The Bill Simmons Podcast - Baltimore Blows It, Jayden Daniels Grabs It, and More From the NFL's Divisional Round With Cousin Sal

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the Bills eliminating the Ravens (2:17), Texans-Chiefs, Rams-Eagles (23:38), and a potential game of the year candidate: Lions-Commanders (45:28). They then guess the lines for the conference championship games (1:05:21), and close the show with Parent Corner (1:14:20). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producers: Kyle Crichton and Chia Hao Tat The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, the cousin and I reacting to a pretty wild round two of the NFL next. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. You can now get almost anything you need for the season delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost? Well, you can't get a snowmobile delivered, but you can get a cheese wheel, a warm fire, that's a no, a cozy attire, definitely a yes. A wild moose? Sorry, no. A chocolate moose? Happily yes. Sled dogs? Unfortunately not, but a pair of clogs? Well, that's a yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. So whatever you're looking for this season, know that you can get almost,

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By the way, we announced that the Bill Simmons podcast is gonna be live in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, February 19th at the Paramount Theater. Tickets are on sale at theringer.com slash events. And I'm not sure who my special guest is, but there's some really good options. So stay tuned because it's gonna be fun. You missed my Thursday pod. I talked about some wildfire recovery stuff, some charities

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actually, um, do a little unexpected traveling. So I'm not sure I'm going to have a Tuesday night podcast, but I will have two other podcasts. So it might be a Wednesday night, Thursday night. It might be a two part on Thursday, but it's not looking like a, like a Tuesday podcast right now. So stay tuned. I promise I'll have two more. Plus you get the rewatchables mail bag is a coming.

All right. coming up, cousin Sal and I, we went live on YouTube, which you can watch with us on Sundays. We only have two left. We'll have next week and then post Super Bowl, but you can go to the Bill Simmons YouTube channel and watch us, which is also where you get all the clips and videos, but the cousin and I reacting right after

the Ravens blew it against Buffalo. That's next. First, our friends from Pro Jam. These are the faces of two guys who just lost a decent amount of money. Cousins Sal is here. It is Sunday night. We just watched the Ravens barely lose to the Buffalo Bills, which I guess is going to be remembered sadly as the Mark Andrews game, right? That'll be what we call it? It was going to be, and then it maybe wasn't going to be,

right, and then he solidified it. He's like, no, no, no, this is all me. No, no, we're gonna name this after me. Really good tight end, had a great career, and unfortunately, big fumble fourth quarter. Big drop, two pointer, Lamar, 3.30 left. The whole legacy drive coming, you know? Two pointer, Lamar, 330 left. The whole legacy drive coming.

You know, like whatever happens is gonna set the discourse. And where it lands is he actually comes through, they have a touchdown drive, but then they lose anyway. So I don't know what we do with the Lamar thing. I was thinking about it though, as we were younger, when we would watch sports, we'd watch people like Karl Malone and A-Rod, and pre-2006 Peyton Manning and people like that.

And it was really fun to call people chokers. And oh, this guy chokes. Oh, and this guy, when it matters, he can't show up. And it was this really fun pre-internet thing that we would do. Being at the game, you could do it. There was nothing better than putting your hands around your neck, your own neck.

Yeah, you either came through, you didn't, you're either in this group or this group. And that's just kind of the way we talked about sports before the discourse got smarter. But now, as I get older, I feel like I'm rooting for people not to fall in that bucket. To not be the Carl Malone, Greg Norman, A-Rod, Chris Weber. And I'm watching Lamar and I'm like, after the first two turnovers, I'm like, God damn, if he loses this game, it's really hard. You're on let down mountain now and it's really hard to get off. Weren't you thinking about that?

I was, but I also thought the Ravens were unfairly favored in this game, right? I thought the Bills should have gone into this game when we did this last Sunday night. I was like, the Bills should be, they're a better team. They were treated like they were the seventh seed. Like they had just won the NFC South. Like they're getting a point and a half or whatever at home. I know it flipped from Sunday night. So I thought this is as much a problem for, you know,

Josh Allen and his legacy as Lamar. But you're right, except for one thing, the discourse is not smarter. The discourse is garbage lately. It's terrible. Yeah, true. Yeah, it's awful. True. People don't know how to watch games anymore. But I did feel bad for him for sure.

But again, it wasn't his fault. So in a way he gets a pass, right? Except for the turnovers. I, well, he was the reason they could never get in front in the first place. He had, he sailed the pick. It's set, they score in the first drive. Buffalo comes back and scores.

Baltimore has the ballgun. They just look like they're in the first drive, Buffalo comes back and scores, Baltimore is the ball gun. They just look like they're in control. The running game hasn't even gotten going yet. And then he sails a pick 20 yards over somebody's head to the safety. And they come back from commercial and Romo's saying how this is Matt Milano. He forced that pressure. And I'm watching, I'm like, I don't think so.

I think Lamar just like gacked the play and just sailed the play. And then later that fumble he had when they're driving, and it was a bad snap picks it up and ends up getting stripped. But that was like, you know, that was like a Mac Jones fumble. That was like a Dorian Thompson Robinson fumble. That's like these are the shitty quarterbacks we watched during the season. They make stupid plays like that. You're not supposed to make a play like that in this game when it's like the best quarterback in the league versus the best quarterback in the league, neither guy is Patrick Mahomes.

But it was this big showdown and just two crappy plays. And it just felt like the whole game was off after that. Can I just, I know it's more exciting to be outraged, but can I defend him and some of the others we saw turn the ball over today? Yeah, it was 12 degrees. It's fucking cold. It's fucking cold out.

It is. So we're on text chains with people like, what happened to the Eagles defense down the stretch? Why did they, why they didn't look like that at all? Well, it's cold and they're exhausted. Like that's why they gave up the touchdown for the backdoor cover and almost the touchdown to go ahead. Why isn't Henry in there every play when he's running so well, well, it's cold,

so maybe they need a break. So I think we forget about the human element. It's cold, the ball is so shiny, it's easier to fumble. That was a great hit by Bernard on Andrews to force the fumble, but that would be my excuse for Lamar, but it doesn't really help Ravens fans right now. I thought they were a better team. You did.

That's a great game. I mean, that's such a great win for Buffalo. Three turnovers to none. Baltimore misses both two point conversions. Two plays that I didn't like. The first one felt a little rushed. Neither one of them was just, we're gonna ram the ball down your throats and score.

The second one, you're rolling Lamar out. It felt like the entire defense was going. He did have Andrews open, but that's not an easy play. It's 10 degrees outside. It's freezing. He's already fumbled a play before. He's falling backwards. We've seen guys drop that.

It wasn't like an absolute, you know, he should've caught it, but it wasn't a layup, but I just felt. Also his ass was hanging out too, kinda. It really was. He was almost naked. I don't know what happened there. Well, how about this? How many times did the Ravens punt today?

Did they not punt? I know it either ended on a turnover or a score. Zero punts. Zero punts, three turnovers. They missed two, two points. And yet it felt like if it got to overtime, I thought they were gonna win. And I thought they did a good job against Buffalo

in the second half too. Like, you know, Alan had a chance to put the game away in that last drive when they were up five. And they ran that same QB draw. It was like when I played Madden against Ben and he's just running the same play. And I'm like, by the fourth card, I'm like, oh, you're going to run the play where you do this

and just put two guys there. He ran the QB draw seven times. Yeah, they finally were ready for it They had to take the field goal and it felt like they just left the door open a tiny bit plus There was a great. I mean it was a great weekend for weird gambling shit Baltimore minus one and a half Greatering the whole time the moment they missed the two-point. It's like, of course, they're gonna win 25 24 Right when they tried the two point it's like of course they're gonna win 25 24 and try the two point conversion to tie it up you like there's no freaking way they're gonna get it otherwise the spread wouldn't have been one and a half like I wish I could live bet the two point conversion but yeah

yeah that was bad yeah and then Jake Elliott in the in the game before just a random miss miss P a T out of nowhere now they're up 13 instead of 14 they're favored by six and a half. It's like, of course the Rams are going to score. This is, this is pre pre ordained now. Uh, and then the KC one was the worst one. The absolute worst. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know where to, where to go with it. I I'll, I'll say this though. I feel like the game could change no matter what, like you could change what a catch is, you could change replay, what, like it could change what a catch is. You could change replay, what it can cover, what it doesn't. You could add stick them to gloves. But the one thing's a constant,

and especially in the playoffs, if you have more turnovers than the other team, it's unforgiving, it really is. I mean, Allen had what, 125 yards passing? Hertz had about the same. If I would have told you in the beginning of the game, Hey, the beginning of the day, those two guys are not even going to combine for 260 yards, how much money would we have put on the other sides?

Like, right. I guess we would have covered, um, with the Rams, but it is unbelievable. Tried and true. You turn the ball over, especially on the road in the playoffs, you're going to lose a game. Allen, 127 yards passing. Cook, 67 yards. Alan was 10 for 20 rushing. Shakir was their best receiver at 67 yards. The next guy had 15 and they won. Ravens finished with 416 yards. Buffalo, 273 Ravens finished with 416 yards, Buffalo 273. And they won.

But that's the thing, I lost both of my, I lost the Lions because the big T's, I had the Lions with the other three favorites. I had a bet today with the Chiefs and the, I had the Chiefs and the Eagles combined, I had the Eagles and Ravens. So I scrambled back in real life a little. But the two games that I had wrong

were the Lions and the Ravens, I'm not even positive I had them wrong. Cause it's just what you said. It's like turnovers. Okay. The one that we always talk about, like nine out of 10 times, you can kind of have a feel for a football game. And then that 10th time is the wonk game. This felt, this game felt wonky, but that's the thing it's 12 degrees and it's in Buffalo. And that's why so many people pick Buffalo. It's like Josh Allen home. They're used to this weather.

Uh, and that was it. But man, I thought, I thought the Ravens were the best team in the league. I really did. I thought they were the best. And I felt no one was picking Buffalo. Yeah. I mean, Derek Henry's great. He was the steel of free agency, but I was looking at this line and I was like,

he has just as many games under 100 yards than he has over. They're a little bit fraudulent in the four teams they beat over the last month. The, the offenses they played like Pittsburgh twice. Uh, who was it? The Browns and the, oh, the Texans on that dumb Christmas game where they scored two. So I don't know. I was like, maybe they could figure Henry out and they didn't. I know he had those big drives and it'll end up with decent numbers, but.

They held them to like 26 yards, I think, in the first half. And that was good enough to have that lead was 21-10. They held on to that. That was huge. And getting the ball at the top of the third quarter. Yeah. Henry and Hill combined were 22 for 134. Lamar was six for 39, just for rushing. But they were doing most of the stuff they wanted to do on offense. The first Lamar pick was egregious. The fumble was stupid. And then the Andrews fumble, they were driving.

