The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 164: Mike Lombardi and Sarah Tiana

Episode Date: January 18, 2017

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on Mike Lombardi to discuss Antonio Brown's locker-room video (6:00), Will Fuller's inopportune drops (10:00), the Chiefs' defensive miscues (13:00), Le'Veon Bell vs. Bill Belichick (16:00), Falcons-Packers (21:00), Steelers-Pats (28:00), and Jimmy Garoppolo's trade value (30:00). Then, comedian Sarah Tiana joins to discuss her Falcons fandom (36:00), Arthur Blank's mustache (41:00), problems with 'The Bachelor' (44:00), and betting on 'Roast Battle' (52:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Ringer NFL Show, The Ringer NBA Show. If you subscribe to Channel 33, you get to hear our new sports movie Hall of Fame series. We just put up Any Given Sunday last week. We're going to talk to Mike Lombardi about Any Given Sunday in a second, but before we talk about the conference championship games. And that's it. Let's roll. All right. On the line, as always, our old friend, Michael Lombardi.

The Pats. They held off the bracketing last week in very cold weather in Houston in a very discouraging game. More importantly, what did you think of Any Given Sunday? Did you like it? Did you see it? I saw it. It was good. You know, football movies I don't like.

I like baseball movies more than football movies. Like, for the love of the game, that would be in my top all time. Oh, wow. For love of the game. I love it. I want for Love of the Game, that would be in my top all time. I love that movie. Oh, wow. For Love of the Game. I love it. I want For Love of the Game. One of my dreams in life when I'm the sports czar, when I'm finally appointed, is I'm going to make them re-edit For Love of the Game and all the Kelly Preston scenes are going to be gone.

It's just going to be the baseball. There's going to be no love story at all. It's just going to be the no-hitter in sequence with Vince Cully. You could argue it was Vince Cully's greatest moment other than the Koufax no-hitter. I think it was his finest moment. Yeah, it was great. Absolutely.

So do you not like football movies because you know too much behind the curtain and it's just unrealistic for you? Yeah, it really is. Some of the things on any given... I never saw that. I never saw some of the things they did. So it really wasn't

real to me uh it just didn't feel real to me so you never saw an eyeball never saw an eyeball come out of somebody's head on a hard hit that never happened no i never did nor did i you know i never saw the training room look like that you know it was to me it was a little different but hey but you know what everybody someone wants to watch i'm all for it well pacino has a great locker room speech in that movie and mike tomlin had what seemed to be a pretty good locker room speech on sunday unfortunately his best wide receiver was facebook living it i am i wrong to think that that could have been a hundred times worse than it actually was that like just what he said in that speech like for what the situation was, I think it was pretty tame. Could that have been much worse?

Oh, it could have been, clearly. I mean, and you lose some trust value here that you're in an intimate moment after just winning a huge game. You don't want what's said in that locker room. Vince Lombardi had a great line, what we see here, what we say here, what we do here, let it stay here when we leave here. And I think that that's been a complete violation by the

millennials in terms of filming a Facebook podcast. I mean, it's remarkable that somebody would let some intimate detail get out like that, especially as close as a team is. I don't think it has any bearing on the game. I think Belichick, what he said the other day about Snapchat and all that stuff, he's not going to pay any attention to it think it has any bearing on the game. I think Belichick, what he said the other day about Snapchat

and all that stuff, he's not going to pay any attention to it. He's just focused on the game itself. But to me, it's like, why open yourself up to it? Like, why go on a cruise ship or go on a love boat the week before you get ready to play the Packers? You just open yourself up to criticism. He called it Snapface. Snapface, yeah.

Which he does. That's his running joke, yeah. He loves to mess with the name. And then people think he's serious half the time, which I love. All right, so let's say Julian Edelman did this before round three and Facebook Live Belichick's entire speech, which definitely would not have been as long or as dynamic as Mike Tomlin's speech. What would Belichick do?

How would he have reacted? Would he have suspended Edelman for a series, or would he have laughed it off? What happens? Well, first of all, you know, Edelman would have never done it. I mean, they're trained not to do it. I mean, that's part of the program. When you talk about the New England Patriots, you talk about a program. You talk about Football 101.

They're educated on every aspect of the game, including the media, how we're going to approach the media, what we're going to say, what we're going to do, how this thing is handled, how it's portrayed. And nobody wants to get called out on the carpet on a Monday meeting and say something that he might bring up to, oh, look at this guy. He's got all the answers. And that's just embarrassing. So I get asked that question a lot, like what would Belichick do?

It would never have happened. Right. Because Belichick would have been proactive with it. There's no cameras. Put the phones – like nobody brings a phone into the locker room. They do have them in there, but nobody's turning them on. The only time I ever remember anything like this happening was that time when Wes Walker was making the veiled foot fetish jokes about Rex Ryan before the Jets playoff game. And Belichick was furious about it, and it backfired, and the Jets won.

So my guess would be that's never happening again on a Belichick team, as long as he's throwing his fastball. I don't think it's ever going to happen. They're too well trained. They're too much into the program. There's too much at stake. I mean, Belichick's speech after that game would have been, look, we didn't play well. We won. We enjoyed the win. Tomorrow, we're going to have to play a lot better. We're going to have to beat the next opponent, no matter who it is. We're going to have to play our best game. Let's worry about them. Let's go. That would have been it. I mean, there was going to be no jubilation in the locker room.

It was going to be about the next game. It always is. I can't believe you blamed Tate for Antonio Brown's speech. Tate's a millennial. Like, Tate was like a drive-by shooting in that. All the millennials were to blame for Antonio Brown. Look, I just think it's kind of, it's just part of the generation. You the millennials were to blame for Antonio Brown. Look, I just think it's just part of the generation. Everybody wants to film everything.

And so, it's unfair. I don't mean to blame you, Tate. It's not your fault, but everybody wants to get that instant look into the locker room. To me, it's about the team, and you have to do what's right for the team. And that comes down to mental toughness. Mental toughness is simply this. Doing what's right for the team that might not be right

for you. And I think that's where the Patriots win. My guess is Mike Tomlin handled it by just leaving Antonio Brown, putting him in a closet with James Harrison for like 45 seconds. Yeah, I don't think they Gus Bradley'd him. I don't think they left him in Kansas City and just flew home. Let's talk about the effects from last weekend's game

heading into this weekend. The Pats, we might as well start with them. Isn't the best possible thing for a Belichick team to be coming off a shitty playoff win? Oh yeah, no question. I mean, look, usually they've played an opponent like Houston. Remember they played

Tebow with Denver or they've played an opponent like Houston. Remember they played Tebow with Denver, or they've played somebody. And whenever you've played that, the Colts, and they've whipped them, and then the next week it's been the challenging game. I think this now reversed. I think now they've kind of back in their routine. They're back into their schedule, and they just know they have to play better. I mean, the best thing for any head coach is to be able to watch the tape and say, look, fellas, we won, but we didn't play good.

