The Bill Simmons Podcast - MVP Gripes, Lamar’s Moment & Million Dollar Picks, Plus a Beto O’Rourke Interview With Mallory Rubin and Joe House | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: September 20, 2019

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Mallory Rubin for Mallory’s Most Intriguing, in which she shares her five most intriguing story lines of the week, including Lamar Jackson vs. Patrick Mahomes and backup QBs starting in Week 3 (2:30). Then Bill and Joe House make some Million Dollar Picks (47:15). Finally, Bill sits down with 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke to discuss the democratic debates, running against Ted Cruz for US senate in 2018, and more (1:26:05). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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where you can find The Ryan Rosillo Show, which actually went on this week and on today, actually. It was already up by the time this one went up. But you can hear me talk about all kinds of stuff with him. We hadn't gotten together in a while. So if you miss hearing me and Russell on this podcast, go to his podcast. You can hear it.

Rewatchables 1999 on Luminary. We did Never Been Kissed this week, which might be the worst movie of the last 20 years. We never do bad Rewatchables. We did one in that case. And then our new podcast, The Hottest Take, only on Spotify. People really seem to like this.

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We have Mallory Rubin doing Mallory's Most Intriguing. We have Joe House and I are going to do Million Dollar Picks. And then out of nowhere, Beto O'Rourke, political candidate. He's coming on. It's less of a politics podcast and more of a what's it like to run for president. And I really was fascinated by this. I learned a lot. So he's the third guest on this. That's all coming up first. Our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, it's Thursday afternoon, which means Mallory Rubin is here. Hello. She does Mallory's Most Intriguing every Thursday.

Favorite segment of her dad. What's your dad's name? Barry Lee Rubin. Barry Rubin's favorite segment. Mallory's most intriguing. Count them down from five to one. Who's number five? Number five. A little treat for you.

Yeah. A baseball enthusiast. Baseball home stretch. The final week of the regular season heading into the playoffs. What should we watch? Okay. We got three teams who have already clinched.

Five of six divisions are in in essence, completely locked up. Yeah. The team that is in the iffiest spot there is Minnesota and AL Central, and even they have a 98% chance on fan graphs. So we're really looking at three things in the final week. One, the NL Central, the only division race that's really still up for grabs. And then both wild card races which are actually

setting up on the heels of a you know we both love baseball but let's be honest quite a dull baseball season oh my god we might have a fun

final week which I think would be an invigorating way to enter the playoffs so well Drew Pomeranz is a closer on a potential playoff team

so that doesn't make it a fun final week I don't know what does you know what they say. It's not what you want. You literally hate to see it, Bill. Wow. So NL Central.

Here's what people should be watching for. St. Louis is in the lead. Okay. We might have the Cardinals. Best fans in baseball. Not sure if you've heard. We might have the Cardinals back in the playoffs at last, but the Cubs and the Brewers are both three back.

Obvious caveat to this entire baseball discussion is that we're chatting in the middle at last, but the Cubs and the Brewers are both three back. Obvious caveat to this entire baseball discussion is that we're chatting in the middle of the afternoon here. There will be games tonight. Some of these numbers will change, but the general picture is the same. The Cardinals and the Cubs

play six times in the final nine games. So that's awesome. Whenever you have a division race shaking out that way with the prospect for a head-to-head shakeup, three of those are at Wrigley.

That's this weekend. And then three at Bush next weekend. That is going to be a lot of fun. The Cubs, in addition to having the Cardinals twice, get the Pirates, but they don't have Anthony Rizzo the rest of the regular season. It seems like if they make the playoffs, he'll be back, but he's dealing with the ankle injury, so they're going to be without one of their best players.

The Cardinals have the Cubs twice, and then the Diamondbacks, which is, you know, that's pretty favorable for locking things up. Donnie Kwok, our ringer colleague, his cousin, Tommy Edmund, is playing regular innings and minutes for the St. Louis Cardinals and is probably going to be in the playoffs. That's incredible.

So that's a fun thing for the ringer. Brewers have the easiest road here. They get the Pirates, the Reds, and the Rockies. But they're missing their best player. But they're missing Jelic. So that's the question. So we can't see him in mid-October? No, he's, I mean, broken kneecap.

So he's done. We're not going to see him again. Kobe Bryant would be back. He would have gone to Italy by now. It would be astounding if we saw him. Can he use somebody else's kneecap? I mean, it's baseball. They tend to figure those things out in some way and a wild card Nationals are currently in the lead

and then basically the two NL Central runners up so the Brewers and the Cubs at the moment are in the mix technically the Phillies and the Mets are alive which is incredible the Diamondbacks are actually still alive too but we're pretty much talking about the Nats and then which one of those NL Central teams. So the Nationals get Miami next. Got to sweep that. Got to sweep that because then they have a five-game series

against the Phillies. That'll be fun. Five-game series. Four days, a doubleheader in the mix there. I can't believe you took advantage of me by coming on my podcast and talking about September baseball. It's one of the rare years where I have the pleasure of talking about the prospect of playoff baseball with you.

And the Red Sox are not going to be coming up here, folks. Are people using the 15-second button to fast forward or just the 30-second button, waiting until they hear a football name? I think there's a chance that they're delighted that you have to suffer through a baseball conversation when the Boston Red Sox are not going to be in the baseball playoffs. Did you know that? Did you know that the Red Sox aren't going to make the playoffs? Listen, you can't win the World Series every year, but you can win it four out of 15 years. A.L. Wildcard, very quickly. I have a baseball team in the playoffs, though.

Anyone who's playing the Yankees is my team. I have a built-in team each series. Okay, so then that's something you should be looking at. I am. I've looked at it. Yankees and Astros. Obviously, they're both in the playoffs, but there's a home field. There's a home field race there.

Looks like the Astros are probably going to lock that up. I feel like home field probably doesn't matter. Do you feel like home field matters in baseball anymore? Not really, I guess. I actually sometimes think it can be counterproductive. Like at the Dodgers games, I actually thought it was bad for them that those games in the World Series last year, their fans are like so beaten down at this point

that when things flipped, you could kind of feel it in the park. Yeah, I guess that's true. They actually would have been better off probably playing on the road. There's something about this Astros team in particular though, where it just feels like so easy

to envision the script playing out in your head where Verlander throws a no-hitter for the final game to clinch it at home or something. I don't know. I can see that happening pretty easily. They're pretty impressive. I don't trust Asuna, though. Yeah.

The big picture baseball things I look at are... Pete Alonso hitting 50 home runs. Here we go. The Mets making it would be really fun just for the wildcard game because those games are always pretty lacking. Yeah, I mean, the AL wildcard game is going to be the A's against either the Rays

or Cleveland, probably. But this Dodgers decade, now we're coming to an end of it, where they've been, in a weird way, kind of the team of the decade because they've been relevant the whole time. They've done the most interesting things. They've spent the most money

and yet just could not get over the hump. And I think their fans are now hitting this. I was saying they reminded me of the Mavericks fans during the tail end of the Dirk era before we won the title. Right. Where it's like, they all kind of seem to think like, has the window passed on us?

Like, is this ever going to happen? Kershaw's, the arrow's going down on him. And I could actually see this being the year that they won. That's, that's the thing. Cause it felt like entering the season. That was a narrative around them is okay. Kershaw's dipping off. Did they already miss the window? You know, not winning either the last couple of years, but they're sitting here with a week left in the week and a half left in the regular season. So they already have 98 wins. Right. I mean, but do you think their fans trust them? I would say no.

I think probably not because they've suffered through this so many times before. We're talking about a three-decade drought here for a title. That said, the Cody Bellinger thing is real. You look at a team that has... Cody Bellinger's going to win the MVP. Almost definitely.

He's the only real MVP we're going to have this year because the other MVP is going to be Mike Trout Almost definitely. I mean, I think he's the only real MVP we're going to have this year because the other MVP is going to be Mike Trout on a terrible Angels team that nobody will ever remember five minutes from now. They won't remember that Angels team, but they'll

remember everything Mike Trout did. So change the name of the award. Make it the best individual performance because that's what it is. We're not voting for most

valuable player. You can't be most valuable for a team that fucking sucks. It's ridiculous. And then it's like, wow, you got to embrace the advanced metrics. No, I don't. What does the word valuable mean?

Valuable means that you're the best at what you do. No, it doesn't. And you help in as many ways as anybody can. The difference between, but it's not like he doesn't. His team is unhelpful. So why are we rewarding that? His team stinks no matter how good he is. So why does that get an award? Because he is. I don't understand it. He chose to re-sign there. Never happened in baseball history.

He's going to be the best baseball player of all time. He chose to stay there. He made his choice. His team stinks. So you think if he's doing what he's doing on the Red Sox, then it's all worth the sign off and you have it fully sanctioned. Mike Trout is the MVP. I just think get rid of the award. The MVP is not the MVP. It's most, it's best individual performance. That's a different word. But you are a rational person. I am.

And so you can separate the semantics of one word and the name of the award from the intent of what it is. Because the whole point of Most Valuable is that I'm supposed to interpret that how I want to interpret it because they've intentionally left it murky. But you just made my point for me. If you're supposed to interpret it the way you want to interpret it.

Who is the most valuable to a team who pushed them over the top and made them relevant? No, no, no, no. The Angels are irrelevant. You can't make both of those points at once. Yes, I can. You can. I just did. No, it's either the strict, rigid, like originalist interpretation, which is it's about whether your team wins and whether you made the playoffs period.

Or it's the nature of the name and the award is open to interpretation, which is how you get to the modern sabermetrics era of what value actually looks like. The team has to at least be okay. How can you be valuable to a team that's terrible? Because it's not Mike Trout's fault that the Angels are incapable of building a contender around him. Then why are we following baseball anymore? We're not! That's why you got mad at me for putting this up! Because this is why people hate baseball

though, because everyone's like, no, Mike Trout is the MVP. Isn't that team 73-99? You're stupid! You're dumb! You don't get math! It's like, okay. Alright, well, I guess I can't have an opinion on this yet. This is just because the Red Sox are bad. If we just said who is the MVP of a team that's actually going to be relevant

and win more than 75 games, who would that be? If we said that the MVP has to make the playoffs or come close, who's the MVP in the AL? Is it LeMahieu? God, no. Is it somebody in the Yankees? I got news for you. Alex Bregman?

It's an Astro and it's probably Verlander or Garrett Cole. Great. I would love if it was Verlander. At least that makes sense to me. They're successful and he's the biggest reason.

Him and Cole. I hate this. I can tell. I really do. I hate it. I hate being told I really do. I hate it. I hate being told how I should feel about an award, which you and your little math people. I am not a math person.

I'm willing to adapt to the times. And the times say that the way you think about value has to change. Should we do this with the Oscars? What do you mean? You do do this with the Oscars all the time. Otherwise, all the awards would go to just like whichever blockbuster made the most money. Jason Statham was awesome in Hobbs and Shaw,

which was a terrible movie. Should he win the MVP? Should we win Best Actor? She's like, man, without Jason Statham, that movie would have been even worse. People get nominated for good performances in bad movies. Not really. What?

They're usually at least a watchable movie. Like the Julianne Moore movie that she won for it. That was a pretty depressing movie. Yeah. I wouldn't say anybody would want to watch it twice, but it was at least passed the quality test. The Angels team does not pass the quality test. They're terrible.

I'm not arguing that the Angels are good. I just think, look, just have a different award. Have best individual performance and then we're terrible. I'm not arguing that the Angels are good. I just think, look, just have a different award. Have best individual performance. And then we're covered. Because that's what the MVP has turned into. So we're basically saying it doesn't matter who's on what team. It just matters how you do. But how you do

is relative. It's relative to every other performer on your team. Why have teams? Let's just keep in the dugout. Everybody can be in a glass cage and not interact with anybody else because teammates don't matter. I mean, to be fair,

you are kind of describing baseball. Okay, let's, let's just go the whole way. I love it. We have a dugout of just glass phone booths. So you're fine with Cody Bellinger winning MVP

because the Dodgers are going to make the playoffs. At least his team's good. All right, let me, let me throw this to you as a thought experiment. Yellich, if the Brewers going to make the playoffs. Alright, let me throw this to you as a thought experiment. Jelic, if the Brewers don't make the

playoffs. That's a good MVP candidate. It's Bellinger, Jelic, and maybe Akunan and Rendon in the NL mix. It really even among that group was down to pretty much Bellinger and Jelic who are both having just astronomical

seasons. Any way you want to look at it. Team success, stats, anything. But if it has to boil down to making the playoffs and you would be able to say the Brewers didn't make it, if that's how this ends, because Yelich was off the field,

then does his absence... That helps. And their ensuing absence from the playoffs actually help his case. I think we get into a lot of trouble. So basically the Cy Young is an individual award, right?

We've seen people win the Cy Young award with great stats on bad teams. Steve Carlton in 1972 being the most famous example. Wasn't his fault the team sucked. I think we should have a third award. I think there should be two offensive players awards, one for just best individual performance and then one for like most viable

for somebody who affected a team in the best possible ways. Now, I've heard all the arguments. It's not like I'm dumb to the arguments, but the argument is basically it's not his fault. But I agree with you. It's not his fault. But are you actually, do you actually believe that Mike Trout does not make his team better? I don't think it matters. Because let's say he's not on that team.

