The Bill Simmons Podcast - Brady Beats Mac, Dallas Is for Real, and a Sox-Yanks Battle Looms, With Cousin Sal

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the Buccaneers' 19-17 win over the Patriots in Tom Brady's return to Foxborough. They also talk Cowboys-Panthers, the Cardinals' win over the Rams, a rare bright spot for New York football, Steelers-Packers, Colts-Dolphins, Eagles-Chiefs, and more (2:40). Next they Guess the Lines for NFL Week 5 (41:45), briefly discuss the MLB playoffs (1:08:00), and close the show with Parent Corner (1:20:00) and their thoughts on 'The Many Saints of Newark' [SPOILERS] (1:29:00). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, everybody? I'm J.J. John G. Stramski. And I'm Jason Goff, and if you haven't heard, the ringer has gone local. I'm bringing the fire, I'm bringing the rain from the Big Apple with my show, New York, New York. And I'm repping Chi-Town with my new show, The Full Goal on all things Chicago. We've got episodes three nights a week with all the reaction of the local teams and guests. Plus bonus episodes around all the big games and storylines. So whether you're uptown, downtown, in the burbs, or a transplant, make sure you follow

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We'll be covering Squid Game on Monday, The End of Billions. That's this week as well. Getting ready for Succession next week and all the other major, major shows that are going on right now.

The Prestige TV Pod. Speaking of pop culture podcasts, the Rewatchables. Boy, the second time ever we've done this. Did it for heat. You might remember we did the reheat. Well, we did the Redeparted and it's going up on Monday night.

Me, Chris Ryan, Sean Fantasy. We did it because when we started the Rewatchables feed, part of it, I think, was the second non-sports movie that we did. And we only had a couple of the categories in place. I think it only went for a little less than an hour. And that is a movie that needs to be covered

in two hours, which is what we did. And we had all the categories in place. And we figured with the anniversary coming, as it turned out, with this bizarre Boston sports month that we're with the anniversary coming, as it turned out, with this bizarre Boston sports month that we're having with Brady coming back to New England and the Red Sox-Yankees playoff game looming, gamut of emotions,

seemed like the perfect time for a departed 15th anniversary. So you can check that out. It is going up at midnight on Monday night, heading into the Tuesday game. I think I'm going to pop on the John Jastrzemski podcast as well, New York, New York, probably tomorrow, which will go up tomorrow night just to preview the Red Sox-Yankees game. Sal and I talk about that later in this podcast.

We also talk about the Sopranos prequel at the tail end of this podcast. So if you haven't seen it yet, we won't spoil it for you. You can just stop listening because we will talk about everything else. Coming up, we're going to talk about Tom Brady's return. Pretty goofy week four in the NFL and then the baseball playoffs and a whole bunch more. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, taping this a little before 9 o'clock Pacific time.

What's wrong? You're wearing a fucking cowboy's hat. You're super happy. Come on. I barely get any of these over you in the last however many years. Really, how many Sundays have I had over you? Gotten over you? Three in 14 years? Give me a break.

This is terrific. At what point did you realize that this game had to come down to the fourth quarter and Brady driving for a go-ahead something and then either us not getting the ball or us having one last chance and you couldn't have scripted this I I'm kind of I'm drained I'm groggy I'm sad I'm going it's a gamut of emotions and the Red Sox Yankees this Tuesday I'm too old for this so I know I thought this could have been so great had the Red Sox blown into the Nationals and then you would know the game

and I want a great podcast. This would have been for me, but no, I I'm the other way. I'm like, how did this come down to suck up versus Belichick or suck up versus folk or whatever it is like that. Nobody wanted that, right? I thought the game sucked except for the fact that it was close in the

in the fourth quarter. I don't know. It was all ugly, including Steve Belichick's tongue. What the hell is that? I don't need to see that anymore. A lot of people wondering what's going on with Steve Belichick. Let's start with the big decision. Brady, I mean, Belichick, fourth and three.

Max Jones has had 19 straight completions in the fourth quarter, in the second half at some point. The Bucs have lost every defensive back they have, it seems like. Just guys disappearing. They're up. They're getting carried off. Richard Sherman, who wasn't even on a team in week one, he's out there.

Now he's like their number one D-back because everyone else is gone. And they get a pass batted down. All of a sudden, here comes Nick Folk to kick a 56-yard field goal in the rain. And it's like the classic thing of, why are we doing the thing that the other team's fans are doing backflips that you're doing this? What are the odds of a 56-yard field goal in the rain? The hardest the rain has been. An announcer said it was the hardest it's been raining all night.

And that's your guy. Over Mac Jones, who's been moving the ball five, ten yards per pass for three quarters. Not only that, flag happy refs. Even if he throws it up and something happens, you can get lucky on that. Yeah, that was not... I'll tell you why he did it, though.

Because you needed more than the visual. You needed that doink. That has to ring in your head for the next, whenever you sleep, six, seven, eight hours tonight. It's not enough that you saw what you saw. You have to hear it too. Come on. This is fine.

Tom Brady stuck it up your keister. You get to feel like everybody else has in the league. It's just how it is. Sorry. Did you think Tom Brady played well in that game? No, I didn't. I didn't. I thought they both stuck.

But I also thought, like, are we being rooked here? What is this? Is this Brady? You know when, like, boxers, like, they can get the knockout anytime they want. And then they're like, ah, you know what? He was my hero growing up. So, you know, oh, you carried him to a decision. I had a little of that feeling early on because it didn't feel like he went for the –

And also, like, I don't know. Even – I know Jones was hurt. The D back was hurt, but that's not Brady's way. He's like, uh, he likes to dice and slice you with a first down there. I didn't,

I was surprised he went end zone twice there towards the end. Yeah. He went really low percentage. Antonio Brown passes. One of them seemed like it was there and he threw it to the wrong shoulder or Brown didn't turn the right way. And then the other one, it would have been an unbelievable catch.

But you're right. All you need is a first down. You just need to move the chains. We should never have the ball back, the Patriots, in that situation. The way it's set up, they were moving the ball. He was able to get to where he wanted to go. To me, like, big picture with this Patriots season, they've had multiple games now,

three, all three losses, where they had to get a stop in the fourth quarter and they couldn't do it in any of the games. And Miami had to get the stop to get the ball back. Couldn't get it. Saints, same thing. They're down eight, but they needed a stop and they just couldn't get it. And then today, same thing. They just couldn't get the stop and the Bucks were able to get the field goal. So they're kind of lingering in these games. Like, I don't know if this team's that far away. They can't run the ball. I can't figure out what's going on with that. They can't run black at all. But Mac, you know, I thought Collinsworth was a little too ebullient about it as, as good as Mac was

for a rookie. It wasn't, I'm not going to be telling my grandkids that we scored 17 points in a Sunday night game, but he was good. Like they couldn't run the ball at all. The Bucks knew we had to throw every down and they were hitting the shit out of them. Right? I mean, were you impressed? You have no dog in this race. No, I'm impressed with him. I think he's the one shining star in this game, right? I mean, however many completions he had in a row, that secondary was beat up, which, again, we just talked about.

More reason to go for it down there. Every single drive, there was another guy in the secondary out. Winfield was out in that last drive. And if I would have asked you at any point during the week, you're down two with the ball, a minute 57 left in a timeout, you would have taken that every time, right? Like there's nothing better than that.

Both teams left it on the table. Like they get that Jacoby Myers pass, and it seems like we're going to roll and get a touchdown, but then we blow the next series and end up settling for the field goal. Brady said this after the game. The Bucs had a ton of stuff inside the 30 that they just... I can't even speak. Have you ever heard me screw up

more words? I feel like I'm drunk. But they missed a bunch of possibilities. It seemed like Evans was open that whole game. It seemed like Brown was open that whole game. And Fournette, that was the best we've seen him look since the playoffs. And they still only scored 19 points. Right? No, I'm with you. There was a total look. The game plan was there. It was pouring rain. Brady looked like crap. I mean, you couldn't ask for anything more. Your

quarterback couldn't be hotter. Um, I guess, you know, they got to Jones a lot. Like you said, that's the only real advantage I think the Bucs had for the whole game. They can get to your guy. But otherwise, it was right there for Belichick. And I was thinking, like, where does this rank? If you asked him and he had to answer honestly, no one will ever ask him this. But and if they did, he wouldn't give you he wouldn't be straight with you. But where did this rank in terms of needing this game, wanting this game? Obviously the biggest regular season game, I think of his career. What does it overshadow like a playoff game? Like, would he have rather lost to, I don't think he would

have rather lost to the Falcons or anything like that, but my God, this had to be so big and to blow it on that last call is, it makes it even more deafening. The, uh, the roars of, uh, discontent from the fans i think the biggest regular season game of his career was the last giants game in 2007 undefeated 16 and 0 yeah yeah i think that was the biggest one i think there's been other ones with this kind of stature i think the difference with this game is it still doesn't seem like they have a feel for what kind of team they have you You know, and you don't want to go one and three. I think he cares probably more about that than losing to Brady. They were in the game. They did what they needed to do. They tricked him enough

times. They didn't get him. He didn't roll down the field. He didn't put up 45 points in them, anything like that. And I would, I would say the Bucks probably have a little more talent than the Pats. It was a very patrioty kind of thing. It reminded me, like, if you're going to be optimistic, it reminded me a little of in 01 when they lost to the Rams on Sunday night. I think it was 24-17. Remember that game? But they hung around.

It was like week nine. Yeah. And they hung around. And everyone thought the Rams were like, you know, greatest show on turf, all that stuff. And they kind of hung in that game and showed something. And there was enough of a foundation that it carried them the rest of the way. I do think they built some foundation in this game. I have no idea why they can't run the ball.

I mean, the David Harris thing's a disaster. Yeah. Well, he got hurt, then he came back, right? Right. But he's just like, he's getting hit behind the line more than Najee Harris. It was just, it was weird because like you said, it wasn't a blowout. It wasn't the romantic story everyone wrote to it. And by the way, I had the chiefs and bucks on a teaser and I thought both would be very easy. And I'm like ripping my left of my hair out towards the

end of that game. But, uh, it wasn't like you said, Brady going up and down the field, putting up 40 on them. You know, we learned midweek or Thursday that Gronk isn't going to be in there. Oh my God. It's going to be a, a whitewash. Gronk is going to catch the pass that puts it over the 68 yards, whatever. Oh, now he's not playing. Now it's raining.

Everything was dealt in Belichick's favor. He wasn't embarrassed at all, except for the last call. Like, it's so weird that that's how, what it came down to. Not anything. Thought anyone thought.

And the guy who I think has made the right decision in decisions like that more than anyone else in the history of the league, I just think he botched it. To me, I thought they were joking. I thought they were going to pretend

they were going to do the field goal and try to get him to draw off sides and then call a timeout or something. But even, they had the timeout, right? So if he misses the field goal, what are you going to do

with the timeout anyway? At least come out on fourth and three. Hard count. Try to draw them off goal. Yeah. What are you going to do with the timeout anyway? At least come out on fourth and three. Hard count. Try to draw them off sides. Do something. Yeah. There's just so many more things

you can do with that than the 56 yarder. And Nick Folk's been surprisingly decent for them considering, you know, he kind of bounced around. He's closer to our age probably than Mac Jones's age.

