The Ringer NFL Show - Super Bowl Awards

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

Live from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Heifetz, DK, and Craig give out awards for Super Bowl 56 including the Have Your Cake and Eat It Too Award, the Boca Raton Retirement Award, the Scrooge McDuck Award, Best Commercial, and more. Email us at [e-mail]! Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right. The Super Bowl is over. The Rams are Super Bowl champions. We're going to get through everything you want to know about the game. But first, quick programming note, we are going to be the Ringer NFL draft show moving forward. It's the same feed. You don't got to change feeds. But on this feed, we're going to rename it the Ringer NFL draft show. It's going to be DK, Ben Solek, me, Craig. We're going to be learning about the draft. It's going to be great. Coming to every Tuesday, the rest of February.

We're going to be Tuesdays and Thursdays starting in March. We're going to go through all the way through the draft. It's going to be a lot of fun. Okay. let's get to the Super Bowl. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hefitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck.

The Super Bowl is over. The Rams won. It is 23 to 20. Rams are Super Bowl champions. D.K. and I are here. We were in the press box. Now we are literally sitting in the stands because this is actually the best place to record quietly

somehow is in the open in the stands. Craig was at home. We're going to go through everything and give out the awards. And let's just get into it right away. I don't know. We have a lot of names for this. Having your cake and eating it to.

the Promise Land Award, whatever you want to call it. But like, all of these rich and famous and talented people who went to Los Angeles and be like, let's just do it all. Let's just be rich and famous and live in this sexy city and like try to see if we can just win a Super Bowl. And they did it. They all did it. They all did it worked. You know, like every person who moves to L.A., like they're trying to become an actor and like hope it all works out. That's what happened to every single person on the Rams. Like, I want my life to turn out how the 2022 Rams did. It all came together. And I'm happy with it. It's like the Seth Rogen world. It's like they all became like super

famous. It's like they all did it. Are there going to be spin-off movies for everything for each of these guys? Yeah, Odell's getting a Netflix series. There's going to be the Stafford and his wife moving from Detroit to LA series. There's going to be everything. So, like, I think it's just crazy because, like, we've been talking about for like three or four years that this team was like all in to the point where I think it got really

annoying that phrase all in. But like, they were all in. Like, they don't, they haven't had a first run pick since 2016. The Rams are not going to have a first run pick until 2024. I think they gave away their own, like, original every pick in this year's draft through like the first four rounds. And it worked.

I heard somebody on PFF. I heard somebody on PFF used this funny term. Maybe you guys have, I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know how new or old it is, but they were talking about how, like you said, it's the last three or four years. All we've been hearing about is how the Rams are all in. And this was like what less need and Crunky wanted, blah, blah. The guy was like, they've been Rams spaining.

That like, what they're doing. It's been Rams planning the entire time. I thought that was good. I think the key thing that we have to point out, though, too, is it's not just the Rams, like picking up a bunch of free agents and trades and all this big, like the big name things. They've done really good job at using their later round picks to find guys that specifically fit their mold, specifically fit what they want to do. So it has been, I think, you know, obviously that's going to be the big narrative.

But I do want to point out it has been them hitting on later round picks. And they actually have picked a bunch of times over the last few years. Just not in the first round. They actually have picked the second. Haven't they picked the second most amount of draft picks in the last five or six years? Just, yeah, all the later days. I think I did. I saw a graphic of it.

It was like, yeah, they had the actual volume of picks has been really high. the actual draft capital in terms of like the value of those picks because you know each pick is assigned a certain amount of value first round picks are way more valuable than like a fourth or whatever and so um but they've i think they've been one of like the lowest and overall value but the total number like the volume that they've gone through is pretty good so um credit to the rams obviously for the like the vision for making some of those trades getting oda beka um obviously that was a big pick for pick up for them um you know making these trades obviously stafford came in and did huge things for them but they also

had a bunch of late round picks that played key, key roles for them throughout the years and in this game. So, yeah, it was kind of like a cool way that they went about building this. It's not something I think anybody could recreate, really, because it's just a bunch of unique players. But yeah, it was a fun game to watch. And I don't know. That's, yeah, I don't know what I'll say. Can I ask you guys a stupid question? This might be oversimplified, but obviously this worked, right?

What the Rams did worked. But is this still a stupid way to go about it? Like, did they just get pretty lucky and it was the perfect storm and all of the stars aligned? And, like, in general, this is not a way you should run a franchise. Well, I would answer that, actually. Can we zoom out for a second? This probably isn't like the best way to start the show, but we're here. I think that it's not even just that.

We kind of have to zoom out to what Stan Cronky did as the owner of the Rams. Like, I think I give him the, I'm going to give him the Scrooge McDuck Award of, like, the rich billionaire who had this, like, crazy insane plan that's worked. Like, Stan Cronkey is a billionaire from St. Louis who literally his name is, Enos Stanley Cronkey, like he's named after two famous St. Louis Cardinals, backstabs the city of St. Louis where he's from, and moves the team to Los Angeles, builds a $5 billion stadium that's like more than twice as expensive as any other stadium, and then goes on this like relentless campaign of adding all these players to put the Rams

in a home Super Bowl to be a giant commercial for one, the $5 billion stadium, and two, the Rams as a franchise as football's back in LA and plant the seeds of fandom for what is honestly like kind of a fair weather, winning, oriented fan-based town in Los Angeles. And it worked. It's like GMO. It's like a GMO with food. It's like a genetically modified football team.

Like that's what this feels like. The short answer also is it's not replicable because athletes just don't want to just come and live in Buffalo. Like it's L.A., it's New York or it's Miami. Like those are the cities. Buffalo catches at Buffalo. Ouch. Who was that player who said that he had,

they asked them why he had like a kid or two or three or something while he was in the bills. He's like, well, there's nothing else to do. There's nothing else to do in Buffalo. But anyway, so, no, it's like, this is, honestly, it is kind of stupid. And I think that there's process versus outcome. I think we need to respect the fact that, like, the Rams were a couple plays away from the Bengals beating the Rams. And we might be sitting here saying, well, that was really stupid.

The Rams had this score. And now all these guys are going to retire and, like, it would be over. So, like, yeah, they got lucky that it worked. And, like, good for them putting the working. But yeah, they absolutely got a little lucky. This, like, crazy plan worked. You go all in, you might lose. Okay.

let's get to like the more specific players. We got to start with Matt Stafford. Yeah. I mean, I think so the big story here obviously is Stafford comes over in his first year with the Rams. Leads them to a Super Bowl. Leads them on the game winning drive. Obviously, you know, I think the cool thing about this is, and I've been kind of saying this all years, like there was some questions. People had a lot of questions whether he was really that much of an upgrade over Jared Goff coming in.

I think there's a lot of people that still doubt Matt Stafford and like what he's done in his career. I think he's too prone. That's been debunked, right? Isn't that the whole point of this? No, it's people, narratives die hard, my friends. I think obviously some people may be, maybe, you know, convinced a little bit. He's at least in a different tier now career-wise, right? Like, he's not- 100%. Yeah. Here's where the discussion's going to go. Instead of saying, like, is he an elite quarterback, or is he a top-tier quarterback or whatever it is that people are arguing about.

Now we're going to start talking about whether he's a Hall of Famer, which just kill me now. Like, I hate those discussions. But that's where we're going. Obviously, bottom line, though, Stafford comes in. It's worked beautifully. Some of the throws that he made in this game are like, in no universe can I see Jared Goff making these plays. So, like, I think they were vindicated in their decision to go out and make this really, really aggressive move. It could have gone horribly. And I think if they would have lost this game, I think people may still look at it as like not as a failure or whatever.

