The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 151: Friday Rollin' With Mike Lombardi, Joe House and Bill's Dad

Episode Date: December 9, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on Mike Lombardi to gush over their favorite scenes from 'Goodfellas' (6:00) and designate a character for each NFL contender (10:00). Then, Joe House joins (29:00) to discuss watching Kristaps Porzingis in person (33:00), the Boogie trade bandwagon (39:00), the Warriors' unselfish playing style (43:00), the failing Wizards (46:00), and the best bets for Week 14 (50:45). Finally, Bill's dad calls in to discuss the Chris Sale trade (1:00:00) and the panic meter for Pats-Ravens (1:10:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We have a very special episode of Friday Rowan on the BS Podcast today. This is one of my favorite episodes of the year, potentially. Anyway, it's brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor, the only fan-friendly app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. Drop your old ticket app, use one bill for 2017 and beyond. You can even do absolutely everything on your phone. Download the free SeatGeek app or go to SeatGeek.com. We're also brought to you by Sonos,

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the best in sci-fi, and more, as well as big NBA pieces about Golden State's media, Horde, and life in OKC after Kevin Durant, plus all of our kick-ass NFL coverage and pieces about J. Cole and a lot, lot more about pop culture and tech. Oh, and we have ringer swag. What's a better holiday gift than ringer swag? I certainly can't think of anything.

All right. Oh, one more thing. I was on The Breakfast Club this week in New York City, and it was really fun. I'd never been on that show before. Charlamagne had been on my old TV show. And then, uh, I returned the favor that's on YouTube. We talked about a whole bunch of stuff. So if you like those guys and you probably like me because you're listening to this podcast, I think you'll really like that one. We went for 50 minutes. It was lively. Uh, talked

about a whole bunch of things. So thanks to them. Shout out to the Breakfast Club. Let's do it. Here we go, Joe! All right, welcome. It is Friday morning. We're taping this at 8.45 a.m. Pacific Coast time. On the line first with Joe House and my dad coming up later, but on the line first from FS1 and Fox. Mike Lombardi. We're excited for this one because it's now the time of the season that we know who all the NFL contenders are. And I texted Mike last night and I asked him, why don't you figure out who the contenders are and figure out what their Goodfellas character comparison is? So he went into his bunker and he's figured this out. But first of all,

I should mention, Goodfellas, an all-time classic. I'll never get over De Niro. De Niro did not get nominated for an Oscar. Did you know that? No, I did not.

I was just the scene in when he says, you know, they insulted him. You insulted him just a little bit. Just a little bit. A little bit.

To me, that's an Oscar-winning performance right there. What about, I mean, there's so many subtle scenes with him, but like when he decides to whack Maury and Scorsese has the slow motion and like after the Lufthansa, I can never say Lufthansa heist, and he realizes he has to start whacking everybody

who was involved and he's kind of to start whacking everybody who was involved and he's kind of dark he's looking around the bar in slow motion his eyes De Niro said so much with his eyes in that movie it's probably my favorite De Niro performance it really is it's better for me it's even better than Godfather 2's performance I thought it

was I thought he was great in that I really did he played he was playing De Niro he really was yeah he was really he let himself that and, he was playing De Niro. He really was. He was, yeah, he was really, he led himself. That and Midnight Run where De Niro's just like, I'm going to be myself in these movies. So are you 100% Italian?

100%. I'm 50, but I'm like a strong 50. So like the scene when they go to bury the guy and they go back to Joe Pesci's house and the mom wakes up and she makes them food at 4.30 in the morning. That's the most realistic scene in the whole movie. Cause my aunt Jen, who sadly finally passed away this year at like age 92, I could have gone to her house at any point of the day, any day and just shown up and she would have cooked for me in four minutes. And that was, I thought, the most Italian part of that movie.

Yeah, I would agree completely. There was never a time I would go to my grandmother's house and wouldn't get a full course meal at any time of the day, no matter when you wanted it. And it would just come out of nowhere. And you would wonder how this was so good. Here are some of the gangster names. I don't know if you're covering these in your contenders, but just let's give these shout-outs sally balls nicky eyes fat indy frankie the wop

freddie no-nos pete the killer jimmy two times and johnny roast beef these are all characters and good fellas and they're all real i mean jimmy two times because he says everything two times where the papers where the papers? Where are the papers? You just love it. And I think when you nickname – I was at a function a couple years ago, and a guy was kept giving a toast, so I nicknamed him Joey the Toast. It was the perfect name. Joey the Toast. Joey the Toast.

It is amazing with the Italians where somebody can get a nickname, and it's almost like – I can't even describe it. It's almost like how the tribe, the Indian tribe names way back when, when it would be like, he makes fire. Like the Indians, the Italians still do that in 2016. My favorite though is Frankie the Wap. Because when you're hanging around with Italians all the time, and the Wap, by the way, not like a totally flattery name,

let's be honest, but the Italians can say it. But when you're so Italian that everybody else around you decides that your nickname should be Frankie the WAP, you're really 100% Italian at that point. And in my hometown, like my father's a 90-year-old barber, so he's Barbershop Mike. And then his best friend, he's Barbershop Mike. And then his best friend is one of the old-time shoemakers in the world, and his name is Dr. Shoe. Dr. Shoe, I love it.

So you have Dr. Shoe, and so it's a culture of people. It's incredible. So give me your single favorite scene in Goodfellas, the go-to. It's the Billy Bat scene with De Niro. I could watch that a thousand times when they're at the bar, and Ray Liotta's in there and Henry Hill they're in there and no, no, no, you insulted him a little bit. The drinks are on

the house. And then he does it emphatically. And then he goes and yells and goes, here's your shine box. In fact, Sal will text me randomly, just tell me to go to my shine box every now and then when he gets mad at me. It didn't totally work out for Billy Bats because he got basically stomped to death. He was stabbed like 20 times.

He got shot like 10 times. He had to drive around in the trunk of a car for nine hours. He got buried in the middle of Jersey. They had to unbury his body nine months later. So I would say that insult backfired about as much as any insult ever. My favorite scene is probably that. But I think the most underrated favorite scene for me is when Henry, played by Ray Liotta, when he gets out of jail. And he sees his kids for the first time, what, in like five years?

Yeah. And he goes, who wants to go to uncle paulie's and and the kids go nuts and uncle paulie is just this scary fat mobster and for some reason this was this was his treat for them not at the amusement park but we're gonna go to uncle paulie's yeah i i like that i but you know the thing is you start talking i love the scene cooking in the in in the um in prison and and oh. The guy that's actually doing the cooking, it owns Rayo's Restaurant in Harlem.

Oh, really? Yeah, he's the guy doing the cooking. Frank is his first name. I don't remember his last name. I think it's Pellegrini or something like that. He was in The Sopranos. He played the FBI agent in The Sopranos. It was always after Tony, the head of the FBI.

And he's cooking over there and he's cooking the steaks and not too many onions in the sauce. Paul, you know I don't like onions. And he's cooking the steaks and it's just, to me, it's the perfect scene. He's over there and they're in prison and they

look like they're at the Taj Mahal. They have all this food and they got the bread coming out. It's really great. So then we also have the classic You Think I'm Funny, What's So Funny? You have that whole scene in all-timer and then you have Henry crossing the street to beat up the preppies.

Another all-time classic. What do you think about the last 25 minutes when it gets super kooky and super frantic? It doesn't hold up to the first 70% of the movie, in my opinion. No, because you know the end's coming, and you know it's bad, and you're trying to warn all the characters that it's going to be bad, but they're so far down the road. It's kind of depressing.

The end of the movie's depressing. You laugh. It's like The Sop the sopranos you laugh all the way if you're italian you laugh at some of the stuff of the sopranos and then at the end the reality becomes depressing and i think that's what they're after they want you to experience the reality they don't want you to live in the laughter and that was another classic scene when he shoots spider in the in the foot finally and then spider tells him to go fuck himself and he gets shot a hundred times. But it was so funny that Spider was played by Michael Imperioli, who then became eventually down the road Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos.

