The Bill Simmons Podcast - Rodgers Recession, Tiger vs. Phil, 'Creed 2', and Week 13 Lines with Cousin Sal | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 447)

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the Packers loss to the Vikings, Panthers-Seahawks, and NFL playoff picture, before they guess the NFL lines for week 13. They wrap up with reactions to Tiger vs Phil, 'Creed 2', and Parent Corner.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight's episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network is brought to you, as always, by ZipRecruiter. You know what's not smart? Betting against Kirk Cousins when he's going against Aaron Rodgers on a Sunday night. That used to be smart. It's not smart anymore. You know what else isn't smart? Job sites that overwhelm you with tons of the wrong resumes. Luckily, there's a smart way at ZipRecruiter.com.

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Mark Titus and Tate Frazier and I did a little post-game show for the Duke game. What day was that, Wednesday? That was Wednesday, yeah. Yeah, that's on the Twitter. You can find that on the Twitter. Check out all of our stuff coming up. We're going to call Cousin Sal.

We have a lot of stuff to get through. Big Thanksgiving weekend. Creed 2 came out. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Phil versus Tiger. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Phil versus Tiger. We're going to talk a lot of football. We're going to do a little parent corner and a whole bunch more. But first, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, the Cuz is on the line. We got a lot to cover on this podcast.

We'll start with football, and then we'll go to the other stuff a little bit later, just in case you haven't seen Creed 2 or you didn't pay-per-view Tiger vs. Phil. Did you pay-per-view Tiger vs. Phil, or was that the only one? No, no, I was in there, but I was in and out of the house, so I don't know if I got my money's worth. I'm pretty sure I didn't get my money's worth,

but we can talk about it later. Okay, we'll save that for later. Coming off Packers-Vikings, Kirk Cousins outplayed Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers, 35 years old. They're going to miss the playoffs. A couple things struck me

today. One is he didn't play well. He just didn't look that good. Two, he seems sad. It's like a bearded, sad I don't know what's happening to my career and I'm really starting to see the finish line kind of look on his face

Sal what was your reaction watching the game tonight I thought the same thing but I also thought like this team kind of folds at the same place every week it's the middle of the third quarter remember like I think it was against the Patriots on Sunday night when Aaron Jones fumbled

it's always something stupid and then they kind of had momentum this week, middle of third quarter, went on third and one, missed, went on fourth and one, lame play up the middle, didn't convert, and, yeah, sucked all the power out of his face. And I think at some point in the game, also, it occurs to him, like, all right, maybe I don't want to save Mike McCarthy's job because it really looks like a disheveled Aaron Rodgers. If he's not moving around in the pocket, not doing his thing,

they might as well be any other team out there. Yeah. I mean, I don't think, I don't think he's playing poorly to cost Mike McCarthy his job and get a new coach because I think he has the power to just get rid of Mike McCarthy if he wanted to. It more seems like the life has just been sucked out of him because he's the leader of the team, right? And you're supposed to be deriving some sort of competitiveness slash confidence from your main dude.

I'm not seeing it from him right now. And they're not going to make the playoffs now. That was it. I mean, the announcers were talking about it tonight, but it really couldn't be emphasized strongly enough. I don't think nine wins is going to make the playoffs, you know, and that their best chance now, what is it, nine, six, and one is their best possible record.

I don't see it. I think 10 and six in both conferences is going to be the cutoff line. Do you see any way nine and seven or nine,-6-1 makes the playoffs in either conference? No, I don't. I don't see them winning a road game. I tweeted, like, even terrible teams figure a way to scratch out a road win, and that's, I think, on Mike McCarthy mostly. But, like I said, they're falling apart in the same way each week.

They still have to go to Chicago to play on the road. Week 15. The rest of their schedule. They have a gimme this week, right? Yeah, they're home for Arizona, home for Atlanta, at Chicago, at the Jets, home for Detroit. They're going to be favored in four of those. But at Chicago is a problem.

That's it. I have no indication that they can win on the road. I mean, what is it with this team? I don't get it. And they seem to have momentum, like I said, in the first quarter. They were up 7-0, up 14-7. Looked like they could kind of hand the Vikings their ass. But now they fall apart at the same time every week.

It's so weird. It was less than two years ago when he went on that crazy run down the stretch in the season and then heading into the playoffs and had reached a point where it's like it's absolutely insane to ever bet against Aaron Rodgers. That feels like it was about 100 years ago. Remember they lost, I think it was the NFC title game, they lost in Atlanta.

But the case for them in that game, even though Atlanta was clearly better, Atlanta was home, it was like, well, you don't want to be against Rodgers. That's crazy. Don't do that. And it just feels like those days are heading toward the end.

And we've seen this happen. We've seen this happen with legendary quarterbacks where the legend kind of supersedes what we're actually watching. And the announcers are even afraid to talk about it. Like he was really, when they were down 10 and they were driving down and they ended up settling for a field goal, but you know, he, they, it was third and one and, and, uh, or second and one and third and one or whatever it was. And he just threw two terrible passes and they ended up having to settle for

the field goal. And I feel the same hesitation with the announcers talking about it, that we could feel like during the end with Peyton Manning, during the end with Brett Favre, where there was like almost like a two year overlap on what our eyes were watching with Brett Favre versus how the announcers were talking about him. Didn't match up. Same thing, like going backwards with, I don't know, Dan Marino. Remember Dan Marino in the late 90s? Oh, you can't give Dan Marino.

Meanwhile, like, they were going 8-8 every year. Right. And I really wonder if he's hit that point now. I know people started talking about this the last couple weeks, but I don't know. Like, is his supporting cast that terrible? Like, he still had Devontae Adams. I don't know how healthy Jimmy Graham was tonight.

I think the running back's good. The offensive line. Yeah, I saw that a couple weeks ago. I was saying, oh, yeah, they have Aaron Jones. They have a nice running game. Takes a burden off of Rodgers here. But, at the end, this is going to be the first season in a long time. I forgot to look this up.

But this is the first year a healthy Aaron Rodgers doesn't make the playoffs in a while, right? And not a guy that comes back for two games for a season. Yeah, he was hurt the first month. We haven't seen this in a while. Yeah, and he's not scrambling. He doesn't seem dangerous with his legs anymore. And you watch somebody

like Russell Wilson in Seattle and they had a huge win today. And now they're kind of poised to be maybe the five seed even. But Wilson's been really good this year. And you could make the same sort of, oh, who's on his team argument with Russell Wilson that you could make with Rodgers. He's had three different running backs.

Doug Baldwin has not been 100% seemingly every week. You never know whether he's had three different running backs. Doug Baldwin has not been a hundred percent seemingly every week. You never know whether he's in the lineup or not. Lockett's been good for them, but for the most part, like, I don't know that there's not a ton of firepower. Everybody thought that was going to be a rebuilding season for them. And he's just been much better. And in these fourth quarters, he's taking care of business. So. I mean, Carolina went up 27, 20. I think there were seven minutes left, and that's usually

enough for them to put a team away. It's usually enough for a road team to kind of wilt at that point. But he got stronger, Wilson. You're right. I mean, hustle and bustle. What was he? 340 yards, 22 for third. They both did well. Cam had a great game, numbers-wise, too. But yeah, you're right. Seattle is in a good spot, because they have numbers-wise, too. But, yeah, you're right. Seattle is in a good spot because they have San Francisco times two. They have Arizona, and then they're home for the Vikings and Chiefs. But I think if they go three and two, they're in easily, right? Yeah, they're six and five.

They could probably lose one, finish ten and six. Nine and seven, potentially. I actually think nine and seven in the NFC. I know we just said ten and six, but I actually think 9-7 with a decent tiebreaker could do it for Seattle. Well, my guess is Seattle's going to go 10-6. And I think now Minnesota's 6-4-1. They got five games left, but they got a couple toughies left.

But they're at least getting to 9, probably 10. And then Carolina's 6-5. But Carolina's got at Tampa, at Cleveland, home New Orleans, home Atlanta, and then at New Orleans. But the key there is that that last New Orleans game might not mean anything. Yeah, right. That might be one of those where they just let the backup QB play and all that stuff. That's a big tiebreaker for the 5 or 6 seed should they both end up 9-7 or 10-6. It does seem like in both conferences,

it seems like we have the top three seeds pretty much set. KC's 9-2. New England kind of quietly is the two seed now. That sucked that you jumped into that two spot without anyone noticing. Pittsburgh's in the three spot.

And then right now, Houston, 7-3. They could move to the three spot if they win right now, Houston, seven and three, they could move to the three spot if they win on Monday night. But I think that whoever's coming in the division is probably the fourth seed. And then you go in the West. I mean, I'm sorry, in the NFC, in New Orleans, 10 and one, Rams, 10 and one,

Chicago, eight and three. And I think those are our top three seeds. I don't know what the order is with New Orleans or the Rams. Yeah. And like I said, I don't have a the order is with New Orleans or the Rams. Yeah. And like I said, I don't have a team that I'm excited to bet against at this point. You know, you got the Blake Bortles of the world out of the running, I think. Houston might be, who knows what they'll be. Maybe they're the team to bet against there.

But I'm not betting against Andrew Luck at this point like this. Russell Wilson, same thing, goes there. I don't know. Minnesota maybe as a five or something. I'm not overly impressed with them, but still there's no clear-cut team that we're ready to unload on for Christmas gifts. Who feels like could be the hot team down the stretch?

I would say the candidates right now. Seattle, you know, they made a pretty big statement today. You could kind of feel it coming. That was one of my picks. My picks are red hot. So my million dollar picks on the, on the Thursday BS. I know you have been on fire.

Even the ones you're staying away from are, are winners, which is weird. Yeah, I know he, this is usually I do well right around now. And it all sets up for just a terrible week 14 or week 15, where I just get demolished.

But the bucks today, you said, why, why the bucks minus one? I have no idea. I remember that. just a terrible week 14 or week 15 where I just get demolished. You love the Bucs today. You said, why are the Bucs minus one? I said, I have no idea. I know. That's just a sharp pick that doesn't make any sense. The Niners had two or three receivers inactive, and this Mullins guy, yeah, Jimmy G doesn't have to worry about getting his job back because he's reverted to the norm.

I also, I like Cleveland today, too. It did feel like there was some Hugh Jackson revenge possibility, but I stayed away from it just because it's the Browns. You never really want to bet on the Browns. And I kind of like the Giants today too. They ended up covering, but as I told House on Thursday,

I'm just never betting on Eli again. It's never happening ever for any reason. And I feel good about that. Should we be worried that our teasers are hitting every single week now? I hit a five-team parlay with two

of the Thanksgiving teams and then three other ones. I don't remember what it was, but all money lines. It feels like we have not had that week really. I can't even remember the last time we started out with Tampa screwed everybody up in week one and week two. And then Buffalo won in Minnesota. That screwed everything up. But we haven't had one of those for a while. So my guard

is up, Sal. I mean, it was easy today. You're right. Actually, the Colts made us sweat it. If you had the Colts on a money line parlay or something, they were minus 8.5 or 9. They made you sweat it out. Ravens were easy. Patriots were eventually easy. And the Chargers, even though they were down 10-0, they ended up slaughtering... What was the name of that crappy team they played?

