The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Pats Are Rejuvenated, Round 3 Lines, and Big Dick Nick Falls Short With Cousin Sal | The Bill Simmons Podcast (Ep. 468)

Episode Date: January 14, 2019

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to talk Cowboys-Rams, Patriots-Chargers, Colts-Chiefs, and Saints-Eagles (2:15), before guessing conference championship lines and a new edition of 'Parent Corner' (43:12). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tonight's episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network is brought to you as always by ZipRecruiter. You know what's not smart? Betting against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in Foxborough. Oh yeah, that's not smart at all. You know what else isn't smart? Job sites that overwhelm you with tons of the wrong resumes. Luckily, there's a smart way at ZipRecruiter.com slash BS.

They find people with the right skills for your job. They actively invite them to apply. My listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com. ZipRecruiter is the smartest way to hire. We're also brought to you by TheRinger.com, the world's greatest website, where you can find a bunch of pieces about this NFL playoffs, the Final Four that's coming up, college basketball, NBA, the trade value, hopefully coming back this month.

I have to sit down and actually write it. And the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can find some of the best of sports and pop culture, including the Rewatchables, which is coming back Tuesday with Kyle old school. Hey, yeah, very cool.

There you go. We also have a rewatchables group on Facebook that if you don't behave well on it, we just kick you out. We, we like, we like civil discourse about the mood, the rewatchable movies.

So check that out. It, uh, it's pretty funny, actually. I've never seen a Facebook. God, I hate recommending Facebook. Actually, don't go there. Don't go to our rewatch. How many people do you think you booted?

Forget it. I don't know. I wasn't in charge. Sheriff Pat Muldowney. You should get the stats on that. Yeah, Sheriff Pat Muldowney decides who's in there. Civil conversation about the rewatchables on Facebook. Go there.

You can talk about movies and Facebook will take all your information and sell it to the Russians. There you go. Coming up. Cousin Sal. But first our friends from Pearl Jam. On the line right now, his football season is over. His gambling season is not. The cuz, Cousin Sal.

He was in the house Saturday night, Rams-Cowboys. We might as well start there. It was like, what Saturday night Rams Cowboys we might as well start there it was like what 40% Cowboys fans 45 I think it was probably that you know I reported to you like an hour before the game and all the Cowboys fans got there real early so I was feeling good it was about 70% and then they start

you know the game begins kickoff and everyone's waving those yellow towels I know they stole that from some other city somewhere Pittsburgh maybe. And I was like, oh yeah, it's 50. It's probably 60% Rams fans. So good job. Good job, Rams fans getting it over 50%.

When did you lose hope and when did you lose the will to live? It's a will to live. I lost seven or eight years ago. I lost hope. I lost hope a few times when Dak almost threw that pick six and then coming out of the timeout or coming out of the commercial gets a delay a game I was like oh we're done for sure but uh and then when the Rams went for it did you think that was a good move by McVay going for it from the one to go up 14 instead of 11 I

thought I thought 11 with four minutes left would have been enough, but I guess that's what separates Sean McVay from everyone else. Yeah, that was more of a lay in the smack down with his actual team, proving that let's do a little bully ball here and prove a point. I thought it was bigger than just the game situation. He's trying to give them a little swagger. I actually thought they had some swagger in that game, the Rams. I was impressed.

I was too, and then you learn, and there was a great Ringer article about it, not so great for me, that they were stealing the Cowboys' defensive plays, and that's why someone like C.J. Anderson can run for 130, 140 yards. I mean, they had something like 140 yards at the end of the first quarter or something rushing, something nuts. Yeah.

We just weren't going to win that way for sure. We were on a thread with the degenerate trifecta, and one of your buddies made the point, you know, the defense, this awesome defense you had was the best thing you've had in a while, and you could have left the season with your heads held high, and then the Rams gashed it for like 490 yards rushing. And now you have nothing. Now you leave the season just with no dignity at all as a defense.

That was terrible. Yeah, it was really bad. They were trying all sorts of different things. Like, you know, Van Der Esch was led away from every play. They even tried to put Sean Lee in there. It was messy that Jeff Heath had one of the worst games I've ever seen as a defender and no pressure at all by the Marcus Lawrence or any of those guys. And I think they did like 52% play action.

And when you're running the ball so well, you could do play action. That's a really high number for an offense. And golf was successful there. I didn't even think it was that great, but he didn't need to be um they won easily yeah i thought i thought he was better than i thought he was going to be i agree he wasn't great but he did seem confident and he was also in a position where anything he did was almost a bonus right you know he did make a couple good throws but you know the thing you needed to do is take the lead yeah shut down their run and make off have to like pick you apart and you could just never do it girly look good the cj anderson thing

now i was thinking about it he was so good he's weighed by two teams you heard that 40 times in the broadcast i always liked him on denver and then watching sony michelle today who i was jokingly comparing to wendell smallwood for a couple weeks there and then sony michelle today who i was jokingly comparing to wendell smallwood for a couple weeks there and then sony looked good today and i'm just like i guess like 50 running backs could look good if they're if they're getting holes yeah like cj anderson if he had been on the patriots today would he have had 140 yards rushing it seems like you have to get to a certain level with these guys but they still need the offensive line or it's just not going to work. Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

What do you think? I don't know. I mean, it just seemed like there were really weird things happen Saturday. Like if anything, like the Cowboys since week nine, it held opponents to 48 yards rushing. So per game,

that's, that was given like they were going to shut them down, make off, beat them. Gurley was already banged up. You never thought C.J. Anderson would come in there and go like gangbusters. The other thing Saturday, I couldn't

believe that Indy's offense was getting pushed around. These road teams just in general look so soft to me today. Today and yesterday. Wasn't that the theme? I don't know if it's weather. Obviously, it wasn't weather in the Eagles-Saints game, but in these other games, they just couldn't. They were getting pushed around, all these offenses.

Yeah, Saturday was an old-school playoff manifesto game. The Dome team in bad weather on the road just completely fell apart. And then you had the Chargers here. I'm sorry, Saturday. I guess the two AFC games. And then the Chargers, Sunday morning, West Coast going East Coast, early game, outdoors, and they just lay an egg. And I thought that the Indy one, I still stand by the bet.

I think it was the right bet. I don't know what happened to them. I don't understand how they forgot how to block. I watched that team for three straight months. The team that played on Saturday was not the same team. I watched for three months and, you know, I had some conspiracy theories, including, you know, Luck looked bad.

I thought, I didn't think he had zip on some of his throws. And I was wondering if the cold weather, you know, his surgically repaired shoulder, all that stuff. I was honestly wondering if the cold weather you know his surgically repaired shoulder all that stuff I was honestly wondering if the weather was like affecting his body somehow because he just didn't look like himself and then on top of that not being able to block I was dumbfounded by that

I knew the Chiefs had a good pass rush but we've seen the Colts handle just about anything so I don't know what to make of that game I don't know whether that was just a fluke that got out of hand or if that would happen every time they played i don't know what do you think well the one thing is like i noticed with these okay so last year three out of the four pittsburgh was the only home team in this divisional round that laid an egg against the jaguars and they came all the way back they actually could have won this game but i'd noticed like two teams usually

start off slow from having the buy the buy is nice for injuries and everything rest up really only the saints started off slow offensively rams were right there patriots were freaking gangbusters and and the and the chief scored right away too but yeah you're right with luck luck really looked like he really looked like peyton manning going to foxborough in the snow circa 2007 right he? He was bad. Something was wrong. They only gave up 18 sacks this year. They got him like three times. I think actually, I think the Colts had more sacks in the game,

which is why the Chiefs had trouble putting it away until late. But yeah, and the other thing is they hadn't faced a good quarterback, the Colts. They had faced like all sorts of losing quarterbacks. They faced both Derricks. Cody Kessler was in there, obviously Bortles, all those guys. So I think they faced Brady and Wentz. And then they had like Mahomes,

who really looked like a veteran playoff quarterback. It was amazing. He was great. He had a couple pull-your-guts-out-of-your-stomach throws if you were betting on the Colts, which I did. But 17-7, they get this punt block touchdown. They've done nothing, and they're within 10, and they just kind of need to get one stop

and then have luck come down and go 17-10 at halftime. And that was the key drive of the game. The Chiefs just came down and did their thing. And when that happened, I kind of gave up. But then when Vinatieri missed a field goal at the end of the half, that was kind of the white flag for if you gambled on the Colts. I had no faith at all after that happened. I was like, wow, he's going to miss a 23-yarder?

