The Ringer NFL Show - Conference Championship Awards

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

We recap another exhilarating conference championship round by giving out new awards like the Father of the Year Award, the Raw Dog Award, the We Gotta Get Cinderella Ready for the Ball Award, the David vs. Goliath Award, and more. Email us at [e-mail] and read Heifetz's article on Tom Brady here: https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2022/1/30/22909573/tom-brady-retirement-legacy Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, before we get to this episode, no, please don't skip, please don't skip. It's really important. We are converting this feed to the ringer NFL draft show. We're still going to be on this feed, but we are bringing Ben Solek in, and Ben Solek and Danny Kelly are going to teach Craig and I about the draft,

and then Craig and I are going to make fun of Deakin Seleck for all the weird draft terms they use. Why do you have to say someone has oily hips? I don't know why DECA has to say that. Anyway, the ringer NFL draft show is coming to this feed. Tuesday, February 1st, our first episode. It's going to be about quarterbacks. Check it out.

Again, that's on this podcast feed. Still on the fantasy football feed. If you're subscribed to this feed, you're good. If you're not subscribed, do it now. Hit the follow button on Spotify. Subscribe, whatever app you're using. Ringer NFL draft show. It's going to be awesome.

Also, DK. Craig and I will be in Los Angeles for the week of the Super Bowl. We're going to do an in-person podcast, which we have not done in two years. We've not seen each other. So that's going to be awesome. Check that one out, too. Ringer NFL Draft show coming to first episode Tuesday, February 1st. Okay. Thank you.

Let's get to the episode. For the Ring of Fantasy Football Show, my name is Danny Hyfeits. I am joined by Disney. Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbuck, and the championship games are done. The Super Bowl set. The Bengals will be playing the L.A. Rams in Los Angeles. We'll be there.

We're going to hand out awards. Email us at Rearfinacy Football.gm.com. If you want to hit us, we'll be reading some emails soon. We're just getting right into it. D.K. We just saw 49ers Rams. We're, we're hype. We're raring to go.

We're starting with it. My heart is still beating. Very fast right now. Very fastly. I'm amped. Yeah. that was a hell of a game, hell of a finish. Obviously, all of the games in the playoffs,

I feel like have been really, really exciting, good games, at least in the last two rounds. And, yeah, championship weekend was blast. The 49ers came close to, like, pulling it off there. The one final drive with Jimmy G. Didn't pull it off. Aaron Donald got the pressure there, force a pick. And yeah, it's exciting.

Number one, I'm happy for Matt Stafford. He played pretty well in this game. He did have one, well, he had a couple terrible throws, but for the most part, he was pretty nails. And I would say Cooper Cup, to me, was the story of this game. Like, the high leverage situations, they went to Cooper Cup.

Like, every third down, they went to Cooper Cup. Every time they needed play, they went to Cooper Cup. Cooper Cup, to me was like, the first, this was like, I was like, he should be the MVP. Like, this was the most convincing argument that he should have been the MVP. That third and three on the final drive for the Rams,

when Stafford tucked it in that perfectly tight window to cup, and he got like 30 yards. Oh, my God. Beautiful. It was also just a complete vindication for the Stafford trade. Like, I mean, everything about this game, I, first of all, imagine if Stafford had actually made that, I mean, he did make the throw. Imagine if the Rams had caught those throws on that last drive they had at the first half.

Cooper Cup had the drop. And then the backup, I can't pronounce his name, scovronics. It's like Scoronic. Scoronic. Yeah, Scoronic. The past, that was the theme of the game. I mean, I feel like this was a game of mistakes. I feel like everyone was tight.

Everyone was nervous. I mean, Jaquisky tart dropped that. from Stafford, which was a crazy... Jalen Ramsey dropped Jimmy's inevitable pick that was coming. That was it. And Ramsey dropped it. I was so upset. I was like, that was it.

It's been coming the whole game. We're a little narrative based here because if the Rams had just like lost at the end, we'd be like what happened. And, you know, a couple drops there, like, you know, that dropped the touchdown passes that were Stafford through touchdown passes that were dropped. He threw picks that should have been dropped. But all in all, this is vindication for the trade. And honestly, I can't really overstate how big.

of a win this was for the Rams. We talked about this a little last week. The difference between winning or losing this, losing to Shanahan, who's McVeigh's former boss, going 0 and 7 against Shanahan in the last few years, and then having all these free agents who've gone to the Rams not coming back

in a one in a season where you have no draft picks coming up, the Rams would undoubtedly probably be worse next year is just, and then not to mention being embarrassed in your home stadium by the Niners, versus going to the Super Bowl, having a home Super Bowl, in a lay, and a chance to win a Super Bowl and like get this whole generation of young fans in Southern California. This is a franchise altering win.

And like imagine missing the Super Bowl in your own home stadium just to have Shanahan, the guy you cannot beat, walk right into your home and compete as you stay on your couch watching it. I mean, it's absolutely brutal. So the Rams like you said, Hyf, it's like they were all in this year, right? Honestly, kind of like Sean McVeigh coaching today. I'm going to give them the raw dogging it award. Oh my God. No condoms for the Rams this season

and for Sean McVeigh in this goddamn game. I mean, I literally texted Peter Schrager. He did not respond to me. He was probably busy. And I was like, what the hell is going on with these challenges? What is Sean? Like, who is up there in the booth watching these plays and saying that's, that's challengeable?

You should do that. And then the second people at home see the review were like, Stafford didn't get that on the sneak or Eusecheck didn't fumble that ball. He wasn't even close to fumbling. Like, it was like he was down for a full like two or three seconds before the ball to that. timeout left. They played the entire fourth quarter with no timeouts. I mean, if the Niners didn't absolutely collapse on the second to last drive, I mean, they were going to both of their last two drives. I thought the Niners were just going to march down the field, burn all the clock they want,

because the Rams don't have a timeout and they were going to kick field goal. Can you imagine if the Rams had lost and we hear it all offseason about how McVeigh had no timeouts in the last 10 minutes of a championship game? He would have been destroyed. He would have been. Yeah, he was literally like, this is the gambling term. He was like tilting the whole second half. Especially if Kyle Shanahan had drawn a play there, I thought that was going to be the game. If San Francisco actually ran a play on the fourth and two, they ended up taking the relay game punting. But if Shana had not only done the challenge to burn his last time out, but then in the

process, given Shannon had enough time to drop his favorite play. Change his mind. And then get the first down anyway. I think that could have been like an actual pivot point in McVeigh's coaching career, where people would have doubted the in game management more than they laud and applauded all the good things he does. And again, that's crazy. That's like sports, right?

It's like these small moments honestly ending up with you leading completely different lives. I mean, this game just felt so personal. It felt like it had so much more weight on it than a typical game. Like, you know, Aaron Donald, like, yelling at his D-line. So many, there were so many drop picks,

touchdowns. It was just, everybody was tense. There was a lot of, like, head hunting. Stafford got hit that didn't get called. Odell got drilled that got called. The Debo hit. The Rams, like, squeezing the play clock till its last drop every single play.

Like this game felt like it had so much. Part of that too was this was like a home game for both teams. It was so loud the entire game. Yeah, they both had to go in the silent count. Yeah, they were breaking the huddle really late because I think they were having problems getting the play calls in and getting the communication in. They had to go with the silent count. They were going down to like zero or negative one on the play clock like every play.

It was like so just the drama, you know what I mean? It was like the first game, the chiefs and Bengals, that was a fun as hell. help game. Like, we'll get to that. We're going to talk about that. This last game, though, for whatever reason, it was just more intense, yeah. Yes, Chief Spangles felt like two strangers, and it was an amazing comeback by Cincinnati, but this felt like two brothers, like,

battling to the death. Yeah. Fighting to the dead. Because, to be honest, this was one of the more entertaining games I've watched, and it's the antithesis of, like, the Bills' Chiefs game from a week ago where that was, like, perfect execution. Right. And we were watching, like, two high-powered machines. This was sloppy. There was

drops. People were tense and nervous. I enjoyed this one just as much. Yeah, I totally agree. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it as much, but I definitely agree. This was a sloppier game. I mean, at the end of the day, we're going to get a chiefs bengles a little later,

but I thought there was both these games, I thought were defined by mistakes. Rams, Niners specifically, I mean, the Rams in the first half had seven third-down conversions. The Niners had one third-down conversion in the first half that didn't come until there was less than a minute left,

and yet the Niners were winning the game at halftime. I mean, the things the Rams left out there on the field. They threw a pick, Stafford threw a pick at the goal line. That should have been seven points, maybe three. They don't get the points from that. They should have been able to score a touchdown on that last drive. They end up missing a field goal. That's like six or 14 points that they just leave out there in the first half.

