The Ringer NFL Show - Who Has the Most to Lose This Sunday? Plus, Harbaugh and Craig’s Airplane Story.

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

The guys are here to preview the championship round of the NFL playoffs! But first, they discuss the Chargers' hiring of Jim Harbaugh, as well as some of the other coaching hires from around the league (5:02). Then, they get into the games and break down who has the most to lose this weekend (23:14). Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens and Jack Sanders Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Galaxy lights, Coachella, Lightning Bolt necklaces. Did you catch all the Scandival clues? Last March, one cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated hundreds of conspiracy theories, thousands of podcast episodes, and millions of dollars in revenue. I'm Jody Walker, host of an American Scandival. Ahead of the Vanderpump Rules premiere, relive the pop culture phenomenon that rocked a reality nation. starting January 23rd on Ringer Dish. The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyfitz. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Borlick.

And it is Championship Weekend. Really, it's a championship Sunday. We talked last weekend, how I think divisional football is the best weekend of football all year. I actually think, I don't know if this is a hot take of very obviously. I think Championship Sunday is the best day of football for the season, or at least the second half.

I know the first Sunday with Red Zone's awesome, but I'm curious, Craig, you can start like, is this like your favorite Sunday of the season? Yeah, I like it because of the timing of the games. I like that it's smushed together. It's at noon and 3.30. They're prepping you for Super Bowl 3.30. Yeah, my fake.

It's like now I can experience what East Coasters get without having to deal with the late night where it's like I can get up. I can have a morning. I can go to breakfast. I can exercise or whatever. Noon game. Another one right after it at 3.30. You're done by 6.30.

It's the four best teams in the league playing within seven hours. I love it. there's also just this epicness to it. I was actually thinking about when the Giants were in the championship game. There's a certain surrealness. Like, honestly, it's not the, like a thing with the Lions in particular. Lions fans winning a playoffs game's crazy. It's kind of like a wedding, if it's your team, where it's like, my brother got married last year.

And it's like, I know my brother's getting married. I'm not surprised. It's on my calendar. But it's kind of just like an idea. Then you like show up a few days before and you're like at the venue and they're putting chairs. I'm like, oh, like, this is real. Like my brother's getting married. It's really happening.

Wait till your own wedding, Daniel. It's surreal. Dude, yeah. But like, D.K., I'm curious, like, the Seahawks obviously had a lot of playoff runs and, you know, Super Bowl appearances, championship games, but, like, you know what I mean? Where it's like your team has a, like,

I believe the Seahawks had not made a Super Bowl, right, until Pete Carroll? No, they lost one of the Steelers. But like, yeah, sorry, right. But, thanks for bringing out. There's a certain. Great game. Shout out Antoine Randall L.

Shout out Ruff. Dude, shout out, Andrewfock. Yeah. But Dick his hatred of refs started out. Actually, that might be like the subconscious reason I hate them so late. That's your origin story? Yeah.

But Dick, you know what I'm saying? I was bolded it. I was born in it. But especially for Lions fans, it's like this is the, I'm like, this is real, this is real. Like, you might go to the Super Bowl. Yeah, I think it is, there is something to that. Like, when I go back and remember the Seahawks era,

like, where they were really, really good for, like, that four or five year period, the, elation. I almost want to say the elation over winning. Okay, that first one, especially when they beat the 49ers in like a great game to go to the Super Bowl. I think the elation of winning that game was actually greater than winning the Super Bowl the next two weeks later. It's like because we're going to the Super Bowl is like such a cool feeling. I don't know why like I don't know why that would be any better than actually playing in the Super Bowl. But for some reason it was. It was like the most cool thing. I think I think it's because it's funny. it's like the family guide show. It's like, it's because like if you make it to the Super Bowl, then you could win the Super Bowl. And that is like almost more exciting than winning the Super Bowl in the weirdest way because there's like, there's still something ahead.

So you can like, just look forward to dynamic that's added that actually like improves it. The experience. 100%. I mean, obviously winning the Super Bowl is great. But I do very vividly remember like the Seahawks won the NFC championship against the 49ers and then the Packers. And both games were incredible. And the Packers game was like the most impressive.

probable comeback I've ever seen. And so like the elation following both of those games, I vividly remember, obviously I hated the Super Bowl after the CX beat the Packers. But I don't know. That was just like the coolest feeling. It almost overshadowed the actual Super Bowl. So I totally agree. I think the championship weekend is really fun.

Like for the fan bases of the teams that win, it's so much fun. Because like obviously, yeah, you get this like anticipation of the next two weeks being like all about your team. You know what I mean? Like you're the main character. Yeah. You're the main character. It's so weird if you're not.

Like the Chiefs fans, you're so used to it. You're like celebrity. It's like it's so normal for everyone to be talking about you all the time. The Lions fans have no idea what this is like. They're like, you're like the new celebrity that's not used to it yet. The glow up. Yeah. It's ridiculous.

But so we're going to break down these two games. First, though, we're going to get to some head coaching news. A bunch of head coaching news has just broken. We've got to start. Jim Harbaugh is going to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. He's agreed to coach the charge. There are so many angles to this. I have so many thoughts.

But, Dicke, I want to start with you. I feel like kind of like subconsciously you hate refs because of the Seahawks dealing Super Bowl. Subconsciously, just like Jim Harbaugh because he was like the head coach of the 49ers during your most bitter rivalry with the Niners. But you also have the respect of like, what do you think Chargers fans should understand about Jim Harbaugh being the coach of the Chargers? I mean, I think he's a really, really good coach. He's proven that at both levels, obviously. You know, he, I think, so we were talking about Matt LaFoher the other day, being like the highest winning percentage of any active coach.

Now Harbaugh, he's back. He's back in the NFL. He has the highest winning percentage of any active coach, like one of the highest ever. And so I think that says a lot, obviously. The reason he kind of got out of the NFL was, I think, just mainly because he got, he didn't get along with ownership of the 49ers at the time. It wasn't because of like super poor performance or anything like that. And so, obviously, he went to the college game and won a championship.

He's coming back here. He's had a couple chances to win Super Bowl's here. He could be the fourth coach to do both going forward. I think, obviously, the whole foundation of having Justin Herbert is really, really exciting. And I think he's been known to be, like, really good with every quarterback, basically, that he's been around in terms of, like, designing an offense and, like, massaging the scheme to, like, be good for them. Andrew Luck, right? He had Colin Kaepernick,

you know, I guess I don't know that I'm in the Michigan quarterback she's worked with, but at least in the NFL. I mean, he was a former quarterback himself, you know. I think this is the best landing spot. Like, an important part,

we always say quarterback has to believe in God or believe they are a God. Harbaugh believes he's a God. It is weird. He might be a God, honestly. He actually might be the one guy. Him and Dan Campbell might actually be gods. But what I like about the Chargers situation,

I think it's the best landing spot. one because you have, I mean, you have maybe one of the five best quarterbacks in the league and you're just walking into that. That is like incredibly rare, I feel like that there's an open position to co-goach the best, one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

And two, I like that Harbaugh is a culture guy and he's stepping into a role that is, he's stepping into an organization that is kind of devoid of culture. And like, he can just truly build it up grassroots like from Harbaugh. Like this whole organization will now be Harbaugh. It's not like you're stepping into New England

where it's like the Belichick cloud is hanging over everything. Like there is nothing. This is a clean slate that he can walk in. It's literally like Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen are sitting there like, I've found that if you don't have any goals, you can't fail to reach them. And I gotta tell you, it feels phenomenal. Yeah, it's like that's the charges.

Like if you don't expect to win. Yeah, I mean, he has a whole new facility that they're building for him, like for the chargers down in Southern California. Also like, look, I thought he should retire or stay in Michigan, but if you're going to go anywhere, Southern California, baby, with a lot of money. Like, live the dream, Jim. Okay, so there's so much to talk about with Harbaugh. I actually, there's also, we should just collect all the times.

Everyone's talked themselves under the charges of less 14 years because that one's going to do it together. I have to say, there's so much to talk about the Harbaugh. It's honestly hard to break down. And also his brother might win this, make the Super Bowl, like Jim Harbaugh just won a super like the championship. Year of Harbaugh. Every 10 years is the year of Harbaugh. Yeah. So, having said that, we just got to cut to the chase here.

I just want to go through an incomplete list of various weird stories about Jim Harbaugh. Just to refresh everyone's memories. These are not incomplete. These are things I've learned. One, I want to start with a... So you're doing half-ass internet research on Jim Harbaugh. Yeah, half-ass internet research and Jim Harbaugh. Okay.

Random things about Jim Harbaugh. And we're not even talking about that he was like a quarterback for the Chicago Bears and then the cult. Like the whole other life. He's obsessed with Judge Judy to the point where he has attended in-person, Judge Judy. Like there's a meme of, like he's in the front row for an episode of Judge Judy. That's how much he loves the show. Weird. bizarre.