And for the people who were just all the way 100% in on really the Italian holy trinity of Goodfellas, the Sopranos and the Godfather. This was, it almost made your head explode. It was like crossing the beams where for years on the Sopranos, it was Spider. You just couldn't shake Spider. And then eventually he became Christopher. But for the first year, it was just really tough.

Cause I don't know. And it was the same thing with Lorraine Bracco because because she's Henry's wife in Goodfellas, and then she's the therapist in The Sopranos. But eventually you figure out how to deal with it. Right. And one of my favorite characters in The Sopranos is Larry Boy, Barisi. And he always has good one lines.

And he's the tiki guy. He owns the tiki bar. It's a damn shame they're blowing this place up. And you don't even realize. I couldn't get it out of it. His lines are great. They're classic. All right. right so you're gonna figure out but and for the under 30s out there i'm always surprised especially with the ringer staff because we have so many young people i'm always shocked

when somebody hasn't seen a movie that i just assume everyone's seen but you realize like as you get older people have their own generations have their own movies. But I think there's some can't miss. Like I really, I can't even look you in the eye until you see this movie, movies. And for me, Goodfellas is one of them. Like if you haven't seen Goodfellas and you know, you're the kind of person who loves sports, loves pop culture, would listen to this podcast, like all these different check marks, you have to see Goodfellas. It's just, it's, it's one of the, I would put it on the highest, Tate, have to see Goodfellas. It's just, it's one of

the, I would put it on the highest, Tate. You've seen Goodfellas, right? Okay, thank God. Tate's, yeah, I wasn't worried about Tate, but there are probably a couple people out there like, oh no, it came out in 1990. It's in the all-time pantheon. And it won't

date itself. It'll be still good the next time you watch it. My sons watch it. My sons love it. They're 28 and 26. Good. All right, let's do the contenders. So how many contenders did you come up with?

Well, I kind of went through your list. Let's just start out with last night. I gave Oakland Tommy DeVito. Okay. Now, you know, I thought Tommy DeVito was a guy, you know, as we know, he's played by Joe Pesci, kind of volatile. I thought the Raiders are really a volatile team, and I think what we learned last night from the Raiders is if they don't make big plays offensively, they're going to have a hard time on him.

They had 18 yards was the longest pass play. Kars' longest pass play against the Chiefs the other game was 24 yards. Now, you might say it's the pinky, but in reality, he didn't throw the ball well in the rain when they played him. He's played one game under 40 degrees in his career. That was at Kansas City last year, and he lost that. So are the Raiders just kind of a volatile, warm-weather team? I kind of thought they were, and defensively, they played their best defense of the year yesterday. Yeah, I agree.

They really did. And I know Tyreek Hill beat them, but I've been saying all along, Tyreek Hill's a better Percy Harvin. So it didn't surprise me. And kicking the ball to Tyreek Hill is not the smartest thing to do. Well, you just described why they lost. Because, first of all, on a Thursday night game, to get the 3-0 turnover advantage and still lose is almost impossible.

I don't know how many times this century somebody's had a 3-0 turnover advantage and lost. I'm sure it happens like maybe once a year. I mean, it's not something that happens very often. But to kick off to Tyreek Hill, especially after you screwed up, you had the penalty, you had the re-kick, the guys had just run 50 yards. Collinsworth called it. Collinsworth basically predicted that punt touchdown he was saying like this is dangerous these guys are winded I don't know how they kicked to him he was the only guy in the field who could really hurt them in that game especially with Macklin out and uh so that was one thing and then you know they were driving at the end. They had something going there.

The fourth and one fade route, just every time. We did a thing on the ringer last week. We made fun of the fade route and how terrible it is and how stupid it is. And they're the Raiders with the one seed on the line basically running the fade route. I don't get it. Right. And, you know, the fourth and one again, and they get the false start, which is predictable in Kansas City. They had 10 penalties in Kansas City. They had ten penalties in the game.

And, you know, when you're always in shotgun and you don't have a lead blocker and it's fourth and one, and that's my point about the Giants. I think sometimes you think the Giants are, you know, going to be able to run the football and win in cold weather. I think weather's a factor. We saw it last night, and it was clear that the Raiders, even though they played their best on defense, when they can't be explosive and throw the ball over your head, the Chiefs were more than willing to let them run the ball.

They were more than willing to play cover, too, let them run the ball, the Mitchell, the corner. He'd been cut by four teams. He went out there and just played man-to-man and had no problem with it. And they dominated the game in the sense that the Raiders couldn't play their style. Raiders had 18 third downs, which is way too many for the Raiders. They need about 12 third downs to win. It's a bad loss, and yet not that bad of a loss,

because I think that Thursday night, to have that game on a Thursday night is pretty rough. And, you know, the road team, especially there, the bad weather, you get a great crowd. And I don't know, that road team, especially there, the bad weather, you get a great crowd. And I don't know, that was a tough ask. But, man, to get the three turnovers. The one thing I've noticed with the Raiders, and this would be my concern if I was them, it's third and six.

I need the, at that point, I need Larry Fitzgerald. I need Julian Edelman or Gronk. You know, I need Dez. Who, Golden Tate, who is their guy on third and six that's going to get them the eight-yard catch to keep the chains moving? Do you feel like they have that guy?

No, I think that's the problem, but they don't have an offense like that either. They're not a West Coast sticks offense. They're not going to run Y option. They probably need a better middle of the field tight end. I think they need somebody to control. Like, if you put

Anquan Boldin on that team, not that he's fast or explosive, but he can win sometimes just because of his pure size. And it helps him control the football. But when you're in so much shotgun, it's hard. And they take some chances. I mean, Carr's going to take some chances. He sees man-to-man on the outside.

He thinks his receivers are better. He's going to throw it up there. And, you know, again, in weather, sometimes those are hard throws to make and hard throws to complete. And it looked like the Raiders receivers had never caught a ball that was frozen like that. Now, they're 23rd in the league in drop passes, which is typically what they do.

So they'll drop some passes on you. And last night it really came to fruition. I think they dropped over nine passes. And it's hard to run an offense like that. But, look, you're not going to beat anybody with 117 yards passing. I don't care who you are. Well, I take that back. Maybe you're Brock Osweiler and you can do it.

But other than that, you know, no one else can. Shea Serrano wrote on The Ringer this week, he still thinks there's a chance for the Brockening the awakening of Brock I think there's no chance at all I don't think you you could play Metallica music as loud as you possibly want and there's no way Brock's waking up

okay so you think the Raiders are Joe Pesci they're going to commit a couple murders they got a lot of swagger but they're going to go into a room at some point and get whacked. They're just going to go. And staying on that theme, I think Denver's Billy Bats. Okay.

I think Denver is going to insult some teams with their arrogance, and they're happy that they've won the Super Bowl. But I think at the end of the day, they're not going to be good enough offensively to beat anybody. And defensively, I think they're just not going to be as strong as they were last year. They do miss Malik Jackson. And I think if you look at the final two minutes of the game against Kansas City, the final five minutes of the game against Kansas City, they move the ball down the field at home.

And that's got to concern you. So I think they play off each other. Do you have them in the playoffs at gunpoint right now? You know, I do. I think Denver's going to get in there because I think what Denver has Tennessee this week, they'll add another win to their arsenal. They have Oakland at home, which, you know, I think they'll play Oakland well at home, because I think Oakland, Kansas City has given the formula very clearly on how to play the Raiders. Yeah. Just entice them to run the ball, make them run it, play really good, and don't give

up big plays, and see if they can execute an offense consistently. And they'll move the ball, make them run it, play really good, and don't give up big plays. And see if they can execute an offense consistently. And they'll move the ball on the Raiders' defense. The Raiders control the ball 36 minutes in the first game against Denver. I don't know if they can do that in Denver. So you don't think Tennessee can beat Denver this weekend? I don't. I just don't. I think Tennessee, every time they don't seem to rise to the level of confidence.