But 56 yards, not in a rainstorm, I would have been surprised. Honestly. Yeah. If it was perfect weather in a dome not in a rainstorm, I would have been surprised. Honestly. If it was perfect weather in a dome, I don't know if I would have felt good about it from 56. And it's not based on anything you saw from

your quarterback. It's not like, oh, my quarterback has been sacked three times in a row, or he can't hit the out route, or anything like that. If that was piled up against you, then I could see that decision. Winfield was out. Once Winfield was out, it was like, oh against you, then like, all right, then, then I could see that decision. But I don't know. Winfield was out. Like once Winfield was out,

it was like, oh my God, this is how are we not running amok? I'll say big picture, like nothing to do with the decision. Really weird experience watching this game. And I don't know, you know,

I, I'm sure there's a lot of Boston fans out there feeling this way. This was like the most important football play we've ever had. And I know it was hyped up and we, you know, we get the Adele video and we've certainly talked about ad nauseum, but the actual experience of not only having a root against that guy, but then being in the position of having the lead against him with eight minutes left in our building. And then he's going down, it's like 39, of course, he's going to get this, you know, and just being on the other side of that was really weird. I'm kind of disoriented from it.

But it could have been so much worse. It could have been, like we said, a big blowout, or it could have been Brady throws a touchdown with no time left. And it wasn't that. It was your kicker screwed up and your coach screwed up. So at least for the last three minutes of the game, I mean like real-time three minutes, you didn't even have to look at Brady until

after the game when he's getting interviewed. They had the celebration replay right after though. That one hurt. Yeah, that's true. They went like right to Brady with the fist pump. He's running around doing the let's go. I was like, ah. Yeah, you probably don't like that. Yeah, it was, you know, he's certainly Brady, Bird, and Bobby

Orr and Ortiz were the four guys of my lifetime in Boston sports. And I don't, the other three never really came back in a big spot. It seemed like Brady was relieved it was over.

And that interview is basically like, you know, I'm going to, I look forward, I'll be coming back someday, you know, after I'm retired.

And I think Collinsworth was the one who said this might be the last time they ever play, you know? Yeah. They would have to be either a Super Bowl

or it would have to be a couple years down the road and he'll be gone by then. And that's good for you. Think about think about Bill's fans and Jets fans and Dolphins fans who had to have that guy beat him like a dozen times more than a dozen. You know, however many times, way more than a dozen times. You only had to deal with it once. Yeah, great. It was under the lights and Sunday night.

I was bummed out that we couldn't actually tell if Brady was crying in the postgame interview because it was so much rain, but he lucks out again. But classic Brady, like he wasn't good in that game, but when they needed him to make a couple of plays, he did, you know, and then the plays that he missed, they were already in field goal range. Yep. Running on third and seven, just knowing how to fall forward, even though that's not his thing, you know, there's a little things for sure. And then we had the gambling subplots of this.

Yeah. Everyone and their brother had a Bucks Chiefs tease. Right. The Bucks getting teased down to one, basically. Or if you got them at six and a half down to a half point. Yeah. It was the most obvious tease. I don't know.

Not just this season, but in the last couple years you were on it early you were like who doesn't have this because if both teams are home first of all they're coming off losses and I get it both their opponents were coming off losses the Eagles and the Patriots but I didn't think Mahomes was going to lose three times in a row if they're home

and it's minus 11 and you tease it to minus 5 it's a different story it's a perfect situation they're on the road you. Both of them are minus seven, so you could tease it down to minus one. The thing I didn't think I'd had to be worried about was this rain. Did you know that rain was in the forecast? Not that it kills Brady ever before, but it really made things more interesting for sure. God was crying. God was emotional. Yeah. So we did a God was emotional. Yeah. So we did a million dollar picks.

We did the middle where it was like, if the first part of this hits, Pats plus seven, tried to get it in the middle. Once I saw the rain, it really did have the feeling of like, oh, this is going to be like an under 50 points at least, you know, be like a 24, 21.

But the way the Pats move the ball, you know, it'd be like a 24, 21. But the way the Pats move the ball, I think only ending up with 17 points is, is almost impossible. Cause he, every time he went back to pass, he was taking a hit, but he was always finding somebody for 68 yards and guys were wide open all over the place. And I think when they look back at the tape on this, that will be the thing that jumped out. How do we not score more? And then Brady's going to look at like the eight on this, that will be the thing that jumped out. How do we not score more? And then Brady's going to look at the eight throws that he missed, and some of them sailed because of the rain and stuff like that.

Do you feel differently about the Bucs as a contender? Yeah, big picture. If they can't get the secondary, I mean, they haven't had one good game defensively, right? Like Dak Prescott went nuts on them. The Falcons, who are the most miserable team in all sports, we'll get to that, I'm sure, later. They were down three. They were putting up points on them in The Falcons, who are the most miserable team in all sports. We'll get to that, I'm sure, later. They were down three. They were putting up points on them in the fourth quarter.

Who am I missing? I forgot who else. They barely beat them up. In this game, it was glaring, too. Not that it resulted in seven points every drive. You talk about gambling. Tampa Bay, like we said, 157 left.

Mack Jones with the ball. Tampa Bay was minus 170. I was like, I got to put a little bit on New England here. This is crazy. They can go 40 yards. If the refs don't help, he can complete three passes. But he needed to complete four. That's the difference. And the refs did help. He didn't complete three passes, but he needed to complete four. That's the difference.

And the refs did help. Yeah, it was a crazy weekend from a Boston sports standpoint because we had this Red Sox thing where, what a roller coaster ride. It seems like the bullpen collapses two weeks ago heading into this final week and just like, oh, after

they get swept by the Yanks, they have no chance. Then they lose two or three to the Orioles. Then it seems like they're going to be in play in hell against somebody and get smoked. Then they rally together this weekend. The Yankees lose two pivotal ones. And then all of a sudden today, everything's in their lap and they're down 5-1 against the Nationals

who not only have punted on the season, all they care about is what inning are they going to take out Ryan Zimmerman for the standing ovation when he leaves the field. They're up 5-1, Red Sox rally back, and now we're headed for this Red Sox-Yankees thing that it's a worst-case scenario. Losing that one game off to the Yankees, they'll be insufferable for years.

Now we've got to watch Bucky Dent highlights. Sal, I'm really drained. Like I might have to go to 7-Eleven, buy some cigarettes. I may be coming out of cigarette retirement. I think subconsciously we started it off with the 86 Mets documentary. And you're like, screw this. Why the hell do I need to see this? Yeah, you're such a dick.

I go to the screen and you're like, don't worry. The Red Sox part isn't covered. Literally at the beginning of it is slow motion. I forgot. I'm back in Shea Stadium. Yeah, well, slow motion doesn't count. Yeah, no. Wait, when are we going to not care as much is my question.

Like, I turned 52 last week. I thought I wasn't going to care as much. I know. It's dumb shit. We're surrounded by dumb crap. Fantasy shouldn't matter. No, but I'm talking about with the teams that we actually love. I feel like I still care 100%.

Yeah. My feelings are really hurt and I'm really in a funk. I remember I was in San Antonio for the finals and the Bruins were playing the Blackhawks. And they had this, I think, double overtime game. But we were watching a hotel. My dad was there because my dad came in for a finals game. And we were with my friend Hershey.

And we're watching this double overtime cup game. And my dad's just locked in. The Blackhawks score. And my dad just gets up and he says, I'll see you guys tomorrow. And he's just gone. And my friend Hershey was like, that's where I want to be when I'm in you guys tomorrow. And he's just gone. And my friend Hershey was like, that's where I want to be when I'm in my 60s. I don't care that much.

I'm just going right to the elevator in shock. And I didn't fully understand it. But now as I get older, it's like, oh, so this is my whole life. I'm going to care this much. Here's the difference for me. I think I'd be okay with it. I'd be able to rein it in a little bit.

But all my friends are assholes. They are. And they just make fun of me if my team loses and I have enough. And you're pretty good about it. But, you know, Hench maybe not. Not even that he taunts me, but just like, oh, enough.

I don't want to hear about it. So if everyone would just chill out, I think I could be good too. But no, it's never going to happen. We surround ourselves with lunatics. And so we're stuck. Well, we're going to talk about your team. Let's're stuck. Well, we're going to talk about your team. Let's take a break.

And we're going to talk about your team because the league is moving in a very interesting direction for your team. And we're going to talk about that after we take a break. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll

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students for a meaningful career and long-term success. Join us in creating positive change at yorku.ca slash write the future. So I had six contenders that I wrote down on a piece of paper. And as we know, from this pod, I like to get to eight. I like to have my circle of eight that I think can win a Super Bowl. We're not even a quarter of the season done. That's the one thing about the 17 games. You can't even say now that we're a quarter of the season.

We're a quarter plus this extra stupid game. We'll get there. Yeah, right. But I think right now you would say Rams, Cards, Bucks, Browns, Chiefs, and Bills. I think everyone would have those in. And there's two spots left. And I think out of Seahawks, Chargers, Cowboys, Ravens, Raiders, I think your team has the seventh spot.

Your team has blue chippers on both sides in real ways. I don't know how it happened. And I think I might actually be a believer. You're going to have an easy division. You might be able to get a one or two seed just by how easy your schedule is going to be. Bring it on. I'm just telling you,

because the NFC West, it's going to be a slugfest every week with that thing. The Bucs, they're already banged up and you might be able to sneak out like a 12 and five or 13 and four. You might be able to get a two seed. But I think your team has to be in that circle right now. I'm trying to think why I would say pump the brakes, but I'm very excited about this team. So excited that when the Giants and Washington team pulled off miraculous, insane

wins, I was like, that doesn't matter. They're garbage. We're so much better than they are. And obviously, obviously everyone has to stay healthy, but you're right. Trayvon Diggs leads the league with five interceptions. He's a blue-chip player all of a sudden. Micah Parsons, great playing in all different positions, even their offensive line. McGovern pushing guys around, and Zeke all of a sudden has emerged. I don't know what to say. Dak had 14 completions today, and they were great against a very good Panthers defense. Say what you will about, you know, McCaffrey being hurt and everything, but they put up a lot of points

and it was exciting to watch. And I think it, I think it keeps up. Panthers look super fast. The first like hour of that game. And at some point it became a, okay, we're going to see what we have here with this Dallas team. And then they just pulled away and they had more speed. You mentioned Diggs. He's the best cornerback I've seen this year. Parsons is the best defensive rookie I've seen this year. You had a couple other good guys already on that side, but that was the side we weren't sure of. And then offensively, I did not expect Dak to look as good as he looked the first four games with that injury. And everybody kept penciling him in, even in fantasy and stuff, as like, oh no, Dak's fine. He's

top five QB. It's like, is he? He had like the Gordon Hayward injury. But he looks great. And he's right on it. And you have a ton of weapons. I like it. And our biggest weapon is when we're in the NFC East. We should be able to thrash those teams. I know I'm getting too

pumped up here and I'm sure I'm going to regret it, but I mean, they forced 10 turnovers this year. You know how many years it took for them to force 10 turnovers? Like three or four in the past. It's ridiculous. I think it's a legitimate, you should be fired up. And then you look at the schedule, you got the

Giants next week. Giants got their stupid win out of the way. Then you have my team in New England. Bye week. It gets a little harder. At Vikings, home Broncos, home Falcons. You could be 8-2 coming out of that.

