The Bill Simmons Podcast - A Lion-Sized Collapse, Mahomes Rises Again, Guess the Super Bowl Line, and NBA Award Long Shots With Cousin Sal

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the 49ers coming back to beat the Lions (1:11) and the Ravens falling to the Chiefs (23:49). They then guess the line for Super Bowl LVIII (41:41), talk biggest Super Bowl story lines (49:43), discuss NBA awards odds (58:15), and more before closing the show with Parent Corner (1:06:26). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming, please checkout theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, our Super Bowl matchup is set. That's next. This episode is brought to you by my old friend, Miller Lite. I've been a big fan of Miller Lite, man, since college days when I was allowed to have beer. I think nephew Kyle is a fan too. Miller Lite keeps it simple for us. Undebatable quality, great taste. Picture this.

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That's right. There's a new exclusive home for streaming Monday night NHL hockey, and it's on prime all season long. Watch prime Monday night hockey deliver unreal plays. The biggest goals can't miss moments. Matthews, McDavid, Crosby, the NHL is best. They're all on prime prime Monday night hockey. It's on Monday. It's on prime. We're also brought to you by the ringer podcast network, where I hope you're following all of our sports and pop culture coverage there and on the ringer.com as well. I am in Chicago right now because we have a big cold weather rewatchables tour this week. We are going to be in Chicago where I'm right now and then DC and Philadelphia and New York. Can't wait to see everybody. There will be a new rewatchables

podcast this week, by the way, so stay tuned for that. And on this podcast, Cousin Sal is joining me, and we're going to talk about a bizarre day of championship weekend games. Baltimore against Kansas City, San Francisco against Detroit, and a lot of stuff happened. It's all next, first, Our Friends from ProJap. All right, taping this at a time that ends with a 21. I'm in Chicago, South and LA.

I have no idea what actual time it is. I'm in Chicago. It's 421 in the morning. What time is it in LA? Is it like four in the afternoon? Where am I? Yeah, it's between the games, yeah. So we got to be quick.

Wow. We have a Chiefs, Niners, Super Bowl. Yeah. Who had the worst loss? Let's just start there. Worst loss, Lions or Ravens? Where the Lions had it in their hands and then squandered it for a variety of ways that we'll talk about. Or the Ravens who got haymaker coming out of the gate and then just keeled over and all of the fears about that Ravens team and Lamar and the whole era just came seeping

out for three solid hours. What was the worst loss? Okay. I'm going to take this from a fan's perspective. And I think, believe it or not, I think the Ravens loss was worse. Oh, explain. Lions was a huge collapse, right? We'll not see one like that in the

championship game probably for a while. But I think there's hope that they can win the NFC in the next couple of years. You could say the Lions are a year away. So that's how you talk yourself into it. That's it. So yes, on the day of the game,

I think the Lions had the worst loss, but looking into the future, the Ravens have to be like, what the F just happened? What did we do wrong? What were we doing right? Did any of it matter? Does home field matter?

Are we ever going to beat Mahomes? Oh yeah, Burrows coming back, Josh Allen, all these other guys we have to get through. So in that regard, I would say Ravens is worse. Yeah, the Lions could say our arrows pointing up. We'll work with our coach during the offseason on some clock management stuff. I can't wait to go into that.

Well, now we're headed toward this big rematch from five years ago. Is it rematch if the other game was like four years ago? I don't know if that counts as a rematch. Maybe? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's within the four years. It's a semi-rematch. Let's just remember the last time these two teams played,

that year was horrible. Right? Yeah, that's true. It was two weeks later. We were locked in our houses for what seemed like forever. But I don't think that has anything to do with the matchup at all. Well, I think the Lions loss was worse. So let's talk about that game first because it just happened.

Yeah, because it's 21-7 and you have the ball first and goal from the seven yard line under a minute left with a chance to end the game. Basically, a touchdown ends the game. 28-7. Nobody's coming back from that unless you have Tom Brady, circa mid-2010s on your team. And they run.

I think they ran. It was like an incomplete pass. Then it was like a one-yard handoff. Then it was like a three-yard pass. And it was fourth and maybe two and a half. Always two and a half. And Campbell went for the field goal. When all year in that situation, we've watched this guy like,

go, go, go. We're going for the kill. We're going for the kill. We're aggressive. We're going to take chances. And he went for the field goal. And when I was watching it, I actually agreed. I was like, take the points.

I agreed also. Three-possession game. I like it. This is smart. But where it goes askew is then in the second half when he gets super aggro aggressive again. And then you become the guy at the blackjack table that you're sitting next to who's like, wait, you didn't hit the 13 against the two the last time. You just hit it that time and you're just all over the place. Is there any rhyme or reason for how you're playing?

No, no. I'm just feeling the cards, man. It's like, okay, well, there's no strategy here that you're sticking to. And that's how I felt about the line. I mean, a hundred other things went wrong for them, but we could argue about that part forever. The unforgivable sin out of all of this was you get inside the 10 with, you know, it's under two minutes left. You're down 10. It's third down. There's like maybe a minute 10, something like that left. And you have to throw the ball because if you don't get any kick a field goal, you have all three timeouts left and they run the ball up the middle and get stuff. Yeah. Terrible play. Then they call a timeout and it's like, you've just lost. Nobody gets an onside kick anymore. We've seen it like twice all year.

The game's now over. It doesn't even matter what happens. That was the dumbest thing I've seen all playoffs. And one of the dumbest things I've seen all year. How do you explain that if you're Dan Campbell? How? I don't think you can. I think in that situation, above everything,

you have to say, I have to keep these timeouts. I must keep these timeouts. I need all three. I need all three. I'm probably not getting the onside kick. No one recovers onside kicks anymore. I don't know if they ever did, but it's like 4% or something. I forgot what they said this afternoon. The only instance where you take a timeout is if he's sacked and you have a quarterback that's kind of out of it. But even if he was sacked, I think they would kick the field goal at that point. You could run a field goal people on and they could kick it. And there's still 35 seconds left, but now you have all three timeouts. You can kick off,

you can try to stop them and you at least can have a Hail Mary, which has a much better chance than an onside kick. I would rather be down seven with three timeouts and down. What were they down three with two timeouts. Yeah. I mean, it's a death sentence. You're right. It's interesting because we watch this over and over again. And anybody who's been playing video games the last few years knows the same thing. We saw it in the first game, Baltimore.

They need a stop to try to get the ball back. And the first down, it's like they get a penalty. It's first down and five. And the guy in the Ravens just jumps off sides intentionally and clocks the guy in the Niners because their goal was like, let's reset the first downs because we don't want to use timeouts on a first and five. And it was actually smart. It's what you do in a video game. 15-yard penalty, the ref was pissed, but it did reset it. And that was smart. And then you watch Dan Campbell and it's like, once you're inside the 25 under two minutes with three timeouts, you have to throw the ball into the end zone.

It doesn't like driving methodically down the field does nothing. You, cause you need a field goal and a touchdown. So take three cracks at the end zone, then kick the field goal. You'll get it back. Maybe with the three timeouts gone. Um, I just, and then all the other stuff. It's funny. We're funny. We're leading with this, and I don't blame you. Well, first of all, you have to lead with the bad, right? We can never compliment. I'm so speechless by how stupid it was.

But everybody, Lions fans, I think, included, would go after the field goals, the passed on field goals. Well, I want to go through that, too. Well, let's go backwards. So, it's 21-7. They settle for's go backwards. So it's 21-7. They settle for the field goal. They take the 24-7 lead going into halftime.

Niners come down to kick a field goal to start the third. 24-10 Lions have the ball. All they've been doing is driving. They're just getting yards. It feels like they're getting 8 to 12 yards a play. St. Brown can't be stopped. I think he had five third down catches. They lose the ball on downs.

On a play Reynolds should have caught, but a play they also could have kicked the field goal to go back up 27-10, which they just did at the end of the half. Well, all right, you got a little aggressive. I would have personally taken the points. So the Niners get the ball, and they're still down 14,

and Purdy looks like crap. And it just, here we go, Purdy. The clock has struck midnight for this guy. And he wings it downfield and he overthrows Ayuk. And the ball hits the Lions guy in the face. And it bounces up in the air and Ayuk catches it. And all of a sudden it's 24-17.

To be fair, it hit him in the helmet. If it hit him in the face, I could see like, oh, okay, maybe he's got an excuse, but it hit him in the helmet. Yeah. I got to say we're old enough now. We've been watching sports long enough that you have these moments where, and everybody's like, no momentum doesn't matter. It's like, I've watched too many of these games.