I thought, look, when you lose twice to Indy, you're going to have a hard time getting my support. I agree. You know what's crazy? Indy's favored by six this week over the Texans, but mostly based on the fact that they killed the Jets last week and the Texans have lost three straight against non-AFC South teams. I don't see any scenario where any AFC South team

should be favored by three points over any other AFC South team except for the Jaguars. Well, I think it just shows you how bad Brock Osweiler is. I mean, look, as bad as Indy's defense is, they don't think he can throw the ball against them. And you know what? Remember the game down there? The game down there? Well, I think that's going to come at the end of the year.

You're going to have to have a conversation with yourself if you're the Houston Texans. How much further? Because I think there's a lot of people at the ringer staff that think Osweiler has this magic switch. He's going to turn it on. It's never turned on. This is who he is. This is who he is.

Can I make it very clear to you that there's only one person who thinks that, and it's Shea Serrano, who's a giant Houston Texans fan, who's trying to will himself to believe that? He's delusional. Please believe me. There's not one other person in the ringer staff who believes this. I think that we could see Tom Savage in the second quarter on Sunday because that is a game they have to win.

And, you know, Bill O'Brien, I don't know. It's a tiny bit of a save-the-job situation for him maybe, especially like some big pride profile coaches come in here. Well, it's definitely going to be a save-the-job-for-him situation because he doesn't want to deal with the quarterback. I mean, look, we might have to have a commission meeting to organize a hit here, but I'm sure secretly that there are people in Houston that are hoping that Brock Osweiler has the same pinky injury that David Carr ended up having,

and then we'll never see him again. Then Savage comes in. I mean, like I used to say when I worked at the Raiders, we're a couple injuries away from having a good team. Well, I think that's the way the Texans feel right now. That's one of my favorite Lombardi-isms. Next contender. Well, my next, I'm going to, you mentioned Spider.

I think that he's the Redskins. Annoying, wants to really be in the playoffs, but not quite good enough to get in. I like it. Kind of like, can probably cause some damage, but just not quite good enough. I knew going out to Arizona was not going to

be a good game for them. Yeah, I didn't. I thought they were going to win that one and I thought they were, they felt like a six seed to me. One of those, you know, harmlessly kind of dangerous six seeds that stays in the game and then blows in the fourth quarter in round one. And that Arizona loss was terrible, and probably not a good one. It's matchups. It's like Indianapolis. Indianapolis stinks on defense, but the Texans are no good on offense.

Well, Arizona's—Washington stinks on defense Texans are no good on offense. Well, Arizona's – Washington stinks on defense. Arizona's pretty good on offense. They got better, and they made it and scored enough points. And if you always have to rely on your offense to win games, there's going to be a time where you just can't – it just doesn't click. You drop passes, the execution, you get a tipped ball. It doesn't matter. So I think that's where the Redskins are.

They're just not good enough on defense to really go toe-toto-toe they're the raiders without khalil mack i feel bad for david johnson on the cardinals because they're using him you know at at peak peak peak they they're basically driving to vegas with him and going 110 miles an hour and putting miles and all kinds of things on his engine. And it's for really no good. But they throw to him all the time. They hand the ball off to him all the time. Him, Le'Veon Bell, and maybe McCoy to a lesser degree, and then obviously Zeke.

That's been your top four running backs, but they're kind of wasting a great David Johnson season is my point. I like him. It's too bad. Let's just stay at, so Karen Hill, Henry Hills, that's Indianapolis. Volatile, could be very caring at times, you know, maternalistic, but has a fatal flaw, and that's their defense. Yeah.

And her fatal flaw was her choice in men. Exactly. Exactly. And trusting them all completely. Yeah, and her fatal flaw was her choice in men. Exactly, exactly. And trusting them all completely. So that to me is, and I think Indy makes the playoffs. I think they're the best of the worst in the South. That is so incredible.

I just can't believe it. That's why I'm hoping Tennessee beats Denver this week because Indy's so bad, and that GM does not deserve to make the playoffs with that terrible team he put together, but God. I mean, their schedule, they catch the Jets on the perfect week right as they're quitting on Todd Bowles. They're in the worst possible division. It's just

frustrating to me. And are they really going to get 16 games out of Frank Gore? How is that possible? They're not. 16 games out of him? But look, here's what we have to learn. Here's what we have to accept. The Raiders, the Chiefs, the Broncos are all making a living off of the South, the NFC and the AFC South.

That's why their win totals are so high. And once you figure out what conference is the weak conference in the league and who's ever playing that conference, they've got a chance to make the playoffs. That's the key to figuring out wins in this whole how many over-under wins there are is what's the weak conference, who has them, and if in fact are they weak. And if you do that, which is what the West is.

I'm not saying none of the West teams are good. I'm not saying that. I think Kansas City's a good team. I think Denver's a good team, and I think Oakland's a good team. But I think their win totals are higher than they should be because they're playing the South. Yeah, I think I agree with that. I definitely think this is one of those years that would be great for my rule

that if you can't go over 500, you can't make the playoffs. I don't agree. I agree. I think you should. You've got to win. You have to be good enough. It almost is you shouldn't make the playoffs if you get more points than you score. I don't know how you do that.

That would be a good rule, too. But we have a president who's in the White House with less votes than the one who didn't get them. But that's a whole other conversation. So then the Colts make perfect sense. But, yeah, I think 8-8, 7-9, 7-8-1, you just can't get in. You can get in if you're 8-7-1.

You have to be like a shade over 500 to make it, or it goes to whoever has the best record who didn't make it. Alright, who's the next contender? I'm going to give... Okay, let's start. I'm going to try to hit the final four here Jimmy Conway to me are the Patriots

smart organized stays alive you know yeah stay alive you know always has always has figured out a way to work an angle they have some flaws clearly the flaws on defense now without Gronk but to me they're Jimmy Conway you can't ever

underestimate them. And when you make a plan, plan, make, shift, just adjust. Alright, now I'm going to do this. Everyone from the heist is starting to buy stuff. I'm killing all of them. Oh, Henry Hill is starting to do

coke again. I've got to get rid of his wife. Come on over here. No, no, come this way. No, no, I've got some dresses. No, no, go. Keep going. It's right around the corner. Belichick would definitely do that. He would have taken out Lorraine Bracco. And then if you want to stay on that theme, then I think Seattle's Henry Hill. Oh, I like it. I think Seattle's Henry Hill. You know, look really good one day, come into New England and win the game, and then look like you've just done two days of coke and go into Tampa and lose.

Doesn't make any sense at all. Let's take the Buffalo game if you're Seattle. Play bad, find a way to win, mentally tough, kind of hang in there, have enough angles. And then my final one is, to me, the one team that I think is probably, that's Paulie, is the Dallas Cowboys. Really? I'm not expecting that one. Wow, Pauly. Pauly, because they're very quiet, with a lot of power, a lot of authority, don't say a lot.

This Cowboy team doesn't really talk very much, but yet they have a big stick. So you, I can't tell who's the favorite then. So I would say Jimmy Conway is the favorite in the movie. So that means you're still the Patriots. I would say Paulie and Jimmy Conway. I would say Paulie and Jimmy Conway. That's who I like the most. Okay.

Janice the Gumar doesn't get any. Janice the Gumar is Houston. They're my Houston Texans. I have Houston Texans. And you mentioned Jimmy two times I have them as Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh is two teams

Pittsburgh can go to Miami and lose and then they can beat the Giants at home or they can kill Kansas City they're Jimmy two times

that's hilarious I don't I officially never know what to expect with the Steelers game anymore they're playing in Buffalo this week

you don't know I don't know but you're going to get it two times you're going to get it once against Miami you might get it once against Buffalo I don't know what to expect with the Steelers game anymore. They're playing in Buffalo this week? You don't know. I don't know. But you're going to get it two times. You're going to get it once against Miami. You might get it once against Buffalo. Is there any loser-leaves-town games this week that you're looking at? Like if so-and-so loses, I'm crossing them off, they're out?

