The Bill Simmons Podcast - Round 1 Lines, Foles 4 Life, Week 17 Losers, and Blood Diamond 2 With Cousin Sal | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 462)

Episode Date: December 31, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss Steelers-Bengals, Ravens-Browns, Bears-Vikings, and Cowboys-Giants, along with some Week 17 losers (2:25). They then guess the NFL lines for Round 1 of the playoffs (37:40). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the Bill Simmons podcast, the last one of 2018. It's brought to you as always by ZipRecruiter. You know what's not smart? Betting against Nick Foles. He's got God behind him. Don't do that. You know what else is smart? Job sites that overwhelm you with tons of the wrong resumes.

Luckily, there's a smart way at ZipRecruiter.com. ZipRecruiter finds people with the right skills for your job, actively invites them to apply. Right now, my listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. ZipRecruiter is the smartest way to hire. We're also brought to you by TheRinger.com, the world's greatest website. If you go there right now, the rest of our best of 2018 stuff is up there. We also put up a piece that had all the interviews that we did this year. On my podcast, David Chang's podcast, The Watch, Larry Wilmore, JJ Reddick, The Big Picture, Winging It, any celebrity that we interviewed, we put all of those links on one page. So if you like when we do these celebrity interviews,

go to that page. Maybe you'll find a couple that you like. We also, we did on the Channel 33 podcast, we got Liz Kelly and Kate and Amelia, the three of them from The Ringer, talked about their 2019 celebrity predictions. This is a new podcast. We're kind of testing out.

But check it out. If you like celebrity gossip and young people talking about young stuff, this is the podcast for you. Tea time. Kyle, did you listen to Tea Time yet? Yes. Wow. Ringing endorsement from nephew Kyle.

Ringing endorsement. Kyle, are you single or are you dating right now? I'm single. No, I'm not. I'm lying. I'm dating. God. This is what happens.

Why do you do this? You know this is what you're going to get from me. Well, people ask now. I get people to see what's going on. Oh, I know they ask. They're very invested. Thanks for that, by the way. Coming up, the Cuzz is calling from Hawaii,

and we're going to talk round one playoff lines and week 17 winners and losers. But first, our friends from Pro Gym. All right, on the line right now, Sunday night, calling from the beautiful island of Hawaii, Cousin Sal, how are you? What's happening, Bill? We're both on the road here, right?

Yeah, I'm in Boston. We're in the infinite wisdom. This is something I grew up with, Sal, dating back to the 70s. Boston putting on the wrong games on the local TV channels. So what do you think? If you're programming Fox and CBS in Boston for the late games, what games would you have picked, just out of curiosity? Well, there were eight late games.

The late afternoon games you're talking about, right? Yes. Baltimore, Cleveland. Okay. afternoon games you're talking about right yes uh baltimore cleveland and okay um and chicago minnesota yeah i think anyone with an iq over 70 probably would have come up with those two here's what we actually had pittsburgh cincinnati which actually turned out to be a little more exciting than I think anyone expected. And then for reasons that just remain unclear, Eagles-Redskins was the other game. Oh, wow. Over Bears-Vikings. So I had Red Zone channel, and then I had basically the DirecTV at the Sunday Ticket app,

which I had to, you know, it was like two minutes behind everything. So they'll show it on the red zone. And then two minutes later, I'm just like, this has been going on since the seventies when we used to have, remember like when you were living in New York, they would, before the direct TV days, um, before Sunday ticket, you would basically really, you needed that local game to be awesome. And they would always pick terrible games. It would be like oh here's here's uh the giants versus the eagles they're four and ten versus five and nine and so i'm glad to see that's still happening but anyway i was able to see everything i thought we talked about

this last week i thought ravens brown should have been the sunday night game i i just thought i mean what you could have done is just just to just tell you i mean you know you don't have to fall victim you don't have to be a slave to the network's decisions you could have on your youngest kid's fifth birthday gone to a sports bar in maui um and uh and watched all the games and missed the birthday you could have done that like i did so you were you tweeted about this you were at a Maui sports bar at 8 this morning. Is that true? Yeah.

I actually took two of my other sons, not the ones having a birthday today, and Carolla's son, Sonny. And I woke them up at 7.15. I said, we're going, fellas. Let's do this. My son is in a crazy two fantasy finals that extend to week 17 for some reason. So he's like, yep, I'm in. And they went.

And my wife picked them up after the early games. But yeah, we watched a lot of football. The funniest thing about the early games was that not only were there no stakes whatsoever, but the games were really awful, except for the Dallas Giants game, which was hilarious because the clapper was really

going for it. He really wanted that W against the Giants. And meanwhile, as you pointed out on Twitter, not to steal your material, but not only did you win the game, but you made the Giants draft pick worse. They're in your division. You have to play them twice a year. Yeah. Yeah.

If they don't get off the team bus, they're a four seed. Win or lose, they're a four seed. And then so, okay, so now you're starting everybody, and I'm like, all right, maybe they're treating it like the second preseason game where everybody gets a couple of drives. Then Dak's taking every snap. Leighton Van Der Esch, the rookie sensation on defense, is grabbing his knee.

I was screaming. I was never angrier at Garrett. And it was because I wanted to lose the game. It was really, really weird. Like he has to have the lowest IQ ever for anyone accepted into Princeton, right? Either that or a bonus stipulation in his contract if he gets to 10 wins. I don't understand it. But a lot of these teams were doing that. They were playing all their starters the whole game when it didn't make any sense. Well, we had we had a great bet that almost won were playing all their starters the whole game when it didn't make any sense. Well, we had a great bet that almost won.

That was almost 8-1 odds, where it was the Bears' first half and the Browns' money line. And goddamn, that bet came close. But I love the Bears in the first half. I never thought they were going to try the whole game. I'm in the same picks pool you're in, where I made the playoffs. I was going against House and I had to beat House.

And one of the five games in the playoffs for the Picks pool was Bears-Vikings. And the Vikings were like, I don't know, five-point favorites. And I really wanted to take the Bears. And I'm like, I can't take the Bears. The Rams are going to be up by four touchdowns in the first half. They're going to sit everyone in the second half. How are the Bears not going to lose by seven? It's impossible.

They basically kept everybody in, I would say, for three quarters. In the fourth quarter, though, it seemed like the second string defense, or at least some of the guys were in there, didn't matter. Cousins and the O-line and the Minnesota coaching staff, it was a collective turd, the likes of which we have not seen. They were the losers of week 17. Absolutely. The Bears won the first half.

And from a gambler's standpoint, you could have money line parlayed any of the favorites, really stayed away from Green Bay, the teams that really didn't matter. But Minnesota was the one that would have bit you in the ass. And I was way off on that. I was praising the new offensive coordinator I'm like oh since they went from DeFilippo to Stefanski it's been night and day first and everything the last three games Cousins across the board and the Bears aren't going to try and it didn't matter he really like the only exciting part of the game was Cousins you thought like maybe he he and Thielen were going to fight on the sideline, which by the way, I think

Thielen was minus 180 there. I don't know what happened. They just folded there. I was way off on that game. I haven't seen two white people that upset with each other on TV in a long time. There was

all kinds of anger. It was like watching an episode of ER when Anthony Edwards and Noah Wiley are screaming at each other in the ER or something. It was. Not since Larry David and Susie Essman would go at it. That's true. You're enthusiastic. Kirk Cousins was like, Jesus, man, come on, come on.

I don't have 10 seconds to throw here, man. Come on. That was great. Cousins at one point, until we got into true garbage time, I think he was like 15 for 28 for 92 yards. And what's funny is this goes back to, not to, I don't want to spend too much time with the Vikings, but I never understood why they weren't more of a running team this year.

