Green Light with Chris Long - Aaron Donald! Bill Simmons! NFL Playoff Outlook, Important Remaining Matchups & MNF Recap.

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

(3:06) - Hello, Layup Line, MNF Recap and Quick Look at NFL Playoffs. (15:05) - Aaron Donald on MNF vs Arizona Cardinals, Three Sacks in a Game, Playing with Von Miller and Greg Gaines, DPOY Race and Kenny Pickett’s Fake Slide. (25:54) - Hypothetical Macon's vs Aaron Donald. (29:17) - Bill Simmons on Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, Mac Jones’ Success, 2021 NFL Playoff Picture and Important Remaining Matchups, Growing Up a Patriots Fan, NBA Winter Classic and Developing Ryen Russillo into a Productive Professional. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Greenlight Podcast. I'm Cowboy Reid. Today we have a magnificent show for you. Aaron Donald fresh off his three bucket performance against the Arizona Cardinals. He talks about playing with Von Miller, Greg Gaines, watching Micah Parsons and the impact of the Kenny Pickett slide. Then we have Bill Simmons to talk NFL playoffs, Bill Belichick, Mac Jones, and the Patriots, and gives a little NBA roundup. And one more note, at 1158 p.m. on December the 14th, 2021, Chris asked me to read the following statement.

Chris Long now enjoys Succession. He has crossed the season 1 90-minute threshold and the characters have stopped trying to overdevelop themselves. At the time of tape, Chris made various comments alluding to his disdain for the show and its reception. Please let the record reflect that he likes Succession and Macon was right again. Happy Wednesday and enjoy.

A couple nobodies today, Macon. Aaron Donald and Bill Simmons. Yeah, maybe the greatest defensive player of our generation and the podfather. The podfather, indeed. Ryan Rassillo's boss. Yeah, I told you earlier, I need to get better of Rissillo content. You sprung a Rissillo

thing at the beginning. I had nothing. You're right. It was a way to warm Bill up because I know he likes his Boston guys. He does like Ryan. Do I like Ryan? That's a good question. No, I don't. But the schick is old. I need to get better. material. I mean, do I think he's like a good guy? No. Do I think he's good at what he does? Yes. Okay. Do I think he is authentic and genuine? That's tough. Yeah. Maybe. These are all questions you're asking. Yeah. About Ryan Rissillo, who is not the subject of this particular show? We got Aaron Donald and Bill Simmons.

You want to talk about Rissillo. Talk about owning real estate. You know he owns a lot of real estate, Manhattan Beach, your head. Yep. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hell. Vermont. Yeah. Yeah. He should own some real estate in Colorado, you know, get his own key.

Wyoming, I think. Wyoming, yeah, all the same. That's good stuff. Hey, you talked to Aaron on your own. Did you mention the nickname that I have for him? No. I was thinking AP because he makes him any all pro teams. Are you avoiding him being AD?

Oh, AD is Adrian Peterson. I'm sorry, buddy. Adrian Peterson is not. not. No, it's not. AD is not the guy in LA playing basketball. AD is not the running back in Seattle. AD is Aaron Donald. Yeah, all day Adrian Peterson. I'm not, I'm not, all pro Aaron Donald. Sure, but I don't think it's going to have as much a ring to it. No, I didn't get to that question. You got a hello for us. Bumpus, Virginia. Hello! I've been waiting for Bumpus. It was low-hanging fruit. Let me see. Is that a joke in and of itself? No. Not really. Yeah, it was there for a while.

It is bumpus. You know, I don't know. It's spelled B-U-M-P-A-S-S. And I don't have my machine with me for the first time in the history of the pod. What if it's in the bottom of the state? That's funny. I really don't know. It could be like...

It's not read? No, it's in Louisiana County. I'm going prisoner of the highway today for layup line. Don't ask me why. It's a Ronnie Millsap song. I've seen Ronnie Millsap. Have you really? Yeah.

How do you look? Great. Really? What year was this? This was, I was in college. This was probably 07-ish. This song bangs, dude. I can't get enough of it.

I saw Ronnie Millsap open for George Strait. Oh, that's cool. The stage was in the middle of everybody. And it, what's it called when it rotates? Rotated. It rotated. The stage rotated, like song to song. Like Brian Kelly and that quarterback.

Yes. Oh, my God. What a fucking weird. video that is. Colin Vadir, it's more than weird. It is, it's nauseating.

It's, it's, it's like they drugged him down there. It's like when he landed, he went to some lab and they like opened his, his cranium and put a different brain in, like a, a,

a bayou brain. He's, he's, he's dancing. The camera operator, who I guess is a robot. He's dancing like the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, catty shack in caddy shack. How was the producer not saying, all right, don't do that.

anymore. Let's do another take. I get that you're making 20 mil a year, but just point at the camera or give us an L or a thumbs up. I've done those things at the SPs, like you walk in and they make you do them and like the spinning camera thing. Like there should be an opt out in that situation. You should always be given an opt out. Like certain guys can't move. I'm one of them. Can't dance. No rhythm. Don't know what to do when the camera's on me. Like, hey, do something charismatic. Don't have it in me. The kid who I assume as a recruit had it nailed. He just he flipped the football up just tossed the football to himself over and over. He looked, he looked cool because he had a prop.

But Brian Kelly left to his own devices looked. I would have trusted my dad on there more than Brian Kelly. Other sports pop culture news before we get into this loaded podcast. There's a football biopic. We can all get behind. Oh, we're back to biopic. Biopic. Yeah.

It's Kevin James playing Sean Payton in a movie that nobody asked for. But then again, is anybody asking for any of these? No, no. Kurt Warner, respectfully, would have been at the back of my list. Okay, but Kevin James, there's a list. It's downstairs of head coaches in NFL history that he could better portray than Sean Payton. It was too heavy to carry upstairs. Like, there's just, you name it, like Mike McCarthy. He looks way more like every other coach than Sean Payton.

And vice versa. Sean Payton has a list of mile long of people. I already gave them the, well, and we already gave him the guy from Diehard. I haven't seen it. Jeremy Irons. How hard with a vengeance. The German guy that was, all those trucks were rolling into New York City. How about Kenny Chesney?

Sure. Kenny Chesney playing Sean Payton. I'm with it. Mama's family. Mama from mama's family. Mamas from mama's family. Whether or not she's still with us. I hope she is.

Yeah. Thoughts and prayers. Anything else we got to hit before we get into AP. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got one thing. A big boil on your neck that hasn't gone away.

a month and I'm wondering if you want to get that checked out. It's not a boil and you're going to regret making fun of that because I think it's something dangerous. Well, maybe I'm helping you here because you think you should find out. My wife thinks it's something dangerous. Well, everybody at the show is concerned about the boil on your night. Stop saying boil. It's not a boil.

It's a patch of dry skin. All right? And so what I do, Nick Saban, I love how he says, all right? In the middle of every single sentence is beautiful. He was at the Heisman presentation. I don't know. Did we mention the Heisman trophy this week? Bryce Young won it.

Well, we did on the show. Dr. Fax, but I want to hear what you had to say about the show. Yeah, yeah. No, he's like, Bryce Young's fierce competitor, right? He just comes to work every day. Bryce is Bryce is. This is just dry skin, okay? So I put some seravei, is that what you call it?

Sure. Like once to twice a day on it, and it's getting smaller. It looks bad, though, huh? Um, it just looks like something. that you're like, oh, that'll be gone in a couple of days, but most people don't see you two, three, four times a week for a span of three months. And now that we're a month in, yeah, it might get checked out. Probably get it looked at.

Yep, that's right. The one thing I have for you, go ahead. Go ahead. You got it. When you were but a boy. When you were but a boy. Yeah? And someone would say, Merry Christmas.

Yeah. Did you think it had something to do with your first name? No, not at all. Never. Never. You were always like a big JC. I get this. Not everything's about me.

Right. Over here in this chair. Right. It's funny. Hey, the game last night. Right. Any thoughts before we get into Aaron Donald? Well, I was on those Arizona Cardinals.

Yeah. And I screwed up. And you were right. I was wrong. That fellow Marco, who took it quite hard on the sideline when he wasn't able to bat down that pass at the goal line that was caught by Cooper Cup. That was a fairly pivotal play, it felt like. Yep. And the Rams seem like their best day is better than the card's best day.

And their, dare I say, their floor might even be higher. Listen, like, again, we've talked about this. You can trick it off for weeks on end. If you're still in it at the end of the season and you have a big win like this, everybody forgets. Like, watch TV today. Everybody wrote off Matt Stafford. Everybody wrote off the Rams.

Like, we've probably done it. And now they're jumping out of the gym. You turn on ESPN, everybody's going to be saying Stafford for MV. the Rams to the Super Bowl, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think sometimes these games happen. You've got to move on, take them into consideration. These two teams will probably meet again. Like, I really do believe that.

When you look at the NFC playoff picture, there's a good chance that these teams might meet again and even the first round. So take it with a grain of salt. Rams got turnovers, one of which was caused by my man, Aaron Donald, on a spin move in the red zone. He just got his hands up.

And that's one thing. Tips and overthrows are always going to be a problem with Kyler. The ball that he couldn't float over Leonard Floyd, the touch you have to put on that pass. If the Rams create turnovers, their ceilings high. If they don't, it's going to be tougher. So what can you take from it? You have to take the Rams seriously. That's all I know. A healthy Stafford's better than an unhealthy Stafford. Man, that's analysis right there. And another one is I mean, like the Cardinals did a lot of things last night, the turnovers and then DeAndre Hopkins drop on fourth and two, which is just like,

hadn't happened since 2019 in the Red Zone. So the guy has hands like, you know. Steel trap. What's a steel trap? You wouldn't know about it because you use humane mouse traps. Oh, right. Steel trap is a third, by the way. Yeah, it's like a bear trap or a mouse trap.

Oh, that's awful. Yeah, so more like hands like the guy in Pan's Labyrinth, the bad guy. It's huge hands. No, I'm not thinking of it. With the eyeballs in his hands, yeah. You're thinking of the mask featuring Jim Carrey. Sure. If I am, I'm thinking about Carmen Diaz or Cameron Diaz.