And so I think in terms of just narratives and big picture stuff, I think that was a cool thing. It was a cool story. just he came in and did exactly what they wanted him to do. They want a fucking Super Bowl. I think you're right, D.K., like, in reality, we live life based on process, but, like, narratives and myths and legacies are based on results. And, like, you look at this game and when he was a line, Matt Stafford was going to be like an Archie Manning type,

played in a horrible team forever, and just one of those guys like, oh, well, what if he had been in a good team? What could he have done? Like, it's almost like a Damian Lillard on the Blazers. Like, you stick to a team. There were obviously the lines are worse than the Blazers, but, like, oh, what could have been? And then, like, he's on one good team for one year,

and he wins the Super Bowl. And so that completely turns this hypothetical into like a very real, like a fact. He won the Super Bowl. It just kind of makes you think differently about like, I don't know, the position in general now. It's like, now to me, in my mind, like I'm thinking like, God,

if Stafford was just drafted by a good team, maybe he'd have three rings. Maybe we'd be like, think he's a consensus Hall of Famer. Maybe there's other quarterbacks who are like this that we don't think about. Maybe Kirk Cousins is like that. I don't know.

Oh, absolutely. I also have a question for D.K., to the fickleness of all this stuff. I think that last drive they had where they took the lead. Stafford had two of the best throws I've ever seen, but y'all said the worst one, what would have gone down is like the worst of his career.

And like talk about things that like reverse, like reverse two plays, the Rams lose. Stafford just missed Cooper Cufford, I think it was, no, it was Van Jefferson in the back of the end zone on the back right, literally sailed the ball by like it wasn't even close. And like he was, Van was wide open. And if the Rams lost,

that would have been like in some ways maybe the defining play of Stafford's career. And then he comes right back and whips this like sidearm throw to I think it was Cooper Cup went to a guy that was 98% covered and he put it in the 2% and it was just one of those like

oh, that's why they went and got him because he can do that and then obviously the touchdown pass at the end of cup but I think that's when D.K. just said like things Goff couldn't do I think about Goff couldn't miss the guy in the back

but bouncing back with this like crazy matrix bending pass is why he just won honestly. The convenient part for the Stafford deniers, the people that Stafford Doubters, I think, is that, like, yeah, that last drive was partway really mesmerizing and impressive and awesome. And then also he missed that throw in the end zone. They got lucky, honestly, on a couple of calls that could have gone either way. You know, there was a holding call.

I think that, like, gave them a new set of downs, all that stuff. So, um, oh, get out of here. He left a little bit of people. Like, okay, he missed one throw. So it's like he sucks now. Like, who's perfect? You are. No, it was the end of the game. If they lost, like, that, that throw would, the reality is that throw would have to find it from that. that throw on television, I'm sure you guys get into replay wherever you were sitting and stuff, but like, he was clearly trying to make sure that only Van could catch that pass because if he kept it too low, it would have gotten intercepted. So he definitely played it safe.

It wasn't like a, I don't think he just like blatantly missed him. I think he was clearly trying to keep the ball high so he could ensure it wouldn't get intercepted. That's probably fair. And he let it sail. You're preaching to the choir, Craig. You're preaching to the choir. I'm just saying he left a little bit of opening for the doubters to thrive, something for

them to feed on. Are you leading into the haters stuff DK? Yeah, what are we talking about? Also, I mean, Matt Stafford's first half, the first half of this game. I'm not leading it to. What are you talking about? Also, I hate the, like, the haters shit when it's, like, one of the most beloved athlete. I think Stafford is just, like, approved of as an athlete as, like, any quarterback that hasn't

actually, like, been to the playoffs. Totally. One time, whatever. Like, I don't think anyone is like. What are you talking about? You think people hate Stafford. People are so, people think he sucks. I think it's a very loud minority on Twitter.

I'm saying, people who have accomplished this little, like, I think that he's, he's beloved widely. Yeah, I think people like him. Maybe they, like, if they don't, whatever, about his skill. But I think people are generally like, like, like, has a high approval rating. Anyone who hasn't been in the division around is going to be. He's not Kurt Cousins. Yeah, exactly.

He's, like, by a factor of 10, he's more likely than Kirk Cousins. Anyway, we got to talk about Cooper Cup. Yes. Because, I mean, my God, the fact that they had two weeks to cover this guy and then Odell gets out, I mean, I mean, D.K., what do you make? You're writing about Cooper Cup. What do you make of them? I mean, so, like, you, you.

You can't, he, he maybe has the best receiver season of all time. Like, yeah, when you really all boil it down. So he wins the triple crown, most catches, most yards, most touchdowns, all pro player. And by the way, he caught the most catches of any player in an NFL postseason ever, 33, 33 catches in these playoffs. Offensive player of the year, which he won this week. And now, Super Bowl MVP is a Super Bowl MVP. Two touchdown catches in this game. He catches the game, yeah, game winning touchdown.

You know, I think just, and it's not just the overall volume of, like, catches and yards and touchdowns that he had. It's like his value to this team, though, has been really, really important throughout the whole year. Like, basically, if they need you to make a play, Cooper Cup is the guy. We got a, you know, man coverage. I'm going to beat my guy on third down or fourth down and get there and get the, like, he had a fourth down conversion where he ran the ball on a sweep, got that. That was a crucial play. You know, he's just done everything that, like, a. elite, elite player will do.

And so I just wanted to like point it out, like, maybe not the greatest receiver season of all time, but like certainly one of the top three. Like, I mean, I mean, at the very least, like, he's in the, like, I don't think it's as important. Nothing when it comes to ranking is as important. In my mind, is tears. I think it's like, including fantasy football.

Like, you get the Randy Moss 2007 season and you get Cooper Cups this season. And like, obviously I wasn't old enough to like see Jerry Rice in the 80s and stuff. But like, obviously Jerry Rice is some of the best season. seasons ever. But like, you just need to get them in the tiers. And I don't think it's fair to compare eras. Obviously, Jerry Rice's seasons are probably the best. But like, if you, the fact that he's in the conversation, like, Cooper Cup can be compared to Randy Mosson 07. He can at least be talked about with the Jerry Rice stuff and like with a completely straight face. And I think it's incredible, as D.K said, that Cooper Cup had the regular season that he had. And then in

this game, it was like everything had gone wrong. Higby the Rams tight end, like, didn't even play. And then you've got O'Dell Beckham, who's like the Ned Stark of this game, really, the game begins and you think this game's going to be about O'Dell. Like, they went punt, touchdown, punt, touchdown. And O'Dell was the reason, like, I think they really went 76 yards and like four plays, basically from O'Dell. And like, you're like, O'Dell's going to win MVP.

I heard in the press, he gets hurt. I heard in the press box, someone near me said, as O'Dell went down, he immediately grabbed his knee and someone was like, there goes the MVP award. I think they were right. And the fact, and then Cooper, like, the Rams had this valley where like Ben Scobronic, my God, did he have a terrible game? And then Cooper Cup. Terrible post season.

Oh, yeah. That bless his heart. That was not his finest. But like, the fact that everyone in the world watching this game was like, wow, the Rams really need Cooper Cup. And then Cooper Cup delivered is like the clutchness on top of the numbers is unbelievable. That's what it is, hey, that's what I was going to say. It's like, yes, perhaps he's not in the Jerry Rice, Randy Moss Stratis.

but he's in the conversation and what he is in terms of, you know, I couldn't watch Jerry Rice in the 80s. Watching Cooper Cup now, he is the most clutch wide receiver I think I've seen in a long time. He comes up in big moments more than any other guy. There are games when Devante Adams disappears in the fourth. Like, Cooper Cup

Cup is always there to make the big play. I thought it was unbelievable. Can we, I got to flip to the other side of the ball. I'm going to give a special award here. The only person I've ever seen get triple teamed in a Super Bowl award. Like Aaron. Scoronic?

I mean, yeah. Yes. Dude, did you see the meme of Aeron Donald getting triple teamed by the three Bengals defenders? No. It's funny. If you just look it up, like, just you search Aeron Donald or whatever. Like, you'll probably see it. There's a meme of them getting triple team.