Yeah, they were down 10-0 and then all of a sudden Phil Rivers was like 25 for 25. It was becoming a thing. I was actually, it was like watching a no-hitter. I wanted him to get to 27 for 27 just to say I saw it. It was like watching a no-hitter because there were great plays in the infield

to keep it going. Mike Williams had tiptoe plays on the sideline and same thing with Keenan Allen. Was he in? Was he out? Wow, he did drag the foot. It was amazing to see him how he arrived at that number. But, yeah, he was something else. The old Chargers would have lost that game, I think.

I think that's the difference right now. Eckler also had, like, a one-handed grab to keep the streak going. The announcers weren't nearly excited enough about it. Chris Myers needed a cup of coffee or something. It should have been bigger, yeah. Get a little more fired up. That was a weird game because that had to have had the least amount of people at an NFL game that wasn't weather demolished in a long time.

It felt like there were about 16,000 Chargers fans. Oh, I couldn't tell. Yeah, did you think so? Did you think? It felt like it was 16,000. Is that what you said? Well, the place holds like 29. It felt half full to me.

So who knows? Yeah, that's their worst schedule home game because you're not going to get a lot of Cardinal fans traveling for that, right? No. I don't know if there are a lot of Cardinals fans. There certainly are no... A two-win Cardinal team is not going to travel, those fans. Not a lot

of Chargers fans either. That was a great Phil Rivers game. Nice full head of hair on him. He finally figured out a hairdo that wasn't like the George Clooney ER thing. He's got like a nice mane. It's really like a breakout year for him. His receivers are pretty good. Well, I wonder if you think it would be opposite. You have the long weekend with the kids,

and he has, what, 13 of them? Eight kids, yeah. Eight kids on Thanksgiving. You think, all right, maybe he's just rattled. In fact, if I had thought of that before, I might have taken the points there, but no, it worked the opposite way. He was lights out.

You had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Dallas looked great. Prescott was making plays. Amari Cooper. Wasn't that nice? Amari Cooper, that trade. I'm not prepared to eat crow yet,

but I at least bought it at the grocery store and put it in the fridge in case I have to cook it. Because Cooper, Cooper kind of filled out their team. I mean, they definitely needed him. They've definitely been better since they made the trade. And now we know that pick can't come back and haunt them.

They're six and five. Odds are they're going to get to at least eight and eight. So you just didn't want that pick to be in the top 15. Now, if that pick's like 18 or 19 or whatever, that's not the worst trade in the world. He's 24 years old. I'm sure they'll overpay his contract. And they're already talking extension and everything. But yeah,

I mean, if he can go for 8 and 180, I mean, the other thing is it's opening up Zeke Elliott's numbers and obviously taking pressure off Zach. He doesn't need to do anything. He could pass for $1.60 if he needs to. And they'll beat some of these teams. But I still think they have to go 3-2, the Cowboys, to do anything.

And they have Breeze at home. They have Wentz at home. They have Winston at home. They're at luck and at Eli. So three of those quarterbacks are solid. I do worry about, you know, there's no gimmies in there. No gimmies at all. Should we cross off six and five Washington,

or do we feel like we have to pay them enough respect to think they can go 3-2 the rest of the way I think we have to you know what's weird maybe not cross off teams but I think there's only like 9 teams I'm going to bet on the rest of the season 5 regular season weeks left I think there's only a few teams

a handful of teams I'll still bet on good job by you not crossing off Denver because they're still in there. Yeah, I got to say, Denver might be the hot team. I was looking at their schedule. They're playing at Cincy this week. That's great. Cincy's a mess. At San Francisco the next week.

Is that the worst team in the league? It's in the bottom three. Home for Cleveland, week 15. At Oakland, week 16. So there's a roadmap that they're nine and six hosting the Chargers

in week 17. And for all we know, that game might mean nothing to the Chargers. They might be 10 and five at that point and not even 100% care.

I guess they would still have to be playing for. have to be locked into like a five seat or not care if there was six feet or something like that. Yeah. The team, I really want to see the Colts make the playoffs, not just because, uh, we bet on them to win the division at 20 to one,

which could go down as one of our legendary great bets that they play. They play at Tennessee week 17. I feel like we're going to go right down to week 17 with them with a chance to win the division and not hedge. And then they'll, then Tennessee will beat them somehow. The thing is though, Houston, I keep, you know, they're a game behind Houston right now or a game and a half behind them. And Houston plays Monday night against Tennessee.

And who knows who the quarterback is going to be. But you look at, at Houston schedule the rest of the way, first of all, they have three home games. Tennessee, Cleveland, Indianapolis are their next three all home. At the Jets, Jets are terrible. At Philly, who knows? And then home for Jacksonville, like Houston might go 12-4.

Yeah, and now they're playing for the owner who passed away last week or this week. Yeah, it could be weird. That whole division is really screwy. I mean, you would think, did we cross the Jags off? Well, if we didn't, can we use an indelible marker to really, really cross them off this time? Jesus. I'm getting a stick from the backyard just poking it through there because they are disgraceful. What were they?

Three? They lost eight, seven in a row. They were three in one, right? It's really, I think they've lost like seven of their last eight or six of their last seven or something. Jalen Ramsey took about as big of a hit this year as you can take during a season

without like committing a crime. Like he just seems like a total jackass with all the, all the trash talking he did, even all the shit he said about Josh Allen and then the Bills. Basically kicked their ass. They get in a huge fight with Fournette, your guy. They get him kicked out.

Your fantasy guy. But I guess the thing that I'm the maddest about that I didn't bet was I really felt like the Tomlin Roethlisberger on the road shit performance was sitting there and they tried to do it last week

and Jacksonville wouldn't let them do it. They're like, no, no, you're not taking a shit here. We are going to take a bigger shit than you. And fought it off. And then they go into Denver and there it is. The classic Tomlin Roethlisberger, just crap road game, stupid plays,

terrible interception to end it. And if not for that, Juju Schmidt-Schuster, which also could have been a safety if it was a tenth of a second later. Right. If not for that play, they scored, what, 10 points. So, yeah, it really was an awful road performance. Have we mentioned the Ewing theory with Demarius Thomas and the Broncos here? Yeah, he's not good enough to qualify.

I guess not. When he left the team, he was their number one. It's like a junior Ewing theory, though. It's a JR Ewing theory. It's a JR Ewing theory. I don't really know. Once you get past the Rams and the Saints and the Chiefs, I don't know who my fourth team is. Fourth best.

There's a lot of candidates. I don't like any of them. I think I like the Bears probably the most because... Are you talking about every... Yeah, I'm just saying, like, who's the fourth best team in the league? We know the top three is, but who's that fourth team? Why don't you judge it this way?

If you're a team, the Patriots have to play forget the Chiefs, forget the I mean, you said the Saints, right? Chiefs? I think the Pats are favored in any situation except for the Chiefs and the AFC, which is hilarious because I don't like this Pats team that much.

I don't, you know, they're not exactly demolishing anybody. And Gronk made one big play today. He actually, and he broke up that interception too. That catch was huge. That was underrated. Catch was big. Yeah, the third and twelver but

man they show him on the sidelines and he just he looks like me he looks like me getting up after I've been sitting for too long

and I'm just like oh oh I'm just like he just seems I'm really dubious he can hold up because we're

so next week could be we need him for nine more weeks basically I don't know could be this. We need him for nine more weeks, basically. I don't know. Makes me nervous. You need him for the Steelers game.

Who do you play this week? So we have the Vikings. That's pretty tough. Well, and then Rhodes goes out right at the end of that game, which I like. The Vikes are going to be a problem, though, because I

actually think their running backs are starting to heat up. Thielen's amazing. Thielen, in fantasy, I needed like 25 points from him today to have a realistic chance to win my fantasy. And I felt like he was going to get it. And I don't know. He just seems like he's a guaranteed eight, nine catches.

He took a couple weeks off though, right? Didn't he have like 88 yards combined two weeks before this one? I know. And then he brought it back. Yeah. No, they have to have Dalvin Cook running hard. They have to have Kyle Rudolph have a decent game where he has six receptions. They have to put it all together

because everything else is too much for Cousins offensively. Let's take a break and then we'll come back and we'll do Guess the Lines because there's a lot of scenarios in play for this week. This is an especially good week for this. Hold on. Let's take a break to talk about Roman.

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All right. Week 13. No lies this week. You, you took like a little mini vacation. I follow your wife on Instagram. I don't know how focused you were on the slate this week. You're like at some hotel somewhere having fancy drinks. I don't know what's going on with you.

I don't know how much football you watch. One day. I mean, if the fellows look at the schedule, the day after Thanksgiving, if you can get away with the wife, it's a good plan. Because it gets really gnarly down the stretch here. Yeah. Well, our Thursday night game's really good.

They've done a nice job with these night games. I've been interested in like 80% of them. This one's a great one. Your team involved yet again. The Dallas Cowboys at home hosting the Red Hot New Orleans Saints. How are you feeling about this before we get to the line? How are you feeling emotionally? I'm going to keep it going with the whole doom and gloom thing

because it's working for me. All they do is kind of win after I say, oh, they can't cover, they can't hang, they're not going to be able to score with a team like the Saints, but I actually do believe it this week. The Breeze has done what Brady's done his whole career. He is magnifying

it times ten this year, making these no-name receivers. I mean, who's Lewis, Carr, Arnold, Kirkwood? No one's ever heard of these guys. Traquan Smith. I mean, who's Lewis Carr, Arnold, Kirkwood? No one's ever heard of these guys. Traquan Smith. If you're a big Saints fan, you haven't heard of a lot of these guys going into the game, really. And Brees is making them superstars.

It's amazing. Yeah, he was. I have a lot of regrets, but I laid out the case two BS pods ago on a Friday for the Breeze MVPs plus 175. And it was basically like if they win and Mahomes loses, Breeze is going to be the MVP favorite. Now he's like a 4-1 favorite. And it really does seem like he's

just heading a certain direction. I don't like betting against him anytime it's indoors. Just in general, no matter how good his team is. So I think that, uh, you want to bet against breeze.

Like they're playing, uh, the following week they're at Tampa. And that's like a classic outdoors, the little weird weather. And that's like, breeze will have one of those every year, usually where he just kind of stinks outdoors.