Cameron Diaz. Cameron Electric camera. Cameron Diaz over Carmen Elektra. Okay. Yeah. Especially the mask Cameron Diaz. Those kickers were good. And yelling guy.

They got the onside kick. Did you hear the guy yelling? And still couldn't. I did, unfortunately. Van Jefferson's dad. Right. Was fucking mad. I think they got it wrong on the telecast.

They were thinking, oh yes, oh yes, no. I think it was more of a no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Well, all right, if it has to be anybody, it's my son. It's going to be my son. They had a great embrace after the game. That was a cool moment. I did not know Van Jefferson's dad was coaching for the Cardinals.

I didn't either. Nice dot jiff by you on the internet. Yeah, Van. Yeah. I like Van Jefferson. I like Van Jefferson a lot. We played against them in an orange bowl. All right.

Well, NFC playoff picture, Packers, Bucks, Cardinals, Cowboys, Rams, Niners, Washington. Washington won't be there long. I'm looking at the Eagles, man. I'm looking at the Eagles. The Eagles could make a little run here. Who's your quarterback? Who's my quarterback? Yeah.

It's Jalen Hertz until he proves otherwise. Okay. But we don't have a lot of time here. So, you know, to me, like, you have to win ball games. Whoever's got the hot hand. I believe the Giants are up, so that's going to be a must win. Yep. Two draft picks in top five as it stands right now.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah. Evan Neal, Alabama. Write it on the card. Go find you in Aaron Donald and everything will be okay. I had found that in 2014 and they went OBJ. They didn't ask for my input.

Yeah, you found it in 2014, but so did Mike Waffle and Jeff Fisher. My fingers were crossed. Let's talk to the man, the myth, the legend himself. He had a hat trick last night, Aaron Donald. Tick picks should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging any

service fees ever. Visit tick pick.com. That's T-I-C-K-P-I-C-K, got rid of all the service fees that the other side's charge. Tick-Pick guarantees the best prices on all of their NFL games. If you can find better prices for the same seats on another ticket site, Tick-Pick will give you 110% of the difference in the purchase price. If you're like me and you can't wait to get back into an NFL stadium, visit Tickpick-Pick.com. I got my man Aaron Donald off a big win and a three piece, man, how good does it feel for the dam to break? Like when you're close, you're close, you're close, and then you get the

three piece. It feels good, man. I was definitely due, you know, for a game like that. I feel like I've been rushing good. I've been getting there, quarterback getting the ball out. Been getting the ball out on me. So for him to hold the ball a little bit for me and let me get a game like that. You know, if it felt good, you know. I felt like I was due to. That's the hardest tradeoff,

man, because it's like a guy who's really athletic and can make plays with his feet. and his arm like he's going to extend plays but the tradeoff is you actually got to get him down like is kiler the toughest dude in the league to sack i would say the toughest but you know a lot of these quarterbacks now that's mobile and they can move is they all tough to tackle you know because you know they can do a lot of things with their feet so anytime you rush a guy like that you got to keep them bottled up you can't let him you know he want to get outside the pocket and make everything

happen so as long as them ends keep them bottled up you know you get close enough to him he don't want to take the hit so you know a lot of times he's going to give you them sets yeah it's got to feel good when you're on Kyler at the end of the game and he's just kind of like, you know, like I'm gonna fall. Yeah, I'm gonna give another one. I was like, appreciate it. Yeah, man. Yeah, but you're right.

It is like, you're a three and you could beat the guard so fast, but you also have to like bow your angle a little bit. Like, you could win fast, but you almost become an end, like where you have to worry about him just turning his back to you and heading to the sideline. Exactly. So you gotta get the right angle. And at the same time, definitely with me, you got a lot of horror slab protection. So even if you have to be,

If I beat that guard around the head, you got the center that's usually going to back flow and trying to get me on the back. And so I got to try to dip and beat him too and worry about the quarterback spinning out. So, you know, it's a lot. But, you know, it comes to the territory. Heavy is the head that wears the crowd. I mean, I saw you in the red zone last night beat somebody clean. The back's sitting there.

He's not scanning. He's just waiting for you. You know, like, it's hard being close. But the good thing is I feel like when you get a sack the first play of the game, it's that house money feeling. Like, now I've got one. I can just kind of relax and let loose. That's exactly what it is.

You know, you set the tone, you make the big play. You get that one sack out the way. You know, once you get that one, it's like, now they're going to just start coming in. Now you just play, you feel comfortable in your little element. And then, you know, it can be one of those days for you. And the turnovers were big. I mean, like Floyd made a great play.

And then down in the red zone, 50 comes up with a pick. But I didn't know you had that spin move in the Arsenal, buddy. I ain't going to lie. I was a little, he had me tired of my hurry. I was just out there doing anything. I pulled it out and it was working. I did twice. It came free for me two times with a skin.

Yeah, but you got a little piece of that ball. I tipped it. And that's the big thing about, like, if a defense is playing down for a period or like, hey, you guys had a tough skid in November just as a team, like, the turnovers can change everything. So, like, you guys getting those takeaways last night, that's like what you need, right? That's huge. You know, definitely, you talk about.

When Flo getting that pick and putting us and giving the office a short field, eight, we scored off that. We got another pick down. They was driving on us. We had to pick, turn the ball over. We drive down and score. So, you know, anytime you do that, it's all about turnovers, man. You make them turnovers in the game.

You got a better chance to win. So, you know, guys made some good plays yesterday. Hey, it reminded me last night because people have been getting a lot of onside kicks. Do you think you could ever be on the onside kick coverage team to just scare the shit out of people? maybe you'd have a better chance, like, as a team of recovering that onside kick? I don't know. We could throw something in there, though. 15 pressures last night, three sacks, big win for the Rams.

You know what? I always say this. Like, no matter what happened the last month, like, when you beat a contending team and you're a contending team and it's impressive, like, it makes all that go away. And it just gives, I feel like, the team a lot of confidence. Odell was rolling last night. It was just a great night for you guys, but I want to mention one guy that, has showed up and I think he's played well,

but people haven't heard a lot about the Vaughn effect. You know, like, how is rushing with Von Miller? And what have you learned about him rushing him at times? It's great rushing with him just because, you know, obviously who he is, his abilities he got, but his knowledge for the game

and then, you know, we able to ping pong golf different. He might be like, I might be like, I'll do a test game. He'd be like, no, they overset me bid. Let's do this me game. And we did that. And that's one of the ones that came. I wrapped around free.

Murray stepped up and gray games got the sack so it was like you know when you rush you with guys like that and everybody's like clicking and you know and productive and it's just you know what I'm talking it's just me absolutely like you guys don't like the first month I'm sure it's like we got to talk things out

a little bit but then after a while you start feeling each other's levels like you know like he knows when you're going to go like it's just a look if you get more comfortable he's learning how I rush I'm learning how he rushing we're able to play off each other like that. So I think, man, we're playing some good football. You know, I think we've been

playing good football, you know, since the Green Bay game for us up front. You know, obviously, we wasn't getting a sack number so the world don't see it. But if you watch the film, it shows, man, that guys are picking good pressure on them and winning their one-on-ones and found a ways that, you know, trying to get to the sack. We've just been playing quarterback and been getting a ball out on us. So it was good, you know, had some opportunities to, you know, had that same type of rush day. But at this time, we got cash in a little bit. So. Talk to me about this guy number 91, bro. Number 91 in the blue and yellow, dude.

Greg Gaines, he's been playing pretty well. Man, he's playing lights out, bro. He's playing lights out. I don't think there's no nose type on the national football league that's playing how he's playing right now, just because he's stout in the run. And then you don't find too many nose typers that can rush. And that's quick, that's explosive.

Yeah. Man, he's playing good football, man. It's been good to watch, man. I remember him as a rookie coming in. And then, you know, when badge go down, it's like, okay, we need Gray to step a bed for us. And, you know, we ain't lose a beat, man. I think he had a good piece to what we get, you know, even in a run game,

but even more in a past game, man, because, you know, I might take it up wide and the quarterback get out. And I know Gray, he got the speed to chase him down. He does, man. I don't know what his Madden speed was, but I'm pretty sure they probably shorter them. Hey, man, but Gray is a little behind. be moving, man. He's playing some good football for us right now. I just want to ask you this one thing about the past rush stuff.

You're at, what, 95 and a half? Don't act like you don't know. I promise you, I don't know, Chris. I don't. Good for you. Would you have so many sacks? You just forget. Hey, will 100 mean something, or is that just the number? Like, honestly, Chris, I'm not, you're just saying this. I really, I just play. I don't really, it would be a blessing to accomplish something like that, but it's like, you just play the game. It ain't like nothing that I'm chasing.

It ain't nothing that I'm chasing or something. That must be nice, man. I'm looking at the DPOI race, and certainly, like, it's a lot of fun this year because it's wide open. I feel like Parsons is making a run. Miles has made a run. You're always there. This kid is unbelievable.

Like, I know you don't watch a lot of other teams, but he probably shows up on end zone tape for you. Has there been one thing that struck you about Michael Parsons? I think he's just playing good football. You know, I think they put them. I see him at the end sometime. I see him listening as a linebacker. So they move him around a lot, and, you know, he's a mitch match.

You know, he's able to, he got some pay of stressability to the point where he's able to, you know, make things happy then and get to the quarterback. So as a rookie, you know, the head of success he's having, you know, in his first year. And I know he feels good, but he's playing some real good football, man. I said best defensive rookie since I saw you play. I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable. And to have a guy that, like, he gets in the slot and runs with a damn slot receiver down the side. line against New Orleans. I've been talking about that play for a month. He'd do it all. He's like, he's like a, um, that little cheat code out there.

You can put him at in, you put him at lineback and cover guys. He can, you know, he can do it all. So he's playing some good football. He's from the state of Pennsylvania, huh? He didn't just go to Penn State. That's right, man. Okay, I like that. I even know that. Okay. And I still owe you from our Pittsburgh, Virginia bat, man. So don't let me forget. I know, I won't, but you weren't cold on me for like a money. Wait, cold. I'll pull up the fucking text message. I said, I said, hey, Do you have Venmo?