And it's just, it's unbelievable. The Rams had, how many, did they finish with eight sacks in this game? Seven, which is the super thing. Seven, but like the last play spiritually was a sack. So seven ties the Super Bowl record. I think they only had one in the first half. So they had six sacks in the second half. They had five switched.

in the third quarter, which set a record in the Super Bowl. They have five sacks on 12 dropbacks in the third quarter. To put that in perspective, I'm pretty sure the Giants, when they beat the Patriots in Super Bowl 42, and the whole thing was the Giants Pass Rush, they had five in like the whole game. So the thing about five sacks in a quarter, I think there was this great note,

Seth Wald or ESPN, said that the Rams had an 86% pass rush win weight, which is a fancy way of saying, like, by one metric, it's the best pass rush game for any team all season. The cool part too is about They started out the game Kind of quiet Like I remember talking about it all week long Like you know

How are the Bengals going to block This Rams defensive line? I was really worried about that for the Bengals I just didn't really know how they were going to adjust to that Is a massive massive disadvantage But early in the game it really didn't seem to be that big of a deal Obviously it was like it was still in the mind

They were getting rid of the ball They were getting rid of the ball They were talking about the whole first half He was like I've never seen Burrow get rid of the ball This quickly before Yeah just immediately hits his back foot gets where the ball. They had a whole bunch of designs to get the ball out quickly.

And it was working pretty well, obviously. But as the game went on, and I think actually the Rams had a plan here, and you got to give credit to their coaching staff for this. Like, basically they didn't do anything too exotic early on in the game. But as the game started going on, started getting later in the game,

it was like they had been setting up their punches earlier in the game. Then they finally started to connect on some like haymakers. They started moving Aaron Donald around. They started putting him next to Von Miller. and just making it really, really difficult for the Bengals to, like, triple team him like they were early in the game. And so he ended up, like, the pastors just started heating up. Like, they started getting a ton of, ton of pressure. And then Joe Burrow, you know, for as good as he was in this game and as quick as he was getting the ball out,

he was still just couldn't react quickly enough. And Hyatt said, like Hyatt said, they finished with, I think the Rams finished with seven sacks, but that last play of the game basically was a throwaway. What did they call it? It was a complete definition. Yeah. But, like, it was spiritually, it was a. sack. And I think

the thing with Aaron Donald in that last play, also can we just talk about how the sausages made real quick? The way the Super Bowl MVP voting works is like, they actually ask you to vote like midway through the fourth quarter and then you can update your vote. But if we're being honest, I'm not sure that everyone does or takes the time to think about it as much as you would think. They're too busy. I think the actual reality, because they have to get it to the award stage in time and count it and all that jazz.

I got to tell you the truth, I think that if they asked people at the end of the game, Aaron Donald would have the MVP, but people change their award after Cooper Cup caught the touchdown. But I watched that game and I thought Aaron Donald was the MVP. Now, it's potato potato, right? Cooper Cup was incredible. I just talked about how clutchy was at the end. It's not a bad vote.

But I think that I also think it's interesting. Aaron Donald, now two Super Bowl appearances. One, they tie the Super Bowl record for sacks. The other, they held the Patriots to their lowest point total in a Super Bowl, like, of the trilogy. And there's all this talk before the game that Aaron Donald will might retire. I feel like in a weird way, we haven't talked about this specifically enough, but Craig, do you feel like Garand Donald is the best player

of our lifetime and then Dick, you've been alive longer, but I'm curious as both of you think Aaron Donald's actually the best defensive player you've ever seen. Yeah, I would say so, right? Probably, you know, guys like Ed Reed and Ray Lewis,

I feel like growing up were the two that, like, we're always, like, the biggest, most successful defensive players. But yeah, I mean, I think he probably might be, and I think wanting him to get the MVP tonight, he definitely earned it, but I think Cupp had just as good as game as him, but it was almost like it felt like a career achievement,

like I wanted to give it to him based on everything. thing he had done for his entire career, you know? I mean, as you said it before, the Rams had the best pass rush win rate of any team, of any game this entire season. So I do kind of feel like

it probably should have been Aaron Donald. I mean, I don't really care that much about the Super Bowl MVP award, but... This is back-to-back Super Bowl is where the game has essentially been decided because of a good pass rush.

Yeah. And so I would probably have given it to Donald. I surely would have given it to Donald, but that's not taking anything away from Cup. I just think he's been really, really dominant. in terms of like greatest player of all time, you know, obviously quarterbacks have an outsized effect on the game,

so I think you have to put quarterbacks a little bit higher than any other player on the field. But in terms of the greatest defensive players of all time, you know, he's going to be up there probably with like Lawrence Taylor's. Here's how you know. I really think he is. By the time,

it's all said that. You know how famous and how good Aaron Donald is, is he is probably the only defensive tackle that anybody in America can name. Oh my God. Craig, he literally was asked that after the game. I was in the press conference,

and Aaron Donald literally got asked by someone, you are like the only recognizable defensive lineman, or at least defensive tackle. And he was like, did you envision doing that when he came to the league? I mean, we could probably pull the audio from what his answer. It was really cool.

And he basically said, I wanted to be a pro bowler. I wanted to be an all pro. And he said, if we're being honest, I'm paraphrasing. But he basically said up and being honest, like,

I have surpassed all of my goals. Which is funny to hear because, like, I always think of these guys in terms of like Tom Brady, where it's like, Tom Brady sets these crazy expectation goals of these impossible things and works so hard

and then reaches it. It was pretty funny to hear someone who, I mean, Aaron Donald, I mean, he's, I believe the only player in the Super Bowl era

to be first team all pro seven times in a row. And like to hear him say like, yeah, like I wasn't even aiming to do that. It's almost like there's another path to greatness. It's kind of interesting to hear that like right after Brady

kind of talked about what drove him. We can pivot right into my, One of my awards I'm going to give is the, it's the Boca Raton Award for the most retirements after a single game. I've never seen so much talk about retiring before the game, during the game. Rodney Harrison dropped a nuke and was like, Aaron Donald might retire if he wins the Super Bowl. Everybody was like, what?

He's 30 years old. You know, multiple defensive player in the years. He's like currently very much in his prime. And then, you know, earlier this week, there was the interview with Sean McVey where he talked about how he doesn't want to coach forever and potentially he's thinking

about walking away from the game early and then Eric Weddell retires on Mike after the game in a post game interview Andrew Whitworth is 40 years old he's likely going to retire a lot of careers

potentially coming to an end but we should probably talk about the Donald one first how did you guys find out that news literally in the press box or we were coming in I don't remember I just remember seeing that and being like what

but yeah here's like here's the thing he's literally the best player in football, like on defense, at least. And like Tom Brady just retired and Tom Brady might have been the best quarterback in football. It's kind of nuts. I know, but Brady's in a whole different generation. I don't know. It's a good point.

I do wonder how it will go. I kind of lean that he's not going to do it. So I think for me, it made more sense watching him literally talk at the press conference because he walked in with his children. I don't remember if he had two or three, but his daughter was there. He was really cute. He told his daughter a long time ago he promised her that she would get. to like do a snow angel and confetti and she got to do it.

But like just seeing him with his children, I think you sometimes forget like how much time it takes to be that good at something. Like it doesn't matter even if whatever it is, football, basketball, a sport, anything else. Like any like extraordinarily competitive field, movies, acting, whatever it is. And like there's someone that's like so much better than everybody else. Like a tiger, like all these professional golfers that are incredible. And then Tiger Woods's heads and shoulder above them, Aaron Donald Tom Brady.

you forget how much time it takes to do that. And like Aaron Donald having children, it's like, maybe he doesn't want to do this. Like, maybe he looks and it's like, that's about as good as I possibly could do. Let me like see my kids, like go to school. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe this is going to be a new trend.

Obviously, we saw Andrew Luck do it. Like, maybe this is millennials. Maybe we're just like, you know what? I have enough money. Fuck it. I'm going to retire and just like have a good time. That's going to be a meme. That's going to be a meme, Craig.

But like, it really probably is. Yeah. Like I really do actually think the younger generation probably has a completely different attitude toward this stuff. because you kind of get to know older players and you hear what older players think and like, there are a lot of older players you ask him

that, like, wish they, they all think they stayed too long, quite honestly. Also, like, like, by the way, I think it's going to be interesting to see how this goes down because his retirement may be contingent upon what the team does overall during the off season, right? Like if Sean McVeigh leaves,

Sean McVeigh, this has been sort of like an open secret and I'm glad they finally reported it last week. Like, I've heard this for literally all season long. Like if McVeigh wins the Super Bowl, he wants to go do like, you know, Monday night football or whatever. He's getting married this summer. He wants to have children. And so, someone else.

