The Ringer NFL Show - Sam Darnold's Moment, Snow Football, and a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl!

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s own Billy Gil to share their instant reactions to a wild afternoon of NFL conference championship games. (00:00) NFL conference championship reactions (3:13) Seahawks defeat Rams 31-27 (19:50) Patriots defeat Broncos 10-7 The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Sheil Kapadia Guest: Billy Gil Producer: Chris Sutton Video Editor: Stefano Sanchez Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. I am your host, Shield Capadia. We have a Super Bowl matchup set. Seahawks, Patriots, and Super Bowl 60. They are the winners of championship weekend. What stood out from these games? A snow game, Patriots Broncos, should every game be played in a dome? Did the snow mess it up or was the snow compelling?

And then, of course, the NFC championship game. Did the Rams let one slip away? What did we learn about the Seahawks as they get ready for the snow? this Super Bowl matchup. We'll talk about all the storylines. My guest today is the ringers. Billy Gill. Let's take a break. We'll come back with Billy. The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fanduel. Fandull's got it all. Same game parlay's quick bets for jumping in live and your way so you can build the bet that fits your play. Plus, don't miss out on the NFL playoffs all month long. Download the Fanduel app or head to

fan duel.com slash ringer NFL to get started. 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-8-Halt.com. Call 1-88-7-8-8-7-7-7. Or visit ccg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back here on the ringer NFL show with Billy Gill. Billy, we got the Super Bowl matchup. Patriots, Seahawks, in,

Santa Clara, San Francisco. I don't know what we're saying. Super Bowl 60. We're going to get into the games for sure. But first, just give me a little first impression. How are we feeling about this matchup? I think of the matchups that we could have gotten headed into it, this is top two, right?

I mean, I think both top matchups would have been Patriots just because of the fact that the Broncos are without their starting quarterback. You could have had the Patriots and the Rams where you would have had the dueling MVPs go head to head against each other. but the Seahawks have been, I think, the most impressive team in the playoffs so far. So I think this is going to be a good Super Bowl. I think it's a good bad job.

Now, you might look at it. There is a chance, if you're listening to this, you're saying, give me a break, you guys, just try to build it up. It's the Rams Seahawks was the actual Super Bowl. There is a chance we look back into it, you know, two weeks from now when we're doing the post game pot for the Super Bowl,

and we're like, oh, actually the NFC championship was actually the Super Bowl. But it's a four and a half point line. Seahawks are favored. It's not anything massive. you know, I'm with you. I think the Seahawks have looked like a Super Bowl team for much of the year. Certainly once we got to kind of the second half and down the stretch,

and they're beating the Rams and they're beating the Niners and they're blowing teams out. They looked like a Super Bowl contender. Drake May, I feel like, has not played his best yet in the playoffs. Certainly didn't play his best today. So maybe we get a great Drake May game and we end up getting a really good Super Bowl. So I'm not ready to call it a blowout or anything like that. Let's let it marinate here for a couple of weeks. and then we'll see where we're at.

Let's talk about this NFC championship game because it was fantastic game. Ram Seahawks early on. I'm thinking, oh, man, Seahawks are going to blow them out. Then Rams come back. They take the lead. You think, man, they can actually pull the upset here, kind of a horrible end of first half

beginning to the second half for the Rams where again I'm thinking Seahawks are going to run away with this. It's going to be like it's going to end up being a two touchdown game. Stafford and McVeigh would not go away. And I think the biggest story from this game is that Sam Darnold was phenomenal, Philly. And I don't know what your personal journey has been like with Sam Darnold. I have been a skeptic.

I was a skeptic in the offseason. I thought, what are the Seahawks doing? This isn't going to work out. And even this season, you know, I thought, all right, the Seahawks are a great team? But in a big spot, are they going to trust this guy? Will they even need him to be great in a big spot? And in this game, they needed him to be great because their defense didn't have it. They needed to go up and down the field there.

They needed to score points. They need to move it through the air. And I thought he was terrific in this game, 25 for 36, 3146 yards, three touchdowns. He wasn't playing tentative. He wasn't getting lucky. He was making high degree of difficulty throws. And it's just like, what a wild career for this guy, from the Jets to the Panthers, to the Niners, to the Vikings. And now he's one game away from winning the Super Bowl.