He puts... He has put Gatorade and his... cereal. This is his son, Jay Harbaugh, who's an assistant with the Wolverines, and I believe the star of the Texas, Connor Stallions, said, when I was a kid, we didn't have any milk for cereal. This is, I can't tell his son. Oh, yeah, Jim Harba said, we put, oh, no, sorry, his son's done the story. One time we didn't have any milk in the house. My dad put Gatorade in the cereal instead of milk. It was the weirdest thing I ever saw. It's kind of electric. What do you think is the best cereal for Gatorade? I was going to ask what flavor Gatorade is the best for cereal.

Well, the cereal can really vary. Cheerials and blue Gatorade. Do you want to go, yeah, mild? Do you want to just go like corn flakes? There's so much sugar to be like Gatorade and cereal. Lucky charms or something. Yeah, you want to go something bland, I guess. Maybe just like mini-weets, not frosted.

I was thinking that too, Craig. Yes, 100%. That's smart. Email Surrender Fantasy football. I don't know. Email Seren Fantasy Football at Gmail.gumel.com. It really makes me want some mini-weets now. What cereals go with Gatorade?

What gatorades go with cereals? and also just... Also, milk replacements for cereal. If you guys don't use milk, but you use anything else, let us know. There's a chef named Molly Baz. I think it's actually pronounced Boz that I really like.

She used to work for Bon Appetit. She salts her cereal, and I just started doing it because of her. Dude, there's a lot of tricks like that. That's smart. Yeah. It's like salt and caramel. Sulting chocolate chip cookies is the dope shit.

Same idea, though. I would not say the same thing about... But it's salt on sweet. Salt sugar fats. Salt sugar fats. The same idea. It's milk is the fat. Soy milk is the fat.

It's all. Craig, if you're looking for a replacement. No, I actually, I'm a fan of cows milk, but I want non-milk options that are funny. Shock is that Jim Harbaugh eats cereal, because cereal, like, just pure sugar for breakfast is kind of like insane, honestly. If you think about it. It's very distinctly American, weird thing. Anyway, other Jim Harbaugh stories. There was an incredible story, I think it was from Nick Baumgartner at The Athletic, that Jim Harbaugh, he got married recently, like, in the last five or six years, and he did a bachelor party.

And then Jim Harbaugh's bachelor party, they went up to play Lasertagat. and Jim Harbaugh, like solo, like, what is it, like Warzone style, like just one v, like, you know, no teams, like just anyone, whoever gets the most points wins. Jim Harbaugh won. And then the scoreboard comes up and you can see who play, like, how'd you get your points? Jim Harbaugh did not shoot any of the men on his bachelor party. There was a 10-year-old kid who got put in the arena with them. No way. Got all of his points by hunting down the 10-year-old kid solely.

And he just spent all his because he wanted to win. And all he did was stalk, like alien predator stalked the 10-year-olds. Got to be ruthless. Got to be ruthless out here. Did not fight. Zero scruples. All you do is win. All he does is win.

Yeah. Like he's like, I don't want to fight my friends. It's like, here are the rules. And if I just hunt this kid, I will win. Wow. What a maniac. He's a maniac. He's a maniac.

He actually is a maniac. If you don't believe in God or have some type of, like a religious thing, and you're going to be an NFL quarterback and you're trying to like, I'm going to be the first pick of the draft, be a Hall of Fame. Like, you have to have otherworldly self-confidence. Like, you know what I mean? So there you go.

Anyway, Jim Harbaugh. Can't wait to have them back in our lives. When he was with the 49ers back in the day, he always wore the exact same outfit every single day. And he got like a, he got like a endorsement or something from, I think it was like dockers or something for his slacks. and it's just like he wore the exact same khakis and shirt every single day. And he's got like this little like thing on his neck, like his pen.

Obama after the tan suit debacle when Obama wore a tan suit, he did the harbaw and he's just trying to wearing the same suit every day so he didn't have to think about it. But I get though. You have to make a lot of decisions. All right. So the harbaw, honestly, this is just we win. We win this. Like just Harbaugh content being again.

Like, you know, Harbaugh, Herbert versus Andy Reid, Mahomes is incredible. So the other coaching stuff that just happened, we, we have. We're recording this at 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. Rahim Morris, the defense coordinator for the L.A. Rams, which is hired to be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Big news for a lot of reasons. Obviously, you know, primarily like, you know, lack of diversity. Obviously, the head coaching ranks in the NFL do not represent the diversity of the

amount of black players that are in the player pool. It's a huge issue. But also just Rahim Morris had, I mean, about as much of a public entouragement, like, less need the Rams GM had like a, I think a monologue, a three-minute monologue. season closing press conference that Rahe Morris deserves a head coaching look but Craig you

you spent some time with Rahe Morris just through producing the Flying Coach podcast of Schrager and McVeigh so I'm curious because everything they say about Rahe Morris

is that he's like this magnet like everyone loves playing for him he's like this in addition to having all this knowledge like he's just the epitome of a player he's coach yes he was on the episode

with so it was Mike Tomlin and Rahe Morris their friends because they coached together at Tampa Bay a long time ago back in like the late 2000s in the secondary, I believe. But Rahim Morris was one of the more charismatic coaches that had come on the show that I had met.

And everybody adores him. Mike Tomlin and Sean McBay, who are also two of the most charismatic, like, culture, guys who get it. And they both spoke so highly of Rahim Morris. He's hilarious. He had them, like, busting up the entire episode. One of those people that's just, like, very magnetic and charismatic. So I'm happy for him. He was super nice to work with.

Rihamoros was like very famously the head coach of the Buccaneers really young. And we don't think about it this way. But like, you know, we always talk about how everyone wants the new thing. And there's a weird thing that coaches who get hired don't get hired again. And Rihamores was the coach of the Bucks. He was so, I think he was the youngest, I could be wrong. I think he was the youngest or second youngest coach ever before McVeigh was. Yeah, he was 32, I think.

He's 37 now. Yeah, he was 15 years ago, yeah. 15 years ago, yeah. He's not 50 years old. That's crazy. So as much as it's like kind of insane that Sean McVey was running a team. in 30. Reh Moore's was running a team of 32 and failed.

And I do think there's something about the ego death of that of going through being destroyed, like feeling like a failure and like really realistically looking at it, be like, I might never get a shot at this again. But Craig, you talk about how Greg Popovich with the Spurs, they want people who are like over themselves. And like I think that there is something about like a, I don't know, being fired as a head coach 33 years old. It's kind of like a-humility that comes with it.

It's like a professional death experience, basically, or like a near-death experience for your career. And I think that there's something to be said about having 15 years as a pretty really successful coach after that. That I don't know. It's funny that we only pick people who've never done the job before us. If you can't like do a job, do a bad job, have a decade and a half go by and be like, I know exactly how I do it now. Yeah. It's like getting hired and fired as a young NFL coach is like a maturity accelerator program.

Like you just immediately be, it's like having a kid when you're young. Like it's just like you just immediately become an adult now. So I think it's a great fit. I'm happy for him. Yeah. And then that kind of like Antonio Pierce at the Raiders, Austin Gale, who works with us here at the ringer,

wrote a really good story about Antonio Pierce. But the point was basically a lot of these guys are culture guys, right? Like, you know, something works. People are like, let's copy that. It's like Dan Campbell, Culture, Lions. Wow. You can just, will, if you just be loud and drink enough caffeine,

we could just like do this through sheer willpower. Tonya Pierce and hit on every single draft pick for four years. Yeah, just do that. Just get all the picks right. It's like, why do you put in golf? Just hit the hole in one. Right. It's way easier.

So much easier. Wait. So, wait. Rahim Morris goes to the Falcons. Bill Belichick? Is Bill Belichick? This is like musical chairs and there's two chairs left and like five coaches that are really buying for this job. Because there's two questions.

Do you think that Belichick turned the falcons? He took a second interview which again is kind of funny to think about. Do you think Belich did you think Belich turned down the Falcons or the Falcons turned on Belichick? I mean, it seems more likely that the Falcons turned out Belichick, especially if he went to a second interview. I think there was also a report. This is something we joked about a couple weeks ago.

The report came out that if Belichick got a new job, he was going to have Josh McDaniels be his OC and Matt Patricia be his defensive coordinator. And I'm wondering if the Falcons were like, uh, fuck that. I got to tell you, though. I mean, I doubt it. Sorry, Alzheimer. I don't think so.

we might look somewhere else. This is not based on information. I'm just reading the tea leaves. Who does that benefit? Anyone trying to get that job? Like, that's kind of something that, frankly, like, someone might have leaked to be like... Yeah, but it's also extremely believable.

Yeah, it's very believable. So here's the thing, though. It's kind of amazing that Belichick, functionally speaking, moved on from Tom Brady. I mean, Robert Kraft just said this in the story by Seth Wicker-sharing-in-Span. He said, Tom couldn't play anymore. And, like, Belichick, he's like any other player.

Like, you move on a year too early rather than you're too late. And that's what's happening to Belichick. He's getting Belichicked. It's like, he's literally the greatest coach of our lifetime. He's six Super Bowls, and everyone's like, I don't know, man. I don't really want to be left holding the bag here. And it's like Bill Belichick wouldn't hire Bill Belichick right now.