Today, yet again, they didn't run the ball. They did this against the Patriots. I have no idea from a talent standpoint, if they were one of the best six NFC teams, but I thought their coaching was terrible. Zimmer had a horrendous challenge at one point. It just seemed like a rudderless team. And we've, we've already, we're taping this right now. It is 10 47 east coast time we've seen some coaches get get uh axed todd bowles got axed their cutter got axed i think

adam gaze might by the time people listen this he might be out who knows but i went mike zimmer to me is the dark horse because i thought that team was was really badly coached this year i i yeah i lose more and more respect for him the talent wise I don't know what they do they should go further and I don't know but I don't think you can get rid of they were they were a few plays away from making the Super Bowl I know Philadelphia probably many eyes beat them up in the NFC championship but they they could have been right there and you got to give them another year, right? You can't get rid of them right there. I guess. Marvin Lewis is going to be gone too, right?

Yeah, but listen, I would bring him back just because he's had success. My point is we've seen this happen. Like Bruce Arians was gone all of a sudden. We've seen successful coaches get bumped. I think if Baltimore had lost to Cleveland today, I wouldn't be shocked if maybe Harbaugh had jumped to a different team or something. But from a talent standpoint, they were the one team that did,

the season didn't really add up. And maybe Cousins, you know, who the hell knows with that. Would you rather have, if you were Washington, would you rather have Cousins or Alex Smith with a broken leg? If you had to pick.

Which leg? It depends which leg, I think. Who would you rather pay $100 million to? Just from what you've seen today. Someone said when he was arguing with Thielen, someone's like, oh, wow, the Vikings hired an $84 million wide receiver coach. This is great. It's going at it. I don't know who said it on Twitter, but yeah.

You know, last year I was like, oh, the Chargers were a really good team to not make the playoffs. I don't feel that way about anyone like this. Who would be the top two Steelers and Vikings? I don't care that. I don't care that either of them are. I wouldn't put the Steelers. It's fun to see the Steelers, but yeah, I wouldn't put the Steelers. Tennessee.

I don't know who's the third. I don't know. You're going to laugh. I think Cleveland's the best team not to make the playoffs. Oh, wow. I think Cleveland's legit good. I mean, if you that game today, Lamar Jackson fumbles on the goal line.

They just whistle the play dead. Like why they whistle these plays dead. I don't, what is somebody going to get hurt running back the hundred yard touchdown? Just let it go and make sure like it was so close. Even worse, the linesman's on the goal line. So he knows that it's either close. He knows it's not a slam dunk.

He just whistles it a touchdown like a moron. But they should have had a run back on that play. I thought that would have swung the game. But even worse, Greg Williams had, there was two plays he didn't challenge, but one in particular was a pretty big first down in the fourth quarter when Dixon, it looked like his knee went down and he Williams is just oblivious.

But you know, Cleveland had the ball. They have a catch. They do a review. There's 80 seconds left. Jarvis Lane. You had a really nice one handed catch. Cleveland's down to during the 39 yard line with 80 seconds left. And they just had a five minute break.

It's like, you just need 10 more yards. They come out, they run for frantic pass plays. Like they're on like their own 20 with 10 seconds left instead of just like, you know, how about giving it to Nick Chubb?

What about a screen pass? The Ravens are sending eight guys. Like they're sending the house at every play. Like there had to have been some better way to use the field. How about giving it to Nick Chubb? What about a screen pass? The Ravens are sending eight guys. They're sending the house on every play. There had to have been some better way to use the field on those four plays. I thought the Ravens got really lucky. And I actually lost a little luster for them heading into the playoffs. What did you think?

I think so, too. I think so, too. But I don't know if I could separate now if the Browns are good or fun. Could it be one or the other, or is it both? I think they're more fun than good, but they'll be solid next year. All these rookies are going to step up, and all these second-year players on defense are going to be even better next year. Definitely fun to watch.

They have blue chippers, which as somebody who roots for a team that does not have a lot of blue chippers. Nick Chubb taking four picks after Sonny Michel. That guy's just good. I don't know if he's a franchise running back, but he's close. I think he's somebody who could make it all pro team someday. Baker, that pick, which was controversial. I quickly switched my opinion on it.

Baker is legit. You know, he had the two picks today. He had a really bad underthrow to Landry on that third down play in the last drive that I think he was open. That should have been. But for the most part, like you got to love some of the throws he makes,

the moxie, the leadership he has. That was a great pick. And Lamar Jackson, you know, the Ravens being able to get he has. That was a great pick. And Lamar Jackson. The Ravens being able to get him at the end of the first round, the Patriots passing him up twice. It's just rough. The Lamar Jackson thing is going to bother me for the next 10 years, so just waiting to know.

Don't worry about it too much. You know what would bother me if I had a rookie of the year vote? Because I would spend days going at it. I don't worry about it too much you know what would bother me if i had a rookie of the year vote because i would i would spend days going at it i don't know i'm not i don't think you need to scream about one or the other you should lose your vote if you go with uh with with anyone other than baker like i think it's really really tight i think these are two game changers i think the league is lucky to have both of them barkley 2000 scrimmage yards i think he has 650 plus yard touchdowns and baker sets the record for think he has 650 plus yard touchdowns. And Baker sets the record for, you know, for rookie quarterbacks, touchdowns thrown.

That's a lot of fun. It can come down to a coin toss. In fact, I thought if Cleveland had won that game, that would have cinched it. But I think it's that close. I really do. And they were both in not great situations. Baker goes into this hard knock slash Hugh Jackson, just tsunami and comes out of it. And by the end of the season is clearly a franchise guy,

not to mention goes to a city that just lost its signature athlete and goes to a city that's had 20 years of losing. And, you know, it really took it, took the situation by the balls and seems like the type of personality you'd want if you're like kind of change the culture of a team and then you look at barkley his quarterback's a corpse he's just a corpse they all you have to do is pressure him

from either side for a split second and he's just going to throw the ball for grabs. The offensive line's awful. Beckham played, what, 10 games, 11 games? Yeah, maybe that. Yeah, probably 11. Is there another above-average person on that offense? Evan Ingram? Is he above average? And Barkley gets over 2,000 yards and over and over again had this knack,

especially in close games, of ripping off these 50-yard plays. He did it again today. You can't keep him down for four quarters. He's always going to make a play. I would vote for Mayfield just because the team did a little bit better, but that's it. I think both of them are special.

Yeah, they're very good. And the game needs them, I think. With the older God coming out. Rodgers. One thing I noticed today, there was some great stats being thrown around. There always are at the end of the year. The top six highest paid quarterbacks, not in the playoffs. Rodgers, Rockwell, Cousins, Ryan, Stafford, and Carr.

Jesus. Top six. That's crazy. I wanted to play winners and losers for Week 17 because we're going to get to the Lions later. I'm super excited about it. I somehow have not seen the Lions. By the way, can I just say we've really jinxed.

I thought it would be a good idea to start this in the fourth quarter. We thought the Colts would run away with it. We're looking at a thing. Now it's 24-17 with 10 left, and the Titans have the ball. The Steelers could get in. If this game ends a tie, we may have to talk about the Steelers in this. So this is going to be interesting. We really jinxed ourselves.

Yeah, we debated on waiting until after the game, but it was 24-10. The only Titans touchdown had come on a terrible luck interception, and it just seemed like it seemed safe to start it. But I think the only thing that Titans have going in their favor right now is the fact that probably everybody bet the Colts. Were there a lot of Titans bets today? You think anything? So I don't think there were a lot,

but when it went to five, it became a sharp bet for, you know, for the, the, the wise guys. But yeah, I can see them losing by three here.

All right. So I got winners and losers for winners and losers for week 17. for the wise guys. But yeah, I can see them losing by three here. All right, so I got winners and losers for week 17. And I just want to go through the losers. We talked about Cousins and Mike Zimmer. We talked about these idiot local networks. This brings me back to the whole concept of a sports czar or a sports advisory committee. Like there really should be some sort of central force that just advises like

the local stations in Boston on what games to show. Right. That shouldn't be left in the hands of like Jack Schmidt, the guy who's been in charge of NBC's Boston station for the last 28 years, who doesn't really follow football and ask his son what they think. It's the same thing. Like at the tiger versus Phil match. Like you should have been there. You should have been the gambling consultant to thank you.

