The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 123: 'Friday Rollin' With Joe House, Rembert Browne, and Bill's Dad

Episode Date: September 9, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on Joe House to discuss the Broncos-Panthers season opener (10:00), Cam Newton's durability (15:00), and the three best picks for the Sunday NFL slate (20:00). Then, New York magazine writer-at-large Rembert Browne joins to give his thoughts on Donald Glover's 'Atlanta' (30:30) and the tortured history of Atlanta sports (55:00). Finally, Bill's dad joins (1:04:45) to give his final preseason thoughts on the Patriots, Jimmy Garoppolo, and the pulse of the Boston sports scene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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me and glazer talking about a little mma at the end there. New episode next Wednesday, 10 p.m. And check out TheRinger.com. We had an unbelievable week of NFL content. Pieces from Kevin Clark, Danny Kelly, Chris Brown, Katie Baker. A big four-part preview from Robert Mays. Catch up on all that stuff and get ready for the season. And don't forget to check out the Ringer Podcast Network.

All right, we have Joe House, Rember Brown, and maybe even my dad coming up. Let's roll. Yeah. Clear enough for you. All right. Wow, it's literally Friday rolling.

Literally. It's literally Friday rolling. Football's back! So that's Joe House. He's going to be with us all season. We're going to mix it up with the Friday podcast. I think I'm going to have like two or three guests every Friday. Maybe even three.

We're going to veer around. Making a Friday rolling party. Remember, Brown's going to come in later to talk about Atlanta, my new favorite show. But now Joe House is going to talk about a flawed and a frustrating, but an entertaining sport, the National Football League, where Cam Newton was repeatedly targeted with hits, helmet-to-helmet hits that were supposed to be illegal.

And Denver just did a great job. They went after him, they went after him, they went after him, they beat him up, they beat him up, they beat him up, and then they won the game. What'd you see, House? On the Cam Newton part, it was hard to watch in some of the slow-mo, after-the-hit moments. You could see the dude's eyes. He was heavy-lidded. I was like, God, we were just here. We're all talking about this. You had Malcolm Gladwell and Dee Smith on.

Yeah, this week. Wednesday, Wednesday. Exactly. I mean, very timely. And here it is right in front of us on national TV in the kickoff game to the season. And all the stories I'm seeing this morning are about the headshots on cam. I mean, we've got to do something about this. I expected at the end of the game, the one, I don't remember, the defensive player from

Denver that went directly head-to-head, I expected to see an ejection, and they ended up with an offsetting penalty, but the game came down to an oh-no-ga-no, something I'm very familiar with as a Washington fan. We had oh-no-ga-no here in Washington for a very unsatisfying period, and I enjoyed the game, but the headshot stuff is just too much. Yeah, when the guy gets hit in the head and then he's just down on the ground on all fours for five to six seconds, I don't think he's down there because his back got tweaked. I'm making an executive decision. I don't even want to talk about the head-to-head and all this stuff on the pod anymore.

Because I don't think they're ever going to fix it. I don't think they really care. And if we're going to still watch the games and enjoy them and talk about them, this just seems to be part of the sport. Now, I don't know what else I can do. I keep having the conversation.

Nothing, nothing seems to happen. So now it's kind of on us, right? Either we can stop watching or we're condoning it by watching. I don't, I don't really know what our role is anymore. It's on us as the viewing public. I actually think you should keep talking about it.

That's the way that the conversation remains vital and that it's something that maybe the league will eventually get around to addressing. But you just said it. The viewing public were all complicit in this until the league's motivated to do something dramatic to really take this aspect of the game out of the game because it's just not enjoyable to watch. It's hard to watch.

It's the biggest thing that's changed about football in the last six years is that it's turned us into soccer moms a little bit. We're watching these games and we're concerned about the welfare of the players. In 2008, I was not concerned. It was like, oh, what a hit. Oh. And it was that jacked up society. And, you know, if you go back and you watch the intros to some of the Madden games that they made, they make those three, four-minute movie intros for the new season of Madden,

and the guys are just getting decapitated and annihilated on every hit. And now when you watch it, you know, I think we're so much more educated on the signs for somebody being concussed. I mean, even two years ago in the Super Bowl when Edelman got racked on one of those third down throws in the final drive, I wasn't thinking about him being concussed. Now I think I would recognize it better. And apparently he passed a test on the sideline, all that stuff. But there was a couple hits yesterday where just from six, seven years of looking for this stuff now, it really seemed like Cam got scrambled a little bit

and they just kind of let it go. And it was bizarre to watch. I also wonder why, I think we would all agree that the helmet-to-helmet hits are the single most dangerous part of football. If it happens and the ref missed it, why can't they review it? Why can't there be somebody in the booth

who hits a button and says, wait, that was a helmet helmet. It stopped the game. We got penalized that guy. Why, why is it on the referees to like, oh crap, I missed that. Sorry. I missed Kim getting decapitated. They have exactly that convention in college football.

Yeah. They have somebody sitting up in the booth and you can call an after the fact penalty, unsportsmanlike penalty. And I think you might even be able to judge an ejection from upstairs in the booth for targeting. Didn't you, did you, I, you know, I don't want to judge. I don't want to just say this happened. But it really felt like Denver was targeting him over there. I watched the whole game.

I really felt like Denver, one of their plans was, we're going to hit the fucking shit out of this guy. Oh, my God, you just dropped an F-S. I did. I dropped an F-S. Of course. My responses, of course. He's the MVP of the league.

He's the single most important player on Carolina. If he's not behind center for Carolina, your chances of winning the game are better. So, yes, I do think Denver was targeting him. They also have the luxury of an extraordinarily athletic defense. So they had lots and lots and lots of opportunities by way of pressure from the front seven and the secondary to get in there and get some open lines at at cam that makes them unique uh you know i only think there are only two or three other defenses in the league um that might be able to to you know go go at cam that way but

you know one thing i was really impressed by cam just kept taking those hits he was it was an awesome cam it was i love cam newton i i think he's becoming one of my favorite non-boston athletes i just love that dude he just kept getting up so it was like you know and this is where the hypocrisy comes in because diaz mcgregor was one of the highlights of my summer the second fight and those guys were concussed 17 different times in that fight each. And I'm like, oh, what a fight. So, you know, it's just tough.

There's these moral quandaries now with watching sports that I just don't. Hey, my wife decided to call early. You know, I told her I had a podcast. Sports-wise. That was good. That should be a sponsored segment on the show. When is my wife going to call and interrupt the podcast? But that wasn't even the...

Two things, and then we'll move on. One is that the cheapest hit that Denver did in that whole game wasn't even on Cam Newton. It was the play when the guy... Kelvin Benjamin's jumping up for a pass with his back to the D-back, and the guy just dove at his knees. He's trying to take out every ligament in both of Kelvin Benjamin's jumping up for a pass with his back to the D-back, and the guy just dove at his knees. He's trying to take out every ligament in both of Kelvin Benjamin's knees. I can't believe that's legal.

