PTI - Super Bowl in 48 Hours and The Winter Olympics has Arrived!

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Super Bowl Preview, Season Awards, and Winter Olympics + more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Lilbon, Tony. Some ski jumpers are reportedly gaining advantage by injecting hyluronic acid into their junk to increase its size. Hold on a second, hold on.

I'm with my doctor. It's hyluronic. Wilbon, you have a spelling on that? No. I'm just embarrassed. Like to get some of that. Highloric. How about high colonic?

Not the same thing. No? No, not the same thing. Different effect? Absolutely a different effect. Okay, then. Absolutely different. believe this? Yes. You believe the story. Yes. This is like a Florida man. No, I believe this story. And I believe the

Florida man stories. I believe all of them. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Matthew Stafford is the MVP. The Winter Olympics get underway and Boogh McFarlane joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the upcoming Super Bowl, Seattle and New England. The last time these two teams met in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks chose to pass from the Patriots one yard line, not hand the ball to Marshawn Lynch, and a Malcolm Butler interception decided the game for New England. That was 11 years ago, has no bearing on this game.

Wilbon, which way you're leaning? Seattle. And you know when the trade deadline came, I said Seattle. I thought that Seattle was the best team, at least in the NFC, all season. I think that the question is the question, is the same question that's been all year?

Sam Donald. Is Sam Donald going to be the guy we saw all year or the guy that they threw out of Minnesota before he was a guy that they threw out of New York other places. He left Minnesota on his own, but yeah. Well, they kind of threw him out

because if they wanted him, they could have kept them and they decided they didn't and shame on them. So, yeah, I'm looking at this as Sam Darnold based. He's got all the weapons out there, including when he's standing on the sideline,

arguably the best defense in the National Football League. He can rely on them. He doesn't have to do too much himself. He doesn't have to feel all that pressure he might have felt other times in his career. I know New England is worthy, but I'm looking at also who they play in the regular season.

Seattle was tested far more frequently. I'm going with the Hawks. Yeah, okay. So I'm going to go off script for a little bit. So bear with me. I'm going to give some congratulations to the NBA. And I'll tell you why. A couple of years ago, the NFL decided

that it wasn't going to seed Christmas Day to the NBA anymore. Through a couple of games in there and just cooked. the NBA destroyed their ratings. Someone in the NBA this year said, you know what, let's have our trade deadline during Super Bowl weekend. As a result, they have pushed the NFL and the Super Bowl off page one. So I want to give them congratulations to the marketing people that understood how to do that.

Let me get to this game. I think the better story would be if New England wins. I think they were four and 13, two years in a row. They got a brand new coach to their team and a second year quarterback, and nobody saw this coming. And if they win this game, maybe with Mike Grable and Drake May, maybe they begin to get in line for the legacy of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. So I think it's the better story.

But like you, I think Seattle's the better team. I think they're better on offense, defense, and special teams. I would be very surprised if New England won by a large margin. I would not be surprised if Seattle won by a large margin. Because as you say, Seattle went through the tougher conference. the toughest division in football and beat them again in the playoffs. So, by the way,

I knew you're going to go for the I-95 team in terms of better story. Let me just ask you this. Seattle's got a new coach, not as new as Rable, but a new coach. And a quarterback everybody dumped on. So why isn't their story just as good? I think the other one's better.

But the Seattle one is a good story. Sam Darno would be a great story. He would be the best story, right? We agree on that? I don't know about that. I just said what I thought was the best story. I understand. We could throw you out of this

and bring somebody else and you'd be the best story. Let's move to last night's NFL honors. Among the highlights, Matthew Stafford is Drake May for MVP in the closest vote since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair in 2003 shared it. By contrast, Miles Garrett was a unanimous winner of defensive player of the year. My man Larry Fitzgerald,

Drew Brees, Luke Keekley, Adam Venetary, and Roger Craig made the Hall of Fame the running back, not the pitching coach. What news from last night was the most interesting to you? Okay, so the way that you picked Seattle for the last X amount of weeks,

