The Josh Innes Show - I Can't Quit The Saints

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

I know the Saints are going to suck. I tried to ignore the game yesterday. Yet, there I was, watching the Saints final drive, yelling at the TV. That's the thing about being a sports fan, you can never turn it off. Your team can be terrible, yet there's something that keeps bringing you back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I got a tweet from somebody during the games yesterday that said, I feel for you, Josh, and I think it was in reference to the Saints game. Look, give the Saints credit because the whole world thinks they're going to suck, because they are going to suck. They're going to be a team that's lucky to win four or five games. I would have taken them under. I think their number was five and a half wins or even four and a half. I think their number was positive money for under four and a half wins.

I do not see a situation where the Saints are going to win five games. But the guy says, you know, I feel for, and I assume he was referencing the Saints, which would have made sense. But it's funny, like, I didn't even start watching the Saints game until late in the game because I just have no interest. I've lost interest in the Saints. They've built a shitty team. But what's funny is I try to tune it out, and I try to be like, all right, I don't care what happens in the Saints game. And I told Jilly that going into it. I'm like, listen, I'm not paying a ton of attention to this.

I don't really care. They're going to be bad. I know they're going to be bad. I know I've watched every one of these games for the last 20 years. I know that I'm a fan of the Saints. As much as I live in Detroit and I'm going to root for the Lions to win and as much as I spent 10 years in Houston and I want the Texans to win. I don't even have anything against the Eagles anymore.

Like places I've lived, I root for the teams, but I am a fan of the Saints. The Saints are my team. The Saints are the Team I'm passionate about, just like LSU is the team I'm passionate about. You guys know how that is. So I went into it with the mindset with the idea that I'm not even going to pay attention to the game. All right, first of all, let me play a couple of commercials and we'll get into that. Hey, it's Josh.

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So I went into that game intending to never really turn it on. Like the whole week, the whole off season, I've sat around going, look, the Saints are going to be bad. I know the Saints are going to be bad. pretty freaking terrible. I do not care what happens in the game. Our quarterback, Spencer Freaking Rattler, we're not going to be very good. Then sure enough, I start flipping on the game kind of early. I tune in a little bit early because I wanted to see if Juan Johnson had a catch. Oh, I got to see how all the prop bets did for everybody. I got to get a tally on prop

to you drop. I know some of them definitely hit. But, you know, see if Juan Johnson got a catch in the first quarter, which I'm telling you, the guy is guaranteed money to get a catch in the first He is a lock, and he did it, and Joanne Johnson, if you would have played a Joanne Johnson parlay, which I said in the prop to you drop segment, I said Juan Johnson over two and a half catches, Juan Johnson over 25 and a half yards, Juan Johnson first quarter catch. If you would have played that as a parlay, it probably would have been like plus three or 400, and would have been a win for you. Look, Juan Johnson is the most underrated, or at least underappreciated tight in in the game, and he's a guy, at least for betting or fantasy purposes, the guy puts up numbers. Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

But I'm such a fraud because I sit there and I tell you that I don't give a shit. I listen to my buddy Matt's radio show and I'm hearing these people that call or these people that text and are like, I think we could win, you know, eight games, nine games. And I'm like, you fucking imbecils. They have no shot of winning shit. You know they have no shot of winning shit. Like I sit there and I'll read the comments on Twitter about the Saints and stuff because I follow a lot of people. Like you'll see them and it's like, well, let me tell you, man, I think we're going to.

to win some games this year. People talk about it like the team actually has a shot. And I sit there and I mock those people in my mind. I don't go after them on Twitter. I have other things to do in life. But in my mind, I sit around and mock these people. And I wonder, how is it possible for you to sit around knowing that all the evidence is there that the team is terrible?

Yet you sit there and you go into the season talking like there's something they can do to be good because they can't. They do not have the ability to be a good football team. They're just not good. First year head coach has been players in a lot of spots. Like, they have good skill players, you know, but no quarterback really. Like, you just know. Vegas has them pegged at like four wins.