You have Jalen Ramsey dropping that potential pick six at the end. The Rams have an off sides on like third and four from the guy who's right over the ball. Who's the last person in the whole field who's supposed to be going off sides in that moment? I mean, Stafford doesn't get the fourth. one, that felt like a huge moment. Stop Cuban sneaking. He's not good at it. He's not good at it.

The Rams made all the mistakes in this game that you think of, wow, that's how you lose a championship game. That's the sloppy issue. Don't get to the Super Bowl. And to be honest with you, I actually think we were kind of right. The only reason the Rams really did are going, I think is because Jimmy Garoppel was unable to make them pay for any of their mistakes. I think Jimmy G, it's not just the last play.

It's like the Niners' offense. was kind of limp in this game, like in the moments that they really needed it. And they also, if Tart, if Jekwisky Tart catches that pick, we're having a very different conversation right now. The margins are so thin, but I'm stunned that the Rams made so many mistakes

and got away with it. Yeah, I mean, I think, so the Grappo thing was a big storyline all week long, and, you know, he definitely didn't play a good game in this one. And I think that it's going to be a discussion all off season. Like, was Shanahan,

his conservative, like, decision-making, play calling. Was that all more like his fault or was it Garapolo? Because obviously they came down to a situation where it was like, Garapolo, you have to put him on your back. You have to put the team on your back. And the last two drives for the 49ers just did not go well. He almost threw that pick to Ramsey and then he did throw a pick on the next drive.

Like it was like total total implosion. Like the last play of the game like, I mean, that wasn't as bad to me. The Ramsey pick, he was like untouched through a terrible pass that Ramsey jumped. I completely agree, Crick. Like the last play Everybody would have done that.

The Holmes would have done that. Like, they all would have done that. He got immediate pressure and had to, like, get rid of it. Yeah, I mean. I completely agree. The last play was like he's got to try something. Honestly, almost hit the guy in the hands. But it's the other one.

It's the Jalen Ramsey pick. Just he always does these things. And he had one in the first half that should have been dropped too. And you know what? Like right in the first few. Sorry to cut you off. I was just going to say that it's when Jimmy has to like improvise right. Like whenever he's in the pocket, he makes one read, maybe two reads.

He's fine. But that play that Ramsey would be pick was like the first time, think where he really like had to roll out and was like kind of in a new area. And I was like, oh, this is it. This is the pit. Don't throw it. And it looked exactly like the pickings through last week. Yeah.

Yeah. He's throwing across his body while rolling out to the right. And it's like that's not what he's good at. And again, Jimmy, Kirk Cousins. Yeah. These are quarterbacks who, it's best like as NBA comparisons. It's like what makes Patrick Mahomes so good is that, or a lot of these young quarterbacks now, is that they can run the offense, but then when everything goes wrong, they can create

their own shot. Right? Like in basketball, you need a superstar is someone who, when everything goes wrong, well, I can still create my own good shot. Jimmy can't create a shot. And that's ultimately why the Niners went and got Tray Lance, is they need a quarterback who can create a shot. I think that's what I think is so interesting and sort of, I don't know if it's ironic or poetic or what, but basically like, look, sorry, McVeigh and Stafford went to Cabo, consummated this thing, had this deal go down. And then Shanahan, I don't know if it was the only

reason or if it was part of the reason or if it was just completely unrelated to who knows. But they felt the 49ers felt the need to like, oh, crap, now they got Stafford. We got to go get a quarterback that can do more for us than what Jimmy G can do. They told us in the offseason before this whole season started that they didn't feel like Jimmy G was good enough. That's why they traded two first round picks to go up and get Lancer or Mac. You know, there's conflicting reports on who they had in mind when they did this. But regardless, the ironic thing is like they didn't even use that guy all year long.

and then Jimmy G comes in in the biggest moments and the last two drives like the second to last drive for the 49ers was like I think I think Aikman called it abysmal

was the word he used and I actually think Akeman is getting it was getting a lot better as he gets older He is better so he cares less about the relationships

yes he's telling the truth and saying what he thinks and I actually love it like a lot of times I think the announcers because they get such unfettered access to the players during the week

because the TV crews obviously get like production meetings and all these things so you want to preserve the relationships, especially on these, like, you know, better teams that you're going to be announcing for a lot. You don't want to burn bridges necessarily. Plus, there's like the whole, like, fraternity of quarterback player things. Aikman's, like, done with that.

I don't think Akeman cares. Also, don't forget, he's in one of his last games. His contract's up, he might not be with Fox anymore, so he really doesn't care. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. And can I save, Troy Akeman, a fantastic two-part episode on Flying Coach. He was awesome, and I highly recommend listening to. It all comes back to Flying Coach.

It all comes back. I mean. Super Bowl, by the way. way it's Zach Taylor against McVey, Craig, just in the middle of everything, Forrest Gumpin it. Now McVeigh is like the dad. Now McVeigh is the older brother. I imagine that'll be reposted, right, Craig?

Yeah, I think so. We'll be able to go to the flying coach feed in the last two episodes should be McVeigh and Zach Taylor will probably be up at some point this week. And then McVeigh and Kyle Shannon will be the one before that. Like, we just reposted that. So check that out. Craig did a great job of that show. Craig, despite my best inclinations, Craig is actually,

I'll get to it. Craig's very humble. Craig did an amazing job on that show. It's a really cool. It's really cool to hear McVeigh and Shreg and everything. And, like, could not really recommend hire, like, an hour of McVeigh and Zach Taylor on flying coach. Like, it's really cool. It's a really good show.

And I'm not just doing that to, like, pump Craig up because, like, it was one of those shows. And I said this at the time, it's like, you can listen to this. It's like, listening to two coaches talk ball. It's like, you can learn so much about the game. They've forgotten more about football than we've ever learned. You know what I mean? And so that was really awesome. One thing I want to say before we move on from this game, I know there's probably more to talk about.

The father of the year award, Odell Beckham Senior, getting, by the way, I was texting the group chat in the middle of this game, and correct me if I got this wrong, the Rams simply just signed Odell Beckham off the street. Like the Browns released him. Is that what happened? Am I being like, yes, they got the Browns to release Odell Beckham. They just signed Odell Beckham as a free agent today.

Yeah. And he was like arguably, you know, obviously Cup was like in the clutch, but no, but Odell was a huge game. Yeah. Yeah. No, he made a lot of huge catches. Absolutely.

Nine catches, 130 yards. He looks like his old self. Yeah. You know what I mean? And so that signing in particular, especially because it was like right before Robert Woods went down with the ACL, I believe,

it was like within a few days of each other. And so like that is a massive, massive thing that happened in this, in the season. Odell's now in the Super Bowl. Like you couldn't script it any better if you're Odell Beckham. Like you get released from the Browns who are like in disarray. Go and you get to decide who to play for.

You get to play for the Rams. You're in the Super Bowl now. And by the way, there was a great moment after the game where Devo Samuel was on the sideline crying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the bench crying. And Odell came over and consoled him for a few minutes. I was like, damn.

Like, this is the kind of thing that you sort of forget how this is a real. These are people that, like, have really strong emotion. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, we're, we're... Give everything. Yeah, we're so, like, involved in, like, the funny storylines and stuff. Like, man, that sucks. Like, I really felt that for Debo.

Yeah, especially Debo. who really put his blood, sweat, and tears into this game. I mean, this whole game just felt like everybody was exercising every single iota of energy to try and win. Honestly, it was one of the best games of the year. Yeah, I loved it. It was really fun. And also, D.K. said that, you know, the O'Dell thing, you can really script it better. I do want to want to shout out on that note.

Matt Stafford, I mean, it's easy to gloss over. Stafford spending his career in Detroit and earning the undying loyalty of all those Detroit Lions fans, but ultimately, like, everyone understanding the organization literally being like, Yeah, we'll send you somewhere good. You can try to win a Super Bowl. We're not going to get full return on you. And like honoring him because they had such a bad relationship with Calvin Johnson that they're like, we can't screw up our relationship with our 21st century lions.