We're going to have to play a lot better than this to beat a good team. And I think Mike Tomlin can say the same thing about his Steelers. I mean, they did not play well in that game. There's guys wide open for Kansas City in the game. Alex Smith didn't play very well. I think there's 20 quarterbacks from other teams that would have played for Kansas City, would have beaten Pittsburgh, and probably about 25 other quarterbacks would have played for Houston

that could have given New England a good game. That's how bad Brock was, and that's how bad Alex Smith was. And what's amazing about that is Will Fuller just drops a touchdown with eight minutes left, and if he doesn't drop it, the Texans are down four with eight and a half minutes left.

Yeah, but, you know, they were going to rally back. But, look, that's what Will Fuller did. I mean, Will Fuller's hands are in – he could run like the wind, but his hands was inconsistent coming out in college. So I don't – you know, I think he is – not that he was a bad pick. I think he's a talented player. But you're going to have to live with some drops of Will Fuller. That's my point.

That was a big drop. That was a big drop. Kelsey was a big drop. You know, I look at that... We should finish Pat's Texans. The defense that Houston threw at Brady was really like the playbook for how to stifle Brady. They were really able to get to him over and over again. He took some big hits.

It's cold. He's 39 years old. Should I be at all worried about the punishment he took in that game? I think Houston does a great job of reading routes. And their man coverage, if you took those corners and put them on other teams, they wouldn't be as effective. They're very good at reading routes. They're very good at matching routes.

They play the routes. That's why if you watch the game closely, a lot of what the Patriots were doing were running double move routes, meaning they were going inside, pretending like they're going to break to the post, they break to the corner. They ran a lot of different type of moves to get away from the pattern reading of the Houston Texans, which does a great job. And that's really how they won. And it's hard to do. It's hard for the team to duplicate. So what the Patriots did is the Patriots said, look, we're just going to get in a base offense. We'll put Devlin on the field. We'll leave your base so we can limit this pass rush and then work

our offense from there. And that's what they did. That's when they started to have a little bit more success. When they made it a nickel game, it became too complex to block them. They get Marcellus over David Andrews. That's a problem. You got Clowney's a problem. So you couldn't handle it all. And I think that once they made it a base game and then they could run their routes, I think it became more effective for them. If they hadn't spent all that money on the heist and they had drafted Dak Prescott,

could they have won that game? Yeah, no question they could have won the game. I mean, they're a quarterback away. I mean, look, you put Tony Romo on that team, they might win that game. Well, we might find out next year. We might be in that situation. To me, that's the Tony Romo question here. Tony Romo on Kansas City, Tony Romo on Houston.

The results are going to be different. I mean, I don't mean to jump to Kansas City, but as bad as Brock was, Alex Smith wasn't much better. No, he's bad. Alex Smith, I mean, he almost got Conley killed down the middle of the field. He almost got Kelsey on the drop. He could have thrown that ball way better to Kelsey.

There's so many throws in that tape that he could have made that weren't even close to being... And really, the problem with Kansas City is simply this. Kansas City became Tyreek Tilt. And really, the problem with Kansas City is simply this. Kansas City became Tyreek Hill. And by that I mean they became infatuated with running plays for Tyreek Hill instead of running their offense.

Oh, the Percy Harvin-itis. Exactly. That's what happened to them. And so everything became, oh, we're going to fake it off of Tyreek Hill, we're going to fake it off of this guy, instead of just running their offense, which was much better last year when they had less talent. Think about it. They moved the ball more effectively last year in terms of methodical. They were better on third down. They

could do better things, but not this year. He also missed Macklin. I think it was Macklin in the left corner who was two yards wide open. Remember he threw it over the wrong shoulder? It would have been a touchdown. Oh, yeah. That's a touchdown. If he just puts that ball there, it's easy. He walks to the end zone. But, you know, Andy, Prop Joe did exactly what Prop Joe does.

He's fixing – I mean, he messed clocks up. I mean, the timeout for the two-point play was one that just drive you crazy. Fourth down and two. You had the whole play clock. It's not like it was running down. It was like he just wanted the timeout to talk about it. I don't understand why teams practice. Don't you have a play ready for that? Don't you have

the biggest game of the season play? Right, of course you do. But what happens is the play clock was every time I turned around, it was going down to one or zero. He was having a hard time getting the plays in. I still don't think they deserve to win because I didn't think their defense was that good. And I actually thought Pittsburgh left a lot of points.

No, their defense played horrible. Don't you think Pittsburgh left a lot of points? Nobody talks about this at all, is the third and four play. They don't even cover Antonio Brown. I don't know what covers they're in. It's the biggest play of the season. It's not the biggest play of the game. It's the play and four play. They don't even cover Antonio Brown. I don't know what covers they're in. It's the biggest play of the season. It's not the biggest play of the game. It's the play of the season.

If they get the ball back there, they're going to have enough time to kick a field goal. They're going to move the ball against Pittsburgh to kick a field goal. That was the play of the season. That was terrible. And then that play when somehow Justin Houston was covering Antonio Brown on a vertical route. What the fuck was that?

It was like a 50-yard play. I can't even. I've watched that on tape five times. And I've asked people in the league what that coverage was, and nobody has an answer for me. It's not like it's a blown coverage where you could say, well, this guy should have done this. I have no idea what it was.

I have no idea. I don't know what you do if you're the Chiefs. Because you're bringing back Andy and you're bringing back Alex Smith, and I just don't know what's any different about next year than this year or the year before that. It's almost like a Cincinnati Bengals situation where at some point you just got to go, all right, is this who we are? We're going to go 10-6, 11-5 every year and we're never going to get to the

Super Bowl? I don't know if I'd want to be in that position. I think they call the Cowboys and try to trade for Tony Romo. Wow. I think that's the move they have to make. I mean, I think that's the move you have to make if you're the Kansas City Chiefs. If you put Tony Romo on that field, you know, and you can protect him and do some things and be creative with him,

you know, he's in better shape than he's ever been in his life. You know, people talk about, well, durability's an issue, no question. I would be concerned, but I don't think the price is going to be that high. I think he walks on that field, he beats Pittsburgh easily. What should be a Pittsburgh fan's biggest concern going into this

Pats game? Well, I think Pittsburgh has to be concerned. The Patriots just dominate the clock and don't let their offense on the field. I think what you have to do when you play Pittsburgh, it's all about the quarterback's head, which is what Alex Smith didn't do. Pittsburgh's a zone defense. They read the quarterback.

