The Ringer NFL Show - Supreme Fantasy Court: Joc Pederson vs. Tommy Pham

Episode Date: May 31, 2022

We interrupt our hiatus to weigh in on the Joc Pederson-Tommy Pham fantasy football dispute that swept the nation over the weekend. If you have any insight on this situation please email us [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Sean Fennessey. We've got something special cooking on the Prestige TV podcast. I'll be recapping one of my favorite shows, HBO's Barry, every Sunday night with the writer-director star of the show, The Great Bill Hater. We'll talk about the show's wild twists and turns, its special brand of dark comedy, and how it all came together. So on Sunday nights, immediately after a new episode airs, you can hear Bill and I break it all down on the Prestige TV pod. Subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the only episode of the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. show we will ever do that will be entirely about baseball. My name is Danny Hifitz, and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck.

And as you probably have heard over Memorial Day weekend on the field during pregame warmups, Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Fam slapped San Francisco Giants outfielder Jack Peterson in the face. And after the game, reporters gather around Jack Peterson and said, hey, why'd that dude slap you in the face? to which Jock Peterson said he got slapped because Tommy Fam accused him of cheating in fantasy football. Now. Six months ago.

Six months ago. Nine months ago. Yeah, it was like almost a year ago. Jock went into like real detail. It was like a three-minute video of him in the Giants locker room telling some reporters step by step what happened. Down to the minutiae of dropping players, moving into IR, who got upset. It's unbelievable. Had the receipts.

from the group chat. I could not believe the level of... I was at a wedding this weekend. This is like, we were going to do an emergency podcast, but this is the only thing dumber than this situation

is like us coming off the Memorial Day weekend to talk about this immediately. So this is like, what's not an emergency? It's not Will Smith slap worthy, you know, where you like stop everything

and get on the phone. This is elective surgery podcast. You schedule it a couple days in advance. You know, if it works out, it works out. So this is what we're doing.

doing. Obviously, it happened a few days ago, but we had to talk about this. We had to end the hiatus temporarily to talk about this story. Well, we needed to do a fantasy court, but this is actually beyond the scope of fantasy court. This is spilled into violence in the streets. This is violence in the center field of America's pastime. And so we have actually sent this for the second time ever we are convening Supreme Fantasy Court to deal with this. The first time was Tayson Hill as a receiver or... Yeah. As a tight end. Yeah. Tideon. That was right. So, The thing that I was stunned by, I don't know about you guys just seeing this, was like, oh, I slapped their fantasy football. I was like, wow.

And I just assumed it would be like he didn't pay money or something. And then I look at Jack Peterson's out here like, well, I put a guy on injured reserve, but he was out. And Tommy FAMM said that that was stashing bench players. But I was like, well, he has Jeff Wilson on his I are and he's out. And I was like, I couldn't believe the depth that was into this problem. And then he's like, he's like, I took a picture of the rules in the league and I sent it to the troop chat. He sent a gif making fun of the Padres, which is the team Tommy Fam was on at the time.

And Tommy Fam took offense to that. And I think what surprises me the most is the grudge that Tommy Fam held on to since last September and waited until May 29th or whatever day was to finally. confront Jock and slap him in the face. It wasn't the end of the year. It wasn't the end of the NFL. This was like week five that this happened. Well, I think it was even earlier because Jock said that FAMM left the league a few weeks

later in like week four or five. So this might have happened like week two or three. Wait, Jock left the, sorry, Pham left the league. I didn't hear about this. Oh my gosh. I can't even tell if this was 2020 or 2021. But I agree. Like he left the league.

And I was also, one of the reason we started talking is, Bill Simmons tweets out hashtag team fam, and we all lost our minds. Because I'm sitting here and I'm like, let me get this straight. And this is, I think, where my fantasy Supreme Court ruling is coming down. I think that on one hand, the obvious thing is, oh, Tommy Fam, you know, he's like, you know, don't mess with my money. You know, I'll hit you. And I'm like, oh, okay, cool, he's a man's man. Actually, no, I think Tommy Fam's kind of a snowflake. because we're being honest here.

I'm tired of these millennial snowflakes needing facts to get, you know, care about their feelings. Tommy Pham is like, you sent a giff about my baseball team missing the playoffs, and then eight months later hit him in the face and left the league.

