The Ringer NFL Show - Fantasy Championship Heroes and Zeros, Ref Debacles, and CFP Playoff Almost-Collapses

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

The guys recap fantasy championship week! But first, they talk about the almost-collapses in College Football Playoffs (1:49). Then they discuss the players who won peoples' fantasy championships and players who had the most disappointing fantasy playoff runs (8:05). They also get into yet another officiating controversy and discuss if Joe Flacco should win Comeback Player of the Year (24:34). Check out our Fantasy Football Rankings for this week’s positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from Offguard. And I've got some exciting news. Offguard hosted by me and my guide, Pasha Gigi, is officially moving to our own podcast feed. We are now dropping two shows every week. Me and Pasha go way back and talk so much hoops already that we figured it was time to fire up the mics and let you in on these conversations. Every week, Pasha and myself will hit on the biggest stories happening around the league. Tap into the show twice a week on our new Offguard feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hightfitz, and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Borek. And the fantasy football season is over. Wow. It's 2024. But don't touch that dial, as Craig would say. We are still previewing Week 18 later this week. We're still going to recap Week 18.

I barely know what a dial is, to be honest. I've never heard what a dial is, never will. You guys just push buttons these days. Just push, turn out of the screen. It's just like a screen. It's all illusion. A rotary phone. previewing the playoffs.

We're previewing all the playoff rounds. We're previewing the Super Bowl. We're going to be recapping the playoffs, recapping the Super Bowl, covering off season, cover the whole off season, cover free agency, covering trades.

And of course, cover the NFL draft, baby. Actually, at some point, going to change the name of the show to the ringer NFL draft show. It's a little complicated. It's fine. We're covering it.

We're the best draft show around. So, even though the fantasy football season's over, stick with us. Yeah. But for right now, we're going to live in the moment. 2024.

Happy New Year, by the way. Yeah, happy new year. Sure. We have so much to recap here. We got the fantasy championships, a lot of stuff in the NFL. But I want to just quickly start here with the college football playoff. D.K., you live in Washington.

A couple of crazy games yesterday. I'm going any direction you want here. You briefly went to Washington, right? I did, yeah. It's not technically, do you have to graduate to call something your alma mater? Because I didn't graduate from there. I just transfer away. Okay.

So anyway, my alma mater. I don't think anyone's going to be like, they're checking my transcript. you know. If anyone's like, you can't say that. I think that's kind of messed up. Steve Jobs dropped out

where do you go, Stanford, but he can still say Stanford. Right? Or read college? Well, he just got the Reed College. He took,

he audited a calligraphy class. I mean, my freshman year of college, that was like the, I can't even remember who was playing some picket guy at quarterback for UW. I went to all the games,

super fun. So anyways, it's really fun to see Washington football back. This is the best they've been since the early 90s. Growing up, like,

90-91, I believe, Napoleon Kaufman, who High Fitz has never heard of. I can't even believe that. Yeah, so this is great for the Huskies. By the way, that game, one of the most stressful endings I've ever seen in my life. Like what, they had it in the bag. Almost an all-time collapse. Yeah, it was, they had it in the bag. The running back got hurt.

So they had to stop the clock. The Texas got the ball back. They almost pushed it down the field. They took a couple shots to the end zone. That was the most stressed I've been, I think, watching football all season long. I think what's crazy. about those two games. There's so much to talk about, especially with the draft perspective, like, I think every dad

in America is going to fall in love with Michael Penix, Jr. But I think what's crazy about those two games is both of those games had potentially one of the biggest collapses in recent football history. Like, nothing will top the Falcons in the Super Bowl,

but between Washington somehow, what was it, a 13, 14 point lead. 13, yeah. 13, they almost blew with 240 left. And then also Michigan, almost blowing that punt because what, they swap punt returners at the end of the game and he drops it, rolls in the end zone. He somehow like just snatches it, just barely gets back to the one.

It's like if he had taken it safety, he could have lost the ball. And it's like that also would have been the worst play in the history of the University of Michigan. Back to back games. Like they were like the one of these teams is going to win the national championship. And it's just a reminder to me that the line between all time glory and literally like nightmare. And it kind of honestly mirrors fantasy football. where it's like a lot of people probably lost in the semis

and were the one seat and then crushed in the finals and if you had made it, you would have won. And also a lot of people won their championship. You were probably two points from losing the semis too. It's like the line is so thin between glory and just like an eternal abomination. This is why I'm a nihilist, I fits. You just have to embrace variants.

You have to embrace that crazy stuff happens in the world. Were you embracing that last night, sweating out Washington? It sounds like you weren't. My heart was truly pounding out of my, chest. Like when they ended up actually winning, the Huskies won the game. Great defensive play, by the way, in the end zone. It was swat away.

Swat away. The pass. My chest, I was like, I felt like my chest was like, it was crazy. I actually truly probably have not gotten that much anxiety all season long watching football. So, I'm in love with Pennix, by the way. I just think he's great.

He was awesome. He was fantastic against Oregon and now versus Texas equally as amazing. And he's going to be skyrocketing up draft boards. So the whole year it's been Drake May at a UNC and Caleb Williams at the USC as the top two quarterbacks. Jaden Daniels won the Hysman at LSU.

He's there. And I think I kind of wrote off Michael Pennix Jr. Because I loved him. And also him being a lefty, I just, I feel like, uh, Lucy- It just looks weird. Gee, like every time he goes left. I'm like, jean, I'm like, he's lefty. Like it's a surprise.

Craig is a lefty, by the way. That's right. Well, yeah, well, not a NFL quarterback. But every time. Third string. Third string for the, for the chargers. Yeah. But every time I saw Pennix, I kind of wrote him off in my head,

because I was like, all right, two ACL tears in his knee. He had four season-ed injuries in college. Right. Like, that's insane. Like, at four, and again, 13 Marvel movies have come out since he went to college. He started college in 2018. Do you remember what you were doing in 2018? That's like so long ago.

It was like an interim. He'll be 24. Remember it. When the NFL career starts. Here's my thing, though. I started realizing, if he was 100% fully healthy and had never been injured, where would he be as a prospect? And I'm like, I guess he would be in the top 10.

It's just the injuries, isn't he? Yeah. I think so that was my thinking. And just like, this was even like before I started really digging into the tape, I was just like the NFL, generally speaking, shies away from these guys who have been injured so often. It's like you get like a little cross next to your name on the draft board. And our teams are very like leery to, you know, try and invest a whole bunch of resources into a guy that's had so many injuries. It's like, you know, these are legitimate injuries, two ACLs.

he had a couple shoulder injuries. So these are like worrisome injuries. But I think everything else, I mean, he's got an incredible arm. He made some of the most impressive throws that we've seen all year from him in this game. Like he had a couple just dimes down the field. The thing that I really like about him that I think is super intriguing for the NFL in particular is like his ability to avoid sacks. His ability to move around in the pocket. Yeah.

And I think that like that's such an important thing in the NFL because the NFL is chaotic. I mean, obviously all football is chaotic. Like the pressure is going to come, like almost like a third of plays probably on average, maybe more than that. And you have to be able to avoid it. You have to be able to step up, you know, and keep yourself clean and throw the ball down the field. I think that's like one of the sort of defining traits about panic.

So I think he's, yeah, a lot of people I think on Twitter were talking about. He made himself a lot of money last night. And I'm going to be very, very intrigued to see if he's a first round or now, even despite like the injuries and things like that. I think that he may have pushed himself up into the first round. Yeah. I think, I mean, it only takes one team to be like whatever. don't care about his knee or shoulder.

Like he's a good player. Pittsburgh. That's what Jack is. Man, I would love to see him throwing passes in Pittsburgh. That would be so fun. All right. We're going to have more time to talk about the draft and everything. No.

