Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - MNF Recap, Tomlin's Coach of the Year & Does Brady Have Weapons?

Episode Date: December 3, 2019

Subscribe to The Athletic now for 40% off: theathletic.com/smarterthanyou Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jeff Schwartz of Smarter Than You brought to you by GameTime, your new go-to app for the best deals on last-minute tickets. Did you know NFL ticket prices tend to drop right before the game starts? Go into the big game, New Orleans this weekend,

49ers, at Saints, home field advantage, and the NFC. Get your tickets on GameTime. GameTime tracks prices in real time from thousands of trusted sellers and shows you all the best last-minute deals with prices up to 60% off.

There's two taps to check out. More than 12 million fans have downloaded the GameTime app and discovered the fastest, easiest way to get into the game. So head to the App Store or Play Store now to download GameTime and score some awesome deals on last minute tickets. That was something we've been practicing, man. We love old school. We love just having fun. And New Edition was the plan

tonight, so that's why we had to do it. From The Athletic, I'm Jeff Schmortz. Seattle makes a new addition to its victory formation. New England's defense needs to bounce back against the Chiefs. And Mike Tomlin is probably your coach of the year. It's Tuesday, December 3rd, and this is Jeff Schwartz is Smarter Than You. Welcome back in after a wonderful weekend of football. We had NFL all weekend and college all weekend.

Hopefully you had a great Thanksgiving with your family, your friends, had some great food. But we are back. We're ready to go. The homestretch of the NFL season. Gabe Goodwin, how are you doing this morning, buddy? I'm doing great. I stayed up and watched a football game last night.

Super late here on the West Coast. I think it was about 9.30 when I switched the game on. Maybe it was 9. Screw you. Yeah. West Coast with the West Coast. By the way, for those who are listening all over the country, the West Coast is the best coast to watch sports.

There's no debating it. Football on the weekends. College football is on from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Because you have the Pac-12 game that's going to end. Or if you want to be bold and stay for the Hawaii game. NFL is from 10 on Sunday all the way until 8, 45, 9 at night. It's an amazing schedule. Yeah, it's perfect.

I was able to watch the first two segments of SportsCenter after Monday Night Football last night, which, by the way, I'll be getting to some of the takes that came out of that segment or two. It's lovely. Yeah, Corso's putting the headgear on by 8.59. It's a wonderful world we have out here. It's fantastic. I don't live there anymore, but every time I go back

home, I'm very jealous of the time. You know one thing where it really actually kind of hurts sometimes living on the East Coast, besides obviously having to stay up late, is your kids can't watch sports with you. Why is that? Because they go to sleep. So if I'm raising a kid on the West Coast, during dinner time, there is sports on because there's East Coast sports on during dinner time, right? Out on the East Coast, there's no sports until 7 o'clock at night. My kids go to bed at 7.30.

Yeah, that's a good point. And I'm not a Hornets fan. I'm not watching Hornets basketball with my son. That's just not happening. So it's hard to get them into sports when there's no live sports on at night before they go to sleep. The trials of living in Charlotte, North Carolina, in a beautiful home with all kinds of wonderful luxuries surrounding you. But I can't watch sports with my son before he goes to sleep during the weekdays. Give him a couple more years.

He'll let him stay up late. It's a tough go. You're probably doing him some good, actually, not subjecting him to some of the local sports down there, but that's another story. Probably that's the case. But speaking about being on the struggle bus, I know you want to lead us off with the topic that everyone's talking about. Oh, yeah, baby.

So the Pats could not stop deshaun on sunday uh all anyone wanted to talk about though is tom brady's supposed lack of weapons all right and he gave his teammates a sideline pep talk i'm putting that in air quotes because basically all that means is him cursing at a bunch of strangers oh he's mf and everybody no he did oh yeah he told him to play. Oh, he's MFing everybody. No, he did not. Oh, yes. He told them to play faster. Come on. He's telling football players to run their routes correctly? He's just screaming them out. Yes, they were there.

We'll get to this. He's an arrogant bully. I'm on Brady's side. Of course you are. Of course you are because you're in the football world. He's just too much, all right? And we don't need to call that leadership. It's not leadership.

It's just being a bully to a bunch of strangers who he's going to get cut in a few weeks. But that's another story. Rex Ryan, my old coach, had a delusional moment on ESPN where he said that this was, quote, unquote, the worst Patriots team I've ever seen. Check that take, Rex. I mean, you played a lot of Patriots teams. I'm not so sure about that one. Anyway, Patriots have Mahomes and the Chiefs this week.

Scary. After that, though, it's Ed Cincy and home versus the Bills. Let's be honest. The Bills are good, but that's a winnable game. And the Dolphins, right? So after this weekend, the last three games of the year should be about the defense learning how to stop Deshaun and Lamar Jackson specifically. That is all they should be doing. Nothing else. the defense learning how to stop Deshaun and Lamar Jackson specifically. That is all they should be doing.

Nothing else. Every practice, every film session, every player personnel move that they make should be about stopping both of those guys because they're going to run into at least one of them in the playoffs. That's the problem they have right now. Nothing else. Gabe, if you were to guess how many first downs the texans had in the football game on sunday night what would you guess uh you know more than average i don't know i don't know the answer um uh they had uh they had 16 okay it seems okay oh that's actually not very good oh okay there you

go when you have 11 drives and you've only 16 first downs that uh that's not good i'm gonna actually i need to pull this up just to make sure that i'm accurate so uh team first downs per game number one is baltimore this year obviously at 24 almost 25 yeah per game so uh 16 would put you at the at the near near the very bottom of a game they had only 276 yards on offense 5.3 a play they rushed for only two and a half yards a carry so you're telling me their offense didn't do anything great? Because it looked like they scored a lot of touchdowns. A couple things where their offense, I think, did a good job. In the low red zone, they actually ran some of the Ravens' pistol looks

that the Patriots had trouble with. I don't think the Patriots were ready for that. So they got a good touchdown on a play where they snuck the tight end kind of on this RPO, run- pass option type of deal out of the pistol. Patriots were unprepared. That turnover, that throw that Tom Brady intercepted led to a short field as well. I don't think it was as bad as people want to make it out to be. I definitely think they got beat by some good wide receivers as it's what's going to happen with the Texans.

Remember, too, if there was John Simon, if John Simon takes down Deshaun Watson, that was a heck of a play by Watson to kind of get out of that sack. You remember, it would have been like second and 25, and ended up scoring that drive as well. I think there's little keys like that in the game where the Patriots did not play as well, so it doesn't absolve the defense.

