The Ringer NFL Show - Winners and Losers From Week 18!

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Sheil is joined by The Ringer’s own Billy Gil to talk about the teams, games, and players who created the biggest headlines in the final week of the regular season. (00:00) Winners and losers from Week 18 (1:30) Ravens-Steelers (8:55) Panthers-Bucs (18:04) Myles Garrett (23:52) Tom Brady (30:20) Player bonus roundup 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'm your host, Shield Capadia. Today we are talking week 18 winners and losers. The regular season is over. The Panthers are in. The Steelers are in. The Bucks are out. The Ravens are out after a wild Sunday night game.

The playoff seating is all complete. The schedule is in for the wild card round. So where do things stand? Who are the winners and losers from the last week of the regular season? That's what we're going to talk about with my friend. Billy Gill from the Ringer. Let's take a break. We'll come back with Billy. The Ringer NFL show is presented by Fandul. Fan Duel's got it all. Same game parlays, 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 Fandul app or head to 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, gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gand-Gand-Gand-Halt.com, call 1-88-7-8-8-7-7. Or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show

with Billy Gill handing out some winners and losers. Billy, we got to start with the game we just watched. And I'm going to give the winner to the Mike Tomlin voodoo is very much alive. The fourth quarter of that game, the way it ended. The Steelers winning 2624 on a Tyler Loop. Got his name right.

Yeah, 44-yard missed field goal. This comes after a crazy Lamar Jackson interception, the T.J. Y intercepted. This comes after Aaron Rogers turning into like MVP, Aaron Rogers, just going up and down the field. Tomlin still got it. He's smiling on the sideline. They're going to the playoffs.

I should have never doubted him. It's an annual tradition that I doubt him, and then he's always here at the end. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how Tomlin does it. We were headed into this. They were saying before the game, which we've been talking about for a couple weeks now,

what's going to happen with these coaches, who's going to be there, who's not? They were talking about it on the broadcast today before the game. And now there's going to be that conversation to be had, definitely with the Ravens. You would assume that the Steelers, I guess, Tomlin has one year left. They're going to talk to Tom and see what he wants to do.

But for now they're in the playoffs and they got the prize. They get to host the Texans, who have won nine straight, games next week on Monday night football. So they're in. I don't know how long they're going to last, but the Steelers are in. But now D.K. Metcalf gets to come back. At least they have a wide receiver that can throw the football too. I mean, you know, Rogers has looked pretty good the last month or so here.

You know, he had the bad games when he didn't have D.K. Metcalfe in there last week was obviously ugly. And then this, this game started ugly. But, man, their last five drives, they scored three touchdowns and a field goal. That's embarrassing if you're the Ravens defense. They give up three touchdowns and a field goal. And I can't decide if this is a win for team content or a loss for team content, Bill. Because I didn't know whether to name them a winner or a loser. So stay with me here.

Okay. You decide. So it could be a loss for team content because I feel like there are people who every time the Ravens lose, the Lamar Jackson doesn't have it, can't do it in a big game. You can't really do that here because he made the big throw on the fourth and seven to Isaiah likely. They scored two touchdowns on the drives before that. so you can't just do Lamar Jackson,

but then it's also a win for team content because what you were just saying, we got a whole off season, or at least a few weeks, months here of, what are the Ravens going to do with John Harbaugh? And if they move on, where's he going to coach? Is this weirdness around Lamar Jackson? Is there anything to it?

Is there nothing to it? Is he definitely going to be on the Ravens next year? So I can't decide. Is it a win for team content or he lost for team content the way the Ravens lost this game? I think it's a win for team. content because you do have all of that mystery, all of that.

Oh, finally, we're now headed into yet another season where, you know, it looks like he can't do it. We also now in the, in the AFC have a situation where you don't have Lamar Jackson in the playoffs. We don't have Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. We don't have Joe Burrow in the playoffs. This seems to be a path for Josh Allen, but Josh Allen is entering the playoffs with what some are considering his worst bills team that he's had in a long time. They're playing the Jaguars next week. the Jaguars are looking pretty good. They're hosting them.