I don't like it. It was the only way Denver could defend Benjamin. Holy cow. Yeah, he was awesome. It looked like he could have had 20 catches and six touchdowns. You know, it made me think like— He was so much bigger. Yeah, didn't it make you think like,

last year, if they had him, I don't see how they don't win the Super Bowl. God, they might have won 16 games. Seriously. It's like I totally forgot how good that guy was until I was watching last night. It's like when we were growing up, there was Harold Carmichael and the Eagles.

Right. And it's just kind of, the size he has is freaky. Yeah, it's a tight end size. But, so that was one thing. And then the other thing is, it's amazing to me that Cam cannot reach the line of scrimmage because he's about to take a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit from a defender.

I'm not the first person to make this point. It's just, it's worth mentioning. The ball does not make the line of scrimmage because he's about to get hit by a guy who's coming who's launching himself at 20 miles an hour to hit him in the head and the refs are like you know what offsetting penalties i think offsetting penalties first of all helmet helmet hit should be 30 yardyard penalties now. I've been arguing this for 15 years. I don't know why 15 is the cutoff point for a penalty. Pass interference, you could have a 50-yard

pass interference. A helmet to helmet where I'm trying to kill the quarterback, maybe that's worth 30 yards. Maybe it's worth 35. But tweak it and make a real penalty because right now, that's not really a penalty. You can do it once in a game.

It's 15 yards. Just don't do it again. You get to stay in the game. I just don't think the penalty fits the crime. Like I say, I expected that to be an ejection. I think it would have been an ejection in college. The one thing I will say is I felt like karma-wise, it was payback for the bogus illegal hands-to-the-face call

that Denver had experienced on third down. No, it was fourth down. Two minutes previous to that. It was fourth and 21. Oh, it was fourth down, exactly. Yeah. That's right. And that's the thing.

Because you could come out and say, oh, they should have won because if Gano makes that kick. But the fourth and 21 hands-to-the-face And that's the thing. It's like, because you could come out and say, oh, they should have won because if Gano makes that kick. But the fourth and 21 hands in the face, that game was over. And they lucked out. They pulled that one out. All right. So what did we learn from this game?

Everyone got excited about Trevor Simeon. I was stunned to watch Dungy and Harrison just going nuts about Simeon. He wasn't terrible. I think, at least I thought there was a chance he was going to completely shit the bed in this game. He didn't. He made a couple of plays. He moved around. He looked semi-competent. I mean, he was at home. He certainly didn't kill them or anything, but the reason they won the game was I thought their offensive line, the way they ran the ball and the way they ran the ball and the way they were able to kind of control Carolina's front seven was the reason they

won the game. Yeah, I was really impressed. I thought Denver was due for a post-Super Bowl hangover slash drop-off. They looked to be in mid-season form in terms of that offensive line, controlling that line of scrimmage and rushing the ball. What a formula. If this is the Denver, if they stay healthy and Simeon can avoid, you know, hitting Lyman in the hands with balls from, you know, these throws, then Denver's looking pretty good.

I like them at like 12, 13 wins maybe again. Because that formula, that defense is right there. Mid-season form, control the game. And the offense was effective. I was really impressed. I was really – their offensive line is definitely better than it was last year. I was impressed that Simeon – I don't know if Peyton Manning handed this down to him, almost like when somebody dies and in their will they give somebody their coin collection or something.

He handed down to Simeon his supernatural ability to throw interceptions that get dropped. And I really thought it was an incredible gift that he gave to Trevor Simeon because where did the Panthers drop? Tate, how many interceptions did the Panthers drop? Three? Yeah, at least three. Three?

Like just like right in the hands? Like, oh, how did he not? So if he can keep that going all season, I think the sky's the limit for Denver. And I think they only had like 300 total yards offense. They were down 17 to 7 with 18 minutes to go. I wonder, watching the Panthers, I'm not going to overreact to the Panthers because that's a tough spot to try to win Thursday night.

I mean, they were favored. There was a little nobody-believing-us factor with them and all that stuff. Not having Josh Norman out there has to matter a little bit, right? It has to matter a little bit. Yeah, if you're up 17-7 and you had the same defense you had last year, I'm pretty sure that game's over. I'm not sure they had the same defense. I thought Denver did a little

too much in that game. You know what I mean? They rallied all the way back. They were able to just make the point. They also had almost 200 yards in the first half. They nearly equaled, Denver did, their entire yardage from scrimmage production

as they did in the Super Bowl in the first half. But yeah, it was a different Carolina defense. Josh Norman does make a difference. We'll see whether or not he can make a difference for the D.C. Gruden's Monday night. So, all right, let me flip this around the other way. What if that game was a bad omen for the Carolina season? Big winner, Tampa Bay, right?

Oh, you like Tampa Bay. I do like Tampa Bay. I like Tampa Bay, which is going to bring us to our new segment that we're going to have this year. So Callaway, they have the world's greatest irons, right? House, this year. So Callaway, um, they have the world's greatest irons, right? House,

you've hit the Callaway irons. I played them yesterday, daddy. Yeah. Okay. Um, Callaway par three, par three,

you're going to hit irons. There's very, very rarely do you break out one of the woods in the, in the par three, you're going to hit the irons and, and the, you know, if you're using the Callaway clubs, you're blessed because they have the best irons. If you're using the Callaway clubs, you're blessed because they have

the best irons out there. I was 4-4 in greens on the par 3. So we're going to go 18 rounds this year. It's really a 17-week season, but I'm going to throw in as either the 17th or the 18th hole, whenever those

NBA Christmas games are, we're going to pick three of those games. That'll be our 18th hole. Oh those NBA Christmas games are, we're going to pick three of those games. That's going to be, that'll be our 18th hole. Oh, good times. Yeah. Good times. Par three, what do you think we'll finish? So, you know, if, let's say there's 54 holes in all. So if you go 30 and 24, you're minus six for the round.

What do you hope to have? What would be your dream score my goal is to be minus 10 which would be oh you beat me to it that was going to be my number so I'll say minus 11 I like a nice juicy minus 11 that's what I'm going to go for

so that's 33 and 21 43 and 11 you'd have to have a couple ties ok 38 And 21. 43 and 11. You'd have to have a couple of ties. Okay. No, 38. God, we're so stupid.

We both graduated from college. You have a law degree. I have a master's degree. I can't do any math. I couldn't even. Figure out 38 and 26. I don't know. All right.

We're picking three games each. Try not to bogey this first whole house. Who do you have? I like the San Diego Chargers at the Kansas City Chiefs this week. I have, as a line, the six and a half. Chargers getting six and a half. Is that consistent with what you're? Yeah, that seems...

It was a little higher, and then it dropped, because I think because of Jamal Charles, which is strange to me, because I don't know how much they lose with Spencer Ware. Right. I have Spencer Ware on my lone remaining fantasy football team, very excited about Spencer Ware. Yeah, I am on one of my team.

I like the Chargers this week, so a couple interesting things. Kansas City ended up 8-8 against the spread last season. And we remember their terrific tear. Ten wins. A ten-win tear at the end. They only beat two winning teams in that ten-game stretch. The Chargers last year, all they did was lose close games.

Three and nine in games, one score or less. I like this little nugget that I pulled out of the interwebs, Philip Rivers. Yeah. 10-2-1 as a road dog in divisional games. That's against the spread. Andy Reid, not a great record against the spread in home openers. 5-9-1.