It felt like, you know, it felt like they had at least, I should have written this down, but it felt like they had at least four, like 25 yard pass plays, right? They had at least, I'm gonna say four or five runs of 10 to twenty yards But between a couple big ones to Andrews. Yeah, I'm like, holy shit. Where the bills we never win games like this This is a fucking miracle. This is usually if you bring in the Buffalo Bills history

It's you know, Andrews fumbles that two-point, but then he holds on to it. Oh T coin flip Baltimore wins it they go and they win the game or they win an OT. It's like, Oh my God. I mean, when Tyler Bass hit that long field goal, even then I was like, Oh, that's unusual for Buffalo. So maybe the vibes are, uh, maybe the vibes are shifting for them. This was your Superbowl pick. Yeah.

Well, I had them with the lions, so I feel like it's already a bust, but, um, yeah. I mean, like I said, I think I thought they were undervalued in this game and maybe they weren't the better team, but the Ravens took too long to get going. And those turnovers to absolutely killed them. Yeah. So they had that first grade TD drive. They had the pick, they had the fumble. They had the first and goal from the two when they just for whatever

reason, just went backwards and ended up getting a field goal instead of a touchdown. They had that third and 12 from Buffalo 29 in the third quarter when they were down 11 and they just get a delay game. Now it's third and 17. They get five. They kick a field goal instead. But it was a lot of like little Raven stuff that usually if they lose a game like this, it's the stuff that happens. It's the reason they had the five losses during the season when you could look at all five and be like, Oh, I'm not sure they should have lost that game. But that's, that's who they are. I felt like with the two tight ends, with the way they could run the ball and

with the way Lamar could just kind of take off and scramble, they were, they seem kind of unstoppable and they could just kind of never keep it going for more than five minutes. Yeah. You didn't see that Lamar gigantic scramble in the second half or like the fourth quarter. Right. I mean, that was, that was there for them in the first half when Henry wasn't really doing it on the ground. So yeah, they just, even like that big kick return at the end, they get it to the 35, 33, holding penalty. Now they're starting at the 12th.

You know, but I don't know. I obviously we've never played football at the highest possible level and 12 degree weather when it's snowing. I don't know. I don't know how to factor that in. I know. I, like I said, it's not fun and it's not, um, high brow Warren sharp type analysis saying it's too cold for these guys, but I think a lot of it is that it made for great viewing. Right.

That was fun. We watched the Rams Eagles together in the snow. We've got to all four games are excellent games. Yeah. I even thought chiefs Texans was pretty good. So the Ravens heading into this game since 2018, including the playoffs, were 0 and 9 when they were trailing by 10 plus points at halftime. And now they're 0 and 10.

And the only other team that is winless during that span is the Oakland, LA Vegas Raiders, 0 and 26. Wow. So, no comebacks, 10 plus. And I guess that's the Lamar era, right? 2018 on. And yet I thought they were going to win and I felt like it the Lamar era, right? 2018 on. And yet I thought they were gonna win and I felt like it was gonna happen.

And especially when he made that improv play on the final drive to Wallace, when he ran out, bought some time, hit him over the middle, I was like, okay, Lamar, here we go. Yeah, like Wallace, I forgot he was on the, wow, that's the biggest catch of the game. But yeah, I think you're right.

And I thought you were gonna go after Harbaugh a little there. It's like, that is a little weird for coaches held in such high regard to now be double digits losses with a down 10 at the break. Their last Superbowl win was deer antler Ray Lewis season. Right. So that was, uh, nine years ago, right?

11 years ago, 10 years ago, the superdouble, the blackout. Yeah. 14, 15 where I was at Grantland, and you were working for, doing stuff for Grantland. So, it was 10, 11 years ago. Yeah, House and I are doing the anniversary of House Heats 3, that's when it was, right? It was in New Orleans.

What do you mean you're doing the anniversary of House Heats 3? You're just trying to throw up on House again? I'm gonna try, it's happening. It's happening this time. Well, so I don't know where Lamar ends up now because he's definitely not on that Karl Malone level, but he also really needs one of these games and it felt like he was finally going to get it. And there's this whole alternate universe where Mark Andrews just holds on to that one. And we've moved into this whole other sliding doors of Warren Buffalo pain. Oh my God.

And now we have this this Bill's Chiefs game, which we'll talk about when we do guest aligns, but the Chiefs, this all somehow worked out. I feel the best for them out of anybody, right? Son of a bitch. Worked for them? There's four teams left. I feel the best about the Chiefs,

the team that we kind of looked at side eyes for, side eyed for 12 weeks, wondering what the hell was going on with them. And now I like them the most. And we still will, and we'll spend the next six days trying to convince ourselves, all right, the Bills can win this. Yeah, the Bills are gonna win this going away.

But yeah, they are just too hard to beat, and I know everyone wants to take the refs, and I don't know, I don't know what to say. Like I, you know, I have a friend friend Harry, you know, and he is just so ridiculous with these refs and he'll like bring a petition in front of Arrowhead stadium because he thinks it's so fixed for the chiefs. I was like, just shut up already. And then I watched this game.

I'm like, those are some bad calls. I still don't think the Texans played well enough to win. Yeah. I was like, my God, that's three or four bad calls and they need to do something. They're these keep a drive alive calls, which is like that Will Anderson allegedly hitting Mahomes in the head or whatever that play was when he didn't. Which he feels like if we're going to review everything in the NBA and not nearly enough in the NFL, it feels like there's some sort of middle ground where

they could look at that again and go, oh yeah, he didn't hit Mahomes. Listen, they review touchdowns, right? They review turnovers. A 15-yard penalty, the way these guys are kicking the ball from 55, 58 yards, it almost always puts you in field goal range. So it is a scoring play, essentially. I'll say that. And the other thing I'll say is Mahomes, like he's such a master of taking a late hit or maybe not a late hit.

First of all, when he turns into the hash mark and takes a hit, that was that looked like a Madden glitch there. So if he's getting away with that, that's terrible. But the sideline crap where he's just falling over, it's like remember like St. Gall, Steven St. Gall, like 15 years ago, they'd show these highlights of him doing the bullshit Aikido or whatever it is. And he's barely touching people. With the painted and goatee. Yeah, and they're doing cartwheels

like they were hit by a snow plow. Like that's what my homes is doing on the sideline. Like they gotta, I think they need to call flopping too now. Like they're doing the NBA and soccer. I can't believe I'm about to say this because I hate it in basketball and I hate it in soccer. But I really hate it in basketball. Like when, believe I'm about to say this, because I hate it in basketball, and I hate it in soccer. But I really hate it in basketball, especially during the glory days of this with Hardin

and Trey Young and some of these people. I just hated it. I kind of enjoy when Mahomes does it. Because he's turned it into some art form that we didn't know existed. That thing that that one play when he was running out of bounds and he had the guy behind him and he slowed down, like he was trying to get a call on a three point shot.

I've never seen a quarterback do that before. Like the fact that he is so locked in on the situations at all time or that when he does the quick slides as the guy's starting to dive, hoping to get a hit to the head, he's exploited these rules that were intended to protect all quarterbacks, including him. And he's taken it and he's turned it against the defense in this really creative way. I gotta respect it.

I guess so. I respected, like I respect the art form. There are people who like diarrhea on a canvas and be like, hey, 300 grand for this. Like, I don't know. It's kind of shitty. It's like those people that they do the clear magic marker on their license plate so that the, the, the speeding cameras can't catch it. It's like, I gotta respect it.

It's pretty ingenious. All right. He has like five tricks like that, but, um, the thing, here's the thing. And I was on multiple texts this weekend and I go nuts when people say this and we were together with, for the first game and somebody said it when we were all together this whole thing that he's inherited the Tom Brady Patriots getting a recall thing. I know you don't like that. This drives me crazy. This drives me crazy.

I'm gonna keep saying it. I was there for all those Patriot games. Sure the tuck roll which was by the way interpreted correctly but we are the only team where the team was, we had a deflate gate, fake controversy as we were trying to win a super bowl. And then we won the super bowl and then they suspended our quarterback way later anyway. And there's still no evidence. Like everything has been debunked. We had a four game suspension. It's like, I'm positive that hasn't happened to Patrick Wilhams yet. So everybody settled down.

That part's right. Can both be right that he was like, babied as a quarterback on some of these late hits? He was, so was Peyton Manning. So was Aaron Rodgers. What star quarterback wasn't babied? I'm mostly with you because I don't think these teams have beat the Chiefs anyway. I will fully admit that he would get whiny and he would turn and he would yell at the rest. But Peyton Manning did too.

Both of them did. Wasn't like it was just, it wasn't like Brady was the only one. Well, maybe Lamar Jackson should, maybe they should teach a course and Lamar Jackson should pick it up and Jared Goff should pick up the same thing. I don't know. I'm in a defending Brady mode because even like his announcing, which I, which has not been great, I'll be the first one to admit and I know we've talked about it, but he does have moments of insight during the game.

We should hope so. Yeah. For 37 billion a year. But there are moments, like he caught the 12 men on the field, I've never seen an announcer catch that before. That was nice. He had, I thought when Goff through that interception on the post pass, the deep one,

and Brady was explaining like, it actually was the right throw, but he should have led him right to left because he threw it straight. He loved it. Cornerbacks love cutting that pass. And I was like, okay, here we go, Tom Brady. And then it's five more minutes of him just talking about,

big play, gotta get this. And you know, like, ah, God damn it. But I blame Burkhardt as much as Brady because I don't think Burkhardt sets him up enough. Oh, I think he was helping, doing all he could in the beginning, but I don't know, it's fine, it's fine. I was like- He's no Collinsworth.

He's no Collinsworth! Bill, how are you gonna be as good as me? There's just no way. They were gonna go through the back door, Mike, and now they're going through the front door. The Rams might take this, Mike. My balls are so frostbitten. I don't think I'm going to feel them until March, to be honest.

Mike, I lost consciousness five minutes ago, Mike. Let's take a break for the podcast. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. From the first whistle to the final drive, FanDuel takes the NFL playoffs to the next level right now. New customers can bet $5, get $300 bucks back in bonus bets if you win. $300 of bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. The FanDuel app gives you everything you need for live bets, same game parlay, so much more.

Plus, when you win, you'll get paid instantly. On Thursday, we're going to be talking about our favorite million dollar picks and we got to make a comeback because we did not do well in round two. But I think, I think, uh, I think we're in a pretty large group for that. So round three could be a big comeback week. You visit vandal.com slash BS join today. Get started. $300 of bonus bets. Fandle.com slash BS make this playoff season.

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Too sweaty. We could go skating. Too icy. We could book a vacation. Like somewhere hot. Yeah, with pools. And a spa. And endless snacks.