How many games did they win? 65? 63? Is there a difference between a 75 win and a 63 win team? Guess what? I don't want to watch either of them. So I don't know. Just what are we commemorating?

We're commemorating the best individual performance. So make that the award. Just say it. Don't say valuable. I agree to disagree. I'd be fine with changing the name. I just love when we disagree. We've known each other a long time.

It's awesome. I just don't like the word valuable. We've known each other a long time. This is fun. It's awesome. I just don't like the word valuable. We're still crackling six years in. Valuable and... The marriage is still hot. I just think the word valuable insinuates something good has happened. And my take on the Angels is nothing good has happened. Every time Mike Trout steps up to the plate, something good happens.

He does something that has never happened before every season. That has to matter. It has to. It cannot be a reflection of what we want out of the sport or out of the people who play it if at the end of a season

like Mike Trout just had and he also didn't complete the season because he's injured but similar timelines. He quit on his team. Oh my God. Now you're just chasing.

You want the aggregators to come after you again. The horror movie. Oh God. The you're just chasing, you want the aggregators to come after you again. The horror movie. Oh God, the aggregators coming. Directed by Jason Blum. Now, listen, I get it. He was the best player in the American League, but that's just what we should call the award.

Okay, let me ask you one more follow-up then. If this is how strongly you feel about it and how clearly you see that divide, would you then wait until after the postseason to vote? Because if it's... No, because it's a regular season award. But why? If the argument is that it's about,

in your mind, if we're going to call it this, it has to reflect wins and losses and actual team achievement. I think there should be an award. I think there should be an award in the NBA too. I think they should have playoffs MVP, not just finals MVP. But you could talk me into a

whole start to finish of the season award. So the Dodgers won the World Series, but he wasn't the best player in the World Series, but he was the biggest reason they won that whole season. Maybe that's an award. I don't know. Interesting. I I'm all for more awards basically. I think the most valuable player when I grew up meant the most valuable player to a team that mattered. And then about 15 years ago, people started to hijack this and they were like, why does the team have to be good? That's not fair to the player. And now we're, we are where we are, where Mike Trout is just going to win 10 straight MVPs on a bunch of teams that nobody's ever going to remember. I think it's weird.

One man's hijacking is another's progress. There you go. What's number four? We're really following through on our promise to move quickly today. We got 20 minutes for the next four. Number four. Yeah. Can Mitchell Biscuit Trubisky, throw a touchdown pass this week.

He's got a goose egg so far with one pick. Zero touchdowns. Yeah. Through two weeks. So the good news for the Bears is that after all of the agonizing over the kicker situation, they found a kicker. Great. The bad news is that they might not have a starting quarterback,

which is ultimately more problematic. And the Watson Mahomes thing just getting brought up constantly everywhere by everybody. As it should. Yes, as it should. Let the record state for the 947th time just this week that the Bears traded up.

Traded up! One spot. One spot to draft Mitchell Trubisky, second overall, in a draft that included Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Tough one. Let the record state.

So, Chicago gets Washington in Washington on Monday Night Football which is the Monday Night Football schedule this season is

bleak. The next six bleak. The next six weeks are really bad. Awful. Now, not totally

the fault of the schedule because there are a couple injuries in there but they weren't it wasn't a great stretch to begin with. It wasn't the most compelling. The Sunday night slate is so much better. So, Biscuit so far through two games,

and admittedly, two games against good defenses. Packers, Broncos, fine. Rocking a completion percentage of 58.3, averaging a robust 4.8 yards per attempt. His quarterback rating is 65. 65. A couple of advanced stats for you. NextGenStats listed 40.7% of his passes in week two as wide open.

And yet, heading into that final drive, he had 95 passing yards, despite how many of his attempts rated as wide open. That is not normal. I would also like to point out, I watched both of those games. And he looked like shit. They don't know.

It's the opposite of what you have with Lamar in Baltimore. They have him in an offense that doesn't succeed for him. I looked up his rushes. He's had four rushes in two games. He should be used like Josh Allen. That's how I would use him. He's such a good athlete. He's the scariest when he's running around

when he's not thinking. As a pocket quarterback, he's just bad. Yeah. And I don't think it gets better. So why not Josh Allen Lamarum? I just don't think he has the ability, period. You don't think he has the ability to roll out and do stuff? I don't think he has the ability, period. You don't think he has the ability to roll out and do stuff? I don't think he has the ability to run an NFL offense, period.

I mean, I think the point that you're making is valid, but he's also, you know, Matt Nagy is part of the offensive mastermind movement in the sport. It's not like he's on a team with an offensive system and a coaching staff that doesn't know how to structure a system around its personnel. It's quite the opposite, and it isn't making a damn bit of difference. And then the trickle-down effect is

David Montgomery is not having a good running season so far. They can't get anything going on offense because the defenses that they're facing, and again, two good ones so far, the chance to do something comes now against Washington, who is not playing. They had a tough draw with those first two games with the other team's defense slash

during the altitude in Denver in week two. Yeah. All that stuff. With that said. Yeah. He was horrible. He was terrible. Even like the narrative that, oh, he got it done.

He got it done in the end in that drive. Did he? Like that 25-yard throw to set up the game-winning field goal. Which happened when time expired. Yes, right. Getting that timeout call with quote-unquote one second left, like whatever, that's a whole separate thing. That was a 25-yarder, okay?

And of all of his throws in the game that went more than 10 yards, that was the only one he completed. He can't throw basically beyond the line of scrimmage. That is a problem if you're a starting quarterback in the NFL. I also think he has really bad in the moment panic judgment. He's the master of if whatever he thought was going to happen in the play, now we've moved to plan B. It's like his brain breaks. And that's when he'll just throw in a triple coverage. He'll throw across his body.

Like he'll just make the run decision. Yeah, he doesn't. He's not at least yet adept at making the proper read, making a quick decision. As Roger Sherman wrote on The Ringer last week, this whole thing about how he can't throw to his left is like a real thing. It's a thing.

Though Roger's conclusion hilariously was he just can't throw in any direction, which is like savage, but was a very funny way to end a column. Not untrue. Not untrue. You got to be able to throw a touchdown in two weeks in the NFL.

You have to. It doesn't matter what defense you're facing. It just doesn't. So this week feels like more of a barometer than it should feel like three weeks into the NFL. You have to. It doesn't matter what defense you're facing. It just doesn't. So this week is like a real, feels like more of a barometer than it should feel like three weeks into the season. Well, in the Packers game,

he had chances to throw touchdowns and just did not complete the pass in the way that a normal quarterback would. Yeah, he misses wide open throws. And he can't push the ball down the field. I haven't seen really anything from him that makes me think there's hope here. It's pretty bleak.

Now, it's early in his career. Who knows? But I just don't get it. It never really made sense when they picked him that it seemed like a scouting combine pick over an actual results pick. Yeah. And we've seen nothing other than he had one game last year. Remember when he went nuts? Everybody got excited.

Yeah. I don't remember when that was. It was in the middle of the season. His fourth quarter in the playoff game that they lost last year was pretty good. That's it. Those are my two positive Mr. Whiskey memories. That's a pretty short list in season three. Well, here's the other thing.

He said season three. Before we move on, it's a road game, but it's really not Monday night. There's going to be, what, 80% Bears fans? Do you think so? 70%. Why would a Redskins fan want to go to that game? If you're like, hey, man, you know what's going to be fun? Going to this Redskins game.

Soaking up the last moments of the Gruden era. Yeah, it could be the last moments. You know, they're on the clock. But I think those fans could get restless. Let's take a break. it could be the last moments. You know, they're on the clock. But I think those fans could get restless. Let's take a break. We'll do the last three. Hey, CBS Sports HQ is the brand new streaming sports network. Live 24-7.

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You don't have to log in or sign up for anything. Download the CBS Sports app and watch CBS Sports HQ today. All right, three more. Mallory's most intriguing. Go. Okay, number three. This is a quick one. This is less a discussion point for today

and more something that I feel we have an obligation to mention as a primer, like a watch list item for us, something to return to in future weeks to discuss at length. Do the Miami Dolphins have a chance to be the literally worst team in NFL history? I think this is the week

that we have to start monitoring this seriously. They're minus 92, right? Yes. Going to be 0-16, right? Just announced, actually, as we were sitting down to do this, Josh Rosen officially in as the starter. So that's exciting. I still believe.

But already 0-2. Schedule's tough. The fish tank is in full effect. Facing Dallas this week. So that's not only a guaranteed loss, but probably another annihilation. Nobody wants to be on the team. So traded earlier in the offseason,

Tannehill, Quinn, Alonzo. Right before on the eve of the season, the Tunsil, Kenny Stills trade to Houston. And then this week, traded Minka Fitzpatrick to the Steelers for a first-round pick. Part of a tank is accumulating draft capital. So getting a first round pick is great.

But if you're not able to field a roster at a certain point, because people keep asking to get out of town, that's a problem. Seems like a Kenyan Drake trade is at least possible. And that other people are also asking to get on the other way. That sounds like the replacements to sequel. It's Shane Falco time. Who else was on that team?

Could Jon Favreau start doing steroids and getting super ripped again? I mean, that might be their only hope to maintain anything. Can someone block for Josh Rosen? Because playing behind that line, I really feel bad for Josh Rosen. Going from the Arizona line he played behind last year to this situation is just awful.

So the Dolphins are on watch. Number two. the Arizona line he played behind last year to this situation is just awful. So, the Dolphins are on watch. Number two. So, the 0-16 thing. Yeah. There's also a whole bunch of other things that could happen

whether they could be the first team to be a 30-point underdog in a game. Right. Like this week, they're I think 23 now to Dallas.

It's like 22 and a half for 23 points to Dallas. That's astonishing. It a half or 23 points to Dallas. That's astonishing. It's the highest land I can remember seeing in the NFL in years and years and years. They're turning into whoever the shittiest SEC team is. Yeah.

Who's the worst SEC team? Well, I mean, it varies year to year, but I'd say for the sake of the comparison, you're basically saying they're the Vanderbilt. So Vanderbilt plays Alabama. What's the line? Oh my God. Like minus 30?

I mean, if we went back to a handful of years ago before Vanderbilt started to turn into a respectable program. Yeah, I mean, you could see that. What's weird is they host the Super Bowl this year. But it's not, the thing is, it's not even like, there's no comparison of like a major conference rival. It's like when an Alabama or a real power, like play,

it's when Michigan hosts some sort of FCS team at the big house. No, it's like my school Holy Cross when we gave up scholarships,

but we still played BC. There you go. And it was like, oh, cool. We're going to lose 49 to three. That'll be fun. What's number two? Riley had a nugget

in his, in his piece, his stats piece that the Dolphins DVOA through two games is the worst since 86. Things are really, really dark. Number two. Wow, that's interesting. Number two. I know last week I promised you I would try to exert some self-control and willpower and not talk about Lamar and the Ravens every week, but I'm human and I'm only capable of so much. And it turned out that I was not capable of honoring that promise for more than one week. Number two, Lamar versus Mahomes,

Ravens versus Chiefs, the game of the week. We can't not talk about it. It's the game of the week. Maybe the best game of the year. I hope so. I mean, I hope it lives up to the billing. The variable is whether he decides to go toe to toe. Right.

If it's on. Because Mahomes, I was on Rosillo's podcast earlier. Mahomes is the best player in the league and is playing quarterback at a level that's all-time out of control right now. He really might throw 60 touchdowns. It's possible.

He threw four in the second quarter of the Raiders game. He's doing things now that it's like when Jordan would just score 47, then he'd have 49 the next day, and we just... It doesn't even seem real anymore. So if he gets going and does his thing, and there's still doubt with

Lamar. Now, you know I love him. I'm in. He's on my fantasy teams. I'm all in. But he still has all... But he did it against Miami and Arizona. What happens if we haven't seen him play from behind yet? There's all these little things we haven't seen. I still believe. I believe too. It's a scary game, but I'm excited. The game last year was the 27-24 Chiefs win in overtime was

a really fun game. And I think Ravens fans are still carrying that fourth and nine that Mahomes converted, carrying that deep within, you know, and the idea of avenging that is very sweet. But you're right. I mean, it is it's a different kind of calculus, not only having to go against a good team, but maybe the best team. No offense to your Patriots, but certainly a Super Bowl contender and definitely the most explosive. Yeah, the MVP. I mean, the Ravens and the Chiefs,

two of the top three offenses in the league so far through a couple weeks by basically every metric. I think that Lamar and the offense can generate consistent yardage and points against the Chiefs. I'm really curious to see

how the defense holds up against Mahomes because I think like you're saying, we're just at the point with it where there's, there's no expectation really, no matter how good a defense is that the defense should be able to contain him. Like he's just,

he's a defense breaker. That's what he is. What made last week so crazy is Hills out. The guys weren't even that open week one. Everybody was open all over the place, but he had a couple of touchdown throws where the guys were open by a sliver. Have you-

And he still was able to hit them in stride 40 yards downfield. Like it's insane. Have you ever read a book called The Subtle Knife? No. It's a wonderful book. I'll happily lend you one of my multiple copies of it. Very quickly, the reason I asked-

Multiple copies, you weirdo. It's great. One of my favorite books. I'd highly recommend it. There's a magical tool in this universe and in the universe

of these stories it's called the subtle knife that you pierce the air with and you just the knife becomes a part of your hand and you sense

as you're moving through the layers of the air where to push where to slice and you can open a window literally the finest

point you can imagine into another world. That's what Patrick Mahomes does with his passes. where to slice, and you can open a window, literally the finest point you can imagine, into another world. That's what Patrick Mahomes does with his passes. Wow. That's all he needs. The subtle knife, Patrick Mahomes. I like it.