So they send him to L.A. And now he's got the home Super Bowl in L.A. I mean, in his first season there, I mean, what an unbelievable ride for Matt Stafford. Yeah. Can I just say this is a better matchup? Like when the Bengals won, I was like, oh, it needs to be the Rams. Like this is going to suck if it's Niners Bengals. Like I just...

I thought so too. Just run the ball. Run the ball. It's going to be boring. Now we have two awesome storylines. We have the Burrough thing. We have the Stafford and McVeigh thing. It's good.

Yeah. We'll get to Super Bowl storylines. Can we get to... You know who the real winner today is? Who's the same as always? Billionaires, baby. Stan Kronky, Rams owner. Builds a $5 billion stadium.

First year with $5 billion stadium, nobody sits in it. No fans allowed. Can you imagine? spending $5 billion in a stadium and then the first year that nobody's allowed to go in and then gets the home

Super Bowl, his team in L.A., the whole thing. They got Michael Buffer out here announcing the opening seconds for the kickoff. Just once again, as always, the billionaire is just flying high right now.

Congratulations. Money wins, baby. Can we just pray that there's no lightning next week in L.A. so they don't have to delay the game with this stadium that has a roof? Forecast looks clear. Okay, good.

I guess it's only 10 days, so I don't know for sure. Can we, I just want to point out. How weird is it? I know that we're going to hear this a thousand times, but how weird is it that there were no home Super Bowls ever, and now we get two in a row? I know that part of it's because they used to pick the warm weather cities that had bad teams,

and now they just give you a Super Bowl if you build a new stadium, so that's kind of why. But still, it's crazy that this has happened. I know. And, like, also not lame teams. Like, it's, Tom Brady got a home game, and now you have, like, the Rams and Stafford and McVey. It's really cool.

By the way, I think I saw this, so I saw this, and I didn't check it, but I'm pretty sure that's true. This is the first time in NFL playoff history that none of the number one or two seeds have made it to the Super Bowl. That's crazy. Because it's such a huge massive advantage. Number one, obviously, you're one of the best teams in the NFL if you have those seeds, but it's such a huge, huge advantage that this is rare that it's like two teams that kind of

snuck into the playoffs. We're not playing all that well at the end of the year. not that, you know, the Bengals, I guess, were never, like, slumping. The Rams definitely were slumping towards the end of the season. Yeah, they're but four seats. Yeah. So anyways, that's kind of a cool story, too, you know,

just because it does get a little bit boring, I guess, to, like, have, like, just the home teams win every game. And it was, like, you know, like, just a crazy-ass, crazy-ass playoffs. And, you know, part of it, I think, obviously, too, was there were several teams in the Titans. And maybe was it the Packers? Like, they weren't very good on the D-Eas.

DVOA spectrum in terms of number one seeds. Like in the history of DVOA, I know the Titans were like one the worst number one seeds ever. So I guess it does make sense that that happened in this playoffs. But still, it's a fun story. And it's kind of just, you know, it just breaks the mold, I guess, of what you expect for the playoffs. Can I, I want to shout out one more person.

I want to shout out Robbie Gould for the Chihuahua who thinks he's a German Shepherd award. He was like trying to start shit. Can we get Robbie Gould on a podcast? Like, what's that guy about? You know, him and Jimmy's saying like, fuck the Packers last week. And now he's just like kicking right into the Rams as they're like rolling out there for the kickoff. Like, Robbie Gould is like, what's his deal?

I think honestly, and this is, this is me being armchair psychologist, to be a kicker, to be a good kicker in the NFL. Rob Gold is a good kicker. You have to be a sociopath. Like you can't, you can't be afraid of anything. You have to have no, you have to have absolutely no memory of like what happened like 10 seconds ago. because if you start thinking about shit, you're fucked. Like, you're done. You're not going to kick.

You're not going to... We've seen it actually happen multiple times. Like, kickers just lose their edge and they're gone. They're out of the league. And these are like really good kickers. Yeah. Like Mason Crosby this year had like a meltdown in one game. Remember he like missed like two extra points and three field goals?

There was the there was the Vik, the ex-Vikings kicker. And he was on the C-Hawks too. And I can't remember. Uh, no. I can't remember his name. But he like had, he like, literally got like the yips. and the Seahawks decided to sign him after that for some reason. And lo and behold, he wasn't very good either for the Seahawks.

I don't know why I can't remember the Robbie Goal thing. Because he obviously Jalen Rams and came at him. And as Craig mentioned earlier in warmups, like the Rams kind of were standing in his areas. He was trying to kick. And part of me was like, I think he might have just been territorial. Like as Deke said, kickers also, you have to be obsessive, right? Like at the end of the day, they really just do two things.

They do kickoffs and they do field goals. And their entire life is just perfecting that thing. And you have routines. and you have exactly you do it. I think if you have your pregame warmups and the Rams are just very purposely like the football version of like when a hitter walks across the mound

in baseball, you're like, get the hell off my mound. And it's like territorial like you're an animal. But it's also just like, because I have to walk and the dirt has to be this way or else I can't,

you know what I mean? Like, I don't know what do you do? How many jobs like require such a specific and kind of rarely used tool than like being a kicker? Like once or twice a game,

you have to kick a ball through an upright and you do that like 50 times a year and that's your entire job. Well, I think it's kickers, punters, and long snappers. We can't put them all in the same bucket. But even in, like, real life. Like, I can't think of a job that is more narrowed than being a field goal kicker and a punter, I guess.

A toll booth operator? But even then, I don't know. No, but that's like monotonous. By the way, it was Blair Walsh, was the person I was thinking of. Oh, Blair Walsh. Oh, yeah. Anyhow. Yeah, that was a good reference.

If people can think of a job that's like the real-life kicker or punter or long-snapper job, I think kicker's different because it's really important in good games. long snapper's different because it's totally boring. If people have any comps for those things, email us at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. I want to mark the division. Kickers are something where there is a moment where if you do a good job,

you actually can get like a ton of praise and stuff. And then Long Snapper, it's more like if everyone notice you, it's because something went horribly wrong. Yeah, it's bad. You don't want to notice that guy. No one wants to be noticed. They're like assassins. But they don't get the same respect.

Well, they also have a lot. more to do. Being like, hey, dude, you need to fly to Russia and find this man and murder him. Yeah, but if you notice the assassin, that guy's not doing his job, you know? I think you're harping on that point, but I think the difference is it's like long snapper, but the opposite, that's the only thing they have in common, because they actually have to do

a bunch of things at a really high level. Okay, that was a bad example. A million skills, yeah. All right. No, but that's a better, I think Dick is saying, like, what's something that, like, if you get noticed, it's because you screwed up. Probably don't you put manhole covers on. You put a manhole cover, like those sidewalk rates on wrong? That's, like,

That's a really good field. I mean, a referee, right? Yeah, referee. Yeah, we don't really give any credit to these like 60-year-old men who are like keeping up with like these like elite peak performance athletes on the field. And then when they get three calls wrong a game, we're like, why do you suck? Anyway. All right, so that's really cool.

Are we missing anything from this game? Craig, how do you feel your brother's in the Super Bowl? Your brother's showing you day. It's bitter sweet because my father is a diehard Niner fan, so I was really split. Yeah. Dumber. But he texted me after saying, I'm a Bengals. fan now. It is what it is.

So he sees it as gravy. He was like, the Natives weren't supposed to be here. So I'm happy they went that for. Should we go a little Bengals Chiefs right now? No, let's talk about something else. Yes, I think we should. Well, Tom Brady might retire, so we actually do have something else to talk about. That's true. All right. Yeah, let's talk about that Tom Brady at the end.

David versus Goliath here. I can't believe this happened today. The Bengals beat the Chiefs in the I know. That's crazy. They were 21 to 3. How did this happen? The Chiefs had a 98% win probability. halftime. I hate those. It looked like it was going to be an absolute just blowout early in the game. 21 to 3. Mahomes had like 2.30 and 3 touchdowns

at the half. Can I give you guys a stat? I actually did this one myself. Actual math I did instead of getting it from other people. Cool. I, this one blew my mind. So basically the first half, the Chiefs, like they got 311 of 312

possible yards and offense. Like they got four possessions and they literally got to the end zone three times and then the other one they got to the one yard line. So there was one yard that they could have captured, they did not. It was like the first half, they were the bills against the Patriots.