They don't read the routes. They read the quarterback. So if the quarterback looks to his right, they're all going to move to the right. If he looks to the left, they're going to move to the left. And so the quarterback has to displace the coverage with his head. And I think that's where Brady will be very good. He'll move the coverage, he'll force them into things, and he'll put the ball into windows and they won't be able to get to it. The key for the Steelers to win the game is they must create a negative play. That's how they beat the Chiefs. Holding calls, false starts, delay of the

game, stuff like that. Second and 15, now the Steelers gain the advantage and they get off the field. If it's a positive play every time, four yards, three yards, six yards, the Steelers will have a hard time slowing down the Patriots. Everyone's throwing the Le'Veon Bell thing at me. I don't really ever remember a running back dominating a Belichick team in the playoffs he usually takes them out I think Ray Rice was probably the closest the year the Ravens came in and knocked them around actually he had a big game

one of those games he had a big game isn't he just going to take them out and force Roethlisberger to try to do some basically carry the load I would think they're going to I mean look what people don't realize is this whole stop and start is really, it's unique, but it's also well-designed. Because if you pay close attention to Pittsburgh, their line splits will tell the story.

So when they're foot-to-foot with their line splits, they do that for a reason. They want Bell to be able to stop at the line, no penetration, no one gets to him, and then he reacts off of the movement of the defense and he finds a way to get five yards. So you have to take the line of scrimmage and you have to pay close attention to those line splits and see where they want to run the football. The thing that I think that the Patriots would look at is say,

look, Bell's dangerous in the passing game. He's a problem, but because they're running him so much, they haven't used him in the passing game, which really limits how much defense you have to they haven't used him in the passing game, which really limits how much defense you have to worry about with Bells in the game. If Bell becomes a receiver, then all of a sudden it becomes a bigger problem for the Patriots. Did anything you saw from Brady worry you last weekend? You know, no.

I thought Brady threw the ball down the field with the touch throws over the shoulder to Edelman as good as I've ever seen him. I think he got it. I think it was an uncomfortable game for Brady because of the way the Texans play in terms of their pattern reading and all the man coverage, and they couldn't really kind of get it going into a flow. And once that happens, you know, you get that 14-3 lead, all of a sudden you think it's going to be a blowout. Next thing you know, you start turning the ball over. And, you know, look, throw to Floyd all of a sudden you think it's going to be a blowout. Next thing you know, you start turning the ball over. And, you know, look, throw to Floyd. If he puts it on Floyd, that could be a big gain.

And, you know, there's just some things. I think they were a little rusty. I don't think the Patriots had their A game, B game, or C game last week. Yeah. Do we see Floyd again? I think I would be, if Malcolm Mitchell's up, which I think he'll be this week, and Hogan's healthy, I think Floyd could help him, especially against a zone team that you have to break tackles. I think Floyd could help him.

Now, whether he knows what to do, that would be the only reason he wouldn't. But against a zone team like this where you have to break tackles and it's all yards after contact, I think that Floyd could really help, like he did against Miami, where he catches the pass and carries eight guys with him in the end zone. My dad was upset at Floyd. He's convinced Tom Brady has never thrown an interception. That was Tom Brady's fault. It's always someone else's fault.

He's blaming Michael Floyd. So you think, it sounds like you're leaning toward the Pats. I think it's going to be a great game. I typically, I think this is one of those, I think if the Pats try to single up Antonio Brown, they won't win this game. I think they're going to have to double Antonio Brown, take him out of the game, and force the ball somewhere else, but at least cover Jesse James.

At least cover Eli Rogers. Don't let him have free access like the Chiefs did and just run. I mean, Jesse James, did anybody know he was on the field for the Chiefs? He's wide open. More time. It's like ridiculous. So, I think it'll be a really close game, and look, the thing that if you're a Patriots

fan, you have to worry. The Steelers are very good. They're fourth in the NFL in red zone defense. And that's where they make a living. And the Patriots are going to have to be creative when they get it down there. They're going to have to run it a little bit down there because you're going to have to score touchdowns against them. You're not going to be able to kick field goals because if the game's closed, that's when the Steelers have all their offense right at their fingertips. Is it fair to say that Mitchell is going to be headhunting these smaller Patriot receivers during this game? You know, I think Mitchell will be a problem if Brady doesn't move him.

If Brady moves him, Mitchell won't be near the ball. Okay. And Brady can move him, and Brady knows how to move zone defenses. And I think that this is where – and the Patriots just can't make the mistake. First play of the game, they had a 15-yard throw to Hogan last time they played him, and, of course, he puts the ball on the ground. You know, you're going to have to protect the football. No turnovers.

You cannot have penalties in this game. This game is critical. You cannot shoot yourself in the foot. And I think if you do that, then these players on Pittsburgh don't become as big a problem. But when they get second and 15 and they can headhunt and do all that, then it becomes a district issue. Remember, I think it was last year, they put Butler on Antonio Brown 101 and Butler was phenomenal. And Brown still had like 150 yards and eight catches or something. It was opening game last year. Yeah. It was opening game last year. And, you know, I don't think that's the right –

I would put Logan Ryan and double Antonio Brown, and I would put Malcolm Butler on Eli Rogers. And I would force the ball somewhere else. I think you have to force the ball because you're going to have to take away – you can't – somebody's going to have to hold up. And I think Butler could hold up against Eli Rogers or Cam Hamilton, you know, one of those guys. But you can't really just – you can't let Antonio Brown get off

or catch a slant like Miami did and go take it to the house. Did you learn anything from Atlanta last week? Because Seattle is probably not a great playoff team, and I think they got exposed in a lot of ways. I mean, I turned on Atlanta. I think Atlanta is – I think Atlanta beats Green Bay this week. I really do. You finally turned.

Oh, my God. I turned. I did. I did. Because I think Atlanta's offense is just – because I got so mad at Dallas and their inability to do anything offensively. They sat there and nickel defense the whole game, and Dallas didn't do anything.

And I think if Green Bay tries to get away with that bad defensive scheme that they had last week, not bad scheme, but they don't have enough good players on the field, I think Atlanta will score 40 on them. So our friend Cousin Sal is in denial about this because he's like, what are you talking about? We fell behind. I heard about it, yeah.

I just, nickel against Zeke is basically the dumbest thing you can do, and I just don't understand why he didn't have 40 carries and why they didn't have the ball for 40 minutes in that game. I don't get it. That's the way to beat. That's what I think Atlanta's going to do in this game. I don't think Kyle Shanahan will create enough. It'll be a long drive.