But Gabe, it was not as bad as we think it was. Okay, but I'm... That's somewhere where... And again, so it doesn't absolve the defense. But Gabe, it was not as bad as we think it was. Okay, but I'm— That's somewhere where—and again, I say this a lot on this podcast. Defense needs a little bit of help from the offense, and the Patriots' offense is the issue. The Patriots' offense right now is not good at all, and that's not helping their defense. Their defense is on the field too long, and they're giving up some big plays in some of these games. Okay, fine. Their defense is on the field too long, and they're giving up some big plays in some of these games.

Okay, fine. But does any sane person actually wonder if Tom Brady and the offense will find enough to win in the playoffs if they need to? We know that they'll just come up with some other gear. They'll change personnel around. He'll do what he always does because life sucks. That's what's going to happen. The defense is the question mark now they've been beaten by the two most mobile you know confusing quarterbacks in the afc who have by the way two of the best records which means there's a chance you know patriots are now not sitting on home throughout they

who knows they may not even keep a buy i think they probably will but i think that's we'll find out yeah okay but so that my point is this. They are in a luxury position. They do not have to worry very much about the Dolphins and the Bengals. So two of their last four games are totally winnable games, second-unit type games. Why not just spend all the time just skipping ahead and thinking about Lamar and Deshaun? You mentioned he couldn't get Deshaun on the ground.

Well, that's the whole game. Because you still want to have home field advantage throughout, and Baltimore still has to play the Steelers, who are playing well right now. They still have the Browns, who they lost to already. They have the Bills this weekend. That'll be a tough game. I'm not as high on the Bills as some are,

but the Bills can play defense, and they're feeling themselves right now. I mean, that game feels like 17-13 type of game in Baltimore, in Buffalo this weekend. We'll cover all that on Thursday's episode. But they want home field throughout still. Why would they want to start preparing for teams they may or may not play in the playoffs

when right now you're worrying about getting a win this weekend against the Chiefs? That's your goal right now is to beat the Chiefs, not worry about what might happen down the road. All right, so let's talk about those Chiefs then. Patrick Mahomes does not make running the ball a big part of his game, although he did it for a touchdown this week. We've always known he can slip away and move a little bit,

but that's not really what he's there to do. Correct, yes. Who do you see in this game because i suddenly if the pats lose this game you know they're slipped to 10 and 3 they've lost a couple in a row like that home field thing is definitely gone by then what what are the i mean the chiefs this game matters this game's a means a lot it's a huge game and a couple things on the chiefs. I still think Pat Mahomes is off. And it's weird saying that because when he's played, he's been good. The last couple weeks have not been terribly good.

I go back to a little bit of stats again in the Chiefs and Raiders game. Because this is important. The Chiefs scored on defense. They had another short field because of another turnover. You know, they only had 18 first downs in this game. They only had 310 yards against the Raiders. Now, it's great and all because you win. Oh, sorry, that's the wrong box score.

That shit had less than 300 yards. Yeah, they didn't. Pat had less than 200 passing yards. I figured they just let off the gas pedal after the opening. And this is the way it's been all year. I think Mahomes has been just a little bit off this year. And part of it was he got hurt early in the season, and he wasn't hurt last year at all.

And I think that's affected the way he's been in the pocket. Plus, the Chiefs were out a bunch of offensive linemen, and he drifts now back out of the pocket, which he never did. He would just stand tall and find someone open. Now he drifts out of the pocket too often, in my opinion, and he throws off his back foot a little bit too much. You know, some of the things that you do as far as, you know, all those, you know, cool throws, sidearm throws and throwing off weird platforms, that eventually does catch up to

you. I mean, that's why we see a lot of times, you know, the best quarterbacks typically have the same motion all the time, right? Because that's what works in the end. If you keep repping the same thing over and over again. And again, Mahomes has had a great season, but it's not been as good as last season. And that, I think, was going to be the case.

We thought that would be too great to have another 50-touchdown season. But he's not been as crisp. And so I do wonder this weekend going into New England whether or not the Chiefs defense, excuse me, the New England defense can take advantage of that. New England, though, really doesn't rush the passer terribly well, and that's something the Chiefs will, as their offense line is back healthy, can do.

And if you allow Tyreek Hill and Kelsey to have time to beat this man coverage, they can do that. Remember, the Chiefs put up 40 points last year in Kansas in New England. They put up 31 in the second half. Was it 31? Yeah, 31 in the second half against them in the AFC Championship. They can score points. So, Gabe, the issue is Patriots offense.

The Patriots offense has got to find a way to move the ball. If not, they need to have sustained drives, eight, nine-minute drives to keep the ball away from Kansas City. And New England's issues on offense, and Tom is part of the issue, is that he just does not trust anybody right now outside of Edelman he doesn't trust his tight ends who are open sometimes doesn't throw to them um you know we we heard Dan Orlovsky who we like a lot if you go to his Twitter he did a great video of he gave a signal to a wide receiver I think Dorsett like hey we're we're running a pump and go here you know like a like a hook and go, right?

And he just didn't do it. And he's on the sidelines upset about it. I mean, these guys are just not doing what he wants them to do. And there's no middle of the field presence. They have a lot of issues on offense. And the Chiefs defense, believe it or not, past defense, playing pretty well this season. They were sixth heading into this weekend, according to Football Outsiders. So I'm more worried about their offense, the Patriots, this weekend, than football outsiders so um i'm more worried about their offense the this weekend than i am their defense all right but can we just pump the brakes on this whole

tom brady doesn't have enough weapons tom brady doesn't trust his guy like come on man he's been the he's so blessed he doesn't have enough the issue game he is the reason they have guys like julian edelman is the number one that's what he likes but edel have guys like Julian Edelman as the number one. That's what he likes. But Edelman is a number two. But he's a number one for Tom Brady. No, Gronk has been the number one for Tom Brady. Gronk is no longer there right now. Now Edelman becomes the one.

Sanu becomes the two. When Edelman's the two, it makes their offense better. And this is why, by the way, if Antonio Brown got cleared today, he'd be in New England tomorrow. They cannot wait to send Antonio Brown back because he changes all this because then you double Antonio Brown and now Julian Edelman becomes your number

two and he's wide open in the middle of the field, wide open from the slot. Nikhil Harry has not played well so far since being back off of your reserve. Jacoby Myers, this guy's not going to do anything. You know, their tight end, Lacoste, actually had a really good catch.

He didn't throw him the ball enough. I don't know why. I just didn't trust him. But Tom can still throw. We see him throw fine. His arm strength was fine in that game. I think a lot of the issues are just no weapons. Okay, all right.