They're not going to do it. They're not going to do it. There's a lot of interesting quarterback stuff. All right. So we got to get to the fantasy championship here, though. I know we're a couple days late because of the new year. But we have to start here with, we're just kind of basically made the first team all put put your team on their back, on their back.

the all Greg Jennings put your team on the back, the heroes. And we also have a couple of heroes later. But we're going to start with a little positivity. Just to run down this list real quick, because there's so many plays, like this was every weeks like this, but a true week of haves and have-nots. Lamar Jackson for the Ravens, Kyron Williams for the Rams, Isaiah Pacheco for the Chiefs, C.D. Lamte, Davante Adams, Isaiah likely, DJ Moore. And it's like to a less degree, Jordan Love, Jerome Ford, Breeze Hall, Travis E,

T, and Jane Reed. If you, George Pickens, if you had these guys. I hope you won. And if you didn't, I'm like so sorry. But, like, but there were so many incredible performances and we can tick him down. But I feel like we got to start with Lamar, who I feel like won MVP and then for your team, fantasy MVP in the same week. But I think the crazy part for me was the symmetry for Lamar. We talked on the Friday show that Craig, you weren't here for this. But the Lamar, his 2019 MVP season started against the Dolphins. And he threw five touchdowns for, I think, 324 yards, five touchdowns. This game.

game ends his going to win the MVP now, beats the dolphins, throws five touchdowns, 321 yards. I think almost exactly the amount of completions and attempts. It was like the same performance. They also won like, instead of 59 to 10, they won like, what, 56 to 19? Except the dolphins are like 10 times better than they won four years ago. And Lamar also feels better than he was. This was an incredible game.

Did you guys feel like Harbaugh was running up the numbers here to get Lamar the MVP, just to like lock it in, like give him five passing touchdowns? It felt like they were making sure that Lamar was scoring every time here. And he looked incredible, too. Like, he made some really impressive throws. I think that there's a, it's full circle because Hyvitz, he talked about in that first game when he threw five touchdowns. Like that season,

a big part of his MVP campaign was like he was so valuable as a runner. This year, he isn't running nearly as much. I mean, he's still very valuable as a runner, but he only had 35 yards rushing in this. He was like doing a lot of stuff from the pocket. He made some incredible throws. There was a throw, I think, to Odell Beckham, down the sideline where he kind of like jumped through it.

There was a throw to Isaiah Likely where he stepped up in the pocket and sort of off platform threw it out to the side of the field and he reeled it in. So like just a masterclass from Lamar Jackson. And yeah, I mean, do you guys think he locked up the MVP with this game? Oh, a million percent. I mean, the odds on Fandle. I think he's like minus like 10,000 to win the MVP right now, which is kind of crazy because I got to say, look, Lamar, I think deserves the MVP right now.

I think like he's the best choice. I don't necessarily, I don't think I'm going to look back on the season and remember Lamar specifically as some dominant force because his 2019 MVP was so much better, which is just kind of weird in my head that pretty much across every category

he was way better in 2019. But the choices are kind of odd this year. There's not a lot of great options. I do feel a little bad for Dak Prescott, I must say. Dak Prescott had one bad game and that destroyed his MVP campaign. And I'm not exactly sure that's totally fair.

Dak leads the league in touchdowns. He's second in touchdown to interception ratio. He's fourth in yards. He's going to win the NFC East. And they're a two seed. And he's not even in the discussion anymore because he had one bad game against Buffalo. Well, I think it's just mainly just because the Ravens are just head and shoulders the number one team. Yeah, the MVP is a dumb award.

The MVP is a team award that we give to a player. The MVP, Craig, every single MVP since we've been alive has gone to a quarterback. that was on a team that won three out of every four games since we were fucking born. And the only exceptions are running backs that had a cool number. Running backs, they either had 2,000 yards in a season

or broke a touchdown record in a season. With the exception of that, every quarter of, like if you did not win three out of every four games, you don't win the award. That's it. I understand. I mean,

DAC is incredibly close to doing that. They're probably going to be, you know, 12 and 5. But, yeah, I don't know. I'm just like, damn it, if Jack just had like 200, yards and two touchdowns against the bills.

Maybe he's the MVP right now. Also, wait, while we're here, what a weekend for the Harbaas. John Harbaugh. Also, they met the Super Bowl like a decade ago. Every 10 years, they do something good. That's kind of a thing. You know what's so funny?

Jim Harba, obviously Jim Harbaos had a wild season. And if anything, we haven't talked about it enough. But he's been suspended for two different things. And like, Michigan's, I don't know, borderline becoming like a weird cult around Jim Harba. It's just a whole weird thing. but there was a pregame interview with him before the playoff game

and he was talking about his dad and he was telling me how much he loved the Roseba's like my dad was a coach and Jim Harbo was talking about how we wanted to go on vacation. We're like, Dad, Dad, can we go on vacation? He was like, no. And they're like, please. He was like, fine.

And he would have drive them to the middle of their town and just drive them around a fountain. They'd be like, there's your vacation. And like the only vacation they actually ever got would be if they got to make the Rose Bowl. Like, if they got to go, like that was it. But it was about how their dad's whole life revolved around coaching and he could never like love his sons.

And now, his sons are coaches. So congrats to Jack Harbaugh on making your sons feel like if they don't be successful coaches, they'll never earn your love. Great job. You did it. A really healthy tale of family and parenthood. Yeah. So congrats to John and Jim Harbaugh on earning your father's love. You did it. Jim Harbaugh, kind of a weird guy. Kind of? I just was watching this and I was like, wow, what a weird species we are. I mean, so hard. So I was deep in the Seahawks 49ers rivalry back in those days. I was covering the Seahawks for field goals back then. And my God, Harbaugh is the biggest weirdo on earth, like truly.

So I'm happy for his success. You guys remember that thing about the weirdest dude of life. The chicken stuff, right? The nervous bird. Yeah, he's such a weird. I will say, though, Harbaugh was the first person I ever heard publicly admit that he wears the same clothes every day because he gets decision fatigue. Yeah, they used to have a whole ad campaign around like his wife giving in the same pair of pants.

Isn't that like a CEO billionaire thing? Haven't people, hasn't like why Steve Jobs did the same thing? Yeah, but I like it, though. That, yeah, I'm just saying like, you know what? He got so much flack for it. I get it. Two Steve Jobs references in the first 15 minutes. Who would have thought?

Wow. Incredible. So, Lamar was incredible. There's so many people we've got to point out here, but D.K., I feel like. We should say, Lamar is his best performance of the season. All these guys have, it's all those guys who just named. All those guys had either the best or second best game of their season. Heroes.

The other, Kyron Williams for the Rams, D.K., the Rams beat the Giants. Perfect game from the Giants, by the way, because they play it. and show they can compete with the Rams and then lost on a misfield goal. Perfect for everyone involved. The Rams sent us their kicker. Mason Grosby, and he missed a kick at the age.

It's just perfect for everyone to roll around in real life and fantasy Giants, Rams great. But Kyron Williams. Sometimes things work out. We did an MVP, fantasy MVP show a couple of weeks ago. I feel like Karen Williams is actually the MVP of the entire fantasy season. The RV won this week, obviously, it's championship weekend. That's very helpful for your team. And honestly, he's like done it the whole season long.

And it's nice because I believe he went on the IR. There was never any chance you're going to start him for like the games where he didn't show up. He's still finished fourth in the NFL in fantasy in total points this year despite missing four games. Like, he was so automatic. He's second in the league in rushing. Total. Yeah.

He's only played four games. He's second in rushing yards. This is like Todd Gurley all over again. This is like a rebranded version of Todd Gurley. I mean, I think people aren't as high on him because, or maybe just like the reputation isn't there because he was not a first rounder like Todd Gurley. He's not like this big time, you know, college football star, blah, blah, blah. But the dude has just absolutely produced ludicrous numbers this year.

