The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 157: Week 17 Lines With Cousin Sal

Episode Date: December 27, 2016

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons brings on Cousin Sal to discuss Cowboys-Lions and Dez Byant’s catch of the year (2:00), Derek Carr’s broken leg and the AFC West (8:00), who should be the MVP (24:00), the firing of the Ryan brothers (35:00), Cowboys-Eagles (45:00), the Raiders’ chances with Matt McGloin (55:00), and their Super Bowl predictions (59:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's hosted by me. My co-host is Chris Ryan. We did Jerry Maguire last week and it turned into a Tom Cruise fest. Sal, what are you saying on Tom Cruise? I can't remember. I like Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise settled a big beef between me and Jeffrey Ross. Yeah, there you go. So you should listen to this podcast. We settled things like, what's the best Tom Cruise movie ever? Why does Tom Cruise love crying so much? Why does Tom Cruise love running in his movies so much? Those questions, many more,

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Check it out on TheRinger.com. Cousin Sal, on the line from a remote location. We're ready to go. Let's do it. All right, on the line, the Cubs. A dramatic win by the Cowboys last night. We made history. We had this big bet on the Lions not to make the playoffs. And instead of hedging against it last week, we bet on the Cowboys, which I was really

proud of us. But it was tainted. The win was tainted by you suffered... I don't know if it was the most painful fantasy football loss of all time, but it's in the top three that I can ever remember. You have a big lead. You're going into the Monday night game.

You had the Dallas kicker. You're up by at least... What were you up by, 20 points? No, 16 points, 16-plus points. And I had Bailey, and he had Des Bryant, who, you know, Des is great and everything. But I think his best game this year was 17 points or something. Been complaining all year that they haven't been looking his way. But no one cares about anyone's fantasy score.

But I ended up losing 131.15 to 129.75 and not only did i lose i lost not kidding three hours sleep last night so i just could not shake it no i it was one of the best losses that i could ever remember because it was your team it was a receiver that as you said had not had a big year all year and had not had the explosive game it's a game that you weren't even sure if you're going to play the starters the whole time right in the second half i think you had you're up by like seven or eight points des throws a touchdown which i i think it was the first pass of his career i was like all right but still he hadn't taken the lead on you yet. And then you're up 14.

They're throwing the ball anyway for some reason, and he catches a garbage-time touchdown pass, and you lose by a point and a half. And this is our fantasy league where you vote somebody out if you win the league. And you went from you had the hammer, which you love. You would have tortured everyone for nine months. Yeah.

Versus now you're in real danger. Real danger because I voted this team out. It's been years now, but yeah, it's all up for grabs now. And I want to thank you for reminding me as if I wasn't watching every minute, second of every play, you text me

after Dez's touchdown pass like, Hey, Dez is kind of creeping up on you now. Thanks. I'm not paying attention. Like, hey, Dez is kind of creeping up on you now. Thanks, Devin. I'm not paying attention. And screw you, CBS fantasy stat engine, who had me up 98% to 2% going into that last drive. They are scumbags. CBS used to be a reputable institution.

I think Dan Rather is rolling in his grave. Soon to be grave. That is just crazy to me. Well, you know what's even crazier that you lost on Dez throwing a touchdown pass is it was a great play, and I had no idea Dez was left-handed. I didn't either, yeah. I have no idea why they would waste that play in this meaningless game that they had already clinched a one seed.

There's no reason to even do any chicanery at all. And now everyone knows Dez is left-handed and you can't run that play again. Right. We'll talk about it later, I'm sure. But Kansas City did a similar thing with a 400-pound lineman throwing a touchdown pass in a basically meaningless game. Well, not a meaningless game, but they were up by a ton with two minutes left. Yeah, why show your hand like this? Can I start a new game show called

If Belichick Had Done That... No, that's pretty good. If Belichick had rubbed it in against the Broncos with the heaviest guy in the team throwing a touchdown pass with like two minutes left when they were already winning the game, the internet would have folded for about 24 hours about what a dick he was. And yet, Andy Reid does it, and it's so cute. And oh, don't Terry Poe. And I just want to point out, I want to point out the hypocrisy in the football world.

How about this? Kansas City needs Denver to beat Oakland to get a two seed this week. And they rub it in on Denver. I don't know how hard I'm trying if I'm the Broncos now I know they're professionals and they have to try hard but maybe you sit guys earlier than you might have because of coach Reed's shenanigans I still want to know why I thought it was such a lock that Detroit was gonna be Dallas on Monday night when Dallas had already quenched. And I totally forgot until you reminded me late yesterday afternoon that, yeah,

it probably a bad idea for Dallas to shut it down for a solid month before their run to playoff game. Cause I was. That and Zekiel Elliott had a record to possibly break and things like that. You did a nice job because I was in, I'm in the super contest and I've had the most dramatic comeback of all time. I was 16-28. More dramatic than Saving Private Ryan?

More dramatic than that. More dramatic than just about anything. And I had a chance to be 41-35 or 42. I forget what it is. And I just thought the Lions plus seven against a team that had already clinched. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to figure out this week 16, week 17, when teams have clinched, what their motivations are. There's no right answer.

It seems like it depends on the team and the coach and weird variables like Ezekiel 8 wants to set some record that I didn't even – did you know who had that record before he broke whatever the record was last night? I didn't even know that. What if we had a conversation? The big record's Dickerson, the one he's chasing, the rookie record, right? He's probably not going to get that.

Yeah, but did you even know that was a record? Not really. I mean, a couple weeks ago, it reminded me of it, but no, I didn't. If I had asked you in August what that record was, would you have remembered? Oh, no. No, no. It's like in the NBA. They're always like, Westbrook has this many triple doubles,

and here's the record of all the leaders in triple doubles. It's like I've never had a conversation in my life about career leaders in triple doubles. It's like this media manufactured record. Who cares? Yeah. No, that was insane. Like you said, we had this parlay with no playoffs for San Francisco, record. Who cares? Yeah. That was insane.

Like you said, we had this parlay with no playoffs for San Francisco, Cleveland, easy, easy, and Detroit. And not only do we not hedge, we go with the Cowboys. We made a money-line parlay with some teams we think need to win this coming Sunday. And what is something in the air,

Bill? This doesn't make sense. If you look back at our history, it doesn't make sense that we win or is just Green Bay just going to tank it now what's going to happen how are we going to get beaten on this well that'll be that's really the only interesting line we have to guess when we do the week 16 lines is

what happens in the Green Bay Detroit game because we're taping this on a Tuesday morning for whatever reason every scenario got kind of banged out over Saturday and Sunday I really thought week 17 was going to be a lot more interesting and instead you know I guess can Casey get to the two seed is mildly interesting the the the crazy stuff that happened were all the quarterback injuries with three broken legs on Saturday and Sunday, Tyler Lockett.