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I'd like kudos to ESPN, first network ever to play In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins before a sporting event. Nobody ever thought of it. They should try Pressure by David Bowie the next time, or Queen, that would be good. Or Billy Joel's Pressure, yeah. Or Billy Joel's Pressure, yeah. There's songs I'm just good with now,

songs that we like, that we've grown up with, that should just be banned from sports now. And it's like I've been doing this for 10 years, but we're really at a crisis point in the air tonight, pressure, there's a couple, anything from pre 89, just get it out. Let's go. Let's move to music from the last 35 years. We can do it. I'm positive.

Let's go. There's been a lot of good music. It makes me feel good. I just, uh, if I have to pretend to be bopping along the Jay-Z while they, you know, while the show highlights going into halftime, fine. Jay-Z would be great. That's the last 35 years. That's fine. I mean, it's not pressure. It's not any of the pressures. In the air tonight. I can't, I honestly cannot believe we're still playing that first 40 minutes.

The drum solo. They just do the drum solo after every play. So that Chiefs Texans game starts with a long special teams play, followed by the Texans guy has like a meltdown, throws his helmet down, shoves his coach, and the game is barely started. And the Chiefs go three down, it's three nothing, and then the Texans go back and it's tied at three and it's just like what this is the weirdest game I've ever watched but the Texans hung around I Don't know if they actually should have won the game, but the game was I think closer than all of us thought their defense was good

Ultimately, I was never in real fear for the Chiefs were you No, I wasn't at all and I see Jay Stroud was than I thought. Like I thought, remember his second playoff game last year, he went to Baltimore and got destroyed. And this, he was making plays with his legs. Like that's not really his game, what he was doing. And, you know, he was hitting his receivers and I don't know, they stuck around. And, you know, there's like a 10 minute drive that touchdown for Mixon. Yeah, that was huge. But then receivers that we've never heard of all year were making actually 10 minute drive that touchdown for Mixon. That was huge.

But then like, I don't know. Receivers that we'd never heard of all year were making actually were like, that's his first pass attempt that's ever been thrown to him. It's round two. Yeah, so I don't even know where we are with CJ Stroud anymore, to be honest.

I feel like that's just a guy you and I are gonna flip flop over the next seven years a dozen times. But he did an admirable job, about as much as the linesmakers thought, because it came down to that very half a point. But I mean, shit, the Chiefs just playing a joke. Is it like just like a clubhouse joke? Like, hey, we had 212 total yards.

Can we win with 100 total yards? Spags, map it out. Let's see, you got us? We're good? Okay. I just feel like it's just a you got us? We're good. Okay. I just feel like it's just a challenge for them to do so little and win. I know, but it's like what we were talking about earlier with that Baltimore Buffalo game, like they don't beat themselves.

Yeah, right. Houston had that play. It was a fourth and 10 in the second half and they kind of rushed it to the line. And who was the announcer? It was, uh, Aikman. Yeah, it was Aikman. He's like, I don't like this. They should call time out. If they were just going too fast, fourth and 10, I think he got sacked. It's like the, it's the little things you just can't do against the chiefs.

And then the other thing is January Kelsey, who's just a different human being than regular season Kelsey, who they put in the garage with that car tarp over him, you know, and they're just like, maybe take it out for a spin on Sundays for 10 minutes. But in the playoffs, they actually use him and, uh, their offense just felt a little more. And yet it looks like he's attending an old timers game. He looks so slow compared to everyone else out there.

He looks like it's a snowy field, even though it's not, it looks like he's got the snowfield cleats on. He's so open. He's got like 20 yards around them. Aikman's good because I really feel like he's, um, I dunno, we give awards for like come back announcer of the year. Come back of the decade. Yeah. That's been the last really since Romo got attention.

He's Aikman took it up a notch. And it's because he's angry. He'll like, Oh, he and Buck do a good job going after the refs. And obviously they had the perfect game to do it for this, but angry Aikman is just terrific. I mean, they, they must've, uh, I don't remember a comeback like this. I don't know what they do before the game to get them so onery, but good job. That was the best team this year, I think.

Right. That was my favorite. Yeah. But yeah, they're very good. Yeah. Very good. I, um, yeah, I like, I do like Greg Olson though. I will say, I think, uh, I don't even want to say he's underrated because I think he's getting a good pop lately.

Houston special teams. That was another thing. It was a three hour murder for them. That was another reason they lost that, you know, miss field goals missed extra point, Kick return all kinds of shit. They just weren't ready to win that game in KC. We got a lot of Taylor Swift shots. Shout out to Tommy Alter in the background. I don't know if you saw him a couple times. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Caitlin Clark, all the greats. But. Yeah, when you have Taylor, Caitlin, and the fricking Rizzler there, and the refs, forget it, game over. Rizzler. And then the safety. So this had one of the great gambling moments, I think in the decade.

And this has been a cottage industry now because of Instagram reels and tick tock. I don't know how long we've been talking about these stupid. This was beyond a bad beat. This was 14 seconds left. I still don't know what the point of the safety was, I guess, to chew. So basically he runs, or as a once runs backwards, runs around. It really feels like he's going to get like stripped or it's going to be like a touchdown in the end zone or something horrible.

Then he gets out and then they punt again. So I guess it saves seven seconds. And I guess my question is, was that worth it? All the things that could go wrong with your punter running around backwards in cold weather. I'm positive I would just rather punt it and get rid of the ball and you can have the extra seven seconds.

Depends who you bet. So I feel like nobody deserved to win this bet against the spread, right? Because they're up, what were they up? They were up 11, the Chiefs, and Fairbairn tries a gimme field goal misses So now the Texans you have the Texans you're like that sucks. They should have lost by eight, right? But then alright, so now the child depending what you got at eight and a half or not

I think the the reason they Did that is because the only thing that would have killed them is a black a block punt And then it wouldn't have killed them because they still need it to score twice. How many block punts are you, if you actually like trying not to get your pump block? I don't know. It felt like an overthink. That was a little much.

So the other thing was the line was eight and a half all week when we were doing ringer Sunday pregame show on Saturday. It was eight and a half before you guys started the show. And then as the game got closer, jumped to nine and a half. before you guys started the show. And then as the game got closer, jumped to nine and a half. So people got that chiefs line somewhere around those two numbers and then it ended at nine. I feel like I should get an emergency alert on my phone

if it goes, if it moves to nine and a half during the show. It does feel like that should be a Twitter account or a. Yeah. If you've got emergency alert. We've gotten so many of them lately. What the hell? Well, so that was ultimately good for Fandall.

Um, that was bad for, that was bad for the books because you could have gotten eight and a half with the chiefs. You're betting Casey up, you win. And if you get Texans nine after you, I never understand how that goes. Yeah. That's that they got screwed by that point. So everybody was saying, oh, it's rigged for the books and everything.

No, that's not the example you want to use. They lost both ways. But I'm trying to think in general if they lost money, like you and I are idiots because we have the money. The Washington, they cleaned up. That Washington game made their playoffs. You think it did? Oh my God, yeah.

It wasn't just the game. It was all the Lions' bets. It was the Lions' win the NFC. It was the lions, super bowl bets. They were like really badly exposed with the lions. And then on top of it, everybody and their brother, including us had some sort of tease with the lions, the Eagles, the chiefs, Ohio state, whatever the lions were in a lot of them. But the kids, the kids loved the same game parlays and you couldn't,

you couldn't miss with the same game parlay. The game that had how many points? 76? I don't know. It's just all overs all over the place. The kids really do love the same game parlays. Does Harrison like the same game parlays? Is he old enough yet? I think he's too young. Yes. I got scared when you said that. He's too young. Six months from now. When he turns 11, maybe he can do them. By the spring. No, I think Washington made Fandl a lot of money. All right. I think there were a lot of futures that could have been pretty bad.

Cause there was a moment and we had some lions bets. They were somehow undervalued, even though they were clearly the best team on paper in the NFC. So I doubled up. They were even to win the conference before Saturday. I was like, that's ridiculous. They'll take care of the commanders and then. I was like, that's ridiculous. We'll take care of the commanders and then they'll beat up whoever, um,

especially if the Eagles come to town, but not meant to be. I'm going to go on the record. I just blanket hate the safety running around to kill time to send it from 13 to 11 or whatever, 11 to nine. I'm just out. I don't like that play. Yeah. I don't'm just out. I don't like that play. Yeah. I don't trust safeties.

I don't trust kickers. I don't trust any special teams like guys running around and all of a sudden you like, Hey, kids, and all of a sudden the balls rolling around the end zone. I just, I'm not taking the risk. I'm with you. And this is where we should have bed insurance betters insurance. Yeah. But yeah, also, yeah.

If the, if you're receiving the punt in the end zone, maybe, but don't run back a quarter of a mile, right? Run out of the end zone. Stupid. Yeah. There's a couple of things. Maybe I've just been watching football too much for too many weeks in a row, but I can't watch another fair catch in the five yard line.

I just can't or the fair catch in the seven. I can't watch the guy. Punting on the other team's 40 somehow punting it out of bounds anyway. It just seems like anyone we know should be able to just punt like a little dribbler 25 yards that rolls out on the 10. It just doesn't seem that hard. Um, the holding on the kickoff, I just like, I would tell everyone on my team, like that guy today and the Ravens who gets the hold where he's just

Bare hugging the dude from behind right? It's just an automatic you're waived at this hat if you hold on and kick off you're waived Your job you I'm taking your job most of those guys That's all they do is they're on the kick return of the punt return team so just don't know you have one job Don't hold anyone. That's it. Yeah, don't hold anybody on team. With the punt return, that was like forever when we were growing up. It was like, all right, stand at the seven. If you have to take one step back, let it go over your head. That seemed to work out. I don't know why they changed that. What's the new edict?

I don't get it either. Well, this was a great weekend for the Chiefs because I think the Ravens would have been a much tougher opponent for them than the bills. I also think they'll probably not say this publicly, but I think, I think there's a lot more animosity with Buffalo than maybe Baltimore. I think that Buffalo chiefs thing is a real thing. Um, and, uh, I just like the chiefs. I can't wait to do guest.

The chiefs, they, they big brother the bills. I think they're like, guest launch for that one. They big brother the Bills, I think. They're like, yeah, we didn't even care that you beat us in the regular season. Come on, let's play again. We get it when it counts. It's very similar to the Pat's Colts dynamic that didn't really totally shift until the 2006 AFC title game. Right. So maybe that'll be the Bills version of that. Maybe they will be the Indy, but the problem is the game's in KC. All right. Next one. We'll go Eagles Rams. We'll save the

Lions game for last because that's going to be really fun to talk about. You're hurtful. I was thinking with Eagles Rams, this is like the perfect Eagles win for the Eagles fans that we know in our lives. Right. Kind of ugly. They had the game. They kind of fucked it up in the last four minutes. Siri hunting hurts. Still a lot of question marks.