And the same's happened to Pete Carroll. You've got how many Super Bowl appearances from the last 12 years, like between Carol and Belichick is that six as a head coach? And they're just, no one wants to hire these guys. It's kind of wild. They're like the oldest coaches in the league. I get it. but the ageism is kind of amazing. It is in the resume.

I feel like there's some very weird, interesting dynamics with coaching hires. You know, obviously there's the race thing, but too. But there's also like a timing issue that happens at the end of the season, like two of the biggest names in this coaching cycle right now, Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator for the Lions and Mike McDonald, defensive coordinator for the Ravens, they're still playing. They're still like game planning. So like the interview process is all kind of out of whack with those two guys.

and so I think there's some of that happening here where some teams just want to hire a guy and get it over with so they can get going on the draft stuff so they can get going with hiring and just like get the ball rolling you know what I mean? Like this has been a problem for teams for a long time is like you fall behind.

If you even by like a week, you're like really far behind everybody else. And so I think that's also just an interesting like wrinkle to this whole thing is like sometimes teams just want to really get it like hurry up and get it done. And that's why we're seeing right now, like, to wrap it all up, like, I still think there's a lot of good coaches out on the market right now. Like, I think Pete Carroll, Belichick, Johnson, and McDonald, all very good coaches. And it's weird that they're all still not hired.

You know what I mean? Like, that's me is like bizarre. Well, it's also insane to think that they're prepping to go to a Super Bowl and they have to do job interviews that they can't be hired yet. It's crazy how the process works. But. And there's only two spots left to go through it. The Chargers found a guy. The Raiders have a coach now. The Patriots, the Titans have Brian Callahan. Yeah, right. We mentioned that. Ryan Cali, and then a man named Dave Canales is now the head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

What is he funny? No, he's really good looking. So I only have two teams. It's Seattle and Washington, and it would be really funny if Seattle's just rehired Pete Carroll. Yeah, or Bill Belichick would be funny, but are those going to be the two to drop? Are they going to wait for Ben Johnson?

Like, are Belichick and Pete Carroll going to have jobs in 2024? Well, I think the big theme here is, just that you, the team's trying to do like defense vibes. But those guys, and again, what Austin wrote was a great story that basically the defense, the coach, the defensive vibes coach, he's a great coordinator. Here's a crazy stat. There's not a single offensive coordinator in the NFL who's been in the role for more than two seasons.

Every single coordinator of the NFL, offensive coordinator of the NFL, the entirely, all 32 teams has changed in the last two years because people are doing what the Panthers just did. You hire Dave Canales because he was the Bucks coordinator. He made Baker look good. They feel dumb because Baker looked bad in Carolina. So it's like Brian Kallon goes to the Titans. Like, oh, we'll just buy this and your system's our system.

We don't have to deal with a coordinator changeover. And the challenge for Dan Campbell is if Ben Johnson for the Lions leaves, what's the offense look like? And so you got vibes with the defensive coaches who need a good coordinators. You got offensive coordinators who are good on offense but like you to run a building. They've never done that. Or old guys. And yeah. Well, I think the real key or like to me, the real goal is to find a guy like Andy Reid or Shannahan

where you have a brilliant offensive mind or McVeigh. You have a brilliant offensive mind. He's the head coach and you just keep him forever. It's like you can find a new defensive coordinator, find a hot upcoming guy or whatever. You know, there's a lot of smart defensive coordinators coming in. But like we've talked about on multiple pods over the last few weeks,

like offense is how you win. You know, like a cutting edge offense is really like the biggest way to win. And having a quarterback and pairing a quarterback with those offensive play callers is like the way that you guarantee I think, like long-term success. Yeah, it's the one downside of having a culture coach, like a Dan Campbell, is like a guy who doesn't call offensive plays is every two years now, if the Lions continue to be good,

you will have to keep finding new offensive coordinators that happen in Philadelphia. So that is a downside. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's the Kansas City going to the games here, get the Chiefs. I mean, the Kansas Chiefs, they hired Andy Reid. It's like Happy Gilmore. Just hire Andy Reid every time. Just it's so much easier.

Just put it in the cup. Yeah, and I'm not like, the teams that are in the chiefs, the playoffs right now still are have like three of them have really good defenses so it's not like defense doesn't matter i just think like stability long term year over year like there's four pillars to a championship team that can continue it's like the owner the head coach the quarterback and the gm and all of them have to be on the same page and i think if you have a head coach and a quarterback that are like really in sync that's like mohomes and reed like that's really hard to be that's like you know, Belichick and Brady wore for so long.

And if you look at the four teams, and again, we can get to these games now. So the four teams are the Chiefs, the Ravens, the Lions and the 49ers. And if you look at it, you basically have three teams that can run the ball in Patrick Mahoms. Or as D.K. said, like, I don't know,

three teams that can play really, really good defense. And then, I don't know if I want to put the Lions in really, really good defense. But they have a really, really good offense. So we, let's start with Chiefs Ravens here because this is pretty spectacular. The Chiefs are at Baltimore this weekend. The Ravens are three and a half point favorites.

the betting market score prediction basically is that the Ravens will beat the Chiefs 24 to 20. That's basically like where the betting market is settled. Craig, last week we did the sphincter scale, and I think we need to go back to it. I think this is once again a pretty big time sphincter scale for the Baltimore Ravens. I think I agree, but I think it's lower on the sphincter scale. I don't think it's as... How many megatons was it last time? It was, oh, God, five million megatons, five billion?

Can you explain the sphincter scale? for people who are very... It's just like the Richter. It's the Richter scale, which is the way in which we measure the seismic energy created from an earthquake. But, you know,

in NFL terms, with your sphincter. So it's pretty cut and dry. So I think last week... How much are you panicking right now? It's really... Last week I gave the Ravens, I think, a six and a half.

And I think it's only a five. Because look, if they had lost last week, it would have been truly a disaster. It would have been like, C.J. Stroud has more play. playoffs wins than Lamar Jackson. He can't get the job done. He can't beat a team that snuck into the playoffs. Now it's like, all right, you lose to Patrick Mahomes in a close game. I'm not sure that like the

fingers are going to be pointed at Lamar. He had a great game last week. So I think it's a little lower. I think it's like a five out of ten on the sphincter scale. But it would just more be like a bummer if they couldn't do this. However, look, you're going up against the reigning champ and Mahomes. And I said this last week. And I think the trend continues. I can't believe how underdisgust it is that the Chiefs are reigning champs and how little of a target they have on their back. I mean,

all three other teams are probably more disgust and more hyped than the Chiefs right now, yet they are the team coming off a Super Bowl win. That is really well. Is it just fatigue?

Or is it because they were just not very good? I think it, well, it's like, well, obviously they're good, but you know what I mean. I think it's kind of both.

I think they didn't have a great year. Kelsey was hurt. Maybe we're sick of them because of the Taylor Swift's things and we're talking more about that and Kelsey than we are than we are actually on the field. But,

Yeah, this team is not discussed at all as a reigning champ. I mean, this is pretty literally what Bill always talks about of how like Derek Rose won an MVP because we were bored of LeBron. Wasn't that basically more or less where Mahomes is where it's like, yeah, you've had seven seasons of being in, or six seasons for Mahomes LeBron being an all-time grade on this team. And obviously Mahomes had more help in his career than LeBron did. But then like, yeah, just we're bored. And they, what are we going to do? Keep talking about, like the bar that Mahomes has is so high that for Mahomes to do something to get attention. he has to go so high. Stephen Ries pointed out last season at one point,

Patrick Mahomes threw five touchdown passes in like week six last year and did not get a highlight package from the NFL's YouTube account. Like they made like eight videos and he was not one of them through five touchdowns. We're like, we're so bored with this guy. But you're right though because I was thinking about like last week we were like, oh, Josh Allen, Mahomes. This is like Manning Brady. And I said that.

I was wrong. Mahomes is Manning and Brady. Like Mahomes is, the Manning Brady. the Manning Brady thing was like Manning had all the stats, all the regular season wins. Like he was like the inevitable in the fourth quarter. He had the MVP's that stats. Brady was inevitable in the playoffs.

Mahomes is both. Mahomes has 5,000 yards, two 5,000 yards seasons like Manning did. Mahomes has 50 touchdown passes. Mahomes has like the MVP's like Manning did. But he's also inevitable in playoffs. He's never not made the AFC championship game. He's never, he's never made, not made it.

I'm looking at the Chiefs like history over the last seven or eight years or whatever it is. I feel like I still just, it hasn't clicked for me yet that Mahomes has been in three of the last four Super Bowls. Like, you know what I mean? Like, he's just there every year. I think we have to like really sit down and recognize that. Patrick Mahombs is probably the best quarterback ever. Dude, I think that's the thing.