So the Ravens, I think, have some defensive questions, but I do think the Chiefs do as well. Now, the Chiefs in that Raiders game laid the smack down after they fell behind. Yes. And then I actually thought they did a pretty good job on defense. I thought Lamar's throw, the 41-yarder to clinch the game,

when it did feel like stuff was happening. Gorgeous. And that was a fucking gorgeous throw. Really, probably the best throw of the weekend. Oh my God. But he's passed all the checkpoints. This is a nice checkpoint. The Chiefs are favored by seven.

Yeah. I kind of like the Chiefs on a tease. Yeah. And they're going to have to probably outscore the Chiefs to win, which means this is now, we need 30 plus from Lamar, I'm guessing.

There is also a scenario where they do the control the clock for eight minutes, try to keep Mahomes off the field. I don't know. I'm excited for this game. That'll be interesting. I think one of the early developments of the season is that the Ravens are not, try to keep Mahomes off the field. I don't know. I'm excited for this game. That'll be interesting. I think one of the early developments

of the season is that the Ravens are not, not even specific to Lamar, but overall not running as much as everybody thought they were going to. You know, all the talk about how it was going to revolutionize offense by running more than any team in history.

Maybe this is the week that that actually happens with just enough of the Lamar, Mark Andrews and Lamar, Hollywood Brown connection to keep that explosive aspect of field stretching and RPO in the scheme. The thing that I'm really thinking about a lot is how can they stop Travis Kelsey. I know Sammy Watkins has been the big thing for the Chiefs so far this year,

but when you're a fan of a team that's playing the Chiefs, the thing that scares you most right now, at least with who's out on the field for them, is Kelsey cutting across the middle. I'm really, really fascinated to see how the Ravens deploy Earl Thomas on defense. Really fascinated. He's talking a lot of shit this week. I fucking love it.

Yeah. I'm going to shut it down. And obviously, Kelsey is often going against linebackers. I wonder about deploying Thomas from the safety spot to try to neutralize Kelsey. I think that'll be fun to watch. There's going to be a little Darwin Thompson in this game too because the Chiefs running backs are banged up. Yeah. I'm intrigued

to see him because it seems like he's the most physically gifted Chiefs running back but isn't as attuned with the playbook and the stuff like that. But he's kind of a wild card. Yeah, Damian Williams is hurt. McCoy sounds like he's going to play but he's also injured, so we'll see. Can't wait. We'll be hearing about that game later

with Million Dollar Picks because it's going to be involved. All right, number one, Mallory's most intriguing is? Number one, the NFL is officially a backup quarterback league. We are at this moment in time, and this could change again

because, again, as we sat down to record this, another backup became a starter. We are officially entering week three on Thursday afternoon at one quarter. Eight of 32 teams starting a quarterback who was a backup entering the season,

or if you want to fudge the math a little bit with the Colts because of when Brissette officially took over right before the start of the season. Quick rundown of what's happening here. Saints. Drew Brees out. Thumb surgery. They're playing Seattle. We don't

know if this is going to be Bridgewater or Taysom Hill. Sean Payton will not say. Do you think that's legit or do you think this is gamesmanship? Gamesmanship, but I'm so tired of the Taysom Hill everybody being so... He's the most overrated player in the league. Every time he comes in, they try to...

It's like... Remember Percy Harvin? Oh, sure. The dude and the dude on... That was originally... Tavon Austin. These guys come in the game and you know the coach can't resist using them and the defense is totally ready and he gets tackled behind the line. That's become

Taysom Hill. I hope they play him and he sucks and now we don't ever have to hear from him again. That's my goal for him with that game. Wow. Incredible. I mean, Teddy Two Gloves has at least a week to practice with the starters. He should be better than he was last week. He was bad last week. He did not play well last

week when he had to come in against the Rams. That said, it's the Rams. It was an in-game injury replacement. You know, I don't think you trade a third-round pick to acquire him and then give him a contract that makes him the highest paid backup in the league if you're not going to start him in this exact situation. That's how I feel. That would be very strange.

Feels like games are shit. Next situation. The New York football giants have benched Eli Manning for Daniel Danny Dimes Jones. It's happened at last. The doppelganger is in for the original. And I think it's fair to say that this is one of the most exciting things that has ever happened in sports. Not because I dislike Eli Manning or because I believe in Daniel Jones.

It's just fascinating and hilarious. Like you have all of these shots of them on the sideline next to each other where it is literally like a clone of Eli. Except not necessarily, at least before the preseason when Daniel Jones played well with any of the tape to indicate ability to match. You know, the fact that they drafted him sixth overall was at the time considered one of the biggest draft whiffs maybe in history.

And now people are like pretty quickly really in. I'm fascinated to see if that can hold up. When they're next to each other, it reminds me of the end of Forrest Gump with Forrest and Forrest Jr. at the bus stop. Same kind of vibe. I think if we call him Danny Dimes, he has a better chance. I think if he's Danny Jones, he has

a better chance. And I think if he goes by DJ, he has a better chance. But Daniel Jones makes him sound like a colonialist or like somebody who is with Dr. Joseph Warren, who's going to be in the hottest state next week. But it just doesn't sound like a quarterback to me. Interesting. It's like Daniel Jones.

Remember when Daniel Jones led them down the field? They go with Danny. Did you think it sounded like a quarterback when he was playing quarterback at Duke? I didn't. It definitely didn't. A lot of red flags. Next, Steelers.

Ben Roethlisberger. Out for the year. Elbow surgery. Definitely didn't. A lot of red flags. Next, Steelers. Ben Roethlisberger. Out for the year. Elbow surgery. Mason Rudolph is in. Playing the 49ers. This is coming up on Million Dollar Picks. Million Dollar Picks, I don't want to say too much. But I think the Minka Fitzpatrick trade was a vote of confidence in Mason Rudolph.

Clearly. That's kind of like, hey, we're fine at quarterback. Let's get this guy. It'll make us better. We're still in this. You do not give up a first round pick for a defensive player if you don't think you have a chance to contend this year. Can I bring the

Patriots into this? I assumed you would. 2001. Drew Bledsoe goes down. Season over. Right around the same time, actually. September. 2001 Drew Bledsoe goes down season over right around the same time actually September mid-September man by the name of

Thomas Brady came in hold on a second sixth round pick hold on season's over hold on what's gonna happen here are you comparing

Mason Rudolph to Tom Brady I'm not comparing the players I'm comparing the situations right you can't compare them because then early in the season

you'd have to note that Mason Rudolph was a third round draft pick and a better prospect than Tom Brady. All I know is people have written off the Steelers. Their season is over.

Only one team might not think that. The Pittsburgh Steelers. One of the things that I love, I really like Mason Rudolph. I liked watching him at Oklahoma State. I think he's a good quarterback. One of the things that I'm excited about, like Mason Rudolph. I liked watching him at Oklahoma State. I think he's a good quarterback. One of the things that I'm excited about,

again, goes without saying, but I'll say it, just in case anyone doesn't know this, loathe the Steelers. Hope they lose. I like Mason Rudolph. James Washington has been one of the biggest disappointments

for the Steelers so far, the receiver. James Washington and Mason Rudolph were college teammates. I know. And had an electric connection. But I would say Moncrief was the bigger disappointment for them. If anything, it's like, give James Washington the rock.

Okay, but there you go. That's the indictment. Who beat out James Washington? Oh, that's fair. That's telling. So you think the Mason Rudolph, James Washington. I think that connection could be good. I love when college teammates reunite.

It's fun. I like when brothers play together. And I like when best friends play together.. I love when college teammates reunite. It's fun. I like when brothers play together and I like when best friends play together. And I love when twins play together. Twins. Twins. Man. Oh, yeah.

Did you see the baseball brother at bat recently? God, you fucking brought it back to baseball. How did you do this twice? Now you're Googling baseball. You've ground the pot to a halt yet again. Colin Moran and Brian Moran. That's what it was. The Moran brothers?

Colin Moran, of course, used to be on the Ruben Chao team in the League of Dorks. Oh, yeah. A one-time prospect of ours. And yeah, brother pitching for the Marlins struck him out. Oh, that's great. Against the Pirates. That was fun. That's great.

That was fun. Next, Jaguars. Obviously, we don't need to talk about our boys. And everyone knows how we feel. We're all in that game tonight, so we'll know. G leading the almost game-winning

touchdown drive was actually legitimately exciting. It was thrilling. Taking the ball out of his hands on the two-point conversion remains a crime against humanity. Come on. What are you doing, Maroon?

He really had some great plays in that final drive. And I thought he was under siege that whole game. Houston was coming at him constantly. And he held up. He's really fun. He is also part of two

of the quarterback revolutions that are unfolding at once. The backup quarterback revolution and the air raid revolution. We have nine quarterbacks who are part of an air raid scheme. I have a nerdy football take on them. Okay.

Let's hear it. Fournette's on the wrong team. Which team should he be on? They should have like a more fun, even like it could be, you know, like Le'Veon Bell, best case scenario, but say you know, somebody three down back who can catch the ball. Fournette should just be

on like a plotting ball control team that isn't this team. I would rather see Minshew let loose with like a plotting ball control team that isn't this team. I would rather see Minshew let loose with like a team like just let him go and do his thing. Fournette doesn't fit with this team. I don't know what, like he should be on like the Redskins and the Adrian Peterson role.

Just pounding straight ahead for four and a half yards. That's interesting. Poor Darius Geist, man. Knee surgery again. Speaking of the Redskins. Somebody keeps getting injured at some point, like he got, he went for like 28 bucks in my fantasy auction.

It's like, you guys can't stay healthy. I know. Very tough. Anyway, next one. Obviously the Colts, Jacoby Brissett and Frangier Luck. We've talked about that a lot.

They've got Atlanta, your guy, your adopted team. Then of course, the Jets, Luke Falk, who one week ago was on a practice squad. That's not an exaggeration.

That's not hyperbole. He was literally a practice squad quarterback That's not an exaggeration. That's not hyperbole. He was literally a practice squad quarterback. Starting, he's replacing two other people. Sam Darnold, who has mono. Trevor Simeon, who suffered a horrifying ankle injury in the last game. And who is Luke Falk playing? You liked the injury?

No. Kyle loves broken bone injuries. Do you like to watch? Not at all. Guys, Kyle goes on faces of death. I can't believe this is happening right now. I just wanted to make sure he was awake. He seemed like he was zoning out.

Do you prefer a break or a dislocation? Break. For me, no, for me personally. That's what's more to your taste. I don't want to talk about the Jets. Who's the next one? Well, they're playing the Patriots, by the way. I know.

We're going to win by 40. Very tough. Next, Panthers. This one is not 100% definitive, but it really sounds like Kyle Allen is going to win by 40. Very tough. Next, Panthers. This one is not 100% definitive, but it really sounds like Kyle Allen is going to play. I mean, who could have guessed Cam Newton might not make it out of September? There are no signs at all.

Brutal. Fun little fact here. The Panthers are playing Arizona. Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray were college teammates at Texas A&M competing for a quarterback job there together. So that'll be fun. I don't know what Kyle Allen looks like.

I don't know if he's black or white. You can tell me anything. I would believe it right now. White guy, blonde hair, formerly one of the top recruits in the entire country. Didn't really have the college career people thought. Played at A&M for a while, transferred to Houston. Played a game for the Panthers last year,

came in and actually like played pretty well. Well, if he can throw the ball on a direct line to a teammate and run, he's an improvement from what we saw from Cam Newton. Brutal. And then of course,

the Dolphins officially announced that Rosen will be starting in place of Fitzpatrick. What took this long? I will literally until my dying day never understand. What is the point of fielding a tanking team

and not giving Josh Rosen some reps? I don't understand. Let's end on this note. As a diehard football fan and a diehard member of the tribe, what does this moment mean? Chosen Rosen. The Rosen one.

It's special, you know? It's special. It really is. But is this the best case scenario for the chosen one playing on the worst team of all time? Like, he's back-to-back years of just the chosen one being set up to fail.

I don't want to bring up baseball again, but no matter what, the tribe has Alex Bregman out there doing great things. So there's that. There's that to hold on to in October. Josh Orson was one of my favorite recruits in his class. I will never forget the way he was challenging Trent Dilfer about the plays he drew up at the Elite 11 recruit camp.

That's just astonishing stuff. I loved watching him as a freshman year at UCLA. I've always been a believer. I, at this point, have lost the ability to tell what is him and what is the team he's on. I mean, to be on that Arizona team last year and to be on this Dolphins team this year, how is it even possible

to analyze somebody's ability when they're in a situation that abhorrent? I really feel bad for him. Maybe we should make this a new segment where every week we talk about a Jewish athlete or a great moment in Jewish sports history. Like next week, coming up,

Hank Greenberg, tie me at 58 homers. Count me in. Sounds wonderful. I think the listeners would want that. That's wonderful. I feel bad for the chosen one. It's tough.