Um, it was a win, but it also was kind of like you escaped by the skin of your teeth. And then the only thing I ever can agree on is that Saquon Barkley is like the greatest Eagle of all time and they all love Saquon Barkley is like the greatest Eagle of all time. And they all love Saquon Barkley. And he had another like magical game. It was basically like an AI spitting out an Eagles win in round two of the playoffs was how I felt. That's excellent. And I think you're right, because the most important thing for Eagles fans is that they get they're angry at their team. And that's it. They let up the last touchdown and almost another one that would have lost the game.

They could still be angry at the team, but they get to watch them play another game. They get another one, but they get say, Oh, I forgot Jake Elliott. That's another one. Jake Elliott, the two extra points, but made some big field goals, but they could be mad at him. They can be bad at some of the strategy. It was perfect. Uh, hurts Strange one.

He had the long touchdown drive. He ends up, he throws for 128 yards. Last week he threw for 131. So he's still 41 yards away from a 300 yard game. That's going to have to take him 3 games. Yeah. He has

4 playoff wins. Let me just add to that while I have it here. 4 playoff wins. Career high passing in those games. Yeah. To get to. He has four playoff wins. Let me just add to that while I have it here. Four playoff wins, career high passing in those games. 156. So weird. I don't completely trust them when I watch them. We both had the Eagles in a tease, but they were also six and a half. They somehow not cover, but I never feel a hundred percent comfortable with him. And then the AJ Brown is another one.

Like he had another huge drop. Right. And he had like a touchdown percent comfortable with him. And then the AJ Brown is another one. Like he had another huge drop. Right. He had like a touchdown and screwed it up. So they've been getting nothing out of him. I don't remember how many things Devanta Smith did in that game. Goddard seemed like he was like the most reliable receiver. But I felt the tight end goal in every game

should have been hit more, right? Except for me, Andrew's at the end, but Goddard, Ernst did an amazing job. We'll talk about that in a minute, but yeah. And then, you know, the, the big moment for me with hurts is like, what the hell, you not getting rid of that ball, another safety that didn't make any sense. Oh my God. Well, and they fucked up the end of the second quarter too. That was another one. They're up three drive, all of a sudden they're going backwards.

Then they're just letting the clock run out. Cause he took a sack. He took another bad sack for that safety. Yeah. So, um, I, Washington's a live dog to me. Like, like they're, they're the classic playing with house money, a lot of momentum. They're really good on offense. They're definitely not afraid of the Eagles. They beat them last year when they sucked, you know, beat them last year. I, that's going to be a fun one.

I, um, you know, uh, all of a sudden, it's okay rooting for the Cowboys. We were easily in the best division in football. Like if you had a repower ranked everybody, Cowboys would be like fifth or something in football, in the NFL. I was going to say, if I told you in late August, two NFC East teams will be playing to make the Super Bowl in the third weekend in January. You'd have been so pumped. Yeah, that's not as fun. late August, two NFC East teams will be playing to make the super bowl the third weekend in January.

You'd have been so pumped. Yeah, that's not as fun. This is amazing. I can't believe we're going to be, we're one way away from the super bowl. We're playing the giants. How did this work out? Yeah. It was two teams and it was like, then the other two choices were the commanders of the giants.

Right. Even they've ever thought we both like the commanders. We went over and then I mean, they have 14 wins. I am going to make the playoffs, but I did not think they'd have 14 wins, but it is interesting how that became the division. Right. And the NFC North was, I keep comparing it to the SEC who has no participants in tomorrow night's game, um, just off, I think they were 29 and four outside of division

and then just got murdered in the playoffs. Yeah, I think we did a podcast segment probably four weeks ago where we were wondering if they had the three best teams. Yeah. Well, they didn't. They don't, we don't have to worry. Fast forward to the end of the movie.

They did not. There was a cold weather element to the Seagulls game too, with, um, with, uh, the toughness, the Rams, uh, they, Nekua had a huge drop. Karen Williams had the fumble. Stafford had the fumble. Um, you know, and, and we live in LA. We've talked, we talk about this a lot on the pod about how, um, we're both from the East coast. I was a guy that was always like, I wouldn't this a lot on the pod about how we're both from the East coast.

I was a guy that was always like, I wouldn't throw a coat on when it was 20 degrees outside, unless I really had to, the wind show was bad. Lived out here for three years. Then when I go back East, I'm fucking freezing every time. And I get it when the Rams go to Philly. It's like, I get why Nakua probably, you know, like pass us through his hands. You're just, it's hard to get used to. Yeah.

There was one indoor game. The other three, I would say this clearly gave one of the teams, the home team, the advantage, the weather, right? The cold weather and the slipping all over. And you just knew Barclay was going to break one of every three or four runs. It's just crazy. I don't know if he was going to slide short of a touchdown, which he likes to do, but that is incredible.

What he put it, what he put himself through and everybody else. Yeah. Schrieger asked me during the game, he texted me, do you think, is this a good way to decide a playoff matchup where the weather comes in and you have a situation like that Eagles Rams game today? And to me, a hundred percent. Yes. It's such a huge part of football.

I even think back to like that Chargers Bengals game when we were kids in 1980. And I love that Chargers team. And then they go to Sensi and it was like minus 230 degrees and the Bengals just beat them. But it's like, that's why you play for home field advantage. Like you want, you know, you want people to come to your house.

And especially if it's like a team like Miami last year why you play for home field advantage. Like you want, you know, you want people to come to your house. And especially if it's like a team like Miami last year playing in, um, or they Buffalo or KC, Kansas city. Yeah. Um, it's, it's just part of football. I love it. So you like it too, right? I love it too. I have some buddies that, you know, like, you're just like, nah, this is just,

we're not seeing the best of every team. If they're playing with a shiny cable that they can hold onto, I do like the home field advantage. Am I a hypocrite to say, I don't seeing the best of every team. If they're playing with a shiny K ball that they can't hold onto, I don't like the home field advantage. Am I a hypocrite to say, I don't like it in the super bowl? I didn't like it when Denver played Seattle and it just looked like, Oh, this is going to be a shit fest. But put those in a warm weather climate, but I like everything leading up. Yeah. I think that's the right take.

Yeah. Cause I remember the one of the years when we beat the Colts, I say we talked about the Patriots, like I was on the team. There was one like super, it was the, it was the one when, uh, the fans were chanting, cut that, cut that meat at Peyton Manning. Cause he had the cut that meat commercial. Yeah. And it was just freezing.

They scored three points and it was like a combo of our defense plus like just how cold it was. And it was like, that's why we won. It was really, that was it. Um, the cold weather has been a big advantage for the Pats over the years. I think Buffalo's won a couple of the chiefs definitely, but I like it. I personally, I guess John just, you would have a different answer. If it depends who you're root for, right? If you're a dolphin, right?

Sure. Right. Yeah. If you're or dome dome team, if you're a historian and you love NFL films and you love watching that and just like, there's nothing better than guys grinding it out. Well, cause sometimes it'll be too cold weather teams in bad weather and those are usually great too.

Like the Packers, what was that? Packers Giants, 08. Packers Giants, yep. Freezing, it was like one degree and, you know, but at least the Giants were used to it. I didn't, did not feel like the Rams were that used to it today. Really good Rams here. Definitely.

And I, you know, not only did they make the final eight, it felt like they were pretty close in that, in that game. And it was very similar to the Baltimore thing where it's just, they made some dumb turnovers. Philly had a couple of dumb plays on their own end, but not as dumb as the Rams have. We almost had a seven versus six in the NFC championship.

Like the Rams almost had a home game. It would have been nuts to think a month ago, but yeah, I'm proud of that team and they did a nice job. Can I give a shout out to Jack Wilson, the producer of the Ringer Sunday pregame show. Okay. Text from Jack Wilson, 1230 Pacific time. This is when the Rams are looking good in the Eagles game.

It's like first quarter, the Rams are moving the ball. Text me, if the Rams win and house comes to LA next weekend, do we want to bring JJ out too since Raheem is in Vegas, that's easy. Cause then we can all do the show in LA. Great. It wasn't even the end of the first quarter yet. So I just sent him back Jinkx text. Yeah.

And then Jack, Jack texts me back, shit, sorry, don't tell House. Well, House is finding out right now. House is all right. House is going to play either way next week. It's the Rams fans. He's good. You know what? Let's give Jack Wilson's phone number on here. So people can either way next week. It's the Rams fans. He's good.

You know what? Let's give Jack Wilson's phone number on here. So people could, if the Rams fans, we'll give it at the end of the show. No, House is happy. Cause he just, now that's a short ride to Philly. I talked to House today actually before the Philly game. He's, you know, obviously out of his mind,

but we were talking about how crazy it would be if it was a Baltimore, Washington, like Superbowl have two teams located closer to each other ever played in a Superbowl. And we were like, this has to like, it's never been a New York, New York jets versus like, no, that's never happened. And I, it was almost like too weird. So the gods decided, yeah, this isn't happening. Yeah. Wait, there is no answer, right? The answer that's I don't think you'll have some midway.

Wait, I'm going to try Tampa. I don't think it's ever. Yeah, I don't think it's ever happened. All right. Yeah. House is he's not going to Philly, is he? Oh, yeah, he's going. He's going to go. Oh, yeah. They have yeah, he's going. He's going to go? Oh yeah.

They have to be on their best behavior now, the Eagles fans, because they're all recorded and they're going to lose their jobs if they curse or do anything. Good. I feel like they're going to keep... It's all fine now. Let's take another break for the pod and then we will talk about Washington and the Lions. Calling all sellers, Salesforce is hiring account executives to join us on the cutting edge of technology. Here, innovation isn't a buzzword. It's a way of life. You'll be solving customer challenges faster with agents, winning with purpose and showing the world what AI was meant to be.

with agents, winning with purpose, and showing the world what AI was meant to be. Let's create the agent-first future together. Head to salesforce.com slash careers to learn more. Washington Lions game of the weekend. Possible game of the year, certainly the most dramatic. I was at, I went to UFC last night and I was just like, I'm going to watch this game when I get home. But I was kind of checking my phone and every time I checked my phone, the score was different. What are those games?

But, uh, this will be my first question for you. Is this it for the Alliance? Was this their window these two years? Can they get back? Is it ever going to get better than this for them? Cause I, it's like seven questions. My God. Yes. Well, it's all the same question.

They'll get back. Yeah. No. I know what you're saying. I think Campbell's good. I think their offense is excellent. I think that defense was decimated. I think after a while, you just can't, they lose three more defensive players during the

game. The quarterback goes out immediately. You just can't put bodies in eventually. I don't want to take anything away from Jaden Daniels because I want to make a case for him being the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game.