He'll never win the goat argument. Like the, it really is already like Jordan LeBron. It will never, my homes will never be the greatest quarterback ever in the goat thing because he lost to Tom Brady in a Super Bowl. So even if Mahomes actually won eight Super Bowls, it's like, if my home's actually won eight Super Bowls, It's like if Michael Jordan on the Wizards beat LeBron James in the finals, like there would be no LeBron argument. But Mahomes is like pretty comfortable. Like if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl this year,

it literally will be Brady, Montana, and Mahomes. Like that's the top. Like Brady gets his own tier. Joe Montana and Mahomes get the next tier. It's not even close because if Mahomes wins this weekend, he will pass John Elway for the second most Super Bowl appearances. Mahomes is 28 years old. It'll be Tom Brady and then Patrick Mahomes and Super Bowl appearances.

and then third will be John Elway, and he's 28. He could play for 12 more years. I also think the gap between him and the next best quarterback is bigger than it's been at the quarterback position in the NFL in a long time. Like, even when there was Brady, there was always Manning. I don't think number two is even close to Patrick Bahams right now. No, because he just keeps beating everyone. It's kind of like how Tom Brady won more Super Bowls in his 40s

than Peyton Manning won total. You know what I mean? It's like, Kate Manning was hot. If you split Brady's career up into like two different decades. Brady in his 20s, 30s, and 40s would each be a Hall of Famer. It's like he retired and then Tom Brady kept away. It's like he just left everyone in the dust.

Like, you know, when Brady was first coming around, it was like, Brady or Carson Palmer. And it was like, yeah. But we don't, it's honestly, like, I want to find where the LeBron James, we were all witnesses banner and we just got to put my homes on it because like we kind of keep forgetting. Like this is, he's our Joe Montana.

Like this, like at least the first trilogy, Tom Brady won. It was like, how much credit does he deserve? Mahomes is like if Peyton Manning had just done everything Tom Brady did and you combined what they were doing in the first six seasons, that's what they've accomplished. So with that said, we should probably talk by the Ravens a little bit

because they're favored to beat Patrick Mahomes by three and a half points in this game. All that said, this is a good plot development here. But yeah, it's a good way in because, like, you know, we talked about this. If I had a playoff manifesto, there's one rule on it. And it's, what's going to make you feel less like an idiot the next morning? in terms of who you're going to pick or bet on. And it's why we decided to go with C.J. Stroud last second over Joe Flacco in the Browns,

because we were like, look, I don't care. I don't care. Like, if I wake up the next morning and I'm like, I bet on Joe Flacco, I'm going to feel like a fucking idiot. And I think this is the hardest test for that theory because three and a half points for Mahomes feels like, the second I saw that, I was like, I'm hammering that. And that line is held. It's still three and a half. Mahomes as an underdog in his career, he's played 10 games as an underdog in his career. he's won seven of them. So he hasn't just covered.

He's won in seven of ten games as a dog. Did you see the stat that Mahomes is like, I think, sorry, I think it's down in the fourth quarter in the playoffs. I forget things, down a touchdown in the fourth quarter, he's eight and two. The rest of the league's like one and nine or something. Yeah, so it's like, you can also say that like, you know, Mahomes has gone up against, you know, two beat up, mediocre defenses.

Now they're going up against Baltimore, who is probably the best team in the league right now overall. I don't know. I have a much clearer thought about the Niners game than I do about this game. D.K., what would make you feel dumber? Like, Mahomes, like saying the Chiefs will win, and then watching Mahomes completely struggle to complete a pass to any of his receivers, or picking the Ravens and then watching Mahomes just make the Super Bowl again?

I don't, I think picking, this is so hard, because Craig is totally right. Like, there was, like, such an easy logic with the Stroud versus the Browns thing. this one's much less logical. You know, I don't know why, Craig, you said, oh, they're maybe one of the best teams in the league this year. No, they're maybe one of the best teams ever, the Ravens are. Like, if you look at, okay, DVOA, first of all, the Ravens with weighted DVOA,

which waits more for, like, the late part of the season than the early part of the season, weighted DVA, this is the best team that's ever gone through the divisional round. Like, this is the greatest, this is the best team per DVOA that's ever made the conference championships. For the record, DVOA goes back to, like, 1980. It's like the 70s, yeah.

That's wild. A 55% weighted DVOA, that doesn't mean anything, but no team has been over 50 ever at this point in the season. And if you look at the history of these teams, it's like the 85 bears, like the 96 Packers. So obviously there's like some really ridiculously good teams here, the 8949ers, the 2007 Patriots. The teams match the eye test. Yeah, it's like all the greatest. Like some of the all-time teams are on this list. And, you know, obviously, that doesn't necessarily mean anything when you're going up against Mahomes because...

It's a real analytics versus vibes. Yeah, totally. It's like, oh, okay, so who's going to win? The greatest team maybe ever? Or Mahomes who is absolutely inevitable. You know what I mean? It's a real like trying to talk sports with your dad, where it's like, no, dad. You don't understand, like, the Ravens defense, what they're doing and Lamar offensively and everything, they're healthy.

And the dad's like, yeah, I'm not bending. against Mahomes. And he might be right. I don't know. He might be right. I really don't know where to go. Shout out Michael Jr. who covers football and is Michael's son.

He played football in Notre Dame. And he's really good in football. I talked to him a lot about candy bars because he tries candy bars at gas stations. He's the man. But I texted you a tweet he had. Dickie, will you read this tweet? Because I don't know if you read it or not. But I thought this was genuinely like hilarious.

He put it all out there. So, yeah, this is from NFL research, the 23 Ravens. So this team, the 85 bears and the 72 dolphins are the only teams in the Super Bowl era to score 25 plus points per game while leading the NFL in rush offense and scoring offense, scoring defense, sorry. So you ran for the most rushing yards, you allowed the fewest points,

and you scored over 25 points per game. Three teams, the 85 bears who are like, everyone talks about the 85 bears because they were just legendary. The 72 dolphins, the only team to go wire to wire, undefeated, and then this Ravens team. That's crazy. And to keep that going,

it's not like the Ravens are playing shitty teams. They've played 11 teams this year with the winning record. They have seven wins against 2023 playoff teams this year. They have seven wins against teams that made the playoffs this year. This is the other stat. The 23 Ravens, so this year's Ravens and the 07 Patriots, who almost went undefeated. Only teams in NFL history with a plus 100 point differential

versus playoff teams in a season. So that means they beat the playoff teams that they've beat by 100 combined points. And that's them and those seven patriots. They beat the dolphins 56 to 19. They beat the Niners, 33 to 19. They beat the Seahawks 37 to 3. I know they didn't make the playoffs. They beat the Browns, 28 to 3.

They beat the Rams in OT. They beat the Texans in week one. This is why they're so high on DVOA. By the way, a DVOA, like, when you, there's, like, blowouts in the NFL are actually, like, relatively rare. Like, you have to be really good to, like, completely blow out a team, I think, most of the time.

Think about it this way. Week one, the rave. the Texans, 25 to 9. And I get that Cedishish has, you know, by the end of the season,

Cichichos playing way better. Last week in the playoffs, they allowed the Texas score three points. They got a punt return. That was their touchdown. Like the Stroud we saw that broke the record

for touchdown passes by a rookie in a playoff game at halftime. Three points. They couldn't do anything. And then what if the Ravens play the Lions in the Super Bowl? The Lions scored six points

against the Ravens. They lost 38 to six to the Ravens. So, you're right, TK, that we don't talk about the chiefs as the defending champs, Craig, you're totally right. We do not talk about the Ravens because they lost a couple weird games

in the beginning of the season. And so we didn't talk, give them that, oh, they're 9 and no, they're really good, but the Ravens are as good as, like, a lot of other teams that started 11 at 0. They're just like, they have so many ways to grind you down and be, like,

they're really good on offense. They have, like, a quarterback that can, like, completely change, the complexion of a play because he could not only win early in the down in the structure of the play, but if you do everything right as a defense, he can still make you pay, and it's absolutely demoralizing. And then they have a great defense that's very forward-thinking, like, on the cutting edge with a lot of the stuff they do to confuse opposing offenses, and then they have good special teams. Can I explain the defense.

One of the best kickers ever. So Mike McDonald, the defensive coordinator of the Ravens, I think it's hard to explain how good the Ravens defenses. Can I try? I want to like to, I think, you know when you, you know when you buy hot dogs, And there's like 10 hot dogs. But then you also buy the buns. And there's only eight buns. Okay.

And it's not as many. So you go home and you cook and you're like, all right. And then like you got these like two extra buns. Like what am I have two buns. No hot dogs. And you kind of said. It was two extra. Wait, it's two extra hot dogs or two extra buns?

I think the buns are in eight and the dogs are in ten. Two extra dogs. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Oh, yeah. You have two extra dogs. Well, so you have to buy two things of buns.

Wait, you got like four extra buns. You're like, oh my God. Or the two extra dogs. extra buns. I'm already confused with... All right. Fine. You have two extra hot dogs, right? Okay.

It's kind of awkward. Like, a hot dog without a bun. Like, that just looks wrong, right? It's weird. Yeah, you're not going to cheat that. That's how the Ravens play defense. Like, they literally, like, the Ravens play defense, like the Buns and Dog. Because you're like, the Buns' dogs.

You're like, they're doing this on purpose, aren't they? Like, they're just, they want you to, that's the Ravens. So the offensive line, the offensive line, those are the hot dogs. Right? You got five hot dogs. Okay. I can, I can. I specialize this. Let's call them Bratworth.