Not ideal. You're a believer too, though. I am. And I think with quarterbacks, you can just end up on the wrong team a couple of times and then basically your career's over. You can just take some pounding, lose your confidence, and then that's it. I still maintain that Christian Hackenberg

would have been a good professional quarterback if not for the fact that he played behind a line that he just lost the ability to play quarterback. And his confidence, you see this,

you saw it with Brett Hundley. This happens, it happens at the college level fairly regularly. Definitely. 1,000. I feel like David Carr had happened.

Oh, yeah. And who was the dude? Tim Couch and the Browns? I know he got hurt, but he was just under attack for a couple years there. Yeah. It happens.

It does. Anyway, Mallory, this is a pleasure as always. Delightful. Good luck for Game of Thrones this weekend. Last round of Emmys. This is it.

Thanks. 10 to 1 favor for best show. Thank you. I know of Emmys. This is it. The 10 to 1 favorite for best show. Thank you. I know you're excited. Yeah. Listen, all shows must die. All right. Before we get to house,

I'm teaming up with FanDuel to give you a chance to play fantasy football against me, Sal, and then Trifecta. The best part is the winner gets to fly out to Puerto Rico

to be our official correspondent for FanDuel's World Fantasy Championship, Football Championship live finals. You'll get an all-expenses-paid trip to enjoy four days worth of WFFC events in Puerto Rico, including an exclusive beach afterparty with a live performance by Ludacris. Just go to FanDuel.com slash ringer to enter and draft your week three fantasy team for the game's kickoff on Sunday.

I am back to the drawing board. I've gotten my butt kicked on FanDuel the last two weeks. I might just play the hits this week. It might just be like a Mahomes. Pets defense. Mahomes, Pets defense. Just, I'm not getting cued anymore. There'll be no more Deion Kane for 4,500,

all that stuff. Marlon Mack this week, maybe? Well, no, he's hurt. Marlon's hurt. That's why I didn't get any points from him. that stuff. Marlon Mack this week? Maybe? Well, no. He's hurt. Marlon's hurt. That's why I didn't get any points from him. I'm playing all the hits this week. Just remember, you can play against me, Sal, in the trifecta in the Ringer Listener League on FanDuel. It doesn't matter if you missed last week. You can still

take home the top prize. Go to Fanduel.com slash Ringer to enter now. Fanduel.com slash Ringer. Speaking of Sal, this is the only time we'll do this this season. Sal's going to the Emmys on Sunday night because Jimmy Kimmel Live was nominated for an Emmy. So we are not doing the podcast Sunday night.

We're doing it Monday morning at 8 a.m. West Coast time. We'll probably make it shorter. It should be up by, I would say, 1.15 range East Coast time. Maybe even earlier. Maybe even earlier. We're starting it at 8. Who knows when it'll be up by, I would say, 1.15 range East Coast time. Maybe even earlier. Maybe even earlier. We're starting it at 8. Who knows when it'll be done.

But we should have it to you right after lunch on Monday. It'll be the only time that happens. I know people like getting it in the morning. So there you go. All right, time to bring in House. All right, it is not quite Friday yet, but we're going to do some Friday rolling. The man, the myth, the legend, Joe House.

Two appearances on the BS podcast this week for him. We were in D.C. He made Kyle Bweepum like 10 times. It was great. Now we're going to do million-dollar picks. Here is where we stand, House. Through two weeks, we're up $460,000. We won $280,000 last week.

For the people who try to calculate at home and then send emails saying I cheat, we're betting a million dollars a week. If we lose like we did with the Bengals last week, then we lose more than $300,000 because we bet $300,000 in the Bengals. They lost to the 49ers. It was a terrible pick, But you also lose the 10% VIG. So you actually lose $330,000, not 300 on that. So the VIGs work like this. 10% on just straight up games. On parlays, there's no VIG. And then teasers are usually minus 120.

So if you tease a team, that makes it so that it's minus 20 to win 100. So there you go. House, how are you? Well, I'm glad that you started off with teaser because that could be a theme this week, Bill Simmons. I'm doing great. I finally recovered from our meal Monday night. Did you enjoy that meal

Monday night? Yeah, we went to, what was the place called? May Don? May Don. Yes, sir. With Uncle Tony. They had a giant smoker, ride home to Kelleher and Tony ate a bunch of meat and then said, I have to go. My leg hurts. Hugged us and left.

It was one of the all-time old guy moves I've ever seen in my life. Just eat. No dessert. I'm out. My leg hurts. Bye. He owned it, though. I mean, I felt bad. We did drag him upstairs, and he's fighting the sciatica. He's publicly fighting the sciatica.

He's working it off. We did get a pillow for him to sit on. He made it to the meat course, at least. I knew that it was going to be a challenge to keep him around because we started off with a lot of hum hummus and the and the tabbouleh and a lot of you know sort of exotic you know the the mediterranean north african kind of vibe and that ain't tony's thing but we got to the meat and he hung around for the meat so god bless tk well i went to madeo in beverly hills yesterday with kimmel and sal and all those guys because i'm turning 50 next week um and it's one of those things in LA, they have

the hot new restaurants and you got to go there and try it. There's like six, seven, eight just great restaurants that have just been around a while and get taken for granted, kind of like Tom Brady. The Medeo, they have the

Pounded Veal, the Veal Millionaires, a Joe House favorite. Absolutely. But you can go off the menu, House. You can go off the menu. And you can ask for it. What's that mean? Let's hear it.

You can ask for the veal Parmesan using the veal Milanese concept. They bake it. It's absolutely unbelievably, unequivocally delicious. Daniel Callison was there, and he asked me for a bite. And I said, no. And he was like, you honestly won't give me a bite? And I said, no. He's like, are you serious?

And I was like, no, I want every single bite. I don't want to give you a bite. So he ordered another one because we were charging it to James Babydoll Dixon. And then Sal was like, just order a whole other veal parmesan. And we're like, oh, of course. Why didn't we do that? That's a great point. So we ordered another veal parmesan

and charged it to Babydoll. But man, I know Kyle loves the parmesan family. The chicken parmesan. Big fan. The veal parmesan. Nothing but he's smiling right now. Eggplant. Eggplant parmesan. We had that as an appetizer. Don't sleep on the eggplant. Here smiling right now eggplant eggplant parmesan we had that

as an appetizer don't sleep on the eggplant here's the other thing they did because we had a great small table it was like seven people it was a table for six

but we squeezed seven in so it was one of those things we ordered a bunch of appetizers and you know the plate the table wasn't that big

so we ordered all these appetizers 15 minutes later they come in with the plates they've So we ordered all these appetizers. 15 minutes later, they come in with the plates. They've carved up all the different appetizers and given us portions. Yeah. So that the plate, the table wasn't too cluttered.

That place, that place is great. But it was, so I had like a table with like, I had a meatball and I had like a little, I forget what the fish is called that we ordered, but that, and then some eggplant Parmesan and then some burrata and it's all in fish is called that we ordered, but that and then

some eggplant parmesan and then some burrata and it's all in this plate and we all had the same plate. I was like, you guys are great at this. Yeah. Well, this is,

I was lucky enough, my own self, to visit Madeo back in February. I was out in LA and me and the editor-in-chief, Bon Appetit magazine, Adam Rappaport,

ventured over there. Beverly Hills, Madeo, right? Yeah. It's on Camden, Bon Appetit magazine, Adam Rappaport, ventured over there. Beverly Hills, Madeo, right? Yeah. It's on Camden, right? In the downtown, everything. Yeah. There we go. Old school Italian.

And I had one of the best clams bongoli I've ever had. That's the linguine with clams in a light white sauce. Couple martinis, Caesar salad with extra anchovy. That's living. That's living, but that place is the best. That place is the best. And everybody's crammed in, but not too crammed. There's a million waiters.

They're all over the place. They don't miss anything. It's right in the heart of everything. It's really good. So we just did a short House of Carbs segment. You have your own food podcast. Somehow we're doing House of Carbs on this one. Well, I'm always interested in talking about food.

I didn't know the Dixon dinner. And the Dixon dinner is an annual highlight. I mean, we really need to come on and do a full refeastable with me on that one. So the reason I brought up this dinner was because I knew it would put you in a good mood for Million Dollar Picks because I need your help. I'm in a great mood.

Because we're doing well. Week three is a perennially dangerous week. Habits form. You start getting too attached to certain teams. I'm very attached to the Colts and Rams right now because they won us money both weeks. Yeah. There's other teams like the Steelers that are 0-2 and have a new quarterback

and everybody's just written them off. But I'm going to go through some of the games I'm looking at and we can talk about them. First one. Let me go through the games I kind of like but don't totally like first. The Steelers are plus 7

against the 49ers. And this is a perfect storm of a team that could not have looked possibly better than they did last week, the 49ers, whether they're good or not or they just had an awesome game, we don't know.

But you're basically, if you're buying the Niners this week, you're buying high. You're buying at the peak of whatever the 49ers value is because they looked awesome. Steelers on the other hand, 0-2, defense looks bad, no Roethlisberger, and it seems like they're headed for a bad season. But here's the catch. First of all, 0-2, which 0-2 team's desperate.

This whole season's on the line. I think they like Mason Rudolph. Mallory and I talked about him earlier. I don't know if you make the Minka Fitzpatrick trade if you don't feel like your quarterback's good because that was a weird trade. When the Roethlisberger thing happened, I thought, oh, they're going to tank this season. And instead, they doubled down on the season. They traded next year's first round pick unprotected

for somebody who's young, who's on a rookie contract, who everybody really likes and thinks has a chance to be an all-pro safety, but it's the kind of move you make if you believe in your young quarterback. He's not a rookie. He's a second year. If you believe in your second-year quarterback. So my question to you, House, veteran of the gambling circuits,

this game kind of has the look, right? What do you think? Yeah, I like the Steelers here. I agree with maybe staying away. And the reason that I'm slightly scared off is because of what we saw out of Jimmy G last week and what Kyle Shanahan is capable of. Jimmy G looked like it was the best game he's had in 18 months.

And if he's sort of back, he's restored to Jimmy G porn star swagger mode, then I don't want to sort of get in the way of that. I don't want to catch any afterspray with that kind of swag going around. So that would be the reason to be sort of worried about the 49ers because Shanahan's smart. But the Steelers, their deficiency so far this season is giving up 300-yard passing days and three or more touchdowns to opposing quarterbacks. And they needed to do something. So the Minka acquisition, maybe that directly addresses the strongest efficiency they possess and i do like

uh mason rudolph and i i'm with you i think they like him too so uh i like i think this steelers represent a little bit of an opportunity here but i'm worried about jimmy g's swag yeah and we jimmy g we we weren't out on him. I just thought post-ACL it was going to take a while, and we'd know when he kind of started to look like Jimmy G again. He looked like Jimmy G last week. It looked like he was all the way back. The other thing is they've added some speed around him. Who was that?

He was like the third four-string running back. Mostert? I just picked him up in fantasy. That's a good pickup. All the fantasy nerds love him. Yeah fantasy. That's a good pickup. All the fantasy nerds love him. Yeah, so there was a stat with him this week, which is the reason I picked him up in both leagues about

I think he had the highest percentage of making people miss. They have that stat where it's like fantasy nerd angle. Frank Gore gets tackled by 30 of the 32 guys who touch him. And this guy was like on the other end. He was at the top.

But he also passed the eye test because we had that game on a little bit. And he just looked really good. So they might, you know, there's a chance that team might be good. And there's certainly a chance that's why Vegas really seemed to believe in them the last couple of weeks.

But I wanted to mention that angle. So here's the thing, House. Do you believe in Kirk Cousins? Do you like Kirk Cousins? No and no. There's a line that's out of whack, and I hesitate to bring it up because John Gruden is involved and Derek Carr.

But the Raiders are getting nine points against Minnesota in Minnesota this week. They are plus 330 to win the game. And the Steelers are plus 250 to win their game. If you parlay those two money lines together, it's 14 to one. I'm just mentioning that. I just want to plant that little seed for you. I'm not saying we're going to do it or not.

I think the Raiders team, they seem actually pretty talented. I might have been wrong thinking they had no chance to get to six wins. Even that Chiefs game last week, they started out fast, and then Mahomes just went to another level, and he beat the hell out of them. He sucked their will out and did the Mahomes thing. I mean, it was 28 points in a quarter with two wide receivers who we only were like, Robinson?

Right. Who's Robinson? We were doing the old guy thing watching that game. Kelsey was out there, though. Yeah, that's true. So I don't know. That defense scares me. I think people are back on the whole, well, the Raiders suck.

They just got killed by the Chiefs. And it's like, well, I think a Raiders suck. They just got killed by the Chiefs. And it's like, well, I think a lot of people are going to get killed by the Chiefs. That line just seems high. I think they should be favored by, I think Minnesota should be favored by seven. They're favored by nine. I don't know why we should trust Cousins. I think the Cousins thing could go either way, right? He's available on my fantasy waiver wire right now in my league.