Decide whether the, you know, what, what bet was the right bet to make or whatever. Oh, the Colts got an interception. So that's good. All right.

Losers. Carson Wentz feels like a loser. Like this false thing. Now, we don't know how healthy he is heading into round one, but it does feel like the Wentz injury completely changed their season and breathed new life. And we were on the Ringer NFL Slack this week talking about possible trades

and how many first rounders should the Raiders offer for him. If you're the Dolphins, Kevin Clark suggested Xavier Howard and a first and a second and a couple other things for Wentz. You know, how far does this Foles thing have to go before it becomes obvious that they should just keep him as the quarterback? Well, you talk about big losers. I think the big loser is Nick Foles because it's no longer, i think the big loser is nick foals because it's it's no longer oh the big loser is patrick ewing because it's no longer the ewing theory it's the uh whence

theory is that how it would be well whence or full yeah it'd be the whence theory because this guy what is he's he's six and oh in games where they have to win like their backs against the wall playoff wise yeah he's unbelievable and he has sore ribs he'll play he'll play this week there's already a line on that game so they're expecting him to play but um i if you pulled the fans right now and i guess it would be easy to do i don't know you want foals for like three more years or wentz for seven more years what would you well it's like? It's pretty close. It's like Dore, Foles, and two first-round picks, and probably something else.

And Dore B is just Wentz by himself. I just think you could win the Super Bowl with Foles. Why not? You already did it. And it wasn't a fluke because he came back in, and he's just as good this year. And he's gotten the receivers involved in a way that Wentz just really wasn't totally able to do.

I just think they have a different life to them. So I I'll be really interested to see how that plays out. I'll tell you this. You could start listening to trades. If you're the Eagles, you could listen to trade offers. Whereas a few weeks ago, you probably weren't going to.

Yeah. Yeah. You're not hanging up. It's not like somebody calls Cleveland to talk about Baker Mayfield and they're just laughing and hanging up. If you call the Eagles about Wentz, they're at least like, hold on, let me get my assistant GM in here

and let's at least shoot the shit about this for three minutes. I'll tell you this. There's a theory online. I saw this, not only in the ringer Slack, but I saw it on Twitter too. That Foles, the whole thing was like a wrestling ruse. It was a work.

The ribs thing was a work because they wanted to make sure that the Bears didn't take their foot off the gas pedal. Like if he goes off and he's just done. And it was like this very perfectly timed moment of the Bears-Vikings game when all of a sudden falls, his ribs were re-aggravated. And even if that's a 2% chance, that's true. I love that. I love that idea.

Well, I'll tell you, there was a lot of weird thoughts that would go through coordinator and coach's heads. Like I was thinking, and seattle kind of screwed this up because they were playing the the uh the game against the uh the cardinals a little too close to to make this a legitimate theory but what if you're the bears did you see out of the vikings offense that you wouldn't want to see again in six or seven days right yeah why are they like okay we've seen enough let's take everybody out let this team beat us and then just wipe the floor with them at soldier field uh saturday night or whenever they were

going to do it sunday um but i think seattle would have screwed that up right because they were only like up a field goal at the most uh at that point it was interesting i thought the same thing when the giants when the cowboys were down by one going for the two point, it would have been, you know, if you're just doing the right thing, if you're the Giants, it's the difference of at least four spots in the draft. Like I think now they're in the top five. It would have been funny if they pulled out

all 11 defenders off the field. You're like, you guys, you know what? You guys deserve this. We're're gonna let you have it we're done like that famous uh patriots two point from the late 90s that covered remember that on monday yeah yes it's right big story so yeah uh more losers well that would have robbed us though i will say this about uh garrett i i still think he's had his head up his ass starting all the first-teamers. But thank you for providing that. What a great catch by Cole Beasley.

I'm glad I saw that. Yeah, that was great. In real life, on TV. You know, the way it played out, even though it probably felt like walking a tightrope the whole time. By the way, the Colts just scored again, so I think we're okay with this game.

The way it played out was actually pretty good. You got a nice win. Prescott, four TDs, made a really clutch throw on, what was that, a fourth and 15 or a third and 15? It was a third and 15. Yeah, third and 15. Third and 15, yep. Yeah. There's some, you know.

But in the moment, you're probably not too happy with it. More losers. No. I feel like Greg Williams could have potentially talked the dumbass Browns into giving him the head coaching job if he won that Ravens game today. But now they can't give it to him because he was not good in that game. But it was right there for him. It was –

Donnie Hunter Gregg, Ireg i think could have i don't know talk somebody into it um yeah mike also he spells his name with two g's so the loser right right off the bat uh i'm sorry mike tomlin another one i that i mean that team underachieved just point blank you can't feel like that. What were they? 8-7-1, 9-6-1? What was their record? 9-6-1? Yeah.

I mean, I had the Steelers. We had nice money line parlays with the Steelers, the Chiefs, the Patriots, all the good stuff, Clemson, Alabama. But I also had the Steelers just to win the first half. I'm like, all right, they got to come out like gangbusters. It took them forever to score. I don't understand what is. And for someone who does so well in the playoffs

or so well making the playoffs, Mike Tomlin, there's no one I trust less against a bad team. It could be the Raiders, the Browns, Hugh Jackson, Browns days, whatever, or Cincinnati today. I immediately felt sick to my stomach about that. I don't know what it is. It's so funny. I did that.

You had told me you were in pretty hard on Pittsburgh. And then I did a 14 parlay with the Eagles, the Patriots, the Steelers, and the Colts, which was like plus 150. And it was my big bet of the weekend. And I didn't really think about the Steelers game at all. Cause it was like Jeff Driscoll, the Bengals have everybody in the team is basically on the injured reserve at this point.

It's in Pittsburgh. They have to win. Like, of course they're going to win their favorite by 14. And then within three minutes, I was like, oh shit. Why didn't I,

why didn't I think about this more? Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin in a home, in a home game. That's seemingly easy. Why did I not see the red flags here? Cause we've been here a million times with that dude. So yeah,

that wasn't great. Yeah. Really bad. Uh, I don't know. Wait, what other way you can go all day? Who else?

Blaine Gabbert. I think he's a loser. Blaine Gabbert. Which team is he on again? Yeah, no. It was tough. It could have been a heroic moment for him, right? He wins.

What was that? Remember that time I lost all that money in the Super Contest because Charlie Whitehurst won on Sunday night? He beat the Rams. Yeah, that's right. Three-point underdogs. This could have been his Charlie Whitehurst moment, but no, he's Blaine Gabbert. Another loser, Aaron Rodgers, who does the noble thing. He's like, I'm not sitting the rest of the year. I'm the leader of this team. We're playing football. I'm out here to do stuff. Gets another

concussion. That's why you sit your guys when these games don't matter, when you have expensive assets, because you don't want them to get a concussion. I feel like he's had at least three concussions. I haven't looked, I didn't look this up, but this is, this definitely was not his first one. And man, to be 35 and get another one of those,

that was not great in this meaningless lions game, which the line, it feels like it. And once, once Devante Adams went out, it's like, oh man, this is a,

this is a coin toss anyway game. So, you know, you won your road game last week so you weren't winless on the road maybe sit out i was i was all for everybody sitting out this week i couldn't believe some of these gung-ho coaches and what they were doing like i think kamara sat out drew breeze obviously was out but like michael thomas was in there ingram like all these superst superstars that could have gotten hurt and turned their season around.

And by the way, if you want to make a case for Drew Brees as MVP, this might have been the best one when they got smoked by the Panthers. Nothing against Teddy Two Gloves, but boy, they didn't have a chance today. That's another one. Mahomes, Brees, I give it to Mahomes, but only slightly. He was minus 220 at the beginning of the week. I only think because 50 touchdowns and 5,000 yards for a 23-year-old should get it done. But that's a real coin flip anyway.

Yeah, I was late to this. You were way ahead of me on the Mahomes thing. I do think you're right. I think it's going to be Mahomes. I think he got to the two numbers that he needed to get to. 5,000 yards, 50 touchdowns. Iconic. Really hard to do.