Right. Yeah. But don't forget they lost to Tampa week one. That was the other weird game of the year. Oh, yeah. That could be a little revenge game. I have the Saints by three and a half. I think I'm low, but I couldn't get to four.

I couldn't. Is that too low? You can't get to seven and a half because that's what it is. Oh, no. I said seven. Really? Yeah, they beat everyone by 20 points. You can't make this three, three, three and a half.

I kind of like your team. Come on now, Bill. I kind of like your team. This is a big spot for you. Mark, there's a loss. I'm going on to the other games. I think we need to go three and one the rest of the way after this. You don't think this game's close?

I don't know. I like your team. Let me make the case for your team really quick. Zeke hasn't run this well. It's been over a year, right? Since he's been hitting the line like this. I like what I saw from Prescott the last

couple weeks. I was never the biggest fan, but I think he's played really well. And I think the Cooper thing, it's very... It's nice when Gallup and Cole Beasley are the two and three receivers. It becomes a whole different ballgame. It's really rare for a receiver to come in mid-season and have an impact. You're seeing the opposite of it with Golden Tate and Philly. Where he goes in there, they don't even know how to use him.

But Cooper comes in and immediately becomes a threat. I have a weird, I think this is a stay away. I wouldn't gamble on it, but I, something about this game scares me.

I could see your team pulling this off. I could see you getting a couple shady calls. I don't know. All right, let me make a quick case for the Saints.

They never effing punt. That's all I have to say. And they have Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, and Drew Brees. Yeah, I didn't even mention those guys. I mentioned six people. You would never know. Might be delivering edible arrangements next year at this time. But it's crazy.

One more small point. Your D-line gets pressure. That's another way to get to Breeze. You got to make them a little uncomfortable. Your front four is pretty good. And when Sean Lee's healthy, they're going to have to figure out something to do with Leighton Van Der Esch and everything.

It's going to be fun. I mean, if anyone can figure it out, it's Jason Garrett. But the pieces are there for sure to be a playoff team. The clapper's back, man. I feel like the extension's coming. He's getting an extension and Prescott's getting an extension. Perfect. I did a tweet on Thursday night about

how he had more wins since November 11th than Brad Stevens, Steve Kerr, Greg Popovich. He won three games in 11 days. The Clapper. Right. He's red hot. He's clapping his buns off.

Phenomenal. It's weird not going to bed hating his guts. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do with the energy. Well, if you win this game, I think Jones just brings the extension onto the field, and that's it. That's it, right? Yeah.

Sunday marquee. New England is home for the Minnesota Vikings. Griffin is back for Minnesota, and he made a couple plays today. I thought that was one of, listen, the NFL never runs out of ways to surprise us with the behavior of its players. You don't even blink. Wake up today, oh, Reuben Foster had to be weighed by the Niners. He got in trouble again.

This is just the league we've chosen. Just weird behavior and aberrant behavior and criminal behavior Ruben Foster had to be weighed by the Niners to get in trouble again. This is just the league we've chosen. Weird behavior and aberrant behavior and criminal behavior by named players all over the place. Griffin, did you follow this story? I can't believe he's playing. I lost track

about a month ago. It seemed like he lost his mind about five six weeks ago now he's like yeah Everson Griffin's back he's feeling good he's looking good today

it's like wait a second I mean some of those stories about about things he was doing I don't want to he sought out help himself right he did

that was a big thing he did but I don't know it was just weird to see him out there like wreaking havoc

but if they get a pass rush on Brady that scares me yeah that was weird he was sacked twice but he was hit a ton of times he was for that result 27-13 you should be happy with that

because they had a false start they had a holding call they got called on a pick play miraculously it all happened within the first half hour of the day. Like, oh my God, this could be a weird Josh McCown victory in the Meadowlands. What is going on here? But yeah, you're right. The Vikings present a stiffer challenge for sure. And they can move the ball. Cousins seems like the kind of guy who could go like 32 for 35 against them in the right situation. But,

um, this is, they're like, Hey, Edelman, that's fun and all, but we have, we have Edelman 2.0,

right? Yeah. They have like bigger Edelman's big brother. Right. Yeah. I, I guess here's the case for the Pats. They haven't played a really good game in a while.

And if it's going to happen, they're headed for, I think they've had a bye week every week since 2009. Is that possible? What? I think they have. I think they've been either the one seed or the two seed every year since 2009. Oh, I see, I see. Yeah.

Every team's had a bye week, but yeah, I see what you're saying. No, I've been a playoff bye week. But to have a bye week, but to not have at least one awesome game against at least a decent to good team would be unusual. So I do feel like that would be the case. They're going to have one week where they're just really good. And if it's not this week, then they have Pittsburgh the next week. Do they play Pittsburgh?

Because that's the only thing I was thinking. Maybe they're looking ahead. Because honestly, that's really the only game they have to win to hold on to the two, right? Well, if they lose this one at Miami the next week, which is a house of horrors every other year for them for some reason, then at Pittsburgh the week after. Oh, that's it. Two weeks from then? Okay. You know, there's a roadmap where they could end up being the four seed. Yeah.

Which hasn't happened since, you know, 1958. That'll be fun. That'll be the Shakey's game. Well, it'd be better than that. Shakey, Saturday. They relegate Brady to the early Saturday afternoon game. That'd be depressing. Brady to the early Saturday afternoon game. That would be depressing. I have the Pats by six.

Yeah, you were closer than I was. I said four and a half based on, I thought Minnesota played well tonight, but it's six and a half. Seems fair. You get that one. So Minnesota's six, four, and one. They have to split either, they have to split one of these next two, New England or Seattle. I think they have to win one of these two.

And then they're probably in the playoffs. All right. The watchables. I only had one. Bears at the New York Giants. I don't know if they have tanking in football, but if they do, I think we might have seen it

today. Barkley had four carries in the second half. First half, he looked like a combination of Walter Payton and Terrell Davis and Marshall Falk. Second half, four carries. He had five touches, I think, in the second half. Right, you're right. Yeah, that was ridiculous. There's no way...

Eli didn't lose that game. The coaching staff lost that game. Turns out maybe Pat Shermer, maybe the 2-82 lifetime record heading into this season, might have been a red flag I have the Bears by 4 in New York, or New Jersey against the Giants

I said 3, it's 4.5 you're going to get that does it bug you, I mean, are they saying Trubisky's back for sure? I guess it'll be 10 days from Thanksgiving. I thought Chase Daniel was like one of the 18 best quarterbacks in the league on Thursday.

I wouldn't put him in the top 12, but he was certainly confident. I think... You know what he looked like? He looked exactly like a confident backup should first quarter second quarter missing passes looked like a guy who had only practiced three days with the with the two days yeah and then kind of and then kind of put it together down the stretch now all that said Stafford had the ball with six minutes left and threw a pick six in a tie game and then

threw another pick in the end zone so the Bears were kind of lucky to get out of there with a win. Super lucky. They kind of do what they need to do. I think their defense would give the Giants and Eli a fit no matter what. Stafford seems like the ship might have sailed on that one. Yeah. If I'm a Jets fan, Sam Darnold,

I look at him and Matt Stafford is my worst case scenario for his career. Like really solid, solid enough that I have to pay him. Might bring me to a playoff game or two, but ultimately, I just don't have a guy who I'm going to actually win the Super Bowl with. If he's my highest paid guy. We talked about this against the odds. I think you looked at his Thanksgiving numbers.

They were outstanding. I think it was four and one before this Thursday. Yeah. And I wonder if he got that nine figure deal just for the Thanksgiving game. We were talking about this. And if you take that away, forget it. He's really not worth it because you're not going to a Super Bowl. You're not winning a Super Bowl with that guy for sure.

Yeah. Can I complain quickly about the Bears running backs? Yeah. I've had Jordan. You don't like that they don't do the right thing with them all the time. Well, I've had Jordan Howard all year, and then I traded for Tariq Cohen two weeks ago. I have no idea which one to start.

You can't start both. And no matter which one you start, the other guy puts up points. I'm going to lose fantasy this week because Jordan Howard had 1.5 points on Thanksgiving. Tariq Cohen had like 12. There's no roadmap. It doesn't seem like they know which guy is their best guy. I have no idea why they don't give it to Jordan Howard more.

I'm just really confused by them. Cohen seems super dangerous. It seems like the wheel route, screen passes, there's just all these different ways to take advantage of them. They don't. And I thought with Chase Daniel, like, one of those two is going to be unleashed. No. I don't know what to do. I almost feel like I can't

start either of them. I can't take it anymore. I feel like I'm in a bad marriage. I'm going to look at this now. They only ran the ball 15 times. And Chase Daniel had four carries. Like you said, three calling three. Jordan Howard seven. And Taquan Mazzell had a carry. Yeah, where did he come from?

Do I have to pick him up now? Yeah, pick him up. I just get all three. Make sure you pick him up. Yeah. Meanwhile, like some dude on the Ravens, Gus. I don't know Gus's last name. Was that it?

I just call him Gus. Now he's like the third best running back in football. How did that happen? Who is Gus? I know. I know. It's bizarre. What do you have, like 118 yards or something?

Yeah, great. The barely watchables. We have seven barely watchable games. This feels like a week to go Christmas shopping or maybe do the thing on, get the Christmas tree or whatever you need to do on Sunday. Get pumpkins for next year. Pumpkins, whatever you need to do.

A lot of these feel pretty skippable. First one, Falcons home against the Ravens. The Falcons are done by Falcons. Ravens somehow are not done. They have a big, big decision looming. Lamar Jackson, two and O Flacco, probably ready to come back this week. Every single Ravens fan I know, and I only know one Mallory Rubin.

If they start Flacco this week, I think there's going to be a riot. Really? I don't think any person who roots for the Ravens wants Joe Flacco ever to play quarterback again for them. I, again, my sample size is one person, but I'm just assuming that's the whole fan base.

I understand that, but let's not forget. You could look good against the Ravens or the Raiders doing absolutely nothing. Like Lamar Jackson could have thrown two screen pay through two interceptions, two bad ones. He could have thrown two screen passes,

the whole game, handed off to that Gus Edwards. They had like, what did they have? They had like 240 yards rushing. Like Ty Montgomery had 50 yards rushing. That's all this team needed to do to beat the Raiders. So you think, it sounds like you're in Team Flacco. Camp Flacco.

I might be in Team Flacco. Wow. Lamar Jackson should be the running back. He and Gus Edwards should switch off. Wow. Well, maybe they bring Flacco in if they're down six, too, so he can throw pass interference passes. How many good throws did you see from Lamar Jackson today?

Zero. I tried not to watch one minute of that game. I just checked the box score after. Why would anyone watch the Ravens-Raiders game unless you had money on it? Did you have money on that? Well, I had the money line. When they were down, what were they down? Seven up?