And like there's 22 quarterbacks that have been picked up or something. And Kirk Cousins threw for like 4,200 yards last year. He's like 30 TDs, 10 picks. And for some reason is available in my fantasy league because nobody even wants him in a fantasy league. If the Raiders go up early in this game and Cousins does something dumb and throws a pick or whatever,

I think the fans are restless with him now. So I just want to put that out there. I think there's a, I think it's actually worse for him to be on the road and to be at home on this game than it would be on the road. What do you think of that? I don't disagree with you. Um,

I think the, uh, Minnesota Vikings are acutely aware of the sensitive position they are in with their heavy investment in Kirk Cousins. I think they're going to game plan around it. I still think Zimmer is a pretty damn good

coach. The Vikings are a different team defensively at home for whatever reason. They really lock down defensively. I think that they have a genuine down defensively. I think that they have a genuine home field advantage. And so I think you're not going to see Kirk Cousins put in situations where he's going to have the opportunity to be gunslinging around and snatching a defeat from the jaws of victory. I also agree with you about that line feeling too high,

which really feeds into this little theme. I really feel like there is a week three teaser to be had. I'm going to try and talk you into it, but that's circled that I put that one in the teaser basket. I like teasing Minnesota down to just being a field goal favorite. I'm a, I'm probably staying away from that game. But I did look at it for a while.

And I do think if you look at Steelers plus 220, you look at the Raiders are plus 330. The Ravens are in Kansas City. That's another bigger. They're like plus 250, something like that. There's a lot of home favorites this week. Giving between like six and nine points. The Bengals are at Buffalo.

Buffalo's favored by like six, six and a half. We're going to see at least one of those road teams win on the road. It will happen. I just don't know what the team's going to be. The question is, could two of them win? And is there value in betting on all four and trying to hope that you hit two of them? I'm not going to do that, but I wanted to bring it up because another team I do like is the Bengals because they looked really good in

week one. And the question was, did they look good because they're good or they look good because Seattle's not that good? Seattle goes, they beat Pittsburgh in week two. The Bengals look horrible. The Niners blow them out. Now you have the Bills who beat the two New York teams that we all agree are two of the first four teams in football. Now there's like this, oh, well, the Bills are good. It's a tough spot for them. They have expectations.

They have a chance to go 3-0. Everybody thinks Cincy sucks from last week. And it just has all the makings of you just pick Buffalo and you don't think twice about it. But meanwhile, I don't think they're a slam dunk ever. And I think the line's too high. I think you're getting two free points with the Bengals. Here's the problem.

They were so bad last week, I'm afraid to pick them. And they've had a lot of injuries too. So thoughts on that line at least looking too high yeah I agree with that and I think the right thing to do there is just hold your nose and play it contrary and it's a stay away for money purposes I mean if you're in the league like we're in where you have to pick every game against the spread I'm playing the Bengals it does feel like there's a little value, a little bit of an overreaction. I mean, the Bills' defense has been dominant on the one hand, but on the other hand, it's gone up against the Jets and the Giants.

We know nothing. Two atrocious offenses. So we don't know anything about how good that defense is yet. We also know that their running back is either not playing or he's going to be playing hurt Singletary, the rookie, who I think has been really good. I don't think Frank Gore has looked good at all. And if

Singletary is either not playing or he's compromised, I do think it could be hard for them potentially to run the ball and then who the hell knows. But I'm staying away. The other one I wanted to look at that I'm probably not doing anything is charges Texans where the line is three. Um, I think, I think people have cooled off a lot on the chargers,

especially after last week, but we were monitoring that game. Eckler fumbled on the one yard line. They missed two field goals and Rivers had a really bad pick late in the fourth quarter. Detroit really didn't do a lot to win the game. I would say it was one of the all-time chargers

handing a game to the other team games. And now they're only favored by three against this Houston team that doesn't seem like they can protect Watson. Now, he's still been effective. Is that your professional opinion?

Yeah, he's running. He's taken 10 sacks so far this season, leads the NFL in sacks. Well, the reason I said doesn't seem is just because the teams they played the first two weeks, you know, maybe it was the defenses. Who knows? I personally think Tunsell just got there

figuring out the, who knows? But it seems like they're not going to be able to protect him this season is my working guess. So the line is only three, which seems low until you remember the Chargers don't really have a home field advantage.

On the other hand, how many Texans fans are out there? How many Texans fans are going to be at the game? I don't know. It seems low. Explain that line to me. I can't. I think it's Vegas throwing up their hands. The Chargers are at home. We're just going to play a slight nod to the home favorite

rather than just giving them the standard two and a half. It's three. I think the Chargers are good, and I don't think what happened last week in Detroit really diminishes what the charges are capable of this season. The, the lions defense would not withstanding one quarter of football against the Arizona Cardinals might be good.

The lions defense might be good. And that could be a theme for, for this week. Also the lions getting points this week in, in Philadelphia, getting five and a half points. I'm not betting on Matt Patricia. Sorry. One thing with the line with the Chargers is their secondary is pretty decimated. You know they don't have Derwin James.

Adrian Phillips broke his arm last week, another safety they have. They had a starting quarterback, Michael Davis, missed Sunday's game with a hamstring. They had another cornerback got placed on IR. So it's one of those situations. That's the only explanation I can think of for the line going to three. What do you mean going to three?

From where? Where do you think it should be? I think it should be Chargers by four. Oh, okay. Yeah, I think they're better than the Texans and they're home. And four seems about right. Three and a half to four.

Three seems weird. Okay, I'm fine. Guess who I'm not impressed by? Bill O'Brien. Yeah, right. Exactly. And they continue to play call in a way that puts their absolute franchise quarterback in harm's way in an unprecedented way. we did a bet or I did a bet last week we're betting you know

over a certain it was Pats by 22 or more against the Dolphins plus 160 it worked those lines aren't out for those games but I do think

I do think it's worth looking at the over 27 for both games that the the the Cowboys will win by at least 27

or 27 and a half whatever it ends up being the Pats will win by at least 27 and 27 and a half, whatever it ends up being. The Pats will win by at least 27 and a half. Cause I just don't think the Jets or Dolphins will be able to move the ball. We saw it last week in the Browns game. They can't get 20 yards, you know? So they're going to be at three points,

six points, whatever it ends up being. So you just need the Cowboys or Patriots to get to low thirties and you win the bet. It seems smart. Well, and then that's why both of those teams show up in this parlay that I have cooking over here. I like them both. I mean a teaser.

I have a five-way teaser that I'm marinating on over here right now. Well, why don't you tell us that because I'm about to get to my bets. Let's hear the teaser. Okay, I have a five-way teaser you can get the tampa bay buccaneers all the way down to minus half a point at home against the daniel jones uh debut new york giants you can uh grab the la rams uh and put them in a plus three position on the road at Cleveland, you can drive down the Green Bay Packers all the way down to minus one and a half at home against Fanny Pack Fangio. And then if you put Dallas and New England,

you drive Dallas all the way down to 16 and a half you drive Dallas all the way down to 16.5 and New England all the way down to 17, that five-way teaser pays out better than 4-1 odds. It's a plus 4-10. Which one of those goes wrong? Well, Jameis Winston was involved, so I would say that's a candidate. Sure. Now, the reason that I like Tampa in this position is because so far this season, their run defense has been damn good. They're averaging 68 and a half yards against the Russia game. And that sets up nicely for, you know, contesting the Giants where you just pack the box.

You take Saquon Barkley out of the equation as much as possible and say, Daniel Jones, I'm inviting you. Here's your invitation. Please try and throw the ball to beat us. Arians is pretty good. I watched the whole Bucks-Panthers game last week and I think the Bucks are pretty good. They realized in that game, please don't lose the game for us, Jameis.

They ran the ball a lot. Really didn't ask him to do a ton. He still misses wide open guys and does Jameis things. But it did seem like they were more settling into who they are. They still haven't been able to figure out how to get Mike Evans involved. But I just can't put them in a tease. I'm sorry, House.

Okay, okay. That's fine. I just don't trust Jameis in any capacity. If you were saying, let's bet him straight up, I would rather do that than tie him to other teams. What if I do this? Why don't we swap out Tampa and drop in Minnesota? Minnesota minus three at home against Oakland?

No? You don't like that? Oh, Kirk Cousins is a step up from Jameis Winston? What are you talking about? No. I don't like that at all. Here's what I was thinking for a teaser. The Chiefs are home against the Ravens.

The line's either six and a half or seven. We'll go with six and a half because it's more favorable to what I want to do. The Ravens, they kill Miami, who by all accounts is the worst team maybe of all time. Last week, Arizona, frisky, hanging around. Frisky. They have to, Lamar has to make a beautiful pass

just to clinch the game. And they end up winning by six. We haven't seen them play from behind yet. And I'm not sure about their defense. It just seems like there's real value here where people seem to think the Ravens might be better than they are. They haven't proven it yet.

I'm not saying they aren't. Whereas we know the Chiefs are good. We know they're fucking awesome at home. And especially in the regular season, they're just dangerous. We know Mahomes is the best player in the league. And if I can bring them down to 0.5 points, they just have to beat

the Ravens. They have to win. I love that. And I love the Packers. I think Flacco's done as a starting quarterback. And we know the Packers' defense is really good. We saw the Packers Thursday night, week one,

not play well, but pull a game out because their defense. Week two, jumped up on Minnesota, kind of held on for dear life, but their defense came through again. I just like their defense. And now you're putting Flacco in Lambeau Field against that defense. From what we've seen from Denver, I don't understand how they're going to move the ball. What am I missing?

Absolutely nothing. We watched them not move the ball. What am I missing? Absolutely nothing. We watched them not move the ball for the entire game at home against the Bears last week. Even with the Bears visibly gasped, gassed. They were gasping for air.

That was the only way that Denver got that late score. And I mean, there's just no scenario under which I'm done with Denver and Joe Flacco and Fanny Pack Fangio for this season. I don't know what the scenario is going to be unless they play Miami. I haven't looked at the schedule. That would be the only scenario under which you see me buy into this Denver team. All right, so here's what I'm doing.

Bet number one. We're doing that teaser. Chiefs Packers. You just want to do two? You don't want to layer in a couple square plays on Dallas or New England? No. Okay, you don't want to F it up.

You don't want to anger the football gods. Do I think the Chiefs will beat Baltimore? Yes. Do I think the Packers will beat the Bears by two or more points yes I am teasing them together six point tease teasing the Chiefs down to 0.5 teasing the Packers down to 1.5

both teams have to win I'm going to trust two home teams at a good point in the season for them just taking care of business and it's a teaser so we got to put a little more on that so we're betting 300k on that

if I lose I lose 360 why don't you bet 330 to win 300 I thought a teaser was minus 120 I see it as minus 110 I'm looking at it right now. It's just a two-leg teaser. Oh yeah, you're right. It is. All right. So 300K on that, if I lose, it ends up being minus 330. So that's one. Second one, my Colts. Yeah. The line has dipped to Colts by one and a half over the Atlanta Falcons,

who are a fourth and three away from being 0-2, and people talking about Dan Quinn getting fired. I'm going to read a couple quotes from you about the Colts that I read in The Athletic. Left tackle Anthony Costanzo talking about the one-on-one start, but the two really good games they played. I think it speaks to the kind of team that we have. I would like to see what would happen to any other team if their franchise quarterback retires unexpectedly.

It speaks to the kind of team that we have, and I think Luck knew that when he made that decision. He put that faith in us as well. We're a good team, man. Linebacker Darius Leonard. No disrespect to Andrew. He was a great quarterback, but it happened. We can't focus on that.

That won't help us win or lose. Now every man has to step up. This ain't no one-man show. What does that feel like? It's festering house. Do you feel it? Yeah. Can you feel that nobody believes in us festering?

Can you feel it boiling in the pot? It's welling up from St. Elmo's. It's boiling up. It's got some spice just like that cocktail sauce on the shrimp. Shrimp cocktail. It's brewing. So they're only favored by one and a half against the Falcons. I think that's crazy.

The Falcons on the road, just in general, have especially fallen behind a lot. Weird things happen with them. The Colts, Marlon Max banged up. But I actually like the backup, Jordan Wilkins. He was the guy who busted that big run in Sunday's game. But they have him. They have Hines. It's a next guy steps up kind of

mentality. Mack's a tough dude. I bet he ends up playing anyway. I think this team knows who they are. I think the Colts fans love this team. I think they're going to be really, really loud and fired up for this game. I don't think the Falcons are good.

I hate to, I'm sorry, but I know somebody's got to come out of that NFC South, but I think this is a really nice spot for the Colts. And I do feel like I'm getting a point and a half for free. This line, the fact that this line is in Colts by three is just insane to me. So I want to put a 300 on that as well. What do you think, Cass has i'm right there with you

we're all in on the colts this season you started off this million dollar picks extolling the virtues of the colts the only thing i hate the even breathe word of this i'm knocking on wood because i don't want to speak this into existence adam is the reason that they're not 2-0, and he is a wild card factor to all of this. Now, you mentioned this is their home debut. He is going to be kicking in a place that he is extremely comfortable and familiar. If he's going to get that mojo back, he's going to do it this week at home.