Dude, you can't say, who is this weapon? It's Julian Edelman and four rando dudes what have you ever heard of then i'm gonna paraphrase what a lot of people on twitter have been saying then let's stop calling julian edelman a hall of famer i don't think it's a hall of famer well wait that all i keep hearing oh this guy's all he's top five in the league in receptions he's got a super bowl mvp i mean he gets open for tom brady he's as good a one as anyone else out there has.

He's got multiple running backs that are hand selected to do exactly the thing he wants to do. He's got a great line and he knows the damn playbook because it's been the same for 20 effing years. Like what it what is the problem? I'm so sick of hearing excuses made for this guy. I watched people, including Bernard Hopkins, drop passes last night. I watch very good quarterbacks, and Deshaun and Russell deal with the fact that they don't have, quote-unquote, you know, the weapons they need in certain spots. That's life.

That's what being a quarterback is about, except Tom Brady has done it without weapons except for, like, one year in history. I don't get it. You don't get why people say he has no weapons? Why do we have to make so many excuses for this guy? He's 10-2. But those are actual facts, though. It's not an excuse.

He does not have a lot of weapons. That's a fact. It's not debatable. All right, then we're going to transition to the next topic, and a guy who I guess I could argue also doesn't have enough weapons, Russell Wilson, yet he somehow keeps on winning all the time. They looked awesome in the second half last night. They've proved they are NFC elite.

The Vikings, well, you know, still the Vikings, I'd say. They're good. They're just not great. So I want to focus on the Seahawks. Won five straight since losing to Lamar Jackson at home. That includes an OT win over the Niners a few weeks ago. That tells me the Seahawks are probably the best team in that division, if not the whole conference.

They've got a lead in the NFC West right now and a bye. Big, big change late last night, or not so late for us on the West Coast. Sorry, Jeff. Yet, minutes after the game ended and you all were asleep, Booger McFarlane jumped on SportsCenter and said that he still thinks the 49ers are better. And then SVP and Ryan Clark talked about how the Seahawks are quote unquote vulnerable. And they qualified it a lot. But essentially, people are not convinced of the Seahawks.

Should they be? Well, the Niners are a better team. Obviously, they lost the first matchup and they'll have a week 17 battle in Seattle. It's going to be epic. I mean, you talk about a rocking stadium. Oh, my. Week 17 will be amazing. No, the Niners are a better team.

They're better on defense. They run the ball better than Seattle does, and Wilson's a better quarterback than is Garoppolo. But Seattle wins because of number three. I mean, it's plain and simple. They win because of their guy in Russell Wilson and what he can do and the confidence he instills in this team. And defensively, they're getting better, right?

Their pass rush has improved. Their linebackers are still good. They're getting better on defense, but the Niners have an elite defense. There's no doubt about it. And that's what sets them apart. It does not mean that Seattle will not win the division. But I think that overall, the Niners are just a better team. Again, not a put-down of Seattle. They're probably going to win the division. But when you that overall, the Niners are just a better team. Again, not a put-down of Seattle.

They're probably going to win the division. But when you look at talent-wise, and look, Seattle's been there before. They've done this. They know the feeling of what they're doing. The Niners don't. The Niners don't. They don't know. I think only Joe Staley is on the team, was there when they were successful

in the previous regime, that's multiple regimes ago, and knows what it feels like to have this kind of down the stretch. They played a tough physical game against Baltimore. I contend they were the better team against Baltimore. I think they were, um, they're a good team. They just didn't beat Seattle,

uh, the first time around and they'll get a chance week 17 to do that again. Okay. But you're, you're breezing past the most important player on the field. Russell Wilson. He's amazing. Okay. So, I mean, yeah, if you line upzing past the most important player on the field, Russell Wilson. He's amazing. Okay, so, I mean, yeah, if you line up the tail of the tape,

you can give maybe a few more checks to the Niners on the defense and the run game and a few other things you might like to identify as they're better at. But Russell Wilson is like a billion times better than Jimmy Garoppolo. And I'm just going to list off a few of the stats that kept coming up last night. Russell Wilson, 9-2 on Monday Night Football in his career. Kirk Cousins, 0-8. We don't need to pile on Kirk. We know he's only average.

Russell, 26-5-1 in night games. Night games meaning, like, the games that everyone watches, okay? 9-1 in one-score games, okay okay so a real headache for anyone who likes to bet on these games but russell and pete carroll end up winning close games this year at least i guess what i want to know is how does that not indicate that this is a guy built for the playoffs night games games everyone's watching close games against good teams. He's like 800, 900 winning percentage in those types of games. The reason why I think people still don't trust Seattle a little bit is Pete Carroll. It's really interesting.

Pete Carroll ran around a fake punt last night up 10, right? Yeah. But he won't go for like a fourth and two from the opponent 44-yard line. Like, you know, he just coaches games. What? He's a football guy. Football guy. He coaches games very conservatively.

We saw last year in the playoff game against the Cowboys. They were the better team. They just didn't let Russell Wilson throw the football. And that's what, in the back of people's minds, that they still think, okay, are we going to get, like, a Seahawks offense that's through Russell Wilson or through the run game? In the playoffs, you want an offense through Russell Wilson.

He's your guy. DK Metcalf or Decaf Metcalf is playing much better as a rookie as he continues each and every week to improve. A guy the Patriots let go, tight end Hollister, obviously you shouldn't have traded him. He's doing a good job. That's one thing, by the way, that Seattle's done this year that New England just can't seem to do.

And this is credit to your point and also to Seattle. They've made tight ends that no one liked or wanted into very capable tight ends that now can play in the NFL. Will Disley, who got hurt, was a blocking tight

end in college. I think he had like 12 receptions in college as a Washington Husky. He goes to Seattle, he becomes their number one guy. Yeah, he had 25 catches in total in college, in his college career. But when he comes to Seattle, he becomes a good

player. So credit that Seattle Russell Wilson over Tom Brady and the lack of talent they have. Yeah, but no one complains about how Russell doesn't have the right talent around him. He's never had anyone who I would have ever considered a great receiver, but fine. Decaf, Metcalf might be good one day. Baldwin, Tate, and who was the tight end during those years? You can't even name them.

Dude, this is my point. Russell's always had average players who fit into the system, just like Tom. But I do think that the trepidation is Pete Carroll. Is that on a big game, will he go conservative? If you remember the playoff game last year, Russell Wilson was asked to throw on third or fourth down, and he was great at it. And you think like, hey, maybe we should make him our offense. Maybe we should do this and have him be. And he just doesn't seem to want to do that.