And then the two quarterbacks, Mariota and Derek Carr. And the Mariota one is a bummer. He was having a good season, but Tennessee wasn't going to make the playoffs. The Carr thing really shifted the AFC in my opinion, because I think Oakland was the only team that could have gone into New England and really threatened them.

I think they could have run and thrown the ball on the Pats and at least turned it into a shootout. And that's not happening with Matt McGloin. They were a very solid team, and now they're going to be a two-seed who's almost definitely, if they are a two-seed, they're going to be a two-seed definitely loses at home uh in their first game and yeah congratulations to your patriots you've done it again somehow i know i don't i don't well it's and i mean we lost gronkowski that was our best offensive player but they kind of kept rolling but i texted this

to you yesterday i don't i don't mean to sound overconfident because I'm not, because I think there's multiple teams that could beat this Patriots team. I just don't think any of them are in the AFC. And the AFC, this is the weakest two through six playoff roster I can remember. There's almost no sleeper. Anyone who throws Pittsburghittsburgh at me he's got to be kidding like that defense can't stop anyone baltimore they had wide open guys they had wide open guys that whole game and if flacco had played better i think baltimore would

add 40 points um right and and as we talked about last week, Roethlisberger's really sloppy. I know he turned it on there in the fourth quarter, but he had another two terrible picks, and I think he had two more plays that were picks that were dropped or could have been picked. It's funny. We went back and forth about what game matters this week and what game doesn't, and then we realized Pittsburgh doesn't matter.

They're locked into the three seed, right? Yeah. But that said, and for the reasons you just brought up, Roethlisberger should play that whole game. I mean, this is a scrimmage against the Cleveland team that they won their big game, they won their game last week, and that'll be it. But he's not right.

He's not in sync with any of these receivers. And, yeah, he should play. He should get it going again. That's one team that shouldn't rest their starters yeah i don't think he looks that good and i don't think they're look if you're going to beat the patriots it's you have to stop the patriots offensively and you have to keep it there we know what the recipe is it's these 17 to 14 20 to 17 these games where you keep the patriots off the field you pressure brady you you keep coming at him you keep knocking him down there is not an afc team that can do that and what's interesting is there's a bunch of nfc teams that can do it

but in the afc i don't see it and weirdly Baltimore I thought had the best chance to be that team and then you watch Pittsburgh just walked all over them what did you think of I felt like the announcers weren't excited about it enough that they threw over the middle to Antonio Brown if he doesn't extend

if he gets tackled at the half yard line the game's over there's no way they get to the line of scrimmage. There's no way they get to the line of scrimmage in time. Yeah, I mean, you have three guys converging. If Mosley doesn't slip up there, he just, like, loses his feet. And that's it. And I don't know.

Otherwise, I think that game is over. Yeah, the Nalters didn't make that big a deal of it. I thought they should have. I thought it was a really ballsy call. I just was expecting the terrible fade route followed by the field goal followed by overtime. It's interesting, though. Baltimore had bad luck in that game because if the guy falls down, the Raven running into the – I don't blame them for scoring the touchdown,

but if he falls down on the two-yard line, they win the game. I think they would have scored. How much time was left? There was like a minute 20, but I don't know how he stayed up. He was stumbling for seven yards. Right, right, right. That was nuts. What did you think of having all the Saturday games and then the two Sunday games?

I kind of liked it. I didn't like it. I don't know. I was getting, you know, I'm getting texts on Christmas Eve because we had somewhere to go that night. And it was just, you know, what time are you going to be home? And I went to a bar, pathetically, on Christmas Eve to watch the games. And you really liked it? I'd rather have had Sunday.

I liked having December NFL on Saturday. I really think that they should dump the Thursday games and make a big push for post Thanksgiving, like two Saturday games every weekend. Right. I'd be more into that. That's not bad. I just don't like the full slate on Saturday. And why not do it this week too? Like New Year's Eve, have them on New Year's Eve and give us the bowl games on New Year's Day like you always do. Now it's all back to Sunday. I didn't understand that really. I'll tell you who didn't like it was my wife who got fed up about late Saturday afternoon then didn't realize there was more on Sunday and then last night had just had it

and just didn't understand why there was more football. It was like three straight days of football basically. I'm betting the longest touchdown on every bowl game. Right now, Army is playing. I don't even know who the hell anyone's playing, but Army's playing North Texas. The longest touchdown is 45 and a half yards. I'm betting the over

because there's always some crazy kickoff. I say there's always some crazy kick return, but I'm probably about 50-50 on these. The point is, the television is always on. There's always a football game on in my house and yeah my wife has had enough too the basketball i i just couldn't believe how good the uh the calves warriors game was the house that i talked last week i was saying how just every year the marquee christmas game sucks i thought the celtics knicks had a chance to be the best game. And it actually was a very good game.

Really good ending. But Warriors-Cavs was just fascinating. And I really wonder. I don't know. That was the first time I started to wonder about the Warriors being this lock. Because Durant had the ball so much in the fourth quarter, and Curry and Thompson were basically like side pieces. And I don't know, it throws them off a little bit.

And the ratings were better than game one of the NBA championship last year. You know what's funny, though? The NFL still had 4 million more viewers on NFL Network than ABC, the best possible regular season NBA game. Like, the NFL still wins. Did it really? Yeah. The NFL, so that Monday night game last night was the second, no, it was the most watched Monday night football game in two years. And, you know, Roger Goodell and everything else, give fantasy football a round of applause, Roger Goodell,

because that's the only reason people are watching that game. They're not looking out for cutaways of Jim Bob Cooter. They couldn't care less. And the Cowboys. A lot of fantasy games. Yeah, Cowboys-Lions. Let's be honest. If the Cowboys were 4-12 this season and, I don't know, theolina was in their place or something as like the dominant

fc team the ratings are 20 percent lower for these night games the cowboys yeah help to save the nfl every time they're in a night game the ratings are gigantic there's five generations of cowboys fans they're by far the most popular team in the NFL, and I think it really helps. And the Romo thing helped. Can you – I want you to swear on your kids' lives on this one. When Dak was scrambling a couple times yesterday and took some big hits, you were kind of hoping it would take a second for him to get up. Just be honest. Just be honest.

Like there's one lick that he took. I have to swear on all the kids, or can I pick a kid? You can pick a kid. Pick one kid. All right. I'm going to swear on Jack that no, I'm not. No, no, no. I want Jack.