Because I don't want this hanging over my head. And here we are. And you didn't answer me. What I tell you? I said, I don't do Venmo. I do cash. When you see me. Okay.

Well, then maybe I'll see you a Super Bowl week. One way or another. I'll be out there and I will deliver the cash. I want to ask you about Kenny Pickett real quick in the fake slide. How did you feel when mixed emotions? Because you know, you're a big pit fan. But this guy is like the D-Lines worst enemy. What he was, what he started.

He was a trendsetter in a bad way with the fake slide. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. But it is kind of tough for him to do that. Like, because the beach of the play kind of pulled all. But,

hey, I was smiling, cheering in my hotel room when I seen that. So, you know, I was happy about it. Last question. What's Aaron Donald listening to

on his pregame mix before games these days? You know, I've been playing a lot of, um, of my old schools type BG. You'll probably know who BG is. BG?

Come on, dude. I'm 36 years old. Oh, I was banging Bigi and yesterday I was banging some old Boosie. So that's who had me in my movie yesterday. So shout out to Boosie, man. Shout out to Boosie. Big shout out to Boosie.

I'm glad people are. Who did you used to listen to the Pittsburgh guys you used to listen to in the locker room? Hardo is my guy. He just dropped the album. He's out there doing his thing. So I've been banging a Hardo. There you go. The Hardo.

Ad, appreciate you, man. Good luck the rest of the year. And one way or another. I'll see you in L.A. for the Super Bowl, buddy. I appreciate you, brother. Yeah, man, take it easy. If you're in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, or Virginia, and you haven't yet tried the Winbet app, I've got great news for you.

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In Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, and Virginia, call 1,800 gambler. And in Michigan, 1,800-270717. Tennessee, y'all two, 1,8009, 9789. If you could clone yourself, how many makins would it take to beat up Aaron Donald? Like we're in a room? Yeah. Well, not only am I physically unimposing.

I'm also like afraid. Well, yeah, but say there's 15 of y'all. But that's the thing with somebody like Aaron Donald. By the way, the Odell celebration last night was pretty good. You're caught up with that meme, the security guy with the totally unrealistic like neutralization situations? No. Oh, you're not? And I saw the celebration.

I watched it a couple of times, but no, I'm not. Basically, it's this guy and he's like a, somehow keeps taking news networks money and like coming on and doing these spots. Like a self-defense expert, basically. If you're getting carjacked, he tells you a way to get shot in the face effectively. I mean, like, he's like, this is what you do. You can disarm the guy. You can get into the chamber and the bullets will fall out. And you can do all that before the guy pulls the trigger and use like kung fu and shit.

So that was the O'Dell Beckham Jr. celebration last night with the full. which you didn't get. I saw it, but I was on Arizona to a degree that I didn't care to investigate what the celebration was about. It's pretty good, go look at this guy. Okay.

Maybe if you had those skills, you could neutralize Aaron Donnell. I mean, I would say like 27 of me. I'd feel like about it. 27? Yeah. I'm taking the over. Really? You, I need more?

Yeah, probably, because most of y'all are going to stand around and be like, it's not my problem. Well, I mean, I think, no, at some point, hey, we're, we might be weak. Yep. We might be scared. And the smell of piss would be overwhelming for Aaron Has everybody urinated down their leg

But we have some pride about us, okay? So at some point we're just going to die for some legs No question. Hey, Bill Simmons, you're a big fan of Bill Simmons. I am. Kingston would print out articles in high school for us, the old page two back when we printed things, you know. I remember the sound.

And then I came back, I don't know, a few years ago now to the Bill Simmons podcast, and he's good. You know, he's, he's, um, this isn't going to,

uh, uh, shock you or anyone else. He's the, he's the fans perspective, watching ball, talking to your friends. Yeah.

Very relatable. And he's, he's great at it. He just, he just goes. You know what it is about Bill? And I think he has this down. And I think we have,

we know, like we have a nice thing going here with this. But like, you feel like you're ease dropping on his pod. Right. Which is, I think, a big.

to having people listen along and nod and being like, no, Bill, you're an idiot, it's this, or good point, Sal, or like you feel like you're sitting at the table with them. Right. What I would like for me on this podcast is to get a little less performative, you know? Yeah. He's not performative at all. Yeah.

Cut open the mic and go. As he told us right before this interview, I don't tell me what's coming. Well, performative should be kind of a prerequisite for you because non-performative would be not here. Silence. Yeah. Not here. Okay. That's fair.

But I can't wait to talk to Bill. I mean, well, we already talked to Bill. I just said we've already talked to him, yeah. We don't need to lie to the people anymore. Yeah, we, this was Monday night. When you got Bill Simmons, if Bill Simmons can do a Monday night, you do it Monday for a Wednesday. So enjoy. The wait is over, man.

And I just want to say this, Bill Simmons has offered to come on the pod for a long time because we've been waiting for the right time. We wanted the Pats to be in it. We picked this week. So we've now got Ryan Rissillo's boss on the line here. Bill Simmons, the great Bill Simmons. How are we tonight, man? That's just, you're like antagonizing Riscilla with that.

Let's be honest. He loves it. Ryan is a, is a talentless hack that you have somehow molded into an interesting, interesting analysis analyst of sports and pulp culture. What is their relationship with you? And Ryan, I'm guessing. It's not really existing. Okay, good.

Well, Ryan and I took in the ACC tournament in Brooklyn together. Yeah, you did. Ryan pops to Charlottesville every now and again. He and I have a rivalry. Yeah, a rivalry of sorts. Born out of nothing, though, is the answer. Yeah, mostly nothing, but a little bit of antagonizing from making. When did you first hear Ryan?

Did you see the talent right away? I knew him from Boston 20 years ago. He was on this radio. station that was the competitor to the big radio station that made a play to get some talent. I used to go on there every once in a while, but the radio signal was terrible. And it was going into a gunfight with just like a couple knives, basically. So you would have this radio station that had good stuff, but if you drove 20 minutes one way, it was just the signal would die.

And so eventually a lot of the talent left and they started taking chances on some young ones. And he was the best one of the young ones that, you know, they're trying to people to eat innings, basically. And so that was when, that I remember when he got to Van Pelt, I don't know, remember what year that was. And he was kind of, it was the Scott Van Pelt show, but he was also on it. And it seemed like they were peers, but he was on the title. And I always thought that was weird. And that's when we started to get to know each other a little better. But yeah, by like 2011, 12, he was writing stuff for Grantland.

And then he was on my pot a few. times. And then when I had the Grantland basketball hour in 2014-15, he was on, I think, our second show. And I told them, I was booking him. They were booking him and they were surprised. They were like, oh, he's not a TV guy. I'm like, I think he is. He's going to be on my second show. Yeah. It's one of those places. You just get pigeonholed immediately into whatever they think you are and you can't break out of it. Well, sticking to Boston stuff, Ryan would be proud here. We're going to talk about your pets right off the bat. Yeah.

You know, like, I've been circling this game for a while. I was on the Pats over. Win total. We've talked about this. I had faith in this group. I didn't know they'd be this good. You surprised? Or are you kind of,

is this how you expected it to play out with them this year? Not surprised. Backed it up with lots of bets. I have them to make the playoffs. I had their over, and I think it was nine and a half. It was. And then they win the AFC East.

Yeah. I had Belichick coach of the year at 14 to 1. I had Damien Harris, most rushing yards at 80 to 1. That's going to be a loser. And then after they lost to Dallas to go 2 and 4, I bet on them at 30 to 1 to win the AFC. Because they really reminded me of the 0-1 team. And I felt that way the whole year,

Mac was the piece that had to come through. But very similar. Underdog Belichick type of team, really, really young in the right spots, really good front seven. They could run. They can block. They're tough.

And it just seemed like a good bet. I didn't know if it was going to hit and we still don't. Yeah, let's not jinx it here. No, but when you look at them compared to the rest of the AFC teams, they're the most well-rounded. I think we can say that. So that's usually a good sign. They're the most valuable. They can throw.

They can run. They can do a bunch of things. And they have the highest floor. To me, and you might think there was a different moment this year, but the floor for them as a fully formed team and the delta between a belt. between a Bill Belichick team in September and November is huge. That's why you know, you always, you always buy the dip with them. But like the floor for me was that Tennessee game and they still won it by two, three scores. I mean, they gave up a bunch of yardage to guys that people aren't even scooping on their fantasy football teams. They were ball aware. They created turnovers.

But they were really bad that day and they still won running away. And I know Tennessee's not a great football team right now, but I say that to say, highest floor in the AFC. and you would probably agree. Yeah, I've been afraid of the chiefs now for a couple weeks just as the team, who do I not want to play? And it was always the Chiefs. I was never sold on the bills. They feel the same way, though.

The Chiefs feel the same way about the Pats. I've said this here. I think it's all about matchups. I think every team has like a boogaboo that they're like, nah, I'd rather not. And I think with the Chiefs, it's the Pats. And I think with the Pats, it's this team they're playing this Sunday. Yeah.

And it's been, you know, it's been a circle for a couple weeks. Because I do think you can run on them. Tennessee did. Yeah. But, you know, you can run on basically everybody in the league except for three teams. They do have a good D-line, though. I just feel like part of the game plan against Tennessee was to let them run on them, I think. Yeah.

I just think they wanted to take away the passing completely, which they basically did. And let Tennessee just kind of move the ball and figured they could get some turnovers, which they did. I think with Indianapolis, is there a world where. Taylor just runs the ball down their throat. Yeah, maybe. But am I taking Belichick against Carson Wentz? Yeah. He's probably going to elect to make Carson beat him.

If I could hear him, you know, like let's make Carson beat me, which is basically the gauntlet being thrown down is on the back end, like we got great players, but I can scheme this thing up to make him throw us the ball twice. Well, what was the game? What was that two, three weeks ago when he was awesome for two and a half, two and a half quarters? And then he turned into Carson Wentz. Oh, man, Tennessee. This was like, again, it was a Tennessee game.