A team that we might have thought is a playoff team? I think if Tennessee loses, you've got to cross them out. Okay. I think if Tennessee loses, you've got to cross them out. I think if Tennessee loses, you have to cross them out. And I think, look, the Ravens, I don't have a character for the Ravens because I don't really know who they are. I mean, I think the Ravens are really good. I've been saying that. I think the Ravens and Pittsburgh, they're both probably Jimmy Two-Time

because the Ravens lose to the Jets at home. They lost to the Giants. They lost to the Jets up there. They lost to the Giants. They lost to the Jets up there. They lost to the Giants. They were 0 for New York, New York. And yet they're, to me, one of the better teams. Can you imagine? The Jets will beat them and the Giants beat the Ravens and yet I'm talking about the Ravens like they have

a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Plus we know Flacco plays way better in December than he does in September. Oh, you didn't have Baltimore. So Baltimore just didn't fit for anybody. It didn't fit. I couldn't really get a character. I was going to make have Baltimore. So Baltimore just didn't fit for anybody. It didn't fit. I couldn't really get a character. I was going to make him Frankie,

but he died too early in the show. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah, I don't know who that would be. You're right. And that's kind of fitting, actually, because I don't know what to make of Baltimore anyway. But, man, it's hard to believe we couldn't come up with one for them.

We'll have to save it for – once we get through the Miami – once we get through the New England game this week, we'll have it – we'll narrow it down and we'll be able to continue on this. The only other one I'd add that I think you missed, I thought you did a great job. I'm really proud of you. The one you missed, though, is Maury is the Giants. It's so classic.

That's right. They have the bad hairpiece, don't they? They have the bad hair piece don't they they have the bad hair piece which is ben mackinac they have a fatal flaw which is you're completely right because i've called the giants a ponzi scheme this entire year there's no numbers to support anything they're doing they're trying it they're trying to get paid and they haven't done anything their fatal flaw is mori was complaining when are we going to get when do we get paid when you're paid the giants fatal flaw is just they're prisoners of Odell which you've been talking about on TV this week I 100% agree you cannot let your diva receiver run your

team which is what he's been doing basically we've seen this movie before we've seen a million times all over we saw he's TO duplicated it It really is. And people forget that T.O. in 2004, when they made the Super Bowl, was not doing that stuff. And got actually hurt six weeks before the Super Bowl, or whenever it was, and then rehabbed back, but was on his best behavior that whole season. Much like Moss was on his best behavior in 07, 05 was the year that T.O. turned into T.O. again.

Right, he was doing the sit-ups while everybody was watching him. Odell, they just can't control. I mean, that's not their biggest, they have so many other problems than Odell, but I think it's a symptom, and it's a lot like Maury just won't shut the hell up. Alright, Mike Lombardi, that was fun. I'm glad we did that.

And listen to our podcast, Make Me Smarter Football. We gave you a shout-out this week, Bill. We're loving you up. Thank you. I appreciate that. And you were on with Whitlock for a full hour yesterday. I was jealous. Yeah, Whitlock.

I'm hosting. I substitute hosted for Colin. He was out. It was great. I got to talk to Whitlock and see if we can get some things straightened out. Wow, that guy's a tough guy to get straightened out. Say, give him a nice big hug for me. All right, Bill.

Mike Lombardi, thank you. Bye-bye. All right, Joe House is on the line, but first I wanted to give a big fat shout out to SimpliSafe. If you want to protect your home this winter, then have a seat, take a breath, listen up. Right now, SimpliSafe Home Security is having its biggest deal ever. Protect your home, save big,

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What a great holiday gift. Again, trywink.com slash BS. House, is your wife going to drink some wine over the holidays maybe? Yeah, I'll tell you one thing that's not happening. She's not returning any bottles. All the bottles that hit our house are getting drunk. I mean, you said whining about wine, whining about us while drinking wine. It's a double wine in my house most nights of the week.

Weekends we take it a little easy, but, you know. That's a great new BS sponsor. Happy to have him on board, and Joe House will be taking advantage. So I was in New York City this week. It was cold and rainy. Yeah, cold. Cold, rainy. Trump has paralyzed Midtown. They have streets shut down, cops everywhere.

It's amazing. All the New Yorkers are mad because they have to pay for all these cops every day. So that was really fun. I went to the Knicks- game on wednesday night which i was super excited about i'd forgotten that i'd forgotten that lebron and the team had a chip on its shoulder because of phil jackson the game was over in about five minutes uh i got to see poor zingas who you know fell fell in love with him right away. Seven foot three Dirk, basically very impressed.

I liked how he ran. I, you know, I love when I go to these games, I like seeing how the guys run. I think you can learn a lot, like what their longevity might be. And he reminds me of Dirk and that he's got kind of an odd body.

He's taller than he should be, but he, and he's not like the fastest guy in the world, but he moves fluidly. You know, when you watch like Yao Ming, Greg Oden, Andrew Bynum, some other guys where you just, you'd watch them run, Andrew Bowe gets like this,

you watch them run up and down the court and you're like, ooh, that's not, that's a guy not built for a 20-year NBA career with that running gait or whatever. I didn't feel that way about Porzingis. And his release is ridiculous. He's very long.

And he's a little gangsta, which comes across on TV. But there's a couple times when he got super physical. And I don't know. I just felt like he's got a little gangsta in him, which I liked. I'm a huge fan. Congratulations, Knicks fan. Seriously. No sarcasm whatsoever.

Congratulations. That guy is a gem. Anyway, I had to say that. Yeah, funny coincidence, the only Almost Bullets game that I've attended live in person this season was against the Knicks, and I caught the Zinger

on the road on the second half of a back-to-back game. And so I caught him at what I would describe as kind of his worst. He didn't have a very good shooting night. He didn't have good energy. He wasn't at home, so the home crowd was not propelling him. Because he definitely has that swag, that gangstersta, Lativian gangbanger. Yeah, the Lativian gangbanger.

It's in the flow up at the Garden. So in Washington, he did not have a good game. He had a bad shooting night. But I strongly, vigorously co-sign your observation on how he moves. I really was impressed by his lateral movement on defense, which was the thing that I expressed great skepticism about when the Knicks selected him and when we were watching him in summer league and he was committing 11 fouls a game.

He's really been kind of a transcendent talent. And the funny thing is the Knicks have to figure out what the F they're going to do. I like very much. I don't recall whether which writer of yours wrote it. Now is the time to trade mellow. I know. And unfortunately,

I think he'd be gone if he didn't have a no trade clause. They're in a weird, they're in a weird point right now for two reasons. One is that the East is terrible and you know, Charlotte's the third best Charlotte and Boston, I think have the third best records that the East is terrible. And, you know, Charlotte's the third best. Charlotte and Boston, I think, have the third best records in the East right now. Neither of them have played that well.

You just go down the list and it's like, which one of these teams do you like? And you don't really like any of them. And even Cleveland's not playing that well. I think Chicago might be the only semi-dark horse just because of Wade and Butler. And they have some pieces and some trade possibilities but the Knicks are a team

they're they should go one way or the other but it all really depends on Melo and they can't do anything about Melo and I think every Knicks fan would be happy if the Knicks just said you know what this is Porzingis' team now he's the guy that has to get shots we gotta run everything through him

all that stuff and they just can't do it yet because Carmelo's there. Well, and the curious thing, they chose a direction. They were very deliberate this season in going out and acquiring Rose and Joe Noah. They clearly intend to be in the playoffs. Joe Noah in person. Did you see him? Did he play in the game you went to? Yeah.

Speaking of guys that don't look good moving. Speaking of guys who don't look good running. Yeah, there was. Remember back when we used to play pickup basketball, but we were older? When you know how to play the one speed you can play, you can still run fast and you can still get to spots but maybe there's a turnover or something and the guy gets ahead of you and you got to run a little bit faster than you want to try to catch up and after you do it it's like and that's when you blow out your achilles blow out a knee like you pull something oh i you you know exactly what i'm talking about somewhere else

no yeah i mean that that's my oh fuck it moment right oh he's ahead of me yeah fuck it right and eventually as an old guy you learn to just say oh fuck it but there's that little stretch where you're like no no i'm gonna get him but you're not quite the same guy anymore and then after the play's over you're like so that happened to noah and there was a timeout right after and he like hobbled back to the bench i I was like, oh, man, that is one of the old guy signs right there. He's definitely a step slow. It definitely makes no sense for them to not play Porzingis at the five. I mean, if God created a stretch five, it would be Porzingis.