They might let him kick six field goals just to shut everybody up. And I absolutely love this Colts team. I love the vibes that you're describing here. I agree with you that there's value. Let's do this Colts at 300,000. We watched a lot of that game on Sunday. And we both liked that team. I would mention,

Vinatieri has been more than shaky. But Matt Bryant has been shaky too. So it's actually a bad, it's a shaky field goal kicker off. Third team, another team that we've had. Presented by shakies. Yeah. Another team that we've had two weeks in a row

and we're going to have a third time is the Rams, who continue to be outrageously undervalued. This week, they're minus three in Cleveland on Monday night. Explain that to me, House. I cannot. I don't know. There must be some lingering effect of what everybody watched with the Browns last year affecting the perception and these lines because I haven't seen one thing thus far this season out of the Cleveland Browns other than the tremendous catch and run by ODB.

Well, the two plays by ODB. The one-handed catch by ODB and the screen release by him. Holy shit is ODB incredible when he's just, you know, throw the ball in his direction. And he's motivated. We got motivated ODB. Other than that, there's nothing that I see out of Cleveland that makes me think that they're not in this class. They should be six-point underdogs in this game to the Rams.

It's an absolute outrageous line. You didn't even mention Sean McVay versus Freddy Soup Kitchens. What about that? What about the coaching advantage? What about the fact that Baker Mayfield's looked like crap? And he's getting pretty beaten up in these games, but he also hasn't looked good. And if you remove, you know,

the Jets are in a terrible defense on that Odell play. They give him the whole middle of the field. It's a quick pass, catches him eight yards from the line of scrimmage. And then he runs the other 81. And then it looks like Baker Mayfield had a good game. Guess who I traded in one of my fantasy leagues this week? Baker Mayfield.

I'd seen enough. Bye-bye, Baker. I'd seen enough. I traded him with Jameson Crowder for Keenan Allen to my friend Jim Grady. But I just haven't liked what I've seen. And Nick Chubb, it seems like he's good except for the part that their line can't block. And he's just running into guys that are coming at him full steam.

I don't think they're very good. So they don't have anywhere to go. They're not setting up any kind of play action that's going to create any room for him. It's pretty rough. So I think the only reason I could think this line is that high, it's Rams on the road, Jared Goff, Cleveland fans would be going nuts. And I just think people are overvaluing the Browns.

I do not think they are a good football team. I haven't thought that all year. I didn't understand Browns media. I think people just want this to happen because they like Mayfield and they like Odell Beckham. But I love the Rams and I believe in the three receivers. I think the weird game last week where that touchdown should have happened, I agree. I still think they win the game.

Breeze goes out. I still think they win the game. I think they could have had 30 plus points if they had been foot in the gas pedal the whole time. And I like the Rams. So we're going 300K on them as well. So three bets. 300K in the Rams minus three in Cleveland. 300K

in the Colts minus one and a half home against the Falcons. And then a teaser for 300. Chiefs minus six and a half. Packers minus seven and a half. Six point tease. That leaves us with 100k to play with house oh let's play with it got a little surprise for you

I'm listening the Emmys are this weekend oh hey now Veep it's minus 125 yeah last season you know what the

Emmys loves doing oh yeah I know right where you're headed with this one the victory lap award oh yeah so you got Veep at minus 125. We have Julia Louis-Dreyfus at minus 600. Minus 600 to win the Emmy for Best Actress. This is...

Great. She's bravely fought cancer and defeated it. She has established herself as the greatest TV actress I think ever. The Meryl Streep of TV actresses. She was great in the BS podcast, by the way. This could go one of two ways. Either we go with

Veep minus 125 and hope that Fleabag doesn't step in at plus 450 and steal it away because people do love Fleabag. Or we say there's no way in hell she's not winning at minus 600, and I just lay a huge vague on that. I like a parlay here.

I like going all in. I like going with Jonah's balls and Jerry Jones's balls. I want to do a minus 125 veep, minus 600 J L D and minus 3,500 the Dallas Cowboys money line to win the game outright over

the Miami Dolphins. That pays out plus odds BS. That's out plus odds, BS. That's plus 116. What? Is that true? Yeah, you can get plus odds if you parlay those three.

Minus 125 for Veep, minus 600 for JLD, and minus 3,500 for the Dallas Cowboys money line, plus 116. Why don't we do that one? Kyle's excited. All right.

$100K on that. That's our last bet. JLD with Veep. Veep to win. You sure you don't want to throw in Bill Hader for Barry as well? No, too risky. He's minus. Or he could throw in. Let's see. How about for the Patriots is minus $7,000. No, we're not too risky. He's minus. Or he could throw in. Let's see.

How about after the Patriots is minus 7,000. No, we're not there. That's ridiculous. You don't want to do that one too? No. I liked what you laid out. Cowboys money line.

Okay. JLD minus 600 and then Veep minus 125 takes us to plus 116 and we'll put 100k on that as well house love it a pleasure as always

always a pleasure yours in veal parmesan for life we'll talk to you next week clams bongoli for life alright we're bringing out Mr. O'Rourke in one second first on average a burglary happens once every 23 seconds in the US,

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That's it. Ursula's got a doozy coming next week. The 1700s are involved. You're going to be excited. All right. Let's do it. Beto O'Rourke is going to come on and he's coming on

because we have a mutual friend who works for his campaign and just thought we would have a good conversation and I was just like you know what

let's do it I want to find out what it's like to run for president so I think you're going to like this check it out here it is we taped this on

Wednesday morning. So here you go. All right. So what are all the mispronunciations for your name? Beto, Beto. That's what I've said it a few times. Beto. Yeah.

But that's wrong. It's Beto. But most people screw that up. A lot of people do. Yeah. But that's, unless you're in El Paso. Yeah. Where there. A lot of people do. Yeah. But that's, that's unless you're in El Paso. Yeah.

Where there are a lot of Beto's, you know, there's Beto's tacos, wood floors by Beto's. Your mailman might be named Beto. Outside of El Paso, there aren't a lot of Beto's in the world. So folks can be forgiven for saying Beto or Beto or.

I've got it now. Cause you introduced me to yourself and I was like, all right, I've really got to remember. I'm like the mispronunciation King. So we're catching you. You're on the, uh, you're on the circuit. You're around, you're doing these debates. I'm fascinated by 10 people on stage. Yeah. Everybody fighting for time. People raising their hand like they're in the third grade. People going past the buzzer and all the mechanics of that. What's it like to bait people when there's too many people on the stage? It must be miserable.

It's a really intense experience. The last debate was almost three hours. And going into it, maybe not unlike going into a big game or a big match or a big moment in your life, the aperture of your focus and your thinking just closes and becomes tight, as you can imagine. You know, blood pressure is up. You're just wired. And that, for me, in the last debate, held through for the first 20 or 30 minutes. And I remember there was this moment where I was asking myself your question. I was like, what is going on? I could kind of, you know, ascend and just look out over this debate stage and people raising their hands. I could begin to enjoy what was happening. Cory Booker made a joke. He said,

you know, I'll tell you the answer. It's no. And I'll repeat it in Spanish. It's no. And I thought that was funny. And I found myself laughing, which if it had happened 30 minutes before, I would have been too nervous to do. I couldn't have been able to take it in. So you have adrenaline those first 25, 30 minutes. Yeah. Like a game. Almost debilitating adrenaline, to be honest with you. I find that my speech is choppy, words are stilted. You know, I can't, my field of reference just shuts down. And then as I calm down and breathe and open up, you know, so does that field and the things, the stories I can pull in, the things that I can think of that are related to the question that was just asked, but the jockeying and the posturing to get in, to interrupt, to extend your time, all that's really interesting to me. And I don't by any means think that I've figured that out,

but I do know that I'm getting better. That was my third presidential debate. The reps are good, yeah. Yeah. So that was our best one yet. And then we have one coming up in less than a month in October in Ohio. I used to have, when I was first doing TV, when ESPN was making me go on, it wasn't nerves. It was like adrenaline. Yeah. And, you know, when it gets all quiet on the set and you're just like,

all right, here we go. And you just kind of start to feel it. And it's tough to, I did PTI this week and I've done shows like that so many times now you kind of learn how to, so I'm sure it's the same thing with these debates. Like the more you do them, the more you're just kind of find your inner peace and go. Yeah. And then you have this, you know, after 40, 45 minutes, you could, there's a three minute commercial break and all the candidates go backstage and you have, you know, I had some peanut butter goo and asked Cynthia on my team to go to the running store and find these little energy gels that cyclists and runners take just to see if that was going to help me out. And then

you're making small talk with the other candidates who are back there. They're getting touched up with makeup or they're using the bathroom. You're taking PEDs, taking EPO like cyclists in Europe. Blood transfusion, basically. Yeah, no. Do you feel, is it, so you're all backstage and you're competing with each other. Yeah. But there must be like a couple people you're clicking with that you're like, all right, that guy's kind of my friend or that lady, I've always gotten along with her. You must gravitate toward like two of the three, right? There's some people who are genuinely social, even backstage. Everyone has to be social on the stage. So Pete Buttigieg or Joe Biden came up and he'd said something really nice in the first

part of the debate about El Paso and our response to that. And I said, hey, Joe, thank you. That was really kind. And then he just, you know, he's genuinely loves people and loves talking. And so that was just a really easy conversation. Bernie will typically be sitting on his own, um, and doesn't really engage. And that's very true to him and his personality. Yeah. Always nice though. And, and, you know, has a kind word to say when, when we engage. So yeah, that, that dynamic backstage is pretty interesting as well. Everyone

also just kind of collecting themselves before you go in for the next 45 minutes and, you know, did I mess up in that last round? And do I need to get this thing in? Am I getting enough time? What's my strategy to come back in? And unlike almost every other living moment of our lives, you don't have your cell phone or any connection to the rest of the world. So it's really just you, your head and the other players or the other candidates who are backstage with you. But yeah, really interesting experience. Did you feel like the first debate, you didn't seem that comfortable? No, I wasn't. Do you, can you feel that even as it's happening? Like, oh shit, I'm kind of,

that was, I'm kind of tanking this a tiny bit here. That was the interior monologue going on of like, how do I find this rhythm? How can I be comfortable? The way I'm comfortable in a town hall meeting or the way I'm comfortable just having a conversation with someone on the street. How do I get that back? Why am I so wired right now? And part of that was there were so many things I was trying to accomplish in that first debate, all these things that I wanted to get out there, all these facts that I wanted to lay down. You're also loaded with so much opposition research on literally every other candidate out there, none of which I felt comfortable dropping. So-and-so voted for this bill in 1996. You just got to nail them on that. Who cares?

Like that's not exciting or interesting to me. And just going back to retrieve that information, to drop it and check the box, I think that can become almost paralyzing. That's our culture right now though. Totally. It's like, let's go back 23 years and get somebody something they did or wrote or said. Right. And then given what's going on in the country right now, the kind of threat that we face or the kind of challenges that are left unresolved before us, all that stuff seems so small ball

and is not really what's on people's minds, at least as I listen to them across the country. They could care less how you voted 20 years ago or your age or any other factor that in another era might have been disqualifying or at least relevant. They just don't care right now. Just how am I going to afford my prescription medication? Or good chances the younger you are, what in the hell are you going to do about the fact that this planet is cooking? And unless we do something really soon, we will lose it forever.

Or this guy, Donald Trump, his open racism or these weapons of war that were just used against people in El Paso, Texas. I want to hear your answer on that. So that really seems to drive the conversation wherever I am in the country may not be on the minds of the moderators and may not make for good TV because I think the incentive there is to draw contrast and also drama and conflict. That's what's going to be good for ratings. That's great for headlines. It may not be great for the policy discussion.

It may not be true to who we are as people. So that's the dynamic within which we've got to play. I poked fun at you in this pod a couple months ago because my sense was, it was like everybody seems to like him. I'm not really sure what he's passionate about. I'm not sure why he's running. Yeah. I don't know why he's here other than that he's likable. So why is he here? And it seems like over the last couple of months, you found your voice in a, in a bunch of different ways. And, you know, unfortunately I think what happened in El Paso

probably was part of that, but I have a better sense of at least who you are and what you care about. Yeah. And I don't know how much of that is stuff you're thinking about behind the scenes or how much of it is just getting the reps. Like, what is the process that leads to like, oh, I actually get why I'm doing this. I think I always got it. Always knew. Or else you wouldn't undertake something like this, right? You wouldn't.

But you have to. I have to know why you're doing. I have to know. Yes, totally. Um, I think El Paso and meeting people who had lost somebody, um, meeting people who had almost lost their lives, meeting people who are still, even today, six weeks later, pulling through and in a hospital room, has to change you and absolutely changed me. And many of the things that I had been saying from the very beginning, that Donald Trump doesn't just offend you. And don't focus on that.

Don't be outraged. Don't say no president has ever done anything like this before. Connect the dots. The fact that he's describing these immigrants Don't be outraged. Don't say no president has ever done anything like this before. Connect the dots. The fact that he's describing these immigrants and people who do not look like or pray like or love like the majority in this country, he's saying they're dangerous. And he's saying that they're a threat. And he's laughing when people talk about shooting them or using violence against them. And that's changing us.