Also, it makes sense. Like, imagine being 30 years old and just getting this head coaching job and like being the face of a move to the second biggest city in America and like all the fame that's come when he was just a guy at 28, 29 years old. Yeah. So if he retired, if he does. And I use the word retire. If he takes time off, because he's probably the type of guy who, you know, go make a 20 million

in year doing TV for a little while. and then eventually he'll get the itch to go back to football. But, you know, if he does decide to step away from the game for now, that could change things. If the Rams, you know, they've got some decisions to make with a lot of players. They've got a lot of free agents. O'Dell Beckham is a free agent. They have to figure out what they're going to do with Stafford long term.

If they decide to go different directions and things start to crumble, you know, as you've seen, you see this with really strong Super Bowl teams, super bowl winning teams. In a normal year, it's hard for Super Bowl teams to, like, bounce back the next year. And this year could be even worse for a lot of reasons, because of all the question marks with his team. So I don't know, like if McVeigh leaves, if Beckham leaves,

and obviously Beckham's future is impacted now by his knee injury potentially, maybe that is enough for Donald to be like, you know what, I'm going to go out on top. It's like Barry Sanders, like you're retiring in your actual prime. I know like Brady's still good enough to keep playing, but he's 44 years old.

So I don't know. It will. It's a different mentality in my mind. You know, it's like the way that our parents grew up working, it's like you get a job at one company, you stay for 30 years, You get incremental races, and then you retire at 65. And we come in and we're like, I'm going to work out a place for two years, three years max,

hop around, get a raise, hop around, get a raise, go buy a van, travel the country, live in a van for a year. Like, maybe that is the new era of football players and how they think about their careers. They certainly have enough money. It's also so true, especially with McVeigh of like, I mean, if he stays five years for $20 million a year in TV, that makes $100 million and then you can coach whoever you want at 41 and you can just pick the best possible scenario whenever you want to come out. It's pretty incredible life.

But I think that this is the overall, the best button to this conversation where we asked in the beginning, like, was this stupid strategy that the Rams did and it worked or was it brilliant and it worked? And I think that the answer is like, it kind of depends on the outcome. And I think that this is the real answer of like the margins of life is it's easy to like throw success on them. But like your successes, your failures are actually not much your control as you want. The reality is that the Rams were three or four plays here or there from a completely

different life. All these people either retiring or just staying. on for a year and being burned out and not getting back here, but like McVeigh, Donald, Whitworth, you know, Odell not resigning, Von Miller, maybe not coming back, like all these pieces not coming back, the team blowing up, having no picks, wasting all this era, maybe wasting Stafford, to a lesser degree, maybe, but wasting Stafford, like, Lines did, and like this whole era being viewed as, like, the all team who went all in and lost all their chips. And instead, they went and won their Super Bowl in their home $5 billion stadium and probably

just created an entire generation of fans and beat the charges to the bunch for, like, young NFL fans in Los Angeles. Like, they re-spark football in Los Angeles today. Fortune favors the ball, baby, crypto. Exactly. Okay, let's talk about the Bengals for a second, because, well, not a second, longer than a second. I mean, I, in a weird way,

wasn't this game kind of exactly what we all thought it would be? Yeah. The analysis is basically the Rams are better than everyone. Like, kind of every aspect of the Bengals, the Rams pass rush was exactly as dominant as we thought. And the whole thing with the Bengals is, well, Burrow and Chase. and Higgins. And like, that was how the game went, wasn't it?

Yeah, I want to give, I want to give everyone who had takes on the Super Bowl a participation trophy award because pretty much everyone was right. Other than, you know, the people that picked the Bengals, which is whatever, like, it was a close game, close enough. But I think in general, like, yeah, like I had said, pass rush dominant for the Rams. Chase, Burrow, Higgins, all of them look great for the Bengals. The old cliche that it comes down to a few key plays, I think was definitely true. Like the T. Higgins touchdown down the sideline that maybe could have been an offensive

hazard interference or whatever. You know, and I don't know, it's just, this game kind of did just go exactly like we thought. Neither team really could run the ball. It was a slog of a game. Oh, my God. I mean, the Rams running game was one of the worst I've ever seen. It was atrocious.

This is one of those games where the box score, the offensive box scores does not match the outcome of the game. If you just looked at the box score, you were like, oh, Burrow through for 200, two touchdowns, no picks. Mix and ran for 72. Jamar Chase and T. Higgins combined for almost 200 yards and two touchdowns. And on the other side, Stafford throws two picks.

Cam Acres leads the Rams in rushing with 21 yards. And Cooper Cup has less than 100 yards. I'd be like, oh my God, the Bengals won. Yeah. And it wasn't like that at all. The Rams had 1.9 yards per carry. There was this incredible stat from Keegan Abdu who actually works on the team at NFL Next Gen stats.

and there was an incredible, incredible number, which was their Rams had a 0% success rate in rushing. Basically all it means is like a run supposed to gain a certain amount of yardage. So like a three yard or like a two yard run on first and 10 is not successful, but a two yard run on first or like third and two is successful. It's just taking context in account. So with that said, the Rams had zero successful runs in the game through the fourth quarter,

like midway through, which I think had like three, like, what was it? One of four teams had done that over the last six years, and the other three teams who did it all had like single digit carries and the Rams had at the time

18. So basically, there was not really a worse rushing performance over the last six years. The best rush of the game was the Cooper Cup Jet sweep. That was the only rush that worked out. Seriously. So there was that run. And then I think Sony Michelle

or Cam Acres, a camera, who did have like a key run really late in the game to like get a first down I kind of like move the chains and everything. But like essentially they ran it, say 20 times I didn't have it in front of me. And like 18 of them were shit. Like it was unbelievable.

It was bad. And then so like everyone was like, McVeigh, what the fuck are you doing? Why are you running so much? Like please for the love of God, just let Stafford put him in the gut. We were just like saying this in the press box. Like for the love of God, put him in the gun, spread things out and just let Stafford do his thing. And thank God on that final on that final drive. that's what McVey did.

He just let it kind of go and let Stafford do his thing. And McVeigh said in the postgame presser, he was basically like, you know, we were trying to do all this other stuff in the run game. We were trying to stay balanced. I'm paraphrasing.

But he said basically, like at one point we realized we're just going to stop banging our heads against a wall and just finally like let Stafford, you know, cook or whatever. And so it was good to see that. And then, of course, they marched right down the field.

It's like, why couldn't you fucking do this early in the game? I never understand this coaches. Especially at this at this volume, like 18 runs and none of them are successful. This is midway through the fourth quarter is when Keegan tweeted this. 18 runs. Zero of them were successful. Why did it take you this long to give up on the rushing attack?

I just don't understand that. That would have been the narrative all offseason if the Rams had lost and now McVey's going to go and make Banking TV or keep coaching whatever. But we did say we were going to talk about the Bengals and we're all talking about the Rams again. So while we're talking about like Razors, thin edges. Joe Burrow almost completed that past, like on the last play of the game with the second last, with the Aaron Donald

play. Like, Burrow almost completed that would have immediately been one of the most legendary plays. And like, I do want to give the Bengals some credence here. Like, the first 22 seconds at a half time, like, there's always these weird moments from teams that end up losing, they get forgotten. Like, D.K. earlier to me said they were like red herrings.

Like, the Bengals coming out and scoring with T. Higgins on like the first play of halftime or the second half, then getting a pick on the first play of the Rams ensuing drive felt like the biggest momentum swing I'd seen since like the Saints got that onside kick like 12 years ago. I was so sure the Bengals were going to win in that moment. Not only that, I mean, another red herring, like Jamar Chase had the best catch of the game. That first quarter depot was one of the best catches of the year. And it's, it will likely

not be remembered now because they lost. I got to tell you something, seeing that ball thrown in person was one of the cooler throws I've ever seen in person. Like, because Jamar, when the ball came out of his hand. Jamar was running like the other way. Like Joe Burrow threw it, I think vaguely like the 10 yard like literally like the number 10. I believe something around there is like where the ball landed. But like Jemar Chase was still running toward the sideline to get literally to run around Ramsey like he was like turning around him in a lane. He like sped past them in the right lane and then got back in front of him. And like seeing Chase like navigate the highway to like get to where the ball was landing,

it felt like that ball was up in the air for like seven. Didn't he catch it with one hand too? Like it was an incredible. He did. Yes. Yeah, that play plus the Higgins play to open the half, which was really, really nice play by Higgins. Obviously, he did get away with like a like a little bit of a face mask thing where it like kind of like. A little bit of a face mask?