I like that Chargers get in the 6.5. Is there going to be a test at the end of this podcast where I have to answer those questions? So if I read 5-9-1. No, I'm teasing you. I like to use some numbers, you know. I can't do math, but I like the numbers. The Rivers number is a really good number because I can't tell you how many times he's chapped my ass in a road division game.

That's it. They're down 10. He does one of those Phil Rivers drives at the end. All of a sudden, he's waving his hands. And you're like, wait a second. Am I about to lose my three-team teaser here? That's Phil Rivers, the ass chapper. I think Sal and I talked about this this week.

San Diego has the worst home field advantage in the league, but they're actually a little frisky on the road. It's better for them to be on the road than at home in some ways because at home, it's a two-thirds filled crowd and you have 15,000 fans for the other team and I think it bums them out and it's a depressing stadium and they might move and I think their season's going to go south,

but this is the week where I could see them getting a little frisky. I think it's a stay away. So you're staying away, but I'm taking the charge. That's fine. My first one is I got the Buc charge of six and a half. That's fine. My first one is I got the Bucs plus two and a half at Atlanta.

I like the Bucs. I'm in on the Bucs. I made the case earlier this week. I'm a big believer in slimmed down Jameis. I love storylines. I can see Jameis going 10 and 6, 11 and 5. Everybody getting fired up about him. Every year there's like a new breakthrough star that everyone gets fired up about who either was already there's like a new breakthrough star that everyone gets fired up about

who either was already good and the general public just didn't know or somebody that just kind of makes the leap. And my two guys this year are Jameis in the NFC. And even though he's already great and people know he's great, Khalil Mack, I think this is the year that he moves into that J.J. Watt kind kind of when people are rattling off like the greatest defensive players, it's him,

JJ Watt. And he's not being mentioned like that right now. I bet on him to win defensive player of the year. I like that Raiders team too. Um, but I don't like Atlanta. I don't, I, I, I went into like September thinking, Oh, Atlanta come Atlanta, come back here, Dan Quinn. And you look at some of the injuries they've had, some of the moves they've made, some failed draft picks, and Matt Ryan just might not be good, and I just don't see it. And I think Tampa's going to be the sleeper team in that division. So I have Tampa 2.5.

What's your next pick? Well, this is great because my next pick is the Atlanta Falcons, minus 2.5, hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, daddy. Make the case. Let's do it to it. Now, listen, I agree with you on Jameis.

I actually like Tampa Bay quite a bit this season. I, too, think they're frisky. And in our win total pool that we did, I know you and Sal talked about it this week, I thought long and hard about taking the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the place where I selected the New York football Jets. Because all of the things that you just mentioned about Tampa, I think are intriguing. However, in this instance, one little factoid I enjoy about the Atlanta Falcons and particularly Maddie Ice. Maddie Ice 8-0. That is eight wins, no losses in home openers straight up and against the spread. I like very much that the Falcons, all the weapons on the offensive side of the ball

are all healthy. We have a healthy Julio Jones. Last year, Tampa swept. I thought he wasn't healthy. You sure he's healthy? I thought he was a little banged up. I know he's playing, but I thought he was banged up this week. But keep going. I'm going to research it as you talk. He's cleared.

Playing means healthy to me. I like the angle of Atlanta having been swept last year by Tampa, coming in with revenge, and they lost by a combined seven points. I'm the opposite. I think Jameis has gone in this game like, I own Atlanta. I'm up to nothing. It could be. It could be.

I just like the idea of getting the Falcons covered with a field goal at home, and this line looks exactly perfect to me, and that's why I'm selecting the Atlanta Falcons. The best case for Atlanta is that this is the year of Atlanta because there's finally a good TV show about Atlanta. You have Dwight Howard going back to Atlanta, and you have the rejuvenation of Matty Ice. I don't know.

I could see it. Anything's possible. Yeah, anything's possible. Yeah. Anything's possible. All right, my next pick. Ravens, minus three, at home,

over the Buffalo Bills who have Marcel Darius out. They're missing a bunch of guys. I'm not sold on Rex Ryan. I don't love the team. The Ravens are the actual definition of a sleeper because nobody's having conversations about whether the Ravens are going to be good or not. If you actually look at what they did, it's a veteran team. They have a lot of older guys. They kind of roll the dice and they're hoping all these

different older stars are going to stay healthy. Well, in week one, they're all going to be healthy. I just like the matchup. I think this is going to stay healthy. Well, in week one, they're all going to be healthy. I just like the matchup. I think this is going to be one of those where we come out of week one and go, wow, why were they only favored by three over that maybe not good Bills team? So I'm grabbing them. And also, Baltimore, really good at home. Even last year when they had a shitty season,

like they were in all those games. Remember how many games they almost won? That's right. A ton of single score, lost by one score or less for the Ravens. They were in a whole slew of those games. I like that pick. That's not my selection, but I also like that angle that you just took on the Ravens. Thanks. I think I just put that one about five feet next to the hole with my Callaway 4-iron.

Shout out to Jeff Newbarth. My 185-yard par 3. Shout out to Jeff Newbarth and integrated advertising. Woo-hoo! We're not taking the dolphins. We love Callaway. All right, go. Do your third one.

We do. By the way, we should mention Callaway sponsors Shack House. Yeah, that's right. I like the Chicago Bears getting six at Houston. Oh, interesting. I don't believe that Houston should be favored by six over anybody at this point in the season. I think the last taste everybody has in their mouth is the 30-0 drubbing that they took in the playoffs last year. They backed into the playoffs.

They were atrocious in the first half of last season. The Bears front seven, much improved. Houston's offense, we'll say that it's in transition. I mean, they finally have a quarterback that looks like a game manager, but we haven't showed us anything yet, and that's really where this is coming from. The Bears were good on the road last year. Another team that competed a lot of single-score losses,

good against the spread on the road. Jay Cutler with some new blood. Kevin White along with Alshon Jeffery. Jeremy Langford at running back. The Bears, I think, are in a 7-9 to 8-8 kind of slot this year, and I don't think Houston deserves to be favored by so much. This is a play on the number. I like the Bears getting the 6th.

A compelling case. My take is I have the Texans winning the AFC South. If they can't beat a non-playoff NFC team at home in week one, then I shouldn't pick them to win the AFC South. So I can't back you on the Bears. Okay. I like the points. That's really the angle for me.

I had four games that I liked for this third spot. Oh. And with apologies to the Raiders, plus one and a half. With apologies to the Lionsiders plus one and a half, with apologies to the Lions plus three and a half in Indianapolis, and with apologies to the Rams, who I don't even know what that line is now, in San Francisco against Blaine Gabbert and Chip Kelly, who got completely taken down by Chris Brown on the ringer today.

And if you read that piece, it's going to be very hard for you to pick any Chip Kelly offense in any gambling pool for at least a couple weeks. So with apologies to all those teams, I am taking the Washington Native Americans plus three and a half at home against the Steelers of Pittsburgh. Not totally sure why everyone's penciling in Pittsburgh as the second best team I could see them getting in the playoffs a lot of respect for

Roethlisberger good skill position guys talent on both sides of the ball I get it but I like Washington like if they can't at least come within three points in week one against Pittsburgh at home with all the weapons they have offensively.

