The Dumb Zone FREE - DZ 12-9-24: CFP bracket is set, Around the NFL, and ESPN's Ben Baby in the Den

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

Don't miss an episode of The Dumb Zone by subscribing at DumbZone.com or Patreon.com/TheDumbZoneWe're joined in the Den by ESPN's Ben Baby who covers the Bengals now. We preview tonight's Cowboys-Bengals game with Ben, go around the room and get a weekend check, and chat CFP playoffs, Around the NFL, Juan Soto's new deal, and the Mavs incredible last month (00:00) - Open with Ben Baby (19:27) - Weekend check (44:37) - NCAA: CFP bracket set (01:08:51) - Around the NFL Week 14 (01:45:44) - Mavs: winners of 11 of 12 (01:52:19) - News: CEO shooter identified (02:15:25) - Viewer Mail birthdays (02:22:56) - Today in History: Dan confuses movies ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hello, I'm professional broadcaster Dan McDowell, letting you know that you are about to hear one of our free podcasts. But, if you'd like to subscribe at dumbzone.com, you'll get four shows per week, plus the weekend wrap-up and any bonus sodes like our Business Wednesday interviews. So, if you forgot how to use the 15-second rewind, that's dumbzone.com to subscribe. Now, on to today's program. The Dumza, Dumza, Dumza. Hello there. Happy Monday. I'd like to talk to you about our friends.

Are you okay? Are you all right? Let me know. That felt very unfair. That felt very unfair. That was not fair for Rob to have brought you up twice. I'll tell you what is fair, Dan. Fairlease at fairlease.org.

They will help you lease your next vehicle. Drive now, pay later. Zero money down. No payments for 60 days. White glove service. Blake, what does that mean? They treat you nice. Okay.

So they're going to handle everything from the beginning to the end. So they'll bring the car to you. They'll actually bring the car to you. You just sit there, mess around on your phone. You're swiping. I like this one. Then they bring you the car. You sign the documents from the comfort of your home.

What is black glove service? Cost-effective leasing. You will save money. Leasing costs less than buying. Pay only the amount for the lease. No one's helping you today, are they? Not for the whole car. You can save time.

Maybe you're saddled with two kids all weekend, and you're like, but I really need a new car. Projecting. They can help you with that. You don't have to go spend all Saturday dealing with it. Maybe you're just a super ripped guy like Dan who works out all day Saturday. Hey. You're going to have to be available for that. Well, you don't have to go to the dealership.

Check them out at fairlease.org. Thanks a lot, guys. The Dumbs, the Dumbs, the Dumbs. And it ain't like the Eagles have an easy road, right? You've got to play Gilmer, and you've got to play Graham, and Bladewater, and you get here, and you've got to play the team that set the record for offense, and we saw why. And somehow, the Eagles were able to get it done. All right, everybody. You can wipe your tears now.

Such a great season and such a great moment for everyone involved with the football team. Coming up in the program, we'll be joined by the head coach of the Argyle Eagles, Coach Todd Rogers, to talk a little bit about last year's state championship game and a little bit about this season. And after the break, we will talk with Ben Baby of the Denton Record Chronicle about this year's team. Stay with us. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. And after the break, we will talk with Ben Baby of the Denton Record Chronicle about this year's team. Stay with us.

Little Blake. Wipe your tears. Did you literally cry over any Argyle football game? Have you? Uh, no. I just thought that was the right thing to say in that moment. Have you? Uh, no. I just thought that was the right thing to say in that moment. He will. He will one day.

When he moves there and becomes the play-by-play guy, he will cry. And it won't be from Brooks. It'll be after Brooks. When he just gets to know the team as a collective, that he's just these boys. You mean like I do now? Yeah, I mean, I think you're a little too young still.

I think every high school play-by-play guy gets emotional once their kids are gone because they're thinking about dying. So in their head, they're like, boy, I remember youth. Whole life in front of you. I get kind of sad thinking about looking up, realizing I'm never going to get to play in a football game again. Like flag doesn't count? It does not count.

I'm Dan McDowell. I'm Jake Kemp. I'm Blake Jones. Along with video man Rob Chickering, formerly known as the Skydiving Chief Did you have a nickname with Craddock? He's just Rob Just Rob? Alright

We are broadcasting High atop my garage today Live I think I think we Oh, forgot about that. I think we're live streaming. Pretty sure. Kind of prepping for this evening as we will do another live stream during an exciting Cowboys game.

And Blake did lie in that clip. Like saying he's wiping his tears. He lied in that form. Like saying he's wiping his tears. He lied in that form. But then he did not lie when he teased ahead and said joining him would be Ben Baby of the Denton what? Denton Record Chronicle. The Denton Record Chronicle.

That's right. Which is a newspaper. I'm guessing. Yes. And Ben Baby is here live. Wow. High atop the garage. Wow. Because he's in town to cover the big match tonight.

When are you going to be on Around the Horn? I don't know. That's a good question. Probably not anytime soon. But I'm with y'all. I cannot be more thrilled. I was just saying this before, and I want to make sure I say it. I think it's really cool that we're all still kind of doing this thing all this time like i remember meeting you

back when we were in school blake running around with him in a bunch of argyle press boxes by the way i think in the top five games i've covered at at&t stadium i put out the list argyle fairfield that state title game in 2013 i I believe, was a banger. So that was good. Made you want to cry, right? It did not. But it was good. Must have been just one of us.

Yeah, it's really weird. How old are you now? 33. See, I feel like you're older not because you look older, but just because you have an air of gravitas. Yeah, like you're real. Going gray early helped you. I've been going gray since you've known me.

It's just gotten more pronounced as the years have gone on. Yeah. I mean, look, they're letting a lot of newbies on around the horn. I feel like that should be your goal. I thought it was dying. It might be, but they let Kevin Clark do it, you know? Oh, yeah, this summer is the last. I know.

Well, whatever replaces it, I want Ben Baby on it. Thank you. I appreciate that. Should we say what he does now? Yeah, well, I was hinting towards that just because he's in town to cover the big game. The big game in Arlington. Simpsons game. The Simpsons game.

We booked Ben Baby and Mike Soroy. One covers the Bengals, one used to work for the Simpsons. There you go. And yeah, I know you write now in Cincinnati. You cover the Bengals. That's correct.

Give us an exciting Bengals story that they won't give us on the broadcast Tonight That's a good one I'm trying to think of what would be solid here There's always little things going on With all these teams Mike Brown, he's at practice

Like every practice, he'll show up And so there's a bubble that we gotta go to When they're indoors, they've been inside all week Getting ready for AT&T uh to play inside also it's been like freezing it's been like 20 degrees there's no reason to practice outside when you're four and eight if we're being honest so but Michael like drive his little Chevy Malibu like the two blocks over usually he'll take a golf cart if the weather's nice but uh he's been driving over watching them practice I don't think he's missed a single practice in the six years I've been there, which is unbelievable.

He'll just sit there, rolling in the golf cart, just sit in a chair, and he'll watch the entire thing. The Cowboys owner flies his helicopter on the practice field. Do they do the, like, the day after the game, is he sitting in the coaches' meetings like Jerry and Steve and I? Yeah, I'm going to say Mike does not do that. It's a very opposite front office. But I do think it's interesting, both are family-run

businesses. And I think that's usually used against the Bengals and used in a negative connotation when you talk about their spending and how they've operated over the years. But Mike and then his daughter, Katie Blackburn, the executive vice president, really does a lot of the day-to-day operations. And then their children, Caroline and Elizabeth, they're now heavily involved there as well. So it's really the Brown and Blackburn family. They do a whole lot of that, much like the Jones do. It's going great.

Working out really well for both of them. Yeah. Well, Bengals made the Super Bowl. I will say that the Bengals did. But the Cowboys also won 36 games in three years. There was only a couple teams with more. Steven Jones told me. Give me the Super Bowl.

Yeah, they had a— Okay, but I'm saying— They got themselves a quarterback that can play big in three years. There was only a couple teams with more, Stephen Jones told me. Give me the Super Bowl. They got themselves a quarterback that can play big in big games. What's he doing this year? Putting up MVP numbers? Yeah, he is actually. He's pretty great. Joe, I'm curious to see how this season goes, how just increasingly upset

he gets with how things have gone. You got a sense of that like week two when they lost to Kansas City. I think we asked him about like, oh, is this like some variation of his measuring stick game for what y'all want to be at the end of the year? He goes, we're not even thinking about that right now. And I got the sense in the way that he answered that question. He was saying, I don't know if we're really going to be good enough to be a playoff team at the end of the line.

And then now I think everybody is firmly in agreement that this thing, you're now prepping for 2025. And if you're everybody but Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase essentially on that roster, you're playing to prove that you can be somebody that they can build around because Joe is going to at some point make his opinion known to the front office and say, I like these guys. I do not like these guys. Here's why.

And you go from there. Coach gone? I think Zach's definitely going to have at least another year. I think that, you know, one thing I try to tell people all the time and coming from Texas, I said in having the career that I have, it's really now you kind of shortcut a lot of the steps where you don't have to go work at the Denton Record Chronicle or, you know, the San Antonio Express News and go cover preps

for a long time or a few years even. But, you know, because I was able to do that and I dealt with Blake's guy, Todd Rogers, Joey Florence, a lot of really good coaches in DFW and in San Antonio, you get to learn why they're successful and kind of how they operate, how they structure things, and what makes them good. It's not just that they've got a lot of players, but how they tick as head coaches. And I think a lot of those things carry over from the high school level to the college level to the pro level. Like when I first met Kevin Sumlin and really got to be around him a little bit,

I'm like, I don't think this is going to work out. And while they were good at times, eventually you got a sense of, okay, when it did fall apart, I'm like, yeah, I kind of saw that coming. And I think with Zach Taylor, there have been some issues on how this team has performed, especially this year. He said point blank, I'm a 4 has performed, especially this year. He said point blank, I'm a 4-8 head coach this year. That's the way it is. But I think the way that, you know, I think very few guys would have been able to handle the pressure early on after winning

six games your first two years. His third season, they did not look like they were going to be a very good team. You know, they were, I remember even in December before that year, they went to the Super Bowl. Weren't a ton of fans at games. There were some questions about whether that team makes the playoffs. I think if you're a bad head coach and you're not wired the right way, you kind of succumb to that pressure. And that's it. And then it's over.

And I think he's done a good job. He's very level-headed. I think there are a lot of attributes he has that I think has made him have this job for as long as he's had it. That being said, I think that the fans are really fed up with how things have gone. I think inside that locker room, they're kind of wondering why they're this bad this year. And so I think there's going to be a lot of urgency this offseason to get this thing righted. And then you're going to be asked some serious questions about the franchise, if not, after next season.

Did they mess up the chase situation? That's going to be a great question. A great question. It seems like you got more expensive. They made an offer. I got the sense before training camp that I just did not think that was going to come together. I just thought that what Jamar

was looking for, what the Bengals were wanting to do, I did not know. I didn't get the sense that they were going to find a way to come across the finish line and get that deal signed. When you look at it, the Bengals, they don't like to give a lot of money guaranteed past the first year. One of the unique franchises that does that, most teams, Pittsburgh and Green Bay, you talk to agents around the league, they will kind of structure contracts similarly. But you've seen Pittsburgh start to change a little bit.

Green Bay will start to change a little bit with Jair Alexander's deal. They kind of built some bonuses in there. So it wasn't technically guaranteed, but it was an effective guarantee. The Bengals don't really do that outside of the quarterback, and that's something that's well-known inside that locker room. And for Jamar Chase to hit the numbers he wants to hit, and he said he wants to beat the piss out of Justin Jefferson's deal, and that's me not using an expletive there.

No. But that being said, I think they're going to have to figure out how they're going to structure that. And we were sitting at the team hotel the night before the Kansas City game, and I remember we were sitting with some team folks like we normally do the night before a game, and all of a sudden,

all our phones buzz, we get the notification that Schefter had a story come out that Jamar felt like he was misled in the contract negotiations. And I said, oh, this might get a little hairy. So I think that is something we're going to watch over these next few weeks

because he's been a big part of this year, and they played really well. And I think that's what – there's a lot of intrigue for me about this game tonight. I think the Cowboys and the Bengals are in very similar spots. Some questions long-term. One headed into the playoffs, one already eliminated. I think both will miss the tournament. Yeah, I'm going to go and say they're both probably gone. Okay, well, I saw a graphic last night that said,

in the hunt. Cowboys are in the hunt. They remain in the hunt. That's right. Did Schefter get that info from the ownership or the agent? I can't figure that one out. It's funny how... Adam is good at his job. I like Adam.

Great teammate. People were getting mad at him, though, right? He was the one that got a lot of the ire for agent tweets. Do you have to feed him stuff if you... No, you do not. Honestly, Adam's awesome. If there's something that I feel like I need to get and I've got maybe good

sourcing, but I would like it to be shored up a little bit more, I'll reach out to Adam we we he I like he's a really good teammate he's he's really helpful and I've got nothing bad to say about him I mean our folks are pretty solid did you hear the uh the interview he did recently where he's he copped to the strangest place he's ever broken a scoop I saw some headlines yeah yeah he was on vacation and he said he had just met a woman. He was dating her, and it was the first time that he had been with her, and that his phone rang during the act, and he had to... He had to stop during the act? Had to stop.

Oh, really? I thought he didn't stop. Well, I think he said, I broke the story, and I got the job done, or I got the job done on both fronts. Okay. Yeah. That's a man who's thinking about football. Yeah.

Is your life a little like it's. Yeah. I just think. I don't mean that as much as just being a beat writer seems like it would just be. Be a beating. Yeah. Like you have to be at every practice just in case. You probably have to be like at the children's hospital when they go do a bit or at least

if Joe Burrow or Chase does, just in case your competitor gets something. I guess it's different because you don't work for the local newspaper. But I don't know. Maybe the pressure's the same. Yeah, you know, it's funny because I've been yelled at. We're all friends here. I've said it in our press room.

I'm annoyed at some of my fellow beat writers that they don't show up every day to practice. And I'm like, I don't, I don't understand it. Like even during COVID, I was at every practice. I don't think I've missed any of them. And cause you never know. I remember, uh, I had a buddy's wedding, um, you know, at the beginning of training camp in 2023 and I was in the wedding. And so, you know, I was like, you know what, I've got to be at this wedding. So I'm going to end up missing a practice. And like you said, like the worst thing that could have happened, I'm sitting there, we're getting ready to go to the rehearsal, and all of a sudden my phone just blows up.

And they're like, hey, what's going on out there? And I'm like, what happened? What's going on here? Like we're literally about to go out the hotel door. And then I check Twitter. All of a sudden I see Joe Burrow pull up, and he gets carted off the field. And I'm like, my phone just went flying across there. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. Luckily, like our folks handled it really well. Like my guy, Stephen Holder, who covers the Colts, he came in the next

day. We were at lunch. I'm like, oh, Holder's covering the Bengals. That's nice. So that's good. And that was fantastic. But definitely that's what you don't want to have happen. And I remember my buddy, Mike Monroe, who covered the Denver Nuggets for a long time. He broke Michael Jordan's retirement when it happened. He also likes to say that his editor stopped him from breaking a second one. So he was, I mean, I remember I used to house sit for him. He had like, it was like a little NBA museum. He had like a proclamation from David Stern in his office, which was really cool.

But he told me like back in the day when the Denver newspaper wars were insane, he said, you'd wake up in the morning. back in the day when the Denver newspaper wars were insane. He said you'd wake up in the morning, like as soon as the paper, you'd get both papers, and as soon as the paper hit the driveway, you'd wake up like in a cold sweat, and you'd immediately just flip to the back and make sure you didn't get beat. And that's what it was like every day. You're a beat writer because you're just terrified someone's going to beat you. So, no, that's kind of how that goes.