And also. Hold on, Jeff. The thing that makes both these guys more famous than anything they've done right is the fact that they were a little too aggressive when everyone wanted them to be conservative. No, they had to throw the ball. It was the route concept was probably bad. That's been the criticism of them if there's ever been criticism.

But people are wrong criticizing that. I broke this down. That route concept was probably the criticism of them. If there's ever been criticism, but that's, but they're wrong, but people are wrong. Chris, I did that. I broke this down. You go to go search Jeff Schwartz, SB nation on Google church Seahawks. I wrote about this.

They had to throw the ball. They're out leverage. They were going to be tackled for a loss. They just chose a route that everyone knew was coming. That was like the popular route to run on the two yard line. Uh, 2013. I mean,

it was, it was the right decision. It just didn't work out well for them. But my point is I'm not worried about Pete Carroll or Russell Wilson being too aggressive. That's not a concern of mine. No, I'm worried about them being too conservative. Too conservative.

That's what I'm worried about is when you get to a playoff game, are you going to be like you did last year and be way too conservative? You need to run the offense through Wilson. By the way, can we just get rid of mic'd up segments oh yeah they caught Russ on the mic again huh like like like I know that the scene go stuff it was great it was funny and we haha we joked about it but like Russell Wilson gave us nothing last night which is mostly how they are they're just boring they don't really add nothing to tell I'd rather have like a defensive guy mic'd up who's just going to say weird stuff on the field.

Yeah, well, you're thinking like a fan. And obviously the people who put those mics on are thinking like the league and the network because they knew Russell Wilson wasn't going to say anything that got anyone in trouble. That's Russell Wilson's claim to fame. In private, that guy probably doesn't say anything inappropriate. He's very professional. He did change his thing to the Yoda thing. I don't really understand what that's from, but the Baby Yoda.

Is that from the new series they put on Disney Plus or something? Yeah, that's just one of these memes. It's going to come and go before we have to learn what it is, so let's just admit we're both old and out of touch on some things. I'm fine with being out of touch. Just move on. We missed Baby Yoda, dude. We don't know what it is is i'm fine with being out of touch on that subject all right next up i think we're i think we're both in the same same uh apparently everyone got on board with what i'm about to say i thought this was going to be sort of outlandish and then the whole take

machine joined in the party here i I'll save us some time. Mike Tomlin is coach of the year, period. All right? Remember, he lost the best receiver in the league in the offseason. He lost Big Ben in week two. They started 0-3. Everyone was saying, oh, they should just tank. They're making trades.

It was a mess. Everything is wrong in Pittsburgh. Well, they're 7-2 since the last two wins with a guy named Duck, an undrafted free agent rookie, and they have the sixth seed. They're going to the playoffs if things hold. Mike Tomlin, Coach of the Year. Well, he's not going to win it, but he definitely deserves to get a lot of votes.

We know that it's going to be like Kyle Shanahan, whoever has the number one seed in the division, in the conference, but Tomlin's done an amazing job. I think we, and I did this too, you know, they're 0-3. They trade for Micah Fitzpatrick. You're like, what are they doing? Why would they trade for safety? You know, they have Rudolph who no one believes in. Why are they doing this? And Mike Tomlin shows you that having a strong culture of work ethic, no excuses, doing who started the year fourth string, I should say, without their center, without their wide receiver,

without who else was out that game. Did Conor play that game or not? No. Conor didn't play that game. So you're number one wide receiver, number one running back. Obviously, you're down two quarterbacks. You're down your center, who's very important. And you just go out.

You're down 10-0 in the game. You chip away. You chip away. You rely on your defense, which adding a Bush in the draft was a great addition to the defense are playing very well. They played well all season and you just, you do the right things,

right? You don't make mistakes. You don't make penalties. You don't turn the ball over on the flip side. You have the Browns who are a complete dumpster fire, whose head coach is wearing Pittsburgh started t-shirts, whose maturity level is less than mine, who's undisciplined, penalties, takes no blame for anything,

doesn't handle player situations very well, like the Randall situation, doesn't understand the room. He's way over his head, and you saw that. And then you have the Steelers, calm, cool, collected. They're getting after their job, and the Browns are not. So you say he'll get a lot of votes, but he won't win because it'll go to somebody who comes in first place. But isn't it more evidence of a great coach

when literally there's, like, guys who are not NFL-caliber players are making plays for you? When, by the way, and we talked about it a little bit on the show, sorry, but, like, this is a personnel management-type issue. This is not necessarily an x and o's this is a what's the tims and joes or whatever the hell that stupid saying the football guys use i know no one uses that who i trust what is it come on it's not the x it's not about the x's and o's it's about the blank and joes it's it's a it's it's it's like the it's not it's about the um it's not about it's like not about the x's and o's about the the pros and Joes or something like that.

Yeah, you're just repeating what I – yeah, that didn't help. That's what I said. So my point is his handling of the Joes cannot be overlooked. Okay, that Mason Rudolph benching decision was a big one. And people – on this show, we talked about this. People think that maybe you know we're overthinking it or there's a conspiracy theory here like he went to duck who clearly on paper at least does not seem like the better player than mason rudolph but he went to him right after that

crazy incident with miles garrett and he's stuck with him that is a decision that didn't make a lot of football sense but i think made a lot of locker room sense and that won't show up with their record but that will be a coach decision that you have to be doing this for a lot of years to get right that could have screwed the whole thing up but it worked or at least it seems like it worked and and i'll tell you what i love the honesty of tallman too right he was asked why he made this move essentially. He's like, Rudolph is killing us. I think players appreciate when the coaches just tell them how it is. No BS.

But look, if we're giving Tomlin coach of the year votes, Brian Floyd's on Miami, so he's coach of the year votes too. I mean, they were left for nothing, right? They were dead. They were mocked. They were humiliated over the first couple weeks of the season. All they do now is play competitive games and beat playoff teams. Yeah.

I mean, the Eagles, it's maybe a little much called a playoff team. But, I mean, Brian Flores, Mike Tomlin, these guys deserve a lot of credit for where they are. And I think I showed you last night on Sunday, not to belabor the point between the cultures, but you have a strong winning culture in Pittsburgh from the top down, right? The ownership, general manager, the head coach, the veteran players, the young players, everything.