I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie in the game. I think he's going to be the best rookie during the game. The quarterback goes out immediately. You just can't put bodies in eventually. I don't want to take anything away from Jaden Daniels because I want to make a case for him being the best rookie postseason quarterback we've ever seen. But that said, for God's sakes, how many guys have to go down? Right. And I don't know. I don't, I don't know that. I don't know that that vision is so tough.

Uh, after all, I don't think he's going to see Minnesota with 14 wins again. So I think they can come back. Go ahead. Counter. I don't think their defense was why they lost the game. No, I'll just read you some plays. 45 is a lot of points, but you don't think so. Third and one, they're up seven, three in the Washington 25.

They're passing for some reason in golf gets strips act over and over again. They remember the first month of the season when the lions, they didn't start out well and they were throwing the ball a ton and we were talking about them in the pot and I was saying, I'm still in on the lions. I just think they're, they're a running team that for some reason is trying to air it out. I think they need to flip the seesaw and become like a pound the ball running team.

They went back to the old first month of the season lines again. They threw the ball over 40 times. Gibbs touched it 20 times total. He was, every time he touched the ball, it was 10 yards. It barely seemed like he had it. So that play was terrible. That play, he wasn't even in on that play. It's an empty backfield on third and one. And you got Gibbs, I think at the time he was averaging 19 yards a touch and he's not even, I don't keep him in the game. He should be in the game on every third and short. Yeah. And as a decoy, but that's awful.

I hate that. Yeah. You have Goff sailing the pick six and if you freeze it, his receiver is in the middle of four guys. He's surrounded by like a gang of players. There was really, it would have had to have been the all time perfect throw. He sails it, picks six, almost gets concussed. He throws that end of the pick at the end of the second quarter in the post play where the guys open. He throws it to the wrong spot. And then the Jameson Williams, that option pass with the

receiver, it's the biggest series of the game. It's 38 28. You have to score. You still have the whole fourth quarter. Basically you have to get three or seven. And they, they put the entire game in the hands of a receiver who never throws. And of course he makes a dumb decision. It's not that it's like, Oh, he shouldn't have thrown it. You shouldn't put them in the position to throw it. That was a classic Ben Johnson. Just like, look at me.

Hey, look at me. Watch these cool plays. It's like, you know what works? Fucking Jameer Gibbs. Just give him the ball. Why are you running wide receiver pass plays? Do you think that was a directive to James and just throw it no matter what? We don't care if the guy's triple teamed or, hey, you're the fastest guy on the field. Let's take it outside. Unless, only, unless only if he's wide open, will you throw it? I think it's somewhere in between, but the Ben Johnson thing is interesting, right? Like all these coordinators get jobs, unless they're on the Super Bowl winning team, their last game is almost always terrible, right?

Like Shane Stike. And we've seen it like it almost has to be. And you're right. He had like four or five really curious calls, but 45 points a lot for the other team. If you give Harrison a giant package and you park across the street from FedEx, you're like, now cross the street and deliberate. And I want you to, and he fucks it up. Is that your fault or Harrison's?

My wife would probably say it was my fault. Yeah. Cause it's like, here's Jamison Williams. He's rolling out to the right and the guy's not open. He's not a quarterback. It's like, oh my God, I can't believe he made a terrible decision and threw the ball at you. It's like we see this happens every week in football.

If I told Harrison, don't cross the street unless there's not a car visible for a quarter of a mile on your left or right, I think it's a different thing. I don't know what he said. You're right, it's dumb. They should have had it off and they should have run more. Because if they go up 14-3, that third in one play, they're up seven-three.

They go up 14-3, that building's bananas. It's a whole different story. It was already loud. And then maybe, I don't know, maybe they don't come back, Washington. Their defense had two fuck-ups. The McClure and the RPO touchdown. And both guys just, it was like comical

how bad the tackling was. Right. Right, so that was bad. The fourth and two inside the five, they're down three, it's 31-28 and they have 12 men on the field. Inexcusable. But for the most part, like, I thought Daniels was incredible.

And to just say all the Lions, defense, the Lions came up big a couple times. Like they came up, the first quarter they were really good. The beginning of the third quarter, they stopped them on the first drive to get the ball back. Daniels, that throw he made to Diami Brown, that 50 yard Russell Wilson moon ball, where he's covered by two guys and just catches it in stride.

On fourth and two, like some of the RPO stuff. Like nobody's stopping that. He was great. But I mean, what's going to be your bottom line here? If they give up 60, is that a bad outing? Like 45 still. I just think if they don't turn the ball over, they outscore the commanders and they. Daniels was great.

There's. Dana's was great. Didn't turn the ball over once. The shit out of them. And I bet him the throw interception like nothing against Jaden Daniels. This is just such a tough spot in such a loud place. And if he drops back 35 times, one of them is going to end up in the lion's defenders hands. But he was getting blit. He was like waiting, waiting. And he always had, there was always a guy open. He was so smart.

And then, yeah, that's Waltman on the field was a disastrous, but I mean, the fourth quarter yardage, the game was once they once it's 38, 28 and Williams throws that pick, the game's over. I'll say this with Daniels. I said this to house today. And we should have the Daniels house specially his combo. Yeah, he's just he was so good in that game. And he had a couple of highlight plays.

But for the most part, he's just he's always doing the right thing. He's always calm. He never turns the ball over. Like if you compare him to Lamar today, um, you know, I think it's a real conversation is that where he ranks on like what playoff QBs would you trust the most? Cause I, he's the, what he did last week against Tampa, what he did in that Detroit game on the road in a dome where it's super loud and he didn't fuck up once for three hours.

It's fucking surreal. You can't break him at all. Like, like mentally, he's just on a different level. All the smiling. He just, he's like having a great time. He's just like, ah, look at this. He's like a smarter than Vince young with all the physical, you know, the comparisons. And I'm trying to think what you do because you can't compare them to any of the other rookie quarterback playoff performances. He's better than Flacco was.

We never thought Flacco would like, no, I did. I did these on Thursday. All the guys were pretty, Flacco, Purdy and Sean King, Sanchez, Sanchez won a game, but only three got to the championship game. I think it was Sanchez, Birdie and Flacco. Yeah. No, not the championship game. He did.

Yeah. There was five. I had it. Hold on. Really? I had it in my... Was it Big Ben too? Yeah, Big Ben was the other one.

All right. No, I think the comparison to me, I think Mahomes is the comparison. Even though Mahomes, he had like a gap year, his first year on the Chiefs. But you'd think like Daniels was in college for five years, Mahomes was in college for three and then had the gap year. So they're around the same age. And then Mahomes goes in that first full year as a starter and he's incredible and he almost beats the Pats

and he almost beats Brady. I think that's the level it's at. And we saw like when we were kids, like Marino as a rookie, he was awesome that first year. And then that second year made the Superbowl, but, or didn't make the, didn't make the, yeah, he did make the Superbowl. The second one he made, that's when he had like 47, 47 touch. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah. Um, but it's on that level already. And it's, it's a weird one because the paths, I love Drake May and I'm fine with how it turned out, but we, it was a big one of, there was two months leading up to that draft last year was like, is Washington going to take Drake May or Daniels and who do we want? And every pass from them, we're all talking about the same thing. And it came down, Daniels was three years older.

He was in college for five years. He's going to get hurt. He's so, he's so skinny. And you know, he got hurt there in the middle of the year. How's that? We're talking about this today. They kind of threw us off their scent because they played really well for the So skinny and you know, he got hurt there in the middle of the year. How's that? We're talking about this today. They kind of threw us off their scent because they played really well for the

first like six weeks, he got hurt and then it was pretty rocky and he was clearly hurt for four or five weeks, then echo got hurt and they didn't really start to become the team they were in the first month. I don't feel like until that Tampa game, right. Or maybe like week 18. It's a weird trajectory, right? So you don't want to peek at the wrong time because it's very hard to play great football for 17 weeks, 18 weeks. So there was those weeks, two to six or whatever, where he didn't

throw an incomplete pass or some shit. It was really weird, right? It was just dominant. Then you're right. And they got, had the rib injury and whatever they weren't as good, but he picked up perfectly that Atlanta game. That was only a couple of weeks ago on Sunday night. If they lose that, that's a whole different, you know, this whole is shakes up differently.

The seedings and everything. So yeah, Tampa second in one, they get state, they have a chance to potentially go up for second one, get stuff third one, they screw up. It's the snap at the wrong time. All of a sudden they're kicking a field goal and they never get the ball. You know, I'm sure Tampa is like, we should have beaten these guys. Now they're in the fucking NFC title game. This sucks.

Yeah. But the last piece with Daniels, I don't want to say, I really wanted to ask you who would you rather have and have Daniels versus all of these veteran quarterbacks we have, but we need to see him win a cold weather game before we have a full feel for, you know, like this, Detroit was a dome. He's going to be going to Philly next week. It's going to be cold. The field's going to be, you know, a fucking concrete. He's going to have this big defensive line.

And if like, he's, if he's as good as he was in Detroit in that scenario, I don't know what the ceiling is at that point. No question about it. Yeah. The Eagles are praying for weather conditions like today, right? They didn't even have the game moved to somewhere like Anchorage, Alaska or something. Because yeah, that's the only key. That's the only thing we're missing.

And their coaching staff, they did a great job. They did a great job drafting and the GM and they got the terrible owner out of there, Snyder. I feel like Dan Quinn, if you don't ruin his life with the 28-3 game, is Dan Quinn like a top two or three coach in the league? It's why it was a good hire, even though we all kind of were like, oh my God, really Dan Quinn? You could add Ben Johnson.

Right. But when somebody's had real success the first time they were a coach where you can go back and watch that Superbowl and 13 plays in a row have to go well for the Pats for the Falcons not to win the Superbowl. Yeah. Maybe not entirely his fault. Yeah. Yeah.

Some of it was his fault, but he's clearly like a good coach. He was great for you on Dallas. He was, but that's another example of a guy who his last game was bad and they still hired him away, right? The Packers game was just miserable. So it's, it's funny how it works out. It's, I mean, I'm not ashamed to admit I'm on some Pat's threads where Washington has now become the North star for the Pats where it's like, they sucked last year.