And this was, of course, the game, you remember the tweet. I was like, they flashed up. They did the victory lap. He hasn't thrown interceptions this year, statistic. And I took a picture immediately. You know, like when you rush to get your phone out and take the picture before, you know, the play starts, I tweeted it out. And two, three minutes later, he threw three, like, self-destructive, spectacular.

picks and I've always said this about Carson. Save for that year, last year, which I think it's impossible to judge anybody on, he is not a volume interception thrower. He is a let's fucking do it all out interception thrower. Like when he's going to throw a pick, he's going to go all the way with it. Yeah.

Well, he has poor judgment. He reminds me of my son. My son, my son over the course of a week, he's just going to do three things I'm just going to disagree with. Yeah. You know, three choices he's going to make that I just, no, there are going to be the wrong choice

because he's 14 and he just doesn't know any better yet. And I think with Carson you watch him and it's like third and 13 and he's trying to buy himself two extra seconds as somebody's coming behind him for the strip sack and he's just never going to see that guy. I think he is who he is. There's a clumsiness to him

that I look forward to betting against in the playoffs. I just don't see it with him. So are you fading? And by the way, that would make you Frank Reich and that's really good because Frank Reich, I think is one of the most paternal coaches in the NFL. Like if there's a coach that I want to give me a hug or cuss me out if I need it,

like Frank probably has a good way to do that too. So that's a compliment to you, Bill, as a dad. But are you betting the Pats then this weekend? Because it's not playoff time, but the Colts are two and a half point favorites, which we figured the line would be about that. Where did you think this was going to be? And are you going to bet the Pats this weekend? I thought Sal and I had to guess the lines last time.

I thought the Pats are going to be favored. and usually if I'm three points off, I'll usually bet the team that I'm off on, especially now, because all I do is watch football every Sunday, Monday. If I'm like three, four points off of the team I feel strongly about, then I feel like there's value. And with the paths, to me, the value is in a tease.

Where if I can get them to eight, eight and a half, it's going to be a one score game or they're going to beat Indy by more than that if Went self-destructs. But the Colts aren't going to beat the hell out of them. I'm obsessed with teasers. And they burn me a lot. But if you do them right and you get on a nice run doing it and you're smart about it, they can actually be pretty good for you.

So it's nice to hear that Bill's got that in his arsenal. Oh, I fucking love them. If you can get to me, if I can get under three, although now, like, who knows with these games? Like I had the Browns minus two and a half yesterday. I somehow didn't cover. Stayed away. Thanks to 17 different dumb things that happened.

But if you can get, I like getting over seven and a half. to eight and I like getting down to that like one and a half range or my two favorite teasings. I don't usually mess around with like the teasing somebody to 11 and a half or any of that. There's no point in teasing somebody from like 12 to 17. If they get the doors blown off them, they're probably going to get the doors blown off them. I didn't tell you where I was. I was walking with my 10 month old daughter near your house, behind your house when I couldn't watch it anymore.

I was just following it on my phone when Tyler Huntley completed that very long pass that he had no business completing. and I flung my phone as far into the woods as I could right behind your house. Yes, I did. And it would have been a, maybe a flawless week,

if not for Cleveland two and a half. I had a flawless week, and a lot of teasers fell for me yesterday, including in the 4 PMs. I had, uh, I had, uh, CINC the Niners. That was a no-brainer for me.

It's funny. I tease the Bengals. Yeah, which also won. Yeah, both the teas one either way on that one. It was good. Bengals are just good to go.

You're good to go. They're so variable. the Bengals and we'll probably get into them in a second. But sticking on the Pats here, like it always interests me because everybody, the general public, and by the way, do you think the public play is going to be the Pats this weekend? I haven't even looked. No, I actually don't.

Well, we won't know until Thursday, Friday when the talking heads start coming in and be like, let me tell you something. They start waving their hands. Yeah, when they wave their hands. I think the Colts are going to be a pretty lively zag pick for people. Yeah. People think Belichick as an underdog, well, let me tell you something. Jonathan Taylor is the perfect guy to beat the Patriots.

It's what you said before. If there's a certain type of person to beat the Patriots, Belichick will take them out. He'll put excess people on that just to remove that. And he'll force you to the people that you kind of don't want to rely the game on. And most of the time it works. Obviously, he's the greatest coach of all time. But I think with Indy, he's going to make once throw the ball. And if he gets beat by Wentz,

thrown for 380 and three touchdowns, that's the way it's going to go. So be it, because in the process, he might throw you two or three. And they'll take advantage there because everybody on that back end is ball aware. I admire the pads. I was not rooting against, you know,

the Pats regaining their footing in that division, but I think most people were, and I think that we thought it was over. And now you've got a generation of Pats fans that seem like they might get another 10 years of like relevancy just by showing up at the stadium. How do you, Bill Simmons, somebody who's from the Boston area and is a massive Boston sports fan,

delineate the difference between a fair weather Patriots fan, which is like an entire 20-year run of young people? I mean, you know, like what else are you going to do? Or like a true old stadium, like what's the question you ask a Pat's fan to find out if they're full of shit or not? That's tough because I do feel like the past fans are pretty genuine, especially from the last two decades. I would be too, Bill.

I would be too. I'd be all in. But they were like the number one team other than the Red Sox and they kind of shared the mantle. But from the moment they had that season in 01, they brought in so many new people. But yeah, to answer your question, because I was there when, you know, they were the black sheep of the Boston sports scene. and you know what we i get bored you with stories from the 70s and stuff but we were always

like the team that had the best talent and a ton of promise and they'd fuck it up every year so who were they like give me a give me a comp for the 70s and 80s pats in today's NFL oh shit who is talented but you don't ever think they'll get their shit together i guess like a little vikingish viking wow dude what the antithesis the antithesis of what they are now. Not maximizing the talent. This is what I grew up with. The worst,

first bad football loss of my life was we lost to the Raiders in the 76 playoffs. We had a lead. We had like third and 14. Stopped them. And they called this rough in the past around Sugar Bear Hamilton. That if you watched on YouTube, you'd go nuts. Like he's basically,

he's running at him with his hands up to block it. This is back in the days when you could like the head quarterbacks. You could kill him. Late flag, end up, they score with 30 seconds left and we lose. And it was like this famous call. The referee's name was Ben Dreith. And Ben Dreith, that grew up with Ben Dreight. Where did he live?

Where did he live? Give his address. It was Ben Dreit. It was the Sugar Bear Hamilton game. And then in 78 when we had our best team, our coach left right before the playoffs, Chuck Fairbanks. He went the University of Colorado. And that sent us in a tailspent. And I actually went to the playoff game when Earl Campbell, like,

completely destroyed us. So then it goes in the, of the 80s and it was like this lost thing. And then it comes back with the 85 Pats that come out of nowhere. It's this whole, oh my God, this is awesome. Whoa! We beat the dolphins and the Raiders in the playoffs, these two teams that always owned us.

And it's like, this is a team of destiny. And then we play the 85 Bears. And they kill us. Like the game is over. I don't even think like my nacho cheese was out of the microwave yet. And the game's over. And then two days later, drug scandal. And then we go in another abyss.

And that lasts. And we have like, there's a sexual harassment scandal with a reporter. The team has sold multiple times, almost moves to St. Louis. Then Drew Bledsoe is going to be the savior. Wait, you almost, they almost moved to St. Louis? Oh, yeah. Really? Oh, that was like, that felt like it was done.

And honestly, nobody, they had hit rock bottom to the point that people are kind of like, eh, maybe they should go. We could start over with a new team. And they end up staying, make the super. Bowl in 96. We kick off to Desmond Howard for reasons that remain unclear. We're down three. Reggie White's getting oxygen on the sidelines, kick it right to him. He scores. We lose that one. And then Parcell's left. And then it was like, all right, we're the jackass black sheet Patriots again. And then everything changes when Mo Lewis knocks out whatso in that game.

It's like just the destiny of the team just flips. So let's say, so if somebody's 35, that means they're born in what 1986 basically? Yeah. So they would be old enough to have been kicked in the balls by the Desmond Howard kickoff return. Yes.

So I'd say if they're 35, they would have to know Desmond Howard. If they're like in their 40s, now you have to go to like that Super Bowl run in 85 in the drug scandal. And then somebody my age and older, if they don't know the Sugarberry Hamilton game, they're frauds.

Cross Bob. Yeah, they're frauds. And if they don't know the story about Matt Mellon punching the, who did he punch the Patriots GM? And it was my dad was right. The owner's son, Patrick Sullivan. What the hell happened there?

And did my dad do something wrong? Because he's in the picture. Well, you know, that was the revenge because the Sugar Bear Hamilton game Raiders. Then we beat the Raiders in 85. And then the tuck roll was the official revenge of the Sugar Bray Hamilton game because we got the call. So it all comes around.

It's the final game in the old Sullivan Stadium, too, which eventually became Foxxelvin. Square Stadium. But we finally get the call in the last game. It's a snowstorm and the luck just kind of turned. So yeah, it's been like, and then it continues this year when Mack Jones falls to 15. Holy shit.

Are you a proponent of closing in Gillette? Yeah, well, because they just look a little too they look kind of cool to me, honestly. Like, get rid of Toby Keyes steakhouse out there. Nothing against Toby Kees or any of the consumerish things right outside the stadium and make it

more of a fortress. I like what they're doing. kind of like, do you like it, Bill, the renderings? It's tough. They built that stadium in retrospect during the worst time to build a stadium when people thought they knew what they were doing, but then 10 years later, people really started to know what they're doing with stadium. It was a terrible time to build a stadium. Terrible time.

We had an L.A. here with the Staples Center, which is just sucks. Crypto. And they've had to like renovate it. Now it's the crypto thing. Crypto Center. Crypto center. The weekend, like crypto, and I don't understand this shit. so nobody like hump me down or send me hate messages i know you blockchain folks are really

passionate but the weekend it crashed is the weekend they like unveiled it they're like here's our new sign dude crypto's down like 20 grand this weekend anyways go ahead bill sorry well the old stadium was a magnificent dump yeah it had the aluminum rose instead of seats um it was just an absolute eyesore like that every the pipes would freeze you know You know, people would throw up on you. It was just the all-time dump. And it was funny that the last great moment in that stadium was the tuck roll game, which we call the snow game. But leading to this whole new air.