Momentum matters. We just watched a 50 yard pass, hit somebody in the helmet, bounce straight up in the air. And now the Niners are down seven and the crowd is into it and they're going nuts. And Gibbs immediately fumbles. And all of a sudden it's 24-24. And it just, didn't it feel to you like that was one of those moments? Not only did it feel to me like that, but when people write on our timelines and everything tomorrow, like you didn't give Purdy enough credit. I'm like, okay, I apologize. We probably should have, but also

if that ball's intercepted and it should have been down 24-10, do they win that game at the Lions? No, because you're right. They had the momentum. So, okay. IU catches it, falls at the five, they throw a flag, they pick up the flag, and then they score, what, on the next play or two plays later? Yeah.

Gives fumbles, Niners score 24-24. Lions now have the ball. Another big Josh Reynolds drop. I don't know if he was the gold medalist of murdering the Lions in this game, but he's definitely on the medal stand. They punt. Perfect punt. Guy booms it.

It goes to the one-yard line. Lions guy runs in, and instead of just tipping it back, he just runs it in the end zone. Flying in, like he's launching himself towards a goal post. 19-yard difference. Niners drive down. Now they're up 3, 27-24. Lions drive down.

Here we go again. Now they have a chance. It's either a 48-yard field goal to tie the game. We're under 10 minutes at this point. 48-yard field goal to tie the game or let's go for it on fourth and three. You're not going to believe it. They don't get it.

This one I had a real problem with because I didn't like how their offense looked in the second half. I thought the crowd was really into it. I didn't love how golf looked. Their receivers weren't making plays. We hadn't seen St. Brown in an hour. And if your kicker can't make a 48-yard field goal in good conditions, it seemed like,

why is he on the team? Don't just have your punter do kickoffs, right? I'm with you. I don't know what happened there. Listen, I'm thinking about it, and we were on a text chain with House, and he's like, oh, he doesn't trust the kicker. It's like, well, first of all, I think he's glad.

I think Dan Campbell's glad he doesn't have a great, you know, like Adam Vinatieri- the kicker. It's like, well, first of all, I think he's glad. I think Dan Campbell's glad he doesn't have a great, you know, like Adam Vinatieri-esque kicker. You wouldn't know what to do with a good kicker. Yeah, it allows him to go for it more. It's like, hey, I got this excuse. But then you see the stat. It's like, he's 78% from 40 to 49.

I was like, all right, I take my chances on almost 80% out of four to five minutes from that. Of course. Also, I don't like how I'm playing. And that's the part. We do the analytics, which I think the analytics are important. I didn't like how

they were playing. I didn't have confidence that they would have the right play. And I like the way the Niners are playing. The crowd was into it. I just feel like that stuff has to factor in. It can't just be blanket. Oh, here's the situation. It's going to be in or out. So anyway, they don't get it. Niners drive down.

McCaffrey breaks this long run. Now the Niners are up 10. And this would have been the most improbable cover in how many playoffs? Right? There's seven half-point favorites all week, and now they're up 10. And then it leads to that last drive where they

get the touchdown on fourth down, but it really doesn't matter. So the Lions cover. Congratulations. Yeah. If I were to power rank what led to their demise, though, I know you want to put the field goal, the calls, not passing on the points first.

I put the drops up there. I always look to blame the players before the referees or the coaches, and they just at halftime inherited inherited a herd of Kadarius Tonys. They really did. Like, just every pass was either dropped. The Gibbs fumble was terrible. He ran. Olsen pointed out how he probably ran the wrong way in the run

and never had the ball, and that was a murder. Drop after drop after drop. And even there was a great catch over the middle where it almost could have been picked off if they land differently. So, I don't know. I'd like to. I think Lions fans are bummed at the receivers more than the coach at this point. You know, that's the thing with like Campbell.

He'll say something like, hey, man, this is what we do. We're aggressive all the time. It's like, all right. It's like I always wear shorts. Like, OK, but your wife is nominated for an Academy Award. Can't you get dressed for this one occasion? It didn't really make a lot of sense. Well, two things.

The two Reynolds drops really hurt. The Gibbs fumble really hurt. The fact that their defense gave up 27 points in the second half. Their defense could have tried to close the game out. I mean, that was the reason. I couldn't get there with the Lions with my picks this week because I just felt like the Niners were going to be able to move the ball up and down the field on them. But the Lions came out of that game like a bat out of hell. And it was just one of the Niners just felt like

they were on their heels from the moment the game started. And it's just like, oh my God, are we going to give up 48 points? So the game had a different feel. And Purdy, I thought it took Purdy like two hours to get going but that was the other if you're going to talk about all the reasons the Niners won the boneheaded shit the Lions were doing Purdy had a couple just back-breaking scrambles I think it was four for 51

and they needed like all 51 they were really like big parts of the game where it didn't feel like anybody was getting open I thought he was really good down the stretch I did too and I think he did it last week too against the Packers, right? That last drive was phenomenal. But what happens to him? Doesn't it seem like he sits there the first and second quarter?

And I know he has good numbers, so this doesn't really make a lot of sense. But it seems like early in the game, he'll let the pocket close on him. He won't step up. He's like, I'm sticking to my plan here. And it leads to tip passes and stuff like that. In fact, the stats should be much worse because of that. And then later on, he decides to take off. It's like, oh, where is that in the first half?

I have 49ers money line. Why are you giving me a heart attack here? Yeah, you're right. It was a great comeback. I don't know what... Wait, can I say one Purdy thing? Sure. Because they showed him at some point when it looked like the game was going sideways and he just had a sad look on his face.

And it was like, ah, sad Purdy. Like, I don't like where this is going. And then he hulked up and did it. I was thinking, you know, when we were kids, this is going to be dated for anybody probably under 45. But The Incredible Hulk was an iconic show, right? With Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner. Still happens in the Marvel, yeah, in the universe.

No, but I'm saying the actual show, which we grew up with, it was kind of a sad show. Like Dr. Banner, you know, he would just go from town to town. He had his one bag and each episode, it was like, is he going to make it this time? And then halfway through the episode, he'd get mad.

It would always be like the 25, 28 minute mark. And then he would calm down again. And then one last time he'd get mad at the end and then he'd have to leave wherever he wreaked the havoc and he'd sadly walk away. Strap the backpack on, you'd see from behind and go, he never really had a home. He just had this one reporter who had it out for him wherever he lived. Just was the only guy who was onto him. And Purdy has, Purdy's like sad Dr. Banner and then he hulks up and it's awesome. But I do wonder like

if this Mahomes Super Bowl, this is the end where it's like Purdy with the backpack. I came so close, but I'm going to have to time for another season. That was,

that was a reach of an analogy, but it made me, just like the swings with that dude. It's like there's two Brock Purdy's because you watch him for an hour and you're like, man, this guy sucks. Right. And then you're watching him an hour later. It's like, this guy's like, is he one of the three best quarterbacks of the week? Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, you know, we're going to talk about the Ravens too. And it's just, sometimes you just get off to a slow start and a team is just more pumped or more energy or more Hulk in them or whatever. But yeah, that first hour it looked like everything was weird. Like the Lions looked fast. Deebo looked like the fourth fastest guy on the field. Gibbs is like jogging

to the sticks on third and 12 and making it, you know, converting. We were long third down patent situations. Me and Mallory were watching the second game and she was in a borderline coma from the Ravens. When that second game started, it seemed faster and more violent than the first game.

Do you notice that? Definitely. That Ravens-Chiefs game, I thought the Chiefs played well, but I didn't feel like there was the same level of speed. It was more like methodical, like people trying to outthink each other. This game was just athletes flying

around, man. We'll go 50 years back again. It was like a Bob Backlund match, I thought. Let's go more old guy references. Against himself. Warren Sharpe tweeted that here are the teams that blew a 17-point

halftime lead in the playoffs and lost by three points. It had to be their 17-plus at halftime or they lost by three-plus points. The Lions right now, the Falcons in 2017 in the Super Bowl, the Pats, the 93 Oilers against the Bills. Did you bet on that game? Yes, I did. Frank, right? Wrong way. I think I had the right side in that game. Really? We've had so many bets, I don't even remember. But I have positive memories of that. And then the 1957 49ers, ironically,

against the Lions, who came back and beat them. But this is a pretty rare occasion. You're up 24-7, and you had the Lions money line, or you had a Lions NFC title ticket, or if you had a Lions Super Bowl ticket, it's fair to lock in, I think, right? So you really took one of the chops. The only saving grace is that it wasn't at home

in front of those fans. Yeah, but at home, I think they probably win, right? This is a good example of home field actually kind of matters. Let's talk about the Lions, the fans, because we had Buffalo last week. This was way worse, but somehow back-to-back weeks, Buffalo fans and Detroit fans

just getting annihilated in the gonads with the hardest kicks possible. This was probably a little worse than the Buffalo game, but the Lions were like, this was one of those at halftime, there might have been some people that bought tickets for Vegas flights, right?