I don't know about a bye or anything like that, but all those teams you list, the other teams in the division have to play them too. I don't know. The Washington team going to go to Minnesota and win or wherever that game is? I don't think so. But then you have...

At Chiefs Week 11, that's your toughest one. Home Raiders on Thanksgiving. Then you have at the Saints, which seemed like a really tough Thursday night game, but doesn't seem as tough after watching them today. Then you finish at Washington, at Giants, home Washington, home Cardinals, at Eagles.

If you stay healthy. That's it. That's just a way easier schedule. You look at the NFC West schedules and it's like, holy shit, every single week. The Rams, they have to play the Seahawks on Thursday. They just played the Bucs and the Cardinals.

They have to go at it. I mean, that's a gauntlet. You don't have anything like that. So, you know. And you have two running backs. You can block. You can create turnovers. And the only thing that I see that I don't really like is your head coach.

Well, that's the thing, right? That buffoon looms large in the background as long as he patrols the sidelines there. We went almost three quarters or into the third quarter without giving CeeDee Lamb a look, right? In a way, he's our top receiver because Cooper was off so much. You read those teams to me.

We're going to put up 50 against the Chiefs. Stop now. Stop me now. I don't want to be like this. I know what happens. I would have them as the seventh team. I think you're wrong to put the Browns in there. I hate that team. I know they won. They win all these games. I just feel like, I don't know. Maybe it's like someone trying to introduce you to a good piece of fruit like you've never had. Like, oh, you got to try the papaya. It's like, all right, it's not very good. Like, oh,

no, no, no. Don't eat this kind of papaya. You got try the papaya. It's like, all right, it's not very good. Like, oh, no, no, no. Don't eat this kind of papaya. You got to try this kind. Whenever I watch the Browns, they're terrible. Like Baker Mayfield, his best way to get into the Hall of Fame is if no one ever watches his games because he comes up with decent stats. Not really today, but

his misses are like eight yards off, right? He was bad in that Vikings game, but their defense is good. I know. Their defense can make plays and it's fast. They can run the ball. They had a good draft. I don't trust him out of all those eight teams I think you mentioned.

I trust him in the least. Why don't you have the Ravens in there? Holding the Vikes to seven points is not nothing. Yeah. Well, no, I think that eighth spot I would have Seahawks, Chargers, Ravens, Raiders, I think would be the four. And we'll know, I think, tomorrow night with that Chargers-Raiders game because I think the Chargers are the eighth team.

But if they lose to the Raiders tomorrow and the Raiders look good again, then we have to start wondering if they're the eighth team. So that eighth spot's kind of wide open. I think you're right, though. With these West divisions, both AFC and NFC, we can't get too crazy. It's four games in, right? New Seattle wasn't going to just lay down and be the fourth place team for the whole year, right?

And the Rams seemed too easy. They had beaten the Cardinals eight in a row. That line went from like six to four and a half. Like, whoa, something's up here. We should have known. And Kyler Murray is just phenomenal all of a sudden. He seems to always be phenomenal a month into the season. And then we fall in love with their offense.

I remember you and I did. And then like, oh, I think we ranked them like the top two right behind Kansas City, most exciting offense to watch. And then I don't know if he got hurt or what, but it was not that at all. No, he was hurt. He hurt his shoulder. I guess he was. But they'd struggle to score.

So I guess they're better. That Hudson being in there, the guy they stole from the Raiders, that center really just moves the needle a lot for that team. Did you watch that game today? Was your team going head-to-head against that? No, your team was early. Yeah, we were early, yeah.

I thought Kyler... The Rams were ready to make that toe-to-toe battle. Kyler pulled a couple plays. I didn't want to say out of his butt because that would demean how talented he is, but he had a couple plays where the Rams were in the right defense. They did all the right things.

And he's just amazing. And it's like him and Mahomes, I think are the only two guys like that right now where it's like we did everything perfectly and that guy scrambled away from Aaron Donald, turned the corner somehow, went 14 yards, and there's nobody else in the league who can do this. And now we got three fresh downs.

And what the fuck? We stopped those guys. And you could see the Rams lose their confidence on D. The other thing was Stafford. You know, that was the first, when they got Stafford before the season, and there was that little buzz of like, well, wait a second, how many big games has that dude been in? We're sure Matt

Stafford's really good. Like, he couldn't match it. Kyler kicked his ass today. Yeah, well, he was in a big game last week against Stafford. No, I know. I would say the running game. I think the defense took off. The running defense gave up 216 yards to Arizona. It was only like 40 to Kyler.

I think you're right. They're just going to beat the hell out of each other, these West teams. Both conferences. Isn't Edmonds one of those guys that if you only caught 45-minute stretches of a couple of his games, you would think he was like Tyreek Hill?

Yeah, for sure. He was one of the four best guys of the week. Then there's other games where it's like, there's Edmonds. He's nine carries for 10 yards. It's like, what happened to that guy last week who was just completely annihilated? He should perform 12 games a year, not just like three or four that people were watching. They looked really fast today.

They do. And you know what? They score fast. These other teams with supposedly good offenses, and we named Cleveland, just takes them forever to score. Even offenses, and we named Cleveland, just takes them forever to score. Even Minnesota, like we said, maybe it's the defense you're playing, but I don't know. You can't get excited for some of these defenses, and Arizona just puts it away fast. I was calling them the cocaine cardinals because you kind of hold on for dear life with them. I think the best case scenario for gambling on them is a thing like today when they're just

getting points. They're getting four and a half. You could have the money line. Cliff didn't really do anything dumb in that game. I thought they were really well coached today. Other guys did the right spots. There's nothing jumped out. There was no clockless management, anything like that.

Yeah, you take it out of his hands. And A.J. Green is a force there. That opens things up in the offense so that you can run for 220 yards, whatever. So that would be why we always talk about at the first quarter mark, even though we're not officially at the first quarter, but there's that

team that comes out and everybody's super excited about them after the first four games. And it seems like it's Arizona. Yeah, sure. And we talk about Kyla Murray as MVP every year this time. Well, and you have A.J. Green like it's Arizona. Yeah, sure. And we talk about Kyler Murray as MVP every year this time. Well, and you have A.J. Green's healthy right now. Hopkins is healthy

right now. Kyler Murray is 100% healthy right now. It's a long season. Who knows? Their over-under was 8. They were 6-1 to win the division. They were plus 175 to make the playoffs. These are off fan-dolots. They were the only team not expected to win double-digit games, right?

I think San Francisco was 10-1. Seattle was 10, and the Rams were 10. And this was the section of the schedule I had bolded for them because it was at Rams, home Niners, at Browns. And it's like, all right, we'll see what we have after this. So now they have a chance to, you know, they're catching the Niners at a great time. I don't know if Jimmy G's going to be healthy. Lance had some moments,

but I would love to play him. I'd rather play him than Jimmy G if I'm the Cardinals. Lance is like 21 years old. And then that Browns, who knows? It's not like the Browns are running away from teams. I like their defense more than you, though. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, you talk about defensive rookies

that other, he's right up there too, their guy. But yeah, I just, I'm not in love with Baker. I just, out of those quarterbacks you mentioned, I just trust him the least. I watched some football day with Van Lathan. He thinks Cooper Cup's nickname should be White Rice.

What do you think of that? White Rice. No, like Jerry Rice. He's White Jerry Rice. White Rice. I wouldn't even think of the stick? No, like Jerry Rice. Oh, White Rice. He's White Jerry Rice. White Rice. I wouldn't even think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. White Rice is kind of something.

That's momentum. I think you can get that going. That's a compliment. All right. Some other quick topics. So we knew Roethlisberger was done. We took an underdog, the underdog parlay of the week this week, a million dollar picks.

We committed to Steelers jets was we had Steelers jets, Steelers Raiders. And it was just a classic Mike Tomlin. I've seen him in this situation 40 times. They always rise to the occasion. They take the seven nothing lead today. And it's like, here we go.

Steelers infrastructure coming through again. Yeah. Rob, this burger is just not an NFL quarterback anymore. And they can't overcome it. And they can't really block either. But the combo of not having the ability to block combined with a washed up quarterback.

And I think it's officially, we thought it was over last week, but you're still, there's like that 1%. Now it's like, this is it. We're done. But what is, what's the, I'm trying to figure out what the plan is for Tomlin here. Like he could help himself out here and run a few gadget plays.

You don't need to taste some Hill to do it all the time, but yeah. And I don't think Haskins is a guy, but put Dobbs in there, line them up, do something on third down. You have a statue back there. And whether you would think it's big Ben or not, or the offensive line, he's getting hit and he's not mobile. He's like 32nd in the league in terms of mobility for starting quarterbacks. And that's not going to get better. So mix it up a little,

help him out. And maybe you could have stayed in the game today. I'm with you. I had the Steelers in the points and I was like, you know, Hey, they were getting six and a half against Buffalo and they won that game. This is kind of the same spot Packers coming off a big win on Sunday night,

but it didn't, it didn't add up. Aaron Rogers kind of did his thing. I could, big Ben actually big win on Sunday night, but it didn't add up. Aaron Rodgers kind of did his thing. Big Ben actually had better stats than Rodgers, but it didn't matter. Yeah. I test wise, it was rough. I feel bad for Harris. Harris, I think, he's had the Larry Fitzgerald award for

the good player on the team where he's just in the wrong situation. You feel bad for him when you're watching the games. I think it's Najee Harris this year. I just feel bad for him. It's like, he's a think it's Najee Harris this year. Just feel bad for him. He's a quarterback who is a complete non-threader who can't move and a line who can't block at all. And every time he gets the ball, he's like that rookie Saquon Barkley here

just shedding these three to four guys like a video game trying to get any yards he can. And there's just four guys in his face every time. It's too bad. A couple other notes from today. So the Dolphins, which are a team that I like today

against the Colts. I don't think the Colts are good. Brissette's just, I guess it's just never happening for him. Kyle, I'm officially jumping off the Brissette bandwagon. That's such a stay away game. Why'd you even touch that?

I thought I believed in Brissette. It was stupid. There's some McCaffrey Ewing theory possibilities that got wiped away by her team today. I had that written down. The Darnold-Zach stuff was fun. You want to talk about that? There was this hour today when Darnold

looked awesome and Zach threw a terrible pick and the Jets fans were all like in the fuck my life. They're just like, oh my God. But then Zach rallies back and we actually have like a fun New York football day where we had this crazy Giants win. We have the Jets holding on for dear life.