He looked like a 45-year-old attempting a field goal and an extra point in that game. He really did. He did. Yeah, and Kelsey is a monster. Kelsey could have had like 15 receptions. I thought Damian Williams is not a huge drop-off at running back from Kareem Hunt.

He's not. 23 for 129. And really, yeah, you're right. Luck couldn't put it together. But he had just over 200 yards and mostly garbage time. So weird, weird game. Yeah, and to do the three straight three and outs to start the game, I was looking at the first downs.

I did this with House on Thursday. Like the Chiefs gave up 417 first downs during the year, and the Colts were like seventh in the league in first downs. And it just seemed like everything was set up for them to dominate. And that's why you play for that buy in the first round. I looked it up today because I was like, how many times have the Pats had a buy during the Brady thing? And the answer is 13, Sal.

13 first round buy. Brady is now 28 and 10 in the playoffs but he's also had 13 13 round one buys

right which I think I've made this case in a column when I used to write for ESPN I think the buys should almost count

as a playoff win yeah it's like almost like a forfeit so if you 28 playoff wins plus the 13 buys,

he basically 41 times he's advanced in the playoffs. In high school wrestling, if you got a buy, it counted as a win in a dual meet. Yeah,

I think that should count. It should be the same thing. I still don't know if anybody is touching his playoff win record. Cause, you know, I mean,

we'll get to the lines in a second. I, I would assume they're at least a field goal underdog this week. That's a good assumption. I think they are a much better home team than a road team this season for whatever reason. So that might be it. So let's say they lose to KC.

He's still 28-11 in the playoffs. Like, that's insane. He's only lost 11 times in the playoffs. That's insane. He's only lost 11 times in the playoffs. He's played for 20 years. He's made the playoffs every year except 08. That's insane. People are talking about, oh, I think the Patriots dynasty is going to be over once they hit Kansas City. I was like, you have to wait until next year because I think as long as they make the AFC championship,

in which this is now, is this eight years in a row or is this seven? I think this is eight, right? Yeah. I think this is eight years in a row. They made the AFC championship? Something like that? All the Jets fans hate me right now because I can't even remember. Well, you can't count it.

I mean, they're still the dynasty. I mean, that's a spectacular record. So we might as well talk about your game now. I mean, they kicked the crap out of that team. Yeah, I watched just about all of it on my iPhone at my daughter's soccer game. Nice. As I told you, I tried to obey all the karma rules and be a good dad. I felt that would help the Patriots.

I broke out my lucky ski cap from the 2004 season. I didn't want the dynasty to end today. That's really what was driving me. Because I felt like if the Chargers had come in and just kicked their butt, that could have been it. Instead, it was the other way. That was the best Pats offensive

performance really since the Super Bowl against the Eagles, where it really looked like they could add 42 points in the first half. The running game, Sony has not looked that good all season. Sony looks so good, I actually might have to apologize for my Lamar Jackson stuff.

Might have to do a podcast apology. He looked like a first-round running back, right? He really did. Kyle, am I crazy? No, he was amazing. It was great. That was the first time. And you should apologize, yeah.

Yeah, he was falling forward for the two extra yards and hitting guys and not going down. And he was cutting to the right holes. I think he got stuffed on the first play and then said, F this, I'm the man from here forward. And you guys had 21 first downs. And when the Chargers had 20 offensive plays, I think, it was like 90 seconds left in the first half.

And, you know, it's the same thing. If you can't touch Brady in the pocket, if Ingram's not getting there, if Bosa's not getting him, it's going to be a long day, whether Gronk is a factor or not, I think. Yeah, and he was getting rid of the ball. They had a whole game plan. And, you know, the Chargers, they did this trick last week against Baltimore with those extra D-backs.

And then they basically just did it again this week. Almost like Belichick and McDaniels were going to have no idea they were going to do it again. I think the Pats were ready for that trick. But the thing they do is they play zone for the most part, the Chargers. And they really didn't switch off that, and they have a hard time protecting against uh running backs catching passes yes and another one james white could have caught probably 40 45 passes today it wouldn't have mattered you know they really never adjusted to that and that

was just part and boy brady just gets that screen pass out after watching like dac and some of these other quarterbacks like lofting that screen pass brady just zips it in there and the and the running back or whoever it is, a wide receiver screen, you just have that extra second to make a move, and it's nice. And you see Edelman gets it, and he's half the size of these guys. He's knocking them over for an extra three yards in the first down. It really makes a difference. Brady was awesome today.

He really looked like the Brady from a couple years ago. And there were a couple plays where I think during the regular season, and we talked about this on the pod, like he just didn't seem like he wanted to get hit. And it was pretty easy to assume he didn't want to get hit because he's 41 years old. He just didn't want to get hit anymore. And especially in that Pittsburgh game, it really looked like he was throwing off balance

and things that he didn't usually do. And today he was just like, I don't care if I get hit. I'm ready for all of it. So it made me wonder, we always talk about the Warriors during the regular season, whether they like take their foot off the gas pedal, all that stuff. I wonder if Brady's mindset at this point in age 41 is like, just get me to January.

Yeah. I don't want to take, I have basically a buy with the AFC East. We're winning the division every year. I just don't want to take I have basically a bye with the AFC East. We're winning the division every year. I just don't want to take any hits. Just get me to January and then I'll take hits for three weeks and we'll try to win the Super Bowl because the guy that played today was

really looked like the Atlanta Super Bowl Brady. And the James White just having that little security blanket where they had that every game during the season. They didn't really use it. It was like they just broke the emergency glass. They were like, all right, we're doing this.

Edelman, we need your A game today. We got that. They had the one play with Gronk that got the crowd fired up over the middle, broke a couple tackles, looked like the old Gronk for one play with Gronk that got the crowd fired up over the middle, broke a couple tackles, looked like the old Gronk for one play. It could not have gone better for the Pats. And then they got out. I don't think they had a major injury in the second half.

No, I don't know. I don't know if they did. They had that bonehead play where Brady was looking to spike the ball right before the half, really hoping that came back and bit them in the ass. But 30 points is too big a lead. Well, we should talk about your bet that you had the miracle cover of. Oh, that was nice. What was that?

I made a nice adjusted line parlay with, and it only was like minus 134. It was the Chiefs plus five and a half, which is crazy. The Saints at a pick'em and the Chargers plus 14 and a half. And I sent that to you early in the week. And I'm like, come on. Just with the words. Come on. I couldn't do that.

I couldn't do anything with the Chargers. I know you got it. I understood that. Right. But Joe House was all over. And thankfully, he didn't put any money on it. But he really liked the idea of it, which is good enough of an endorsement for me. And I was dead to rights in that bet.

That was a really, really dumb bet I knew early on. You gave up on it. What was it, like 41 to 10 or something? Yeah. And then they made it 41. Maybe it wasn't that much. Then it was 41-22 and you needed the... You basically needed

the garbage, garbage, garbage time touchdown with no time left, which Phil Rivers was happy to deliver to you. He was nice. That was good. That was good. You know, I did some research on Brady's real estate holdings.

I was really curious to see how many things he owned. So he has four houses. He has houses in Brookline, Montana. I think he owns something in Brazil. And then he owns an apartment in new york city and i think he sold the place in la and then he owns phil rivers those that that's it that that was my homage to super dave the joke you saw coming a minute away but i still delivered it like you had no idea it was coming is that gonna is that considered a joke if no one laughs is that a joke uh we're gonna talk about super dave a little bit later

in the pod because you went to the uh i went to memorial service which i really wanted to go to but i had to do dad duty this weekend yeah um the phil rivers brady thing thing, his two AFC rivals, for better and worse, other than Peyton Manning, were Rivers and Roethlisberger, and he just had incredible success against them. Yeah, I mean, the offense was spectacular. But in all these games, and looking forward to next week, what are we supposed to think here? The Colts had a pass rush last week.