And I was saying that all along the trail, all across America. What I wasn't doing, to your point, was bringing that urgency and that passion. It was almost laying out the facts and, look, folks, you figure it out. I'm giving you the information. Whereas after El Paso, I was like, Jesus Christ, we all failed on this one. It wasn't enough for me to say that. It wasn't enough to be right on this. What counted is to stop this or to bring other people out and understand that this is happening in our name as Americans right now. And I'm never going to make that mistake again. I'm never going to allow this to pass as business as usual, or to deny the fact that we should be angry right now. And that's perfectly okay. And in fact, in the words of Joe Strummer, that can be power. And if ever there

were a moment to feel that, express it, and then channel it in the right direction, it is right now under the presidency of the most dangerous man who's ever held the office who could very well end this country as we know it. And I feel like the stakes are that great. And the moment is that important. And I'm going to make sure that that is coming through in everything I say, everything I do, and everywhere I go, the people with whom I spend time. So after El Paso, we go right to Mississippi. Have no idea where that ranks in the nominating process as you make your way to the convention. But it had just been the site of the largest single state raid by ICE agents in the history

of the country. 700 people rounded up at chicken processing plant jobs for no other crime than they came from another country for the privilege of making our food for us and doing it at a price that makes it more affordable, raising their U.S. citizen children, making their communities and our country great. But it's connected to that terror that the president wants people to feel who come from other countries to this country. So I wanted to be there and tell their stories and connect it to what had happened in El Paso

and what might happen going forward unless we change things. At what point does the Democratic Party decide, all right, we've got to back like two or three people here and go because we're running out of time if we're going to try to flip this? Yeah. Because having 10 people on a stage in September just feels like at some point we have to at least whittle some people down. Or do you like the way it is now where everybody still has a chance? It seems like just watching from afar, it felt like you'd kind of missed your boat to some degree.

Now you've found your voice again. And it's like, who knows? It's not like anybody's pulled away. Right. Is the process the right process? It is. And I think the answer to your question, at what point do you winnow the field, is determined in Iowa and in New Hampshire and South Carolina and Nevada. And then to an extent here in California and in Texas on Super Tuesday, that's the process as designed. These debates, 10 people, 20 people, however many people are on a stage or however many nights they need to accommodate everyone, that's the process by which you can make an informed decision at that

Iowa caucus or that New Hampshire primary. And so this is a little bit of a challenge. And I'll tell you, as a candidate on that stage, trying to stand out or distinguish yourself or fight for time, I think we had all of nine minutes over the course of three hours. Yeah. But I think we made them count. But that can be frustrating for sure. But it's the best kind of problem that we could have, that this democracy is still vibrant enough, that this many people want to get in to this level of sacrifice, put out this many

different competing ideas or visions for the country or biographies or life experiences, all that brought to bear on the greatest set of challenges that we've ever known. I love that. And I'm truly grateful to be in it. And also really appreciative of all these other candidates who've come out there, some of whom I'm going to disagree with from time to time and all of whom I'm competing against. But every one of them I'm proud of and just grateful to be part of this. Well, there was two moments in the debate last week. One was just a bunch of people talking to you about guns,

like really appreciating your passion about it, which was kind of unusual for a debate stage where everybody's like, we're on your side. It's like, oh, but you're all competing with each other. And then when Castro did a couple of barbs at Biden that he then claimed after, like, no, I didn't totally mean the age thing, but in the room, it definitely felt like an age thing.

And it's like, come on, dude, you were definitely playing the age card on that. And at the same time, it's like, that does seem like actually a valid thing to bring up in a debate when people get in their mid-70s. Like, who knows? Is there a line you won't cross when you're on these debates, like talking about something like that? Yeah. I mean, that would be a line I wouldn't cross. And also, I mentioned this earlier about all this opposition research that we are each loaded with. And every candidate on that stage knows something damaging or outright damning about every other candidate on that stage. It just seems so small to this moment.

I think any other year, any other time, go for it. This moment, this time, this president who I really believe could destroy the country, if you're focused on Joe Biden's age or how Bernie Sanders voted in 1996 or any other thing from the long distant past or any difference that really does not matter at this moment, then I think we lose sight of the big picture and the real challenge. So that's what I tried to reflect on that debate stage the other night. I didn't really go after anybody in that way. If there were a real difference on something that I think the American people needed to know about, I think that's the moment to engage. And we could do that on any policy issue. Guns might be one of

them. There's clear differences on guns on that debate stage. If you had to do it over again, some of the stuff that was going on with you where you had, you know, you almost beat Ted Cruz. You're in the Vanity Fair cover. There's a documentary about you. Right. And it's a little bit like what happened with the Cleveland Browns this season in the NFL, where there's a lot of hype, a lot of hype, a lot of hype. And then they look bad in the first game and everyone's like, ah, see, see, they're not that good. And you're almost like loading up the deck against you. Would you do that differently now?

Yeah, yeah. I think something I really loved about the Senate campaign by contrast was we began in absolute obscurity. Nobody knew who the hell I was. I lived in the Western most of 254 counties. The only one in the mountain time zone was traveling county to county. And we got to all 254 by truck, showing up, listening to people, meeting them where they were, listening, learning, never polling,

and not on anyone's radar for forever. And I loved it. When we started in this campaign, the expectations were to the moon. The coverage was so intense. I was not even a decided, much less a declared candidate. And there were other campaigns coming at us, not necessarily in an official or condoned way by the candidate themselves, but their partisans and supporters were just going to town. So we were almost in the race before we decided that we were going to be in the race, from the media speculation

to what was going on on social media. What do you think people, your competitors at that point were sensing that made you dangerous to them? Just like a young energy? Like what were they seeing? Something extraordinary happened in Texas. We broke the politics of Texas that had been this solidly, reliably low voter turnout red state for

my entire adult life. And though we didn't beat Cruz, we not only won more votes than any Democrat, we won independence for the first time in decades. That's a huge bellwether. We won more than 400,000 Republicans who voted for a Republican for governor and me for senator. And it wasn't like I was some middle-of-the-road candidate. I was talking about reproductive freedoms. I was talking about an assault weapons ban. I was talking about universal health care, comprehensive immigration reform. So I was talking about the things that matter most to me,

but I was talking about them everywhere and bringing everyone in. And we went from a state that ranked 50th in voter turnout in a midterm election to a state that saw record levels of turnout, young voter turnout up in early voting, 500%. So- Did you think you had a chance? Was there a moment there where you're like, we're actually winning this? Absolutely. I was trying to explain this feeling to my wife the other night. Was not ever a great basketball player. I made it all the way to eighth grade at El Paso High under Dow Farley before I realized I needed to join the cross country team.

But there's this, you know, when even before the ball leaves your hand, you know it's going in. You just have that feeling. And I don't always have that feeling in life. And it's a very rare feeling. I felt that in the Senate race. Not the whole way. But by the end, I was like, this is going in. I feel this. I'm on this trajectory.

No one, no campaign worked harder. And when I say campaign, there were just tens of thousands of us all across the state of Texas, people coming into the state of Texas to help out. It was the largest grassroots effort you've ever seen. And the energy, which I don't know that I can describe and it's hard to quantify, was just absolutely unreal. I felt it. I knew we could do it.

And no poll said we would. Almost no pundit said we could. And yet I do it. And no poll said we would. Almost no pundit said we could. And yet I felt it. And I was incredibly disappointed and very surprised when we were down 2.6 that night. I just, it was hard for me to accept. It just did not, that did not reflect what I had been feeling leading up to election night. But when we took some stock of it with some distance and some perspective, that huge voter turnout, two new members of Congress, both Democrats. You look back and you're like, oh, we're in Texas. This is basically impossible.

No. This is the all-time road game in sports. Helping to flip the House of Representatives, two Democrats replacing long-serving Republicans in Texas, 17 African-American women elected to judicial positions in Harris County, Houston, you know, changing the face of criminal justice. We changed the composition of the state legislature. We will have a Democratic majority in Texas in 2020, which is something that was unthinkable two years ago and is going to happen within the next year and a half. And then there's these 38

electoral college votes. And for those who are beginning the calculations in the delegate math, they've got us fourth of the 20 some odd declared candidates in terms of predicted delegate totals. A lot of that has to do with Texas. A lot of that has to do with the organization that we all stood up in Texas that can help us to win those delegates, but also can help us to win those electoral college votes in November. So that's a really strong,

very compelling argument at a time that so many people want to make sure that job number one is defeating Donald Trump. Texas is a game changer in that calculation. So are you starting to feel that energy again a little bit? I am. Yeah.

Absolutely. And we just spent, in addition to being on the debate stage in Houston, spent some time in Katy, spent some time in Plano. These are communities just outside of Houston and Dallas that are reliably conservative and red, but are fired up and are energized and are excited even in some conservative places that we're talking about things that are a third rail in American politics, certainly when it comes to- Like taking guns. Like taking guns. There's this guy in Katy, we'd stopped to use the restroom before going to the

no-label brewing event. And he said, this is going to surprise you. I'm a Republican, never voted for a Democrat, likely, never voted for a Democrat, likely will never vote for a Democrat, own an AR-15. What you said on that debate stage last night is exactly how I feel and absolutely what must happen in this country. So thank you for saying it. That kind of surprised me. I wasn't expecting that response. And that felt like Texas where folks, we just assumed so much, written people off altogether, never showed up and listened to them. Who could blame them for voting for the other side or the Republican candidate? So bringing people in, there's a real power to that.

And I feel like that's something that we've excelled at and that we're pursuing right now and is going to result in being able to build a coalition, much like we saw in Texas, that can defeat Donald Trump and can bring a very divided country back together again. Look, I don't understand the case against getting rid of AR-15s and AK-47s. I just don't understand it. I don't understand how any person who lives in this country could think that would be a good idea for other human beings to have those two guns. Right. So what's the case? Like what's the, what's the best rationalization you've heard for,

no, no, we should still have these. It's cool. I'll give you one. I was, um, last Wednesday at my son, Ulysses cross country meet. And he just finished the first mile and they're coming through and I've got my iPhone and I'm videotaping him. And this guy next to me says, hey, can I talk politics with you for a second? And I said, let me just grab my son coming through. And then I turned to him and I said, sure. And he said, I like you. I want to vote for you, but I have an AR-15 and I just can't square this one. Are you saying you want to take that from me? And I said, well, and I talked about this as a weapon of war, what we just saw in El Paso. Yes, I do. I think that's the right thing to do. And he said,

my reading of the second amendment is that that AR-15 protects me from the government. And the second amendment is there to make sure that the citizens can stand up for themselves if we need to against a tyrannical government. And I said, okay, I hear you on that. In my reading of the Constitution in American history, that was decided in 1865. We just don't do that in this country. And frankly, if you are going to arm yourself sufficient to take on the United States government, you know, you need to get some fighter jets and some nuclear submarines. And your AR-15 is absolutely going to be insufficient. You don't need it to hunt.

You don't need it to protect yourself in your home. If you used it to hunt, the animal would be just destroyed. There are some folks, some ranchers in Texas who will tell you that they have and they do a real problem with feral hogs and that an AR-15 or an AK-47 is their most effective, efficient weapon against those feral hogs. Maybe there's something to that argument. It's funny. We were in Roscoe, Texas at a high school talking about this very issue. This is during the Senate race, and 17, 18-year-old student raises his hand and says this, says, hey, I need that AR-15 to shoot these hogs on our ranch. And the teacher there who was, I believe, a combat veteran said, you know, if you need an AR-15 to shoot that hog, then you are a bad shot. So, he, I don't know that the teacher necessarily agrees with my position, but he was saying,

look, you don't need that really for any reason. And he would have the basis in it, right? He carried a variant of that in Vietnam. And I've had veterans who've come up to me and said, you know, that young man at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who was hunting kids in the hallway of that school, was better armed there than I was in the jungle of Vietnam. This makes absolutely no sense. So no, I can't find the rational, logical argument that is in the least bit compelling or persuasive. It's really been the politics of this issue and the fear that should you cross the NRA,

should you engage the gun lobby sufficient to raise their ire, then you've doomed your election prospects or your ability to stay in office. That really has been the rule in our politics. And it helps to explain the otherwise inexplicable centers for disease control, not able to even study gun violence. It would be like telling the surgeon general, you cannot study the connection between tobacco use and lung cancer and lung cancer deaths in America, because we just don't want to have to do anything about it. That's literally what we have decided to do in the world's greatest democracy.

So I hope this is not because of anything I've done, but moms demand, march for our lives, people who are just sick of this. No, I think you've helped though. This is a breakthrough moment. I think you've definitely helped. I mean, it seems like there's a middle ground for this. That's the part I don't understand.