They got the second pick. They had nothing. They get the franchise QB. They get a good coach. They get a good coaching staff. They make some smart signings. They have a good draft. Some of the guys that were already on the team, they coached up so that

they're actually better assets than were a year ago. They had an easy schedule. All these things where it's like, why can't that be the Pats? So thank you, Washington. You've given us hope here with the football is great. Yeah. I'm going, yeah, you never know. We don't need six new playoff teams every year, but if we get three and one of them's

like Washington has a real run at this and almost plays the Rams in the championship game, it's dynamite stuff. I'm going to miss it. Well, we talk every year about the circle of teams that have a chance to win the super bowl. And then it comes down to these goofy plays like Mark Andrews dropping the two point, like Tampa not getting a first down when it's second to one. And for the, like, what level are you at? How can, how close can you be to winning a super bowl? I did not have Washington in the circle. Even heading into this Detroit game,

I thought the line was too high. I never would have played Detroit nine and a half. I kind of liked some of the alternate Washington lines. Like they were plus three and a half. They were plus one 90. And yet their defense seemed like it was such an overmatch in that lions game. It just, I couldn't figure out how their defense was going to stop them. And the answer was Jared Goff has to completely suck. Yeah. in that Lions game, it just, I couldn't figure out how their defense was gonna stop them.

And the answer was Jared Goff has to completely suck. That was the one factor I didn't factor in. It's like, what if Jared Goff is just terrible? And he was. What if they forget that Gibbs is on the team, despite the fact that he has 19 yards to carry every time he touches? What if they have an option pass with their receiver

on their biggest drive of the game? And then we also had the Teddy Bridgewater has come into the game moment, which was pretty exciting. Teddy Bridgewater was coaching high school and all of a sudden it seems like Goffs can cuss. And anyone who had the Lions in a tease is like, oh my God, I can't even imagine. I can't imagine what that game was like. Like talk about the extremes of like, if you're a Lions fan and you're like, you're in there with the Bills and the Vikings and all these tortured franchises, but you also don't really have any terrible playoff losses because you've just been terrible.

You know what I mean? I have losses to point to. Right. Right. And now you have one of the worst losses we've had this decade where you can go back and just drive yourself crazy with 20 plays. And you have people like me and you saying, is that it? Is the window closed on this team that won like 15 games?

Well, think about it. They might lose both their coordinators. I know. They're never going to be... You can never trust Goff in the same way again. I don't think. You know? Can you ever feel great about him? I think that he'd get this far for the next couple of years. But yeah, this should definitely have been one they rolled It's um, they they might have taken him lightly too

well For our last one, Laporta's catch was dynamite like there were so many turning points Right when the 76 points scored you could point to 30 plays like oh that's gone different But when Laporta catches the ball and doesn't make use of one of his hands, arms, it's like, Oh shit. All right. That's it. They're, they're, they're talking with them now, but wasn't the case.

Really tough loss. Tough loss for us. We had lions, Superbowl bets that I somehow didn't properly hedge with Washington. Um, you know what happened? You know, I think the gambling God said to, all right, Sal, Bill, you had a good year. You bet all these money line favorites. You got to keep your money. Yeah. New Year.

Not every duty for a for a kick in the teeth. We're not letting you win another big favorite. Your wager warranty is expired. Pay the fuck up. So those teams play those teams play 10 times. How many times do the commanders win? Um, would you say three? No, maybe four though. Maybe four. Okay. I'm still saying like, you know, the lions,

they had a ton of yards. I just, I wish they had like two defenders back, like two, just two out of the 20. Cause I watched the whole game this morning knowing what happened. And I thought it was going to be way more one sided toward Washington. And I'm watching it. I'm like, the fuck did the Lions lose this game? Every time they give the ball to Gibbs, he rushes for 12 yards or it's like 15 yard screen pass. It's like, what, what happened in this game?

Stupid. I don't know why. Danes was great. And by the way, he had, they hit those fourth downs. You feel like every fourth and two fourth and three, that's the situation where I always feel like they're going to get it. There's other teams. Yeah. And that is not as sure.

Well, you got the kicker massaging his scalp in all different OCD directions. And you look to the sideline, you're like, yeah, he's not ready. You're going to have to take a snap here. Sorry. Yeah. His fingers are abetted. Jaden Daniels. We have a lot of Washington fans in our life. I'm gonna have to take a snap here. Sorry. Yeah, his fingers are embedded. Jaden Daniels, we have a lot of Washington fans in our life. This is just one of the most unbelievable turnarounds I can remember. We had, even when this happened to the Pats fans with Brady,

we were still immersed in that whole Brady or Bledsoe, who's the starter, and then we had this crazy, you know, Cynderwild run through the Super Bowl, which you lost a lot of money on. Right. And even at the end, we were like, okay, Brady, I guess like he's good. But this Jaden Daniels thing, this is, this is like, if, if you're just talking about the elite QBs that you feel the best about, he just has to be in the first sentence now with all these other guys. It's one of the best rookie years I can remember.

And I'm, I'm what do with that? Like we went over the others, like, uh, but he's on that, my home's 2018 level of like, this guy's here now. He's going to be here for 20 years. Okay. But if, if Joe house was just getting really loud and obnoxious with us, could we, could we throw the, uh, Hey, remember RG three card Adam, will we be able to do that like, or is this completely different? I mean, they were excited about him for over a year. I know but we were there for the RG 3 thing

It was really fun to watch. Yeah, this is different Yeah, and first of all, I cuz this guy's pulling this guy's pulling out huge wins He's this double threat. He's incredibly accurate. I have a lot of regrets like I really wish I know we say this after the fact, but I really wish I had put more thought into the nobody believes in us part with Washington. Cause you could feel it in the game and especially the quotes after.

Like that team's got a chip on its shoulder. And I don't know. I felt like looking back, a team that has a shitty defense or a mediocre defense, whatever you want to call the lions defense favored by a big spread against a team that's clearly good offensively that completes a lot of passes and can run the ball. I'm never doing that again. I'm taking the underdog the next time. You got to write that down. We're not going to remember that. I'm going to add that to the playoff manifesto. It's like bad defense,

team that completes 70% of its passes and doesn't turn the ball over. The other thing that happened, which I, I don't know if that's going to get momentum this week or not, but Kingsbury, the Washington OC grew up in Texas. Yeah. Like, could that be the Cowboys coach? And when you watch what he's done with Daniels and with Washington's offense, is that a better option than some of the options I've seen,

which you showed me in shakings today. Yes, it's a better, of course. Robert Sala. Yeah, that list I showed you was the shakies of coaches list, by the way. It's really, yeah, it was Robert Sala. It was, well, I mean, Flores was in there, Kellen Moore, I really, Deion Sanders, of course, Jason W uh, I mean, Flores was in there. Uh, Kellen Moore.

I really, Deion Sanders, of course, Jason Witten. I guess we're just trying Jason's until one of them works. Like, I don't fricking know. Yeah. Bring Kingsbury in. No, and people didn't want to interview him, right? Like the Steelers passed on him last year for defensive coordinator. Three teams didn't even want to hear from him this year.

It's a little strange. It went awful for him in Arizona. And there's a chance it went awful because maybe, maybe there was stuff, maybe there's a weird organization, weird quarterback, but I think what's tough. Yeah. Kyle is tough. I can't really a hundred percent hanging on, uh, on him for that. All right.

We're going to take, we're going to take one more break for the pod. And we're going to do, guess the lines. one more break for the pod and we're going to do guess the lines. So before we do guess the lines, we were all together. Yeah. We went to shaky's today. The original shaky's we used to go to shaky's pizza, which we've joked about for years and years in this pod was on Santa Monica in a not awesome area of Hollywood and we used to go there and it was pretty grim.

Well, that's gone. It did not survive COVID. And there's a chance it could have started COVID. We're not sure. It either started in Wuhai or at Shakey's in Santa Monica. So we had to go to Shakey's on Sunset Boulevard past the 10, past where Netflix is, little down further going toward, you know, the Scientology place.

And we all went and it was like a really nice time. They had a lot of TVs and it was pretty clean and it wasn't the shakeys I was accustomed to. I pulled into the parking lot, there were some models, cars that were, it seemed like they were made after 1979. They were to be driven for more than 20 minutes. Right. And it was clean, the bathroom, I clenched my fist, but it was good.

And yeah, food still, whatever, but it's fine. We'll post on Instagram, we took a Shakey's team photo. I wasn't gonna go, and then John Hamm's like, you're going, right? I'm like, this is kinda weird if this guy who's in like 700 movies currently is going. And he just died in Land Man. It felt like we had to go pay our respects to him.

Oh, you son of a bitch. I'm behind. Why would you do that? Then it was the season finale, it was a week ago. What, is it a spoiler? A little bit, a little bit. I don't know. I mean, this is the first time I'm hearing it.

All right, that's fine. I mean, he looked good today. I don't know. I mean it's the first time I'm hearing it. All right, that's fine I mean he looked good today. I don't know you're saying he died. Is that a spoiler Kyle? Is that did I just spoil land? Oh, we came out a week ago on Sunday. How long do I have to wait? It was a week ago Kyle at least eight days it turns out. I think you could call it a spoiler I think you could you could definitely call it. Really Kyle? Can we find out in the chat? Do people are they in the YouTube chat? Do they?

Whatever I'm chatting. What do you like? Two years is, you know, if you tell them people the Sopranos. I'm going on YouTube chat. What are they saying? Um, nothing really. Give them Jack Wilson's number. Let them find out this is a spoiler.

Tom says, yes, that is a spoiler. One week is not enough. Nessmas says massive spoiler. Um, two yes, that is a spoiler. One week is not enough. Mass says massive spoiler. Two weeks is the window. Did we decide that? Was that one of President Biden's last last last verdicts? Yeah, before he fell into the cement.

He's not going to pardon you, I hope, his last few hours here. I guess two weeks is for two weeks notice. You get two weeks notice, right? God damn. I guess I spoiled. Sorry YouTube guys Great, but bad but bad everybody. I just Jared Goff. I Jared Goff the podcast

Did he die at shaky's what happened? He eats up the ham like mojo potatoes. It was I wasn't positive he died Which means that they could always bring him back next season I wasn't positive he died, which means that they could always bring him back next season. All right. Good. Nice saying. Ham seemed in good spirits, though. I think he had a good time with the other thing. It's fun, and Brad went after you about your documentary. We don't have to go into the details. He did. He gave you a very honest opinion. Shakey's, where you go for C-minus pizza and to get berated by...

It was great. There was a moment where it felt like an LA sports bar. There were people rooting for the Rams. It's true. There was a basketball game on on one side. I was like, all right, Shakey's. Yeah. Yeah, I walked to and from to Shakey's and there were a couple of interesting moments in the way.

Yeah. Well, and especially since you didn't even know what kind of Shakey's you were walking into, although I guess you knew the neighborhood, so it wasn't as scary. Yeah, I was watching. I did this yesterday too. I was walking and watching the game on YouTube TV, which I love YouTube TV. I'm so mad I didn't have it, but I'm not just saying that because we've done stuff with them. I really like it.

You heard the hack there where you could turn off the 15 second delay? Yeah. That's amazing. Yes. How do we not know about that? Why didn't they tell us? They should let people know. I mean, that wouldn't count as a spoiler. That would actually be something good for everyone.