But the new stadium, I think it's pretty sterile. I don't like going to football games. I don't know where you guys stand. These stadiums, they just, they have no ambiance at all. I'm always more interested in the commercials, what's going on with the other games and all that stuff. And I just don't think it's that fun. I'm with you dude. I mean like towards the tail end of my career all these stadiums were dying short of like qualcomm which is just a big concrete block You know like candlestick was my favorite place

It was a dump and I had to get a you know an off-duty cop to go there with my mom and and my wife and I still wouldn't let them wear Rams Jersey it couldn't wear my jersey in the stands because it's so rough I think these new stadiums are ruining football. I do and I heard Kurt Warner say the other day that he wants every everything indoors. And I fear that I think one day we will watch football. I don't know about an hour lifetime. And it will be exclusively indoor because they build all these new stadiums that you got to have an indoor outdoor. I think it's bullshit. And I wonder if the pads are ever going to, you know, bite that bullet. Not what Bill's alive. I know they won't. Yeah, the Belchick has him practicing outdoors during the week. I mean, that's. I'm well aware.

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, what has to happen for us to go in that bubble? over there, Bill? But that's the thing. This is, all the stuff matters. I think the toughness piece is the part. We can look at the advanced stats and you can watch a game and I can look at, you know, yards per tent, DVOA and all these things. But the toughness factor, I think, is the most important thing when we get to right

around now. The teams that get bullied are the teams I stay away from. That's why I haven't given up on Sincey yet. I can't quit on them yet, even though they can't block. But they got guts. They got guts. They fight back every week. They're down 14.

The game seems like it. And they never give up. And there's something to be said for that. I do have an idea for the Bengals. Don't find yourself sound 14. And then like, because they are scrapping. It starts with that quarterback.

I mean, like Joe Burrow and Bill Belichick would be a hell of a marriage in another universe. I mean, maybe the toughest quarterback QB combo. That guy's different. Wait a second. Mac. Mac's pretty fucking tough.

Oh, man. I got to say, he's taking some monster hits this year. That Randy Gregory hit, that was the hard. said I've seen all year. He's got right up. He's really tough. This is the age now where if you're hurt, you get to

leak it and everybody knows your exact injuries and shit. Like when I played like, it was really tough. You were like, sometimes I wanted people to know that maybe you were playing hurt, but you couldn't. Now everybody's got a reporter. Right. Well, Brady's the only one who doesn't let it out. Right. Because he's

so competitive. He gets it. Like he was hurt all last year. We didn't even know. I think he was, yeah, to your point, and I think yesterday, I don't know if you, you know, yesterday. People are listening to Wednesday pop, but it's Monday night. When they played Buffalo, my biggest takeaway

was that Tom looked really fucking spry. Like Tom looked really good. He always moves well in the pocket, but he looked athletic actually. Like he looks springy. I don't know if he said yes to Torto or if he's more pliable

or he's getting over an injury, but to your point, you never know what's going on with Tom's body, which is he he reprogrammed how to run he program i mean he actually did real science with this stuff and studied what was wrong about his running style and reprogramed it you watch that he had a run yesterday for like 15 yards 13 yards he looked fast if you watch the tapes because i was watching that man in the arena because i'm a pat's fan i couldn't resist you watch him scrambling in the first couple years his career his like his limbs are going in all different directions he kind of

kind of looks like Carson Wentz, actually. Just kind of weirdly unathletic as he's running. Now he looks like pretty spry. I got to say I was impressed. No, I was too. You want to do AFC, NFC playoff picture stuff. My FACC 7 and 6.

You mentioned the Bengals. Is that your favorite of the 7 and 6? You got Bill's, Bingles, Browns, Broncos, alliteration, Colts. With the Pats C. B, B, B, B, B, B, C. On Saturday.

Yeah. It's funny. There's something I don't like about each of those themes. So I don't know if I necessarily because the Bengals thing, the fact that they can't block for Burroughs really concerned. Like he was making throws yesterday where he's just hitting guys and there's like three people either about to hit him or hitting him or within an inch of hitting him. And I worry about him staying healthy for a few more weeks. I would say the bills are probably

the safest bet because, you know, like Chris, if you were playing the bills, you would go into that game going. I really hope they don't just spread all the receivers, have no running back. And then Josh either, you know, basically the five receiver offensive batting. Yeah. And Josh is the running back. They only do that when they're down 20. And then when they do it, nobody can stop them. Right.

And then the next game, it's like, all right, handoff to fucking Matt Brita. I always have to wonder this because Matt Brita took the first running back handoff in the third quarter last night on a fake punt, I believe. And they hadn't like a running back had not carried the football. But, you know, like the QB run game, which I've called for, I mean, like, listen, burn the ships. you're wanting to win a Super Bowl, you build a package that you roll out in January. I don't give a fuck how many times you get to wrap it in December, but like Josh Allen needs 10 carries a game. And then you need to get your running backs.

I would say 15. 10 to 15. Okay, I'll go 15. But I'm also, it's puzzling to me that, and again, I want to point this out, they're down big yesterday. A lot of times, like things work late, like, you know, Eagles, right? Jalen Hertz has played really well at times, and he's done some big numbers, but he's also have been really puzzling at times.

He racked up a lot of numbers on the back half of games where they were big leads. Same thing with Josh Allen and the run game. It's like, I don't know if they're just unloading that box. I'd have to look at it and see what that box count was and by virtue of spreading people out and being willing to be spread out because you're up three scores,

then you're more susceptible to that. But Brian Daibel puzzling to me, a guy that spent that much time in New England and at Bama that you're just like, hey, fuck physical football on offense. It's almost like I'm proving my dad wrong, you know, or something like that. I'm going to do the opposite. I don't get it.

I don't get it either. I just don't trust teams that can't be physical in January and February because there's going to be a game when you're just going to have to run the ball. The elements might not be in your favor. Your starting receiver might get hurt. If you can't do multiple things, that's what I love about this past team because I really do feel like they can play from behind her head. And the,

it's funny, the two running backs that have really come on, Remandre, who I thought was amazing. He was amazing in that Bill's game. He was seen 78 yards. And there was like 10 guys every time. And then Javante Williams on Denver, I think it's really good. Oh, he sneezes for five yards, dude. Oh my God. Yeah. They've been really careful

with them, too. They never give him like the 30 carry game. It's always like 13 to 18 carries. But those two guys, I think, have have really emerged as rookie guys. And one last shout out for that Bill's game. Ramonje played great, but my two stars of the game were those two guards

and those guys up front. I mean, they were just, they were on their horses getting around. There were some of those, you know, G-Pole plays, perimeter runs where there were so many bodies in there.

It was like, man, a little social distancing. Where's the ball? You know, like, and somebody would squirt out for 17 or whatever was. And those guards were the key to that game getting out on the perimeter. and blocking people up.

So shout out to my boy Teddy Karras and Shaq, Shaq Mason. What was your theory on the three-passing? Because I am 100% convinced that was a mindset. He wanted that team to be tougher than Buffalo. I felt it as I was watching it, he does shit like this. Yeah.

This was like a real thing where he's like, not only are going to win this game, we're going to throw like less than five times. And we're going to, I can tell even from the press conference because like David Andrews, the center was saying like, this is the greatest three.

hours of my life. I just can't believe how much fun that was. I think he wanted to instill in those guys. You can be tougher than it. The team that's allegedly your biggest competitor, we're just going to be tougher than them for three hours. And I don't, I think he was passing up play actions because you wanted to prove it to them. I think one, look at that first reception of the game to Johnny Smith. It was an adventure. So, you know, like that in and of itself kind of reinforces that the conditions were fucked up. I think that Bill played odds. I think Bill said, you know, like, I think there's that. I think there's twisting of the knife with the team that was like,

finally it's our time. Well, no, it's not. We're going to run the ball. You know, like, we're not changing the guard here tonight. And you're going to need, like, to play power 70 times or whatever. I think he was playing the odds. And the odds being, if I run the ball X amount of times, you have to be perfect. Like, everybody on the field has to be perfect in the run fits.

And what happens is, if you notice, it looks. like a high school game, like at times. The spacing in that game was so non-existent. There were so many people in the box, Bill. It's like, and eventually a defense just says, okay, we're in inside run. We're in goal line. We're in short yardage. Like, people fall asleep. And one miss tackle, as you saw in the Damien Harris toss play, I think it was on third and five, goes for 68 yards because one guy had a bad angle. Everything's like, when you load the box, like that one mistake. And so Bill knows if I run the ball 40 times, times, I need three, four guys in the second level to be bad angles, wrong fits, and we could be

out the gate in a game where one touchdown or eight points, as Kyle Van Nuoy pointed out on our show, eight points makes a huge difference. So they played the game on their terms because he bet, right. I loved it. Top five regular season, Pat's one. So fun, so fun. It was so easy to be on the right side of that bet. It was one of those classic, well, there is no classic. What you see is what you should bet. Like, don't overthink it. The Pats are going to win this game and it's going to go under. We usually use a hag, but not that game. You want to do NFC real quick

before we move on? Well, your favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings are at six and seven. Fuck the Vikings, and I heard that you don't bet the Vikings. The Vikings, your Vikings are... No, I do. I'm done. I've retired from Betty... I did that with the Seahawks. I retired with the Seahawks, although I relapsed yesterday and it paid off, so maybe I'm back in the door, but like, I have an under wind

total on the Vikings, and I have been sweating this thing all year, dude. So, The defense they played against Goff from the 12-yard line where a touchdown is the only thing that could hurt them. And whatever the fuck they were doing. And also, like, my son knows nothing. And even he knows blitz Jared Goff. Like, how hard is it? Just blitz him.

He's going to fuck up. You can't just let him just stand back there. And you're playing 40 defensive backs. But then that last play, like, I've just never seen anything like it. I thought Zimmer should have been fired the moment the game ended. They should just say. How does your son know that? He's Carson Wentz.