Yeah. And then the second half, they got, I don't know, like 70 yards of the 500 possible yards in front of them in the second half. That's rough. Yeah, it totally fell apart. And do you guys think, so obviously, you know, there's a lot of plays

that you can point to in the course of a full game that, you know, turn the tide or was the most important thing. Like that fuck up they had right before the half where they tried to throw it to Tyree Kill on like a swing pass and they ran out the clock rather than kick a field goal

or get into the end zone. Like that play, it really did feel like it changed and I'm not going to say momentum, it changed the complexion of the game because if they would have... That play changed everything. I think if McVehmus didn't throw that pass

and I think if they scored any points on that possession, they win the game. I completely agree. And also, it's interesting to think what happened because just to refresh, the chief said the ball, ball and I think there were nine seconds left and they ran a play and Mahomes kind of rolled out and then threw it in the dirt and they had five seconds left and they called another play instead

of calling a field goal which again is something you do when you're very confident that Mahomes can get the play done in under five seconds now Andy Reid at the end of the game tried to cover for Mahomes and Andy Reid said I could have called a different play Andy Reid was covering for Mahomes. Mahomes said after the game Andy Reid told him to look to his first read and if it isn't open, throw an incompletion so we can get a field goal. And Mahomes said what I actually did was I looked at my first read,

I got greedy and I threw to Tyreek in the flat to try to get the touchdown. And he was wrong. He took the blanche. Okay. I think, but I think that's the truth. I think he was aggressive. And they didn't get it.

And I think that was Mahomes's fault more than it was Reed's fault. And again, I think that in a nutshell, I think the Chiefs lived and died by Mahomes' aggressiveness today. Mahomes' magic, the aggressiveness, got them those points,

but, like, Mahomes is, he should have thrown two picks in overtime. And then not to mention the last sack, but at the end of the fourth quarter, like,

ugh. Yeah, Mahomes actually, in crunch time, was unlike himself and was a little, like you said, Hype,

it's pretty greedy, held under the ball too long, was trying to make, like, the home run play happen, and it didn't, it didn't.

He was, Shouts out to the Bengals defense. We always say that Mahomes is kind of like the Steph Curry of football, right? I think in the end of this game, he was Russell Westbrook, the way Russ is at the end of the games. Wow, that's tough. That's a tough turn. Yeah. He was.

So the splits first and half, first and second half. So Mahomes in the first half, 220 yards, three touchdowns, no picks. Second half, 55 yards, zero touchdowns, two interceptions. And as you, I think, pointed out, it's like the second half possessions for the chiefs, punt, punt, punt,

punt, field goal, pick. And the pick was from a defensive tackle, which is worth it. And so people

are going to write about this a lot this week, but I think it is very fascinating, actually. And a lot of credit has to go

to Bengals defense, Craig, as you mentioned, because they really seem to make some really important adjustments at halftime and came out,

and I saw this per next-gen stats. They came out and basically, this is like the cover two on steroids. They came out and dropped eight guys

in coverage, like 35% of the place. So they rushed three. This is like the rule like everyone hates it. Stop rushing three. Like blah blah, blah. Stop being so conservative. That's so annoying.

Don't rush three. Like you have to at least rush four, try and get pressure. They drop back eight guys rush three. 35% of the past plays, which is like a really, really high for them. And they did it in the second half. Sorry, they did it in the first half, 24%. And then second half, 45%. So they really upped their usage of dropping eight.

And basically what they were doing is like, hey, you have to dink and dunk us to death if you're going to win this game. And this is something that the Chiefs had been able to sort of adapt to throughout the year. Obviously, we talked about the cover two all season. And the Chief's offense has really caught fire over the last few weeks because it had sort of figured out ways to get around the way that teams are playing them with, you know, you got Byron Pingle chipping in. You got Mikul Hardman chipping in. Obviously, like, their two running backs were coming on strong. So they had all these other skill players that were stepping up.

But in this game, it just didn't work. The Bengals are essentially like, you're going to have to dink and dunk us to death. It's going to have to be death by a thousand cuts. And they just couldn't execute. They just couldn't execute. Yeah, it felt kind of like not really the opposite, but like a completely different game plan than in the Bucks' Chief Super Bowl, right, where the four front linemen got to Mahomes. And that was like how they beat him was like, Mahomes was scrambling. He was always under duress.

This game was bizarre because he was sitting back there and you were like, I've never seen a quarterback. with more time. Running around, doing circles. Yeah. Right. And it's like he was trying to find the play that could get him the most yards because he had so much time and he couldn't just make the easy decision. And it was a very unique strategy.

It feels like every year a team is going to have to come up with something new to defeat Patrick Mahomes. And this weird game in the second half, dropping eight seemed to be the trick. You didn't know what to do. It seems so stupid. Like if you told me that was a plan, you're going to rush three at Patrick Mahomes and just let him sit back there in the pocket. I'd be like, you're an idiot. Like that's not going to work. Next Gen Stats has the tracking.

Do you remember that crazy touch? It was also wild. I think the Chiefs were 21 and O in their last games where Tyree Killed caught a touchdown. So when he caught one and over, I was like, oh, maybe it's over. Kelsey catches a touchdown. And that Kelsey touchdown where Mahomes bobbed and weaved inside the pocket. Next Gen stats tracks this. Yes.

It was the most time to throw on a pass that Mahomes has had in his entire NFL career. That's what happens when you rush three. but for the rest of the game they managed to do really well against that they did they plastered to their man they like you know dropped into their zone really well and like got into passing lanes and essentially shut it down

because you have a numerical advantage by a lot if you're dropping eight guys into coverage versus like the you know three or four guys or however many they send down the field in you know routes so man credit to the Bengals this is one of those things or if you do it 10 times I don't know if it's going to work more than three or four times, but still, it was a ballsy move and it worked.

It was crazy. We're only four hours from that game, and I'm already starting to forget it. Like, it didn't feel like there was a ton of iconic moments. It was like this weird, bizarre slow burn of a comeback in which I don't even really know how it happened. It's just like the Chiefs kind of just started playing poorly and Homes couldn't make any passes and the Bengals are just kind of having drives. Like, Jamar Chase didn't do anything crazy. Higgins had a good game.

They were running the ball, you know, kind of frustratingly in the first half and then it kind of broke loose. It's just not a ton of happen. Chase had a pretty incredible touch. Well, here's what happened. He did. The Chiefs gave this way. And I know that we're, I'm sure Bengals fans are upset with us because like, here we are again. We're talking more about the Chiefs.

But the reality is the Chiefs gave this way. And they did everything to earn the win in the first half. And they just gave it away and more so in the second half. The Chiefs didn't deserve to win, honestly. And the Bengals held on. And I think it's cheesy. You're going to get sick of this over the next two weeks. But the Bengals don't rattle.

The Bengals' confidence is insane. It's Pred or Natural. And, like, the Chiefs did rattle. And, again, the game turned, Somagie P. Ryan had that run for the Bengals. That was a great point. Where the Chiefs missed, like, four tackles. That left a minute. And then, again, the Chief screwed up before halftime, as D.K said.

And that made it just, like, what was it just an 11? No, was it at halftime again? 213. It's 21 to, no, because the Bengals got that touchdown. It was only 11. 10 a half time. Yep. Oh, 2110.

So then Jamar Chase has this crazy jumpball touchdown in the end zone because the Bengals went to their, just throw it up to Jamar and he'll catch it offense. And it worked. And then it was a game. And then the Chiefs had the puckers zone again, because again, we come back to this, but there is a very real mental element that's impossible to quantify, but loosely translated as like something we talk about early in the season, which is there's a fear of loss. Like they've done studies on this and people value the risk of losing something, I think, for, times more than they value the possibility of gaining something. Losing a dollar is much scarier than losing a dollar. You can't fake desperation.

Rassila says it all the time and I love it. You can't fake desperation. And the chiefs felt they had it in the bag and I was slipping and you could tell they puckered up and like everything. And the Bengals just did the bangles were just clawing away at it and they just got it. And this is so I mean, Burrow. I was going to say that. Yeah, we should talk about Joe Burrow.