I don't know if you saw Trevor Lawrence was gifted grills after the game today by his team, which... Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, you got to go find the clip of him kind of celebrating in the locker room with grills. You know, I'm glad that the game ended up being the way that it happened

where it ended up being somewhat of a shootout in the fourth quarter. Because headed into the fourth quarter, the story of the game, She'll, maybe you enjoy this and you would want to talk about this, was the new spin that the Steelers had on the brotherly shove today where you had literal brothers pushing each other. And the Haywards were just,

the older one was pushing the younger one. And it was like, wow, this is revolutionary. It's like, no, this, I mean, the Eagles have been doing this for a long time, except these are just actual brothers pushing each other. And that seemed like it was going to be the big story of the day. And I was like, this is boring. This is not how we shot at the regular season end.

And then we had a great fourth quarter. That has to be weird, right? I mean, have you worked with your siblings? Like, I've never worked with my siblings. But to work with you, you know, two brothers working together at this age when, you know, Cam Hayward is near the end of his career in his, what, late 30s. And it's like, this is their big thing. We're pushing each other.

That has to be a little weird, right? So I worked with my sister, but like in our teenage years at a summer camp. And I don't think we were ever like in the same group. So it was fine. Like luckily for her, honestly, because you'd have to put up with me. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. So sorry, Sheila, you have to do this now. But yeah, you know the thing about it, right, is I don't see how this can be viewed as

anything but a gimmick, right? Because you have the two brothers on the same team, which, like, that's fine. That's not that uncommon in sports. Like, look, Yanis has his brother on every team that he goes. You're like, this is just a thing that happens sometimes. You go, you get the brothers. The Grankowski's had siblings on the Patriots at the same time. So it's not uncommon to have siblings on the team.

But Connor Hayward. who's a tight end, who's 26, who is not known, you know, definitely is not the most known Hayward on the team, right? Him getting the ball as a tight end and being the one that's rushing the ball on this play is weird. But any other person, like literally any other person on this team could be the one pushing him. But for his brother who doesn't even play offense to come in and push him,

you can't tell me that there's anything but a gimmick just to have this story this week for whatever reason. And now you know, next week, Monday night football, playoff game, it's going to be a talking point. At some point it's going to be mentioned. At some point, they're going to do it. Cam Hayward is 36. Is there any other walk of life where a 36-year-old shoves his brother 10 years younger as they

work together? And it's like, if he shoves them correctly, everybody's celebrating and they're making hundreds of thousands of dollars. This has to be a one-of-one thing. I mean, I can't imagine anything else. In most workplaces, if you, you're not. you have someone who's 10 years older than someone else, shove them, the sibling, whatever. It's like a massive HR issue and you're not endorsing it whatsoever.

Typically, like, if the younger person was shoving the older person, it'd be like a real problem, right? Oh, yeah. The older one that's 10 years old or shoving the younger one, like not as bad, but again, in any other workplace, probably like an HR issue. But for whatever reason, that was going to be the storyline of the game until we got the fourth quarter, we got the missed kicks. We got the bomb touchdowns like, oh, what a game. I'm glad this is how the season ended.

Yeah. It was a great game to end the season. Toriko was on fire. I'm so glad you brought up the last call because that was hilarious. He's like, they scoured the country. They talked to every kicking prospect in the country and said, this guy's built for these moments. The kick is up. No, I was like, oh my God.

Oh, no. The Rico was on fire in the fourth quarter. I loved it. All right. Great game. Steelers, like you said. host the Texans. The Steelers get a home playoff game next week. That'll be the Monday nighter.