How does he know that? You know what I mean? I think he's from his flag football years. I think he'd be like, okay, that's so you want to stay in front of the guy before he gets to the goal line. Oh, should I do that as the back? That was the worst loss of the year. Terrible. And the other night, I'm up ailing from my booster for the 17th time for people.

So you know my journey. It's been a tough couple days. But I'm up watching this fucking game. It was a classic game. I had the Steelers. I teased the Steelers. and I'm just praying like hell. I don't hedge.

I'm praying like hell the Vikings lose because I'm definitely going to win that, you know, that giant under win total bet. It's the classic game that you stay up late for and it just lets you down. What is your number with Minnesota? Nine pushes.

That's the problem. Two bears, a Rams and a Packers. And the Packers, which they've owned the Packers. They're like the Niners are with the Rams. Like, incredulously, they're just going to beat them all the time.

We talked a lot on the pod yesterday about the Niners. and just how many really good players they have when you're watching them, now that everybody's healthy, where they're just throwing out, kiddo was immense yesterday. I mean, that's one of the better games we've seen, but Bosa was all over the place in that game.

Samuel's really, really good. I don't know. They just, they have blue chippers, and they seem like they know what they are, and you can make the case like, this is the first time they're reasonably healthy, close to being healthy,

maybe they're peaking at a good time. I think they're good with a lead. Although yesterday, Burrow just was, I mean, some of those throws he was make it was nuts, but that game probably should have been over. Yeah. And they were missing their starting running back, who doesn't seem like he can stay in the field

for more than three games. I think making could probably. And by the way, Tom retaught himself how to run. Yeah. 5-6-140? 6-1. We're going to fix that. We're going to talk to Alex Guerrero.

It started with Mostert. Now it's Eli Mitchell. And we are going to square off. in the first round of the playoffs. Oh, damn. I forgot to set my line up and let him in the fucking playoffs. The whole league thought it was like collusion. Oh, my God.

Yeah, it was a disaster. If they get the six seed, there's a chance it's Packers' Niners in that first round. So I was going to ask you this. If you get, and other than the hoodie and Tom, everybody wants to see that or some people maybe don't in the, in the Super Bowl.

They want to hate seeing it. People can fuck off. Yeah, they can't buy. I agree with you. They can fuck all the way. And it would be much different than that 20 to 19 game in the rain or whatever it was earlier this season. But I was going to ask you if there's one like random matchup you really wanted to see in the playoffs for interpersonal reasons or from a scheme matchup standpoint or is there any two teams that you really want to see play each other? I mean, all these teams have some sort of flaw.

I think Packers, Bucks at some point in the NFC would be really good. Absolutely. I want to see Chiefs Chargers. I want to see three of those fucking games this year. You get to see it Thursday. We're going to see it Thursday, which for once I do, you know, I do Amazon Thursday night football and Prime and we've had a tough run of games. We're starting to have some good ones and we're about to be out the door. But this one's going to be great and I'd love to see it again in the playoffs.

That's a team that kind of truly does play up to the level of Chiefs and the matchups good. I'm a lot more dubious to the chargers than I think most people are. I'm not as sold on them. I don't, the echo thing, it just seems like he's always hobbling out of the game. How tall is he like? What is he like 140 pounds? No, I think he's like a muscle. I think like when you're a muscle like that and you're really compact, like you're prone to

soft tissue stuff. I've never been that fast or explosive athletics, so I never had that problem. I didn't like when they let the Bengals back in that game because that game was done. And then all of a sudden the Bengals looked like they were going to win. And that made me nervous. I think the coach is like two in analytics too. I think there's a balance you can find. Like at some point, common sense needs to prevail every once or a while.

I think we got a little bit out of our skis with Brandon Staley. And I love Brandon Staley. I think there's a lot good about him. And, you know, the players seem to really like him. But there was like a two-week period where we were just like every social was Brandon Staley like with dramatic music in the background set over like a press conference and people were just like, oh my God, I want him to be my dad. Can I go play for the charges? That's a new coach thing, right? Every year there's that one new coach that is like the new girl in school

everybody's enamored with a couple weeks. It's Brandon Staley. Stapansky last year. The fansky last year. And then you're like, oh, wait a second. She has bad breath. I mean, yeah. Back to the AFC for a second. Is there a dark horse playoff team you like there? I think Indy, if they played the right team, could really beat the shit out of that team. It's a softer team. And it actually could be the bills. And we've seen it already. Like, they could really bullyball them in the playoffs to a degree where, like, Sean McDermott's like getting fired two days later, like one of those type of things.

Yeah. And honestly, like, if they get their ass kicked in playoffs this year, it might be just like time to talk about that. You've got a window with a generational quarterback. and they haven't really, and they've been top of the league and all the stats and all that stuff. By the way, interesting nugget, Frank Reich, he was the quarterback for the bills in that giant comeback game. You remember that giant comeback game? Did I, I wagered on it? You wagered on it?

Oh, yeah. Who'd you have? I had the bills. So what did you do back then? I'm not even being like a smart ass. Like when you bet, like you had to go to a casino or you had a bookie and then you had to call your bookie on like a bookie. So you had to call your bookie on a pay phone or like, how?

How did that work? I always had the friend who had the bookie. Okay. So we would pair up and be like, all right, let's do this. And we would go. Yeah, I had the Frank Wright game. And I think I had, I was on the right side with the Music City Miracle, too. Those are my two.

Yeah. Going back to the Pats, though, I started gambling in 1990 because the Pats were so bad. And it was the only game on. So it would be like, you know, the other games were blacked out and be like, the Pats would be playing whoever they'd be down 38 to 3. and be like, all right. And once somebody taught me the gambling thing, I always been kind of intrigued by it.

But once I actually started doing it, it was like, oh, instant team. When did live lines start? When did live lines start? That's like the last five or six years. So you could not, not in the 80s or 90s, you couldn't be like, hey. No, no, no, no. Like in the timeout run to the pay phone? There was probably a lot more chicanery back there, too.

especially in like the 70s and 80s with you know you could take some one person you could bribe right yeah how would anyone know you get like corolla is used to have this joke about you just need the long snapper you just need two snaps it's like the one field goal and one punt over the punter's head it's a 10 point swing and you're good i just watched the headache smith thing we were talking about that on me i never knew that whole story that's ridiculous bc story too so interesting and to think the guy was I was telling him about the guy was sitting in the casino, the guy who had the game fixed and he's watching, you can't watch the games because they didn't have that many TVs

and he's just watching the score scroll across, hoping that headache took care of the cover. Just crazy times. Wait, I have a question for you. You're on Rogers team. Yeah. You go like 13 and 3 last year or whatever you did. Come like fairly close to making the Super Bowl.

And then he does this whole deeper routine for six months and talks about he wants to get out. in the organization doesn't care about winning and basically just takes a shit all over the team. Then it's like, no, actually, I might host Jeopardy, but that all of a sudden he's back. And it's like, well, we'll see how it goes. And now we're in and again in the season and you have one of the best teams. What is your reaction if you're like a delinement on this team, having gone through this whole thing with how football teams work with offense versus defense and the egos of a team and something like that? in the back of your mind

or you're just going like this fucking guy fuck this guy or do you forget about it in the back of my mind I'm like hey uh like playing with leads you know I like Super Bowls so so you throw it out you don't even think of that fuck yeah dude and you'd have to be an incredibly disruptive

cat to not for the juice not to be worth the squeeze there and I don't see interpersonally just judging from a mile away like we might think Aaron's different like people might think at times that he's been fucking like I mean the the the lying about the vaccine thing was was a bad bad look um yeah however you want to slice it that doesn't make it you know it's not irredeemable as a human

being it's not like he he you know but he told it a lie the other stuff the offseason drama uh there's that in every kind of organization it's just so magnified with him i mean like when you are the you know you are a human jugs machine that runs 17 miles an hour like everybody wants to know what you're doing all day long 24 seven so So as a player, I'll take that trade off that the guy's a little bit, like, different and that he's going to make news from time to time. As long as the news we're making in December is that we have like a number one seed and it comes through Lambeau Field because as a pass rusher,

there's nothing I want to do more than have a lead and be on a good football team. And that's not a cop out. I'm just telling you, I play with bad guys before and I play with guys that were really fucking locker room cancers, as people put it. Brady. you were saying Tom Brady you motherfucker do I have to say this again Tom Brady's one of the nicest

kindest people I've ever played football with I mean introduce himself to me I'm like what are you doing that about I know exactly the fuck you are Aaron Rogers might be different but I don't think he's hated by his teammates so what do you have to do to be hated by your teammates selfish um not not a

go ahead check Rogers okay keep going asshole to his teammates I don't know that you get a check there he's not an asshole to his team I mean that's the key it's like how do you treat your teammates that's it like we don't give a fuck

how you're treating people upstairs oh you want to go get your money oh you want to you know Brian G and you are having a little off season Tiff like we don't give a fuck we just want to win football games are you cool to me do you dat me up in the locker room

do you do you stick up for your teammates do you advocate for us like hey when we need a practice off or if somebody gets fined and you have a relationship with the coach, do you advocate for that guy? Like, you can be a huge asshole. Here's the thing about public facing resumes.

Fans don't know shit about who's well liked in a locker room and who's not. And that goes for me too. You know, like I'm sure, you know, like some, you know, I'm described as this great locker room guy and I'm sure some motherfuckers hated me. I don't like, you know, it's just people don't know. Fans don't know.

Some of their favorite feel good players are actually douchebags. And that's the way it goes and vice versa. So the minute Aaron can't hit an out or like throw the ball cross body for 40 yards, the opposite hash, like then things get magnified a little bit. But he can do those things.

You know what I mean? I'm a big, you know, one of the things, I really like the July, August. I do do a lot of research on the different teams to read the beat stories about, if it's like a rookie quarterbacker, You can really gleam stuff from the quotes, and you could tell when the quote is like full of shit versus like how much substance there is. And that was one of the things that got me so excited about Mac and July and August where the teammates liked them and you could tell and you could tell from the stories.