And regardless of how he plays in the actual Super Bowl, if they win, it's not going to be like, oh, the Seahawks just kind of put him on their shoulders and he didn't have to do anything. He had to do something in what could end up being their biggest win of the season and route to hoisting the Lamarty trophy. To go from that to where he was today leading his team out of the Super Bowl, it's hard to not root for Sam Darnold. And he didn't give you any indications today that that is going to come next week. And I feel like he could have, I mean, maybe not the same game that he had today, but I feel like he could have a great Super Bowl,

and then he kind of has changed the direct trajectory of his career and what you really think of Sam Darnold. You and I did an episode months ago where we said, Bryce Young is our last hope for a normal quarterback. And I think, I don't know if you remember this, Billy, but you asked me, well, who else? And the only other guy I said was, I said, Sam Darnel, seems pretty normal, you know?

He seems like his teammate, like him, even when he was playing poorly for the Jets, like his teammates weren't ripping him. You weren't hearing from leaks inside the building. Like, Sam Donald's not in the playbook. You know, Sam Donald's a jerk. He thinks he's God's gift to quarterback. He's arrogant.

It's like kind of wherever he's gone, whether you think he's a good quarterback or a bad quarterback, it seems like people like him. And so maybe we have our chance for the first normal quarterback ever to win the Super Bowl. What do you think? I think he might be an every man too, because he also has kind of like that thing where he struggled and he lost his job.

And then he went to another place and he was a backup there. And then he last year lost his job again. And now he's starting, you know, for another team. And I feel like it's hard for him to kind of be arrogant or be like, you know, above the rest of his teammates where he's kind of just grinding to start for a team. And now he could end up winning the Super Bowl. Yeah. You remember when they let when he did throw those interceptions against the Rams.

and like their linebacker, Ernest Jones, came out. And he's like, screw you if you're putting this on Sam Donald. This isn't on him. And like the Seahawks account was tweeting it out. So it's very different because it's not like he's the guy who came out of nowhere. You know, this isn't like, oh, Brock Purdy's in the Super Bowl. This was Mr. Irrelevant. It's like Sam Donald has been in our lives for a long time.

And we all acknowledge he's very talented. It's not like he's just somebody who, he is very talented. But he still had this. I think it's one of a kind journey. I truly can't remember somebody else having this kind of journey where you are a high draft pick. We knew you in college. It doesn't work out at the first up. Like he was statistically one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL for like his first five years in the league.

And then you had the excuse making, well, no one can be good with the Jets. And I get that. But I was like, all right, fine. Maybe he'll turn into like the 18th best quarterback in the NFL. But I didn't envision that he would be playing this well in an NFC championship game and one win away from the Super Bowl. So I'm with it. Now we're really talking up like

Darnold and like, oh, it would be a good story. Do you think the neutral fan is basically, like, is it, what is the percentage? The neutral fan who's not a Patriots fan, and let's say not a 49ers fan. I think 49ers fans would never root for the Seahawks,

but everybody else is it like 90% going to be rooting for the Seahawks? I actually don't know. Is that too high? What do you think? Well, okay, so I think so because we talked about this either last episode of the episode

before where you were talking about are the villainous Patriots back? And I was like, I don't know if they are. I think people were root for them to get to the Super Bowl just because you don't want a team of the backup quarterback, even though Cherts through them did not look that bad today. If we're going to be

given the conditions, given the circumstances, he was not terrible. I thought it's going to be a lot worse than it was. We'll get to that later on. We'll get to that. But, okay, I think that the majority of people tuning in who are not following football on a regular basis are just going to see the Patriots. Logan be like, oh, the Patriots again. And they'll probably be rooting for the Seahawks. Now, I have a question for you. There is one fan base that is uniquely in hell with this Super Bowl. And I feel like it's an obvious one. But for those who, you know, are not connecting the dots, I feel like it's the Jets fans because the Jets fans can either watch the Patriots win the Super Bowl again or they can watch Sam Darnold win a Super Bowl. I think you're wrong. I think you're wrong about that.

I think Jets fans are absolutely rooting for Sam Darnold. Really? It's what we just, it's what we talked about earlier. When he left, I don't think that Jets fans were like, this guy sucks. He's a loser.

Get him out of here. I think they were like our organization sucks out. Maybe, all right, maybe they were a little bit like that. They hated him when he was on their team. Did you? It could have been happier.