He went out 87 yards, three touchdowns in this game. Yeah, I'm very curious where he's, where is he going to get drafted next year. If Bejohn Robinson was doing this exact same thing on the Rams, and we'd all be freaking out. Oh, yeah, for sure. But he's like a, he's like a sub-200 pound, like fourth or fifth round pick or whatever. So, like, people are very dubious, I think, that this is going to be a real thing. But man, he was one of the biggest fantasy superstars this season.

He went out on top. The other guy, Pooka Dukua for the Rams also just had another, like the two of them combined. I know Kairns not a rookie. It feels like a rookie. But Pooka is also incredible in this game and also have to have to shout up Puka because Puka Nakuwa is 29-yard shy of the rookie receiving yards record, which is a little confusing because we used to give that to Jefferson and Jemar Chase. But now we've expanded NFL history beyond the merger in 1970. So now the rookie receiving yards record is held by Bill Grover.

Roman. Sure. Old Bill. Oh, Bill Braskey. I got to double check here. I think Bill Gromon was on the Houston Oilers in 1960, which no shit to Bill, kind of a fake award, because I think that was the AFL in 1960. But he had 1,400 yards. Bill Gromond went to Heidelberg College.

Like in Germany? Bill Grombe went to Heidelberg College. I'll give you a trillion dollars if you can tell me the mascot of Heidelberg College. A trillion. in? The yellow bellies. I'm looking at it. It's the student princes.

And I'm going to text you it. It is exactly what it looks. I'm going to text you this guy right now. The mascot to this, it is literally a knight holding a shield. And it's just like the student princes is the, I've never seen anything like this in my life. It's an orange knight. It's the Heidelberg student princes. And so shout out to Bill Grumman.

Because once Pook and Nukuoka. it sets this record next week. We will never talk or think about you ever again with love. So shout out to Heidelberg College and Bill Gromond and the student princes. Heidelberg College is in Ohio. All the colleges are in Ohio. That's true. That is correct.

Massachusetts and Ohio have all the colleges. Other players got a shout at. Dude, Isaiah Pacheco, who, again, as Craig said, had one of the biggest games that he had all year. And also it's tough because we weren't sure he was going to play. So it went from he was concussed And we weren't sure he was going to play To Pacheco coming in having

130 yards Plus 35 yards receiving in a touchdown And then Jordan Lewis, the Cowboys cornerback Just has been tweeting a lot And he tweeted Pachecker runs like he bites people Dude I feel like this is another example of People sort of overlooking how good Pacheco is

Because where he was drafted But also like I just don't I truly feel in my heart Like I'll never actually believe he's good because of the way he runs. Like, there's like, Hyvitz,

you have right here, like a kid in a shoe store trying out new shoes. Like, he, his running style is just so bizarre. I don't think I'll ever believe that he's good.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, when he's running, it's like the noise he makes. It's like, brrr, like just,

I just, I can't handle the way he runs. He's like a try hard running back. But it works. Email, but it's also fast. Yeah, email surfacing,

at phatency football at gml. If you have more memes of the check. He just tries so hard. My other favorite ones that he runs like Scooby-Doo. Somebody tweeted. Somebody tweeted that he runs like Jim Carrey. You remember in Dumb and Dumber at the very end when he runs trying to chase down the bus with all the bikini girls? Wait.

You're actually going the wrong way. You're going to have to excuse my friend. He's a little slow. The sound is that way. Pacheco. Pacheco. Anyways, Pacheco is great. Like, I feel bad for, like, never doubt again.

That dude was taught high knees on day one of freshman football practice and never looked back. Craig, that's the right, that's the right line of thought. What is he like warming up? We need like the way that Steph Curry has all the warm up the shooting drills. We need to watch Pacheco doing high knees in the pregame. But yeah, shout out to Pacheco. Yeah, that is actually, we're going to do fantasy watchables next week. That's a resolution of mine.

And we'll soon talk about Memento tattoos. is mine is ignore. I don't care what people have drafted anymore. If you've done things, you just pretend everyone who's done stuff was a first rounder and pretend everyone who hasn't done stuff was a fourth rounder. That's going to be one of my tattoos.

Jameson Williams, I'm going to pretend it was a fourth rounder. Pukunuku, I'm going to pretend was the first. I mean, yeah, if you look at like just the running backs that finish really highly like this week, it's Karen Williams, Pacheco, Jerome Ford.

You know, there's Colbert, Devon A-chan, just comes from everywhere. fantasy production. Yes, well, speaking, you mentioned A-Chan, the Ravens game, I know we just were talking about, but one of the sad ones was Rahim Mostert being a late scratch for the Sunday game between Ravens and Dolphins, so the people at A-chan,

you got to start him, he played really well, was kind of the straw that stirred the drink for the Dolphins' offense for a dog. There was a point where he had, I think 80% of their yards in the first half, something like a crazy amount of the Dolphins yardage. Carlos, I'm so sorry, Carlos, our producer here is a Dolphins fan.

Just sad. I'm sorry. But Moster, you see all the memes was Keenan Allen and Moster and it was like a Kung Fu Panda and it was the old wise turtle being like,

you will have to continue your journey without me. And they're like, whoa, whoa, what? And it was Moster being like, got you to the ship. I'm sorry, man. I was just thinking

all weekend how much you guys shit all over Devon A. Chan last week and this was just divine retribution. We thought Moster was playing. I'm just saying. Don't ever talk about about my son again. That's all I'm saying.

He objectively ruined a lot of people's fantasy playoffs, and most people with him weren't in the championship, including myself. I don't know. There's a few. There's a few. I saw a few league winners in my leagues with Dona Achan as like the foundation of their championship.

Also, I hope and pray that everyone who heard me rant about H.N. Last week in Benchian, like, please contextualize that. Also, do we have those numbers yet? Like, who was on how many rosters that won the championship? Because in my big league, it was the McAfee. it was the McCaffrey team, and I would just love to see how many McCaffrey teams

actually won the title. 47% of McCaffrey teams made the championship, which is just wild. All you had to do is pick McCaffrey in your way and you just have that in the first pick of the draft. Love fantasy.

Pick that guy. Yeah, we should get that right next year. Okay. The other guys, oh, okay, well, back into a conversation here, but C.D. Lamb, 13 catches, 227 yards, 227 yards, on the season,

1650 yards for C.D. Lam in the season. It's the most catches in Cowboys' history, most receiving out to Calvin's history. Second best fantasy performance all year for C.D. I got to ask, I feel like, we'll get to the Lions game in a second here, but remember like six weeks ago when we were like A.J. Brown and Tyree Killer

clear the top three receivers in the NFL. I don't want to forget about A.G. Brown because the Eagles offense is broken, but C.D. Lamb is now in this conversation. Justin Jefferson's been banged up. J. Mar Chase has banged up, so it's weird. But I feel like that has to be the top five right now. In some order, Tyree Kill, A.J. Brown, C.

Cidie Lamb, Jamar Chase, Justin, Jefferson and I don't know, Craig, George Pickens' Six? What do you think? Yeah, look. We'll get to that. Yeah, yeah. If George Pickens was on Dallas, he could have the exact same numbers. But I agree with you

about C.D. Lamb. He's like, he took the mini leap. He's been in tier two for like three years now and he's officially in tier one. I think next year in drafts. He's going to be probably a top five, top seven pick in drafts, I would say. Everything is just really stable with like how they use him. I feel

like now this year on Dallas, D.K., wouldn't you agree? that since Killingmore has left, they actually have funneled their entire offense through CD-Land more than they ever had before. Yeah, for sure. This was what I was going to say. It's like, you could give me all the stats in the world

about CD-LAM and how impressive he was this year. But like, for me, just watching the games, I think he finally reached that point in his status this year where it's like, I don't know, it's like a vibe thing. It's like, everything is just really easy. He's inevitable now. Every time you see a pass stone, it's like, oh, that's C.D. Lamb, he's wide open.