And then there were these anecdotes like Belchick got mad at the offensive line and it made them run laps. And Mac ran laps with them out of solidarity. I'm like, oh, this guy gets it. Like he's sucking up to the biggest guys in the team. This is what you're supposed to do is the rookie QB. and you can tell after the three-pass game, the guys were giving him shit about how they won, even though he only threw three passes.

And you see the stuff like that, and you're like, all right, this, they like this guy. You can know, sometimes you don't know. I'm with you, Bill. That's really adept because I would liken it to like the flight attendant on an airplane. Like in turbulence, I want to see the facial expression of the flight attendant. Like, I want to know, like, are we in trouble?

Like, I'm looking at her or him. Yeah. You know, like, if I want to know if a player is, well liked. I look how the other players interact with him and are quoted talking about him and there's a key here. A lot of times it's not what's said. It's what's not said. You know, like, you can hear what's being left out or what's not being said. If I ever wanted to know if a coach didn't like me and I had a few of those, like I'd read their quotes about me because there's certain things that are not saying that tell me all I need to know. And I do think it's an inexact science, but I think

you're right. It's when they say the guy's name twice is usually a red flag. Oh, when they're like, oh, you know, Chris is Chris. Yes. He's an asshole. Yes. Anytime it's a double name, you know the guy's a dick. Yes. He's fucking, he nailed it. What's her cell like? What's your cell like? Well, you know, Ryan's Ryan. Ryan is very much Ryan. COVID and the NBA and the NFL. Dude, I'm like, I opened up pro football talk today. every fucking headline is COVID

there's a word COVID in it and I worry as much and more actually about the NBA season because I think the NFL is going to try to power through this thing what do you think happens down the line the Bulls just canceled a couple games how do they react to this

and is the season in jeopardy down the line here no it's it just kind of moves on and you figure it out I think we learned the recipe last year the NFL is obviously easier for the NFL to do it since they don't care about their players. Yeah. So just like, we're going to keep going, guys.

Sorry. I get the. Believe me, I get the joke. Yeah, yeah. It's like, what I'm like, fuck. No, they, I mean, they literally don't. The NBA probably weighs the sentiments of their players a little too much. So, you know, if the players get to a point where they're like, hey, we're not comfortable

with this, then I think the NBA would actually listen to them. But I, you know, it seems like the cases are starting to spike, which is, a bummer for a lot of different reasons. Like the NFL, where they have 38 cases today in the NBA, it seems like it's going through there. It's going through the Premier League and soccer. But I think it's just one of those things. You just ride it out. You cancel games. You just figured out in the fly and keep going. I think it's changed gambling. I don't know for you guys, but I don't really want to make any bets before like day of anymore. I don't feel good about it because you just never know. Like you bet on whoever and all of a sudden,

guy gets scratched and the line moves six points, you know. Or the long snapper, something happens with the long snapper. Or the secondary. Yeah, the whole secondary is out. It's like, all right, we're using practice squad and the secondary today. You have them minus four. Denver game last year. You want to get to winning time, but I'm curious, Bill,

are you rooting for Ben Simmons because of your son to fizzle? To become a star because then he's susceptible to any number of various scandals. Are you rooting for a decent career? I'll do it. I think this worked out great. Ben Simmons, the threat would have been Ben Simmons turning into like the next Michael Jordan. Right.

That's a transfer. Believe me, that shit is tough. My son has the same name as a guy who hasn't played at six months. He's fine. We're not sweating out the other Ben Simmons. That's fucking good. Yeah.

So it all worked out. What's going on with the Celtics, man? Are they any good? No. Okay. They're not good. They're five. team. The league's really deep. There's a lot of talent right now. And there's just a lot of teams

that are right around being irrelevant, but have like one or two guys. And you look at them, they're like, why aren't they better? And there's like 12. Why aren't they better teams? Is that always is that more increasingly going to be the issue as players have more autonomy? There's just going to be these forgotten franchises that you're like, I don't know who's playing in Sacramento. No, I think I think the talent's deeper because first of all, guys are playing longer. So you have the older guys who are just staying, you know, you got Chris Paul and LeBron and those kind of people and they're still really good.

And then there's a lot more awareness about how not to fuck up when you get to the NBA. And so we, and there's injury recovery is way better. And if you get an ACL, you're back in 10 months and blow out your Achilles, you're back in year. Like in the 70s, 80s, 90s, there were all these different ways for a career to get screwed up. And now it seems like not only does a career not get screwed up, but you can play longer. So it just seems like there's more talent. And it makes a team like the Celtics where we're like, we have Tatum and Brown, we should be good.

And then you look around and it's like everybody's kind of good. You know, the NFL is so different in that you really can't be good unless you have a quarterback. Right. It's a really easy league to figure out. Like if you don't have one of the 12, 13 best quarterbacks, you're just not going to be good. And even if you have somebody like Kirk Cousins, you're still not going to win a Super Bowl, right? You have to have one of like the seven to nine guys, which is why this offseason, if Wilson becomes available and Rogers becomes available, we could see like our version of the Kauai Leonard type of trade with draft picks. Because how hard is it to get a guy like that?

You know, they're never available. You got to go for broke to get them. You have made arguments. I think you were like one of the earliest proponents of the playing game. game, yeah? The tourney. Oh, for the playing tournament. Yeah. I was always, I just think the NBA has done such a bad job of making their regular season interesting. I would agree. They, they care about it more lately, but 82 games is ludicrous. And, you know, the tanking, which really started in the 2000s, is just so reprehensible. And you're incentivized to do it. So I was

always like especially when I was writing I always trying to come up with what if we did this what if we did that but the you know the mindset is just how do we not have regular seasons suck why is why do the playoffs have to be this much better than the regular season I mean ultimately it should be because they should have 60 games instead 80 more rest for the players all kinds of things but they're just never going to do it they're too tied to the attendance numbers so I want to pitch you've you've pitched the playing tournament and it's I think it's actually pretty cool. There's a mid-season tournament that that's being pitched as well. Yeah?

Yeah, that's been around for 15 years, but the problem is nobody can figure out what the incentive is. Yeah. Because if you said, all right, you get the fifth pick in the draft next year. Like, why do the players care about that? Especially the ones that are

up. Like, who gives the fuck? Oh, good. You're bringing in competition for my job next year. That sounds great. Let me try it really hard. Exactly. So they never figured that out. And then it's like, well, All right, it would be this much money. Well, how much money do these guys need if they're making $20 to $40 million a year to be incentivized?

So I've never heard the incentive piece worked out. People were talking about could it be like some sort of playoff advantage? You know, you get two wins heading into a series, but then that's not fair to the other team. So I don't think they'll ever figure it out. I got an idea that sounded really fucking cool 30 minutes ago, but I'm not so sure it's going to sound cool now. It was a decent idea. I don't remember it.

Obviously, winter classic at Rucker Park. That's what's going to fucking take the NBA regular season in the next level. I don't know if it's won two games, but just roll a winner classic out there. Tell Adam Silver, I said you've got to do a winter classic. But you could do an outdoor series and guys got to go out there and get a little cold. What do you think about that, Bill? It's been discussed. They've talked about, like, could they play in Venice at like one of the playgrounds?

just like a Venice playground game. Could they do Venice, Rucker Park? You couldn't do a place that would actually have snow and ice. No, but if you would like a street fighter situation where it's like the background is just gorgeous, you up on top of a mountain somewhere, like you go to these very like on a beach and right down the road from you

and like maybe outside Ryan's house of Manhattan Beach where he played, maybe at the basketball court that he always plays alone in Manhattan Beach. Yeah, he's like the guy in above the rib. He's just playing by himself. a ball he's just practicing okay that's a perfect segue because this lakers thing's coming out um which is really exciting and shout out to jeff perlman who uh is a friend of the program really

love jeff and um it's based on i guess his book but more importantly it's based on you know showtime lakers 80s lakers and and fun group obviously that's why it'll be a fun time i was going to ask you how hard is it i know i know a lot of it's going to center around the the personalities, right? How hard is it to get the basketball right? You know, like in a series or in a movie

and what's probably the worst on-screen basketball you've seen? Oh my God. There's so many examples. I think it's done by Adam and Kate this show, who's like an actual real basketball fan. So I don't think he's going to throw away

the basketball stuff. Okay. Would be my prediction. But like the guy that plays Kareem, he's he's 6-11 right this guy actually played but how many sky hooks are we going to see like keep that in the bad i'm sure they like really worked with them really i know that uh i know that people are really high in the show i know they the one thing i heard was because the actors are shorter than the actual ones that when they do the basketball scenes the hoops are

lower oh yeah so it's like a nine and it's like tom cruise and his shoes kind of like there's manipulation most of these actors and actresses are tiny Like across the board. It's shocking when you meet somebody like Affleck, who's like a big-ass guy who could have played in high-in in college. Yeah, you remember like the 6-2-6-3 people because they're so, they're such outliers. Jeff Goldblum, he's like, I did a pod with him.

He was like 6-4. Really? Couldn't believe it. Yeah. Tall podcaster right here on the other side. I met Bill Simmons and I was like, holy shit, Bill. I'm tall. Looking at me eye to eye.

He might be taller than you. Wow. You guys want to talk it out? I could jump, I could jump hook them. I'm 6-4, but I claim 6-3. Because when I say 6-4, people are like, no, you're not. Prove it. Like, here I am.

Yeah. So what would your combine hype be, Bill? I'm 6-1 and 1-5. Okay. He projects like 6-4. I really wanted the 6-2. I just could never get there. You're like, you're just going to do it.

So who's the best cast in this in this Showtime Lakers show? It's by the winning time by Adam McKay, is the director. Obviously, you guys know all his movies. Well, Nixon's son plays Norm Nixon, which I thought was cool. Norm Nixon's son. John C. Riley is Jerry Bus, right? Which I'm not totally there with that because I think Jerry Bus was, I remember, I just remember, and I won't betray magic. But when Jalen and I, we did basketball with magic for a year and you're in these rooms where you're just watching basketball for eight hours waiting for like the next half time or whatever,

and you're just bored and we would just always ask magic questions. And he would tell Dr. Buster, and Dr. Bust sounded like the all-timer of just whatever he was doing every night. And I don't see John C. Riley like that. I don't see him as like, watch out, don't let your wife around John C. Riley. And I'm not a podcast of John C. Riley. Maybe it's because we've seen him doing that. It's like the guy from stepbrothers.