Technically, he could have won Rookie of the Year, too, if you want to go NBA or Major League Baseball the way they do it. Is it a matter of games? Well, no. He played even one game last year. He would have been ineligible.

He played one. You're right. Remember he had that way. He had that exciting week 17 game. And yeah, I have one chiefs fan in my life and they were very excited after that game. They were like,

Mike, did you see any of the homes highlights? I'm like, what for your meaningless week 17 game? No, I did not. Josh Johnson, another loser today, unfortunately, the Washington quarterback.

I read a great quote from him this week. A reporter asked how he spent his Christmas, and he said, I was watching film in the film room, and they were like, you weren't with your family. And he's like, I'm with my family all the time. I had to watch film. So I saw that, and I was like, because i had a lot invested in the i had a lot invested in the eagles this week and i saw i had that in the back of my head all weekend

like fuck that josh johnson he's watching film all week i'm starting to second guess it and uh he had like 34 yards passing and uh and that was it for him. And then he lost his family, just like that. And then he went home and his family was gone. Only I'm the bigger loser for going to the sports bar in Maui during kid's birthday. I want to hear more about that sports bar in a second.

Two more losers. Leonard Fournette, there's a story after the game, the Jaguars had yet another uninspiring loss and Leonard Fournette and there's a story after the game. The Jaguars had yet another uninspiring loss. And Leonard Fournette and TJ Yeldon were apparently really, really disinterested on the sidelines and just kind of not part of anything to the point that Tom Coughlin laid into them after the game how unprofessional he thought they were. So it really seems like Leonard Fournette is probably not going to be yelled

indefinitely, but it sounds like Fournette is probably going to need a change of scenery too. So yeah, he's tough. It was a little bit of trouble at LSU too, but yeah, a lot of people that was like the,

that was the sexy underdog to take the Jaguars plus seven. They're going to be frisky, but then you look at their personnel, like Fournette's not playing. You got Bortles who went in the huddle last week and said, all right, guys, I'm back. And everybody like around them, like choked on their mouth guard. And it's like, all right, he's back. And they were really bad.

Texans defense stepped up. I don't know if they're going to play like that for the next couple of weeks or at least next week, but they look pretty good. I was keen on that game. So your top four, here's another loser, the Giants. Even though they did the right thing today, the top four of the NFL draft, Cards, 49ers, Jets, Raiders. Giants somehow not in the top five.

I mean, everything was lined up perfectly. They played Eli every game. He's terrible. They got rid of cornerbacks. They got rid of. Yeah. They got rid of cornerbacks. They got rid of Eli Apple. They got rid of snacks. They bench Beckham for the last few games because he had an injury. Who knows how injured he's in.

And somehow they still, the only thing they had to do was get, yeah, to get Barkley the offensive rookie of the year. And they didn't even really pound them numbers wise. I think he had 20. What do you have? 13 carries.

Was he 13 for one Oh seven or something? Yeah, they did something. They pound him numbers-wise. I think he had 20. What did he have, 13 carries? Was he 13 for 107 or something? Yeah, they did. I don't know, something. They played the Barkley thing pretty smart. Yeah, they didn't put a lot of miles on him these last few games. But it's funny that the Knicks, the Giants, the Jets, the Jets are going to end up with the third pick. So I guess they tanked pretty well.

And they tanked okay last year too. But it's funny how a New York team can never fully figure out how to tank. We're going to see it with the Knicks this year because the Zion thing, the Knicks have played this first 35-game stretch really nicely. They have the worst record in the league.

They have it all in their hands. The Hawks are a little friskier than I think people expected. The Cavs look like they're going to throw away this season. But it's all sitting there for the Knicks. And these New York teams can never totally figure out how to put it together. But the cards with the number one pick. And you know it drives me crazy with your NBA,

with these teams that tank in the preseason. They're done. They already figured it out. Right. But I figured it out. Right. But I will say this. If you would have gone money line parlay today against the top seven teams that draft in April, you would have won. They all lost today, which is interesting because the number one team,

the team that drafts first, Arizona, actually played the hardest out of any of those. Yeah. Could have almost won that any of those. Yeah, could have won. They almost won that game in Seattle. Yeah, Seattle just doesn't want us to know what to think. You catch them in the right game, and it's like, man, that team could go into New Orleans and win.

And then you watch that Arizona game today or that game a couple weeks ago against San Francisco, and they just look like they have no skill position guys. Wilson has to do everything. You can run on them. Like it just, I don't know what they're an enigma out of all the teams that, and we're going to do the lines in a second of all the teams in the

playoffs on the most confused way. So here's one more thing for yourself. Yeah. Seven playoff teams from last year. Didn't make it this year. Yeah. I was trying to count those up before seven. So it's Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Buffalo, Minnesota, Carolina, Atlanta.

I remember I did a tweet about this and then we talked about this when we did our over under podcast, which we had some hits and some, and some big ass misses. But I remember not being able to get to six. I always want to have six new playoff teams. And I was only at three, just staring at these other teams, trying to figure out who was going to get bounced. But I think the big thing we were wrong about was that the NFC South was going to be good.

And conversely, if you would have said after week five when everybody was two and three that two nfc east teams were going to get in the playoffs what what could we have gotten what kind of odd 70 000 to one what would it have been yeah we were joking that they should believe it yeah we were joking they shouldn't even have a team it should just be vacated like the uh yeah no one's gonna get a continental belt division yeah getting uh getting vacated like the uh yeah no one's getting a continental belt division yeah getting uh getting vacated or something yeah so we only have five returning uh nfl teams so the lesson as always is the nfl is a snow globe and you go into every season and the only thing you know is that the patriots are going to win the afcs no matter how bad the team is. Other than that, who the fuck knows?

But we did a pretty good... Our two big things that we really... We had three things that we really liked. We really liked the Chiefs. We went all in on that in the preseason. We really liked the Bears, especially after the MAAC trade. And we had some success with that. And then we shorted Oakland. We had an incredible success story with Oakland.

We had two huge bets on Oakland's undertotal and on Oakland not making the playoffs. And I just want to say, this is my only winner of Week 17. Thank you, John Gruden. Keep it up. Keep doing what you do, my man. It's been great. You said you were going to eat testicles.

It's nice. You don't have to, right? That's one thing you don't have to worry about now in the new year. Yeah. I'm rarely that confident. I think it's going to get worse, too, because he forced out the GM. He's completely

ruined and emasculated Derek Carr. And David Carr. Both of them. And David Carr. Both of them. And David Carr. Both Carrs have been emasculated. And now they have all these draft picks that he can screw up.

Right? Today they were talking about hiring Mike Mayock. So who the fuck knows? I don't know what's going on there. We're going to take a break and then we're going to go through the round one lines. One of my favorite things to do on this podcast right after this.

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And since we're here, make sure you check out the Ringer Podcast Network. We had some going up. We had a one shining podcast. College basketball podcast went up today, actually. We're still putting up content. Ringer NFL show is going all week. Ringer NBA has been going up. And then once we hit about Wednesday,

we'll be back until regular schedule. The big picture is coming up. More importantly, the rewatchables is coming back January 8th, a 50 episode season. Kyle, do you know what the first episode is going to be? No.

Tell me. The Godfather. Nice. Oh, yeah. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened already. That's great. Not only is it going to happen, it's going to be amazing. I have no idea how many hours it's going to be.

But subscribe to The Rewatchables now. Leave the gun. Grab the cannoli. All right, back to Cousin Sal. All right, we're going to hold the first game out of the four, which is the Saturday game that we lovingly call the Shakey's game. We're going to hold that because we don't have a line yet because the Indy game is not over yet as we're taping this.

Saturday night. Dallas. Home. Against the Seahawks. And I saw this when Al Michaels told us what the schedule was. And it gave me a little deja vu. I thought about it. And I thought about it.