It happened. It happened a fucking face mask. Yeah, it happened really fast. I will say that play kind of evens out with the fact that Jalen Ramsey held Higgins on a pass that was into the end zone earlier in the game, which might have been a touchdown if he hadn't held his jersey, tugged on his jersey. So more or less evened out. That one was probably much more egregious, but yeah.

How do we feel about this way this game is ruffed? Because I have my own thoughts, but I'm curious what you think, D.K. As you said, you've got the T. Higgins getting his jersey tugged by Jeline Ramsey, not called, cool, let the boys play. Him facemasking Ramsey a tincey bit. Let the boys play. I don't know. Is that how that works?

And then the end of the game, like that Rams drive was really, really prolonged by multiple penalties. Dekha, you are the person who hates the refs. How did you feel about the refs? My opinion will always be I prefer when we don't see the refs. So I'm... Well, that was most of this game. I mean, up until the fourth quarter, there was only

like two kind of like unnecessary roughness style penalties, but not a lot of actual game penalties. There was no holding, false starts. There were none of that. Three penalties, I believe in the first 50 minutes. Pounties. Yeah. I can't say penalties. How do I say penalties? Pounties. Pounties.

What is the right one? You say it. You say it like a little kid who's learning how to speak. Pounties. Pounties. People said I say it three different ways and I think they're right. Like penalties. Pounties.

I say the L first, I think. Penalty. Pound. And you don't say the end. You just kind of go penalties. Pound. There were fouls. There were violations of the rule book.

I would say I could. But actually, though, the ending. I can empathize with Bengals fans that are going to be pissed off about this game and pissed off with some of the late calls. Oh, stop. That is so ridiculous. This game was even. There were bad calls on both sides.

You cut me off before I said, but. Okay. I can empathize, but. DK's just addressing all the haters. But I don't actually care. I'm glad when the refs are mostly not seen nor heard during the game. The Bengals got the benefit of the doubt on a few big plays earlier in the game. Like you said, it kind of evened out.

I'm not worried about it. They got a 75-yard touchdown. I don't know what else you can want. But, D.K. I actually think D.K. is in an oddly perfect place to talk about this because he doesn't want penalties. I cannot say that word. Move penalties. Fowles. Yeah.

Anyway, D.K., so the Bengals have made the strategy of this. Like, the Bengals have won games the playoffs because the receivers are absurdly physical and kind of committing offensive pass offence interference all the time. And they got caught for it. Or they got away with it. But, like, D.K.'s Seahawks that won the Super Bowl against the Broncos did the same thing, where Pete Carroll and the Seahawks were fine getting a pass interference or too early because they're like, well, we're going to commit pass interference like every play. And we just dare you to call it. And the net will be better. Like, yeah, we'll take two up front and you're not going to call it us like six times again. Like, we're just, we're setting the standard immediately. And I think that I'm curious what you think, D.K. Like, the Bengals have lived by like a, like physical stuff all season. How do you feel about the game ending like that? I mean, I think, yeah, like teams will go in and they'll, I think, number one, they scout the referees for like how stringent they are on some of the rules.

And this is what the Seahawks did with the refs during the Legion of Boom era. It's like we kind of like would know which guys call more penalties and like try and play to that to that level and test the boundaries of how much we can grab and hold and all that. And I'm sure that the Bengals do the same thing where, you know, they're, they're, pushing the boundaries to pushing the envelope on the rules. And I think that's great. Like, I think that's a great strategy when you have players like that that can win on the outside,

that can win at the catch point. This has been the scouting report on both Higgins and Chase coming into the NFL. They've done it in the NFL. And it works perfectly with a quarterback like Joe Burrow, who is just willing to throw it up like that play to Jamar Chase down the field. Like you said, Burrow just threw it up and was like, dude, I know that you'll go get it. Like he threw it inside.

Jamar Chase ran outside of Rams. He basically got under the ball and got. and got to it. So, you know, obviously, I don't have any problem really with, like, the refereeing in this game overall. I think maybe there was a few Tiki Tech plays here and there, and then a couple of plays that they didn't call that probably could have been called. But at the end of the day, like I said before, they more or less evened out in the game. And so I'm not really too worried about that. I think it was a, you know, it's not something I'm going to necessarily remember from this game.

Okay, last thing on the Bengals for you both, you guys, do you think they get back to a Super Bowl? because there's the Dan Marino route where Burrow made a Super Bowl in his second year and didn't win and everyone's like, oh, I'll get back there and I'm like, I don't know if they will.

I was talking to my friend about this is their best shot. I was talking to my friend about this during the game, I was like, so even if whether or not the Bengals win or lose, like going into next season, how do we think about the Bengals now?

Like, are the Bengals a top three football team in my head? No. You know, like, they might not even be a top three team in the AFC in my mind. And it's like, I actually don't know

how much of this was a Cinderella run and I actually think they have a weight. to go, or if they're now a part of the elite, you know? I think the Bengals fans are going to hate me for saying this. The reality is they gave up nine sacks in the wildcard round and we're lucky to win and they were lucky to win. And they gave up seven sacks in the Super Bowl and they were lucky to be even in it. I think the saving grace is your quarterback is obviously like that dude and that's the single

hardest thing to find. You have Jamar Chase who really truly might be the best receiver in the NFL recognized as such as soon as midway through next season. like they have all the hard pieces they just have to go get an offensive line and I just don't actually think you're a contender if as was proved tonight like this is like a bottom of six unit and I don't think you're going to be contender there

but like the hard pieces the things that can last decade or they're I think they are contend they lost by three that's fair all right I guess that's literally the definition contending but like I see what you're saying I don't know like obviously I'm wrong

they can I guess they can contend here's my scientific analysis of this is like who the fuck knows. But here's what I think. The Bengals can be a Super Bowl team in the next five years or whatever. They could go back next year. It's possible. I think what they will need to do is, and we've seen this time and time again with

the teams that are the best in the NFL or that are in a Super Bowl in any given year are the teams that like, number one, stayed healthy. That's going to be key. Number two, hit on some free agents and or some draft picks and or both because it's really important to like keep adding to the like adding to the arsenal adding depth obviously it's a war of attrition in an NFL season so like the more depth you have the more you're able to contend late in the year i think that the bengals have an awesome core of players young core particularly with burrow uh higgins chase and mix in like they're set on offense um you know and end boyd and some of

the role players they have there like they're set they can really build around this they just have to continue to hit on free agency and hit in the draft and keep doing what they're doing. There's a really wide, like, there's plenty of room for variation in there and who knows what the hell is going to happen.

What I will say is, would be a little bit nerve-wracking for me if I'm a Bengals fan right now is the fact that in the AFC, you still have Patrick Mahomes, Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Mac Jones, I guess. Josh Allen.

Josh Allen. Yeah, he should probably be at the top there. Mahomes, Allen, Herbert, you know, and so like Lamar Jackson, who's not going anywhere, I think it's just going to be so hard to get past those guys every year, year in and year out. So that's what makes it so difficult is you're in a conference with a lot of really good quarterbacks and a lot of teams that are going to be challenging you each year. So this feels like obviously a big miss opportunity,

even though they were supposedly playing with House Money, which I think we've said multiple times because no one really expected them to get here and they're probably ahead of where you expect them to be in like a rebuild, quote, quote unquote rebuild. but man, it's still a missed opportunity. It's still really like tough loss to take because it was right there for him. And for a long time,

they're in the second half. It looked like they're going to win this game. Here's what I'll say for Bengals fans. You're in the mix now. Welcome. Welcome. It's anybody. Yeah, welcome.