It's everything you would want from a stretch five. You protect the rim on one end and stretch the four on the other end. So that trade, I think think was bad for them. The, I would rather have Robin Lopez in the Noah spot and I would rather they just had spent the Derrick Rose money on somebody else or traded for a one year point card or whatever. On the other hand,

like they look terrible without Rose against the Cavs. Like they really do kind of need his, for lack of a better word, one-man offense. I'm surprised that Brandon Jennings hasn't been better. I thought he was going to really make a difference for them. I think that coming back from that, it doesn't look the same. But I will say with the Knicks,

the other thing I thought was really interesting, I don't want to make too much of it, it was just the one game I went to, it might have been the crowd. You know, when you introduce the last guy and the crowd really rises to the occasion for the last guy, like, Oh,

that's our guy. This is, you know, even if you don't 100% feel that way, you still make noise and you're loud. Yeah. Didn't, didn't really get that for Carmelo.

Porzingis got the biggest ovation. It's Porzingis' team. They just need to address it. It's his team. Yeah, they need to really embrace it and realize it. And the other thing I noticed, because they run the triangle, apparently, with the second unit. Okay. And Porzingis was out there.

And they came out of a timeout. They made it seem like they were going to run a little three for Porzingis at the top of the key. And then he gave up the ball. It was like a screen and roll where it was going to run a little 3-4 Porzingis at the top of the key. And then he gave up the ball. It was like a screen and roll where it was going to be a 3 for him. But then he kind of cut down so he could post up. So it was like a delayed triangle post up. And all of a sudden he's 5 feet from the basket. He's 7'3".

I don't know, man. That guy, I am not happy that that guy's in my division. I will say that. I do think the Boogie Cousins trade bandwagon is starting to mobilize. Oh, my. Yeah. Involving the Knicks? No.

I just think we're in range now of some things that are going to happen soon, especially like on December 15th you can start trading people that got signed in the summer for the most part. And I do think things are going to happen. I think the Celtics have a really big decision to make on Boogie, and I don't know what the right and wrong decision is. Do you roll the dice with a guy and hope that he was just in the wrong situation?

Or do you hold off and say, we're not going to win the title anyway? And the Warriors are, nobody's winning the title this year except for the Golden State Warriors unless Cleveland can get their shit together. Nobody else is beating that team. Cleveland can get their shit together.

Yeah, they totally can. They can get their shit together. Of course they can. I don't think San Antonio is quick enough with their guards to hang with them. Even if Kawhi goes to another level, I don't see it. I think Golden State has some flaws, but it doesn't matter. And the way they move the ball offensively, that clippers game was an eye-opening game because they didn't shoot the ball well and they still had did the thing where they have 30 assists and

they get layups the way the ball moves it's beautiful you know we we all last season was really a steph gusher like you and i would get on the phone on fridays because it was it was such a revelation it was you know we'd been treated to the previous season, you know, the emergence of Steph as world beater. And then last season was like, you know, every week he's defying the expectations. And Clay, too. Clay was in there, too. Because Clay would have a game like you had the other night.

Yeah, yeah. Every once in a while. Well, and, you know, i'm glad you mentioned clay well you and i were on the phone maybe three weeks ago two and a half you were worried about clay you were expressing concern where's clay how's clay going to fit into this i think they figured out how to fit clay in but the point i wanted to make uh is that now now it's the the deserve, um, the crazy accolades because it's such a, it's a brand of basketball that, that we haven't seen in,

in, you know, really since the early nineties. Oh, late eighties, mid eighties, eighties, eighties,

eighties, right? Yeah. It's a shout out to the Lakers in the South and magic and bird. Right. The extra pass. Yeah. The extra pass,

the ball swinging around seven times instead of two. and Magic and Bird. Right. The extra pass. That's where I'm getting at. Yeah, the extra pass, the ball swinging around seven times instead of two. And it also puts a big spotlight on how bad some of the other offenses are and how limited they are and the one-man show offenses and a team like Oklahoma City that, as we both predicted, Oklahoma City's better than I think people thought

because they play so hard and Westbrook's been so good, but still ugly to watch. His athleticism is breathtaking. Well, don't tell me about ugly. Well, yeah. I live in a city with the ugliest basketball, ugliest professional basketball. It was so hard to predict. I mean, who could have saw it coming? Who could have saw Bradley Beal's injury problems this season and just a lack of cohesion?

Well, so you wouldn't trade John Wall yet? No. He's the only guy I would pay to see. That's the problem that I have. I understand the conundrum. What if I gave you Isaiah Thomas in my 2018 Brooklyn pick? The problem with any trade that comes to this front office is I have absolutely no confidence whatsoever

that the franchise will do the right thing in terms of uh selecting picks identifying proper talent that is uh cohesive you use the word cohesive that actually kind of fits now the really curious thing is washington has three little nice pieces uh auto porter's emergence is yeah you know it's a good's a good thing. You know, and Beal and Wall, like, that's something you can kind of build around. What is incredible, breathtaking, is how bad the rest of the team is. They have six players. They have six NBA-caliber players on this team,

and it's not because of anything other than poor team building. They let four guys go last year that were replacement-level players and replaced them with, you know, what's ten times worse than replacement level? Whatever that is. Crap. Basement players. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

See, you didn't like their moves this summer, is what you're telling us. The bench is historically bad. Would you do the Markeith Morris trade again? Sure, sure. That was a reasonable thing to do under the circumstances. That pick, that 13th pick is the Greek that's sitting on the bench or still in Greece.

Maybe he's on the beach right now. Do you think anyone listening to this podcast, none of whom care about the Wizards, realized that – No, but do you think they realized that Marcus Thornton, Trey Burke, Tomas Sadoransky, Andrew Nicholson, and Jason Smith are all playing for your team in a rotation? It feels like there was a plane crash and we had to go get players from a whole bunch of other, you know, assemble a team. It's like an expansion team.

Yeah. Well, the good news is there's a guy named... I don't mean to make a joke about plane crashes or anything. Oh, stop it. Don't get all PC on us. Stop it. All right. I'm just saying.

You get the point I'm making. Yeah. There's a guy named House on your team, though. Yes. He hurt his wrist, so he's not playing. But he played one game. But I'm still working on my House jersey. He played a minute.

Yeah, I know. He's good. Club Trillion! Tate likes him. Club Trillion for House! Have you listened to Tate and Titus doing the teed-up college basketball podcast? I haven't had a chance yet. I've deliberately put that off because, you know,

I don't really start engaging in college basketball until Christmas, so when I can really start watching the games. But I'm very excited to listen to those two hosts. It looks like it's going to be a really good top-shelf talent college basketball season. I love watching UCLA, even though I thought Lonzo was a little disappointing in Kentucky. I was all ready to call him the next Jason Kidd, but

I don't think he's defensively what Kidd was like even in college. The offense, the way he sees the court, the way he moves the ball, all of it's there. He's going to be a really fun pro. I'd like to see him be a two-way guy like Kidd was. The Fultz is the guy. Jarks on the ringer has been pushing Fultz pretty hard.

And he's at Washington. His teammates are terrible. He can basically do everything. He's a little Westbrookie is, is the best way I'd describe him, but six, six. And,

uh, I want to watch more of him because I think he's going to end up being the number one pick unless Jason Tatum just kicks everybody's ass. What do you think? You like Jason Tate? Tate's a hard guy to ask cause he hates Duke. No, I like you even like to even,

even Tate appreciates Jason Tatum. So there's good guys in college hoops. All right. We got to do the Callaway par three. Why don't you tell the listeners really quickly in less than 15 seconds about Callaway? Holiday season, let it snow. Birdies, give the gift of forgiveness with the big berth of fusion. Callaway's most forgiving driver ever.