Then it seems like they're going to end up with a tie in overtime. The Tennessee guy misses in overtime. But Zach looked, I got to say, pretty good. I watched a lot of the second half and some of the overtime. Thought he made some good plays. I thought so too. He kept them in that game. The Titans were kind of undimensional. Oh, one dimensional. They were undimensional. They were one dimensional too because you knew with A.J. Brown out and Julio Jones out that it was going to be just a feast of Derrick Henry. And what more can you do? Didn't he have like 33

carries or something? You can't give him the ball 50 times Derrick Henry. And what more can you do? Didn't he have 33 carries or something? You can't give him the ball 50 times. I don't know what more they could have done. Wilson was good down the stretch. He missed a couple passes that they wouldn't have even had to go though over time. By the way, did you see when Tevin Coleman, I think he catches a pass, he reaches out, and it's either a touchdown or he's out at the one-inch line. And then in the next play, Zach Wilson runs it himself and gets tackled at the five and they have to kick a field goal.

You remember that? But Wilson or Tevin Coleman gets it. If it's a touchdown or the one-inch line, they put the ball at the one. They do this all the time. They review the play. And then they miss the spot. Yeah, the spot. Like, why is it?

You're a yard off. Like, we just took six minutes to review that because it was that close. And then you're, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Well, and then on top of it, the next Jets play is a Zach Wilson rollout. He's rolling into three guys,

and his only target is covered by two guys. It's like, I'm pretty sure they figured out that play. Exactly. And then he gets tackled for the three-yard loss. Yeah, but if it was at the one-inch line on third down, they'd probably quarterback sneak it twice, you know? I think that was a crisis averted for the Jets fans because there was, like, at about 11 o'clock our time, Pacific time,

it was the combo of Darnold just running around like he was Josh Allen combined with Zach Wilson, who just didn't seem like a quarterback, but yeah, he got his shit going. And then the Giants, that was the classic. This line is too high. I see it, but I can't bet on the Giants for me. Right. I stared at it for a while. It was like seven, seven and a half. And it's like, this line is out of whack. They're just, they're jacking this up because they know we don't want to bet on the Giants. But at some point it just became too hot

and wasn't sure they were going to win. But, you know, there's probably what, 15, 16 teams that are all right next to each other in the league right now. Yeah. Right, exactly. Like Cincy Jags on Thursday night was another one. It's like, how do we get at this line? Yeah, the Saints aren't a touchdown better than the Giants at this point.

And I've misread. I got it right today at the Giants. But, you know, I'm reading into the emotion of what was going on in New Orleans and everything. So I thought that first game, the Packers were going to blow them out. Like, this team isn't ready to play. Then I thought with this game, they're in New Orleans. I'm like, oh, too much is being made of this. Oh, how they're going to rally for everybody.

That's a tough load to carry there. So I took the Giants plus the points. I don't know that any of this. Oh, how they're going to rally for everybody. That's a tough load to carry there. So I took the giants plus the points. I don't know that any of this means anything, but in my mind, that's where it was going. I think picking games on Thursday could be tough. Sometimes like the Rams thing. Not for me.

Oh, all the stuff. I'm not talking about Thursday. I'm talking about the Sunday. Oh, I see. Gotcha. Like jumping on earlier in the week.

And the more I looked at that Rams game, and I had bet it already and I had done a million dollar picks, and then you think like, alright, all these Sharps are on the Cardinals. Everybody thinks the Rams are the best team in the league. That's a fucking red flag. They have the Seahawks game four

days later. I'm just never putting big money again on a team that has another big game four days later. I'm just, I'm never putting big money again on a team that has another big game four days later. I think there's, I think psychologically something weird happens with that where you're just like, it's like, just imagine being on that team where it's like Saturday night. You're like, fuck, but the Cardinals today and the Seahawks in four days, this is brutal. And you just beat Tom Brady. The natural hangover for that, too.

It's like, yeah. And the thing usually here is the teams get up for division games. It's hard to get up for these West games, right? Every single week or every other third week whenever you're playing them. It's just too much. Yeah, so the Rams, after the Seahawks game week five, it gets easier for them. They do Giants, Lions, Texans, Titans all in a row.

Oh, wow. That is good. And then at 49ers, Monday Night Football, and then a bye week. So the Rams will be fine. And that's the thing. You can't overreact to any of this stuff. I think from an overreaction standpoint, Kyler was clearly hurt second half of last year. We know that now because the way he looks this first month was the same

way he looked the first few weeks last year. Right. I don't think Dallas is an overreaction for me. Like your team has a ton of talent. I don't think it's an overreaction to say that. Other than that, I think everything feels a little overreacting, you know,

like Roethlisberger's washed up. I think we can say that pretty definitively, but yeah, the chiefs, I don't know. What are the Chiefs going to look like in December? I have no idea what happens when Frank Clark comes back. I would say people are overreacting to the defense being bad because it usually rights itself.

But in the near future, it's going to be tough for that defense to keep anyone under 30. I mean, you watch what the Eagles did. Seems like it. Like they had 14 points almost immediately. It's like you watch what the Eagles did. Like, they held 14 points almost immediately. It's like, get off the field already. You become like a fantasy snob or a gambling snob. It's like, I can't take watching the Chiefs get thrown on

or run on all afternoon. Like, I need to see Mahomes on the field. And, like, I guess the thing is, if you could trade threes for sevens the whole way, you're going to win if they get the ball back but my home seems to make a mistake every game too i say this in like the one of the few games they've covered since last october like 2020 but um so i guess we shouldn't get on the the chief's case too much but uh had enough of that defense one of one of our ringer guys today

had a had a screenshot of my homes doing that weird shovel pass he did. Oh, yeah. And it was a screenshot of the moment of the release. It was like, look how obnoxious this is. It really was. Mahomes just seems bored this season. There were all these different ways he could have thrown that little shovel pass. And he tried to do like, it's like he's playing horse.

Where he's like, all right, here's my next shot. You got to throw, stand on one foot, throw it underhand. You got to bank it. Yeah. And that's how he's playing quarterback. I mean, I don't even know if those should count as touchdown passes anymore. He had two where he gunned in a shovel pass at 80 miles an hour. And, uh, I like you start thinking to yourself, like, is he going to have more career underhand touchdown passes than Daniel Jones will have overhand? Maybe he's trying to set that record.

Yeah. Maybe he looked it up. Sorry, you got it, Mahomes. You already got the record. It was one by accident. Just throw normal touchdowns. Brett Favre did it accidentally once. Now you got it.

You got the record. We've talked about the comparisons to him and Curry before, like just how he's football Curry, but it's the kind of shit Curry does in these January games in Sacramento where he's like, I'm just going to do a one-legged 30-footer here. Just I'm bored. Yeah, he's played a couple sports at once. Yeah, we're up 20 and I'm bored.

All right, we're going to take a break. We'll do some Guest Alliance. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to powers your scale with no preset spending limit, more cash on hand to grow your business with up to 55 interest-free days and the ability to reach further with access to over 1400 airport lounges worldwide redefine possible with business platinum. That's the powerful backing

of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. All right. We're going to do a... We're going to do a Guest Alliance for week five. Every week we Guest Alliance. I won weeks one and four. You won weeks two and three.

I think you're going to win here. I was off on too many. I don't know your picks yet. I forgot to mail going to win here. I was off on too many. I don't know your picks yet. I forgot to mail them to you, but I have not touched them since I made them. Thursday night is a great game, as we discussed earlier. Seahawks-Rams. Well, this is when Fox starts picking up the coverage.

Do you want to brag about your Thursday night streak? We might as well. Let's do it. I do and I don't because I know now, because now I'm signed to do 10 picks for Fox on Thursday and I know I'm going to go two and eight, but up until now I picked nine in a row last season the regular season to end the Thursday night. I picked Daniel Jones to score

the first touchdown against Washington on Thursday night. I picked, who was it, James Robinson the other night. I had to score first touchdown. I was like 16 to one. I had what did I have? I had Trevor Lawrence to not throw an inter night, I had to score first touchdown. I was like 16 to 1. I had, what did I have? I had Trevor Lawrence to not throw an interception. I had the Panthers, the Jaguars, and who was the other team to cover?

And I don't know. I picked the last three, but now I'm going to shit the bed. I have no idea what to do with this bet, with this Thursday night game. No idea. So I did a preliminary. I wrote all the matchups down when I was watching the early games, like in the first hour. And then I switched this pick by three points

after watching the late games. I know it's... Seattle is home for the Rams Thursday night. I had the Rams favored when I did in the morning and I actually think now the Seahawks will be favored. I have the Seahawks by one and a half. I kept it. I had Rams by one and a half and I kept it.

And I was thinking they're going to try to sucker everybody. It is the Rams by one. So I get it. Jesus. But is this division just going to zig and zag? Like you won last week, you lose this week, you lose last week, you win this week. That's maybe what I'm counting on here. Insulting for the Seahawks.

You're not favored at home in this one. Right. Gets a team that just got killed by the Cardinals. And Thursday night home should be an advantage for the home team. I don't know where the Alex Collins thing came from or what it means or, you know, typical weird shit with the Seahawks. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's back in sync with the, I mean, what is it?

He's the fastest 100 wins we always we always forget about Russell Wilson he's like hey don't don't don't look over here you know 101 he and Metcalf are back on track it looks like so I don't know get those long strikes they beat up a beat up 49ers team but still a good win at what, how many years in a row can the 49ers be the beat-up 49ers before we just wonder, like, is this just who you are? You're just a team that just has an obscene amount of injuries every year.

Shanahan's going to be in year 40. It's like, no, he still gets a pass because of quarterback six games. It's the worst injury rate year after year. Maybe get a new training staff. Sunday's marquee game. Who did you have between Chargers, Browns, injury rate year after year. Maybe get a new training staff. Sunday's marquee game. Who did you have between Chargers, Browns, and

Cards 49ers for this spot? You're going to have Chargers, Browns because you like the Browns more. I think that's... I guess so. That's good. If it was Jimmy G, if it was a healthy Niners team, I'd feel better about it. Anyway, I have Chargers-Browns.

It's in LA. I don't think you're going to have to worry about 35,000 Browns fans there if you're a Chargers fan. I have the Chargers favored by two and a half over the Browns. I get this. I said one and a half,

and it's one. You don't think they'll be Browns fans, is that right? I just don't think there's 35,000 Browns fans in LA. Oh, interesting. Do you? No, but I also think this is, and same with Vegas,

this is the annual trip you and your buddies from Cleveland make to watch the game and go to LA and have fun, maybe. That's a fair point. I don't know. Plus, tickets are available. Yeah. Good game. Definitely a good game.

I have three watchables We'll start cards 49ers Mentioned them earlier That's in Arizona I put this in the Vegas zone I had the cards by four and a half Over the 49ers

Nice Held it I said three and a half I went light I thought they were I thought they were going to trap Everyone Into all these NFC West games.

But no, this does seem fair. But this is where we don't like the Cardinals, right? Giving points at home? Listen, this is when they become the cocaine Cardinals. People either teasing them or putting them in parlays. Just stay away. They're feeling good about themselves. I would just be really careful.

You got Shanahan against Cliff Kingsbury here. It's a lot of red flags. I don't even know who the quarterback is. I congratulate the 49ers, though, because anybody who's ever tried to kind of dabble between the two QBs, it always goes wrong. And now Shanahan's doing this whole thing where he's like, I don't know why people thought we were going to platoon the QBs.