And Kirk Cousins, I like that. I like it, Kirk. You like that? You like that, Kirk? Well,

I like that, Kirk Cousins. I like that, Kirk Cousins. This feels like a three point game to me. And I think Washington could win. I'm grabbing the extra half point. I think the crowd will be pumped.

My only fear is that because it's that because we've seen this happen before to the Washington professional football team, the 20,000 Steeler fans that might be in attendance for this game could be bad. You don't think that's going to happen? Oh, it's going to happen. The terrible towels, they're going to be showing that. There's going to be a lot of these yellow towels. So that worries me.

Maybe Danny Snyder has something up his sleeve to combat the towels. You can't have 20,000 yellow towels swirling around. Maybe we've got some white towels and some red towels coming for Monday night. I very much, I'm very bullish on the D.C. Grudens this year, but I have a hard time being rational about it. I can't keep it in my pants. I like it too much. Uh,

so I'm, I'm staying away cause I just need to, to get tempered. Okay. Um, I have my expectations tempered a little bit here by watching them get punched in the mouth a couple of times. So I also like the half point,

but I'm irrational about the DC Gruden. Yeah. So here's the one thing I'll say. Every week I'm going to have, there's one game that I'm just going to pick because the line looks wrong to me. This line looks wrong to me. I don't understand why Pittsburgh's favored

by three and a half points in Washington. I don't get it. I would have guessed if maybe if Pittsburgh's favored like minus one, but three and a half, that's a pretty big number. And I just don't think these two teams are that far apart. And I really like cousins. I think I'm in, I think he's competent. I think he's good in a, in a Carson Palmer type of way before Carson Palmer his career ended in

January that before that Carson Palmer well, we'll see Joe house, Joe house. Thanks for playing. Thanks for playing the Callaway part three with me. We will talk to you next Friday. Yeah. Can't wait. Quick break to talk about NFL Sunday ticket dot TV. If you're a diehard NFL fan who can't get direct TV where you live,

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So go to NFLSundayTicket.tv and use promo code R-I-N-G-E-R today. Hey, FYI, football starts this weekend. If you're going to do this, I would do this this weekend. 17 weeks of football coming up. Check it out. NFLSundayTicket.TV. All right. Former Grant Lander.

Current New York Magazine writer at large. My friend, Rumbert Brown. This is the year of Atlanta. Maybe. Boom! Joe House just... God. Are we talking about the year of Falcons?

Well, Joe House just picked the Falcons as one of his three picks in the Callaway Par Three. Dwight Howard is back in Atlanta. And now Atlanta finally has a TV show that captures the city. It's hot. It's one of the hot new comedies. Big FX.

Is it a comedy? Drama? Whatever it is. Drama. Drama. Atlanta might be back. Atlanta. No? I mean, you know will I will always argue that we haven't left since like 2002 but no we were in a little bit of a flop I mean you know we all Atlanta always has I think we we always have music in our back pocket

as being a thing that keeps us relevant. The hip-hop. But, no, the show is I mean, I the show is amazing. And I was, I think people, I was talking to a couple people

because I wrote about Glover, Donald Glover, and a couple people were like, of course you like it. It's about Atlanta. And my initial response was like – I was initially terrified because I was nervous that he wasn't going to do a good job. And then I'm stuck with a show called Atlanta that's terrible. And so I was actually not excited or at the least worried that this could go terribly wrong. And then I end up having to do damage control like I had to do with Real Housewives of Atlanta and every other VH1 reality show about Atlanta.

So it being good was actually really not necessarily a surprise, but a relief. And then when I found it was really good, then I was like, oh, we're winning right now. This is great. Yeah, I would say you had more at stake with this show than pretty much everyone except for FX and Donald Glover. It's almost like if somebody released a show called Rembert, it just, yeah, I think I would have gotten blamed for it. And I was like, I don't even work for the show, but if it was bad, some people would start yelling at me and cause I just, it's, so yeah, I am, I am excited.

I've been talking to my friends. You know, I think, you know, I gave some of my friends from home just a very early warning. Like, hey, it's actually really good. But they were still skeptical. And during the premiere, because they did the first two episodes, I was getting just texts from people because there are lots of very local. The show is for anyone, but there are some very little local gyms throughout the show, be it geographically or someone doing something in this type of restaurant or blah, blah, blah, that do make it very fun if you actually are from the city so give me well done donald glover yeah give me like give me like two or three of those little little tiny things that only you would get or anyone from atlanta would get so in the second and the biggest one for me, when the rapper Paperboy and his friend are out of jail and they're eating wings.

Yeah. This place is JR Crickets, which is a very Atlanta wing spot, and they are famous for having good wings, but they have these lemon pepper wings that are – actually, I've seen people get in fights over someone eating someone's wings because they're so good. And so for that scene to take place in that wing spot and to have those type of wings be a focal point, that's a funny scene, I think, regardless.

But for it to take place in a J.R. Cricket, I was like, that is great. That is great. It's one of those things that, you know, it's good to have, you know, it's good to have like a writing staff that some of the people are from Atlanta, some aren't. Right. You know, I think the show would suffer a little bit if, you know, you had six people all from the same neighborhood in Atlanta because you would be looking at it through one lens. But to have people with different experiences, some from the same city, some not from the city.

One of the actors went to college in Atlanta. So a lot of people touch it in very different ways, and I think all of that. And then some people, like the director and one or two of the writers, have very little experience with the city. I think all of that is important. From the city, but if you're not from Atlanta, you've never been. And this is really your first taste of it. And also, it's interesting.

So, I'm happy with it. From my vantage point, I tried to read nothing. I wanted to go in blind. I wanted to know as little as I possibly could about this show. I thought it was going to be an hour because it was listed as an hour on my DVR, but it

was actually two half hour episodes, which I wasn't expecting. But the things that jumped out for me, Donald Glover is so likable. He's funny, but he's not. He's not traditionally funny. He's kind of a puss, but he's strong at the same time. Like he's thoughtful, but he's dumb. He's all these, all these contradictions in the same character. And I'm just rooting for him the whole time. And I'm not positive why I didn't really have a lot of background with him as an actor.

So he's totally fresh for me. Um, and I just liked him. I was in within five minutes. I'm rooting for him. And then the guy who played paperboy i thought um i just think he's great the the sidekick guy was great the uh the fact that clay davis is donald glover's dad in this show it took me like 10 seconds to i was like wait a second oh clay davis um I love that I mean that's a very underrated part of this show the parents just being like yeah you can't come in the house so we no just get out of here

they're really dry I love it and then you know I thought the jail scene especially the scene when he's sitting between the crazy guy and the girl who turns out not to be a girl. And Donald Glover's in the middle of it. And the guy just keeps getting mad at him.

And I didn't know where it was going. And I don't even fully know how to describe that scene. But about three minutes into it, I'm terrified this guy's going to just start assaulting Donald Glover. And that's when I realized I love this show. Because I was really petrified for him the same way I would be petrified for one of my kids or something. So I don't know how he pulled it off. I don't even know how to fully describe this show. I don't. It's definitely not a comedy.