No, that guy doesn't get hurt. He takes giant monster hits, and he does not get hurt. I didn't realize until yesterday when the next coach of the St. Louis Rams, John Gruden, said that Prescott was 240 pounds. Oh, yeah. He's a monster. That's a big dude, man. Culpepper was right around that, wasn't he? Wasn't Culpepper like 245?

Same thing. That doesn't seem that big. He takes his big hits out of bounds. And by the way, I think that's an extra FU to me that Dez Bryant ended up with more touchdown passes than Tony Romo this year. Thank you for that. What would the odds have been on that in August? That's like a million to one. Probably seven or eight to one.

Yeah. Can we just point out? I just want to point out very quickly that the Lions are not a good football team. And the advanced metrics confirm this. The fact that the comeback wins and all the weird stuff that they had, I think the odds for all their comebacks were something like 1.5 million to one or some crazy odds for the six comebacks to unfold the way they did. And they had no chance of stopping you that whole game. Your offense is really good, but it's not that good.

You could have scored 70 points in that game if you wanted to. Oh, just because of that game. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's see what Aaron Rodgers does. So you expect a blowout then? No, because. No.

I mean, it should be the same type of thing. They definitely have a better offense than the Cowboys. It looks too obvious is the only thing. Hey, we have to do our shot of the week, our Don Julio shot of the week. Yeah, well, how are we going to do this? Oh, I have an idea. So I think we should do UFC 207. I don't know anything about this.

All right, go ahead. Which is Friday night for our shot of the week. Both of us like Amanda Nunez. Oh, right. We have her on another crazy parlay over Ronda Rousey. Right. Right. So we jumped on this.

We did a three-team human parlay when these odds came out, with Pittsburgh to win the AFC North, Seattle to win the NFC West, and Nunez was like plus 200 at that point. And I called you, and do you want to imitate what I said? Yeah, why don't you play the recording when I called you?

Oh. I like this girl. I don't know what her name is, but she's an Amazon. She's gonna beat the crap out of Ronda Rousey. Nunez, that's it. Nunez, Seattle, Pittsburgh. Put me down. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I was like,

this Nunez is a beast. She destroyed, I think it was Holly Holm. It was one of those. I can't keep track of everybody in that division. She's the scariest person I've seen in that division. I really think

that knockout broke Rousey. All the pieces I'm reading about it, I just think that you have a crushing knockout like that, and you're just not the same afterwards. And I don't think she's going to be the same. So this is our Don Julio shot, you're saying? Right now, Nunez is plus 115. so this is our Don Julio shot you're saying right now Nunez is plus 115 oh wow

so she went from being a 2 to 1 underdog to this is going to be even I think by the time the fight rolls around so I think we're in a good shot so if Ronda Rousey wasn't Ronda Rousey Nunez would be probably minus 300 if she didn't have the name Ronda Rousey, Nunez would be probably minus 300. Yeah. If she didn't have the name

Ronda Rousey and everyone believes in her and wants her to make this comeback for the sport, this would be lopsided. You and I have been talking about this. We've been doing this podcast for almost 10 years now. MMA and boxing, name recognition and popularity

and past performance swings the lines more than any other sport. It's people betting on things that used to happen instead of things that are about to happen. And you see it over and over and over again. You name the boxer who is past their prime or the MMA person right after they got knocked out. I mean, Tyson was favored. Wait, remember Tyson Lennox Lewis? I think that fight was almost even. Tyson was favored. Wait, remember Tyson-Lennox-Lewis? Mm-hmm.

I think that fight was almost even. Lennox, he had no chance of beating Lennox-Lewis, but it's always— People love betting Tyson. I was going to throw in, even a cooler tattoo in a boxing or MMA matchup lends itself to the line. You probably get another minus 160 off of that. Hey, so New Year's Eve coming up. Don Julio, the world's original handcrafted tequila with multiple unique tequilas, including

Don Julio 1942, the best luxury tequila you ever drink. We had the Ringer party. I had some bottles of 1942, the Ringer holiday party. I refused to let the bartender bring them out. I was like, no way. Really? No, I'm not wasting this on these people. I want this for myself.

They don't get this. It's not happening. So that's the lesson. Buy this stuff and never use it. Never use it. Quick break to talk about our friends at Sling TV. Please tell me you're not spending your football weekends hoping a friend won't invite you over

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You're ready to go. Watch live football and more for seven days free. Just use this URL, sling.com slash Bill Simmons, and get Sling TV on your favorite device. Restrictions apply. Sling.com slash Bill Simmons. All right, a couple quick NFL things before we go to the Lions. Because the Lions are stupid this week. I mean, we're going to skip over like half of them.

We're going to do them quickly. But remember we talked before this season about how 10, 12, 15 years ago, every year in the playoffs, six teams would get bounced out from the previous playoffs. And you'd have to pick which six would come in. And this decade, for whatever reason, that switched to, there were always like eight or nine or maybe even ten holdovers, and only two, three, or four teams would get bounced out.

This year, we're back to the old way. We lost Denver, Denver, Carolina, Arizona, Minnesota, Cincinnati, and we might lose Washington or Green Bay. So we're going to lose six playoff teams from last year. So we've gone back to the old way. Three of last year's Final Four are out. Yeah. That's crazy.

We lost multiple teams that people were picking to make the Super Bowl again, including Minnesota, which was everybody's choice to be this year's Carolina, even after they made the Sam Bradford trade. Carolina, we did our wins pool. They were the first pick. So, especially

strange NFL season. Not as strange as this, though. Kirk Cousins needs 370 yards to be the sixth QB ever to throw for 5,000 yards. Name me another weirder thing that's happened in the NFL this year than that. He's going to be a 5,000 yard...

He needs 370 for 5,000 yards. That's bizarre. Drew Brees only needs like 120. Do you know this will be his fifth 5,000-yard season? Yeah, that I knew. That I knew.

He lights it up every year. Yeah. Here's another one. I couldn't find MVP odds anywhere. And we've argued all year about who the MVP of the league is, and I don't know if there's a right answer. I don't understand why it's not Matt answer. I don't understand why it's not Matt Ryan. Why isn't Matt Ryan the MVP? He right now is 46-13 passing yards. He's got a 115 QB rating. Him and Brady are 10 points ahead of everybody else. They've already scored over 500

points. They're going to be a two seed. He hasn't had Julio Jones for the last five or six weeks. He's thrown to Sanu and Taylor Gabriel and all these dudes that nobody would have ever picked in their fantasy draft in August or early September. I don't understand why Matt Ryan isn't the MVP. What am I missing? He should be up there. I think it's opposite of what you talk about with the boxing MMA matchups that we kind of think we know what's going to happen to Matt Ryan in the playoffs. And I think some voters might be tainted that way. But, no, of course he's top three right now. I think your guy, Brady, Ezekiel Elliott, and Matt Ryan, I would say.