Pham takes himself pretty seriously. I don't know if you saw the recording of him talking about it. This was no laughing matter at all. He's still just as upset about this as he seemed to be like last September. I'm so team Jock, guys. I am not team fam. I think so it's funny because we talked about this prior

and we're saying this is a second only, this is only the second fantasy Supreme Court we've done. This is the most cut and dried case I've ever seen in my life. Like, Jock is 100% in the right for doing what he did. Like you can put players on IR if that's something that your league allows and then you can pick up someone else. That's like the easiest, obvious answer. If you can literally do it, like if you can complete the task on your fantasy website, it means it's legal.

There's no legal move you can make. It's not cheating. It's not cheating. He's not coding the website. You know what I mean? Like if he can move, because what happened is it seems as though Jock had a running back who got hurt or a receiver, whatever, who got hurt. And they now had an out label next to them. And that means that they are now designated to be moved to IR.

And for some reason, and then Jock added a guy off waivers, perhaps. the guy that fam wanted is my guess. And then fam comes in and goes, hey, what the hell, dude? You can't just move players to IR and then add more and stack your roster. And then Jock went, dude, you have Jeff Wilson on IR right now. It's the exact same thing. What's the difference? Also, he's like, yeah, you can't.

I just did it. That means it's like, it's a good point. You can't really cheat in fantasy football unless you're making a trade. Like, you just did it. You can collude with people, but you cannot cheat single-handedly on the website. Right, right. I think where the gray area is, though, is, it's, not the actual rule, which is, I think, extremely like black and white. Like, Jock did not

break the rules. He did not cheat. What I think, the reason Simmons is team, team fam is just because he doesn't like Jock. It thinks it's just like gets a bad vibe. And this is where you get into that guy in the league, like, you know, in terms of Jock, like maybe he's that guy in the league where people don't really like him. He's talking a lot of shit. Or maybe he's a bit of a troll, likes to send memes and tease people. When he doesn't really know them that well, like the idea of kind of like talking shit to these guys, they don't really know that well.

Obviously, all these guys are like type A personalities. You have to have that to be in the major leagues, I'm assuming. On the other hand, and so I think that's where Simmons has come from. It's not like he actually cares about the rule. He's just like, I don't like, the way that Jock, like, this whole thing went down. I don't like it. And Jock showed the receipts from the texts,

which I also think, like, Jock's reading the text, literally reading the group text back out loud. But I will say, I'm curious what you guys think about that. I think that generally speaking, the first person to share receipts usually comes out looking bad.

However, does that rule go out the window if... You get slapped? You get slapped in the face in public. And then, like, the national media is like, hey, that was embarrassing, wasn't it? Him saying violence is not the answer,

so I didn't respond is really funny. I just can't believe, again, I can't gloss over this. The disrespect, quote unquote, that was directed toward the, because I guess half the league was basically guys on the Padres.

The disrespect was, he sent a meme, and if you don't fall baseball, the Dodgers, the Padres and the Giants were in like the best division of baseball, and they were all competing.

And the Padres were supposed to like be really good and they filled off. So he sent this meme that was three weight lifters and they had like the Dodgers, Padres and Giants like over them. And then the guy with the Padres logo

just like drops the weight and collapses. Is this essentially the three dragons meme? Like, you know, where there's like two really big scary dragons. With the goofy dragon. And then one making the goofy face. Yeah, that was basically what he said, but it was a weightless to drop of the weight. And this is what Tommy Pham could not let go. Because Tommy Pham was like, I didn't care about the IR.

It didn't hit him over the fantasy. He disrespected my teammates. I was like, because he sent a GIF? Take a fucking joke, man. Like, fucking chill out, dude. By the way, the fact that he left the league, like, only reaffirms my team jockness. He left the league. Like, you're better off.

Good riddance having a guy like that in your league, honestly, right? You never want somebody who takes things that seriously. Yeah. Get him out of here. I'm a big dog in Vegas. Don't fuck with my money. Also, you know, if you care about winning money, maybe don't leave the league. Did he take his money back when he left?