Or let a loved one unwrap explosive distance with a set of brand new steelhead irons. The full list of holiday ideas is at CallawayGolf.com. Go on there, order something for a loved one, and enter in promo code HOUSE. Free shipping with the promo code HOUSE. CallawayGolf.com. That was like 23 seconds. You and Shack House did a podcast for The Ringer where you were so excited about Tiger, you just had to do a podcast. I gave him all A's.

We did a grading. It's so sad. You guys are so sad. It's really terrible. Who's sad? How many double bogeys did Tiger have? Like six? Six, yeah.

So what? Great, what a comeback. Did you see him play? Oh my God. What do you mean? Let me bounce my son on my lap and we can talk about Tiger. Dude. That's fine.

The bar was, don't keel over. He played four rounds. He shot a 60-effing five on Friday. Yeah. What place did he finish? He was awesome. Okay. Who cares?

He played. He played all four rounds. I could care less. All right, so that's the bar. If that's our bar, that's fine. We're happy that Tiger played four consecutive rounds of golf and didn't shoot an 80. That's where we are? And led the field in birdies, buddy.

He and the guy who won the tournament had the same number of birdies. Except for, it's too bad about all those double bogeys. I bet the guy who won the tournament didn't have six double bogeys. Yeah, well, he hasn't played competitive golf in 466 days.

I have my guard up. Pretty good showing. Can I just have my guard up? Go ahead, that's fine. I'm going to keep my guard up. Pretty good showing. Can I just have my guard up? Go ahead. That's fine. I'm going to keep my guard up. You don't want to be disappointed again. I understand that.

I don't want to be hurt. No, it's not disappointing. I don't want to be hurt. I don't want to be hurt again. My feelings get hurt again. Tiger's not going to hurt you. Speaking of feelings getting hurt, we did bad on Callaway Par 3 last week,

and I don't want to talk about it. We're just moving on. Although I will say, I promise you we wouldn't have put Carolina in the Callaway Par 3 if we knew that Cam Newton was going to get basically shut out for the first series because of some dubious dress code violation, whatever happened there. That was bad luck on our part. I agree. In a perfect world, I think they go into Seattle and do some stuff and that obviously derailed them. We had the,

we had Washington last week in Arizona, which I would, a pick at that I would probably make again. And then who did you take on your side?

I took, you know, I took the Falcons and Matty Ice decided to give the Kansas City, I mean, yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs

eight points. He personally gave them eight points and then Kansas City also scored a touchdown on a fake punt. So, Kansas City scoring the way that Kansas City scores, and Atlanta couldn't keep up with them. They lost

by a point. That was the most Kansas City way for the Chiefs to win. I didn't know Matty Ice was due for one of his... Hello, my friend. I have some points for you. Here they are. I was scared of that game, because I'm was due for one of his, oh, hello, my friends. I have some points for you. Here they are. Yeah. I was scared of that game because I'm just scared of the Chiefs in general. I thought the line was too high.

Well, they've now demonstrated what a force they are to be reckoned with. The three wins they've had, going Denver, Atlanta, and Oakland, that is an impressive run right there. It's all leading to Andy screwing all of us on some tees in week 15, 16, or 17. Just ready. This is what he does. So why don't you go first? What's your pick?

I'm taking Denver. There is still some question about who's going to play quarterback, although the prevailing sentiment among the media that I've observed this morning is Simeon's playing. And Denver, at the line I saw, was Denver getting one at Tennessee. Still the line. Yeah, so I love that line. I love Denver getting points. I know that there's a lot of pent-up demand for Tennessee

to kind of get over the hump. This, to me, is a show-me game for them. They have not performed well as a favorite this season, 1-3 against the spread. And they haven't been up to the task against better competition. 0-2 against the Colts, and this is in their own division. They haven't beat the Colts or the Texans. And only two of their six wins this season against teams with winning records. So in a way, I almost don't care who Denver's quarterback is.

They're a step up in class for Tennessee, and the idea of Denver and anything less than a field goal, I'm in. So I like Denver. I think that's the right pick. I was going to take the Ravens plus seven in new england on monday night because i think that line is insane and if anyone anyone out there who doesn't think that this game is going to be a bloodbath and very close and one of those cold weather comes down on the fourth quarter 17 to 14 20 to 17 baltimore loves playing the pats. They're very confident. Their defense is good.

And I think the Pats can win. I'm just looking at the inefficiency of the line. Seven points is too high. And without Amendola and without Gronkowski, it's really hard for the Pats to make plays. The big play moment for them, especially against the Ravens, a team that doesn't really give up big plays, they're just going to have to move the ball, and they're going to have to have these 12, 13, 14, 15-yard drives. And I think it's going to be tough. I think it's a tough game, and Baltimore needs it.

And I like the way they played. I thought Baltimore was going to beat Miami last week. They killed Miami last week. And I think they're a legitimate contender. I don't know if they're as good as Dallas. I don't think they're as good as the Pats or KC. But I think they're good enough to go into New England on a Monday night and think they can win the game. They always think they can win the game when they play New England. Yeah. So with all that said, I'm not taking them because I don't want to pick against the Pats. So there's another game I really like.

I believe in Tampa. I think Tampa is a very, very solid borderline playoff team that's kind of coming into its own at the right time. They're home. They got New Orleans coming in. Division rival. New Orleans laid a nice little poop bomb last week. They're kind of up and down. I think it seems like teams, the right kind of teams have figured out what to do against them defensively. And I just believe in Tampa. And I think this is, I don't know if they're going to make the

playoffs or not, but this is kind of a game of the year type thing for them that even if they don't make the playoffs, they can look back at this and be like, Oh, remember that stretch when we rolled up, ripped off all those wins and we beat Seattle home, beat New Orleans at home. We have all this stuff to build on. And I just,

I like the spot for them. They're only laying three. It feels like that's a half point too low. I thought that line would be three and a half or four. So I'm taking Tampa. And then for, for the one we agree on where we're, where there's in the words of Fred, there I'm taking Tampa. And then for the one we agree on, where there's in the words of Fred Durst, some

agreeance, the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Yeah. With all due apologies to the Cubs. Yeah, sorry Cubs, but I like this. If this line was four or under, I liked it. Right now it's three and a

half. No JPP. The Giants are a mess. It was a very soft eight and three. They looked awful last week against Pittsburgh. Eli in particular looked awful. Their running backs are probably the worst set of running backs in the league. Just slow. They can't make any plays.

They don't really make any plays. Screen passes, all that stuff. They rely on Odell way too much. When that game slipped away from them last week, Eli just started throwing to Odell all that stuff. They rely on Odell way too much. When that game slipped away from them last week, Eli just started throwing to Odell all the time. Defensively, they have a couple guys who can make plays. They just lost one. But I thought their defense looked pretty good against Pittsburgh last week.

It was the offense that I just don't think is good enough to stay on the field. And with Dallas, you have to stay on the field offensively because if you don't, Dallas is going to have the ball for 38 minutes. And I actually think Dallas can win this game by 15, 20 points, something like that. I think they're going to dominate the Giants. The scary thing is we are in real agreement, real agreeance on this. I think Dallas is going to roll.

Since week seven, your observation about the Giants on offense, since week seven the Giants, and this is straight out of Mr. Clark's column this week, the Giants are 30th in the NFL in total offense. The only teams worse in offense since week seven, the LA Rams and the Cleveland Browns. I love that Lombardi calls them the Ponzi scheme of the NFL because the numbers don't add up. I mean, he's right. The Giants were outclassed last week by Pittsburgh,

and they're again going up against a team that is top-notch class. That six-game winning streak was all smoke and mirrors. The teams that they beat have a collective 23-42 record. So, you know, congratulations. I think the Giants are—I really do think that the Washington-New York Giants last game of the season is going to be for a playoff berth for like a 9-7 kind of team. I mean, I think that's how the direction this is headed in. There's one other wrinkle

to this game. I love Dallas anyway, but if Green Bay somehow beats Seattle at home, which is, Dallas is Sunday night, the Green Bay Seattle is at 425. Dallas can basically finish off the NFC

by winning this Giants game. And pretty much lock down a one seed. I think the only team at that point that could mess with them is, amazingly, the Lions. You know, that would be the one team that... Not amazingly. You and Sal made a best beginning of the season. There's nothing amazing about it. You guys, you crowned their ass.