Ravens. Oh, no, sorry. Steelers host the Texans. And the Ravens, man, the Ravens are going to be in the headlines all off season. This isn't the last we've talked about the Ravens. We've got to find out what happens there. All right. Next winner here, Billy, got to be the Carolina Panthers. I mean, just the most NFC-south outcomes, hilarious outcome. They lose to the bucks on Saturday. Horribly officiated game, by the way.

I usually don't complain about the officiating. I thought that was egregious. Every call went against them. But you know what? Then they get to go home, sit on their recliners, you know, maybe have a cold one, have some nice snacks. And they get to watch the Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints Sunday, creating a three-way tie, which means the Panthers go to the playoffs. They host the Los Angeles Rams. I mean, I read this, Billy and the athletic that Dave Canalis called owner,

David Tepper after the game. You know what he said? This was a quote. Is this the owner of the NFC South champion? Panthers? And for the first time, David Tepper got to say yes. How do you think? Panthers got to be a winner here, right?

I guess. I mean, technically, this is probably the loosest winner we could have, right? So they're the winners and that they win the NFC South. But they lost this week to the Buccaneers. and then somehow ended up in a three-way tie, and then they end up winning the division because of the tiebreakers. So they needed the Falcons to beat the Saints. You said, oh, wow, they had their game Saturday night.

Then they get to go home and chill, and the reward is they get to watch the Saints versus the Falcons, which is not typically a reward, right? But that's what they needed to do to see. And I don't know if you saw this. Did you see poor Baker Mayfield? So Baker Mayfield wins on Saturday. And he's also going home because his, you know,

if the Saints win, he's in the playoffs. So he's there, and his wife is documenting the entire day. She's putting out videos of him and photos of him. And Baker is struggling, and he's stressing these games, just like any fan would be stressing these games because it's completely out of his control. It's not a normal situation when teams are playing, and he's sitting at home watching

because everybody typically plays on the same day of the week. But the Panthers win. I don't know if you saw this shield. This is going around today. The Panthers, are you aware, the Panthers in their 30-plus year history of existence, have never had back-to-back winning seasons. No, I was not aware of that.

So they have, like, some seasons where they had, like, the 12-win season, and the next season is an 8-and-8. So it's not a losing season, but it's not a winning season. So somehow in their 30 years, they've never had a winning season. Now, this season,

they also haven't had a winning season because they're making the playoffs at 8 and 9, which we don't need to get into making the playoffs at 8 and 9, it's an absurdity, but it's the way that it works when you have these divisions and the division winner needs to get in.

So we have them as a winner for winning the division, but they have to host the Rams. And I don't think that you can be a winner when you're hosting the Rams. Because the Rams, I guess we can say the Rams are the winner, right? If we're doing winners and losers, Rams were losers in that they end up being the sixth seed,

but they're the winners in that they get to play the Panthers, who probably are not going to win that game next week, if we're going to be totally honest with you. And then they'll have an easier path in the playoffs. But the Rams are looking like headed into week or heading out of week 15, they were looking like they could be the one seed. And then they lose against the Seahawks,

and it was against the Falcons. And then they end up falling out, but they now have a very favorable first round matchup here, which I wouldn't say the Panthers won in any way, getting the Rams. Yeah, I think the Rams are a winner. I think if you're not going to get the one seed, if you're not going to play at home,

especially this is the best case scenario. Now, the Panthers did beat them. Panthers fans might be yelling, hey, you dummies? You don't remember that game? It was a classic. All right, Billy might not remember. I remember it.

A classic. Yeah, the Panthers beat the Rams earlier this season. So they can beat them. Weird things happen. But the Rams are like 10 and a half point favorites. Yes, the Rams are going to be heavily favored in that game. They should win that game. So I think if you're Stafford at McVeigh, you say, all right, we get over, not getting

the one seed, not winning the division, but now we get to go to Carolina. We win that game and we have a nice little setup here. Now, I did want to ask you about this, though. You were mentioning Baker Mayfield's wife, which is like cataloging on social media, him watching the game here. Now, you've been doing a lot of work, Billy. You're doing Ringer Tailgate. You're doing the Ringer NFL show.