It's definitely not a drama. I don't really know what it is, but it's unlike any show I've ever seen. Yeah, I think the reason that it works is because it has moments that straight up are as funny as any moment in a comedy and has moments that are as dramatic as any drama, but it's almost as if it's a pendulum where as soon as it starts to have a couple moments that are back-to-back-to-back funny, something will happen, super dramatic

and serious and heavy, and it'll bring it back, and then it'll start going the other way, and then you'll have a really serious scene, and then something funny will happen. And then, so it keeps you, you don't really know. And all that can happen, that can happen probably seven or eight times. I mean, that happened, that happened probably, that back and forth probably happened five, six times within the two big show scenes. I mean, within the, you have, I mean, you have the thing with, with the guy, you know, spitting water at the police officer and getting beat. You know, like that was not, like, you don't see that coming.

No. You know, like you're beginning to, but the reason I think the show works is that, okay, you take a step back that moment happens and you know it's it you have you have a scene with someone doing something like a black person in jail doing something very minor clearly with a mental health issue doing something gets beat by a cop you know that is in a tv show in a very uh specific time in history when a lot of stuff is going on but they don't it's not heavy-handed like it just happens and then they never refer to it again it's not like they're trying to make really some point about you know like it's not like after that happens, like the people in the room have a big conversation about it. And it's like, dang, like that happened.

Like life is crazy. Life is messed up. It's just like it's being topical, but it's not being it's not like, oh, this is the police brutality episodes. Right. You know, which is very much the thing that happens in a lot of TV shows. I think we've gotten used to it where, you know, when people really want to, when shows really want to be topical or be sensitive to an issue, it's a thing that they spend the entire episode on. You know, it's very much a thing. I think throughout the show,

there's, it's like, we're just going to highlight, we're going to highlight things that happened because a lot of things that happened, but we're going to keep it moving. It's not, it's yeah.

I mean, I, so in that, that's something where it's like, I, that makes it a show that I haven't seen before, because shows that do try to tackle or address certain things, there's a level of selfical issues in society, but it's not. It's often done very quickly, and sometimes it's done super seriously, sometimes it's done super funny.

It's hard, but they kind of nailed it. So do we think this Donald Glover might actually really be special? Like this is somebody that might have a 25-year run here of just coming up with great stuff. Yeah, I mean, he's... I mean, you know, he's a... He's found a way to be a successful person in Hollywood and successful in music.

That alone is something that a handful of people have successfully pulled off. Yeah, that's a short list right there. That's like seven people. Yeah, so that alone gives you a long shelf life, like the potential to have a long career. But it really seems that he hasn't really cashed in on either yet. He hasn't really done the thing that makes it seem like he's peaked. I mean, I think there was a world where you kind of thought maybe

community was the high point. But he's young though, right? Isn't he like a year older than you? Yeah, he's like 32. Yeah, two years older than you. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, there's a world... There are a lot of people who are on a long sitcom and while they are on a long sitcom, and while they're on that long sitcom, aren't, you know, become known for one role. That can often be a great thing, and then the thing that kind of ends up being your whole career. Right, you get pigeonholed by it. What did you think of, first of all, i actually enjoy the paperboy song even though i

know it's supposed to be like a like a tiny bit cheesy but i think i think for where you have a rapper where you have to create a name for the rapper that feels realistic a song that becomes a hit that feels realistic and then the actor himself has to not only seem like somebody who could become famous, but somebody that I'm just going to become attached to. Those are three really hard things to do. And Paperboy, Paperboy is kind of a great name. It's about as good as you're going to get for a TV show for a fake rapper name. As soon as the first episode was over, I had an email from a kid i went to college with

and all it said was i need that paperboy mp3 at now i was like yeah it's kind of good like it is i'll kind of throw it on a playlist like right now it's yeah i mean it's mean, that's the thing. I mean, I think that's the beauty of, you know, having like a really small, tight-knit writer's room, but also people, you know, I mean, Donald Glover, Glover and his brother and some of the other people in that room, they're in the business of, also in the business of making music. So that's another thing that they have going in their favor.

They actually had to make a song. They had to make a song that could have just been a song from an Atlanta rapper that actually blew up a little bit. Like, that song is the type of song that, in the right, that has come out of Atlanta and kind of become a little hit. But it's hard. That could have been something that, you're not hearing the song all the time, but that could have been something that, you're not hearing the song all the time,

but that could have been something, if it was a non-believable song, could have really hurt the show from the jump. And that's the thing, and that's why it's so impossible to make a good TV show, because there's so many different ways the show can get fucked up. Entourage season one,

I thought Entourage season one was actually a good season, but it could never get past the fact that Vince wasn't believable as a Leo DiCaprio type. It just could never get past it. And it was always the albatross and the anchor that held down that show is I never believed that he was an A-list star. Whereas in this show, I totally believe that this guy could,

could rise from obscurity and, you know, from an Atlanta gas station to becoming like one of the biggest hip hop stars over the course of this first season, because he's believable in the songs and the song is good. So anyway, um, yeah,

yeah. Quickly. Um, Atlanta's tortured history in pop culture what this is clearly now the pop culture highlight i would say or it's up there what what else is on that list for you well you know i have a i have a theory that I bring up every time Atlanta loses a sporting event that we're cursed because we did something to get the Olympics. Yeah. And we're still in the early stages of a 100-year curse. I think this begins to make up for the fact that Atlanta never got the real world for some reason.

How did Atlanta never? Oh, my God. I just realized that. How did Atlanta never get the real world? What happened? I just don't know. I don't know. There are garbage cities that have gotten it twice.

Atlanta has never gotten it. It is the single rudest thing that has happened in my entire life. I generally think people are like, if we take the real world to Atlanta, it might be the last real world because something might happen. I don't know. They took it to Vegas. If they take it to Vegas twice, they can't take it to Atlanta once.

I've been seething about this my whole, my entire life. Anyway, I think you know, again, I feel like Atlanta's pop culture highlights have been... Real housewives. Most of them. Well, yeah, you have the real housewives,

like beloved hip-hop. You have all those things that genuinely do drive me insane because when they began happening, people were like, oh, so this is what Atlanta is like. Not great. That would make me lose my mind. I have one for you that's an Atlanta pop culture highlight. The home of Inside the NBA, the best studio show of all time. That is true. the NBA, the best studio show of all time. I would say Barkley, Kenny and Ernie being

in Atlanta and then Barkley going out afterwards and Buckhead and all these other places is probably your highlight. That is true. Those first couple years, I would get little notes of people telling me stories about Barkley and Shaq out

show, just terrorizing Buckhead. You mean like last week? What do you mean like a couple years ago? That's still happening. Yeah, I guess that's not past it. That's literally about to happen. But also,

I'd say, I feel like the Welcome to Atlanta video, like the song and the music video, was a big thing. Because that was genuinely, was that like 2000, 2001? That began like a streak of very big Atlanta songs, but also Atlanta music videos that were in Atlanta that were beginning to paint you know, paint this very visual tapestry of what Atlanta looked like, which, you know, was occasionally brimy

and occasionally like very ritzy and occasionally very normal, which I think is pretty much the city. And I do think, you know, I, I think, and I talked to Donald about this. Like I talked, I was telling him that it's a, it's a big, it's a big risk to not even have the show about Atlanta, but name in Atlanta, because so many, there hasn't been a defining work about the city, but depending on the lens that you get pop culture from

and sports from and music from, you have a very specific idea of what Atlanta is, and most of them are kind of wrong. So the show almost has this responsibility of actually doing right by the city and showing the true sides of it, not just the side that makes a music video interesting or makes a reality television show interesting or, you know, what you see at a Hawks game with Raff is there or a Falcons game or Braves, like all that stuff. There's so many different things to, I mean, I think it was really important that his character worked at the airport because that's one of people's very real connections to Atlanta,

the Atlanta airport. Right. You know, I got that. And that's a place that a lot of people in Atlanta work at. Uh, but it's a great airport. A lot of them.