This is a perfect segue because I really do think and this is, I'm not the first person to say this by any means, but like teams take. on the personality, the identity of the quarterback, and Burrow is like just ice in his veins. That's always been what we talked about ever since he got drafted. Ever since he was at LSU, it was just like he's got ice his veins. This guy is a stone cold killer. And he, like, they took on that personality. They have Burrow.

They have Chase who is like already the best receiver in the NFL. Like maybe we should just be saying that. Like he's the best receiver in the NFL. I know that Devante Adams exists. I know that Tyreek Hill exists, blah, blah. But like he is insanely good. and he's really confident and you just trust that he's going to do it.

They have the most ballsy, like, confident kicker in the world in Evan McPherson. And so, like, they've just got this really confident, young core, like, cocky guys. And this team just believes in themselves. They believe that they can do it. And that's how you go in to Kansas City

and beat the Chiefs like that. Like, Joe Burrow is building his legend, and he's only been in the NFL for two years now. So it's just crazy. He's already crafting this, like, ineffable Tom Brady. vibe where it's like anytime he's in a game and he's down, you start to feel, oh, weird things might start to happen. There's a spookiness in the air now when I'm like,

oh, Burrough's got a touchdown. Oh, they're only down 11 now. Oh, now it's seven. Oh, this is getting weird. So you say that. Burrow is now the third NFL quarterback. I saw this from ESPN. Third quarterback in NFL history to have multiple game winning drives in one postseason. So multiple game winning drives in the same postseason within your first two years. There's three guys that have done that within their first three years. Tom Brady and Kurt Warner and he's already like joined that crew and it's like this is again

we're contributing to this but he's building this legend and I just think it's a lot of fun to watch like the guy is just can I give you another one? Yeah. No quarterback has ever won the Heisman trophy, a college football national title and a Super Bowl and Burrow might do all

those things in three years. He's also the quickest first overall pick to make a Super Bowl. Yeah. Incredible. Leaving the high trophy out of that. Only two quarterbacks have ever... Oh, let's play trivia. Only two quarterbacks have ever won as a starter.

A college football title and a Super Bowl title. Can you name those two quarterbacks? Oh, wow. Does it go, like, is it kind of go back? Is it deep in the years? Yes. Yeah. It's not Tom Brady. I'll put it that way. Who is it?

It's Joe Namath and I believe Roger Staubach. Yeah, would not have... I've double-checked stomach, so real quick. And speaking of Burrow and like the legend that is growing with Burrow, you know, I think that this is a really cool game for the Bengals themselves. Like the Bengals are putting together what is a great story, in my opinion. This is the first time I said before, no number one or number two C is going to be in the Super Bowl. So they're already kind of like a Cinderella story. The Bengals, I saw this from Gena Lane.

The Bengals were a league worse, two and 14, two seasons ago. And so them getting to the Super Bowl is their only. one of three teams that have had that like fast of a turnaround basically being one of the worst teams in the NFL going to the Super Bowl. Yeah, most recently, and even though the cults didn't go with Andrew Luck, but it felt like when Andrew, remember, were they one in 15 or 0 and 16 when they grabbed luck

and then they immediately were 10 and 6 like the following year. Yeah. Also, sorry, I was wrong. It's not Starbuck. Stalbuck won the Heisman, but not a title. It is Joe Montana and Joe Namath are the only... Montana, I've heard of him. The college title. Who a lot of people likened to Joe Burrow now. They have the same kind of ineffable qualities. By the way, so the Bengals, after week two,

saw this from Michael David Smith, they were 201, 200 to 1 to win the Super Bowl. So hopefully people got their bets in on that. And anyways, I just think the Bengals and... Well, forget 200 to 1. The Bengals, Zach Taylor, has Ben Solo tweeted this out. Zach Taylor was the favorite,

the betting favorite to be the first head coach fired by like week two. That's crazy. A lot of people wanted him to lose his job over the offseason. They're like, what do you do here? What is it that you do here? Oh my God. That's my word. I'm going to give the Toby Award to Zach Taylor,

the fine, we'll finally talk about you. Like, Zach Taylor's Toby. No one likes him, again, he's on that flying coach episode. I highly recommend it because I bet no one listening to this knows three things about Zach Taylor, unless you're related to him. Like, he came from the Sean McVatry as a quarterback's coach. I don't know if there's been a Super Bowl team, like not to win, just to make it to the Super Bowl in the last 20 years,

whose head coach not only has gotten less credit, but is just less talked about than Zach Taylor. 100%. Literally, like, this is funny because when you're saying that, I was trying to think of the most iconic thing I've ever heard or seen from Zach Taylor. I couldn't think of anything. The first thing that came to my mind was in the game. I don't remember who did it, but some guy, one of the defenders for the Bengals,

dropped what was the easiest pick in the world. It would have been like this game-changing pick. And they showed a replay of Zach Taylor reacting to the drop. And he's like biting his. lips and he like goes back, he's like, oh, you know? But then like the next, like two plays later, two plays later, they picked it off. I think it was Jesse Bates picked it off. And so it worked out fine.

But it was just like, that was the only expression. That was the only emotion I've ever seen him show. But it's like, we're talking about, again, Zach Taylor going on flying coach. Let's say 100 million people will watch the Super Bowl. What percentage of those people have even know what Zach Taylor sounds like? Or would recognize his face. Bengals fans. Yeah.

Okay. Of the non-Bangles fans, what percentage of people could like, look at all the coaches on the Bengals staff and know which one was the head coach. Like the people who work in media and like maybe that's it. And they're like 10 other people who really like football. I mean, isn't this kind of crazy? This is why, okay, by the way, this is why I think the Bengals are like the team of destiny. Not only does no one know who Zach Taylor is or what he looks like or what he sounds like

or, you know, how did he get here? I don't even know like that his history is. But the Bengals are also, I mentioned this before. The Bengals are like the Seattle Mariners or whoever of the NFL. like their owner just doesn't like to spend a lot of money. They're famously a cheap-ass team. Mike Brown almost like famously just sort of like doesn't give a shit, doesn't care about winning all that much.

The Bengals, I looked it up on their website. Right now, the Bengals player personnel staff is eight people. They have three scouts. Three scouts. It's a college job. It's like a college job. It's like being the GM for the Bengals is closer to really being like a No, they don't have a GM.

They don't have a GM. Mike Brown. And they have a director of player personnel. Mike Brown is the G. For context, Mike Brown is the son of Paul Brown. And Paul Brown's like the only person who can like kind of rival Bill Belichick is like the greatest. Paul Brown is probably the most influential coach in the history of pro football. He started the Browns.

That's why the Browns are named the Browns is Paul Browns. And then they booted him and he's and they like he ended up with the Bengals as a team. So they're stingy. But like Mike Brown is like, um, Mike Brown is older now. But like I think that they're very involved in personnel. But yeah, it's like it's very much a mom and pop shot. Totally, totally. That is a family business of a team.

I, so, and I've had, like, this longstanding theory, and I don't think it's actually true. But, like, the fact that the Bengals don't have that many scouts, like, they have three total scouts. Like, a lot of teams have three scouts per region in the United States. You know what I mean? They have, like, all these different guys, different checks. There's so many different voices in the room. Maybe sometimes it actually fucks them up. And I've always felt that, going back to, like, the last 10 years or so, I've always felt that the Bengals are the draft Twitter darling.

things. Draft Twitter always loves the Bengals draft because maybe they just go with what draft Twitter thinks. Like, you know what I mean? They're not trying to get cute. They're not trying to get weird. They're not trying to go against a consensus. They're like, we got three guys here. We got all these people doing research. Let's just listen to what they say. Their fourth scout is Joe Burrow. Because unlike, I guess, what the Packers do with Aaron Rogers, on flying coach, Zach Taylor talks about

how when Chase was available and Penae Sewell was available, Joe Burrow texted Zach Taylor saying, I want Chase. And they draft a chase. By the way, let's put that narrative to officially to bed. This is my, I think we can put the Chase versus Sewell argument

to bed or. On that note, I think that we kind of have to put to bed certainty. And like, I think that we all need to be a lot less judgment. Maybe they were to one by 20 with Sewell. Who knows? Yeah, exactly.