I don't know where that came from. It's like, hey, asshole, you did the whole preseason. You made it seem like that was going to happen. And then we're intentionally mysterious and coy about it. And now it's like, I don't know where this came from. Yeah. He shouldn't be like that. I told you what I thought he should

be. He should just come out and be truthful about how he lies. I'm a liar. I lie in these press conferences and you better get used to it. He can't get fined for doing that, can he? Right. He's still sitting for the press conferences and everything. You just know not to trust the guy.

Well, imagine if Roger Goodell finds somebody for lying. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That'd be funny. I mean, can you imagine that, Sal? Can you really? Can you imagine? No, that wouldn't happen.

Two more watchables. I think your team's in here. Cowboys, Giants, something to look forward to. Oh, wow. watchables. I think your team's in here. Cowboys-Giants, I'm excited for. I think Daniel Jones, it's either a good play for his team or it's a good play for the other team. But he's exciting. They have good receivers that, I don't know if they're good,

but they're all fast. They're all doing stuff. Barkley looked pretty good today. Plus, Cowboys-Giants, the history, the fact that you guys are feeling great about yourselves. It's in Dallas. It's a watchable. Right.

I have Cowboys by nine. You forgot about... Wow, you went heavier. Usually I lose with them because I go too heavy. I said eight and a half. It's seven and a half. So I'm going to get it. And by the way, the dog just crawled in here, so that's a bad sign. That means take the Giants. Jesus. Because they're the dog. I don't like it. And you're forgetting about the, you're forgetting about the clapper, that part of it. It's on the revenge scale. It's a 0.0.

Really? Yeah. Yeah. You're not afraid of the clapper. The clapper is in a huge advantage. No, I'm not, but I'm trying to think what he has up his sleeve, and it's nothing. Here's what you should be afraid of. First four weeks, the most obvious tease won every week. Yeah, you're right. The Cowboys just are dying to be teased here, and there's going to be about a three-day

window before this line moves to nine, when Vegas gets tired of everybody teasing them down to under three. And I will be probably teasing them the next 12 hours. I don't know why Tampa didn't move to nine. I don't know why the Chiefs didn't move to nine. As much buzz as there was, at one point during the week on Fandle, 98% of those betting the Tampa-New England game were backing the Bucs.

And even as of this afternoon, it only went down to like 84%, 85%. How did they not move that line? The Bucs one made more sense to me because the Belichick, Patriots, the Bucs had nobody in the secondary, and then the secondary even got worse as it goes along. They can't really run the ball to extend leads. Right. So I could see it.

The Chiefs one, I'm with you. I don't know how that didn't climb to like nine by game time. Who was taking the Eagles in that game? It couldn't be anybody. Ben Shortweek and everything else? No. I had a third watchables, but then I guess I shouldn't have had... I only have two watchables. I'm going to move

this into the semi-watchables. Let me think what it was. 49 is card? Oh, no. You said that, right? No, I had Bucks-Dolphins, but then the Dolphins completely shit the bed, so I got to take that out. Okay. So I'm putting that in the barely watchables.

Tampa at home playing the Dolphins, and I think that has to go double figures based on how bad the Dolphins played today. I have Bucks by 10 over the Dolphins. We're going to split this. It's nine and a half, and I said nine. Okay. I'm good with the teaser 10 over the Dolphins. We're going to split this. It's 9.5 and I said 9. I'm good with the teaser here, though, for the Bucs. A three-teamer?

Sure. Why not? Bucs, Cowboys, you know what? Bucs, Cowboys, Tyson Fury. We're good. That fight is an all-time stay away from it. Oh, come on. Have some fun. Those are two maniacs. How do you bet on those two?

It's like, they're more likely to be a DQ than somebody winning that fight. All right. You probably got good odds for that. Probably bet the DQ. Packers are home for

the kind of rejuvenated, oh, I'm sorry. The Bengals are home for the kind of rejuvenated Packers. The Bengals are three and one. Nobody rejuvenated Packers. The Bengals are 3-1. Nobody feels good about any of their three wins. And yet, this is a really nice spot for them. And I think the Packers are going to get

the typical Aaron Rodgers public stuff. And I put this right in the Vegas zone. I have the Packers in Cincinnati favored by five. All right. I edged you out here. I had four and a half and it's three and a half. Very low. I'm always on the Packers.

I'm a fan of theirs. I'm a fan of betting wise, but I'm willing to say that that first game was like their last preseason game against the Saints, right? When they got killed. Just throw it out. Yeah. Throw out the lowest quiz. What we saw the last three weeks game against the Saints, right? When they got killed by the Saints. Just throw it out? Yeah, throw out the lowest quiz. What we saw the last three

weeks is the Packers, right? Fair. And the Bengals could have lost that game to the Jags. Although now they have 10 days to prepare. I don't know. I just don't love that coach so much. Vikings-Lions. I'm going to put in the barely watchables.

Only because the Lions are now really looking good for our worst record bet. On top of that, the Lions have been in pretty entertaining games this season. There's always either something going right or really horribly wrong, like today, where

I think I read they became the first team in like 40 years to have red zone trips on their first three possessions and get zero points. They said it hadn't happened since 1981 or something. Nice. They center-stepped the ball right to Goff's nuts. Right. That was

how one of their turnovers, Goff did Goff stuff. Yeah, but then we're cursing this Clifford Raymond or whoever the hell it was. It's like, hey, stay away here. I have the Bears on everything. He scored twice or whatever his name was. Raymond? Yeah. Lions? I think you're going to get, I was off two and a half points here. What do you say? I had

the Vikings by eight and a half. All right. You get it. I said five and a half. Way low. It's eight. So you get that. The Vikes would be a tease if there wasn't a law that Kirk Cousins cannot be thrown in a tease,

which is a law. I don't know if people realize that Trump passed that in 2018. Oh, he did? All right. Well, that was smart. That was smart, at least. I'm going to say this.

I think Goff ends up having better stats on the Lions than he did with the Rams. It's possible. I think he's going to have more. He's going to have to pass so much more. Of course, I'll have

a few more interceptions, but I think he's going to look at. He's going to have to pass so much more. Of course, I'll have a few more interceptions, but I think he's going to look at his stats like, oh, man, he was a better quarterback for the Lions than the Rams. It does feel like it's a perfect match. It's like when you have the two crazy friends in college, you start dating each other like, oh, this is perfect. Right. Yeah, just keep me away.

Yeah, this is perfect. We won't be going to this wedding, but this is great. This will be a fun two months. Goff on the Lions. It's just, this is not going anywhere good, but I'm enjoying watching it. Yeah. I hope it keeps going. Well, I will say, you have them, I have them and the Texans under four and a half. You think the Texans are a better bet than the Lions? I think Goff will win a game or two by action. The Texans got to win already, though. They got a game lead. I know, but I think we see more from them

than what we think we're going to see overall in the last three weeks. If you're the Lions, you picked third a draft ago and you took Okuda, who sucked last year and then blew out his Achilles this year. So they do that whole rebuilding thing where sometimes you just assume when a team's been rebuilding for a while that at some point it's going to come to fruition. They're still like two years away from that or a year away or whatever when they'll get-

No, I'm with you. But what do you, you can't even label the Texans rebuilding. I mean, what the hell is that? They haven't even planned to rebuild yet. I don't think. Yeah, that's a good point. They have no bricks. Sorry, there's a shortage. Saints are at Washington. I have no idea.

Yeah, this sucks. I have no idea why I have the Saints favored in this game, but I think the Saints are public. And I just have them favored. I had them by one and a half in Washington. I had them by two. It's one. Saints favored by one.

You get that. It is now five to four me. That was a fun Washington win today. I don't know. I don't love it as a Dallas fan, but I mean, it can get one stop Atlanta, one stop in the last three years. But with someone on defense, make one single big play. One stop in the last three years. But someone on defense make one single big play. Is it that hard?

For one game? Jesus. Tyler Heineke has to run up there like an MVP. I have another barely watchable. Panthers home for the Eagles. I think this is Panthers by seven.

It might be a little high, but I like their defense, and I went high. It is high. I went five, and it's four. Okay. Only minus four. Sam Darnold leads the league in touchdown runs.

I think. That was as far as this afternoon. I don't think anything happened in the set, right? Yeah. This Chuba Hubbard thing, it's every year in our dumb fantasy drafts when everybody takes the handcuffed guys and you don't know whether the

strategy of, do I go $5 for secondhand McCaffrey's handcuffed guy after I spent $68 on him? Then you see why people do it. When he comes in and then you're like, oh yeah, I had McCaffrey and I didn't have his backup. What did he have, like 13 carries today?

Yeah, he's got... Didn't he score though? He had a touchdown. They're playing from behind. I'm having the worst fantasy season I think I've had in a few years. I don't like any of my teams. I made a bunch of bad bets. Damien Harris

in two leagues. Marquez Calloway. Everyone fell in bunch of bad bets. Damien Harris in two leagues. Marquez Calloway. Had some bad injuries. I lost Mostert in two leagues. I lost Judy in two leagues. Kyle Pitts, he's killing me in two of my leagues and he's killing you in the other one I'm in.

I meant to thank you. I meant to send you a text. Thank you for making this league. I know Damoshek threw you out. You scrambled to put together this league with friends from all different eras. It's fun. It's a great time, and it's especially great for me. I won it last year, and now I'm 4-0.

I'm untouchable. It's the nicest thing you've ever done for me. You're 4-0 again? Yeah, 4-0 again. Jesus Christ. What a mistake. Derek Henry, Kamara, Josh Allen, Jefferson. Oh, my God. All four of those guys are better than everyone on my team but Kyler Murray. I do like having Kyler Murray.

Pats are in Houston. This is a possible tease. Just throwing that out there. I have the Pats by six and a half in Houston. You're one-3? Yeah. By the way, I had 6.5 also, and it's 7. Your season's done if you lose this.

I'm sorry. It's over. Yeah, it's not a possible tease. If you believe in your team at all, you have to have them on. I don't know what Belichick's record is against Houston over the years, but it's got to be 95% winning percentage. It's got to be

like 9-1, 12-1, something like that. I remember seeing J.J. Watt walking off the field dejected. We've beat Houston many times. I don't know. Have we forgotten about this or we just have time? I know we picked the Jets as we crossed them off the playoff list. I think even

though they're technically in second place, I don't know why they're above the Colts, but can we cross off a second place Texans team? I think we can. Yeah, probably. You're not as down on this team as I am. Wow. No, I just like that division so bad.

You watch the Titans today and you watch the Colts and you just think like the Titans are going for a tie and the tie actually means something because they might go six, 10 and one and they might win the, the vision with that. Right. Right.

Right. Cause somebody else went six and 11. Yeah. So I don't know. I hesitate crossing. I forget how many weeks we have left to do this. We have 13 weeks to cross off. How many? I think we have to start crossing this. We have 13 weeks to cross off. How many?

I think we have to start crossing teams off. Don't we? Yeah, you're probably right. Can we cross two teams off from the same crappy division though? I don't feel good about that. You would go Jags? I think we already did the Jags. We did the Jags. We did the Jets. I think we did the Giants. Oh, I didn't know. I thought we crossed out those

three. Well, those should be the three. I must have missed that podcast. I don't know. Maybe it was one of my other picks podcasts. I'm fine with any of those teams you mentioned. Well, we haven't crossed up the Falcons yet, right? Oh, God. Let's cross them off. They're coming up later. They're in the perfecto. Just don't even do it.