But it's fun. Like it's fun winning. Like when you win, it's the best. And you let folks know about it sometimes. You kind of needle them a It's fun winning. When you win, it's the best. And you let folks know about it sometimes. You kind of needle them a little bit. And then when you lose, it's the worst. But I like to compete, so it's fun. I enjoy it.

So the Bengals, they're notoriously cheap too, as I recall, as a Browns fan. They just won't spend. And then I've just come to recently learn, it seems like the Cowboys are too as far as cash spending, and I don't really totally understand all of that. It's not just cash spending. It's really the whole operation. Like if you talk to people who work there,

they're not considered a team that spends a lot for their employees, whether it's media, website, creatives, all that sort of stuff, production. They just don't. And that's similar to the Bengals? Well, I think the Bengals, they do get sensitive to that, but I do think it's been accurate over the years. I think once they got Burrow, you started to see a bit of a difference. They were going out spending more money.

And I know a guy in the league who's very well-versed in the salary cap. And when you talk to agents, when you talk to front office folks, the cash spending is the most important thing. Cap spending is just pure accounting. You can manipulate that. But when cash is on the books, that's why the Bengals, when you put a lot of guaranteed money on the books, you will have to account for that.

There's no, oh, we're going to flip. You can't convert this base salary into a roster bonus and do like what the Saints do, and they pretend the cap's not real. They just keep pushing money down the line. Cash spending is cash spending. And a lot of times you will see that the Bengals have been good over the years in spending cash.

Now, how they structure the contracts sometimes, especially inside the industry, I think a lot of agents and players would, like I said earlier, to have more guaranteed money, especially after that first year because they want that security. But, Dan, your point's definitely correct. That cash spending, I was stunned to see the Cowboys, or as low as they are, given everything we know about that franchise,

if you want to win at a high level, you've got to go spend. And I'll be honest, guys, I was looking at this roster going into this game. I am stunned at how bad this roster is. I was looking, and I was like, you've got to be kidding me. Like, this roster should be better. Like, I love Carl Lawson. He's one of my favorite players. I think the fact that he's currently on the 53 is surprising.

And, like, Carl had pre-Achilles tear in New York. Sheldon Rankins is what the Bengals said. He had probably one of the best training camps he had ever seen. And ever since the injury, just hasn't been the same. Nick Vigil got cut after, I want to say, his first year with the Bengals. Or, you know, my first year with the Bengals in 19. He's still on the 53, you know, going through and looking at it. A lot of injuries.

Sure. Sure. Sure. Sam Williams, Demarcus Lawrence. But you've got to account for that. You have to. It's the NFL. Yeah.

They've had some misses. So do you guys want a weekend check with Ben here? Yeah, let's do the show. Ben Baby is here with us. Weekend check is brought to us by Tito's. Tonight we have a live stream for the game

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Copyright 2025. Crafted to be savored responsibly. We had some shared weekend check time. Yeah, at the ballpark yesterday. The gilf. So I made a mistake. I did not bid in time on any of Jared's items. What?

And we have a pile of money to play with to give Jared's charity. I thought I was going to get to golf with Nathaniel Lowe. And I didn't bid on the Dude Perfect signed basketball for Brooks. That's fine. I was going to get my own sit-in. I know you were. I didn't buy a day off, so the sit-in for the show, I just sit here. Oh, that'd be great.

And at the end of the show, I'm like, oh, no, Reddit hates this. But I got a couple notes here. And I'm like, yeah. I think Jake is awesome. That would have been a good bit. Well, what happened? I don't know. Last thing I said to you, I'm like, I think it closes at 8.30.

I know. And you know I checked my phone right away because I went and then I saw that it closed next week. Yeah. And I was like, oh. And it doesn, and then I saw that it closed next week. Yeah. And I was like, oh. And it doesn't. But it turns out it was that day. Anyway, the point is we're going to go to thesandlot.org, and we're just going to give them the money and not get stuff back. Which is what we always intended to do.

Right, but I wanted to get stuff back. No, I'm saying you're saying that for comedy. What we really just wanted to give. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was just comedy. Yeah, I didn't want to get stuff back. No, I'm saying you're saying that for comedy. What we really just wanted to give. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was just comedy. Yeah, I didn't want to get stuff back. My daughter was yelling at me yesterday about what a bad person I am because I was excited.

I was talking to her before we went to the event, and I said, I'm going to clean up. I'm going to get items. I'm going to get the hotel stay. I'm going to get all this stuff that's for auction. And then I just didn't make it on time. And then we're just going to have to give him money. I would give Jared a lot of money to get him in an Arsenal jersey

because he's a diehard Tottenham Hotspur fan. Well, we've got some money here. Whatever bits you have you want to get done. That's right. We'll make him do that. I mean, I said to Dan walking by, we went and looked at all the auction items. I was like, dude, we have this money. It's going to go to charity.

Get the William Shatner signed Star Trek shirt. I thought that was just a misallocation of funds. It went for $5.95. That is way less than we had. We could have done that. And I told you, I was like, that thing does look sick. We're going to donate that anyway, yeah. Star Wars, yeah. It was right there.

Star Trek. Uh, you like the movie Rounders, right? Uh, that's alright. Oh, is that a Bob thing? Probably. Is that the gambling one? Yeah. Yeah. Matt Damon signed script, 230. I just got a Star Trek shirt and the signed script, and we're still under a thousand bucks.

Read it. We never had a chance on the Dude Perfect office tour. But, yeah, we're still under $1,000. Read it. We never had a chance on the Dude Perfect office tour. We're looking at the items. This is where we throw basketballs. This is where we catch our footballs. Here's our trampolines. One of my boys is part of the Dude Perfect

group. That makes a ton of sense. He's a good person, Ben. It's actually a guy in our dorms, Kevin Sparkman. He's like the unofficial six member. Okay, so he's not Cody or Kobe. He's a doctor. Combi.

No, he just goes and runs around. Oh, I thought you meant the guy that left. No, no, no. Because on the documentary, they had the guy who was like. We never did the documentary, did we? I think we were off when it dropped maybe or something. I thought you guys watched a little bit of it. I watched it on the bus.

DZRV. Yeah, I did too. So they had a guy who bailed, and I hope they kind of make him somewhat financially whole, although he's a doctor. I'm sure he does well. I'm sure they do well. So this guy, Kevin Sparkman, a.k.a. Sparky,

he was in the RTVF program at North Texas. He was just in our dorm. And I think our group chat, one of the guys went to A&M. I still don't really know how it all came together. One of them played. Travis Labhart was a receiver at A&M when Manziel was there. And I think they went to Whitesboro together, and so there was a connection there.

And eventually Spark just got more involved, and, like, now he's part of their alternate cast for the Amazon Prime game last year. I was like, this is kind of surreal. And then we were in Vegas last year. I was there for a fight. And I was like, oh, do you want to meet up? He's like, we're throwing basketballs off the space. Of course they are.

I'm like, yeah. I'm like, all right, cool. Of course they are. Yep. Look, they're very successful. It's a good video. I'm just not a fan of the bit. Very, very successful.

Highest made shot ever. And I'm also, I have a child that probably will be into it. His already is. Speaking of those kids, I did take them to the Sandlot charity event yesterday. We'll work backward here since we were talking about the auction. I think my daughter

is pretty smart. She's almost six. I can explain what I think are complicated things to her. Dan's been out of the parenting game for a really long time or his kids were just baby einsteins because he's watching nora and they're looking at the auction items while i'm trying to chase down the boy and i walk back over and dan is at a deep level explaining the concept of a charity auction. He's like, well, so these people, they donate this item.

They'll get a tax write-off. A tax is what you pay at the end of the year. I don't know that I went that deep, but I thought I'm not going to treat her like a little baby. You're going to look for write-offs. So what happens here is now this is a 501C. So they're under the code that way. I explained to her how an auction works.

And see, now we buy this. That it helps kids out. And then the other thing, too, is she's one to be like, well, why? Right? And so he's like, it helps kids out. And I kind of overhear. She's like, well, why are there kids? And he's like, well, a lot of kids, most of them don't even have clean running water.

And you should probably actually feel bad about this. This is here to help out those kids. And, you know, we get an item and those kids, maybe they get a crumb today. I'm like, damn, back off the heaviness here a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I like to treat her. I feel like she's really smart.

And I think you dumb things down too much for her. I really don't. I may do that. She just seems very inquisitive, very smart. She'll ask about something. Yeah, yeah. So I wanted to explain it in detail. And I don't, I told you, Blake,

I don't like to baby talk the dog or your kid. I don't do that at all. You don't have to go that far. I don't baby talk either kid. Little Brooks, yeah. I was trying to explain to Brooks. But you've got to understand, yesterday. The Bitcoin cycle.

Yeah. You know, right now. We're just trying to sell high. We're going to buy to Brooks. You got to understand, yesterday... The Bitcoin cycle. Yeah. You know, right? We're just trying to sell high. Where are we going to buy? Yeah. But yesterday, as you guys saw, I mean,

I was running inside zone. I was keeping it basic. We were not opening things up to explain the intricacies of some economic model. I was just pounding the rock. Keeping that two-year... Is it two-year-old?

He just turned two. That's the most maniacal kid I've ever seen. I fell for you yesterday. And you have a boy. You might want to switch to gap scheme. Gap scheme might be better. So you've been through this, and you're like,

I haven't been through that. No, but you could see, okay, Brooks, you're doing the bounce house. Cool. I'll be right here whenever you're done. But Carter is knocking stuff into people.

He's got brownie all over his face. He is a madman. He has no concept of order. No. Or society. No, I was not anticipating there being a line

when we got there. It was no one's fault. It was a short line. But it was set up in the airport style. What do you call those things? Where you walk back and forth? What is that actually called?

The TSA checkpoint? But like the club line thing where there's a big long thing and they hook into two posts and they just weave them back and forth. There's got to be an actual word for those things. Like the little line snake thing that they have. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's got to be an actual word for those things. Like the little line snake thing that they have. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's got to be an actual name. So that is a, you might think a very simple line,

but to a child that only knows like this way. Yeah, he walked right through the whole thing. Yeah, I mean, it's at his neck level. Then you can't do that because you're like tall, so you have to send his sister after him. Right, which didn't help. Because then she's kind of like, oh, cool, we can just run anywhere. He was running into them full speed

like they were wrestling ropes. Like he was going to bounce off and come back to the middle of the ring to drop a clothesline, but then they would just fall over. And they're falling into people, and I've already gotten over the looks. You just, as a parent,

you pretty much have to. You're going to get looks. It's the you're right? You just, as a parent, you pretty much have to. You're going to get looks. It's the you're a bad parent look because my kid, see how calm my kid is? Yeah. And look at your kid. It's a real thing. But real serious error on my part. I tried to get him to stand over by me and calm down by handing him a little pouch of applesauce.

I was like, oh, he'll like this. Do you want this? He was like, yes. So I gave it to him. We're still in line outside in the concourse. He took one sip of it and then squeezed it out of the – everywhere. Heck, yeah. On the ground as quick as he could, all over the feet of other people.

Now I'm trying to wipe that up, and he's just taken off. I lose him for about five seconds. Don't know where he is. So I'm like 80-year-old Usher's like, is this yours? Walk over there. Is this thing yours? Then we got on down to the field. It was a great setup, but there's a lot going on, and it's all kind of walk around to different booths and different games,

but there's no real separation from one to the other. So he's just running full speed into things, knocking stuff over. It's mayhem, dude. And then he just took off from the warning track around the rest of the perimeter. He was just running on the sand as fast as he could, the dirt. And then she would just body check him.

And then they would get up and do it again. They're covered in baseball diamond dirt. Worked out, though. It was funny watching Nora because she would just watch him and just disgust that she has to put up with him every day. Hopefully you got some good naps out of it, though. That should be the upside. They went to bed at night, but we don't do a lot of napping.

We don't do a lot of napping. It was good to see you there, like right at 4 o'clock when it started. You know what I did? Two things. One, I foolishly baked in Dan being five minutes late. I just assumed. Yeah, no, I was on it. I got there at 3.50 350 and i felt like a jerk because

i knew i was early and i didn't want to stand in that line and i just assumed when they open it they're gonna let everybody in yeah and i wanted to let him finish what he was eating so i was like hey i promise i'm not trying to be cheap because it was valet yeah like can i just park my own car I guess and it was like 10 feet away so I was like why are we doing I mean it's cool it's complimentary

but can I say something this is I think this is like peak Dallas that people don't realize we have to lead as a Metroplex

the most amount of valet that is unnecessary per capita anyway you can try to go to a restaurant you go to brunch just wherever it's valet.

I'm like, what are we doing? Where are we? Yeah, when I got to Cincinnati, I was like, oh, we don't have valet anywhere. And there you would need it. It's two degrees. Yes, correct. But here, you just go anywhere. They're just like, oh, it's the valet guys.

I'm like, for what? For what? You trying to dig at me for being late? Oh, what? Oh, you were late? Oh, I thought you were getting on the beef or walking out at 410. No, no, not at all. Oh, okay.

See, that's how defensive I am. No, I'm just saying. It was great seeing you early. Blake kind of showed up eventually when he felt like it. 4.05? He's bringing that up? It was cool of you guys to leave at like 5.30 or whatever as me and Berks were helping put chairs up and clean up for everybody because we were the last ones to leave.

So full of it. Oh, my gosh. You guys would just want to take off and not clean up. That's cool. Oh, my gosh. He's always got one chamber, off and not clean up? That's cool. Oh, my gosh. He's always got one chamber, doesn't he? We did. We took off.

Yeah, get there early, leave early. I didn't know that was early. I thought that was just normal. No. It was 545, 6, whatever. Got to see a lot of Rangers luminaries. Yeah, I was trying to push Brooks to play with Jonah Heim's kids, hoping that they could spark up a friendship.

I know your bit, though. You show up really late, you walk past Jared so he sees you and then you leave. I get it. You guys didn't talk to Jared for a few minutes after everything? We talked to him quite a few times because we were there early and then... Took his time when he was busy? Man, I can't handle it.

It's an amazing event yeah uh support jared's charity like us we don't give money hoping to get something in return we just give the money that's right um because we really care about kids uh let's see tax write off yeah i did have the i did have the solo weekend. Boy, I tell you. They stayed over there Saturday night, but that Sunday morning pickup between 8.30 and 9 and you're staring down the barrel of the next 12 hours, that's a long day. It's a long day when you have the two of them

and they're at that age. When you just have one, I'll bet it's great. I don't know if you get a lot of just one. Yes, some, but I don't know. I mean, he can still be a lot, but there's no doubt. Two is two solo for a whole day. I mean, I'm running out of stuff to do. I hate that feeling at 9.30 in the morning looking at him like,

God, what are we going to do all day? Yeah, and it's raining. I know, it's miserable outside. Terrible weather, so you're just like, oh god, what do we got? What can we do here? Coming up with games as best you can. And by 10.15, you're like, okay, just watch TV.

Here's the iPad. I timed my iPad time to make myself not feel so bad. And then I did the other thing. This is kind of what I do with food. Especially on a weekend like this, where I know that i'm gonna eat like crazy bad for one meal a day so the rest of the day i pretty much just eat fruits and vegetables so i would make her do a 30 on 30 off with her little literacy packet and she's like why are we doing this you You never do this. I'm like, because I'm feeling bad. Read the goddamn words.

You can go back to iPad. Another parenting thing I noticed this weekend, tell me if this has ever occurred to you. I shop at basically the same two grocery stores. There's a parent who buys all the same stuff I do, and they always buy all of it. Because everybody's got picky kids. And everybody's got like four things that their kid

will eat there's absolutely no reason for the they have like a protein uh uh waffle and it's made by some company called like kodiak and it's a little bit healthier than a regular regular waffle. Tons of Kodiak pancakes, French toast, every other Kodiak product. But the last three times I've been, all of the waffles are gone. Now, the little individual cheese pizzas made by Home Run Inn, Chicago style. The only pizza that is ever out at this Tom Thumb

is the cheese home run in. You want pepperoni, you want sausage, you want veg. Was that Jackie Robinson's nickname back in the day? That is way over the top, buddy. That is way over the top. You're going to want to rethink that one. That's just what I've heard. So they buy all of it every time.

