The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Hand of Brady and Special Guest Tony Romo (Ep. 317)

Episode Date: January 22, 2018

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to discuss the Eagles' dominating victory over the Vikings (4:00), Doug Pederson's playoff performance (10:00), the return of Chris Berman (14:00), the Pats' game-winning plays (22:00), the largest Super Bowl spread in nine years (28:00), Danny Amendola's clutch catches (32:00), and the Pats' lack of penalties (41:00). Then, former Cowboys quarterback and current CBS commentator Tony Romo joins to give his thoughts on his first year in the booth (44:00) and the end of the golden age of quarterbacks (51:00). Finally, Bill and Sal wrap it all up with another edition of "Parent Corner" (1:03:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the BS podcast on the ringer podcast network brought to you by ZipRecruiter, our 2018 presenting sponsor. They develop powerful matching technology for hiring. You no longer have to wait for the right candidates to find you. ZipRecruiter finds them for you. It's the smartest way to hire. Tate, I'll ask them to create a hashtag ZipRecruiter.com slash KembaTrade. Let's find him a new home.

He needs a new home. He's sad. He deserves it. Well, people who aren't sad are the people that use ZipRecruiter. My listeners can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. Meanwhile, SeatGeek, still the best app for buying and selling tickets to sporting events, concerts, and more.

For $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase on any game or sporting event, concerts, and more. For $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase on any game or sporting event, use promo code BS. They are also offering a special promotion on Super Bowl tickets for all SeatGeek purchasers, not just first-timers. Use promo code BSSB for $250 off promo-eligible Super Bowl tickets. Once again, promo code BSSB. $250 off Super Bowl tickets. Hey, Los Angeles, if you're listening,

we have a live rewatchable slash binge mode show on Wednesday. This week at Largo, we're going to do season two Friday Night Lights. Jason Concepcion and Mallory Rubin from Binge Mode are going to break down just how ridiculous that season was. I might even join them for that one. And then we're also going to do Varsity Blues. One of the most ridiculous and fantastic sports movies ever made.

Me, Mallory, Jason, and our old friend, Shea Serrano. That's happening Largo, Wednesday night. The last time we did this, people loved it. I think they're going to love this one. I'm excited. And as Mox said in Varsity Blues, I don't want your life. Coming up, the Cuz, and I think Tony Romo's calling in. I don't want to get you too excited, but I think he's calling in.

But first, Pearl Jam. All right. Monday morning. We did not feel the need to tape this on a Sunday night because once, once the Eagles started beating the crap out of the Vikings, Tate Lombardi had it. You can listen to GM street for their reactions last night. Lombardi, very apologetic about Doug Peterson.

But, hey, man, sometimes you're wrong with stuff. My team made the Super Bowl. No text from you, nothing. No congratulations. You're lucky it's not just negative at this point. It was negative. The ringer slack I was afraid to go into. Everyone was so upset.

And young Kevin O'Connor, who just moved here from L.A., Pats fan, Boston guy, put some slack in. And in slack, you can do thumbs up and thumbs down. And he basically had this thing like, hey, I know it's cool to hate on the Patriots, but Tom Brady was incredible in that game. People doing the thumbs down emoji. Wow.

People were just mad. People hate the Pats. Did the thumb have stitches in it? No. People do hate the Pats. Why wouldn't you hate the Pats? Why wouldn't anyone else hate the pads by the way it's freezing it's colder in here than it wasn't i know i'm like i'm doing the david letterman thing i'm just going to keep keep the office nice and cold already uncomfortable to be praising the patriots now it's uh

tom brady had 12 stitch cuts in his cut in his hand and was just lights out. But let's talk about Minnesota-Philly first, because we've seen this in the title game sometimes. And strangely, the Vikings have been involved in a couple of those times. But remember that Giants-Vikings game from like 2000 or 2001? I was at the game. Yeah. Jimmy was doing Fox, so I was at the game, yeah.

They score in three minutes. The Eagles come back. Keenum throws. Now, it got tipped, but there were still two guys right in front of his receiver. I don't know who he was throwing to. Did it get tipped, or did they hit his other arm? It seemed like they hit his left arm. It was a terrible idea.

Very weird. Great run. Guy navigates the whole field, gets in, and it just felt like the Eagles were going to win after that play. At that point, I thought when Patrick Robinson makes the pick, I'm like, you better take this to the house because Foles doesn't have enough to get the seven on his own. Had they scored by then? I can't remember.

No, it was 7-0. That was picked at midfield. Yeah, that was one turning point. Do you think the Vikings win that game if he doesn't throw that interception? I think they might win the game on the second turning point when it's 14-7, three minutes left in the half, third and 10, and he's about to get sacked, Foles. I mean, he has guys like pawing at him, pawing at him. Who was it?

It was Everson Griffin. It was almost like he was shaving him while he was in the pocket. And then, like, Foles looks to the skies. He's, like, looking at looking at like star alignments and everything not even staring downfield and hits jeffrey i think newman fell or got twisted around like if they're punting 14-7 i don't know maybe the vikings come back and then and then they end up scoring again they make it 24-7 that killed credible then the the adam thewin the catch that all of a sudden it wasn't a catch yeah right that killed the last chance of a comeback you knew he wasn't i was like is he doing the good guy thing like just

not celebrating is it because that's what guys should do when they're down three touchdowns it's like or is he just like he knows he didn't catch it and he knew he didn't i feel a little vindicated because i never totally believed in this vikings team yeah um on the other hand who the hell could have seen Nick Foles coming? Especially after that Cowboys game. I picked them last week against Atlanta and it was more of a pick against Atlanta than a pick for Philly.

It was like a home field advantage running game. And if Foles is even a C minus, that's a bonus. That's exactly how I was. I was like, they don't even have to be the better team. They'll win this game because they're home. And they got 15 points and they barely won. They had four chances inside the 10 yard line to lose. Well, I was thinking, they don't even have to be the better team. They'll win this game because they're home. And they got 15 points and they barely won. They had four chances inside the 10-yard line to lose. Well, that was the thing.

You had two teams, so you could make a good argument, didn't belong there. Obviously, crazy digs played. Saints, you know, had it in the bag before that. And, you know, if Matt Ryan connects with Julio Jones there, they move on. Well, how about the 19 ways the Jaguars could have won yesterday and blew all those things?

Yeah, I think we say it every year. This is the 11th year I think we've done the podcast. And this is about as fat of a they could have made it cast as we had. We had the four. We had Atlanta. We had the Saints, who I still think was the best NFC team out of all these teams. I think the Saints were the best one. And then I got to put Pittsburgh in there, even though they

stunk the bed. But you think like stunk the bed. I think I just created that. What is stunk the bed? I don't even know what that means. I think Pittsburgh's in there. So seven, definitely. And then who is the other one in the NFC? Oh, Carolina.

Carolina went toe-to-toe with New Orleans. Seven and a half. There were three, we may never forget the endings of these three games in the playoffs. One wasn't a playoff game, but New Year's Eve, things could be very different if Baltimore gets in over Cincinnati.

Crushing loss there. Maybe Baltimore upends Jacksonville or Pittsburgh beats Baltimore. Who knows how it ends up? And then the Chiefs, we're forgetting that the Chiefs were up 21-3 on Tennessee. Oh, yeah. That was a game you'll never forget. Their defense wasn't good enough. And then the Chiefs, we're forgetting it. The Chiefs were up 21-3 on Tennessee. That was a game you'll never forget.

Their defense wasn't good enough. I know, but it could have shaken things up. What about the Chargers? Could the Chargers have done what the Jags did yesterday and give Brady a game? Yeah. Wasn't cold or anything? Eagles-Vikes, I don't know if Foles, he's home, he's comfortable.

They're playing the run a little too much. Their secondary falls apart a couple times. I don't know if all of that just played into the game in Nick Foles' life, or is that the Nick Foles we can now expect? At least somebody who can move around and throw deep, and as Lombardi talked about on gm street yesterday is looking down the field that isn't like looking around oh there's a guy around me what do i do like he's just trying to make plays 20 yards downfield which is very dangerous

for the past i can't believe it i just can't you know there was the the portals play where you throw underneath and you throw the crossing route you hit hit that, and then you had Foles just going for it all. He had as good a game as Carson Wentz did all year. As a Patriots fan, I don't know if you're nervous about that. Like, if you're nervous about Wentz, you're nervous. Carson Wentz, Ewing theory? Yeah, you're nervous about Nick Foles who won't turn the ball over. Nick Foles and Blake Bortles, no turnovers in five playoff games?

I know, you texted me that. I thought you were kidding when you texted me that. I couldn't believe it. I just can't believe some of these stats. Did Brady have more? Did Brady have a turnover? Brady, no. No, he didn't.

He didn't. No. But Foles had fewer incomplete passes than Brady. I guess Brady threw in more. But 14 incomplete passes in the whole playoffs. One of the reasons I took the Eagles this weekend is Keenum will throw you one. He'll put one up for grabs. Yeah.

