000 Bill's fans came here for the holiday break, but I don't think that was the case at all. So that game left me... I know the bill is coming up the emotional win the week before, but that game was a little scary for the whole, Oh, no, the Bill's have figured it out. All systems go. Look out. I mean, they couldn't have been luckier to win that game. The last one we got to talk about just quick is Steeler's Bangles. Just from a standpoint of Mason Rudolph, I made this case when we did million dollar picks on Thursday because we took the Steeler's, that if you went back and looked at his 2019, it's pretty good, except for that one Browns game when he threw four picks and then Myles Garrett hit him with the helmet. I think that was the same game, but he was pretty good. Why wouldn't they have played him over Trabiski the last month? I don't understand it. How is he not better than Trabiski? Three years ago, we knew Trabiski was terrible.

It's looking a little like Coach malpractice here, right? They operated on the wrong knee. Like, No, you circled the wrong area there. The Rodolf jokes are great, everybody. Keep him coming with Christmas. But yeah, he went out there and he crushed them. They didn't have any sign of life in them, Cincinnati. Pittsburgh, he's got to do it, Tomlin. He's got to be eight and seven going into the last two weeks every year.

Well, it's not lined up for him this year. No. They got to play at Seattle, at Baltimore. At Baltimore, yeah. Last two. They need help. They need Indy to lose. They need Houston to lose. They just need a lot of stuff going on. And then our stupid saints. I just want resolution. I almost want to let the bet go. I want to bring Doctor Bavork in and just like, can we kill the bet? But they're playing at Tampa this week and then they're home for Atlanta, and they actually have their destiny in their own hands. They could be Tampa this week, winning home against Atlanta. And that garbage saints team could be 9 and 8 and we win our NFC South Bet. I can't stand them. My fantasy week starts out with Camara, who puts up the 3.5 points to get me coming out of the gate against Hinch. I lost in the semifinals to Hinch, who got Amara Cooper, 1440, five points, whatever the fuck it was. Hinch loses, Burrow. He lost nick Chubb. And then he lost Chase just for this week, which I think were his three guys that he paid for.

And then I dominated our League the whole year. I dominated it, and then Hinch beat me in the semifinals, and I'm out again.

I don't want to stir the pot, but someone referred to you versus Hinch as the insufferable.

Who is the someone?

It wasn't me. I don't want to start troubling- What's that? The Insufferable. No, it wasn't. It wasn't Damishek. If you keep asking me, I'll tell you eventually. The Insufferable is pretty funny, though, I thought.

I need Hinch to win now because he's going to be in the.

I know you called him out. This is tough.

Now, if Damashek wins, I'm not going to be going to the draft next year. I'm not even giving him the satisfaction of having the chance to vote me out.

Well, he might kick... He should kick John Ham out. John Ham kicked him out. That's how it would go, right?

Whatever it'll be, it'll be the wrong move. Stupid. I'll never win the vote out like- The insufferable. -this is my best chance. I had the best team this year and I still lost. I don't know what else to do.

Well, you had all Eagles. Not that that killed you today, but is that a good.

Way to do this? No, what killed me was the Camara and... Who was the other guy I had? It was one of those. Youcould just tell. You could just tell. I'm watching. I forgot who had a Mari Cooper. He starts the game with the 75-year touchdown. Wait, does Hinch have a Mari Cooper? And of course, he does. We're off.

I played him against Connor in our league, and I was that? It's the worst. Fantasy is the worst. Don't ever get involved kids.

Let's do a guest of alliance. Thursday game. I love that we have a Thursday game. The schedule has been relentless. Even you and I who love football as much as anyone. Even I'm like, You know what? I'm good. I could take a week off. Browns are home for The Jets. The Jets had an all-time hilarious... First, they announced the extensions, or not announced, but at least Sawa and Joe Douglas are coming back because they did an awesome job this year. All they did was hold the team hostage, pretend that Rogers was coming back, not fix the quarterback situation when there are a million different options. Sawa in three years has shown me no evidence that he's a real head coach. This, to me, is the sequel to the Brandon Staley thing last year. The Brandon Staley loses to the Jaguars. And it's like, This is it. We should be done with this. Right there, he's coming back. And it was even worse. And the salad thing, I don't think they bring an hack as the offensive coordinator who's been terrible. Come on.