All right, I guess they had a pass rush this week. Kansas City never has a pass rush, really, even though they have guys with big sack. Their defense was atrocious. They brought it this week. Patriots, same thing. I guess the Chargers have a couple linemen banged up there. He couldn't get out of his own way.

Same thing with Dallas and the Rams. Where is it from one week to the next you don't see it you do see it that's what makes it so hard to handicap these games that pass rush that offensive line which one shows up well and also they're scouting stuff they're looking for tendencies they're stealing

signals apparently what came with a stolen signal they get Rams Cowboys oh shut up yeah you know it's a Rams Cowboy but this guy Rashard who makes What game were the stolen six? They got Rams Cowboys. Oh, shut up. Yeah, you know it's the Rams Cowboys. This guy, Rashard, who makes the defensive play calls for the team, went on four interviews for head coaching jobs this week. You think maybe you should be focusing on other stuff there?

Now they're stealing your signs because you're ill-prepared for the game. How many signs does a defense need? What are we? I don't know what their tell was. How much trickery can you have on defense? On defense? Go get the quarterback. Awful. Just awful.

There's nothing worse than being at a game when your team is getting run on. Like six yards a clip. I got end zone seats and they're coming towards me. Just bad. Give me two more anecdotes from the Dallas game. So you went with your son, Archie. I went with my son, Archie. I was going to get to it in parent corner.

I have a whole thing. Okay, let's save it. Let's save it. Let's actually take a break. We'll come back. Let's take a break to talk about Roman. Guys are terrible at taking care of their health. Studies show 70% of guys who experience erectile dysfunction

don't get treated for it, and that's bad. ED is a check engine light for a man's body. It could be an indicator that there's something more serious going on, like a heart issue or diabetes. Roman has created an easy, discreet way to get checked out by a doctor and get treated for it. ED online, it's a one-stop shop. Licensed U.S. physicians can diagnose your ED ED then ship meds right from their pharmacy to your door. No waiting rooms, no face-to-face conversations, no uncomfortable

trips to the pharmacy. Go to getroman.com slash bill, fill out a brief questionnaire, chat with a doctor, and get real FDA-approved medication if recommended by your doctor, prescribed online, delivered straight to your door in discreet, unmarked packaging.

Go talk to the doctor. Erectile dysfunction is a problem that guys don't tackle, but it's really important. And now with Roman, really easy to take care of for a free online visit. Go to getroman.com slash bill. So New Orleans, Philly, I guess was the dramatic game of the weekend. So I did the million-dollar picks on Thursday, and I had the Colts, which I stand by even though I don't. God. I don't know what happened, but I still really feel like that was the right pick. No, excellent pick.

Then I had a half. Yeah. It was an excellent pick. They had no first downs two hours into the game. And then I put a half-unit flyer on the boys plus seven, just because that felt like a one possession game to me. I wasn't a hundred percent wrong. It kind of was a one possession game, but I felt like the Rams actually could have won by more. The fourth and one with Zeke Elliott running right into the middle of the line into 20 guys wasn't great.

Well, and the quarter had ended too. It's like you have five minutes. That's what gets me crazy about the Cowboys the most. Prescott takes off and only good things happen. They only seem to run that play in the red zone. Yeah. Right? Like when they're at the three-yard line or I think he had a 13-yard touchdown last week against Seattle.

Why not run him? Whenever you do the option, they did the option to Zeke. That worked nicely. Yeah. Whenever he calls his own number, that always works. Why are you running right into Nava Kinsu and Aaron Donald right in the middle there? That's 50-50 at best, especially coming off the quarter ending. You could be more inventive. You could be more inventive. You could think of better plays there.

So basically, we had three decisive victories. The Rams were the least decisive of the three, but it was still decisive. They outplayed the Cowboys. So you kind of knew, you just kind of knew Saints-Eagles, something was going to happen. The line moved up to eight and a half.

We had everybody, what did you think the most common bet was a Chargers-Saints money line tease, you think? Chargers-Saints teaser was like plus nine and a half and then minus two was the miracle teaser for everybody. Everyone had it. Right. So you kind of knew something was up. Then you had Big Dick Nick and the Eagles.

All of a sudden, it's 14 to nothing. My daughter, the finals of this tournament she was in, it was going against the beginning of the game. And I didn't want to look because we ended up losing. So lose, come off, check the phone. It's Eagles 14-0. I'm like, oh my God. The Saints are just going to annihilate everybody's parlay and tease and anything that's happened and this Big Dick Nick thing he's going to be the next president of the United States and then they never scored again

that was it, 14 points in the second half he looked like if the Eagles had put in their backup quarterback that's what it looked like well you're not going to believe this but our friend Hanch had some text about it no, oh yeah I do believe it because I was on the chain yeah he's a little confused that this didn't happen a year ago where Big Dick Nick believe this, but our friend Hench had some texts about it. No. Oh, yeah. I do believe it because I was on the chain. Yeah. He's

a little confused that this didn't happen a year ago where Big Dick Nick was overthrowing everybody in his team. And then the last play ended up, it was poor Alshon Jeffries' fault who I thought had a really good last six weeks. I feel bad that he was the GOAT, but... Yeah, he did. You know what?

He was the GOAT. The ball went right through his hands. They were going to score there. Why did they run that? Why did they rush that play? You don't want to leave the Saints too much time anyway. They're at the 26-yard line? Something like that? Two minutes left? Why did they have to rush it and run the play before the two-minute warning? So, Ringer president Jeff Chow,

Eagles fan, had the same thought. Didn't understand why playing with that much pace when, if you score, the Saints, all they have to do is get a field goal, basically. Yeah, you got eight plays left. What did you think of Peyton kicking the 52-yarder with three minutes left? Up six.

I was for it. I had some minus eight in there, eight and a half. So I wanted those three. I mean, it was a secretly unbelievable gambling moment yeah it really was big but uh lots the klutz didn't come through my man that was way off why you thought they should have gone for it what do you think i i just go by what my gut was and i was watching with nephew kyle we got home in time i didn't think he was gonna make it and. And the pressure of, if I miss this,

now they're getting the ball on the 40-yard line or wherever they get it, and we might lose the game. That's a tough kick. Well, it was fourth and 11, though. What are they going to do? I don't know. They hadn't scored in three quarters. If you have a good pooch punter, I might have pooch punted that one

and made them go 94 yards. Was he two for three from 50 or something? I don't know. I don't kill Peyton there. I personally wouldn't have gone for it. I don't kill him for it, but I thought it was an intriguing call because as soon as he missed it, I felt the same way as you. I was like, holy shit, Foles is going to win this.

Yeah, roughing the passer. A couple more stupid plays. They're right in there. So if Jeffrey catches that it's a two minute warning and they have the ball in like what, the 15? Something like that? I'm trying to look here. Intercepted.

Yeah, it was at the 33. But he threw it like 20 yards. Oh right, yeah. 14 yards. It would have been like at the 33. But he threw it like 20 yards. Oh, right. Yeah, 14 yards. Yeah, so it was somewhere. It would have been like inside the 20. Yeah. I was thinking, I was watching it thinking like,

wow, the Saints are going to, this is two years in a row, they're just going to get annihilated at home with a lead in a game that seemed like they were going to win. Well, what's funny, out of this weekend, they'll go down as the home team that played the crappiest. But if you look defensively, they really did a nice job, especially, obviously, in the second half. Right.

Well, and then the other thing, that Michael Thomas, the best receiver in football thing is, I think, done. I think he's now hold the title. Has to be him, right? Every time they throw to him, he catches it. It feels like on third and 15, he's like 70% chance of reeling it in and running for the extra five yards. Yeah, he's kind of like discount Jerry Rice.

Every game is 11 catches for 150 yards. And then you go into next week with the Rams. I don't think they're going to be able to cover him. Who's going to cover him? Tlaib? That's a fun game. I don't see it. Yeah.

I don't see it either. I don't know. They're not going to be Peters, probably. Well, I was really sorry. You know, the Eagles fans have been so gracious this last year. Really enjoyed all my interactions with them. And I was really, really sorry to see them get kicked in the teeth like that. I hope,

I hope they recover. I hope, I hope big Dick and, and Wentz with what the fuck was going on with the zits on his neck. I didn't see. They showed him a lot. What was happening with that? He was breaking out a little.