Oh, there's another one. Breakfast muffins. The chocolate ones, the only ones that are never in stock. It occurred to me this is probably something parents identify with is your kid eats four things and you all shop at the same place. Yeah, and if you're there and you saw they have ten of them and you know the last four times you've been there they've been sold out, you're going to buy ten.

Next time I will be, and I was pretty early in the day too, and I was like, somebody beat me here. Yeah, you got to do it when you go down to Dallas. Stop at a Tom Thumb. It's a real beating. Yeah. Was there anything else I definitely had for you guys? Oh, I did

go to bed at like 7 o'clock on Saturday. I skipped all of the night championship games. That seems insane. But I suppose in the effort of trying to get your kids tired enough to fall asleep, you end up doing that to yourself. Yeah, and I was like...

And you get up at like 3. Yeah, you were tweeting at 3 a.m. Thought I'd be able to sleep until about 5. That's 10 hours in bed. Didn't work out. So are you saying that he tweets now just to show us how he's up early? Yeah. I'll do that.

I'll be like, I'll just be on my phone scrolling. Just to show up, he's a grinder. Well, I'll just be like, I'm on my phone. I'm like, well, I'd like to, like, who cares what time I post it? I'll just go out and do it. Jake just wants to show us how much he's grinding. Yeah, he's a worker. Sometimes I put stuff in our Dropbox

at 4 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the morning for real no reason other than it's time stamped. Yeah, and then I wake up and I'm like, whoa. Been there for two hours? I have a confession. I also could not sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night because we went to bed a little early. I was worn out from the day.

I wish I was tweeting what I was actually doing. I was looking at some of the homes surrounding where my parents live. A lot of these are brand new. I was like, who owns these homes? How much are these homes worth? I was on the appraisal district site going through just seeing that. I was like, what do these people do? They own a convenience store. Oh, a plastic

surgeon lives here. I'm like, what's going on? Every time I come back... What's an appraisal district site? That sounds cool. Oh, yeah. I know where Jake lives. I can find the tax bill if I need it. I remember our first day of our news writing class in North Texas. They're like, alright, we get in.

They're like, you gotta go find out where Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, and Tony Romo live. Here you go. And you go find it. They did that to us, too. That sounds better than Zillow though. You go on Zillow, you know, I'll always look for. I mean, you can get real intrusive. You can find like house plans,

like you can find what your tax code you're paying and all that, like who owned the house before, the square footage, the parcel map. Like you can go through and find all that. Like sometimes, also a confession, when I forget my neighbor's names, I will go on the appraisal district and tell me. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is what they're at because I I will go on the appraisal district and tell me. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is what they're at because I don't ever, it's hard to remember all the names. That's a great idea.

Yeah. So you're like, oh, this is my neighbor here. Yeah. Hey, you still working on that interior project there, Rick? Yeah, you know, it looks like you added some value to the house. Thanks for asking. Yeah, it's great. Because I have my neighbor's, I have it in my phone as, you know, neighbor so-and-so.

Yeah. And then if I just search neighbor i can i'll see them all come up and then kind of like talking like interns quick quick glance at the oh okay yeah yeah yes steve uh yeah how is uh jennifer that's how people find our addresses on the appraisal district yeah because you can get it removed if you have a good case for it but i tried one time after people were like back back in my like fighting on Twitter days. I was getting a lot of pictures of my house sent to me and I was like, ugh. Because you can't – you know, if you're like a public figure, you can get it taken down.

Can you? You can. But it's a huge hassle. Yeah. But somebody could probably still – You can figure anything out. Yeah, correct. I don't want to give people ideas here.

But, no, I think what happens is a lot of times, like, you, like, head football coaches, SEC coaches or whatever, what they'll do is they'll go buy a house or whatever because they don't want that information out there, and they'll put it in some random trust name. Like, they'll make up some name. Like, I think Ed Orgeron had some random, like, the 503 boys or something was, like, his LLC. And so a lot of them will just have their LLC by the house. There's so much going on. Yeah, there's a lot.

There's a lot there. You got anything else, Blake? No, just solo weekend. I took Brooks to Kid Empire, which is just this massive indoor playground. Yeah, we watched a video from there recently where that big boy fell from the top. It's four levels and an adult got on the top and just kept breaking. Those places are fun.

Yeah. I forgot. I went to cookie decorating class. With the kid? Yeah. No, it's solo. Just me. Just stoked on Christmas.

Well, I thought I could maybe take him and take a book and just kind of relax but you know that's not true i know because there was a million birthday parties and it's you feel like if you look away you're gonna lose him this is the dumbest thing you've ever done oh yes a place where i can really relax and get some zen why don't i go to a kid's amusement park well i was just trying to find or think of something where we could both get something out of it where i'm not just sitting there staring at him feeling like i'm wasting my time but just watching him like see punching bags and run and punch it or

hey look at this platform let me jump off of it oh yeah and then i think like every few hours they dress a guy up in a dragon the dragon and turn the lights off, and he walks around in the happy dance. And Brooks sees it and just gets in line. Oh, hell yeah, dragon. Let's go follow it. Buddy, you're really not in this party. Eh, he was there. Wait, so is this a place that has, what is this place?

It's like a birthday party place, kind of. It's like you're on the edge of, you remember Discovery Zone or Leaps and Bounds? Yeah. Well, it's kind of like that. It's just a big play thing structure. So there's slides and there's ball pits and there's climb up here and climb over there.

And you can have your birthday party there. And if you pay for the right package, the dragon package, then they'll bring a dragon out and he dances. There's like strobe lights going on. The best is when a parent pays for the dragon package. And I've seen this happen. And the birthday child is horrified by the dragon.

Yeah. So he comes out and he's doing this or that. And the kid just takes off running and crying away. There's an extra $100 wasted. But in watching, so I just, I don't know, it just became a transfer. running and crying away. There's an extra hundred bucks wasted. But in watching, so I just, I don't know,

it just became a transfer. I was just like watching other parents and how much they hated being there and all that. And this one lady just decided There's a guy there

definitely thinking if I had stayed married I wouldn't have to be the parent at this. Yeah. If you're a woman who wants a dad in your life,

you need to go to one of those places on a weekend and troll. Well, this one lady decided if her kid wasn't having fun, no one was having fun. So they had this little slide with little rollers, and you're supposed to get on this little cart thing where it's got a little handle, and you sit on it, and you just haul ass down this slide. But the problem is there's only four of those things things and there are 20 kids that want to do it. Yeah. And kids aren't really good about, okay, I'm done. Let's share the whole bit. And she just decided like, hey, all these other 16 kids that don't have a cart, they need to be gone.

So she goes and gets an employee who has to tell four-year-olds, you can't ride down the slide without a cart. And Brooks was one of them. So she goes and gets an employee who has to tell four-year-olds, you can't ride down the slide without a cart. And Brooks was one of them. So she's like, lady, come on. Because all the kids were just like going down face first and just having a good time. But shout out to the lady who decided, I'm just going to ruin all this fun for everybody.

Going to get a lot of Karen-ing at Kids Empire. Yeah, on a rainy Saturday. Yeah, that's her domain. So, the college football... Say again? An update? Oh, a recall for Jake Kemp. Oh, shit, we had a recall?

On the frozen waffle. Well, screw me. Thank you, Rob. What is that? The protein? It's a waffle that's not just straight carbs. You say that came from the chat? Yeah. Okay, wow.

Look at that. All right. Well, you're wrong, Blake. The chat can be worth something. You say the chat sucks and you hate it. Thank you. Shout out to Should Be Studying. Nice.

Nice. The Kodiak protein waffles have been recalled. Dang. I would have bought those for the low. Yeah. Well, how about that? The college football playoff, I think that's probably a bigger story than the NFL weekend. Just because, I don't know.

But the college football playoff has been announced. And our college football talk today will be brought to you by Elite Rides DFW at 1-844-RIDE-DFW. It is your premier transportation solution. Jesse Rodriguez is the man at the helm here. And if you call them, tell them you heard about them on the dumb zone, they will give you 15% off your first ride. Or go to EliteRides-DFW.com and use promo code DZ15 for that same 15% off.

It might be too late for tonight, but this is perfect for a cowboy game. Especially if you've got a night game. You don't want to be dealing with the traffic on your own. Just get into that big old SUV or that sprinter van if you've got a night game. You don't want to be dealing with the traffic on your own. Just get into that big old SUV or that sprinter van if you've got a big group. It's perfect, perfect, perfect for those sort of outings. They'll take care of you. Again, 844-RIDE-DFW, EliteRides-DFW.com, promo code DZ15, 15% off. So SMU got in.

I forgot. Can I play it out? I'll probably hear it in a couple minutes okay i'm gonna oh you uh you have limited availability today ben baby well we are actually taking our son to north park we have a 10 month old uh so he's gonna go get some santa pictures uh so we'll do that and then head over to the stadium the first santa pictures yes i think we got some done in kentucky slash cincinnati where we live. But this is North Park. We're going to do it right. We got an appointment.

My wife was like, we're going to go do this. It's going to be set. I'm like, all right, we'll get it done. I'm pumped. I love North Park. He does get to see snow all the time already. So it's like the whole North Park ice snow thing. For me, when I was a kid, I was like, oh, my God.

This is like what the winter is like. I don't know if you get a lot of snow in Cincinnati. Do you not? It's actually gotten like it's been more mild. I remember the first day we moved there, it got under 32 degrees, and we're like we're immediately going to storm my jackets. So I get a lot of heat for having the Texas skin and not being really acclimated, but I'm getting there.

I'm getting there. Yeah. I'm going to kick off college football talk with that one image, Rob, that says group chat because, again, as I told you, I went to bed after Texas-Georgia and had it on a little bit in the background. This is how I learned everything that was happening Saturday night via

group chat. This is KJ at the top. You'll see here who plays. This is after halftime. Played it at SMU. The mood has changed. LOL. In other news, a news story about the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Our friend

David Ruff, I think it's done, also has played and may have been shot down when he fled. Followed by, fuck, I hate punting here. So I really got all of the news from Saturday night that I needed right here in this one group chat text. And I was like, boy, you guys are really

speaking of around the horn. Were they upset about this Clemson situation? Yeah, but they were really upset in the first half, but then in the second half, SMU, that's the SMU you've seen all year where they're just dynamic. But they got in.

But they got in. That's the big – that was the big question. Right, yeah. But I'm saying KJ played there so he just went to bed Saturday night thinking like they're not going to keep Alabama out. Yeah. Well, I was – I didn't think they would either. I mean, there's good arguments to keep Alabama in over SMU.

Strength of schedule. Although, I mean, I love my position here. I'm swooping in like last night, developing hot opinions about all of this, and I don't know anything about any. Like the national reporter that shows up in Cincinnati to do their profile on Joe Burrow. Kevin Clark just dropping in to say hello. Yeah. Is it Austin Jante? What's his name?

Yeah. Yeah. Frisco kid. Yeah, I'm like, pfft. Future cowboy. He should win the Heisman. Like, I got really hot opinions about it now. Like, Travis Hunter, I know.

It's a fun little trick he's got, but I don't know. I actually don't really care. I don't. I just like that he gets the people going. I wanted to see some SMU people get upset. Well, now I get to see Alabama people get upset. Right, and that's really awesome. That's really fun as well. And the argument

that strength of schedule, obviously, whenever you need. Yeah, you're good. Alright, just throw the headset off. Yeah, you got a roll? I do. I think now is the appropriate way to go do this, but it's been a pleasure. This has been a lot of fun. Really enjoy listening to y'all from afar.

I love seeing you on television. Yeah. I imagine that as the Bengals get less relevant, I won't be on as much, but we will see how that changes over the course of the offseason. This is why beat reporters pull for their teams. People are like, you're a homer. I don't actually care that they win. I want to be on television.

I mean, I'm fine either way. I'm good. Just put me in cold. I don't need the reps. I just come out, and I feel like I got the confidence to be able to go out and do it. But, no, I mean, I'll be honest. I kind of like it.

I think it's great both ways. When your team's winning, it's a lot of fun. But also when you're losing, your team's losing, you get to ask a lot of questions. Like, oh, why are you all bad? What's going on here? Like, oh, But also when you're losing, your team's losing, you get to ask a lot of questions like, oh, why are y'all bad? What's going on here? You're like, oh, you feel like you're losing a step? You know, and then, but I think I know, you know, you develop relationships

with guys in the locker room for long enough that when you ask them questions like that, I think they know you're coming from a good place. So, I know and honestly, you get to learn a lot about ball and it's a fun time of year. You ever get like confrontational like uh jean jock and who who was attacking him a couple years ago or uh roy williams the safety i want to

say okay he's got him we've had one with clarence i think i don't know some yeah yeah players just come after you after they don't like something you wrote i think you almost expect that and that's kind of why we argued this big conversation about being in the locker room. And that's one of the things that I've said. I was like, that's one of the reasons why we should be in there. So when we write something that we can't go duck and hide. You could be held accountable.

Yeah, you say, hey, I saw what you wrote or saw what you said. I thought it was trash, and here's why. I'm like, all right, you just got to sit there and take it. And players should have that ability to go out and do that. And honestly, I respect guys who do that. When I covered Denton Ryan, I remember Joey Florence called me up one morning at 6.30 on a Saturday because he didn't like something. And then I went and saw him on Tuesday, and it was fine.

I think sometimes where you have a lot of the issues between media and players or coaches or whatever is when they're upset, but they don't tell you. And they hold on to it for, like, months. And I'm like, I wish you would have just told me back then. Then we could have hashed it out. We might disagree, but then you kind of move on. But yeah, if you Google my name and Joe Mixon, some stuff comes up over time.

So, you know, that goes. I was close, but that was a different circumstance. I was yelling from the crowd. Wait, what? Come again? I just got hammered and went to a TCU Oklahoma game and was yelling at Joe Mixon. It was like a video.

I don't know if you heard it. I do not. No, no, no. No, no, of him. Oh. Yeah, no, but Joe is doing well in Houston, so I think we finished the year out fine. Yeah.

But, no, but anyways, this was a lot of fun, guys. Thank you all. It's honestly an honor. Y'all do just such awesome stuff. Crazy seeing Dan in person for the first time after hearing him. What did you think? Yeah, I heard you on, you were on with us when I wasn't here once. Yeah.

So, but I listened to that, and it was fantastic. No, thank you, thank you. See you, buddy. Let's do this again sometime. I'm going to give you an out. All right. Yeah. There's the great Ben Baby.

Good to see you. Go read his fine work on ESPN. Just don't let one of the Just don't let the dogs out. That's all. Yeah, I don't really care on the playoff. If I had one opinion at all, it would just be that the automatic buy thing for conference champions is really weird.

Like if you just looked at the way that they have these teams seeded, but you gave the top four the automatic first round buy, it would look fine. But yeah, the 12 seed has a buy. It's just insane. I mean, it's like it's one of those things that I don't even really understand in spirit because you've already achieved the idea that you get to be in a playoff by saying you're the highest-ranked fifth team

and you're a conference champion. You're in. It just means you can't – it shouldn't mean that you just get an automatic first-round buy. But I don't know. I'm super excited. I know the whole devalue the season, but I had a ton of fun watching college football this year.

I feel like we had a lot of great games, and I don't know. I mean, it's fun now, and it's fun arguing over 11 and 12 and 13 and 14. You know, should Alabama have been in? Because it's what we had before, but it was with four, right? Four and five. Wasn't last year a big example? Florida State? Yeah, Florida State.

