The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Chiefs Missed the Playoffs?! Waking Up to the Craziest Year in Football

Episode Date: January 3, 2026

We've been thinking this season has been crazy. So what is the craziest thing to learn about if you fell into a coma last New Year's Eve and are just waking up right now? The Chiefs and Lions missed the playoffs. All-Pro Micah Parsons got traded to the Green Bay Packers. Jimmy Kimmel got pulled off the air. Jayden Daniels did zero, but the 2nd year QBs Bo Nix, Drake Maye and Caleb Williams all won their divisions. The Steelers followed up their awful idea of starting Russ Wilson by signing another mercenary. Or the Indiana Hoosiers destroyed the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl. Our good pal The Dutch Mook Paul Koehorst joins the show to answer this question and give his thoughts on the top games of the week on this episode of Football America! (Photo by Matt Durisko/AP) Rundown: -Dave on the Hoosiers -Hall of Fame -Waking up from a Coma -Top Games of the Week AUDIO Football America! is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/football-america/id1831757512 Follow us: Dave Dameshek: https://x.com/dameshek Host: Dave Dameshek Guests: The Dutch Mook Paul Koehorst Team: Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes Director: Danny Benitez Senior Producers: Gino Fuentes, Mike Fuentes Executive Producer: Bradley Campbell Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Washington Commanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I understand the enthusiasm. Confusion even. The Hoosers aren't just beating Alabama. They're kicking the shit out of them. And I'm pretty sure this is the Rose Bowl. Hoosias! Let's f*** you go, baby! Weird times.

Moments after the biggest miracle in sports since the 1980 U.S. hockey team. Moments away from three NFL division titles being settled. Hi and hello and happy New Year, my fellow football Americans. Yeah, it's a whole new world order. The Indiana Hoosiers didn't just beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl. They destroyed them. Welcome to NFL Week 18. welcome to I guess in between college football playoff rounds two and three welcome to football

America episode number 39 presented as ever by our pals over at draft kings draft kings the crown is yours we have a lot to cover here only two maybe three really important pro football games we're going to dig in on those also going to look back at some college football stuff maybe even get to a shecky award good times for sure if you are a fan of the you The Ducks, Ole Miss, wild game, wild fourth quarter against Georgia, but it's still only kind of good times, I think, of your Ole Miss, because Lane Kiffin may or may not be trying to take some of the assistance off of the Ole Miss sideline and bring them over to LSU sooner rather than later, right in the midst of right before the semifinal. And of course, good times,

nay, great ones for I.U. Hoosiers fans implausible. though they may be good times for the NFL teams in the playoffs already. We'll see if that group includes the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Baltimore Ravens. We'll see if it includes the Buccaneers or the Carolina Panthers. If the Falcons beat the Saints, then it's the Panthers winning the Bum NFC South, no matter what happens in their head-to-head with the Bucks. Do I have that right? I think that's right.

It's very confusing stuff. Yeah, but right. Okay. Yeah, right. If the Falcons, I think what did you say, if the Saints beat the Falcons. Oh, the Saints beat the Falcons. I think if the Saints beat the Falcons, the Panthers are in no matter what. But to be fair, the way that the Buccaneers have been playing, I almost rather have the Panthers at this point.

Buccaneers not been very good. Well, who wants the Panthers or the Bucks is the five seed in the NFC and the five seed in the AFC. Once the winner of the AFC North, so long as it's Pittsburgh, it takes on a vote. very different hue, though, if Lamar Jackson comes back and looks anything close to Lamar Jackson, all of a sudden, them as the four-seat is a much scarier route than they would have been a week or three ago. And, of course, if D.K. Metcalf hadn't gotten suspended for two games, that hash would probably already be settled and Aaron Rogers wouldn't be playing this Sunday. Instead, we get to see him on Sunday night football against Lamar Jackson. We'll get into that

game and just a little bit quickly as we do at the top of every episode. By the way, that was just the voice of Mike Fuentes. I only barely remembered it's been so long since he shadowed our digital door here on the podcast. Welcome back, Mike, and how was your New Year's along? Well, I assume it's pretty good. You were watching the You after all. It was. I have kind of qualms about the New Year's game because you either, man, like so Mike Ryan, some of our friends are out there watching the game in Dallas. Great New Year's for them. Fantastic New Year's. If you're on the other side,

got to be the worst end to a year possible. No way, it's bad. You spend all this money to go to Dallas. You're up there in Jerry World. As we all know, Arlington's like a few, maybe like 45 minutes away from Dallas. So now you're stuck out there in the middle of nowhere at like a Holiday Inn sweets

trying to figure out what went wrong. Why your true freshman quarterback had, you know, Desmond Bain stuck in his butthole all night. And Desmond Bain is Ruben Bain, his butt hole all night. And now you've got to find a way to get out of there as the ball drops and everybody else from around you. You got Hurricanes fans flipping you off as they're leaving the thing.

Terrible New Year's. Great for me, though. I had lobster and steak and the Canes won. I'm glad. Well, those are that, yeah, you got the hat trick there. And you just worked in a two-fer of butthole in the span of about eight seconds. Yeah, can work on that. Can work on that.