I think the extension thing is like the Madden curse. I feel like more guys get fired months after an extension than ever before. Kingsbury got fired. It was another one recently. Belichick could be gone. He signed an extension over the offseason. But yeah, that's a joke.

I have the Browns minus seven over the Jets.

I went higher than that. I said seven and a half. You win, it's six and a half.

Oh, that went down.

You know we're going to want it. You know we're all going to want that.

I sent you Guest of the lines this morning because I wanted to bet that Brown's game. That's the good news. The bad news is I bet it with the Niners.

The.

49ers? Yeah. Saturday, your team, that's it. This is New Year's Eve?

No, no, no. Sunday is New Year's Eve.

I wish we had more than one game. Why didn't they give us.

Multiple games then? Well, this is bad because I guess how many 1:00 PM Eastern games there are on Sunday?

Oh, no. Too many? A lot? 10. 10. How are we supposed to keep that?

And then only three- Thank.

God for YouTube, multi-view.

I had 10.

Cowboys, lions. I'm giving this the straight minus three.

I said two and a half because I don't like the way we're playing. Fandle said four and a half, and now it's five and a half.

People just don't really understand it. I don't really understand it. I wonder if the thinking behind it is, you know what? The Cowboys want to sit everybody next week. So they have to put up a good showing. The Lions a little hungover from their first division title and half a century, whatever. And they really don't need it as much because they're not going to get a one seat, but five and a half is a lot.

Oh, yeah, you're right. Detroit. So Detroit is basically locked into the three seat unless Philly blows a game here.

Yeah.

And Philly is not going to blow a game here because they got... Don't they have the giants in the.

Last week? Giants and the Cardinals.

Yeah. Yeah. So the Lions are locked in the three. Actually, this line, you could argue, might keep going up.

I guess. All right. Let's stay away from it and just watch as it goes up.

Sunday's Marquee game is the Ravens Dolphins. This is either three or three and a half. I bet three or I guess three when I say you're the one, so I'm not going to change. Ravens minus three.

You're sure? You could change if you want.

No, I'm fine.

I said three also, and it is three. Boy, that's a trap, isn't it? That's a trap. Jay just beat up on the 49ers. They just look like the best team. They're a physical team, which Miami hates. Why is this only three?

Mostar was another guy starting the vote out league. Yeah. Get some touchdown. Second quarter, tackled, limps off. They showed the replay. The guy's helmet goes right in the side of his knee. I fucking hate fantasy football. I hope fantasy football dies in the fire. It's the worst. It makes me so unhappy. I've met the Celtic Lakers game today with the Eagles Gians game on my phone just in case the Eagles is going to put up 80 points in the game.

Insufferable.

Insufferable. You know what? Maybe that person would like if we weren't in his fantasy league. Maybe that. Wow. He'd be a bunch of people that don't say anything during the draft. I'll tell you off the air who it was. See if that's more fun. I'll tell you off the air. See if that's more fun. The watchables. Only three, unfortunately. And one of them isn't even really a watchable, except for the stakes. Bucks, Saints in Tampa Bay. This is about the only reason Derek Carr would be in a Watchables game if a division title is at stake. I had Bucks by three in Tampa.

I had four and a half. The Bucks are better than the Saints. We made a bad bet.

Tampa is just rising as the Saints are meandering around 500 the whole time. We can't move the ball, we the Saints. It's two and a half. You get it. But what the hell? Why is that two and a half?

10 days off from the Saints. Maybe they feel like the Bucks are a little fraudulent. I don't know. Good Lord. That line don't get to three. If that's that line on Thursday, I'm betting the Bucks.

Wait, what happened the first time they played?

I thought the Bucks beat them the first time, right?

26-9 on October first, Bucks 1.

Bucks 1, yeah. It was convincing. What the hell? That's weird. Seahawks are home for the Stealers. Seahawks with a dramatic comeback win on Monday night, led by Drewlock. And then another dramatic comeback win led by Gino Smith six days later against a Tennessee team that's five and 10.

And.

Feels like they're three plays away from being eight and seven, although they did win that stupid Monday night game.