Yeah. I don't know. We need to hear from some, I'm sure that's true. But like, it's just like years of losing and being incompetent. But I don't think it was a personal thing. You know how it is with sports.

Sometimes it's like a personal thing with the player you're rooting for or rooting against. I don't think that was a personal thing. I think Jets fans absolutely will be rooting for Sam Darnold in this game over the Patriots. But do you think they feel good seeing their quarterbacks leave and then be good on other teams? So you had Gino Smith leave and then he ends up being good on the Seahawks. Now you have Sam Darnold leave and now he's leading the Seahawks to a Super Bowl. All right. McVeigh and Stafford, Billy.

Are they going to sleep this off season? Because that was my other big takeaway after Darnold because they were amazing in this game. I thought they were incredible. I was writing down in my notes, McVeigh is the best coach in the NFL. I was just like, barred on if I was starting, if you handed me an expansion franchise tomorrow

and said, take one coach, I'm like, give me Sean McVeigh. And then Stafford, even after that fumbled punt, and they go down 2413, he comes back against the best defense in the NFL. He's just chucking it downfield, making high degree of difficulty throws. That scramble he had, where he breaks the tackle.

And then the next play flips it to Puka Nakua. I'm like, this is an all-time drive. But then they don't score on the drive. They fail on third and four and fourth and four. And I was just looking at like some of the advanced numbers. This was basically a 90th percentile offensive performance against the best defense in the NFL. And it didn't matter.

They got to be sick, Billy, that it was special teams, a fumbled punt. and their defense that let them down in this game. They played so, so well. I honestly thought that they had a better game than the Seahawks. I thought that they deserved to win the game better. And even overcoming the mistakes of coming out of halftime, they forced the Rams to, I'm sorry, they forced the Seahawks to punt the ball,

then they botched the punt, they fumble the ball, they give it right back to them that leads to score. And then even towards the end of the game, you were mentioning on the drive, they had a touchdown where Kobe Parkinson just dropped a pass where he had daylight in front of him. They could have given them the lead in that game and no one ended up scoring in the fourth quarter. So if they take the lead there, they went back and forth a couple of times, but they had the game. They could have won. And even with those mistakes, they were still in it at the end, it takes Pugua, you know, not getting completely out of bounds there.

So the clock keeps running. Well, that would have been like a Hail Mary situation. Yeah, I would have. I mean, they sewed a shot. But you know what? That thing goes back to had they completed that pass, right? And the drive before, not gone for it on fourth down. They would have made it, kicked in and made it a one-point game. They could have potentially kicked a field goal. We've lost the, we've lost the era shield of kicking field goals. No, no, no, no, because the Seahawks then would have tried to score. The Seahawks weren't actually trying to score. They wouldn't have won still on there in Sewing Drive. No, no, they would. So the Seahawks would have been up one, but then the Seahawks would have got. in the ball and they would have tried harder to score there if they're only up by one. They're up by four.

They know the other team has to score. I think the fourth down thing applies more to the Broncos Patriots game. I think that's the more controversial one. I don't think McVease, you're down by four and there was what, like four minutes left. Yeah, they would have had to. It's fourth and four. Yeah, I would have been killing it if they didn't go for it there. So I thought that was the right move.

But yeah, I mean, you're right. It was just big swing at the end of the first half where they have. the ball, they can't score. Eam and Worry makes a couple of great plays, and then the Seahawks go right down the field and score a touchdown. They take a 17-13 lead. And then the beginning of the second half,

Xavier Smith's stubble. How do you feel when you see a player like that? So Xavier Smith, he stumbles, he tries to catch the ball, he fumbles it, it's a disaster. Darnel throws a touchdown. Seahawks go up 2413. I mean, legitimately, to what you were just saying,

without that play, it's a coin flip game. I don't want to sound like the Seahawks deserve to win. You could say the Rams deserve to win, but that was the play right there. When you see that, are you like, oh, you moron? Are you like, oh, I feel so bad for this guy? Like, what is your, what goes on in the billy-gill body

when they see something like that? As a human being, I feel bad for him, right? I always feel so, so bad. As a sports fan, though, I'm like, oh, man, like how, it's just like, you know, kind of like, you, you, you teach outfielders like in baseball, they always kind of be like trying to run in to catch a ball. When you're running backwards on a punt,

it's never going to go well for you. You run backwards, you trip, you fall. Now you're on the ground. At that point, reaching up over your head to try to catch it as you're falling back, it's kind of like best case scenario is just like, you know, get in a fetal position and hope that that ball doesn't hit you

and just play the ball where they're exactly right. Don't let that thing touch you in any way because you're not going to make a miraculous catch. Even if you do, it's kind of like, wow, you averted disaster there. Better not to even try to touch it and just let that ball roll into the 10-yard line, five-yard line, whatever, and at least you keep possession because that went as about as poorly as it could. And by the way, then after that, hey, guess what?