I'm sorry, Atlanta. Maybe just take a break from sports for a couple years. Although Trey Young is bringing them back a little bit. But for God's sake, could they be good at music? There's some good musicians in Atlanta, right? They have to saddle us with these sports losers.

Again, I'm apologizing. Listen, they have the Hawks and they have an unbelievable music scene. Atlanta's fine. Plus, they made the playoffs in baseball. Atlanta's still good. Oh, yeah. The Falcons are the black sheep for them again.

That's the way it used to be. I forgot. My Mets are in the division. I still forgot. All right. I take it all back. Raiders are home for the Bears. It's the Khalil Mack game.

Yeah. I think... We don't know if it's going to be Dalton or it's going to be Justin Fields. We haven't really talked about Dalton, the look he has this year on the sidelines with the beard. Because he used to be one of the dorkiest looking QBs. And now he looks like he's like Jon Snow's right-hand man

in season five of Game of Thrones. Like he looks awesome. I don't think anybody's ever transformed every way I felt about them just with a beard like Dalton is. He's really great. He looks awesome. Didn't Affleck do this for you? He needs a couple tattoos and a couple piercings, I think, would be the next thing.

I really feel like he's on his way to being a badass. I don't know who the QB is, but I have the Raiders by six and a half over the Bears. Now I lost it because I'm looking at pictures of Dalton. I mean, Raiders are six and a half. That Bears? No, I lost it because I'm looking at pictures of Dalton. Raiders are six and a half. That's exactly right. How'd you have that? I said four and a half. You win that. Three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Sorry. I'm up 76.

The Bears running back. I don't know if he's coming back for that game, but he's having a really good season. He got hurt. I haven't been everything. I haven't like two leagues. Fields had a couple good plays today. He had one. I haven't been everything. I haven't like two leagues. Fields had a couple good plays today. He had one frozen rope that was Herbert-esque.

He felt like a 45-yard laser that was like welcome to the gun show. Yeah. He didn't have to do much. He didn't have to do much. Yeah. It was fine.

Poop Factor, three games. Steelers, Broncos. That's in Pittsburgh. Mm-hmm. I just think Ben is in the Poop Factor every week until they bench him. He's in Pittsburgh. I just think Ben is in the poop fact every week until they bench him. It's just brutal to watch.

I have Steelers by three. This is crazy. Maybe it ends up not being crazy. I had Steelers by two. Broncos by two. Oh my God. Fandle. Our friends at Fandle are going with.

I know. Well, we can't shit on Pittsburgh saying they're the worst team and then say, oh my God, how's Denver favorite? But is Bridgewater playing too? I don't even know. Well, first of all, Bridgewater got concussed. Right.

They're down to two receivers. And I didn't really think they showed anything in that Ravens game today that made me think, look out. Me neither. Me neither. So this is in Pittsburgh. Yeah. And they're underdogs against either a concussed Teddy Bridgewater or Drew Locke.

That's what you're telling me. So would you rather have Drew Locke or Big Ben? I mean, both have good defenses, right? Drew Locke is like he comes in and you just cross off Denver for the game. Like if you had the Broncos. Yeah. And it's like, oh, here comes Drew Locke. Cross it off. I lost. I'm staying away

from that. That's a stay away too. I agree. Either quarterback. Falcons are home for the Jets. It's either Falcons by three or Falcons by three and a half. I'm going to say Falcons by three and a half because I think people are dumb. You got it exactly. I said four and a half. It's three and a half because I think people are dumb. You got it exactly. I said four and a half.

It's three and a half. And talk about stay aways. Are you kidding me? I mean, this is imagine asking the Falcons to cover a game. Well, the Jets to win two in a row. Come on. Yeah. Well, same way with this next one.

Titans at the Jags. I was way off here. You're going to come back. You're going to make a nice comeback here. We have no idea what wide receivers are playing for the Titans next week, but we do know they're better than the Jaguars. I put this in the Vegas zone. I have Titans by five over the Jags.

All right. I said four. I don't know why. Well, I guess I said four because they were, what did they end up being, like five and a half against the Jets? Yeah. And I figured the Jaguars are better than the Jets. Not the case.

Seven and a half is the number. So you get it. That's too high. And it is now 8-8. I mentioned last week the John Oaks theory with the Bengals-Jags game. The Bengals were favored by seven and a half over the Jaguars.

The John Oaks theory that certain teams should never be more than a touchdown favorite. I think we're here again with the Titans. I don't think they should be favored by over a touchdown over anybody in the league. Jaguar showed some life. Urban Meyer has had 10 days to prepare. You know that's what he's doing.

What else is he doing but preparing for this game? There's no evidence that he's doing anything but watching tape of Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry, right? I mean, what else is... He's very focused. He's in the film room all the time, on a stool in the film room, just watching tape.

Do you put... In a way, I'm like, oh, stop feeling bad for Urban Meyer. He's figured it out. He's okay. He's having a great time. No matter what. If Fandle, you would tell them to put odds, urge them to put odds on him making it through the year. Man, it's close to even, I

think now. How about, could FanDuel do this one? Yeah. Urban Meyer still coaching the Jaguars versus Ben Roethlisberger still starting at QB for the Steelers. Who do you have? I would have Urban Meyer like minus 175 over Roethlisberger. Yeah. But it's a good bet.

I wouldn't feel good about betting it. I think both fall apart this year. So I think you have Urban Meyer minus three and a half weeks or something. Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah. Urban Meyer week 11. Urban Meyer minus three weeks over Ben Roethlisberger as a starter. Yeah.

Wow. Do it, FanDuel. Come on, FanDuel. Get your shit together. All right. Then we got Sunday night Chiefs Fandle. Come on, Fandle. Get your shit together. All right. Then we got Sunday Night Chiefs Bills. That's a good one.

That's a winner. Let me just set the scene here. That'll get some chortles from Chris Collinsworth. That's like a nine and a half on the Chris Collinsworth chortle scale. Oh, Al.

Oh, Al. Oh. There's Josh Allen. There's Jack Holmes. This isn't fair, Al. It's not fair. One throws overhand. The other throws underhandomes. This isn't fair, Al. One throws overhand. The other throws on the head. Come on.

Why are they using their arms? They're taunting us, Al. Come on. I have the Chiefs. They're in Kansas City. And I think they'll be favored by three and a half points. Damn. You edged me out, Simmons.

I said four and it's three. Ooh. It's only three. Wow. Not even the half point for the Chiefs. Holy moly. Who the fuck have the Bills played? Who have they played?

They beat the Steelers. They beat this terrible Texans team. Who did they beat week two that we thought they were good? They beat the Dolphins. They shut them out. Alright, but who have the Chiefs beaten by three? The Chiefs at least have played some real teams. They played the Chargers. They played the Ravens.

Lost to them. Lost to them. Yeah, I know. I'm with you. Insulting. I don't know that I'm taking the... Would you take the Chiefs at three? Mahomes said he's so insulted, he's not going to try any behind-the-back passes in this game. Or any passes where he's falling backwards,

where he just flings it over his head. We're going to be down so much money from the Texans beating the Patriots that we're going to have to take the Chiefs minus 160 on Sunday night. I'm going to be forced. I can't wait. I'm going to definitely put them with bets. If you win this, you win.

Oh, go ahead. You want to talk more, Chiefs? Oh, they're 2-2. It's not like they're going to be asleep for this one. Right. The Bills, you know, they know they're going to see them again probably. January. I would feel good. I would feel comfortable if that line stays at 3, betting the Chiefs.

Right. Are the Chiefs getting the one seed, though? I think we can now... That's the one thing we can maybe say. If the one seed has four losses are the Chiefs halfway there

or are they going to have more than that? So two and two? Nah, they feel like a 12 and five season. They haven't had any dumb injuries on offense yet.

I don't know if that's good enough to get the bye. There's only one bye, right? Isn't that how they do it? Yeah. I think Tyreek took a lot of the Cooper Cup stuff personally and just demolished the Eagles today. He's like, white rice, fuck this guy.

Yeah. I'm out. So damn good. It's not fair. Monday night, Ravens-Colts in Baltimore. I'm a half point off. I'll tell you that much. So either match me or get it exact.

Well, I had Ravens by six and a half. Did that do it? Yeah, you're good. We tie on that. I had seven and a half. It's seven. Bill Simmons wins. I couldn't let you lose tonight.

I couldn't. I did get in the... I am hosting a playoff game against the Yankees. Yeah, that's good. That'll be good. I want to talk about that, but let's do, let's take a break quick.

All right, we can do parent corner in one second, but the baseball playoffs. So these play-in games, just wanted your take on this. I know you're on Against All Odds or in the Extra Points podcast.

I know you've got to discuss this on other platforms. Don't say it like that. What am I going to do? We're supposed to talk about fashion? What do you want me to do? No, I'm on your side. Okay.

The Dodgers play the whole year. Yeah. They win. How many games did they win? They ended up with 106 wins. Yeah. They missed the Giants by one game. And now they have to play in a one game thingy.

It's not right by any measure. It just isn't. It's not right. So I'm going the other way. I kind of like it. Really? Yeah, because when we grew up, it's like you're in your division. If you don't win your division, you don't make the playoffs.

Yeah, but everything's so... You can't fail by that. The SEC is so much better. Georgia and Alabama should both make it. They're just... Some divisions are just top-heavy and some suck. And it's not even cyclical.

It's like... So then let's not have divisions then. Well... You want rivalries. The prize of winning the division has to be something. So in this case, the something is

I don't have to then play in a one-game playoff with my whole playoff life at stake. Gotcha. Okay. All right. Here's what I'll say. Because the Dodgers Cardinals winner plays the Giants. And that's not fair. I don't think the Giants should have to play the Dodgers. I think they should receive. No, it should go by record at that point.

They should receive. Yeah, I agree with that. At least let's start there where the Giants don't get screwed and have to play the 106-win Dodgers, if Scherzer wins again. And then if you're the Dodgers, you won 16 more games than the Cardinals. Mm-hmm.

And yet, the Cardinals, who nobody can even name anyone on the Cardinals anymore, but the infrastructure of that team just is always terrifying, and you just don't want to play them in one game. For any reason. For anyone like 15 out of the last 18 or something. Yeah, it's just like, you're just like, oh my god, we win 106-56,

and now we have to play this Michael Myers Cardinals team. On the flip side, you have my dumb team, who I really enjoyed. We won 92 wins. I had huge bets on their over at 81. It was a delight to win them.

It was really fun to win both. I did double bets. I doubled down on them. And yet we head to the end of this season. Our closer, who was really good for about three and a half months, made the all-star team. By mid-August, he's like private pile at the 48-minute mark in full metal jacket.

He's just done. You know that when you have that closer? I'm sure it's happened to the Mets more than once. Yeah. And the guy's just done. And you're like, what happened? You're completely done. What did I miss?

You were fired a week ago. So he's done. We have Whitlock, who is the MVP of the team. And then right in the most crucial part of this pennant race, he gets hurt. So he's been out the last two weeks. And then we have out of vino, who's the mole from the Yankees.