I sat here and picked Stafford. And Stafford and the Rams. I said the Rams will get the Super Bowl and I picked Stafford. So I'm not surprised by that. The vote is a little bit closer than I thought, but I'm not surprised by that and the fact that I think he said

he's going to come back next year. I'm good. He's got a good. Okay. Now let's go down the line here. Larry Fitzgerald and Drew Brees are locks for first ballot Hall of Fame. absolute loss. Adam Vinuterry, in my mind, is his greatest kicker who ever played, certainly the most

clutch kicker. And Luke Keeckley had a short career, only eight seasons, but was dominant. He was dominant. So I am intrigued most by the fact that Roger Craig made the Hall of Fame on that special ballot. Okay, that's, he was the only one on that special ballot. And I would say this, I think he deserves it, because I thought he was in already. But I'm wondering about this. You can pick three guys on that five-man special ballot. And if Roger Craig is the only one who got in, that indicates to me that maybe Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft got a lot of votes. The other four guys, they all may have been bunched together. I'd like to see the voting. Nobody got fifth, nobody got 40. But they all had 35 to 40. Well, this is the thing.

To me, if there was the anti-patriots bias out there, that would have bounced Kraft and Belichick, and I think would have meant that Greenwood and Anderson got in, and that's not what happened. I, you know, I'm going to get back to the end of mine to the Hall of Fame. The thing that gets me, Tony, is Miles Garrett, unanimously. Yeah. Okay, it's deserved. And Tony, do you know who he joins? How about this list?

It's a great deal. Forgot wins it twice, right? Bruce Smith with two. Joe Green, mean Joe. Ray Lewis, Reggie White, Mike Singletary. They all got two. Aaron Donald, three. Lawrence Taylor, three.

And JJ Watt, four. Come on. The only one's not in the Hall of Fame or on the way to the Hall of Fame, JJ Watt. Somebody else is probably on the way, Aaron Donald, on the way to the Hall of Fame. So there's that, and then there's something I don't want to get too emotional.

Larry Fitzgerald is a dear and personal friend. I know Larry Fitzgerald's dad, who is known affectionately as Big Fitz, he's a lot bigger, as you know, than Larry. And to have a guy in your neighborhood whose son makes the Hall of Fame, it's overwhelming. It's so cool.

I texted Larry last night, and he's so gracious. He's like, thanks for thinking of me. What else am I thinking of? I'm so thrilled. And you know what he's doing today? For real, plan. He's playing golf. That's exactly what he's doing.

Let's move to the Winter Olympics, which are now ongoing in Italy with the opening ceremony being broadcast tonight. You and I have both covered Winter Olympics. We know how much fun they can be. Everyone knows you're not going to watch the figure skating will want so you don't have to say it again. Okay.

But outside of figure skating and Lindsay Vaughn, who or what intrigues you? You know what, Tony? Got a list? What's that? Do you have a list that you're going to read from? I do have a list. It looks like something a waiter would bring out to a table. It does.

And here are specials tonight. But every year, as you know, we would take a flight to the Winter Olympics or every winter Olympics. And we would have a list. Yeah. Because we were not going to be slavishly devoted to only American athletes. Right. And so what I've written down and winds up being maybe sort of some American athletes, too, Eileen Gou, who is just a star athlete

and her circumstance for who she represents. We won't get into now, but it's fascinating. There's a Royal Marine in the British forces, Taylor Lawrence. Not Lawrence, Taylor. Yeah, Taylor Lawrence. 29-year-old guy, once again, Royal Marine Commander in the British Forces. I want to see what he can do.

Keisha Love, I want to see an American athlete, two sports, UNLV sprinter involved in the Winter Olympics. So there are people who have odd circumstances. That's what I want to see. I'm not going to watch this. We understand you're not going to do that. So I am not a skier and I am not a skater. The Winter Olympic sports are pretty much foreign to me.

But I learned over a long period of time that I really like watching the bobslet. I like watching the downhill. I like watching the speed skating. I wrote a couple of other things down here. I mean, I just, I like the jumping, right? And for me, you get to see these things. And I am going to watch a figure skating. Why?