You know they're going to suck. So I'm listening to these people and I read their comments and I'm like, how do you just sit around and like ignore all the evidence that is there that they will suck? And then I'm envious of those people because they go into the season like, hey, we got a shot, right? And then I pity them in a way because they say, Oh, we got a shot. But I'm sitting there yesterday, and I had every intention of never even turning on the game.

Like, Jilly goes, hey, do you want me to flip on the Saints? Because we have the Sunday ticket. She's like, do you want me to turn on the Saints? And I'm like, fuck, no, I don't want to watch the Saints. Screw that. So we were flipping. And you have every option. By the way, Sunday ticket is wonderful on YouTube.

The picture quality is incredible. It's just awesome, okay? So we're flipping between that. Like, oh, let's flip on the Jaguars game to see if I get a catch. this game. Let's flip on this game to see if I get this, which is great. And then I flip on the Saints game just because there's nothing else. And I wanted to see if Juan Johnson gets a catch. And then there I am locked into the game. And I'll be noticing myself getting angry about things that are happening. And Jilly goes, oh, you're not interested. You don't want

to watch the Saints. I'm like, I know. I can't. Like, I can't turn it off. You know, like I cannot turn off the love. Like, it's impossible. It's like the Cardinals. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the Cardinals this year because they've sucked this year, whatever. But about two months ago, back in July, whenever the Cardinals were still kind of in it, even though I knew deep down that they'd fall apart. They were playing games at home against the Cubs and rallying to win and only a couple games out of first.

I'm texting a buddy of mine that's on the radio in St. Louis, like, we got to be fucking buyers at the deadline. We got a shot. And now they're like 20 games out of first. Like two months later, they've fallen off a cliff. Like, look, it's sports fandom. You know, you can't turn that off. You wish you could turn it off, but you can't.

And that's me with the Saints. Like, I don't want to pay attention to the Saints. I don't want to get angry over the Saints. And they put together this drive at the end of the game, and they have a shot to win it. And my man Joanne Johnson, as much as I love the guy, he drops one that should have been caught. It's a tough catch, but it's a catch that you should make. You got a height advantage. The ball hits you in both hands.

That's got to be a catch. That's got to be a touchdown. and you were going to be in a position where you're either going to go for two or you're going to send it to overtime. That should have. Like Rattler put together a very good drive at the end of that game and had a chance and delivered a perfect ball to Joanne Johnson. My guy, I'll defend him all day, but that drop was, look, it had killed him.

They would have caught it and they should have had the decision whether they were going to go for two or kick the extra point. It didn't. But I'm watching that, and I'm just like somehow, despite the fact that I know the team is going to stink and despite the fact that I know that they are not. good. And despite the fact I know that Vegas has them at four wins or whatever the number is, I still sat there and got mad and was into the end of that game. And that's just being a sports fan. Like common sense tells you all of the issues with your team. Yet it's opening day

and you want to believe that there's a chance for your team to win. Like that's what you want to believe. You have this faith, this ridiculous faith that they're going to win and like you can't turn it off. Like I don't know that I'll ever be able to turn off the idea of like, You want to hear something sad? This is pathetic, okay? But I will tell you how pathetic I am. It's going to make me sound like a child. But so I have the MLB app on my phone.

And my favorite team on the MLB app is still the Cardinals. So the icon on my phone is the Cardinals logo. And you can change it. Like when you add favorite teams, like I have got the Astros, I've got now got the Tigers and I have the Cardinals that are like, the three favorite teams I have on my phone because that means they'll just pop up first. So instead of having to scroll down to see the score of a 10 o'clock Tigers game or whatever, it'll be one of the first three that pops up.