And I realized we've had this game before. We've had it on a Saturday night. We've had the exact same matchup in the exact same place. And it was the game that you belatedly cried four hours later at a screening of Blood Diamond with Leo DiCaprio. When Tony Romo botched the PAT. And then you went out with your wife after. And you sobbed at the end of Blood Diamond when Leo died. Spoiler alert.

Now you're back. Blood Diamond 2, the died. Spoiler alert. Now you're back. Blood Diamond 2, the sequel. Spoiler alert. Tony Romo did not botch the PAT. They had some ball. They were using some shiny, shiny, what they call the K-ball that they've never used since. I don't even think it was shaped like a football. And yes, a snap went through his hands and he got caught from behind.

But yeah, you're right about it was very, very sad. And I went to see Blood Diamond. You're right. But yeah, you're right about, it was very, very sad. And I went, I went to see blood diamond. You're right. I had to get my mind off of it. And then I cried a little more in the, in the movie than I might've if, uh, if the Cowboys had won that game.

So this is the blood diamond. This is the blood diamond rematch. What should blood diamond too? Should, should it be like a bowl game? Should like Zales or, uh, someone should have diamond company. Every kiss begins with be like a bowl game? Should like Zales or someone, should Diamond Company,

Every Kiss Begins With K, sponsor this bowl game? Leo is on the mountain, blood pouring out of him, dialing up Jennifer Connelly on the cell phone. And you're the only one in the theater saw me. Oh, it's so good. And now it's back.

Blood Diamond 2 sponsored by Zales. By the way, I could have sworn Fox was going to take this game instead of the Bears-Eagles, but they did. What, because it's two major markets? I figured everyone would want to see the Cowboys against Russell Wilson in the Sunday game, but they passed on it, or however it works. All of a sudden, this is the spotlight game for Saturday night. I hate it.

I don't like this spot at all. I got to say, I thought Fox made the right move. I think Chicago Philly is a bigger game because really? Yeah. Chicago third, biggest American city, a huge generational fan base.

There's a lot of excitement around the team and Philly is the champs with the Nick Foles thing and another huge city. Like, I think that's the best game of the weekend Foles thing and another huge city. I think that's the best game of the weekend. I would have taken that game. I just think you know you're not going to get a dud in Seattle and Russell Wilson, who's been there before. Sorry

to say this, but still America's team. I thought that would be the big one, but two big cities. I get it. So you have... Who are the announcers going to be then? This is key. Is it, is it Michael Collinsworth?

Yeah. That's a, that's the NBC game, right? The ABC when we see early at Shakey's. Yeah. Yeah. It's Michael's Collinsworth.

Wow. Wow. Blood diamond. I have a, I have the Cowboys favored by three. I think it's a field goal. Yeah. I said three also.

They won't pull the trigger on three. It's two and a half right now. Oh. The over under. Wow. The clapper. It scares me even more. Jesus.

I don't like it. You think the clapper starts and plays all starters? It'd be funny if you sat, guys, this week. He got confused. He thought it was week 17. Yeah. I don't love the matchup. By the way, I was in that.

You want to know about that sports bar. So I'm in Maui. For some reason, everyone's a Seahawks fan here. They really are. I think because they've had a lot of Polynesian players go through Seattle over the the years maybe a few i don't know what it is but everybody is a seahawks fan here and i'm the only one in the bar rooting for russell wilson to break his leg as a fifth seed the only one within 3 000 miles probably for rooting against uh russell wilson and the seahawks

but they went crazy they're like they won the Super Bowl when Janikowski kicked that eight-yard field goal. I was like, this doesn't mean anything. You should be happy that none of your players got hurt and aggravated like I am with Pete Carroll. It's funny how fans really don't get it, so I'm sorry. Well, you have a couple things that are concerning for you in this game. Yeah. They can really run the ball, which has been a problem intermittently

during the season, right? And then for you, stop run defense. And then the key, I feel like, to your D is the pass rush. But Wilson is so good at you think you have him sacked, and then he does some twirl or spin or whatever. He's got such good game command. So that's two things. They're punter.

They're special teams. The coaching. Pete Carroll's big game experience versus the clapper. There's some red flags out. I'm not that afraid of Pete Carroll. But I know anyone against Garrett, we lose for sure. game experience versus the clapper there's some red flags i'm not that afraid of but i know it's i mean any anyone against the garrett we we lose for sure but uh i don't know he doesn't scare me as much as maybe like seven or eight years ago i will say he's been good this year yeah there

were signs of real decay last year and i felt like this year that team overachieved and uh i don't know i i don't have no idea and team overachieved. And I don't know. I have no idea and I don't really care, but I don't know who the coach of the year is, but he's got to be in the small list, right? On the short list. Pete Carroll? Yeah.

Wait, no, there was definitely one that... Andy Reid? Wait a minute. No, there's... Wait a minute. There's got to be one. Well, it was McVay. For the longest time, it was going to be Mc a minute. No, there's... Wait a minute. There's got to be one. Well, it was McVeigh. For the longest time,

it was going to be McVeigh. No. Peyton? We don't like him anymore. Matt Nagy? I don't know. I think Seattle going... Just don't give it to Garrett.

Seattle going 10-6 in what was a rebuilding year by all accounts. I remember... I don't remember if we did this on this podcast or against all odds. I was fascinated by the case for Seattle as the out of nowhere,

you think they're done, but they're actually not team. And then they lost their first two games and I jumped off it. But there were a lot of red flags for, or I guess white flags in this case, for a lot of the guys they got rid of actually weren't that important. And they did keep the guys who were important. And this was a nobody believes in us season.

And it seems like it's played out that way to some degree. They got their swagger back. They have a home field advantage back. I think they were four and four or five-3 at home in Seattle last year, and they got that part back. So they kind of feel like the team we know and are afraid of. And they have some receivers that can make some plays. I really like the running backs, though.

I think they have two guys who can kind of plow through the line and spell each other and do all that stuff. What's the over-under for points in that game? You traded one for the defense for an NFL defense. I know, I stand by it. It's one of those running backs. I stand by it. 41.5 is the over-under.

All right, so 41.5. Would you take that or the over for Jerry Jones showing him in the owner's box during the four and a half quarters of this game? Pre-game, during game, post-game. 41 and a half. Yeah, it'll be close. So, okay. So that's the Saturday night game.

Yeah, NBC lays on that too. Yeah, I would say it's low. I'd say that's about right. Yeah, I would say. I was thinking like 29 and a half because it's probably seven times a quarter. But maybe it's like six times a quarter. But the last quarter, it's like 11 times. So somewhere in there.

That's pretty close. If one of our friends who runs online sites wants to set a line for that, I'm all in. I think that would be a fun one on monitor. All right. Do we know, speaking of speaking, that is good. Do we,

have you seen this since say, uh, the sensation of when Collinsworth slides into the booth and the bar goes crazy. Is that fake? Have you seen this? No. What is it?

Look, look up Collinsworth slide and you'll see see multiple things of a bar just going nuts when he slides in, and the first time he's introduced in an NBC Sunday Night Football telecast. It's become a phenomenon. Just look up Collinsworth slide, see what happens. It's like Sweet Caroline? It's like Sweet Caroline at sporting events?

Yeah, really. By the way, the colts are going to win this game uh maybe he goes down here but they just picked off uh they're at the five yard line again it's 33 17 so are you going to bet on the cowboys i don't think so i have enough to stay away i would say stay away yeah right you're? You're betting Seattle on a teaser. I know you are. I'd like to see that line get to three before I decided what to do. The two and a half is worrisome.

But, you know, that line might go down, not up, the more I think about it. The clapper getting to round two? I don't know. All right. Sunday. We know we're going to have this game. about it. The Clapper getting to round two? I don't know. All right, Sunday. We know we're going to have this game. The Ravens are home

for the LA Chargers. I also have this one as three, Sal. Ravens by three. I couldn't pull the trigger on it. I said, you know what? I think the Chargers are slightly better, despite what we saw a couple weeks ago when they played each other. I said two, but you got it, Bill. It is, in fact, three over on those 42.

