Coming up, our first podcast of 2024, we made it to another year, because it's how it's next. We're also brought to you by The Ringer podcast Network. I popped on The Ringer NBA show on Saturday morning because The Knicks and Raptors made a really fun old school NBA trade, a two for two. The big prizes were R. J. Barrett and Emmanuel quickly going to Toronto and OG, Ed and Hoby finally getting traded to The Knicks. I broke it down with Just a Barrier and Rob Behony. We said we were going to for 25 minutes. We went for 58. You can also watch it on my YouTube channel, YouTube. Com/billsimons. We're going to start putting up more stuff on that channel. One of my newest resolutions is to start messing around a little bit more with some instant reaction stuff on there. So YouTube. Com/billsimons, ringer NBA show. And then on this podcast, we have a weird schedule because Zau and I were typing this. It is 10:00 AM Monday morning. We're going to put it up as fast as we can. My next podcast on this feed will be Wednesday. We're typing that one Wednesday morning and then back to normal on Thursday, and then we'll go back to a normal schedule after that.

I also have new rewatchables coming up. It's going to be tonight, I guess. Me and Van Lathin and Charles Holmes breaking down one last movie from 1993. That's everything I got for you. Check out theringer. Com, check out the Ringer Podcast Network and check out Our Friends. In 2024, still our friends, ProJab. All right, Sal, our first podcast of 2024, our first podcast on a Monday after NFL, I think in four or five years. This feels weird. It felt weird to have all the games happen last night and then we weren't potting, but we're going to fight through this. I spent New Year's Eve with you. So we tried to literally save it for the pot and not talk about NFL.

Yes, bear with me. I'm five or six. We're going to be serious, the Honest, Coke Zeroes, caffeine-free Coke Zeroes in. So I might be a little sluggish this morning.

Yeah, you were wasted last time. I've never. All right, the big things that happen, I'm just going to rip these out in order and then we'll go back and talk about them. Baltimore and San Francisco quinch one seeds, and they might be the only two good teams in the week. Buffalo versus Miami week 18 for the two seed. If Buffalo loses and Pittsburgh wins, Buffalo is out. Buffalo could be the two seed, Buffalo could be out. I don't remember that scenario before. Miami might actually be fucked for the season. Philly, Casey, and Buffalo continue to be uninspiring. Do any Cowboy fans trust Mike McCarthy? The Pats lost a two-three-pick tie-breaker to Washington right now. Even though Washington beat them head to head, still trying to figure that out. Pittsburgh, nine and three in non-Trabisky games. Lamar won the MVP. Fields locked down the Bear's QB job, it seems like we got the NFC South, quagmire we deserved. And I officially want Bill Belichick to come back. Those are my takeaways from week 17.

Really? I'm so interested in the last one.

Yeah, we'll go backwards. Okay, all right. Let's do it. Balton, San Francisco, the only two teams. Disagree or agree?

Yeah, I was trying to figure out which two teams are piquing. We always talk about which teams are piquing. Ravens are piquing. I'm not sure if anybody else is. Maybe the Rams, even though they didn't look great yesterday either. But I think you're right. I would sign off on one team in each conference at this point.

Yeah. That you feel good about. The thing with the Rams, they're special teams. They cost them the Baltimore game in OT. They almost cost them the giants game yesterday. Their kicker is terrible. They might have to waive him this weekend. And every year we have that team that looks awesome on paper that we really like. We're like, Oh, except for the special teams. I actually think their special teams are bad enough that it makes me afraid to bet on them as a live dog in round one. Don't you agree?

I agree. I don't know if that Gunner moment was exciting for you when he returns to touch that. I know the giants fan. He was a.

Terrible patriot.

Well, he was the best giant right now. I think they're trying to figure out if he lives with his parents or if there's any Italian thing or any thing they could attach to him. But yeah, you're right. The Rams, that was a little scary. I thought that game was going to be tough for them. But once they had it in hand, I thought like, Oh, man, why they keep letting this giant's team back in. But that's a team I still don't think you want to play in the playoffs.

Couldn't agree more. Good QB, good running back, two good receivers. They're always going to be able to move the ball. Even if you're up on a touchdown on them in the fourth quarter, they'll still be able to get a play. Their offensive line looked a little shaky yesterday, which I thought was worrisome. So the recipe for them is they might suck in. And then when we get to the playoffs, it's like, Oh, they're not doing any of the little things and Stafford is getting hit. And and you feel like an idiot. Buffalo, Miami, for the two seed. This is an unbelievable scenario because Baltimore killed Miami really absolutely land-based to them. If they played that game 10 times, Baltimore is winning all 10. But at the end of the game, Bradley, Chubb gets hurt. Right. And they had already lost their best pass rush earlier in the season. Now they lose him. And you're looking at this semi-carcass of a Dolphins team that they'll have a lot of back for the playoffs. They'll be able to throw the ball. Most of them, sure, will be healthy. But that defense that was really promising midway through the season, that's a team I'd want to play now in the playoffs, right?

Yeah.

I'm a Jackass. That was my best bet of the week. I don't know why. I was just like, Oh, the Ravens are going to let down. They've done it five times before they've let down. In games like this, it was an emotional, physical game against the 49ers. And they just walled them really worse than they did the 49ers even. I don't know if we're not giving the Ravens enough credit. Their receivers are super, super fast. You might even compare them to the Dolphins. They did it. They finally did it. They really got in there. Like you said, Lamar, the MVP, but Miami was soft, so soft defensively. You said at the end of the game, Chuck, there's this ACL. Now it's like the end of the game is an hour and a half before. Why the hell is anybody in that game? All right, prepare for the bills the following week. But the other thing is there were about 27 touchdowns down between Mostart and Waddle being out, which I should have probably weighed more heavily in my analysis going into the game. But I don't know. You're right. I know different conferences, but I'd rather play the Dolphins and the rams at this point.

Yeah. Baltimore has this incredible couple of weeks stretch here where they look great against San Francisco. They look even better against Miami, and they look as explosive as Miami was earlier in the year. What's weird is when they lost Mitchell, when he went out for the year, I was thinking like, well, they have no explosive running backs at all. Instead, Justice Hill looked like he was Marshall Falk in 1999. And he's doing wheel routes and screen passes and just bursting through. They really didn't lose anything. Z. A. Flower is emerging. There's some stealth. Wilds texted this to me, some stealth viewing theory potential with Mark Andrews going out because likely is just a little more athletic. Maybe he relied on Andrews a tiny bit too much, but they just seems like there's fast dudes going everywhere now. And Lamar is in the zone. This is... Lamar is not a guy who has had a lot of playoff success. This feels like it's his best chance. You're going to have to go to Baltimore to beat them. At the same time, this is the type of team that in twelve degree weather, you're still going to have to ground and pound it a little bit, move the ball.

He's good at that. But I'm still a little interested in what happens with the running game, but they seem healthy. I was just really impressed that the game was over. It was one of those, this game is over 15 minutes into the game. You're like, Oh, this is over. I don't really need to monitor anymore.

Well, the Dolphins were up 7-0. And I was like, A-ha, you see, this David's team didn't show up. And then they just pored it on, boy, getting behind the backs and everything they had to do. I think the only reason you wouldn't say is this game is over is because they've blown so many 10-point leads, 12 point leads. But from a gambler standpoint, I don't think we've ever seen anything like this with the MVP odds. We talked about it the morning on Ring of the Wise Guys. Lamar was minus 200. Like, Oh, there's just no value in that. He's minus 9,000 now. We're like an hour and a half into the game, he was minus 9,000. So lost opportunity there.

Can we talk about the MVP really quickly?

Yeah.

So Lamar is like, he's going to win, and he's peaking at the perfect time. I would certainly vote for him. I think it's interesting. You mentioned he's a minus 9,000 favorite. It's a little ridiculous because the purdy piece is closer than I think people realize. I did a breakdown. Wins, Lamar is 13, Purdy is 12. Head to head, Lamar beat them. So you got those two. Then rushing yards, Lamar's rush for 851 and 5 TDs. Purdy is at 134, 2 TDs. That's fine. So Lamar has all those. Passing yards, Lamar is 14th, Purdy's second. He's got almost 600. He's got exactly 600 more passing yards. Touchdowns, Lamar is 11th, Purdy's second. He's got eight more touchdown passes. Yards per attempt, Lamar is 8.0, Purdy's 9.6, turnovers if it's and fumbles, 13 versus 13. Lamar has been sacked nine more times. Purdy's QBR is 7.4 higher. His QB rating is 10.3 higher. Lamar's best wins were Niner's, Detroit, Rams, Miami. Purdy's best wins were Dallas, Jacksonville, Rams, Philly. I still think Lamar should win, but I also think it's way closer than the minus 9,000. That's absurd.

You're right. And I think the minus 9,000 is just based on, okay, who is going to vote for who at this point? No one's going to vote Purdy over Lamar. So that's why it's minus 9,000. But you're absolutely right. And this was the year that a running back or a receiver could have stepped up and stolen it. Mcafrey and Tyree Kill didn't help their cause yesterday, but the numbers are not spectacular. Rahim on the ring of wise guys pointed out, Lamar is over under for touchdown passes was 24 and a half. He had 19 going into yesterday. He's all caught up now. But he's really just done what you would expect of him. He's had a par season for Lamar Jackson. There's no quarterback with 36 touchdowns and four interceptions. That's a runaway this year. But the narrative has led us to this point where they beat up on the 49ers and beat up on the Dolphins. There's no one else to give it to.

Yeah. And his best wins were loud wins, which I think really helped him. I mean, the McAfrey case, he's the only guy over 2,000 yards from Scrimage. He's got 2.66 more than Lamb, who's the number two guy. He's got 350 more rushing yards than anyone else in the league. Kyron Williams is second. He's 5.4 yards per attempt, which is first for running backs. He's fourth for rushing TDs. He also has the 567 receiving yards and seven TDs. I mean, he's having an awesome season. But I think Lamar's last two wins were so loud, he has to get it.

I'll make a very, very quick selfish claim for C. D. Lamb. I know his numbers are not as grand as McAfrey's or Tyra Kills, but Cowboys, I think, won six games without that guy.

That's been another interesting piece of this season is that we had this whole moment where Tyra Kills, he's definitely 100 % the best receiver in the League. Then it was, Oh, AJ Brown, look what he's doing. It's close between those two. City, Lambstats are unbelievable. If you guys actually needed the game this weekend, he would have a chance to finish with 1,900 rushing herds. And he was awesome in that game. It actually felt like he could have 300 yards if they just kept throwing to him. But it's funny, that pick, they made it. And it was like a classic cowboys. The sexy pick, they couldn't resist. They needed so many other things and then turns out to be this incredible pic.