Right. You're like, should I get them now? Oh, my God. There's only two aisle seats left. And you're just, oh, I got to lock down a room. And you're just kind of in the mode because you don't think they're going to lose. Right. Yeah.

I don't doubt that at all. Yeah. Lions at Buffalo last week. Lions this week. And then the coup de grace could be Taylor Swift fans in two weeks. That would be the most awful loss of all. If the Swifties lost the Super Bowl? Yeah.

Eminem did not. He seemed angry. Was it weird seeing an angry version of Eminem? Yeah, what happened to that guy? I don't know. He's not the upbeat guy that he usually is. He's one of the birds, everybody. I don't know.

Can I read you some of my notes that I wrote down at halftime, assuming the Lions were going to win and I wanted to get a jump ahead? Note number one, can we hire Purdy for the ringer? Because I wasn't sure he was going to be in the league next year. Note number two, the Goff trade now an all-timer. And I went through and I researched exactly what was in the trade. It was 22 and 23 first and then 21 third. They made these other trades.

They ended up with Williams and Gibbs and Laporta. And then the Rams won the Super Bowl with stat. I was ready to do a whole thing on that. And then I wanted to have the should the Niners think about Belichick or Vrabel discussion. I know Shanahan's done really well. Last five years, lost Super Bowl.

He's lost three conference title games, but maybe it's time for a change. Something's wrong. I just wanted to talk it out, and then they came back and won. Can I read you what I had one note written down? Would you have? It says,

tonight, ask Bill if you can borrow $36,500 payable by Christmas, 2% interest. I had so much on the Niners money line. So much. Oh, did you? I'm so damn lucky. Yeah, yeah. I'm not complaining for a long, long time after.

That was ridiculous. I had, in real life, I had a Ravens-Niners tease. Because somehow it was better odds than the parlay. So the Ravens lost. I did the chase bet with the Niners and the over, the tease. Felt good, right? Yeah, that one felt good. I don't recommend chasing in general.

No, no, no. Yeah, million-dollar picks. I finally had a bad week. But I didn't... I hated the... I don't like the favorites when it's too many points like this. I never feel good about it. Well, I was looking at...

At one point, we were looking at, wow, one... Two favorites in the championship games ever this bad on the same day. And I couldn't find it. The worst examples offensively, I found, were Raiders against the ravens what year was that that was when the ravens went to the super bowl against the giants is that like

25 years ago yeah yeah yeah that was a magical super i think the raiders scored six or something and then the other example it didn't happen the same year but eagles bucks i think the eagles scored like six at home when Tampa went to the Super Bowl. Yeah, so. But yeah, other than that, we were looking pretty, we were like, wow, we're going to get bamboozled

on the same day by these home teams. I don't think the Niner's defense is that good, but they made a couple of big stops and got a little luck. I mean, there's no question. Like Reynolds, Reynolds had two big drops. Gibbs had a big fumble. Goff missed a couple of big stops and got a little luck. I mean, there's no question. Like Reynolds, Reynolds had two big drops. Gibbs had a big fumble.

Goff missed a couple of guys. Goff missed the guy in the end zone for a touchdown at one point. Jameson Williams felt like he could have caught that flea flicker or whatever that long pass was. He didn't. But at the same time, the Niners, they stepped up at least a little bit. I'll be interested to see them against Mahomes next week. Let's take a break and we'll do the Chiefs-Ravens recap. Happy Super Bowl to all who celebrated from FanDuel America's number one sportsbook.

And if you're like me, Super Bowl Sunday is all about scoring the best seat, grabbing your favorite football snacks, placing some fun bets, some fun props. We're going to be breaking down all those bets and props over the next couple weeks, leaning right now toward the Chiefs and the Tees because you can get them over a touchdown.

So plenty of time to talk about that. But FanDuel, however you want to do it, I'm in Illinois right now and it was so much fun to go on the FanDuel app and bet on a bunch of football and basketball stuff. You can do that. You can go on there and bet who's going to win Super Bowl 58. You can bet on which players will score a touchdown,

how many points are scored. So many prop bets. Sal and I are breaking it down next Sunday on this podcast. And if you're new to FanDuel, join today. You'll get $200 of bonus bets. When you win your first $5 bet, just visit fanduel.com.bs to sign up. That is fanduel.com.bs.

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but bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you could still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way.

Do great things this November. Sign up now. Just search Movember. All right, Chiefs Ravens. Here's the best compliment I can give to the Chiefs. It was a Belichick-Brady-Pats era win where they looked... They had a good hour in them. And they stacked the game at the top. They put the good hour at the top.

There was a kitchen sink. At one point, at the end of the first half, Pacheco had 14 carries. He doesn't... 20 is amazing for him. 14 carries for him, nine Kelsey catches and six Rice catches, and they had the ball for 21 minutes. And it was like they ran all of their good plays in the first half, and we're just like, we can win this game in the first half because Baltimore can't come from behind,

and their sphincters are going to tighten, and we can beat these guys in the first basically 10 minutes of this game and they did I mean it was 17-7 at half and it was almost 14-7 if they don't get that field goal and I was like this is ridiculous it should be 28-7

and they never score again nobody scores there are no points they scored three points no points in the second half but I was like points. Yeah, right. No points in the second half. But I was like, well, they get the ball back at halftime. So as long as they get seven on one of these drives, they had three. I mean, it was two teams playing, giving

the other team an opportunity to win the whole time. Yeah. Well, they made the biggest play of the game was that punch out on Zay Flowers. Oh, yeah. Would have been a touchdown. They would have been down three. And the guy made an awesome play, the safety. And then they got the backbreaker third down

to Valdez Scantling, who two weeks in a row has made a huge, huge, huge, really high-degree difficulty catch to either keep momentum going for them or, in that case, clinch the game. So the Chiefs made enough plays to win and the Ravens didn't make any plays. Yeah, and that Zay Flowers, first of all, dumb name.

We could say it. Zay Flowers is a dumb name, okay? But he gets that taunting penalty, right? And he hit all three factors of the taunting. We hate the taunting penalty, right? We're like, these are men. These are grown men. They're football players.

They could take somebody doing the chicken dance in their face six feet away. He did the thing where he hovered, he spun the ball, and he tapped the guy on the head. He tapped the guy on the head, hovered, and talked shit, and spun the ball. There was a couple penalties they had. They were 8 for 95.

It was one of the reasons they lost the game. They had some loser. They were dumb. They played good defense, but they had dumb plays. They played as good a defense as the Chiefs in the second half, obviously. You reasons they lost the game. They had some loser. They were dumb. They played good defense, but they had dumb plays. Well, they played as good a defense as the chiefs in the second half. Obviously you said they didn't score. Yeah. Clowney,

when he hit my home's helmet, the helmet, and it's like, Oh my God, they're going to call that. And then you watch the replay and it's like, yeah, they've called that all year.

They hit the quarterback helmet, but they're calling it period. And he could have shoved them. That was the frustrating thing. But they, uh, they shot themselves in the foot a couple of times. I, the they're calling it, period. And he could have shoved them. That was the frustrating thing. But they shot themselves in the foot a couple times. The big thing to me, and

I would love to hear a good explanation about this, but I watched it with Mallory, who was just going through the seven stages of grief. We were trying to cheer her up by doing imitations of Tony Romo announcing other things. Tony Romo doing director's commentaries of movies. Just anything to get a smile on your face. They panicked, the Ravens. They fell behind 14 and 7

to 7 and just completely lost their identity. Their two running backs only had five carries. Their whole team was built around running the ball and controlling the clock, and they fell behind by 7 and they just lost their minds. And that was it. The rest of the game, they're just chucking the ball around. And Lamar never looked comfortable, composed. He looked panicky. He was throwing like even screen passes.