There's still plenty of guns left. Yeah. Start with these two. Everybody's better off. There's no case against, you know, I'm sorry, you might need a different gun to kill your feral hog, but we could probably make this happen. So if you're a basketball player, you know, every basketball player has a weak spot. You know, they might not be able to go to their left. They might not have a good 20 footer what's your weak spot what do you

have to improve on oh man um what like what's what's on a debate where you're like oh man i gotta bone up on that for like eight more hours you know less the debates more in um town halls this interview the constructive feedback from from folks and from my team is, I need to be more concise. I talk too much. Podcasts are good for you though. Want to add too much context? Yeah. I like this. This is a great format. But folks will say, hey, remember, you have 60 seconds in the debate to answer. If this is a rejoinder, you have 30 seconds to get this point across. So, you know, this isn't the time for you to tell that story about the person that you met in Roscoe in that high school classroom. Right. What do you want to

do on assault weapons? And, you know, sports TV is like that, by the way. It's like topic. Boom. Yeah. Forty five to 60 seconds. You have to get out. Make your point, go. And I'm, you know, I don't know if I'm middle-aged. I'm 47 years old. Maybe I am still a part of another era where I'm used to and enjoy having a real conversation with people. And yet this is an era and an age that really favors being extraordinarily concise and punchy and saying something sensational and shocking within the 30 seconds that you have. I'm not so good at that. And I think you asked me about my first debate performance. I was trying to be good in that way. You know, so we have 60 seconds. We're going to lay down these three points. You're going to have a basic value statement, and then you're going to tag somebody with your last 10 seconds. Well,

shit, I can't remember all that. And that's not me. That's not who I am. So yeah, that's, that's a, that's a weak spot for me. But, um, you know, I, I think I'm more than ever before accepting who I am and, uh, you know, wartness, uh, warts, weakness and all, um, that's, that's, uh, part of me. I'm dreading 2020. I think it's going to be one of the worst years in this country since I've been alive. And I think it's going to be really polarizing and angry and the social media slash internet stuff that's going to come with it. I just think it's going to be a really dark year no matter how it turns out. Talk me out of this. You were to me to your, to your point of view. I was nodding my head and agreeing with you.

I think it's going to be really, really tough and we should be under no illusion that it's going to be easy, but I also have to tell you, and I have the perspective of traveling the country, um, so much and so often, really just all the time, um, people and especially young people are, are up to this challenge and this moment. You know, there used to be, when I was in high school, you'd have the city council rep or the mayor come and be like, you know, important for you kids to think about registering to vote and to get after it, and here's some important issues. When I visit high schools, when I visit colleges, it's the other way around. They are on top of everything. They're organized, they're registered, they're ready to go. They're leading on these issues and really setting the

terms of the debate. So to give you an example, the Marjory Stoneman students and other young people across this country who comprise March for Our Lives, they came up with this incredibly bold peace plan on gun violence in this country. They weren't waiting to get behind some candidate or some policy platform. They decided what it would be, defined it, got it out there, and then asked all the candidates where they were according to their values and what was important to them and whether they were really going to have the guts to say what was necessary, even if it means defying the NRA or the conventional wisdom and politics. So that's inspiring to me.

That gives me some confidence. That means that March for Our Lives, those young people, they're up to this challenge and they're going to buck us up. They're going to provide some backbone and some political will and some courage where it may be missing. I'm wearing the North Carolina A&T hat today. Was in Greensboro not too long ago. Four students from that college, February 1, 1960, go into a Woolworths, sit at the lunch counter, order coffee because of the color of their skin or denied, but sit there day after day after day.

And through the courage of their convictions, end up not only integrating that lunch counter, but inspiring a country. Other bus boycotts, other sit-ins, ultimately culminating with the Civil Rights Act in 64, Voting Rights Act in 65. Those young people made that happen. And I feel like this moment of peril is producing a similar moment of leadership and courage and inspiration. And it's kind of shocking the conscience of this country. How in the world did we get to 40,000 gun deaths a year or only 10

years left to act on climate when we've known everything about the cooking of this planet since 1979 and have done not a single thing? It's really going to be those young people who force this. So 2020 is going to be tough, but we have the best possible people in this country engaged right now and leading. And so I'm confident that we'll come through. We will overcome. When do we hear from Obama with all this stuff? It's a good question. I think about him a lot and he comes up a lot in the debates. You probably heard his name invoked, his memory engaged as a golden era in this country. No one has ever been missed as much as President Obama is missed right now. His decency, his grace, and also the fact that he consistently put this country

before anything else. And you have the exact opposite happening right now. And what is powerful to me and part of the genius of this country is you had somebody willingly and peacefully turn over the keys to the White House, to a guy who promised to upend and undermine literally everything that he's done and who is doing that right now. And I think I find President Obama trying to chart a course where he's respectful of the office of this democracy, of our ability to peacefully transition power while ensuring that we're all aware and awake to the real threat and challenge that we face. much more strongly, maybe after a nominee is selected. But the standing that he has, the power that he commands, that will be employed at some point. And when it, you know, his judgment on this is better than anyone else's. I think that will be, that will prove decisive in 2020.

How many times have you talked to him? Probably in my life, four or five times. Last time being before I had made a decision to do this. He was kind enough to spend some time with me after the Senate race while I was still a member of Congress and just wanted to congratulate me on a well-run race. And really, that was the extent of it. And again, overwhelmed. And actually, we were talking about going into those debates, or you were talking about going onto the set of a show. The first five minutes when I'm sitting down with President Obama in his office, I can't, I mean, I can't really think or take in anything. I've done it a couple of times. He's weirdly

intimidating because he's so confident. Totally. Yeah. And you just meet him like, oh shit, this guy's at a whole other level. I've only met a couple of other people like that. Yeah. Where there's, especially the second time I interviewed him, I had to do it in the white house and you're there with, you know, these paintings from the 1700s and 1800s and these chairs that are 200 years old. And he just turns it into a home game for himself. Yeah. And it's effective because you just feel like, all right, I'm on this guy's court. He's in control of everything.

Totally. And he's super confident, like relaxed. He comes in, he'll make fun of you at the start. He'll have some little barb and you're just kind of on your heels the whole time. It's pretty interesting. Like he's very presidential. Yeah. I'm sure Trump is probably presidential in different ways. Like he's, you know, he's six, four. Yeah. Intimidating. Totally. Looks kind of different than most people to be cut. Yeah. But yeah, I'm sure there's something presidential about him too. I do think

most people have something. There was this moment, I had resisted the temptation as a member of Congress when President Obama was in the White House to ever get a selfie with him or, you know, no adulation. We're co-equal branches of government, even though we're not co-equal people, we're co-equal branches of government. Obviously, he's in a much superior position, but there's got to be some respect between the offices. So I'm not going to play that game. But every time I'd come back to El Paso, my kids or any classroom I visited would ask, have you met President Obama yet? Do you have a picture with him? And so we're invited to the White House this one time and all the Democratic members of the House. And President Obama gives us a little talk and answers some questions. And he says, hey, let's all have a drink together.

And they wheel out these bar carts with beer and liquor. And we're all going to have a drink together, just a social hour with the president. Well, of course, there's this massive scrum around him, everyone vying for his attention. And I kind of just think this is my moment to at least shake his hand so I can tell my kids that I did. And I go over and I patiently wait and we make eye contact and our hands connect and grasp. And just then someone taps his shoulder from the other direction. And he looks away and he engages in a conversation while we're still shaking hands.

And I'm thinking like, do I hold on onto his hand or do I let this hand go? He's the president. And so I'm just going to follow his lead. And it seemed like it was hours that, you know, and I'm thinking everyone's looking at me and I'm starting. And I'm sure it was a matter of seconds or maybe a minute. And then he turns around and, Hey, I'm Beto O'Rourke. I'm from El Paso, Texas. Thank you, Mr. President, for everything you're doing. He said some nice words. And then I could go back and tell the family, hey, I met- You should have cigarettes. You could be like, hey, want to have a smoke? Yeah. So what are the next, what's the next debate? When is that?

It's mid-October and it's in Ohio. And then what's the schedule after that? All out. I'm sure, I think there are actually a series of debates in November. Are there little levels people have to hit? Like when do you start weeding people down? Soon, right? Soon. And I don't know what the qualifications will be for the November debate. So it's been a mix of the number of grassroots donors you have and your average polling place. So you got to poll over a certain threshold to qualify for any of these debates. And I'm sure that threshold is going to move up in November. So

I've got to be able to qualify for that, which means bringing in more small dollar, five, 10, 15 bucks at a time donors. And then also making sure that I'm relevant enough in the polls. And that's going to be a function of continuing to travel, continuing to speak my mind, continuing to engage. And then that's got to resonate. And if it does, I'm there.

And if it doesn't, I'm not there. What do you think your family wants to happen? My family would be like 60% rooting for me and 40% rooting for it not to happen. Yeah. You know what? It's probably a mixed bag in my family. My wife, Amy, is all in.

And I really do feel like we're doing this together. Yeah. My kids. The kids are probably like, yeah, this would be cool if this didn't happen. Yeah. And they're somewhat inert to this because I'd been a member of Congress. I'd been on the road for two years as a candidate for the Senate. So I don't think they love it. And I think, so my oldest Ulysses, I was home literally, he's 12. I was home literally

for a day. It's a tough age. Yeah. They're very ornery. It's middle school. Yeah. Sixth grade, they get a little, my son's in sixth grade now. He's like got an attitude. Hormones are changing. Yeah. You know, moods. He's, by the way, a phenomenal athlete in a way that I never was. So, runs cross country, amazing basketball player, played on a travel baseball team. Just so proud of that guy. But, you know, he's, that's hard for him. You know, dad, you're home, but you're home for a day. He's starting to go online. He's Googling you's checking on twitter each other it was the first kind of independent contact i'd had with him where it wasn't his mom saying hey write your dad a letter he'd love that um i found his email

address um i didn't know that kids emailed found his email address and just shot him a note yesterday and said hey ulysses thinking about. Don't break anyone's ankles on the blacktop today. And he wrote back, okay, dad, thanks. And that was like, made my day. That was it. That's a total sixth grader. I'll FaceTime. I was back East for like five days. I FaceTimed my son.

He was doing something else. He's like, all right, cool. See you. And like, just, I was out. Yeah. I'm like, you realize I pay for everything, right? Such a humbling experience. You realize I brought you into this world, right? He gave me 45 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. Kids'm like, you realize I pay for everything, right? Such a humbling experience. I brought you into this world, right?

Yeah. Give me 45 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. Kids are tough. Yeah. Well, good luck with all this stuff. I'll be interested to see how it plays out.

I think it does feel like you found your voice, but it's fascinating to see these 10 people or 15 people. How, how many, how, what's the exact number now? 37. But what's the, like the real number, like 10? I think that, so- Nine or 10? I'll give you an example.

I'm going to be at a steak fry in Iowa this weekend, and there are 19 declared presidential candidates who are speaking at that. On the debate stage, they'll be between nine and 12. And so we'll either have one night of nine or 10 or two nights of six and five or six and six depends, you know, who, who qualifies. So I don't know. Um, and, and, you know, you ask somebody who's not been on that debate stage in a couple of debates, but who's still out there

campaigning. They feel like they're just as much a candidate as anyone else. Do you know what my one tweak would be for this debate schedule? Tell me. I think we should have one debate where it's all like stupid questions and like pop culture stuff. Like, Kamala Harris, what was your take on the last episode of Friends? And just like knocking people out of their comfort zone to see like what they care about that's not the actual issues. Right. I'd be really fascinated in that.

Who do you think was the best basketball player of all time? And then people just kind of looking around all nervous, trying to, but I, we always get a sense of the people, the policies, but I don't know enough about the people. And when you're, you know, I think that was one of the reasons Obama succeeded as a president was people felt like his family kind of became this extended family for them, you know, and. Or George W. Bush, you know, I don't know if people voted for him based on policy, but I remember famously, you know, folks saying that's somebody I'd want to have a beer with. I like that guy. I can relate to that guy. He's kind of like me. And Al Gore was the opposite. He was talking about these, he was so in a climate change back

then and people were like, all right, all right, enough, dude. We get it. Yeah, okay, the climate. Nobody knew that he was ahead of his time with that stuff. But yeah, W is a little more relatable. Yeah, yeah. I do think there's more ways to have fun with this debate stuff. I don't know what the answer is.

It's so weighty and serious. Yeah, yeah. Stuff like this. Maybe this is the answer. These weird podcasts. Who is the greatest basketball player of all time? Have you put in- You have to answer player of all time? Have you put in? You have to answer.

LeBron. Have you put in? Oh my God. I'm out. Yeah. I'm out. Who's the greatest basketball player of all time? Not LeBron.

It's Michael Jordan. Oh. Why did he lose? Why did he lose his title? Yeah. See, that's a millennial response. You connected with the millennials though, just that. I'm connecting with my son, Ulysses.

35 and under. I'll think LeBron is the best ever. They've pushed Jordan out. They just know Jordan as like the bad Charlotte Hornets owner. Yeah. I remember. So I'm born in 72. The first person who really caught my attention was Larry Bird.

And now you want me back. It didn't take long. You want me back. I'm trying. I'm not going to give up. That was, I interviewed Larry Bird and Obama within a month of each other in 2012. Wow. And I was-

Why didn't you just hang it up after then? I should have. Yeah. I was way more nervous for Larry Bird. And Obama was the president, about to be second term president. Yeah. And Bird's like 6'9". The height thing is of like when you're talking to somebody like this, like the big giant

dudes, that was another thing with magic. Dude, magic's six nine. The height thing. Yeah. This was fun. Thank you for doing it. Good luck with all this stuff. Gracias.

Say hi to the fam. I will. Say hi to Ulysses. I will. Tell him more than five words in an email next time. I will. I told him I was, I just sent him an email this morning

and told him I was going to be on your show. So he's going to be stoked about that. He's like, I don't care. I'll see you later. He won't even respond. Thanks. Thank you. All right.

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