He had like neck knee. If, if, if he has some condition, I don't mean to make fun of it but if it was just like pimples on his neck i i don't know maybe wear a hoodie yeah it was weird another helm put the helmet on i don't in the hd era if you if you have pimples like that i think you have to make a make. When we finish this pod, I'm going to have to Google and make sure nothing's wrong with him. No, let it go.

It's funny either way. Anything else for the weekend? We didn't have any controversial plays. I think it's nice because we have nice, no matter what now that the Eagles are out of it, we have four great storylines, right? Because KC Rams is the rematch of the game of the year, right? Oh, let's do the storylines. Okay. Okay. KC Rams, the 54-51. We're going to

get that again. All right. So the four matchups. So you said Rams Chiefs, that's plus 322. There you go. All right. So there you have a rematch of the 54-51, the Monday night are supposed to be in Mexico. They played it here. Great game. And we just hear about, yeah, we hear about that game for two solid weeks, right? 54-51, that was the future of football. But wait a second, now it turns out defense is important too.

Right. All that stuff. Mahomes versus Goff. Andy Reid coaching tree versus Sean McVay coaching tree Oh yeah We'll get into all that Alright, Rams-Pats Plus 463

Rams-Pats, obviously this was a Super Bowl That got the whole thing going for you, right? Yep Potential changing of the guard Passing of the torch One dynasty coach to another Yeah, McVay-Belichick So that'll be the story for two weeks That's the guard, passing of the torch, one dynasty coach to another. Oh, yeah. McVeigh, Belichick.

So that'll be the story for two weeks. That's the thing, right? Yeah. The young genius against the old genius. Right. That would be the big thing. And then, you know, the GOAT, Tom Brady. Sure.

Going for Super Bowl No. 6. That would be his 10th appearance. Yep. We had Dodgers Red Sox. Ninth appearance. A few months ago. A little payback or, you know. Hold on, Sal.

I'm trying to remember how many Super Bowls my quarterback's been in. Hold on. Give me one more second. I'm counting them all up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine. This would be nine, yeah. Lost to the Giants twice and the Eagles. So this would be the ninth. Just the giants twice and the eagles so this would be

the one you cheated sorry about that america it gets confusing i know sorry it's i have trouble counting uh i'm america i'm sorry too i apologize sorry my bad so it'd be nine nine super bowls for tom brady right nine not eight nine not ten. So Pat Saints would be plus 257. Pat Saints is nice because we've never seen Brady Breeze all these years, right? Yeah, I feel like there's not even no rivalry at all, even though they're almost the same age. There's never been a Brady Breeze argument. Right.

They don't really have a lot in common. And Sean Payton-Belichick? Yeah. It's not that great. I mean, whatever. I just like the Brady-Brees. I think, I don't know, in a way, I think that gets the best ratings, right? That's what CBS wants.

Pats win their first Super Bowl against the Saints. I mean, in the Super Bowl, so in New Orleans. Oh, in the Superdome. Yeah, right. No, I think here's what... Who has the Super Bowl this year? Who is it? CBS has the Super Bowl.

I'll tell you what CBS wants. They want Patrick Mahomes against the Saints. Really? Yeah. Well, that's the MVP. That's a good matchup. So that's obviously both favorites. And that is... That8 plus 168 yeah

that's the MVP 1 versus MVP 2 however you shake it right so if you're CBS you've milked as much as you're going to milk out of the Brady oil well I don't think so but I'll hear you out Mahomes is your next guy.

You want the Chiefs to be like your next signature team. Mahomes, as we've been talking about since October on this podcast, Mahomes is the Steph Curry now of the NFL. He's the quarterback who's the face of this new offensive revolution, who throws these passes from these crazy angles who's got the wow factor at all times. It's everything you want going forward. And then you have the old guard

and Brady and Belichick. I will tell you that, and I work with some people under 30, and I don't judge them for this. They don't know any better. They hate the Patriots. I know you're not going to believe this, Sal, but people out there hate the Patriots. But know you're not going to believe this, Sal, but people out there hate the Patriots. But that's why I think CBS wants Saints-Patriots

because you'll have the casual fan or someone. I mean, everyone's tuning into the Super Bowl. If you have the person that doesn't really care, we'll tune in to root against the Patriots. You think so? Which would be good enough. I don't know. I feel like there is some major, major, major Patriot fatigue. You know who was saying this? I went on Francesco's show on Friday. He's like, there's some Patriot fatigue out there.

That's wishful thinking. There's some fatigue. I'm sick of them. But I was like, there's been fatigue basically since they won the Seattle Super Bowl, right? Right. And they came back and won in 2015. I think the fatigue had kind of set in and calcified. Yeah. Yeah, maybe.

I mean, listen, I know Mahomes is a quarterback of the future, but he'll be around. He'll be around a while. By the way. This really could be it for Brady and Belichick. I get the fatigue thing. I 100% get it. I feel the same way with Duke.

If I never saw Coach K's face again during March Madness, I'd be happy. But I know I'm going to see it this year. I know he's going to be in the Final Four. He'll probably make March Madness. No NIT for Duke. No NIT. And I'll actually root for them this year because Zion Williamson is the messiah.

But I get it. Either way, it's really like a foolproof Final Four, though. It's pretty good. I don't even know what you would want least in there. I think Casey, I don't even know what you would want least in there. I'd say, I think, like, Casey, I don't know. So you say Casey New Orleans is number one? I almost think that's towards the bottom.

Kyle, what do you think? What do the millennials want to see? Tell us. They want to see Patrick Mahomes, definitely. They want to see him. Yeah, especially people that grew up watching them kick ass. What do the people say at the dark room on Melrose? As you're there? Go Rams. Blindly go Rams, I think.

You know, I did notice that today. Driving home from the soccer tournament after that Chargers loss, you could really feel the sadness in the streets of Los Angeles. Sadness that the Cowboys lost? No, sadness that the Chargers lost. Oh, yeah, sure. Stop stopped at 7-11 got a water and just everybody it was almost like the flag was at half mast

that was it yeah people they really wanted this they really wanted that uh Chargers Ramstein the Rams I don't even know where they would have played that game next week oh well actually the Colts would have had the one so it wouldn't matter know where they would have played that game next week. Oh, well actually the Colts would have had the ones that wouldn't have mattered, but they were talking about moving that game from the soccer stadium. Yeah. But then, then didn't, wasn't there an article that the lease actually said that the game had to

be played there? Oh, they have to play there. Yeah. That's probably why the, one of the many reasons why it wasn't going to happen. Right. The league would have thrown their bodies in front of the right.

For sure. I still, I can't get a handle on this whole Rams thing because it does seem like there are Rams fans here. There are no Chargers fans in LA, but there are Rams fans. But not enough to bang out even 60-40 in a second-round NFC game.

No, I mean, there's a lot of history. There's history behind it. So you'll have 60, 70-year-old guys who rooted for the Youngbloods and Vince Ferragragamo and those teams so they'll they'll be into it and then danny treyos and eric dickerson waving to everyone like he's the mayor at the stadium but yeah the chargers i don't think have that here the dickerson thing's weird because look i'm old i i don't remember stuff like this as well anymore but didn't he hold out until they traded him to the Colts? Yeah, that's right.

So we're not supposed to pretend that didn't happen? You know what? He's on lock-in tomorrow, 4.30, 5.30 Eastern time. So I'll ask him. Why don't you ask him? Just like, why are you the returning hero when you come back? Didn't you hold out until they traded you? Eric Dickerson and I shared a dressing room a few weeks ago,

which means we watch each other change. And so we're talking casually. It's always weird. What? Yeah, we shared a dressing room. So we have to watch each other change unless one of us gets out of the room. But I was preparing for the show. So I say to him, I say, hey, thanks for doing the show. We're really excited about having you. He's like, yeah, well, I put it off for as long as I could. He said that? Yeah. So then we go on the show and I'm like, Eric, and I immediately sell him out. I throw him under the bus.