He's throwing 100 miles an hour. He must have missed how many guys deep? At least four or five. He was just bad. For him, that was a bad game. That's like for a Lamar Jackson game, that was an F-. No doubt about it. And it didn't have to be. And I think Warren Sharp, when we bring him up

again, had the... This is the key stat. And you hit on it. They had three rushes on early downs for 17 yards. So it's not even like those failed. Three rushes for 17 yards on early down this team is 28th in the epa against the run the chiefs the ravens are third in any analysis

you heard this week if it went longer than a minute you would hear that this is how the ravens should do it whether it's lamar running or justice or edwards or you know or whatever dalvin cook whatever it is you know that's how it does it and you're right right. They didn't do it, and the Chiefs weren't scoring. So it wasn't like they had to throw to come back to get to 35. Yeah, they had two and a half quarters to just try to get some shit going. If you had told me before that game, the Ravens are only going to use their running backs five times for run plays, I would not have picked the Ravens.

I can promise you. The whole reason to take the Ravens was like, they're going to be able to run the ball down the Chiefs' throat. You can run on these guys. But what if I told you Pacheco, 2.8 yards a carry, they have Mahomes 240 yards passing, one touchdown. How much will we put on the Ravens? It's so weird when we're looking at that game.

Kelsey was awesome for two hours. Again, I think he has two hours in him, but he made a bunch of big plays and was all over the place. They had 16 first downs in the first half. And then on defense, they were blitzing Lamar. Then they weren't blitzing him. I just felt like he was confused.

They sped him up. And just some uncharacteristic, weird Raven shit. Lamar had that strip sack fumble. He just didn't sense the guy behind him. Flowers had the fumble at the goal line. And then Lamar's interception at triple coverage was the worst throw of the playoffs. He couldn't have it.

I still felt like they had a chance to win because their defense had really figured out what the Chiefs were doing. And it was just an abomination of a throw. It was so bad. And I don't know, this Lamar thing, I mean, Mallory was saying they hadn't played from behind in two plus years, which is true. The last time they were down 10 was December, 2021. And she was saying,

they just don't know what to do when they're behind. It's like, oh, what do we do? We're trailing. That's a weird skill not to have, to not know. And it almost made me wonder, is that something I think about for the playoff manifesto? Has a team shown that they can come from behind in a game this season? Right? Because you could have said about the Niners too, but then they actually did it in the game today. But do you care about that? Do you think resiliency is an actual skill? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. It's part of leadership, right?

It's like, hey, can I calm these guys down? Can I get them on the same page? And like, you know, on the other side of it, like Mahomes didn't let it happen because that seven-minute opening drive takes the air out of the stadium.

It really does. It really, it's hard for everybody to get back in the game. I know it because Jordan Love did it to the Cowboys. Next thing you know, we were down 27-0 at home. And then you got that.

We believe in momentum. I'm sorry. We do. And that's just how it was. Mahomes was like, let me take care of this. The defense is like, we'll take care of you. You've had your share of three touchdown performances. Just manage the game well.

And he did. He wasn't missing on any passes. Everything they threw at him was perfect. He was like, he wasn't missing on any passes. Everything they threw at him was perfect. He was like 11 for 11. Yeah, a couple of things from the opening. So they deferred and kicked the ball off and stopped them three and out. Just stone cold.

You know, three awful Ravens plays too. It was like a weird, it was like all of a sudden third and seven and it's incomplete. They're throwing over the middle to Nelson Aguilar. Like I could tell you having had him on my team, probably not catching that one. And then the Chiefs lay this smack down and Mahomes was so good. And this was unlike the Lions Niners game. He's driving down and I'm like, oh my God, why did I bet against Patrick Mahomes? I think he's the guy now for that. I was trying to think of every sport, the guy who even you're in the first quarter,

first period, you pick anything of a game and you're like, why did I bet again? All week, I wanted to take the Chiefs and all the evidence was like, don't take the Chiefs. The Ravens are better. Here are all the reasons statistically they're better. And I got sucked into it because I didn't think the Chiefs were good. And maybe they weren't because they only scored 17 points. But I don't think I ever felt more like an idiot. I really did. And like, this was like, they talk about cognitive tests. We're going to hear about a lot in the news in the next 10 months or something.

This was like a cognitive test for the sports gambler, for the football gambler. And it's like, hey, the Chiefs are getting points. They're against the spread. And the hook. It was up to four, four and a half. Four and a half. It got to five in some spots. You could have teased it to 10 and a half, 11.

Not only that, they're getting points, and the books get crushed if Baltimore covers. Okay, what do you want to do? That should be at the very top of the playoff. And they assigned Sean Smith, the guy who loves being on the road as a referee and is a little Chiefs favorable. That guy's going to be reffing the game.

You and I are like, yeah, I know the Globetrotters kick the crap out of the Generals all the time, but I just want to bet the Generals. I think it's their time. Yeah, but how many games do you have to see? No, that doesn't matter. We got to go against the casino. We got to go against the casino. We got to go against Mahomes.

He doesn't lose as an underdog. Why did we do this? He was so great. I mean, the thing that he does, and it reminds me of a basketball player, how basketball players can grab the pace and tempo and control of a game with the guys who really know how to dissect an offense and just control it. And they sped it up. They knew the Ravens were playing too far off them. It was just all these quick passes, little screens. They were always perfectly on target or roll out. He'd find Kelsey

and he just was one of those boxers that had figured out the distance for the first quarter. Those two drives were awesome. It was like the Buffalo game. If I'm San Francisco, I'm like, look at this team. The last two weeks, their offense kind of died in the last hour of the game. That would give me hope, but he was so good. And then on the flip side, Lamar just didn't seem like he had any kind of grasp of that pace or tempo. Yeah. But I think I just want to mention, not that it matters,

but we're going to hear everybody going into discussions and not mention Steve Spagnuolo at all. That defense was phenomenal. It's like, alright, Lamar's having a bad game, but my God. Blitzing the hell out of him. And then faking the blitz. Oh no, one blitz in again. And his head was spinning.

Tackling, hitting hard. They did a good job. So Lamar is a rookie he's in the playoffs I think he only had half a season in the starts and they fall behind

to the Chargers 23-3 they end up losing by 6 but it was some garbage time stuff in the end the next year

they play Tennessee and that was his MVP season they fall behind 28-6 they lose by 16 in 2020 they play Buffalo They lose 17-3, and that's when they had the 101-yard interception touchdown to clinch the game.

Then this game, loses to KC, 17-7, two big turnovers. So four bad losses. I had more than one person I know who likes the Dodgers and or baseball texted me Kershaw for Lamar and I was like ah I can't until he's got to prove he's got to prove it's not true I guess but yeah you know where we're I don't know how many years he's been a starter but these are just he doesn't look the same in the playoffs yeah no I know what you're saying you're saying. I just, you know, it's funny. I was talking with the Against All Odds guys on another text chain. They were like, it would be really hard to rank the best quarterbacks based on this year's playoffs.

Right? Like, Dak was terrible, and in the last two weeks, he moved up the charts based on what we saw. But from everyone else, like, who would you say after, like, if somebody landed here from Iceland who had never seen football before, they'd be like, all right, Baker Mayfield's good.

That cop guy's pretty good sometimes. What would you do? Yeah, Purdy, all right. In spots, he's good. And Mahomes, I guess, although he had one touchdown today. So I don't know. It's very strange.

Like a lot of teams would be like, yeah, I don't know if we have the right quarterback, but he's in the top three to six or seven. So we have to keep him because nothing else is out there. Clearly, there's something wrong that they can only succeed when they're controlling whatever's going on and they have a lead and they can run. If they're building a team that can't come back,

now maybe they didn't have chances to come back because they were so dominant, but this team was a dominant regular season team. Yeah. And even last week against Houston, you know, Houston, I thought, did a good job of rushing in and making them work around, but then they get that punt return TD.

It's 10-10 at halftime, and then Baltimore came out, and they were lights out in the second half. Yep. This game, they're not lights out. Mallory's thing that she was saying about the big picture of it, which I thought was interesting.

I mean, she was devastated that all the Lamar stuff talks again because now he's going to have to make the Super Bowl before the narrative gets pulled off of him because this is now part of when you talk about Lamar. It's, well, different guy in the playoffs and there's no way to refute it. What she was saying was this was their best chance

with a Lamar foundation with the people they had. Burrow goes out. Deshaun Watson goes out. You know, the AFC West is a mess for the most part. AFC South's a mess. Rodgers gets hurt. All these things had a line for them. Off here from the homes. Yeah, but even the these things had a line for them. Off year for Mahomes.