I know. We did have the Tampa over and the Oakland over, so I feel we're going to use that money to pay off the house mortgages we put on the Lions. But Dallas basically would wrap up everything in that scenario. I don't know what to expect against Green Bay and Seattle. I think Seattle is Jekyll and Hyde, and I'm not sold on Green Bay whatsoever. It's amazing that they're getting three points in a must-win game at Lambeau

against a team that they've played some great games. Why? Why is that amazing? It's just that we're here. We watched them this season. I know, but that we're here. And there's nothing about Lambeau that, you know, the Colts went into Lambeau and beat the crap out of Brebe. I know.

The Colts. I'm just crazy that we got to this point, that this is going to be a cold December Lambeau must-win Packers game. It's like exactly the spot you'd want to be in if you're the Packers and they're getting three points. That's an indictment on you. And they're getting points. You're right.

Hey, before we go, who do you like in what probably is the worst football game of this month, the Jets at San Francisco? San Francisco laying three. I can't believe. I remain, it's been four days since Monday night. I still can't believe the Jets no-show. I mean, it's too early believe the Jets no-show.

I mean, it's too early in the season for no-shows. Are you talking about last week? Last Monday? This Monday? They quit on Bunny Colvin. Yeah, this Monday. Bunny Colvin. They quit!

Not since Amsterdam quit on Bunny Colvin did anyone quit on Bunny Colvin like the Jets did. Wow. I mean, a week 13 quit job, though. On Monday night. Like, that's a real F-you. You know what I mean? Like, hey quit job, though, on Monday night. Like, that's a real F you. You know what I mean? Like, hey, everybody, watch this. Bunny Colvin's taken enough hits. I can't back the Jets anymore.

I have them in our wins pool, and I don't think they're going to win anymore. Let's name this. We have the Callaway par three. Let's name this another gimmick that we'll do for the last four weeks. The Callaway Duff of the Week, or the Callaway Triple three let's name this another gimmick that we'll do for the last four weeks the Callaway duff of the week or the Callaway triple bogey of the week or the Callaway I just called the tiger double bogey the Callaway I just broke my iron because it hit a rock game of the week I I like the Niners I Bryce Petty I like the Niners too I watched the fourth quarter of the Colts game

because I was in a hotel room waiting for the NBA highlights to come on. And Bryce Petty threw the worst pass I've seen in like four years. It was an out pass to a cornerback that was sprinting toward intercepting it. And it was just so horrible. You must have missed all of Paxton Lynch's performance then. He's pretty bad. Great facial hair though. He missed all of paxton lynch's performance then he's pretty bad great facial he missed all four of his deep anyway i i interrupted you isn't it isn't it crazy though like dallas was trying to get paxton lynch and they kind of just stumble into dac prescott who's

a million times better and now is they're probably their number one reason that they could make the Super Bowl. And to it feels so unfair that Jerry Jones just need luck. Jerry Jones of all people stumbled into this, this unbelievable good luck. Why can't good luck happen here in Washington? I never, my team's never stumbled in any good luck. The good thing was that it led to Andrew Luck's postgame interview with the ESPN guys, the Jets-Colts game. With Hasselbeck.

With Hasselbeck. This guy, Matt Hasselbeck. It was just incredible seven minutes of luck. I really enjoyed it. Joe House. Hey. We will talk to you next Friday. Enjoy the weekend.

Look forward to it. All right, see you, buddy. All right, we have one more guest. We're going to call my dad to talk about the Chris Sale trade, which is probably the biggest trade the Red Sox have made in a couple years. But let's talk about a perfect mattress that sold directly to consumers. Let's talk about an award-winning sleep surface developed in-house with a sleep design, delivered in a small, how did they do that, size box.

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Get $50 toward any mattress purchase by going to casper.com slash BS and using code BS. Terms and conditions apply. Casper.com slash BS. All right, we're calling my dad Alright on the line right now My dad He turned 69 years old

In November And Has not lost the capacity To Be flabbergasted By any gigantic Red Sox trade But he liked this one

Dad You liked the Chris Sale trade Well first of all I'm not giving my age out So thanks a lot I just did I love I love the Chris Sale trade.

You know, it's funny. I was having lunch with a friend that very day, and we were talking about Sale going to the Washington Nationals and with their pitching staff, what a difference that would make. I never even thought that the Red Sox were in on Sale. I don't know about you, but it was really a complete surprise. I love the guy. I mean, I compare him to the American League version of Kershaw and the Dodgers.

And I don't know how many times you and I over the years have talked about how the Red Sox overvalue some of their top prospects. Obviously, Benintendi, Betts, Boguts, those guys turned out very well, great, as a matter of fact. But think of some of the other guys that we've overvalued that we were unwilling to trade. Kelly, Marte, Ronaldo, Owens, Johnson. I mean, the list goes on and on. So to get a pitcher like this for two guys that, you know, Kopich, I don't know how he's going to turn out.

Will he be the next Nolan Ryan, or is he going to flame out like Casey Kelly? And you and I were really down on Moncada. I mean, he couldn't hit a breaking ball for the life of him. You were more down on him than I was, just for the record. Well, I was down on him, and he's a horrific defensive player. I mean, I think his future is going to be as a designated hitter. I mean, he has the build of one of those huge Cuban guys that's going to be a power hitter if he learns to hit the breaking ball.

Wow, you just wrote off the number one prospect in baseball. You just wanted to point that out. Well, I'm not a big fan of his. Maybe they brought him up too early. All along, I thought in order to get get sale they're going to have to give up Betts or Benintendi. Didn't you think that we'd have to give up one of the guys

who we really like on our current roster? It was a lot to give up. Really they had three A-plus prospects. Benintendi they couldn't trade after what we witnessed during the season I just think you can't trade that guy and then Moncada and and uh Kopich who's probably an A not an A

plus but um I didn't think they would put both in the trade I was surprised by that and the reason I was surprised was because we've won three World Series already. We won in 2004, we won in 2007, and we won in 2013. Part of me was like, you know what? I really liked the team last year. I liked having a young team, some guys with potential, some guys hitting their early primes, and I liked the thought of just, oh, here are some more young guys,

and we're basically going to be the AL version of the Cubs if this plays out a certain way. And now it's flipped. And now it's like, we're going for a World Series these next three years. And which is great. And I would have loved it in 2003. My fear is that we didn't totally need to do this in 2016.

With all that said though, I agree with you. I couldn't even remember. I remember Tony Armast Jr. I was trying to think, I was need to do this in 2016. With all that said, though, I agree with you. I couldn't even remember. I remember Tony Armouras Jr. I was trying to think. I was talking to somebody on Wednesday night, like, who we gave up for Pedro. And I was like, yeah, those two pitchers we gave up for Pedro. It was Tony Armouras Jr. I couldn't even remember the other one.

It was Carl Pavano. At the time. Carl Pavano, yeah, yeah. At the time, everyone was like, oh, my God. Who was going to be a number one starter for us in a couple years. I mean, Kopitsch only had, you know, there's not a lot of data on him. You know, and again, he certainly is a flamethrower. How many of those flamethrowers end up with arm trouble later?

He's only 20 years old. You know my role. Yeah, I mean, I know it from being in that crazy American League only fantasy league that I'm in where we have the minor league draft. And everybody slowly realized every season we did it that the everyday guys were the guys that you wanted to keep. And the pitchers were the one you would try to trade because, you know, Tommy John surgery, guy flames out, guy gets gets back you just never know and even like when the red sox traded for gonzalez i guess five years ago whenever that was

and it was casey kelly and anthony rizzo were the two big guys in the trade casey kelly was like copich like this can't miss pitcher and was never heard from again. And then Rizzo eventually turned out to be the guy, but had to go to a second team to go. My thing is if, if one of them pans out, you're still okay with it because you get sale for three years, at least they'll probably have to redo his deal before the third year. You got to give up something to get something.