That's ridiculous. It wasn't pretty early on. That's not a game anyone should watch. I have the Falcons favored by three over the Ravens. Oh, wow. You're going to love this. I had the Ravens favored by one. The Ravens are favored by three. When you said the Falcons are done,

Vegas agreed wholeheartedly with you. I don't know if I agree with the Ravens being favored on the road against really anybody. Well, the Falcons, they can't break 20 anymore. Yeah. They don't score 20 points. Even if their receivers have good numbers, they don't offensively put the ball in the end zone anymore.

If Flacco plays, does that line move to Falcons by three? It's possible. I think it's their defense. All the Falcons drive stall. They all fall inside the 25. Pathetic. They're going to fire that coach eventually.

You could tell I had plus 13 with the Falcons. Yeah, that was tough. And it seemed like it was going to happen too, right? Yeah. They're going to fire that coach at some point, and it's all going to come down to the fact that there were like 12 different plays where he wins the Super Bowl

if the play goes the other way. It would be weird if Quinn got fired next year and then Peterson got fired the year after. And it's just like the Super Bowl, the NFC Super Bowl if the play goes the other way. It would be weird if Quinn got fired next year and then Peterson got fired the year after. And it's just like the Super Bowl, the NFC Super Bowl team just had a two-year grace period and then the true colors were set free. It would be even weirder if

both of those guys got fired before Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy. My new theory on Mike McCarthy is the reason he hasn't gotten fired is because they don't have an owner. I think if they had an owner, he would have been gone like two years ago. They like, right. There's no hothead, Dan Snyder, Jerry Jones, any of those type of people.

Like they they're owned by like the entire, I don't know, the entire Packers fan base. I wonder if Joe O'Brien got just as lucky with the, with the old man getting six for the Texans. Like maybe he was at the right time and they righted the ship since then. Yeah. Broncos are at the Bengals. Remember a couple weeks ago I was like,

I'm not giving up on the Bengals yet. They had a bunch of injuries, but at some point they're going to be heard from again. I'd like to recant that statement. They're done. It does feel like the last days of Marvin Lewis, Hugh Jackson getting brought in.

Please let Hugh take over as the interim coach. That's the only thing I ask. Yeah, what if we sent the Bengals money to make that happen? If everybody sent them $20, would that make it more likely? I don't know. We could pay for his contract.

Let's do it. Didn't the bill send Andy Dalton money to his charity when he knocked the... Yeah, let's do that. We can organize it. Please hire Hugh Jackson. The Baker Mayfield handshake was great.

There's no line on this game because Jeff Driscoll might be quarterback. But, so we can move on. But I don't blame Baker Mayfield for giving the high hat to Hugh Jackson. He's probably bad-mouthing him all week. You go to a team in your division like

three weeks later, I don't know. I don't know about that. I mean, it would be like if you left Jimmy Kimmel Live and just went to FS1 to do a gambling show and then went back to Jimmy Kimmelive three weeks later. If I went to Fallon three weeks later, yeah.

Oh, to Fallon. I don't know if the Bengals are Fallon. It would be more like if you went to the Byron Allen show. Does he still have a show? Byron Allen, I think, is the running back for the Ravens. Byron Allen. Yeah, but I don't know. Well, it's huge action. And I'm not even sure people handing him the Ravens. By Barad-Hallam. Yeah, but I don't know. What did Hugh Jackson,

and I'm not even sure people handing him the game ball, I'm not even sure, like everyone's like, oh, that's how much he was respected. I was like, really? You sure that I fuck him with the guy right now?

Hugh Jackson. I don't know if respected is the right word with Hugh Jackson. Hey, Crown Royal is doing something pretty cool this football season. They launched a responsible drinking campaign called The Water Break,

all about encouraging people to hydrate between drinks for a better experience when they're at the game watching Homer in a bar. Have a great time. Enjoy some Crown. Just don't be that person that ruins it for everyone. We've all seen that guy who drank too much watching the game. Make the right call. Take a water break.

Who made the right call this week, Sal? Well, I'm going to put a hammer on what you said earlier with Mari Cooper and the Cowboys. I mean, I think it was a good signing. I think they gave up a first-round pick, which is now not as attractive as it once was. He has 22 receptions, 349 yards, like 16 yards per catch, three touchdowns with the Cowboys.

He extends drives. He's a great possession receiver. And we have a chance on third and seventh. And in a league year where the NFC East is way, way, way up for grabs, it's going to be, I think, just enough for the Cowboys to be in contention week 17. So good job by you, Cowboys. My red call goes to Aaron Rodgers for growing that beard

because you see it when talk show hosts retire from their show or leave their show, they always grow a beard. Or in my case, if their show is taken away, they grow a beard. It's what you do when you're working through whatever the next part of your life is. You just, you, you change your face. Aaron Rogers is moving into this different phase of his career. He's in his mid thirties. He's not the legendary Aaron Rogers anymore. He's stuck on this mediocre team. He's got his brother coming at him on Twitter about the fires.

That was crazy. He's just got, he's got a lot of, a lot of stuff going on in his life. You know what, you know what, what his face needed? Is a nice, big, sad beard. Looks like he should be outside his house chopping wood and just thinking sadly about the way things were two years ago.

My great call goes to Aaron Rodgers' beard. Wow. I think you're probably the only one in the media praising Aaron Rodgers for whatever reason on a Sunday night. He made the right call with that beard, I'll tell you that much. Crown Royal reminds everyone this football season to take a water break and hydrate responsibly. All right, back to the—

I don't know if the beard covers enough of his face. There's still a lot of shame there. Maybe he should get, like, goggles, too. Like the Kareem goggles. All right, the Rams are at the Lions I don't know what to make of this line But it feels like It can't go into double digits

So I'm going to say Nine and a half Rams favorite At the Lions I think I'm still too low there I said nine It is nine and a half right now I should just lie to you on those They were both is nine and a half right now. I should just lie to you on those. They were both at nine and a half. You get that one.

Mark that one down. Okay. Yeah. It's marked. We have a two-teamer or a three-teamer to put the Rams with. Yeah, there's a few today. Texans are home playing. Nick Chubb, Baker Mayfield, Sal's iPhone,

and the resurgent Cleveland Browns. I don't know what to make of this because I do think Tennessee could beat the Texans on Monday night. And I also think the Browns could go in there and beat them too. The thing with the Browns is between Chubb and Baker,

they actually can move the ball a little bit. Chubb's been... What were Chubb's... He has no chance at rookie of the year, right? That's impossible. No, no, but there is talk now. Barkley was running away with it. Now I think Baker's a slight favorite or a slight under. I think I saw minus

150 for him. Really? I mean, as good as Barkley's been, if Baker goes six, nine and one with this Cleveland team and you know, the giants are three and 13, I think it's Mayfield's right.

Well, I'll tell you, Chubb has been the, has been the fantasy MVP. When we get to week 14, 15, 16, Nick Chubb gives me, 16, Nick Chubb

gives me a nice big Nick Chubb in my pants. He's good and all rookies on offense. Did Callaway caught some balls? Yeah. You can see the seeds planted in hard knocks. Unfortunately, not with the coaches, but they did seem like they had some time.

Texans, I have them favored by six. I went higher than that even I said seven and it's only four and a half that's all yours Vegas is a little afraid of the Browns yeah they're a little afraid of the Browns

well the Browns they're only a one point underdog today at Cincinnati they're getting a lot of respect on the road now Bucks are home speaking of respect this is a team that does not have a lot of respect on the road now. Bucks are home. Speaking of respect, this is a team that does not have a lot of respect, the Bucks.

Playing Carolina, this is part of my case for taking Seattle plus three and a half against Carolina this week was that it was a must-must win for Seattle. It wasn't totally a must-win for Carolina. We are now in the must-win zone for Carolina in Tampa.

Feels like the type of game that Cam just single-handedly wins. I have the Panthers by four. At three and a half, you get it. It is four. Okay. McCaffrey. They beat them by two touchdowns three weeks ago. They beat them 42-28.

McCaffrey's starting to put up these Marshall Falk box scores. Yeah. Like 100-plus rushing and receiving in the same game. That's no joke. That was a great pick. They took him eighth. They took some shit for it, but that pick really worked out. You know, they still don't have a short yardage back.

He did get stuffed a couple times on third and two, forced him to punt. But yeah, you're right. When he gets in the wide open, forget it. No wonder. Yeah, it's almost like LeGarrette Blount should do what he did that year with the Patriots when he wasn't playing for the Steelers and he sabotaged his way out of there, which I would now call Jimmy Butler,

when he Jimmy Butlered his way out of there. I think he should do that with the Lions. There's like four teams that could use LeGarrette Blount right now. The Eagles being one of them, ironically, but he was just on the Eagles. But I think the Panthers, that's a team that he could really help. LeGarrette, if you're listening, do a Jimmy Butler. Just do what you did a couple years ago. Colts.

Yeah, just go to the Panthers. What are you waiting for? Colts at the Jags. The Jags are just a flaming dumpster fire. I don't know what the hell happened. To go from the heights of beating the hell out of the Patriots to just not having one other good thing happen. Colts red hot.

Luck is an MVP candidate. He's not going to win the MVP, but he'll be in the top five. He made a couple really great plays today. It's really fun to watch him do his thing again. I mean, that throw that got him in field goal range was spectacular.

Just getting free from there and making that toss was good. I also like when Vinatieri comes in for field goals because I think we're the exact same age and we both have white beards when we grow a beard. And I feel like I Vinatieri comes in for field goals because I think we're the exact same age and we both have white beards when we grow a beard. And I feel like I'm kicking the field goals. It's like they pulled them off the couch.

If you close your eyes, you think it's you? We pulled this dad off the couch to attempt the game-winning field goal. Here he is, Adam Vinatieri. I have the Colts by three over the Jags. Yeah, I said three also. It is exactly three. And they won what was it, two weeks ago? Colts won

by three, right? Against Jaguars. I might bet this tonight. That's not staying at three. That will end up at three and a half or four. Who's taking the Jaguars? No, but I'll say I think they were going to win this game if Fournette didn't get kicked out. I think

they were well on their way. He had almost 100 yards. He was eating them up. They came all the way back. It was tied at 14, and then they just blew it. So you're congratulating them on almost beating the Bills? Yeah, good job, almost. I mean, Bortles can't get out of his own way, especially when Fournette's in the locker room.