You're doing stuff behind the scenes. You know, you took this new job. There may be a part of, you know, your wife might be like, when is your football season over? Because I was thinking about this. Because I had the Bucks initially as losers. I thought, oh, my gosh, that sucks. You know, you had to watch that.

And now you're out of the playoffs. And then I thought about it more. And I actually think the bucks are winners. I don't think they'd ever admit it. But I think there's a sense of relief because you know what? When they stopped recording and they got over it, you know what they said, hey, we can catch up on pluribus now. Hey, the pit's coming back next week. Hey, you want to go see Marty Supreme next weekend?

We got nothing else to do. We got no game here. Hey, you want to watch some golf YouTube videos, you know, work on your, they can do anything they want now. For the next four months, they were an eight, nine team. it's not like they were going to make the Super Bowl or anything. So I actually think the bucks are also winners, Billy. I mean, this is an argument that could be also made, if we're going to be totally honest, for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Because the Kansas City Chiefs haven't had an offseason for like six years or something, right? So now the Chiefs, they'll reload, they'll be back. I mean, I can't imagine a world, and you correct me if I'm wrong, they're not going to get rid of Todd Bowles, right? Like the Bucks aren't going to replace Todd Bulls. I don't think so either. So, you know, it ends up being a disqualmie. disappointing season. They lost like six of their nine losses or one score games. I'm kind of with you

because now, you know, if you're Mrs. Mayfield, maybe say, hey, Baker, you know, you told me that we couldn't, everything we had to write down in pencil. We couldn't write anything in pen moving forward for at least, you know, because, you know, these quarterbacks are they all think they're going to win the Super Bowl, even though everyone knows they're not, right? So Mrs. Mayfield was probably like, you know, the next five weeks, let's be real. Five weeks from now, I'm not going to need plans. We're not making the Super Bowl. Baker, I can't tell Baker that. that he's going to be frustrated if I tell him you're not going to make the Super Bowl. Mrs. Mayfield, New Baker wasn't going to make the Super Bowl, right?

So everything was kind of written in pencil. Now we can whip out the pen. Now we start writing, you know what? Let's go on a yacht in, you know, the Maldives or whatever. Let's go to Australia. Let's, you know, let's go to Hawaii. Now we can do that three weeks earlier. It's winter now here, right?

But in Australia, my understanding is it's summer. So let's head out. Let's head down under, Australia and New Zealand. Let's get in the height of summer. Now that we can, we don't. have to worry about the Super Bowl and you tell Bigger, Baker, don't even worry about watching. I know it's going to hurt you so much to watch these players.

Too painful. Exactly. You can't watch next. You can't watch the Panthers next week. Baker, it's going to hurt to it. Let's go on vacation right now, you know? They're winners. I think the bucks are winners here.

They're winners. Baker Mayfield's a winner. Mrs. Mayfield's a winner. You nailed it. I mean, it's so easy to spin. Add it to the Google calendar. You probably already have that. When you mentioned Maldeves, I'm like,

that sounds so much better than getting planted into the ground by Jared First. You know, the best thing about Baker Mayfield, too, and Mrs. Mayfield, is that all of these, like, dream vacations that we have, like, seem like, oh, my God, one of those over-the-water bungalows that I see in movies.

Like, I would love to do that. Oh, I wish I could do that for my honeymoon, whatever. When you get paid $30 million a year, you can do that one day to the next if you want to. So the Mayfields are going to be perfectly fine. Don't worry about them, Shiel. And don't forget about that commercial money either. So I'm with you.

All right. So Panthers are a winner, but kind of a weak winner. Bucks are a winner, a legit winner, because you know what? You're going to have a great offseason. There's a lot of shows. There's a lot of movies. There's a lot of vacations. And now you got nothing but time.