But like, can we think about what's happened in the last two weeks of football? The Packers lost to the Niners is the one seat at home at Lambeau. the Buccaneers overcame a 24 point deficit to the Rams in the second quarter and tied it up. They lost anyway, but still, the Bengals came back from 21 to 3. And this is in a season where there were,

I believe, more comeback wins than any season on record. There were more walk-off plays this regular season than any play on record. There's all that. And then there's, again, as we just said, Zach Taylor, the odds-on favorite betting markets, to be the first head coach fired, now as a team in the Super Bowl. the Bengals, who I think were widely picked to be last in the

NFC North, win the AFC North and make the Super Bowl. Like, there's a certain element here of just like, football feels less predictable and more volatile than it's been. And I think in part, because Ben Solix made this point to us, I don't, like, there are so many young quarterbacks in the AFC particularly. Maybe that's why it's more volatile, but like, there is so much uncertainty going on. I mean, I don't even know what to make of it. I mean, the Bengals are in the Super Bowl.

I keep coming back to this. Like, oh my, my, Bengals are the worst team of my childhood. Parity is great. I mean, I think the two best teams this year had four losses and everybody else had five or more. And honestly, it's made these playoffs. I don't know if it's a direct reason, but it's made these playoffs extremely entertaining. And every game is close and you feel like every game feels like a toss-up. Honestly, just as the Super Bowl does.

I'm not betting against the Bengals. I'm just telling you guys that. I've lost so much money betting against the Bengals. Three straight hyvitz. We've done this three straight. weeks. We did the Raiders, the Titans, and the fucking Chiefs. I think I have to bet Joe Burrow. I just have to. I think so, too. I mean, again, it's just like you don't want to bet against them. I mean, the shout out to all the Bengals fans listening to this too, because I'm sure that they're

absolutely sick of people not giving them credit. Now it's going to be like overcompensating the next two weeks, but Joe Burrow is a folk hero. Like, I don't know how else to put it. I mean, Joe Burrow or Jamar Chase. Steal from the rich and give to the poor, the Bengals. And it's like Jamar Chase is like that too, and they came together. Like, Jamar Chase, did you see where he said last week, this was a week ago at this point, in the post-compressor that Les Miles was recruiting him when

Jamar Chase was in high school, and Les Miles told Jamar Chase that he didn't have what it takes to be receiver, but he would play cornerback. Hilarious. Jamar Chase was like, I filed that away. And it's, it's wild, man. I mean, then there's Joe Burrow completely taking Baker Mayfield's quarter. I mean, think about what just happened. There's two teams in Ohio.

They both wear orange. They're in the same division. they both take number one overall a quarterback who went to one college kind of didn't really get the job transferred, then ended up having a crazy season winning the Heisman trophy and then becoming like this sensation

going number one overall is this like gritty guy and then one is Baker who now has been who knows what's going to happen this career and the others Borough leading them to the Super Bowl like Cincinnati got who the Browns thought they were getting in Baker Mayfield. Absolutely. If we're doing like

NFL player TV future stock I want a short Baker Mayfield's TV commercial stock and I want to pump money into Joe Burroughs. Joe Burroughs is going to be in 50 commercials next year

and Baker's going to be in zero. What are the best brands that should get Joe Burrow? Like who are, if you're like competing who are the brands that should get have to get Joe Burrow

in a commercial? If it was 1982 it would have been Camel cigarettes and he would have been like Joe cool. Yeah. He still might. He still might do cigarettes.

Bring back cigarette commercials on TV. just for Joe Burrow selling vapes to a generation. Yeah, whatever it is. Maybe he can do diamonds. I don't know what the diamond companies are because after the game, someone asked him, because he has that big pendant, you know,

that he was wearing over his turtle neck to. Oh, my God. He went to Jared. He's like, someone asked him that if they're real, and he goes, they're definitely real. I make too much money to have fake ones. That was incredible. No, you know what he cannot do?

Joe Borr cannot do the insurance commercials because there is zero chance that Joe Burrow like insures things. I know. Unfortunately, they probably pay the most money, but somebody just like drop the bag for Joey B. Like I don't want to see Subway. I don't want to see State Farm. I want something better.

If you have like a commercial pitch for Joe Burrow, email us. It's actually good. We should do this. This is a fun segment. We should just be our marketing agency for Joe Burrow. We should just contact him, give him a whole plan.

What about like he does like mattresses and it's like Joey covers and he always pulls the covers up over him? That's pretty. Joey always card on a different way with that. But yeah. Joey fucks. No. by the way

this is the best mattress to fuck in I think it like look Burrow is awesome but I also want to point out that the I think just the chemistry

that he has with Jamar Chase is so important and I put these stats down on the talk because we didn't when you really sit back and talk about what Jamar Chase has done this year

I think it's the connection of him Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase is something truly special you don't see this in the NFL very often and he had and that's why I think it's so funny that we're having

this Chase versus Sewell argument before the preseason or before the draft is because he is, Chase has literally changed the complexion of this team to the point where they're in the fucking Super Bowl. Last year, Joe Burrow had one touchdown pass over 20 yards in an entire season. One touchdown pass over 20 yards. Guess how many he had this year? I bet you it's like, sorry, I gave it away. I was sort of a rhetorical.

13. He had 13. to lead the NFL. Jamar Chase had eight, the most in the NFL. Jamar Chase in his first season had eight, the most in the NFL, eight deep touchdowns of 20 plus yards per PFF. And Joe Burrow went from one

to leading the NFL in deep touchdown passes. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like what happened to Josh Allen when they got to fucking. Seriously. So screams regression. I'm fading chase next year. We can do that after the season,

right? I think Bengals fans would literally murder us. if they get to the Super Bowl and we start being like, how this team, they're going to regress the stats. Can I say that we'll never know how good T. Higgins is

until Jamar Chase leaves the better. By the way, Teagins was awesome. We'll just never know. Yeah. Yeah. He might be the third best season of the league. We've known.

Jimar Chase was getting double the entire game. To Dek's point, like, I think I've tried to like not be hyperbolic about Chase other than him literally having the most receiving yards as a rookie and other than that stuff.

But again, the only reason, I'll put him top five and I'll still put Devante Adams and Tyree Kill and Justin Jefferson and guys ahead of him. But really only because they've been doing it for a lot longer. But like...

Justin Jefferson? One year? That's enough? Yeah, I think two years matters. Yes. That's fair. That's fair. And like, I just think, but having said that, I'm not like really confident that any receiver would have, would be better than Jamar Chase next season.

He is, if you just watch him play, you would have no freaking clue that he's a rookie. he is just absolutely bodying cornerbacks out in the corner of the end zone. He's out jumping people. He plays like he's six inches taller than he is. He is so freaking good. And this team, and it's like,

again, this style of football that has overtaken, like at the end of the day, like these explosive offenses that have taken over the league, it just feels like big leads aren't as important, not as important, but they're not as rock solid as they used to be. And the Bengals in particular have this quality about them,

which is ironic because they did it to the chiefs who also have that quality about them. of like, and again, they're going to be underdogs in the Super Bowl. Like, they're the perfect underdog team. I wonder how many teams have won the Super Bowl while being four straight underdogs. Oh, no, I guess they were favorites against the Raiders. Oh, on that note, wait, sorry. There's an incredible stat.

D.K., did you pull this up? So Aaron shots at football outsiders. Football outsiders does DVOA, which is like this advanced. It's basically efficiency. It's like measuring actual stats. So instead of like, well, the team got five yards in this play, it's five yards in third and five is way, way better than five yards in third and ten. And so they basically just adjust, you know, what happens on a game for how much,

what's the down and distance, how much time is left, and they give you how good at a team actually is. And they adjust for opponent. So that's DVOA. And then they rank every team and they go back like 40 years. Did you have the stat on where the Bengals rank in DVA among Super Bowl teams? So this is the fullest to make the Super Bowl with the regular season DVOA below 10%. So 10% is average.

So they were a little bit above average. They have the third worst DVOA of any team in the Super Bowl according in the DVOA era. Wow. But like I think that that's really important. But also they've, I think, been so much better in like the last month and a half. Like they've really hit their stride. And that's why a DVOA and that's why football outsiders do weighted DVOA,

which is essentially measuring how good you are, you know, like recently. And so I don't know how much we really want to pour into that stat, but it does make them feel like they're just such a Cinderella team. This is the Cinderella team of the year. It made me think of the dumb and dumber cool. We've got to get Cinderella ready for the ball. Bengals are going to the Super Bowl. Burl has even played two seasons.