And the year before, Alabama. But it does seem like it's not going to be fun if an 11 seed wins the national championship someday. Man, I don't know. You think that'll make it better? I mean, I think that's how it works with college basketball. I mean, isn't that the kind of – that's the point of the playoffs. If you want the one seed to win, then don't have playoffs.

I mean, well, the question is – the point is you want the best team in college football to be crowned national champion. Do you? You don't? Well, I mean, no sport has that. It's all the team that is the best at the end, other than European soccer. Like, playoffs exist to make money. Right.

In general, it had been the NBA was the most. Right. And I would say it probably still is pretty close to that. There's just six teams now instead of three. But, yeah. It is usually, like even in basketball, it's usually among the top half of the seeding, you know. There's no 15 seed that's ever come and won the whole thing.

Right, but they also go to 64. Like an eight seed is very, very rare to get up there. I don't even know the highest seed or the lowest seed to ever win. Man, I'm just saying that if you tell me that all of a sudden – Let's say Indiana wins. You'd be like – That would suck. Yeah, that's what I mean.

But that's also because Indiana is one of the most boring – historically one of the most boring teams in this sport. If Arizona State with Skadabo goes on a run and they actually are... That's a great story and it would be very exciting. Arizona State has a bye. That seems weird. Did you watch that, kid? I'm sorry. I was not

familiar with your game, Mike Allstott Jr. Holy shit. I'm telling you. They're making new whites yeah the game has changed boys the game has changed significantly is he running back? yeah

and he's not Christian McCaffrey he's not Cooper Dijon secondary white this is a big MF-er who runs like he's freaking Barry Sanders. And he's got a mullet, and his dad's all tatted up in the stands.

I'm telling you, if Arizona State were to go on a run, then it'll be exciting. What I worry more about is if Oregon and Ohio State just destroy everybody that they play, that every higher seed just wins by 20. And then you're like, well, why are we even doing this? It happens that way until we get to the Final Four. Because right now, I'm pretty sure Texas is a 13-point favorite against Clemson. And they should be. And if that's what happens in the first quarterfinals,

we're all fired up for it, and it's all two touchdown wins, that is what's going to suck. Yeah, I think we need to – or they need to reseed. Yeah, that's what I would do. Well, go 1 through 16 and then each round reseed. Or 12? Or whatever. Okay, because –

But, yeah, looking at Texas' run, Clemson and then Arizona State, that's easy. But then Ohio State's got to go through – I don't know. I think it could be mapped better to where, yeah, the juggernauts don't play until the very end. Yeah, that would make a lot more sense. Yeah, the two sides of the Alabama SMU thing are if SMU was left out, then they would stop playing a conference championship. Right?

Right. And Alabama's saying. Well, isn't there an argument for that anyway? Yeah, but... But the money that they get with the conference championship? Yeah, but you could look and see that the Oregon-Penn State game was for the bye, as was Georgia and Texas.

So maybe there is a slight incentive there if you want the bye. How many Big Ten teams? Five? Three. Yeah, I was going to say just How many Big Ten teams? Five? Three. Yeah, I was going to say just three, right? Three? Indiana, Notre Dame, Ohio State.

Well, not Notre Dame. Yeah. Okay. Did I say Notre Dame? Yeah, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana. There you go. Yeah, I love it. I'm very excited for those home site games.

I was actually looking last night at, like, can I get to Pennsylvania? That place is way further away from any airport than you think it is. What place? It's Happy Valley. You would go to an SMU game? I'm telling you this right now. I'm going to try to go to a first-round playoff game starting next year every year.

So my daughter... I think it'd be awesome. Go to Texas. My daughter goes to college in New York. She's driving to Penn State so she can drive home with her little buddy for Christmas break from Penn State. But she's driving home in her little buddy for Christmas break from Penn State. But she's driving home in her little buddy's car,

and then her buddy goes back much earlier than she does, so I'm going to have to fly her back. I was just looking yesterday at how to get to Penn State. You're right. It's like three hours away. Three hours away from Philly, an hour and a half from something else, but then there is a local – if you fly United, you could fly into State College,

but you'll have to get a connecting flight somewhere and probably leave at 6 a.m. This is going to happen. You can get there. Most big schools are pretty close to an airport, but when you make it a 12-team playoff where these are the stipulations, there are going to be games at places where you're like, how do I

get to Pullman, Washington? Right. Or wherever. It's not flying to Atlanta, Arlington, or Miami. There was always a battle flying to Conference USA games. Texas Clemson will be sweet.

Why don't y'all go? There's a lot going on there. I want to do this every year, and I'm serious. I think this would be a good dude's trip to go to different college campuses and have an excuse to go when it's like the biggest atmosphere you could imagine. And this one kind of jumped up on me. But I don't know. I think that would be really, really cool. But Texas Clemson, that's got storylines for days.

Clemson's quarterback went to Westlake. A ton of his teammates play for Texas. Quinn and Klubnick have actually played before in a state title game, a Westlake-Southlake-Carroll game. Dude, I'm so up and down on him. Yeah, I don't know, man. He's got all the talent in the world, and he seems like a good leader, but there's just so many plays where I'm like,

what the hell were you thinking? It might just be that he's been hurt all year. Who, Quinn? Yeah. I think he's got to go somewhere and sit if he's going to go in the draft. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. He's already down to, what, at least QB three or four. He's no longer thought of as a first-round pick, right?

You know how this goes. Not right now. He's still, like, the third-best quarterback in the draft. And then eventually he'll end up – Maybe he's super late, so they have an option on him. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I bet he'll still go in the first round. Okay, because that's why quarterbacks might get picked in the first round

to make sure they can have that extra year. That's why he traded up for Jordan Love. Yeah, okay. But he's also got a huge opportunity here, although he might not play anybody until the semifinal. Wait, Oregon is in the Big Ten. Damn, you're right.

That one's been jamming Blake up all year. There's now four. And Arizona State's in the Big 12, of course. Of course, yeah. We all know that. So Big Ten beat SEC? As far as teams in?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, big time. Yeah, because Ole Miss, Alabama, South Carolina were all around there. You know, there was another game. We can get back to this too, but I was watching a little bit of Dan's triple play, which was...

Yeah. Oh, Ohio U, the Mac. The Ohio Bobcats. You're right. That's right. I forgot. The real OU. I forgot that I won that triple play.

I had... No, you didn't. This morning, I was like, what did I pick? Because I had written down to pick the Cardinals over the Seahawks and I was like oh damn I lost my triple play and then I you're right I didn't forget on Saturday well I was watching it because it was on yeah I was doing background stuff of like action I was getting a little Saturday afternoon action I'm sure when I went to college there we never beat Miami of Ohio that was what we considered our rival.

Yeah. But Miami didn't – I don't think they considered Ohio their rival because we were always 1-10 or whatever. I didn't even know Miami of Ohio existed until Ben Roethlisberger. Like that took a really long time for 16, 15-year-old me to wrap my head around. It's the cradle of coaches, Jake. I now know that. Like a million coaches have come from there, or at least like four or five.

So I was watching that game, and there was an audio clip that really made me laugh. It's something we've talked about before here on the show, a couple things. The Taco Bell Live Moss student section, which I don't know. This is hard to explain, but one time I was watching a game with a friend who doesn't watch football at all.

We were hanging out at someone's house late at night, and he was really confused by this. They're like, all right, these students in the Taco Bell Live Moss student section, they compete all year. He just got really invested in like, what does that mean? What is this? I'm like, I don't know. They show it every game, and I've never really thought about it. So every time I see it, I laugh.

But also, then they started talking about Mexican pizzas. Oh, darn it. That's my bad. I only hit play so that it would be your bad. There's the Taco Bell Live My Student section. All season long, student sections across the country compete to be the Taco Bell Live My Student section of the year. Download the Taco Bell app to learn more. I quit Taco Bell for a while when they stopped making the Mexican pizzas.

All right, so right now, anybody who's— Hey, we're doing a live read there, dude. They paid for this. We don't need you to tell us how... The stuff that sucks about Taco Bell. One time I had a really bad experience, and I used the Taco Bell app to tell them about it. So I thought you were going to focus...

I thought the original focus was going to be that student sections compete with each other, because I'm wondering how do you score that? Well, that was my friend Wade's point. He's like, I just took it for granted. I hear it every week, and I'm like, I don't fucking know, dude. It's just a promo. He's like, well, so what, do they have a playoff?

Are there a panel of judges? Is there a meet? Yeah. Like, how do they do this? And I'm like, I don't know. Are there arguments over who was let in? Wait, no. We're only the eighth seed?

Yeah. But back to Bob the live read guy. Yeah, here we are. Hey, you know what're only the eighth seed? Yeah, but back to Bob the Live Read guy. Yeah, here we are. Hey, you know what I hate about Taco Bell? He does have a positive spin on it, though. To learn more, I quit Taco Bell for a while. When they stopped making the Mexican pizzas, I came back.

When they went back to them, started producing them again, I'm back. Producing. And I'm happy. Yeah, it sounds like he's talking about like a microchip. Went back to him, started producing him again, I'm back. And I'm happy. Because when you think of Mexican food, you think of pizza.

Yeah, I think of that Mexican pizza. And I can't eat just one. I got to order two. 101 to go. First half. Now the play-by-play guy kind of shit on it. I got to order two. 101 to go. First half. Now the play-by-play guy kind of shit on it. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

When you think of pizza. When you think of Mexican food, you think of pizza. Now, but the part that I really wanted you guys to focus on is the end where he – I've done this before because, as I said earlier, when I decide that it's time to eat poorly, I go Kobayashi. I'm not having a tasteful meal at Taco Bell. And you can tell this guy says, yeah, and I can't just have one. I got to have at least.

He wants to say three, but then he's like, that's crazy, but that is what I eat. Yeah. And he just kind of trails off with two. And I've been in this situation before. And I'm happy. Because when you think of Mexican food, you think of pizza. Yeah, I think of that Mexican pizza. And I can't eat just one.

I've got to order two. 101 to go. You get a little sheepish when you realize you're about to say, I have a $27 at Taco Bell every time I go, and it's three of them are Mexican pizzas. The whole call just great stuff there. Got myself a nice

black bean crunch wrap on the way home yesterday. Did you? That's right. There's one right by the ballpark. They've leveled up, man. I hit one on the way home from the Christmas party, but you can't get out of there for $5.41 anymore. Biden. I can't get out of there for 541 anymore. Biden.

Yeah, I can't wait for those prices to go down next year. I know, right? It's going to be awesome. So the other thing I have for you from watching college football this weekend is actually a video, but we've all seen the ads, and you could narrate it a little bit. It is for Veterans Credit Union, Navy Federal Credit Union. I'm pretty sure college football, maybe the NFL, are about half kept alive by USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union. So this spot is a Navy Federal Credit Union spot.

And if you've seen these, what they do is it's a concept of i don't know where i'd be without navy federal credit union and then they apply that literally and they have some sort of alternate scene in this case it's a guy who got his truck through navy federal federal credit union and then i don't know where i'd be without it and he's in a car wash by himself that's running like without without a vehicle so if you want to play that marine sticker still can't believe this thing is yours no Navy Federal Credit Union gave me such an affordable car loan rest was easy I mean I can't imagine right military guy can't imagine now far off look oh my god I'm in a car

wash I don't know I'm not even in a car he says oh there's gonna be hot steam and oil oh hot wax oh he's screaming oh comes back to in his truck in the car wash and i don't know about you guys our members um but it struck me as odd that this military themed credit union uses fucking flashbacks as the concept for what is happening in their uh in their ads like a guy has a psychological break remember some sort of terrible memory or conjures it up and then all of a sudden he's screaming before he shakes back to life it is cliche it's extremely cliche and one that i thought that the people at the room would have been like, what if we avoided psychological breaks? That's awesome.

NFL talk today, if we are to slide into that, is brought to you by Qualys Roofing and Construction. Qualys? Is it qualysgc.com? What's GC stand for again?

Like general construction? Anyway, that's not in their copy points at all. But Qualis Roofing and Construction brought to life in order to change the game in the roofing industry. Their goal was to bring a level of customer service and community that the residents of Dallas have yet to experience with roofers. They believe building relations is just as important as building a sturdy, stylish roof for their customers. So maybe you'll get to know them so well, you can name them the godfather of your kid or something like that.

Yeah. Do you think they're trying to build relations that deep? That's my concern. I think that their customer service knows no bounds. I think that their customer service knows no bounds. All I know is that they put the roof right here on this den of inequality that we sit in and broadcast in. They fix me up in my house. They will do the same for you.

They'll work with the insurance companies for you, so you kind of don't have to deal with all the beating. You know how many calls you have to make usually, but they will do all of that for you, so you kind of don't have to deal with all the beating. You know how many calls you have to make usually, but they will do all of that for you. You end up paying, or we ended up paying just the deductible, you know, so nothing really out of pocket. Got a whole new, brand new roof. It's great. Yeah, call them today. They'll give you a free, no obligation inspection.

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So we've had people sitting up here joining the show because they got a roof with Qualys Roofing. So go to qualisgc.com uh let's see here oh nfl football let's talk football if the playoffs started today oh mr we're getting there right off started today no we're getting that picture is clearing up. Okay. Well, it still says Cowboys in the hunt, so you guys can't have it both ways. Well, I'm saying they are in the hunt. And should the – I think the Commanders game could be for all – every marble.

If Washington continues playing like they've been playing. You're saying for Dallas, you're saying? Yeah. See, I was thinking over the weekend, and we'll get to their game later, but I was actually thinking that the most hilarious Cowboys thing ever would be to have a really convincing, resounding win tonight. Offense stays rolling on the ground. Micah's everywhere.

And then they lose to the Panthers. That would be – That's probably what will happen. The cheeky little Panthers. That's probably what will happen because they are kind of sneaking up on people. Yeah. You see that Panthers game yesterday against Philly? Philly not happy afterward.

A.J. Brown had a lot of bitching and moaning to do. No, mistakes at the end of that game cost Carolina. a lot of bitching and moaning to do. No, mistakes at the end of that game cost Carolina. I want to play some audio slash video in a second, but after the Xavier Leggett drop of a beautiful pass, that was on second and four at the Philadelphia 32 with 52 seconds left. So the final score was six points, 22 to 16.

Carolina driving down the field at the end of the game. But they are Carolina. So after that, they get nothing on third and four. So now it's fourth and four. Delay of game. As I don't know what was going on. Bryce Young is clapping, clapping, clapping, clapping, like for five seconds. And they wouldn't snap it.

So they just Carolined themselves out of that game. Or they did exactly what they need to do. For the number one overall draft pick, which they hope to get for the third year in a row. I mean, I don't know if they're going to get one, but any separation they can get, they need. Because Vegas and New York seem very determined. One of our knockout guys had Philly.

Oh, dang. Wow. One of them didn't? Yeah Philly. Oh, dang. Wow. One of them didn't? Yeah, they split up this week. One had the Bucks, one had the Eagles, and I was watching like, uh-oh, might have a winner here. Wow. Boy, I bet he was shitting.

Anyway. There was a big drop, and it was by one of our favorites, Xavier Liggett. Liggett? In fact, Rob, let's introduce him first before I play the audio, just if people don't know who this is. So this was, you remember in training camp, the Carolina media, they discovered him like draft night. But in training camp, they were doing bits. Like we discover, we like to go do bits with the players, and they decided, okay, this is a good guy to do bits with.

So let's do that first one. It's the weather report one, isn't it? I'm going on fascination, man. This is Avery League out here, man. I'm just here with a weather report. It's a little bit cloudy out here. A little bit of rain. It's been raining all morning, but we're really excited to practice in this weather here, man. Good weather. It ain't too

hot. That's dope. Keep fine. You remember this guy? Oh, yeah. Of course. I'll never forget him. Yeah, he's, you know, it helps he's from South Carolina. Yeah. Is he really? I thought he was from Boston. Okay, okay, my boy in the spot.