And then you have a losing culture in Cleveland from the ownership, you know, the D Haslam wearing a Miles Garrett beanie the other day before their game. And then you have Freddie Kitchens with a stupid shirt on and no accountability. You know, we see more commercial. I've never seen more commercials in my life of quarterback who's below average in a season than Baker Mayfield. Like we just, all these, all these things are adding up to where the culture is the problem in Cleveland, great culture in Pittsburgh. This is the Browns opportunity to take over the division for the first time.

Not division, really the rivalry, I should say. Baltimore with the division. But the rivalry in years and years. And they shit down their pants. Yeah. No, the Browns feel like one of those YouTube sensations that, like, you know, they see all their views line up and they're like, we're a thing. Typically, you start. They haven't done anything to be a sensation. Nothing except make a lot of noise and talk a lot and be on commercials and wear T-shirts.

And who cares? I'm with you. I'm just saying they started believing that the view counts the way a lot of YouTube sensations do. And they were like, we're ready. And then they went ahead and tried to make a TV show out of it. And people were like, I don't know about this one. That's what's going on here. The Steelers are pretty boring.

Mike Tomlin's been there a long time. Mike Tomlin's been through, should Mike Tomlin be fired, like more times than anyone, and he keeps on winning games, and he's winning now with no names. So I don't know, man. Fans of the Jets and other teams like mine get very jealous when they see an absolutely decimated roster and a team that is left for dead

suddenly be relevant in December that's that's crazy to us like I remember I was giving up on the Jets week one like it was over man and the Steelers there was no reason to give up the three games they lost by the way are arguably against the three best teams in football those first three games of the year they lost the Pats they lost to the Seahawks and they lost the niners tough start to the year everyone thought oh my god well yeah they lost to three teams that might win the super bowl and now here they are with seven wins so i i don't know man i'm not rooting for the steelers but mike tomlin deserves a hell of a lot more credit than he's been getting right now they're you know right now they're a playoff team they're gonna get in they're gonna be a hard out for you know the te Texans or the Chiefs,

whoever ends up being that third seed. I'm rooting for them too. I like them. I like the guys on the team. I like their culture. I like their ability to just battle through. No excuses. Just work harder. Get it done. Play very physical ball.

I love it. I know some of those guys on the team i really enjoy watching them play all right i like cam hayward too i've met him a couple times good dude uh all right let's go to the complete and total opposite of the steelers here this is a place where they can't seem to win despite great players where the coach is probably going to get fired not get any coach of the year votes with Jason Garrett and the Cowboys. So here's the take. And this is coming from me. I want you to react

to this big boy. The Cowboys should replace Jason Garrett with Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady. McDaniels currently considered the favorite for the job by an offshore offshore book. So this is not farfetched. OK, He's already been a head coach. It's time for him to graduate from under Belichick. He could easily be the head coach of the Cowboys. But I think Brady is so fed up with Belichick and New England that he would follow the coach with him. He'd basically be running the team. He'd get everything he wants. He'd have all the personnel that he needs. No more complaint about weapons. He'd have too many weapons in Dallas. Remember, his contract is set up so that he could effectively be a free agent this offseason.

It would be his choice what he wants to do. Tell me this is not the most obvious decision in the world. For the league, for the team, for the player, for the coach. This is a no-brainer. So you're just going to let Dak walk? Yeah, because guess what? Dak isn't worth top quarterback money. He's not a top five quarterback.

Sorry. I hate to break it to everybody. He's not. Okay? He's got a lot of stats. They don't mean crap. Tom Brady, who I cannot stand, is clearly going to give you a better chance to win a Super Bowl. And you would stand him a lot better in Dallas.

Pardon me? And you would love if he went to Dallas. You'd be able to stand him. This has zero to do with me. Nothing makes me happy when Tom Brady remains in the league. I'd love to see him retire and be out of our way. I want to get your thoughts about Tom Brady on the record. Okay, you hate him.

Okay, good. No, I cannot stand the fact that he has ruined 20 years of football for me as a Jets fan. But I can acknowledge that he is great. I feel the Jets have ruined some of that themselves. Yeah, they have. They have. Okay. I can acknowledge that he is great.

I feel the Jets have ruined some of that themselves. Yeah, they have. They have. Okay. I think Tom Brady is not going to play anywhere else. But Dallas actually would be interesting. Jerry would let him do whatever the heck he wanted, right? Bring a trainer, bring whatever else he wanted there. You play a division with the Eagles, obviously,

but outside of that, it's kind of a lot like the Dolphins and the Jets right now. I've not thought about this. I could go for it. I don't think it's going to happen, but it's not the worst. But here's the thing. Whoever becomes the Cowboys head coach has a great advantage. Let's just say that the team is as is next year, right?

You have Dak Prescott. He's back, obviously. You have Zeke Elliott. You have an outstanding offensive line, elite-level players players and Hall of Famers. You have tight end. You can need to draft somebody. You have Amari Cooper. Let's say you re-sign him and Randall Cobb. You have Demarcus Lawrence on your defensive line. You probably need to get yourself another pass rusher. Then, you know, you have, you know, Vander Esch and Jalen Smith. I assume Sean Lee's going to move on. And then you have to then you have to need some peace in your secondary.

So you have a great core of talent already there. This is not a rebuild. It's just adding a better coach and adding someone that the team buys into, someone that is aggressive, someone that gets the times. It's someone that is able to get the most out of their team against bigger opponents. It's someone that's not a liability with their decision-making. And so if it's Josh McDaniels, if it's Urban Meyer, Jason Garrett, why is Jason Garrett in here?

Oh, this is five to one, he remains? You're listing off some odds that we wrote down. Oh, these are not real odds. No, you can bet on who the Cowboys coach will be at the beginning of next year. Oh, because he just gets part of this. And one of the favorites is Josh McDaniels. Other people are Urban Meyer. Jason Garrett isn't fired.

Lincoln Riley. Sean Payton is not leaving New Orleans. I don't know why people don't throw your money to this. Do not throw your money to this on this. But I think Josh McDaniels, alongside Tom Brady, depending on how the season ends, could be a possibility. I'd love to see it. I'd be, geez, Tom Brady depending on how the season ends could be a possibility I'd love to see it I'd be geez that would that really shake

up the NFL wouldn't it it'd be all for a drama and things like this happening it makes our profession insanely better well I want to just be you know paraded around get me on all the big shows when I'm right about this

because i've been saying this for a couple weeks i'm planting my flag this is going to happen tom brady's fed up with new england okay and and bill belichick frankly is fed up with having tom brady because it confuses his genius people think oh tom brady's the reason they win all those super bowls bill belichick knows it's him okay and Bill Belichick would have had all these same amount of rings if he drafted some other guy in the sixth round. All right? That's just how he views it. So he's ready to move on to the next Jimmy Garoppolo

or fill-in-the-blank Steedman, whoever the hell the backup there is. He's ready. Brady knows he's ready. Brady's fed up and wants weapons. That's all we talked about. This is the answer. Like I said, I'd be for it. I had not thought about this until you brought this up.