The fear is that two of the guys will pan out. And then if like three of them pan out, then it's like, oh man, why'd we do that? But it's like poker. You're playing the odds. Right. You know, their pitching staff is interesting. And we had this discussion after the playoffs when they got swept by the Indians. Purcell is a really nice number two or number three.

I know he won the Cy Young, but the year before, you look at his stats, next year it's unlikely he's going to have the same kind of season, but I love him as a two or a three. Price right now is probably a great two or a three. We didn't have that number one stud. There's only a half dozen of them out there in baseball. Right, we didn't have Kluber. And now we have one of the half dozen.

Yeah, Kluber comes in game two in that series and just wipes us out. Yeah, I mean, Kluber is a stud. Kershaw is a stud. Maybe Price three years ago was a stud. but I love our top three pitchers, and I still think, you know, everybody's chatting there's going to be a move they make. Maybe they move one of the other pitchers and restock with a couple of minor leaguers. Yeah, so I don't think they're finished. Again, I love the trade.

There's something they didn't do that I wish they had done, which was spend a little money and sign Encarnacion to be your designated hitter. I would have liked that if he would have taken three years. Yeah. But it's not going to happen. You didn't like Mitch Moreland for one year? No, not at all. I'm glad that he's a good defensive first baseman.

I had him on my fantasy team the last two years. He does have a tendency to be terrible for a while, and then all of a sudden he starts cranking out two for fours and three for fours and three for fives and four homers in a week

and he's one of those guys. It's a little like what Napoli was like. You know what their plan is though? They're going to platoon him. They're going to only he's only going to face righties

because he's a left he's a lefty obviously. Yeah, that's what Texas did. He's only going to face righties and he's going to play first base and Hanley will DH and when there's a lefty, obviously. Yeah, that's what Texas did. He's only going to face righties. Yeah. And he's going to play first base, and Hanley will DH. And when there's a lefty, you won't see more,

and you'll see Hanley at first base, and somebody else will DH. But, you know, we're going to lose a lot of power in the middle of that lineup with Ortiz gone. I know. Maybe Ortiz will come back. You know, pay a little luxury tax. I mean, they sell out almost every game. It's the highest-priced ticket in baseball.

And they should have gone after Encarnacion. Maybe sell some more Fenway Park bricks. Really, I would have bought one. I like, but again, you and I, we see these number one prospects. Ronaldo is going to be the next great pitcher coming in here and doing nothing. I'm with that. I think you're more down on Moncada than you should be, though. I just think he didn't look that good when he came up.

I didn't take anything away from it. He's so freaking fast. And I think he's going to be good on the White Sox. He's got another Cuban guy there. And I don't know. I think it's a great trade for him. I was happy for him. I liked him when he came up.

The guy that I would have traded, well, two things. One is that the Pomerantz trade. Oh, that's the one that's going to haunt them. Well, that's the thing. The pitcher they gave up in the Pomerantz trade maybe could, that's the one that's going to haunt them. Well, that's the thing. The pitcher they gave up in the Pomerantz trade maybe could have been the pitcher in this trade instead of Kopich. That's a really good point.

Because I think that probably would have been enough. So it makes me a little nervous that Dombrowski whiffed on that one. So that was one thing. The other thing is, I thought they were going to use Jackie Bradley in one of these trades because they have Benintendi,

they have Betts, one of them could play center, either of them. Bradley is great if you're not watching him day in and day out, as you know. Did you think he was ever going to get a hit in the White Sox series?

It's funny. We don't always agree, but I 100% agree with you on this one. I would have loved to have seen the trade be Kopich and Bradley. Instead of Makeda. Oh, yeah. No question. That's a no-brainer.

I mean, Bradley, he had one stretch, a streaky stretch last year, and he had that 20-plus game hitting streak. And then he was terrible. He was terrible before the stretch. He was terrible after the stretch. And like you just said, seeing him come up in the playoffs,

did you think he was even going to hit the ball? Right, and the value for him is that he's just an extraordinary defensive player. And he's a great teammate, and he's got speed, and he's going to have the stretches where he hits. But the reason I thought we would trade him is because we have guys who can play that position at almost, you know, at close to the same level defensively.

Betts turned into an unbelievable right fielder, but he would also be a really good center fielder. And I just thought, and it made me wonder, like the Pirates are shopping McCutcheon. And it made me wonder if that could be the last piece of this, if Dombrowski. Now, here's the other thing. Let me throw this out at you.

Because I agree with you on baseball prospects. You never know. But if like Danny Ainge did, if Dave Dombrowski took over the Celtics, our Brooklyn picks, every pick we have and Marcus Smart would be gone in like a week. We'd just be done. We would just have this team that was gone for the title the next three years. And that would drive us crazy if they did that in the NBA.

So why doesn't it bother us for baseball? Well, would it drive us crazy? Wasn't that the Garnett trade? And we had what turned out to be a four-year window. Are we regretting that Garnett trade? I'm not regretting it. I mean, it's too hard to win a championship. If they win the championship next year, you know,

the other thing about this team is they're always going to have money to spend. So they're always going to be able to bring in free agents. And, yeah, you give up a Kopich, but they're going to be able to go out in two or three years and pay for another stud. They have money. How much did you love that Chris Sale has the best ERA against the Yankees of any pitcher, like, ever?

Believe me, I noticed it. It's not just the Yankees. Last year he was 6-0 and an ERA below 2 against the teams in the American League East. Yeah. So, you know, he's not afraid. He loves Fenway Park. He's had quite a few quotes after the trade about loving, you know,

keep in mind he was pitching in a stadium that was half full all year long with a terrible team. And he said he loves coming to Fenway because every seed is taken. The people are rabid fans for the home team. I think he's going to eat it up. All right. My dad approves. Thumbs up.

Well, you have to give up something to get something. Did they give up too much? I guess we'll find out in the next three or four years. All right. We have to go, but before we do, on a scale of one to ten, how worried are you about the Ravens on Monday night? About an eight. Yeah, I'm like an eight and a half.

Yeah, they always play us so tough. Harbaugh seems to get under Belichick's skin a little bit. Even when Flacco seems to be having an iffy season, for some reason he always plays seemingly more often than not, he plays well against us. And they have some receivers. They have three really good receivers and a good tight end. And our defensive secondary really scares me. So, yeah, I'm a little worried.

You too? I'm worried. The line is too high, which scares me. The fact that people don't seem to realize that losing Gronkowski and Amadola is a really, really rough one, and that now you're basically going to war with Edelman and Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell and Bennett and the two running backs coming out of the backfield. And the two running backs, yeah.

That's the thing. Maybe this is the game where they— And Brady. And Brady, but, you know, 39-year-old Brady, cold-weather game, starting to hit the dregs of the season. That part worries me, too. I think this is the game that they break out the two running backs and the shotgun.

Lewis going one way and White going the other way and they start doing that stuff. This will be the game. Last two and a half games, it was obvious his knee was bothering him. They took him off the injury report. He'll be a little more mobile. Even though I'm an eight or an eight and a half worried,

I still think we're going to win the game, but I think it's going to be a real close game. I agree. It's going to be a slugfest. All right. Dad, always a pleasure. Talk to you soon. Always a pleasure.

I see that your Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Lakers, and Los Angeles Clippers are doing so well. And the Kings. Totally uncalled for. I'm glad you have nobody to root for out there. It's uncalled for. It's's uncalled for I have DirecTV I'll talk to you later Okay thanks to House and Lombardi

And my dad Thanks to Sonos The great speaker system that streams all your favorite music To any room or every room Control your music with one simple app Fill your home with pure immersive sound Add your existing music services Or discover something new Go to Sonos.com right now Thank you. Today, go to SimpliSafeBS.com, SimpliSafe with two I's. Thanks to SeatGeek. Thanks to TheRinger.com.

Thanks to PearlJam.com. Remember, PJ25 happening right now. We're in the middle of it. Go to PearlJam.com for more details. Have a great weekend. Play us out, Eddie. I don't want to see them On a way so dead and lost

Say, I don't have feelings within. On the wayside, never once said I don't have feelings within.