So Mike Fuentes is back, everybody. There's Soup Campbell up in the Pacific Northwest. Welcome and Happy New Year. Oh, happy New Soup. And congrats to your ducks, I guess. We don't need it. No, yeah, sorry. It is one of the most annoying thing

is like when you're fighting, like your intimidation is a duck call. It's pretty bad. But man, Dave, I'm elated. I am like on Cloud 9. The ducks like dialed it back. We've got the gang green defense is back. Just thumped Texas Tech.

And it felt really, really good. And I got to say, thumpthum. I don't know if I take thumpedum-thumb-thum. Thumb-thum. They didn't shut them out. Pretty good. 23 to nothing.

That is a thump thing. Yeah. Isn't a shutout? A shutout is a thump-thum- A shutout. A shutout is a thumping. Totally a thumping. Totally a thumping.

But the thing that's amazing is, and I don't want to, like, I don't want to jinx myself, Dave, but we actually have a shot. Like, there's a pathway for the Oregon Ducks to climb out of, climb out of our sadness, climb out of our nightmare of Kajana Carter in Penn State, climb out of our nightmare of Cam Newton and Auburn, just climb out to just get to the victory point of a national championship, but there's this team called Indiana that is. in our way and I think that actually might be coming up next week. What's fun about that is

you are now through no fault of the Oregon Duck program I guess maybe Mr. Nike has made them into an elitist Uncle Phil. Uncle Phil. But they are through no fault of their own now everybody is going to be rooting against them. All objective football fans

anybody who tunes in loves this miraculous story that is the Indiana Hoosiers led by Fernando the dork and sardonic coach signetti. I was there, as you heard at the top of the show. We'll dig in on that in just a second, but let's settle the hash that we do at the top of every episode. This is episode number 39, and we honor the player or players who wore that jersey number best in football

and sports history. Pretty short list here in pro football. Larry Zonka gets it, the old moustachioed guy for the Miami Dolphins. shout out to him the clear cut number one but fast willie parker also a super bowl which could have been a super bowl MVP super bowl 40 he breaks off the big one against the seattle seahawks in the second half that really was the signature play or i guess the one a hinds ward catching a touchdown pass from another oh how about this complete the circle indiana university quarterback antoine randal l then a receiver for the steelers threw a touchdown pass to hinds ward um by the way new

Year's Eve, because you mentioned that, Mike, I, the greatest, one of the greatest sporting events I've ever attended was on New Year's Eve. And it started, if I, if memory serves, it started at 4 p.m. local time. It was in 1988 when Mario Lemieux scored five goals in five different ways, regular strength, short-handed power play, penalty shot, an empty net goal. Literally, an unbreakable record, and I can't imagine anybody ever equaling that one. That was good. But as one of society's great empaths, I did sincerely take a moment in the second half at the Rose Bowl to look around and feel sad for the Alabama people who went to the trouble of making the trip. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, listen, they terrorized college football for like 15 years, all right? And all of a sudden,

Now you can pay players, so now that Nick Saving couldn't pay them illegally anymore and everybody else gets to equally pay them. Now I'm saying, ah, you know what, I'm good, don't want to do this anymore. You know, I get it. I get it, Nick. Enjoy retirement, but I don't feel bad for them. I don't feel bad for them one bit, okay? They've had this coming for a long time, okay?

You take your three points and you go back to Tuscaloosa and you yourself have a sad New Year's Day. I did. It was great. You know, the thing that's great about sports. I know I sing songs about it, and I'm sorry if it's a little cheesy for your taste out there. The thing that I love about sports are the number one thing about it is look how happy it makes everybody and even better when it makes people you know and care about super happy. And so it was splendid to the text change with my cousin Meg, who's an IU grad, and then with all the

pals back there spread across the Midwest and the rest of football America. And just in the last few days, because of this Rose Bowl, I got to catch up with guys Vandy, Dr. Wang, the urologist, um the hog dr ted the dentist and jv um these are real people with stupid nicknames and speaking of guys with stupid nicknames we have a guy who won our fantasy football league this year he beat john ham in the in the in the uh and trevor in the final and it's the dutch mook paul cohorst he's going to join us and i'm going to pull back the curtain here because no jive is my policy it's it's the only way we roll here no jive we attempted a live show earlier on friday and it went famously it was a great time he's a the dutch mook happens to be an oregon ducks fan and a san francisco

49ers fan so i thought who better to talk to between a big game for the nineers and after a big win for the ducks uh the problem is we had audio issues and so now we're doing a decent chunk of it before we have uh i think uh coming up here in a little while we'll uh we'll hear some of our conversation and it'll be brand new for you if you didn't watch it live great news it's going to it's going to be great stuff fresh ears for you yes well post fantastic we'll pick the niners and seahawks we'll pick the steelers and ravens and we have that upcoming okay i got sidetracked there number 39 my favorite number 39 one of my all-time favorite athletes the cobra dave parker i'm I'm so glad he got into the baseball Hall of Fame just before he passed away.

As a reminder, that's a great New Year's resolution for 2026 and really any time. Let's make sure we start celebrating people while they're still around to enjoy it. I'm glad that the Cobra got to know he was a Hall of Fame or after waiting way too long to get in there. As it relates to pro football, we haven't talked much about it. We haven't had an occasion, really, to dig in on this. But a couple of things about the new list of finalists. to me, of course, now that Dave Parker's in the Hall of Fame, the weirdest omission out there in any of these Halls of Fame is Tori Holt. He wasn't just one of the great receivers of his generation.