If you're in fantasy bidding on Tyree Kill and you're in the high 30s and you lose out to somebody, but C. D. Lamb is on the board, you're not that pumped out, right? Between the two of them? No. He's a phenomenal. Itry to get him killed sometimes, thrown over the middle. But aside from that, he is a monster receiver, and he had to be this year because the running game is not there. I don't know when you want to talk about the Cowboys, but just a weird team this year, for sure.

Let's do it now. So you beat the trait.

That's all you need to say.

Yeah. It's a classic Cowboys win where you just feel terrible after the game. You're just like, Wow, I feel awful. There's this massive, officially, controversy. And you leave the game. Mccarthy, who in the last three minutes, we've talked about it, I think almost every week you've had a close game. There's at least one thing where you go, The fuck are they doing? I think he might leave the League in, What the fuck are they doing? Moments this season. Second down, they only have one timeout left. You have the ball. It's under two minutes. And all of a sudden, Dax throw in this 40-yard lollipop pass that isn't even in bounds. It's out of bounds. And he just gives the Lions 40 more seconds. And it was just inexplicable. And of course, the lions come down and they managed to score within the last 30 seconds. And somehow it became a terrible loss for Detroit, but also a terrible win for Dallas. You can't feel good about that.

No way I felt good. Remember the Rams had a get back guy, like when McVeigh would run on the sidelines and this guy's sole job was to hold Sean McVay by the hips and make sure he doesn't go on the field. I think with two and a half minutes left in the close game, the Cowboy should have a get back in your car.

Guy.

For McCarthy. He's great when we're winning by 17. It's fine. The play callings all there. But what the hell was that? Like, really calling for a hell, Mary on second day when we're supposed to be killing clock and then all that official. None of it matters if he does the right thing there. So that's disgusting. We don't really have a running game, which is bad, which puts more pressure on deck. Cd-lam has to be great. We have a bunch of ball-hawkers on defense, which is great. But it's like the same that I don't love this team. I would rather have the Lions team actually going forward than the Cowboys. Maybe not the way everything is seeded right now, but in terms of this year, you want a team that's running the ball in January and the coach is not going to fuck everything up.

Well, the funny thing is if you get to two seed.

You.

At least have the first two games at home. And the way you've played at home this year, you got to feel better about that. It was for the Lions, I think it could have been a really important golf game because he had his couple of classic terrible golf moments in the first two and a half hours of that game. But he did lead them down for the big drive at the end. They score and the two-point conversion worked, which he knew they were going to do from the moment they were trying... I was driving inside the 20.

But- I did. I didn't think from the seven-yard line they would go for there. I don't know. I mean.

What- Well, that was the second inexplicable decision. What's Dan Campbell trying to do at that point? He's like, Reminding me of my son when my son was seven and would get mad if something didn't go his way and he would just storm off and do something crazy. Dan Campbell was like, Well, I'm going to go for it from the seven. Fuck you guys.

We'll take three more all-stars. We'll do it from the 25 if we have to.

I was on Twitter and our guy, Seth Walder, who does the analytics. And sometimes he'll be like, Even though they didn't get it, that was the right decision. It always makes me mad. And that one, he's like, That was the wrong decision. He decreased their chances by minus 13 %. Minus 13 %? Yeah, it's tangible.

He gets a little pass, right? Because everyone feels bad for him because the official screwed up. But that was a weird thing going forward. Let me just say this. The officials did screw up. But when your goal is to ambush the ref with three line men.

Who.

One of them checked in the same way multiple times, you're creating trickery and you trick the wrong idiots. You trick both idiots, the cowboys and the refs. But let me just... I haven't heard anyone.

Explain this. By the way, this is an unbelievable defense by you. I love it. Yeah, but- You're like, maybe it's the lion's phone. I'm actually with you. They tricked the refs. Yeah. Kind of on them, making it a little more clear what they're doing.

You got one guy sprinting off the sideline who's checked in the same way before. You got another guy not saying a word, that's the guy who's supposed to be eligible. And you got the other guy, the third guy who's saying, Hey, he's supposed to be eligible. And the ref is supposed to figure... The ref, they screw everything up. They're supposed to figure this out six seconds before the ball snap. And I'm going to take it another... This is one thing I haven't heard. They announced over the PA system who is eligible, right? When the Cowboys here, number 70 is eligible, he's checking in as eligible, they're not covering 68. They're like, Who is this clown? And you even see the Cowboys players after the play is like, Hey, where did this guy come from? We have our eyes on 70 who's lined up as a guard or a tackle for some reason. Why would we cover 68? So I don't know. I get it. Lions fans are pissed off. And by the way, they are insufferable, Lions fans. There's a reason God.

Doesn't let them win the games. Yeah, I'm going to defend them. They've had the worst run of anyone.

I don't care. You've got to.

Carry yourself with grace. They don't even have happy, fond memories of terrible losses. They've had no important.

That's fine. But don't take it out on me. You've got to have grace and dignity like you and I do rooting for our story franchise.

We spent so much grace and dignity over there. Exactly. One of my favorite things about the Lions, the whole thing was they were like, Look, we told the refs before the game to be ready for this. So three and a half hours later, at a nationally televised game where 700 million things are happening. Right. And these guys are just so terrified to get anything wrong because the moment they get anything wrong, it's on Twitter, it's on YouTube. People are Googling where they live and all this crazy shit. And they're just focused on... And it's like, Oh, yeah, Dan Campbell told me that... I can't remember what my wife told me like 40 minutes ago. And these guys are going to remember this from, Oh, yeah, and the pregame warmups Dan Campbell mentioned to look out for our 70.

68 switch. What if he told them 30 different things they're going to do? They're supposed to remember all of them? And that's from both teams. How about this?

Maybe run a more normal two-point play. You just gash down the field. The Cowboys couldn't stop you. Or just throw them in the portal. Why do you have to do the all-time trick play? That's it. We did it. We defended your terrible win.

I feel.

Better now. The weirdest thing about the Cowboy season is that who is going for high fifties and fantasy drafts. I said this on when we did the Ring around Bay show about the Quickly podcast. So the Raptors trade, say, I brought.

An NBA. Oh, nice.

The Raptors trade for Quickly, and it's like, look at his stats. So you prorate that to 35 minutes a game. And it's like, Okay, well, half of those stats are coming against the other team's bench. He got to play 25 minutes. Now he has to play 35 and carry the load of the game. And the same thing with power. He's change of pace. Zeke's getting these hard yards and Pauward can come in, they can throw screen. But now that you're the guy, he just hasn't seen the same.

Yeah, I was hoping not to be as jealous of the Zeke, Elliot, Patriots touchdowns as I was this year, but they definitely missed them down low. And he suffered a substantial leg injury in that 49ers game, and it slowed him down. I don't know, 25, 30 %. He definitely doesn't seem to have that burst. That Doddell guy will probably start when he comes back.

Well, the big question, do you trust Mike McCarthy?

What is that? With What? Is that a trouble? With what? Do you trust him?

Do you trust Mike McCarthy?

Oh, do I trust him? No.

But do you trust Mike McCarthy?

I want Jimmy... Here's the other thing. I don't believe in superstitious stuff, but wouldn't it be nice if this, Jimmy Johnson, if that one last exclamation of how about them cowboys lifted the curse. We get the refs all on our side to end the game. We get a miraculous Cardinals win. They have no business winning in Philadelphia yesterday. Maybe it's all coming together despite having the most inefficient NFL Coach in the last two decades.

The Internet got very conspiracy-ish after this. And like, Oh, they rigged it for the cowboys on the and stuff. I just think the refs, they're incompetent every week. I think it's really hard to official. I think they're terrified because there's so many checks and balances now. And I just think we watch it every weekend. They make mistakes constantly in every game we watch. And I do not believe... If I came home last night from New Year's and Murph had taken a shit at my office, there's no conspiracy. He's just a dumb ass. Right. And I think we give the NFL refs a little too much credit. It's a hard job. I'm with you. I mean, we saw a guy trip Lamar Jackson last week. He couldn't get out of the way. He fell down and tripped him in the ass.

Listen, this is not just the NFL. We hate refs in every sport, maybe not hockey. So it's either it's a hard job or this is a huge conspiracy against the fans for no reason. Yeah.

They're following some script where they're allegedly getting paid all this money. But yeah, I bet if we went and visited a bunch of retired refs, they're not living in giant mansions in Hawaii. They're probably living in Arizona, saving taxes. Yeah. All right, lots more discussed. We'll take a break. Coming back, going through my list of the big things that happened, Philly, Casey, and Buffalo continued to be uninspiring to me. Philly, that loss was one of the most abysmal things. The Matt, Patricia, being brought in as the defensive coordinator and making the defense worse is one of the funniest, predictable things that's ever happened. My Eagle fan friends are out of their mind. I don't think in any sport there's a more upset fan base than the Eagles fans right now. They're so pissed. They got roped in. And Arizona, I don't know how many people watch the game. It's New Year's Eve, but Arizona fucking spanked them. They had the ball for 40 minutes. They did whatever they wanted. They got any third down they wanted. They got any play they wanted. James Connor was just running through them. Philly is the worst linebackers, I think, in either conference.

And its just the Eagle fans were out of their mind booing. Rarely do you hear the boo's flowing out of the TV. But that was one of those where they were just so pissed off. It was like Silver linings' playbook. It was hilarious.

Well, let me just say this in their defense, they had to get those booze out on December 31st. They have to meet a quota. It's like if you get Silver Status on an airline, you got to- Oh, true. -have to take these weird flights on December 28th. So they had to get that out of there. But they had a good reason to. You're right with the Patricia stuff, and they had, what, 221 yards rushing. They got gouged. That wasn't just like, there wasn't a 90-yard Kylo Murray scamper in there. They got gouged all day on the ground to a point where when the Cardinals are driving with three minutes left to take the lead, they're running the ball. When do you ever see that? You see the team that's down has to pass. Yeah, we'll run on first down and maybe even on third down. We'll talk about the Chiefs, too. But the Eagles Chiefs, two Super Bowl teams, not sure they won a playoff game, honestly. Yeah.

The James Conner and Kyrin Williams deciding fantasy leagues was pretty funny in 16. Ben Solak did a really good piece for the wringer about the weekend's games, but was pointing out some of the Eagle stuff where Hassan Redik was just over and over again in pass coverage. They had no pass rush, but somehow had designed a defense where their best pass rusher was going backwards. It's weird because at least their front, let's say, front five because their linebackers suck. But you would think there would be some way to just leverage that and have those guys pushing the offensive line backwards in some way, but they don't even get that. And then we said this last week, there's no flow to their offense. It's just this disjointed. And then there's a play. Both receivers seem unhappy. Kurt seems unhappy. Everyone seems unhappy.