It'll be a lot of mixes and matching. And I think they'll control the clock. I think Sal's completely wrong. So when you're behind 14-3, you can still run it. They dared them to run it. They dared them to run the football, and Dallas still wouldn't run it. They only in nickel five or six, they only in their base defense, five or six plays the entire game.

You can't do that. I can't believe that. You've got to run them out of it, and you have to create the matchup that you want. What they did is they created the matchup that they wanted, and that's where I think they really blew it. So do you think they did that because they were so afraid of Dez in that game? Because they had no chance of covering Dez in that game,

that they were basically like, we'd rather give up seven yards of carry than 25-yard passes to Dez? I think their attitude was, look, you can't beat us. You won't be disciplined enough to run the ball. You won't hold on. You'll get too impatient. It's too hard. You'll lose interest like the Indianapolis Colts would do. That's what people did when Manning

was great. And people would say, look, you're going to lose interest in the run. Stop it a couple times. And all they did was they blitzed it. Here's the problem. And you know, they were talking about it on television, but it's size. So they had seven or six or seven in the box. It doesn't matter.

They had two little guys in the box. Yeah. It doesn't matter who you have in there. And even when they got them in base, they ran the ball for seven or eight yards. Like they could have controlled anything they did and they didn't do it. Ugh. I was going nuts. I just couldn't believe it. I was going nuts. I just couldn't believe it.

I was like, are they? I forget who was announcing. Oh, Aikman. He's like, they're playing nickel. I'm like, wait a second. That can't be right. And then I freeze-framed. I'm like, oh, my God, they're playing nickel.

If this was a video game, I would be running the ball down their throats. This would be great. I'd try to get 300 yards with Zeke Elliott. And they were messing with the safeties in the sub-corner and trying to mess around and kind of try to distract them from running the ball by numbers. But it really had nothing to do with numbers. They had no size on the field.

So you had to attack them, and they didn't attack them. And then they got behind, which I think Sal's point's well taken. You're behind 21-3. You can't run it. Well, okay, so then when it becomes 28-20, you can start running. When it's 28-28, you can definitely run it. Right. Like, you can definitely run it.

You know, and they never – here's the part that I think they missed. They never got control of the game with the best part of their team, which was their offensive line. So did you – did Atlanta win you over, or you just love this matchup for them? I love the matchup with them. I think they're better on defense than I gave them credit for. I think they rallied to the ball better. I think that even though I thought Seattle looked like they were going to play, Seattle's offense and defensive lines weren't good enough. And I think Seattle is a little bit like the Patriots to a degree.

They're a little bit like the Steelers to a degree, and they're better than the Packers to a degree, is that they have an average defense and a great offense. And I think their average defense is going to be better. The total sum of this game, to me, Atlanta's the better team. And I know Aaron Rodgers is Omar, and I know he's going to make some incredible throws. But you're going to have to – but so is Matt Ryan,

and so is all their skill players. And their skill players are tough. Yeah, I think Dallas was better than Green Bay. But it comes down to coaching when you have two close teams like that. I got to say, man, I've given McCarthy a lot of shit over the years, but everything they did in that game, as crazy as playing nickel, it was like a Jedi mind trick. It worked. It's almost like when you guard LeBron James in 2000,

Dallas in the 2011 finals, they would put Jason Terry on LeBron James every once in a while. They're like daring him to post up, and it messed him up. That's what they did. They went small, and Dallas refused to stay big. That's what they did. They went small, and Dallas refused to stay big. That's what they did. So Dallas matched them. They went small, and Dallas matched them.

It was a classic basketball game. And if Hubie Brown should have done the game, he would have coached them out of it. And also the worst spike in a while, the Dak spike. Even Jerry Jones knows it was the worst spike. Look, when you play Aaron Rodgers, and this is for the Falcons, and this is for the Patriots or the Steelers, you have to have the ball last. You have to have the ball last.

If you give him the ball last, I don't care how much time, he's going to beat you. He's making throws that he's throwing. They talk about the American sniper, Chris Kyle, being able to shoot from a mile away and hit his target. This guy's the American sniper, Chris Kyle, being able to shoot from a mile away and hit his target. This guy's the American sniper. He can shoot from anywhere. I can't believe that he had anyone open on that play. He didn't have anyone open.

They were playing zone. And what happens in zone is instead of locking on the receiver, you're taught in zone, look, stop staring at the quarterback. At some point, look at the receiver. And Brian Jones, let's Cook just run past him like he's a pedestrian in a park. But he wanted to sell him an ice cream cone. Should they have blitzed on that? No, I think what they did was the right thing,

but they needed to lock onto the receivers. Yeah. The guy threw a dart a mile away. I think he's an American sniper. He went from Omar to the American sniper in two podcasts. He's amazing. The guy threw a dart a mile away. That throw was incredible. He went from Omar to the American Sniper in two podcasts. He's amazing. I mean, like, how could you – could you imagine losing your season to that? No, I would have been in a coma,

especially if I hadn't been in the Super Bowl in 20-plus years. Because I just think they were better. Everybody's defending the spike. The spike was ridiculous. I keep saying this. It drives me insane. The goal when you have the ball is not to attempt the field goal. The goal is to make the field goal. When you give up a play, you're just

saying you're going to attempt the field goal. Also, you're screwed because if you don't have a nice second down play, now it's like, what did they end up with, third and eighth there? I mean, there's just no reason for it. You want three things. You probably have a chance to run maybe three or four plays left.

You're almost definitely going to end up with a field goal anyway. So how do you end up giving them time? Plus, I think they got stuck with a timeout. That was the other great part of that. They have a timeout carried over into next year. Oh, that. They have a timeout carried over in the next year. Oh, can they use it? Can they use it in the preseason? If he's in the Hall of Fame game next year, he'll have seven timeouts.

Wow. I mean, it's ridiculous. They gave away. At some point as a head coach, you have to understand who your opponent is. Is it the other team or the clock? And sometimes it's both. But when Dallas had the ball, knowing that Aaron Rodgers could come back on the field, the clock was as much your opponent. You have one of the best field goal kickers in the league.

So it sounds like you're leaning toward Atlanta and the Pats. I would say I'm leaning towards that. I could see Pittsburgh upset. No, I think Pittsburgh's hot. I think Pittsburgh's confident. I don't think they mind playing on the road. I think it'll take everything that the Patriots have to win the game, and I think Atlanta will win the game. I know everybody's talking about Aaron Rodgers.

I love Aaron Rodgers. At some point, a team has to win. A team has to win. It's great for the Falcons that they played all year to get this home game in round three, and everybody thinks Aaron Rodgers is going to the Super Bowl. I would say they could use that as motivation.