Like, he's reached the tier of receiver that it's like, oh, this is too easy. There's a, like, the Devante Adams tier where it's like, how is he open on every single play? I don't understand this. Like, it should be, it should be harder than this. And unlike George Pickens, Dallas actually throws to CD Lamb, which is why they're a good team. Can I give you, like, context about development. The end thing about C.D. Lamb is he's gotten a little bit better every year. You know C.D. Lamb and Cadarious Tony are like the same age.

Equally as good. Equally as fast. But we have to talk about the big news from this game, this Cowboys Lions game. So if you didn't say, everyone knows by now, it was days ago. But Cowboys beat the Lions, but the Lions come down, final play the game. And the Lions score go down. They're like, screw, we're going for two points. The whole debacle unfolds.

They go for two point conversion. They throw to their freaking left tackle. Taylor Decker catches it. Lions win the game. Flag, you know, you know, what is? illegal touching guy didn't declare. And then it turns out that actually Taylor Decker did declare himself eligible to the ref.

And the ref just got Taylor Decker confused with the other guy. And so he's Taylor Decker 68. And then the other guy coming on with 70. And he was like looking at number 70 and listening to it. And he just got the numbers confused. And try not to be hyperbolic. But I think you could argue that this is the worst call ever in my lifetime just because it's not even like, even the Saints Rams won from like,

five years ago that decided the Super Bowl, the stakes are higher there. But at least it's like bang, bang, judgment. Like the game is fast. Literally things happen in the blink of an eye, like human error. You have to accept some of that. This was a procedural error. The rest rust for no reason. And then D.K. came out yesterday that Dan Campbell actually handed them a drawn diagram of the

play on a piece of paper to explain it to the rest. And he still got it wrong. He drew it out. He didn't just tell him beforehand. He explained to them like what they were going to be doing. And the worst part to me is like, look, I feel like you shouldn't even get me started on this because this is the perfect. You said on Friday.

I wanted you to rant. You were going to go to rant and you said Friday only if there's a trigger. I know. I need some sort of trigger. This is like the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life. Truly, this is so stupid. And it was doubly stupid because Dan Campbell explained to him what they were going to do before the game. This wasn't some like really confusing thing.

in the heat of the moment. He just had, it was an honest mistake. It's like, no, dude. He explained exactly what he was going to do beforehand, and they still messed it up, like, like atrociously, egregiously messed it up. And it's like all the video that's come out of like Taylor Decker going in and declaring,

you can see him go up to the ref. The ref looks right at him. He's one foot away from him. Can we, can we like stop for a second and just think about this? Do you, do you know how big the numbers are on an n-m-a- NFL play on an NFL offensive lineman, 300 pound man.

He's like 6'6, 320 pounds. Do you know how big the numbers are? They're designed so you can see those numbers from the third deck of the stadium. And they're on both sides of the person. These numbers are like four feet tall, probably, something like that. And he was a foot away. He still couldn't tell what number the guy is. That came in and said, by the way, number 70, Skipper.

he came in, he didn't even say anything. And by the way, he was like 10 feet away or 15 feet away when Decker got to the ref. The other thing that like, I think a lot of people are saying, oh, this is like they were trying to trick the defense, blah, blah, blah. Yes, that's the idea. They brought in their guy who's normally the sixth offensive lineman. That was Skipper.

And that was the guy who actually got called eligible on the play. Because he's normally their sixth offensive lineman. That's like how they were trying to try. trick the defense basically. He's the guy who would leak, typically. But by the way, that's why Dan Campbell explained it to the refs before the game. He's like, dude, this is very important. Listen to me.

This is very important. It's not a normal deal. And he still fucked it up. Like, what do we do? And then, by the way, the worst part about this whole thing, I think the worst part, you know, obviously, I think there's levels of bad. Like, number one, a very important playoff seating potential game got ruined or whatever like that play got ruined by a, as Greg Rosenthal put it,

a Byzantine procedural error by the refs. Like, to be like that, like, what are we doing? This is exactly what I was talking about with the Cadaristone thing. It's like, come on, this is football. This is so ridiculous. The worst part is Brad Allen, the ref, is just straight lying. He won't admit that he just messed up. He's just straight lying.

He said that 70 came in and declared, even though like all evidence is like against a contrary to that. Like, there's no evidence that actually happened. And he's just lying. He's just like, he won't admit that he just messed up. You know what I mean? Like, I would have felt better if he'd just been like, yeah, I got confused.

I'm sorry. Like, I ruined it. This is why we don't need refs in football. Get big government out of my football. I was at the point where I'm like, I think we should retroactively just give Detroit the win. Like, I know there was 20 seconds left, but I'm like, this, maybe can we like,

this could be the first time ever where we just retroactively say, you know what? what, Dallas lost the game. We're just, we're just, we're just, we're just, we're just, with the L and the W. Oh, my God. Honestly, it's the closest you could ever come to it because it's such a, it's not a judgment call.

It's like, it's literally, we were just talking to Nate Tyson's a couple weeks ago, about how the refs are worse at the procedural things you never think about more than ever. But the, you know what, D.K.,

you're right about two things. Also, one, if you're confused, it's like, what happens is if you bring a sixth offensive lineman on to block, technically that person's eligible as receiver. they have to go to the ref and announce that they're an eligible receiver. And it is an old weird rule.

And so Lions brought that number 70 guy again. And they're trying to, yeah, lull the defense into like not paying attention. But the ref, as Nate actually said, he was on autopilot. And so they had four times earlier brought the guy on. And this time, like, actually, Taylor Decker is going to be the guy who's eligible. That's hence the hint. But the ref, it was kind of like, if you ever been at a red light and then the green goes and you start, you're like, oh, shit, that's a green arrow. Not a green light.

You know what I mean? you're on autopilot. I saw it all the time. Or it's like the left, the turn lane turns green and you're in this regular lane and you start to go for a second. You're like, oh, wait. That's what happened to the ref. And in a way, as bad as it is, I understand what happened, but I will say to your point, D.K., the smugness, do you guys remember, actually to Detroit again, do you remember like 15 years ago, Armando Galarago, this pitcher for the Tigers through a perfect game? And on the last call of the game, the last play of the game. The bang, bang play at first. Yes, at first base. And he covered it and he got it wrong.

And then guess what? After the game, the ref, the um, Jim, I remember saying Jim Joyce was sobbing. I've never seen a guy, like with a Fumanchu,

looked like a biker game guy, sobbing like, I cost that kid a chance at history, and I'll live with that for the end of my gaze. I'm like, if Brad Allen had come out, it just freaking sobbed as a grown man and been like,

I'm sorry, Detroit, I'd be like, all right, thanks for owning that. But instead, Dika, you're right.

Like, it's just being like, I don't know, man, that's not what happened. and like everyone else just contradicts him gets fined thousands of dollars for contradicting him and then after all that dan campbell decides not to kick the extra point and go for it from like the eight yard line that was that was so relatable because i'm like this it's like tilting

so you're playing a video game yes it was just like i'm gonna get it anyway oh man like going you know it was literally a tin cup oh yeah the movie when he just he's just like He refuses to, like, take the easier method or whatever. I forget the exact thing that happens. But basically, he's in a tournament. Kevin. No leg up. Right?

And the, he, like, hits a ball in the water on a par three and 18 to, like, win the tournament. So he, like, can't win anymore. He's like, screw it. And he gets in the water. And he hits, like, nine times into the water. And then he gets a hold in one of the last one of the 10th, but he gets like a 30 on the hole. And he goes from maybe winning to like last place.