We don't trust him. And you go out down the line, you don't trust anybody. Our two most reliable relievers, Robles, who you have a history with, right? Wasn't he on the Mets?

Did you enjoy his work at all on the Mets? It was okay to see him go. Yeah, he's our closer. And then Ryan Brazier, who was good in recent years, but this year he got hit by a line drive, had written him off, didn't expect anything from him. He was a triple-A most of the year. And then he comes up five weeks ago

and he's become basically our most reliable setup guy. And then he comes up five weeks ago and he's become like basically our most reliable setup guy. And we are now taking this bullpen into a one game Bucky Dent residue fucking

have to see that clip a million against this stupid Yankee team that's like a slow pitch softball team with their annoying fans who hated Stanton

forever. They shit on Stanton for years. That much is true. What a garbage he is. Jeter had a G to do this. I've had a G to can't believe fans who hated Stanton forever. They shit on Stanton for years. What a garbage he is. Jeter had a Jeter do this. I can't believe Derrick did this to us.

And then Stanton hits 20 homers in two months. Then it's like, oh, Stanton jerk circle. Put him with Mano and Garrick. We love this guy. He's a true Yankee. Get the turtles out. So they're doing that. And then Judge, who's managed to play two straight months for the first time in his life without, like,

pulling an oblique or a hamstring. So they get him and then Rizzo. And then all of a sudden, this Yankee team kind of rounds into shape. Chapman, who's done. No, he's finished. I mean, that's where I was going to intercept you. Yankee fans are just as upset. It's fine.

You ask any Yankee fan, what do we need, a four or five, a six-run lead with Chapman in? They still don't trust him. Nobody trusts Chapman. That's fine, but he looked like his career was over six weeks ago. He threw 101 today. And then Severino, all of a sudden

now is this can't-miss bullpen guy, and then Loizaga came back. So now they have two relievers that they can trust, plus Chad Green, who's fine as long as he doesn't have to close. And they probably just have a more talented team, but it's in Fenway. It's in Fenway. And this Red Sox team is resilient.

Garrett Cole's last three starts have not been good. Against you, I think he gave up three runs in six innings. The game against the Indians was a disaster the one before. And then what did we just recently have Toronto? Like hasn't been, hasn't been great. And, uh, it's a pick them game. Fandle has minus one 20 for the Yankees. It's so upsetting because this Red Sox team was house money all year.

It was like, Oh my God, if we make the playoffs, that would be great. Right. I really enjoyed this team. I really liked some of the guys on it. I just have fond memories of this season. They really, they battled a COVID outbreak. Bullpen dies. They rally back.

They somehow get to this hosting the playing game to go play the Rays. Right. And then it's like, all right, we're not going to win three series in a row at this team without a bullpen. And now I have to fucking play the Yankees. And if we beat the Yankees, then the Yankee fans,

now it's like the four-world series this century didn't happen. Yeah. And we didn't have the upper hand. I'd say, yeah, but what happened last time? What happened in the playing game at Fenway when Stanton went deep and shoved it up your ass? That's a really good New York accent.

I can't believe this is going to be so dramatic. Like, win or lose, Tuesday's a nightmare. It's way more dramatic than this Bucks-Brady game. Wow. This is like the war to settle the score. It's like the winner gets to go get their ass kicked by the Rays, but it doesn't even matter.

It's like the championship of each other. Listen to you right now. I can't fucking take it. You're going to be fine. I'm going to have a fucking meltdown. How many championships? You're good. Oh, my God.

No, it's the Yankees. You know the Yankees. You understand this. I get it. How about start with this. Pitch around Stanton. What the hell? How hard is that?

Like, you know, you can put him on base every now and then. It doesn't matter. Well, did you see what happened today with the Rays? The third and second of the ninth inning,

0-0 game. Judge is up. Why do you say third and second? You sound like a six-year-old. Second and third. Yeah. Walk judge. Yeah. Walk judge. Yeah.

Pitch to Stanton. Four set on any base. They're like, fuck that. We're not pitching to Stanton. Right. They pitch to judge. Grounder. They can't get the guy out of home in time.

Yankees win. Little infield. Michael Kay gets to be all excited. Mm-hmm. But yeah, it's like, I'm just not prepared for this amount of tension for this Red Sox team that's been, you know been smoking mirrors this whole year. Lovable. Love them to death.

But now we got a Valdi against Cole. It just sucks for you because it's not October 17th, right? It's going to be October 5th. And October 17th is when it gets cold. Start getting cold. Third week in October. These lumberjacks the Yankees have, Stanton and Rizzo. I'm just annoyed.

They got from Toronto. Toronto couldn't have gotten this spot. Toronto, you couldn't have won two more games. You scored a million runs this year. You couldn't have beaten the Yankees in one more game. It was looking good for them. Not to sweat out this fucking playing game. Did you see this?

Did you even see what I sent you today? The improbable scenario where all four teams, Seattle, Toronto, Yankees, Red Sox, we're going to finish tied. The Red Sox got to pick first either who they play or where they play. So they pick that they want to be home. Toronto picks that they want to be home also. So then the Yankees get the next pick and obviously they can't play.

They're going to be on the road. So they have to pick who they want to play. They pick the Red Sox. That's how it worked. They had the third choice out of the four because that's how it was seeded. Jeff Passan reported this, right? Yeah, they picked the Red Sox. I mean, we've said that for years about football.

Like, Belichick should pick his opponent as the number one seed. Like, how great would that be? And now, the Red Sox, the Yankees actually did it except it never happened because there wasn't this four-way tie thing. Phenomenal. I say this with love and admiration for this 2021 Red Sox team. I think it was the right pick to pick the Red Sox.

Well, Toronto took their crap out of them. I think we're 500 in our last 54 games. It's something like that. We're like 27 and 27. Against each other? No, no, no. The Red Sox last 54 games. The last third of the season, we're basically 500. The Blue Jays, you watch

them and it's like 10 to 1, 14 to 2, and then they'll blow a close game. I don't know. I can kind of see it. That top five at Toronto is a nightmare. I wish you luck. If it makes you feel any better, regular people like me who hate the Red Sox and Yankees

have nothing to root for. So at least you got a horse. I've really enjoyed this Red Sox season. And if this ends with Stanton hitting some homer followed by the shot of all the Yankee fans who overpaid for the seats

behind the Yankee dugout going nuts, I'm going to be fucking bummed out for like a month. It's the worst. You'll be fine. How many times have you cried from sports?

I've only cried twice twice in my life from sports both when I was nine. Well, go ahead. Which one? What were they? Bucky Dent

and Too Many Men on the Ice. Both times I cried. But so this is this is four decades ago. I know, but it's like it's a one game playoff in Fenway. It's like it's a one-game playoff in Fenway. It's like you understand the fucking memories that come back from that? I still got Blood Diamond in my veins.

Blood Diamond, 50th anniversary. We're going to have to do the rewatchables of that. You're right. As long as we don't have to rewatch that Seattle playoff game. Oh, man. I just can't. I can't believe we have a playoff game. You're going to be fine. It should be like best two or three. One-game playoff game. Oh, man. I just can't. I can't believe we have a playoff game. They're going to be fine.

It should be like best two or three. One game playoff is too fucking tense. Yeah. It's a lot. And then the winner gets to go play Tampa, who is just like a freaking Jedi. Well, that's what I'm saying. They're the best in the American League.

Get that right, baseball. Just recede after that. You could at least do that. You'll have a more compelling finals if you do it that way, most likely. Well, I was on a Red Sox thread today talking about how traumatic this whole thing is.

And we said if we lose, at least we then get to root against whoever plays against the Yankees for the next three rounds. So it's like we're still rooting for somebody. It's not our team and our guys, but we still get to root against the Yankees, which is still something.

I promise you they'll blow it. Like I said, it gets cold. They can't hit, you know, teams that play small ball against them, Chapman will blow something. You'll have something to root for. I sports hate. I don't actually hate Brett Gardner.

Like, I don't hope something horrible happens to him. But from a sports hate standpoint, I think I hate him the most of any athlete. Really? It's kind of a non-factor. No, but he's not. The thing is, he's not. He's so not a non-factor. He has the dumbest at-bats. He has the 12 pitch at-bat, fall by the ground out, but the pitch is so worn out that he gives up a home run to the next guy. Or he gets the garbage single off the first baseman's glove or the one down the line that hits the dirt. Can't stand that guy.

Really. Maybe my least favorite Yankee. That's good to know. That's the next cameo I'm getting you. Brett Gardner. Now, if Damoshek had gotten that for me instead of Fred Lynn, the Brett Gardner thing really would have made me mad. If you want to get a reaction out of me. You were mad enough. Brett Gardner thing really would have made me mad. If you wanted to get a reaction out of me.

If you were mad enough. Brett Gardner, that would have done it. Alright, it's time for Parent Corner. Sal, you take the floor. Alright, so I have one kid, I have three kids. One of them, thankfully, I love him, the middle kid. He's not involved in sports as of now.

So I love him the most for it because now my oldest is in varsity football and my youngest is in the right as of now so i'll i'll i love him the most for it because now my oldest is in varsity football and my youngest is in uh the first year of pitching uh you know kid pitch um baseball and i went off last week about how much that sucks it's just like just you know there's three strikes thrown in an hour but uh let me go back to the varsity football where i am in the crowd and i am convinced that I'm the smartest guy in the bleachers and on the sideline too. I'm smarter than all the coaches to a point where like this week when my son's team is down seven and they're at the 20 yard line and there's 53

seconds left and they clock the ball to make it second and 10. And I'm screaming, I'm like, don't give up the down. Why are you giving up the down? And all those parents are like, whoa, whoa. So you're that guy. Oh, yeah. I'm like, what do you do? Like, I didn't even get.

But I really probably didn't say anything the whole game until then. I'm like, what are you doing? And sure enough, we go out on downs with 13 seconds left. So we easily could have used that play. Like, why are they clocking it? What are they doing? And then so that was this week, but last week we're playing a team that was ranked in Southern California before the year started. And then they, their quarterback got hurt and they lost, but it's still a big game. And we're probably, I think their coaches,

my kids' coaches said, we'll take you to a steak dinner if you lose by less than 20. I'm like, gosh, we're going to get killed. We're in the game. It's a three-point game with a minute 20 left. We drive down the field. We get it to the 20-yard line, and there's 2.3 left on the clock. Now, we're home, right? There's 2.3 left on the clock. They have to move the chains. The fat referees have to catch up, and then our quarterback could down it, right? So our quarterback is looking for the clock. They have to move the chains. The fat referees have to catch up. And then our quarterback could down it, right? So our quarterback is looking for the referee. He's looking back, waiting for him to roll his arm. And just as he rolls his arm, he spikes it plenty of time. Our idiot timekeeper in the booth runs the clock to zeros. And I'm like, what are you? So now I'm looking back. I'm like 10 feet from the booth. I'm like, why are you running the clock? And they're like, it doesn't matter.