You're out of the game. Heron-Smith is going to be returning kicks for the rest of the game. Like, that's not what you want. I swear if I were a coach, I would just be like, we're not fielding any of these in a big game. It makes me so nervous. I always think they're going to fumble every single time. Like, they're going to fumble. I'm like, no, they're going to fumble.

And it's just like, where was he? He was at the 10 or something? Like, it's not worth the risk, you know? It's like, if you catch it, you're at the 10. If you don't catch it, what you're going to be the six. Who cares and look at what can happen there. And this one was especially painful because of it. He, like, tripped over himself.

Like you said, he fell at that point. Yeah, I don't know what you do. Maybe you do try to roll out of the way and just, hey, let's not try to fumble. but that's easy for me to say. It's a split-second decision. I feel for the guy, but man, that really flipped the game there.

And then the other thing on this game, Billy, towards the end, Seahawks had the ball, 3-20 left, third and seven. This is after the Rams had that fourth-down failure, which, by the way, seemed like a great call

by Mike McDonald, where he's like, we are dropping everybody. We're only rushing to. You're going to have nowhere to go with the ball, and Stappard had nowhere to go with the ball, Witherspoon, with a great play there. But then Seahawks get the ball.

ball back. They're trying to run out the clock, third and seven, past the Cooper Cup. Revenge game. He makes the catch, but in this era of the NFL where we don't know what's a catch and what's not a catch, I'm watching it going, did he finish the process of the catch? Because the ball pops out as he hits the ground. And then I'm going, well, even if he did, did he get the first down? And so Fox brings in their rules analyst. I'm not even going to mention his name. Oh. It's unclear whether this rules analyst was watching. the football game or was behind on the pit like I was

and watched three episodes this weekend because this was no analysis. He was basically like, I don't think it gets overturned, but who knows? That's what you're there for? What do you think the right call is?

You don't, you need an I think it's, what's it called? An economy of words and efficiency of words. Like just say what you think the right call is. Not all this black. blabber and then at the end, we don't even know what you think it was. He never told us. And so Sean McVe calls a timeout, which McVe, if you're going to call a timeout, just

throw the challenge flag because then you at least get them to look at it. And then if you lose it, then you lose the timeout. But instead of throwing a challenge flag, Sean McVeigh calls the timeout. So he loses the timeout. It never gets looked at. Then they bring the rules of analysts back. And I'm like, all right, he has a chance to redeem himself again. he doesn't redeem himself.

He just explains that Sean McVeigh called time out. They don't even mention that why did he call time out? He should have just thrown the challenge flag. So as you can tell, that kind of grinded my gears a bit. Billy, this is a big spot. NFC championship game. You only get called on a few times this entire game. You're like a fourth, you know, third, fourth wide receiver

where you only going to get a few targets. I need you to make a play on one of them. You didn't make a play. Now, having said all that, I don't even know. that it should have been overturned or not. I would have liked to get a better view of it. I would have liked an expert to tell me whether what the right call should have been.

But alas, we'll never know. Seahawks, great job. Super Bowl worthy. No doubt about it. Sam Darnold, great game. They've had a great team all season long. And Rams, you had a great team. It comes down to weird stuff.

You can't even blame it on, yeah, you can't blame it on the coach or the quarterback. But now they got to run it back next year, presumably. And I think they'll have a chance to do it again next year. Matthew Stafford at this age. Can he do this again for another year?

We said that this year and he was able to do it. So who are we to doubt? All right, let's take a break. Don't take a nap. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We want to talk about that AFC championship game. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by Fandul.