Yeah. I completely agree. Like, I'll still be Debbie Downer. I don't care. I think that they're the Phoenix Suns. Like the Bucks beat the Suns in the finals and it's like cool that you made it. I don't think you're going to get back.

But the reality it says, you were officially in the hunt. I was obviously, but that's the thing. We still have to shift our mentality of like, this is a contending team. And like they're now officially in the conversation every year, literally until they're eliminated, they can do it. And that's the cool thing of having Burr and Chase is they're not going to get counted out from any game. It's all you can ask for as a sports fan. It's all you can ask for is to be in the conversation.

Yeah. Let's keep going here. Let's get to like some other awards quickly. The play this game will be remembered by. I would say it's the Aaron Donald sack. It's not technically a walk off, but it felt like it. Is there anything else that's even in the conversation? Well, yeah, there's a couple nominees I'll run through.

There's the, there's the Jamar Chase catch, but again, they lost, probably not going to be a Bengals play. The mix and throw, again, if they won, perhaps. I'd forgotten about that. Odell potentially tearing the same ACL again. That, I think, is we'll stick in people's minds. Brutal. The Higgins, Jalen Ramsey, no calls up there. The final Cooper Cup drive and the Aaron Donald end of game sack.

I would say are the nominees. Yeah. I think I'm going to remember probably Donald finishing the game. but I think I'm actually going to remember the Cooper Cup drive and the Cooper Cup touchdown. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. I think those are the two. The first thing that came to my mind when I'm trying to just picture this game and picture where I was in the moment is that Cooper Cup touchdown.

You know, obviously like just a one-on-one route, scored the play. Like, Cooper Cup is like the most reliable. It's like him and Devante Adams are inside the five-yard line. It's like, how do you guard this guy? It's impossible. So can we get to some stupid awards? Can we have some fun now? Yeah, I want stupid awards.

All right. The offseason surgery award goes to Matt Stafford and Joe Burrow and honestly probably O'Dell Beckham. Good God. Everybody got hurt in this football game. Matt Stafford's ankle. Did you guys see replays of that of that play? That looks super painful. Was it DJ Reader? I don't know who was. 360 pound lineman bent his ankle backwards. They tape him up. He goes back out there. Burrow, who knows what happened to his knee? They barely showed it on replay. It's like screaming and riding in pain. Yeah. He told the doctors to stay away. from him when he went to the sideline. Like, he probably tore something. I've never seen more injured people in a football game. So we're in the press box, and I'm keeping notes. And I see that Stafford gets hurt and limps off and you see the replay. I see Burrow gets hurt, limps off.

And I literally just hit Enter, like a thousand times of Google Docs. And I write everything below here is prologue. And I just put at the top, both quarterbacks limp off and, like, are going to come back out hobbling. And, like, I feel like that's when the game started for me. Like, because you know what I mean? Like the final like nine, 10 minutes, I think was when it was. And like that gate, it just felt like such a reset. Okay, these are tough dudes.

They take a ton of hits. And it was like this kind of like old fashioned. I don't know. I think Stafford and Burrow both have that like old fashioned tough guy thing that we kind of thought was dead at the quarterback position. But they completely brought it back. I would not be shocked if one of them or both of them come out like in three days or a week and say that like they have some minor terror.

They played through it because I was thinking about it. What injury could Joe Burrow have sustained that would have actually. kept him out of the game. Like, if he, in fact, tore his ACL, it still, I think, would make sense to play him with a torn ACL, then bring in the backup. I'm dead serious. Right. And you just prop them up and you carry him Byron Leftwood style down the field. I was like, I don't know, if he broke his opposite arm, I still think he stays in the game. I was like, there's no way they're bringing in whoever they're, who's their backup. Chase Daniel now? I don't know who it is. But, um, same with Stafford. It's like, these guys were not coming out. We're not going to have any idea what happened to

them unless they tell us because it might have been way worse. Burrow 19 sacks in the playoffs for Joe Burrow, most in and for history, that might stand a really long time because most people get sack 19 times are going to make it to the Super Bowl in the first place. So, yeah, a lot of punishment for Joe. Okay, next award. I don't know if you guys saw this. So I'm going to give the,

we need to create a new award called the Evan McPherson Award for just the coolest moment. He's cooler than Joe Burrow. Did you see what he did at halftime? Wow. I saw it on social media. I did not see it. I don't even know what happened. He was just, he just,

he was out there watching the halftime show during half-time. So did he not, did he literally not go back into the locker room? That I don't know. But there was a portion where it cut to him watching the halftime show just stand in there watching, having a good time. Probably while Zach Taylor was trying to give like a,

like a Hoosiers level speech to like, keep his team going. He's like breaking his clipboard on the wall. He's like getting all amped up. Evan McPherson's like watching fucking, Dr. Dre, it was hilarious. I loved it. I saw the tweet first of Evan McPherson

has not left the field. And I was like, wow, what a badass. He's just taking like kicks at halftime for like maximum practice or some like weird thing. And then I saw it. It was like, oh, he's just watching the show. Yeah, he just wanted to see Eminem. Can we talk about the halftime show?

Yeah, we should. So the three of us had a long talk at Radio Row about whether or not you guys would be able to hear the halftime show music. so I want to know how that went. So, number one, I was, so in the press box, you can't really hear what's happening outside the field. Like, it's very dampened.

Like, the noise is very dampened in there. It's like soundproof windows. But, and I've been to Super Bowls in the past where they basically, you can't hear anything in the halftime show. It's just like a bunch of, are there with a broadcast? Yeah, but you have like TVs on, but the sound is not on. The volume's not on. It's like you can just see kind of what's happening.

You can kind of hear like a thump, thump of like the bass and stuff, but that's about it. However, this happened this year. I don't know if they do this normally in the past, but they played it in the speakers in the press box. So it was like not the real sound, but it was like through the speakers. It was really fun. People in the press box were getting real stoked.

It was pretty funny, actually. Like when, I think specifically when like Dre started playing, what's that? The piano? Yeah, playing the piano for the final song. Still Dre. That, like, or still DRE or whatever. That was such a great moment because everyone was like,

oh, yeah. And of course, when 50 cent was hanging upside down, people lost their shit. It was a fun and a half-time show. They didn't announce, they had the stuff going with the lights here. They got stuff going on with the lights here where, like, it looked really cool.

Like, I don't know what they gave to fans, but like, I think they gave the fan stuff, like a, like a, I don't know the word, like a lanyard necklace thing that, like, lit up. And like, they synced to the entire crowd to be like red and white or whatever.

Like, everybody, instead of like having, oh, hold up your phone or lighter or something. It was like everyone was wearing a light around their neck that was synced. So 100,000 or what is it, is it 75, 80,000 people here? We're all lighting up at the same time. It's pretty crazy. I thought it was the best halftime show I think I've ever seen. Yeah.

I think it was the best one. I thought they nailed it. Also, the sound quality, like at home. It sounded amazing. It almost sounded too good. Like, you were listening to it on Spotify. Like, that's how clear the music was. It also just felt very representative of Los Angeles.

I thought the set was super cool. It was the perfect. amount of time. I just like, I had no notes. Like, I feel like normally people like, the shit on the halftime show. But like, honestly, I thought it was like great. Everybody I know loved it.

Did, uh, I'm curious because when Snoop Dogg, so at the beginning of still DRE or whatever, Snoop Dog goes, you know, still doing that shit, Dre. And everyone in the press box was like, oh, like he swore, like the ha ha, hilarious. What is, what was like on TV? Because you, did they bleep it out? I honestly, I missed that.

But they did a really good job, all of them. of, you know, not cussing and using, like, replacement words. Well, then they bleeped it then because he definitely, well, actually, the songs themselves are good a job, but he definitely had them. I will say, there was one weird thing about the halftime show, and I couldn't figure it out until halfway through. I was like, something looks weird. Something doesn't look right.

And it was that it was light out. Yeah. I'm so used to these Super Bowls being on the East Coast and it's dark. 100%. Usually, when I think of a show, it's like at night, right? It was weird. It was like these people are performing in the middle of, like, a parking lot under the sun. And it was kind of odd, but

it's like, these are the openers. Yeah. Yeah. It was also, I think it also was incredible that they got, they had that many people and like they all gave them time and they all felt

like they were served justice. And then also. Yeah. Got 50 cent into, I don't know. I don't know how it was pretty, it was pretty amazing. All right.