But it gets the whole. It was like, Dan, I don't care. We're doing it again. It's like, anyway. Yeah, sorry Lions fans. Also, there are real world implications. Also, the crazy thing is the Eagles lost to the Cardinals. So this is actually going to give the Cowboys the NFC East probably,

which is insane because this game wasn't supposed to move too much. Now, the Lions would have had a shot at the ones. They probably wouldn't have, but the Lions could have moved up and down. And now it's like the Cowboys are going to win the NFC East out of those because the Eagles decided to give Matt Patricia the defensive coordinator a job and a panic. and Matt Patricia, I think is quite literally the worst coach in the entire league by a lot.

We need to get Matt Patricia and Matt Kanda on a team together. Dude, the mats, brutal year for the mats. Can you imagine? The Eagles, Solac and Shil Kapati were like having a meltdown for our ringer colleagues. But Solak had the success rate, which is basically just how much you move the chains. Like how often when you get a first down can you get another first down? worst defensively, the Eagles allowed the most the chains to move. It was at the highest rate in 17 years.

Jesus, for the Eagles. Again, yes, and that does not account for the individual team. So this is against the Arizona Cardinals who were until this week in contention for the second pick in the draft. I said it on Friday or Wednesday. I can't remember who I was talking to is one of you two. truly like I said this was before the game the vibes in Arizona are better than the vibes in Philly right now

this is a team that had three wins coming into the game and when you watch that team they play hard they're like mostly together they're in it together you know what I mean like the coaches in Arizona have that team like playing hard competing they're not a very good team they're like always at a talent deficit against whoever they play but like at least they're trying hard

and like they're like playing together you know what I mean Like the vibes are pretty good, I would say. And Arizona is, or sorry, and Philly is just straight, like, tilting. They are losing their minds right now. Like, nothing is going right. They have no confidence. They're yelling at each other, barking at each other. It seems like Siriani is, like, losing the locker room.

There's all this stuff happening. It's just, it's ugly right now. It's a very delayed Super Bowl hangover. It's a classic Super Bowl team coming apart. Like, yeah, as soon as the, you know, as soon as the bad stuff starts happening, like that is when it all comes out. Yeah, it's like the chiefs. you know, Taylor's

are still dating Kelsey and they're there on New Year's Eve and Mahomes looks like pretty drunk or whatever but like they won the Super Bowl so they have something to hang on to but the Eagles, you come so close to winning

the Super Bowl and you don't that like the second real adversity hits everyone starts kind of clawing at each other and even the offense, AJ Brown and Devante Smith, even when they're putting up 30 points and wins were like, I have nothing positive to say.

But the like, but then the Cardinals come and score four touchdowns in the second half on four drives and then James Connor has one of his best days of his season for the card. He's a league winner.

Kyler Murray, if you played him, was incredible. And the Eagles defense was just disgusting. So the Eagles, they, sometimes this happens earlier, but they look like a team that,

as much as I can remember, like, you can put a fork in them. Like, it's hard to imagine them beating anyone at the playoffs at this point. So brutal.

They have lost one, two, three, four out of the last five games. Also the Niners, Cowboys, Seahawks. They beat the Giants, barely. Dude, that barely. Yeah.

Barely beat the guys. Hyphins, you think the Giants are going to beat him next week? That would be rough for you guys. They could. They almost beat them. They should have beat them. They should have had the chance to catch score the game winning touchdown.

And like they lost by eight and they should have had the eight. So we'll see. But the Eagles also are kind of a good transition here to the all fantasy. The heroes before, these are the zeros. I mean, starting with DeAndre's who have to literally where's zero. But like if you look at these teams, like, A.J. Brown was so disappointing if you down the stretch after he had that weird thing of 125 yards, six games in a row early the season.

A.J. Brown, Devante Smith, every eagle that isn't Jalen Hertz was so disappointing. I guess Dallas got it was solid. Yeah, but most people probably weren't starting him. Yeah, I guess. But this is the downside of earlier, a couple weeks ago, we were talking about what it would be like if you just drafted all lions. And if you just drafted all eagles, this is the downside of stacking, right? Is that you really need to be confident that this team is going to hold strong throughout the entire year. And the, you, you know, you really need to be confident that this team is going to hold strong throughout the entire year. And the Eagles,

I would have been probably more confident than any team in the league getting into the season and look what happened. Yeah, it's absolutely brutal. I mean, the Eagles collapsed and then honestly, I mean, I just mentioned them,

but honestly, the other team that was just brutal, did the Chiefs. I called Mahomes and Kelsey Apple stock to begin the year, and I think it was more like Tesla stock or something. I don't know.

It was really brutal. Mahomes, Kelsey had, did he even have seven points this week? Mahomes, oh, my, Kelsey ended up with... Kelsey had two catches.

Three catches for 16 yards. Dude, during the fantasy playoffs, Travis Kelsey is the tight end 27. I, well, I saw you... We got to do three tight ends in a lie, or two tight ends and a lie on Kelsey in the fantasy playoffs. There are two of these tight ends beat Travis Kelsey in the fantasy playoffs and the third one did not.

Johnny Munt. He scored in week 17. Michael Chandler. I've literally never heard of. I've never heard of Michael Chandler. Is that a real person? Johnny Michael Chandler, Lucas Crull. I would not be able to guess what team Michael Chandler is on.

Michael Chandler. Don't Google him. Well, don't you Google him? I'm guessing Michael Chandler because I think he's not a real person. He's the guy who's going to fight Connor McGregor this year. Conner McGregor is going to fight it. Oh my God, that's like I knew it.

I've never heard of that play. But yeah, Lucas Crowell, who, I mean, Lucas Crowell always. 0% rostered under his pit leagues. Is that the Broncos guy? Yeah, he's a random dead for Broncos. And he outscored Kelsey

over the last three weeks? Oh my God. Yes. Which again, Travis Kelsey basically has blocking tight-end numbers over the last three weeks. And then...

Kelsey is brutal. Mahomes was fine. So, like, that was just a devastating combo. The other person, the only person is bad as Kelsey. Stefan Diggs, man.

Stefan Diggs. What happened? Failure. You know what's crazy. we talk Craig on Friday we talked about how you cannot possibly bench devante Adams or Stefan Dix you cannot at all maybe you should be you can't

and the reason you can't is because DeVont Adams was so incredible this week. Devonte Adams had like 37 points but then Diggs man if you play Diggs my argument was if you play Diggs and he sucks and you lose because of it you'll hate him but if you bench Diggs and you lose because of that you'll hate yourself people are going to hate Diggs because during the fantasy playoffs

Stefan Diggs was the 60s fifth best wide receiver in the NFL. It's wild. Which to be clear, there are 32 teams, which means there are 64 top two receivers, which means the Stefan Diggs was not one of the best two receivers in fantasy football, like of the 32 teams. So I have nine truths in the lines,

Defon Diggs, which are find the one player who did not outscore Diggs. Julio Jones, the last three weeks, Julio Jones, Quentin Johnson, Drake London, Devonte Parker, Trey Palmer,

Lil Jordan Humphrey, Brandon Johnson, Trey Tucker, Alex Erickson, and Amir Smith-Marset. Nine of those players outscored. Oh, my God.

Trey Tucker. I'm going to go back to Quentin Johnston. No, Quentin Johnson did. It was Drake London. Oh, God, damn it. Fucking Arthur Smith. Drake London was the guy.

But all these other guys, Julio Jones. outscores the It was the guy who was a top 10 pick in the draft. That guy is the guy who didn't outscores Stefan Diggs. Oh my God.

Now I'm mad about two players. This is the last three weeks too. I mean, how insane is that? But yeah, Diggs, it's, it's, uh, meanwhile, Buffalo four and O over that stretch. You know what's funny that Diggs is when you go look at his numbers this year, they almost exclusively lose when he has good games.