I'm like, yeah, Eric was saying earlier that he put us off as long as he could. He's like, yep, that's right, I did. It really sticks to his guns there. That's incredible. When you're changing with these random ex-football players, you should do the Dirk Diggler where you strip down, but you just have the 16-inch cock just dangling,

just pretending like nothing, no big deal. You're just changing. You think that would go over well with James Harrison and the like? Yeah, I don't know. I think it might. See which one says something. Hey, Crown Royal is doing something pretty cool this football 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, whether at the game, watching it over in a bar, have a great time, enjoy some Crown. Don't be that person. That ruins it for everyone. We've all seen that guy who drinks too much watching the game. Make the right call. Take a water break. Who made the right call this week or not, Sal?

I don't even know if you realize this because you were, if you had it on the iPad right away, but the Patriots and Bill Belichick once again made the right call. Now, from what I understand, when they win the toss, they always elect to defer. Today, they elected to receive the ball. I loved it. Went right down the field,

right down their throats. A little bit of help with the P.I. call on Gronk, but 7-0. Chargers scored after that, but they put him to bed shortly after. I thought that was the right call, getting 7 on the board early. Nice job, Bill Belichick. You don't get a lot of praise that much.

It's pretty good. Take this. I'd like to give the right call to the people who looked at all this underdog momentum heading into round two. I'm not one of these people, by the way. There's some people out there who are indoctrinated in the old school playoff football gambling, who saw that we had an inordinate number of hot teams or teams that look good heading out of round one. A lot of underdog momentum.

People saying, the dogs might just cover every game in this playoffs. And saw those lines, which seemed high. Chiefs five. I thought it should have been three. Rams seven. Felt like easily should have been three. Rams seven. Felt like easily could have been like four or five, something like that. And were not intimidated and said to themselves, you know what I believe in?

Round two teams taking care of business at home because that's what we've grown up with. And what happened? Saturday, both teams covered. Sunday AM, Pats cover. Then Will Lutz cost the Saints. We could have had four favorites cover, Sal. Yeah, but they all 4-1, and that was like, I think, plus 280 on a parlay, that all four favorites.

Where were we? That's stupid, I know. I put out a Twitter poll. I said one of these teams. I sent it to you in-house also. I said Colts, Chargers. Which one's the sucker bet of 2019? Because one of them for sure is. And it turned out they Twitter poll. I said one of these teams, I sent it to you in-house also, I said Colts, Chargers, which one's the sucker bet of 2019? Because one of them for sure is, and it turned out they both were.

That's our right call this week. Crown Royal reminds everyone this football season to take a water break and hydrate responsibly. How about you know what we didn't talk about was the Josh McDaniels fuck you game today. Oh, today? Yeah. Just a tour de force play calling by the Pats.

Completely eviscerate the Chargers in 19 different ways. He got passed over by how many jobs? Eight? Not even mentioned. He's like, his name has been soiled now because of this Colts debacle from a year ago. Is that passed over or is everyone just like, yeah, this is a, this guy's a dick. I'm not going to take a chance. I think that's what it is.

He turned down the best job in football. He had it and turned it down. So what are the Cardinals going to do to make it attracted to him? 30% ownership in the team. Somebody could have taken him out to dinner. I mean, Adam Gaze got hired. What did he do?

What do you think? Yeah, I guess I don't know how it is. I think he just wouldn't have gone. I mean, what do you think the Patriots have promised him right now? Oh, everything. Yeah. Yeah, I think he probably owns part of the New England Revolution.

They're paying him probably under the table, around the table. Yeah, and so when Belichick's gone and Brady's gone, you have Josh McDaniels and Garoppolo. Oh, no, you don't have that guy anymore. Oh. Well, good luck, then. We'll get him again after the Niners wave him. Sorry, Kyle.

Kyle's still really attached. No, I mean, if you're McDaniels, the one that hurts is the Browns coach. Yeah. Freddie. Freddie was on the depth chart behind Greg Williams, Todd Haley, and Hugh Jackson on hard knocks.

Right. He's the fourth most important coach on the hard knock show that we all watched and went, wow, that Browns coaching staff is in the fucking shit show. Did you see the viral clip of kitchens? I think it was from hard knocks. He goes down on a don't know. Maybe

Baker calls him an idiot. He's like, that guy is just an idiot. It's perfect. And then he ends up getting the job. Oh, my God. Yeah. So I felt like there was a little edge with Josh McDaniels today as he was just picking apart. Do you think

what you feel? How do you feel about Phil Rivers his body language in that game? I'm just still thinking about this Browns thing. Is it possible they win eight games without a coach next year, without a head coach? Couldn't they try that? Did they think Freddie was getting hired by another team? Was there people circling him?

Again, before February, we changed the calendar. We got to lock up Freddie. Yeah. I mean, what a great job. You had so much talent. Oh, man. I don't understand it. All right, let's do the championship lines.

Let's do it. What game is first? First game. So it's 3.05 Eastern time. They kick these up. It's been like this for a few years. Rams are first. first game. So it's three Oh five Eastern time. They, they kick the except it's, it's been like this for a few years. Rams are first. So you're going to play a,

basically a night game in Kansas city. I think Rams at New Orleans. I think I like that. Yeah. I had a, I can't remember if I sent you six or six and a half. I think I said six and a half. I had seen you send me seven,

seven, either way, both, both way off. I had three and a half and it is three and a half. You sent me seven. Seven. Either way, both way off. I had three and a half, and it is three and a half. You got that right? You say that's way low, huh?

The Saints are favored by three and a half? That's it. Really? I'm very surprised by that. I love their defense today. I mean, I'm looking 49 yards rushing for Philly, 201 passing for Foles.

God, did you think the Rams were better than Philly? Yeah, I did. I thought they were better on that Sunday night game that I had thousands of dollars on them too. I was basing my bet off the Eagles Eagles were eight point underdogs in new Orleans. And I figured the Rams were like a point better than the Eagles. No Eagles are a six seed, no matter what. There's yeah, but that's just that it's because of their record for the

course of the season. But the last like five, six games, they were not a six seed. I know their defense is good. I don't know. And this is again, we saw this game already, right? Saints won this game. And why do I trust the Rams on the road? What have they done on the road?

All right. I mean, that was like a big, great at home, lousy on the road team. Or not as good on the road. Let's see where you're going with this. I just think the line's too low. It's disrespectful. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that shoots up to four or four and a half or something.

Jared Goff's gonna go into the superdome and and take the ramps to the superbowl that seems i'm not saying i can't i don't think they're i don't think that home crowd i don't know although that's a really tough place to play sounds like you like the rams do you want to i'm trying to convince myself and talk myself into the ram why they? They've Jared Goff. He's not going to make the Super Bowl. What are you talking about? Yeah.

That defense is tough for the Saints. I don't know. I'm not calling it now. It's too early. Doesn't matter. I get it wrong. Anyway, you have a whole week of foreplay with Clay Travis and Todd and Rachel. What are we going to do?

And now there's two games. When there's one game, I have 14 days to talk about this. That's true. So Rams this year, they, they killed Oakland in week one in Oakland. I'm just doing road games. Beat Seattle by two.

Beat Denver by three. Killed the Niners. Lost to the Saints by 10. Beat Detroit by 14. lost to Chicago by nine, and killed Arizona. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, they played. Look, Sean McVay had a win yesterday, right?

Because this whole thing, like anybody who ever Googled Sean McVay got an interview for a coaching position. That all goes out. It's like, what happens if he loses to the Cowboys? His name takes a hit there. Is this kind of a gravy game or what? No. I think he wants to win the Super Bowl.

No, he wants to win. But he still has to. I think his legacy, if you will, is intact. Even if he, you know, there is something about the comeback, the rematch. They lost, what, 45-35 the first time? Right. I don't think those teams put up that many points this time around. I think it's much lower scoring.

Would you rather have the nickname Big Dick Nick or would you rather have the top eight people who've worked for you over the last two years got head coaching jobs? What's better for your ego big dick nick kyle big dick nick all right kyle you have to say big dick you hate kyle big dick pics today huh big dick pics yeah yeah kyle wanted to tweet about big dick pics today when nick falls got picked it's a bad hashtag. It's not too late. It's a bad hashtag. Bad hashtag. It was a tweet and delete. It's already gone.

Didn't want any part of it. Yeah, I don't know. I really think that line's too low. Not very respectful to the Saints. I will say this. If you have to have C.J. Anderson over on their yardage, I'd say he's at like 36 this week. It's possible.