I'd be totally down for it. I don't think it's going to happen, but I'd watch it. You heard it from Gabe on the show today. The Cowboys will bring in Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels as obviously the lead of their team next year. Whether or not that actually happens, if you care about America's team, you've got to

check out About Them Cowboys, hosted by John Machoda and Kevin Turner. They cover everything on and off the field for the team everyone cares about. So as they slide towards the playoffs, tune in About Them Cowboys and subscribe today. Let's move along. It's called Moving the Line. It's a little over-under game that we like to play on this show. Most of these are, well, they're based in some reality, but I kind of made them up.

Okay, I want to know, over-under, wins for the NFC East champ 8.5. Are we going to get an NFC East champ that isn't even above 500? So Matt Ford, who does a Thursday show with me, he's a Redskins fan. Yeah. Every day this week, I'm sending him text messages about how the Redskins are going to win out and they're going to be the division winners, seven and nine. Eight and a half wins?

No, I don't think we're getting eight and a half wins. The Cowboys still have to play the Bears on Thursday night in Chicago. They still have to play, obviously, the Eagles. And then I think they still have to play one other team that's pretty important. I would have thought the Eagles would have been the team to get over the 8.5 win mark.

There's also the Dolphins. How can you trust the Eagles at all this season? Any of the games down the stretch. Oh, yeah, they have the Rams. That's where the Cowboys have the Rams. They have the Bears, the Rams, in stretch. Oh, yeah, they have the Rams. That's why the Cowboys have the Rams. They have the Bears, the Rams, in Dallas at least, and they're at the Eagles. And then they get those Redskins who you think are going to win out.

No, I don't think they're going to win out. I just think it would be hilarious if it's Niners and Redskins on wildcard weekend. The Eagles have the Giants this weekend. Actually, Monday Night Football. That's going to be just a glorious contest. They're at the Redskins, Cowboys, and at the Giants. I don't know how you trust the Eagles, though.

I'd say under 8.5. Yeah, I think I'm with you. I will just say that it'd be nice if we could loan the NFC East playoff team to the NFC West and get the Rams in there. They got three. I mean, look, the top two teams are clearly two of the best in the NFC. The Rams look pretty good to me. I mean, they're not great, but they're probably better than anyone in the NFC East.

But this is how it shakes out. In 2010, Zuri points out, I forgot about this, but it's a good reminder. The Seahawks made the playoffs. They were seven and nine. That division sucked that year. They snuck in, you know? The Panthers made the playoffs at seven, eight, and one.

Yeah, no, so this kind of stuff happens. So that's the kind of year we're looking at in the NFC East. Do you think the playoffs should be reseeded? How do you mean? So, you know, you just go one through six not really so like you have your four division winners your two wild cards and then you reseed based off record i without giving it a lot of consideration i do think that because i don't i don't think that division play is somehow a better indicator of who you are, especially because I'll read you a stat. The NFC East has a cumulative record of 16-32, so they're winning only a third of their games

when they play other competitions. Oh, yeah. So they suck. I mean, they're really bad. The only wins they have are against each other. So, yeah, I think we can pretty much dismiss division record and just look at who has the best record around. The NBA, I know, is trying to think about doing that reseeding thing too. Yeah, I think it can pretty much dismiss division record and just look at who has the best record around. The NBA, I know, is trying to think about doing that reseeding thing too.

Yeah, I think it's a smart idea. All right, let's move along to a team that is one of the speed bumps right now. Everyone wanted to talk about this team like they were some up-and-comer. Okay, I never really understood the reason why. Hold on, let me throw it out there. Just hold on. So I want to know the chances. Cliff Kingsbury is the Cardinals head coach week one next season,

50% chance. Oh, he's going to be the coach there next season. Why? Why is this so obvious? They stink. Have they lost five in a row? They're terrible. Because of Kyler Murray and the offense.

The offense has been okay. It is funny, though. People really, really want this offense to work in the NFL. What's funny is that we see the great offense in the NFL, Saints, Chiefs, Patriots not anymore, but the Niners, the Cowboys, I mean, technically have a good offense still the Vikings aren't bad um you know like traditional-ish offenses yeah they have some stuff in there that's shotgun and some new age stuff but a lot of times it's you know quick

passes running the ball play action pass bootleg things that people have done forever and it's always worked and people want so badly the air rates work in the nfl i don't get why like i do not get why there's a need to want a specific offense to work in the nfl when i know why it's because guys like me say you won't work in the nfl people just just they love new right they want to they want the new they want the flashy they want the the cool thing i mean kind of champagne's been cool now for like 20 years running the same offense and putting up great numbers every single year. Andy Reid, same offense every single year.

Now from shotgun, a zillion yards every week. MVP last year, right? It's just so interesting how we want Arizona to succeed. I don't, but I mean, I just evaluate as I see fit. People want so badly this idea of Arizona to be good on offense because it proves that the NFL is changing for the better. They're incorporating, you know, schemes in college. And what's so funny too is that the Cardinals are good at running the football and people are like, see, I told you. But you hired an air raid coach to pass the ball. Like, congratulations on being

good at running the ball. That's not what you're trying to do, though. Like, you brought him in to throw the football. Oh, it's running into a lighter box. Well, actually not really because you ran the ball better when you added tight ends back into your offense. That, by far, is the greatest thing ever, right, is that people were champing the Cardinals' run game, which at one point this year was pretty good. And then they went and did the research,

and the Cardinals got better as they added more tight ends, which is the exact opposite of what everyone thought was happening. They thought they were running the ball with no tight ends and one running back and gashing everybody. No, they went back and did a traditional run game, which you have better blockers in the game and you have better numbers and you run the football. It's so funny how that works

game. People just want to be blinded by the new, the fascinating when what's worked has always worked okay boomer you don't want to do to people like that i blocked them on twitter and um you're about to be blocked on twitter oh no i mean that was so that was a really compelling argument for what i'm trying to say i don't understand you led with no he'll be the coach next year here's a thousand reasons why their offense is overrated he'll'll be the coach next year. Here's a thousand reasons why their offense is overrated. He'll still be the coach because you're not going to fire him after one year. Well, okay, but I mean, this experiment does not seem to be working.