Like all the games are Stefan Diggs scores touchdowns, they lose and all of his worst games, they win. Ewing theory? This is, yeah, like in basketball, when the guy shoots six, 65 shots and scores whatever, you know, 56 points and they lose. Well, because it's the all-time, like, test of, like, can you be a good teammate? Like, can you actually be happy for your team winning when you have a bad game?

And it sounds like Diggs is not that type of guy because he's, like, repeatedly pissed off when he doesn't get enough targets, despite the fact that he was, like, top five in the league in targets this year. But he's, like, the last guy who I would feel that if they actually lost the, or if they won the game and he had two catches, that he'd actually be okay with that. He's, like, the least team player we were wide receiver in the league. And honestly, a lot of wide receivers kind of seem that way. I don't know a lot of guys who are like, I had one catch straight yards, but we won. Like, that's okay with me.

Russell Westbrook. Well, it's like the, it's like the quarterback thing that Mina Kimes mentioned. It's like you either believe in God or you are God if you're a quarterback. That's the thing you have to have. Like, I feel like a lot of receivers either have to have blind, irrational confidence, or they are just straight up crazy. Like, you have to really want. want the ball. You can't really, there's like the whole diva thing. Like, people talk about DK Metcalf being a diva. I'm like, what great receivers are not divas? Well, it's like,

look, if you're a movie star, you want a starting role. Like, you want to be in front of the camera. And so it's hard to just shove them in like as fifth billing in a movie, even though they're Brad Pitt and tell them to be okay with it. And it's weird because it's such a weird position because like they're really only relevant like six times a game. Like six times over the course of three hours, they like do something that makes them feel good. So I feel like there's just like a lot of like pent up aggression and like you're honestly just like blue balling step on diggs it's like even though they win he's been blue balled the whole game so i do i get it to a degree it's not like a running back or a quarterback where you're you're

touching the ball in your almost every play yeah i mean you run 70 routes in a game or maybe 70 snaps you run 50 routes and then like you're open four times and if one of those times it's a tip pass and the other time the quarterback doesn't see you like how could you not explode this is the george pickens thing 100 percent i mean look we think it's frustrating in baseball it's like you're, you're only get, you know, a hit 25, 30% of the time. In football, if you're a wide receiver, how have it's like you said, what, six catches and 70 routes? Having said that, can't we be bad too?

We're bad. It's the fun things, too. I'm just saying. I mean, do. Amir Smith-Marset. You would have been better off with Lil Jordan Humphrey. That's all I'm saying. That's all.

Oh, I hate hearing that kind of thing. Yeah. Little Jordan, Humphi had a great run this week. Quite a nice catch and run. Other people who are, you know, kind of dead to us. DeAndre Swift, Derek Henry was just, I mean, not a top 30 running back over the last few weeks

in fantasy playoffs, not a top 30 running back for Derek Henry. Chris Olave, I think you got banged up, but the Chrysolave did nothing for the Saints. And that's kind of like,

the Saints just kind of got a lead in the box and didn't really have to throw. And that was bizarre. Meanwhile, then Baker Mayfield had like no points through 50 minutes and then had like 20 in the final nine minutes

of this game, which was just insane. I want to mention George Kittle, failing to show up at a very conspicuous moment, George Kittle, I believe, is the tight end four on the season. So obviously a great year, did some incredible things. I still, to this day, every time I plug him into a lineup, it makes me very nervous. Like, do you guys have players like that?

Or like, despite being top five, top 10 players in fantasy, like, I still hesitate to plug this guy into my lineup. I'm like, I just don't trust him. I don't trust the 40-9 offense. Yeah. It feels like Kittle is like, for being such a good tight end in fantasy, like he's one of those guys where when you check his averages at the end of the season, it looks like he puts up 12 a game, but in reality, he only puts up like 20 or 4? He had double digit points in two of the last six games.

He's like the Mike Williams of tight ends, kind of. Totally. It's like, and Deontos Swift feels like that to running, but you know what? Do you remember Janice early in his career? I think someone said this, maybe Kevin Garnett, someone said that people liked when Janus made the first three in a basketball. ball game because that meant that Janus would keep taking threes and that was like not the way to win.

And it's almost like, like for DeAndje Swift, I remember he had a couple games with like 160 rushing yards and I was like, I kept thinking about that. I was going to have to play this guy. Guess what? Didn't do that again. And he sucked. And I was like, I almost would have wished he did have those two games because it kept being the illusion like, oh, I'm going to make this three pointer.

And Kittle does have that element of whackamol where he's so good you have to play him, especially at tight end. But yeah, Kittle does ghost you. But then again, Kelsey was ghosting you too. So what are you going to do? Variance. Embrace variance. Embrace nihilism.

That's all. Speaking of which, yeah, Joanne Johnson was incredible. When you gave him out on Friday as a waiver? Joanne Johnson. Joanne Johnson is like good. I contend that he's good. This is one of those players that I think it's like a little bit weird

how teams utilize their personnel. You know, we always talk about like coaches not seeing the value or talent in their players. But the Saints offense has kind of leaned on him over the last couple of weeks. and he's really been incredible. He's like made some really nice plays. So I'd be very interested to see. I'll be interested to see if like this means a bigger role going forward. It's just like a flash in the pan.

Like all of a sudden the Saints just decided Taseville is not part of their offense anymore. Like I just don't know what they're doing. My brother-in-law was in the championship and I was hanging out with him this weekend. And he asked me for which tied in to start. And he had Pat Fryermouth and Kate Otten. And I went into the waiver wire and told him to start Joanne Johnson. And I'm kind of like, I'm kind of, I'm kind of, I am him now to my brother-in-law. I literally like one.

He won by like 15. So if he didn't start Joan Johnson, he would have lost. That's incredible. The, oh, there's two of the things we have to talk about. The David Tepper tantrum. Shout out to Luke. Oh my gosh. I love that name for it too.

The Tepper tantrum. The Panthers owner, David Tepper, when Bryce Young threw a pick during the Panthers game this weekend, I think it basically sealed that the Panthers are going to have the first pick, delivered to the Bears and just, you know, a wonderful cap to the Panthers trading up for number one to not take C.J. Stroud, et cetera, et cetera. David Tepper threw his drink at a fan. And, uh, which...

Did it hit a fan? Did he just throw it and it happened to hit a fan or he threw it at somebody? I can't tell. I don't know. The video is unclear, but I couldn't tell if they were already arguing and then Teper threw it or if he threw it in anger and then it happened to hit a fan. The guy turned around. But one, so many red flags in the video.

Low key. I actually think the... the biggest red flag if you watch the video is that the GM, the guy standing next to David Tapper is the general manager, Scott Fitterer of the Panthers. The biggest red flag is that he doesn't move an inch. Like, he does not in any way register this as weird or bizarre or something. Like, it's like the, you know, they can't see you if you don't move. You know what I mean? They're vision's based on movement. It's like when your dad comes home really mad from work and you're like eight years old and you're just like, don't move. Maybe he won't see me. It's like a velociraptor.

It's like as long as you don't move. Right, right. That which, also, did you show the things there? We didn't talk about this enough. David Tapper gave this crazy quotes to it. But it came out that like he, I think he was at Goldman Sachs and he didn't get promoted a partner. And so he bought the John Corzine, who actually ended up being the governor in New Jersey

at one point, but the, he bought his former boss's home on the Hamptons on the beach, which is the most expensive home in the Hamptons. And he bought it just from the guy's ex-wife just to knock it down. because his old boss didn't give him the promotion. And then he also gave this quote that sometimes when he's at a restaurant and the waiter's rude to him or what he perceives,

perceives as the waiter being rude to him, that he's David Tepper thinks about, I could just buy this restaurant and fire that guy. Which is like a super healthy thing to think about. So that's the guy who's thrown this drink. What's up? Rich people hate waiters, man. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. I don't know why, but they hate waiters. It's because they have to, you know, talk to them. And I guess it's like the only time in their lives where like something might not be perfect, like the waiter brings out, if it's not exactly how they want for some reason.