Did you take them to win the AFC South also? I did. Or was that just me? I did. How are they the only team not in the mix? They look just as good as those others.

My whole case was I don't like the Jaguars. I don't believe... I didn't like the Jaguars, Chargers, and Lions. And I basically went two for three with that. But the Jaguars are somehow have a chance to win the division anyway. It feels like the Jags could screw this up, though, because even the state, they play the Panthers, which we're to get to later in poop Fecta. But from what I've seen from the Jags the last couple of weeks, what I've seen from the Panthers, I think the Panthers could give them a game.

Yeah.

Maybe. I can see the Jags completely choking in that one.

The thing is, if they get by that, they have the tie break over these other teams, the Texans and Colts. They just need to.

Get that one- They really... But they have a losing record now in American soil?

Right.

They're 6 and seven in America and two and 1 in London. Seahawks, Steeler's, it's in Seattle and I have the Seahawks by three.

Yeah, you're edging me out of all these. I said two and a half. It is three and a half.

It's.

A good one. One of the three thanks, NFL late afternoon games.

Is it QB Confession Time? I think Mason Ruddoff is pretty good.

Oh, come on, slow down. He's not bad.

He's not bad.

He woke up George Pickens. I guess you could say that.

He's unquestionably better than Trubiski. I actually think he might be better than Picket. If it's Picket limping around versus Mason Ruddoff, I'm not playing.

Picket yet. Yeah. I don't know what anybody sees in practice. Is it just like you give the reps to the one guy you want to be quarterback. And that's why a guy like Rudolf never rises to the top because it's obvious to all of us. As soon as we see him in action for 10 minutes, then he's the guy.

Mitch must be unbelievable on practice. That's the only explanation. They must watch them do drills and like, Oh, man. Fucking Mitch was slinging it today. It doesn't seem to matter that when we get to a game-.

Maybe he buys the Lymon good gifts. Maybe he buys the best gifts for the Lyman, even when he's not playing.

Chiefs, Bangles. I think I sent you the lines. I had this at seven. I'm going to take that down a half point. I'm going to say Chiefs by six and a half.

All right. That's a good move then, because I had eight and it's seven and a half.

I should have left it. Why did I not just leave it?

God damn it. You love the Chiefs on a teaser. Oh, my God.

I don't. I will not. No money will go to the Chiefs for me for the rest of this year about they're banned. They're kicked out of my betting bar.

A lot of garbage. Garbage.

I think the Bengals could hang around in this game if they have chased, don't you?

I mean, it depends. Yeah. Is he due back?

If he's able to play. Fairly watchables, I got four. Falcons at Chicago. The Falcons were the one game this week other than tonight's Ravens game that I just thought the Colts were going to go in there and move the ball up and down. And Arthur Smith, he was done. Heineke, I thought, gave them a nice... They had a little pizazz. They got Robins to go and they really ran the ball. They looked like the team that I kept thinking the Falcons were going to be for two months there. This 40 carry, three running backs, just either pound of the ball or play action. Pits made a couple of plays. I thought they played a really good game.

And that's another one. Why did it take 15, 16 weeks to decide on Heineke over Ritter? Three times, I think. How many times has he been benched, Ritter? Leave the better guy in there already.

And the bears, solid game against the Cardinals was amazing. But I think the Falcons are going to be favorite. I have the Falcons minus one and a half of the bears.

Oh, Falcons one and a half. I said bears minus two and a half. It's bears minus three.

Wow. That's the most off I've been in a while. They love- You know what that means?

You're going the other way?

I'm probably right.

Oh, you're probably right. Yeah, the Fandle loves the bears.

Any.

Chance they get to make them a three-point favorite, they do it.

That line is moving. Have you noticed we haven't had a bad weather week yet with football?

I know. Where's the.

Good snow coming? That's like a staple is the terrible weather week that screws up all the picks we have. Texans, Titansans, St. Houston. Probably CJ Strad this week, I'm guessing.

Yeah, I hope so.

If he doesn't play this week, then you start to get concerned there's something more going on. Right. I have Texans minus two and a half.

I picked this exactly. It's three and a half.

You're coming back on me.

You're up five, four. So you.

Said there's 10 early games?

10 early, yeah.