Well, they don't... Okay. Just because they're a little... I kind of want to call them hot dogs. Okay, we'll go hot dogs, yeah. The Texans' offensive line are hot dogs. The defense of the buns. The Ravens defense steps up.

They got six lines on the line of scrimmage. And the Texans offense, it's like, oh, my God, we don't have enough hot dogs. Oh, this is terrible. It's a disaster. So they're like, hey, running back. See, just Trout's like, hey, Devin Singletary, you have to stand a block. Because we got five linemen. You need to be the sixth hot dog, because they got all these buns. months. We're like, all right. So then the ball snapped, six on six. The Ravens don't send six.

They send four. They drop, but they don't send the four you expect. They send like three defensive linemen and like a safety. But they're not even being normal about it. They're like, it's like a broad instead of how to, it's like the safety is like running a basketball pick. The safety is like setting a pick on the left tackle. And the defensive end is cutting, who's Jadavi and Clowney is cutting in. Now you have Jadavion Clowney on Devon Singletary. Guess what? The great. The greatest college football highlighted the 21st century is to Davy and Clowny and a running back. So the quarterback gets sacked and you watch the play and you're like, I don't get it. It was four on six.

Two offensive linemen didn't even do anything. How do the quarterback get sacked? And you're like, damn, I got two extra hot dogs. Like, how do I have two hot dogs? These offenses are like, how am I supposed to barbecue with these kind of numbers? And like, I think they're doing this. How am I supposed to plan a freaking barbecue? But hey, it's like, and then Collinsworth is like, oh, my God, it looks like a mistake,

but they planned it that way. And it's like the hot dog bun people They're working together Because the quarterback dropped back And he's like, Jadavian clownies in his face And he looks downfield What does C.J. Stroud see downfield? Four guys went out for a route.

Seven defenders. He sees four buns and seven hot dogs. Well, and he's looking at receivers legs Why? And he's like, are those legs or hot dogs? I don't know. I'm just going to be watching this game and thinking about hot dogs and buns.

It's just hot dogs and buns. And you're like, oh my God, we got seven on four out there. This is a disaster. The numbers don't match up. You, look, you, Hyvich, you landed that plane you did, but you landed it in the Hudson, like, solely. Like, it wasn't a plane landing, but you landed it. There were no casualties.

All the souls are alive on, but the plane's gone. The plane is a loss. I'm done to Washington. I'm like, I did a great job. And they're like, we think you were drunk and high. Are you high? Yeah. Nobody could have done that but you, but you were still drunk and high.

No one needed. And it does, like, the visual works for me. But I do mean it in that that is the way the Ravens win because there's all this schematic stuff they do that obviously I'm oversimplifying. But the point is it's just a numbers game. When the Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowl, what we're talking about?

Four defensive linemen versus five-man rush or five offensive linemen. When four beat five and you have more people in coverage, you win. The Ravens are beating four on six. The Ravens are manipulating very intelligently with X's and O's reasons that I barely even understand myself. The Ravens are using four to beat six.

and if four beat six blockers, four rushers beat six blockers, that means you have seven people in coverage for four receivers. Yeah. The offense cannot win. And that is how you get the Ravens defense being the best since either the Legion of Boom and Seahawks or the 2000 Ravens or the 85 pairs. That's got to be so infuriating for an offense. My God.

Well, see, it's for all these reasons where I'm like, I'm very hesitant to bet on the chiefs here. Also, speaking of like the line discrepancy, the Joe Tuny, the, the, Chiefs guard might not play. And so I don't know. The communication. We don't think about that. We're like, is that guy good? We don't think about it's five people who are good at talk. So he can't rotate line mid. It's like good at talking to each other. It's like literally everything is telling me that I should bet on the Ravens. And then I look over and I see Patrick Mahomes. And I'm like, do I just throw all everything, all the hot dogs in the buns? I just throw them all in in the trash. And I bet on Patrick Mahomes. I don't know. You're a hamburger guy. I think I'm going to

Baltimore. I do. They're home. Yeah. I'm taking Baltimore. I'll actually be covering this game. I'll be credentialed. So actually, if you look at my Instagram story, I'll ring her NFL Instagram, I'll actually be there. I didn't know that. That's fun. Yeah, I mean, honestly, I'm just going to try to find Taylor Swift's Sweet. I don't know if I'll Instagram about the game. Just take your shirt off. And like,

Jason Kelsey, they'll find you. Jason Kelsey. Sure they're letting anybody in there. Yeah. The security guards outside that suite, when he climbed back in, they're like, I guess he's allowed to do that. DK who you're picking? I'm picking the Ravens, so is Craig. Okay, if you guys are both doing it, I feel like we can't go all three.

I'm going to pick inevitability. Yeah. Inevitability. What's the Matrix line? Neil, that's what you hear, the sound of inevitability. I thought it was, maybe that's not it. We're in the Matrix. I definitely like fucked up the quote anyway, so it doesn't matter.

You're probably just as close as I was there. The Matrix is crazy. I know Kung Fu Yeah I remember I remember that I'm dying over this tweet I saw like three years ago

We did a word for that There's a tweet It's just like saying like A guy at dinner pretending he's read a lot A guy on a first date at dinner pretending He's like he's like a well-read person And Catcher in the Rye pops up And it's just him going

I love how he just clenches his fist catches all that fucking ride. Please email us at RiggerFantasy football at g-bill.com. Anything like that, but also just what Craig just said, random tweets you just think about, Instagram memes, whatever you just think about and they just make you laugh. The way he just catches all that ride.

Movie quotes that are wrong. Anything just emails. My favorite, Stephen A. Smith. Someone tweeted, this is 50 years ago, but it was just like Stephen A. Smith voice. And it was like, Crab Rangoon. Now that's just preposterous.

And things of that nature. Things of that nature. Crab Rangoon. Things of that nature. Anyway, all right. Pick the Ravens. That's a set in Skorogammy. No one's ever said what I just said.

Crab Rangoon. All right. Oh, the Matrix. Crab Rangoon. All right. Ravens. Let's see we pick it. All right.

Next up, we have the Detroit Lions are at the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners are a touchdown favorite. The betting market score prediction is that the Niners will beat the Lions 28 to 21. This is pretty easily the biggest game in Lions history. The Lions have never been to Super Bowl. The last time the Lions were even a game away from, or the last time the Lions didn't even want a playoff game. They had one player who had been born, who was their long snapper.

So, Craig, what is the, what's the Sphinctor scale for the Detroit Lions in this game? I think it's because it's a, I don't necessarily think if they lose again, just like last week. Like, if they lose, it's not like their season was a disappointment. it's still a massive feat for this franchise and they're on the right path. But you know when you're so excited that you have diarrhea? That, that...

What? No, I don't. You never had that where you're like, you're like so excited for something. You're kind of nervous excited. You have an upset stomach. You have the butterflies. Nervous shits are a thing for sure.

Yeah. No, never in my life. You never heard of nervous shits? Nervous? Yeah, like the tension before a game, you're just like, oh, I feel like I got to take a shit. Sometimes that happens, but the diarrhea, nervous shits being diarrhea, is that synonymous?

I don't know if it's like actual diarrhea. It's just like nervous. It's probably Craig just drinking kombucha and all the in his probe free biotics. Look, when you have nervous shits, it's often not the most like regular well. It's not like you're just, yeah, doing your normal, your daily constitutional. Email us if you know if you know about nervous shits. I feel very, very confident that this is like a really common one. It's a thing for sure.

Like before like throw up before every SNL. Yeah. Joshon throws up before every game. Yeah. So the reason why I'm putting this at a seven and a half on the sphincter scale, not because like the pressure on. this team if they lose is so high. But it's like, it's this weird level of like, oh my God, we can actually like see the Super Bowl and smell it now.

And it's so close. And that might actually make everybody tense up and play terribly. Not because of the pressure, but because of the excitement. Well, also there is something that your body knows what's happening. Like you're going to run a race. Marathon or stuff about this. Like that, I guess that I always thought about more as like there's a nervous pee, but like there is all marathon.

Because your body does know, like, oh, I got to do this? And like, let's get. But do you think that's the advantage Tom Brady had when he's like, yeah, you just have some advantages playing the Super Bowl? but it's like everyone has to take a shit except Tom Brady right before the game and that's the advantage. I 100% believe that and that's why we have

we have golf and Purdy I mean both of them Purdy didn't really play in that Eagles game because he got hurt last year and it's like golf has played in a Super Bowl but in a different circumstance so it's like I don't know I'm not sure who you feel more confident in right now throwing the football also you know that the famous

Patriots quote the Patriots when they played the Rams in the Super Bowl there was a quote that was kind of relayed through I want to say Mike G. R.D., I could be wrong. But a reporter basically relayed that a defender had told him, I believe, that they were going to make Gough blink himself. Oh, wow. And so, yeah, there's something to that. I didn't realize that, you know, that they actually meant it that.

It just, yeah, it's like it, if you feel like you should do it before the game because you don't want to be stuck in the middle of the game and having to do that. And then you're just like, it's just a vicious cycle, you know. D.K., who do you think? Obviously, the Niners are favorite. I'm curious what you think, because the Niners and Lions, they're so similar. Seven-point favorites to the Niners.