He'll get held to nothing. Chiefs-Patriots is the next game. This is the most obvious Chiefs by three. I can't see how this lines anything but Chiefs by three. You did get that. I said three and a half, so we end up splitting the week because it is exactly three. It's fair.

Belichick versus Andy Mahomes versus Brady great game you have the Chiefs fans who have had a lot of heartache even

that punt return that punt block when it made it 17-7 you could feel the sphincters tightening all across Kansas City but now now it's sitting there.

What a great way to make the Super Bowl, beating Belichick and Brady. It's all sitting there for you, Chiefs fans. I think you got this. I think it's going to happen. You got this. Anyone who takes the Pats is nuts. Pats have been terrible on the road. Chiefs look like an easy pick here.

High teens are expecting temperatures. What time zone is that in Kansas City? Is that central? Yeah. All right, so it's a 540 kickoff? That's rough. That's going to be fun. It's going to be fun.

I mean, what is it? Is it the last stop? Is it going to be a crazy – now when they played the first time, this was also in the 40s, right? Well, if it's – we've seen this with football. If it gets too cold, it affects the game and the crowd in ways that you can't come back from. So if it goes under 20, there's no way it's a shootout.

It's not going to happen. And the crowd will be like, everyone's bundled up or you get like hypothermia so at some point you can't really make noise so i always go back i gotta tell you i because clay travis drives me crazy with this he talks about oh the weather means nothing it means nothing in these games the points will come i spent an hour and a half looking for articles on this and how the cold weather affects points. Yeah. It really doesn't. In some cases, there's more points scored in the cold.

In our heads, we remember the Bears-Redskins 12-6 game. Yeah. The cold at Soldier Field. I think that was just all Bears defense. They were just that good anyway. So this is an old wives' tale. The weather does not affect the points. From what I look, I was sick of researching it, but yeah.

And it was what, 43-40 last time? I just want to know if these teams are going to have a pass rush. Like they both had pass rushes yesterday and today. That'll be nice. You know, it won't come down to last team with the ball wins. This sounds like a good challenge for our guy at the Action Network, John Ewing. He did a good thing about the dome teams outdoors. I would like to, if it's under 20 degrees, I want to know how that affects the point total of playoff games.

Because I do feel like there's a tipping point with the weather. If it gets too cold, it has to affect it. When the ball gets fucking hard as a rock. Right. At some point, it just is going to change what's supposed to happen. It was snowing. I don't know. It just seemed like the Chiefs went up and down the field in the snow.

We'll see. Mahomes is magnificent. He really is great. I just don't feel very hopeful, Sal. It really feels like we're screwed. This isn't reverse jinx at all. I kind of see what you're doing. No.

I mean, look, if the Chiefs, it's just sitting on a platter for you. You have this Pats team that's really only been good at home. They have a 41-year-old QB. It's a night game. It's going to be freezing. And you have the young spry QB. You did it. You did it, Bill.

You reverse jinxed yourself all the way to the championship game again you really did it i don't know how it works for all listen i told you all year that we sucked and we were gonna make the super bowl but i don't know if that's gonna happen but i just heard the we suck part well we got no defense we don't rush the quarterback that we i just heard all that we're good secondary i will say good secondary it just seemed like the Chargers like alright you could say a team is soft whatever they come on the road but it's one thing to have better skill position players in the Patriots a few teams

have done that before but defensively there were some big names and big time players and I didn't think you were going to overcome that today or at least thought it would be close I thought I believed that the Pats were going to win because I believed in the...

I just didn't see the dynasty ending today. But I thought we would have to pull it out way more than we did. What team that lost in round one do you think is the most bummed out after watching round two?

The team that lost last week? Yeah, I would say the Bears. Oh, they should be. Yeah. So the Bears, so they would have played the Rams, right? They would have played the Rams. You're not even 200 yard rushers against the Rams. I mean, against the Bears. That's not happening.

Right. Yeah, that's for sure. Because we always say after the playoffs, like there's those fork in the road games that ends up setting the sliding doors for whatever else should happen I really feel like the Bears

should have won last week and I think the Bears could have and would have beaten the Rams now the Seahawks had they won would have played who yeah that

the five so they would have played the Saints they probably would have lost they're crap coaching they didn't deserve to win yeah I actually thought your team was pretty good I don't understand what happened They're the five, so they would have played the Saints. They probably would have lost. They're crap coaching. They didn't deserve to win. I actually thought your team was pretty good. I don't understand what happened to the front seven in that game.

It really did seem like you saying that they had their signals actually makes sense. I'm not saying it. Someone on the ringer wrote their article. Read your own damn website. I got through half of it, and I almost vomited. I was like, yeah, that sounds exactly right. Every single tell was there for them. Ran down our throats. Let's take one more break and then we're going to talk about Super Dave's Memorial Service and we're going to do Paracord. Hey, I just want to give a quick plug. True Detective came back on

HBO and The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Jason Concepcion. They've become our guides for the twisting pathways of season three's plots, themes, and characters. You can join them each Sunday right after the show for The Flat Circle, a True Detective after show on The Ringer's YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages. So we're putting this pod up Sunday night. Maybe you watch True Detective right after,

and then you can check out The Flat Circle. Jason and Chris chase down leads, explore each episode's cultural context, discuss true crime cases that mirror the ones in the show. So check that one out. And we should also mention, we announced some stuff on the ringer side this week. We have after shows coming on Twitter for Game of Thrones, which starts April 14th, and then Big Little Lies, we are producing post-game shows, basically. We've already done it for Game of Thrones. We've never done it for Big Little Lies. So that's happening.

And then we also announced I have a new documentary that I'm working on with Alex Winter and Glenn Zipper. We are doing a documentary about showbiz kids for HBO. And we have started work on that. I have a couple other things in the hopper, but we haven't announced them yet. but some good stuff this year coming up, uh, in the ringer extended family for 2019. So there you go. All right. So you went to super Dave's memorial service and, uh, and what happened? Who was there? How was it?

I did. It was, uh, it was nice place was filled. It was at a temple in Beverly Hills. Uh, it was nice. Place was filled. It was at a temple in Beverly Hills. Jimmy Kimmel was there and our friend Daniel Adam Carolla and then Jerry Seinfeld spoke. Albert Brooks, Super Dave's brother spoke. Some of his family members. I really thought it was going to be like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm because Larry

was there and Jeff and Susie Oh my God, that does sound like they should just be all there. JB Smoove was there. Jeff and Susie. Oh my God. That does sound like they should. They're all there. JB smooth was there. I thought for a second, I was like, he's going to springboard out of this casket and one last super Davis stunt. Yeah.

And that's going to be great. But yeah, everyone told great stories and like Seinfeld got up there and he kind of like nailed it. He's like, you know what? The best thing to do right now would to be to sit in the back of this temple with super dave and watch everyone's tribute to him and he would talk about how oh this one's going too long look at this listen to my brother going on and on about

himself all he would do is make fun of us god forbid someone wore something off color he would make fun of that and uh everyone just told stories about what a dick super day was including his brothers and uh it was great though it was really nice it was a lot was albert brooks there albert brooks was there and he spoke and you know he was a guy who got in the show business early he went to like carnegie mellon like he was he was a student of acting and everything yeah and he got home and like super dave was like super dave was like uh putting out stars on hollywood boulevard and they did like a ktla or something did a story about the guy who's like putting the stars out on hollywood boulevard like literally laying the cement and he like said something

funny during the interview and tommy smothers one of the smothers brothers saw it and it's like hey uh i want to interview this guy and he like talked to him for a minute he's like do you want to write on my show and that's really how he had no idea of being he didn't want to be in show business he was like a a center uh he played college basketball somewhere he told us about i can't remember it was a small college but he wanted to be an athlete and then just did this star stuff on the side and uh so it was great to hear all the stories and everything but it really it all ended up being the same thing he was everyone talked his grandson was talking about how miserable super dave was coming to all his events but he went through it anyway his grandson said they uh super dave in one of the complexes he lived in in uh palm springs it was a tennis court and then there was a basketball hoop.