Like the waiter is the only person standing in front of them at that moment. It's like Lucille Bluth. She's never once looked, made eye contact with the waiter. So she didn't notice it was her son. You know what? It's the only time you interact with someone

at low level that you don't, like they don't work for you? Totally. That's good. To lose you, it's such a good poll. I didn't notice. Was it Joe?

So I just continued to deserve her. The other one we have to talk about here. I know this was like almost a week ago. I don't care. The Joe Flacco Browns. Flacco is on one, man. The Browns. He's on a heater.

Coming out, all these insane stats with the game. The Browns sheds, I think it was the most points in the first half in like four years, which is insane. The Browns ended up winning. The Browns are like the only AFC team that lost its quarterback for the season and kind of got better. There's so many elements of the, this that are wild. Again, Joe Flacco, who is

38. Joe Flacco's like Aaron Rogers' age. And he's just like out of here. I think it's 300 yards in a game. He's fallen asleep on the sideline. Did you see this video of him sort of like nodding off? He's just like on the sideway. This is like how I feel at all times.

He's a father of five. You're just tired at this age. He's got gray in his beard. He's going to be 39 in two weeks. When you get an opportunity for some shut eye, I mean, you take it. Even if it's just little mini naps. Joe Flacco's been married for 13 years. He has five kids. Oh, I can't even imagine that.

Peter King pointed this out that Joe Flacco has essentially the exact same amount of touchdowns and interceptions as Deshaun Watson does in like one third of the games as a brown, which is ridiculous. He was originally signed for $100,000 for the rest of the season. And I think they kept giving him another $50 grand when he wins. He had more 300-yard games in a row than he ever had in his career. Like he's never done this before. So I say this. The other part of this that's ridiculous is it has opened up. What I will somewhat confidently say is the single most awkward awards debate of all time.

Maybe not just in sports, but released in sports, which is... I had this exact conversation this weekend, Hyvitz. Comeback player of the year, which, let's be real, most people do not care about. No one has thoughts. No one has opinions on obedience. It's never on first. No one has arguments with thoughts and come back and player of the year. It's, you give it Alex Smith.

You broke your leg. He came back. Good job. Like, Andrew Locke, her your shoulder. Yeah. And now we have to actually talk about who deserves comeback player of the year. Joe Flacco, who we thought was retired out of the league coming back, resurgence, or Tamara Hamlin, who died last year.

Literally on the field. And now he's back. Remember that guy? We watched Die on television and I was playing, but not that much. Who gets to, and I'm like, this is the weirdest, this is the weirdest conversation I think I've ever had to have. It's like, people who really are like, man, it's so peace. for DeMar Hamlin to win. I'm like, I don't know, man.

He kind of died. That's like a comeback. If you have an opinion on this, like you're a bad person. Like, if you have a strong opinion on this. I don't have a strong opinion, but is it bad that I'm kind of like,

we should probably give it to Flacco. I don't know. I don't know. No, but Hamlet doesn't play. He doesn't play. He's got two tackles this year. Yeah, that's the thing.

Hamlin had two tackles. And I'm kind of like... Give him a different award. Give him like the lifetime achievement. Honor him in some other way. But I don't think he actually reflects what this, this whole award is supposed to be like guy who came back and played football.

Let's the award, first, like, comeback to the year is weird because you know, I'm uncomfortable. We can't be having this discussion. I'm going to shut this down.

We can't be debating this. We can honor him in many ways, but with this specific award, it should probably be the guy who's like actually playing football. That's all. The Dwight Hamlin thing, it did become,

obviously it's fantastic that he, never mind, just came back, but he like survived and everything's amazing. But like, it did at some point, kind of delve into like the cringe of like everyone kind of the NFL obviously kind of used

it as rightfully but also a little much as an opportunity to going to shower it on first responders and everything and they did a lot good but then also like his his uniforms retired on the ambulance at bills which is kind of a wild place of your uniform retired like the ambulance at they carry other players off the field at bills games and shut the doors and it's the damar hamelin three on both doors and i'm like i just feel weird about that and so giving him comeback player the year is also a little bit, they're going to trot them up on the award stage. I'm like, hey, remember when you died last July? That's also weird. The whole thing is just bizarre.

And I don't know, I've, I've, I've never felt so flat-footed about a conversation in my entire life. And I feel so unprepared to discuss this. That's my point. It's like, we don't, we can choose just to not talk about this. I feel like we're ignoring it. We can, we don't have to do anything. We don't have to debate this. I'm not even debating it.

Whoever wins it can, we could be like, okay. All right. Noted. That's that, okay, that's fine. Yeah, moving on. You know what I was thinking to? I feel like that's, I was kind of like, oh, maybe Flacco should. You know, it's like the guy, the, the meme who he's like, no, well, we don't have to have both.

We can have both things. You know, like the, I'm not going to engage in this argument meme from the guy that was getting interviewed on the streets. He was just like, no, we don't have to choose. We don't have to have this debate. This is a false equivalence or whatever. We can just do that. You guys are looking at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. Do you know what I'm talking about?

A man on the street interview? Okay, you don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know. The ghosts know what I'm talking about. So whatever, it's fine. We can move on from this analogy as well. I like how I'm comfortable it makes D.K., though. As of December 30th,

well, you guys are just looking at me like I'm insane. So I didn't know what reference you were making. As of December 30th, Joe Flacco is plus 130 and DeMarie Hamlin is minus 165. So it's getting tight. Dude, that was like minus 10,000 before the season. It was literally unbettable for a number. other person to be. Producer Carlos just texted.

He knows the reference. So I'm hoping people know what I'm talking about. I'm just saying it's funny. We don't have to talk about it as the point. We can move on. I've been trying to move us on from this conversation for five minutes. It makes me want to stay. I want to hear Craig's part.

We don't have to debate whether Debar Hamlin is the comeback player of the year. Like we don't have to do this. I'm willing to do that. We're not disrespecting him in any way. We're just trying to figure out what this rule is supposed to reflect. And it's usually, in my opinion, people who are playing the game. He's not playing. It's amazing that he survived.

It was like the most incredible story ever. But he's not a comeback player of the year. He's not, he's barely a player. Isn't he? He's got two tackles. Great. He's playing in five games. I'm saying, honor him in a different way.

Okay. Joe Flaggo literally came back and played really well. That is what the award is. Gino Smith won it last year. He figuratively came back from the dead. So, you know. That's right. So he deserves the award more.

I'm just picturing like, I know they don't do this, but the Oscars, you know, like they show all the people and then the winner gets up and thanks to the other nominees. And I'm just picturing like Flacco getting up and accepting the award and being like, thanks to me. Looking at Damar Hamlin. This is absurd. I like explaining someone who's wondering what's going on. But yeah, well, Joe Flacco, you know, he thought he was out of the going to retire and he came

back, played really well for Cleveland. And Debar Hamlet, he died on television. And he came back. Was in the in memoriam for nine minutes. And then they pulled him from that. And now he's back. I just, this was really weird, man.

I don't know. D.K. is so uncomfortable. I don't know why. Why? Everything's all right. DeMar hymn is healthy. We all saw it. The story ended happy. We're okay.

It didn't end happy enough, Craig. He needs to win to come back player of the year. No, that's really, you get maddish to him. That's what he's banking on. That's the other thing I've got to like, DeMar Eamlin gives a shit about this.

award. Like, can you imagine DeMarie would be mad at it with this? Like, that's, I'm kind of like, I don't think he cares. Why should we care?