Yeah. But a lot of my life people, Oh yeah, I've been to Atlanta once. I went to the airport. Like that is a very common, uh, connection to the city.

So just even like little stuff like that, it's like, okay, like this has been really thought through. So you have really, really, really, really thought through. So I Googled to prepare for this podcast, I Googled movies, Atlanta movies, basically. Oh, I thought you just Googled movies. No, I Googled movies. It's amazing how little comes up.

Like, the blind side comes up. I never felt like that was an Atlanta movie. I guess it was filmed in Atlanta. Driving Miss Daisy. Yeah. Drumline. Well, a ton of movies. Drumline's an Atlanta movie.

Drumline and ATL. Those are big. But Drumline is a huge Atlanta movie. Because one, Drumline's on TV every day. How does history remember ATL? Because that was 10 years ago. History remembers ATL a lot better than one would expect. I mean, it's just, again, both of those movies, but especially ATL, they are so connected

to what was going on, like, in music at that time. Like, ATL, that was when TI was very much, like, at the top of the music industry. That's when, so you have, like, you have a soundtrack to that movie that's within the movie that I think, for some people, is a very nostalgic movie. I think people from Atlanta... ATL is one of those movies that, depending on where you grew up in the city,

it's very true and representative because it's about something that, that was very big in Atlanta at a certain time, which is like roller skating. Yeah. And then other people, if you grew up in a different part of Atlanta, like I have no idea why there's a movie called ATL about roller skating. You know, I remember that being a very interesting kind of... The sad thing for you

is that the most successful pop culture thing that's ever happened in Atlanta is The Walking Dead, which is about the zombie apocalypse. And like, you know I don't care about that. That's technically an Atlanta show, The Walking Dead.

I know. Everyone's dead, unfortunately. Hey, last thing. Oh, go ahead. Also Tyler Perry. Also Tyler Perry. Yeah. Like, Tyler Perry is literally, like,

he's building his own Hollywood in Atlanta, and most of his things are based at, like, so far... You know, it's interesting because so much stuff is shot in Atlanta. Yeah, it's cheap. Yeah, it's cheap. So, you know, like, The Hunger Games was shot in Atlanta. But very few places use it as a backdrop of the actual show or movie. But yeah, The Walking Dead being in Atlanta has always made me sad.

Let's take a quick break to talk about Wi-Fi. Everyone I have in my life hates their Wi-Fi in some way. And it's probably because most of them have a single router model. And it's simple physics. It's like light waves. Light waves don't go through walls. They don't go up and down staircases of them have a single router model. And it's simple physics. It's like light waves. Light waves don't go through walls. They don't go up and down staircases. They have a limit.

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That's Eero.com, code BS, E-E-R-O.com. Last two things, quick. Second to last thing. Remember it's mom's thoughts on Atlanta, the show. She hasn't seen it yet. I'm going to see her next week. And I think we're going to watch a couple episodes. I'm excited for her take.

I actually think she's going to like it. And, you know, my mom is a law and order, criminal minds, NCIS type person. God bless her. We'll see if I can get her in, and like a Shondaland person. See if I can get her into it. Last thing, have you talked yourself into the Dwight Howard era yet? You know, I kind of have. And it's because I've decided that people deserve 19th chances. And for some reason, this nonsense propaganda that's being thrown my way of showing Dwight

make like three free throws in a row is actually working on me. Yeah. It's like, I'm like, Oh, like, like Dwight, like every moment that Dwight's in the gym is the moment that he's not as

strip club. And that makes me excited because it makes me think that his head is in the right place. Uh, I, I don't know. The Hawks are in, this is now somehow the hawks are now the team of basemore i feel like he's about to be the star of atlanta like just the whole city he's about

to be the king of atlanta and and i think the fact that this isn't no one's thinking about the Hawks as Dwight's team. Yeah. I think it's a good thing for all parties, Dwight included, because there is someone very likable that everyone in the city really likes in this dude Bazemore. And it basically allows you to, it basically allows you to forget that Dwight Howard's on the, like on the Hawks. I keep forgetting.

You keep forgetting all the free throws you're about to watch him miss. But I'm just like, I, I think, I think in the back of his mind, he knows that the moment he begins to be the Dwight Howard of old, which is like a bad teammate and not good in a franchise, not a likable guy, the city that made him will just turn on him and destroy him.

And I think he knows that he like it's one thing to be like that in other places but to come home and do it is it's like a sin like he won't be able to like go places like people would just people would just hate him everywhere but he knows that if he if he does right doesn't mean he like has an mvp season just like is is a professional for an entire season and it gets rebounds and tries hard and and is a likable person that's which is like a very low bar for a professional just do your job i think he knows that we'll all we'll all just love him i'll forget i'll forget everything new last as a as a as a good season i'll forget everything new last question which atlanta athlete

gives you lower self-esteem as you defend them matt ryan or dwight howard oh man god this just turned into like a you lured me in to talk about a show, and now I'm just depressed. God, my psyche about Atlanta sports is so dark. I've convinced myself that because I drafted Matt Ryan in fantasy football because I hate myself. Oh, my gosh. I think he's going to have a good season.

Oh, no. For no other reason because he's had such bad seasons. It's like video game rules where if you start to do bad, the video game starts to make you complete passes and make three-pointers from the other side of the court again, just to bring you back. I just think like if Matt Ryan had a good season last year, I'd be like, Oh no. So it's like a reset button.

All right. Yeah. So I think it's like, okay, this was, this has gone bad. Hey keys. Like no one, no one is, no one is expecting Matt Ryan to do great things, which have been the moments where he's just suddenly become like a top eight quarterback again.

So I'm hoping that he just decides. Maybe him and Dwight get lunches or something, and they kind of pull each other up. I don't know. What's amazing... It's all delusional. Yeah, what's amazing is you made basically the same kind of half-assed case

for Dwight and for Matt Ryan at the same time. You insulted them as you gave yourself hope. You talked about them turning it around, but that you also didn't believe they would, but you also believe they might. I don't know. maybe they're linked together. The only thing that's going right for me right now is I came into this season, this baseball season, the last season of the Atlanta Braves in the city of Atlanta before they move out

to the Burbs, saying, I hope that karma is real and they just have a terrible season and are the worst team in baseball. And it just absolutely came true. Congratulations for that, at least. The Braves are – I've gotten to the point where the best thing that's happening in my sports life is that the Braves were as bad as I wanted them to be. This is a very dark time for me. It's a very dark time. And you're two months away from losing your favorite family, the Obamas. Although I think, I have a feeling, I have a feeling Sasha...