I think they're the closest race in years, though. I think Hall was right there, too, before last week, and probably still should be. I love Tom Brady. He's a very important person in my life. I knew you'd admit it eventually. I consider him a family member. He's not the MVP.

I don't think he's been good enough and important enough this year to make up for the four games that he missed, and also the schedule that they've played you know if Garoppolo was the QB would we have gone 10-6? probably I agree

but if Matt Ryan's backup if Matt Ryan's backup had played the whole year I don't know I just don't think he's gotten enough credit for the the Julio Jones part of it and then here here's the other thing. They're 10-5 right now. They had three losses that you just have to look at and go, wow. So week six, Seahawks. The Seahawks won the game by two, but if you remember, Julio Jones, the fourth down play, 100% of pass interference, and they didn't call.

Remember that? Yep, sure. If they get that, that's a field goal, they win. I thought that was the worst missed call the entire season. The next week, they lost to the Chargers in overtime, which was an either-or game, whatever, but a game that they totally could have won. But then the other really terrible loss was week 13.

They beat the chiefs. The game was over. All they had to do is kick, kick the extra point. And instead, or it would have been, uh, it was 28. No, they, yeah, they would have won. And instead the chiefs get the blocked kick for the two-point. No, that's not what happened. They threw a pick.

They're going for the two-point. Right, and the Chiefs came back. Right, that was Matt Ryan's fault. That was Matt Ryan's fault, but that was a stupid play. Right. Yeah. No, I agree, but it should have been something else. Right.

So right now they're 10-5, but, man, that's like three plays go differently, and that team is a two-loss team. I don't know. I think they've been good. They've played a lot of good defenses. Barnwell did a good job of laying out the case for them on Monday, and I had texted you even before that saying, like, I thought the Falcons passed. You love them.

You love them. If they could jump to a two-seed, I thought the Falcons, Falcons- You love them. You love them. If they could jump to a two seed, that's the team you'd be most afraid of in the NFC. Well, no, I still think the Giants are scary. I think all the NFC teams are scary except the Seahawks. I don't think the Seahawks can block. But I think Dallas- I'm going to regret saying this, but bring the Giants on. They're not beating us

not beating Dallas three times if the Giants are playing the Packers you're damn sure I'm rooting for the Giants there's no question about it well I texted you I think the Falcons were 8-1 Falcons-Pats Super Bowl was 8-1 that's already dropped

to plus 675 and it's going to continue to drop because people are going to look at this. If the Falcons get the two seed, then they're going to play, I think, Seattle. Seattle, eventually. Man, I'd be shocked if they didn't beat Seattle. And then they just said – If they were home for Seattle, you're saying? Yeah.

I don't like the way Seattle's playing at all. And I think they've had too many injuries at this point. They can't block. They lost Lockett, which is they lost both of their big play guys. They lost Lockett and Procise. And now Doug Baldwin has to be their big play guy. And, you know, he had a huge game last weekend. But I think you could take out Doug Baldwin. And I think Atlanta's going to be able to pressure them, too.

So can Atlanta go into Dallas and match points with you? Yes And I think Atlanta's going to be able to pressure them too. So can Atlanta go into Dallas and match points with you? Yes. I think they could. But you know, I think they stay out of cold weather. They're okay. That's one thing we haven't seen from them. If they go to Seattle, it's a different story. Yeah, but that's my point though.

We're not going to see them in cold weather. It reminds me of that Saints year when the Saints never had to play outside of a dome. Well, here's my point. So you're saying they win the two-seed. Now, we know everything gets screwed up in Week 17. Six teams need to win. If you made a 16-money line parlay, you would lose it.

You're going to win five. Some stupid Morton Anderson miss or something, you know. We remember from years ago. So out of the teams that need to win Atlanta, we won't count Green Bay, Detroit, cause they both need to win Atlanta, New England, Washington, who else? Casey and Seattle. Someone goes down. Yeah, I agree. And I, and I don't think Atlanta at New Orleans is a sure thing.

But it's indoors for them. And with the offense that they have, they're going to be able to put up points. I would say Oakland at Denver is the one that would, that seems like the biggest red flag to me. I didn't even include that one, because that's Denver's favorite, as we'll get to. But yeah, it's weird.

Casey at San Diego normally would make me nervous, but this Chargers season has fell apart six weeks ago. And I can't imagine why any Chargers fans would even go to that game after you lose to the Browns. Let's run through these. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it quick. We'll get to them. So let's do Baltimore-Cincinnati.

Meaningless game. Oh, yeah. So we have six completely meaningless games. So let's bang through those really quick. Yeah, you bracketed these off into a nice grouping. So Baltimore-Cincinnati, what did you say? I had Ravens by five. All right.

I said Cincinnati by two and a half. Cincinnati by two. It's at Baltimoreinnati by two it's at baltimore you were white no no at cincinnati oh that's why i guessed it wrong here we go i thought it was a baltimore no cincinnati so uh ravens over on there's eight and a half so they have a chance to uh move uh over or under that number. Second game, let's go Carolina at Tampa Bay. I can't believe that. So I deserve to lose that because I thought the Ravens were home.

I agree. Whenever you can't read the schedule, you deserve to lose. Yeah, I deserve to lose. You just can't read who's on the left and who's on the right. Who do you think is a better football team, the Ravens or Miami? Well, the Ravens killed Miami. They beat them by like four touchdowns three weeks ago. So I think they're better suited for the playoffs. I think they had a tougher run or something.

I think Miami just seems like they haven't – I guess they have some decent wins. But I would say the Ravens are better built. No, they really don't. Here are Miami's wins. Cleveland, they won in Pittsburgh. They beat the Bills and the Jets. They beat the Chargers, the Rams, the Niners, the Cardinals, the Jets, and the Bills.

It is such a garbage 10-5. But congratulations. Wow, you're right. I didn't realize. Yeah. I usually don't like to pull a plug on it because I didn't have the teams in front of me. I'm like, I'm just going to take shit for this. Someone's going to write in. But you're right.

That Pittsburgh win was their best win. Didn't make any sense. All right. We're home for that. Five more minutes. Carolina, Tampa Bay. I had the Bucs by three. I said three and a half.

It's up to six. Is Cam not playing? The win number. Cam's up to six is Cam not playing? Cam's playing Doug Martin's not playing I don't understand that six seems too high I gotta hate week 17 yeah it's really bad

if you listen to us on anything don't bet on week 17 Jacksonville at Indiana Indianapolis yeah it's not Indiana just the city Colts by seven? We both said seven.

It's five. Okay. Thank you for a nothing season, both of you teams. Chicago at Minnesota. I had the Vikings by six. All right, I had six also. It's five and a half, so we split that. What a weird...