It's the last call for football on Fandul. One final Sunday, one last kickoff, the final chance to place your bets before the NFL season closes its tab. And if you're a new customer, or bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets if you win. Make it count because after the Super Bowl, the season's over and football is officially done. Last call for football on Fandul,

an official sportsbook partner of Super Bowl 60. Visit Fandul.com slash ringer NFL to get started. 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. First online real money wage or only, $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-mithrower. Rebels bonus bets, which expires seven days after receipt,

restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-HALP.com. Call 1-88-7-8-8-7-7-7 or visit ccpG.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. And I hate to start with weather here, Billy. But I actually think this is going to be the biggest storyline to come out of the AFC

championship game. Patriots beat the Broncos. where are we the ringer NFL show on the great weather debate happening in the NFL? And I think we mentioned this once earlier and we were on the same page. But I saw a lot of people respected voices in the NFL changing their tune. So if you're not sure what I'm talking about, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to tell you what I feel. And Billy, you tell me if this is the official stance of the Ringer NFL show or if you disagree.

So there's this thought that 25, 50 years from now, whatever it is, all NFL. stadiums, domes or retractable roofs where if you have weather like you had in Denver, don't worry about it. We got to take them care of. We're playing under controlled conditions. And I say no. I do not want that. If your number one goal is I want to see the highest level of quality football possible. That's all I care about. These big fast athletes, I don't want to see them slip. God forbid. I want to see them close to perfection. Then yes, I understand. You want a controlled environment. But that's not me, Billy. I view this as a compelling TV show. I don't want every game to be in rain or in snow or in freezing temperatures, but you know what? I like the change

up. I find it compelling. I wasn't bored by that game, even though it was 10 to 7. I was going, are they going to let Drake May pass here on 3rd and 6 or not? Or are they just going to eat the ball? What do you do on this field goal? Is it too far? Is it the snap? All those things. And by the way, visually stunning. If we're talking about like something, you know, I'm not the big picture or anything, but if we're talking about cinematography, I mean, I thought it was beautiful to watch.

Jim Nance doesn't know what yard line they're on, all those things. So I am in. I like seeing a snow game. I don't care if it wasn't football at its highest level. And I do not want every game to have a dome or a retractable roof. Tell me I'm right. Tell me I'm wrong.

What do you got? You are 100% right. And by the way, we're pretending like this is the first game that's ever been played in the snow. Did we forget about the tuck rule games? Have we forgotten about AFC championship games in Kansas City? Have we been forgotten about playoff games in Buffalo? This is a nor... Did we forget about a week ago when we were in Chicago in frigid weather where people probably should not have been outside?

Like, what are we even talking about in this game? We're acting like this game would have been a masterful performance. by Jared Sidham and Drake May, had they had perfect weather, which is not what we got anyways. The game was great. I liked it, so I'm glad we're on the same page there. And you're so right.

There have been games in the pet just last year. The Rams played the Eagles in the playoffs. It was snow. Great. No one was complaining at that time. And to your point, the first half, the conditions were good. I didn't see them lighting it up that, oh, my gosh. Remandre Stevenson didn't slip.

This makes me so happy that he didn't slip. No, I like to see him slip. He's okay, but that's fun. It gives us heroes. Mac Hollins ends up being a hero. Tony Romo's telling us how a 30-yard punt is an incredible punt because the conditions are so bad. You see the broadcasters on the sideline with ice in their hair. Did you see Drake May on that last bootleg? You know, he's third down.

They got to get a first to not give the Broncos the ball back. Did you see what Patriots players said after the game? This is according to Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald. they said that Drake May called his own number there, Billy, that the play call from Josh McDaniels was actually a handoff, I think was to remind Dr. Stevenson, an outside zone handoff. But Drake May said, you know what? I'm not doing that.

I'm faking it. No one will suspect it. My old lineman, they don't even need to know. And I'm going to take off and I'm going to win this game myself. And so he fakes the handoff, bootleg out to the left side, out races the defender, gets a first down. and now he's got a little legend, a little lore, as the kids say,

to him as he gets ready for a super first Super Bowl. That's pretty impressive by Drake Mae. I like it. I like it if it's true. You know, it's been a rough playoffs for Drake May. Yeah, it's been a rough playoff for Drake May. This was a good game for him. He only had 80 yards.

He had a bad rating. It wasn't great for Drake. Maybe he needed a little thing to kickstart him a little bit. He's, you know, he could win the MVP in a week. but it's been rough go so far. You mentioned fourth and one earlier. So this was the big play that people are talking about from this game. I feel like fourth and one at the New England 14 in the second quarter.