And it's easier to just move on quick and see if Kyler can click with somebody else. Well, you drafted him to be the guy for a couple years. He's got to be with Kingsbury. I still contend this, that if he, if Murray, excuse me, if Kingsbury was not the Cardinals head coach, that Murray would have fallen way down the draft. Yeah, because

he wants to show that he's some avant-garde football mind, and this Big 12 style can make it in the NFL. So he needed a guy who could run away. Yards per play, they're 20th in the NFL right now. Not very good in offense. No, they're not good at anything.

They just keep on losing because they played a few close games early on and because they have the number one pick and a handsome new coach, everyone was like, oh, I want to get on board with the Cardinals. They suck. They're very bad. What they are very bad at, they are very bad in the red zone. Yeah. That's the one thing where, in you explain this now or you want to say this for another time i mean it feels

like a lot of cardinals talk but if you want fire away you know basically you know in the red zone the field shrinks down right so from the 20 to the goal and obviously the 10 yards of the end so 30 yards to work everything shrinks down right and the air raid offense a lot of the end zone, so 30 yards to work. Everything shrinks down, right? In the air raid offense, a lot of the focus is throwing the ball outside of the numbers. And the numbers are obviously in college a little bit wider, but nonetheless, it's throwing outside the numbers, outside the numbers. If you watch them play,

a lot outside the numbers, outside the numbers. They do throw in between the hashes, I get that, but that's not a big part of their offense. In the red zone, because everything's condensed, the middle field is a great spot to target because it just ends up being a little softer and you can

kind of just quickly throw the ball over the middle field. They don't really have that option right now. And also running the football in the red zone is a huge thing. It can help your offense kind of get those safeties to just back up a touch. Excuse me, move up just a touch, I should say. You can hit kind of some plaques and stuff to that tight end over the middle of the field.

And they don't have it. They don't run the ball terribly well in the red zone. And they don't have a middle of the field threat, like a big tight end just to go up and get the ball. And that hurts this offense in the red zone. So I do wonder if he will figure out a way to, you know, that's his offseason studies. How do I make my offense better in the red zone? I got to target the middle of the field more. I do some more creative things with formations.

I got to run the ball better. I can't just line up in four wide and throw out some of the numbers. Sorry, I sort of nodded off there while you were talking about the Cardinals red zone offense. And all I kept dreaming about was the day when Kyler Murray is the Oakland A's second baseman. Because that's coming soon, man. That's more likely than him winning a Super Bowl. I'm just saying. I don't see it in Arizona.

I'm just not seeing a winning team coming out of this setup. Let's move along. Joe Burrow, draft position, 1.5. Is he the number one pick or sometime later in the draft um i can remind you the current draft order if you'd like well the bangles are taking a quarterback they're number one right now giants are taking chase young okay the reds are taking a you know not you know not obviously quarterback well miami may or may not. Whose pick does Miami have there?

Oh, no, no, no. No, they're three and a half. That's currently where they sit. And then Atlanta has Atlanta. Geez. I think Burrow goes one. I would take the... I never know with these draft props. Is this over or under one?

Under? Yeah. I would say he's going first. Joe Burrow's the number one pick, and the Bengals take him if this season plays out the way that you expect. Yes. All right. So do you think that Joe Burrow in Cincinnati makes sense? And is that new coach going to be excited to have a kid like that?

I have not watched him enough to really have any idea. I've watched him enough for me to think i have an idea he's not that good he's just not he doesn't make the throws that you won't need an nfl quarterback to make he's got i mean listen he's a very very very good college quarterback and he does a lot of short passing and smart decision making and he's just a he seems like a smart quarterback who knows how to play the game and he can obviously run you and he seems like a smart quarterback who knows how to play the game, and he can obviously run. He's joked about how people call him sneaky fast,

probably because of the way he looks. He's a very good athlete. I think he could make the NFL and be a pretty nice player, but I don't think we're going to ever be talking about him doing things that Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers and the other guys are doing. I just don't see it. I'm excited to see LSU-Utah in the playoff.

That would be a fun game. No, stop. You see, you're just ignoring the things I'm saying to try to troll with your random Pac-12 Utah takes. Well, you're supposedly a Pac-12 guy now, and you still have the same head coach that won't ever leave, so it sucks to be here. I tell you what, man.

We joked about how West Coast is a better place to watch sports. It's also a really great place to ignore sports. All right. There are times when the Pac-12 is playing. I'm like, dude, it's sunny out. I'm going to the beach. I'm climbing a mountain. I don't need to be watching this.

John, the Mini Cooper with the top down. I got rid of the Mini Cooper. Upgraded to a three-row car, Jeff. Well, that's what you have when we have two kids. We got a million kids. You got to get a bigger car. All right. Let's move along.

I want to know, costumes you have ever wore to your NFL game, over, under.5? None. And I rightfully got roasted for my take on Twitter. What did you say? I didn't even see this. Oh, I said that the Texans were going to lose because they wore stupid outfits to the game. Well, the outfits worked. They won the game.

People who don't know about this this a bunch of their linebackers showed up dressed as like a SWAT team this after I think they dressed up as Mortal Kombat supposedly they do this like every game it's just too much energy man I don't have time for this I'm just trying to be comfortable I'm trying to be uh an alpha where I won't sweat too much can you imagine if I walked the game with a bullet with a bulletproof flat jacket on I'd be just sweating profusely i need an iv when i got to the locker room before the game i'm not doing that i sweat like i sweat and when in like in new york city when it's 30 degrees outside i walk outside to go get a slice

of pizza i start sweating yeah i'm not i'm not i'm not doing that never ever ever so you're under on that um did you have any teammates who did anything like this? This seems like they're taking what the NBA is doing and just like we can beat that. We're going full Halloween. You played around Cam. He's a dresser. You played around some guys. Yeah, some guys. I mean, look, I could never pull it off, but I understand why people dress up.

I mean, they want to you know feel good you know play good all right fair enough not for you um okay last question i want to know total interruptions while trying to watch the three hour and 20 something minute long irishman oh total interruptions 25. Total interruptions from our wives is really the question. Well, you can classify however you want. I'm going to be careful here. With this conversation, I don't want to be careful. You're right. We're like 40-something minutes into the show.