We weren't talking about the mutiny? Yeah. The mutiny in Minnesota? And then it wasn't a mutiny, but it still feels like it might talk about the mutiny the mutiny in minnesota and then it wasn't a mutiny but it still feels like it might have been a mutiny the whole thing was weird we decided to do our own thing no no they didn't no they did but something really weird happened and it really does seem like that the the vikings fell apart internally and we should have saw when north turner quit during the season

that maybe that should have been a bigger red flag than we realized. Yeah, I mean, I think it was like two weeks before that. But, yeah, this is a legitimate mutiny, like a pirate mutiny. Like the head coach is wearing an eye patch for crying out loud. He should have a parrot on his shoulder week 17. It's very strange. I don't remember a year where defenses were calling out offenses more, defenses were turning

on coaches and all that, but I do know the Vikings over-under was 9, and they were 5-0, and they're not going to get there. Unbelievable. And they killed your Winspool team, too. Yeah, they killed the Wins. I had Matt Barkley. I had a DraftKings team. I actually

finished in second place and won money, which I was excited about. But I had Matt Barkley as my DraftKings sleeper quarterback. He was just – he threw five picks, Sal. He had five? He threw five picks and still had like 300-plus yards and two TDs. But he went from, hey, Matt Barkley, this guy could be the next whatever to be like, yeah, he threw five picks.

It's not happening. I still kind of like him, but ugh. But he's the old Matt Stafford. Matt Stafford passed the Matt torch to Matt Barkley. He might have. You're a good garbage time fantasy quarterback maybe. What's weird is I still kind of like him, but five picks is that's really,

I don't know what happened to him. I'm really disappointed. Plus, it was against the Redskins. It's not like he was playing against the 85 Bears. It was really bad. All right, next one. It would be weird if he was playing his own team, the 85 version of his team.

Buffalo with the Jets. Wow. Rex Ryan, what a way to go out with that game. Just a comedy of errors. Well, you saw that they were fired, right? Like five minutes before this podcast. Yeah, he probably was. So many dumb things. No, they were. The Ryan brothers were fired.

Oh, that happened? Yeah. Yeah, it happened. Oh, okay. Yeah, it just happened, like right before we went on. Yeah, you're right. I don't remember a head coach wanting to be fired more than Rex. He could have shit in the owner's Tesla and not been as disrespectful as he was in some of the play calling in that game Sunday.

The play calling? Yeah, if you'd bet Buffalo in that game, you probably had to take like a three-hour walk after. And I did. I did bet them. Oh yeah, you did. And not only that, I bet the half point down to minus three. So when they're up three with 11 seconds left or at the 17

yard line in overtime, first possession, you feel pretty good about it. It was horrible. He was bad. The timeout that wasn't a timeout because he waited too long to call it and then complained about it after, that was a fireball offense right there. You know all these cameras are on you. You know they have the side-by-side with the snap count,

which, by the way, you have nothing to do with that snap count. That's the other team's snap count. So what are you waiting for? You're just guessing. And then to claim that he called it ahead of time wrong, to punt it away on fourth and three with four minutes left in overtime, awful, just awful. Well, listen, I never like when anyone gets fired,

but I think it's an important day because Rex on TV is going to be great. We've been waiting for it for a while. That's true. And I think if he ends up on the CBS studio show and inside the NFL as a combo, I think we win. I think we're all winners. I think that would be great. That's a great, that's probably a better use of Rex Ryan than coaching because from what I saw this weekend, that guy should not be a head coach anymore.

He's just too sloppy. And that team was, that team should have been the team that came out of the AFC East and got the sixth playoff seed because of an easy schedule. That should not have been Miami. It should have been the team that came out of the AFC East and got the sixth playoff seed because of an easy schedule. It should not have been Miami. It should have been Buffalo. For sure. And Rob, I think the defense boycotted him. They didn't rap.

It was hilarious the way they were trying to tackle against Miami. Oh, it was horrible. I had the Bills by six and a half at the Jets. Yeah, I whiffed on this. I said Bills by two. It is exactly six and a half. You get that. And the bills are actually going to tie, looking to tie their over-under of eight wins. And then our last one, cards at Rams. I had the cards by six at the Rams. The Rams are an

embarrassment. You're going to get this. I said cards by three. I don't know why I went so low. It's six and a half. Yes, they are an embarrassment. I have something really quick for you. Odds for the Rams. Real quick, though. Real quicker than that. David Johnson attempting to become the first running back to have 100 yards from scrimmage in 16 games. I know you love him. You were

rattling off his stats to me yesterday. That's insane. 100 yards in every game. I was emailing with Tall John and Jamie who beat you in our Fantasy League. What a kiss. Partly because of David Johnson. I was just congratulating them on what a fantastic pick that was.

It was a vintage Tomlinson season where just every week the guy was between 15 and 20 points. He was just going to get there and you just could pencil that in. And I think he might be the best receiver I've ever seen as a running back. Yeah.

They run deep plays for him and stuff. They use him almost like it's Terrell Owens in the backfield or something. That was a huge play to set up the field goal. Someone finally decided to make a kick in that Arizona-Seattle game. But, yeah, up and down, up down the left sideline, he caught it. Yeah, Falk and Tomlinson, I would say. Falk was great, too. They're different.

You wouldn't spread them wide and send them out like that. He's just big. The size that he has is what makes it a little different for me than Falk and Tomlinson. Well, what's also weird is they have an awful offensive line. They can't protect Palmer, unless Palmer's just more statuesque than we think. So for him to put up these

numbers, I know it's a different thing, but that offensive line's not the best. Oh, wait. I have to say hi to our friends at Blue Apron, because they want us to stop wasting money on expensive takeout. They want us to sign up with Blue Apron. For less than $10 per meal, Blue Apron will deliver all the fresh ingredients you need for a delicious home-cooked meal.

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to cook. All right, here's what I had. I. I could see Blue O' Prune being your son's new wrestling persona. Blue O' Prune. What is this now? He got a giant Snoopy stuffed animal for Christmas that he has been doing wrestling moves on

for the past three days. My wife bought it for him specifically so he could do suplexes and clotheslines and this poor Snoopy thing. If PETA saw what was happening to the Snoopy thing, they would not be happy. Oh, no. Here are the odds.

Things not last. Here are the odds I had for you. The Rams' next coach. Oh. Gruden plus 300, McDaniels plus 300, or Sean Payton plus 800. Hmm. They have to get a big name.

I don't know if it's any of those guys. That's it? Those are the top three? Well, there's one more. Kyle Shanahan was in there, too. But they have to get a big name. They have to. You're right.