But congratulations on losing by three. Who's their backup? Their backup QB? Cody Carlson? Cody Kessler, right? Cody Kessler? Cody Carlson was somebody too, though. Cody Carlson and Byron Allen. Yeah, I think it's Byron Allen. No, Cody Carlson. Kyle, look this up. Wasn't Cody

Carlson a quarterback on Houston like 30 years ago? Oh, wait a minute. I think he was as forgettable as Cody Kessler. Yeah, he was. That was a long time ago, right? Cody Kessler has just got to be like, wow, I'm just never going to be a starting quarterback if it's

not happening now. Cody Carlson might have been Warren Moon's backup. I think he was. I think he started a playoff game. Yeah, backup. I'm going to say I bet on or against him in a playoff game. Yeah. Man, we've been gambling a long time. I think he started a playoff game. Yeah. I'm going to say I bet on or against him in a playoff game. Yeah. Man, we've been gambling

a long time. I don't even remember who I bet on. it's too long. 30 years. Last one, barely watched, but I'm just putting

this in because of my homes. Chiefs Raiders. I went to 13.5 on this, Sal. That's about as high as I can remember for a road favorite, but it might even be higher than that.

What do you have? I went 12.5. 15 and a half. Yeah, you're right. As far as the road goes, that's gigantic. God, we can't even put them. There's no tees to put them in. Did they play yet?

Have they played yet? God, that's what a bummer. Trying to think if they've even played yet. No, they play week 17. That's a bummer. The poop vector. How bad were the Raiders? I just want one more.

Hats off to the Raiders. Talk about a team maybe tanking, but you can do all you can. They set up that concussion tent for Carr. Didn't even, what did we say? about a team maybe tanking, but you do all you can. They set up that concussion tent for Carr. Didn't even, what did we say? We almost saw A.J. McCarron. We saw him take a knee before the half, and then they put Carr out there again because they know they need to lose.

Well, Carr went out and said that he's going to do what he can to make sure they don't get the number one pick. Yeah. Joe Brader's fans, they became furious with him. He's not going to be on that team next year. No. He doesn't make it to Vegas.

Poop fact, though, we got four games. This one's really, really shockingly bad. Sad-bearded Aaron Rodgers is home for the Arizona Cardinals against his doppelganger, Joshua Rosen. They always say, ah, he's got a little Aaron Rodgers in him.

I think it's just a little. And it might be more of the 35 year old Aaron Rodgers in him than the actual legendary Aaron Rodgers, but he might have a little of him. And I have the Packers by 12. I couldn't go any higher. I wanted to, I just couldn't.

Yeah. I went 11. You are just smoking me this week. 14 and a half. Oof. Not sure they should be favored. Is there a better medicine there for Aaron Rodgers than going home against Arizona, a team that Phil Rivers just went 28 for 29 against?

You can't make it better. If they're going to make a playoff push, this is a nice stepping stone right here. Unless they fall behind 10-3 in the second quarter and the fans are booing and chanting McCarthy must go. Yeah, that's true. Maybe he gets fired at halftime and they win the game. That's the best case scenario.

Hench texted me this. I thought it was a good question. Who's the Packer fan out there who's in Mike McCarthy's corner in the bar arguing against the people who are saying he should be fired? What's that person's case? That he won the Super Bowl?

Right? Hey, we won the Super Bowl with him. He's got to be good, eh? That's it. That must be it. Whether it's a Canadian fan. Well, it's very close to Canada. No, you can't make a case for him anymore.

It's too hard. It's too many years now. What was that year? What year was it? It was 2010. It was 2010. What was it? Oh, 2010.

Yeah, right. I still blame Roethlisberger. I feel like the Steelers could have won that game. Yeah. Made a couple of dumb throws in that game. Miami is home for the Buffalo Bills and the Red Hot Josh Allen. I stretched this to seven, and that was as far as I would go. I have Dolphins by seven.

I said seven also. It's six. It's only six. All right. We're not teasing them. Don't even ask me. I mean, the Dolphins are awful. Don't text me. The said seven also. It's six. It's only six. All right. We're not teasing them. Don't even ask me. I mean, the Dolphins are awful. Don't text me. The way they lost.

They were up 10 against the Colts. They stink. 10 minutes left. Then they're up seven. And then they're tied, and it's third and six inside their own 10. And they run like an inside handoff to Drake. They gave up that game. They gave it up completely.

As much as Frank Gore wanted revenge, they could only cover the spread. That was the best they could do. Why didn't Frank Gore want revenge? Frank Gore, it was a big story. Frank Gore against his old team. Nothing really happened. Frank Gore's old team is the Niners.

He was on the Colts for like two years. No, you're right. He was on there, but it wasn't like... Yeah, I know. It's like Emmitt Smith having revenge against the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals? The two years he was there.

Well, the point is, that's another coach. I'm not sure he knows what he's doing. He got his boy Tannehill back, and he still couldn't close it. Yeah. Titans-Jets in Tennessee. We have no idea what's happening Monday night, so this is a tough one to guess,

but I had the Titans by seven and a half. I had six, and it's nine and a half. The Simmons train keeps rolling here. Jesus. You might want to check that off. Should I mark that one or no? No.

No, we're not throwing Blarkus, Gabriota, and a tease. I'm not marking Green Bay either? No. No. We're not throwing Blarcus Gabriota in a tease. I'm not marking Green Bay either? No. Or KC? No. I got the one here. All right.

I know it. Seattle is home for the 49ers. Right. I think, oh, man. Is this going to go to 13? I'm going to go to 13? I'm going to say 12 and a half. Oh no, not even that much.

I said nine. Wow, actually take one from me. It's only 10. All right. So we got two. We got the Seahawks and we got the Rams. And we have the Alabama Crimson Tide. There you go, baby doll.

We got it. There's our winner. Three teamer. You think that goes to's our winner. Three-teamer. You think that goes to nine and a half? Seattle? Yeah. Yeah, I don't see any San Francisco money pouring in. If that can get to nine and a half, we could do the old seven-point tease with just the Rams and the Seahawks.

Cut the third team out. Yeah, that's true. Or we could take the Raiders to 25. No, we're not doing that. Yeah, you're right. That's a terrible idea. What was the Broncos line? Casey has to be mad.

There's no line because Jeff Driscoll or they don't know who's quarterback. We could mess around with that Broncos game too. Yeah, that's true too. Case Keenum. The Case Keenum, Alex Smith, Kirk Cousins roulette. I think it came up Case Keenum so far because he was like half the price of those other guys, right? Case Keenum is good. Case Keenum is scary.

Yeah, if I'm Kirk Cousins and I'm watching that Broncos game over the Steelers, I'm like, oh boy, I really better step up my game here. Because it's starting to look like this team did everything without, could do everything without me. Case Keenum, I never understood it last year why he was just discounted as a marquee free agent. It was like

the Broncos begrudgingly signed him because they couldn't come up with a better option. Yeah. Sunday night. Actually, let's take a better option. Yeah. Sunday night. Actually, let's take a quick break. I have a question. What do Carmelo Anthony, Matthew Della Vadova, DraftKings, Tim Ferriss, The Ringer, and nearly half a million entrepreneurs and businesses have in common?

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Two night games. One of them's good. The other one's not as good. Sunday night. I like this one a lot. Al and Chris just keep getting good games. The flex helps, but Pittsburgh home for the Chargers.

There's a lot of Chargers momentum right now. I just want to point out, they haven't exactly been playing a murderer's row of teams lately. So this will be their first good opponent in a few weeks, unless I'm forgetting some. No, I think you're right. I mean, they lost to the Rams. They lost to the Chiefs.

But that was early. Right, that was early. And then they lost to recently? They've had a lot of Raiders, Cardinals, those type of games. And now this is a good one. This is a nice test for them in Pittsburgh, Sunday night. Pittsburgh just feels like they're just tough to beat there in those night games.

I think this is a lower line. I had the Steelers by four. I said four also. Yeah, it is four. It's exactly four. Is this the same spot the Panthers were in on that Thursday night aside from it not being a short week?

The Panthers, Chargers, I look at them as similar caliber teams, and the Steelers just beat the snot out of them. Is that what's going to happen here? We said at the time, though, not to overreact to the Thursday night thing. Right. Because that was a tough spot for the Panthers. I think people will make the case all week for the Chargers that they're really good and they'll underrate the Steelers.

And we've seen the Steelers take care of business in these types of games. It's almost like they need to get the loss out of the way. Melvin Gordon hurt? How hurt is Melvin Gordon? It seems like he's got an MCL injury. He needs to play this game. There's a doctor. You know that there's a doctor on Twitter, Dr. David Chow, I think is his name?

No. He's an injury doctor. So when things happen, he tweets out what he thinks happened. And he tweeted the MCL thing right after it happened. And then it turned out he had an MCL thing. But then other times he's way off. He's kind of a fascinating Twitter follower. He's like the Tony Romo, but of injuries.

Yeah, he's like the Mike Pereira of injuries. It's a good gig. Somehow he has the corner all by himself. But I would like to see other injury doctors on Twitter. I'd like to see him have some challenges he's like the 538 but with a medical degree he's watching two replays

he's like that looks like an MCL and then it turns out it's an MCL that's great alright he's got 107,000 followers his Twitter handle is atprofootballdoc All right, he's got 107,000 followers. His Twitter handle is at ProFootballDoc. He's got a podcast. He does a lot of stuff when things happen.

He jumps on it immediately. But here's one. Somebody tweeted how the Packers say Kentrell Bryce's question will return because of his ankle injury. And then Dr. Chow tweeted, only limited video I saw shows a standard low ankle inversion sprain. Depends on severity, but could come back or be an emergency player.

It's kind of great Twitter, right? Yeah, that was pretty good. But who knows? He's like us on the couch, but he's, you know, it almost should be a show. Is he trying to co-pay or is this just free information?

I'll be told. I want this guy to have more challengers. I think we need more injury doctors on Twitter. Great. Oh, more challengers. Oh, I thought you meant

more injuries. No, no, no. No, not more injuries. But when there is an injury, you know who's there? Dr. David Chow. Dr. Chow's there? Dr. Chow. He's got the diagnosis ready to go.

He's like Quincy. Remember we grew up with Quincy? Haven't they made this? Wasn't this a failed ABC sitcom two years ago? Dr. David Chow? Injury doctor. I don't know. It's impossible to describe to anybody under the age of 40 how funny Quincy was.

Oh, yeah. I know. I didn't even have anyone in high school who understood how funny it was. And then when I got to college and I was in the room next to Jacko, and we started doing Quincy stuff, and I was like, finally, somebody got it. Somebody Quincy was like the most cantankerous. What was he? He was he was a coroner.

It was it was it was a show about a cantankerous coroner and it was on for like five years. He did forensics and everything. He did it all, really. And he had a sidekick, Sam. And Sam would say something dumb when they're looking at some corpse. And Quincy would get so mad at him. He'd be like, it wasn't suicide, Sam. It was murder.