And to Billy's point, you just do the spin. You don't want to be watching this. You can't be watching these. It'll be too painful. Let's go. Let's get out of here. So watch Gilmore Girls or something. Gilmore girls.

Yeah. Why not? All right. Let's take a break. We come back. We get to some more. winners and losers. The Ringer NFL show is brought to you by Fandul football fans.

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Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-HALP.com. Call 1-88-7-8-9-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, we are back here on the Ringer NFL show. Now, Billy, I think you had a winner for us. Do you have a winner for us? I don't know if it had to do with Miles Garrett or what it was, but what do you got? All right, a winner that I had, Jill, history.

We witnessed history today. We've been talking about it. We've been hoping to witness history for a couple weeks now. And no, I'm not talking about, you know, the Trey McBride that we were talking about last week. To be perfectly honestly, I didn't even check to see what Trey McBride did today. I forgot that we were witnessing history with him. But Miles Garrett got the sack record. We've been wanting the sack record for Miles Gareth for weeks now.

Last week there was the controversy where they alleged that Aaron Rogers and the Steelers were going out of their way just to prevent him from getting the sack record. And I think with that with that history, there might be a little bit of controversy down the road. I was going to ask you about this. Okay. All right. All right. There's, I mean, one, there was the whole extra game situation, right? Which, by the way, T.J. Watt, I believe, also did it in the 17th game of the season.

So, like, that's not the controversy. Joe Burrow may have pulled a Brett Farr on that play a little bit. Kind of, I don't know. He took a dive there. He kind of didn't want to get hit. He just went down. I don't know how you experienced that, but I saw that. I was like, oh, I don't know about that one, Joe.

We haven't talked about this. I had this written down. I wanted to get your take on this, okay, because I watch it. And, you know, Miles Garrett's turn in the corner and there's all these stats. This was his fastest get-off of the season. You know, just how quickly he got past the line of scrimmage. Now, Burroughs feeling the pressure from his left. But I've watched Joe Burrow play a lot of football.

And he doesn't just give up on plays from what, you know, he's trying to run around. And sometimes it gets him into trouble. He steps up. He goes down. Miles Garrett touches him. It's as pain free of a sack as anyone's ever had from Miles Garrett. I was trying to think, Billy, well, why would Joe Burrow do this? You know, because you took us down the great path in previous episodes about Mark Gastineau and Brent Farb and this can get a little, but I thought,

well, Joe Burrow does have to face Miles Garrett twice a year. And there's a chance, you know, Burroughs had injuries. And there's a chance in the future, Miles Garrett's going to be in position to inflict serious pain on Joe Burrow. And maybe Joe Burrow was playing chess here and saying, you know what? now when he sees my face, he's going to have that warm, fuzzy feeling about breaking the sack record and he might, you know, still sack me, but he's not going to really try to plant me into the guy.

I don't know. What did you think? Because I'm with you. Again, we hadn't talked about this previously, but I had a feeling you were, that was going to be, you were going to go down this road with it. So you think maybe he was carrying some favor

with Miles Garrett? This is like a long, like, I don't know. I mean, maybe he didn't want to get hit on his last game because he too is going to have now like a nice long off season, which he should be used to to long off season. But he's going to have a nice long off season, injury free.

But it was a soft suck, if we're going to be honest. A little bit of a dive. And I wonder, because I, we remember, we talked about Mark Gaston. He went up to Brett Favre. Is Gastino now relieved that someone beat Michael Strayhan and

T.J. Watt and now has a sack record? Or is he also like throwing his hands up and he was like, what is this? Someone else took a dive. sack used to mean something. You used to have to hit the quarterback. What is going on with this. This is not the sport that I used to love.

Like, what is Gassano had to have blown a gasket today? I would imagine when he saw how that record was broken. Joe Burrow, if you have any card signings in this offseason. Watch your back, man. I think it's going to be the latter, as you were describing it. I don't think Gaston... This used to mean something. A sack used to be hard.