Maybe he was the best receiver for a stretch for a season or three, the best pass catcher in all of pro football. But one thing's for sure, he was definitely better than his teammate Isaac Bruce, who's in the Hall of Fame. So by that measure, give him a gold jacket, would you already? Also, Reggie Wayne maybe suffers from the same thing. of being the sidekick-ish or the one-aid of Marvin Harrison. Reggie Wayne is a for real Hall of Famer. And so is Steve Smith. We talked to him earlier on Football America earlier this football season.

All of those cats belong in the Hall of Fame. It's weird, but also I feel like each is starting to suffer from this weird purgatory, which is, and I'm sort of elitist enough to say about it, either you're a Hall of Fame or you're not. When your name comes up, when you're eligible for the first time, we should be able to determine collectively, or the voter should, be able to decide, like, well, yeah, he's a Hall of Famer and give him his gold jacket. And this backlog, well, we have to wait because this guy missed last year. So we got to get him in first before we get that guy. All that jive. Either you're a Hall of Fame or you're not. And then I go the other way

on it, this weird like reconsideration a decade or 15 years after that. the guy retires and say, you know what, now that I've had some time to pray upon it, he is a Hall of Famer. Weird how that works. But then again, Devil's Damashek says, we do that with movies as well. The Big Lobowski, as a, for instance, was not critically acclaimed when it came out. It wasn't a big hit or anything. But of course, a lot of people will cite that as their favorite movie or among their favorite movie. So maybe I should lighten up a little bit. I am pretty liberal where it comes to the to the Hall of Fame. Did you impact the sport for a season where you one of the two or so best at the position, then you belong in the Hall of Fame?

The thing that is, you know, this is a good, oh, this could be a Shecky Award as a matter of fact for most curmudgeonly opinion. Yeah, what do you got? What do you got? What do you got? Wait, wait, I have a question. You're saying if you impacted the sport for one season, you deserve one. Okay, because if that's the case, then we got to to put Peyton Hillis in the Hall of Fame, and that's just not right. I take that back. You got that back. I got over my skeeas. That's okay. It's okay.

No, you're right. Yeah, that was poorly, that was poorly phrased. But I'm not concerned with, I think durability is a great thing, especially in a physical sport like football. It is way down on my list. If you were Terrell Davis, if you had that magical five years or six years, then you belong. in the Hall of Fame more, in my opinion, than Frank Gore does, who may wind up getting a gold jacket himself sooner rather than later. But the high end is more meaningful to me than doing it stretched out. Having pretty good numbers stretched out over 15 years is less impressive to me. The other thing is with the Hall of Fame is this is a curmudgeonly opinion.

But I would love to see individually the current Hall of Fame voters isolated so that no one else can get in their ear and tell them any information and just say like articulate for me in depth why you think willie anderson the long time right tackle the cincinnati bengals has to get a gold jacket over any of the receivers i named or ricky waters or roger crag they wouldn't be able to do it why because they're only roughly a half dozen or so people walking the planet earth who can really tell you why that offensive lineman is dominant i mean okay the guys who do it who play the position have a keen eye for for that. But I'm talking about the analysts that you hear weigh in on quality

offensive line play. And this guy's a stud. I'm talking about talking about talking heads that you watch on TV, but your pals, too. These people who weigh in as though they have any understanding about a 300-pound man leaning good on another fat guy is the height of pretentious in my book. Why? Oh, yes, Jari Evans, he must get in the Hall of Fame before we even consider Reggie Wayne. Why? Tell me why. Hall of Fame voter. You have the vote. You must be able to describe for me the unwashed mass one of the unwashed masses why that's the case. Of course, they wouldn't be able to do it. Anyhow, there's a curmudgeonly thing. Commergently opinion for you.

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And it's available in most states, including Texas, California, Georgia, and more. What are you waiting for? Whether it's 2025 or 2026, go and download the Draft King's pick six app now and use code Damashek. New Draft King customers can play just $5 and get $50 in Pick Six credits with the code Damashek, D-A-M-E-S-H-E-K, ride the upside in partnership with Draft King's pick-6. The crown is yours. This is kind of what we wanted college football playoff to be because there's

There's four teams in. One has it won a title since 2001. One has it won a title since JFK was alive. And they claimed that national title. They didn't win it. Indiana, classic loser in college football. They're there in Oregon. Oregon's been a punchline.

Okay? More uniforms than titles. That was always the joke people make about them. So this is kind of the culmination, yeah, of things that they wanted with the college football playoff. I'm probably mad, you know, that Georgia's not here. Forehead coaches of the Nick Sabin coaching tree. Yes, except. You know, it's funny, there was a time yesterday when every single coach had been a Nick Saban assistant except one.

And who was that? DeBore, the actual coach Alabama. Who was that? Former assistant where? Indiana University. Correct. Yep. Full circle.