What has he played like 25, 26 games? It's crazy how quickly this happened. I know. Yeah, it really is. And again, I think this shouldn't get long. lost. Joe Burroughs, the first quarterback to ever be sacked 50 times in a season and go to the Super Bowl. I mean, there's something pretty amazing. Like, I think that factors right into that debate about Jamar Chase or Pena Sewell. Like, people were worried about what happens if Penae Sewell doesn't go

to the Bengals and they can't protect him. Well, they haven't done a great job protecting him. Zach Taylor does things maybe they could protect them better. And yet, Chase has made the offense so much better that it almost hasn't mattered that their protection is still really below average. Yeah. I will say, if the Bengals don't draft. three offensive linemen in this draft, then you can fire Mike Brown. I don't know if he can't fire the kicker. That's how they got the kicker.

They literally were like, we need three out, we need three linemen. I don't remember if it was three or four, but offensive and defensive linemen. And they basically made one trade back. And then they used the extra pick on McPherson, the rookie kicker.

And that's how they got them, because they had to hit their quota for how many linemen they wanted with their eight person scout, without eight person person. draft more. Draft seven. lineman.

Oh, my God. Everything else is good. Just draft lineman. I'm happy for Cincinnati, too. I think that we need to hit that last. Like, Cincinnati getting this, like, they deserve it. Absolutely. It's great for them.

It's definitely really cool. And by the way, Burrow, I think Burrow is just fun to root for. I know that, you know, it's early in his career. We haven't really gotten to know him all that well yet. But, like, he's just so fun to root for, I think. He's cool. He's confident. it. He's on a team that has generally been like an underdog and he's like brought them to the

four. He's turning into like one of the faces of the NFL, honestly. And there was a thing he was saying after the game, which is like, I never doubted myself. I'm paraphrasing so it's not an exact quote. But he's like, I never doubted myself. But it's also like surreal that I've got like, LeBron is tweeting at me and Drake or whoever is texting me. And it's like, he's like, all of a sudden he is like this like one of the faces of the NFL. And he's like, this is so surreal. And he's like, this is so surreal, you know? It's always, it's always LeBron and Drake. Those are the two.

It's always LeBron and Drake. Is that who did? I can't actually remember if I'm getting that wrong. I think he said that. It's always those two who like text other famous people. And they're like, whoa, Drake's tech. It's never like Jay-Z. It's always Drake and LeBron.

Yeah. It's funny. Well, I think when Kanye texts people, they keep it to themselves sometimes. Yeah, probably. By the way, there was also, no, sorry. It was actually Kid-Cuddy. It wasn't Jerry. Kid Cudy.

Well, Craig can take it back now. Kid Kudy is something Calvin watches on Cartoon Network. This is my worst nightmare. I mispronounced a rapper. I'm surprised Hyphitz hasn't been all over it. He just said Kid Kudy, Hyfitz. I think I'm going to get kudis just from hearing that. Kid Kuddy is my most angsty period of my entire life was Kid Kuddy.

The soundtrack to my life, which is the song, it's a song called soundtrack to my life. Like the beginning of that song, there's not like any sounds in the universe that cut faster to the absolute center of my soul than the big name of soundtrack. my life. Can I just say that the movie Project X remixes Pursuit of Happiness and it's just one of... Oh my God. That song goes. It's on fucking goes. I used to do that with while I was like drinking my coffee in the morning just to like get up and then I would, I had to stop drinking it

with caffeine because it was too much at the same time. Yeah, I just got you nuts. That's what you used to drink. That's what you would do before you play ringer rec league basketball. You would drink two cups of coffee and listen to Pursuit Happiness. So this guy's name, this guy's name is Scott Muscuddy Scott Muscuddy I guess is

I thought his last thing was pronounced Muscudi that's why I thought it's Muscuddy now I know thank you for here we go shout of a real legend

okay speaking of real legend someone almost as impressive Kit Cuddy should we hit the Tom Brady stuff oh yeah forgot about that okay on a Saturday so what's going on

right Schefter so Tom Brady retiring not retire he's retiring. He's your time. Let's just run through this because I think it's confusing and it's really confusing if you don't have all that it's parsed through this, especially if you were actually doing

something with your Saturday night and then found this out. So, ESPN, Adam Schaefter, Jeff Darlington report, Brady's going to retire. For context, Jeff Darlington's the guy reported that he would be shocked if Brady went back to the Patriots and then everyone gave him crap and then it happened. So just for context, he's clearly source well. Then Brady's agent comes out and says, Tom will be the only person who express his plans with complete accuracy, end quote. Who knows what that means? And then he says, so basically the agent starts denying it. Tom Brady's father comes out and says it's conjecture and Tommy's not made a final decision.

And then the bucks come out and say he hasn't told us anything. Other context. Brady has an ESPN plus docu series called Man in the Arena that the finale was supposed to be like two weeks ago. And they've magically pushed to the spring for some reason. Also worth noting, Brady has $15 million signing bonus due to be, well, like a previous signing bonus due to actually be paid to him on February 4th. I don't think that. I don't think that matters.

The signing bonus thing, I think, is if it was not an actual thing that matters. But everything else I think does. We'll see. And then also worth noting is in the same report, it's that he didn't want to overshadow the playoffs because he didn't want his playoff or his retirement to overshadow the guy's still in the playoffs. All that said, kind of sounds like Brady wanted to retire somewhere between the Super Bowl and the beginning of free agency paired with like this show on ESPN to kind of explain why and it leaked early and he's pissed and they're like not really denying it, but they've made it

confusing. Is this all fair? Yeah, that sounds about right. I think. Okay. So with that said, he's probably retiring, right? The long and the short of it is like he, the timing, he wanted to do the timing on his own terms, but that it got leaked and he's pissed. And so he's like going to drag this thing out. And I think it's so funny because everybody spent like two hours. And of course, you know, a lot of people aren't on Twitter. But if you're on Twitter, it was like just gush fest for Brady. And obviously for good reason, like, greatest player

of all time. All these great stats, all these, all these tweets going viral of all the accomplishments that he's had. And then like an hour later, it was like, he's actually not retiring. We're like, so do we retweet them later? Do we have to rewrite the tweets like next Tuesday when he retires

or what? Like, how does that go? You just quote retweet them, I think. Yeah, you quote tweet. You're like, oh my God, sorry, thoughts and prayers. I wrote about this. Shameless plug for me. I wrote about it for the ringer. And I wrote about, it was really weird, actually, to try to, like, summarize Tom Brady's

career. Because I think Brady's the Grand Canyon. Like, you can't take a picture of it and, like, show. Like, you need to be there to see it because it's so big. Right. And that's kind of, like, how do you summarize, like, a couple decades where he was at the center of football? But I think the thing that I'll remember about Brady, like, he beat Father Time.

Like, my whole life, it's like, NFL stands for, like, not for, long, everything happens quickly and goes by. And then also every athlete, every sport you follow, like the only real theme is everybody eventually gets old and starts sucking and it's kind of sad toward the end. And every now and then someone wins a Super Bowl and they're old and bad, but like, that's the only hard iron rule, right? You'd never beat father. And like, he literally went out.

Maybe as, he's probably going to come second in MVP voting. Might win MVP if they included like the playoffs for so far. might have beaten out Aaron Rogers faster than he was 20 years ago can throw the ball further than he could 20 years ago led the league in passing touchdowns, led the league in passing yards was the highest graded quarterback by pro football focus this year led the league and they have wins above replacement at PFF

led the league in that too like he's literally going out he's still trending up he's 44 years old. And compare that to like Rathesburg or Breeze like Peyton at the end of there. Yeah, he somehow had the best of both worlds like he held on for what seemed like way too long but actually ended on a high note

I think so to me, it's insane. Like Brady, it's hard to, Hyves, that Grand Canyon thing is perfect because it's actually hard to like actually put into context how good he's been.

The thing that I keeps coming, keep coming back to that is the most impressive and most just like, blows your freaking mind is Brady legitimately has, if you split up his career, it's like he has two, he has two Hall of Fame careers.