Brady and Foles just didn't do that. Foles never put, I guess the one was the Atlanta when the ball hit the guy's knee. Remember that one before the half? Yes, that was a close one. But I thought the Eagles were really good all year. I thought their defense was really good, that they'd be a tough home team,

and that nobody believes in us. There were some great playoff manifesto things in play in that game. Like the Vikings acting like they had won the Super Bowl the week before. That's always a bad sign. The dome team outdoors. Right.

What's that now? 0-13? 0-12 or 0-13? Yeah, something like that. 12? 0-12, now it's 13 the uh everybody believes in us team versus the nobody believes in us team yeah the team that act like acted like they won the super bowl the week before that was a classic i wrote all this on my

friday com it was like all four manifesto signs pointed to the eagles and yet all of us were afraid to take the eagles because of nick foals who then played one of the best games anyone's played in the playoffs. I just don't know what matters. Like, wouldn't you say the Vikings have the better coach, the better quarterback going into the game? I thought the better defense, the hungrier defense. I was like, boy, you better have a really good reason

to bet against those three things. And just being in Philly, was that the big reason? I guess. Outdoors, crowd. Yeah. They just laid into them. I'm in on Doug Peterson now. now i really think you have to be to win to make the superbowl with your backup quarterback is not fucking easy like parcels did it uh trying to think it's probably happened five

times to jeff hostetler for for doing that so it's funny you mentioned that uh robert smigel emailed me because i'd done that thing on my column on Friday about the most shocking in-game playoff moments. Yeah. And he said, Roger Craig's fumble in 1990 has to be on that list. And I had kind of forgotten about it.

So the whole game's on YouTube and I went and watched the fourth quarter. They're on the Giants 40. They're up one, 13-12. And they just got a first down. Montana's out. Montana had just gotten crushed by leonard marshall in the quarter before like a play that if that happened now everybody would be talking

about it for five months uh legal hit but just hit him from behind and just crushing him yeah first down 250 left craig runs into the line doesn't totally have the handoff i think the the nose tackle hits him lt LT gets it. Right. And then Hostetler makes one awesome play to Bavaro, and they set up this 43-yard field goal from Matt Barr, who's got the one-bar helmet. He's already made four, and he nails this 43-yarder, and they win the game.

And the Niners would have won three straight. Right. But it's like that was the Bills year? That was the Bills? That was would have won three straight. Right. But it's like, that was the, uh, Bill's year. That was the bills. That was when they, it was the Norwood year.

So they go from this crazy Roger Craig fumble, which if he just like, basically all he has to do is run it three times and that takes the clock all the way down and they're done. Yeah. And the giants win it. So I forgot about that one. The other one I forgot about was,

uh, the Colts Steelers, 2005, the Bettis fumble. Yeah. And Eddie Napo's bringing it back, and then the guy got the crazy shoestring tackle. That was up there.

Roethlisberger tackled him, right? Yeah. That was up there for crazy moments. Yeah. Would you put the Harrison before the half touchdown? Bettis puts that in his Hall of Fame speech. He thanked Roethlisberger. Oh, yeah.

He's like, I wouldn't have been here if not for that. I don't know about that, but that was good. Yeah. James Harrison's before the half. Yeah. It was shocking, but it wasn't like, it didn't decide the game or anything, you know? Right, I know.

But no player with a nine in his number to start should ever run 100 yards. Even on a local track. What I discovered with that Giants-Niners game, though, was a lot of these games are just on in their entirety on YouTube. Oh, on YouTube, yeah. Because I had found when I was writing about Broncos-Browns for Friday, that whole game was on.

So I watched that with Dick Enberg. And it's really kind of fun to watch the lead up to the play versus just the clip. You're getting nostalgic. We both at the same time texted. We didn't realize how much we missed Chris Berman. Oh my god. Bringing him back. Teach!

He did. It was so good. Mercedes Lewis, drive that car! I gotta say, I say this without any irony or sarcasm at all. I really miss Berman. I did too i miss like robinson then the eagles gets the interception of cherny's like coo coo ka-choo mr robinson

i'm gonna take my way to the end zone and every time four net ran the boys you thought that had sound effects i was dying he had all his pop culture stuff is still 60s, 70s. He had Batman and the Riddler. That was one of his ones. He had the Batman and the Riddler, Teej. He stepped it up. And then Tom Jackson, saying nothing as always was fantastic.

Oh, yeah. Oh, the Eagles reference it. The Glenn Frey, the Eagle. I couldn't imagine what the next two weeks would be like. It was so good. I missed it so much. And then he goes, he goes, he goes,

Teej, what is it about this Patriots team? And then he put his hand under his chin, like waiting for the sage Tom Jackson, like to put it all in perspective. And Tom Jackson's like, I think Tom Brady is the catalyst. It's like,

oh, okay, there it is. You might be right. Tom Brady's the catalyst. It was great to have them back. And's like, oh, okay. There it is. You might be right. Tom Brady's The Catalyst. It was great to have them back. And I can't believe, why can't they just still do primetime? I know.

Yeah, bring them in for primetime. The ratings have to go up when they're on. Yeah, once a week. Where do they live? They live right there, right? When he did the cuckoo-cachoo Mr. Robinson thing, I was howling. I just loved it. How excited must he have been when a guy named Robinson returns?

He's like, I'm going to go nuts with the Simon and Garfunkel. And then Van Pelt showed the sideline report Berman did from 81. Did you see that part? Well, no. Was that the Niners one? When the Eagles beat the Vikings in the playoffs. No, no. Berman does this whole four-minute piece,

and he interviews Herm Edwards, Ron Jaworski, and somebody else who went on to do something. It was Ahmad Rashad. Wow. And then it cuts back. But the crazy thing was Berman was doing the side run report. The game was still going on. You could see the play in the background,

and he's doing his whole thing. The whole Berman day was great. Thank you, ESPN. Let's take a break. Hey, is your company Outgrown QuickBooks? Are shared spreadsheets, manual processes, and legacy systems costing you time and money? Thank you, ESPN. Let's take a break. by managing sales, HR, and finance, and accounting instantly right from your desk or even your phone. Thousands of the best known and fastest growing companies use NetSuite to manage their business,

and now it's available to you. Don't miss out on unleashing your business's full potential with their free guide, Crushing the Five Barriers to Growth. Learn how to acquire new customers, increase profits, and finally get real visibility into your cashflow. Again, NetSuite's guide,

Crush the Five Barriers to Growth is at netsuite.com slash BS right now. Once again, netsuite.com slash BS. And again, it is free. All right, Pat's Jags. We could skip this one, right? No, no, I don't want to skip this one. I deserve this one.

He took big electrical tape on his hand. They took out Gronk. I felt like that was a cheap shot. Other people felt like it was a clean play. Can we decide what's a clean play now? We could decide what goes around, comes around. At least the whistle hadn't blown when he took a shot at his head. That's fair.

That's fair. That's fair. That's just hard-nosed ex-cowboy Barry Church football. That's all that was. We just spent the last five years trying to establish that guys can't hit defenseless receivers. I would argue he was defenseless. I just think Gronk is so

big, these guys can't tackle him the way you would normally tackle him. They go at his knees or they go at his head and if he goes down if he's trying to if he like crouches over to try to hit grok in the shoulder pads crocs he's gonna bounce off grok so he's gotta like plow into him i don't know didn't it look like he was a void i thought he threw his shoulder i thought he turned i mean you you try to run a tate as fast as you can right now and then decide what you're gonna do a minute before when he turns up field. I'm down with that, but you're not supposed to hit the guys, though.

I know. My thing is the Pats have spent the whole season avoiding that play, and they got desperate, and Brady kind of led Gronk into this hit. And at that point, I was like, we're screwed because you've no Edelman now, you've no Gronk, and we're probably going to need over 20 points. This will really have to be a magical Brady experience. I was watching with nephew Kyle and O'Connor,

and I was calling for Danny because it was like, he's the only guy he trusts that's left on the team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Right. It's like Cooks is still, he's getting open, but he's still new. I don't totally trust him.