Let's keep going here. Can I give it, can I give you guys a stupid award? Yeah. Yeah. So this is literally a movie award to Van Jefferson. So Van Jefferson and Odell Beckham both have a baby coming like, imminently. I think Odell's

a baby's at like 39 weeks. Van Jefferson's wife is literally at 40 weeks, went into labor in the, I believe the fourth quarter literally left the game to go to the hospital at the end. And Van Jefferson leaves the locker room celebration to go to the hospital. That is like, he should have left in the middle of the game. It's the most Hollywood thing. It's very funny. It's the most Hollywood thing.

I mean, is there like, and then Taylor Rapp to safety proposes on the field. Like, this Rams team is kind of a movie. It's ridiculous. What's, what's more important to Van? Real points for the Rams or brownie points from his wife. You know, it's funny you say that. Van desperately wanted to know if his wife went into labor in the game.

And his wife told everybody, do not dare tell Van if I go into labor during the game. She didn't want to affect him. He disagreed. And she was like, I don't care. Nobody tell him. I feel like I would help you. Strict orders.

I don't think you know how you react in those moments until you react. I don't think you would know better. But like I feel like you don't know. D.K., what was it like when you were playing in the Super Bowl? And you knew that Calvin was on the way. Yeah. I mean, it's just the toughest decision a man has to make, I guess, right there. Have a lot of experience with it.

And I'm just not going to judge him for it right now. I don't know. I'm trying to put myself in those shoes. I lean like I would just be with my wife, but I don't know. It's tough. It's a Super Bowl. Also, it's not like he's not there. He's like 45 minutes late.

What's the difference between like not showing up? L.A. traffic? Who knows? That's a good point. That kid's going to be one year's old. I bet he got a police escort. Okay. The one thing that we need you entirely for, Craig,

is that Deakin and we're in the press box. We didn't really see any of the commercials. Right. So can you just give us the whole breakdown on the commercials? Sure. Generally, a strong commercials, in my opinion. A strong commercial slate. Nice.

It wasn't the best one I've ever seen, but it wasn't the worst. A lot. The biggest takeaway was like a lot of crypto, a lot of electric vehicles, a lot of tech. Like that was really the takeaway. Interesting. And in my opinion, the commercial of the day, which I'm sure you guys have heard about, I'm sure you maybe have already seen it, was the Coinbase commercial. Have you heard about it?

No. I have not. No. So this Coinbase commercial, it's a black screen for the entire 60 seconds. Oh, I did hear about this. the only thing on the screen is a QR code, a little square QR code, and it's bouncing around a black screen,

like the old DVD screensaver logo, you know those things, they would just go from corner to corner and bounce, and you would just, if you were watching a movie and you left it, you know, for too long, it would just go to this idle screen where the DVD logo.

So it was a QR code. There was no words, nothing. For 60 seconds, and there was like some old-timey, like eight-bit song playing. And if you scanned, got up and scanned with your phone, the QR code,

it took you to the coin, based site and you got like you know $15 off and at the very end you know how when everybody watches those things all you want is for the square to match perfectly into the corner to fit perfectly they ended it with it hitting perfectly and everyone it was we were all like screaming like yeah that's like the best idea I've ever heard it was incredible they spent $14 million on that spot Jesus Christ but it was it was and there was a there was a bunch of other ones there was a good sopranos one yeah there was a good sopranos one there's a good Larry David one um but yeah Strong commercials.

I saw there was an Austin Powers ones. The only one I saw is they just paid an ungodly amount for whatever the Austin Powers. Craig, how many dogs were there? So,

under six and a half dogs. I think it was four or five. Damn it. What I couldn't figure out is, what I couldn't figure out is, there was an animatronic dog commercial. No. It was like a dog who plays on like

a Chucky Cheese. I'm like, does that count as a dog? That has to, I don't know. It's a dog. It doesn't say only like live dogs if it's a robot dog.

That, guess what? That's a dog. All right. Okay. I didn't know. Even with that dog, it still was under six and a half, I believe.

I could have missed one or two. Damn it. But can we run through a couple of like the fun bets that we talked about? Yeah. Yes. The National Anthem, we missed. I thought it was going to be under.

I felt strong about it. They took all the bets. I couldn't even find it on a lot of the sites. But she, Mickey Guyton held on to that last note for like 15 seconds. I know. She killed everybody. I was thinking of you,

Craig, in that moment. She just wouldn't stop. Well, I got to take two L's. we had to take three Ls right here. That's the first. Got the anthem wrong.

Then I got the touchback. The opening kick would not be a touchback wrong. Immediately. That felt too good to be true. You knew that was going to be a touchback. I was like, we all think we're too smart. And then the other one I had was the Bengals first drive would be a punt.

That also got screwed up because they got the turnover on downs. So immediately we started over three. However, I'm going to go ahead and also say the other thing I plugged was Rams by exactly three, which if you bet the exact three-point thing should have actually made up for all of that. But if you didn't take that one, then I'm sorry. I also got the Gatorade was blue.

I thought I picked red at the end of the day. I was like, I'm going to pick the worst odds. It was blue, which were the best odds, as in the most likely odds. It was blue that hit. And also, I have it's one more thing. They showed crypto arena. You thought they would show it.

They showed it. I told you. So it was like this push pole. It was this push pole of like, will they show crypto arena? for like, you know, obvious crypto, they can pay for it. But I was like,

are they really going to show a competing sport? It wasn't like a crypto arena shot. It was just kind of like a scan across downtown, but crypto arena was like in the middle of it. Oh, now I feel stupid. That makes sense. Yeah. But so it's like you were half right.

Like it wasn't like a promo for crypto arena. Wow. Yeah. First touchdown score was Odell Beckham, jersey number three. So it was the under, 23 and a half. Right.

A little bummed about that. High fits is over two and a half passers. That hit four people through a pass. Technically five. Yeah, that one was fantastic. That one worked out well. There was no... Yeah, Jamar Chase.

Was there any chain gang? I think there was zero chain gangs. Zero chain gangs. Zero chain gangs. Zero challenges. Jamar Chase had over two and a half rushing yards because the screen pass was determined to be a backwards pass,

which became a rush. So that hit. Yeah, generally like, you know, as all these go, we hit on some props, we missed on others. You know, zero some game. Okay. We got to go through.

We also got to do a little burn book here. Are we burning anyone? Yes, one person. We haven't talked about them yet. Who did he got? The dude who ran out into the end zone to celebrate after staffers through the pick, the guy in the Bengals. Vernon hard guys.

Yeah, getting a pounty. I can't say the word. Jesus, price. It's getting worse. It's many yard foul. It's like getting far worse, as the more you say it. Now, well, now I'm thinking about it's in my head. Paltty.

But no, that pound. I know. Okay. Someone else talk about this. How do you, but yeah, you getting it. Someone said this to me. Have, has you, I can't speak English now. I've literally lost the ability to speak English.

But have you ever seen a player who was not dressed get a penalty? It was one of the good questions. They were like, oh, penalty for like, you know, whatever it was called. And I were like, oh, that's weird. Like, that was probably a tic-tack call. And they cut back to it. And this man is just in street. close dancing in the end zone.

I'm like, oh, no, that, that is. Literally wearing a sweatshirt. I love that. What's this guy doing? What the hell is he thinking? And honestly, that almost was, could have been a pretty pivotal thing because it ended up pushing the Bengals back. They pointed the Rams a good field position.

It kind of didn't matter, but like it almost very much mattered a lot. It's the Super Bowl. Like, what are you doing? It was while. Also, speaking of not that this would have been burn book material, but quietly a play that would have been really, really bad was on that exact drive with the Rams of the ball. Cooper Cup not going out of bounds What happened? What happened?