Yeah, you're right. They need somebody to put on billboards in LA that is like, this guy is now here to save the Rams and to save football in LA. And I actually think it's going to be John Gruden. I think they go even bigger. I think it's like Jay-Z or somebody. Jay-Z would be good. What the hell? Yeah, titles. Trump's our president.

Let's just kick people in who have no experience with anything. I love it. I think John Gruden, if they offered him $60 million for four years or something, and now you just put John Gruden on billboards in L.A., that becomes a thing. People are like, oh, John Gruden. Oh, the Rams, John Gruden.

I don't see anything. And I'm not a fan of getting the coach to try to win over a fan base type thing. I think it can be dangerous at times. But it worked for the Patriots with Bill Parcells. It got people interested in the team again. It made us feel like there was an adult in charge. And I think Gruden would have that effect and they could sell him and market him.

I kind of like Gruden at 3-1. I think we should wager on it. All right. Let's talk afterwards. But it's so much harder in football to do what you said. That's more of a basketball thing to win over a fan base with a coach there's something like that or a gm coming listen you live in la how many rams conversations did you have in the last four months how many how many times did you think of the rams like i don't jared goff is not gonna make football return in la todd girley is gonna do it nobody knows

what aaron donald looks. Nobody gives a shit. They don't have a pick, by the way. I just think they're going to have to give him the money you just said, $60 for $4 million or four years or something like that because he's making a lot and he's happy at ESPN. They pay people a lot

at ESPN these days. They really do. I'm disappointed because the Gruden grinder was the most unintentionally funny thing that anything was named this year. The Gruden grinder. Not a lot of Rams making the Gruden grinder, I don't think. The Gruden

grinder. Oh, man. Alright, I have the cards by six at the rims. Yeah, you're going to, yeah, you get this one. So, alright, let's move on to New Orleans and Atlanta. So this is now we have moved into the effectively meaningless category. These games

are effectively meaningless. But they're not totally meaningless. Falcons home for the Saints. If the Falcons win, they get a 2-seater. Oh no, are they at the Saints? No, no. They're home.

Falcons home. Jesus, Simmons. Come on. I got scared for a second. I had the Falcons by seven. We're both at seven. It is exactly seven. Okay.

A little scary with Drew Brees. It's tough. It's tough. You know. Wins games he's not supposed to. Loses the ones he should. The only thing that scares me about this for the Falcons is that it's probably Sean Payton's last game. So if the Saints love Sean Payton, which I don't know if they even do anymore at this point,

maybe they try to send him out with a whammy. Or, on the flip side, this could be the game where Jay Glazer reports at 9 in the morning that this is Sean Payton's last game, and now that hangs in, the Falcons win by 30. Right, he said goodbye to the team, all that stuff, right? Yeah. Atlanta is a four seed if they lose and Detroit wins, right? Detroit's not beating Green Bay. Oh, man.

You know, as if our bet wasn't jinxed enough. There's just so many sound bites now. It's not happening. We're teasing the Falcons with somebody. I think we already have, but okay. Dallas at Philly. I have Philly by one. I said Philly by four, and it's two and a half, so we split it, right?

That's right in the middle. We're getting Romo, right? They're playing Romo this whole game, right? I don't think so. I don't think so. I would have thought after this morning it's not worth it, not worth the risk injury. Risk injury to Tony Romo?

Well, I mean, if you're playing Romo, you're playing backup linemen. And then, yeah, that's fun. Put him in with these second stringers who, you know, also aren't seeing the field that much. I would have thought after Tyron Smith almost had his knee blown out in the meaningless Lions game that maybe they would rethink this whole. He's going to be out two weeks. And by the way, those are my MVPs right there.

Those three guys, Tyron Smith, Frederick, and Zach Martin. He's out two weeks, they said? Hmm? I think he's going to be. I don't think they've announced it. What's the injury? I have inside people. Some leg injury.

I don't know. He was walking like Brad Mulcahy at the end of that game. It wasn't good. All right. Houston at Tennessee. I had the Texans by three at Tennessee. Only because Matt Cassel's involved. You did?

No, you changed that, didn't you? Of the Texans by three? I thought that was one of the ones you changed. It doesn't matter, because Tennessee, I had Tennessee by three and a half. It's Tennessee by three. Oh, you're right. I did change it to, yeah, because it's meaningless for the Texans.

So I had Texans by one. Yeah. No, actually, Tennessee is actually favored. And yeah, Houston's locked into the four. Should we bet that? When are we ever going to be able to bet against Matt Castle again? Yeah, you're right.

This is like a once in a lifetime chance. Well, who is it? Is it Savage or is it Osweiler? I don't even know who starts. God, that Saturday Shakey's game is going to be bad. It really is. If that's McGloin at Savage, it's the lowest rated playoff game in history.

So we have McGloin, Savage, and Matt Moore all in the AFC playoffs. And Matt Moore, by the way, not terrible. I've got to say, he might be like, I don't know, if Matt Barkley's the ninth best quarterback in the league, Matt Moore might be eighth. He's fine.

He's good enough. At least when he throws it up for grabs, he at least gives the guy a chance to get it. Well, we'll get to that game in a minute, because I think that's more important than a lot of other people do. But Cleveland at Pittsburgh, this is not as important. I had the Steelers by eight. I had Pittsburgh by ten, so you get it. You're closer.

There you go. Yeah, I don't know. Again, I would start Pittsburgh. If I'm Pittsburgh, I'm starting them. If you're Hugh Jackson, what do you think? Are you excited about this one win? I mean, doesn't it say, hey, I can get this team up for exactly one game every year? You know, where's my extension kind of thing?

They're so bad. Would you rather have lost that game and said, well, we're going to do a better job, put our best foot forward next year. We just didn't gel as a team this season. They said him and Joe Thomas were in tears afterwards. They're so happy. You don't want to go on 16. Yes, not. I don't know what it says about

that. But that's San Diego. Two worst teams in football. San Diego and Cleveland. Talent-wise, Cleveland San Diego blowing every close game they possibly can. Poorly coached. football, San Diego and Cleveland. Talent-wise, Cleveland, San Diego, blowing every close game they possibly can. Poorly coached and just

annihilated by injuries. I like the foundation for that team next year. I actually think if they're going to end up with the fourth or fifth pick again, and Joey Bosa... I'm talking about San Diego. Joey Bosa was, I thought he was the best pass rusher I saw the entire season.

That guy's a maniac. He was great. Just never adds up. It's very strange. And thanks to Hunter Henry, he got me zero points. I saw that. Two consecutive touches. Zero points.

I needed 14 yards from him. Come on, Hunter. I just can't talk about it. Giants at Washington. I had the Giants favored by one. I had a lot of trouble with this one. I don't know. Yeah, you really did.