I'm going to say right now that on my multi-view, Texins, Titansans will not be one of the choices. Oh, is that right? Yeah.

Don't be hasty here. Just think this through.

I'm going to say... So right now, let me do it right now.

I think there's a watchable. I think you missed a watchable, and it's not your fault. I think it became a watchable today.

Vegas at Colts?

I put that in the Fairly Watchables.

Oh, okay.

10 o'clock games, 10 o'clock Pacific Time for people listening. Pat Spills, Dolphins and Ravens, which will be a TV game.

Definitely.

I don't think that'll be in the multi-view on the show of YouTube TV. Falcons, Bears, Raiders, Colts, Panthers, Jaguars, Titans, Texans, Rams, giants, Cardinals, Eagles, Saints, Bucks, 49ers, Commanders. Jesus Christ.

It's too many. What are they doing?

Run.

This by us. I'd probably watch- It's.

Got to be Dolphins, Ravens, I think will be a cable game.

So.

It's probably Pat's Bills.

You got to put Saints Bucks.

Just because- Saints Bucks, Falcons, Bears, and.

Then- Vegas Indy?

Yeah, or Ram's giants. But yeah, Vegas, Indy, because the Rams are going to be in there.

Either way. We both have a shot.

Yeah. Somehow that's not that fun of a multivview.

No, I know.

I'll still have a good time with it.

Yeah, we'll figure it out.

Rams, giants. Just mentioned that one, Ram's at the giants. What do we make of the Ram's give them Baltimore, everything they could handle and looking even better than the Niners did against the Ravens. Peter Schrager pointed this out on Twitter, and I was like, Good point, Peter. I'll be crediting you as I steal it for the podcast. But the Ram's have been really good now for four or five weeks.

And- They're reliable. They end with the Niners. The Niners probably didn't think they needed that game. But what's interesting about it is maybe the RAMs don't need that game. Could the Niners get lucky and like Stafford sits? Because the RAMs have locked up of... What do they care? If they're five, six or seven, six, seed, whatever.

So the RAMs will be the six seed. If Seattle wins, though, I guess it doesn't really matter, but they want momentum. I'm sure they want to go 10 and seven. I'm sure McBase having a great time with this team. I think the Rams are legit.

I can't believe this team, honestly. I can't praise them enough. I thought they were going to be horrible. I picked them for worst record. With all the quarterbacks that went down, the 34-year-old with a spinal injury coming into the season, made it to the finish line, knock wood, two weeks left. And not in cup is injured and they have two superstars emerge on the offensive end. It's really something else.

So Staffford wins a playoff game in Detroit, round one. That's the final Hall of Fame for him, it feels like.

See, he was there with the Yards. They won the Super Bowl. He's probably already in anyway.

But then.

To have one more year where it's like, and then you go and you have the dramatic winning in Detroit. What a weird game that's going to be for the Lions fans, right? They had this horrible decade where him and Calvin Johnson and nothing else and just dysfunction and bad picks and bad signings.

Yeah. I guess you're right. I was thinking Flacko. What does he have to do to make the hall? Does he have to win the Super Bowl?

To me, he's in already. If Elias and Flacko playing the greatest four-round playoff of any quarterback ever, he's at least on the cusp.

Yeah, so- So probably the same if he beats Baltimore, for sure in, right?

Yeah.

His old team.

That's a fun one. I don't think he has the stats like Stafford has. Like, Stafford's- No, yeah. What is he? Like sixth or seventh all time passing yards? Yeah, I think so. He's way up there in all these places. Eagles Cardinals, I have for Fairly Watchables because I think the Eagles are just... I always want to know what's going on with them. And it seems like whoever they play is somewhere in the game. I guess, Minus 12 and a half before when I sent this to you, but I'm changing that because the way it looks today, I'm going to go 11 and a half.

Oh, I should have kept going. I said nine, and it's nine and a half. Arizona is frisky. They're a weird team. I know they're coming east in the cold, different story.

Well, they're locked in now to the number two. And they're also locked in- Arizona. Yeah. It looks like I'm going to actually win. I think I lost most of my futures this year that I bet real money on. But one that is going to hit is Arizona four and a half for wins. They're not getting there. Oh, that's good.