Like 2000, and Bill Barnwell tweeted this and laid it all out. 2000 to 2010, that era of Tom Brady is enough for putting him in the Hall of Fame. And then like 2011 through 2021, that is like enough to put him in a hall of time. Well, I think you could do even better than that. Because if basically I think Riley McAtee,

your editor has also written about this. And I think that if you basically are like, let's say the Brady's ACL, 2008 ended his career, he still makes the Hall of Fame through like what he did from 0-1 to a say. He still has three Super Bowls and then lost the fourth with the 16 and 0 team. That's a Hall of Fame career.

And then what he did with the second half of the Patriots is also a Hall of Fame career. But that's two Hall of Fame careers as a Patriot. I'd also argue he just started a third Hall of Fame career with the Bucks. And he could obviously keep playing if you wanted. I know it sounds for a few more years. It's only two seasons. But if he won a Super Bowl, if he was like in theory a rookie, if he won a Super Bowl at the Bucks in his first year,

led the league in passing yards and touchdowns came second MVP voting and then had a 24 point comeback. Like the only thing stopping him from another Hall of him crew is just playing more. Like he started a third one. It's insane. He's a Hall of Fame nesting doll. The big, the big picture is he's a Hall of Famer. But then you just like keep opening. Oh yeah, that's a Hall of Famer. That's a Hall of Famer. That's a Hall of Famer. This little guy, Hall of Famer. Well, no, but it's not just Hall of Fame. It's like he climbed the mountain so much that like they might as well name the mountain after him. And like, I just,

you go through. And again, it's hard to give context to this in a way you haven't heard it before. Like, there's like boring stat. Like, he's an all time leading pass. I get it. Can I give you some ones that actually blow my mind about Brady because it's worth it? Yes. So he's seven Super Bowl rings, obviously more than any of the player. That's more than any other team, which I feel like doesn't actually get enough credit. He's the 33rd team. He has more Super Bowls than any team. He has more Super Bowl appearances, appearances than the Bears, the Titans, the Jets,

the Chargers, the Saints, the Browns, the Cardinals, the Jaggars, the Lions, and the Ravens combined. Was it 10? Has he been to 10? 10 Super Bowl appearances. He's been to a Super Bowl in half of the seasons. He's been the starter. 10 out of 20. Jeff Howard. Jeff Howe pointed this out. So if you take out of the first seasons,

he's been in the Super Bowl. Every other year he's going. It's ridiculous. And that's the thing. So Jeff Howard, Jeff Howe pointed this out. I think he's the athletic writer for Patriots. Brady made it the 10 of the 20 seasons he played as a starter.

I'm taking out the 2008 year and the year he sat as a rookie. 10 of 20, so he made it half the time. Michael Jordan's, like, made 49.7% of his shots in the NBA. So Brady was more likely to make the Super Bowl than Michael Jordan was to make a shot. That's a fun one. That's good. I always like those analogies.

What do you even say? What do you even say about him anymore? This is so funny because I'm like, man, huge moment. You know, Tom Brady is retiring. This is a momentous occasion in the NFL. But it's like also we've been talking about this guy for 20 years. Like, what can we say now that we haven't already said? You know, he's so good.

What do you think he's going to do next? That's a great question. I think he turns TB12. into an empire because I think what's interesting about TB12 is we all made fun of him and like there were parts

of that book he wrote with Alex Guerra that were like tough like I mean he wrote like if you drink enough water you can't get sunburns and like I mean

they took that out of the book quietly and they got ridiculed obviously avocado ice cream and all that jazz but like they're obviously onto something over there no inflammatory fruit this is I kind of want to do

the TB12 method and see if I just my jaw line That's a really good video series or just a pod series. We should do TB12. I kind of get it though. Like when you detox and stop drinking for like a week, your skin looks better. You like feel a little bit more alive.

You don't hung over every morning. There was this guy on TikTok who he does like health challenges and he does it months at a time. He takes on a new diet. But some of them are like negative things to see how it affects your body. So what he did is the first month, he ate KFC for three meals a day every day for a month. and weighed himself. And then the next month, he did, he ate healthy for all three meals

and worked out like every other day or every day. But he drank with alcohol with every single meal. Yeah. And he gained more weight that month than he did eating KSC every single meal. Yes, that's how shitty alcohol is for your liver in your body. Yeah.

Yeah, he was like running and working out, yeah. I mean, yeah. That's why it was so funny to see Tom Brady drunk at the Super Bowl parade. I know, yeah. I think... We should do TV 12 in like June. So we're gonna do TB 12.

Okay, so we'll have a TB 12 off-season. That'll be good. Maybe we'll get an... Maybe we'll be able to play in the NFL. Maybe. Who knows? Like Jake Paul wants to. Do you guys think Brady is the greatest athlete?

And I'll just go to the matter. I do not know enough about soccer. So let's just say American sports history. Like, is he better than Michael Jordan. Well, I have trouble... This is, I mean, this is a whole other pod here. We're at probably ending soon. But like, are you talking about just like,

like, accoling? Are you talking about like, because when I hear greatest athlete, I think of like Bo Jackson or Michael George. Yeah, we're certainly not talking about like he's the most athletic. Like obviously he's not more athletic than like Debo Samuel and like whatever that means. But like accomplished professional sports player. Obviously it's hard to compare. But I, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams. Gretzky.

There's a lot of like really good. I'm sure there's a million really good arguments for other people. But in our sphere, it feels like no contest. He's top five at least, I would say. And then he could be number one. I'd have to look at everything and see how well everybody actually did, but yeah. It's up there. Okay, it's pretty great. All right, so we're going to do TB12. Okay, so Brady. I'm actually pumped for that.

So really excited for Brady to come back and play again out of spite because we all said he'd retire. He shows up on the Saints and wins a ring. Yeah, exactly. That'll be really cool. Okay. That's all we got. Two weeks of Super Bowl coming up. Craig, want to give people a schedule, a little rundown of what we got coming? Yeah, so fun little update for us. We've mentioned it before, but on Tuesday, this Tuesday, February 1st, we are launching a sub-show within the Ringer Fantasy Football Show feed called the Ringer NFL Draft Show. It'll be us three plus Ben Solac, breaking down the draft. Hell yeah.

In a way that only the four of us can. And that will be running kind of concurrently with the fantasy show up until the Super Bowl. And then once the Super Bowl ends, the fantasy show will take a hiatus for a while. We're going to take a hike. And then it'll be all draft stuff. The four of us doing draft stuff all the way up through the draft. So, yeah, look out for that. It's going to be a ton of fun.

And you're going to learn so much about the draft, and it won't be boring, I promise. Yeah, and for people that don't have a history with Solek, like, he's incredible. He's incredible at the draft. So this is going to be so much fun to talk to. I do the ringers NFL draft guide. Solek is going to be doing his, and I'll not spoil it yet, but he's going to be taking a big part in it, too. It's just going to be really fun. We're going to try and do it in our style, like, a little bit more lighthearted and fun and teach you about these guys.

Yeah, I'm just really looking forward to that. So keep that in mind when we go forward. Obviously, there's not going to be a lot of fantasy for the next couple of months, but we're going to still be on the site. We're still going to be on the feed doing our thing pretty much all the way through the draft. So, yeah. Damn straight. Lock cooking up.

You're going to enjoy it. Okay. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Mike Wargonne for producing this episode. Thank you, Stan Kronki, that $5 billion stadium, baby. I'm so happy for you. All the players who worked hard. Billionaires, finally.

I'm so happy that it worked out for Stan. because, you know, him above all, that's who I was rooting for. Thank you, Evan, for listening. Thank you, Lord. Lord. Did we say thanks to Mike? I forgot. Yes, we did. Oh, thanks, Mike. Also, thank you, Kit Cuddy, who's now I know how to pronounce. Yeah. Shout out. My bad. My bad. I'm a stone cold boomer. What can I say? I could do, like, a lot of, a lot of the soundtrack to my life song. It's a, I know the album. Like, I really like his music. I just honestly didn't know how to pronounce his name, which is, I don't know how that happens, but. Can you make a, you should have a burner Twitter account

called Stone Cold Boomer. That's good. Craig, would we get sued if we played just literally like the opening chords the soundtrack to my life? Like I'm talking like literally the first like three seconds. Probably not. Could we do that? You said no.

No, I'm saying, no, I'm saying we probably would not get sued. Oh, okay. Is my official legal advice. Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. Wow. So emotional.

I feel like I'm 12. again. Okay. Goodbye, everyone. I have the smartest man alive.