Because sometimes somebody comes out of nowhere. You never heard this person's name before, like Aksana Ba'u. When she won gold. You know? And so I want to see those things. The charm of the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics is they put people in front of you that you have never seen before and you fall in love with that. You never see otherwise.

You fall in love with him. So I remember I was in Lillehammer and a guy named Johann Olaf Koss. He won, I think, three speed skating gold medals. And for me, I was really impressed by it. Then I later found out he became a doctor. And I was further impressed by that. Speed skating for me introduced me to the glorious wins of Bonnie Blair and the agony of Dan Jansen, who had to wait so long to finally win one.

There is an Italian speed skater who is going to be in this Olympics. Let me get her name right. Ariana Fontana. She competed at 15 years old in Turin in Italy. She's back in Italy. That's her home country at 35 years old. and she's only won 11 medals in the Olympics. So if you point her out to me, I want to watch her.

Something else I'm going to point out to you because then we're going to watch, the hockey, which is different. It's different than the NHL. It's different than any of the competition. There's no fighting. It's pure. It's artistic.

It's great to watch. Let's take a break. Coming up, we will ask Booger McFarlane, which of the Super Bowl defense is impresses him more. And Booger won two. So we'll ask him how much Super Bowl experience actually helped. Do you want to see the quad god? The guy who jumps out of the gym like David Thompson on skates,

Ila Malanin, want to see him? Does he do it with a torn ACL? No, we understand that she's the star. I'm just saying, we understand. She's the quad god. She went to the box. Yeah. We are fewer than 49 hours away from the kickoff of the Super Bowl,

which makes it a perfect time for a visit from our great friend and a two-time Super Bowl winner, ESPN NFL, and college football analyst, Booger McFarland wearing a shirt from Jupiter Hills. One of the few courses in South Florida that actually has hills. They got significant hills there. Let's start with this. Wait, I want to know if Buggers wearing a Super Bowl ring. Oh, you have either one of those rings on?

I don't have the rings on, but they will be on Sunday night in the Bulls game. Okay, that's good. Good, good. Let's start with this. As an accomplished defensive player yourself, which of these two defenses impresses you more? You know what, Tony, for me, it's got to be the New England Patriots because it's a bunch of no-name guys that have been cast at all. You know, you take a look at a guy like Caleb Von Chesson,

a guy who was drafted by Jacksonville, they said he couldn't play. Look at Carlton Davis. He's gone from Detroit to Tampa now. He's in New England. I mean, Robert Spillane, like you can go on and on of guys that they said that couldn't play, a bunch of cast-offs, but Mike Brable has gotten him there, and he's gotten him to play at an extremely high level.

I love when a team gets guys that can play, and you put confidence in them, and these guys go out and perform. Because all these guys are like really rare athletes. Like any time you make it to the NFL, you're a really good player. Sometimes coaches and organizations give up on you too soon. And it's really cool to see a guy like Mike Brable,

who, oh, by the way, the Tennessee Titans gave up on, which they still had him now, don't you think? And now he is in New England. He was giving up on. These players have been given up on, but they are forming one of the really good defenses in our league. And it's really, really cool to see. Like, we know about Seattle.

a bunch of big name guys, first round guys, but it's really cool to see the guys in New England play at the level that they're playing at now. Well, one guy on Seattle, who people gave up on Mr. Sam Darnold, has been rattled, as you know, in some big games in the past, but as a defensive player. Are there things you would try to do to get in his head early hoping to return him to that guy

used to throw it to the other team a few times? You know what, Mike, it's really simple. And it doesn't matter for Sam Donald, Tom Brady, Phil Sims, Patrick Mahomes. Quarterbacks don't like to be hit, man. Like, you don't have to sell a bunch of words to quarterbacks. You don't have to talk a lot of noise. You don't have to talk about their mom, their dad. You just hit him in the mouth.