Chris Hogan seems like he's hurt. Dwayne Allen can't catch anything. We got James white for screen passes but it's got to be danny yeah and danny had if you just watch the fourth quarter of that game you would think danny was one of the five best football players of all time amen dola right it was unbelievable 20 yard punt return that was huge uh two touchdown catches one which was like a nine and a half out of ten right great catch a couple of huge third down catches including the third 18 that was a killer insane that was a killer that was a 21 yard gain right up the gut and like because i think there's nine minutes i might be off by that so they could be down 10 and punt after that but they're not getting it back

until there's six minutes left right that. That's a huge difference there. Huge Tom Brady play. Here's what we learned yesterday, though. Ridiculous. Other than that, you can't keep giving Tom Brady chances to beat you, and Bill Belichick is a master. Like, the adjustments they made during the game

was incredible, as always. But the Jags played not to lose. They really did. The week before in Pittsburgh, they didn't play not to lose. They played to win the whole time. I they when they kneeled with 55 seconds left i got excited a lot a lot i was like you don't trust your quarterback if you do that i was watching with hench too i don't know they're not a quick score team and you know but that was look that

was patriots football 14-3 they get a first down jacksonville at I think the 25 but there's delay a game and then holding and then sack and then helmet to helmet and then pass interference and then touchdown Jacksonville got the delay a game

after the timeout that's Tate you're laughing that's Patriots football right there right you give them any bit of daylight they're gonna make you pay for it

the Gronk was a helmet to helmet like no question I'm just saying like everything leads to something bad Cooks the ball landed right where he would have run a straight line then the guy shoved him out of bounds all right we still have not talked about the worst officiated play yet which one is that game you know what it is which one the miles jack fumble recovery where he's not within two yards of uh of uh who was it white who fumbled white

or lewis lewis lewis le. Lewis. Lewis touched him as he got it. Come on. Tate. No one touched him. He wasn't close to anybody. I thought he touched him. That should have been a touchdown. Did they come back from 27-10?

I actually thought we should have kept the ball. How is that a fumble? I think the refs are like- That was definitely not a fumble. The refs are like, all right, look, we have to fix this for the Patriots. We're not going to give you the touchdown, which you deserve, but we'll call it a fumble. He lost the ball, but then he landed.

He had the ball pressed against his leg. I don't know. He pinned it against him. But why blow a whistle there when you're going to call it a fumble? Anyway, look, everything's reviewed, right? Every turnover is reviewed. Don't blow the whistle. Take your whistle and chuck it into the third row

as soon as that ball comes through. I know. They love blowing that whistle. Oh, my God. Well, that saved. Who was the QB that saved? Mariota in the first playoff game. When he got sacked.

Forward motion. Forward progress. Progress play. Did you think? I'm still trying to understand how Lewis didn't get 60 yards on that play. He had three blockers in front of him. Oh, I know. So that was the double pass.

He was like tiptoeing. Was that the double pass? The double pass? Yeah. Just run. You had three blockers. Right. In fact, I've never seen the double pass? Was that the double pass? The double pass? Yeah. Just run. You three blockers. Right. In fact, I've never seen a double pass.

Do you think he had an option to run it there? Because it looked like he took so many. He really looked like he was coming through the hole there. I think he faked that he was going to run it. That was ridiculous. But Bortles. So Lombardi said something interesting. I don't know if this is true, but it makes sense.

He basically said the Jags had 30 plays. And once they ran through their 30 plays, they had nothing left. And that's why, like, as the game went on, they brought that Grant guy in who was super dangerous. They ran, like, the two swing passes with him, and then we never saw him again. They had, like, a couple different wheel routes that they ran and a couple different cross.

By the fourth quarter, they had nothing. And it was interesting, Gilmore, who completely justified his contract with one of the best plays in the history of Pat's defensive back, you know, phenomenal. But he said after the game, I was anticipating that play because they'd run it twice already. Yeah. When that guy knows a play, maybe it's trouble.

Our boy Romo was blowing up the Jags offensive coordinator how great he was. It really seems like he might have only had 29 plays. Yeah. And then they just ran out. And the Pats were just so eager to kick the ball back to them over and over again. It was weird.

Those crossing routes, and Romo would say it. He was like, watch the crossing route here. Defend the crosses here. And Yeldon would be like, for 11 and 12, you couldn't get the third down on the Jags for a while in the first half. But then that was the strange thing to me. Say they shouldn't have kneeled down before the half. Just run four net once and see if all of a sudden you get seven yards.

It was like three games, though. Right. I agree. But they lost the third quarter of the Patriots. Like the Jags outscored them. So like they had more life there in 20 to 10. I'm obviously watching the odds. Pats were plus 300 when they were down 10 points.

Jags had the ball. Pats were down 10 points. We shouldn't have gotten the ball back with two minutes left. Well, so that was the Harrison play. Timeout, delay game. Then they screwed up and they kicked a test. Yeah, the first half. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

And then third and 18, that's ridiculous. There's one guy in the field he's thrown to in that spot. It's Amendola and somehow he wasn't covered. Right. And then we actually didn't score the next time we got the ball. I was thinking of your dad. They had the ball. Right. Kicked, punted it to us. We punted it back to them. Yeah, got the ball. I was thinking of your dad. They had the ball. Right.

Kicked, punted it to us. We punted it back to them. Yeah, fourth and three. They just don't do anything. Twice, uncharacteristic. One was fourth and three. One was fourth and two. Right there, you're playing the field position game,

and they flipped it. They got it to midfield. Bortles had a throw that would have ended us. The wheel route to Fournette on the last drive. Yeah. It looked like Fournette didn't. That was open. That was the worst case scenario.

We had a slow linebacker on him. He was open. You know what that sounded like to you? That's a touchdown. Poof, poof, poof, poof, poof, poof. Blake, did he have a Blake Bortles? I don't know. Did he?

Nick Van? What was the Bortles drink we had growing up? Who was it? Blake Wine Bortles? Oh, yeah. Bortles and James. Blake Bortles drink we had growing up? Who was it? Blake Wine Bortles. Oh, yeah. Bortles and James. Blake Bortles and James!

That was a good one. That was about in 1980. But here's the thing. Two-ish, yeah. If they have a slightly better quarterback, I think. I know Bortles played well for him. 14 for 16 to start. That was crazy.

You just needed, they needed him to make a couple plays on one of those last three drives And he just didn't Do you need an elite quarterback anymore? Maybe we should ask Romo this If we ever talk to him If Romo ever calls in we should ask him

If you're listening Tony call in right now Because we have some questions But what did we take from this playoffs? Do you need an elite defense? I know three of the top seven were in there I think you need a good coach And you need your elite defense? I know three of the top like seven were in there. I think you need a good coach. You need a good coach. And you need your quarterback to play well.

You just need like an average quarterback to play well, not make mistakes and play well. Whether he's elite, not elite, whatever. You just need him to play well for a couple straight games. Nick Foles played really well last week. He played really well this week. No turnovers. Unbelievable.

I do think the one thing I've learned for just going forward for gambling purposes is when the backup comes in and looks terrible, we can't overreact to that because that guy's done nothing all week. I guess so. When you have like three or four weeks to work with your backup, and that's a different kind of thing. And he, from a confidence standpoint, was a totally different guy. And they rejuvenated him.

The Raiders were so bad going into that Christmas Day game. I know. They just did nothing foals tried he definitely tried against the cowboys week 17 couldn't put anything up there's no reason to believe that he was going to turn it around except he did what's what's storyline for the super bowl are you the least excited about i was going to say for you and i need to put a negative spin on this because it's the Patriots. Please do. Well, we discussed when the Vikings went up 7-0,

like you said maybe it is, maybe this is what it is. Like Tom wins in the opposing stadium. That's never been done. But what's this one going to be remembered as? Like he won the Super Bowl against the backup quarterback? The naysayers will point to. Thank you. I had to get it out.

Please, I need something. I haven't been able to root for a Super Bowl. And I guess Panthers, Tate, yours was the last one I got to root for. Panthers, Broncos. Yes. Otherwise, it's all Patriots or Eagles or Giants. The naysayers will point to the Mariota Bortles full threesome as the Brady foils. Yeah, right.

Probably an NP on that a little bit. I just want to point out, I hope everyone watched the game yesterday. The Pats front seven is pretty abominable, like how slow they are. And they kept running those screens and wheel routes and our linebackers just aren't fast. And eventually we moved the safety up and if Bortles was going to throw deep we had man coverage on every receiver

they had like they had he had 40 yard passes anytime he wanted them he just didn't want to throw them right right Foles will throw them and has guys who will run down the field even that Torrey Smith who dropped one early like they had 38 points and he dropped a touchdown, basically. They were good, man. Jeffrey, these guys out of nowhere. Yeah, those guys,

they will go deep on us. And they can run, too. How much are you nervous about Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount? No, they were great Patriots. No, LeGarrette Blount loved being a Patriot.

Yeah. He loved it more than anyone. He went and got paid. Right. we told him to get paid yeah we go get go get paid le garrett you're a super ball champ do we do a line do we guess the line even well i sent you a line of six no said seven oh seven you can't even remember the one that Bowl thing. I say you can let a seven. Yeah. What did you say? We both said seven.

It opened at six. It's down to five and a half. Sunset Station at five and a half. And there are some fives out there. William Hill is five. And this is the largest Super Bowl spread in nine years since Pittsburgh, Arizona, which that was seven also. Oh, that was seven. I have a controversial take.

What? I think the line's too high. This is stupid. No, you don't. I do. No, you don't. I think it's too high. Why?