We saw this game already. I think it's going to be a great game. The question for me, let's say it's super cold. Let's say it's one of those 20 degree games and the Ravens are just doing their power running thing and you can see everybody's breath. This just feels like stereotyping and profiling, but I just don't like a San Diego slash LA team's chances in a game like that, whether it was the Rams or the Chargers. It's just like a game like that, whether it was the Rams or the chargers, you know, it's just like a game with no flow. You look up,

there's three minutes left in the first quarter already. And you're like, what happened? We were 12 minutes into this game already. Nothing's happened. All of that stuff favors the Ravens. I feel like, and you don't like,

cause it's cold. You're saying, or just cause of the pace of the game, just those cold weather run, heavy, ugly, special teams. All that stuff favors the Ravens. And they're really good at home. That's the other thing.

They take care of business. See, I look at it the other way. I don't trust the Chargers at home. And I think they could do this on the road. I think this is a better run. In fact, I like both of these teams, actually. If you're doing Super Bowl matchups, I would both of these teams, actually. If you're doing like Super Bowl matchups, I would go Baltimore, Saints, and Chargers,

Saints, and see what happens. Watch it play out. But I do think they'll be able to adjust better than they did when they played that, what was that, like a Saturday night game?

Was it a Saturday night game? Yeah, like three weeks ago. A couple weeks ago. Yeah, Saturday. Yeah, I don't think they were up for that. I think they let down, they had a big win over the Steelers,

and they had beaten somebody else, and I think that was kind of a letdown game. I think they're better. First of all, when they're home, everybody in the stadium is rooting for the other team anyway. So when the Chiefs go there, it's ridiculous. It's a sea of red. But I don't know.

Like you said, you didn't like what the Ravens showed you today, right? They might not be peaking at the right time. Well, the key play for the Ravens was they needed a first down to end the game. Run play, run play. Weird pitch play that the guy dropped. It was like they didn't totally trust Lamar to throw on that play when it was an obvious throwing situation. That made me nervous for them in the playoffs.

Cause you know, their whole season's on the line basically. And if they get a first down, the game's over and they just, I know they had that, you know, they it's risky to throw you, you know,

you're giving them 40 more seconds, all that stuff. But, um, they just, they didn't want to put it in his hands. The, the only other thing I'd say with the Chargers,

and I only know this because I had him on my fantasy team, but Keenan Allen was out of his mind and then got hurt famously in the fantasy semifinals. And then has not seemed the same to me. I still think he's hurt. He's got some hip thing. If you watch him, he just doesn't seem like he has the same bounce. And I'm not positive they can beat Baltimore if he's not 100%.

So I have my eye on that one too. And Gordon got banged up a little too, but he's going to play. I asked you this a couple weeks ago. I'm going to ask you again. Rank them one through four out of the AFC teams playing this week. Who do the Patriots, who does Bill Simmons, gigantic Patriots fan most want to see from top to bottom? I'm going to say you don't want to see the Chargers, the Colts,

the Ravens, and then Houston. I'm going to say in that order. Yeah, I'd like to see Houston the most. Right. who's second probably the Chargers Chargers second wow yeah I don't know about

Phil Rivers has played an AFC championship game I know but they have a lot of guys who haven't been there I don't know if I trust their coach either in fact I know I don't know if I trust their coach either. In fact, I know I don't trust their coach. I would say him and Jason Garrett, I think, are the two really, really shaky round one coaches that I just don't have any belief at all in.

The team that I don't want to see the most is the Ravens. The Ravens is number one, even though you... Yeah, wow. Okay. I don't like the matchup because I think you can run on us. And, you know, the combination, the Pats have always had these issues with these running around

quarterbacks, from Blake Bortles to Barry Oda, whoever. And Lamar Jackson's obviously good at that. Tight ends over the middle is a problem. That's like the number one thing the Ravens like to do when they're not running it. And I just, I worry about it. I don't like that matchup.

Well, I was going to say, if you go, yeah, there's a different way to go. You can go coach wise and then you don't want it. Anthony Lynn takes the charges out of that. But quarterback wise, I know you don't want to see a scrambler but I think when Andrew Luck is on out of all of them when he's on the most I think that's the one you want to see the least it's pretty solid I I guess we've had a

lot of success against him yeah it's like the rate the Ravens it's weird it's weird. It's been the one team. The Pats have never really had the two-decade rival. They had Manning and the Colts for a while. It's been different teams that have jumped into that spot. The Broncos were there and Manning

went over there. The Ravens, the entire time, really since I would say the mid-2000s, have been a problem. And they're super confident. I remember, man, it was like during the run when they came back to beat the Falcons, that crazy Ravens game with the Edelman, the double pass with Edelman. Oh, right. Yeah.

Or maybe that led to the Seahawks game. One of those, I can't remember what year it was. It was either 15 or 17. But the Ravens weren't even that good that year. And all they had was that they've had a lot of success against the Patriots. And all the Patriots fans were worried about that game because it was the Ravens. So, I don't know. I think

they have a pretty good team. I would worry about them. Something has to turn around. What's going to be in the narrative this week it's like the Russell Wilson or Phil Rivers is hot this this weekend it's like oh that's a team to watch out for if one of those teams advances they're going to be a team look out to look out for or do the Colts turn it around on the Patriots but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Hey, Crown Royal is doing something pretty cool this season. They launched a responsible drinking campaign called the water break. It's all about encouraging people to hydrate between drinks for a better

experience where they're at the game, watching Homer in a bar. Have a great time. Enjoy some Crown Royal. Just don't be that person that ruins it for everybody. We've all seen that guy who drank too much watching the game. Make the right call. Take a water break. Sal, who made the right call this week?

I'm going to say our friend Adam Carolla made the right call. I'm here with Adam's family and our friend Daniel, his family. Three families. So we all eat together. We do everything together. And we're rotating bills. So it was Adam's turn to pay. And he made the right call and not going too crazy when our two oldest sons ordered surf and turf all the way on the other end of the table.

He just blurted out three who authorized this is. And he moved on from that. And then he tipped 20% on a dinner bill what even though he was he was screaming our friend daniel forced him to do it he grabbed the pen he signed it he's like you're tipping 20 adam has this whole theory about uh we're enablers by uh by tipping you know why should why should waiters make 140140 an hour? And lawyers, why are we putting them up there with doctors? We're enabling them.

We're rewarding them for not having skills. What have they done? They only worked there for an hour. But Daniel talked some sense into him. He's like, this guy has one car. You have 30. So Adam signed. He gave him a 20% tip. And even though they charged his wife for three Mai Tais, even though he had two, he did not make them take it off the bill, although he did bring it to their

attention. So good job by you, Adam Carolla, tipping 20%. Your son ordered the surf and turf? Mine and his, yeah. That's incredible. Mark market price, by the way. And I was like, Oh Jesus, I didn't even know. He's like, what does market price mean? He's asking me.

I was like, it means, it means don't ever tell Adam that it was market price. That's what it means. Even my son wouldn't do that. My son will do just about anything reprehensible, but I don't even think he would get the surf and turf if somebody else was paying.

That's amazing. It's a great job by the sons. My right call of the week. turf if somebody else was paying. That's amazing. It's a great job by the Suns. My right call of the week, so go back to last spring. The Patriots tried to do two things. Number one, they tried to trade Rob Gronkowski and almost did to Detroit before he caught wind of it and threatened to

retire and that fell through. They're selling about as high as you could possibly sell. The other thing was... Wait, hold on. He didn't retire? No, he's still there. He had a catch today. Yeah. Last days of Gronk have been set. The other thing they tried to do was go all in

on Baker Mayfield. They're trying to get all these picks and stuff from Detroit so that they can make this godfather offer for Baker Mayfield. Those were two great calls. They made the right calls. Now it worked out where instead they kept two picks. They passed the Lamar Jackson.

They took Sonny Michel in the first round, even though he doesn't seem really any different than 35 running backs I watch every week. They whiffed on their second round pick. None of those were the right calls. But the instinct of this is probably ending. Let's blow this up and find the new savior was the right call. So congrats to them. Crown Royal reminds everyone in this football season to take a water break and hydrate responsibly.