You know, I texted you over the weekend. You were dead on. You were 4-0 in round one with who you liked. And then I think this last – oh, you didn't like Seattle. I didn't like Seattle. I didn't like Seattle. I was 3-1. Well, you're 2 – yeah, yeah, you're 3-1 because of the Seattle-Atlanta game. And I texted you over the weekend before the game.

I was like, everybody has one blind spot team, and I think yours is Atlanta. Like you're just – everybody has that one team where you're like, I just – I don't want to see it, or I don't see it, or I see this. And I think mine is Pittsburgh. I think they're better than I realize they are, and I haven't wanted to see it. I think their defense, as you said, especially in the red zone, like they just get stops. They big for it. Remember that Cincinnati game when they came back? They got a huge fourth down stop. And I think they're my blind spot team, unfortunately. And Atlanta, look, I look at Atlanta and I think, look, they give up, you I think they're my blind spot team, unfortunately. Atlanta, look, I look at Atlanta

and I think, look, they give up. They've played better defense against the Rams, the 49ers, the Carolina. Their yards per attempt defensively was so low. I'm thinking when they played Kansas City, they gave up Alex Smith had over 10 yards a pass attempt. So I never really felt

like they played it. And then New Orleans, they beat New Orleans 38-30 I think this game's going to be in the 30s I think it'll be a shootout but I think Atlanta's smart enough, I think Kyle Shanahan deserves to be the head coach of the 49ers I think he's a great coach I think he'll be

he'll be able to get control of the game with what he does and keep Aaron Rodgers away from having control of the game with what he does and keep Aaron Rodgers away from having control of the game. And that's going to be the key. You know, it sounds like Shanahan's going to get that job and McDaniels is going to roll it over to next year.

I don't know if he knew that he wasn't getting the job or whether he just wanted to wait. I was excited because I was ready for McDaniels to go to San Francisco and then my dream scenario of the Pats trading number 32 if we won the Super Bowl with Garoppolo for the second pick in the draft was my favorite fake trade in a while. My friend Jay Giroux actually emailed it to me, and I got all fired up about it. But that's not happening. But do you think San Francisco would have done that? Is that a fair trade? Look, if Jimmy Garoppolo would have played on the Chiefs, they would have

beaten the Steelers. I think you're right. If Jimmy Garoppolo would have played on the Texans, they would have beaten the Patriots. So I'm not like people say, well, you're just saying that because you're trying to get Belichick. No, no, I'm telling you, I scouted Jimmy Garoppolo when I was in Cleveland before I went to New England.

Jimmy Garoppolo is a really good quarterback. He would be doing the same type of things that Derek Carr is doing now. Okay? He could throw the ball in any place. He's smart. The team likes him. He's better than Jared Goff. I think he's got a great future.

And whoever gets him, they're going to have a winning quarterback. And to be fair, you were very dubious of Matt Castle even after the 11-5 season because I knew you way back when. And you were delighted that the Chiefs, that Belichick got the 39th pick for Matt Castle and Mike Rabo was basically done at that point. You thought that was incredible. Right, because to me that was a product. This kid's not a product of the system.

This kid is, this kid can go in the system and run it. And then he could go to somebody else. Like he could go to Houston and do it. If the heist is worth 17 million, I don't know what Jimmy's worth. Yeah. Well, he's going to go. I don't know what to think anymore. I don't know if Belichick and Brady have made some secret blood pact

that next year is the last year and then the team. Who knows? Or Brady might want to play until he's 100. I don't know. I'm keeping everything open. I will tell you this, though. It's still a very well-coached Patriots team. Mike Lombardi, I look forward to texting with you this weekend.

This is going to be something. You bet. I'm looking forward to it, Bill. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Mike. Bye-bye. Let's take a quick break to talk about real time with Bill Maher during a time when everybody's talking politics and wondering what the heck is going on.

Who's better to cut through that chatter than the irreverent and incisive voice of Bill Maher? His rotating panel of guests and Bill are back for season 15 of HBO's award-winning series Real Time with Bill Maher, following a raucous year of tracking the presidential election. The show is picking up right as a new president takes office. Every Friday night, Maher hosts guests made up of authors, thinkers, newsmakers, artists, politicians, firebrands, and provocateurs from both sides of the aisle.

They dissect the new and not-so-new people and happening on Wall Street, Hollywood, around the world, and especially in Washington. Watch Real Time with Bill Maher live Fridays, 10 p.m., only on HBO. Every week the conversation continues on Real Time Overtime on YouTube. And since we're here, let's talk about Buffalo Wild Wings. It's still football season, which means it's still chicken wing eating season. Although that's probably 12 months a year, right, Tate? I would say 12 months a year. I can't remember if the first time I went to a Buffalo

Wild Wings that they had 21 signature sauces and seasonings to choose from, but they definitely have that now. And they definitely have a great lineup of cold and refreshing beers on tap and a collection of wall-to-wall flat screens so big it will make your head spin. Buffalo Wild Wings covers all of those details, so they add up to the kind of game day experience fans can appreciate. And they do it because they appreciate fans. Win or lose, if you're a fan, you're still a winner. If you're enjoying the best game day atmosphere there is.

Buffalo Wild Wings, wings, beer, sports. They do it for us because we're football fans and we only have two weekends left. I'm already bummed out. All right, let's go to Sarah Tiana. Hold on. All right, she's been on before, a Falcons fan. She's very optimistic the last time she was here,

which I think was here, which I think was when, like October, November? Oh, my goodness, yeah. Somewhere in there. Also didn't have faith in Matt Ryan. Like, you asked me about him, and I was just like, I don't know. None of you Falcons fans did. No, I don't know. And I just felt like that was the right –

I think it's just been years and years of just like – you know, I think it would be like being a Romo fan where you're just like, I don't know. Like, we keep getting so close and then I'm disappointed. Your guard was up. My guard was up. Yeah, for sure. But. It was kind of like a bad relationship.

Yeah. It was like an off and on. Yeah. Boyfriend or girlfriend for four or five years. You don't know what to make of it. Yeah. And you're like, even if he does give me a ring, am I going to be happy? I don't know if I want it. I know. I don't know whether what to make of it yeah and you're like even if he does give me a ring i don't know if i want it i don't know if i want it you're dating out of familiarity more

than anything yeah now we're just comfortable i well i judge all my quarterbacks by how they react on inside the nfo when they mic up the players okay and i was very impressed by his mic'd up performance this week they mic'd him up he at one point the Seahawks got chippy Matt Ryan called everyone over and laid into them he's like don't get caught up into that and like really seemed like he was in charge he has been like laser focused

that's one thing that I've noticed so he's on HGH yeah I think so him and Peyton are friends so I'm sure that's how he got it. Now Jazeera's following him. Peyton's wife's giving him all the info. But yeah, I don't know. He just seemed really, really locked in.

