The Josh Innes Show - Dumb NFL Stadium Takes

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Yesterday's AFC Championship game was a snow game. Of course, this led to the social media hot takers to determine that all games should be played indoors. Some even suggest that conference championship games should be played at neutral sites. What are we doing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody. Welcome in all up, and is hello. Glad you guys are with us today. Appreciate you. Watch the conference championship games yesterday. Thoughts on those incoming. But first, let's just get the commercials right out of the way and let's get down to business. Let's get down to the needy, greedy. Let's get down to brass tacks. Let's go.

Here we go. So let's play a couple commercials and we will get started. All right, first, let's start with a couple thoughts. Really, the Broncos game was what it was. The game really wasn't good in the first half. That's the interesting thing is people spun this whole thing like, well, things got really bad with the snow in the second half, and do you really want games to be played outside and blah, blah, blah, blah.

The first half wasn't any good either. It just happened to not be snowing. It stunk. The game itself was not a very good game because it was never going to be a good game. game. Whether it snowed or not, that game was never going to be a good game. Why? Why was it not going to be a good game? Because Jared Stiddam was playing quarterback. The backup quarterback was playing. How were they going to approach that game? They were going to take calculated chances, but they

were going to let their defense carry them as much as they could, and they were going to make an ugly, gross punt fest. And that's essentially what the game was. Like there were a couple of moments that were fine and there were a couple big plays like the early shot. I guess I was in the second drive of the game where they took the deep shot down the field, moved the ball, fine, that's great. But outside of that, there was never really any exciting football going on in the first half either. So what you ended up with in the game in the second half, and yes, the snow wreaked havoc on the game and it made it a difficult game to watch. But what you're seeing from a lot of people is the idea that that was proof that every game needs to be played in a stadium that's indoors with the roof

because that snow ruined the AFC championship game. No, if we're being honest, the quarterback play ruined the AFC championship game. There was no. Well, and really, even if Bo Nix would have been there, do you really think the AFC championship game was going to look anything like the NFC championship game? Did you really believe that the AFC championship game was ever going to be an exciting, offensive fun football game even with Bo Nix. No, because they're both really good defenses.

And with the AFC title game on the line, you've got kind of a risk-averse head coach in Vrable. And look, Sean would take some chances. That's what Sean does. But like, did you ever think going into that game, even if Bo Nix were playing, that that was ever going to be a 35-31 game or a 3, 127 game? No, and it was never going to be that.

So the idea that the snow is the reason why the offensive football was terrible and the reason why the game was unwatchable. Sure, you can throw that out there and you can say that that played a factor in the game having some boring qualities in the fourth quarter. Sure. I mean, the snow did that and that's fair. But that game was never going to be an exciting football game. It was going to be ugly, knock down, drag out, field position, punt, minimize risk, mitigate risk. That's what that game was going to be and that's what that game was. So, you ended up with after the game was over, you got a bunch of people who were of the belief that that game proved why every football game should be played inside.

It's wild to me how the world has changed because there was a time that people frowned upon indoor football at all. Now everybody seemingly wants to have football games played inside. It's like, what the fuck's the point? Now, there are some places that just always had dome stadiums, like the dome in New Orleans. Look, I love the Superdome. It's my favorite place to watch a football game. I fucking love the place.

so you know you're going to have indoor places but the idea of eliminating these types of elements in the game sucks it doesn't make it interesting doesn't make it more interesting it's to me you know what it is it's just shitty media takes you know like everybody kind of parrots each other

like I don't think fans watch the game I know for a fact that fans don't watch the game the same way that media people watch the game how do media people watch the game Well, media people watch the game with these judgmental eyes, and they watch the game as if they are media people, because they are media people, and that's how they watch the game.

So the way they consume the game is they consume the game looking for takes. You're looking for the angle. That's how media people watch the game. Like, yeah, that game was boring in the second half because of the snow. it was boring in the first half because the play wasn't very good. It was boring in the second half because of the snow. That's reality. That's fair.

Cool. But media people watch the game looking for an angle. So what's the angle? Oh, we got to have all dome stadiums. Part of the charm of football and what makes football interesting is that the elements come into play. So call me old-fashioned, call me a dim. nip shit, call me whatever, say I'm wrong, and that's totally fine, you can say I'm wrong.

I enjoy the fact that weather can come into play in these games. And when I see people all like unanimously jumping to the idea that, oh God, football games need to be played inside, like it just feels contrived and tired and boring. And I'm not here for that, man. I like that weather plays a factor in these things. I mean, look, the Seattle game was played outside, and it was 31, 27. I understand it wasn't snowing or raining or sleeting or hailing, but the game was played outside, and it was 31 to 27.