But I was thinking of, because eventually I'm going to die by getting hit by a car in LA somewhere when I'm walking because I'm going to be looking at my phone and somebody's just going to pancake me. But it will probably, 50% chance it's during a football game that I'm watching on my phone and I'm just walking across the street and it's like, what happened to Bill? Yeah, that was it.

It finally happened. It's either that or me not wearing a seatbelt somewhere are gonna be the two ways I go. I can't imagine the idea of burning calories while watching a football game. I have to take a bite of something every play. And it shows. Proof is in the pudding.

I gotta say, every time Collinsworth talked, I was walking faster. I was like, Collinsworth is giving me energy. It was like a Gatorade. Interesting. What about Brady? He was having a great time. He wanted to dive into traffic every time.

I didn't walk during the Brady thing. Oh, okay. Yeah. But yeah, because that was going to UFC yesterday, which I want to talk about after we do guest lines guest the line. So Let's set up the drama for guest the lines. You haven't beaten me since 1932 right before World War two, right? you You are up one week

I'm up one so I can still win I have to win this week and I have to hit the Super Bowl and beat you both weeks basically to win. You could clinch. You could beat me this week. And I honestly don't remember the last time you've won. I don't either. And it's going to be liberating when I could smack you with a subway sandwich. Although I'm almost positive you're going to guess these two.

Exactly right. Look at you. You can't even hide it. No, I forgot to make a guess for the other one. I have the Eagles Washington. All right. So that's your old game. That's three Eastern.

Three Eastern Fox. Right. Yep. All right. So I'll just give you my thought process. It's in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was favored by six and a half against the Rams. Now they're playing Washington a team that's done pretty well against them.

I think the line has to be less than six and a half. And I'm going to say Eagles by five Vegas zone. You're going to be mad at me because it did an hour ago was four and a half. And I had guessed five and a half and I swear on my kids I like at least two of them it's five and a half it's five and a half right now it's five and a half right now god damn it so I get that so you have to get this one to push so now you basically clinched at least a tie for the tie. Yeah. And what's tie breaker? I think I have better common opponents. So I think I'm going to win anyway.

Better schedule. Yeah. A sadder last 10 years. I'll tell you this. I was off by a full point here. No, I was off by a half a point, but you could get this. Kansas City hosting the Buffalo Bills. Mm-hmm.

Can't City hosting the Buffalo Bills. I thought about putting this in the Tic Tac zone and I'm not going to. I'm going to say Chiefs by two and a half. Oh, yes. Champion, baby. What is it? Two, it's one and a half. You should have put that motherfucker in the Tic Tac zone. Is it two and a half right now?

Now I'm looking. Hold on. It's one and a half. I don't trust you. a half right now? Now I'm looking, hold on. It's one and a half. I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna trust you, I'm looking right now. I'm fando. Go ahead, spare all you want.

America's number one sportsbook. Spoiler alert, I win. One and a half. Fuck. Oh, this is nice. I feel good, my heart's pumping a little bit. For the first time, all day. Wow.

So, washed into 11 and a half, sheaves to plus four and a half? Be careful. Yeah. I'm just spitballing. Yeah, that's probably right. Why do we have to tease it? We can pick two winners.

Put Ohio State on it. Wow, but I felt that way about the Ravens. Turned out it wasn't a winner. It was a big L loser. Well, congratulations. Thanks, buddy. Nobody's happier for you than Dave Jacoby. Yeah, we did it, Jacobes.

Listen, I'll trade knowing the ending of Landman for for my first title in three decades. So spoiler alert is two weeks. I would think so. I think that's a fair place to start. Is this president Trump has weighed in on this? Our new president started tomorrow. Can he, can that be one of his first rulings is the spoiler alert ruling? Yeah. Yeah.

It is funny with this stuff with, um, like, uh, you and I trying to figure out Lamar Jackson over props and some 15 year old makes like $35 million overnight buying a fricking coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin.

The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin.

The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock to a coin. The hock of Bill. Thanks. It's in bad shape. This edition of Parent Corner is brought to you by Hookah and Bondi9, their new daily trainer. So you go first and then I'll go. All right. So my 11-year-old Harrison, we've talked about him a couple of times already. So he and his class have what's called puberty night where all the fifth grade boys go through puberty in the same night. No, where they get together and- I was really scared for a second. No, no, I know. No, it's nothing like that.

But some instructor comes in every Friday for six weeks and talks to them about, lectures them about the body and the biological growth and the birds and the bees and everything like that. And it rotates at different houses. And it's going to be at our house next week. I think it's next week is our Friday. And I'm not invited to any of these. Like last Friday or the Friday before there was football, it was college football. So I wasn't there and last Friday I was off. But I'm not invited. My wife has prohibited me from going because she thinks I'm going to make a mockery out of it. She's like, no, you're too immature. I was like, well, what are you talking about? She's like, well, you know, like,

what are you talking about? Here's 178 examples. She said, well, I had to know. She's like, well, some of the fathers say, I'm like the father, the fathers are there. It's like, yeah, it's like they'll stand up and talk about like, you know, the first time they had a boner in class or something. I'm like, wow, that seems fine. I could do something like that. It's like, yeah, they'll stand up and talk about like, you know, the first time they had a boner in class or something like, that seems fine. I could do something like that. They're like, next time Jimmy Kimmel live. I'm like, you're going to go over the top. You're going to be too over the top. You're going to embarrass him in front of his friends. And that's going to be that it's not good. So I don't know. Of course she's right. Of course they're

right. But I want to see this because I want when it's at our house I want to make hot dogs. I want some hot dogs. I think that'll be appropriate, but I think like um, I don't know Am I too immature for this? Yes, I Watch you turn Jimmy's wedding you tried to chef Dixon into the wedding cake and knock over a $25,000 wedding cake. Oh, that was one of the more mature things I ever did. No, that wasn't good. I think I should do this. We've told that story before.

I don't think, like, Dixon, if he was almost like... I barely tried. He was like, no, you tried. It was like a Jedi mind trick. He was Jaden Daniels on the RPO, like, just reading the defense. He saw you out of the corner of his eye and he jumped out of the way. And I don't know. If it was Mahomes, the referees would have called it me

for the fact. Yeah, he would have flapped right into the cake. Even though I didn't talk. Yeah, he knew the cake was coming. No, but like Harrison, like he asked my wife, he said like, after all this, he asked her, when was your first wet dream? Like the kids obviously confused.

She's like, no. She answered it was 1996, which is bad news for me. No, so anyway, these kids have a lot of questions. I don't know if I could help out, but I'm not allowed. Wait, how old is Harrison now? He just turned 11. Feels early. What's going on in Manhattan Beach?

Oh, I don't know. Is that early? Yeah. I remember I was reading a Judy Blume book when I was a kid. Remember Judy Blume? Yeah, sure. And there was a wet dream reference in the book and my dad was driving and I was reading the book in the passenger seat and I was like, dad, what's a wet dream? Like I didn't know. And he was like, ah, it was like steering, uh, traffic. I think that's what AJ Brown was reading on the sidelines.

Inter excellence. How did you find out? I mean, some friends and everything else, but was there like, I do remember going to like a parent night, I think it was fifth grade, like a, where somebody said, I don't remember. I just don't remember school talking about this. Just health class, not until middle school. Yeah.

I remember like eighth grade was when that dialogue started. So anyway, you're banned from this parent night? So far. I don't know what I have to do to prove myself, but... What are people on the chat? This YouTube chat's kind of fun. Yeah, the parent... somebody said it's called Embarrassing the Children 101. My parent corner, I took Ben to UFC last night. And it was at the Intuit Dome where the Quippers play, which is my favorite arena. I sound like I'm a show...

Oh, you love it now? Oh, I loved it the whole time. No, I'm in. Oh, I'm in. I love it. And running a Corolla and Corolla's all excited. And I'm with Ben and see Corolla and Corolla's like, I got a special guest. It is a special guest. You're going to be surprised.

I'm like, is it Joe Biden? He's like, not as high as Joe Biden, but high, almost as high. I'm like, all right. And it was Kevin Costner. Wow. So we're in this row and Corolla is sitting between Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson. And then a couple seats down is Anthony Kiedis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer. And sitting next to him is my son, Ben, because we're in this row of seats. And he's just like talking to the red hot chili peppers

guy watching UFC and it's like the greatest, greatest night of his life. Like he's been waiting for this UFC card forever. And I was like, this is pretty cool. Like I'm glad I'm, you know, we, we spend a lot of time together obviously, but I was like, I'm glad we can do this. And he's really pumped. It's nice to. So just when I think it had, we've peaked.

Pereira is there. Oh, like our favorite guy is sitting over to the left. So now he's like staring him down and he's like, how do we get the picture? How do we, like, we're just trying to figure out the prayer picture, but he's sitting and there's like a barrier in front of them. There's people. And now I'm like, what happens if we go over? Do we do like get Ben in the selfie?

Like, like how do we do it? And also the guy doesn't speak English. There's no way he knows who I am, like, and ended up bailing on it and not being able to do it. But like for the last two hours, just trying to figure out can we get the prayer picture? Like that sort of that. So then we found out after that Frank Ocean was there,

who is like one of Ben's favorite artists who never leaves his house. He's like a recluse and it was like, he was there too. So Ben's like, see, maybe it's not true. Cause he saw it on like freaking Snapchat or wherever. So we're leaving after and we're in the bottom where all the cars are and O'M, and O'Malley is coming out and he's dressed like a crazy person in a good way.

Ben's like, we, this is it. We got to get it. So we get, we get the, uh, we got the picture. So it was, it was a level B. It was great. It was one of the best pictures he's gotten, but we didn't get Pereira. How should we have attacked the prayer picture in your opinion? Well, how far away was he?

He was like we were we were on one thing. So he was like probably 90 we were sitting at six o'clock. He was at nine o'clock basically. I think you just gotta Ambush him. I hate to say you gotta just be that fanboy. He had a huge guy next to him like huge scary guy next to him And he was really into it because Hill and Uri were fighting He hit a huge guy next to him, like huge scary guy next to him. And that guy wouldn't recognize you. And he was really into it because Hill and Urie were fighting. So he was like locked in like a motherfucker for that fight. Like because he's beating both of those guys. Yeah, maybe you corralled Mel Gibson to put him in some kind of choke hold like Lethal Weapon 2 or something.

The bodyguard and then snapped the picture real quick. Well then he came over to take a picture with Mel. So that was another thing. So he was like 15 feet away, but there was like 10. So we just couldn't pull it off. But that was the most, that was the single most exciting celebrity that I've seen Ben from an excitement standpoint that we've been in the same room with. And we've, you know, we went to a lot of cool wrestling events. You were with us for a couple of months.