By the way, my pals were, we were talking like, how sustainable is this? This magic ride, you know, is it going to end up feeling like a mirage, you know, a year or three? from now. You know, we were burned by the Michael Pennix. If you remember about five years ago during COVID, Michael Pennix beat Penn State on that lunge for the end zone. They almost beat Justin Fields in Ohio State in Columbus. And we thought, like, maybe the Hoosiers are going to get good at football. They did not get good at football. This is now endured for one season more than what happened five years ago. I think in this case, in the NIL age, I think that you have the mercenary, that is Kurt Signetti, who's clearly a QB whisperer.

And now that he's done it two years in a row, he brings over Curtis Rourke last year who ends up getting drafted. Fernando Mendoza is going to get drafted, what, two or three at worst this year? So if you're Sam Levitt from ASU, who's now officially in the portal or someone like that, where else are you looking or it has to be on your short list of options? This guy clearly produces studs at QB and elevate your chances. getting drafted in the NFL. So I think it is sustainable so long as Kurt Signetti is there. Miami's doing the same thing. But the funny thing is, because obviously we had Cam Wardicle number

one, and he was a husband finalist. You're not going to get that with Carson Beck, but you can show that these guys can go and win somewhere. The only issue I see with that, and it's funny, it's something that's kind of exclusive to the NIL era, because Alabama is winning a bunch of titles, and they had like A.J. McCarrin playing quarterback. So they were able to fill in all those positions and I'll just throw anybody out there who can run maybe a you know a little Hawaiian guy that ends up getting drafted by the dolphins and then basically ends up stealing money and now we don't know what to do with them but they would do that but now it seems get the best quarterback and kind of just roll with it and Indiana and Miami seem to have that model where it's like

proof of concept we can get you to the NFL in like a top five draft um Dave who you got for this game who you got for this game here here's here's the thing I have to again no job policy. I have to concede something to you. It's all very exciting. I'm happy for my friends who are really over the moon about this. And a lot of fellows are making plans to head to Atlanta for, I think it is technically the Peach Bowl to play the Oregon Ducks in the rematch. You know, it's great. There's just no stakes for me. There's no downside. So it's hard for me. I can't get nervous for anything that happened. So I'm not saying it, I want the Hoosiers to win. It would be great if they did, but they already finished number one and they went undefeated and Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman

trophy. And the greatest win in school history without hyperbole is maybe winning in Eugene against the ducks when you just never thought they would have a chance of doing that. And then they win the Big Ten championship against Mighty Ohio State. And now they just beat Alabama. I mean, what more can they do if they lose to Oregon so be it but i didn't think any of this was plausible i don't i don't i don't believe you one bit because the last thing you want to do is get really close to winning a national championship and a sport you're not supposed to be good at right you're right there you're two games away and a team that sits in front of you is a team you've already beaten and on the other side let's be real is two teams that nobody believes in a hurricane

team that had to wait till the last day to get into the national to get into the playoff and then an Ole Miss team that their coaches and coaches are abandoning them in droves. So basically, you're thinking, if we beat this team, we've already beat, we are going to be the favorite to the national championship. I don't believe you, one bit. To lose in the semifinal to a team you already beat, who's also a Big Ten rival, would be disastrous. I'm telling you. You may never be here again.

That's the problem. You may never be here again. Remember when George W. Bush looked in Putin's eyes and saw his soul, tried and do that with your old pal Dave right now. I can tell you, honestly, I'm way more concerned. way more bothered because of the history way more concerned about the Pittsburgh Steelers and what happens against the Ravens than what happens with the Hoosiers and the Ducks. I just, this is all, this is like, Dave, Dave, there's no, there's no way Aaron Rogers

winning the Super Bowl, you know that, you know he's not going to win the Super Bowl. So Fernando Mendoza is right there, ride my Cuban brethren, my Miami Compadre, my Pisano, ride him to a national championship, Dave, get on whatever the hell that Hoosier is, strap on the saddle and ride that baby all the way down to Miami. I love nothing more than to watch you torment yourself and like Ryan and everybody in Miami. Try to make sense of the you versus native son Fernando would be the greatest vibe. Just imagine it. It's a January night in Miami.

It's 60 degrees, beautiful, crisp air. All right. Fernando Mendoza wakes up. He says his 17th prayer of the morning. He has a Cuban sandwich. He checks AI to make sure his winning speech is available. And he goes home and he beats his whole. hometown team in Miami.

50,000 Cubans in the stands, utterly confused. They don't know what to do. He lifts the trophy. He thanks God 17 times before he thanks his abuela. And then before you know it, he rides off to the sunset to go be a Las Vegas Raider and you never see him again. Like that, what an ending. Coach's like, whatever, Dave.

What an ending. He says that. You got to cherish it, Dave. I love it. I'm just saying that there's no, you got to own it. There's no doubt. I hear you. I just, I can't talk myself into that.

And what I feel like is what a Vegas Golden Knights fan must have felt in their first season. They go all the way to the, to the cup final and lose to the caps. It's like, all right, and we didn't have a hockey team last year. That's kind of how I feel like. Well, we didn't play football until about 18 months ago. So, I mean, how sad am I going to be if we lose a game? You know, it does make me want to give out. You know, the one thing, more empathy for me for Alabama, my heart went out to them until I realized.