People want me to hear you complain about the Patriots. I don't know. So the instinct was the right. They had right instincts. It wasn't a right call. But it was a good call to have instincts. It was the right call. Blow it up. Let's go.

We need a new quarterback. We got to sell high on Gronk. Two right calls. Didn't work out. Now we're 11-5 and headed for a round two game against probably somebody we don't want to play. What can you do? All right. Two more games.

Sunday. The late game. Chicago-Philly. I'm really excited for this. I love football. I love narratives. I love fan bases that have been through a lot. I think the Bears definitely qualify, even though they kicked my asses, my team's ass in 1985 Superbowl.. It's been a topsy-turvy 33 years. They have a lot at stake with this Bears team. They're walking the tightrope. They love

Khalil Mack. It's a very likable team. I really enjoy the Bears. I've enjoyed watching them all season. I've wagered on them many times. Now Nick Foles and God are coming to town. And the only thing I know is that I want to put the Bears in a tease. And I'm just, the Foles thing just freaks me out.

This is like the case to trade wins. What is it about Foles? I feel like he's just this live dog that you should just stay away from. I have the Bears by six at home against Philly. Wow. Good call by you. I said four, and I thought I was going a little high there. And it is six.

And I've seen some sevens. I think it opened at seven in a couple of spots, and it's down to six. And you're right. Like, what do you do? This is alien versus predator. You know, the Bears, the one game they played poorly in this whole month month was against the niners what was that like a 14 to 9 game this defense is for real they they never they don't take off and then you have nick foals it really like any anytime he's in there he's gonna throw he's gonna throw him he's gonna have a monster game he's gonna make big

catches uh throws agalar he makes the only thing uh Golden Tate was the only one that really didn't pan out for them, right? He really hasn't had a good game, but... It didn't. Jeffrey has revitalized his career. Aguilar, I don't know what to make of this. Do you put the Bears on a teaser? I'm not even discounting Trubisky or anything here, but I think the Bears might be the play early on here.

I would say out of the four games, this has the biggest chance to be like a 31 to 10 type game. I'm not saying it will be, but if they're D at home, everyone by all accounts, soldier field has been rocking with this team on D. And if Foles is banged up, and they'll hide it if he is banged up, we'll never know. Jackson comes back for the Bears.

They're going to have a full defense. And I think they have the best blowout potential of all these round one teams. They just turn it on. I agree. Well, it's the highest spread so that would make sense too but you want to hear something sad about that nick falls um and this is why i think maybe you're wrong about i don't know if you're kidding before about them taking him out so that the bears would uh you know not take their foot off the gas but he if he had taken 33 of his team snaps of the of the Eagles' snaps this year,

he would have gotten a million-dollar bonus. He was four snaps short of 33%. And it's not like baseball. I think like the Yankees and Sabathia, he didn't meet the prerequisite for whatever bonus he was supposed to get, but they still gave him the 500 grand. There's some weird clause in football that you can't do that, I guess because there's a salary cap. So they have to either renegotiate or just not pay him the 500 grand there's some weird clause in football that you can't do that i guess because there's a salary cap so they have to either renegotiate or just not pay him the million

crazy and corolla said he was going to give him 20 though so i thought that was yeah you're right i thought i was making this big point i thought i was making this big savvy point about how the bears are the best chance for a blowout, but they are the highest favorite. So that, that would make sense. But when you see there, there is now a line on the, uh,

into Houston game. So the shaky ball, but I would say, I would say even in round two, I would say, even if you included all the, all the teams that got buys in round one, I still think they're the best blowout kind of recipe that we've seen where the defense is making plays

and they're extending leads, they're able to run the ball. The one thing they've done the last few games, Jordan Howard looks more like Jordan Howard. And I don't know what was going on with him in September, October. I don't know if he was hurt or, you know, they were just favoring the balance between those two guys. In September and October, yeah. Yeah, he was not great. you know they were just favoring jordan howard look more like ron howard in september and october

yeah yeah he was he was not great but um but the balance is right now and and i like that they can go ground and pound with him but then cohen can come in and that gives them a different look and anthony miller got hurt during the game today which i think is not great for them because i'm not a huge taylor gabriel fan, there might be one possession guy short, but, but look, if foals is hurt, this,

this could be a bloodbath, but that's the thing. They might, they rope you into that. And then foals is healthy and the Eagles are up 14 to three and you, and sure. Biscay's throwing the ball over the place and you're going nuts. So that's why you shouldn't tease. I think.

Yeah. I mean, no one knows better than Vegas and for them to have a line on this game this early, they could easily said no line Sunday night. But yeah, they want to. He's going to play full. Yeah, for sure. Do we have a line in the last game yet?

We do. This is the Shakey's Bowl. We call it the Shakey's Bowl because our fantasy football league has the banquet at Shakey's every year, Shakey's Pizza. And it's we all get together to watch the first game of that first Saturday, the wild card round. And this will be on. Houston's in it every year, right?

Anytime they make the playoffs, they're in the Shakey's Bowl. I feel like the AFC South is always, either the AFC South or Cincinnati is always represented. Yeah, it was always Houston, Cincinnati, right? The reality is the NFC just has more fun teams. They have more big market interesting teams year after year.

That's why their TV package is always more valuable. I went three and a half for this. I think Houston is favored by three and a half. Alright, I went three. I wasn't sure about this one. Vegas thinks that Indianapolis is slightly better because Houston's a two and a half point favorite and usually get a three point advantage just for being home.

Two and a half. So Dallas is two and a half. Houston's two and a half. Baltimore, they gave a full three. And Chicago or Philly, Chicago's six. That's the big one. Yeah. I haven't liked Houston all year and they burned me a few times, but I still don't totally see it.

And it does seem like, I think Indy's offensive line has been the strength of what the turnaround has been. I'm not the first person who made that point. That trade they made when they got Quentin Nelson, they got a whole bunch of shit just to go from three to six. And they can block. And if you can block the Texans, and then on the other end,

all you have to do is just throw three guys at Hopkins. They're really low on receivers. Hopkins, it's amazing. You watch the Texans, and people forget to cover Hopkins like every 15 plays. It's like, Hopkins, he's wide open. What happened? All you have to do is just make sure

he's never wide open and let the other guys beat you. I think he's the only above average guy they have. But is that good that he gets open? You know, I don't know. He's really good at getting... He pushed off a couple of times today, but he's good at getting open.

It is true. He does push off. But you should be able to at least limit him. Let freaking... I don't know who's left for the receivers for them. Let Alfred Blue run on you and let whoever the fuck... I don't even know who's left. Let those guys beat you.

Let their third string tight end. Let all those guys go nuts. Don't let Hopkins beat you. I like Indianapolis. I like all these games, though. I like them all. Chicago-Philly is the only one we haven't seen before this year. Everything else is a rematch.

But I think this is a good grouping for the first weekend. That's a classic. And I'm trying to figure out what's more fun. Foles winning again and the Philly fans going nuts, but then also really starting to say goodbye to Wentz mentally at that point. If Foles wins in Chicago,

it's at that point you got to start. You at least send him some links to some Toomey suitcase sites, right? Hey, man. Yeah, for sure. Toomey's having a sale to pull on luggage. That's my favorite one. These games are all great.

Houston Indy, which I want to not like. I really like watching Andrew Luck this year, so I'll enjoy that one, too. So these are good ones. Who won this week? Did we tie? Well, what's interesting is if Indy pulls this upset early Saturday, early for us,

and Luck looks spectacular, that's, oh, no, wait, that's not your team. So you wouldn't play them, right? If the sixth seed wins, you're not playing them. I actually have to. Yeah, I'm in a weird situation because I want to bet Indianapolis this week, but I really want Houston to win because then the Pats would play Houston. The Pats are eight and one lifetime against Houston. Gotcha.