It's weird because the Niners are kind of like the older Lions. Like you have like a great tight end, like George Kiddell, Sam La Porter, like an actual like Ken Block can receive. You have McCaffrey, the Niners. I mean, both these teams really invested too in positions you don't usually invest in.

It seems like it's a bad idea. Like with air quotes, McCaffrey, for the Niners, they'd spend all this money and like traded for him. The Lions took to Mir Gives with the 12th pick. People thought that was dumb. The Lions took a first round linebacker. People who don't do that anymore.

The Niners pay Fred Warner, like the most money in the league to be a linebacker. It's all these things you're not supposed to do. Meanwhile, here they are. And I'm curious, D.K., if you think that's too simplistic or you actually think that like the Lions, also Ben Johnson, Kyle Shannon being the two really great play callers, if there's kind of like a Dr. Eve Lofston Power is like, we're not so different you and I, even though one team's like the greatest franchise in NFL history after the Patriots and Steelers or Packers, whatever.

and then the other is the Detroit lines. Right. No, I definitely think there's some very interesting parallels there, especially like you were saying, in the way that they sort of invest in positions that teams aren't, quote, quote, supposed to invest in, or that's not necessarily the, you know,

the analytically right way to do it based on, like, the way that salary cap is set up and the way that positions are paid. But, yeah, I mean, this, I don't know. I don't know what to do with this team because I feel like last week, the 49ers looked really human. you know what I mean like for the for almost the entire season I'm like this team is

gonna fuck you up this is a juggernaut this team is just absolutely you know like I could think I called them a band saw for most of the season they're just just just buzz saw buzz saw that's right either one I mean both are scary is a band is there also a band saw I've never heard of a band saw well now I'm trying to picture what a band saw is a hack saw oh there's a band saw any kind of saw I mean all saws can fuck you up let's be honest what is a buzz saw now that I think about it I don't know what I'm know. That's actually a great point.

Oh, it's the one you think of when you think of a serial killer having a buzzsaw. That's a weird, like the real spin way. It's kind of like a chainsaw, but it's just a circle. Yeah. Anyway. That is pretty scary.

Oh my God. A bus saw is scary. Dude, it's pretty nice. I don't want to run into a bussaw. I think it's a buzzsaw. The buzzsaw is like usually the machine in the, in like, the horror film where like you're like stuck to the track moving closer slowly towards the bus saw.

Yeah. Isn't the home's the bus saw? No. To me, a buzzsaw seems like a defense. I feel like a defense has to be a buzzsaw. I don't know. Yeah. Anyway.

What kind of saws the Niners, D.K.? No, I think really more the 49ers are like the old school Bruce Campbell arm chainsaw from the Evil Dead trilogy. I've not seen those. The series. Yeah, anyways, that's really old school. But anyways, they're one kind of saw. They chop you up. I really, like, for the longest time, I was just like, man, the 49ers, they just look so unbeatable.

in so many different ways. But this last game, I don't know. Like, they just looked really, really human. They did not look like themselves. So I don't know what to think about this freaking 49ers. How much are we willing to give credit to the fact that it was raining? I actually think that this is why I'm picking the Niners. I think there's not like I, I think that people are freaked out by the Brock Purdy game.

I actually think Craig has once again just kind of stumbled ass backward into what could be a defining story of the season, which is the Niners might win the Super Bowl. Good job. And everyone like just doubted them because you couldn't see the rain during Niners Packers. And if you could see the rain during the game, no one would have been like, Brock Pretty sucks. It's like, wow, it's raining. They should build a dome.

I can't believe Jordan Love completed a pass. It's like, but you can't see the rain. So it was like, this guy sucks. But like if you were there getting rained on, you weren't like, wow, it's inconceivable. He can't throw in these circumstances. And I just think that now that it's, unless it's, going to rain on Sunday. It's not. It's supposed to be 73 and sunny.

I think the Niners are going to look perfectly fine, man. And I think we're going to go back to Carl Shainan being like, hey, who's your worst defender? I'm going to put on a package of personnel that means you have to put him on the field. And I'm going to just run some weird plays so that he has to cover and tackle every time. And I'm like, Alex Anzolone, I don't, you know, the dude who's like the long blonde hair. And I'm like, is he going to be good on Kittle? How's that going to go?

I don't know. The line secondary kind of sucks, man. They're going to have to deal with Brad and I Yucadipo every time. And that's where I'm like, I'm going to go with the Niners, I'll feel really dumb if I pick against them and they win. I think I agree. Even if you look at the four defenses in this championship weekend, the Ravens, Chiefs, and Niners are ranked first, second, and third in terms of points allowed per game.

This season in the Lions are 23rd. And Purdy, although he didn't play great, one at a game-winning drive while losing in the fourth quarter, which is like incredibly impressive, especially considering the rain. I mean, people in California can't even drive when it's raining, let alone play quarterback. It was like the first time that Shane had to come back in the fourth quarter, too. Yeah, they had no deal with a lot of the whole quarter. that whole game basically too. So I think I agree with you.

I feel much more confident. And look, it sucks because once again, I'm betting against the best storyline. Like, I'm betting against the team of destiny in the Lions. Yet I do think the Niners are much better than the Lions. We talk about media bias. Let's be real.

I want the Detroit Lions to win. That'd be more fun. I'm picking the Niners. But like, the Lions are, like, we see the Niners. We've seen Shannon. We see, like, also 60 years we've seen the Niners. Like, they're the Niners. the Detroit fans just deserve it more.

I mean, look at that game. They stayed out. They were the loudest, I've never heard crowds on a punt. You guys have heard crowds on a punt? I don't think so. I think about it. Yeah, no. They were so loud.

I don't know. Anyway, I, I, I, I, I'm definitely very, you said that, you said that on the last pot and I didn't know what you were talking about. Said the crowd on the punt. I was like, the Lions during the Bucks game. They must have been showing something on the Jumbotron, but like the Lions fans, when they were trying to, the lions were trying to block a punt

so that when the bucks were punting. The Lions fans were, maybe, and again, you know, where they TV crew puts the microphones matters a lot for this, but I think that the Lions were, fans were louder on any telecast

I've ever heard for a football game in my entire life, and I mean that, on punts. Like, not just only a punt place. I mean, I've never heard any crowd ever on a punt

before the play. And the Lions gate, that crowd was the loudest, was the loudest crowd I've ever heard on cellicast. I wonder how they'll travel to San Francisco. I know, that's the thing. The Lions have been home for the last two games. And look, they beat a terrible Eagle secondary.

They beat, you know, a fine Buccaneers team. I mean, sorry, the Lions beat, you know, a solid Rams team. I'm not sure they should have won that game, but it was very close. And then they beat a mediocre Bucks team. You know that the Lions defense has been, over the last five games,

the Lions have allowed over 300 passing yards and multiple touchdown passes in all five games, which has never happened in league history. Wow. What? Say that again? That's crazy. Five straight games allowing over 300 passing yards and multiple touchdown passes.

No team in league history has ever allowed that. Never, who made the playoffs or just period. Period. Wow. They're getting forced to put in the air. I think of the Niners. I mean, yeah, like the very obvious and logical pick is to take the Niners. But even with the seven points.

But it was also logical to take them over Greenberg. Bay. And then it poured rain and you couldn't see the rain. They won. They won the game. I know. Is it weird, though, that Jordan Love looked pretty good for the whole game in the rain and Brock Party didn't? Yes.

I would say no because that is like an advantage you get with a weird, toolsy quarterback. You draft like Jordan Love. Like you remember the wind game, which another thing you can't see. What's up with that? But like the Bills and Patriots and the wind game is like 40 mile away. Where's wind come from, by the way? Actually, though, like a gust of wind. It's like a gust of wind.

Where does it start? I don't know. It's like a gust of wind. I know pressure, whatever. How long does a gust of wind last? Like, if I feel a gust of wind, how long does the gust go? Does it go a city block?

Does it go a mile? Does it go 10 feet? Like, I have no concept of this. It's all good questions. We need to get a guest on the show, wind expert. Let's get a meteorologist. Email us at ringer fancy football at gmail.com

if you know how long gust of wind last. Anyway, the same way that win game, Mac Jones threw three passes. Josh Allen wasn't great, but he could throw in the game because Josh Allen pretty effortlessly can throw the ball harder. It literally cuts through the wind. And like the same way, Jordan Love's just a stronger, like his ball is just better.