Yeah. But even the Chiefs look vulnerable the whole time. The Chiefs lose to Vegas on Christmas Day and we're like, oh, that team just doesn't have it. And they get the home game, first one in 50 plus years. And it's like, you're just never going to be in a better position than this. And they still couldn't beat Mahomes. So what's going to ever make them think they're going to beat Mahomes? Yeah. Well, that's why I said it was a worse position than this. And they still couldn't beat Mahomes. So what's going to ever make them think they're going to beat Mahomes? Yeah. Well, that's why I said it was a worse loss than the Lions, even though it sounds crazy. But I will say this.

Let's take three things away from this before they even put the ball on the field. First of all, my New Year's resolution, however you say that, was I'm not going to buy into injury talk, right? So when they said, well, Gay was out and Tooney and like, oh boy, these are huge. It doesn't matter. It's baked into the line. Don't worry about it. Go with who you're going to go with. The other thing is, when the Chiefs are 6-1

to win the Super Bowl in August, just bet it. You're going to be able to hedge against it. Just always bet it. Always bet the Chiefs at 6-1. Well, Raheem had it. Raheem, your Wiseguy's co-host, he took the Chiefs 10--1. Well, Raheem had it. Raheem, your Wise Guys co-host, he took the Chiefs 10-1, I think. Was it before the playoffs

or was it week 18? It was right before the playoffs started. He was all pumped about it. We all looked at it. We texted about it. We talked about it. I just didn't like the odds. I felt like if you're going to take them, just bet them game-to-game, which I think if you bet it game-to to game, probably a little safer,

but maybe it's the same. Yeah, they were plus. What were they today? 130? Yeah, plus 190 today. You could have put that in. Now they still have to win one more game. But yeah, I think for Baltimore, man, you look back at,

those are the tough ones in football. When you have the whole season, you did everything right, and just the game doesn't go wrong for an hour, you can't get it back, and it's like, holy shit. That was it. What just happened? Yeah.

I felt that way. I'm trying to think if the Pat's had a year like that. Maybe not. In other sports, it's been that way where you have like a baseball season, it's like that. The Dodgers have had. It's like that. The Dodgers have had a million seasons like that.

The point you should make is that's why the Pat... And I don't want to say this, and maybe you're just baiting me into saying it, but that's why the Pat's run is so phenomenal because of this, because you could screw up year to year, and because you have all these monster quarterbacks looking at you down the pike. And it's like, all right, well, now you're the guy that needs to be beat. You the one that everybody's afraid of and they just put it together year after year but which is what that by the way and then the torch got immediately passed to the chiefs so we're now doing the exact same thing if you're in the afc now there's no no signs of hope because this is probably the i don't know i'm not going to say it's the worst of all the Mahomes teams,

but it's in the running. The only thing that's going to change down the road is Kelsey's probably going to retire at some point, I would imagine. I don't know if he's on his last legs, but he's getting close. I don't think so. What does he have to go to? What would he do with the rest of his life? He's screwed.

He needs to play football. Well, now, I guess Taylor swift can go to the super bowl now there's a concert the night before and then it's like if you fly and whatever she can get there in time i'm sure plenty of time yeah i'm sure they're gonna find the fastest jet possible to get her uh get her but let me ask you this. I said to my wife, I said, she's at the game. They win the super bowl. Travis takes a knee post game with a ring. Yeah. With a ring top three live TV moment.

And she's like, Oh, shut up. They would never do it like that. They would do it in a private setting. I was like, what are you talking about? I know the whole,

the whole, everything's a circus. Why wouldn't they do it like that? She's like, that's ridiculous. It's not happening. So he was keeping the ring in his cup? Yeah.

Where would you keep the ring for the whole game? Didn't a player do that? Yeah, Randy Reid could keep it in his belly button or something. A player did that on Boise State. Taylor, Andy Reid has kept this ring in his belly button. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think this is going to be the highest... Just don't give it to Kadarius Toney.

He's the only one you can't give it to. This would be the highest rated Super Bowl we're probably ever going to have. Like, going forward. I don't know if it's the highest rated of our life, but yeah, because there's all these extra Taylor Swift fans are going to watch it. There's 5 million extra people

who would have no interest in this game. Let's take a break, and then we'll talk about the storylines for the next two weeks. Battered chicken breast served on a brioche bun with barrel-cured pickles. And here's the best part. It's topped with a sauce made from ghost peppers and oncho chilies. If that doesn't send a chill of anticipation down your spine, nothing will. Get your ghost pepper sandwich today at Popeyes. Before it ghosts you for another year. Chicken from Popeyes.

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All right, you want to guess the line first and then we'll do storylines? Yeah, that's fine. Let's do it. Now, this is it. We should build some drama here. We went 21 weeks. You won eight.

I won eight. We tied five. I have not looked at the line. I swear on my children, even the ones I like. Huge line here, Jim. This is big. Huge line. Did you write down? Did you do Lions Chiefs before?

No. Not only that, but I haven't even... I'm going to do the guest live. I'm just going on good instinct. I've not written it down. I've not seen it. Do you want to hear mine? First, my analysis? Okay.

No, do your, do walk through, do your analysis, make your pick, and then I'll do mine. Yeah. All right. So I was thinking about it and I said, well, Vegas, Fandle, obviously don't give a crap about the Chiefs. They ran that all the way to four and a half. All right. Now maybe they're a little more impressed now with them

after they went to Baltimore and won, and maybe it's like, okay, we can't do this anymore. There's going to be a lot of Chiefs backers. Then I'm thinking, I know the 49ers power ranking was higher by a couple few points than everybody, even the Ravens,vens i think going in and then i was thinking i'm gonna maybe since the tic-tac zone has been such a big theme for us all year maybe i'm gonna go one and a half i think the 49ers are favored but i settled on two. 49ers favored by two. This is awkward. You have the same?

I was going to say two, and now I almost want to change it so one of us can win for the season. Go ahead. Should we pick? Do it. No, should we do the over-under as the tiebreaker? Well, that's not fair. I saw it.

I saw the over-under because now I'm looking at it. Well, I'm going to give you my thought process. Ravens were four and a half and that was in Baltimore, which is worth probably two, two and a half points. But then there's some Mahomes juice. But I kept thinking like, because Craig Horlbeck was here

though, who produces the rewatchables on a fantasy football show. He produces the town. Shout out Matt Bellany. And he was like, why can't this game be a pick'em? This produces the town. Shout out Matt Bellany. He was like, why can't this game be a pick-em? This is the most obvious pick-em game ever. I was like, they don't do it that way. There's always got to be

juice one way or the other. Also, if they do the line wrong, these groups will come in and bet some crazy amount of money to ship the line anyway. Migrants, right? When you say groups, like migrants? Just different groups.

But I think the Niners are going to be favored in this game. And we've never seen a minus one. In minus one and a half, maybe it settles there. You know what? Fuck it. Let's do it. Let's go the ultimate tiebreaker. I'll do Niners, Tic Tac Zone, minus one and a half. Just's do it. Let's go the ultimate tiebreaker. I'll do Niners Tic Tac Zone minus one and a half.

Just so somebody wins. Well, you my friend are a motherfucker that is one and a half. That's not fair. It's just not fair. You know it's not fair. You want to split the title?

There's no split in any title If you promise you didn't see it ahead of time I swear to God I didn't see it I know but you weren't going to go two and a half I would have said two I would have said two if you didn't say two So we should split it Because I would have said two if you had to go first

No, no, I get hit with the Subway sandwich That's just how it is Nobody's ever been hit by the subway sandwich. I would have said two if I went first. Do you think? It was either one and a half or two. It had to be one and a half or two.

If you did it fair, then that's what it is. That's fine. I never saw it. That's fine. All right. I believe you. What the fuck?

Why didn't I say one and a half? I had Tic Tac all over. Of course, it's Tic Tac Zone. It's the year of the Tic Tac. It really is. So where does it end? We have two weeks for this to move around. Well, I was wrong about that one.

And what's the over-under, by the way? What was it? 47 and a half. Oh, that's high. It's right between both games today, right? Basically, yeah. I would have guessed 44 and.5 or 45 for that. Because the Chiefs

kind of secretly don't score a lot of points. Even today, it's 17. Their drives are long. His air yards are down from year to year to year to year,

like four years in a row and they don't care. Well, it's tough when you have Richie James on third down as your best option. I'm guessing

they're going to fix that stuff up. All right. So the obvious moves here are Richie James on third down is your best option. I'm guessing they're going to fix that stuff up. Streaking. Yeah. All right. So the obvious moves here are. Well, so teaser in the over is going to be a popular one until they move this to even or whatever. But I was wrong. I thought it would go down to three, three and a half today.