I adjusted that to five and a half on the part. Yeah, that's good, though.

Second pick, Dale, Kyler, or a shitload of money, and they seem like they're a tradeback candidate. That's why with the Path, maybe they just trade up and give up a future first if they really love trade back. Who knows? All right, last fairly watchables, Colts, Raiders. I put this in The Vegas Zone. I have Colts by five.

I said two and a half. It's three and a half.

You won that one, too. Yeah. Jesus.

Coming back, six to five. That's a good one.

I.

Don't know. Although they could get crushed to the Raiders. That quarterback shows me nothing.

Which Carson, Daily, girlfriend from the early 2000s would you compare Antonio Pierce's Raiders run to? Just in terms of- Oh, wow. Not thinking it should last more than a couple of weeks, but now maybe you're wondering if it will. Terry Reed?

I want to say Tara Reed because it seems like the funniest to say, but maybe Tracy Chapman.

Did.

He take Tracy Chapman? No, I just want to see your face.

I would have believed that. Carson was having a good run there for four or five years. He really did.

Our friends.

Baby, you can't even imagine, baby. Okay. Poop Fecta. Bill's Pets is a poop Fecta game. Would you put that as a fairly watchable? I'd probably promote that.

Yeah, it's on your multi- I mean, it's your team.

Yeah, I'll promote that one to a fairly watchable. I have the Bills by eleven and a half over the Pets.

You're going to get this. I said eleven and it's twelve.

Yeah, I like the Pets.

I mean, he's going to play hard. Is there a better spoiler coach than Belichick?

No. I'm upset that we gave up Jack Jones, but I also understand it because he just couldn't be in a team, at least this past team. He goes to the Raiders and he's with pierce and they have a history. I think that guy is genuinely talented. It just wasn't going to happen in the cats.

Yeah.

It's about the Raiders, makes a lot more sense. Poop fact that Jags, Panthers in Jacksonville. I have Jacksonville by eight, and I'm going to bet the Panthers.

Yeah, you got this exactly. I said eight and a half. It is eight. So you're back-.

That could be a money line bet.

I think you're up seven, six.

That could be a hearing rumors. Doug Peterson might not be as safe as people thought in Jacksonville. Like an Ian.

Rappaport.

12:15 tweet right before the games. Niner is at Washington.

Wait, do we do RAMs, giants? Do we pick RAMs, giants?

I guess we never actually picked it. We talked about it and never picked it. Yeah. I had RAMs by seven and a half over the giants.

I said six. It's six and a half. So I get that. You get it. Okay. I love the RAMs.

Nine is Washington. I have Niners by eleven and a half at Washington.

We're both at eleven and a half. It's 13 and a half. Well, hold on. So there's two left?

Yeah. We made a big comeback. Are we tied?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. We are tied. Okay.

Broncos, Chargers at Denver. Denver is still mathematically alive somehow.

They.

Should be embarrassed that they lost to Bailey Zapie. Bailey Zapie four and two is a starter with the pets. Do you know that?

It's bizarre. No. Yeah, crazy.

I have the Broncos by seven over Easton Stick and Coach, Giff, and the Chargers.

I went low. I have a lot more confidence in Easton Stick. I said five. It's six and a half. You get it. You have the lead going into the last pick.

I'm hitting this. Vikings in Minnesota hosting the Green Bay Packers. Vikings by two and a half is the answer.

I had Vikings by two, and I'm going to check it. Right now, Fandle has it at Vikings one and a half.

Oh, you mother.

I get that.

Take the tie. A tie for us. Jesus. Put that right in the TikTok sound. Nick Bowens needed some TikToks. I am dubbing Vikings Packers an official lose or leaves town match, right?

Will anyone see it? That's a New Year's Eve? That's the night game, New.

Year's Eve? It's a perfect New Year's Eve game. Yeah. Yeah, the Minnesota seven and eight, the Packers are seven and eight.

Oh, yeah.

That's an official you're going home at the end of the match. Of course. It's a dog collar match. Let's make it a dog collar match with some barbed wire.

I love it.