Okay. Yeah, because then you have the winner of Baltimore. If Indy pulls the upset, you get the winner of Chargers-Ravens. Yeah, the best case scenario for the Pats is we get Houston, and then KC, who gets the one seed, somehow has to play the Baltimore Chargers winner,

which is a disaster. I would so much rather play Houston than that. The Pats, man. This is what I've been telling you all year. We suck, and we'll see you in the Super Bowl. We're terrible. I know. You're right.

Brady today. Brady was pretty good for him today for what he's been at age 41. He had a couple awful throws today he had one no let's just talk about the one let's talk let's talk about the word the one worst throw you'll ever see him make in any level junior high whatever it is middle school he had hogan i don't know how hogan was this wide open but he had he had the middle 70 of the end zone wide open right in the middle, like five yards into the end zone. And Brady threw it.

I think it hit the crossbar. I don't know what it was. It's like a 20-yard pass, but he way overthrew it. It wasn't great. It's not a great team. I'll just leave it at that. Somehow, yet again, the Seas have parted and they have a chance to play

Houston in round two and then hope that the Ravens or Chargers can beat KC and they might get to play both playoff games in Foxborough if this all works out. It's in play, Sal. You could be seeing us. I'm not even going to

say you had a good run because I know what the Patriots can do to these teams. Want to do parent corner? What do you got from Hawaii for us? Yeah. Well, actually, a parent corner, it's parent corner related because we put the best of up of 2018, right? The best of parent corners.

It sounds like it did well because I'm getting good feedback from it except from my 13-year-old who listened to it on the flight out for two hours and was like a little bummed out. Specifically about when I... He did something where he fouled.

He was playing basketball and he fouled at the end of the game thinking they were oh yeah yeah down one but they were tied and he gave me the look like he's like oh were you really that disappointed in me I was like oh well I'm disappointed in uh in the fact that you listened to this I never thought you you were gonna listen but what about Simmons he doesn't even feed his daughter when she doesn't play well in soccer. He makes her wait two and a half hours on the ride home. But that didn't matter to him. So, yeah, we're bad at this parenting thing. Are we worse at gambling or parenting?

Maybe we should put it to a Twitter poll. We did pretty well in gambling this year. I think we're worse at parenting. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Okay, yeah. But who knows? I probably just jinxed it.

We won't win a playoff bet now. Oh, that's a bummer. So he looked at you with like he was wounded i was like listen i exaggerate these things you know for effect and that's kind of that's why these things work and uh he was a little wounded but um he'll toughen up he got the surf and turf so i think he's all right now he's like i know you don't exaggerate these things because you the seven other stories i know are don't exaggerate these things because you the seven other stories i know are completely factual exactly everything about our other brothers is 100 spot on so here's my parent corner my uh you know my daughter is very sweet person um

really likes christmas and she wanted to. She shopped for my son, really put a lot of thought into, um, the gift she was getting him and, um, got him this gift, which I'm blanking on what she got him. I was half awake watching everybody open the gifts.

but really put some effort, wrapped it, gave him a gift. My son, um, put some effort, wrapped it, gave him a gift. My son realized at the last minute that he didn't have a gift for her, went up to his room and got $120 in cash, which he had had because I'm half Italian. As you know, Italians send cash for gifts.

So he'd had these like $50 bills and $20 bills. Came back down with the cash and kind of gave it to my daughter, but kind of half threw it toward her, but gave it to her. He thought she was reaching out, but she wasn't reaching out. The money,

it kind of seemed like he threw it at her, but he didn't. Definitely it wasn't wrapped and it wasn't in a card, and it wasn't nice or anything. And he just said, Merry Christmas. And then my wife got really mad and was screaming at him about what a selfish kid he is. And Merry Christmas.

What's he supposed to do, give him his gold chain i don't know yeah i mean he's so focused on what gifts he's getting he the shopping for other people part of christmas not really on the radar that's nice he did get a gold chain he uh he has been wearing that and he was very excited by his gifts but um but yeah so the good news is my daughter got 120 dollars so that was awesome there you go yeah i think this is our fault i don't know we need to reevaluate our well how are we getting worse at this we're not good at this and we're somehow getting a little better at gambling lately anyway but the parenting is yeah that's what counts yeah that's what counts so we could afford the therapy money you don't have one more corolla

story from hawaii before we go i don't know you know i have my character of the year comes out tomorrow um yeah my write-up so there'll be a lot of good stuff in there um oh yeah we were on a uh so uh howie mandel was out here too and uh daniel and adam are friends with him and i'm friendly with him so he invites us on this catamaran this nice boat our families go out um and you know he's very he's very germaphobic howie mandel's fist bumps everybody and uh and he was held captive on this boat and you could tell he wanted to get away as Adam regaled him stories of a how he likes to he prefers urinating in the sink to urinating in the toilet bowl, which just went. I mean, I really thought how he meant I was going to jump, jump overboard. He's like, what?

How is it? He brought his wife in. That's like, oh, yeah, I know. He's the worst worst isn't he and then he told stories about how his friend Ray used to crap in his hand and then shove it into his Adam's ear during school like during like homeroom and and that and he would chase Ray around the halls and like Howie Mandel was like just losing his mind so I don't think we're going to be invited back on the catamaran anytime soon he's probably still wiping it down exactly um all right cousin sal we're done 2018 is in the books we'll be back next week after uh round one but you can

hear sal you're doing against all odds this week right doing against all odds we'll go over go over our uh over under and prop bets. By the way, we did very well in the NFC with our preseason over-unders and very poorly in the AFC. Yeah, with the over-unders. We did go against the Raiders, but just the over-unders.

We're going to preview wildcard weekend with picks. Lock it in. Back New Year's Day. Yes, I'm working New Year's Day. I have to go to the Fox affiliate in Maui and we'll be posting Monday bowl picks tonight. You're going to the Fox affiliate in Maui to do Lock It In? Yeah.

That's incredible. My wife, she's going to kill me, right? Yeah, I mean, we should say the parent corner right now is that you're supposed to be at your son's birthday party and we're doing this podcast. Right, that's true.

You have to go. Let me get the hell out of here. Good job by you. Good job by you. Hey, before we go, I grabbed my daughter. Zoe, really quick. What did you get Ben for Christmas? Me?

Yeah. That really nice gift you went and shopped for him? Oh, I got him bubble baths. Yeah. You got him a whole bubble bath thing because he loves taking baths yeah you went out you wrapped it i wrapped it and then he threw 120 dollars at you for your christmas gift yeah he that is not even like that doesn't even describe what he did to me i went out and i bought him a t-shirt a vintage t-shirt that was of um michael jordan oh yeah and i bought him a bubble bath because he likes to use

my shampoo in his bubble bath but that's besides the point yeah he comes downstairs and hands me ripped up money that was crumbled in his hands it wasn't ripped up it was crumpled no it was crumpled but like to the point where it was so weak that it could just easily rip. And he hands it to me, and he's like, Merry Christmas. So what'd you spend the $120 on? I haven't spent it yet. I don't even know. I don't think people will take that money. It's in such

bad condition. You have to launder it. I don't think it can be used to buy things. Well, there you go. That was the inside story of what actually happened, because I couldn't remember the whole story. Thank you, Zoe. That's it. That's it for the final episode of the BS podcast of the 2018 year.

Thank you to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget to go to ziprecruiter.com. Thanks to the Ringer Podcast Network and the ringer.com. Thanks to Tate Frazier who produced a few of these in 2018 for the first couple months. And thanks to Nephew Kyle. You're welcome. We made it. You made it to

2019. Yeah, you just told me not to fuck it up. That's what I tell myself every day. Yeah. People ask what kind of boss I am and that's the kind of stuff I say. Sound advice. Every once in a while, I just look at Kyle, we lock eyes, and I say, don't fuck this up. And then he knows. So there you go.

Enjoy New Year's Eve. Don't drink and drive. Act semi-responsibly. Don't act too responsibly. I'm worried about young people out there. Go have fun. Just don't drink and drive. Have a good time. Be nice to each other. And we will see you on the other end in 2019. Until then. I don't have feelings within On the wayside

On the first sun never runs in I don't have feelings within