Washington's favored by seven and a half. I had them by six. So is this game meaningless for the Giants? They're locked in at five, yes. Oh. So yet again, I deserve to lose that because I thought that there was a chance that they could fall to the sixth seed.

But what happens when a game is meaningless but you're starting everyone? Because that's from every report. That's how it seems. Like, Beckham's going to start. Everyone's going to play. Maybe they use this game. They just tell Eli, throw six picks.

Just look like the all-time train wreck. Odell, you punch the kicking net again. Let's look like we're in complete disarray to try to lower. Yeah, to try to be the sneaky team again. I could see that. Now, is Cousins more psyched to win this game and make the playoffs or to get to 5,000 yards, which could get him some

extra loot next year? Maybe even an extra year added to his contract, whoever he signs with. But they have this franchise player tag, which is like one of the most un-American things left in sports. Right. Your contract leverage is just screwed you're

like no well forget it we're just going to lock you up for one year 20 million again versus giving you more guaranteed money i i don't understand the the franchise tag i don't either like it's it's not one of the seven worst things demora smith did in that cba but it's weird to me that k Cousins can't go out there and just shop himself when 20 teams need a quarterback. Yeah, that's why he's screaming after every game, seeking out his own general manager, looking to headbutt him. I wouldn't sign him.

Just franchise tag him again. Yeah. All right, these games are predictable but meaningful, which means... Seattle at San Francisco. There's five games here, and we think we know how all five of these games are going to go, but yet there are real playoff stakes. So the Falcons—oh, yeah, Seattle at San Francisco.

I have Seattle favored by 10. I probably went too low. I went 9. It's 9.5, so we both get it. It's right in the middle. Okay, so Seattle, they need this to be the three seed. And San Francisco needs to lose. I don't know what they're doing winning last week.

They got a gift from the Browns in terms of getting that number one pick, but they're back down to two now, right? I would much rather – wouldn't you much rather be the three seed than the four seed in the NFC? Sure. Yeah. Because the four seed in the NFC? Sure. Yeah. Because the four seed means you play the Giants in round one and then you have to go to Dallas. I would much rather play whoever the six seed is and then go to Atlanta and hope Matt Ryan turns in to play off Matt Ryan. Six seed would be probably Washington or Green Bay.

It could be Green Bay if Detroit wins, yeah. If Detroit wins and Washington loses, yeah. All right, that's a good one. That could be a parlay one. Where are we? 13th game is New England at Miami. Did we do Falcons-Saints? Yeah, we did.

Okay, yeah. Pat Stauffens is... I have. Pats-Dolphins is... I have the Pats by four and a half. This is a weird one. I had Pats by four. It's Pats by nine and a half. Oh, my God. So I won that one.

Nine and a half. Why? You win that one. It doesn't make sense. And let me tell you something. Next to Green Bay-Detroit, this is the most important game for a team. If you don't have a bye in the playoffs, what is the catbird seed? Which seed do you want?

Out of any seed, if you don't have a bye, you want the fifth seed in the AFC, right? You want to go to Houston, and if Miami could grab that fifth seed and Kansas City grabs the sixth seed, they could avoid New England. Do you know what I'm saying? So Miami, if they won this game, then they would have to have San Diego beat the Chiefs? Right. That's right. And then Kansas City would be a sixth seed, and then Kansas City would go to Pittsburgh, and they could possibly win that, which would mean they would go to New England the next week. And Miami would go to Houston, which should be a win.

And then where am I? I want to go to Houston. That's where I'd want to go. I want to go to Houston and then potentially Oakland. They need to win this Houston. That's where I'd want to go. You want to go to Houston and then potentially Oakland. Yeah. They need to win this game. That sounds fantastic. Well, I had the Chiefs by four and a half at San Diego, and I probably went too low.

What do we do here? So I had Chiefs by seven. And, yeah, by the looks of this, that should be higher. It's five. So you get that. You know, I – See, that's why I think that's a weird one. That's a Vegas zone, as you've deemed it.

That's a strange one. That's an AFC West. They played each other a million times. Phil Rivers trying to salvage something after a Cleveland loss. Maybe McCoy. Yeah, I would say... That would be a head shaker. That would be a head shaker for sure.

If they lost to Cleveland and then beat up on the Chiefs, who looked pretty great the other night. That Tyreek Hill, my God. Well, so that's the thing I want to talk to you about. You're like, Alex Smith can't come to New England, can't come to Foxborough and win. It doesn't really matter anymore. He's not hitting Tyreek Hill on these looping bombs. He's just sprinting and running, and he's getting into the end zone.

Their defense isn't good enough, I don't think, to come into Foxborough and really bother the Patriots. They would have to, I think, outscore us, and I don't think they could. That's my take. I just think one of these years is going to happen. Belichick loves going against these 15 play drive teams it's like fine

we'll keep giving you three, four, five at some point we're gonna get you but yeah I mean out of all out of all the teams that are going into the playoffs

I would I'm the most afraid of the Chiefs because there is a recipe right they did really well last year in the playoffs for three quarters. They had the Tyreek Hill addition.

But I don't think their defense is the same defense. I don't think it's as good as it was last year. Derek Johnson's out. That's a big thing. The last predictable but meaningful game, Broncos home against Matt McGloin and the Raiders. I had the Broncos by three. Yeah, I said Broncos by six, and it's minus two.

Broncos by two. Hmm. I don't know. So I won that one, too. Yeah, you did. Yeah. I feel like you were going to win the week, but you were way off. I had, like, some six to two innings.

Doesn't matter. You won two innings. Doesn't matter. You won more innings. You win. But, um, wait, before we get to the lions Packers quickly, capital one knows you have questions about your credit.

You may be asking who's really in charge of my credit score or how does my credit actually work? That's why capital one created the credit wise app. So you can check your credit score anytime you want right in the app. It's free to everyone. Capital One customer or not. In fact, millions of CreditWise users have improved their score by 20 points or more. So download the app for free today. Availability depends on presence of credit history from TransUnion.

CreditWise is offered by Capital One Bank USA, N.A. Again, that is the CreditWise app. All right, the big game. Two things real quick with the Denver game. Their over-under is nine, and you have to think a lot of people pounded the over. It looked so easy going into this year, I think. They're at eight, so they could maybe get it.