And it was going the other way for the Chiefs. Getting the Chiefs at 7.5 sounds fantastic. But I don't know which way I would tease the over-under. Right. Because the instinct is always to tease it down because it's more fun to root four points than against points. So what's the money line? What's the Chiefs' money line then?

Like plus 120? No, it's dead even. It's plus 100. Oh, so you have to take the points. Niners are minus 118. The interesting thing though is Mahomes is plus 130 for MVP. Hurdy is two to one. All right.

I'm going to go to Fando now, which I have not done. By the way, I'm in Illinois. I made some bets today. Oh, isn't it the best? Yeah, it was so much fun. I was... What the hell? I really wanted...

I want to talk to you about NBA Awards before we go, because there was somewhere I was like, how... And I'm not allowed to bet on it, which sucks. Yeah, so 47 and a half. All right, MVP, Mahomes, Purdy, McCaffrey, plus 430,

Kelsey, 23 to 1, Pacheco, Samuel, Ayuk at 55-1. I mean, if you're going to pick the Chiefs and you want to bet the Chiefs to win, just bet Mahomes to be the MVP would be our advice, right? That seems to, you're just getting better juice. What are the odds one of the other Chiefs is winning MVP?

Like today, who would have been the MVP of today's game? Kelsey had an awesome game. That's as good as Kelsey would do. He would not have won the MVP. Mahomes would have won. Yeah, for sure. I think the MVP, it's not like the regular season MVP where it's absolutely the quarterback because wide receivers won two of the last five.

We've seen receivers win. Edelman won, and who won recently? Someone won in the last two years I don't know why I'm blanking here but the only way I could see it Kelsey announces before the game he's going to retire he has a game like he does today and they give it to him

Taylor and everything else wouldn't you want 23-1 at that point Kelsey announces he's going to retire and proposes to Taylor Swift with the ring that was carried in Andy Reid's belly button for the four hours of the Super Bowl.

What's the parlay on that? 20 to one? 25 to one? Put that up, Vandal. Let's have some fun. Can we get... So you and I next week on this podcast on Sunday night,

we're doing our big Super Bowl prop preview and we're banging out all of these. Sadly we won't be together but we'll be on Zoom like we are right now. And then you're going to Vegas, right? Going to Vegas with the Wise Guys. Still trying to get house out there, but we're doing Ringer Wise Guys and we'll be on the FanDuel set

there on Radio Row. So Rudy points out Edelman and Kup were the two. Edelman and Kup, right. Those are the two. Kup was incredible, but nobody on KC is going to have a game like Kup had in that Rams game. Edelman was... That was a pretty weird one, that game in general. And they've been defensive guys, too.

I think you could maybe take a shot at a couple defensive guys. Edge rushers, sort of. I mean, Chris Jones was 110-1. Can we count down just to look ahead? Because it feels like we're going to take a little break here for a couple days. Everybody takes a breath from football.

And then it kind of circles back. What is the biggest storyline to you from this game? The biggest one? Huh. Kyle Shannon's got to get it done, right? I think for me, it's Mahomes getting three rings.

Yeah. I think he moves to another stratosphere if he pulls this off with this team. Because I don't think this team's- What's the next stratosphere? Because I've had this conversation. He's still years away from Brady. So in your mind, he passes Montana for sure. Well, I think it cements he's in that final group

when we mentioned the greatest quarterbacks ever. But I even think like... Oh, yeah, he's there. Yeah. Well, but I think he's young. He's only, you know, his first full season was 2018. But no, I was thinking cross-sport stratosphere becomes kind of interesting at that point.

The hell does that mean? Well, you're comparing them to basketball players, baseball players, soccer, tennis. Okay. You're talking about, is this our greatest living athlete? I think becomes in play at that point. Because to do this in football, in a 32-team league that's designed for nobody to be good for more than three, four years as a team. And then it dips down again to just be this good over and over again. I think that's a harder feat than, and he's playing the hardest position of any sport.

So to do that, I think puts him in another group. And now it's like, if we're arguing about him versus Jokic, he wins against anybody you want to mention, he wins. Again, you're baiting me to bring up Brady and say Brady doesn't play anymore. I'm talking about right now. I'm talking about people, current stars in different

sports. He's holding the championship belt. I kind of think he's there. You think he's at number one with that? You think he's over LeBron? So Mahomes overtakes LeBron. LeBron hasn't won a title since 2020. He's won one title in the last

eight years. He's 39 years old. Right. So it's Jokovic and that then stop and that F1 guy. Jokovic just lost to Sinner, Harry's guy. That's right. And the Australian. Big one for Harry.

$75 on it. He's very excited. There's no golfer who I think has ascended above all the other golfers. Right. This is good. I don't think there's a soccer star. There's no boxer. Cerruti, can you think of anyone, Cerruti?

Mahomes has this, right? If he wins this? There's nobody in soccer. No. Is there anyone in any sport that you would have? Wouldn't be baseball because it's Verstappen. Verstappen is the guy

in F1. Oh, we're going F1. Everything is no fun. Wow, that F1. We could just have a whole podcast on Verstappen versus Mahomes. Imagine. I am not prepared to participate in that podcast. Anyway, he's the GOAT.

Chestnut. Chestnut. Joey Chestnut. No one's passing. You know who's kind of in the running? Unfortunately, it's a scripted sport with predetermined results, but Roman Reigns has had a pretty unbelievable last few years.

And he's had the title forever. You're right. He doesn't let up. He doesn't let up. The 2020s belong to Roman Reigns and Pat Mahomes. Right. And then so you would say the Uso brothers are sort of like when the referees help Mahomes a little bit.

Triple H is like Sean Smith today. So I have Mahomes going for three rings as the number one storyline. You're still sticking with Shanahan? Yeah, I think that's number one. I mean, Mahomes, the Taylor Swift stuff is going to infiltrate. I have that second.

I have actually, I wrote down Mr. Irrelevant versus Taylor Swift. Right. Because I think the Mr. Irrelevant thing is an unbelievable story. And Purdy is almost as good of a story as anything else because you could argue they might have won the title

last year if he didn't get hurt. Now they're in the Super Bowl again. The fact that he was the last pick of the draft, which I know has been discussed ad nauseum, but it really is incredible. This guy was the last pick of the draft. What are the odds but it really is incredible. This guy was the last pick of the draft. Like, what are the odds? I really like him.

I like watching him. There's been a couple times this year where we counted him out or like, here we go. This is the clock has struck midnight. And then he seems to rally back. And I thought he made really good throws today once he kind of settled down. I thought he was good. What do you think about Andy Reid being the best coach of any?

Had that in there. Yeah. I mean, does he go to the top two or three in your mind? I had that as my fourth one. I have him as the active coach goat. Yeah. Because Belichick can't get a job. Mm-hmm.

I can't believe. Listen, I actually really like Raheem Morris. I thought that was like one of the best available coaches. But it's hard for me to believe Belichick wanted to coach the Falcons and they were like, cool, thanks anyway. Because I thought he was really good this year with a team that he had screwed up with the roster selections. But obviously, they wanted a younger person. I think you are playing some kind of practical joke on everybody. I think you and your Patriot fan friends get together and be like,

we could voice Belichick on someone. He was 3-14 as a 71-year-old. 4-13. Oh, 4-13. And he wants to run the organization wherever he goes. I'm out on that. McDermott loses. Oh, the Bills have to sign him. Oh, the Cowboys have to sign him. Atlanta might be the big winner.

They avoided Lamar Jackson and Belichick. Good job for you, Atlanta. Nice. Are you kidding me? What about Joe Gibbs? Joe Gibbs, he has some hardware. He has some trophies. He's only 83.

So you're telling me you'd rather have Mike McCarthy than Bill Belichick? Yeah. At this point, why not? So you think Belichick's washed. It's over. What? He has to prove himself again. He does.

I'm sorry. You can't let four or five years go before you win and not take a year off or something. All right. I know you know it's true. I know you do. I thought he was unbelievable this year

with one of the worst teams I've watched in the history of my life. What is unbelievable? Was he supposed to win zero games? They were in all those games. Week after week, they were shutting offenses down and hanging around,

and then their kicker would miss late. Okay. I mean, he constructed that roster, though. But that's a different story. I don't think he should ever be allowed near a draft again. But that's the same. That's what he wants.

That's why he should have stayed. He should have said, look, Crafts, just do this for me. Give me two again. That's what he wants. That's why he should have stayed. He should have said, look, Crafts, just do this for me. Give me two years. Let me break the record. And they should have been like, all right, Bill will do this because nobody else is going to. He's not coaching this year.