If you had to pick three-quarter back set in a month, you found out played with a hairline fracture.

In their shoulder. Oh, Hertz will be one.

It might be all three.

Yeah. He would be the heavy, heavy favorite of hairline fracture or he had a hairline fracture in his chin.

Right. Yeah, somewhere there's.

A hairline fracture. Or he had actually a torn MCL and played with it. I'd believe any hurt's injury. Kc wins by eight, somehow covers. That's the worst cover of the week. Over and over again, just couldn't get it done in third down. Kelsey is getting slower every week. Kelsey has hit the point where I'm surprised when he has a catch. He had catch on the sideline yesterday for a first down in the second half. I was like, Oh, Kelsey. The other tight ends seems like more of a threat. 84 going down field. What's his name? Watson? Oh, no, it is. No, not Watson. Whatever 84's name is. He beat somebody down the field on a nice little pretend that he was going to do a button hook and slip there. But like, Kelsey can't even do that anymore. They'll get three Rasheed Rice plays, but for the most part, they just can't move the ball. No agree, right? No agree, yeah.

I used to be like last year, two years ago, How does Kelsey get open every play? And now, right? Oh, come on.

It's a tight- Why don't they triple Kelsey? Nobody gets open.

Right. Nobody gets open. Now it's like, How is he ever getting open this guy? And it's really strange to see. And they still drop balls. And I don't know why they're not just signing like the Julian Edelman's of the world. Just get a couple of guys you could catch and help them home.

This happened in the past. It's really hard to find receivers, especially midseason. Is it? We had that Chris Hogan just running around. He was like two years washed up.

But going into the year, would you have liked the Texans' receivers? Would you have liked... I don't know. There are teams in the top 12 that are like, even the Jaguars have Ridgeley, but they're like a top 10 or 12. I don't know. It's very what we're watching with the Kansas City.

Well, the other thing is their defense isn't that good anymore. Everybody's like, Well, they've never had a defense like this. Their defense is not good. People are going up and down on them. And usually when something good happens for them, it's usually some fuck-up on the other team. Chris Jones, who was probably the best defensive player in the League last year, at least the best defensive lineman, and you never hear his name in the same way during the games. He might just be getting double-team because they don't have to worry about anybody else. But I just don't think they look good. And to me, they're a classic bet against that team in round one. We're going to go through the playoff matchups later. The other one is Buffalo. And it's funny that half time, that horrendous NBA half time show during the Sunday Night game. And they're like, Who do you like heading into the playoffs? And they go to Garrett first and he's like, I like Buffalo. I think Buffalo has found their swagger. What? And it was like, Did you fucking- I didn't watch the Pats almost beat Buffalo with two missed field goals and four turnovers?

I'm sure he did. Three of which were just like, unforest error turnovers. And Allen could do Jack shit for most of the game. And it's like, I actually don't know how the Pats didn't win that game because they outplayed Buffalo in a lot of ways. And he's like, They've got their swagger back. It's like, What fucking games are you watching, dude?

Must-win at home. What? Two touchdown favorite by the time it kicked off.

We turned the ball over three times in the first four years of action.

I think you had four, didn't you have four in the first half? We had four. Oh, yeah. I almost took the lead in the first half time. But I think part of it is, though, that Belichick loves, and we talked about this last week, he loves this spoiler role. I think he's like, Oh, my God. Why did I bother with these Super Bowels? This is so much more fun.

Right. Just trying to get in there. The week 17 prick. Look at.

These freezing fans diving through tables that are on fire. I'm going to send them home upset. And he almost did. It was so close.

Buffalo, Philly, Casey, and Buffalo, I just don't see it. And we've been surprised as we head in the playoffs, but I don't think there's a foundation for any of those teams to actually win three weeks in a row and get to a Super Bowl.

Well, forget Philly, though. So then who do you have challenging Baltimore then? If it's not.

Casey- You know what I realized yesterday? And a lot of times I zag and I try to come up with the sleeper and the what? I really think we're going to end up with Baltimore and San Francisco. I think they're elevated above everybody else on both ends. I read somebody last week. I apologize to whoever made this point because I would love to credit you for it, and I can't remember who said it. Baltimore and San Francisco feel like the only two teams that can win any type of game. So if it's 10 degrees, at least we haven't seen in the playoffs, but at least I know Lamar can create some plays in the ground. In theory, he should be able to win the 22 to 17 bad weather. They cut to the fans. They're wearing whatever. In theory, he should be able to win one of those games. He just hasn't done it yet. And then San Francisco, they could run the ball through these bubble screens. The only thing they really can't do is play from behind. I don't trust anybody else. Even your stupid team, you get a lot of turnovers. You get this ball Hawk stuff.

But just in terms of just stopping somebody from long drives, I'm not sure you can do it.

You talk about linebackers that are soft. I don't want to get into it, but that second level is just not there. Not there at all. We saw Laporte crush. You're right, Laporte should have caught that winning two-point conversion because he got everything else and that soft defense. But I'm looking on Fandle, Ravens, 49ers, plus 376. You could do a lot worse than that. Well, you can't do a lot worse than 376 because those are the two favorites. But they're going to be a winner.

I'm embarrassed and somewhat mortified to tell you the bet that I almost made before this week that I backed off of... Do they have the Super Bowl matchups up yet on Fando?

I've been just picking a conference winners.

Oh, yeah. You did the conference of each one. Brown's 49ers. Oh, wow. 34 to 1. Oh, yeah. That's right. The Browns are the only team-.

Yeah, Browns are the team.

-that I could see going into Baltimore. I'm just trying to play it out of my head. Kyle already turned on the TikTok camera. I don't even feel great about this. Flacko going against his old team. They have the defense that's fast and could at least hang with the speed of the Ravens. Flacko throw in a couple of those ridiculous Flacko 40-yard passes that either Cooper catches or they get a flag, running the ball a little bit on them. They get the lead early. The Ravens fans get nervous Oh, my God. Is this going to happen to us again with Lamar in January? And then it's 10-7, Browns in the third quarter. And then they get the tipped interception. And then now it's 13. That's the only team I could see going into Baltimore and actually hanging with them.

Yeah, I don't disagree. I do want to bet Flacko one or two playoff games, but this would probably a semifinal matchup, right? This is probably a second week. Is this the Ravens first opponent?

They would have to... The Browns are in the four or five, and I think the Browns are going to beat whoever that AFC South team is. I just do. I think they're going to beat them. So it could be your second round matchup. It could be Cleveland and Baltimore. But then it's like, Oh, my God, Baltimore. They haven't played a meaningful game in three weeks. And now you have this hungry Browns team that's got the speed from the week before.

I.

Think the Browns are good.

Listen, let's.

Not just talk about it. I think they're legitimately good.

Let's do it. I do think Flacko is going to.

Have a game. Are we in? We're doing.

34 to 1? Yeah, why not? I like the other one, too, Ravens 49ers. But why not 34 to 1? I think Flacko is going to have a game where he's too aggressive and throws a bad pick eventually.

But here's the thing with the Browns. They've built in the Flacko two picks into their offense. They're just like, He's going to have two of them. We're good with it. But we're going to keep challenging teams. We're going to keep throwing down field. And the C-Saw is going to tilt our way because we're going to make five big plays. And you'll get two back, but it'll be 35 yards down the field. But the way that the Nojoku is probably a top three tight end in the League right now. This is the healthiest and best he's ever been. And Cooper, you had Cooper. Cooper makes plays. Elijah Moore has been, I think, a pretty decent second guy for them, and they've been able to still run the ball. And we just in our vote-out-fantasy League. Our buddy, Hinch, wins our vote-out-fantasy League. He lost Chubb in the first half of week one, and he lost, Burrow, six weeks ago. And it's just like next man up. This team lost Chubb an hour into the season, and I think they have the best chance to beat Baltimore.

And that's probably why Stefanski is minus 950 to win the.

Coach of the Year. He should be. How does he not win? By the way, I just don't know how Flacko doesn't come back to the Player of the Year. I know Hamlin is probably going to win, but this Flacko come back of the year for him. This is one of the great football comebacks we've had in the 21st century. This guy was done as a good quarterback four years ago. We were betting against him over and over again. He came back in and he's as good as he was during the 2012, '13, whatever year that was when they won the Super Bowl. I think he's been lights out and he's completely rejuvenated their team.

I feel bad about this. I know we're supposed to pick Hamlin, and it was a huge football story, but he was in a couple of plays, and I think he got flagged for a couple of plays. So it probably has to be a little more than just stepping on the field. This is such an amorphous award. You could come back from injury. You could come back from just sucking if you like Baker or whatever, or you could come back from never walking again. And that's what it was looking like for Hamlin. But Flacko at plus 105 should be the pick.

There should be, maybe they need to just have this extra award they give out every year, almost like when the Oscars do that special Oscar award.

Humanitarian.

Or- When they do like the guy that never won as a director, and then it's like, hey, we've given you an Oscar. Hamlin should win that award or Flacko. Both of those guys should win awards for this season. Hamlin, it's amazing you came back. Here's some award. Maybe it's come back part of the year or whatever. But Flacko gets something. You have to get something for literally being out of the league and being somebody that nobody took seriously as a starting quarterback since 2018. And now you have the best chance to beat Baltimore and Baltimore, who is a prohibitive favorite in the conference. That's my flack I take. Wait, I have a couple of other things. Pittsburgh, I think you could make a case that's another team that could give Baltimore a good game in Baltimore. Pittsburgh, in games that Mitch Trubiski didn't play at least half of, is nine and three. So the non-Trubiski stealer is nine and three. Rudolf, I got to say, I think this goes on Tomlin's legacy that he had Mason, Rudolf and Trubiski on his team for the last two years, and each time picked Trubiski in any situation over Mason, Rudolf, who isn't just clearly better.

He's markedly, noticeably, unquestionably better in every respect. And the team responds to him, and he's not afraid. And I had Pittsburgh as my big sleeper before the year, and somehow their best quarterback didn't play until week 14 because he's better than Picket, too.

Right. Yeah. I mean, a lot of those games were Picket. And that's why I'm so confused with Tomlin. How much praise do we want to give him? I mean, 17 years, whatever this has been over 500 is remarkable. And this might be the most remarkable of all the years because those first 11 weeks, they were out gained offensively. But a lot of that is his fault. You can blame Matt Canada, but yeah, figure out who your best quarterback is. I think what you said, who they respond to most is the biggest thing, because you're not going to get a four-touchdown game, probably, at a Mason-Rudolf. But it seems like the team overall is responding to the running game is so much better now. Nadey Harris came back from- They looked awesome.