Like every interview that I've seen with him, he just seems like... I wonder if he hit rock bottom last year. God, I mean, I can imagine. In a bad year, the Falcons fans were out. Yeah, I mean, we got accused of putting the sound in. It was rightfully accused. No Tony Gonzalez.

Yeah, well, we got to make it sound like somebody's in there. The Patriot fans know everybody who ever cheated in the NFL the last 15 years. Oh, yeah. It's like the Steelers. They've done a bunch of stuff. And their coach tripped somebody who was running down the sidelines. If Belichick did that, we would never hear the end of it. My time was like, oh, what a great guy.

He really cares. Did you see that guy that took the picture of Belichick on the ferry coming home when he was sleeping? Yes. And then ESPN asked if they could use it. And he said, no, absolutely not. You started to flake, Gabe. Yeah.

Do not use this. Patriot fans hate ESPN. That's so great. It's so cool. I love that. It's gangster. So you started to play games. Yeah. Do not use this. Patriot fans hate ESPN. That's so great. It's so cool. I love that. It's gangster. So you're playing Green Bay. Yeah.

What are your feelings on Aaron Rodgers? I mean, I am not a fan ever. I've never really been a fan. Obviously, like, you know. Is it an NFC thing or is it like a personal animosity? No, it just like always killed us. Like every play, you know, like another playoff game. I think the last time we played them in a playoff,

they beat us, and it was just so frustrating. We were so close, and we had such a good year. It's always just been like he's this necessary evil. But I feel like it's perfect because in order for us to really appreciate going to the Super Bowl, I think we have to beat Green Bay. You have to go through him. Yeah, if you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. What happened to Arthur Blank's mustache? When did it go away?

I didn't even notice that it went away. It seemed like it was gone. I always liked it because it was like a cross between Clark Gable and Gone with the Wind, but like some old porn producer crossed with crossed with I don't know what. He looks like every bad character. Yeah, he's like a bad man character. He also looks like our mascot, Freddy the Falcon.

I don't know if you've ever noticed that. No. But yeah, he looks a lot like. He was doing this weird hand-holding thing with like. I don't know who that girl was. Was that his daughter? I don't know. Daughter, third Was that his daughter? I don't know. Daughter, third wife.

I'm not sure who it was, but they were just holding hands on the sidelines. And I'm like, I would never do that with my daughter if I knew. No, probably not. If I knew. Yeah. Or my third wife. He probably has such bad arthritis, he didn't know that he was holding anybody's hand. He didn't realize he was holding another human being?

Just gripping onto something. Do Falcom fans like him? Yeah. We like him a lot. He's in a lot holding anybody's hand he's just gripping onto something fans like him yeah we like him a lot he's done a lot i mean he's yeah he's literally a good owner yeah he's a great owner he's put a lot of um heart into the organization you know and i think getting dan quinn there and like just to have people i mean shanahan being everybody's so happy yeah you know working for that organization, and that changes everything. Shannon's leaving. I know. He's going to the Niners, it looks like.

Sure, probably. You Instagrammed. You were watching the game. Who was that crew you were with? Oh, those were all my Falcons fans crew. It looked like an NBC sitcom. For the upcoming pilot, Sarah! Like her and her six guy friends watching the Falcons game.

I know so many guy friends. I have no female Falcons fans friends. Are there female Falcon fans friends to have? I think so. My friend Jason Tebow is convinced that all Falcons fans look like the same fans of the Wendy Williams show. He's like, if you were to look at their fans and our fans, it'd be the same, just different hats.

My wife always wanted there to be like a MySpace for married women to find gay friends. Oh, yeah. And maybe there should be like another version of MySpace for female sports fans to find other female sports fans. Yeah. It seems like it's very hard. It is hard to find.

It's not as hard to find someone who's a fan of sports. Of your team. Your team and like your specific you know even football like some girls are like i'm a huge basketball fan or i'm a big you know baseball fan and you're like i just what do you think the rankings are for basketball one football two for baseball 700 for what female sports fans like. I would assume that football would be number one because it's obviously the most popular sport. Over basketball? I think it's a lot more fun.

Football is like once a week. It's something where you can have people over. You can cook. You can gather. It's just like it's our moment. And we like hosting as women. We as females? Like all females? I don't know about all, but I know. I do. I like hosting you know as women we like we as females like all females i don't

know about all but i know i do i like when you use the we yeah i know i there was this it's so funny i have to be careful about saying it because there's this guy uh in alabama like a few years ago he wrote some article about how women should get more into football because it would give them more opportunities to like cook food for their men nice was he over 70 he he was and i think i tweeted at that newspaper like about 18 or 19 times you know like all the tweets were like i i couldn't finish this article because i was too busy ironing you know sorry had to hold a pie in one hand and then remote in the other like it's just it was just so obnoxious but at the same time i can see why you know women would be more drawn to sports because it is like we're super competitive we're you know we're really into knowing names and places and it seems like everything's crossing over more men are watching the bachelor more women are

open about how they like sports. I'm amazed by how many men watch The Bachelor now. So many men watch. I used to just watch it because my wife made me laugh with the jokes she made during it. And then I kind of half watch it like I'm always doing something else.

But now it seems like it's like a thing. Guys are involved now with The Bachelor. Yeah, and it's always there. I'm getting less into it. Yeah, it's kind of become too mainstream. Yeah, a little bit. And it's also just like there's always... I have a real problem with the employment titles.

Small business owner? Yeah, I'm like, oh, you mean you have a blog? Yeah. Good for you. You've been to Dunkin' Donuts. Audio visual specialist. I'm like, oh, you mean you have a blog? Yeah. Good for you. You've been to Dunkin' Donuts. Audiovisual specialist. I'm like, you work at Best Buy. What was there's one that's like mental health specialist or whatever that one was.