Like he just can throw harder. It's cutting through the rain. Party's hand's small. He's worse grip and he doesn't have his arm strength. It's like he doesn't have as much control over the ball, which doesn't really matter if it's perfect conditions. The advantage is you could do it imperfectly. And that's what, whether it's off your back foot, a guy hitting you, whatever,

Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jordan Love can do stuff in imperfect situations. I think that's an honestly a great. point. I never even thought about that. And I don't, I wonder if people would push back on what you just said about, but I actually really believe that. That like if you, if you have a stronger arm, you can throw it through the wind and rain easier. If you have bigger hands, you can control, you know, you can hold on to the football better when it's raining. I actually think all of those this. This is, this is something that has been like, GMs have been all over this for a long time. Yeah. No, no, I'm the first. No, no. I'm the first person. I think I thought. I remember,

at one point John Schneider was talking about when they signed Charlie Whitehurst. Are they traded for Charlie Whitehurst back in the day. He was talking about... Okay, never mind. I'm off. He was talking about watching Charlie Whitehurst like throw in the wind. It's also why they drafted

Josh Allen and we all made fun of it. 100%. Exactly. Can we all just say that I don't think this is the common thought, but I feel really strongly that windy is the worst type of weather. It's worse than rain. No, snow is the worst. I don't know.

Snow is magical. There's nothing magical about strong winds. In extremely gusty day, like ruins everything. I don't. like wind at all, Craig, but you can send your kids to daycare when it's windy. I'm coming off of a week of snow hell where I was trying to work full time and watch Calvin the whole day. That's why, by the way, in case you were wondering, that's why Calvin came on the podcast the other day is because I had Calvin home with me because the place where I live has no infrastructure

to deal with snow. And everything, the town closed down for like three days. So Calvin was home with me while I was trying to work. And it was terrible. I mean, I love my son, but. I mean, I love hanging out with them, but not while I'm trying to work. It's a great example of Craig and I are almost 30 years old, but sometimes we just talk about stuff abstractly like, what do you like better? Snow or Wind?

And DK is just like, well, one affects my life and whether my kid could go to school and one doesn't. In the abstract, wind is the worst weather better. Yes, 100%. 100. Like, in a vacuum, I would rather play and hang out in the snow than be out in the wind. The wind sucks. but logistically, the wind is better.

It snowed in D.C. the other day, and it's like the perfect snowball snow. Yeah, I could just like put like, you know, pack horizontally, pack vertically, and then like a little shape, and I just have perfect snowball. It's so satisfying when you get the right kind of snow. That is cool. Well, I'll be seeing a lot of snow on the Rewatchable's tour, which I'm embarking on in about four days. Oh, yeah, right, yeah. Craig's coming to like...

Chicago, D.C., Philly, New York. Oh, wait, yeah, you're coming to 10 minutes from my apartment, and I'm going to be in Mobile, Alabama with D.K. And you're coming to D.C., speaking which, Jackie's also on a work trip. Will you watch my cat or feed it? Can I just, you know what we should do is Mal is coming on this tour. We should just give the cat to Mal. Mal can take that. Mal just takes

care of it. Well, I'm God. You're never getting that cat back. No, no, that's a good point. All right. So I'm picking the Niners of the spread. Craig, you're picking the nines spread. D.K. Fuck it. I'll take the lions. I, 100% I'm picking the 49ers, but I feel like if we all agree on something, it's bad.

So I'm going to take the... We should do that where we put up the graphic where someone like always took the person, but we actually just all picked the same team, but we should just have the graphics say that we didn't do that. Do you guys think right now Brock Purdy or Jared Gough is better? The first and the last pick in the draft who are facing each other. Jared Gough.

Jared Gough looks like the first pick in the draft. Jared Goss. So right now if you were the Niners and you could trade and have Gough start this game for you instead of Purdy, you would do it. Dude, we found out this week that Kyle Sharon straight up told Brock Pertie, you will be the start of this season if you're healthy unless Tom Brady

wants to play for us in which case we will sign Tom Brady that would have just pissed the fans off Yeah the fans would be that that bartender we met Phoenix would be so mad Yeah he would be a rate

Nine years face of wild That's like Bill being like Craig Look you can continue to host The Fantasy show Unless we get Matthew Barry And I'd be like yeah Okay I get it

All right A couple emails we'll get out of here One some of the chiefs coming all the way back around here talk about the Chiefs. And again, how dumb will we feel if the Chiefs

cannot complete a pass because unlike the bills having AJ Klein in coverage. We have the Chiefs receivers playing the Ravens defense. Jeremy emailed us.

On the Sunday show, I compared the Chiefs receivers to the Bluth children. Jeremy wrote in to say, I would like to expand on that a little more. Travis Kelsey's Michael Bluth, just looking at the family around him,

trying to figure out what the hell is going on. While this is going on, his feelings for Taylor Swift, a.k. Marta are always looming. Okay. Rishi Rice is Lindsay, hot and could be a decent human or receiver,

but the chaos of the family makes them unproven and unreliable. Marquez Valde Scantling is Job, a magician that makes everything that hits his hands disappear. Miko Hardman is Buster, just a disaster with clause for hands. By the way,

the name Buster Bluth is, the all-time names for any character. How is Tony? Tony is Tobias just crying in the shower. Oh, my God. I think Cadarius Tony is Buster. Yeah.

Because he only has a hook for a hand. Yeah. I'm a monster. I'm a monster. Oh, my God. There's a, there's a great scene. This is something my buddy always says is, you know the scene where

Michael walks into the room and everyone's like, just lounging on the couch. He's like, is there a gas leak in here or something? Just like, that's how I feel mid, midway through the game. Like all the receivers aren't doing it. Is there a gas leak in here or something? Yeah, Kelsey walks in, looks up at the box scored. He just sees him the Jumbertron.

No one else has a cat. This does, I don't know why, but this feels like a Tony game. He was hurt last game. Is he playing? I don't think so. Damn. Well, hold on. Let's find out.

I feel like, I think he's so hurt, but let's check it. Before we go. We need to know. This is important. Injury, hand. Hook. Back when I was in Army. Chiefs downgrade Cadarious Tony's limited today.

Downgrade? He's always been limited. He's been out for weeks. It's been limited since he was in Florida. He'll be out there. He'll be ready. He's going to step up in the biggest moment. I know.

He's going to run the wrong play, but he's still going to score a touchdown. Before we go, I have to tell you guys a plain story because this has kind of become a bit of our podcast. Been wondering. So I went to Sundance for part. I work in the ringer. films department. I went to Sundance. It was very fun. I saw a lot of good movies. Will and Harper and Superman, both great movies. On my flight there, from L.A. to Salt Lake City,

I sit down in my seat. I'm in the back of the plane. I'm in an aisle seat. A woman comes up. She's holding a bunch of stuff. It looks like she had an issue with her luggage. She's like holding a bunch of crap in her hand. She also has a dog on a leash with her, a little chihuahua. She sits in the middle seat next to me with, again, like a load of stuff on her luggage. She's lap and the little chihuahua, she has a little crate for the chihuahua. And she goes, can you put the crate up in the storage above? And I'm like, okay, there's no room. And she goes, just shove it somewhere. And then the flight attendant. With the crate with the dog? No, the dog was not in the crate. It was an empty crate. She goes, put it up there. And I was like, there's not any room.

She goes, just shove it somewhere. And first of all, it's like, I don't know you. But the flight attendant was like, you need to put your dog in the crate. And she was like, no, I'm not doing that. He's a service dog, which it clearly was not. and the flight attendant was dealing with somebody else who was mad. So the flight attendant was basically like, whatever, just hold on to your dog. We sit down, the Chihuahua jumps up on her lap and immediately walks over onto my lap. And the woman goes, you don't mind, do you? And I kind of thought it meant more temporarily, right?

We were on the ground still. And I was like, no, no problem. I love dogs. Oh, my God. I was like, no, that's fine. So this dog is just on my lap as we're preparing to take off. and she kind of is just like laughing about it. The dog's name was Greta.

Wait, how old is this is Greta? I don't know. This woman is probably 40. Greta, the Chihuahua. And she goes, oh, sorry, like, there's a luggage issue. So I had to, like, carry all my stuff. And I'm like, okay. And this dog is on my lap.

And she starts feeding it luncheables. Oh, no. What? She opens a pack of luncheables. Like, you know, like, school luncheals. She's feeding the dog on your lap? The dog is on my lap as she's feeding it, luncheables ham and cheese as well as shit.

And she, not only she's eating a dog. I think she gave it ham and cheese, maybe just ham. She was also eating the ham and cheese herself. They were splitting the luncheables. We, we, we, the plane starts to move. We take off. And as we're like starting to take off, the dog just kind of continues to nestle into my lap. And she goes, oh, he likes, she likes you.

And I'm like, ha ha, plane takes off. The dog remains on my lap. I look over at the woman. She's fast asleep. Oh my gosh. sleeps the entire flight. And I have this dog on my lab. As I'm trying to watch a documentary on my phone.

And this dog laid on me for two and a half hours. And she woke up as the plane was coming down. She takes the dog. And she's like, thank you. And then leaves. Some people have truly no shame, Craig. Like, no shame. I think we're reaching a point of comfortability with people's dogs that is out of control.

And I love dogs. I adore dogs. But like, I don't know. I'm like out in public now. and like a dog will like run up to me and like take the ice cream off my cone. And the owner's like, oh, that's just Charlie. Isn't he cute? And I'm like, what the fuck?

Buy me more ice cream. Control your children. I got out of the plane and this guy next to me was like, dude, I was watching that the entire time. I could not believe what just happened. That is wild. I've had this theory for a long. It's not really even a theory.