Yeah, they ran the ball down the throats. I did.

But.

Yeah.

I don't know what to think with this. I like that they're playing that Saturday game, too. We'll get to it.

The Stealers, if they don't make the playoffs, will be easily the best team that didn't make the playoffs.

Yeah. Well, they'll be the 10-1 team that's out, right? We talked about the more likely if they win on Saturday.

Here's the thing. If Buffalo loses to this Miami team, Pittsburgh should be in the playoffs over them. Because how does Buffalo not beat Miami without their two best pass rushers? That's ridiculous. That would be one of the worst losses. Now, could Miami just throw the ball over the place on them and torch them and do that whole thing? Maybe. We have a bunch of really unthreatening wild cards. And you and I have vacillated on whether we like seven playoff teams in each conference or not because the plus side, more gambling for us, two more games. Sure. The downside, we might have Seattle in the playoffs. We might to be in Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, Houston, the terrible, pathetic, Falcons team. Oh, God. There's some teams alive for 6-7 Seeds that I don't want to watch anymore this season. And Seven feels a little heavy this year.

I go back and forth with this too, because we want someone to bet against in the playoffs. So you think that Seven Seed opens it up. I would love Indianapolis to go to, it would be Buffalo. I think that's a good pick for us if we go Buffalo in that spot. But are they worthy? Probably not. I don't.

Think that- Yeah. If Indy goes to Buffalo, then Buffalo is just in a tease, even though I don't love Buffalo. Seattle, they stink. They just got ran on all over the place. Pittsburgh just bullyballed them in the worst possible way. And that is not a playoff team. Tampa, just a humiliating effort against the Saints. Now, I ignored it. I ended up I stayed away from them for a million dollar picks and then got, for some reason, bet them yesterday. I don't even know how that happened.

The rarest of lines. It went to.

Minus two and a half. And I'm like, Oh. Stupid. Yeah. They did nothing. That was another game that was over in a half hour. And you knew it was over when they had this 99-yard drive, the Bucks. That included car, chucked it down the middle. Right. And Joan Johnson makes one of the best catches all season, like jumping out fingertips and then does a flip and somehow keeps the ball. And it's like, all right, this.

Saint-étienne- Yeah. As soon as car completes a 20-yard pass, you should check the live line. Like, all right, the stars are aligning.

They couldn't force any pressure on him at all. Houston has Stroud back and with their pass rush, but they just seem like the good, bad team to me. And then Atlanta is a joke. But somehow maybe two of those teams are going to be in the playoffs.

I don't want to talk bad about them because right now my team would probably play them if they got the 2C. But the Packers, it's such an underreported storyline, I think. The Packers, if they made the playoffs without Rogers, why aren't people screaming about this? And why the hell did I take the Vikings last night is another question.

But Jordan Loe- You didn't know that B-Y-U quarterback was probably the worst starting quarterback- Jaren Hall? Yeah. I had too much- Oh, my God.

He was awful. -too much support. Well, the other thing I did is, and this has got to be a resolution for us, I can't read into stupid shit. When Jahir Alexander is suspended for coming out for the coin.

Toss- I thought the same thing. They're already- They're already like the Packers. They're falling apart.

Exactly. They're already light in the secondary. What message is the floor given here?

The floor has lost control of the team.

They're up by 30. Exactly. That game was over almost immediately. I don't know. We saw them beat up on Detroit on Thanksgiving. That might not be a bad team. And it's also a fun team to root for if you aren't in love with Aaron Rogers.

Well, the Packers, if they beat the bears-.

They're in.

They're in. I think you could make the case that should have been the Sunday Night game with the way the bears are playing and Fields is playing for his job. I think that's probably the second best game of the entire weekend. Maybe even that could have been a Saturday Night game. They killed the Vikings yesterday in Collinsworth. I don't know whether Collinsworth feels an obligation to push these crappy games that embassy has been having or what he's doing, but he was going nuts about Jordan Love and the Packers. He was like, Jordan Love? The way he's playing right now, Mike, I'm not so... He was doing all that stuff. And you got to watch out for this Packers team. It's like this Packers team is... First of all, they barely beat the Panthers, like barely, probably should have lost. And then the two games before that, they lost both of those. And now they're beat in this Minnesota team that basically lost because they started the worst starting quarterback we've seen all year and then just went in a tail spin. And he's telling us how dangerous the Packers are. And I'm like, This is absurd.

The Packers are definitely not dangerous. I watched Carolina almost beat them last week. I'm fine with Packers dangerous stuff.

I do wonder about Collins Worth because he has to. And I get it. It's a long game, but these guys have to praise at least one of the quarterbacks, right? Yeah. Whether it's Romo or Collinsworth or-.

He was two of the teams. And he's like, Oh.

And what does he have listed on the Jaren halls? Like, Okay, I could say this. All right, well, he did donate to the Salvation Army. I'm not going to get to any of this because this guy can't complete a pass. So what's on the other side? Oh, my God. Wow. All right. So it's- Joy or Love. I have to go nuts.

He is so different than he was in that first Minnesota game, Mike.

The top button on this tuxedo might be a little too. I'm not sure, Mike.

Well, the guy who really deserves the praise, our guy, Justin Fields, who was awesome. Kevin O'Connor, when the Sun started making a run a few years ago, he started calling them the Bright Future Suns. We are officially in Bright Future Bear's mode because they have the number one pick next year. They're probably going to trade down and keep Fields. And I would actually recommend that if I was their conciliary, because there's no way you can tell me that... I know people like those two quarterbacks and maybe even jade and Dan is if you throw him in. There's just no way you can tell me that they're definitively better than Fields. And if you're just trying to build the best team possible, the best bet is to trade down three, four spots, pick up more stuff, take the best left tackle or Marvin Harrison Jr. And then you have even more stuff to whatever. And then just say, You know what? We watch football every week. Fields is at least in the top half of QBs now. I don't know if he's 12th or 15th or 10th or whatever, but he was awesome in the game yesterday.

I would keep him.

I'm with you. I think we're probably contradicting whatever we said a month ago, but he is really-.

It's fine. He got better.

He got better. And it's all that stuff. Who's going to get the fans excited? You're guaranteed to get the fans excited with Justin Fields. Maybe not with Daniels or May or any of these other guys. You got to keep him as a starting goal. The only thing I'll say is what took so long? Where was this? In weeks three to nine or something? You know what I mean? This could have been a playoff team. And we're talking about them playing spoiler against the Packers this week.

Yeah. There's seven and nine. They lost to the chargers on 10, 29. Well, they had that... Fields got hurt for what? Four weeks? That was the Tyson badgent.

Yeah. Was it that long?

Yeah, three or four weeks, something like that. But you look at it really started the turnaround starts with that Lions game on November 19th, which they should have won and they lost. They beat the Vikings. They beat the lions. Almost beat the Browns. Should have beat the Cardinals and killed the Falcons. There's no terrible wins in those because even the Cardinals are at least frisky. Right. And then you go back, they lost to the Saints by seven. Really, their last bad loss was the Chargers game. They lost to Chargers 30 and 13, but- And.

I'm looking at his games. They weren't too bad. So this will be his 13th game he's playing, you're right. So against the Bucks, he wasn't great against the Chiefs. That's when the Chiefs were playing good defense. He wasn't that good. But other than that, it's been a steady incline.

I mean, the only problem for them is they played so well that they had this scenario where they were looking at- Two picks. -two of the top seven first in the draft. So now they would be five. Now they have the 11th picks, so the first and 11th... If they trade down, let's say they trade down to, I don't know, let's say they trade down to Washington, and Washington gives them another first and a second and 26, whatever, and they're just picking fourth. Right. And you just give them Harrison, who's probably the guy that... I mean, what they can't do is stay at one and not take one of the two Qobuz because they're the most valuable. Exactly.

They got to get rid of that pick. But I don't know if we'll see anything like this. That was a spectacular trade, which allowed them to just go out and win and compete and still get the one pick.

I had this written in my notes. I think it's now one of the five best trades of the last 35 years to dump a number one pick in a draft where nobody even knew who the number one pick was. And as it turned out, Carolina got it wrong and they should take it straight. But then to get the number one pick in the next year's draft plus DJ Moore plus they have another second plus they got a starting left tackle out of it. Everyone in the Dallas fans, they talk about the Hershaw Walker trade constantly. That trade is way up there, especially if they're able to trade back from one and get more shit for.

It, amazing. I agree. I mean, the Hershaw Walker allowed us to win a Super Bowl, so let's pump the brakes a little bit.

Your team was ridiculous. You were spending more money than you and the Niners were spending the most money in the League by far.

It opened.

Up a lot of- We'll grab Deion Sanders. We need this guy. All right.

Chicago Poor? Let's see. Win the Super Bowl with all this trade progress.

I'm happy for the Chicago people in my life, including Jason Goff, who has been hosting the Chicago podcast for us, the full go. And the moment we launched it, the entire sports team went in the tank. And now, Kobe White, Justin Fields, and now he's got stuff to talk about. Two more quick things. We got the NFC South, Kwagmyor, we deserved. We hated this division all year. I hedged... I didn't tell you this. What? I hedged against our Saint's Bet yesterday. What a jerk. And now I'm going to probably double lose the Saint's Bet.

You hedged in the game or you're going to bet the Bucks to win the division?

No, I bet against the Saints yesterday in the.

Tampa game. Oh, you're going to get double.

Screwed here. Yeah, I'm going to get double screwed. There is no question it was going to happen. And the only thing I could think is if there's ever a scenario where there's going to be a tie to make it even more confusing, this could be the week because that's how annoying this division is. Last but not least, we got to talk about Belichick, but we'll take a break. All right, coming back, Bill Belchick. I want him to come back, Sal. And I know I've been flopping around on this a little bit, not wanting him to come back part as much as I wanted the Pat to be as bad as possible and tank to pick, and maybe it's time, blah, blah, blah. I found myself rooting for them in the Bills game yesterday. Because I thought Belichick was really locked in, really wanted it, and the players are playing hard for them. They have the worst skill position QB situation in either conference. Even the Chargers with East and Stick, at least they have Austin Ecler. And at least Quentin Johnston was a number one pick. You go through all the teams, it is the worst.