I think it should be like three and a half. How could you guess seven and it comes out five and a half and you say it's too high? You think it's too high? I'm not saying that's what I thought the line should be. I'm guessing,

I was thinking that's where Vegas would put it to try to get balance of money, which is what they did. Right saying that's what I thought the line should be. I'm guessing, I was thinking that's where Vegas would put it to try to get balance of money, which is what they did. Right, that's what I thought. I said, let them bet it off seven, but they only had five. If Wentz did what Foles did those last two games, the Eagles would be favored by three points. The Eagles would be favored. They would. Oh, you're a

maniac. You're a maniac. All right, Tate, you're the tiebreaker. Wentz never gets hurt. They go 14-2, and then they do what they did those last two games. Who's favored? I think the Pats would be favored by three breaks. Yeah, three, three and a half, right? Yeah.

Although I will say this, if Minnesota won that game 35-7... The Pats are the best team. Yeah, they have experience. Let's see, he suckers us into doing this. Now we have to praise the Patriots. It sucks. It just ends up... sucks. Our three biggest games of the year. Chiefs week one, we lose. Steelers

week 15, we win because Jesse James, the whatever, touched the ground. What's that rule? I don't know. I'm glad to hear you admit it, though. Last week, you had forgotten about this altogether. It's not our fault he couldn't hold on to the touchdown. It is your fault.

It was all your fault. If he was good enough, he would have held on to it. But if he holds on to it, we lose. Right. And then this last week, we're down 10 with 10 minutes left, and it's 3rd and 18. And if they stop us, we're punting, and they have the ball on like the 35, and it's like two first downs, the game's over.

It's not like we're blowing teams out. No, I know. So, I don't know. I think the line should be three and a half. They do this all the time. They're like, home field means three, and this means this, and this is like, and oh, we'll give the Patriots an extra point because they've been there before.

No, give them six extra points because they've been there before. That's a huge deal that Brady's not going to have any butterflies in his stomach, and Foles is going to need a new pair of MeUndies. Foles looked good yesterday. I know. I know. But it's different when you're home. And it's different in the dark.

What about Gronk? Doesn't that play in the line? He's playing. He's had a concussion. Is there any way he doesn't play? This is like his second concussion in three years. What is that evaluation like anyway? I mean, you ask him how many fingers you're up when he's lucid.

He's giggling. How do you determine if he's right or not you know that's when i really realized that i was more committed to the concussion side of player safety than my own team yeah because i didn't want grunt to come back i think like eight years ago i would have been like get him on the field right fucking give him some smelling salts get that really back out there really no absolutely not it's just i would have been like, get him on the field. Fucking give him some smelling salts. Get that pussy back out there. No, absolutely not. It's just I would have been a complete hypocrite

every time somebody else has come back. I was hoping for that. You didn't fall. You didn't take the bait. Like Cam Newton, it was the same thing. Cam Newton shouldn't have come back in that game. These guys, they get a concussion, you're out. Yeah.

And when he got hurt, I still go back to that Jamal Charles, that Colts Chiefs game. That was the first time this has happened where the guy got the concussion and everybody kind of realized, Oh, he shouldn't come back.

He has a concussion. And now it's like, you didn't even think about it. Like Gronk clearly had a concussion. That's it. We're not going to see him again. Yeah. And I don't know,

in a weird way, it, it kind of helped the offense in the fourth quarter. Cause they kept Dwayne Allen in the black. They couldn't cover Danny for whatever reason. And Cooks was killing all of a sudden. Since when did he become Danny? Let me tell you something about Danny Amendola.

Let me tell you. I want you to know something about this man. One of the great clutch Patriots of all time. Yeah. Not one of the great Patriots of all time, but has replaced Kevin Falk as this decade's weirdly clutch guy that for some reason is just better in January and February than he is in the other months. Robert Horry-esque. He's Robert Horry-esque.

He makes fucking huge plays. That touchdown catch was ridiculous. That was crazy. Antonio Brown makes that catch. Who else? You look at the D-back. Who else makes that catch? Do the Panthers have one guy who makes that catch?

No, definitely not the Panthers. Funch is when he's at 65%. Thielen maybe makes that catch. I don't know, man. I still don't know how he got it, how he left his feet. I mean, you look at the D-back's reactions on that, because they don't even jump at all. They think it's in the fourth row.

They think he's throwing it out of bounds. Yeah, right. They could have grabbed his leg. Like, his leg was in the air yeah a deep back and he knocked them out get a chance right if we ever had somebody like tony romo on the show i would ask him how crazy is that third and 18 like brady moving to the left to bring the safety over by like two feet so then danny can slide behind him the other way. Instead of throwing it straight, it's on a 25-degree angle and the guy just doesn't

realize Amendola's behind him. That was crazy. That was one of the best plays in the history of the franchise. The Jags should have won that game. If they just... You thought it was a blowout. When he hits 31 yards to Cooks. No, no, no. In the first, and the first drive 31 yards.

There's no doubt. His hand is fine. 31 to cooks. Did not think it was a blowout. And then fourth and two to Amendola. Did not think it was a blowout. Sideline. No,

they only come away with three there. You thought it was going to be 34, three. Never, ever, ever thought it was a blowout. Yeah. I,

I don't know. I think the more I looked at the game this week, I know I wasn't that scared of the Jags last week, but the more I looked at it, I just feel like they, I thought the Jags were going to show up. Yeah. The team that I don't understand why they didn't show up

was the Vikings. That was weird. And that first drive was so easy. Rudolph was so open. 7-0. And like we said, they had the ball. So we have Super Bowl is 5-1, and where do we think the line ends? I just want to go. I need a little credit for calling the exact final score of Jacksonville,

New England. 24-20. 24-20. After predicting that Diggs would score the winning touchdown on the ringer videos that I make every week. I don't make them. But, yeah. Well,

you make, you write and that's right. Voice them. I don't, yeah. I don't put the nice animation together. Shout out to dark map, by the way.

Yeah. Um, Mac author 24, 20. Yeah. And then you missed the second game. I missed the second game by a mile. You were big on the bikes.

I did. Like I said, when you're, what do you, what do you analyze? Like, I don't know. I, I on the Vikes. Like I said, what do you analyze? I don't know. I just went old school, home dog. I love the home dogs. But we should mention I love the Eagles both weeks

and I lost money both weeks on the Eagles. You tied it to the under yesterday. I tied it to the under which I'll spend the rest of my life wondering how that game doesn't go under. Right. The Vikings scored seven points

and the game does not go under. Somebody, a reader emailed me. If I told you before that game that Nick Foles was going to be benched in the fourth quarter, what do you think

the score would be? I'm like, oh my God. Nate Sunfield had to come in? About 35-7. Yeah. Oh, how many interceptions did he throw?

And then meanwhile, I had a couple other. Bovada had a prop, though. We talked about it on Against All Odds. Will any of the four backups take a snap? And it couldn't be due to injury. So you would think no for sure, right? And then Sudfield did take a snap. us yeah the yes wins or bradford coming in that's what that was the only thing right zimmer said if they got down big exactly one of

those teams get down big let's take one more break hey if you're trying online dating odds are you've run into lazy text messages dead-end conversations and random matches that don't turn into dates e-harmony is unlike many other online dating sites built to help you find lasting, meaningful relationships with a more compatible match. They've helped over a million people find their perfect match using years and years of science data and psychological research to send you the right matches. Hey, there are plenty of hookup sites out there.

eHarmony brings compatible people together. Right now, my listeners get a free month with eHarmony brings compatible people together. Right now, my listeners get a free month with eHarmony when they sign up for a three-month subscription and are my code BS at checkout. Nephew Kyle did this. You've heard him on this podcast, Nephew Kyle. Tate's Jimmy Garoppolo. And without giving away too many details, Nephew Kyle says it works. Stop waiting. Start your journey to a satisfying meaningful relationship when you're ready to fall in love

and have a meaningful relationship there's one app built to bring you real love eHarmony come see how eHarmony can change your life go to eHarmony.com

and get started enter my code BS at checkout Joby from Rochester says the Patriots are 3-0

versus Bird teams in the Super Bowl how will this affect you and Sal's wagering on the gameots are 3-0 versus bird teams in the Super Bowl. How will this affect you and Sal's wagering in the game? Oh, man. 3-0 against bird teams. 3-0, just not against the spread. Teams with birds. Straight up.

Birds. Yeah. So it's Eagles. It's who else? I don't forget the birds. The Seahawks. Seahawks. Not the Ravens.

They're in the same conference. Falcons. Falcons. Falcons. Okay, good. Yeah. Blocked them all out. How many Pat Super Bowls? What's your record gambling-wise on Pat Super Bowls?

The 18-0 Super Bowl demolished you. I lost both Giant games. Yeah. I lost, but I gave points against the Eagles. They didn't cover it, right? The Panthers, they didn't cover? They didn't cover any of the second or third. And then I had Seattle.

They didn't cover the second, third, fourth, or fifth. I don't know that I've ever picked them right. I had Seattle and I had Atlanta. You didn't pick them last week? You had Atlanta? I only have Atlanta. I bought the half point. They're getting three and a half in overtime.

Don't laugh at me. It's been a long run of misery. I forgot. You thought it was going to be the field goal to win it. Yeah, I was like, let me pick a field goal in overtime. Didn't play any defense. What do you think? You think it's too high, so you're taking the Eagles.