All right, time for Today's Parent Corner is brought to you by Car Max because as any parent knows, there are always two things we can't get enough of: time and money. That's why Car Max is making it fast and easy to get prequalified for your next car so you can get personalized terms and shopping in your monthly budget with no impact to your credit score. Save time. Start shopping for a car you love and get prequalified today. Car Max, the way car buying should be. See details at carmax. Com. What do you guys say?

All right, so we're coming off Christmas Day here. You know how it is. You wrap the gifts all night and they open it up in 45 seconds and it's very unsatisfying. You see Nintendo switches and watches and jerseys. My nine-year-old gets an Alvin Camara jersey, which is going to make you laugh.

But.

Because he has him on fantasy and three weeks ago, he had a major... That's the only reason he's getting this jersey, because he had a good game like three weeks ago. So 75 bucks out the door. Now, what I noticed is the kids were asking me about some stuff that we had when we were younger. For some reason, I brought up Silly Putty, and I started explaining what Silly Putty is to them. You know what it is, right? It's that pink stuff, right? You flatten it out, you put it on newspapers, and it comes up. You could even do naughtie things. You can get to read on the Silly Putty. It's fun. This was two weeks ago. I'm like, I'm going to order some Silly Putty for their stockings. I get the Silly Putty. They open it up, done with it in four seconds. Don't even want to look. I'm like, Wait a minute. This is gold here, guys. This is a Silly Putty. They're like, Oh, dad, what do we care about this? I get the Silly Putty. I flatten it out like I'm making a pizza. I'm so proud. I'm like, All right, get me a newspaper.

Watch what this thing does. My wife's like, We don't have newspapers around here. Your silly putty is old. The fact that we'd have a newspaper here is old. Get away from it already.

Right. You're in 1978, right? Yeah.

I was like, There's no silly putty, no newspaper. What's going on here? Finally, I found something like instructions on some manual from another gift, and I put it in a barely picks up the print on it, and I show them and they couldn't give a shit less. I was so mad at this. I was so mad that they didn't care about my silly putty bit.

I put in so much time and everyone's spoiled. But I got the last laugh because two hours later, I tested positive for COVID and they were stuck with me. Now they're going to get it.

When did that happen?

It happened this afternoon.

Come on.

I wasn't even going to test, but I have to shoot my show with some of the crew guys from The Ringer, and I had to be in the same room and I was like, I better alert them. I have COVID-19, whatever the strand it is. That's that.

Good time. You're doing the podcast right now with COVID?

I'm doing it with COVID. Don't worry.

I read up on it. You lost nine of your 10 bets. Can I get it?

Not a great Christmas all around.

See of COVID. The good news is everybody. I feel like I was early getting COVID, but.

Everybody's getting COVID. Well, your Thanksgiving was ruined, right? And also, Christmas is what. Yeah. But were you going to Florida with the family in four days? Because that's what I was supposed to do.

And that's what you.

Can't go now. Yeah, now I'm out of that.

Maybe you're lying. Maybe you don't actually have COVID. Yeah, I can't go.

Quiet.

Now. I got COVID.

No, the wife saw the test.

Did you buy a fake.

Covid test? She saw it and slammed it into the... Like a Lodge one, just dunked it into the trash. She was so mad. So that was that.

I have two short parent corners. One is we had Christmas Eve and my wife did everything. And when you have kids and they're younger, you think when they get older, they're going to be really helpful. And some people have really helpful kids. And then other people have kids like my kids that just aren't helpful at all. Right. Including my daughter, who's an absolutely lovely person by all accounts. Everybody says my daughter is the nicest person. People always tell us how sweet she is and all that stuff, but she's just not helpful. And my wife today, she was going to go to the Celtic-Laker game with me, but the house was still a mess. And she's like, I'm stressed out. I'm just take Zoe. I ended up taking Zoe to the Quipper's game and the Lakers game this weekend. And she just didn't help her. And my wife is really mad at Zoe that she didn't help. So Merry Christmas to everybody here. The question I have is, is it Zoe's fault that she's not helpful or is it our fault? Because we raised the kids. Zoe's a really nice kid, which I think we get a W for.

But she's also not helpful with, Oh, we had all those people. This instinct human beings have, especially kids or family members, like I should help. Oh, the kitchen is a mess. I'll help out mom. I'm going to cut that. But it doesn't occur to her. But I feel like that's my fault and my wife's fault. It's not a DNA thing. You learn that.