And they're hanging with Buffalo and they're trying to steal the game. And they've played really hard for him, really since the Saint's game was probably the low point of the season, the Germany game. They have the worst kicker of all time, the worst kicker that the Pats have had in 30 years since Scott, who he drafted in the fourth round pick. I wanted to come back and they just need to have somebody else pick the players and do the signings and just say, Hey, Belichick, nobody else is going to give you car blanch to just do everything anymore. You're hitting your mid-70s. You've just proven for the last six, seven years, free agency, draft picks. Maybe you're getting a little long in the tooth on that stuff. But what you can do is be an awesome fucking football coach because we've just watched it the last six weeks with this garbage offense we had. And you stayed in all these games. If he goes to Dallas, let's say, McCarthy Flames out.

If.

You goes to Dallas, which Norpremseadi floated out on this pod a few weeks ago, and it's been stuck in my head ever since, they're not going to let him pick the players. The Jones family is picking everything. So if he goes there, it's just a straight head coaching thing. Stay in New England. You're going to have a statue. We're going to have a top five pick. We're going to have a ton of cat money. Let us help you pick some of the players. And let's fucking do this. Break the record here. That's what I want the Pats to do, and that's where I've landed.

I am with you. I don't know why I have to congratulate you on rooting for your own team, but congratulations. You're doing it. This is a guy who took you to six Super Bowels, whether it was him or braided, whatever. You won six Super Bowels with him. He deserves to break the record in New England. And he's done well with this rtag tag, garbage squad. You played close against how many playoff teams? Six. Oh, my God. You played close against the Eagles. You played close against the Dolphins. You beat Stealers who might make it. You played close against the Bulls while you beat the Bulls, lost a game you could have won. The Chief game was closer than 10 points. How many do we have to look at here?

The last game that they got smoked in was on October eighth. The Saint's beat them 34-nothing. Right. But if you go through Raiders by four, they lose, beat the Bulls, lost to Dolphins by 14, but we're hanging around in that game for at least a little while. Lost to Commanders by three, lost to the Colts by four, lost to the giants by three, chargers six-nothing, beat the stealers, lost to the Sheeps by 10, but we're in that game and actually had a chance to steal it, beat the Broncos, almost beat the Bulls with four turnovers and two missed kicks. They've been playing hard for this guy for two plus months.

That's it. I really think if the players are still playing hard for you and he's not calling to Vanilla an offense, has the game passed him by? I would say no. Not with this roster. I wouldn't mark him down for a loser.

I don't think anyone could win with the quarterbacks and running backs and receivers and tight ends that this team had. Literally, there's no coach alive who could have been like, Here are my ideas. So the problem is he picked all these players and he executed the blueprint for this team. And the blueprint didn't work. And offensively, they're a disaster. So get some help. Bring somebody in and let's run it back. I don't want to see him. He goes to the chargers. You think, if you're the would you let him do total control of the football franchise? Just go look on pro football reference at our drafts. We spent the 112th pick on the worst kicker in the league. We spent two third round picks on two tight ends who caught a total of one ball. We took Nikhil Harry. We took Sony, Michelle over nick Chubb. I could keep going for it. We took Cole Strange in the first round. I keep going and going and going. He's just not good at that part anymore. That's fine. He's still an awesome football coach.

Yeah, I'm with you. Again, I'm not going to congratulate you for coming around on this. But the big question is, is there a better situation out there if the idea is that he's not going to be able-.

The Cowboys is a better situation. So if the Patriots are not going to let him.

Work the player-personnel angle, then he could do that anywhere, right?

Is that what you're saying? Yeah. He could say, I'll stay if you continue to let me pick the players. Otherwise, I'm going to go to Dallas. And then Kraft will say, Well, I'm going to have to get something for that then. Right.

I can't decide- He's at least...

The best thing that's happened for the Pats with this, other than the fact that they somehow still have a top three pick, is that Belichick has, I think, increased his trade value if he does, if they do decide this is a break. Definitely. They're not firing him. If they fired him, that would be the stupidest fucking thing Kraft has done in 30 years.

He's at a Justin Fields' desk last month here, right?

In terms of that- Last seven weeks. This team stinks.

All right.

Calm down.

All.

Right. Well, we trade your first round PIC for him?

What? The Cowboy's.

The first round PIC? If McCarthy flames out again, we traded your first round PIC for a PIT for a.

Bill bill check. No, we'll trade you right straight up from McCarthy, and we'll pay his lunch tab the rest of the year if you want.

I don't think the chargers will trade her first. And the other thing is I think the Bear's Coach saved his job, Heberfluus.

Yeah. Well, they said they're extending.

Him- But it's legitimate. They're playing hard for that dude. That stuff matters. You can see this stuff, especially.

When- The problem is you have to replace these guys. It's fun to fire anybody, but if there's not a better candidate out there, you might as well stick with the guys. And like I said, if the team is not quit on them.

All right, quickie questions for the Guest of the Lans. 2023 is the most devastating injury, Borough, Rogers, or Cousins? Give me the gold, silver, and bronze for those three.

This is for the franchise.

Or- Just for somebody's season? For sports- The most devastating, what changed the landscape of who could win the Super Bowl this year? Most devastating.

For sports media, I think it's the Rogers injury. But I think in terms of... I'm just going to go by personally how much money I had on the Daniels when they started to come back with Borough to make the playoffs, to win the division, to win the Super Bowl. I would take them, I would say, Borough.

Yeah, Borough gets hurt in August and screws up their first month. And then he gets hurt for good four weeks later. And Browning was solid for them, but he's not Joe Borough. I would rank at Borough, Cousins, Rogers.

Because- Oh, Cousins. Second.

Yeah, because I think Minnesota had a good team. And with the time of the year that he got hurt and the roulette that they had to play at QB. But they had weapons and they were in a crappier conference. From what we saw from the jets and especially from their coaching and just attention to detail, I don't think Rogers makes a difference. I know. That would be so much fun. Maybe they're like 8, 9, 9, and 8, but they are not a Super Bowl contender. No way. Is Russell Wilson's career over? You think he starts next year for somebody? Because he's definitely getting waved.

I think he does. I don't know what the ideal spot is for him. I think they said these places that have fake odds, like the Vikings were up there. It's funny you mentioned cousins, but his cousins contract up? That must be what's going on here. Yeah. I feel like he signs a contract every 18 months. But yeah, I think Vikings, Atlanta, team like that, he'll end up...

No?

He feels New Orleans-ish to me. Right. Something south-ish. Like stop cap, Washington starter because they don't want to start their rookie QB that they draft right away. I could see that. I don't think he's a starting QB anymore. Really? I don't know if you'd want him as a backup. But he did some good capping yesterday. Yeah.

It's weird because you want to get on Sean Payton in the Denver, the organization and everything. You don't... You don't want to tanking, God forbid. But the way they run their offense, and I know Russ' numbers were decent and compatible even at some point to Lamars, it's a lot of checkdown throws. It's not the difference with Stidham. It really isn't.

Well, Giovante Williams proving yet again that the ACL is a two-year injury. He just did not... He looked like a shell of himself this year. Their receivers, their skill position guys are probably better than the Path. But for the most part, they're in the bottom five, I think. So I'm not sure how much QB would have been able to do. I think it's amazing that they even got to 500. I'm just going to ask, are we sure two is good?

I'm sold down on two after yesterday. Killed me.

Killed my bank account. There's moments where he looks like Scott Mitchell, where I feel like I'm watching Scott Mitchell on The Dolphins again, and it's not a compliment. Where he just looks... His maneuverability just isn't there. But then if you catch him in a game from five weeks ago or the highlights, he looks like the best quarterback you've ever seen. I don't know what to make of him anymore.

I'd Phil Sims on, I think we discussed this, and I was like, I remember him being a little more elusive. And maybe that's part of the game plan because all the concussions and everything else. Did he put on weight?

Is he bigger? Yeah, I thought he put on weight. Yeah, he.

Seems- He doesn't even try to get out of the pocket. He doesn't do anything. And that's a bummer. I thought he could help himself out. Wasn't winning that game yesterday, but no, we're not sure. I'm not even sure on Herbert either. I know it was always between the two of them, but I'm backing off both at this point.

Did Matt Patricia murder the Eagles or were they already dead?

He helped it along. He might be getting some unfair blame for this, but my God, you shouldn't be able to run on that team like you did.

If you go back to the Super Bowl, when they, nick Foles beat the Pat's, Patricia said, I think one of the worst five-year runs of any coach/executiveof we've ever seen. He gave up what, 45 points to the Eagles in the Super Bowl to nick Follis, who never had another moment in the League. Right. And just from that point on, is Carolina's owner, this is my last one, is Carolina's owner David Tepper? Now that Snyder is out, the new worst owner in the League?

It's fun. I had this jotted down. I used to do the character of the Year awards where I rank all our friends and the they.

Did- The funniest email of the year, every day. Thank you.

I think he would win the character of the year. I mean, throwing drinks at fans. He threw drinks at fans yesterday. Really spectacular. And his team rewarded him by saying, no, make no doubt a question about it. We are the worst. Don't confuse matters.

So this guy is- They were one of my million dollar picks yesterday because Bryce sucked me in the second after that Packers game. I'm like, this dude is figuring out. He was so bad in the game yesterday. That was actually the worst game I've seen him play. There was a couple of plays where... There was one play where I think they were down 9-0. And it was a third and five, and he rolled out and he had time. And there was the backup running backs wide open 15 yards down the field. And he just sailed it over his head out of bounds. And it was one of those record-screech. Oh, my God, you're just not playful. I actually thought they should have benched him. That's how bad he was. It was like, Are they going to start the second half of the Indie Dolph? But they're like, Nope, I'm just going to grind it through. He goes in these functions when you can see it where he's just unplayable. It's weird.

I don't want to write him off just yet because I have been players have rebounded off of terrible first years and become competent, really good quarterbacks. And there's offensive line is lousy for the most part this year, but it is glaring when C. J. Bethard is out playing you, right? Yeah. Is that even his name?

Yeah. Poor Tepper, the new worst owner in the League. I think it's like even you can't say Jimmy Haselman and the Browns, they're 11 and 5.

What? And you wanted to say- And.

You wanted to say, it was a good hire.

You wanted to say Herce, too. In the beginning of the year, if you put odds on worst owner, now that Snyder.

Is out- We're going to say it was like minus 300.

Yeah, but the whole Jonathan Taylor nonsense and everything. Yeah.

It's crazy. All right. Guest Lines, week 18. We're changing the format around this time, different categories, and we'll try to give you all.

The possibilities. I didn't know about this.

Did you tell.

Baby Dolph? Did you alert my agents?