There's absolutely no chance either of our wives have listened to this point. I don't even think they hit play in the first place. Did your wife listen to this podcast? I would not think so. No, I can't imagine. My wife 1,000% does not listen to this podcast. If she does, she's not listening not listening to this she asked me yesterday if i still have my own podcast okay so there you go it tells you how much do you still have that podcast yours there you go so if you hit play on the irishman which clocks in at almost three and a half hours how many times you have

to stop it i'm in day four of trying to watch this thing because it's three and a half hours long um you know i get like 30 minutes a day in um oh my god my wife interrupts me like every time we watch a show and even if it's a show i've never seen before but if it's a show i've seen before the questions are just not so this weekend she put on chernobyl which is great on hbl right it's great great four episodes long you know four episodes hour each about an. She started it in the middle of episode two. I was like, you know, we can do on demand. We have that capability. No, no, no, no.

I'm starting from right now. I'm already invested. All right, fine, whatever. Then she just proceeded to ask me questions about the stuff that's already been explained in the movie, or miniseries, because you missed the first hour and a half. It's not on me to explain to you what happened. You chose not to watch it. Here's the other side of that coin that I experience.

You're watching something that you have seen, or maybe you're just paying closer attention. And you get a, hold on. Do you think that he's about to die? Is he going to die? Yeah. It's like, well, the director wants you to wonder that question. Maybe you should just experience it. I don't have the answer wants you to wonder that question i maybe you should

just experience it i don't have the answer for you i'm just like you know why is this person doing this why why they do that what what's up with this i'm just like just watch the movie watch what's happening my wife also has a weird thing where she gets really upset if i've seen a movie before her even though we don't go to movie theaters because she doesn't like to be cold the last time we saw a movie um i think was was either one of the Fifty Shades of Grey with friends. All right. Or I saw that movie with Kevin Hart and what's his face?

The Wedding Ringer? Something like that. That was in 2014. He was in 14 movies that year. Otherwise, that's it. We don't go to movies. For date night, we just go eat. We went out this weekend.

We ate. And then we just don't. So we make it home so we don't have to put our kids to sleep. That's the only reason we go out to eat. We go out to eat and come home at 9 o'clock. Yeah. So I just can't stand the interruptions, man. If this is the worst thing, by the way, can't stand the interruptions man it's like it's

if this is the worst thing by the way in our lives with our relationship it's going pretty well i think oh yeah extremely well we're very lucky guys and we married very lovely women but yeah watching tv or movies with them sounds like a real real drag um we we don't go to the movies much because of those kids we talked about earlier but at least at a movie theater there's like a social construct that prevents my wife from doing what she would do at home at home she would just talk over things hit pause move you know like totally distract me in the movie theater she understands like we're watching the joker there's several moments where i know if we had been at home she would have interrupted but she doesn't because she doesn't want all the people around her

to think she's terrible. So at least that saves us. It does. I'm going to take my wife to some more movies to show up some Bob and Riva. Sounds like pick a nicer date than a double date at Fifty Shades of Grey. I didn't choose that. Do you think I chose that date? I don't know, man.

You're a fancy guy. You got lots of nice things in your palace there in Charlotte. Why don't you take your wife to someplace better than Regal Cinemas? You know, movie theaters now, super nice. That's true. Supposedly. I haven't been to one in a long time. They're good.

I did see a movie by myself one time in Manhattan in Times Square. I just walked up to see the movie by myself. It was hilarious. Oh, you used to do that all the time. Are you kidding me? Oh, really? I used to work Sunday to Thursday. Friday was movie day for me was hilarious oh used to do that all the time kidding me i at east i used to work sunday to thursday friday was movie day for me saw the whole fast series that way it's great oh my god yeah i'd go at like noon on a friday have the

place to myself you know it's great absolutely great anyone who's somehow managed to listen to this point and hear about us complain about our wives pressing plus pro tip for you work a schedule that gives you a weekday off all the stuff that's annoying in life is easier that day everything the lines are shorter you can get into all the places you need to get into get all the stuff out of the way in the middle of that off day you'll be fine you'll be a happy guy this is a great idea all right we're getting to social mailbag now oh god we have more okay here we go one more i'll make sure yeah i forgot that we had this one thing and no no this is good i want to hear your take on this um all right here we go jeff you ready for some social mailbag

let's do it buddy uh this is from our guy mccook guy that's what we're calling this dude mccook guy mccook 2002 um hit you up says, which were the easiest and quietest stadiums that you played? Um, I played a Redskins game in, uh, DC in the snow in 2013. That was, uh, no one was there. I think there was a photo from that game. I can find you like 5,000 people were there in the second half. Um that place though, I played also a game there when RG three had that long run. You know, when he was a rookie against the Vikings, that place was rocking.

I don't know. I mean, easiest is just like your team sucks and no one shows up. That's fairly simple. All stadiums at some point can get loud if their team is very good. I think that's, that's the best answer to give you. Well, okay. But I mean, try a little harder than that. Like everyone talks. I think that's the best answer to give you. Well, okay.

But, I mean, try a little harder than that. I don't remember a time when I'm like, oh. I mean, like, what do you mean? The quietest stadiums? Well, the quietest means the team stinks. I mean, the Coliseum is huge and quiet, and it's not very big. It's not very loud.

That's also like you're just throwing shade because you haven't done enough of that yet. The Coliseum, when the teams are good, is very loud and hot. It's a tough place to play if the team is good. Dude, in the peak USC days, they won like every game ever at the Coliseum. Because they're better than everyone else. Well, okay. But that stadium is a tough place, man.

It's more tough because it's just like the Coliseum is because it's loud. It's just like you're just like, oh, wow, this is the Coliseum. It's 1,000 years old. Well, it's not the Roman Coliseum. It's not 1,000 years old. I think they built it in like 1984. When you drive up, it looks like it's 1,000 years old. Okay.

Well, that was the design. That's what they were going for. It was built like the 30s, dude. They definitely renovated for the Olympics. it looks the way that it looks because they knew the whole world was watching they wanted it to seem like a roman coliseum and that happened in my lifetime maybe not yours because i got a couple years on you but like i was not born i was not alive at 84 fair enough uh we're to wrap it up here because I feel like if ever we were making people smarter, it stopped a long time ago. Jeff, I'm going to go start my attempt at Irishman.

I will report back and I'll text you each time we have to pause. But I expect two and a half is not possible in my family. It's going to take us a few days. This will be like Hanukkah for us. We're going to be going eight nights on this one. Eight nights of Irishman. Fantastic. All right, everyone. Thank you for tuning in today as usual to the free

episode of Josh Wharton Smarter Than You. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that fun on iTunes. You can find us also on the Athletic app and theathletic.com. Thank you for listening. We'll be back on Thursday. Have a great couple of days.