But behind the hoop, there was a four foot fence and the grandson who was 10 would shoot it. And every single time he shot it, it would bounce and then go over the fence. So Super Dave's like chasing the ball into like the desert weeds and everything. So he finally commissions Palm Springs to build a bigger fence, like 10, 10 foot fence. After like a year, he finally got his 10 foot fence up and the grandson says,

and we never went back there again. It was delighted. Yeah. We, we, we ran the super day podcast that we did against all odds. And I listened to it and I forgot we had promised him we were going to go out for the tennis thing. And I don't know what happened.

We must have both. It ended up being right in the middle of March Madness and we had something else going on too. I forgot. Yeah, we really blew that one. I really have a lot of regrets about this because he was ready to have us. I'm bummed too.

I was going to bring Tate. We're going to film like four hours of podcasts and just bank it. He was so funny. Next time this happens, we just have to do it. Whenever we're like, yeah, we're going to go. We just have to like actually do it. He called me like five weeks ago and said, and I never see the incoming number, but I

just happened to answer this time. I usually let it go. He's like, hello? He's like, I was the best guest ever on your dumb podcast. And I said, is this Lenny Dykstra? And he just hung up the phone. And I call him back. I'm like, no, super.

Come on. He's like, you take that back right now. You take back what you said because you know you don't mean it. I was like, all right, I don't mean it. Can we tell the Lin-Manuel Miranda stuff now? I think so. He's not going to get mad at us that's true so we when we did that podcast if you listen to it it's on south feed we'd heard who how did we find out that super day wasn't a huge

fan of lin-manuel miranda on curb well you know he had called me before the podcast and told me i kind of did a little pre-interview with him. Yeah. He may have let the cat out of the bag there. And he had just done Curb With Him and whatever. So you tell me and then we decide the whole podcast, we're just going to keep bringing it up. So if you listen to that, know I get it. So anyway, not a huge fan of Lynn. If you mention that name again,

I'm going to run through this glass wall. knowing it so anyway not a not a huge fan of lynn if you mention that name again i'm gonna run through this glass wall oh man i wish we had done more than one pile with him but i wish i had gone today too it sounds fun uh all right let's do parent corner let's do it oh all right so i i take my son to this game it's rams cowboys game and you know whatever they lose and we get home and he's like yeah you know dad i just i think i jinxed the team i really just i've been to four cowboys games and they've never won and i told him i told him i said you are yeah this is your fault you're a loser you jinxed this team no but then it got me thinking like i didn't want to go to this game i really don't like when your team's playing at home on the road and they're gonna lose and i

was pretty sure they were gonna lose everyone's like you going you're going the game i'm like i don't know like oh come on it's on fox you work for fox you can get tickets yeah i know i can get tickets on yeah but you should go how are you not going i was like i don't know i just like watching my tv and then when they lose i could shut it off and just walk back and do something else. So anyway, I go to the game, decided to go. The kid wants to go. I'll take him. He's never won. That's the thing. He wanted to win. So he's 0-3. He wants to win. I'm like, are you going to be 0-4? He's like, no. And now this doesn't end up being about him, except I'm now going to shit on the experience of going to a football game. I don't think it's as good as going to hockey or baseball live or basketball live it really isn't i think

football is made for like an indoor viewing now i really do like i get there first of all hour in traffic and then you get to the around the stadium part shitty guess how much uh parking i'm gonna put the over under at 98 over 120 for parking 120 bucks amazing so i get in for 120 we get there there's uh so now and you're telling me like oh you got to take videos take videos put them down send them the fantasy it's easy i was like i don't know i don't know if i want to be bothered i want to watch the game like no no do it i'm like all right so i start shooting them and i'm sending them and then i'm doing the instagram story and it's like what am i even doing so then then all of a sudden i have three videos sent to your guys and to instagram stories and the and the uh the connection gives out.

There's no internet in the whole stadium right there. And I was like, now I have three stories in the queue, three things in the queue. I have like a French Montana halftime reference. I have me leading, going up to the Cowboys down the tunnel with these guys and we're chanting. I'm like, oh, wow, these aren't now going to send until after the game. It's like going to a game is such a pain in the ass now.

You have to make stories. My story is I want to watch the game. Why do I have to make stories? Yeah, you fill out these obligations. I know. It's like you're going to work now. And then I'm sitting there and the anthem starts. And there are people literally protesting anthem in our section.

There's three, four people screaming, you're keeping everybody down with this. And then people telling them to shut up. I'm like, oh my God, I don't know. I don't need this. So not much of a great parent corner story. But the thing is, you'll be doing your kid a favor by keeping them home. What was the walkout after the loss? Were people taunting the Cowboys fans or no?

Yeah, they are. You know, they're actually more abusive when, um, when they win than they are. I think if they had lost, I really do feel that way, but there are a bunch, there are a bunch of Cowboys fans too. So like I said, uh,

I don't know. I was walking with a more intimidating group of Cowboys fans back to my $120 parking spot. So, uh, it didn't affect me much. Tears from your son, moist eyes,

anything. He was just bummed out. He was, he was really just like, but he had his head in his hands. Didn't, didn't, didn't affect me much. Tears from your son? Moist eyes? Anything? He was just bummed out. He was really just like, but he had his head in his hands. Didn't cry. Was the worst loss he ever suffered. And then, you know, but we went to Shake Shack,

so we got a little better. You should have gotten a blood diamond from playing at that theater. I was like, the mule is playing at 9.45 if we can hurry. I'm with you. I don't think going to a football game is fun.

I think the college ones are fun. But NFL, it's just better on TV. I mean, the whole sport is designed to be watched on television. Absolutely. The timeouts are brutal. You have a three and out and a punt, and then it's five minutes until somebody has the ball again and then they score and they kick they got to review the thing for three minutes whether there's a

touchdown you can't see the replays unless they have like a giant jumbo right and then it's a pat another five minutes kick off another break and it sucks it's not fun pro football is not fun to go to i love watching it i do not like going i don't want to sound like a pussy but at least at least it was 50 degrees like you're going east coast and you have to go through all that shit and traffic and everything else in the cold just watch well the fun thing about football is the before and after and that's the thing they've really cracked down on like you buddy Bug, I ran an Instagram video of him and all of his friends pregame at the Pats. It's phenomenal.

But they used to go, I guess you couldn't have done it today, but if it was a one o'clock game, they would get there at 6.37 in the morning and start setting up in their grill. And now they limit all this stuff. So you can still tailgate that earlier but you have to be a fucking hike away from the stadium why do they limit it because people get too yeah they don't they just they want people three hours before and an hour after they want you to f out in the old days it was like hang out it's a party but i you know from a liability standpoint and all the other stuff uh they just want you to kind of in and out so yeah so that

you know it was the whole day experience of it that was really the great part of football right now you've limited that to just this in there but the tv timeouts are just the really hard to overstate how much it sucks in person yeah it really slows it down it's uh yeah i don't know and just the really like the social media part of it. You feel like you have to prove to people that you're there. You don't like that. You miss the old days. There's got to be something to focusing and rooting for your team.

I'm assuming my son, like, oh, now we have to take a picture of ourselves sad with the scoreboard in the background. This is fucking stupid. Yeah, the only time I really got into it was when I went to the Red Sox-Dodgers World Series because I was just videotaping my son because he was taking everything either so happily or so upset one way or the other.

It was just funny to videotape him. He doesn't have to perform for it. No, he's just doing his thing. But when I would go to the Celtics playoff games, it's really hard to even pull up to Twitter there's never reception all that stuff yeah speaking of my son so for the last like two years he's been getting you know for his birthday or christmas or whatever for a lot of people give gift cards for for uh for presents right and uh especially like you know my family my especially my mom's family the italians they love to send gifts for stuff so

so all of a sudden he had like all these gift cards so he comes down and say dad got all these gift cards he's got like this handful of like 12 gift cards from the last two plus years. And a lot of them are on Amazon. And he's like, we got to go on the computer and figure out how to put these things in. I'm like, I'm not doing that. You're 11 years old. You should be able to figure out how to do this. So he's like, all right, all right. Somehow he figures out how to do it.

Turns out he has $290 on Amazon accumulated over the last couple years. I think it might have been my Aunt Linda, my godmother, might have given him a couple birthdays where she might have been generous. $290. What do you think he spent the $290

on, Sal? He got one night with Jeff Bezos' ex-wife. I don't know. Oh my God. No, that wasn't what he did. Is that not it? That wasn't what he did.