What position you play? Wide receiver. What's your number? Say on time. What school you from again? I went to the University of South Carolina. His lips don't move. He's, yeah, he's country black boom hour.

All right, let's continue. Some light questions, all right? How old are you, Xavier? I'm 23. You're 23 years old. You're number 17 and you're 23 years old. If you was born 10 years ago, how old would you be? Man, shit.

I cut the camera. Hey, just give me your best answer, doggy. No, no, no. No, no, no. I got another one. One more. How many months in a year got 28 days? God, I love this one.

Only one. Which month is that? February. Are you 100% sure? Yeah. Are you going with that? I is that? February. You're 100% sure? Yeah. And you're going with that? I'm going with February. You're my boy, so I'm going to give you one more chance.

How many months in a year got 28 days? February. Just February? Yeah. No other month? Nah. No other month got 28 days? Nah, I'm sticking with February.

You're sticking with February. That's why you're my dog. But you're wrong, though. Don't really get the bit, but yeah, he just wanted to keep saying February over and over. Anyway, beautiful pass. Really a perfect pass. The perfect pass.

Diving. He appears to catch the ball, but kind of rolled over it, rolled into the end zone. He thought he had caught the ball, and then he did not. Like, the ball, it was pretty clear on replay, like very, very clear that he didn't catch the ball. But I wanted to play you some of the postgame audio.

And this is where... I think media sucks oftentimes, but so this is where all the media around him, they kind of have one thing to talk about, that he dropped that ball that time. But they're going to try and work every question about that in a different way. Xavier, can you talk us through that last play? Shit, I thought I caught that big. I just watched the video

and they just put the replay up. I didn't know it hit the ground. Yeah, I made the play. You felt like you had control before hitting the ground. Yeah, I did. Okay, so he thought he had it. Real time, that's kind of interesting because

you'll see Luka do it right oh you gotta replay that you gotta and then like clearly when we're watching it's like no no dude you fouled or you got or something like that um it was really really clear on the replay so that just goes to show they can't always trust the guy on the field to say because right after he jumped up, thought he had it. And then I thought this was kind of a dumb question. I think it's the next one. When you saw the replay, you still think you caught it?

Okay. Like he watched the replay. If you watch this replay, dude, it's, like, the whole ball is on the ground. No, I see. As soon as I make contact with the ground, it popped back. You don't handle that kind of stuff very well. How do you kind of move on from it? You got to play better.

That's all it is to it. X. I like this. leader, too. X. I like this. Oh, my. X. X. People have seen you make big plays. How do you just explain what happened there?

Like, don't you think this is ridiculous? How do you explain what happened? How do you move on? I was diving, and I tried to catch it, and then I didn't catch it. That was going to be a really tough ball. You guys were driving down the field. Were you and the whole offense so confident that you were going to punch that into the end zone? You know what?

No. Was not. Didn't think we were going to. Yeah, you know, we're 3-9 heading into this one, so obviously we lose and don't make plays a lot more than we do. He went and said that when he gets against the talk to you, he's going to say, look, all of us who play in this position have had critical drives.

Now he's answering a question for him. For him. See? Like, what are you going to say to somebody? Did you feel like this was a game? It could have been a real sick game. I can't take any more of this. I feel like I'm being

waterboarded. One more. She told us a couple weeks ago after that, I think it was the Chiefs game, that you texted Bryce that night and said, I'm going to make that play for you. What do you tell Bryce after this one and that play at the end specifically?

You said a couple weeks ago that you told Bryce Young you were going to make that play next time, and then you didn't. What will you say now? I mean, what are you going to tell him? How is he going to believe you when you text him again? I feel like

X, you may have to tell him that you're a terrible football player, a piece of shit. Your thoughts? X, um... Gosh, that's so grating and piece of shit. Your thoughts? X. Gosh, that's so grating and pompous. I'm here with X. God, how do you move through this? Anyways, yeah. Anyway, Philly wins.

Yeah, Philly wins. Carolina. What are they now? 11-2. Two losses, yeah. Okay, so they're still possible for that one seed. They're not playing well, though, man. Like, we went from everybody being really worried about them,

and I just kept giving the, I think they're fine. They're fine. I know they've got some really close wins. They're fine. Jalen Hurts has been ass lately. Like, they've got Saquon carrying them, but he holds the ball too long, he takes a lot of sacks, and he's winning throwing for like 130 yards. This is not the guy from a couple years ago.

Like, basically imagine this. Imagine if you started the season over and Dak was the Eagles quarterback. I think it would be about the same. And I think it would be about the same offensively if the Cowboys had a running back that was playing like Saquon this year. Jalen Hurts is not why they are winning. Wait, you're saying Dak is also not playing well this year, so Philly would be the same with Dak or Jalen Hurts. Yeah, and I think if Dak at the start of this year had Saquon on his team. The Cowboys would be winning similarly.

I don't know if they'd have 11 because the defenses are still different, but Jalen Hurts reminds me a lot of Dak right now. Where they're not winning because of him. They're very gettable. I just wonder, are they holding back a little? It's possible. You clearly would rather have a 10-win team that you don't feel great about as far as winning the Super Bowl.

Sure. They just don't look like, when you watch the Lions play, those teams feel like they're in a different universe to me. The Lions are incredible. It's pretty much just the Lions, though. I don't know. Bills these days? NFC.

Oh, okay. I just don't know that there's anybody else on that level. And Philadelphia may be the best of the rest. But I'll tell you what. How about Minnesota? Minnesota. Minnesota with the best of the rest. But I'll tell you what. How about Minnesota? Minnesota with the game of Darnold's career. I love the NFL for just being able to produce storylines like that, like a Vikings-Falcons game where time is running out for Kirk.

Fun Kirk. Fun rap music Kirk is turning into Cole's Kirk very quickly. What was his thing last year? ACL? Achilles. Achilles. And that was Aaron Rodgers too, right? So yeah, the

two old quarterbacks coming off Achilles have actually looked like you would have thought 10 years ago. You know, pre-existence of Tom Brady and LeBron at this age. Cousins hasn't thrown a touchdown in a month. He's got four straight weeks. Yeah, they're about to go pinnacks.

They might. I did pick that game as far as my knockout. But as far as betting on it in any of my leagues or anything, I wanted to stay away because it was Cousins returning to Minnesota. He got booed. Did he really? Yeah. It's like, well, why?

You didn't want him either, right? I mean, at some point you were both like, we're tired of this. He spurned their offer or something. Yeah. Yeah, he would have gone back there in a second. They may play Pennix, but they're not going to do it until they're eliminated.

Because they're still tied for first, aren't they? That's another game I did want to mention, at least. They're one back. Division's bad. Yeah, but they beat the Bucs. They beat the Bucs twice. And that's... So, Tampa won pretty easily yesterday.

That's one I did win in my little gambling league that I'm in. I just want to say this real quick. They're not going to go to Pennix until they are eliminated because they can't start Pennix next year. Yeah, because of Cousins' money. They will have like a $60 million dead cap by moving on from Kirk Cousins this offseason. On the flip side of that, you have Sam Darnold, who has had some down weeks for sure,

but he's 27 years old. I wonder why... Do they want to re-up him for like a Baker-type deal, even though they have J.J. McCarthy waiting in the wings? That's what I was going to say. First-round pick. The Baker-type deal. So why can you not have a Baker-type deal with a guy on his second contract

with the team he's with? Because they have to fail first. Because if you've already been good enough to warrant a second contract, I mean, I see what you're saying, and logically it's a great question. Like everybody is not Burrow, Mahomes, and Josh Allen. Yeah. Dak I might even throw into this. It's most of them.

Yeah. Like the most, the mid, whatever, the good quarterbacks that you need, but do you need them at $70 million a year? Why not $30 million a year, $25 million a year? I mean, if whatever the going rate for that was a few years ago were the case, Jared Goff would have still been a Ram. Like if they had been able to sign him as like, hey, we think you're about the 12th best quarterback

instead of having to pay him like number one. I don't know because they did pay him number one, but at that time it was $20 million a year. But what I'm saying, though, is that whatever the comparable thing for a Baker deal at that time would have been less. They would have tried to do that. And he would have stayed. They probably wouldn't have ever traded for Stafford. Yeah.

It's that these teams have to because it's their guy overpay, which is weird because usually that's not how it is. Which would help players elsewhere because they still have to spend to the cap. Yeah. And so you could actually make your team better because Darnold, yes, that'd be a great comp, a Baker deal. What's he getting, 25 a year? That might be.

But it's not. It might get up to like 30. As guaranteed as Dax or Mahomes or whatever. That's going to be a really interesting one because, I mean, they did draft McCarthy in the first round, right? It was first? Yeah. And they were really high on him.

Speaking of guys that can jump up in draft season and the playoff. Let's take a look at the Buccaneers this year because it's kind of amazing. They lose to Atlanta twice. Which is what... Right now, that's the difference. You know, that's why Atlanta still has a chance to win that division. They beat Detroit. Week two.

They beat Washington, Pat. Who's a pretty good team. They beat Philadelphia. Did they beat the Commanders in week one? Yeah. Okay. So maybe that doesn't count as much. Yeah.

But, you know, besides the two Atlanta losses, everything else kind of looks like you might expect for them. They're on a three-game winning streak because they have recently played the Giants, the Panthers, and Las Vegas. Well, I think they struggled in that stretch where Chris Godwin broke his leg

and Mike Evans was out. And they played Baltimore, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Atlanta in there. Also close games. They played Baltimore, Kansas City, San Francisco, and Atlanta in there. Also close games. They go to Chargers next week. And then at Dallas, Baker in Dallas. Sunday Night Football. Will they flex out of it? Well, no.

If Tampa's still into it, like in the playoff hunt, I wonder if the Cowboys lose the next couple if they flex out of it. I suppose it's possible. We have to check and see if it's family guy night or anything. Well, they would still look at – Whatever the new reason why America has to watch the Cowboys is. They would probably still look at the Thanksgiving game and say, Cowboys still are a draw.

Yeah. No matter what. Throw a little Baker in there. Like, why not? Like, we did these numbers with Tommy DeVito or Drew Locke. Cowboys circling the drain. Speaking of that, Drew Locke. We saw his best against Dallas.

I think he started 0 for 8. I've never seen that before. Red Zone was flipping that game on and I'm like, 0 for 8, huh? An NFL quarterback. That's hard to do. And Daybol is still there, right? Didn't we have a Daybol was fired thing the day after? Well, you did.

I didn't think I did. Didn't you do that? I didn't get ball sacked on that I'm not gonna wear that one no I saw that there was the GM and the coach yeah and I didn't read it though oh well maybe I did you want to play the banner video real quick I just like stuff like this uh and Malik neighbors was asked about it after the game. We get the plane pregame flyover. Mr. Mara, enough. Please fix this dumpster fire.

I don't know what that costs, the banner and the plane, but I like it. Don't you extinguish it? How do you fix a fire? You just want it to burn better? Fix a fire if you're meaning like fix dinner. But I would say fix a fire, while poorly worded, does mean extinguish. Okay. They did ask Malik Neighbors about it.

And I think his response was, I didn't pay for the plane. He's funny. Like, look, I know. I know how bad it is here. I ain't paid for the plane. They're going to get Shadur. It'd be great. It would be.

Yeah, I'm just like, where are we at the bottom of the standings now? It's just the Giants in Vegas. Giants in Vegas. Giants in Vegas. And I don't know if you know, but Aiden O'Connell got hurt. Menchu's on IR. They're going with Desmond Ritter for their... You want to talk about being gifted a tank.

The Giants are like, are you serious? Yeah, we had to cut our guys. Okay, there's a lot of three-win teams, but those are the only two two-win teams. Yeah. And the Cowboys are way out of that. The Cowboys are going to end up with what?

Pick 18? Yeah, which is boring. Just something low enough that you won't really get any impact player. Yeah, but when you're a team that's as close as they are, I don't think you need much. I was actually thinking about that this morning, getting ready for writing an article tomorrow. DeMar Vian Overshawn. We're all like blown away by this guy. Like, boy, this guy's a playmaker.

Look at this. Pick 90. He's a player. More than a special teams guy. Do you know how much better you would feel right now if Mozzie had literally just done that? I gave you nothing in year one, but in year two, you thought, look at this guy. Of course.

If you just had that one guy playing up to, this guy's a future starter plus player, you'd be thinking, all right, got a big lineman, still got Micah, Sam Williams, and what's left of DeMarcus Ware. Here's Overshawn. Still got Diggs, Bland. Is Overshawn from last year's draft? He just didn't play last year.

Okay. So they're going to point to that as far as that draft is a success. But that's the difference, right? When he's played, he's been awesome. Yeah. There was no jump. He was just hurt. You're right. I just mean timeline-wise, but's been awesome. Yeah. There was no jump. He was just hurt. You're right.

I just mean timeline-wise, but you're right. Yeah, the draft pick paying off. Yeah, that would help. That's kind of what you want out of your one. And two, Scootermaker was a second that year. But all you gotta do is say, hey, look, we gotta play right. It's just like getting Dak. We got a quarterback. Doesn't really matter if Zeke was a bad pick. It should have been the fourth rounder.

Are the Chiefs good? I don't think so, man. I give up. They're 12-1. They're not good? They're 10-0 in one-score games. Yeah. 10 one-score games ties them with the most

in NFL history in a season. The 1980 Cardiac Kids Browns had nine one-score games. But it's like they win on a doinked field goal. Doink for the division. And that's their third different field goal kicker that has won a game for them this year, which is also a record as time expires.

I would say that if it were any other team and certainly in any other sport, you would be saying this is not going to work. But they've won enough games now to where if they get a bye and they have home field, even if they don't, they're still going to have the best player on the field or at least close to it with Josh Allen Allen maybe the only other option. So it doesn't really matter how they got there. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

They're in. If anybody can turn it up or whatever, like having been there so many times before. It's not just turn it up, though. It's that they don't have the team that they used to have. Yeah, and I think the margins are so thin in the playoffs. I don't know if they can just turn that switch. I'm worried about them. Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing Josh Allen and the Bills get to have a little fun.

I know. A three-peat would be cool, though. It would be. Again, close personal friend of mine, so I really... You want the best for Patrick. Are we discounting the Ravens? Because there's been many times this year I've thought they look like the best team in football.

I think Lamar sucks. Are we discounting... Where did this come from? Watching him play against Philly. Like, I think he's got a real neat trick during the regular season, running around and doing crazy stuff, but in the playoffs, he's not been a good quarterback. That's heresy.

He hasn't. All the quarterback's numbers go down in the playoffs, except Troy Aikman. He becomes a very average player in the playoffs. Had no help. He's got a lot of help. He does now. Do we have any... I would not take them over the Chiefs or the

Bills, though. How about over the Steelers? Yeah. Come on. I know, it feels like that, but they're 10-3. I know, and they'll... And they beat up on the Browns this week. They're always going to have a winning record or close to.

I guess always, right? Tomlin hasn't had – it's Tomlin. Right, he's never had a losing record. Even with like Devlin Hodges as his quarterback. What a callback. The duck guy? Duck guy, yeah. But, no, I just don't take them that seriously.

Let me tell you who I do take seriously as we're jumping around, though. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this to you guys a couple weeks ago. They have to get in the Rams. The Rams are healthy. They're probably the most healthy they've been since they went to the Super Bowl. And yeah, Josh Allen put on an MVP-level performance that brought them back in that game. 54 points.

For Josh Allen? Yeah. What, did he throw himself another touchdown? No. Yeah, threw for 340, three touchdowns, ran it in a couple times. Dude, he had a couple scrambles yesterday that were – it's like if it were Pat, but fast. He's got to be Locke, right?