Yeah, it could be. But also you're right. You could be a good kid and not check all the boxes of good, helpful.

That's the point I made to my wife. I think for the most part, Zoe is like a massive win, but nobody's perfect. It's like how Jason Tatom takes end of the quarter threes where everybody in the building knows he's just going to dribble through his legs nine times and then take a three that misses right at the end. And it's like, I accept that because he does so many other awesome things. I love Jason Tatom. The... But with Zoe, this is like.

A whole- But you can see why she might point it out. Whereas you got to go to Lakers game, Celtics, and she had to stay home and actually do the things that she wanted help with.

It went over great. It's really been an awesome Christmas for me.

Hey, Zoe is a perfect 2-0 watching games with you, right?

Then you- Well, my counter was, Carrie and Zoe went to Hawaii for five days and was just me and Ben, and I did all the house stuff. You can get mad at me a little bit, but you did just go to Hawaii for five days while we were here. But really, the only person who won all the way through was Zoe because she went to Hawaii- Yeah, that's true. -and went to two Celtic games.

Exactly. Yeah, I like that. No, I don't think it's your fault. You're trying to make memories, and that memory is of your wife playing in the house while you were out.

I did the dishes last night. I was proud of myself. Oh, nice. But it's bad. You know you're not that helpful if you do something helpful and people are like, Wow, that's so great that you did that. Versus just assuming- Pointing it out. -you're from a family where people are more helpful. Everybody's got their hands in there. You're like from old school Italian family. Everybody's trying to do dishes and stabbing each other.

With knives. I think that helps. I probably am about to give the whole family COVID. I feel like that's a generous-.

You're a.

Generous guy. Yeah, I agree.

I still want to see the actual, You should take another COVID test right on the Zoom. Not possible, but I believe you. My other story, every once in a while, my dad's old. He's in his mid-70s now, or not old-old, but he's old. And you think like, When you get older, we've won a lot of titles. Are you going to care a little bit less about sports? He told me this story. They had this Christmas Eve thing last night. So he didn't see the Pats game. And he did the thing where he didn't check his phone. He didn't want to find out what happened, didn't do anything. And my Uncle Mark is staying with them this weekend. So my dad, he wakes up this morning and he's watching the Pats game and still doesn't know what's happened. And it's the third quarter and they're winning. That's great. And I think the Broncos are starting to come back. And my uncle Mark comes out of his room and he's like, sees my dad watched in the game and he goes, I can't believe they won that. It just completely spoilt it. My dad was so upset.

He's like, I had this all planned out. I avoided everything. And I was just like- That's his brother? His brother-in-law. Oh, his brother. Okay. I was just like, Man, when I'm 76, I hope I still care like this. You're upset that somebody ruined your three and 11 pass game. I love it. They're going to go 4 and 11 or 3 and 12. And he's cut off all communications, wasn't responding to text last night. So he could watch this game live, pretend it was live. Anyway, that's.

The thing. I think we'll care. I think we'll care just as much about fantasy and everything else because it's the best. Except all the money we lose, that's going to be a problem.

Kyle, you don't want to do a grandmother corner, right? Probably a bad idea. Uh-uh. I think we could skip it. That's cool. Okay, great. All right, that's it for Parent Corner. Today's Parent Corner was brought to you by Carmax. With Carmax, you can prequalify in as little as five minutes with no impact to your credit score. And you can shop a nationwide inventory with your personalized monthly budget. With all the time and money you'll save, maybe you'll plan your next family road trip, even if it's just around the block. Car Max, the way car buying should be. See details at carmax. Com. All right. So Sal, what did we say when is the next time we're doing this?

We're doing it on New Year's Day. Late morning.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to do... Because Sunday night is New Year's Eve.

Right.

Don't blame God who came up with this calendar.

Yeah. What a weird schedule.

But yeah, we've decided not to do an 8:30 New Year's Eve podcast on Sunday night. So we're going to do Monday morning. Old school. This is what the kids grew up with.

That's right.

Exactly. This is how we started with theit. Sometimes on the Mondays, we would tape it like, we'd have to wait for a Jimmy Cima Live schedule. We'd be doing like-.