Bill's already said it. I want to see where it lands. Eagles Nation, that's what the guy said, said, Doug Peterson deserved coach of the year. He just outclassed Zimmer. He made Nick Foles look like a stud. Can you finally give him your due? There's no coach other than Belichick I'd rather have.

Big turnaround for Doug Peterson. I think I agree. I think he's in the top five now. Oh, I don't know. Yeah? You win two playoff games in a row as underdogs. You save your season after Wentz goes out and keep everybody locked in. The plays that they ran, the imagination they have,

I was really impressed by. I don't know. Great job yesterday. Very good job the week before, but you don't put them in the top five if Julio Jones catches a game-winning touchdown. No. I would not. The real problem with the top five is that Belichick's the only coach who really matters.

Andy Reid's in the top five. Yeah, there's that. Andy Reid's definitely a top five coach. I wrote this on Friday because people are like, Tom, why don't you get fired? It's like, he's one of the 10 best coaches. I think he's a terrible game manager and I have a lot of issues with him, but he's still better than Hugh Jackson

and all these other dudes. So they have odds. I know you want to read another one. They have odds on, or I saw odds on Belichick announcing his retirement after the Super Bowl. What are the odds? He was plus 250 that he does.

Oh, no way. No? No way. He'll never leave on it. You have to knock him out. Never leave on high? No, he's going to try to win three Super Bowls in a row if they can win this one. They haven't done that?

I can't even keep track anymore. All right. Charlie from Chicago wants to know, if Foles wins the Super Bowl, is this the worst case situation for Wentz? Has a backup QB ever won a Super Bowl and the starter then maintained their status as a QB? I can't remember. What happened with Hostetler and Sims? Sims came back. It was Sims'

team. Sims was never the same, though. They never won again with him. No, that was it, I guess. I don't know what you do, and what do you do with the Vikings? None of these guys are on the contract, either. Same thing. And they have three. I wouldn't pay Case Keenum $20 million a year. I'll tell you that much. No, but did not... They of these guys are on the contract either. Same thing. And they have three. I wouldn't pay Case Keenum $20 million a year.

I'll tell you that much. No, but did not, they could let him go on the market. They're not going to. Let him go. You don't tag him, right? Don't tag him. Yeah.

Who does Sam, is Sam Bradford a good Jets quarterback? Did that guy start? Don't do that for the Jets. I know, I have too many Jets fans, friends.

So if Cousins, where would Cousins go? Cousins should go to the Browns. No, Cous't do that to the Jets. I have too many Jets fans, friends. So where would Cousins go? Cousins should go to the Browns. No, Cousins should go to the Browns. They should just pay Cousins and then use those picks on blue chippers, right? Just get a bunch of defensive guys. Yeah, get a fucking awesome studs. You don't want us to franchise you? Now you're a Brown.

I hope you like what happened. Tyler from Menifee wants to know, the Pats had one penalty for 10 yards. The Jack strip is blown dead, yet then called a fumble. Something smells fishy. Did you feel like the Pats committed penalties that they weren't calling? I don't know. I'm biased, so I can't look at it correctly. Actually, there was actually, I thought Brady was in trouble a couple of times and there

could have been a holding call. But one penalty. It's weird that we didn't have one hold. In the last seven years, that's the fewest penalties for a team in the championship game. Look how happy you are. It just doesn't matter. It doesn't really, none of it ever matters. It's just win after win.

People are going to realize when Brady's gone that this was the most special thing that's ever happened in the NFL. This is insane. He's 40. Yeah. He's 40 years old. I was thinking that. They were down 10 and everybody watching it is when they get the third and 18.

Did you think they were going to win the game? Yeah, I did. I still. Tate, what'd you think? I thought they were going to win the whole time. I didn't even get my hopes up. It just saw it. It was the writing on the wall.

What other football team is like this, where you're like, oh, they're going to win. They're down 10, 11 minutes left. I know. Well, part of it is other team stupidity down the stretch. I don't know what happens. Dan Wetzel on Yahoo had a really good article about the Jaguars coming close

and kind of looking into the Brady fire and how he just kind of breaks you. And they were just like, that guy's great. Like, we can't, against the Patriots, you can't give them extra chances. You can't keep them around. You got to put them away, and we didn't. Look, he's the best, but has anyone pressured him

like that Denver team did in the conference championship two years ago? Like, I guess the Dolphins this year, right? That Monday night game? I just thought we'd see more of that from Jacksonville. They're like, no, they only rushed four. They only ever rushed four. And that's all they have to do because they constantly apply pressures.

Like, I don't know. Rush five. Send miles, Jack. They did once. I thought the guy that really hurt Jacksonville was Bouye. Yeah. Cooks had a huge game and he was giving him like five, six, seven yards on those. Right.

On those longer passes. He had the big pass interference. I don't know. I thought for the amount of money they spent on him, I was not impressed. I just wasn't. And Jalen Ramsey had a big interference call too, where he basically grabbed that dude around the neck and all that stuff. I don't know what that team.

They're three and 13 last year. One more time. Wednesday night, Los Angeles. Binge mode. The rewatchables. Joining forces at Largo. Tickets are still available. Only a couple left.

If you want to check it out, go to our website at the ringer.com or go to Largo's website. We break down Friday night light season two. We're going to break down varsity blues. It is a football slash black comedy extravaganza because those, both of those entities are black comedies. Varsity blues did not know it was funny at the time, but now it's hilarious. Uh, Friday nights, Friday night light season two definitely did not know it was funny at the time, but now it's hilarious. Friday Night Lights Season 2 definitely did not know it was funny at the time, and now it is rip-roaringly hilarious. Anyway, check it out. Largo. A couple tickets still left Wednesday night. Me, Shea Serrano, Jason Concepcion, Mallory Rubin. Good times. All right. On the line right now, as promised, the one and only Tony Romo coming off.

That's it. You're done, right? You're done with broadcasting for the year. Yep, done forever. It's a good run. Tony doesn't know. He just woke up. They just announced you're the MVP of the league, Tony. Congratulations. Wow. Appreciate you. Thank you guys. I'm so honored.

What was your favorite thing about doing the announcing this year? Well, I think really for me, it was just being able to almost show your passion toward football. I mean, you're out there and like doing the game yesterday. And I just know the feelings that Portal has, what he's going through. And then Brady, you're down 10 in the fourth quarter like what do you have to do mentally and you know you lost your top target

ronkowski and how do you overcome that against the team that's going to play man coverage and you know and you just have to all of a sudden start to shift into a different boat and figure out new ways to move the football you got to do it quickly and uh i just i think there's something really unique and special about that did you think that people i want them to know was there any point any point in the game that you thought the patriots would lose that game was there any like maybe if they let miles jack if they do the right thing the referees and let him run that back for a touchdown maybe it's different but beyond that down 10 was there any time you thought they could lose that game? Yeah. I tried to tell people throughout

the week this is going to be the toughest opponent New England's had this year. Pittsburgh was a great game. I really thought the matchup, though, was not great for New England. It's a team who, schematically, is much better than people think. They don't just line up and play one coverage.

You know, they were coming with a great plan. They had a great defensive coordinator that no one knows about. Jacksonville really, you know, it's just a bad matchup for New England. When you have Tom Brady, you have Bill Belichick, you can overcome that. But most teams without him, you know, with the way style is, you know, leave this book going in, it was going to be difficult. But you got number 12 over there. You always have an incredible chance to overcome really anything.

Tony, I'm just glad you were there to see it firsthand, to see the GOAT in action. Third and 18, 10 and a half minutes left. Gronk's out, no Edelman. He just does it. I'm glad you were. No Edelman. He just does it. I'm glad you were there. I'm glad you got to experience it. You almost sound like you're a Patriots fan, Bill.

You know, the funny thing is, on that third and 18, you don't get a ton of time to discuss, tell people everything. It's just a line I talked about for a second. But on that play, you can see Tom's shoulders and his head looking left, moving the inside of the defense, the linebacker, so they could get out of the window that they were supposed to be standing in to take away, I believe it was Amendola, right? On the pass or with Hogan?

Amendola. Yeah, it was Amendola on an inside route that's just a deep dig, we call it, deep in. And if the inside of the defense stays there and doesn't move with Brady's eyes, there's no window, there's nowhere to go with the ball. But Brady moves his shoulders, moves his body, moves his head so that they get out of position. And that's really the difference in a lot of these games. It's something as subtle as that. That team of third and 18, the something as subtle as that. That team, a third and 18th.