They're just giving it away now. Now I'm like, Gastonot's still around, right? Yeah. I just, okay. I don't hope. Or I don't hope for his sake, because if he saw this, I'm sure he would have been out. I hope he was busy today. Mark Gastonoh.

I never knew Gastonaut was going to bring us. But that wasn't the history. That wasn't the history. That wasn't the history. That wasn't the history. The Jets did it. They completed a season without an interception. I don't know how they did it, but they did it, Sheel.

I can't stop laughing, Billy, because if you would have told me in week 18, and producer Chris was going to send a message that just reads, Gastineau is alive. I would have been like, what were we possibly talking about there? Okay, so yeah, the Jets thing is just so wild. They completed an entire season. And, you know, I was watching the NBC pregame show before Steelers Ravens. And it's like all about the playoff teams and here's the matchup.

And then for no reason they just put up these numbers and they're like, what are those numbers? And they're like, that's what quarterbacks have done. against the Jets this year. 36 touchdowns and no interceptions against the Jets this year, Billy. I saw that they tried to do a sneaky thing. We were like, guess the quarterback's resume. And like we talked about it last week, even by accident,

you should have one interception. And there were some balls that were batted up there that just went right past jet. They had chances today if they really wanted them. But say, Levy. Maybe they didn't want it, you know? Maybe they were feeling good about it. I'm looking at my list here. to see who else is a winner and who else is a loser here.

Some other winners I have written down here. Billy, let's see. The Seahawks, obviously, a winner, right? Great game Saturday night. They're going to be the one seed here. I'm sure we'll talk a lot about the Seahawks in the weeks ahead. Broncos, obviously, a winner. They're the one seat in the AFC.

You mentioned the Rams. I think the Rams are a winner here. I think, did you have an honorable mention, you said? I do have an honorable mention. So I have an honorable mention for potential winners and losers, Tom Brady. Now, why Tom Brady, you asked. Shio, I don't know if you've seen what's going on with Tom Brady this past week. Have you been following Tom Brady's comings and goings?

Morsels. Morsels have come across my algorithm, I will say. Okay, so Tom Brady is one of these people that it can't really do anything without everybody talking about what he's doing. So I will take you to Wednesday night slash Thursday. morning, New Year's Eve, Tom Brady. Now, Tom Brady we saw today, he was calling the Lions game, and he was calling the Bears game, right? Tom Brady was in St. Bart's for New Year's Eve, because that's what you do when you're Tom Brady, you go to St. Bart's. And I know if you saw this,

his ex-wife, Chazelle, recently, I believe, had a child. So this is a time where you're thinking, oh, my God, this is the one that got away. My longtime wife has now moved on, I believe, also could be engaged in the situation, but it's clearly more. moved on for Tom Brady. And that was a big thing. His last season had the divorce. Are they going to get divorced? They're not going to divorce.

A time where I'm assuming it was very emotional, even devastating. But no, Tom was in St. Bart's like all of the millionaires and billionaires were. And he was spotted with a new love interest. None other than Alex Earl. Are you familiar with Alex Earl's Shield? All I know is social media influencer. But if I, you know, if you wanted to press me on Shield, what does that actually mean? I don't think I could tell you.

So Alex Earl is a famous person who's now. been famous for some time for being famous. Now she started as an influencer where she would be on TikTok and she would make like makeup videos and it was like a relatable thing because it happened like during COVID and she had like she would show her real skin like acne on all this stuff. I was like wow this is like an every person. Look at Alex Serro and then she became like a famous person and she went and she started dating Braxton Barrios and her and Braxton Barrios were set to become like the NFL eight couple of the season. And the only problem is they got together the same season

as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. So everyone kind of was not paying as much attention. Tough timing. Yeah, it was bad time. Listen, there's no perfect time to find love. But that's when they found love. And unfortunately, they were overshadowed. Now, since then, she has been on Dancing with the Stars

where I don't know if you watched Dancing with the Stars this past season or if you're trying to catch up at some point. Maybe the Mayfields are listening and they're going to kind of binge the final season of dancing with the stars. as it just occurred. If you are Mayfields, tune out for a second. Spoiler alert. She finished second place this season.