Because if you want to win your money, you stay in the league, Tommy. We need, this is details we may need to find out. Also, I would like to very much know how much it's on the line. It has to be a lot. He's got to be talking like. hundreds of thousands of dollars potentially for the pot? I don't know. Yeah, something, 50, 100 grand? I don't know. It has to be a lot of money for him to kid. There's no way it was like 200 bucks. Yeah. So let's see. Tommy Fam, who, again, noted Big Dog at Vegas Casino. So who knows,

you know, it could be the Phil Mickelson. Maybe he's gambling all the way. But career earnings of $24 million. Call it $12 million after tax. Who knows? Call it, you know, you buy shit. I don't say $5 million in the bank. So what number has to like be grudgeworthy? Obviously it's thousands. Is it like a grand? Is it 10 grand? Is it 25 grand a person entry fee? I bet I'm going to say like 20 to 50 grand. Also, if he's a big dog at the casino,

maybe he's won a lot more money in his day. Well, you know what this reminds me of the money? The money that these, especially baseball players have so much money. It reminds me of like the Angels. Mike Trout loves Boom Beach. And then like he got the Angels hitting coach, his son into Boom Beach. He was like nine.

And then one day the Angels hitting coach was like, why did you spend $5,000 buying upgrades in Boom Beach? And he's like, well, Mike Trout texted me, if you want to play with the big boys, you're going to spend with the big boys. And I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking like what these, and I feel like it might be,

because 25 grand entry fee times 10, it's a quarter of a million dollars. And it might be more than that. It's like the prize pool. Yeah, if it's a bunch of professional baseball players. It's interesting. Who else was in the league, though?

End of the day, though, like vibes. So in my mind, clear cut ruling, Jock was not in the wrong. Vibes wise. Are you guys still team Jock or you team FAM? How are you feeling about this? Dude, you cannot be Team FAMB vibes wise. Watch the video. No, I, I, I, like, he's took, you know what I didn't like?

He was talking tough like it was like he, like he was disrespected. And you look what happened and you're like, what is going on? Is this a joke? Unless there's more to the story. Like, FAMX, like, Jock, like, disrespect. Like, like, wrote a letter to his mother talking shit about her. There's got to, there's got to be some bad blood. I mean, all the, all the,

that Jock read seemed very, very mature and calm. He's like, sorry, man, didn't mean to disrespect you. Just having some fun in games. Is there a chance Jock is just playing us all? I bet you Jock didn't read all of the texts. Yeah. I want to know who else is in the group chat. He probably did some real fucked up shit,

and then he's just like reading the stuff that makes him look good. Damn, Team fam taking a big fucking L just like his baseball team. Like, I'm sure he was doing shit like that, maybe. But like, that's all part of the game, man. I kind of feel like Tommy Can't take the eat. Get out the kitchen. What if Fam just started out Oh and two had McCaffrey lost him for the season

and was like I'm fucking pissed and just bounced. What I think happened is I think Fam had like McCaffrey and then I think he got hurt or whatever running back maybe got hurt week two or three and then Peterson added the backup. He added the who was the backup? God, I'm so out of fantasy right now.

Who was the backup to McCaffrey? I think he's Bonafon depending. Chuba Hubbard? Chuba Hubbard. And I think like Peterson added Juba Hubbard by moving his other player to IR and then Fem freaked out. Yeah, that could have it.

That could be it. We need to figure out who else was in the league because I want to know where they fall on the fence are like Tommy Pham's friends like, oh God. Or they're like not a fuck Jack Peterson. Where's the rest of the league here? I want the rest of the league to kind of weigh in. We need to see more of this group chat, I think.

I know who else is there. Can we get the Freedom of Information Act or something for this group chat? Can we do that? Let's do that. The ESPN of FOIA. Just like, hey, give us the us the usernames. I want that.

It's incredible. So to be clear, in real life, the Supreme Court rejects, I believe, 99% of cases and they accept 1% to even be heard. If we're being honest, this case wouldn't even have been heard by, like, our regular. This wouldn't have been made it to, like, the Fantasy Circuit Court. This is so black and white. It's like, hey, Tommy, fam, don't hit people because you're, you don't know the rules of your own league. Yeah, exactly.

Jock claims that FAM is in another fantasy league. I'd love to know what those guys think. Are they like, oh, man. This is where all, like, if we were going to really go to trial here, this would be interesting to hear all the witness testimony. Oh, my God, that'd be so funny. This is like the Amber Heard, Johnny Depp thing. Like, this is going to go on for six weeks.