I think to throw you off. Okay. All right. First group of games, second seeds on the line. First one is, Bill's at Miami. The winner gets the two seed. If Miami loses, they're the sixth seed. And if Buffalo loses and Pittsburgh beats Baltimore, Buffalo is out. Just incredible scenario.

Wait, hold on. Did you say Jacksonville, too? Isn't Jacksonville part of that.

Or no? Yeah, but Jacksonville would have to be Tennessee. I'm assuming that's happening.

Well, everything's a few points.

Wait, so if Jacksonville... Now I'm confused. So if Jacksonville loses Buffalo could get in anyway?

I think so. Okay.

I'll tell you this, and I don't know whether it was New Year's Eve and New Year's Day or what was going on, but I did not read an awesome. And I looked. I looked on every website. I looked everywhere. Give me the definitive, every single thing that could happen for each team.

And.

As of nine o'clock this morning, I could not find it. So I had to patch it together. The internet really let us down today. Right. Bill's at Miami. I have bills minus two and a half.

You have bills minus two and a half?

Yeah.

I had bills minus one, which I think it opened that. It shot up to three. So you get this one.

I think that's the right line. That's so weird, though. I get it. From what we saw from Miami, I don't think they can stop the bills. The bills didn't even look that great. Right.

Yeah. And they beat them up the first time. They just out-physicaled them the first time these two played. And the bills needed more, and it makes sense. I should have gone higher than this. And the Dolphins, honestly, once they see they're not going to get it. They could start pulling players. They don't need another Bradley chubb in there. So if it looks bad or if it's 14-3, don't be surprised if they give up on this.

Well, if you're the Dolphins, so you get to succeed at that point. Kc is already locked in the third seed. So if you're the Dolphins are like, We lose this game.

We're.

Going to KC in round one. Kc sucks.

Yeah, score 24 points, you're.

In it. Yeah. Can we throw in that team? Yes. Next number two seed game. Well, there's two of them, Cowboys, Eagles. Cowboys against at Washington if Dallas wins their two seed. Eagles at the giants. If Philly wins in Dallas, loses, Philly gets the two seed. I think we know how this is going to play out because you're going against Row Boat Run. Cowboys at Washington, I have Cowboys minus 13.

We split it. I said 14, and it's 13 and a half.

Are.

You sure this is for the second pick? I would hate for this to be close. Are you sure they're not going to be competitive? If they lose there, they have the two-pick, Washington, or do we not know that?

If Washington loses there, the two-seed because their strength of schedule will be harder than the Wino-patriots. Even though Washington beat the Patriots, so somehow the tie-breaker for who has the number two pick in the draft isn't, Oh, this team beat the other team. They shouldn't get it. Their schedule was.

Really hard. This is why you shouldn't have been rooting for the Commanders against the Patriots.

Didn't matter. No, you know who I blame? I blame Russell Wilson. What are you? Because the Denver comes back, they tie the game. We go three and out. Oh, yeah. Denver has the ball. It's like just fucking go down and kick a field goal and let us have the season we're supposed to have. And then our kicker, who's been just an atrocity, ends up making a 54-yard or an high-ultative. Right. God damn it. That was a good one. Eagles at the giants. I like the giants' money line in this game, right? Because Dallas is going to be up 14-nothing. The stupid Eagles team, what do they care? And then the giants with Tyrod. Tyrod not playing behind Tommy DeVito for what? Two extra weeks? Was that a top three dumbest thing we've seen this year?

That's a Trubiski. That's similar to Trubiski.

No, it's worse than Trubiski because we at least think Tyrod Taylor was competent. Devito wasn't competent.

Right. I think they fell in love with the dumb storyline too much there in New Jersey.

Eagles at the giants. I have Eagles minus seven and a half.

That's exactly what I had. And I stand by it. I honestly do. But they only have it at five and a half.

They put it in the Vegas then.

So they're worried- Well, what were they? Yesterday, were they six and a half to the rams? The Eagles need this more theoretically.

Yeah, but they're worried that as soon as Dallas is running away with the game, everybody gets benched on the Eagles. Right.

Yeah. Exactly.

Well, yeah, God damn it. Pets are going to get the third. Well, the pets might beat the jets. We'll get that later. All right, next grouping, AFC playoff spots on the line. Jags, Titans. If the Jaguars win, they're the 4C. This is in Tennessee. I have Jacksonville minus six and a half. Wow.

I had two. It's three and a half. Oh, wow.

They don't like Jacksonville. They did. Fandle, Vegas, they don't like them.

Well, I watched a lot of that Carolina game yesterday because I stupidly bet on it, or at least I watched the first half until it was clear that Carolina had no chance whatsoever. Jacksonville's defense was really good in that game. Josh Allen was awesome and feels like he's peaking at the perfect time, the other Josh Allen. Right. From what I saw from their defense, it made me rethink because I thought like, Oh, Vrabel, spoiler. But I don't know, Jacksonville's D, that's a betting stay away from me. I'm not going near that game. So if they win, they're the four state. If they lose, they would have to have some help to even make the playoffs. Colts minus three against the Texans. This is our Saturday night game?

This is Saturday night. Can I just say I'm happy? And this is what I would love the NFL to look like every week with a couple Saturday, 6:1, 6:12, 6:12, 6:12, 6:12. 1:00 PM kickoffs, and then I think 6:04 PM kickoffs.

Yesterday it.

Was disgusting. They had 10 early games. I couldn't red zone something with the Ravens, Dolphins. Everybody's got fantasy finals that they couldn't even watch their players. It's ridiculous.

There should have been more later games tomorrow. Get it together and.

Play another Saturday game. The Cowboys Lines didn't have to be the only Saturday game, but just get it together, NFL. This is an easy one.

Should we volunteer our services?

Yes. I'll pay to do it as a consultant. It'd be ridiculous.

Your schedule, conciliaries, Bill and Sal. Yeah. It wasn't rocket science to have two or three Saturday games this weekend when everybody was off and there wasn't like a shitload to watch.

Especially now with bowl games that nobody's playing in. So all right, don't worry about competing with that.

Colt's home for the Texans. Indy wins, Jags lose, Indy gets the fourth seed. Houston wins, Jags lose, Houston gets the fourth seed. And then they're both out if Jacksonville wins. It's a wrap, unless a lot of shit would have to happen.

Well, they're both out for the division, you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But they could still nail it, the playoffs.

Yeah, but they could potentially sneak into the playoffs if a whole bunch of a whole-other stuff happens. I have Colts minus three over the Texans.

Yeah, you went a little high there. I got this exactly. I don't know how it could be anything other than one and a half.

Colts- Oh, you TikTok zoned it? Yeah.

I thought that was easy.

That's a lot to ask from the Texans to go in Indy.

Think about it.

What did you say? Indy Milton burled the Raiders game a little bit because I think- They.

Crushed everybody there.

Yeah.

That backdoor.

Was terrible. They did just enough to win. The Raiders killed me on the back door. But I think the Colts might actually just be better than the Texans.

They might. It's not by much. By the way, that Raiders... I don't know if pierce is going to get re-signed, but he pointed... These guys don't have to go every time on fourth and fourth from midfield, but could you do it once? The Raiders weren't looking to score at all that game, but the Colts might be just a smidge better.

Stealers at the Ravens. Pittsburgh wins, Buffalo loses. I guess, Jacksonville also wins, Pitt makes the playoffs. If Pitt wins in Tennessee, beats Jacksonville, Pittsburgh makes the playoffs.

Baltimore.

Is nothing to play for. They've everything locked up. I'm going to say, Stealers minus three at Baltimore.

We split this? I said four. I thought whenever anybody sitting everybody, it should be at least four. It's three and a half, so we split it.

Okay, next category.

Can I just say something? Another thing with Pittsburgh? How many times have they played Lamar Jackson the last four or five years? One out of eight. They get so lucky with this matchup. Almost always going.

Against- That's why it feels like they're going to make the playoff somehow. Maybe that it'll be just Tennessee beating Jacksonville, and all of a sudden, Pittsburgh's in. Right. And we get Indianapolis as the fourth seed and Pittsburgh is the seventh seed. And we're just like, What just happened? Cleveland going to Indianapolis, Pittsburgh going to, I don't know, Miami. Nfc playoff spots in the line. A lot of home dogs this week. Tampa at Carolina. Tampa gets a four-seed with a win. Little Baker Mayfield revenge game in Carolina. He had a shitty month last month, then they ended up releasing him. I will say I'm a little scared of the Panthers at home. I think they've been a little frisky. I'm not going to bet on it. I'm just pointing it out.

Well, Tepher throws drinks on all those fans to get to them.

Right. Tepher could be hurling drinks at everybody.

Also.

Very scared. Whatever this line ends up being, it will be a teaser for a lot of people. There's red flags galore on this. Your trust in Baker Mayfield who looked like shit yesterday, bucks minus six and a half I have at Carolina.

I got this exactly. I'm not lying. Six is the line.

And.

I am not in a teaser. We got to do it.

We got to do it. Sal, do not let me tease that. No, I got to do it. I'm not tease.

In that case. We're doing it. We're doing it. Well, that's got to be my edge anyway.

Speaking of bets, we hit our big boost before the season. We had Kansas City, Philadelphia. And who is the third team?

Kansas City, Philadelphia, and- San Francisco. San Francisco. Yeah, four and a half. To make the playoffs. To make the playoffs.

A little plus there. We've been boosted to plus 1:30. So this is the second year in a row we fit that for football. I hit my one for basketball last year. I'm going for the basketball one. I have a little momentum on these future boosts. I like it. We don't have to name it.

The moral is just listen to us with these big fan of all boosts and then not ever again for the next 22 weeks.

I don't think we had a good overrun. I haven't been afraid to look, but we're probably around 500 for the overrunners. This is the worst year we've had in a while.

There's this guy, Chris H, who sends us out. I forgot to tab this. We'll go over.

It next week. Yeah, we'll go over next week. I feel like we're around 500, but we won the big boost, which is what we care about. For the NBA, I did Celtics over 50 wins. That's going to hit. Parlayed with OKC over 40 wins.

I.

Think that's going to hit. I wish I had gone 45 on that. And then the last piece of it is the Lakers, 45 plus wins. The Lakers might fuck me and end my streak. Good. I don't know if you saw them yesterday, but if you don't think we're getting LeBron is unhappy story from somebody over the next 48 hours, LeBron isn't sure he's going to stay. It's the LeBron is unhappy stories coming.

I think you just started it. Yeah.

Well, he's going to pressure them to do a big deal, whether it's Zach LaVine or whoever. St.'s-falcons winner gets a four seed with a Tampa Bay loss, and both teams are out if Tampa Bay wins and it is played in New Orleans. I have the Saints minus three and a half.