Yeah, so she was on Dancing with the Stars. She's kind of crossed into the mainstream. She broke up with Braxton Barrios. Not too long ago, that came out. And she was seen with Tom Brady. So now there's these romance rooms. Oh, Tom Brady, Alex Earl. Also, fun fact about Alex Earl.

Do you know who Alex Earl's stepmother is? I do not. Alex Earl's stepmother is Ashley Dupre. Do you know who that is? I do not. Ashley Dupree was the escort that was involved in the Elliott Spitzer scandal that led to him resigning as governor. That's just a fun fact.

I'm glad I said I do not. Has nothing to do. That would have been a bad one to know. Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with the story whatsoever. But it's just a fun fact. Anyways, so that's what Tom Brady was up to New Year's Eve. So he was there. Now he may have this new love interest.

Fast forward two days. He's in Miami for a hockey game that's indoors at Marlins Park, Lone Depot Park, between the Panthers and the Rangers. So he's there. He's being presented a Panthers jersey because it's the Marlins Stadium. He's being presented a Marlins jersey. It's like, wow, this Tom Brady is just everywhere,

doing everything. And lo and behold, then he's doing his real job that he's getting paid $30 plus million a year for to do the Lions and the Bears game. I don't know where he gets this energy from. I mean, you're just jet-setting everywhere in three different cities within six days of each other. You know he's already out of Chicago.

Who knows where he's off to now? The guy doesn't stop. And by the way, honorable mention in this honorable mention is Kevin Burkhart because Tom Brady, when he was seen with Alex Rowe, was at a Calvin Harris concert at St. Bartz. And they were playing like a Calvin Harris song going into a commercial break. And then Kevin Burckhardt, you know, it's a situation where it's like, oh, is anyone going to address this? Kevin Burckhard said to Tom, way out of the commercial, goes, oh, I've heard Calvin Harris is really good live. Tom Brady says, what do you know about that? And then that was kind of like a very little jab there by Burkhart on the way out.

But honorable mention for winner, Tom Brady, what a week he's had, just going all around the world doing all these wonderful things that we all wish we could do. I mean, that sounds exhausting. So he is. It really does, honestly. I was just doing some Googling here. So that's what about a three-hourish flight if you're flying private, Miami to St. Bart's. And then it's what, three-ish hours from Miami to Chicago.

And then he's got to go back, you know, somewhere. So we're talking about four flights in a matter of days here, like half a week. You're talking about different beds you're sleeping in St. Bart's one, Miami, another, Chicago, another, different pillow situations in all those. The ear popping, I would imagine, even though you're flying private on the jets, they can't do anything about that, right, with the ears popping in and out. That, to me, turbulence, you know, I'm sure. Again, I'm sure it's nice to fly private, I wouldn't know. I don't know. Turbulance.

So, yeah, that does sound exhausting. Exhausting. Like, would you, he's 48 years old. Obviously, I'm sure he had an enjoyable time, but that's a lot of travel, a lot of work for one week. He's ringing in 2026 like nobody's business. Honestly, like at this point, and I don't know how you feel, at this point, even staying up like well past midnight on New Year's Eve, not for me. I have two young kids. We did like the fake New Year's Eve at like 8 o'clock at night and like barely made it to 12.

Like we made it to 12 only because we were cleaning up the mess that the kids made during the day. But if not, I could have easily fallen in a sleeve in 2025. waking up in 2026 and be perfectly content. I don't need to be out dancing. What am I dancing for at this point? You don't need to be. But I'm glad you brought up Tom Brady for the honorable mention. Maybe he had some kind of resolution.