Yeah. He had a Bella girl twerking about, you had Nikki Bella twerking. Eight feet from them. Two feet from us. Where does that, so one to 10, what's wrestling? What's, what's UFC for him? UFC is a 10 right now. Wrestling was a 10 when he was like from age six, age 10. Yeah.

And now it's like a five. UFC is like a full complete 10. But the funny thing with Pereira, cause part of it was, you know, if it's like an actor, right? If it was like whoever you've been like, all right, we go over, like, you know, they'll, they'll do it. But Pereira is just as intimidating when you're just watching him just exist. Yeah.

As he is when he's in the ring, like he, he was just motionless staring at the two guys, like he, and he doesn't move. It's like watching Michael Myers. So it's not like the number one guy you just want to be like, Hey buddy, can I get a picture? Cause it looks like he's just about to kill somebody at all times. I was riveted by him. Yeah.

Like Nick Diaz has that look too. Nate Diaz, but he's also a little more approachable too. Right. I know what you're saying. Yeah. He's forever locked in. The two best fights were Yuri and Hill. That was just a savage. Light Heavyweight is such a great weight class.

The guys just beat the shit out of each other. Every punch or kick seems like it could end it. And then Marab came out and just, from the moment he came out, he stole the show. He had the crowd. And the crowd was, was for at least a couple of the matches incredibly loud and really into it. They were in with Marab, like he had, they were just like living and dying with every time he did it.

It was great. I had a great time. The main events suck, but main events suck. That wasn't their fault. Well, they had to move it around. Yeah. That was great. I mean, that was supposed to be, he was supposed to be minus 450.

Did anyone there, including you, after the Lions lost, put Talbot on a big Moneyline parlay? It was like you. Minus 1,100, oh yeah, then he lost. Oh, you did that? Yeah, yes, yes, yes. He lost, that was, he got killed, but anyway. No, but that's great, that's fun.

And Adam, and he's a member of QAnon now, Ben? Adam, he came over a few times and he was progressively less sober each time and having a great time. One of the funny things about UFC is after the fight, a guy loses, you know, in the crowd, they'll cheer one guy or the other guy, but then they lose and they'll sometimes they'll interview the loser and the crowd are still like booing the guy. It's bad enough the guy just lost.

He's like re-evaluating his career and it's like, hey, let's bring him in and they're fucking booing him. Everyone becomes an Eagles fan all of a sudden. It's really, UFC is great. It's like one of the best in person things. Um, the crowds, hilarious, uh, everything about it. So I'm glad it worked there and I'm glad they kept it there. I know they were talking about switching it because of what's happened in LA, but

I'm glad they showed that it could work and, uh, I'm glad it was a good, that sounds good and they, they properly did the whole, uh, you know, they paid tribute and all that stuff. All right. The Bondi nine delivers peak plushness for everyday miles overhauled from top to bottom. They've increased the stack height and added a new premium foam midsole to deliver that soft Brazilian ride. That's become synonymous with the Bondi.

Everybody Bondi visit hok.com to learn more about the Bondi nine. Well, you're going to have to say peak plushness again. That came learn more about the bond. I nine. Well, you're going to have to say peak plushness again. That guy came out like Collins were doing, uh, doing the multiple people texted me today that he slowed down on pass rush. Yeah. He really kind of paused in the two words. Yeah. So you think somebody talked to him?

Yeah. But then he was right back to pronouncing it incorrectly. So it's a, there is good in the world. Um, well, that's it for the podcast that's it man That's it next time I talk to you. Yeah, guess the lines I we're just gonna play it out of pride I guess the we'll still do it. Yeah, be like the pro ball. Whatever. Yeah, it's fun. Hey, you tried kid You really do. I'm gonna go on a nice win for you Very excited. I don't have to sweat out the Super Bowl.

It's funny you're wearing the Mets hat. Yeah, you don't have to sweat out the Super Bowl, the Cowboys, and neither of us have to sweat out baseball because the Dodgers are just, I guess, going to win the next five World Series. We're trying to figure it out. And like, we used to like the Dodges. You know, we talked about the Yankees of the, you know, the whatever, the Jeter team and everything. Yeah, the 90s, early 2000s, the Giambi, Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson. Yeah, we hated it, but the, you know, Pettit, all those guys, mostly, and Jeter came through the farm system and like you respected that. And now you just sign any free agent and you're like, all right, yep, tax us, whatever it is.

We'll bring it back because Japanese players, Japan will take care of us. Which is printing money over in Japan. They're going to spend money. Yeah. Yeah. So we're trying to figure out what the equivalent of that is like with Dubai. Like if the Red Sox signed like three players from Dubai. Right. Like a lefty reliever from Dubai who becomes the most popular person in Dubai.

Yeah. Who cares if they're any good? You got all Dubai watching and spending money on them. Well, the other thing we thought of was how the Seattle Mariners really missed this because they had each row. They were way ahead of the game. They knew how much this stuff's worth and they should have just been like, we're the Japanese American team. They screwed up. And they should have just been like, we're the Japanese American team. That like everyone in that country will root for the Mariners. They will associate their best guys with us and we'll just overpay for every guy. And instead they just gave that to the Dodgers. Yeah, you're right.

And that's a good spot for, you know, yeah, Asian Americans, like they'll flourish there. That would have been a good spot. Yeah. They lost their basketball team, but that might've been the second worst decision. Not capitalizing on that. Yeah, they had it. Each row good spot. Yeah, they lost their basketball team, but that might have been the second worst decision, not capitalizing on that. Yeah, they had it. Each row was huge. Yeah.

Well, anyway, so we're not gonna have to care about baseball. I'm on the fence. I might drop out of League of Dorks. No. Actually, I haven't been talking about it. No way. Yeah, it's just, it's too hard. It's just too old.

What do you mean? What, you have to change your lineup multiple times a week? No, it's just that we haven't won in a few years. It makes me feel bad about myself. I really want to reevaluate some of my fantasy league stuff. I've been to many fantasy football leagues. You love the guillotine though, right? The guillotine's good.

The guillotine was good. The dead state, yeah. The guillotine was good. I think we have to figure out our version of that. But have you gotten sad about no football yet? Yeah, I'm starting to get like, you know, no, no three team teasers anymore. Right. Unless you use Ohio State.

Unless you use like the Unders. Yeah. That, that's another like milestone part of my year where it gets, it gets very sad, but what are you going to do? We'll be back. I was thinking about it. Yeah, we are going. If Fando come for sure. We're going to the masters

That's a challenge. I think they will I think they're gonna come think they will well that thing We're having it. We have a very special guest coming with us this year potentially. Is it Kevin Costner? No, it's gonna be James Babydoll Dixon. I love it now You said it wasn't as excited as when he got the invitation as you thought he should be. It's a weird one. He always clears it with the wife. He won't just say yes. He'll say, it's a, it's a, it's a hesitant yes. I will let you know for sure tonight because he's, he's, and he's very happily married. I think this is one of the reasons. He never makes decisions where I'm going away for a week without making it a collaborative effort. It's something to aspire to,

or you can just call him a giant wuss. Like, I don't know which side you wanna be on on that, but. I think the reason he does it more than anything is because he knows you and I can maybe talk about it on the podcast, and then he can maybe play it back door. Like, you see, sweetheart? You see what I did? It's all for you.

It's going to be fun. I'm going to push them into a cake if I see one. I can't wait. Well, it's watching him and the masters on Augusta without a cell phone is, is going to single-handedly bring me out of the funk of that. We started out here in January, where it just seems like this is going to be the worst year ever, but it's like now, now it's like giving me hope and strength. Right.

Because you have to give your cell phone to the, at the, at the, at the front. But I know he's going to bring like three cell phones. He'll have one like in his shoe. He'll have like almost like when people in prison movies put like a shank in their shoe. He'll have like a iPhone in his shoe somehow. There's no way he's not going to have a phone for eight hours. That's where I'll pounce. I'll blow the whistle on him right there. I'm like, Hey, he's got his, he's got his phone in his shoe.

Keep checking them. Yeah. He does do that. Cause we've been to like movie premieres and not movie premieres or like concerts or something where you have to check your phone in that pouch and he was, well, you go through it and everything. And then like 20 minutes away, And that movie premieres at like concerts or something where you have to check your phone in that pouch and he will You go through it and everything and then like 20 minutes away. He's like, baby I'm not gonna let them fucking take that you fucking kidding like what are you talking about? You're in the same line as me. How did you just pull that off? So yeah So what would he so if he does check the phone, but he'll have a pack of cigarettes

Yeah, that was my next question for you. You pack or two? He'll just have one, right? They let you do that? You could blow smoke as Scotty Schaeffler's doing his backstroke. Hey, you're outdoors. Yeah, all right. Yeah, Nephi Kyle, he smoked. Oh, he did too? He smoked in the Masters, yeah. He was very excitedly. He loved it. Yeah, because you're not holding a phone. I might start smoking too.

There's so many great possible variables that's really giving me strength. Like him getting super golf-analyst-y as we watch guys in the sixth hole. And him repeatedly telling us how hard the shot is and doing all that stuff. It's going to be great. You shoving him into the gallery. It's going to be good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think this nine Yeah, look at Rory's losing that nine iron now. He could probably make I have my nine irons better It's by a higher quality. He might be able to use his you know more skillfully, but mine's better

You know mine's made in Prague We're gonna have fun. He might leave early. He might actually leave early. What do you mean? Leave early to do what? I might drive him so crazy that he's just like on a plane like it foregoes the last couple days. When was the last time you were in a house with him? Um, it was one of the bachelor parties. Might have even been jimmy's.

We're talking like 10-12 years ago. Yeah, exactly. Might have even been Jimmy's. It's been a while. We're talking like 10, 12 years ago. Yeah, exactly. So he's going to have to demand he stays in a house that has a lock on the bedroom door that he's in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because otherwise horrible things are going to probably happen to him. I have a fun video where I threw water on him when he was taking a nap.

Remember that one? It was like at a bachelor party and I'm like, baby, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. What the fuck you mean? You're kidding. I'm soaking wet. All right, cuz congrats on the guest alliance title this year. Thank you, buddy. Good job by you. Come by next year. You'll be right there with me. Good job by you, bud. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Kyle and Sarudin Gahal for producing. Remember, you can watch

all the stuff we do on this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. And we'll also be, I think starting in February, officially will be a video podcast on Spotify. So only a couple of weeks left until that happens. New rewatchables, rewatchables mail back going Monday night. So stay tuned for that. That will also be on the Ring of Movies YouTube channel as well.

And as for the schedule for this podcast, probably not a podcast on Tuesday night, but definitely two more podcasts over the course of the week. So that's the schedule. You will hear from me at some point midweek. Stay safe. I'm a bruiser and I never want to say it I don't have to ever Must be 21 plus in President-elect states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino

or 18 plus in President DC. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-887-897777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. 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 HOPENY in New York.