Same with the Astros, same with the Cardinals. So the other day, it gave me the option to change that icon to either the Tigers or the Astros. You can manually change it. It doesn't force it upon you. It says, hey, your favorite team is whatever. Do you want to change the logo of this? And I couldn't get myself to change it from the Cardinals, despite the fact I hate them. Despite the fact I hate the organization and the way it's run, despite the fact that I'm in Detroit and I pay attention to the Tigers and everything and I pay attention to the Astros and all these other teams.

And the Cardinals have been out of sight out of mind for me for the last two months. Despite all that, I cannot get myself to change that icon because in some way it would like be symbolic of the end of something. You know what I mean? Like I almost feel like I would feel some level of guilt. This sounds ridiculous. And trust me, I am well aware of how ridiculous this sounds. but it's in the same way I can't change my

background on my phone from Luther It's the same picture it's been for 100 years And I can't get myself to change it Because in a way if I change that It like signals the end of something Like I should have my current dog As my background Because he's a lovely wonderful dog

And he's great and I love him And I don't know if like In my mind somehow the dog knows That I haven't changed that picture over And he's like what the fuck bro Like why the hell is my picture not on your phone Why is my dead brother's picture on your phone but I can't get myself to change it.

There's like some level of like guilt. There's some level of like closure almost. Like it sounds pathetic and I'm aware it sounds pathetic. And maybe these two situations are not comparable at all. But it's the same with that icon. The same thing I deal with with not flipping my picture over. Like I feel like something is wrong. If I change my background picture, Jilly will bring that up sometime.

She'll go, why haven't we changed our picture from Lutheran? Do you think that Ross gets jealous? I'm like, I don't know if Ross gets jealous or not. Maybe. I don't know how he feels. All I know is I would feel like something ended if I change that picture, you know. And I think a lot of people deal with that kind of stuff. It's kind of like there's a scene in a movie called We Are Marshall about the plane crash that killed the Marshall football team. And one of the guys that survived had like a case of beer that he bought and was going to drink that night with his buddies, but then the plane crashed. And then no one drank the beers. then like new dudes join the team and they see this case of beer in the guy's dorm room and the guy just cracks it open and starts drinking it and the dude's like holy shit what the fuck bro like I'm not I don't want to drink those that's like my dead friend's beer and I feel like some level of guilt but then he drinks the beer and he's like okay this is kind

of like the start of something else like maybe that would be the case if I took again these are not comparable and I understand that I sound like a fucking child when I say this but to me that would almost be like if I changed my icon on my MLB app on my phone from the Cardinals to something else, it like signals the end of my childhood in some way. Because the most sports-related tears I have shed in my life are over the St. Louis Cardinals, the greatest joys, the greatest sadnesses have all been with the Cardinals.

Like somehow I feel like I'd be like betraying my family in a way. Like my dead grandpa, I'd be betraying him because I grew up as a Cardinals guy with him going to games and listening to games and watching. games. It's like I'd betray something. So I can't allow myself to do it because I'm a PUD. I don't know what to tell you. That's kind of how it is with that. So it's like when you talk about sports fandom, even with the Saints who I know are going to suck, and I told myself I wasn't going to pay attention. Look, I didn't even get home until about 1.15 yesterday. So I didn't watch the start of the game. I get a text for my buddy Matt. And he's like, hey, do you think

the Saints defense is actually good? I'm like, I didn't even want to fucking think about the Saints. Now I'm like, shit, is our defense good? Now I have to go fucking watch. It sucks. It sucks to not be able to quit shitty sports teams. Like, I can tune them out, but no matter what, I know what happened in the game, and I know, like, I know. And that's so weird. And I know a lot of people are like that, I guarantee you when things were shitty in Philadelphia sports when I was there and all the teams stunk, you can't just not know what happened.

Like, it's part of your life. It's part of your childhood. It's something that consumes you. something that was that important to you doesn't just go away and that's how it is with the saints like yesterday i'm telling myself it doesn't matter yet there i am last drive of the game wanting spencer at one point jilley goes oh now you want them to win i was like look i never wanted them to lose i just didn't give a shit now i want them to win anyway more to come