Do you know fashion-wise, every Alabama male fan wears those same weird brown square-toe boots, like they're about to go out and bail some hay? It's very weird. They really want to lean into the stereotype for some reason in their boot-cut jeans and their weird boots. But still, I have a big enough heart that I went out to all of those. That had to be real rough to watch the Anahusiers kill you on the fashion they did. And that brings me to this. If I may, I'd like to give out a new Shecky Award. First of all, I did.

If you missed it last week, we gave out the first one. And unfortunately, it's the one no one wants to win. It's the Sonic Award so named for the 2008 Sports Town of Seattle, who lost Kevin Durant and all the other Sonics, left town and moved to Oklahoma. mud. That was the tip of the sad sports iceberg for Seattle fans in 2008. We give it to the sports town whose fans suffered the most in the last calendar year. We gave it to Washington, D.C. And again, no jive. But when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. And a couple of people dropped me a line and said, no mention of Dallas. And I thought it through. Micah Parsons gets traded away

to an ancient rival. Luca Donchich gets traded away to a conference rival. But, I mean, obviously, he's a generational player, and you just said goodbye to him. The Rangers were 500. They were irrelevant. And the stars were good, but then they flamed out against Edmonton on the big stage in the conference finals. And the Cowboys were typical Dallas Cowboys, non-factor, when things really started the matter.

So I think maybe do we need to amend this, or do we keep it with our nation's capital. I'm going to start with you here, Mike. Dallas or Washington. Yeah. Big letdown because it starts for Jane Daniels in the conference finals in January, but the rest of the year stinks. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard. The caps are irrelevant again in the postseason as they typically are, say that one time.

They beat an expansion team to win their one cup, so that only counts for a half. The Wizards are forever terrible. are terrible as well. So that's a pretty, that's a pretty bad one. It would be unless, you know, you got you got, you got that, you have that, you have that ability to kind of like it's sad, but it's like, oh, you got, you got, like, this kid's going to be absolutely amazing. So I think you got to stay with Washington. Yeah. And also that, and that's also the fall of the Great American Empire. That's where it's going to begin. So you got to take that into account. And, you know, Donchich getting traded. Stars get traded all the time.

I think the real Not like that Well no No no yes Yeah like that And the thing is What did you get back for him And when you see what they got back

Now it just compiles it right Because if you get You know you knew you had a Cooper flag Coming in well actually you didn't At the time of the trade you didn't Because they ended up winning it later Yeah so You know if you get a big haul back

And a guy was like I didn't really want to be here You're kind of like well If you didn't want to stay anyway it's fine But you get back Basically nothing Kyrie's out for like half the season But I don't know I don't know it's a good question

my fellow football Americans to weigh in. Please do so. By the way, I should have said it at the top. Get in on YouTube specifically. We really appreciate the notes and the likes. And if you haven't subscribed, please do so. That really helps us out quite a bit and spread the word wherever you find your audio podcast as well. In the meantime, I want to give another Shecky Award out right now. This one is the craziest thing to learn about if you fell into a coma last New Year's Eve and are just now waking up. Okay? You understand the the notion behind this Shecky Award. All right.

The first one is the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions both missed the playoffs. Stunning. Next, big-time college football coaches from Blue Blood programs got fired in the mid-season. That never happens. Not multiple times across football America. Next, I mentioned it. Michael Parsons got traded. After that, more pop culture.

Jimmy Kimmel gets pulled off of his. his late-night show, essentially by the U.S. government or encouraged by, and a week later is reinstalled because America won't have it. That was a pretty wild storyline. If somebody told you that that happened while you were watching the Rose Bowl on Thursday, McJesus and Drysitle, didn't win the cup again. This is a stunner for all of time until they do get one. The best player in the sport and the, like, second, third, fourth best player in the sport have never won the championship. That's sad. Jaden Daniels did zero, but his second year pals, Bo Nix, Drake May, and Caleb Williams all won their divisions.

That is insane if you really take a step back. I know we're now used to the idea of the Broncos and Patriots being good, but you wouldn't have thought that a year ago. The Steelers followed up their awful idea of starting Russell Wilson by signing a lot. another washed-up mercenary in Aaron Rogers. That was a crazy story, at least in my head. And the Indiana Hoosiers not only defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide. They destroyed them in the Rose Bowl, which counted as round two of the playoff. And your winner is.

What the hell do you think it is? It's the Indiana Hoosiers beating Alabama in any game, anywhere, any time. let alone in the Rose Bowl to advance to being one of the last four teams left standing in this stupid college football playoff. All right, let's bring in, I mean, he has already been brought in, but now let's bring him in here. He is one of my favorite fellows around. He is the fantasy football champion reigning right now in our dumb league out here. Niners fan, Ducks fan, Scratch golfer, great writer. Dutch MOOC is a part of the conversation from here on out, and we'll pick it up where we left off.

Shecky to Danny for running this. Look, Dave, we have so much going on here. The stadium, look, this. I don't even know what this thing is. It just has a knob. Look at all this crap on the table. We have no. There's so much going on here in the middle of a tech upgrade.

So, unfortunately, the man, you call Dutch mook, we lost half his interview. I'd like to apologize, football America. There's so much crap. I don't know what's going. I'm going to go. Okay, thanks. Bye. Beat Oregon and Eugene.