All right. Trying to decide if he would care now. Well, I would just ask him. I bet he's talked about it. Just Google it. I don't know.

Yeah. All right. Anyway, a couple emails. I just, shout out, Craig, on the Friday show,

D.K. was talking about crescendo songs. Turn out to get a whole crescendo playlist of like, do you know what? Do you know the crescendo is? Like, can you picture it?

Yeah. Yeah. I think we got, I lost track of the amount of emails we got. I asked people to, I solicited crescendo songs. Cannot tell you how many, I can't even go through them all right now. People love a good crescendo, apparently. Yeah. But keep emailing us your crescendo songs, please.

I'll make a playlist based on all the suggestions. How about that? I think we're going to have to make a playlist. And we will thank you to everyone email them and we'll put them all in. But like, it's pretty incredible. And a lot of people said in multiple songs. I will throw in my one goodbye to the world. by Porter Robinson incredible.

But so I can't, I think we have a hundred something songs. I can't miss them all. That's rad. Okay. Yeah, we'll make a playlist. What is your favorite crescendo song? That's a good question. I think off the top of my head is like a,

I don't actually remember the name of the song. It's an M83 song. And it's just like slow buildup. And obviously that's a crescendo. But anyways, I'll try and remember, hold on, pull it up while you guys are talking. Yeah, that's slow build songs. Would you consider, most like EDM songs,

crescendo songs? Oh, like when you're like, and the beat drops. Kind of, yeah. Like, kind of. That's not really what I was going for, but I suppose technically, yeah. Okay.

Just like, what's the, is it the S&L skate, like when the beat drops and all their heads start exploding? Yes. There's a song called Opus by Eric Pryds. I don't know if you guys have heard of it. And if you ever want to run 28 miles an hour,

put that song on. 28. It takes three minutes and I think 42 seconds for the song to drop. But when it does, by then, you feel like you're at the end of Remember the Titans and you could run through a wall. You're Isaiah Pacheco at the end of the song, yeah. Maybe he just has AirPods in. He's listening to Eric Pryds.

The song I was trying to think of was Solitude by M83. But there's like a lot. There's a lot of good ones. Someone else brought up Only in Dreams by Weezer, great crescendo song. We got just a couple ones. modern girl, dry the rain, and then we got a lot of radio head. They're there by radiohead was a...

It's like their thing, apparently. Yeah, a lot of radio head. Probably was the largest. But emails from Rearfacey Football at Gmail.com. What about, is Foreplay long time by Boston a crescendo song? I don't know if the top of my head. You know that song by Boston?

I mean, I'm sure I'd recognize it. I can't think of it. Boston's like a peak band for me that I think I know a lot of their music, but like the names of the songs are just, no idea. I think a lot of 80s songs. Was it 80s or 90s? or whatever it was.

I think 80s. 80s. A lot of those songs, back in the day, they were like, you'd have like a three-minute, like, intro. You know what I mean?

Like, they didn't adhere to like normal pop music sort of standards. This was a trivia question. You know what? I feel like one of the most famous slow build songs is,

oh, I'm forgetting it now. In the air tonight, but Phil Collins. Oh, yeah. That's a perfect example. So that's a crescendo song. Okay.

I think so. Do you. Well, it's funny. music and movies are doing the opposite. In the 70s and 80s, songs were long and movies were short, and now movies are long and songs are short. By the way, Craig is wearing a make-movie shorter hat currently. Damn straight.

Damn straight. When Harry met Sally, 95 minutes. Really? In and out. You know what? I'm going to think. We'll come back to. You can move on with your day.

Think about how jam-packed that movie is. It kind of feels like a long movie, too, because it spans, like, several decades. There's a lot of growth. There's B plots and C plots. There's side characters who develop. But is that at some level an insecurity about television being so ubiquitous now that if you, why should I pay $17 to watch a 90-minute movie when like there are plenty

of TV shows that are like 70 minutes? I don't know. I think it's a product of streaming. I think it's a product of like director bidding. wars. I don't know. I think superhero movies have contributed to it. It's a lot of stuff. All right. Make movies shorter. Movie shorter. All right. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig.

Thank you, Carlos, for producing this episode. Thank you. Tucker. Thank you. Everyone behind the scenes. Thank you everyone for listening. If you won your championship, thank you. We have also, I meant to say this earlier, but there's also a lot of, you can post this on Twitter, but there's a lot of athletes that they have charities. If you want to thank, like, I don't know, Zipa Checo or whoever, you know, running like these bites people. Any players you have that you feel like won your league, there's a whole list of players with preferred charities that you can donate to.

And I would gently recommend larger-scale charities than necessarily a player-specific one because those are generally more efficient with their money. But we can post the list. And if you have any players you speak like Lamar Jackson, like all these guys have charities they're associated with. If you want to donate any portion of your winnings, you can throw that to them. So yeah, thank you. Everyone for listening to us.

We really appreciate it. Thank you to all the players. who won of your leagues. Happy New Year. And thank you, everyone for sticking with us. We really,

really appreciate it. It means a lot to us that you guys listen. It's been fantastic. And hopefully you guys stick with us more. We got the NFL draft show. And if you guys haven't stuck with us before, like I promise you,

like it's somehow weird and more unhaged. And I think we're the best draft show in the game. So thank you, Evan, for listening. And of course, thank you, Lord. Lord.

Thank you, filter. Another great Cichendo song. Hey man, nice shot. We talked about it on the last show, but it's just like Craig that's another one where if you want to listen to this song when you're running

by the end of the song you're going like twice as fast as you think you can. That's why I say hey man, nice shot. It's great. You do. I don't listen to OPEC.

You start running like Pacheco. You're running like Jim Carrey and Dumbendover. Should that be the name of the playlist? You're running like Pacheco? Running like Pacheco. I want to see Pacheco. Cheko run out some stairs. Dude, we should get him.

We knew the Chiefs to not make the Super Bowl so we can get Pacheco at the Pro Bowl, doing like random stuff, like Dodge Bowl. I just want to see that guy doing stuff. In the old days, they would have made a sports center commercial with him. Like, this is how he does everything. Just like running hard to the water cooler. Those sports center commercials are the best YouTube wormhole to go down and just like the supercut of all the sports center commercials.

Oh, they're so good. The wonderful Dating and Dom was. is in the mailroom, but the visory can't read the mail. I like the one of Scott Van Pelt, and he's sitting in LeBron James' like throne chair. And LeBron's like, hey, Scott, did you by chance switch chairs with me? And Scott's like, no.

Locke, the best one is like the Oregon duck just sitting at his computer typing and looking out the window at the ducks on the bond. And he just sighs. Oh, that's good. Emails at Rear Fantasy Football. And you know, your favorite, this is sports center commercials.

Or I like the one of the New Jersey devil in the elevator. He goes, going up. And he just shakes his head, no. Also the Ovechkin, Russian spy. Oh, I don't know that. I don't remember that one. All the ghosts are probably yelling about Terry Tate office linebacker to. Oh, Terry Tate.

Terry Tate. I mean, that was such a big deal for me. Wrecking people. Terry Tate. Dude, do you think, You kill the Joe, you make some more. You know that, baby? That's actually, is this like, was that a ESPN commercial or was that just a random

other commercial? No, there was like Office Depot or something. Okay. So it was like an, and there was like an extended cut of it. There's like, it's like, it's like Reebok. Five minutes of it, it feels like. If you have, do not know we're talking about, a literal 10 out of 10 recommendation is to YouTube.

Terry Tate Office Linebacker. Terry Tate Office Linebacker, which I'm now realizing is OLB. Ha. I didn't realize, but we should get Terry Tatto on the show. Sure. Do you think he's like a cameo? I don't know. I literally have never wondered that, so maybe.

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