What was it? You can get anything. I have no idea. First of all, the thought of my son with $290 on Amazon is pretty amazing. Right.

Just, you know, I mean, you really get anything there. So I was so excited to see what he did. So he bought himself a new batting tee, which I thought was great because he broke his other batting tee from swinging so violently that it just like severed in half. So he got that. He was all excited about that. Every other dime was spent on wrestling figures. Oh, nice.

Even though. He's got them all. I've seen your collection. He has like 90. This is what he asked for for every Christmas. This is any time he gets given. So he gets these, including apparently some $50 one of the Hardy Brothers that was apparently a limited edition or something.

And he's all excited. And he's like, dad, I spent all the money. I got more wrestling figures. So over the next, over the next like five, six days, he's just coming home from school with the, like the eye of the tiger,

hoping there were packages. Right. And, and they start coming every day and he's getting these wrestling figures and he finally got all of them. And he's just been having these WrestleMania's with getting these wrestling figures and he finally got all of them and he's just been having these wrestlemanias with all these wrestling figures so if you want to know how to spend 290 dollars on amazon i'm sure we i'm sure we had some ideas but that was his that's great so now when he gets these wrestlers he pits them against him he puts them in a ring i know he's got probably like

five or six rings right yeah he does he he does. He does the entrance music. And then he calls the match, right? He does the announcer? Yeah, he does the whole thing. He announces it. They jump off things. Yeah. I mean, he is 11 at this point, Sal.

I just want to point that out. Listen, I was 13 when I was at the high. I was crazy about it. I would wear a kilt to Madison Square Garden. I loved it. You wore a kilt when you were 13? I wear a kilt to Madison Square Garden. I loved it. You wore a kilt when you were 13? I wore a kilt to Madison Square Garden. My father eventually hid the kilt.

My aunt, Jimmy Kimmel's mother, made the kilt for me. I wore it to Piper against Mr. T, the boxing match. Was that WrestleMania II? Yeah. I wore it to the Garden when he interviewed Bruno Sammartino. I was crazy about Piper. Yeah. I got uncooperative behavior in class across the board in every class because I would yell at my teachers in Piper's voice. I was 13 years old and then it just went away.

It really sounds like you and Ronda Rousey need to do a podcast together. Well, the other thing, we had to leave for the soccer tournament yesterday at like six in the morning or something. So he was home all day with the alarm on until my mom got here at like one, just like playing with his wrestling figures and playing this WWE game. He created his own character in the game that he, you know, you have this whole thing where you basically have a career and you have to go through all these stages. And I think he had a really fun weekend. I'm not convinced he's going to college.

Which could be a silver lining. College is $290. It could be a silver lining. I might save a lot of money with college tuition. I could just put that towards some business. I was thinking of maybe, I was watching The Sopranos when Paulie Walnuts gets all upset about they go to that coffee espresso place.

I love that. They try to shake down the Starbucks. And he's so upset that they've taken it from the Italians. Maybe I'll get my son an espresso place and that'll just be what he does. I don't know. Kyle, you have any nephew corner?

You spent the day with him today. He made a cheese plate today. Oh, yeah. Tell us all about the cheese plate. Anybody thought. All right. So I'll set up. My mom comes yesterday.

She takes my son out. And then at the Grove, they have this great cheese place with all the different types of cheeses. My mom loves cheese. She likes wine and cheese. That's basically all she eats and drinks. So comes home with types of cheeses. My mom loves cheese. She likes wine and cheese. That's basically all she eats and drinks. So comes home with these three cheeses. We eat half of them during the Cowboys game and the other half are in the fridge.

So then Kyle shows up today at 10 o'clock. I was proud of Kyle, by the way, showing up on time for a Pats game for once. It was the playoff focus I was looking for. And then you tell the rest, Kyle. So I was in here watching and then Ben wanted to come and hang out. So he comes in with a cheese plate and some and like a handful of crackers there's like one piece of cheese and then there's like eight pieces of sliced cheddar

cheese that he like just has stacked like he ate from the grocery store like you make grilled cheeses with so he's got these fancy cheeses my mom bought and then just ate american cheeses piled up on top of each other and he ate all of them he ate every single one and then i told him i wasn't eating it and played his right out of the hardy boys book right there that's great and then he played his wrestling game on the small tv next to the giant tvs kyle watched the pats so there you go there's talk about maybe us going uh when i say there's talk about i'm bringing up for the first time um royal rumbles in phoenix the week before the super bowl and the and the championship games oh it could be fun oh all right we'll have to talk

about that offline it's in phoenix yeah it's in Phoenix this year. Very close. Oh, interesting. What a wrinkle. But then WrestleMania is in Minnesota. Is it really? Yeah, we're not going to. Yeah, that's not it. Maybe next year. All right, what do you got to plug, Sal?

Oh, I don't know. Lock it in Monday through Friday, 4.30 to 5.30 p.m. Eastern time. Yeah, that Chargers killed me today. Otherwise, I would have been king. And against all odds, Wednesday, we gave out some winners this week. And listen up for another episode. I have an important question

for you. So we're going back to 2001, the Patriots. This is now your 19th playoffs with the Patriots excepting 2008. Do you think you're up or down in Patriots playoff games? Lifetime.

In games that I bet? Yeah, games you bet on or against the Patriots. I think I'm down, and I'll tell you why, because I probably kept a lot of our friend Daniel's bets in the lean years, in the good years for you, 2007, 10, 12, all those. And that's why you were down? Yeah, I think so.

What are you? You should be way up more than you are. I'm way up. I mean, today, we didn't even talk about this. I lost both of my bets yesterday. Right. I doubled down. The Riku bet.

My favorite. Pat's Saints tease. I'm sorry, parlay. Pat's win. Now I have the Saints to win and I win my bet. What do I do? I hedge with the Eagles eight and a half for a half unit. And I win that one too.

Double win the hedge. You make fun of the hedge all the time. I did it. Oh, that's why you didn't want Lutz out there. Now I see. That's true. Lutz would have screwed up my hedge. That's right. I forgot about that. Of course. Yeah. Huge. But don't you think if they went up nine, the Eagles would have had the cheap touchdown? They would have given them an easy score. Yeah. But it was a successful hedge. You thought you would never see it in your lifetime.

That was nice. That was nice. And you did it for 50%, right? I don't want to say how much you would have won, but yeah, that was great. That's a successful hedge. You thought you would never see it in your lifetime. That was nice. That was nice. And you did it for 50%, right? You went through that. I don't want to say how much you would have won, but yeah, that was great. That's a good one. I think you're way down on the Pats. Yeah, I probably am. You know why I think that? Because you rarely bet on them and you lost a lot in 01.

Oh, yeah. I lost a ton on the Rams money line. Yeah. What am I talking about? Yeah, I'll never make that up. And didn't you lose one of the 07 on the Pats you lost in the Giants game? I lost both Giant games. I had the Patriots and I had the Falcons against the Patriots pretty big.

And I had... Yeah, see, I think you're way down on the Pats. Yeah, shit. So, I mean, what do you want me to do? If I bet them, you're going to lose next week. But it sounds like you like the Chiefs and you like the Rams. I don't know. I don't know yet.

You got to bat around with Clay Travis for the next five days. He's blowing our old wives' tail on bad weather. I know. I'm going to look more into that because it doesn't seem that much. Well, we know. John Ewing's going to do it for us. I know he's going to come more into that because it doesn't seem that way John Ewing is going to do it for us I know he's going to come through he's our guy now

he has some weird computer he's just going to put it in there good that'll be the new Ewing theory it'll be the John Ewing theory alright Sal good job by you good job by you Billy alright thanks to ZipRecruiter don't forget to go to

ziprecruiter.com thanks to TheRinger.com, TheRinger Podcast Network, and The Rewatchables, where Old School is going to be dropping Monday at midnight. Stay tuned for that one. Don't forget about The Flat Circle, our True Detective aftershow

on all The Ringer platforms. Don't forget about House of Carbs and One Shining Podcast, produced by Nephew Kyle. Yes, sir. That's it. We are back on Tuesday with our old friend, Zach Lowe. I went on his podcast last week.

He's coming on mine this week. So there you go. Until then. I don't have On the wayside