We've shown we can win these big games. I don't think so. I don't think so. And shout out because the thing that's great about it, and I know it's saccharine, and I go on and on about it all the time. But the reason sports, for the spectator, the number one reason they're great is because how happy it makes the people in your life to see those teams do well. And it's a reason to connect with them. In the last few days, I've caught up with my guy, Vandy, Dr. Wang, the hog, Dr. Ted, JV. These are real people, despite the stupid nicknames, Dutch MOOC.

Have they the Cutters reached out to you? One of those guys? Actually, he wasn't on the Cutters, but he did ride in the Little 500 bike race. Yes. So that was a good reference by you. So, yeah, listen, it's been great. And the text chains and everybody has sent in the pictures and all of that. It's all great stuff.

But I don't know. Like, you know, that's the question. Oh, do you think this is the end? No, as long as Kach Singh is there. Now he is the mercenary you want to go and work with if you have aspirations of playing in the NFL and you're a QB. And of course, once you figure out that, all the guys around that want to be a part of that. You want to be on the offensive line. You want to be a pass catcher or a running back.

If you know you're going to be in a mighty offense with a great QB, I don't know if Sam Levitt, who is officially now in the portal transferring from Arizona State. I don't know if he winds up at Indiana. but I think if there is a high-end QB out there looking to put himself in the best spot before the draft next year, Fernando's going to be a top three pick at worst. So, yeah, I think it is sustainable. Quarterback matters on some level. You can make a case even more in college football because if you have the answer there, you can really cover up a lot of other crap in college football.

So, yeah, I think it is sustainable. Quickly, your pick before we move on to pro football picks here. And soup, since you're rooting for the Ducks as well. Go ahead, make your pick. Plus four, Oregon Ducks, the big debate. Is it hard to beat the same team twice or once you've already taken the body shot of losing it home? Are you like, what chance do we have on a neutral site?

Mook. I think it is hard to beat the same team twice. Look, I saw with Washington last year. It was hard to beat the same team once. but I think I think personally that watching that first Indiana game I was pretty hopeless

that D line did something to Oregon that was shocking like I was really confident in that Oregon offensive line and they got freaking manhandled and I don't know how you fix that bar one little thing

we have Dan Lannin and Dan's a smart guy and he's about as good and motivated there is in NCAA football and i truly do i mean i truly do think the ducks can win this game and uh then they'll probably lose a horrible national i but but for real they they're you know the winner of this game is going to be likely i don't know maybe the but it's the most organ thing it would probably be the most organ thing to win this game and then it's like okay it's all over but the crime and then to freaking blow the national championship game.

Yeah, but the other thing is the Ole Miss element of it is with Lane. Now, it's unclear what's going on on the sideline, but those guys are slowly moving away from Ole Miss. They're leaving Oxford actively before the state. It's unclear. I don't think that that ultimately happens. I mean, what a terrible look. SEC overlords have to step in and be like, listen, Rob Peter to pay Paul all you want,

but now we're in the semi-finery. guys. This is good for the conference. If Ole Miss wins and gets to the championship, please, Lane, do not take these guys this week. What a horrendous look. Soup, what your pick in this one. I got to go to the Oregon Ducks. And the only reason I'm going that way is because I haven't seen like a perfect Dante Moore game yet. There's always that moment where you're like, wait, we haven't seen his ceiling yet. We haven't seen his ceiling yet. We haven't excel in the red zone. So I think if we can make a little bit of corrections, especially in the red zone, and just try to get one touchdown.

I think we're going to squeak it out, maybe by two points. It's going to be close. It's going to be close. I don't see this a blowout either way, though. The two teams are too good. I do have to say, I mean, like I say, I'm not indifferent about it. Obviously, I hope the Hoosiers win, but it's not going to be devastating. Not one one hundredth as devastating as the Steelers losing to the Cleveland Browns

with the division on the line a week ago. It's just all gravy. I keep saying it. but Mike Fuentes, ironic or otherwise, I do have to shout him out because on his birthday last week, he was taking time out of his birthday celebration to text me, see, the bills are at home and they're losing to the Eagles. So you and your dumb home field advantage and playing in the outdoors and the elements being an advantage to northern-based teams and all of that, the big exception in the college football playoff to all these antiseptic dome joints and you wouldn't know

one from the other is the Rose Bowl, and I found myself walking through the rain trying to get to the Rose Bowl, and that really sucked in L.A. But the football gods ultimately smiled and didn't douse us too badly with the rain. But that would have been terrible if the Hoosiers had lost in a downpour. I think that would have been point Mike Fuentes against Dave Damasek in being right about playing out in the elements. All right, let's get to it, shall we? Let's make some picks for week 18 and one of those picks is we are finally here and you can rightly declare who you think deserves the MVP. Mook, I start with you. The conversation is, Drake May, by the way, has become now a, I don't know, prohibitive favorite, but the bookmakers are on my side. It's got

to be Drake May. How say you about one, two, three, though, Drake May, Matthew Stafford, or let me throw in a wild card for you, Christian McCaffrey. it's it's surprising how little chatter McCaffrey's gotten because you know it's one of those things that happened when the Niners lost all those lost all those defensive players everyone kind of just put the Niners in a box aside

and said well let's not even think about them I did right and so I think the one thing that I mentioned before is we remember beginnings and ends better so Drake May is going to end the season with this performance against the Jets last week,