For the MVP right now? I think so. There was some Saquon Barkley buzz. Yeah. But if you put up games like that in a loss... You know, because a lot of times a quarterback, you're like, ah, but if you end up with

12-5 or – Yeah. But no. But the Rams are dangerous, man. That division's falling apart. Yeah, the NFC West is weird. It wasn't just Cliff's fault. What? Arizona.

It's kind of falling apart. Yeah, the last couple games. They're way up and down, man. Yeah. You don't want to bet on them. San Francisco, of course, is just full of injuries. Who did they beat up this weekend? The Bears.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Chappie's triple play. And Akash's, maybe, or someone else's. I don't know. Beat down. Yeah, that division's weird. The Rams's? Akashov. Beat down. Yeah, that division's weird. The Rams could definitely win that division.

Yeah. Seattle. Seattle. Seattle destroyed Arizona. And they're confounding as well. But I would probably, if you had to pick right now, picking Sean McVay's team is not a bad idea. Stafford's still just ridiculous.

He had some throws to Puka yesterday that were plus, plus, plus. Isn't it amazing that they went all in, won their Super Bowl, and have stayed relevant? That's usually not how that works. Without draft picks. Right. It's crazy. Last year we thought it would be the year they'd fall off.

Then it's like, okay, now it's this year. They lost Aaron Donald. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. You guys want to take a break? No. Okay.

I would like to. Oh. Well, you said no, so I was going to go no, and we'll just move on to something else. Y'all can keep doing the show. I'm going to go pee. Okay. I would like to. Oh. Well, you said no, so I was going to go no, and we'll just move on to something else. Y'all can keep doing the show. I'm going to go pee. Okay. All right.

The Dumb Zone. The Dumb Zone. The Dumb Zone. The Dumb Zone. You're listening to The Dumb Zone. It's Lindsey St Sterling, Blake. See, she takes old classics, holiday themed,

and improves it, but she has an electric violin. Today's show brought to you in part by OwnWell. OwnWell helps homeowners save on property taxes. Instead of spending hours filing your property tax appeal, have you ever done that? What a beating.

I'll tell you how big of a beating it was. My wife tried it one time and got about 70% of the way through and just gave up, which I think is their goal. Instead of spending hours doing that and then losing your appeal in the end anyway, or like getting this, sign up in three minutes with OwnWell. It's great.

It is great, and you don't pay unless they save you money. Now, you might be thinking, all right, what's the catch? They're probably going to charge me way more than the other guys. No. They charge less, and you don't pay until or unless they win, and they have an 86% appeal win rate with OwnWell. What's the call to action? Call to action is ownwell.com slash thedumbzone, ownwell.com slash thedumbzone.

They call that a unique URL. OwnWell. Oh, well. Hey, do you want to mention the Juan Soto contract? Yeah, I feel like we're supposed to. Every time one of these things happens, it's still incredible. The average is $51 million a year. Yeah.

$765 million, 15-year deal. $75 million in a signing bonus. Apparently, that's because his home state is Florida, and if he gets a bunch of money in a signing bonus, it can be paid there and better for taxes. I don't know. Yeah. According to baseball people.

Yeah, it's the signing bonus they pay you in your home state, at least what I've read. And then obviously your game to game, you pay wherever you play the game. So in 2025 alone, he'll make about $120 million. So that's year one. No deferred money, as the Mets have played that game before as they continue to pay Bobby Bonilla. But here's the great bit. So Juan Soto is 25 years old and already in line for a free agent contract.

Boris is his agent. So he not only got him, you know what? So wait, what am I making? 51 million a year? How about a suite at the ballpark for my family? Done.

So now they don't have to just sit with all the plebes, the wives. They can go sit in their own suite. Or just have to pay for it. Right. You could just pay for it. Yeah. I always love, I mean, what's the total value? They say it's 500 grand for a year.

Okay. Yeah, but that's the I mean, what's the total value? They say it's 500 grand for a year. Okay. Yeah, but that's the same as Rugned wanting horses or Roy Oswalt wanting a tractor. Well, it is and it isn't because it's an incentive, or not an incentive, but it's something thrown on top. But a horse you have to go find. Like, this is like giving somebody a gift card to the pro shop as opposed to saying, like, why don't you just take the team discount? Yeah, we'll just sell one less of these. They don't just have tractors. Yeah.

It's a funny thing. But the best bit, an opt-out after five years. So if this is not going well for him, or if he's, like, somehow even better than they think he would be and the financials of baseball, which I just can't. I don't know, man. Yeah, you're really getting hung up on this. There's a lot of talk about that.

Yeah, we're at the ballpark yesterday, and I'm talking to baseball people, Dave Raymond and Jared Sandler and Eric Nadel and Mike Bassick, and it's like you're just talking about the TV deal, and where are the Rangers going to be this year? Wait, can you answer that for me first? No. Are they out of – is Bally one more year, or is it done?

No. The Rangers do not currently have – they have not announced their broadcast situation. currently have, they have not announced their broadcast situation. And you think about how, don't we really believe it was all overinflated previously by these cable networks buying a 10-year deal for $500 billion or million or however much the Rangers were getting on their local TV deal. Well, now they're going to find out what they're actually worth locally, and it's nothing near that. So we keep waiting.

When do these contracts – is there ever a time when they regress? So I don't have the first clue of how to break down the economics of this, but I have for basically since i saw john wall get 53 million a year i've been thinking the sports that have a cap and it's all related to you know in this case basketball related income that they're going to come down because they're just going to have to reset the cap lower in the same way that they did when they signed a big national TV deal and it went up, and that's why Wesley Matthews' deal was not as bad as people thought it was, where it jumped like $20 million, $30 million in a year. I think it's going to come down.

But in baseball, I think really what you're doing is just cutting into the profit of ownership because they're making a ton of money. So if all you really have to do is say, well we are making less on tv what if we owners just made instead of however much we made 90 of that and that other 10 covers the loss that we get in tv revenue still make a ton of money and we can still be a really good team which may pay for itself. Does that make sense? Because the team value goes up?

Yeah. In the end? Yeah, and by being good. But most of the money comes from TV. Yeah, but the profit goes to the owner. Whatever's left on the bottom line, the ownership group takes, and that's their money.

Now, it goes into the value of the franchise. But what I'm saying, though, is in a cap sport, it's not going to matter how much you want to spend. The league is going to set that. In an uncapped sport, why couldn't an owner just say, this year I thought I was going to make $100 in profit. Why don't I make $90 in profit? Well, and that's why the owners all want a cap sport.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Because the owners don't want to have to say, I'll spend some of my prop. No, no. They don't want to spend any of the prop. The pie. The pie is preset.

Pre. The Mavs have won 11 of 12. Incredible. And I was getting a lot of heat whenever I kept saying. They went 1-4 in the previous five, and one of them was a loss to Utah. But the other three were close, like last possession games, and they were against good teams. And also, they were without P.J. Washington for those five games.

He came back 12 games ago. They're 11-1 in those games, with their one loss being an overtime game in Miami. He's very important. How old do you think he is? P.J.? Yeah. 30. Very important. How old do you think he is? PJ? Yeah. 30. He is 26.

Maybe 27. Let's see. He is a year older than Luka. Oh, wow. So their timelines match up perfectly. He's 26. Doesn't turn 27 until late next year. What a pickup that was.

Right? They had to give up a first too, right? Yeah, he's not going anywhere. That's the type of guy that you can see that he plays so well with Luka. So, yeah, you've got concerns about Kyrie getting older. By the way, he looks way younger and way faster when he cut his hair. I think we can all agree. Yeah. The afro, not afro, but know the grown out you can see more of his gray yeah yeah he looks like young

kairi to me right now but uh yeah i was i i had to remind myself like pj's young he's he's a prime prime running mate for Luka. And they were so bad on the glass in those games that he missed. And now in the last whatever it is, 12 games, they're a top five rebounding team in offensive rebounding, middle of the pack on defense. How old do you think Daniel Gafford is, Dan? I was going to guess they're both around the same age.

He's 26. So I would have said 30. Most of the guys are mid-20s. It's great. Like only Kyrie is the only old, right? Yeah. Clay, obviously. I don't even – Dwight Powell and Maxi Kaliba have been the same age the entire time

they've been here to me, so I really couldn't tell you. They've also – you know what I also think about them, they've kind of also been the same player. I'm sure they're not as good as they were five years ago, but I don't think the difference is that significant. Just being asked to do less. And that's my point. Yeah. Is how good this team is that they just acquired better players than them and they're just

pushing them back. they just acquired better players than them, and they're just pushing them back. And that's what you used to say when you were starting Dwight Powell in a playoff game. You were like, boy, if this wasn't the case, can you imagine what this team would be? How good is Luka that he's dragged them this far with Dwight Powell and Maxie getting 40 minutes a night in the playoffs?

Preach. And now what are they? If they even get in the game at all, you just don't need them. They're there if someone or usually two people get hurt. Yeah. You said this last week. We were watching the game thinking, okay, if Maxie can just hit five threes, we'll have a chance.

Yeah. Utah series. They're super, super deep and talented. Their record right now probably should be three or four games better, which would mean they'd have one of, if not the best record in the league outside of, you know, the Cavs. How about the Cavs? They lost a few. They did.

I have one... And there's like two to Atlanta. Yes, but they... Somehow. Atlanta's not bad to Atlanta. Yes, but they... Somehow. Atlanta's not bad. What is Atlanta's record? My last one to Boston. 13-12.

So I played you guys at Devin Harris Misspeak last week. This is from Mavs TV. That's the 90th career game where Lucas had at least 30 points and 10 boards. Ever since he set foot on an NBA floor, Devin, the numbers that Luke Adonjic has put up, they've just been incredible. That monster can affect the gays in so many ways. Just an incredible talent. Affects the gays in so many ways.

Now, this one is not as egregious, given the whole history of the AIDS gay community being infected with HIV, historically. At least from public perception. But I think he just has real trouble with the word games. This is from Saturday Night's Game. Hold on. So, he was trying to say games yeah can affect the games okay i thought he was trying to say infect the gate like your vision the gaze that's a that would be a really deep and also still nonsensical term that might actually be worse on your part

i know but i think it's easier to imagine that he just screwed up effect and infect and got lazy with the word games then that he invented a new colloquialism which is he's a player who really infects your visual gaze does that yeah you should stop now. I don't know. I think we should call him. I think he has a zoo. I think he just has a tough time with that word. The G word. Two different junior colleges and two different D1 schools. He's guarding Luka.

Davion Mitchell bracketed Luka with Movo outside on the kickout. Kyrie 4-3. Did I mention he's one of the best late-game passes we've ever seen? We have seen that. All right. He's one of the best late-game passes we've ever seen.

4-3. Did I mention he's one of the best late-game passes we've ever seen? Late-game passes, even. Look, I'm watching every one of these games, so I'm tracking this stuff for you guys. Devin Harris has a hard time saying the word game, and he doesn't say fame instead. Not an early gay passer.

No, late gay. Late gay. His family was upset, so he had to keep it to himself. The Mavs are awesome, and tomorrow night is our big NBA Cup quarterfinal matchup. I know you guys are fired up. I don't care. Well, it's Mavs Thunder,, and tomorrow night is our big NBA Cup quarterfinal matchup. I know you guys are fired up. I don't care. Well, it's Mavs Thunder, so just take it as that.

No, looking forward to post-NFL season. Yeah. Like never before, really. Dude, it's going to be fun. All right. Here's Jay with the Dumb Zone News. The news is brought to us by Franco & Franco Personal Injury Attorneys. If you get in an accident, they are there for you at 214-333-3333.

Yeah, they actually have people on staff that used to work for the insurance company, so they understand how their minds work. They understand that they are not there for you. Dealing with an insurance company can be a huge beating. And if you are the victim of a personal injury, Frankel & Frankel will help you get what is coming to you. So thank you to Frankel & Frankel for sponsoring today's news. Thank you so much to the Frankels and their entire team. Now, this was not my top news story an hour ago. But we have an update on the news story that is gripping a nation. As a person of interest in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, BT as his co-workers called him, has been

ID'd and found after a large manhunt. Wait, now who was found? The person of interest in this crime. They're not sure. He was found in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which is

apparently a few hundred miles from New York City. His name, and this is not one of the fake names that he was using, is Luigi Mangione. That's his real name. He's 26 years old, of Towson, Maryland. He was found with, let me go through the, a gun, a silencer, four fake IDs with names used during the killer's stint in New York City and a manifesto. He is a 26 year old. Like I said

he was valedictorian of his high school class. He went to an Ivy League school and he was a very very smart young man. And they've now found his Twitter account where he had, you know, he's about what you would expect. Like, basically imagine what you know about me

from like my late teens, like 17, 18, 19, up to my mid-20s, if I were also smart. So he's got a lot of stuff in here about he might have thought the Unabomber had some good ideas. He's got a lot of commentary on how society is actually set up to make you more anxious these days. And the answer to that is just prescribing antidepressants, which then just keeps another industry alive

rather than us actually addressing the things that make us anxious uh he posted a review of the anxious generation the book my wife read it i know junior did a review of it i actually don't want to read it because it seems terrifying um he posted about a grandparent in 2013 and another in 2017 that had, in his mind, been mistreated by insurance companies. He worked at an assisted living facility for a few months while he was still in high school. So this was a cause that was close to him. And he subscribed to anti-capitalist and climate change causes.

This is all according to the authorities. Sounds like him. Yeah. They liked a bunch of Teddy K quotes. Said at the time of his graduation from college I think this is from Penn

but I could have that wrong that he planned to seek a degree in artificial intelligence and he did um masters of science and engineering bachelors in the same field this is a very very very smart young man and it seems like Engineering bachelors in the same field. This is a very, very, very smart young man.

And it seems like at least his plan was seemingly pretty smart. They didn't catch him right away. No, I mean, for a manhunt of this size. How did they end up catching him? A public execution. You know what? I don't know. Other than they just kept piecing together clue after clue after clue like they've retraced retraced his steps here you know like like he took the train and then an uber or

then a bus well above yeah um i think probably what they did is they saw him going into a bus station at the end of his time in new york and they just probably tracked every single route that was leaving at around that time. Cross-referenced that with video from those outbound where he was going to be going. Let's say there's a hundred of them. They all have cameras. We know he got on a train around this time.

But the move would have been, to be honest, would have been to go into the train station and somehow just wait it out and not go to a train and leave and come back. Ah. I don't know how you get. You probably have to, like, have a disguise that you take into a bathroom or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then stay there for, like, eight hours. Like, don't just stay in the bathroom. Nobody goes in there. Yeah. And if they do,'t just stay in the bathroom. Nobody goes in there. Yeah. And if they do, they don't know how long you've been in there. But then exit, come back at a different time at a different get up, and then take a train. Overall, before we get – or without getting into the –

is there any justification for something like this, which is what the online world has been taken with. Or probably just people in general. It is kind of disappointing to me to learn this was a guy it's a guy that was

mad about healthcare. Why? You didn't think that was what it was? I did, but I had started to convince myself that this was bigger. This was kind of like the madness. Like an inside job? The madness, yeah. That he had enemies within the insurance,

possibly even within UnitedHealthcare. Because he was going to spill the beans on some nefarious doings. So they needed to make it look as if it was a disaffected 20-something whiz kid. So they wrote defend, deny, depose on the bullets. And his backpack, which they found in Central Park, I don't know if you heard this note, was full of Monopoly money.

Yeah, I saw that over the weekend. Just make it as Mr. Robot cartoonish as possible. What's that mean? Don't you think that's a part of the plan, though? That's what I'm saying is I think that's a part of the plan, though? That's what I'm saying. I thought that would be part of the plan for the inside job. This is too ridiculous.