This is the worst podcast ever. I'm so sad. I hate this. I have a feeling Sasha and Malia are going to continue to be in our lives, though. It seems like they're spreading their wings a little bit. I'm excited. I mean, Malia is the best. Malia is... I'm at a point right now where there are these kids who are clearly snitches in Malia's life

and are taking pictures of her when she's being a teenager. And I feel like I'm going to spend the next four or five years just doing recon, doing research to find out who these kids are. And then when they get to be in their 20s, I'm just going to fight them. One at a time. And I'm going to fight them. Like Liam Neeson had taken.

I'm going to basically be Neeson. I'm going to be Neeson. And I'm just going to dedicate my life to finding the people that have been snitching on Malia this summer. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of, you know, I think that's my truest career trajectory. It's just defending the Obama girls without them ever asking me or knowing.

I'm just like, someone has to do this. It's so rude. It's so rude. To Liam Neeson of the Obama family, Rembrandt Brown, thank you so much. Good luck with Dwight and Matt Ryan. And congrats on a possible Atlanta resurgence. I appreciate it. Thanks, Bill.

All right. Before we call my dad, I'm starting to get a little hungry, which is why it hurts to do this next read for Blue Apron. Because Blue Apron makes me hungry. It's delicious. And it's your best excuse to stop wasting money on expensive takeout for less than $10 per meal. Blue Apron will deliver you all the fresh ingredients you need for a delicious and healthy home cooked meal. They have the highest standards for ingredients.

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How are you? How are you feeling? 11 wins, 12 wins, 13 wins, 9 wins. Where are you? I'm at 12 wins. 12 wins. Okay. 12 wins, 13 wins, 9 wins? Where are you? I'm at 12 wins. 12 wins. Okay. 12 wins. I know Arizona is going to be really tough on Sunday night,

but then we have three home games. And I can see us going 3-1 before Brady comes back. And actually, I almost would say 13-3. Wow. Confident. I am confident. I like this team. I think it might be the best defense we've had in a long, long time. And, you know, as you and I always talk about, it comes down to health.

You know, We have players that they're not even sure if Gronkowski's going to play because of the hamstring. It's things like that that make it hard to predict, but if we're reasonably healthy and we don't have the major injuries we seem to

have had the last three or four years, I like 12 or 13 wins. Are you less confident? Are you going to miss Chandler Jones? He was one of your most frustrating Patriots. You know, I read something in the paper today, and I just 100% agree with it. You know, the first eight games of the season, he plays hard. The last eight games of the season,

you never hear his name. And God forbid he shows up in a big game, because he never did. Yeah. Did he ever get to the quarterback in a game where we really needed him to get to the quarterback? I can't remember any game. So I'm not going to miss him at all. And Dominic Easley was never on the field. You were complaining about him before he even played a game. So I'm not going to miss him at all. And Dominic Easley was never on the field.

You were complaining about him before he even played a game. I was. Those are the two players I really, you know, I didn't appreciate how they disappeared when you really needed them to come through. Like a couple of players did last night in the fourth quarter for Denver. You know, Jones and Easley, they never did that. I like who, and it's kind of interesting, I don't know if you saw that Arizona has him playing outside linebacker. Yeah. As opposed to defensive end.

So I just, the guy just never did it for me. But I like our defense. I mean, don't you have a lot of confidence in this defense? I don't love the linebackers, but— You don't love Collins, Hightower, and a couple of the others behind them? Well, that's the thing. I like Collins and Hightower, but if Nikovich, she's gone for four games, and I don't know, the other guys make me nervous.

That would be my one fear going in these first four games. The D-backs are about as good as we've ever had. We always have, like, the whole Belichick run, we've had a hole in D-backs somewhere. And this year it doesn't seem like we have a hole. And the D-line's good, too. No, it doesn't. It seems like we have a lot of depth, too.

If a couple of guys get nicked up, we have a couple of guys to bring in right away. I like our safeties. I like our cornerbacks. And I'm more confident in the linebackers. I just think our defense is going to be terrific. Scoring points until the fifth game when Brady returns, that's the real unknown up here. Yeah, the running backs.

Haas and I had talked about the running backs briefly. The running backs, it might be the worst set of running backs in the league until Deion Lewis comes back. Yeah. And then I was so fired up for Martellus Bennett, and I thought we were going to be unstoppable, and maybe we are, but the buzz has been kind of mixed with him in training camp.

I thought it would be more exciting. You're talking preseason. You're talking preseason games with three different quarterbacks throwing to him and Gronkowski not on the field. I'm not sure you can really, I'm not worried

the way that I think some people are, but. And neither of us like James White. I can't stand seeing him on the field. Let's hope he turns it around. You know, all of a sudden there's a lot of enthusiasm up here for the undrafted rookie, DJ Foster, that he'll take some of White's minutes. You know, the concern is obviously picking up the blitz when you bring in a young player like that.

What about... There's a lot of buzz up here for the Patriots. Well, there always is a lot of buzz. Are people confident in Garoppolo or no? You know, they were, and now they're not so sure because his preseason performance was pretty inconsistent. And it's not like in the preseason where, yeah, he could be inconsistent. You bring Brady in, and then Garoppolo goes back out there and does a—

I mean, he's the show. You're not going to play the rookie. I suspect that we're going to see a lot of short passes, and I don't know that they have a deep threat again. I mean, once again, our team doesn't seem to have a deep threat, which we seem to be the only team in the league that never has somebody that can stretch the defense. So I think we're going to see a lot of two tight end formations over and over, two tight ends.

Yeah, but Belichick is probably the greatest football coach of all time. His track record with drafting receivers since the DM branch pick is, it's almost impossible. I think we've taken like 11 receivers. I think we took 11 receivers from 03 through 2015 or 04 through 2015, and none of them made it. I think the only one that made it was Edelman who they drafted as a quarterback. Slater made it as a special teams guy.

He's not actually a wide receiver. So then this year the guy, who's the guy? Malcolm Mitchell? Malcolm Mitchell who's been banged up, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He seemed exciting but he hasn't been healthy. Right. That's right.

They had a great comparison in the paper of the wide receiver. Over the past 10 years, the wide receivers picked by the Patriots versus the wide receivers picked by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah. All in the same drafts as they went through year by year. The Steelers had like six guys. And almost every single one of the guys the Steelers picked, we could have picked. Right.

They weren't in front of us in terms of picks. We could have taken them. And we always seem to, as you said, we really have missed on picking wide receivers. Makes a huge difference in your offense, obviously. He seems like he keeps getting seduced by the same type of guy like those six two athletes who have the raw tools but they haven't put it together

yet and then in free agency or wherever else we always end up with those slot receiver kind of know what they're doing guys but we've never been able to draft them and like antonio brown's man antonio brown emmanuel sanders like these guys were sitting there and they just haven't been able to get lucky. Well, they haven't been able to get lucky, but also one of the criticisms up here is that Belichick relies much too heavily on the combined statistics. And that doesn't always translate to a smart player or a player who can learn

a complicated playbook or just as instinctive in terms of getting open. Yeah, they're really fast and... Dobson. You're not going to miss Dobson. You won't miss Dobson. Not going to miss Dobson.