A news or something.

-at 1:00 in the afternoon.

Something like that. Yeah. I hope we don't lose our way. We're going to remember how to do it.

I think we'll be okay. My coffee will kick in. So anyway, we'll probably tape 10:00, 10:30 range, and hopefully that would.

Be okay. Yeah, bet 10:06 if you want. I think that's a good number.

The betting for the betting pool. What else they got to put?

Against the Lods, new episodes this week. The D3 and I will lick our wounds. Our Ringer-Wise guy is always fun. We had a great time this Christmas Eve morning. My best bet, by the way, McAfrey and Hertz to both score. Nice. Not my best bet, but McAfrey and Hertz to both score is still plus money. Should we just be betting that every week and not worry about these.

Dumb teams to cover? It does seem like the TD Price. I saw something on Twitter. Some guy had a 14-player TVPRA that was a hit. That was something. It's like $10 for 483,000, something like that.

I mean, I like that, Chris Rodriguez, who that should have been just 400,000, just that pick. But yeah. And then what else we got? Oh, Cousin Salis winning weekend, Nate Barclays is on and pick all the week 17 games. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I was really impressed by my team in person Saturday and Monday. They whacked the clippers, Kauai didn't play, but we didn't have Porzingus and it was still a beating. And then the Lakers game today, it was interesting to see LeBron grasping for excuses after when he was like, We've had more injuries than some of these other contenders. And it's like, meanwhile, the injuries were Gabe, Vincent, Jared Vanderbilt. They've gotten a full season out of LeBron and Davis and Austin Reeves are the three best players. The Celtics waxed them. And they were guarding LeBron with Drew Holiday. They put some Derrick White on him. They were fucking with the Lakers a little bit. It was really interesting. And they're basically like, Davis, knock yourself out. Square your 35. We're going to keep pushing the pace, shooting threes. What was interesting was they didn't even shoot threes that well, and they still won pretty convincingly. And there was a version of this game, but if they had hit six, seven more threes, I think they could have had over 140 points. So I think LeBron was a little rattled after. To me, that's cinched that the Lakers are going to make some big trade because the distance between the two teams was you could feel it.

In the game, it in the game. The White-Holiday combo, White was amazing again. The Celtics, they should have beaten the Warriors. They would have gone 4-0 in this trip. But to rip through these two LA teams like this, I was really impressed. They're the favorites right now in FiendO plus 3-40. But if Porezingus is healthy, I actually think they can win the title.

Is it possible? Lebron looked up and so Zoe is like, Oh, crap. She's undefeated here, rooting for the Celtics, and got nervous. She's a good luck channel. Yeah, she's a.

Good luck channel.

Wins on myYou gave me SGA at 10 to 1 last week. I put it in. It's plus 650 now. Although, Embit is gone on a tear even since then.

He's a big favorite. It's going to keep moving and keep moving and keep moving. But I think the principal is... I'm trying to see if anybody.

Else- Those 30-10s.

Are racking up. Curry at 55:1?

Oh, come on.

I would just write it down on the side. That's just crazy odds because he's one of the best five or six players in the League. I like what I'm seeing from them. Even in this Denver game, which I didn't see because I was at the Laker.

Game- How many games has he missed, though? Curry.

Only a couple.

Is.

That it? Okay, those will. I could see that team coming on a little bit. But yeah, it seems like I think SGA, if they got a top two seed-.

Yeah, we already got value in there. It's a good pick.

Yeah, it wasn't bad. But this Celtic team, this is a really good team. It really is. It's impressive. They have length and defense and three-point shooting. It's all set up.

We'll see. Flip this, Kyle. This is what happens. We lose a lot of Christmas money on football.

We got to look to the moves. There's no value to bet the Celtics. They have the best thoughts. I'm way more encouraged than I was five days ago. There you go. But Philly is always a trait to make. Anyway. All right, Cuz, I hope you feel better. Good job, Bayou.

Good job, Bayou.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Cuz and Sal. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Sarudy as well for producing. I'm going to see you on this feed on Thursday. I'm only doing one other podcast this week. Thursday, I will be back. Enjoy the last vestigions of the Christmas.