The other quarterback at the end of the game, who played an outstanding game, had a third and 19th, I believe, and then a fourth and 19th. And the difference was that one guy made it and the other one didn't. And, you know, if Bortles makes that play or if Gilmore doesn't make that incredible tip at the end, that guy didn't play. But the quarterback who does that, you know, Gilmore doesn't make that incredible tip at the end, that guy can't play. But quarterback who does that, you know, that was the difference. Tony, let me ask you, because this year the big thing is like, oh, I can't believe it, Bortles and Foles and Keenum,

and these guys are in the Final Four. It's like, is this just going to be commonplace once Brady leaves and once, you know, Breeze goes and Aaron Rodgers? This is going to be an anomaly, right? It won't matter anymore that three no-name or some of the elite quarterbacks aren't around. Do you think this is going to be the norm? Well, I think what happened was the NFL had this, I don't want to say golden age of quarterbacking, but you had this 10-year run of just high, high-level quarterback play.

Manning and Brady were around. You still had Favre. You had Rodgers. You know, Manning was two Super Bowls during this stretch. You had Ben Roethlisberger. You could throw yourself in there. You could throw yourself in there, No. 9. Don't be bashful.

No, at the end, I was going to say that I, you know, was obviously the best of all of them but i really feel like you also had kurt warner i mean it was it's just a rare thing if you look back now you're like man any of those guys in their primes you know would be one of the top two or three guys every year now going forward and the league needs to find that you know next phase of that but that's really rare to have that many quality I mean in the 90s and the 80s you're looking

at three guys consistently right and then a guy will sprinkle in for a year or two with a couple good years but it's just hard to find guys who can play at that level having a Manning and a Brady just set such a standard that I feel like we just feel like oh the great quarterback is supposed to play in the Superbowl every year.

Well, that's not normal. Dan Marino, you know, played in one. I think we think he's pretty good. It's just the reality of it is it's such a team game that Brady makes it look and man,

they were so special and unique that they just make it look, you know, far easier than it is. And you know, how many Superbowls there in Rogers played it? Two. Yeah. Two play in? Two. One? Yeah, two.

No, it's two. I mean, it's just, you think about it, you're like, man, it's incredible how difficult it is to get there. We all know how talented he is. I just think what happens is the defenses are going to carry you. At the end of the day, football is really about getting a dominant defense, carrying it through, and if you get any kind of good quarterback play, you have a chance to win a title every year.

And if you get a great quarterback, you're going to have good seasons, but you ultimately will normally lose somewhere to a great defense along the way. And that's the story of the NFL and what happens. I think you'll see that in the future. I think you'll see the dominant defense will continue to play out. Bill Belichick will find a way. And then when Tom Brady's gone, you just won that in the future. I think you'll see the dominant defense will continue to play out. Bill Belichick will find a way. And then when Tom Brady's gone, you just won't see this consistency. No.

Ever again, I don't think. I think Rodgers might have only been one. Hey, you get to interview these coaches. You get to hang out. And the announcers love to talk about it. We talked to him last night. We hung out with him yesterday. Who is your favorite coach to talk to out of all these 19 weeks?

Well, they're all different. I think for me, Bill Belichick stands out just from almost a learning standpoint. It's really been, you know, I ask a million questions. Sometimes I test some coaches with some questions to find out, you know, how gifted they are at different times. But, uh, but you know, coach Belichick's just, he gives his team such a schematic advantage. He just knows ball so well. He's a ball coach, you know, 24 seven. And I'm kind of a football junkie. So for me,

it's really enjoyable to almost go back and learn a little bit, you know, about some things that, uh, I wasn't privy to, you know, special team stuff, stuff I never even had to think about. And, you know, team building philosophy, organizationally, what to do. No. Well, what are you thinking leading up to the draft and, you know, things I won't repeat, obviously. But I think that I've enjoyed almost learning. So that's been really enjoyable. You know, Tony, I don't want you to think I'm stalking you.

Yes, sure, I named my son after you and all that. But I went through every single one of your games, and I figured out, conservatively, you would have won eight Super Bowls with Belichick as your coach. What do you feel? You say over or under eight? That's a good conservative number. I think that's pretty accurate.

I think what you find is, you know, I made this comment a week or two ago, but the closest thing I can compare to New England is the Spurs. When you have the best coach in the league, and I think Greg Popovich for a long time has stood out as, you know, he's not the best, he's right at the top of the list. And then all of a sudden you add a player who's in the top two or three in the league, Tim Duncan. You can make an argument all those years he was one some years, two other years, three, but he was so dominant. And when you put those two guys together, it's just good luck for every other team. It's a

dynasty. It's the only way to really sustain something for 12, 15 years. You can do things for four or five, but over time you need both these people to make it where you just never fall off. And I think, I think the unique thing is that the Patriots have done the same thing. They have the best coach. They have the best player. Well, how do you beat them? Well, one guy's defense, the other's offense. It's kind of like you have to play a game that is such above your norm

to beat those guys. And I think the Spurs are the only people that have done it. I mean, they won five titles over the 15 years. They were always in the mix and I just think when you get two pair like that together, good luck. Tony, you had a ton of success

as the lead announcer this year and some crossover appeal now because this doesn't happen that often but I think it might happen with you. How would you rank these in probability of think it might happen with you. How would you rank these in probability of, of things that could happen to you over the next six years? Um, you get your own, you get your own sitcom or a sitcom based on you. Like that happened to Michael Strahan, right? Um, you get a coaching opportunity cause that seems to happen with,

uh, with the bigger announcers. They're always, they start getting thrown in names. Look at John Gruden just got a hundred million bucks. He hadn't coached in, you know, 12 years. Um, what about crossing over and other sports? Like, could you see going on being on the masters on like the 15th hole and being an announcer there or some sort of wildcard scenario that I haven't thought of. Do you see you just doing this with football over the next 10 years? Well, I think I'm passionate and I love this, so I expect to do this for a long period of time. To say that what's going to happen in 10 years is silly. I don't know what's going to happen.

I do think there's a couple things that I always want to be involved in football. I think this is obviously what I love to do right now, and this is amazing. I got a great team at CBS that makes me look better than I am. And I feel like I'm going to continue this for as long as it feels that way. I don't see that changing any time in the near future. That was not an answer.

You didn't answer the question. All right, well, let's put it this way. If Jerry Jones in five years, do you think you would need to be a coordinator first or they're just going to hire you as a coach? Because you've proven just in the booth that you have more and better insight than anybody else. Why would they screw around and have you go through the normal process?

It'd just make you the head coach already right i think what i think honestly for me when i get older i'm sure at some point you know uh i'm old for playing football i guess i'm relatively young for some of the other things in life so i got 20 years my kids are young i'm not gonna be doing anything different here in the near future you know but when i'm older older, maybe a long time down the road, I'm sure I'll do something involving coaching at some point, whether it's high school ball, NFL, I don't know. That stuff is just so far out there I'm not thinking about it yet. But at some point, I'm sure I'll want to do some of the ideas I have within the game.

Tony, you don't get paid 100 million dollars over 10 years in high school football yeah i'm just that's a news flash well you guys aren't around texas high school football very much we should come tony let me ask you was there a point in the season where i know like you were better than everybody else because i felt like you had a helmet on while you were calling every game. Like you, you sense that you could go on the field and play at any time. Was there any point in the season where it became like,

I'm an announcer now. I just, I, my desire to play is less and less or, or was it constant throughout? Like, was there a game or a play that you saw that you were like, all right,

I know, I know my place now. I don't think I've ever had a switch or a thing that made me feel that way. I think more than anything, when I'm announcing, I'm basically just thinking of what I'd be thinking of when I'm playing. I'm watching, you know, schematically what teams are trying to do, what the defense came in, what was the plan. I just try and communicate what's going through my brain when I was playing and how I would attack it,

when I would come to the sideline and tell our coordinator, here's what I want to do, here's what I think, here's what they've gone to, let's get more to this. Things like that, and I just try and articulate that to the viewer. So for me, I guess I don't think about it from the terms of playing or not playing, you just think about what you'd be doing if you were flying and what, and I just kind of say it, you know, as I'm watching.

Yeah. How many, how many teams could you have taken to the final four after having watched their quarterbacks over under eight? I think, I think, uh, I probably could have taken Duke there a couple of years ago.

They were pretty good. I think I could could have taken Duke there a couple years ago. They were pretty good. I think I could have helped out in practice. Ultimately, you always wanted to be there and be part of the final grouping, the final two, and playing that game. It doesn't always go the way you want it. Can I ask you a Sal question? What's a Sal question? Sure.

You and Sal, you've known each other now for like eight, nine years. Yeah. What's your favorite thing about Sal? This is stupid. Don't answer that. You're not under oath. You don't have to answer that. I do. I can answer that. I think my under oath. You don't have to answer that.

I do. I can answer that. I think my favorite thing about Sal is that he named his son after me. I literally think Jack Romo is probably my favorite. How do we pronounce Sal's last name? Iacono. That's it. Yeah, something like that.

Something like that. It's like. Yeah. Wait a minute, though. Let's Something like that. It's like... Yeah. You know, you have... Well, wait a minute, though. Let's talk about that for a second. You had a third boy. You name him Lance... You name him Jones,

and you have a chance to repay the favor. You could name him Jones Sal. You go Jones McCoy after the... After what? The backup quarterback for the Redskins? I didn't understand that. Where did McCoy come from? No, no. It's Jones McCoy come from? No,

no, it's, it's Jones McCoy. Oh, is that what it is? Okay. Oh, all right.