whatever he's going to do this weekend against Miami, I believe, is just going to porch them. You probably only play a half, whatever. But he's going to have the stupendous end to the season. And I think that the Drake May thing does feel like,

it does feel like a done deal. I mean, and then I personally put McCaffrey there because McCaffrey's season, he's going to have a thousand yards rushing, a thousand yards receiving. You know, it's been done, what, four times, three times in NFL history? he stayed completely healthy for a player who's not 25 anymore. I mean, he's basically single-handedly this last month kept the Niners,

kept the Niners in these games catching short passes from, he's not, you know, he's catching short passes from Purdy and doing a lot of the work himself. So I think that I personally put McCaffrey at second and I would give him the consideration of first, but I'm a Homer, so I'm a little bit biased. Well, you could say Homer, if you want to, and, and, um, I, you know, obviously, I'm not on the Niners, and in fact, I, like you described, I backed off of them with the injuries. I just felt like there was a ceiling imposed on them that lowered the chances of them

getting to the title game, let alone to the Super Bowl, a home game, but they're pretty close to it. And to your point about beginning and end, if his finishing act of the regular season is leading the Niners to a win against the Hawks and claiming the number one seed, that should make, I mean, I know this is a ridiculous moot conversation. There's no chance they're going to give it to a non-quarterback. But in terms of history, like you say, thousand and a thousand. And the other point is, too, it's because of the narratives that we create in our heads

during a football season and we got swept up in like maybe the Broncos are good, but wait a second, is it over for Josh Allen in the AFC East? And here come the Patriots once again and Caleb Williams and all the stuff in the, all the intrigue of the NFC. Sea North and all the different storylines that have been going. And Lamar Jackson, what's going on there? And is Aaron Rogers viable? Really?

Can he take this team to playoffs? And all that kind of stuff. It somehow all amounted to us paying no attention to not just the Niners, but why they stayed relevant week after week. And I say it's Christian McCaffrey, along with his guy, Kyle Shanahan. But really, CMC, talk about surprises this year that if you woke up from a coma, Who was to say that CMC would ever look anything close to what he did a couple of years ago the last time they were in the Super Bowl? It's weird.

There has been very little attention paid to this handsome devil who, you know, people are, it feels like the advertisers of America are all in on and everything else. And yet, if San Francisco, one of our great metropolis is, that's where the Super Bowl is this year. No buzz about the Niners right now. And I think there's a decent chance that in January that all turns around. You talk about this is all prelude to the main event. The playoffs are, in fact, the main event, not the regular season, not what happened at any point in October. And let's also include the Niners MVP of Robert Sala, what he's been doing with the defense.

I mean, the fact that these guys, you know, these guys were on the Phil Rivers train. I'm sure a bunch of these guys were working at UPS or coaching high school football. you know and all of a sudden now that these guys are being called in action to keep you know to keep warm bodies on this defense and they're you know look they're not they're not stopping people but they're keeping the niners in games so yes you're right if the niners can win this game and they do it again with a classic CMC game you know 80 yards rushing 80 yards receiving something like that a couple touchdowns yeah then maybe that maybe that is enough to win CMC an MVP award. But I think the advantage that Drake May also has is coming from being specifically in New England, he kind of can live off a little bit of a Tom Brady type wake a little bit and that, oh man, is this guy the next Brady? So let's acknowledge it now as opposed to a few years from now.

You know, let's get on the Drake May training year two as opposed to waiting to, you know, because it feels like they'd be reluctant to sort of give it to a second year player, you know. And so instead, it's like, you know, maybe we'll hop on the Drake May train now instead of waiting to have him win a Super Bowl. Interesting thought there. Of course, Brady gets his first Lombardi in his sophomore year. And so many quarterbacks high end get theirs in their second year. That means circle Bo Nix and Drake May, especially Bo Nix.

But Drake May, yeah, I mean, the best thing that ever happened to Tom Brady, he was largely a passenger in that Super Bowl run, but getting that before it ever becomes a thing, can he win the big one to be at the end of your second season? And in fact, Drew Bledsoe does a little of the work in the postseason for you. And to be like, no one's ever going to question whether or not I can win the big one, because I already did it. That would be the best thing to happen to Drake May related matter. If you get an MVP, that helps too.

All right. It all leads up to this. Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers. We talked about the Niners looming injuries there. That's why they are plus a point and a half at home. If they can win this one, the path runs through Santa Clara for them the whole way. Total at the time of this recording, 47 and a half. How say you, Dutch Moog?

Kyle is in his bag right now. The offense looks fantastic. Purdy is looking, Purdy has been absolutely on fire, putting up numbers not seen since Joe Montana or even Colin Kaepernick. if you combine what he's doing with his legs. I personally think this Niners team is so dialed in. I think the Niners win it. I think they win it comfortably. I think the Niners win it by two TDs.