He's furious at Sam. It was great. It was really an intense drama. And then it's funny you're talking about House, but he was the House. Everyone thought he was crazy, even though he solved 87 crimes in as many weeks. You're not talking about Joe House, you're talking about

House MD. Right, exactly. Maybe the injury doctor, if he becomes a show, it should be like a cross between Quincy, but he's also at home diagnosing football injuries, but he's cantankerous. Yeah, you're right. Like he's got a roommate and he's just shouting at the roommate.

It's not, it wasn't a knee sprain. It's a torn ACL. And he's just furious. Well, the best is because we looked at Jack Klugman and we knew him as, as Oscar Madison, who was like the messy Met fan, sports writer, who, you know, would eat and sad heroes in bed and everything. And like this guy is supposed to be like the forensic expert,

the guy in this field, because there was only like six actors in the mid-70s. Right. Well, now he could be the injury doctor if Jack Klugman was still alive. That's right. Monday night, Eagles-Redskins. Who are you rooting for in this game, first of all? Part of me wants the Eagles to go away,

but I know it's smart for the Redskins. I guess I need everyone to be 6-6, right? Yeah, I think that's bad. If I were you, I would root for the Redskins to get rid of the Eagles. Oh, really? Yeah, because you don't have to worry about the Redskins because it's not like they're going to make the playoffs with Colt McCoy. the Eagles. Oh, really? Yeah, because you don't have to worry about the Redskins because it's not like they're going to make the playoffs

with Colt McCoy. Come on. Right, but seven and five, then they go two and two down the stretch after that. I don't know. I don't know. I guess stranger things have happened

than Colt McCoy quarterbacking a playoff game because every year it seems like there's one crazy quarterback that we can't believe. But that even seems too crazy for me.

Yeah. Maybe I have the Eagles by six over the Redskins. Yeah. You nip me again. I said five and a half and it's seven. let's talk about them though. I wouldn't trust them at all. Let's talk about tiger Phil really quick.

And then we'll take a break and we'll talk about, we'll end it with creed too. And parent corner. Okay. Tiger corner. Okay. Tiger Phil. So. So I was in it. I got the pay-per-view,

but I was in, I was on a little day date with my wife. So I was in and out watching it. And then I was watching on my phone and following, but it had all the makings of a disaster. Is that right? I mean, they,

they played terribly. They mic'd them up. The banter between the two of them was so awkward and forced. There's a lot of things. I thought the ground was laid for something much more interesting next year. But the biggest thing we learned was the personality of those two guys can't carry it. What I thought was interesting,

they really geared it around gambling. They geared it around things that you and I care about. And it was a lot of stuff like after the seventh hole, Tiger tied it, I think. I think it was the seventh hole. Tiger got a scan. It was all squared up. And somebody was like, you know, if you bet all squared up through nine, that was plus 500, those bettors have to be feeling good. And I was like, that's my kind of content right here.

Stupid bets that might come through. They wanted to make it even more so, but I don't think they could latch on to a casino who could give them like, you know, they need to be legitimate. Obviously, there's 400 websites where you could bet through hole to hole. But yeah, they wanted to link up to a casino and then it would have been absolutely legit. But yeah, you're right. The betting was good. What I was thinking is like, Phil is now publicly betting hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Like his wife is watching this. Like, she's like, okay, this is great. Good for you. Have your fun. I want three Colby rings for Christmas. You better get them because you're betting $250,000 on a pot. You know, it was just weird. I cringed a little bit that he was letting out his secrets.

Yeah. He, on the other hand, like those guys are both super wealthy. And that was probably one of the issues with, you know, Tiger picked up his putt on the 18th instead of making Phil try to putt out, you know, like a little five and.5 footer for the match. If he misses it, Tiger wins. Tiger's like, pick that up, but I don't want to win that way. And then Phil did the same later in the extra time, right? Yeah, and it's like,

alright. And that was a 7-footer. That was a putt that people, that both of those guys were missing. And that's what sucked about it to me. It's like, someone here's got to bet, and probably Joe House, on Mickelson to win this hole. And Mickelson's letting him pick up a seven footer and they're, they're all squaring that hole.

Like that's not fair to me. Yeah, I agree. And also, and Phil's like, I don't want to win that way. It's like, well,

what's going on here? We're camping on this. What are you doing? So I thought that was weird. I, the tiger is just such a dud I mean I I feel bad saying that because I really like him he's one of my favorite athletes but you're putting him in a position to be gregarious and he's not you're still mic'd up for four and a half hours

and like even the announcers were having trouble because they would they would talk over those guys and a lot of the time it was good that they did, but they couldn't get that cadence down between them, right? Yeah, and then there was like a three-hole stretch where Mickelson had like the sniffles or something was going on. He's like... Yeah, right. And just for, it was like for 40 straight minutes,

but they couldn't basically turn his mic off, so we got to hear him sniffle. So that was fun. It just, those guys don't really have a relationship. It was clear. Like it was a business thing. They're not friends. And a big part of how it had to work was just them walking down the fairway and making small talk, but the small talk was the small talk you would hear at Thanksgiving when you're trapped next to

the cousin you were hoping you wouldn't have to sit next to, but now you're next to him. It's like, so, how are things going since you got laid off? It was that kind of tone. It was just weird. I got stuck with Dr. Chow for four hours. He could have been there

if somebody got hurt. He should have been one of the sideline people. But a couple of times they cut to one of the sets. They had a set. It was like a traditional golf set, which was a mistake. But then they had another set. It was like, here's Barkley and Sam Jackson. And now they're on. I'm like, this is great.

Could this be the whole show? Just Barkley and Sam Jackson as the announcers? So I think next year there's a couple things they could do. One is you could have a third person in it who's more fun than Tiger and Phil. So it's like the two of them

and then it's like Matt Damon or George Clooney or some sort of celebrity who has no chance of winning a skin, but might, but might hit some awesome shot and steal one away from them or some. Then the bets would have to be different, but I know what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's like a placebo third. Maybe he's not even involved in the bet.

Yeah. He's just playing with them, but he has a chance to steal money. Do it that way. Or just pick a third person. The one I was thinking who would be great, Patrick Reed. Everybody hates Patrick Reed. You need a villain. You need a

fucking asshole who's there and he's stealing skins from them and talking shit and now Tiger and Phil have a common enemy. I think that's the move for next year. You bring in Patrick Reed. It's like Drago and Creed 2. If you can't get a drunk John Daly there, I think Patrick Reed's the way to go.

Well, can we get drunk John Daly? Is that possible? Yeah, wait, I just glossed over that, but maybe you're right. Maybe that's the way to do it. Well, couldn't we get drunk John Daly? Why can't we get drunk John Daly? I'm sure they could ask him, right?

I mean, honestly, the only way the banter would have been worse is if Brooks Koepka was involved. Or Jordan Spieth. Rory would also be good because Rory's actually, I don't know, at least he has an accent. He could be boring with an Irish accent. I think they asked a lot of these guys to contribute or something, but a lot of them were at Spieth's wedding, which is the same day or the next day or something. Yeah.

So the other thing I was thinking was maybe if you're going to do this, maybe they don't have their own caddies. Maybe it's celebrity caddies. Oh, that's good. Maybe it's like Chappelle. Chappelle is Phil Mickelson's caddy and Barkley is Tiger's caddy. Do it that way. And at least it's more lively banter.

I don't know. It just needed something. Whatever that tournament is on NBC where Bill Murray's in, that's fun to watch for a couple hours. Do it that way. Yeah. Or yeah, they have celebrities. And the celebrities are partying.

Right, hold up as many celebs as you can. And then the other thing I was thinking. Or thunder sticks. Something. Something to distract the guys. Thunder sticks. Something. Or the other thing I was thinking was you split it up

so it's six holes six holes six holes and you have gimmicks for like the middle six holes so it's like for these six holes nobody can hit a wood

right you know it just needed it needed it needed more wrinkles yeah it was my big takeaway

you needed a happy Gilmore hockey stick thing going or something. Some little something. And then the other misfire was so if you and I are doing something and I say, do you want to bet on this? The answer is yes or no.

If the bet's in my favor, you're going to say no. So there's a couple times where one of them would be like, hey, do you want to do this? And the other guy would be like, no, I'm not doing that. Tiger kept say no. So there's a couple of times where one of them would be like, hey, do you want to do this? And then the other guy would be like, no, I'm not doing that. Tiger kept saying no. They got to fix it so that they both say yes somehow. Well, so what I was thinking, here's another way to work in a

celebrity. You have kind of the betting commissioner who's walking the course with them. And Phil decides he wants to do a bet. So let's say it's you. By the way, you're perfectly qualified to do this. I actually think you would have helped the telecast. You're there. And Mickelson has a 38-foot putt and Tiger has a 19-foot putt. And Phil says,

give me two to one odds that I'll make mine and Tiger doesn't make hits or something. And then you have to decide whether that's a fair bet and if you decide it is Tiger has to take it he can't say yes or no you're the gambling czar so they're throwing bets at you and maybe you set the line

Phil's like hey Sal give me odds for if I make this 38 footer how much would Tiger owe me and you'd be like hey, Sal, give me odds for if I make this 38-footer, how much would Tiger owe me? And you'd be like, I think that's five to one you make that. I like it. And Tiger's like, I don't want to pay that. And you're like, no, you're paying it.

That bet is accepted. And that's it. I think that would have been more fun. Tiger would have to listen to me. Yeah, Tiger has to listen to you. But that's the thing. It needed to be weirder. It shouldn't have felt like a traditional golf thing.

Anyway, the only reason- If you don't take this bet, you're going right back to rehab, Eldrick. There's nothing you can do about it. More wrinkles. The only reason I'm saying this was it wasn't a great viewing experience and the golf wasn't great,

but I did feel like there was bones for something. I liked the whole spirit of just bets constantly. It kept me interested. It's also too long. It's too long. It's not Dodgers, Red Sox that Saturday night, game five, whatever it was.

It's not compelling enough. The fact that it went over time doesn't make it better. Well, that's why I was saying those middle six holes need real wrinkles. Like no woods on this hole. Right. You can't use your putter on the ninth hole. It has to have stuff like that. More handicaps.

Yeah, I'm with you. We'll figure it out for them. All right, let's take one more break. Let's talk about Allbirds. They are dedicated to making stylish, comfortable footwear using premium natural materials designed for life's everyday adventures. Allbirds Wool Runners. Man, that's a tough one for me to say. Our comfy shoes made from wool.

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All you have to do is go to allbirds.com. All right, Creed II and then Parent Corner. What's your grade for Creed II? I'm going to give it a C. I'm sorry. A C? Okay, explain. And I've never, ever left a Rocky movie disappointed. But I think I felt like, and this is stupid to say because they all do this, but this kind of just stole from all the Rocky movies except for five.