What's the monopoly money mean? Why is that? It probably just means that... I guess I don't know, other than just the idea of money is fake. Okay. So maybe it was the Brunigs I heard mentioning this. Man, as soon as I saw that episode drop, I was like,

if they're going to do a whole hour on the shooter, I've got to listen to this. Did you hear it? Not yet. Okay. I think it might have been them. I'm trying to think who else would I have heard say something like, do they, for every killing in New York, do they commit all these resources and this huge manhunt to, like, check every video camera? Well, why for this guy, then?

Well, I mean, I think you know why. I know, but. That seems like a pretty, I mean, the same as they would do of any public figure. This guy wasn't a public figure. In fact, didn't he... Low profile. He kept a low profile. Painstakingly, yeah.

You're right about that. I just thought that was a good point. I mean, it's a good point. Just to prove the obvious. Like, hey, you could do this? Yeah. You could find anybody. You could really kick ass and...

Yeah, so when you call the cops and you're like i think someone stole my car starter and they're like what do you want me to do about it right they probably could do something about it probably pretty quickly yeah um but on the flip side of me thinking like this is kind of a letdown it is still always interesting when people decide to up the ante in their protest of policy i was gonna say like state policy but it's not that because it's a private health care company but it basically is right you're mad about the system and when somebody decides to go rogue and go off like that's always going to be a fascinating story that feels like something from the movies.

But maybe it's even cooler because this guy's not a professional killer. And he pulled off something pretty professional. I think he could have gotten away with it if he wanted to. It kind of feels like he would... I'm with you a little bit.

If you don't want to be caught, you don't write a manifesto and you discard of all the evidence. It seems like this guy would be smart enough to do that. But that's the thing is, I think he at least wanted to send a message. TC and I talked about this a lot last week of you want to send the message,

but the real way to send the message would have been to like immolate on the street with your man... Like set yourself on fire, have a manifesto, leave no doubt about why you did this. That's out of the news in two days though. No,

it's not. You don't think there's a video of a guy assassinating the CEO. Oh, you got to do both after the, Oh yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. I wasn't clear about that.

Cause the guy lights himself on fire at the White House twice a year, right? No, you do the whole thing, and then you leave the bullets. The backpack of money is somewhere else, even though they don't need to find you. They're going to find your clues. Then you light yourself on fire in Midtown, and you make it very clear this was about this. Well, then that's clearly that you want to get caught. I'm wondering if this guy did. But the thing is, he did like a halfway thing where

he left all these clues, the deny, defend, oppose thing, the money just toying with him. But for this to really land the way that he seems to have wanted it to land, he had to be caught. Because the manifesto, the learning about his grandparents,

all that. I don't know. It's a crazy, crazy story. This system will never change, right? Like, it seems like it sucks. Private health care? Yeah. It seems bad.

Yeah, I mean... You're too far in. That's what I mean. Like, just the whole relying on having to have a job to have insurance and different jobs have shittier insurance. We're certainly one of the only ones who do it this way, and we have decidedly more negative outcomes, even with, like you referenced last week, the whole Canadian,

well, you can't get to a doctor forever. Well, it's pretty hard here a lot of times. And I don't know. I don't know how deep we want to go into this. But part of it also is you would be saying, it's like with a lot of things, liberals do this with safety. They refuse to do it. Which is to say, I actually am personally okay if you told me i'm going to be one percent less safe on the streets if it had positive outcomes on the other

side a lot of times liberals like to act like well we could fix this problem on one side of the ledger and it'll have no impact on the other that's usually not how it works. Same thing with healthcare. I'm willing to say I'd probably take a little bit shittier care if it meant more people had it. Because it stands to reason that it might work that way. But that's

somewhat of a non-starter. Do you have to be a killer to have a manifesto? It certainly implies it, right? Or just a producer? The producer manifesto. That's right. Many, many years ago, they had that at the ticket.

They sure did. Was it called that? it definitely was said it like when you first worked as a producer you you had to read the producer manifesto on how to produce radio yeah and while i thought it was silly i didn't run to make copies of it and give them to dan to Dan. Yeah. Somebody did, though. He was on the copy machine. Our very own deny, defend, depose type. Yeah.

The McKinney City Council has unanimously approved a zoning change that will now allow a third passenger airline terminal right here in DFW. Who did? McKinney? Yeah. Why? DFW Airport's so close to my house.

Not mine. Options, baby. It's because the whole Metroplex is moving north. How many times do I have to tell y'all? I tell you, man, like when I'm somewhere else staying and I'm staying 45 minutes from an airport, it sucks. This is for me. Because then you don't know, oh, how long,

what if the traffic gets bad there? And see, at least here I can get over there, even side streets. You cannot, especially if you travel a lot, you cannot understate how important that is. When we lived in West Fort Worth, that was also when we were traveling a lot, you get home from a 12-hour two-leg flight, and you're like,

we have a 45-minute drive across the Metroplex. Dude, North Texas and TCU flew out of Fort Worth. Getting back after night games at 2 or 3 a.m. and then having an hour drive home. Horrible.

I guess you knew that it was at least going to be quiet on the roads. Maybe, but still, you're in the car. And you're not sleeping while on the airplane. We're home in 10 minutes right now. It's pretty choice. Yeah, I guess I would feel that when we do a Stars flight because we get back

at Love Field at 2 in the morning. But as people move all the way to the red, they're going to need their own airport halfway between there and downtown. Wasn't there always some kind of a law that you couldn't have an airport? Is that the Wright Amendment? Is that what that is? That's as far as I can really take that.

Came after the Wright brothers? Yeah. Yep. The mayor says the city is now in the process of getting commitments from at least two commercial airlines. That'd be sweet. Yeah, and there's also tell me how vague this is. And i don't mean to take a shot at

trump all politicians do this but he's still doing the uh they ask him he had a big interview over the weekend they ask him about the biggest the his health care plan he's like we've got concepts all right and you know they will turn into a plan. Just like the air raid offense. It's just concepts. The mayor said in an interview, the mayor of McKinney, we're in the process of designing an infrastructure right now that we will begin construction on in early 2025. We do expect that we will have major commercial passenger service airlines

leaving in 2026. Another project that I am not at liberty to talk about yet, but will be a destination people fly in from around the world and country to experience. I can't tell you yet, but it's going to be Paris, London. So in McKinney, there's going to be something that will draw people from around the world. What do you think it could be? Waterslide? Dude Perfect?

Do you think it hits for, like, do they translate it? Or not translate it, but dub it or subtitle it? In other countries? Yeah. That's a market they should. Why don't we do that? What, you're going to just do Mandarin? If it meant we can get rich.

Speaking of, I personally think that representation matters, so I'd prefer a Chinese person being the Chinese dude perfect, but whatever. You kind of have a Scarlett Johansson. Whoever you want to add. But the three of us doing trick shots in China?

Let's do it. Dude, so my wife is in Shanghai. And she's 14 hours ahead. So we don't. It's really weird talking. Man. So we do talk in the morning. Because it's like 4 here and 6.30 there.

So I'll talk to her. She's like. And then by the time I'm getting the kid up, she's going to bed. But she was just kind of giving me the rundown. The phone sex? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

In fact, you know what I did this morning? This is – I know it's not FaceTime because you couldn't figure that out yesterday. No, I did. Jake tried to FaceTime. It's a headphone issue. I was trying to call him FaceTime audio from my computer so I could be looking at stuff while I talked to him

and my headphones were just jacked up. I took a bath this morning. Legs were a little sore, so I had my laptop in the bath, like on the little stand, editing audio. Can you electrocute yourself

if you drop the laptop in the bathtub? I don't think so. I'd be out of laptop, but... I don't think you'd be electrocuted either. Yeah. Rob, any thought? Can you electrocute yourself if you drop your laptop into the bathtub?

Not plugged in. No. No? Okay. Well, then go ahead. A hair dryer or a toaster. Yeah. Toaster, you would die.

That's like an old TV thing. Yeah, yeah, good Looney Tunes and stuff as well. Has anyone ever actually done that? Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. But anyways, what I was going to tell you guys, I don't know how this came up, but she said that in Mandarin, I want to say,

because there's two different languages primarily that they speak over there and tons of different dialects of them. But anyways, there is a filler word, just a fill-in word for thing. It's basically like saying like that. And I'll have something like that. But she said this was happening at dinner. And phonetically, it sounds exactly like the N word in English. She's like, so I'm just sitting here at a dinner and I'm just hearing...

And they just fired it back and forth? Yeah. She's like, it is the weirdest... She's looking around like... Yeah, like, what are we doing here? And I looked it up and there's Reddit threads. Did she take advantage of that unique situation?

No, you know, I went in Rome. Did she use the A-H? God. Texas has been identified this holiday season as the state with the highest risk of porch piracy. Ah, I saw like a police video over the weekend. Tips on avoiding porch pirates. Was it from Southlake and they did a bunch of wacky bits? No, it was Dallas.

About the wet bandits or something? They were just being regular. The UPS, I guess, I don't know if it's Amazon, UPS, whatever. Lately, though, when we've been getting deliveries, they knock on the door. Really? And then they, because the dogs go nuts. I don't love that. But you know that there's something been left there.

I know, but. UPS normally knocks. Is it UPS? Yeah. Okay. Like I said, I didn't know if it was Amazon's doing it lately or. Amazon doesn't, but the UPS guy in my neighborhood, he always knocks. Which is a good bit.

Yeah. It can be. But I'm at a very precarious stage here with dog that barks at knocking and child that I would sometimes like to not be awake. Ah, yes. Well, you got to put a sign in it. That's true. That's on me.

Yeah, put a sign that says, please don't knock. Man, I remember when I used to have to do, like all of us had to do, the door-to-door passbook sales and stuff, and you'd see that sign. You're like, whatever, bitch. I'm knocking on your door. I'm trying to move these PBs. And now I'm like, please, God. Not me.

I was looking for a sign to tell me that I can't attempt to sell here. You weren't ABC as a guy, as a kid? No, God. Not me. I was looking for a sign to tell me that I can't attempt to sell here. You weren't ABC as a guy, as a kid? No, dude. I was terrible at it. Absolutely terrible. I mean, and that's probably why I buy everything from any kid that stops by. I buy it. Yeah.

And my wife will get pissed. That's why I sent her. I sent my Karen. Everybody needs a Karen, man. It's so great. I feel like somebody did this bit. I don't have to what? But it's a good one.

Everybody needs a Karen? Yeah, like a renta. There might even have been one, like a news story I did about it. Where, you know, you just have them call. Have them call customer service. Give them your info. I always do that with her, though. Yeah.

Oh, man. The restaurant didn't give me the sandwich I wanted. Well, let me call. I'll get us a free one for next time because I will never do that. I know. I know. And she'll be like, how can you make this right for us? And then you got some 19-year-old kid on the other line like, I don't know.

What are you, the mafia? Yeah. And then she ends up getting a free sandwich for the next time. Oh, yeah. But to me, then, it's a beating because you can't put that into the app. So you have to call and say, hey, I have this coupon for a free sandwich. The manager, Marie, told me three weeks ago that I would get a free sandwich and she said she'd write it down

and put it in the office. I'll put it on your account. Okay. Yeah, with her gone this week, the house is not totally done and she's telling me, text the guy. Text the guy. Ask him. See if they'll be there for this. They need to wrap up this.

I'm like, I got news for you. Nothing is being done at the house this week because I'm not asking them anything. Right. That's her thing. It's just not happening. There's your news. Oh. I waited until you leaned forward thinking that I had read the office.

No, that's right. I was. Like and subscribe. I'm actually checking my text every two seconds because... What do we got going on? We have mobile pet grooming on its way. And so I'm going to have to run down and give them the dogs. They're all fluffy right now.

They won't be tonight. It's game day for everyone. Got some viewer mails. Missed this on Friday. Very unfortunate because we love Courtney. We love Courtney. Courtney. She wrote, dear dictator of delightful diddling.

Oh, that's one thing I missed in the news. Jay-Z. Diddling. Yo. What's the deal? There's a lawsuit as part of the Diddy thing where they're accusing him of raping a 10-year-old with Diddy at an after party. Now, he says it's part of an extortion attempt. 13-year-old, sorry.

Don't get crazy. Oh, that's not as bad. Guys, it's Jay-Z we're talking about here. He responded kind of on his own. Didn't really look like a lawyer-written thing. He did say, I talked to my lawyer, and he just posted a long notes thing saying like, listen, you, Mr. Sleazy

Attorney, you're effing with the wrong one. I've looked you up. And you know who he looked up? Tony Busby. Tony Busby is the one bringing the lawsuit? Yeah. Damn. Our guy.

Yeah. And I don't know, because now people are going back and like, hey, Jay-Z was 31 when he started dating Beyonce. She was 19. They met when she was like 17. What's going on here? All right, let me do these birthdays and then we're going to take a quick break.

All right. Or you guys can just talk amongst yourselves while I walk downstairs. We'll take a quick break. It's fine. Dear Delightful Dictate, dear, you heard. Please wish mine fear that put two babies in me,

Matt Brown, happy Ryan McNeil birthday. His leaders are Possum Kingdom, Lakehouse Dan, Jake, and Blake. And I should have been there. Yeah, that was a fun time. That's Courtney. No girls allowed. That was Scotty Scheffler day. That's right.

And the day he threw an apple at your car. Damn. Oh, yeah. Quite a Friday. Burned into my memory. Hold on. Let's do this. I'll be right

there. I like the audio text. Do you guys do that? No. Because we're not 100. And then I'll be like, I enunciate. Yeah. My mom does it. Olds do it. Only olds do it?

Why? It's so quick. You just rather would type while you're driving? Yes. Greetings, Mr. Dan. My name is David. I am... Wait, what day is today?

Nine. Oh, good. I'm turning 69 on the 9th of December. I'm a day one listener of the ticket. I could prove it if necessary. I'm still pissed the Hang Zone was not able to stay.

I've been with the Patreon podcast since you guys left. Please give us more Doug Townsend when you can. Brandon Aubrey is great. More Is Talk Franco.

Heart Attack Man. Less Jasmine. And Chappy Banter. Oh, come on. I've listened to every episode of the podcast at least once and lots of them twice. Hell yeah. I love the series with the lawyers. Thanks for helping entertain me as I enjoy retirement.

David, not far from Turtle Hill. P.S. This guy's got a lot of opinions. P.S. This guy's got a lot of opinions. P.S. It's time to lose Todd Meaney. Damn. So that's why you didn't play him Friday. It's coming for everybody.

I didn't play him because David had sent me this Friday. No one is safe when King David sits in the throne. Todd Meaney. Yeah, what happened to Townsend? You guys were real weird about that. I went away to the Hab and I came back and you're like, yeah, no Townsend, dude. We're not doing Townsend. Oh, for pics, yeah.

I saw one of his videos pop up on my timeline the other day and I was like, I miss this guy. He might make an appearance soon. Okay, Mayor of McKinney. Listen, we got concepts. Okay. Dear Asian Indian Superman, Mavs designated driver of the game, and Chappy Kemp's neighborhood IT guy. Yo, I want to win that.

What? Every time they announce it at a game, I'm like, how do you get to be that guy? You're a prime candidate these days. I know. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, the designated driver. That's funny. I want. Yeah, the designated driver. That's funny. I want to win Soldier of the Game.

Happy birthday to my brother, Jameson. And a shout-out to my Heisman-winning running back in college football 25, Ladarius Renfree. More Jared Sandler. More Jared Sandler betting talk. Have you seen his stuff on Twitter? It's pretty insightful. He's not just a baseball dork.

Because without that... Anchor word for submission for all intents and purposes. Does that count? I never hear anyone say for all intents and hoes. DZ rules from Rand. I thought I'd have already been on there.

Okay. All right. Very short break. As the dog's anal glands need expressed. Jeez. It's just unnecessary. as the dog's anal glands need expressed. Jeez. It's just unnecessary. And then we'll wrap up with some suck.