The Broncos are up 7-0. They go for it. Not only do they go for it, Sean Payton calls a pass play. Sherrod's did him, doesn't have a chance. There was incomplete nearly an interception. And now we look at it. And Tony Romo did say.

say during the broadcast, he would have kicked the field goal. He did say before the play, if they kick that field goal, is it a 10-10 game that ends up going to overtime? What do you think? I think part of what's going on there is that field goals were very much not a given.

Only one field, I think there were one of five on field goals. Will Lutz was 0 and 2 on field goals. Origales was one of three on field goals. There was a blocked field goal attempt which led to one of Will Lutz's not going well. That didn't get enough good it, I feel like. Yeah. That was a huge play that But that guy, he actually got a hand on the field goal.

It wasn't just the weather. It wasn't just the guy missed it. I mean, that's a tie game if he doesn't get a fingertip on that football. So Will Lutch was also saying after the game that the fee, they was messed up. And I think that they said that they snapped at a yard shorter than it should have been because no one had any idea where was the things are supposed to be. So had they placed it where it was supposed to be a yard back, then maybe he has the extra, you know, elevation there. It doesn't get blocked.

So the field very much came into play. But given the circumstances and how we were seeing things going and the wind and the snow, I don't blame Sean Payton for not trying to go for a field goal when you have, you know, a yard that you need to get there. But, you know, what do I know? And what does he know? Because he was wrong and now he's not in the Super Bowl. I liked it.

And, you know, if you're an opponent's territory and it's fourth and one, I'm pretty much 99% of the time. Go for it. It's fourth and one. I think it was the right call because you're at the 14. at that point in the game, you don't know you're going to stop the Patriots all game long.

I mean, the Patriots have had a good offense. You don't know when the next time is you're going to get to the opponent's 14 yard line. And so I feel like trying to score a touchdown there, it's fourth and one. I can't be a hypocrite and rip the coaches

when they don't do it. I think it was the right call. I just didn't like the play call. You can be a hypocrite. Listen, that's the great. I am a hypocrite. The great thing about the position that we're in is we can always question whatever the results are

and it'll always be wrong. It will always be right. We don't need to actually give much thought to it. Just always say that what they did was the wrong thing if it didn't work out. And if what they did was right, you knew that that was the right call. That's how this works. You know, you just come on here and you just say whatever. It doesn't matter.

I think you're right. Did I ruin the secret? No, I think that's true. I think I've said that before on a microphone. So, yeah, we're on the same page. I don't know that I've said it to you or on the ring or NFL show, but I have said something similar. You say, you know, say whatever you want. Everyone's going to forget about it.

Then you come on the next. We do a show every day. I mean, you can't, no one can possibly remember everything I've said this season. But now it's on Netflix and you can go back and you can find it and that's a whole thing. Anyways. All right. Did I have any other leftovers here? Rieke Wollin with the taunting penalty.

That was a big play. No, it didn't end up, you know, costing the Seahawks the game. But if the Seahawks lose that game, we're literally leading the show with Rick Wollin's taunting penalty. Where are you on the taunting penalties, Billy? Taunting penalties. You know what I don't like the judgment call of them? You know, because you're allowed to get away with certain things at certain times, certain people will let you do stuff.

Other times it's clear cut. You can't do that. If you kind of, you know, like let's see you intercept the ball and then you're tackled. You can get up and you can run 80 yards down the field after the play is dead and you can start posing towards the crowd and celebrating and no one's going to call taunting on that. Then you can kind of just stand over someone and look at the. on the wrong way after a sack, and then that's taunting, and that's a flag.

Taunting calls are very wish-washy. Now, when you are on a sideline and you're screaming at the other team in clear view of the official, that's probably going to get called. There's no need to be taking on the entire sideline, which is what he was doing. But taunting, in the heat of battle, the emotion,

I can see you getting carried away a little bit. I don't think that you need to be giving away yards for something like that. I'm mostly with you. How about that? I'm trying to think if there's a way to challenge that. Like if the Seahawks wanted to challenge it, but like if you challenge it,

we are going to play over the broadcast exactly what you said to the Rams and then make a judgment. Now that would add to the entertainment product that we could all have a week long debate. Well, he just said this. Well, he didn't MF him. You know, well, he did MF him.