And I didn't think I'd ever come to this point, but I've hit my saturation point with the you can't take this fight speech. You know what I mean? Right? it didn't even make sense this time. It's like, yeah, you could take this fight. You're the heavyweight champ in the world. Um, if you don't take this fight, what are you going to do? You're going to just going to retire a and B, this guy killed your father. Yeah. This makes, this makes all the sense in the world to take this fight.

And that's why this is a movie. I don't know. It just was weird to me. It was weird that Rocky didn't want to go with him. Right. And it was weird that he was so afraid of Drago's son. I didn't really totally buy it because he was getting flashbacks to when Apollo died 32 years ago. Rocky can barely remember who he is three days ago.

He doesn't even remember he has a son. The movie ends with him going to see his son. It's like, I thought you were, didn't you resolve everything with your son and Rocky Balboa in 2006, that movie, I thought you and your son were good. Now you're,

now you've never met your grandson. What happened? Yeah, it was very, it was strange. And by the way, do you know Nick, Burgess Meredith? You know how old he was

in Rocky 1? Like 70? Yeah, he was 69 years old. Stallone is 72. Doesn't that freak you out a little bit? I would have thought it was like 80 and then 88 by Rocky 3 or something. I'm going to bring this around

because I actually, I give the movie a B, but I think it's because it's hard for me to give any Rocky movie less than a B. Yeah. I thought they stole from two, three, and four things that I didn't like about each movie. Yeah.

Specifically with two. And I know why they do this. They want to make it a date movie. They want to have stuff in there for somebody who doesn't care about boxing, who's not just there because it's a sports movie. So it's like,

big scene about him trying to figure out how to propose to his girlfriend. That was way too long. Yep. The whole pregnancy thing, is there something wrong with the baby? I'm sorry, I lived through all that.

That whole section in Rocky 2 when Adrian goes into a coma is the longest 15 minutes I think of my entire life. It's too sappy. It was all too sappy. Yeah, and it was like, oh, and then the baby came here.

Like, that was, you know, All right, a little tension. Oh, there might be something wrong with the baby. And then there was something wrong with the baby. It was like, really? There's something wrong with it? That's where we're going to go with this? Right.

Can I just see? Can you just be Drago's son? Do I have to get sucked into this plot with something's wrong with your baby? Just be Drago's son. All right, and the other thing is, I need Rocky to punch somebody in every movie. I need it to happen. I don't care if he's 72, 82, 92 years old.

That scene with Drago, when they meet up for the first time again, and we reunite, that was crap. Just, they have some stern words. He should have thrown him up against the wall when he said something about Apollo's picture or something. He just looks too much of like a sad sap. All right, we get it. He's destitute. Yeah, sure. There's no, there's no, uh, there's no, um, autograph signing sessions that he could hit up for 15 grand to pop. He has to live in that terrible

apartment with the light outside. That doesn't work. We, we, do you hit that over the head? Wait, wait too many times already. We got, he's poor. But does he have to be such a sucker? Like, I don't know. I'm so happy you brought this up because I had a 15-minute conversation about it with my friend Hershey this morning. Both of us are so upset that Rocky doesn't have more money. First of all, he was the champ. I know he took the Rocky IV fight for no money in Russia, which was one of the biggest mistakes anyone's ever made in the history of any movie. But he

certainly made enough. I know he got defrauded. He lost money from whatever. But we live in a world now where nostalgia is its own business. And it's not just like the autograph signings. I mean, they, like, Roots of Fight, who's

a really awesome clothing line that the Ringer's like slightly involved with. They made us some sweatshirts. They've sent us some stuff. I love their stuff. But they get involved with a lot of like Muhammad Ali. And who's the latest one they just did? Who's the boxer they just, they just, oh, Mike Tyson. Yeah.

Mickey Ward, like they, the thing is Rocky should have deals. He's Rocky Balboa. He was the heavyweight champ for like seven years. He should be on like TV. He should be doing, he shouldn't be this sad sack in this crappy apartment who just has this empty restaurant. I don't understand. Where's the manager who looks at Rocky and goes, Rocky, just give me 10%. I can make you $3 million a year tomorrow.

Right. Just stay with me. We're going to have a Rocky video game. We're going to do a 30 for 30 about you, the Russia fight. There's so many different ways for Rocky to make money. Come on, Rocky. The money part of it is all over the place. So you go to Apollo's wife's house

and it's beautiful. It's this mansion. It's the best house you'll see in any of the Rockies. And then Rocky's in there waiting for the kid and he's like, oh, this could be you.

This could be all yours. Like, why isn't it all yours? Why are you living in a shitty apartment in Philadelphia, Adonis Creed? Like, you've already made more money

than your old man just for the two fights we've seen you in. Right, you're the champ. It doesn't make any, just for the two fights we've seen you in, you know, you're the champ. It doesn't make any sense. And by the way, Canelo Alvarez just signed for 360 million with the zone or whatever,

whatever. And you know, Creed versus Drago, the rematch doesn't make Creed. Like, shouldn't that make him a hundred million dollars? Right. And doesn't Rocky get a cut of that?

He's like, Rocky's like, I don't, I don't, I'm not going. And Creed's like, Hey, they're paying me a hundred million dollars right and doesn't rocky get a cut of that he's like rocky's like i don't i don't i'm not going and creed's like hey they're paying me a hundred million dollars i'll give you like two yeah you wouldn't have to live in your one bedroom apartment in south philly too and then after the fight so okay so anybody like my 13 year old is like okay it's only an hour into the movie and he's fighting so we know he's going to lose and then rocky's going to take him back and he's going to like it's so formulaic, but whatever. But what about like, so after that first fight,

Rocky goes to see him in the hospital and he says to Duke Jr., the kid who trained him, who's the son of Duke. Bad trainer. Yeah. One of the worst trainers. Yeah. He's like, hey, you did a good job. I was like, really?

You did a good job? This guy's on life support four feet away. He did a good job. Like everything has to be positive and yeah, we're going to be all right. I don't know. I don't like that Stallone character. He had a broken orbital bone and a ruptured spleen and broken ribs.

He's like, you do a good job. He was one punch away from dying forever. The thing that bothered me the most, and I know it bothered you, the odds that Creed was a 25-to-1 underdog going into the rematch.

I say this all the time, and I really have to do it now because I wanted The Ringer to be a sports movie consultant firm, Ringer Films, where they just send us a script, pay us whatever, and just for moments like that, 25 to 1 is absolutely outrageous.

What were the odds for that? Knowing everything we knew from the first fight, what would you have put the odds for the second fight? I think he's like- What could he be? Could he be minus 800 if he really dominated him that badly in the first fight? Like, what could he be? So Creed would be plus 450 or 500?

Yeah, I was thinking plus 500. Okay. Because what American is going to be like, I mean, other than you and I because we're sick, who's going to be like, I want to bet on the Russian guy? Yeah. Nobody. Not one person. But I'm going to make a statement here, Bill Simmons. I don't want to put pressure on anyone, but I'm going to be like, I want to bet on the Russian guy. Yeah. Nobody. Not one person. But I'm going to make a statement here, Bill Simmons. I don't want to put

pressure on anyone, but I'm going to say this. You and I are going to appear in the next Rocky movie. We're going to be on a podcast or whatever the form of a podcast is by then. We're going to be talking odds and who we're going to be betting and we're going to be in the background and then Creed will shut us

off prematurely. He'll have heard background. And then Creed will shut us off prematurely. He'll have heard enough. He'll storm out of the podcast. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's,

I love that. Yeah. He'll storm out or everyone shuts the TV a minute before. That's another great thing. Rocky watching the fight, the first fight in his bar alone, uh, Creed,

I don't know. He might be dead. Do you want to keep the TV on just to check? No? Okay. He's going to shut it off. He doesn't care to see the aftermath. I was so frustrated by so many... I'm going to bring this around because I really did like some things

in this movie, but I was so frustrated by some of the things they just left on the table because we had to watch this 10 minute proposal to his girlfriend. Hey, he's fighting Drago's son. Can I get like the fake 30 for 30 for two minutes where they recapping, like how much fun could they have had with the nostalgia part of that whole thing? And then he doesn't even go to Russia. Right.

He trains in the desert. And then all of a sudden the next scene, he's in the, he's in Moscow in the arena. Like I honestly, I would have rather had Rocky have him run the 20 foot 20,000 square foot mountain with him. Right. Remember Rocky, Rocky climbs that mountain at the end. He's just going up and up and up. And he's so high up and you're like, wow, no human being should be able to climb the mountain. He should have climbed to a clearing. In the training scene too. The train, like, yeah. And who did he beat in the desert? Like they'd go climb the mountain. He should have climbed to a clearing. In the training scene, too.

Who did he beat in the desert? They go into the desert. You got this gangbanger here. He's not even a fighter, but he's getting the best of Adonis Kree. And then finally, he beats him up, and that's it. That's how we know he's ready.

He beats his nobody up. And they're fighting without headgear, which nobody's done since 1975. Right. All right. So those are all my problems with it. Wait, one more problem. One more problem.

The Russian ref, knowing that he's going to get killed if he doesn't get out of there with the right decision, would have stopped that fight. Everybody, first of all, anyone who was knocked down, it took him 35 seconds to get up.

Right. Every time. And Creed gets up at nine and a half each time. And the ref just would have stopped it. That's it. The Russian ref, especially, would have stopped that fight four times. And by the way, Jim Lampley, after the 10th round, he's like, all right, Creed is seemingly behind on points.

Yeah, there's no seemingly. He's hit the canvas six times. Right. He just hasn't been knocked out. Yeah. I don't know. They also, the first fight when he won the title, Creed won the title,

Max Kellerman was announcing it for some reason. It was like Jim Lampley called in sick at the last minute and then couldn't get another play-by-play. All right. So bringing it around, I just love seeing Dolph Lundgren. I was so into the Dolph Lundgren Drago. I cared more about Dolph Lundgren. I was so into the Dolph Lundgren Drago. I cared more about Dolph Lundgren and Drago's son,

whatever his name was, than I did about Creed. Every scene, the dinner scene and Brigitte Nielsen showed up. Yeah. I was losing my mind. That was great. She didn't say one word.

No. She didn't say one word. Yeah, they should have had her eat the steak, and she could have been like, you think your steak is so betty, betty good? Or what was her speech in Rocky IV? You think you're so betty, betty good?

And you people are so betty, betty... Yeah, she's barely in it. That part was weird because she has a Stallone history. Also, I wanted so much more from the Drago-Stallone scene, but I still really enjoyed it. I still really enjoyed it. And my son, who is not the greatest authority, told me that there was a scene that was cut out

with Drago and Dolph Lundgren where they get in a fight. It had to be physical. There had to be some part where it was physical and then one of them, and then Drago laughs at Stallone and walks away or something. So,

I thought that was the biggest misfire in the rematch. Yeah. That, between rounds, when, you know,

I forget if Rocky I or Rocky II were like, oh, we're getting ready for World War III. Like, when they're,

the corners are throwing water at each other. That would have been a great time for Rocky and Drago to get into it a little bit. Yeah, for sure. He was sitting in the corner. Both of those guys were sitting. Corner men don't sit.