Yeah. I just didn't put it on any paperwork and haven't told anybody. I see. It's not on the, uh, announced birth announcement. Okay. Can you,

no one actually knows about it at all. So it's just, it's just really for you. Can you give us the funniest behind the scenes thing on jim nance that um you haven't said publicly the funniest quirk or trait that he has that you're amazed hasn't come out yet i think they're all out i think that the thing about jim is jim is actually like really a guy's guy you know know, he's the voice of the Masters, and he's got that incredible sound. And, you know, he's been like a mentor for me through this whole time.

And, you know, how lucky am I that I get to start with Jim Nance? But I feel like, you know, hanging out with Jim has been a blast. We've really had a great time and going to dinner, getting ready for the game, talking about the games the night before, and just joking and laughing. And I love sports he loves sports there's so much in common there and then and he makes jokes that are you know just funny and i i enjoy being out i think the biggest thing that people understand is that he's he's a guy's guy that really you know can turn into that voice and that perfect kind of tone for an event or a Masters and such.

But also, you can have a great time with him. He's really fun to be around. He is great. Every year, Tony, I put together a list of my favorite people I met in that given year. He's my favorite person I met in 2017. We went to dinner, and he loves you. Oh, my God. That's why you like having him around.

He could not speak more fondly of you. But it must be nice. It's like nothing negative. You don't have to deal with any of the negativity. You just go in the booth and you do your thing. And it really was a pleasure watching you this year. Hey. I appreciate you.

Yeah, he's fantastic. He makes it pretty easy. I mean, obviously obviously that relationship matters. I think more than I ever knew was that, you know, if the two of you really like each other and enjoy it, it goes a long way, and that's really easy for me and Jim. That's how Sal and I feel about each other, too. I work completely the opposite, but you guys are really doing well. Last question.

You don't have to announce this game so you can tell us. It looks like the line for this game is five and a half, Pat's Eagles. I think it's two points too high. Sal thinks it's actually a point too low. What do you think of just the line? You don't even have to tell us who you're gravitating toward. Just the line, five and a half, fair or unfair? Well, you know, I don't think I'm allowed to get into that kind of world speaking guys but i i've never i didn't know there were lines up is that what

people do nowadays he just made that up but just pretend yeah yeah let's let's pretend that uh you know new england is a team that everyone thinks is going to win and we'll say from my perspective in this specific game uh this is a very formidable everyone thinks is going to win. And we'll say, from my perspective in this specific game, this is a very formidable opponent that New England's going against. They are going to rush the quarterback. This is a great test for them, not unlike Jacksonville was, but different, different style of test. You have a great defensive coordinator in Jim Schwartz.

I think this football game is a very close football game. That's what I think. I agree is a very close football game that's what I think I agree with you Tony one possession game and come down to a third and 18 again Tony Romo thanks for finally calling in we appreciate it

see you buddy thanks for calling you got it guys take up golfing or something you have a lot of free time now oh that's what I'll do in my future take care Tony see you guys guys. Take up, take up golfing or something. You have a lot of free time now. Oh, that's what I'll do in my future. Take care, Tony.

Hey guys. All right. Before we get to parent corner, we should mention on the against all odds podcast. I'm coming on next week. You are. We're doing the Superbowl props on your podcast. Good.

Good. We're bumping the trifecta or you can do a second little, all right. You can do a second little all right you can do a second mini show with them but is lombardi on too no it's me and you all right that's it we're banging them out old school let's do it um props so if you're looking for the super bowl props podcast it's going to be on sal's podcast next week what a got it this is good against all odds subscribe you should subscribe anyway and really

this is when it heats up after football yeah once we get now we're getting into tennis and the men weird golf majors and uh the hot dog contest and hockey yeah and you have like a march man darren's got five kids telling us what's gonna happen in round one hockey playoffs. I don't know, Sal. I like the way Edmonton's playing. I think their goalie's getting hot. It's all there. If you really want to hear the degenerates in their full blossom, you have to wait until after football. That's right.

And then you've got to have Tate and Titus on for some college hoops, too. Definitely March Madness, breaking it down with them. This is the week I start watching college basketball officially. I think you've watched more this year than years past. It's been a little more, but I'm going in this week. Kansas and Oklahoma Tuesday night will be my official weekend. We haven't mentioned with Tate yet. Tate, devastating weekend for Tate.

Well, because Carolina and the Duke got that. The top three. And in a worst case scenario, Coach K, ever since Tate came after him, Coach K, it's turned personal. Stepped it up. Coach K basically sent a dick pic to Tate and was like, here's my dick. He dream on me.

He dream on Tate and he said, I already have the top two forwards in the country. I'm also getting Zion Williamson. Yeah, that one hurt. I'm going to have three forwards. I don't even know what to do with all these American forwards. I'll figure it out.

Maybe I'll put them all out. I'll create some new offense. And Tate went 0 for 3. They'll transfer per usual. I asked Tate about this. He doesn't seem phased at all about this. Tate, you went 0 for 3. Is it the academic scandals?

Are they finally catching up with North Carolina? What's going on? No NCAA cloud. It's fine. If they want to play for Duke and sign up with the devil, that's on them. Is it better or worse that he went to Duke? Because I was actually rooting for him to go to Clemson or South Carolina. And it's like an instant fun team for four months where it's just like, oh, that's Zion's team.

He went from general public, everyone likes him, to now he's chosen a side. So now some people will automatically hate him. So I feel bad for him. The move is, which, Clemson or South Carolina? He probably didn't want to play for Frank Byrne. If he went to Clemson or South Carolina or maybe even Kentucky. You thought Kentucky, right?

Yeah, he's more general public likable than I think going to Duke. Or even Carolina. Some people don't like Carolina. So once you put yourself in that rivalry, you already have a group of people that automatically hate you. But the move was South Carolina. The move was Clemson or South Carolina. Right.

I thought. Yeah. Would you say pick which one do you pick? Clemson. For what reason? Stepdad. And just, I mean, it's, it's open. You have all the money there.

You have all the football money. He immediately becomes the greatest Clemson basketball player of all time. That would have been fun. That would have been fun. That would have been fun. He should have done that. Can we talk him out of it? Let's give him a call. Give him a call after Romo.

Did Coach K drop the bag off yet or can we intercept that? He did something. Jeff Capel, good for him. It's weird to me that people hate players that go to Duke more than they do Kentucky, even though we know exactly.

Well, Duke's like the Patriots. People hate the Patriots. But at least with Kentucky, they've been doing that forever. Yeah, Kentucky's honest about it duke's not honest i guess yeah duke's like we're an academic institution and they've been wanted done for the whole decade yeah exactly patriots yeah since 2010 since kairi i'll know all this stuff after this week yeah it's a really good draft that's good all right parent corner uh you go first let me go first i've had this i think like an hour after

last week's parent corner i found out about this okay and he's he's talking about it on his podcast so i feel like we could talk about it on ours uh adam carolla's daughter has a crush on my son and here's what happens like every sunday we watch the games together and he's actually watching the games and she's just looking at her phone and she's looking down and i think they say three words to each other in six hours and that's enough she has a crush on him and my wife i told my wife i'm like oh this is crazy she's like you must not make fun i was, what is the point of this if I can't make fun of them about this? And it's funny because it's the one thing, like, we would have killed our parents. If you're with a girl or you're going to dance with a girl, whatever,

you don't want your dad's corny jokes, like, at all. You got to get out of the house. You don't want them picking up the phone at the other extension in the kitchen when you're in your bedroom. But when the roles are reversed, I like i gotta have it this is my this is my number one focus right now yeah to screw with these two i can see your tongues in your cheek corner of your cheek you love this but um she's cute she has one eyebrow but uh but she's cute you know and uh the only thing i'm worried about is i know he's not paying for the wedding. Yeah.

I think having Corolla as your father-in-law is the worst case scenario. What do we do? Unless the wedding's in a drive-thru and they ride off in a Newman race car or something. Corolla's Christmas party for his whole staff was like he ordered some barbecue on Postmates. Yeah. And they put like a tablecloth on some table. That's right. Yeah.

He won't spend more than $5,000 on your wedding. Well, otherwise, I wish them luck. But yeah. Yeah. And they put like a tablecloth on some table. That's right. Yeah, he won't spend more than $5,000 on your wedding. Well, otherwise, I wish them luck, but yeah. Wow. Yeah. This is unbelievable. I don't know if he likes her. Like I said, they don't talk. I don't know.

But that's how people interact now. That's how it is, right? It's just like a couple. Yeah, that's all it takes. So I went to a bar mitzvah on Saturday night. Oh, you went? Okay. I went because it was a good family friend that

we've we're just tight with so i went and i got to watch the whole bar mitzvah scene in action finally and it was spectacular this is the one you warned your daughter of making the speech actually thinking of the speech or was that another barman well she gave a speech for this one too and i was proud of her and by by the way, I've gotten a couple responses from people thanking us because their kids had to give bar mitzvah speeches and they really pushed them to do it. So a couple things that are on my radar now.