The referee is keeping time on the field, which is true. It's not the guy in the booth that makes the decision. But when the referees get together, I'm like, oh, I don't know. What the hell do I know what 2.2 seconds looks like? And they look at each other like, well, you know what? There's zeros on the clock. We'll be okay getting out of here if the home guy goes. And sure enough, they're like, yep, zeros on the clock.

Everyone get out of here. And now the ranked team or whatever is giving us the finger, running up and down the bleachers side by the bleachers. It was crazy. It was craziness. There were fights. It was terrible. And I want to strangle our timekeeper because I still feel like it's his fault.

And then I'm driving home with my son. We have to wait like an hour before they get yelled at and And, you know, they get showered and everything else. And I pick him up and I'm driving home. I'm like, I'm so mad at the timekeeper. And he's like, Dad, what do you care? We had 12 men on the field. We got called for that. I was like, oh, okay.

So that was that. Because they don't have microphones, the referees. I had no idea. In the calamity, there was a penalty. Oh, my God. That would have ended the game anyway, so it didn't matter. You've assaulted the scorekeeper with a two-by-four. Yeah, exactly. I have restraining

orders out against me. It's a dumb timekeeping thing. Wow. This is great. How many more years with you this year and next year, right? I got to bail out. This is it. Yeah. This is it for football. Well, you didn't listen to my advice with baseball. Yeah. You're going to just have a lot of wasted afterno is it for football. Well, you didn't listen to my advice with baseball. Yeah.

You're going to just have a lot of wasted afternoons on baseball diamonds. Oh, my God. We're going to drive forever, too. It's long drives and then sitting on uncomfortable seats, baking in the sun. I wish I could take those long drives in a Nissan, but I don't know if it's going to happen.

I'm breaking parent corner rules I'm doing it about my dog Murph who turns who turns one in a couple weeks who is our pandemic puppy that we never would have gotten otherwise there's no reason we needed a fourth dog we discussed all this last year when it happened. These male dogs,

he just gets these injuries where like, like a couple months ago, he just had this big cut on his nose. It's like, how did he get the cut? We don't know. Gets, you know, he'll be limping

and you're like, why is he limping? It was, oh, because he jumped off the stairs and, you know, jumped eight things limping. And you're like, why is he limping? It was, oh, because he jumped off the stairs and, you know, jumped eight things. So it's always like something. He had a new one the other day on Saturday. He's realized about three months ago that anything on the counter is fair game for him, right, in the kitchen.

So he's on the counter. He's always on the counter now and we're yelling at him. But just in case somebody left like, you know, a hot dog or a piece of pizza or whatever. So he's jumping up on the counter. He's always on the counter now and we're yelling at him, but just in case somebody left like, you know, a hot dog or a piece of pizza or whatever. So he's on jumping up on the counter patrol Saturday, watching TV, super happy, ready to watch the Yankees game at 10 o'clock to root against them. He comes over and he's just bleeding all over the couch. Oh no. And we're like, I'm like, is that blood? What's what's going on? And he kind of bleeding all over the couch. Oh, no. And we're like, is that blood? What's going on? And he kind of knows something's wrong, but not really.

It turns out he jumped on the counter to see what was up there and impaled a knife into his paw. Oh, no. And cut his paw. So now we had to stop the paw. Now we have to wrap his thing. We have to treat it with the antiseptic. There's blood. He bled on the couch. He bled on the paw. Now we have to wrap his thing. We have to treat it with the antiseptic. There's blood. He bled on the couch. He bled on the rug. He bled on my pants.

You know how to do this? You know how to treat like a dog? I would have to take it to the vet immediately. Well, no, because we didn't want to have to go to the vet because we felt like we could stop it. We just stopped the bleeding because their paws and their noses are really resilient. So we're going to try to stop this, fix it, treat it because if they put stitches in his paw, then it's like, what's he going to do? He's an idiot. He's going to keep

stepping on his paws. Well, they walk on their paws, but all right. So we dress it, we save it. And then what happens an hour later, he somehow pulls the dressing off. So anyway, as I'm watching Yankees and Red Sox yesterday, I am like nurse in my house for the stupid dog who has this cut that is now healed, which we thought it was going to heal. But there's blood and my wife has to change pillows and all these other things and all this stuff in the washer. And it's like yet another Murph story, yet another reason we shouldn't have gotten the pandemic puppy. It's like, why did we do this?

I knew we shouldn't have done it at the moment. I love this guy. He's my favorite dog out of the four. But why? Why did we do it? I'm covered in blood on a Saturday at like 9.20 in the morning. What a birthday. That's crazy.

I know. Happy birthday, Murph. That's terrible. His birthday is on the same day of the Dave Roberts deal. So I feel like that's a... Oh, wow. Well, maybe he was bleeding in honor of Curt Schilling. I have no idea.

Maybe it was a bloody soccer. Ironically, we had the soccer at his foot. Interesting. Yeah. So always something going on with that dude. Nice. Make sure Murph doesn't play kids pitch baseball. He'll be fine.

Well, we haven't cut his nuts off yet. We're waiting until he turned a year old. And now he's got these big watermelon balls that are like, got to get rid of these things. But Kerry read this thing about you got to wait till a year because then they're less likely to get cancer. So now he's getting these dog boners and it's... Wow.

It's a nightmare. Yeah, just wait it out. He might do it himself, jumping on the counter. He'll probably cut it on a stick. Right. All right, that's it for Parent Corner. What do you got to plug? What do I have?

Oh, Extra Points, extrapoints.com, all your sports gambling needs and podcasts. Oh, we have an NIL athlete, Simmons. We gave somebody a four-figure deal. Big, big money. Arkansas linebacker. We scoured the rosters. We tried to pick a player with a great name, and we found one.

Bumper Pool is his name. He's a linebacker for Arkansas, and he's our guy for the rest of the year. So we'll be checking in with Bumper. Bumper Poole is his name? Bumper Poole. It's his actual name. It's not even a nickname. His official name is Bumper Poole, and he's pretty good.

He had like 11 tackles Saturday. Bumper Poole. Yeah. Jesus. Doing all right. Congratulations. I'll be on Thursday on the Fox pregame show, and I'm sure I'll go on a tailspin after pumping myself up all these weeks.

Well, thanks for listening to me vent about the Boston team. So I appreciate it. No, it's fine. Congrats on your Cowboys. This podcast was produced by our guy Kyle Creighton. We will see you on Tuesday. Oh, Sal, one more thing. Monday night, the rewatchable. It's the re-departed. We did the departed again. We just ran it back. It's the 15th anniversary. Yeah Oh. We did the departed again. We just ran it back. It's 15th anniversary. Yeah.

Me, Fantasy, and Chris. It's going on tomorrow. That's great. I'm definitely going to listen to that. But are we now going to talk Sopranos or have you talked about it too much already? Oh, shit. No, I haven't talked about it at all.

You want to do that and then we'll leave? Yeah, yeah. So I know it was a little polarizing, right? Yeah. I still really liked it. I did too. And I'm bummed out because I'm talking to a little polarizing, right? Yeah. I still really liked it. I did too. And I'm bummed out because I'm talking to a lot of people, big Sopranos fans, like,

eh, it was okay. I'm like, what? What are you talking about? This was like crack for Sopranos fans. But I don't know that I'll ever be able to separate if it was a great movie or a great Sopranos movie. But talking about rewatchables, I'd watch the hell out of it again, right?

A bunch of times, I think. I didn't even care whether it was good or not. I loved being back in the world. I loved all the wink-wink stuff to people like us who have rewatched the show at least twice. And any little throwaway line, like a younger Uncle Junior talking about Tony, and I'm not sure he's a varsity athlete.

I'm like, oh, call back. There was 20 things like that. Yeah, Pauly with the neat freak stuff, the germ freak stuff. It was great. I mean, Silvio was, I mean, they found, it's like they found

the greatest Silvio impersonator and he was also a really good actor. Like, I couldn't believe it. And they acknowledged the Silvio wig thing, which I thought was funny. Right. And I don't think they overdid it either. I go that,

that could, that's something that coming to America too, like, oh, well, they hit that over the head too hard, you know, like shit like that.

But this was, uh, I like, I liked it a lot. I'm a little bummed that it's not as well received. The criticism, I guess makes sense. Whereas like they try to shoehorn a bunch of different things to make it a

movie. And they introduced like the Leslie Odom and that whole side and kind of the racial elements of it, but it felt a little shoehorned in where it almost felt like the first movie just should have been all the stuff around the family and then the second movie could have been entirely all the stuff with the Leslie Odom side.

And instead they tried to kind of do both. I don't know. What would it look like as an eight episode show versus a movie and they're leaving it open for a sequel too so they certainly could have done it that way it's a prequel sequel yeah a pre-sequel

a super cool yeah I don't know what it would be I love the stuff like Vera Farmiga as Livia as young Livia I thought was just great. And planning all the stuff, like just how crazy she was even back then, which now

we know is the first two seasons of the actual show. I don't know. I thought Johnny Boy was great. There's some hardcore gangster scenes that rank right up there with Casino and everything else too, right? Taking the guy in the back room and just like other crowds,

even like with Ray Liotta and, you know, how he, I mean, I guess anyone listening to this, it's not going to be any spoilers, but how he met his demise. Did you hear like that he wanted so much money? They're like, okay, you're going to have to play four characters. And they're like, he's like, I'll pay, I'll play two. Like, okay, fine.

I don't know how that works. I would have believed that. Yeah. Look, I'll play two. I'm like, okay, fine. I don't know how that works. I would have believed that. Look, I really enjoyed it. I'm glad they made it. I can understand why people were a little upset that there was a million stories going on and maybe it should have been a TV series. But I like being in the world again.

I like that too. I thought they did a good job. I think the degree of difficulty that was super high. And I thought the way they handled the Tony character was great. I did too. You know, he bums me out.

Now you're going to have him on or something. It's going to suck that I said this. But it bummed me out that he saw very little of the Sopranos before researching this role. Isn't that crazy?

Is that true? Yeah. Well, that's what he says. He's like, I didn't really watch that much of The Sopranos before I had to, before I took on this part.

Like, oh man, what's... Can you imagine, can you imagine Ben not watching your HBO shows after you die? Like, no, I just didn't care. I didn't want to see him.

That's definitely the case. What are you talking about? Oh, okay. That's 100% what happened. No, I don't know. I think they made a smart choice to not feature him too much.

They knew what they were getting with? No, he was just used the perfect amount. You know, and it really was about the people around Tony

that shaped Tony and not Tony. Right. And that's what they had. The Dickie character was great. I liked that. And I thought

the girl from Italy was awesome. Really good. Really, really good. The Kumar. B plus plus, A minus. I liked that. And I thought the girl from Italy was awesome. Really good. Really, really good. The Gumar. B++, A-, I don't know. Somewhere in there, I thought. Yeah. No, I liked it. I'll watch it a bunch more times, and I'm sure there's a lot of stuff in there that we both missed, like on the third, fourth

time I'm going to catch. Yeah. I also thought Corey Stoll was, I think that's his name, his uncle Junior. I thought he did a good job too but the casting was really good I liked it I hope they make a pre-sequel let's see six more of those

two thumbs up from us alright Sal good job by you good job by you Billy this podcast was produced by Kyle Creighton I'll see you on Tuesday night I don't have I don't have

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