I was like, what, is that a job? I know. Do I need to hire one for the rigger? I know. Mental health therapist specialist or whatever it was. I do know that Dog Owner was on one of them one time. I'm just like this has been a very special bachelor season for my family because we finally let our daughter

start watching with us oh 11 and a half yeah yeah um so i know it's it's it's it's maybe a year too fast but at the same time i've never seen her enjoy anything more and to watch her reactions to somebody like corinne this year's villain yeah and oh my god and how much of a prude she is about it really gives me hope for her future i just she hates all the right people i hope it stays that way yeah that's good so she knows villains and she likes the canadian special needs teacher oh okay she's like she seems nice i'd be be friends with her. I'm like, good. That's a good reaction. That is a good way of testing her before she actually starts dating, just to see if she

makes good decisions and reads people the right way. Right. If she was identifying with the woman who takes her suit off in the pool, be like, that would totally do that. I'd be like, oh, no. At least you would know. We have have to go to a girl's school all girls school or a convent oh yeah for sure unfortunately she was horrified by that person okay that's good i don't know if they play that stuff if they tell the people to play that up

though i don't know how also don't know how we're talking about the bachelor they don't i'm friends with one of the producers and he's just like, no, trust me. It's all about the casting. Yeah. Yeah, of course. The casting process is extremely rigorous. And I've met a lot of those people from that show. And they're just exactly, they try to put on a front and then you give them a little alcohol and then they're really themselves.

And that's really the game plan for the producers is it goes till five in the morning yep and there's nothing to do other than sip champagne by the way you should never drink champagne ever anyway that much these girls are drinking like they're in their sixth glass of champagne yeah i can't even imagine disaster yeah and a bad hangover i was trying to think if if i was in the bachelor which i'm way too old but old, but what my drinking game plan would be on opening night. Oh, yeah. And I think the move would be to get everyone to do shots, but then do the shot over the shoulder when nobody's looking. Guys, let's do this. And just try to get people to be as drunk and stupid as possible.

That's smart. At any point in your life, would you have ever thought about going on a show like that? Yeah, sure. I've thought about it, you know, especially since I, you know, I'm friends with the producer or whatever. But then the older you get, the more you're like, well, now I'm too old.

But then also I don't want to be in a bathing suit on television. You know, that's why I'm afraid of dying in a shark attack because I don't want to die in a bathing suit. That's another big part of that. I have this whole fear of the ocean and I think part of it is just being discovered in a bathing suit. But yeah, I think that's like, yeah. I mean, the only reason you would want to go on, it would be to travel. I had a moment in mid twenties when the real world came to Boston when I really thought about applying. Really?

Yeah, it was like, I don't know when it was, like 95, 96, something like that. It was in, the house was in Beacon Hill. It was like five minutes from where I lived. I remember when they did Real World Boston. My title would have been terrible. I was basically like unemployed at that point. I would have been like struggling sports writer.

It would have been my little. That was what the real world was. I guess it was. They were a little bit more honest about jobs. they would have been following me going to some terrible high school volleyball game or something i always wanted to do survivor more than i wanted to do any of those other shows and you know then you know the more you start working in your field you're like well now i can't go on but then jimmy johnson went on you're like oh maybe i can't you could totally go on why wouldn't you be to be able to go on Survivor?

I don't know. You get to a place in your career where you're just like, do I really want to be away for this long? It's like what? From my work. 40 days? Yeah, but then you also like after that you're. This is the most important question I'm ever going to ask you. You know that episode when the family comes and everyone cries?

Who comes? Oh, man. My sister, probably. Your sister? Oh, you're about to cry right now. No. Would you cry? Do you think you'd cry?

Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. I'm always fascinated why everyone cries. Yeah. I can't think of anyone in my family who would make, like, my dad lives in Boston. And when I pick him up at the airport, I don't start crying. But my family who would make... My dad lives in Boston. And when I pick him up at the airport, I don't start crying. But when he leaves, do you cry?

No. Like, I'll see you in two months. You're in Carolina. Do you cry when you say goodbye to your parents? They cry. Oh, they cry. Yeah. Maybe I'm just a terrible person. Maybe you're just a sociopath.

You're letting your 11 year old watch The Bachelor. Obviously, you don't have a lot of emotion. I think I would cry if she came. Yeah. But maybe it's like, see, it makes me think it is such an emotionally scarring experience that when these people even get a glimpse of real life, it completely breaks them down. I think it's like, it's maybe just a moment of like, because you're really testing yourself on that show. You're testing your endurance.

You're testing your ability to be around people and be hungry. I mean, it's basically all of your fences and walls are down because you're hungry, you're tired. You don't have social media or the internet you have no contact with the outside world and you've been living in this bubble and then you see somebody who brings you a sense of reality and home and then you're just like oh it's like every meal you've ever wanted i i was very poignant i've always wanted my wife to go on that show because if she's hungry she she starts to lose her mind.

Yeah. And I think she would get voted off within the first three shows because of some sort of incident because somebody took the race. And it would be great. It would just be great TV. I'd be totally fine with it. I remember on one season, early on, they used to be able to bring a luxury item early on. And somebody brought beef jerky or something and it was like hidden in like this box.

And then like, Oh man, like people went off. That is a great luxury item. Great luxury item. What would you bring for your luxury item? Man. Gosh,

I don't know. Cause you can't, you probably can't. No cell phone reception out there. I would probably bring a book. A book? Like something to keep my mind. Like a 700-page book.

Yeah, something to keep my mind occupied. You could bring like Infinite Jest. It lasts like the whole time. It's like 800 pages. Yeah, I'd probably just bring the first Game of Thrones book because I haven't read it. That would be a good one. And that would probably take me a year to get through. Constantly flipping the pages back like,

wait, what happened? I'm so confused by all the names. Now you'd be worried that I'm a bad dad because my daughter watches The Bachelor. Oh, you're definitely a bad dad. But that has nothing to do with The Bachelor. She loves it. I'm just joking.

Well, she's also seen every rom-com. I think it's fine. I think it, like, trying... Every PG or PG-13 rom-com, I should say. Yeah. Well... Like, to me, Bride Wars is almost worse than The Bachelor. Have you ever seen Bride Wars?

Yes. Two best friends, friends for life. Their dream is to be each other's maid of honor, and they mistakenly get booked on the same day, and they turn into arch enemies. To me, that's a much worse, more dangerous something. Or My Best Friend's Wedding. That's another one. Julia Roberts is like, oh, I've decided I now like this guy. Or My Best Friend's Wedding. That's another one.

Julia Roberts is like, oh, I've decided I now like this guy. I'm going to destroy his wedding and his life. That's more dangerous. Yeah. If anybody was going to marry Cameron Diaz, though, I'd probably be like, you have to stop. You cannot do this. Even early Cameron Diaz? Yeah, early Cameron Diaz was pretty awesome.

She's fine. She's great now. What about Rose Battle? Are you going to watch? Oh, yeah. I'm going to go. Are you going to go's great now. What about Rose Battle? Are you going to watch? Oh, yeah. I'm going to go. Are you going to go? I'm going to go.

Okay. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I want to top the performance of my friend Daniel Kellison, who was in the last episode in the background just with this stupid laughing look on his face. You really have to be careful when you're sitting in the thing. You don't know if it's on a judge and you're behind with just this dumb smile laugh on your face. We made fun of him.