And you hit him over and over and over. And when he drops back again, you tell him, hey, I'll be right back. Warren Sapp used to tell the quarterbacks, hey, I'll see you in a few seconds. Okay, no problem. I'll be there. And like, like, he and Brett Farr have some of the great wars. And you just get back there, you make them uncomfortable. And like years ago, before they outlawed, you being able to fall on the quarterback,

you'd hit them and you'd land on them with all your weight. And so not only do you hit them, but you get the double impact of 300 pounds landing on them. And so I think if you're the New England Patriots, you hit Sam Donald. Because what happens is you don't want to be hit, so you get rid of the ball sooner. and you make the quarterback throw the football before he wants to. And I think if you're Mike Grable, and you and your coaching staff are sitting in a private moment, you have to be honest with yourself and say,

hey, guys, how do we win this game? And I think Sam Donald has got to throw the football to the Patriots a couple of times. He's got to throw it before he wants to throw it. And so it's really simple, Will Bond. You hit him in the mouth and you try to see if you can draw blood at some point. I love that. That's what you live for.

I did. I grew up with you. I understand. The franchise. I love, didn't even have. I have a quarterback. That's right. So we wanted to hit the other guy as quarterback.

Bougar, Mike Vrable, Josh McDaniel, and you all participated in Super Bowls. Is experience in them a real thing or something that goes away at kickoff? It is a real thing, and I'll take it to the wheelhouse of all three of us. How many times if we played that golf course that you've played before, and you've probably shot one of your better scores on that golf course before? You got some great members. You're like, man, I remember hitting that shot. If I hit it there, I know the put.

It's the same way in the Super Bowl. When you've been there and done that, there's a familiarity with understanding what the day is going to be like. Because if you haven't been there, you have no idea. Like, you can bring in all the guest speakers you want to to tell you what's going to be like. Here's what the halftime is like. Here's what the pregame is going to be like.

Here's how many superstars are going to be on sideline. But until you've been there, until you've made that put on 18. Think about Tiger Woods, Tori Pines, 72nd Hole 18th Green. He'd been there. He said, I knew what it was like. Now, you juxtaposed that to somebody that had me. They may think about the situation too much

or read more break into the putt. And so, Mike, man, it's really simple, man. When you've been in these games before, when you understand the magnitude of the moment, there's a comfort level. And I think ultimately that's what we're speaking of. It's comfort, understanding how you're going to breathe, how you're going to react,

how you're not going to allow the moment to become too big and realize, guess what? It's just football, guys. Like, it's 60 minutes. It's blocking and tap. and throwing and catching. And I think the team that approaches the game, that level, the quickest, gives themselves a better opportunity to win. All right. So with all the stuff that you have just said, which way are you leaning in this

game and why? I stopped leaning a long time ago, Tony. I'm going to give you the first pick of the week, and it's really simple. Vegas didn't build those tall buildings betting on the underdog. Now, that doesn't mean that the underdog can't win. It just means that the favorites usually are favorites for a reason. Seattle is the better team. And I think if I'm betting some of that Will Bond money from Arizona. Some of that cornhires of money from D.C. I'm putting it all on the Seattle Seahawks because they've been the better team all season long.

They face the more formidable schedule. They're the more talented team. And if this game is played straight up, they should win. But Mike Braybill and New England are going to try to play this game in the margins. They're going to try to figure out a way to get this game into the fourth quarter. And as we say in golf, if I got a chance on the back nine on Sunday, I'll take it. And I think if you're New England, that's all you can ask for. I'm leaning and picking the Seattle Seahawks because they've been the better team.

But if this game is in the fourth quarter and it's a one-score game with seven and a half minutes left, all bets are off. Because Mike Brable is just that good a coach. And if it's at that point, that means that Sam Dorn has probably turned the ball over a couple of times. I think it's going to be a really good game if we get it to the fourth quarter. But something tells me Seattle is not going to allow it to be there. Thank you, Booger as always. It is great. Thanks for a Friday.

Not your usual Thursday. you. Much appreciate it. Hey, guys, thank you. It's been a great year, and I look forward to being on the golf force with you guys soon. Good. Okay, good. Let's take one last break. Still to come is Jim Schwartz Wright to sit out a season rather than coach the Brown's defense.