There was a rumor today that he might go to Fox. I saw that. Yeah. With Gronk and Edelman. If he goes to Fox, that means he lives here, which opens the door for him to join Guest Alliance, which I officially made the invite. Next year, me, you, and Belichick. See, that's why you can't say mean things about him right now.

Listen, if it gets close, I promise I'll start saying good things, but I'm out on Guest Alliance. He will cheat every week. He'll be staring at the fan's old page, and he'll go, oh, wow, you went 16 for 16 for the seventh straight week. Good job. Good job. Good job, coach. It would be so funny if he was just amazing against the Leds.

We have to bite our tongues. And that is Jags 4.5. Oh, you did it again, coach. He's the GM of the ringer. Taylor getting there from Tokyo is fun. Isaiah Pacheco that'll be a fun story what was he 6th round 7th round I can't remember he was late late

that'll be fun Kittle trying to start shit about Kelsey which I'm sure he'll do in some way that's good stuff I mean there's great players McCaffrey you got the Hall of Famers in this for sure right yeah alright are we done with football

we are yeah I guess so anything else you want to hit we have two weeks no that's it you know I'm 1-11 I'm happy to move on are you 1-11 for the playoffs I'm 1-11 the Steelers happy to move on. Are you 1-11 for the playoffs?

I'm 1-11. Oh, man. I had a shot when the Niners were up 10. 1-11? Is that the worst you've ever done? Yeah. Oh, yeah. By a lot.

I was 8-2, and now I'm 8-4. Really? Well, that's cool. Maybe I shouldn't have announced anything. I was more excited until today. But I had a bad feeling about today. That's why I didn't win big bet. That's it.

So the awards, a couple of things on the awards. And again, I'm not allowed to bet on this stuff, but I love talking about it, trying to help. You already helped me. I'll say before you even toot your own horn, you helped me with SGA. He was 10 to one. And you said as an MVP, was he now 320 or different?

Plus 340. Yeah, the fun thing about talking about NBA awards is just, it's a value play. And you said as an MVP, was he now 320 or different? Plus 340. Yeah. The fun thing about talking about NBA awards is just, it's a value play. It's just like, oh, that's good value. You should jump on that before the value goes down. Like to me, there's no real MVP value left except Luka at 701 because there's a world where he goes nuts for a month. They get to like a four or five seed. He's averaging 37, nine and nine for the season.

The big thing is that Embiid is the favorite and he's probably not going to get to the 65 game minimum. How many can he miss? Five, four? I think he's got like five left. I mean, him missing the Denver game. I'm just done talking about Embiid and Jokic. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm out. missing the Denver game. I'm just done talking about Embiid and Jokic. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm out.

I'm completely out. Jokic plays. Jokic has come through in big games. Jokic won the title. And his playoff performance resume for the age that he's at in his career is unbelievable. And we cannot compare Embiid to him anymore because Embiid scored 70 against Zach Collins and Victor Wembediam on a Monday night and then missed the Saturday game. I'm done. I'm with you. And plus you're probably further upset because you watch Curry against LeBron, both relics, and they put on a show and you're

like, why can't Embiid? Yeah. I flew to Chicago and they had Wi-Fi and the game started when we took off and it was ending as I landed. It was the most fun I've had on an airplane. The game was amazing. Did you instruct the pilot? I was like, hey, can you fly around? 150 grand. He's like, here, take this cash. Hover a little bit.

I actually left that game more optimistic for both teams because I think the Warriors, they're going to get Gary Payton back at some point. So they'll finally be able to defend wings. But now that they have their framework back Kaminga's playing better I think they can get a play in and Curry's still amazing he's still like a top seven back

and they're doing it for the coach too there's a lot of emotion there right yeah so that's one of the bets I like actually this is on Fando the Lakers and Warriors to make the play in is plus 170 as a parlay. Let me write it down. Because I think the Warriors are going to make the play-in.

I think they're going to beat Utah. Their guys are going to come back. The only thing that kills it is if Draymond loses his mind again. But anyway, Luka at 7-1 I thought was interesting. There are no Brandon Miller odds for Rookie of the Year, which I was surprised by. And I don't think he's going to win, but I was surprised that didn't even exist.

Anyway, here's three players. Yeah. So I've never really figured out what most improved player was, but Maxie is the favorite right now at minus two 30, which is fair because he's having a good season. Then some people like Shangoon, he's plus three 20. The shocking one to me, and this is just a pure value play because I can't believe these are the odds, but Jalen Williams on OKC is 60 to one. He's the second best player in that team.

He's gotten better in every phase of the game. I think he could have made like a stealth all-star case for him. He's one of the best two-way players in the league. His shooting percentages, I think he's like 55% field goal, 45% three-point. He's just awesome and he's getting better. You love that team too. You love that team. Yeah. And they're going to be a one seed. So first of all, I was shocked that he didn't have better odds, but 60 to one, I was like, like what the fuck I'm convinced nobody's watching OKC I just

don't think people watch the games because if you watch you would know how good that guy was well let me just say that's not that's not a good sign for him winning the award then if nobody's watching but this is the best time to bet these awards because this is January

nobody's paying attention. And then it's like, wait a second. And then all of a sudden the odds shift. So that was one. The other was coach of the year, which right now the OKC guy is basically even odds. And he'll probably win. That's a really good bet. But Will Hardy is 25 to 1, which if Utah somehow got like a seven seed,

I could see him sneaking in. And then the other one, although it took a hit after that Clipper game because they were so bad, and then Tatum kind of took a shot at him after the game. But Missoula was 18-1. And the Celtics might get the one seed by like six games. I thought those odds were off. Well, I have to disregard all your Boston picks, right?

But I know what you're saying. The odds shouldn't be for one seed. Well, it's just like if they're the one seed by seven games. Then the other one, Thibodeau is 95-1 for coach of the year. Oh, my Knicks fan friends are going to love this. The Knicks have been the best defense in the league for five weeks. They've over and over again beaten good teams. They just lost Randall for three weeks,

but they have a chance to be a three or four seed. Isn't that it? We don't even know if they're going to make their over-under, although they'll hit their over-under. Well, they also might make a trade, but what if the Knicks get to a three seed or a four seed? Yeah, not bad. Yeah, so those are the ones I think that jumped out. I think MVP,

I don't see the value, but just the fact that Giannis is 10-1. What happens if he goes nuts with Doc Rivers there now? This isn't on Vandal. Over under five and a half teams that can win the title this year. Can actually win.

Okay, let me look. Celtics plus 310. There's one. You already screwed up. Okay, Celtics. Denver plus 440. There's two. You already screwed up. No, okay. Celtics. Denver plus 440. There's two. Are you saying definitely or could? Could. All right.

I'm including Milwaukee just because Giannis 5-1. Clippers 7-1. I personally would put OKC at 19-1 because I think they can make a trade. Philly, I guess, but man, I would book that action. Philly 11-1. I did. So that's the cutoff.

That's the cutoff. OKC, Philly. I would put Miami in there too at 34-1. Yeah. I mean, would you have put Miami in there this time last year? I'd put Miami over Philly. Right. Yeah, because I don't think they care about the regular season.

Right. Yeah. All right. So you go over. Over Philly. Listen, if the Celtics don't have Porzingis, they could not be more beatable in the East. You could give me four teams that could beat them. I'll be honest.

The Knicks 34-1, a trade away from... They still have the 4-8 contract and some picks. If they got one more big guy, they'd become pretty interesting. I don't know if they could win the title, but... This is the most interesting event since probably before I met you, I think. How many would

you put in? I thought it would be five and a half. I thought it'd be five. I didn't... I had Philly instead of OKC, but you like OKC more than most, I think. Yeah, because I think they have a trade to make. Who was it last year? Memphis was a one seed?

Yeah, they were up there. I don't know if they were a one seed. I thought Denver was the one seed. Miami at 12-1, I thought, was pretty good. I don't know what to make of the Cavs because they've been playing well for five weeks and some of it makes sense to me

because they lost a couple guys, but then all of a sudden, now they basically have shooters, Donovan Mitchell and Jared Allen, and they play better defense for reasons that I still don't totally understand. But they make sense more as a team versus like, all right, you get the ball now.

All right, now it's your turn to have the ball. And I was looking at them at that plus 350 to win the Central Division over Milwaukee. Because I don't think they're far away from them. They are. Milwaukee got that dancing out of their system. They're only two games in the lost column only two games in the lost column behind Milwaukee. Is that what it is? Yeah. So I thought that was interesting. All right. Let's do Paracord.