So situationally aware. And the Niners game, he was so situationally aware and one of the best plays a receiver can make, which is like catching this pass and then fighting get out of bounds. And in this one, he just did the stutter step and just completely forgot he needed to get out of bounds. And the Rams said he used to time out,

and it kind of ended their real attempt to score. Can I ask you guys one question? Yes. You haven't talked about SoFi Stadium yet. I went for a Lions game a long time, like in like week six, this is both your first time here. What was your experience?

The building is incredible. The Jumbotron. This is the most futuristic experience I've like ever had. It's a very, it's a spaceship. It's a very cool stadium. I will say,

logistically speaking, it's annoying. It's like hard to get around in here. It's kind of a maze. Yeah. It's like, when we, so we got here to the stadium

about like four hours before the game. So we wanted to like walk around, see the sites, walk the concourse. You can't just walk the, concourse here. It's like siloed. If you're in a certain section, you have to like sneak through hallways and go upstairs and find like an escalator. We had to go down into the stands at one point and go around through the seats to get into the next level of the concourse. I don't understand that.

I think they're just trying to like keep it so people don't wander around the stadium. But that's like half the fun of going to a ballpark a lot of times. I don't know. So I have so many thoughts. But what were you saying, Craig? I was going to say, typically you kind of imagine, like, a track around the football field, right? Like an oval that everybody can just kind of walk around and enter at any given point. Right. The sofa's not like that.

If you try and walk around the tracks, you are stopped and totally either go up or down a level to continue. Yes. And I think that part of it honestly is designed for like the exclusivity disease that kind of infects Los Angeles of like, you're cool so you can only access these parts and they want to build up that idea of like, no, you can't just go anywhere. you have to be cool to go to this part. There's so much about this building that actually think is really interesting.

Other than, again, the fact that it's $5 billion. Jerry World in Dallas cost $1 billion. The other most expensive stadium ever is Allegiant in Vegas cost $2 billion. $5 billion. One of the reasons it was so expensive. I think, I forget why, but they had to build a giant hole.

I cannot stress this enough. You know what I learned the hard way? Ground floor is the sixth floor. Like they had to build a giant hole. I believe because there was some flight regulation issue with LAX. Like this building's close enough to the airport that like they couldn't build it so high. It had to stay under a certain height. So they had to, I think it cost a billion something dollars to dig a six or seven story hole just for the ground.

And next to it, I forgot, is that where they're putting the Clippers arena? We drove by it on the way in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, I mean, we don't have to get into this. But honestly, as we were driving through the neighborhood of Inglewood and I'm seeing this building, seeing the construction. I thought honestly about how much this area is going to change.

And I remember driving through this and like the gentrification. I'm like, this feels like this is going to be Brooklyn very soon, quite honestly. Like this area of L.A. And like all these, how this area is going to change

is these massive complexes. I'm struggling to explain how big this building is, it feels massive. This screen going around the stadium is unlike anything I've ever seen. The screen is like a feat, like a scientific feet. It is the most impressive screen

I've ever seen in my life. It's truly crazy. I mean, I'm not trying to just like do free PR but like it's $5 billion. It's just why the Super Bowl here. Like you know what I'm talking about? It is like really crazily cool. Coming on it from a distance,

it does look like something you'd see in Star Wars, honestly. I think it's okay. Oh yeah. All right. Once again, billionaires, Stan Kroki stays winning. Yeah, just a heartwarming story. Of the billionaire. The billionaire?

The billionaire? Who won? He was worth some billions and now he's worth more billions. And like, that is the dream. Right? Good for him. That's what we're all winning for. Did you see this on TV?

I don't know if you saw it. Who did the, who did Cooper Cup think first? Oh, yeah. He missed that. His teammates, I believe. Yeah, that's the favorite. So all the favorites won. The Gatorade won.

The Blue Gatorade. He thanked his teammates. That was the favorite. Every narrative that were like, the past rush will be the favorite. That everything, everyone was right, except about my two things on the first two plays of the game. Other than that everyone was.

everyone was right. How would you guys rate this Super Bowl out of 10? You know, being here, this was my first Super Bowl in person. And I feel like that completely changes your answer. Not even just higher or lower, but like I just experienced it differently. I give it an eight. I was thinking an eight. The previous Rams Super Bowl that I went to, the actual game was not great.

That was when the Patriots beat the Rams. This game was pretty good. It wasn't like the greatest. It was a bit of a slog, especially there in like the third quarter. There was like a whole bunch of three and outs. But all in all, great ending. I thought the storylines this week were really good. I thought L.A. is a good host city.

Yeah, I'd give Nate. I think that the Bengals driving at the end gave it the potential for like a nine and a half. It felt like the game needed to go to overtime, didn't it? I really thought it was going to go to overtime. And so I think that it's an 8.82 is a good number because 9-4 was on the table. Yeah. If it would have gone to overtime and like we had another quarter, coin flip situation like that would have just been

too much. Yeah, actually I'm happy we didn't end on like discussing whether Joe Burr ever got the ball back or something. We just spent eight months talking about that. Okay. We did it. We are the Ringer Fantasy Football Show and going forward, we are going to be the Ringer NFL draft show and if you've made it this far

for a while. If we're going to do the fantasy football show again. We'll be right back. In the summer in June, we'll be right back, don't worry. Also, it's still us, but it's like we're bringing Ben Solek in and Soak and DK are going to teach us about the draft. We're like so excited and proud of what the show's going to be. And I promise you it's going to be the most fun draft show in existence.

So please just like check it out. We're going to try to make the draft as interesting as humanly possible. And it's going to be fun. So that's going to come to you Tuesdays, the rest of February. It's going to be coming to Tuesdays and Thursdays for March and April. Here on this feed, the name's going to change, but everything's going to stay the same. And again, this is the end of our season. But like, honestly, from the bottom of my heart, like, thank you to ever for listening.

like we like truly genuinely like just kind of can't believe how many of you guys like have just reached out through email or whatever and like I just it means a lot and thank you so much for sticking on this whether it's like your first episode your first season or you know you're on year four whatever like thank you so much I'm not gonna lie you guys are right it's it's kind of sad it's it's a little bit sad to be to now just be thinking this that oh dang we don't have any games to react to for a while here so I know it's a bummer I love talking to you guys after every game and again like I have it said just to echo it. Thank you for everyone who's listened. Thank you for people that email us and

people that have tweeted at us. And thank you for everyone that followed along with my over 6.5 dogs in the commercials bet today. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, just really appreciate everybody. Can you guys go live on Green Room today in traffic for the entire ride home? Just to see how long like that maybe. Like very possibly. Okay. But there's one other person here. Thank you, Lord. Man the myth. Lauren. Thank you, Dr. Dre. I want to give a shout to Dre. Great performance. What did they, why didn't they introduce 50 cent though?

Why didn't they announce that he was going to be a part of the team? It's just so, he just showed up upside down. That was the weirdest, like, entrance I've ever seen. It's just singing upside down. Who decided that? Because I think he wanted to show that he- All the blood was rushing to his head. He wanted to show that he could get himself up from hanging down without any help.

Like, people didn't have to, like, push him. He just automatically, like, rose up with just ab strength. I think you just wanted to prove that. Also, I don't know if you guys saw, but, Anderson Pack was just quietly playing the drums. Yeah, he was drumming. That was unbelievable. It's just a cameo.

Yeah. Love Anderson Pack. When is Silk and Sonic coming? Come on, Anderson and Bruno. Give me that. I want Silicon Sonic. It's out. Silk Sonic is out, you moron.

The whole album? Yes, it's been out for months. No, it hasn't. Yes, it has. No, they put out like three songs, but they don't have the whole album with it. No, it's the full album. I've listened to it many times. You're serious?

Yeah, I'm an idiot. That's so bad. What a perfect one is. Well, in my defense, didn't they have a Super Bowl commercial for this like last year? Yeah, and it was super cool, but they have a, I'm looking at it right now, nine songs on the album, it's out. When did it come out? Oh, God. I think this, you know, I don't know if this is necessarily something that we need to discuss.

2021, it says, I'm trying to like on Spotify. It doesn't say it came out a while. Oh, my God. Well, now I feel like October or something. Yeah. Now I feel ridiculous. All right. Well, goodbye, I guess.

Okay. All right. Good season, everyone.