Yeah. So, yeah. And then I'm trying to think they have Adrian Brody's Pat Riley. Can he pull that off? Like, what do you have to be to be Pat Riley? I think you have to be good looking and cool. And confident. Yeah, confident.

What kind of cologne does Pat Riley wear? That's what I want to know. That guy probably has some, like, is it high karate or is it like, you know, like what kind of, what could? I feel like Pat Riley has got a scent, like everyone. His story is unbelievable. He was like the fucking announcer. And they fired the coach and then ended up on a coaching staff. And all of a sudden he's coaching, you know, one of the best teams of all time and was kind of meant to do it.

And now I think, you know, he's one of the four iconic non-player careers. By the way, you brought up hanging out with Magic Johnson lot. Macon took a piss next to Magic Johnson once. Sort of. We were at the garden. It was a Sweet 16. He went in first. And then I was behind him at the urinal.

And you decided this was the time to take a picture? No, no. I decided it wasn't. I made a very, very mature decision not to be like, hey, magic. I waited, I waited until after. Then I found him. And he, it's a great bathroom stall fan interactions are the worst, the worst of all the time. What's your number one?

I took a piss next to dot, dot, dot, dot guy. Michael Phelps. Oh, that's a good one. Mine is the Undertaker. Really? Yeah. Yeah, in Vegas at like two in the morning and just a dead silence next to the Undertaker.

Oh, not saying shit. And then he walked away and I was like, I'm up 600 bucks. I just took a piss next to the Undertaker. What is that. Amazing, dude. Michael Phelps was at the Espies, and I was like,

one of the greatest true athletes to ever live. I just pissed next to him. I really like the Jason Clark. Yeah, I like that cast a lot. I think that's going to work. It looks like him, and maybe I'm being a sucker for the visual,

but I think there's something to that. And Adrian Brody, he's got his work cut out for him, but I don't know. This is a weird thing. Actors playing actors like Max E. Williams, playing Jack Nicholson. Like, I don't know.

That's a tough thing to pull off there. Yeah. So, look, we're on such a good run with HBO shows, especially coming off succession, which I think has kind of moved into the Pantheon at this point. And now, and people, I just feel like, if they figure out this show, too, TV's back. I remember worried after Thrones.

We were, from a ringer standpoint, we were like, holy shit, are there, are we ever going to have another, like, elite prestige show? Some dumb, some dumb ass people think it's Yellowstone. My dad does. My parents. Oh, they love it. Oh, I can't get.

My parents love it. They were like, sit down. Let's watch Yellowstone. We lasted 30 minutes. Same thing was, I can't get it success. Bill, I think Succession is the greatest show I've ever seen. My friend here likes to call it Succession because he needs, he needs action and plied. No, I don't.

He's not a big word guy. I need some dead space. I like, I'm a minimalist. All the movies I like, there's like less talking. Every, every emotion like is... Oh, so you'll like power of the dog bank because nothing fucking happens in that movie for two hours. I like movies that I walk away and say,

what the fuck just happened? And I got to think about it. I don't want like... Well, if you were into succession, that would have been last night for you. Okay. Well, maybe I'll stick it out for succession. Hey, where is Ben Simmons tracking?

And I don't mean any offense. Is he a Kindle, a ship? a Roman Oh, this is a succession thing. Yeah, yeah. Thankfully, uh, thankfully, thankfully none of the above.

Okay, good. That's good. More of a Tom Wamsganz to him. You know who loves my son, Ben Simmons, almost as much as anybody? Riscilla.

Oh, he's great with kids. That gives you a sense of like, he's a very testosterone kid, which Riscilla immediately, like they're ready to take their shirts off. Yeah. Fucking,

and wrestle. That's kind of Ricillo all the time. And Rissol is a big FaceTime guy. Don't pick up his face times in public because he'll be shirtless. You guys FaceTime? That's interesting. He facetimes all the time, dude. He's a big FaceTime guy.

So much so that he thinks you two are friendly. We are buddies. Hey, I was going to ask you about parenting because I'm, you know, before I let you go, like I think one of the hardest things about, um,

podcasting for me, you've done this for eons, like, and you've grown as a parent doing this and like you, you've probably, You're totally different guy than you were when you started, I'm sure. I mean, like, in a good, we all grow and change what we're willing to say and what we're not willing to say and we learn. I worry about my fucking kids listening to this stuff.

You know what I mean? Like, I don't know if what am I going to be worried about in 10 years when it comes to like this? Is this going to be buried by if this is successful? He'll never go back in the archives this deep. Like, you know what I mean? They won't care. They won't care. You don't think.

No, that generation is so. It's like the no shame generation, right? It's really hard to revile your kids, I think. But I think with me, what was interesting, Sal and I, we used to do Parent Corner on Sunday nights, which we still do. But it used to be great when our kids were young. We could tell these crazy stories about, you know,

dumb things our kids did. But now I have a 16-year-old to 14-year-old, and I can't tell the stories I want to tell on Parent Corner. So I have to do like the C-List stories. The stories that I want to tell, people would be like, oh my God, but my kids would actually kill me in my sleep. That's the thing. And it sounds like your kid's kind of jacked, so you don't want to piss him off if he, if he's like a solo kind of guy. I do think he thinks he can take me in a fight. I don't think he can, but it's getting closer.

Like he, you know, he used to be like, I don't know, plus 900. Now he's like plus 350. Plus 350. He's dead. 50? No, you never know. He's punchers chance. It's a good time to get on Bill Simmons. Bill, I'm a 35-year-old. old white male who enjoy sports. So it won't shock you that I consume your content. And there's no question here. It's just a compliment. Your daughter Zoe seems like

the most mature smartest 16 year old kid I've ever heard. It's so far. We'll see. We're trying. It could change. Yeah, you know, you never know. But yeah, it seems like she's got the good head on her shoulders.

If you're 16, my son's the one that we're worried about. If you're six, if you're a teenager, and like your parents are like yeah this is a breeze like you're always going to be a breeze that's pretty awesome and we wanted to ask you one more thing about your show joe house um joe house loves christ's long he does good because i like joe house i like the i want to get joe house on the pod um because i hear your house will come he's in the dmv where's joe house in the dmv he's dc so i know about this carcc this guy's eating exploits um is what what has me hooked in You know I did the Waffle House challenge?

You know what that is? It's a shameless generation thing. So I lost the bet to him last year, and the loser had to go to the Waffle House for 24 hours. And for every waffle that you eat, you get an hour taken off. So I couldn't physically leave the Waffle House. How many Waffles?

I'm going back again this year, whatever, but it's going to be a fun party. I'm not going to eat any waffles this year. I'm just going to party for 24 hours in the Waffle House. Make content. Make money. You're not allowed. Okay.

How many waffles? you think Joe House could eat in 24 hours? The answer is a lot. Waffle House Waffles. But the thing is he's, what makes House special as an eater is not like what translates to like hot dog eating contest and stuff like that.

It's like you go out to dinner and eight people are there and house orders two entrees for himself. And then as everyone's done eating and there's food and there's leftover stuff and everyone's talking, the house is just systematically taking down

all the rest of the food for like another hour and just at some point somebody would be like, are you still eating? And it's like another 25 minutes past that. Yeah, he's a prestige eater. Okay. We got to have Joe House down here

and do some sort of eating thing. And does Joe House by chance take edibles? Because it sounds like he's high when he's doing this. No comment. on that but I'm sure he can be talked into just about anything. We need to get Joe House down here.

Bill Simmons, really appreciate you, man. And also, like, you know, people go check out the music box stuff. I'm ready to binge that. Oh, good, yeah. Watch over the holidays. We got one more. We got six films total. So. Favorite one yet? I like all of them for different reasons.

It's like a kid answer. Like, what kid do you like best? Well, that means some of them had higher degree of difficulties. Some of them were harder. just to pull off with the artist but we really lucked out. All six of them are really good. Well, I'm psyched. I'm psyched and I will be binging

and you can check Bill Simmons out on his podcast but there's no point in us plugging it. We are the little guys and Bill's the giant who came on our podcast. So we appreciate you big dog and take it easy on our friend Ryan, okay? Are you guys coming out for Super Bowl or no? Fuck yeah, we're coming out for Super Bowl, right?

Can we get a verbal commitment? Can we get a verbal commitment? Yeah. He doesn't go anywhere. Hey, Bill, podcast yeah, this is going to keep going. I have decisions to make. Years out, is there a long horizon on podcasting? I have another job. Is this bubble going to burst?

Because he's a real estate agent. It's like the internet in 2000. Is this internet thing? It's just going to take up. America online. We should do we should do something at the Super Bowl. Oh, I'd love to. I'd love to.

Let's do it. Yeah. All right. All right. Good to see you guys. Great to see you, man. Thanks for time. Twitter.

We got a shit together. Okay. We got a real handle. reflective of the name of the podcast. Guys, we did it. Applaud. And now go follow us. Twitter is at Greenlight.

We also have a new YouTube channel name as well. Greenlight Tube. Hope you guys like that. Hey, Make. Yeah. I want you to bless this right here. Okay. I want to show you a video and you tell me I showed it to read if this can be our

outro music from now on on the Greenlight pod. I found this Russian TV is my new rabbit hole on YouTube. And this weekend I was like 50 feet deep in a Russian TV rabbit hole and found this old Russian singer. I guess this is how they got entertained in the Soviet Union in the 70s or 80s. I kind of liked whatever you had going there. We don't have an outro, bro. I don't hate it.

Does he look like Bronco to you? No. Does he look like Pete Davidson? Like if Pete Davidson That's the part Sounds like an outro Doesn't it? Yeah this is very strange

All this is very strange We're going to put it as the outro So I want to play us off with this Russian guy Found on the internet And we'll see if it sticks We might keep it going They don't want any royalties They're just going to come kill you

There's no way this guy is still around Cue the Russian music Bless up