He wants to be outside more. He probably told Burkhard, hey, you can mention this. You know what I'm saying? Like, this looks good for me that I'm out and about. I'm doing things in 2026. His resolution is much more than get your steps in and mind your business, which is, you know, the Kibati's resolution here for 2020. Sorry.

You know what I did, Sheel? I went up and I started looking up some contract bonuses because that's what is going on this week of the season where you see, like, speaking of Tom Brady, you see the videos of Grong saying, hey, Tommy, I need one more. I need one more for a million dollars. And then he goes and he throws him a pass.

So I started seeing if there was any interesting winners and losers for the bonuses this year. I had some interesting ones that I found. Rico Dowdell, he could potentially get a million dollars and all he needed was seven yards to get the million dollar bonus. Rico Dowto had a horrible game. He got 10 yards though,

so he gets his million dollar bonus. A horrible performance, but he got the seven yards he needed. He's a winner. Another winner, Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen needed six receptions for a $750,000 bonus. And then he had another $250,000 bonus

that was up for grabs if he got 750 receiving yards on the season. Of the six receiving yards that he needed, Keenan Allen got seven receiving yards. yards. And he surpassed his 750 yards that he needed a million dollars for Keenan Allen today. Yeah. What a day for him. Calais Campbell,

he needed one sack for $500,000. He did not get it. He's a loser. Unfortunately, he were playing the Bengals. Joe Burrow would have given it to him. That's true. If only were playing Burrow, yeah. Well, Gastanoe right now, somewhere saying Callais Campbell, that's a real man. That he's saying, you know what? And

I wonder, and we're not going to look it up and Chris, don't look it up because it's going to be too much But I wonder how many years of playing Gastonot had to play for $500,000. Because there's a different time in the NFL. Different time. Yeah. So he's probably seeing these $500,000. And he's getting out.

He's like, more, please just sit down, man, relax. It's okay. It'll be fine. Anyway. What a fun character, Gastonot, two-hour lives. You brought into my life. That's your job to him. I don't know about that.

Yeah, I wasn't going that far. Billy, I just had nice new character here for the Ringer NFL show that Billy brought into our lives. So there you go. So we got the playoff schedule. Saturday 430. This is Eastern Rams at Panthers. Saturday night Packers at Bears. That's going to be a fun one. Sunday at one. Billy mentioned it. Bill's a Jaguars. Very confusing game. I can't wait to talk more about that one. Sunday at 430. 49ers at Eagles. Good one. Sunday at 8 p.m. Chargers at Patriots and then Monday night, Texans at Steelers. I think it's a good wild card round slate. I'm excited about this.

Yeah, I mean, I think the NFC is prime for some upsets. You know, the Rams, when we were saying winners are losers for the Rams, the Rams, while being the five seed, they're not going to be the only upset. I have the Rams winning. No surprise, I don't think. I don't think that you think the Panthers are going to win either, right? Not now, but you know what? You never know, I guess.

Yeah, it's one game. Yeah. But should the Rams win as we think that they're probably going to win, right? Yeah. They're probably still not going to be the lowest seed, so they're not going to have to face the Seahawks, because one of those other two games probably will have an upset as well, because the NFC is pretty, pretty tight, I would say.

I think anyone can beat anyone except the Panthers. I think anyone else can beat anyone else in the NFC. Yeah, Eagles, I think, are three and a half. That line's three and a half. Packers, bears, I think the line is one and a half. So good matchups that we will be talking about all week on the Ringer NFL show. All right, thank you to Billy Gill. Thank you to Mark Gass.

to know. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing Alicia Suji on social, Stefano Sanchez on video editing and additional production supervision by Connor and Evans and Arjuna Ram Gopal. I'm Sheila Kapadia. We will be back tomorrow on the Ringer NFL 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 dash help.com. Call 1-888-7-89-77-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help.combinghelp.m.m.m.m.m.m.m.m.m. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline m. or call 800-2-7-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-Hope-N-Y or text hope

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