But it's come on. That's competition. It wasn't over the line. Like we could have all those conversations. I think it would add a better product that there was, like there's some things to your point where it's not a judgment call when they do like the two pumps or something, right? Yeah. That ends up being, they know two pumps, you're going to get a taunting penalty.

I feel like there's a couple other things like that obscene gesture. You're going to get a taunting penalty. But when it's just someone talking like that, like he could have been saying anything. And who are we to know whether he crossed the line or not? They got microphones everywhere. We heard all of Jared Stiddam's calls at the line of scrimmish today. I would like to know exactly what he's. said and then we can decide whether it was taunting or not.

All right. I got it. I'm glad that this has come up. I have a solution that I saw the light bulb go on in your head as I was talking. I want to pitch this to you and get your thoughts on this because I feel like we're about to change the NFL moving forward. Okay. This is what I think needs to happen.

Instead of it being up to the judgment of an official, I think that what you need to do is you need to have someone in New York or wherever the headquarters is where you have a celebration official. And the celebration official is the person who determines whether or not you've gone too far. Now, like the rules analyst, like the not named experts from Fox that you didn't want to say his name earlier, in order to have someone properly determined whether or not a celebration went too far or whether or not a celebration was too vulgar or whether or not a celebration was befitting of the action on the field, I think what you need to do is You need to bring in an expert celebrator.

You need to bring in a Chad Ocho Cinco. You need to bring in a Terro-Lowens. You need to bring in a Joe Horn, right? And they just, all they do is they sit down in New York, in the replay center, and whenever there's a taunt, they say, you know what? Like, let's talk to it over to our celebration expert. What do you think there, right? And then this is just like the officials are talking on the headsets, right?

And then, you know, T.O. or whoever says, like, yeah, that was warranted. that's fine, that celebration, go, no, that one was uncalled for, we're not going to do that. Because as you get older, you also think like, oh, you know, I would never do that. Where it's like you were being outrageous on the field, right? And then, and then we have that one person who's part of the officiating group. Then we have our celebration experts for all the networks. So then we get Marshaun Lynch in there. And they're like, Marshaun, what did you think of that one?

What do you think T.O. is looking at in this celebration here? And now we have extra people, extra energy, extra celebrations, and then we have a whole thing going around around this. And then we're not guessing whether or not we think a celebration is uncalled for because we have the experts in there. What do you think, Shil? I love this. Every question I had you answered that.

At first I was going, well, aren't they going to say everything's fine? But you're right. They're a little older now. They're a little more, should we say mature? Yeah, mature, sophisticated people say mature. Yeah. Whatever. All right.

So they're a little bit more mature at this stage. And they also got the thing going like, oh, back in my day type thing. So they're probably looking at it going, we wouldn't have done that. Yeah, we would have pulled out the Sharpie or yeah, you know, we might have done something else. But we wouldn't have gone this far to be yelling at this. So then they're explaining it. So you got Chad Ocho Cinco in New York with like headquarters, the officials. Then you got Marshaun Lynch, Terrell Owens, Joe Horn.

different broadcast, maybe a little bidding war, who do you want, who's good on TV? I love it. We get a defensive taunter in there too also somewhere. We put a defender

on like the third team somewhere, you know, someone like a crap talker. We get like an Domba and Sue on there or something, you know what I mean? And just be like, we can figure it out.

Yeah, we'll figure it out. Yeah. Okay. All right. I like this. We'll put a pin in this. That seems like a great place to end. So there you go.

We solved a lot of the NFL's officiating concerns that you might have after watching those games. We solved those. We got Patriots Seahawks. We like it. I think it's a good Super Bowl. It's not the best Super Bowl matchup we've ever seen, but it could be a lot worse. It's been a weird year.

We knew it was going to be a weird year. So to have a weird year and land in this place where I think you have a very interesting young quarterback who played great in the regular season and maybe hasn't played great in the playoffs versus a Seahawks team that has looked top to bottom, like maybe the best team in the NFL. I think that's a good matchup. It's a rematch. Malcolm Butler, Russell Wilson,

we'll get to see all those things as well. So we will have it all covered from now until Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara. His name is Billy Gill. My name is Shield Kapadi. Thank you to everyone for listening.

Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Stefano Sanchez on video and additional production supervision by Connor Evans and Arjuna Ram Gopal. We will talk to you tomorrow on the ringer. Feltz Show. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Helph.com.

Call 1-888-78-9-77-7-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, MA.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 2040. 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope NY in New York.