I'm sure. It was fun. I'm sure. I think there should be gambling on Roast Battle. I would love if there was gambling. Because I was looking. They released the odds. And I'm thinking like Jeff was on last week.

And he said there were two people that have just been winning every roast. So then I was thinking if this was like an NFL pregame show, some people would be like, or you're almost like with horse racing, where you're like, well, you gotta look at his last six roasts. He's placed five out of six. Yeah, right?

And there should be stats and stuff, and it'd be really fun to bet on this. I guess you could bribe the judges. Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, I don't think, what would you bribe them with? Marijuana? Yeah, marijuana. Medical marijuana. That's? Like a steak? Yeah. Marijuana.

Yeah. Medical marijuana. That's true. That's true. That could work. But I know Snoop Dogg's doing it. So I don't think you could ever bribe him with something that he hasn't done. You know what I mean? They had Ron Artest as a judge.

That's so crazy. Last week. And he couldn't even remember like who made what joke. He's like, I don't remember who had that insult. It's like, why are you here, Ron Artest? I don't know. He just, he's such a weird why are you here? Writing a test. I don't know. He just, he's such a weirdo. He likes comedy, I guess.

Which is great. Did you see the one with the wheelchair guy? No, I haven't seen any of them yet. There was one on Sunday. The guy was in a wheelchair and it was, but now they're pushing the envelope to see who's going, the spirit of roasting and how far people go. And people just cross the line.

They don't care. It's a roast. You have to though. I've been heckled by people in wheelchairs or people with cancer or whatever and they think that that gives them a free pass and i'm like no no i'm gonna treat you exactly the same as i treat anybody else everyone's equal in a room you know like you can't you can't you know want to you know be handicapped and then want to be treated like everyone else. And then when I start making fun of you, all of a sudden claim, don't make fun of me. I'm handicapped.

Like, that's not. Yeah. Sorry. Like, we're all we're all equal here and we all get made fun of. And I really wonder, Jeff seems to think that will last forever. The spirit of the roast. The spirit. The one last place where anything goes and everybody's treated the same way.

I don't know. I think so. Honestly, I always feel like it's the last form of free speech. I mean, unless there's some sort of gag order. But usually when somebody says, don't make fun of me for this, then you're like, well, now I have thought of eight jokes that I can make fun of you on that about. There's nothing better than a perfectly crafted roast joke.

Yeah. And I enjoy it the most. I think as long as people are dying in the world, there's always going to be roast jokes. Like you have to, that's like, it's a good senior yearbook quote. Yeah.

For you high school seniors out there, you can steal that one. There's always going to be a joke to be made. Yeah. I mean, some of the best jokes I think I've ever written were when people died, you know, James Gandolfini,

when he died, I remember I wrote a joke for Jeff, which he didn't, which didn't make it onto the roast, but it was like, James Franco, you're an insult to Italian actors everywhere. James Gandolfini must be trying to roll over in his grave right now.

It's a great joke. And you know, and it's also just saying that he would be insulted you know if you really break down a joke like sometimes people aren't as offended at they're offended at the idea of what you just said and not necessarily the joke itself you're just looking at me like uh no i love it i like when you go i i get really upset i can listen to people talk about the art of comedy and how the audience treats comics and the whole. I love it.

It's one of my guilty pleasures. I know. I love that about you, that you're such a comedy nerd at the same time. I'm a super comedy nerd. All this other stuff. The fact that you know a lot about comedy is incredible. I'm a nerd with stuff like that. Everybody has their nerd bases.

And for me, for whatever reason, comedy was one of of them but I'm not as good as I used to be not a lot of nerds are also good writers and know a lot about sports and like comedy you know what I mean most people who are comedy nerds are usually just like wrestling fans not that there's anything wrong I'm also a Saturday Night Live nerd

which I realized when they replayed the Carrie Fisher episode, which was on my DVR from 40 years ago. And it was on the thing. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is the first time the Blues Brothers were ever on SNL. My wife's like, why do you know that? Like, how do you? She just was like confused. I was like, I don't know. I almost wish like your brain was a cache and you could clear it sometimes and add better information.

I don't know how that information even helps me anymore to know that the Blues Brothers. I also feel like people like you who've like been big sports fans for so long, maybe probably since childhood, I'm assuming. Like memorizing the names of all of those athletes when you were young has helped you create that memory to where you can remember names and places and people. And I think I'm like always behind in that because as a kid, like I didn't play those video games, right. That had the players and I didn't collect baseball cards because I was a girl. So for my generation, it was the cards. It was basketball cards, football cards, baseball, hockey. And you had all of them.

You traded them. You studied them. We didn't have a lot to do. So you'd be like, oh, I'm going to sort my hockey cards today. And that's how you knew the stats. And then it became video games. Yeah, and then video games, I think, really helped. Like Tate, you play FIFA, right? Yeah.

So Tate knows all these weird soccer teams and all these different things. You and Ocho Cinco, huh? Like you and Chad Johnson. Is he you and chad johnson is he gonna meet you in a house in tampa and fight you so we gotta go what's your super bowl plan if they win if they win i'm going if they win you're going you're going to houston because i randomly i am at um the fort worth hyenas comedy club that weekend in Dallas. So I'm at that club Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So if the Falcons go to the Super Bowl, I'm going to drive down to

Houston on Sunday. And my friend Bennett gets two tickets because he writes NFL honors. So he said I could have his ticket if the Falcons go. So I'm going. And then he's going to tell you at the last second, I sold your ticket. You better get Bennett to get that in writing.

I gave it to the bachelorette. Well, good luck. I think you're going to win. I really do think that. Yeah, I do. I think there's too many people on that Rogers bandwagon right now. God, I hope so. I think you're good. Yeah, I think we're good.

I think we're quietly good. And we have that double-headed snake and Devontae Freeman and Tevin Coleman. And people don't really... Because Coleman can also catch the ball as a receiver. So he's such a threat. You're fast. You have a lot of speed on that offense. I think it's tough.

I thought Dallas could have put up 40 points in that game if they had a different game plan. I think it might come down to who has the ball last, to be honest. But I mean, last week, the Falcons even surprised me because when we went for two, they did the screen pass to Julio. And they've never done that play before.

And I was like, whoa. So they're still drawing up new stuff right now that I'm just blown away by. What's your Twitter handle? At Sarah Tiana. Okay. Check her out on Twitter. Thanks to Seeky. Thanks to Buffalo Wild Wings.

Thanks to HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. And we'll be back on Friday with a brand new podcast with a special guest. This is going to be a good one on Friday. Stay tuned for that. I don't have On the wayside