But if you're listening to this later, you probably don't even know this is a break, right? Nope. The Dunza, Dunza, Dunza, Dunza. Hey, guys. I'm back. We're all back. Welcome back to the live stream here on YouTube, the World Wide Web. It's really warm outside.

For real? Yeah. Nice. It's nice. It's sunny. You should get out there and get your vitamin D. Trying to keep solid weather for this race on Sunday, boys. What does that mean?

I'm running the half marathon. Whoa. No, half? Yeah, I can't do more. What is it? I'm running the half marathon. Whoa. Oh, half? Yeah, I can't do more. What is it? Fort Worth? Dallas. I become comfortable saying I'm doing a half.

Is Hawkeye involved? He's very involved. Okay. Is he the guy again? He's the guy. Okay. I didn't know. He's my liaison.

Oh, great. He didn't call me? He did not. It's fair he didn't know. He's my liaison. Oh, great. He didn't call me? He did not. I'm fair. He didn't call me either, but I said, hey, you remember how we used to work together? Ah. No, he's a great dude. The best.

You know what? We are video today. Since I just wrapped up viewer mail birthdays, you want to actually open that box? I was kind of hoping we'd just forget about it for another few weeks or so. Just grab it. People keep sending, you know, they send stuff here. I have a closet full of, actually an attic full of stuff

that people have sent here. But this one I remember, I can't remember what it is now, but I remember it was addressed to Blake or at least, you know, for Blake. So let's open up. Let's speed up the process a little bit here, Blake. I don't know how much I can say,

but don't open that. I don't know what it is. I know what that is. Jeez. Why don't you slow down a little bit, actually? You know, he asked for this. Do you want me to speed it up

when I make the video? Like, I'll make it two times speed so it looks really fast. Yes. But what about for the people that are listening, which is like all the guys? I'll speed it up for them, too.

I personally would have thought that before I asked for the opening. I knew this was coming. What do we got? But it's backwards What is it? It's a Ben Herbstreet Old thing

Ben Herbstreet All the wording is backwards R.I.P. I don't know There was a Ben Herbstreet Raising Cane's commercial this weekend During college football Ben Herbstreet is

Advertising? Well, Kirk is. They decided to pop out a quick ad. I think you gotta take this side off. With Ben. Okay, so you can stop ripping the nice thing somebody got you? What happened today in the years before? Today is Monday, December 9th. I guess thanks for this.

Although... Somebody put their hard-earned something into that. I guess thanks for this. Although... Somebody put their hard-earned something into that. I mean, I'm glad the dog is dead. Oh, jeez. So I guess it is good to have this. On this day in 1965, a Charlie Brown Christmas premiered on CBS. Do you guys do that with your kids? Yes, we missed Thanksgiving this year, but yes.

Yeah, we'll do it this year. Again, I got to get them off the original Rudolph. I just wonder what from my childhood actually still remains today. And certainly a Charlie Brown Christmas was a staple, as is the regular Rudolph. The thing is, you have to have Apple TV+. This says, if love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.

Well, that was a quote from Kirk Herbstreit. Oh, even better. I'm a homo. On this day in 1979, scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, a disease which had killed 300 million people in the 20th century, eradicated. Nice. We'll never go back. By science. Big day for little Dan on this day in 1982.

We got a five-for-one trade. The Cleveland Indians. Von Hayes was a rookie for the Indians who hit.250 with 14 home runs and 32 steals. And Philly thought, this guy, we will trade five players for him um they were four players you never really heard of probably or don't care about and julio franco which was pretty awesome i loved julio franco oh who didn't as did many young ranger fans later Oh, who didn't?

As did many young Ranger fans later. Jake, on this day in 2013, scientists revealed that NASA's Curiosity rover, Curiosity, had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars. Oh, great, cool. Let's go jet skiing or something. It just means that there may be conditions that we could actually have life on Mars. Or it could mean that it was sustainable 7 billion years ago. On this day in 2017, Baker Mayfield became the sixth Sooner to win the Heisman.

Can you name them all? No. Me neither. On this day in 2021, a jury in Chicago convicted former Empire actor Jussie Smollett on charges that he staged an anti-gay racist attack on himself and then lied to police about it. He just got his court ruling reversed. His conviction was overturned.

For real? Yeah, like two weeks ago. So he got away with it, huh? Technicality, yeah. So he reached a deal, but then I think he was charged a second time and they said, whoa, whoa. That means all of it's off.

Okay. Don't know if he's working much, but. I mean, that was a story that we said was fake the second that we read the story. Yeah. And it was an awesome story, too. His imagination. So he was leaving a Subway restaurant, right? Not the Subway.

Correct, yeah. At like 2.30 in the morning. And apparently, so he's way across the street or like down the street a little bit. Some guys started yelling when they saw him walk out of the Subway. And they yelled, hey, Empire. Right. So these are like real racist white guys. So they were wearing red MAGA hats.

Wearing MAGA hats. Who could recognize a bit player? This wasn't like the main guy. From an ensemble cast. Right. This was like, I actually watched season one of Empire. I remember. So this wasn't like Cookie or...

Terrence Howard. Terrence Howard. Cookie was the wife. Yes, this would be like... It would be like seeing Ronnie from The Shield. Yeah, like just the lowest... Like the fifth member of the strike team. But they recognized him from way across the street at 2.30 in the morning,

just walking out of a subway in his civilian clothes. And, yes, started yelling, hey, Empire. And then they had a noose on them. As one will. Right. Yeah. It's added in their action backpack. Anyway.

And the funniest part was is, like, the two guys that he tried to rope into it. And like said. No pun intended. Yeah, that they were the assailants. They turned out to be like Nigerian. Like extremely black guys. Oh, really? Yeah.

The whole thing he didn't think through. But he got off. Today's birthdays. Chris Boniole, 53. I had a Boniole jersey. Really? As an adult. Todd Van Poppel, 53.

Good dude. Why do you say that? Did you interview him at halftime of Argyle something? We became close as this kid played on the Argyle team, and he was treasurer of the Booster Club, so he wrote my checks. Okay. You get paid through the Booster Club.

That's how it works. NIL? More like tax fraud Hey Interesting I've been around this game brother World be free Is 71

Former Cav great Have you ever heard of him Blake World be free It's a player His name was Lloyd Free Have you ever heard of him, Blake? World B. Free? It's a player. No way. His name was Lloyd Free, I believe, in the 70s. And then he changed his name legally to World B.

His actual last name was Free. Yeah, dude. Dynamic. Do you think he was the inspiration for the bubble names? No, but that would have been great. He wouldn't have had to do anything. He's like, oh, make the same jersey. Oh, do it just for this one little time, huh?

It's not your whole life? Okay. These are so funny in retrospect, guys. There's Say Her Name. Okay. I believe in reference to a female that was killed by the police. By far my favorite one, Group Economics. Did World be free play in the NBA when he was 50? No.

He looks super old. Yes, he was balding, and that's when he was a Cav. I think he was part of that 2-19 team that rallied to become a playoff team for little Dan. Very exciting. I want to get a see us, hear us, respect us, love us jersey. I like the economic one. Group economics.

That's great. David Akers is 50? Man, I thought he was awesome. He was. Lefty? Don't know it. Are there lefty field goal kickers? I thought he was.

Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Huh. Huh. Who knew? Jim Haslett, 68. He's kind of a guy. He's just always been around. Former Saints head coach.

That guy's a coach. Judy Dench is 90. Dame Judy Dench, it says here. What does that mean? Probably like the opposite of a knight. Not opposite, but the female analogous counterpart. If I had to guess. Like Sir Paul McCartney?

Yeah. Dame Judi Dench? Yeah. So it really means nothing. She's a dame. She's a sweet dame. John Malkovich is 71. Gold.

Don't know anything about him, but I know... Cyrus the Virus, baby. I just know that movie, being John Malkovich, was pretty cool. What's Cyrus the Virus? Con Air. Con Air. Oh. Great character.

Dude, don't laugh. I'm telling you. Have you ever actually watched it? Of course we did. We had a movie. I couldn't remember which of which movies you'd actually watch. I don't laugh. I'm telling you. Have you ever actually watched it? Of course we did. We had a movie. I couldn't remember which of which movies you'd actually watch. I don't know if we... Did we go see it or did we do that in the pandemic?

I feel like that had to be pandemic. It doesn't seem like, yeah, they would get the rights to that. It seems like too awesome. Yeah. Right. Is that the one with Steve Buscemi? He got space dementia? No.

No, but it does both have Steve Buscemi. Armageddon, he gets space dementia. Oh. And Con Air, he's kind of a signaled pedophile. Who? Who they have to keep in a cage on the plane. I guess you don't get space dementia. Without being in space, yeah.

Did you say on the island? Wherever. That's the rock god damn it oh well con air that's why i was questioning the island where they had the magnetic boots that's the rock yeah or that might be face off that's definitely not face off i'm real familiar with face-off. I actually think we didn't ever do face-off. Face-off is the magnetic boots. Oh, really? Yeah, the prison.

They would lock it down like that. Oh, then we did do face-off. Now you see why I was curious as to whether or not you actually watch Con Air, because you think all these awesome movies are the same awesome movie. I actually do, yes. You know, well. And you're telling me they're actually not. Four different.

Like, if I was to watch them all consecutively, I wouldn't say there's any plot points there. Totally different. Felicity Huffman is 62. Was she the Operation Varsity Blues lady? The college testing scandal? No. She wasn't one of them? I don't think so, but I'm actually not sure.

She's not the one that went to prison. No, that's the other one. Lori Loughlin. Yeah. Huffman was arrested for her involvement in a 2019 nationwide college entrance exam cheating schedule. It feels like you guys both just doubted Kemp's spin. Sorry, man. I apologize. Ouch.

Lori Greiner is 55. Who's that? I would have thought older. Back when I watched Shark Tank, I thought she was 55. Yeah. No offense, Lori Greiner. Yeah. She offense, Lori Greiner. Yeah. She seems weird.

Yeah, but she's like businesswoman with money and stuff. Oh, I'm not out. It's just, I don't know. Sounds like Pilly. Simon Helberg is 44. The Big Bang Theory. Yeah, that guy's probably got a billion dollars and up to this moment

I'd never heard his name. You ever watch an episode? No, certainly not. And I bring this up for you. Tom Daschle 77. The Senator? The two-time Senate Majority Leader.

He's a player to see and be seen guy for sure. Because I feel like that's a player to see and be seen guy for sure. Because I feel like that's a name that you would mention when you laughed at Norms. Yeah, he was definitely in the mix in my nascent political days. Don Daschle. Born on this day, now dead. Morton Downey Jr. Dude.

Did you work with him? What'd you do? You were Morton Downey Jr.'s producer for his TV show or radio show? For both. Damn. Good dude? Bad dude?

Okay, good. Man, I didn't know anything about him. The father of Robert Downey Jr.? Yeah. No. Oh, good. Man, I didn't know anything about him. The father of Robert Downey Jr. Yeah. No. Oh, okay. But it was actually Danny Bayless. It was probably five years ago.

And I was familiar with the face, but I didn't really know anything about him. He has many episodes on YouTube. Many as in several. Not many. Worth your time. Go back and let's watch one of them like it's spring or something. It's insane. And it's awesome.

Did that develop as you were with him? I was at the second part. You were in the insane era? The second part. After the swastika. After the swastika. After the swastika. Okay, we're going to need follow-up on that. I know, right?

Yeah, yeah. And he's chain-smoking the whole time. It's a wild ride, but I feel like he was like the predecessor to what came later in television. Like the Springer era doesn't happen without him type thing. Yeah, okay. I't even know that for real

Sensi yeah it's worth it also born on the state now dead Clarence Birdseye the founder of the modern frozen food industry so what if we take this stuff how do we keep it good for longer?

We're going to freeze it. It'll never work. Blasphemy. My friend over here, Mr. Microwave, and his business. And Joseph Pilates, who invented the Pilates method of fitness. Stuff works. I don't really know what it is. Is it like Kegels?

I'm sure you could work that in. Okay. Why do you know so much about Kegels? You have problems? Because I'm thinking about transitioning. It's not just for women. Oh, really? I'm the guy who knows so much about Kegels.

You can do bottom Kegels? You can do penis Kegels. Pegels? Pegels, yeah. Like when I was a youth, like college age, and I was like, how do I stop busting in three seconds? Yeah. You learn that the male Kegel exists. Yeah.

To tighten that thing up. My algorithm likes to tell me 12 exercises that I can do every day to last longer in bed. I'm following you. I can do every day to last longer in bed. Boy, they must be following you. And Dead on a Stay Still Dead Branch Rickey. And you do them for a day or two. You're like, okay, yeah, I can do this every day. Yeah.

Stop. Actually, I don't mind Busted Quick. So Blake and I – I don't have to do this. Hell yeah. Blake and I were talking this morning about how we were trying to shorten these episodes up, and we didn't do it today, did we?

Three hours. Well, but you're going to get a couple breaks. Yeah, 240-ish. Do we need to shorten them up? I don't know. That's for the fan to decide. I think we do. All right.

Adios, mofo. See you tonight. Before this becomes a zoo. Thank you for watching my video. Subscribe and type for my name if you want to watch more of my video. And now, an excerpt of a courageous journey from the bottom of a bottle to a top 10 sub stack sports podcast. There were nights when Jake Kemp lay awake in bed, same sentences on loop in his brain,

like a station whose dial refused to budge. You have to stop. He stared at the ceiling, but you can't stop. You've been listening to stories from Skid Row to redemption. We'll be back soon with more inspiring journeys. Here is another portion of Stories of Bravery From the Gutter to Glory

as read by Fox 4's Steve Noviello. Kemp had been hiding bottles in his car for months. He'd been slipping out of the house at night after his family had gone to bed. When his wife asked if he had been drinking, he lied. Stick around for more inspirational anecdotes

such as this one right here on DZTV. Let's continue following the path from pathetic loser to dedicated family man. A saga of sober living in America. Jake wanted to stop. He couldn't stop. He tried moderation management. He tried medication. He lay awake at night, caught in a tortured spin cycle. Then he'd wake the next day saying, I just need to get through the afternoon. I'm going to stop by the store and get something to drink. We'll be back with more tales of heroic determination after these words from early bird Bird CBD. And now, how a degenerate dumpster dweller found hope to fight his demons and follow the light back into the arms of his neglected family. Jake arrived in rehab, and the first two nights, he didn't sleep.

He remembers thinking, there's no turning back from this. Either you will get a divorce or you will lose your family. You will probably at some point die or hurt someone else, or you'll have something to be proud of. Stick around for the thrilling turning point in this story. And don't forget about our Cowboys-Bingles Monday Night Football live stream on December 9th. Secure your spot at dumbzone.com. How did a piece of human garbage find the tenacious spirit to go from gulping a handle of Tito's before lunch to reuniting with his often ignored children? Let's listen. In rehab, Jake started working out again. He journaled like crazy.

A FaceTime call was where his wife noticed a difference. His skin was clear. His eyes were bright, like something flipped inside of him. He was the person she met 14 years ago. He told her, This is the best I've felt in my adult life. Don't miss the exciting conclusion of how a railroad hobo uncovers a second chance at life at the cost of missing an entire month of work. How will the story end?

Will Jake go full-on red from Shawshank in prison? Or will he claim victory over the countless bottles that have made him virtually unbearable to be around for 25 years? Let's find out now. Jake is aware that he's new to sobriety. He says, I'm not having a hard time right now, but I know it will be hard. I guess this is what people mean when they say they have found a calm or a peace or the ability to feel real joy. Happy endings are the stuff of fairy tales. But if we're lucky, we might be happy right now.

You've been listening to the uplifting saga of how a depraved vagrant found sobriety through his faith in Jesus. Look for our upcoming series on a man who finally sought the truth and admitted to himself that 9-11 was not an inside job when we look at Dallas, Texas content creator Blake Jones.