It's interesting. I don't think anybody's picked him up, which tells you something also, doesn't it? Yeah. I just want to point out we spent the last three minutes complaining about a team that won the AFC's 12 of the last 13 years. So that was fun. I'm optimistic. And for whom I'm picking, 13 wins, baby.

Yeah. I mean, one of the best things is that the rest of the division just always sucks. You know, this year, I think the Bills and Dolphins are both going to suck this year. The Jets will be in the mix, and they'll be somewhere between 8 and 10 wins again. But year after year, we have just lucked out. You look at the NFC West, where you've had San Francisco, Arizona, and Seattle, over the course of five years, all become these dominant contenders. And we've just never had to worry about that in the AFC East, except for that one two-year run with Rex and the Jets, and that was it.

Yeah, my problem with that is it gives you a false sense of security in terms of how your team is shaping up for the playoffs. Right. And, you know, last year you couldn't have a better example than last year when we blew those last two games, lost home field, so we had to play Denver in Denver. We can't do things like that again. Yeah, you can run through your own division, your own AFL East,

but if you blow the game... The AFL East, that was good. Yeah, AFL East. The AFL East. Yeah, well, whatever. Happy 69th birthday in advance. You know what I meant. Wait, quickly.

I don't know if we've talked since the Al Horford thing. You're fired up about that. I'm really fired up, yeah. You're as fired up for this Celtics season as you've been in a while for a season. More so than probably 2009. So you're going back a while. No, I shouldn't say that. 2010.

2010 was a great year. We should have, could have, would have won the playoff, won the championship if we didn't have Perkins get injured. But, yeah, I'm pretty fired up. I always liked Horford. He's a real team player. He brings to the table all those things that you actually wrote about in the book of basketball.

Thanks for the plug. The other players already love him. Yeah. They've been working out together. You know, we're still a player short. And I'm still not convinced that we're all kinds of rumors about Philly needing to unload a big man. I wouldn't mind taking one of those big men,

so I'm not sure what it would take. You've liked Okafor for a while. I have liked Okafor. Philly messed up. Philly should have known that they were going to be in this predicament in June. And that was my argument for not doing anything in June. Because at some point, Philly was going to get close to this NBA season and go, Oh shit, we have five big guys.

We can only play two of them at the same time. This is a disaster. And I think that's happening now. Yeah. So, um, my dream would be to like steal Okafor for like Terry Rozier and some crappy first round pick.

It's not, you just don't know. I mean, they might have a fire sale for one of those guys. Well, yeah, I mean, I was kind of laughing.

They, they re-signed Elton brand yeah how many big guys can you have a one team it's it's almost like they signed him as a coach uh yeah good locker room presence but i i still can see something happening now now that we have horford yeah and horford is he's really not a power forward. He's a center. I'm not sure which Philly guy I would want because Okafor pretty much plays center near the basket. I'm not sure which one I would want. I'd want Okafor, and I'd want to use him like OKC used Dinas Kanter last year

as the guy that you run your offense through in the second quarter and the first six minutes of the fourth quarter. Okay. But I don't know. If I were the Celtics, I wouldn't do anything. I think you just wait and you have all these assets and you just wait for the perfect deal. I don't care if they win the title this year.

I want to win next decade. Their position with this terrible Brooklyn team to have two more top three picks and have this foundation that's going to last through 2030. So I don't want to mess with that. I don't, they're not going to win the title this year anyway. And you have a good locker room.

And I mean, I wasn't a huge fan of Rozier last year, but good summer league. Terrific in the summer league. Yeah. Good summer league. Good. Like we've never been, Huge fan of Rozier last year, but he didn't look terrific in the Summer League. Good Summer League. We've never been teased by a great Summer League performance before. Oh, no, Keejick Brown.

Oh, that's happened nine times. But they need somebody to play some of the minutes and score some of the points off the bench that Turner gave them the last couple years. Last thing, we'll save Red Sox for when we get closer to the end of September. I already talked about the AL East. I know, you talked about the AFL East already. I just want to say that you didn't totally

have my back on Sunday when everybody wanted to go out for brunch. And I refused to leave because I thought there was a real chance that Eduardo Rodriguez was going to no-hit the A's and you knew I was right but I thought you deferred to your wife and my wife a little bit

and made it seem like I was the bad guy and I didn't appreciate it because Rodriguez almost did throw a no-hitter and I don't know I just expected a little more I expected we'd be doing both as soon as he gave up that hit hitter and I don't know I just expect a little more I see I wanted I expected we'd be doing both as soon as he gave up that hit

I thought we'd be jumping in the car and heading to brunch but you seem to go into your sports depression and I don't think we ended up beating did we? No we got takeout I'm still hungry

I thought that was it. That ace team is so terrible. I thought we were going to get to watch a no-hitter together. We didn't watch Derek Lowe together. We didn't watch Hideo Nomo together. I thought that was going to be the one. I think I told you I've never seen... I've seen

a replay of a no-hitter. I've never seen a no-hitter actually sitting watching a no-hitter. You fell asleep. a no-hitter actually sitting watching a no-hitter. You fell asleep for Hideo Nomo. I remember. I remember I called you after or I called you before or something happened and you just missed it. You just flat out missed it. I didn't.

Obviously, I don't recall ever seeing it. And I vaguely remember Hideo Nomo. Well, that was the thing. We'd been waiting for a Red Sox no-hitter my whole life. And then Nomo showed up from the National League. Nobody had any sort of history with him. And he was the one that did it. It felt kind of, I don't know, it didn't feel like a real one.

And then Lowe did it at Fenway, and then that felt like the one. I remember being in my car, and it was about seven years ago or so, and I think Schilling was in the ninth inning with a no-header. Yeah. And I was listening to the radio, and I pulled over to the side of the road, and I was getting ready to cheer. I wasn't watching it, obviously, but at least I was listening to it. And he gave up that hit with one out in the ninth inning, I think.

So that's as close as I came to live participation. Well, thanks for throwing me under the bus. I would have liked to have brunch on Sunday. Yeah, thanks for that. Dad, enjoy the AFL East this weekend, and we'll talk to you later in September when the Red Sox get closer. I'll talk to you during the game Sunday. All right, see you.

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All you need is an internet connection. Restrictions do apply. And also since we're here, thanks to HBO now, HBO go and HBO on demand. That's where you can watch complete episodes of bonus clips from my new talk show. Any given Wednesday,

I would encourage you to watch this week's discussions with Malcolm Gladwell and DeMora Smith from the NFL PA. Cause we talked about a lot of stuff that became even more relevant when you watch Cam Newton take seven head to head hits during that game. We have a new episode coming next week, Wednesday, 10 PM on HBO. And thanks to the ringer.com and the ringers podcast network. Thanks to my dad. Thanks to Rumber Brown. Thanks to Joe house. We will see you. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. thanks to my dad thanks to Rumber Brown thanks to Joe House we will see you next week

anytime y'all want to see me again rewind this track right here close your eyes and picture me rolling