Second thing is, how many points does Vegas expect McGloin or Connor Cook to score against Denver's defense this week. Why is that only two? If you were the Raiders, would you try to get Connor Cook ready? Sure. I think that's their only chance. I don't think you can win with Matt McGloin. But Connor Cook,

maybe he could go Dak Prescott. I mean, the Raiders did take him ahead of Dak Prescott. Yes, they sure did. Yes, they sure did. Yes, they did. I want to know. I'm so tired of hearing all these announcers rave about how great Dak Prescott, like Gruden yesterday. I knew when I did the QB camp with him and I threw things at him

and the way he handled it, I knew. It's like if everyone knew this guy was going to be so amazing and he had the F-factor and all that, why did all these teams pass on him? Yeah, right, right. Jared Goff might not have been drafted for Prescott. And when Romo went hurt, why was it like, what quarterback are the Cowboys trading for? Where are all these people who knew Dak Prescott was special

and had the it factor? Why weren't they like, they're fine, they have Dak Prescott, the guy's going to be special? I don't remember reading that once. I'm with you. I'm with you. That sounds like the words of the next Rams coach, though. That kind of fits.

I think you're right. All right, Green Bay at Detroit. I had the Packers by three and a half. You're going to get this, too. I went low. I said three. It's four. Probably will go up, right?

Yeah, I think it ends up at five and a half or six. All right, now, what do we do? We hedge this thing? We don't hedge it? We relax. We relax with Aaron Rodgers. We do a lot of relaxing. Like the great George Michael said, you got to have faith, right?

We're just going to let it go. I think when you look at this Detroit Lions team, I sound like I'm in the NFL, et cetera. Sal, when I look at this Detroit Lions team, I see a team that's 9-6, that's only won three games legitimately, and has lost five games legitimately and played seven games that could have gone either way. It's a team that's in the bottom 10 in DVOA.

It's a team that's going the wrong direction. It's a team that scored 47 points in the last three weeks that cannot run the ball at all and has become very predictable offensively. I do not like this Detroit Lions team, Sal. Bill, I disagree. I see a team that's one that's been

behind in 14 of their 15 games in the fourth quarter. I say that's a character-building team and you are wrong. There's nothing to not like about this Detroit Lions team. Let's go through all their wins. Ready? They beat the Colts.

They beat the Eagles. They beat the Rams. The Skins. The Vikings. The Jaguars. The Vikings again. The Saints. And the Bears.

Best team they beat the whole year was the Saints? The Redskins? Oh, that gets the Redskins. That was a good win. That was crazy, too. They were all nuts. All those wins were crazy. They've not beaten a team that will finish with 10 wins this year.

You know, there is something interesting, though, with this game. You realize if Detroit and Green Bay tie, the Skins are out, and they both make the playoffs, Detroit and Green Bay. So if everyone's true to their word and like, hey, we don't want to play any extra games that we have to, players are getting hurt, broken tibulas, concussions, if Rodgers and Stafford take a knee back and forth and punt on fourth down, they both make it. What would happen to the league if that occurred?

That's pretty good. So 17-17 with 10 minutes to go, and the two coaches look at each other, and then it's just Neal's for the last 10 minutes, and they both make it. And then you have to get through the overtime the same way, yeah. That would be a long time to do that. I don't think the fans would. It would be funny.

Isn't there a scenario where Tampa Bay can still make the playoffs, but somebody has to tie? Seven things have to happen, including a tie. Giants-Redskins has to be a tie. Yeah. I think Washington has to tie, and I think New England against Buffalo has to tie, and they're not even playing each other.

So I don't know how it could happen. Unbelievable. Well, we did it, cuz. We made it through 17 weeks. I don't think we screwed up. All our playoff rundown was pretty good, I think. We'll hear about it. One last line for you.

What do you think the Super Bowl line is right now? Oh, you have it? Yeah. Patriots minus three over the NFC. It's AFC minus three. AFC minus three. Do you see that ever climbing from that? No matter who they play.

Yeah, no. If they played the Giants, it would be higher. If they played Washington, it would be higher. If they played Dallas or Atlanta, it probably is three, three and a half. I was talking to a buddy of ours who's a pretty big wig at Fox, and he says New England-Dallas, forget it.

They could never ask for anything more than that. And then Dallas-Pittsburgh would be second best. If it turns out to be Pat's Dallas I don't think I would go because I think that would be a Cowboys home game it would be 95 percent Dallas fans and having been through that once with the Giants in 08 in Arizona when it was all Giants fans. And to have the team lose and then to be trapped in the stadium was one of the most emotionally scarring experiences of my life. It's funny because I had the other way, but the Cowboys won. I went to the Steelers-Cowboys game last Super Bowl the Cowboys were in in 95,

and it was 75% Steelers fans. I mean, no one travels like Steelers fans, but it didn't matter. What usually happens is the first time the team makes it in a while, their fans go, like, we had the opposite at Jacksonville when it was Eagles-Pats, and it was the third time we'd been in four years. And the Eagles hadn't been in forever. And it was 85% Eagles fans. But it was great because as soon as they fell behind by a touchdown,

everybody was like, fuck this, we suck. They were out of it. Oh, my God. percent eagles fans but it was great because as soon as they fell behind by a touchdown everybody was like fuck this we suck oh my god it was so angry it actually hurt the eagles i don't think that'll happen with the cowboys run out of money eventually yeah that was the cowboys like third time in the super bowl and uh well it's the first time you make it like we gotta go where do we but you know after like the third but i think this first one for Dallas considering they haven't made it in 20 plus years it's going to be amazing alright

I look forward to it cuz now that we jinxed the hell out of it cuz as always a pleasure good job by you good job by you alright

safe travels buddy I'll see you okay I appreciate it take care bye thanks to Sling TV the best way to watch live TV

on your favorite device. With Sling Orange Service, pay just $20 a month and get ESPN, ESPN2, and more top channels. Add the Sports Extra for just $5 for the SEC Network and more. Start watching for seven days free at sling.com. Slash Bill Simmons restrictions do apply. Thanks to Capital One. They created the CreditWise app so you can check your credit score anytime you want. Right in the app.

It's free to everyone. Download CreditWise app so you can check your credit score anytime you want right in the app. It's free to everyone. Download CreditWise today. Availability depends on presence of credit history from TransUnion. CreditWise is offered by Capital One Bank, USA, and.a. And thanks to The Ringer. Check out theringer.com. I wrote a basketball column that's on there that will still be up if you go there to the website about the unicorns and the history of NBA unicorns and also a bunch of best of 2016.

Don't forget to check out Channel 33 because we launched our Sports Movie Hall of Fame podcast. Jerry Maguire was the first one. I have a Moneyball podcast with Chris Ryan coming up later in the week, so check that out. And I think we're going to do one more BS podcast later in the week, so stay tuned for that. Enjoy the middle of the week so check that out and i think we're going to do one more bs podcast later in the week so stay tuned for that uh enjoy the middle of the week On the wayside I'm a person Never lost it

I don't have To ever