They were sitting. It looked like the second row. It was weird. So then Creed wins at the end, and Stallone doesn't even go in the ring. The first person who goes in the ring is Creed's wife. It's like, oh, I've never seen a fight in a million years where the wife was the first go in the ring. And the first person who goes to the ring is Creed's wife. It's like, oh, I've never seen a fight in a million years where the wife was the first person in the ring.

That's what I mean. It's sad. Come on. The whole thing was sappy. Yeah. She has to sing. She has to sing. She should be nervous that he's going to die in the ring.

She's singing. She's leading him down the ring, the aisle. Well, they're trying to get him. But I will say this. He looked great. He looks really good in the ring. That's what I liked about it. Michael B. Jordan can fight. He's good.

It felt a little rushed. It felt like the movie came together quick and then they just were filming it and trying to figure out some stuff on the fly. I thought they left some really good stuff on the table. Especially, I would... All I cared about was the Drago stuff.

I love the press conference. I thought Fel I cared about was the Drago stuff I love the press conference I thought Felicia Rashad was great yeah she's really good I thought she was actually the biggest surprise of the movie but

I still enjoyed it she had a great house I don't know how she's the only one who was able to keep her money it was amazing I still enjoyed it

what did you think about the end with Dolph Lundgren and Drago's son, whatever his son, son of Drago? It was a nice- Jogging, jogging in the streets of Russia. The son of Drago, the Game of Thrones character.

I don't know. It was a little bit of a- It was fine. I thought that we were going to get a close-up of the towel, and Stallone was going to have a decision whether to throw it in, and it wasn't that. But they went the other way and made it- By the way, I hope we don't spoil this movie for anybody.

Well, that's why we left it at the very end. That's it. I was okay with it. It didn't make a ton of sense. He's screaming at him. What are you doing? Don't give up. What are you doing?

I told you to knock him out. And then he turns on, turns on, on all of Russia, all of Russia rooting for the Americans. Always weird anyway. What do they care? Yeah. The Russians love to, the Russians love to root for Americans. Yeah. I thought the other huge miss was when she came out when she was singing

before the second fight. Do Living in America. Do the James Brown homage. Do the 2018 hip-hop version of Living in America. Wink, wink it. Wink, wink it back to 86. Just do it. 85. Yeah, why not? And also, like,

if all these sons are involved, son of this, son of that, oh, this part I didn't realize is, where's the son of Pauly? Where's Pauly Jr.? How is he not a cut man? The son of Pauly? You's Pauly Jr.? How is he not a cut man? The son of Pauly? You think he had a son?

I think he had an illegitimate son who's now the cut man. Did he lay down with a woman or something? I'm supposed to believe Duke Jr. I can't believe Pauly Jr. is the cut man. The closest he had a son was that robot in Rocky. Was that Rocky IV? I don't know what that was for, right? That was great.

If you had to rank the Rockies, what's one for you right now? Now, I'm not saying all time. I'm just saying if they're all on TV right now and you're in a hotel room in the Bahamas. Three. Stop talking. Three. Number three. Yeah, three.

That's my answer. Three's the best. It has three fights. It moves faster than all of them. There's something for everybody. Hulk Hogan, come on. I think three is one of the best ten movies of the last 40 years. There you go.

No, I really do. It is the most entertaining, satisfying sports movie. Start to finish. Every scene is great. Everything has a purpose. Every new character that comes in is just like the best possible version of that character. When Mickey dies, it is one of the all-time holy shit movie theater moments I've ever had.

I could not believe Mickey died. Rocky losing was stunning. Everything about it, it was just classic with that said Rocky 4 is irresistible to me as well when it's on it's irresistible, Rocky 4

it's just like a 90 minute music video it's great it's not as good as Rocky 3 though to me it all comes down to you can't take this fight speech. Which one am I buying the most? I bought it from Mick. It'll knock you. He'll knock you to the Morrow Rock. This guy's a killer. That, that was true. I didn't, I didn't buy Creed. Oh, I need this fight. I need this act. Yeah.

But it's just an exhibition. Yeah. But I need it. I need it. Like I didn't buy it as much as I did. And by the way, throw in that Clubber Lang next to Vader, top villain of all time, I think, in movies. Well, because he completely crossed the line at the statue ceremony with Adrian. You don't talk about another man's woman like that. No. He had that look on his face.

Hey, woman, I bet you want to be the real man. It was just unbelievable. It's like, oh my God, what is he doing? By the way, did Ben tell you about that deleted scene when she actually does come back to his apartment? It's not pretty. Adrian? Yeah, Adrian, yeah.

They didn't include it in the movie. God, can you imagine if that actually was filmed and existed? If that was on YouTube, I would have a stroke. The lead-in scene of Adrian back at Clubber Legs apartment is like in the firm when Tom Cruise's wife goes to see Gene Hackman. Like, same kind of vibe. All right, I give it a B, you give it a C. I'll give it a C+, because I thought Michael B. Jordan pulled out the boxing really well.

He's great. He's phenomenal. I'm with you, though. I really like Stallone and Creed. I thought he was great. I did not think he was great in this one. And I didn't really understand his character. And get a fucking job already.

It can't just be the restaurant. Go get a clothing deal with somebody. Right. Makes no sense. Alright, Parent Corner, what do you got? I don't know. My son, my 13-year-old Archie, had a big science project due on

Wednesday, and my wife was going to take him to the library, or whatever the equivalent of a library is this day, on Tuesday. But he got a call from a friend of mine who wanted to pay him like $75 to do like a, I think it's like for buzzer sports or something to do a roundup on the Chiefs Rams game. And just like point a camp, point a phone to your head and give us your best minute on the, uh, on the thing. And he chose to do this instead of the science project. I was like, I'll just let

him do it. It's fun. And he ended up being better than I could be. I've been doing this for 15 years and he did, he did a great job with it. And, uh, my wife was furious, but, uh, I think he made the right move. Buzzer sports, buzz take. And by the way, I added to it, I added to the drama by on Thanksgiving. I went around around we went around we said what we're grateful for and i said i was grateful for my sons my littlest scored six goals three weeks ago my middle one won a trophy for getting a blue belt in karate and then uh and then i turned to archie with this this thing um but the buzzer sports i was like let's see kids it doesn't matter what you do in school. It's sports, sports, sports, sports, sports. And that was not met with enthusiasm from my mother or my father.

Nobody enjoyed that? No, no, they didn't like that too much. That was only like 20% joking. Maybe we have to hire Archie for The Ringer to do a podcast with my son. There you go. That would be good. My son gave Creed an A+. He thought it was phenomenal.

He loved it? Yeah. My parent corner, I actually, for the first time ever, put it on Instagram. Oh. I did an Instagram story.

We were in Malibu for Thanksgiving at this, on the pier. We went to Thanksgiving lunch at this place in Malibu. And then afterwards, there's a store on the pier. We went to Thanksgiving lunch at this place in Malibu. And then afterwards, there's a store on the pier. And we're in the store. And I see my son. And I know immediately what's going on.

It's this big shelf that just has all these letters on it in different colors and just a lot of different letters. And I see him with this big smile on his face and he has the letters and he's trying to, trying to find a letter. I'm like, Oh my God.

So I just pulled my phone out and started taping it immediately. And he was trying to find the F and the U and the C and the K and the U and he spread them all out. Fuck you on the shelf and was just laughing like it was the funniest thing ever and the cashier was completely horrified and I'm calling him a dick

and I think they were just like where did this family come from the bowels of hell apparently you probably left like a 14% tip, right? No, well, the moral of the story is don't leave just a ton of letters around my son, whether it's Scrabble or anything.

It's just going to go horribly. Did you win that? What happened locking in last week? Did you win? I lost because of that dumb Texas A&M-LSU game that LSU should have won 74 times. But no, I came in second place. But I still made 30% on my money, so I can't complain. So you know me. I am not a college football fan.

I did come parachuting into that game after I heard about the Gatorade bath gone wrong and caught a couple of the overtimes, and it was great. I don't think there's anything more satisfying than a Gatorade bath gone wrong and caught a couple of the overtimes. And it was great. I don't think there's anything more satisfying than a Gatorade bath gone wrong. Yeah, because he has to sit there soaking wet through seven overtimes and then still lose, right? Like now we're talking like it's cold wherever they are. It wasn't that cold,

but a coach died of pneumonia like that for one, just for being outdoors for 10 minutes after a Gatorade bath. Oh, George Allen. Yeah. He died. Right. Yeah. He literally died.

Jesus. You have to sit seven overtimes and then lose. That's spectacular. That was great. I lost too. Well, the thing is they have to figure out the score part. It's to get, what was the score going to be? 118 to 112.

Like it's at some point it becomes pinball. They got to figure that out. What do you do? What was the score going to be? 118 to 112? At some point, it becomes pinball. They got to figure that out. What do you do? Do you move the two-point conversion back with every overtime? I don't know how you do it. No, I would just do two points for a touchdown, one point for the two-point. Do it that way.

Oh, you don't like just the final score? Nah, it's just stupid. 78, 72, come on. Right, right, right. It kills the record books and everything. Nah,, 78, 72. Come on. Right. Right. Yeah. It kills the record books. And it's just like,

come on. Uh, they said the last two LSU, Texas, A&M basketball games didn't, didn't, uh, produce as many points.

God, we, uh, we have to bet on Zion, uh, um, to be the first pick in the draft. I don't know whether we find those odds,

but no fan base on the planet is going to allow their team to have the first pick and not take him. I heard he wants to play all four years at Duke though. Oh my God. He's got to come out now. They should just let him in the NBA tomorrow. I love that guy. All right, Sal.

We will see you next week on the BS podcast. All right. Good job by you, Billy. Good job by you. All right. Thanks to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to go to ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Thanks to SimpliSafe. I'm a big

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Go to simplisafe.com slash BS to learn more. That is SimpliSafe with two I's. Thanks to Allbirds. They believe that comfort, design, and sustainability don't have to be mutually exclusive. The Allbirds wool runners are comfy shoes made from wool that are so soft it feels like walking on clouds. They sent me some. They are fantastic with the holidays right around the corner. It's time to

consider Allbirds as a gift for someone on your list or for yourself. Check them out. The all new wool runners available in a variety of limited edition colors at allbirds.com. We're going to talk some basketball, I think, on Tuesday. I have a lot of thoughts. The Celtics. Until then. I don't have. On the wayside