One is that my son was out of control at the bar mitzvah and they had a candy bar. Oh yeah. It was the equivalent of like 12 years from now, like somebody has cocaine and he's just in the bathroom and just like, he's wired. Three or four years.

It was the same thing now with gummy bears. It was the same thing that we overdosed on gummy bears and Sour Patch Kids. So there was like a dance scene and he was on the stage in the middle of everything leading it. And I showed up later and somebody's like you gotta see ben simmons he took over he's taking i'm like what and i go in he's on the stage and he's he's just a maniac but here's the speech advice i think i think was good advice here's my advice for these bar mitzvahs and stuff i was stunned by how many kids are on their phones the whole time.

Oh, yeah. And there's this one section over on the side where all these too-cool-for-school kids are just on their phones. They're not really interacting. And then you have people dancing while holding their phones because they all want to take their Instagram things.

Yeah. And it's just very phone-centric. And I don't mean to sound like the old guy on the couch, but there should be a middle ground. My thing is, if it was my son's bar mitzvah, I would take everyone's phones. It's like, you're coming in, no phones. We'll give your phones back at the end.

Almost like some people do that at parties, right? You get like the little lock boxes. It's like, you don't have your phones for five hours sorry you're gonna have to interact and have fun like their uh their wives and labor or anything where you need your phone because you don't need your phone the only thing you need your phone for is like some of them were posting instagram videos and stuff like that that's it that's it but that's invaluable though that is invaluable to the party the kid whose party it is and everything it's like but maybe you have you know in the old days you have like the wedding photographer or something like that maybe now you have like the wedding instagrammer and the guy takes little videos

and sends them out to different people and maybe that's its own business that's pretty good i was appalled um really i just just by where society's going and and i i really wonder how people are going to socialize. Some kids were great. They're having fun. They're not really doing that. And then other kids are just like, I'm tied to my phone. This is so much better. Thank God I have my phone.

I might actually have to have a conversation with somebody. Get the fuck out of here. As a society, we're doing something wrong. These are not just kids. They're adults, too. These are seventh graders. they're adults these are seventh grade yeah adults too yeah that drives me crazy when the final play of the game is although sometimes i'm like i go back and forth but watch it through your own eyes why are you recording this on your phone oh i don't get that one either yeah just tape the game but then then

you'll see like a stefan digs angle like you didn't see it like the cameras that got going well that's pretty cool i'm glad he did that um so yeah i know i mean i could have been on my phone you know what i was doing instead walking around talking to people and running into people like michael malley and talking for 20 minutes about how great tom brady is that's the kind of conversations you can have right should have been just like wow can you believe this we're two wins away again how is this possible are you going i wouldn't have had that conversation if i had my phone did but you later instagrammed a picture with him i didn't though i did instagram i followed my son during his fifth trip at the candy bar and actually just stood behind him and videotaped him right and uh and it was like corn julio he's just out of control he really loves it

uh fortunately there are no no fourth grade lasses to tempt him away from his current girlfriend oh that's right yeah he stayed loyal he stayed faithful didn't make any instagramming with heart was he like texting with her during the no because i took his phone oh you took his phone yeah come on parents let's get let's get better all right let's get better at this parents texting with her during the... No, because I took his phone. Oh, you took his phone. Yeah. Come on, parents. Let's get better. All right, take your kids' phones. Let's get better at this, parents. All right.

Birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, the whole thing. Then the other thing is, my daughter turns 13 this spring and really wants to... She's really jealous of these bar mitzvahs. So she wants to have a not mitzvah that's basically like a party that's like a bar mitzvahs. So she wants to have a not mitzvah that's basically like a party

that's like a bar mitzvah but doesn't have the religious overtones to it. She should. Yeah, she should want to do that because she wouldn't be paying for it. And I don't know. So now we have to throw you a party

on the line of the bar mitzvahs. The whole point of the bar mitzvahs is they're a religious thing. Right. But how much have you dished out on bar mitzvah gifts? Like 20 times? Oh. Right. But how much have you dished out on bar mitzvah gifts? Like 20, 20 times? Oh, you think this is my way to get the gifts back?

Well, at least get the parents to, yeah, get you some, some. That's interesting. Yeah. This was like, this bar mitzvah was at a place that held 400 people and there were tables and it was a football themed bar mitzvah and the tables had helmets on. So I sat at the Patriots table which was great they'd put me there i didn't i was actually they had a signed seating and o'malley was at the seahawks table and was mad that he wasn't at the patriots table imagine yeah but i was like but we beat the

seahawks that's better it's like you're holding the seahawks helmet head up we own the seahawks yeah you're i've taken over their table yeah and there are a couple it was a good idea though yeah um what do you got to plug uh we have against all odds this wednesday uh uh the parlay kid he was on fire and he had the gronk touchdown pats win tough tough tough to play when you're as i learned in high school tough to score when you're on the sidelines what does parlay kid feel about concussion awareness it's safety i'll have to ask him that that is excited about that he cares too much no put him in his brother brother bryan like strained his neck or something and he's like put him in like 10 because he's younger brother bryan but you know what we should

do next week what's that we should do you remember when uh like nbc they would switch the characters would switch on the shows oh yeah yeah we should, yeah. We should do, me and you do Super Bowl props on mine. Right. And then me and you in the trifecta will do their version on this one. Okay. Let's do that. It'll be like when ER went on Friends.

Right. And they had the double date with- Laverne and Shirley would come on Happy Days. I have two shows I like. You know how we always talk about how we don't like TV anymore? The Gianni Versace show is really good. You like it? I'm in on that. I like The Resident. I haven't, I don't know how we always talk about how we don't like TV anymore yeah the Gianni Versace show is really good you like it I'm in on that I like the resident

I haven't I don't know anything about this it was the show that came on right after Fox oh right after right after football and they're promoting it and the TV was just kind of on and I was like walking around and came on the first scene was good and I was like oh what is this and just watched it and

actually really liked it. Wow. Yeah. I think I'm in on the resident. I'm still behind on screeners. I still need like three. We're going to have a whole Oscar thing too, right? Eventually. So the Oscar noms come out tomorrow.

Yeah. My big prediction, Monday. I don't think Franco gets it. No? Not just because of the Me Too stuff. Well, he shouldn't anyway. Yeah, he shouldn't get it. It's a fucking SNL sketch for 90 minutes. How is that an Oscar performance? It was good. I think pattinson gets it over franco i think that's

the one i haven't seen pattinson that was that's the one you should see yeah and you like gary oldman and uh and uh daniel day lewis i mean if it were up to me like the gary oldman type performance would not get nominated but i get bored just like hey here's a ton of makeup and he's winston churchill i'm just so bored by those right i know i would vote uh i think jill and hoff should have gotten nominated but he won't i just thought that was a really hard acting performance and a hard one to pull off well patinson is my favorite one we'll do a whole thing well i want i i want to bet on get out i i want to really see where those odds are yeah because i think everybody's going to think three billboards is going to win.

And people are going to pick that movie apart for the next five weeks. And I don't think it's going to win. A woman saves the day. It's a lot. A lot. Asking a lot to overcome that in this climate. A woman saves the day in Three Billboards and in The Post. But that, I felt, was very average.

Wesley Morris, my old friend, still my friend, former Grantland colleague, wrote a nice piece about three billboards that I agreed with. Yeah. About just- The ending was ridiculous. Just why it should be picked apart.

The ending was rough. And why there's some falseness to it. It should not win Best Picture. Yeah. I thought Get Out was the most inventive movie I saw this year. Too early in the year, though. Was it like March or something? Yeah, but 10 years from now, we're going to remember Get Out.

We're going to remember Daniel Day-Lewis and Phantom Thread. There's going to be like five things that come out of this year, and I don't think Three Billboards is going to be one of them. I thought Harrelson was the best in Three Billboards. And Jimmy Kimmel Live, Zach Galifianakis, Aaron Paul, Lisa Kudrow, and Viola Davis this week. So watch that. Cuz.

I took down Frances on Friday, by the way. You took him down? A 2-0 for me, 0-2 for him. Yeah. He's got one more. He had a big lead on me earlier, but I'm coming back. All right. It's youth and experience and know how.

So he gave the points. He had the pats given points. He had the pats and he had the vikes. Interesting. Cause next week. So we'll do, we'll do a flip. That's good.

I'll do props on yours and we'll have the trifecta on mine and we'll do that. That's the plan for next week. Good job by you. Good job by you. Thanks again to ZipRecruiter. Don't forget. My listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS. And don't forget about the show Largo Wednesday night, varsity blues, Friday night light season two, me, Mallory, Jason, Shay,

a couple of tickets still left back later in the week with more BS podcast. Thanks to Tony Romo. Thanks to Sal. Talk to you soon. I don't have a few years left in me On the wayside On the wayside Never once said I don't have