It's just like a fact that, but like you can tell so much about a person by the way they get on a plane. Like you can tell their entire character, you can sum up an entire person's life by the way they board a plane. Number one, do they have 12 things in their hands as they're trying to board a plane? Or do they have...

You immediately know what their home looks like. Or do they have things like a fucking sane person in a backpack? Number two, when do they get in line to go to the plane? When do they arrive at the plane? That's actually before you get on. Do they ask you to move? And like are they, how shameless are they?

Are they asking you to like take your spot or whatever? Let's see. What else is there? What else could there be? Because there's a million different things. Do they take their shoes off once they sit down? Oh, God. Yeah.

Do they lean back? Do they bring in like a cheesecake factory burger and fries from the terminal and eat it on the plane during takeoff? What are they wearing? Are they wearing normal clothes like a normal person? Are they in sweats? Oh, sweats? Come on. Don't knock sweatshirtz.

I'm not saying, I'm not necessarily judging. I'm just saying it tells you a lot about a person if they just wear sweat pants to the airport. DK, do you miss the days like in the Madman era when people wore suits on planes? Absolutely not. I would not ever wear a suit on a plane. That's so uncomfortable. But I wear pants to the airport and wear like normal human jeans to an airport. I do like all the things, DK just said.

And the second he said that, I knew where this was going. I definitely, you're right. You do all those things? 100%. I mean, you're like the most shameless person I've ever met. I've never been on a plane with Hyphitz. I do a lot of those things. Hyfitts is like stumbling and dropping his 12 different items.

He's juggling AirPods. I use the loophole to get extra stuff. The whole thing I sit down is incredible. I get a plastic bag from Hudson News for the stuff that doesn't fit my backpack that I want. He's got like the neck roll thing around his neck while he's walking on. He's got full headphones. He's listening to music so he can't hear any just directions that anyone's giving him.

Yeah. That's me. Dude. Yeah. Way too many snacks. I could have 100% could have guessed that like to a T. Like I also like if I'm a. Tangle headphones that he's undoing.

Yeah. Sunglasses on an airplane. If I'm like group five. I will just line up with group four. And then when group four is done, I will go at the back of group four because they inevitably call group five while group four is almost done. And then I'm just first in line for group five. Yeah.

Anyways, you can like you can you can psychoanalyze people big time just by the way they get on a plane. As soon as you said that, I was like, that's definitely true because D.K. will not want to do anything I do. Well, I have to wear my Louu Lemon joggers on the plane. and I'm like, why is that such a taboo? If I was flying with Sean Fennessee, I feel like he would judge me hardcore for that, so I probably wear pants.

But other than that, I don't get it. Look, I've worn joggers on a plane a million times. I have no problem with that. But I'm wearing, like, shoes in, like, a sweatshirt, you know. Shoes are key. I will bring the fast food on an international flight. Like, if I am flying to, like, when we went to Sweden and I'm flying, you know,

the classic Dallas to Helsinki, yeah, I don't know what they're going to serve with a plane. I bought it. burger for McDonald's and I'm going to eat that in like six hours. Ew. No, I think bringing your own food is fine. Here's the way in which you bring your food on though is different. If you have it, if you have like a fucking tray of like multiple drinks and you're trying to

carry that shit onto a plane, you've got there's 12 other items. You're trying to like not slam into people's heads as you go by them. Yo, I have a story. Also, it can't be smelly. No odorous food. You can't bring like a salmon Caesar salad on that terminal. Shout to my friend Emma. Flight attendance if you could microwave it in the back.

My friend Emma is from Florida. Emma. She went to Florida and she was flying home. This is during the pandemic. This is like summer of 2020. Like it's still kind of chaos. Oh, no, it's Thanksgiving because she's going home and that was the thing. It was like Thanksgiving 2020.

It's like, oh, what do you do? You know, no one really knew what to do or could get on the same page with their family. What do we do about Thanksgiving stuff? So she flies home. She's like wearing a mask because she's going home. Ted Cruz. sits next to her. She's on this plane.

Was she in first class? No, I think it was the last second thing. He was arguing, I believe there was, he was not happy to not be in first class. So he sits next to her. Not wearing a mask on this plane. And again, this is like Thanksgiving 2020, whatever you think of masks,

everyone's going home to see their family and spend time with family. If there was ever a mask time, it's probably Thanksgiving flights in 2020. Ted Cruz is told he has to wear a mask. So he's like, all right, takes it off to eat. You're allowed to take it off to eat.

Ted Cruz eats a tuna salad sandwich on a plane. That should be illegal. All of this stuff is checking out. Tuna sandwich on this plane. And then he's done. You should not be allowed to sell fish in an airport. Yeah, that's 100%. My friend Emma is like, hey,

would you mind putting your mask back on now? Because, you know, you're done eating and I'm going to see my family. And he's like, no. She's like, well, I really would prefer. you put the mask on because I'm going to see my parents, my grandparents, like I, I, you know, I don't want to get COVID from you, Ted Cruz. And they kind of go back and forth. And he says, I'm sorry, you're such a sad and angry young woman. And then asked the flight attendant to move his seat. And she did. I thought you were going to say that Ted Cruz ate like one popcorn kernel

every 30 seconds for the entire flight so he could technically have his mask off. But, yeah, so that's what, so we call our friend Emma sad and angry young woman this one. That would be a great Twitter bio. Yeah. So anyways, yeah, you can tell a lot about a person by their airplane. Anyway, yeah, I adopted a dog 30,000 feet in air for two hours. This says a lot about you, Craig. Like, you're, you're very polite young man.

You know, you like go with the flow. Go with the flow. You hold a goddamn dog for two and a half hours. I have a photo. all this crazy lady sleeps next to you? You have a photo? Wait, we can put it on on Spotify. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay.

If you're on Spotify, if you're on Spotify, we have this new feature, we're checking out. If you're on an iPhone. I have two photos. I'll send both. If you're on a phone, you can go right now to the show, and if you scroll back and listen, we will put the photo Craig took.

You go to Spotify and look, it will be playing right now if you look at your phone and look at the Spotify app. We will have this photo in the Spotify app. And so that's a new thing we could do now. Email story and fantasy football at Jim at the Combs. Apologies in advance. It's not the best photo I've ever seen, but I tried.

But perfect. Oh, let me look at this photo. Now everyone can look at the photo with us. That's what's great. Oh, look at the little guy. Oh, my God, Craig. Oh, my God. Just on your chair.

And look, look, you can see across. See all the stuff she has in front of her feet? Oh, my God, yeah. This is definitely not like FAA approved. If that plane's going down, Craig, you're never getting out of that seat. Well, I was in the aisle. Oh, I see, oh, I see. She's never getting out.

Greta is, though. Me and Greta would be safe. I would take Greta with me. Just, I can't imagine just like the pure gall it takes to just give someone your dog for a two and a half hour flight. She fed the dog luncheables on my lap. On your lap. That's just, oh. Not only, like, is feeding your dog luncheables one red flag.

You didn't bring dog food. sharing a lunchable. Not feeding your dog. You're sharing your dog lunch. I felt like I was in corporate enthusiasm. I really did. Craig, at the end of the flight,

you win $10,000 being the most polite, like flight participant of all time. Passenger. Yeah. Thank you, D.K. That's a word I was looking for. Yeah. Thank you, D.K.

Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Kai for producing. Sorry, Carlos produced this episode. Carlos, pinch hitting here for Kai. Thank you, Jack, for help behind the scenes. Thank you, everyone for listening. Thank you to Greta for being relatively chill amid clearly like a tough ownership parental situation. Greta, you know, a lot of chaos there.

Thank you, Lord. Handing someone your baby for the whole flight. Lord. Thank you, George Michael. Oh. Nice. Little arrest of development tie in there. Yeah.

I can't believe that, Craig. It's wild. That's crazy. So she liked the very half-hearted thank you. Like, not even acknowledging. She was just like, thanks for that. And I was like, all right. Oh, I hate, I hate five.

I think I legally own this dog now. I think Greta's coming with me, ma'am. I mean, at least Greta was cool. Yeah, Greta was fine. I was nervous that she was going to pee on me. Because I'm like, it was, you know, Chihuahua. It was like a 10-pound dog shivering the whole time.

I feel bad. I'm like, trying to pet it. And I'm like, he's not pee on me. I thought she was, I thought she was going to pee on you. Oh, my God. There was a small damp spot on my pants. I'm hoping, I kind of tried not to think about it. I was hoping it was like her snout,

it was just kind of resting on me. Yeah. I don't know though. Did you want- Dogs pee when they're nervous, you know. I do. Yeah, like the players, they get nervous sheds. They get nervous shits, yeah.

Did you want... Wow, what a beautiful circle. It all came up. So watching the documentary, did you get Wi-Fi of the plane? I purchased and downloaded the dock on my phone on an Apple. Ahead of time? I had no Wi-Fi there. I was on Delta.

I had Wi-Fi back Jet Blue. So you, okay. So you watched the documentary that was downloaded. I downloaded it. Cool. And so the airline had no say in that. Nice. He didn't want the airline to let him down. But yeah.

Again, he's missing the entire point. So that's fine. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit

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