All right. Yeah, you got it exactly. I said two and a half. That seems fair, but who the hell knows? This is in a bizarre division.

Those are the two zig-ag teams this year, right? I don't know what to make either of those teams. Falcons can't play two bad games or good games in a row. And the Saints, you catch them one day, they look like they all hate each other. Catch them next day, they're just lights out. They've blown out. They blew out the paths. They blew out Carolina yesterday. They have blowout, decisive wins, and then they look like shit.

And then you get excited about, Oh, Heineke is better than Ridder. It's like, Oh, well, it's still Heineke.

Definitely not. Packers, bears, and Green Bay. Green Bay gets a wild card with a win, though.

And.

As you said, this is quite the story. This is the best game of the week. I think the bears are going to be going all out trying to win this. I think they want Fields to... The other players seem like they love Fields and they want him to be the QB next year. I think Fields wants to stay. And this is a very dangerous spot for the Packers. I have Packers. Inc. So even though it's in Green Bay, I'm going to say Packers minus two and a half.

That's.

Exactly what I had.

They bumped it up to three.

I like the bears.

I might go the other way with this. I think Fields is such a lock to be quarterback. I almost said I'm this game.

Oh, try to get the draft pick?

Yeah, or if you're thinking of trading them, what is this game going to do for Justin Fields right now? He's maxed out in terms of-.

Like value? Yeah. I want to win it. 2023. I want to win it. I want to go eight and nine.

Oh, that's true, though. They have that thing where they haven't beaten, right?

Oh, yeah. You're shedding the Packers thing. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Last one with the playoff spot, Seahawks. I can't believe this team is still alive. They're at Arizona. Another dangerous game. Seattle wins and Green Bay loses and Seattle has a chance to get the seventh seed. Some other stuff has to happen. I have Seahawks minus three against Arizona. Yeah.

Seahawks minus three is exactly right. I went higher. I said four and a half, but I guess Arizona is considered on par with everybody now.

It's funny. Gannon turned into a pretty good rookie head coach. Yeah. All the Eagles fans were laughing their asses off when somebody hired them. Meanwhile, their defense went to shit and Arizona is trending up.

They have seven-win team with Kyla Murray, Arizona?

Oh, they might have been an eight-win team.

So weird.

So here's my question for you. In. One of my big real-life future bets before the season was Arizona- Four and a half. -under four and a half wins.

Oh, yeah.

Seahawks minus three. What do I do? I don't trust the Seahawks at all. I don't believe that they're something you can wait. Do I just bet the cards?

Yeah. I just.

Bet the cards, right?

Well, this is we know this is just a fictitious conversation because you're not going to do anything, right?

You're not going to actually- No, I think I am because I think they can beat the Seahawks. One of the things I was thinking was I could tease them above the touchdown and try to get them over eight, because I think this line is going to end up at Seahawks minus two and a half would be my guess. Maybe even Seahawks minus two. So I could tease them, or I could just bet the money line and either way, I win.

Let me tell you what I would do in this situation. I probably wouldn't do anything, but I think I would tease them with the bucks. So don't do that.

So hedging two bets at once?

What could go wrong? I could only tell you what not to do.

Yeah, thanks. I don't know what to do. Next category, top two draft pick on the line, jets at Pat's.

Pat's locked down a top three pick if they lose. Will be at least three. And then if Washington miraculously beats Dallas, the Pat's will climb to two. If the Pat's just lose and Washington loses, the Pat's will have the third pick in a two-quarterback draft unless you can really get excited about Daniel's, which don't think I won't. I guarantee he's better than Billy Zppy. Then from a jet standpoint, the jets right now don't sleep on this piece. The jets are our eighth right now. They're six and 10, and they'd be pretty much locked into that. But right behind them are the giants at five and 11 and Tennessee at five and 11 and the Chargers at five and 11. So they're guaranteed a top eight pick at least, and maybe even a whiff higher. And I'm sitting here thinking, well, the Pats, they should throw this game away. It could be Belichick's last Patriots game. They're not going to throw it away. The jets have already doubled down on Robert, Seven Kids, Zawa for reasons that remain unclear. And Joe Douglas, who is an absolute disaster and could have signed Joe Flacko for three months and didn't.

Do the jets have more tanking incentive for this game than the Pats do?

Oh, yeah. Listen, this is fun for you to talk about because all the NBA teams are tanking in the first week in December. But these teams want to win this game. The Patricks have won 13 in a row against the jets. If this is his swan song, Belichick, he doesn't want to lose this game to the New York jets, and the jets have to break this ridiculous, get the monkey off their back. But I will say-.

Can I give you what I want to happen? Wednesday announcement, Bill Belichick will be returning as the 2024 Patriots Coach. Okay. Thenin that sense, then we're starting like Pop Douglas a quarterback for week 18. Let's run the fucking wishbone and just try to tank it.

You don't think he hates these jets? I think there's a little animosity between these two teams, honestly.

So he's just in any scenario wants to stick it to the jets. Yeah, of course. Well, if we win this game, we drop into the 5, 6, 7 range.

Not awesome. I will say, as you were talking about it, do they give Aaron Rogers a gift and trade up to get like Marvin Harrison? Guys never even had a first round wide receiver.

Isn't the receivers are absolutely loaded this year, right? It's not just Harrison. There's like a couple more top 10 studs. Yeah, very good. It would be funny if the jets took one of them instead of the offensive line men they desperately need because they can't fucking block.

Exactly.

I have the jets. Did we do this? Jets minus three over the pets.

We're going to split it. I said two. It's two and a half.

I'm going to bet the pets. I'm just going to buy the win. Bet in the pets money line. I'm just telling you now.

Another interesting thing about this other than the huge 13 game winning, whatever they have against them, the over and under is 31 and a half. You've never played a game like that.

I actually made a decision guys. Go ahead. I'm done betting over unders. Really? Like one of my million dollar picks, I had two different bets tied to Dallas-Detrait, adjusted over under 41 and a half. And C. D. Lambs straining for the touchdown to put the Cowboys up 14 to three early in the second quarter and fumbles it out of bounds. And I'm like, There's no way this game gets over 40. Then we get to two point conversion gets backed up to the seven.

And.

All Detroit has to do is just kick the PAT. Let's go into overtime 2020. Now we're getting over. Now, Dan Campbell is like, Hold my beer. I'm going to go for it on fourth and seventh. This is the dumbest thing you're going to see at least in 15 minutes because McCarthy just trumped it. I hate over on this. I'll say that this is.

A- I hate over-unders. It's an honorable resolution to have. But if you're in the same game, part of my business, you can't exclude over on this. You're just.

Going to spend- Well, maybe did you see about the lines that were that bumped over 50? And if you bet the under, it's like 37 and 23. It was something like 14 games over 500 if you just- Say now you're back. There you go. Yeah, you're back. Don't do this to me. Two categories left, probably irrelevant. 49ers home for the RAMs. Rams basically have locked down to succeed unless some crazy shit happens. We need a different word for the Niners, the situation there is. It's not a tank game. It's like a whatever game. Because they could be like, You know what? Fuck it. We're not going to play in round one. We're treating this like a real game. Let's beat the RAMs. We hate the rams.

Or they.

Could be like, What are we doing? Let's rest everybody. Because Debo, Samuel, they have a pretty brittle team. There's three guys that you just want to get to round two.

I think they're part-time lovers. These guys played a half a game. Would you think? That's the solution.

It would make sense. 49ers minus three over the rams is what I have.

Yeah, you're going to get this. And I think we probably have five left. You're probably going to win all these because I couldn't get a handle on this. I had two. It's four and a half right now.

Man, that's going to drop. Next one is Vikings at Detroit. So Lions Win and Dallas and Philly both lose, not probable. Detroit gets the two-seed, otherwise, they are the three-seed. Minnesota is somehow alive, but all the pieces today were so flimsy that I couldn't figure out the 90 things that have to happen, but somehow they are alive. Right. So I'm guessing the Seahawks would have to lose the Packers would have to lose, maybe the Bucks have to lose.

I think they have a time break over Atlanta, and that's it at this point.

In some of the Falcons, I can't believe they're still alive. They're alive, too. Anyway, Vikings at Detroit. I have Vikings minus three and a half at Detroit.

You had Vikings minus three and a half?

Yeah.

Oh, all right. I get this. Wait, I got to check this. Detroit's minus four and a half, and I had to pick them.

All right. I screwed that up.

Well, only because they're going to try to win because those other games are later, the Dallas and Philly game. So Detroit has every incentive to win.

No, they really don't, though. Dallas isn't losing to Washington. You could say, Oh, we got to go. But come on. It doesn't matter if you're the two-seat or the three-seater, who cares?

Yeah, all right. But if Jaren Hall beat you, Dan Campbell, when you're trying, I want to hear a word out of you.

I'm mailing that one in the rest of my guys.

Yeah.

It's like, Oh, Jameer Gibbs got hurt because we thought we had a 1 % chance of the two-seat if Washington beats Dallas. Washington hasn't played well in six weeks. Washington is going to beat Dallas. You guys actually need the game. Right.

But so you think- That's not happening. -if you're Dan Campbell, do you start number 68 or number 70 at quarterback? And do.

You report- If I'm Dan Campbell, I'm going to be like, Wait, why did we go for two from the seven-yard line? Did I blackout?

We reported this in the Friday pre-production meeting. I don't get it.

Bingles. Our last category is absolutely irrelevant. These three games are irrelevant. I would ban them from the Red Zone. I would not put them on the YouTube multiview. I would not have options for them. These games can all go to hell.

Relevant for us because it's 9/9. Okay.

Oh, maybe relevant for NFL Futures. Yeah, right. Bingles, Home, for the Browns. Browns have quinched the five seed. Since he is out, if since he and Denver win week 18, we'd have 11 winning AFC teams- Wow. -out of 16. That's just stupid. I have a bag of bagels minus two and a half over the Browns.

All right. Edge out here. I said three. It's four and a half.

Oh, my God.

I'm a weed.

Chiefs home for the chargers. Chiefs are locked in to the three seed. I have the Chiefs five and a half Vegas over the chargers.

I had three chargers minus one and a half.

Come on. So you beat me. I think I won. That's it. God damn it.

Yeah, that was easy.

The charger? Why are the chargers favorite? What are they playing for?

Two words, East and Stick.

It's the dumbest thing. That Coach isn't coming back. Wait a second. This doesn't make sense.

Well, they're just starters against backups. That's all. It's not.