Well, the big question, it seems, is can Sam Darnold win this one in a big spot? And then people say, well, ironic you would say that when he already just beat the Niners. But I don't think that felt like that was a Sam Donald's signature win so much as it was just a bizarre sequence of events. by the way one last thing i have to i have to throw in on this idea about matthew stafford his MVP he was in my fantasy qb as you know i enjoyed his deeds all through the season he also was throwing it to puka nukua not just the best name in football but maybe the best wide receiver in football puka nakua and a lot of the time devante adams meantime drake may the second year guy is throwing the ball to old stephan diggs and to hunter henry who do you

think had the advantage in that. Oh, well, Matthew Stafford threw eight more touchdown passes. I don't give a good goddamn. This is the sophomore guy who the entire football town was looking at like, can you, everybody around you, Drake is a youngster too. Can you hoist us up a little bit in year two and give us some hope for next year? And he goes on and wins the division and they're a win away from 14 wins. Remarkable stuff. I'm with you. I'm going to take the Niners on a hunch. in this one, that they win this game. It's the carrot of, if we just win this one, guys,

we'd never have to go on the road. I think that's juicy stuff for a human being who plays football for a living. Next up, Pittsburgh Steelers hosting, not their ancient rival, but their rival nevertheless, the best rivalry in pro football in this millennium. The home team Steelers plus three and a half

at the time of this recording, 40 and a half is your sad total. between two pro football teams. The big story is obviously Lamar Jackson is going to play. It sounds like T.J. Watts is going to be out there. Don't know how much. The big, big thing is the absence of D.K. Metcalfe, obviously, you saw how different that offense looks when he ain't out there.

Maybe Dave was right. Maybe Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan will concede that maybe we should have gotten a second wide receiver at some point in the last two seasons. But what's done is done. How say you on this one? Dutch MOOC. Dave, quickly,

where are you on Gainwell? I thought earlier in the year, you were not a big Gainwell guy. And this last six weeks suddenly, his ball, his pass catching has been huge for the... Not last week, which it should have been,

but yes, I hear your larger point, yes. No, I just, I mean, they used a third round pick on Caleb Johnson out of Iowa.

I am, for me in the, in the capped league, And when the clock starts as soon as you draft a guy and you have to make a decision on him after a couple few years and all of that, I feel like NFL team should be incented to see what these guys are sooner rather than later. And now basically you've redshirted your third round pick. That's a weird way to approach what should have been, they should have had more immediacy about trying to get him in there. But yeah, I'm not complaining about the way Kenneth Gainwell. And in fact, I think if the Steelers were to somehow win this game,

Kenneth Gainwell will have to be a huge factor in it because obviously they don't have much else to target in the passing game. Pat Fryermuth, I suppose. Well, to me, honestly, it does come down into quarterbacks. And I think that personally, everyone's wondering what's going on with Lamar is an injury. Obviously, it was an injury, but the thing that I saw in Lamar looked more like malaise. And I, like, almost disinterest for part of the season. And so what now is he motivated? Is he someone who can flip a switch?

Versus in Aaron Rogers, who is, you know, who is 100% motivated and, and dialed in right now. Is he certainly not dialed in? I mean, he's the guy who chose to target Marcus Valdez Scantling with the division on the line three straight times. I don't know how dialed in that is. seems to care more. I know that he cares. I'm not sure how much Lamar cares. Now, can you flip the care switch like the chiefs have done over the years, seems like, you know, the chief's like, you know, they go Uncle Miltie. They whip out just enough, you know, and now can Lamar all a sudden say, okay, now I'm fully invested again and I feel healthy enough again. Personally, to me,

with three and a half points is enough to me to say, I would take Pittsburgh and that would be my selection. Well, as always, when these two teams play, I will always predict the final score is 20 to 17. That's been adjusted for inflation when it used to always be 13 to 10. The only thing left to figure out was which was going to be on the winning side. Now they've bumped it up modern times. 2017 will be your final score. And sadly, I suspect it will be the Baltimore Ravens. Here is the, this is maybe dim logic because it's kind of too broad. And, I think that Lamar, anything close to 100% with Derek Henry behind him, that's enough to defeat the Steelers, given the state of the Steelers' offense without their only viable

pass catcher, wide receiver at least. But given that the Steelers are so diminished, the logic, the philosophy should be like, just don't give them extra chances. care of the ball, be conservative, run the ball with Eric Henry. We will scratch out enough points to survive this bum offense. The problem with that is we see Lamar Jackson when he is coached to be conservative and to play it safe and not to take chances. We see that every January and that's Lamar Jackson at his worst. And in fact, it is not a coincidence. Why is Lamar Jackson struggle against the Steelers? Because their intent in every one of these games is to drag him down

into the mud and turn it into a knuckle fight. If Lamar and Todd Monkin and company take that bait, the Steelers are going to have a chance in this one. I'm going to take the Ravens here. I think the thing that's unlikely to happen because the Texans should win. I think the lemonade out of lemon that the NFL is rooting for here is you could still get, if the Texans and Chargers lose, I'm pretty sure this is accurate, you could still get bills at Ravens. And that would be the best playoff game of them all. So that's something to root for, I guess if you don't have a rooting interest otherwise and you'd like to react to star power, then react to that. Dutch mook, you're the biggest star in my galaxy, except I'm going to

be rooting against your ducks next week. In the meantime, congratulations once again on the fantasy championship. Thank you for joining us. Soup. Great stuff jumping in here. Shout out to the Fuentes boys. And shout out to you, my fellow football Americans. Thanks so much. It's been a thin slice of heaven. Thank you.