There's going to be all the revelations. It's like the finale of Seinfeld where everybody just comes back and talk shit about them. Yeah. Kate Moss was in the league. No one really knows why. So I would like to extend a personal invitation to either Tommy Pham or Chuck Peterson if they would like to extend,

if you have any of the other members of this league want to anonymously come forward, please emails at ringer fantasy football at gmail.com and we would love to hear from you. I know it's you, Manny Machado. Like I know you're in this league. But yeah, we really want to get to the bottom of this. However, I think it's Team Jock wins.

Like the case is like appeal denied from Tommy Pham. Take your suspension and go and court dismissed, bring in the dancing lobsters. I think, I don't know why, but I think Will Myers is in this league. It feels right. That makes sense. Doesn't it? Why? Why, though?

Lifelong Padre guy, he's 31 years old. Jock's 30. Seems like a dude. Just like Jock who seems like a real bro. Can I make it an admission, a confession? I had never heard of either of these two guys before this happened. Really? You never heard of Jack?

I'm from fantasy baseball. My baseball fandom is not existent, like whatsoever. I just completely stopped paying attention to baseball, and I apologize to big baseball fans about that. But I had never heard of these players. I was confused about why Jock's name is Jock. Is that like the Americanized Anglo-Sized, or not Anglicized, but like Americanized version of Jacques,

like the French name, and they're just like J-O-C. I think they wanted a kid who was good at sports, but they didn't want to call them J-O-C. K look at jockstraff. Right, right. So they took the K out. He was a big deal for a while on the Dodgers when he was younger.

He was, he was very popular. Yeah. While we're here, Craig, the Warriors are playing the Celtics in the NBA finals, and while we're talking about things like Bill Simmons was extremely wrong about, like, you know, being team fam, how are you feel about Warriors Celtics?

Well, based on everything Bill's been saying for the past three weeks, Celtics should sweep. So we'll see. He's reverse gingsing it right now. been very critical of the Warriors this entire run, talking about how they've gotten lucky. Oh, they played Memphis without Jha, even though they were up 3-1 against Jha. Meanwhile, they beat the Bucks without Chris Middleton. So, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. I'm excited for it. That's all I'm going to say.

Craig, can I say that it's one of my favorite, like, your brand in general, just like my favorite thing is the only thing you tweet about is the Warriors. You're a fantasy football guy, producer on the rewatchables, all these big, awesome, like, podcasts. And all you tweet about are the Warriors. I just think it's so funny. Isn't your brother's wedding during the finals, one of the finals games? My brother's wedding is game four of the finals, so it's going to be a real problem. I think I'm going to start my best man's speech by giving a score update because it should be during the game.

So when the Celtics sweep the Warriors, you'll be like giving your speech, basically. That would be the worst wedding day of all time if they're down 3-0 and lose on my brother's wedding day. We'll see. I'm excited for you and Bill's relationship to deteriorate really quickly over the next three weeks. Okay. Thank you, never for listening. Thank you really for the content, Tommy Fam and Jack Peterson. Just phenomenal job. We should really have people fight more about fantasy football. It's really great. Okay. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K. You pick it aside, Warrior Celtics? Just going with the West Coast team here, Warriors. Let's go, D.K. I want to see Craig tweeting happy things. Welcome to the clubs.

Wiggins. Keep Wiggins. Don't trade Wiggins. All right. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you, Odessa. Nice. D.K's in rave mode right now. They're from Bellingham.

Well, not from here, but they went to Western. Oh, yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah. D.K. Just vibing out to Odessa during his hiatus. That's what I'm doing. Pit Vipers on.

Three Whiskey's Deep. Vibe it in the backyard. I was three whiskeys deep at a wedding when this story came out, and I wanted to tweet about it. And I was like, you're too drunk to tweet about this. It's smart. Don't do it. Good move.

If only everybody had that rule, yeah. The world would be a better place. All right. So to clarify, we're actually on a break right now from this podcast. We're taking a month off because we needed to recharge our smooth brains. We are on hiatus until we will be back June 21st. So that is when we will get going and start looking again at the 2022 fantasy football season. But we're going to be on hiatus until then.

Unless any other baseball players fight each other. or we find out who else in this league, in which case, no promise. Otherwise, we'll be back to June 21st. Thank you and goodbye, everyone.