The homes. The Chargers, they would have the fifth pick right now. And if the stupid Pats win or Arizona wins, they could get up to the third pick.

But what would it be with the homes if this was like everybody's playing?

Nobody's going to play for the Chiefs.

I know. So he probably worked like six points, seven points.

But the chargers don't care either. That's stupid. Last one, Raiders, Broncos. It's in Vegas. This is an Antonio pierce. Save your job game. Newsflast, Antonio. You're not getting that job. I have Raiders, minus two and a half.

You get that exactly. Congratulations. You ended on an exact pick there. What did you lose? I'm up 10, nine. I'm up 7, 6, 5 through 18 weeks.

Congratulations.

You don't think he gets that job, huh? Well, I.

Just- I don't. I do not.

He's paying a lot of X-coaches, though. So if he's not signing Harball, it's just going to be another Antonio.

Pierce- I don't think he cares. Really? All right. I think he's making a lot of money having a team in Vegas. Yeah. And I think, where does Jim Harbaugh go? Because Jim Harbaugh is clearly coming back to the NFL. Wouldn't you bet on that?

Yeah, I think so. I just don't know which owners are going to open the perp. Like who's on the- Charges are cheap.

Right. Your team won't. The Bears are out. It's got to be Vegas.

Tapper would be fun. Go to Tepher.

Carolina. Oh, that's good. Tepher and the villain? Start wearing black hats.

I love it.

Dress like Yellowstone villain.

Attacking the fans, stealing signs, great.

Let's take a break with the Parent Corner. All right, Parent Corner, New Year's edition. What do you got?

All right. I don't get to make a lot of calls with this family Christmas, New Year's week. But I did. A lot of people were seeing Iron Claw, and I was getting reviews on it. I'm like, I want to take the family to see this. Let's do this.

We had family movie there.

We had time to kill. There was a 4:30 showing of Iron Claw the other day. We take my in-laws and.

They have- It's a movie about brotherhood.

They have two daughters. I was like, All right, 17-year-old that they'll like to see Zach Cawthron with a shirt off. I got my boys. Three brothers seeing it. We have my wife's stepmother and father who's battling dementia. I was like, This is perfect. Perfect movie. Really great. And we're watching, it's like 11 of us. And I have to say, it's rated R, probably not supposed to have a nine-year-old in the theater just turned 10 two days after.

Yeah, there's like a car sex scene.

Yeah, there's a lot. And the older brother, Archie did a good job covering Harrison's eyes when David Van Eric is jerking off in the shower and when Kevin is having sex in the car with his wife. The wife is delighted, by the way, looking at me. They're giving me the stink eye through those scenes. But Archie did a good job keeping them occupied. I don't even know what he was talking about. Good job by Archie. Good job, Archie. Meanwhile, it's an hour and a half in and the movie is very dark. I'm like, Only I know this. I'm like, Holy shit. They still have to kill off three brothers. This is going to be bad. They did, and my middle son is really starting to get upset by it. I don't even think he sits through a lot of movies. This was one. We get out of that theater and everyone's like, Why the hell did you do that to us? They were all like, to a person. Everybody's like, I brought them to a clan rally or something. What's the matter with you? I'm like, Oh, it was good, though, wasn't it? I don't even know.

Nobody could even tell me if they thought it was good or the acting was good. Right. That was so horrible. And you knew the storyline. Now I'm like, Oh, maybe I should lie and say I only knew that one brother killed himself.

Yeah, they know you're a big.

Wrestling fan. I knew it. And as a matter of fact, there was another brother, and they didn't even portray him in there. They're like, Yeah, you're a dirtbag. They're basically looking at me. So that's it. I won Father of the Year for 2023. I got it.

In just on the right. You left out the part that the big theme was these brothers that it goes sideways. Meanwhile, you have a family of three brothers.

Yes, I took a picture of them in front of the movie, the Marquee there.

Yeah, the next Van Ericks. No, wait, I don't mean that.

They were bummed out. And I told them, I said, One of you three is going to bring me the title, and we're going to flip a coin right now to see who it is.

You should rank your sons each week like Ficks did. Right. Carrie is my favorite three this week. That's not.

Going to change. That would have been different. I know you saw that movie. And the one thing that surprised me is Carrie Van Erick was like a champion discus thrower, right?

And was headed to the Olympics. I think a lot of that. No, of it. Oh, really? Some liberties were taken. There was a lot of based on a true story, and that was one of them.

I see. Okay. Because I was going to make the assumption that Jimmy Carter is responsible for the Van Eric deaths, boycotting the Olympics, but not the game.

My think is she would-Yeah, I liked it. I took Ben. He didn't know any of the story. I was just mostly confused by how tragic it was. Meanwhile, they cut out the sixth brother. I told you this, the more I think about it, I just can't believe they had the little dude from The Bear as Kerry von Eric. I thought that was one of the weirdest casting decisions I've ever seen in my life. Kerry Van Eric was huge. He was at least the size of The Rock. It was like if you had the Rob Grunkowski story and it was played by the guy from The Bear. People were like, This is ridiculous. This guy's 5'7. It's interesting. And you could say, Well, they wanted an awesome actor for that role. I don't think they were asking a lot from Kerry in the movie. He was the strong silent tape. I just thought that was super weird. I didn't get it.

They were small. Even Efron is not tall. David Van Erick was what? Like 6'8 in real life?

Yeah, he was 6'7 in real life. Part of them were these strapping huge dudes.

Yeah, I'm with you.

Every time they showed him with the brothers, I got taken out of it because the carry was this larger-than-life dude. I watched the Van Ericks. Right.

Yeah, basketball movies do a better job of matching that up. Look, he had long hair, the actor is hot. I mean, career-wise, he's hot. And he could build up this- I get it. -upper body to look like carry. But I mean, yeah, he wasn't even as tall as Kerry when he had the foot. If he didn't have the foot, I don't.

Know, whatever. I mean, our guy, Stephen Amel is right there. Oh, right. Put a wig on him and he's ready to go. He's ready for the resting training.

Maybe he could do the sequel.

All right, for my parent corner. So my daughter's boyfriend came to visit us. You may remember she's the high school boyfriend. Now she's at college. I'm just going to play. He ends up with a boyfriend like six weeks. Really nice kid. Good kid. You met him last night. He's from Miami. And a couple of things happened yesterday that I really enjoyed. One was I got to watch the Ravens-Dolfins game with him, which he thought it was like we're going to hang out, watch the whole game within an hour plus, you knew it was over. And he's a big Dolphins fan, got to the point where they're going to the farmers market. And Zoe comes down. She's mad. He's watching football with me. I'm like, Welcome to the rest of your life. She's just like, Really? You're going to watch football? I was like, It's my favorite team, so we got to do that old thing. And then he makes a really smart decision. It's pretty clear they're not going to win the game at half time. Leaves the game and goes to the farmers market with my wife and my daughter. So I was like, All right, this kid's savvy, but a good kid.

But he is from Miami. So he got me a Christmas gift. And again, really nice gift. He was all excited about it and gets me a Christmas gift. And this is the Christmas gift.

Oh, no.

I'm holding up a heat hat. He gives me a heat hat. He's a big heat fan. Gave me a heat hat. Funny gift. But at the same time, now I'm like, What if this gets super serious? Do I want my daughter to a heat fan? I hate the heat. Because I had always told her, You'll never root for the Lakers. You're never dating a real Laker fan. And I banged that. I even wrote a piece about when I back with my fingers were for ESP, and I wrote this piece called The Color of Purple about how I brainwashed her to hate the Lakers and hate the color of purple. And I used to make up things about the Lakers and Purple and Kobe Bryant just to get her. And it works. She hates the Lakers. But now she's dating a Heat fan.

Right.

I don't know. Do I root for this?

First of all, completely, he's in on the joke buying the hat, right? He doesn't.

Expect you to wear that. Yeah, it was funny. It was actually a very funny move.

I admire it. Good job. I like that. Funny. You're all right. Is that a top? I know you hate them, but that's a top three, Laker, Celtic rivalry?

It is now. I think it's our number one rival right now other than... I mean, it's the Lakers and the Heat, I would say, our top kids.

It's always Lakers. I guess, Heat second. Yeah. Yeah. Now he's a good dude. And I don't know, what about the rooting part of the rooting? When that game was a game? That could go way the way too. It's a risky thing sitting down with you watching a game, right?

Yeah, I liked how he handled himself. I'm going to give him a thumbs up. He wasn't trying too hard. He was just... And he clearly fall. So I was like, he checked a lot of boxes.

Wasn't throwing shit, but he was knowledgeable and then took off at half time. I don't love that he abandoned his team.

I know- Well, no, he watched it on his phone, which I think he was like, I can get away and I'm going to come back if they come back. But he came to visit for five days. Right. And my daughter, it was just funny. I thought I raised her better than to do the stink eyes during Sunday football, but I have to work on that over the next thing.

How many tickets do you have to have to Celtic Heat before he's invited?

That's the thing. She's definitely taking him to a Celtic game, but I didn't realize he was a Heat fan. So I think I'm going to ban him from the home Celtic Games. That's good. She's just going to have to go with other people. I think that's fair. They're going to Heat Clippers tonight. Okay. And that I fully condone because, as you know, the hard and clippers, it's really hard for me to root for them. So anyway. All right. Yeah. My daughter is. I like that. Hey, good kid. I like that. Welcome to 2024.

Good job by you, Zoe.

All right. Any plugs for the week?

That's it. Against the Lots a couple of times this week podcast. It's getting good with these playoff scenarios. And it's a cousin's house winning weekend, Friday morning, Fandle TV and The Ringer-Wise Guys. What a fun time we have on Sundays.

Right there on Sunday. That show is really, really good. And we're going to be doing it in person in two weekends. Right. Joe House will be here in LA. Rahim is coming. Jj is coming. If we can get them through customs. And even Jacko is going to come out just to hang for the weekend. Oh, that's good. That's fun.

They're already talking about golf. We got to get them off this golf thing. I'm like, You're not missing any games for this golf bullshit.

Yeah. How's told me JJ said, Are we bringing our sticks?

What do you.

Mean your sticks?

You better not. I'm going to hit you with them if you do. We got a lot of football to watch.

Bring your stomachs. That's right. All right, couses. Happy New Year. Good job by you.

Happy New Year by you.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle Craton and Steve Cerudy. Thanks to Cousin Sal. Don't forget, our next podcast will be Wednesday, probably Wednesday afternoon ET. It will be posted and then new Rewatchables going up later tonight. Happy New Year. Hope you had a great weekend and I will see you in Winsor. I'm going to see them on the way. So I've never gone to say I don't have.

Feeling.

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