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at CarMax.com. All right, cuz, what do you got? All right. So my son is wrestling, my middle son, freshman high school. It is really crazy being a wrestling parent. You have these tournaments, and this is the last tournament of the year for the freshman JV. And he had a weigh-in at 7.30, 40 minutes away. And wrestling starts at 10, which means I got to leave here at 6.45 on Saturday. I got to get him there. And then I just got to sit in my car and bet English Premier League soccer and watch on my phone from like 8 to 10. And then he gets a match.

So he has one win this year. It's probably like one in 10. But let me just say the circumstances and quality of opponent of that one year was questionable. I'll leave it at that. But God bless him. He went through it. He's got a maniac coach who drives him.

This guy wrestled for Dan Gable. He trained for the Olympics. And they'll do like a thousand sprawls. And they'll do like, sprawls. And they'll do like... What do they call it? Hand fighting for 40 minutes straight. And he comes back and he's a mess. And he just goes right to sleep. But he's staying with it.

So I'm not expecting much from him in this tournament. In his first match, he gets taken down. But he's got his arm overhooked even though the guy's got control. This is going to be inside baseball a little bit. But just bear with down, but he's got his arm overhooked. Even though the guy's got control, this is going to be inside baseball a little bit, but just bear with me. So he's got the arm overhooked and then he hips in and he hooks the leg. And so now he's got like position and this move is called the Peterson. And while the guy has the takedown, he's now, if he hips back into him,

he's now going to pin the kid or come close. Right? So it's hard to picture, but he's basically got a fireman's carry now. It looks like he's in trouble, but it's the opposite. Right. And they're on the ground and he's hipping back and he's like pinning the kid and I'm screaming, squeeze, squeeze. And I posted it to Instagram and I'm squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. And he's hipping in, I'm yelling squeeze. And he does it. And he pins the kid with 1.7 seconds left in the second period, which is the same amount of time left where the kid hit the three-pointer last in my last parent corner which is crazy right so he pins a kid and i'm going nuts and the whole section sees what's going on they're going nuts

and he jumps up and he goes wild and he kicks his foot in the air and he thrusts his head back and as we're driving home and then he loses his next couple matches so whatever but and we're driving home i said wow jack that his next couple of matches, so whatever. But we're driving home. I said, wow, Jack, that was really exciting. Where did you learn that move? And he said, you taught me in the beginning of the year. And I melted Simmons. I was like, I taught you that? I remember I taught you like a Gramby roll or something. He's like, no, you taught me the Peterson. I said, wow, I'm so bad at everything else. I was able to teach you this. This is really- I'm one and 11 in football picks but you made my weekend oh hold on i was one and nine until then give me a break this was saturday uh and i was almost like pulled over i get choked up and then like we drive for a

couple minutes i said what about that celebration where'd you get that from he's like oh that was in honor of t.j watt i said what he says He says, yeah, you know, he, he does the thing. He moves his head out and he kicks his leg up and he like put puffs his chest out. And I said, oh, all right. All right. Cause he's a Steeler fan, even though I named him Jomo, we went through this and I said, really, why, why are you doing that for TJ Watt? And he says, well, if he's not going to win defensive player of the year, I have to honor him somehow. I swear to God, he said that. Wow. You just ruined it for me, kid, but good job. So we honored you and TJ Watt. Me and TJ Watt. So I think as parents, we need to come up with a slogan or a symbol, even if it's a heart or whatever, so that our kids, when they do something good, they look to us and they mimic our celebration

or our whatever instead of TJ freaking what? Anyway. Congratulations on the Peterson. I watched the Instagram video three times. You did. My favorite part was that Jack in the pen. Oh, that was great. It was you screaming during the thing.

Now squeeze! Squeeze! I was dying laughing. It's so good. Does everyone yell out in the audience or is it just the select few? Are fans, everyone supposed to yell

at the matches? Yeah, I think so. As long as it's positive and you're, you're, you know, you're saying something. Yeah. Well, you only heard me.

Well, he was right. Your voice was right next to the phone. Yeah. It was great. I loved it so much. I did. I did it for TJ.

Um, my son, Ben Simmons. Yeah. Uh, who has listened to the Joe Rogan podcast from time to time when he has comedians on that Ben likes. And I guess Joe Rogan pushes this thing called Alpha Brain. with like clarity. It's a supplement. It might be a placebo, who knows. But for some reason, my son decided I'm going to buy Alphabrain. So we get at Amazon. It comes to me. I always just open. I always think it's for me because I can't see. And it's like, oh, let's get this Alphabrain.

I'm like, Ben, what the hell is this? He's like, oh no, no, I need that. It helps you lock in. I'm going to take it for an exam or whatever. So he takes it for a couple of days and he's telling us, AlphaBrain, it's been great. I really like it. Like, okay. My wife gets concerned. She Googles it for everything for three hours and it seems fine, whatever. The next day we get an email from Ben's history teacher, which I read. And the first paragraph of it is really good. And she's basically praising Ben because he's put in a lot of work and he's raised his grade. Says with continued effort, he'll keep improving and blah, blah, blah, thumbs up. And then she writes, I'm actually writing to let you know that Ben had a bottle of

AlphaBrain in class today and started to hand them out to his neighbors before I caught them. We reemphasized to him that he cannot do this. I would really appreciate it. And then closes with, I really hope he can continue his strong progress. So now my wife is furious. Ben's like an AlphaBrain dealer. That's great. So he comes wife is furious. Ben's like an alpha brain dealer. That's great.

So he comes home and we're yelling at him. He's like, it's fine. It's like a vitamin. Like you can't hand out shit in class anymore. He's like old enough to drive at this point.

When do these kids get smarter, Sal? I don't know. Well, the alpha brain should help them get smarter, I think. Apparently the alpha brain didn't help with this one. Wait a minute. So I need to know, did the teacher at first know that he was handing out alpha brain? I think she saw him handing out supplements to a couple of his friends in class. And did she think it was the worst?

And then he said, no, no, no, it's alpha brain. She's like, you don't understand. He's like, no, no, it's AlphaBrain. She's like, you don't understand. He's like, no, no, it's AlphaBrain. I think he tried to defend it. And that led to a very pleasant email from her. She's kind of giving us a heads up. Did you write back yet? Because if you should.

We did. My wife sent her a long, mortified email back. She's a great teacher. She's been really good. You should be like, hey, what's wrong, teach? You worried all the kids are going to ace your exams because they're on AlphaBrain? You get confident.

You leave my son alone if he wants to AlphaBrain it up. I forgot I was going to take one before tonight's podcast to see what happened. Oh, yeah. But then I came to Chicago and I forgot to take it. Oh, I got to get one from him. I'll just go to school and get one from him.

Okay. Because we should do it before the Super Bowl props pod. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, Alpha Brain apparently doesn't help with common sense. There you go with Parent Corner. Today's Parent Corner is brought to you by CarMax. There's never enough time in the day, especially for parents.

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with your personalized monthly budget. With all the time you'll save, maybe you can start planning that family road trip or finally get a little you time. Even if it's just for a little while. CarMax, the way car buying should be. See details at CarMax.com. All right, Sal, what do you got to plug?

That was a good one. Through the Ringer with Tate Frazier. You've heard of him. Yeah. Delightful young fella. We have Against the Odds, a couple episodes this week, and Cousin Sal's winning weekend. The playmaker, Michael Irvin, joins me. It'll be fun.

Yeah. Wow. Who knows? Yeah. Love Michael Irvin. Lots of fun. That's great. Big fan, I think. All right.

Well, next time we talk, it will be Super Bowl props Sunday night on this podcast. This is probably your favorite week of the year when you figure out the props. Don't lose your confidence. I love it. You had an off playoffs, but that doesn't mean you can't win the big game. No, I came back with the Niners. In a way, I have a little streak going here.

Niners money line. Jesus Christ, that was scary. All right, regardless, good job by you, guys. Good job by you, buddy. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti. As always, thanks to Cousin Sal. I'm going to be back on Tuesday with a new podcast here.

I'm not sure about Thursday yet. Thursday is up in the air, but Tuesday is definitely happening. So stay tuned for that, and I'll see you next time. slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. You can call 1-800-NEXTSTEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona. Call 1-888-789-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9WITHIT in Indiana. 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana, mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, 1-800-GAMBLER.NET in West Virginia, or 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text

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