Don't take away part of what makes football great. You know what's going to suck? Everybody playing in the same shitty, generic, sterile shopping mall stadiums. That's my biggest takeaway from this, the new boom of everybody wanting to have these these new modern stadiums. You know who benefits from new modern stadiums? Everybody but the fans. Everybody but the real fans.

You know who benefits from those stadiums? Oh, the players who get all the new amenities. You know who benefits from the stadium? The billionaire owners. You know who benefits from the stadium? The people that have the money to get luxury suites, the corporate sponsors, the people that have bottomless pits of cash.

You know, who doesn't benefit from those stadiums? Real people. Down home cooking people. That's who loses in all of this. The people who lose are the true blue dyed in the wool fans because you build these billion-dollar stadiums so you can charge more money for tickets, more money for beer, more money for parking,

more money for luxury suites. And also, like the other argument that I keep seeing is, I think Florio brought this up because Florio's a waste of air, but Florio's take was that all conference championship games should be played at neutral sides. Get fucked. Like, please, kindly get fucked, Florio. Who would want that?

What would be the point of playing the season and earning a chance to go to these games if you're playing a neutral site championship game? Now, I understand the Super Bowl's a neutral site game. I'm aware of that. But the conference championship games in neutral sites is bullshit. It is a horrible take.

It is a, it's just bad business. It's awful. Everything about that would suck. Oh, look, oh no, we got to play a neutral site. Great. Played in one of these homogenized, sterile, I heart radio studios of stadiums that you see around the league now,

these boring, just stupid stadiums. These boring stadiums that benefit everybody but the fan. You know what? Hey, you start building all these stadiums. All the games are basically going to be neutral site games. Why are they going to be neutral site games? Because how many times do you watch a game in L.A., Vegas,

let's see, Atlanta, all these places that have these new modern stadiums that all look identical. We're just in the new era of the concrete donut stadium. They're just a whole lot nicer than the concrete donuts. This is the 1960s and the early 1970s. These stadiums are the new, Bush Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, the vet.

I'm missing one of the, a riverfront stadium. This is the new era of the concrete donut. They're just nicer and they're more expensive and there's more amenities and fewer and fewer real fans can go, but we're basically in the era, the new era of concrete donuts in sports. No personality, nothing that stands out about them, just generic. sterile shopping malls for billionaire owners to continue to get richer and richer and richer. That's all you're getting from this. But if you watch these games that are played in these stadiums and they tend to be in these

kind of passive markets anyway, the passive markets like L.A., Vegas, right? How many times do you watch a Rams game and the stadium's basically been taken over by San Francisco people anyway? How often do you watch a Raiders game in Vegas and it's taken over by chiefs people, Packers, people, whatever. It happens all the time. So they're basically neutral site games anyway. And that's the world you're creating when you play in these new sterile stadiums.

Because everything is so expensive that you're not getting the true, authentic, live, breathe, die for it fans in the game. You're getting the corporate fans. You're getting the rich fans. You're getting the get there late, leave their early fans. And when you start getting more of those people, They're boring. And then you add the fact that the people who are buying these tickets on the secondary market tend to be road fans.

It creates a non-exciting, sterile vibe. The word of the day, today's secret word is sterile. That's what we're dealing with here. It is sterile. It is rubbing out. You got to rub alcohol on it before you give yourself a shot. It's just sterile. It's urine.

sterile and I like the taste. It's all it is. So that's just, I keep seeing that argument today. Oh, we need more. We need more neutral site games and this is a great case for every game to be played in a dome. All right. And you know what's going to happen when every game is played in a dome? I can fast forward in my mind 10, 12 years. You know what's going to happen when these games are playing domes? Fun fact, everybody's going to bitch and they're going to look back and go, man, it would be a lot more fun of this game or being playing the elements. It'd be a lot more fun if weather played a factor in them. Because that's the way people operate.

The way people operate is you just go and you bitch about something until it changes. Then when it changes, you get bored with the thing that changed and you demand that it changes back or it changes to something else. That's what you get from this shit.

And that's what you'll continue to get from this shit. So, look, I like football being played outside. Look, I wouldn't go sit in that weather in Chicago a couple weeks ago. I wouldn't go sit in that Kansas City weather a couple years ago when it was Miami and it was balls cold and people were getting freezing to death. I wouldn't go to that. But there is an element of that that makes the game more interesting to me. But if you want to say make all the stadiums dome stadiums, okay, let's entertain that. But all you're really getting out of that is just these boring buildings.

Lack of personality. what happens when Kansas City gets their little Kansas-based dome stadium. The Kansas City Chiefs are not going to be interesting. Part of what makes them interesting is the stadium, the fans. Oh, it's Arrowhead in December. It's tough to win there. That shit ain't going to be interesting anymore. There's nothing interesting about them.

So that's the shit people are bitching about during the game. Instead of just watching it and being like, holy shit, we got a snow game. Will somebody find a way to score? But whatever.