And a few thoughts on the life and times of a great Hall of Famer and friend, Sonny Jurgensen. How many people out there think you think no, Sonny's real first name? All of them. We know it's not. No, I know. We know it's not. Happy time, people. Happy 29th birthday, Colin Moracawa.

A man. Moracow has won two majors. He won the 2020 PGA at Harding Park in San Francisco, near where he went to college at Cal. He won the 2021 British Open, excuse me, at Royal St. George's. So it's been a while. Moracow has six wins on the PGA tour and has played for the United States team in the Ryder Cup three times, where his record is four, three and one. He is regarded as a great shotmaker with his irons. 2025 was a down year for Morikawa. Did not win on tour, 02 and 1 at the Ryder Cup at Beth Page. And in the majors, he missed the cut at the British,

and his best finish was T-14 at the Masters. Will Bon, you know Morikawa, and I know you root for him. I do. And I'm rooting for him to sort of start to bounce back in Scottsdale this week, right, Tony? At the waste management? Yeah. So I hope he does that.

He's quietly charismatic. No controversy about Morales. As you are, but not quietly. Not so happy anniversary, Javelle McGee, On this day, 14 years ago, the Wizards bucking Bronco of a big man missed a wild running hook, then hustled back to the other side of the court to play defense. The slight problem was that the Wizards got the rebound and had to wait for McGee to return to their side of the court. Despite being a butt of jokes for years, McGee finished his career with three championships.

Two with the Warriors, one with the Lakers, and an Olympic gold medal. After 16 seasons in the NBA, McGee is now playing pro ball in Australia. His mother, Pam, was a two-time NCAA champ at USC and a gold medalist herself. They are the first mother-son Olympic gold medalists ever. If you were a coach, wouldn't you want a big man who hustled back on defense regardless of the circumstances? Yes. You can make fun of him later in the locker room, but you'd like to have him, wouldn't you? A melancholy trails to Sonny Jurgensen, the Hall of Fame quarterback has passed away at the age of 91.

Sunny was great in Philadelphia, then was traded to Washington and was great here too, leading the league in passing three times. Vince Lombardi coached him for one season and calls Sunny, quote, the best I've seen. And then Jurgensen had the second career, doing the Washington football team's broadcast for 38 years. 23 of them with Sam Huff and Frank Herzog. You would go to the games in the old days and everyone listened to them.

They brought radios. They were that beloved. Sonny Jurgensen could possibly be the most popular pro athlete in Washington ever. I am honored and humbled to have been able to work with Sonny Jurgerson and John Rigginson, George Michael, for 13 years on television, most of him regarding the Redskins. My favorite Sonny story, and there are a million of him when he played pickup, not pickup basketball, team basketball.

NFL teams had off-season basketball teams. He comes out of the locker room having played for the Eagles, hair wet, out of the locker room, looks up on the school board, and it said, Will Tchamberland at the end of one quarter has 23 points. Sonny said, well, I'm going to sit down and watch the rest of this. Wilt, 100 points. Is that the game? I don't know anybody else who was at the game in Hershey,

but Sonny Jurgensen, the cigar ever present, there's really nobody like him. Let's go to the big finish as quickly as we can. Let's do it. Swartz resigned as defensive coordinator of the Browns. Is that a big deal? Yeah, he probably should be the head coach of the Browns. Prosecutors accused Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Class A

of throwing suspicious pitches in 48 games over two years. Your thoughts? Not good. Colombian soccer captain, Hamas Rodriguez, signed with Minnesota United. You surprised by that? He's a star. Real Madrid, Bayern, Munich, Everton, big star. The Niners and Rams will play in the first NFL game in Australia next season.

Does that make sense? Makes sense to have West Coast teams. It shortens a very long flight. Shortest flight. Last one, fourth-ranked Duke at number 14, North Carolina tomorrow. You intrigued? Not as much as I used to be. I'm warming.

I'm trying to warm. Ratings are way up on men's college basketball right now. Good for them. We're out of time. We were trying to do better the next time. Happy birthday, Ron De Giovanni Jr. I'm Mike Wilbon. Have a great weekend, knuckleheads.