Transcript of Championship Sunday, Fred Smoot, SB Champ Mitchell Schwartz, PFT vs Max and Fyre Fest

Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcast, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. All right, folks, let me tell you, sleep is the ultimate cheat code for recovery, and you know I don't mess around when it comes to getting my best sleep. That's why I swear by my sleep number smart bed. My sleep number, it's a solid 45, just the right firmness for me to wake up feeling like a champ every day. My wife, she's all about her 65, which proves we'd never agree without bed. Now, here's the kicker. Eighty % of NFL players are already sleeping on a sleep number smart bed. These guys know what's up. It's all about recovery. And sleep number has been partnering with NFL since 2018 to make sure elite athletes sleep like pros. Waking up tired? It might be your mattress. The Sleep Number smart bed contours to your head, neck, and shoulders for personalized comfort. Plus, if you're sweating it out at night, check this out. The new Climate Cool smart bed lets you adjust up to 15 degrees cooler on either side. No more tossing turning, just cool, uninterrupted sleep.

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He pretty much cut a promo.

Cut a promo for the Commanders. Then we have Mitchell Schwartz, Super Bowl champion, who protected Patrick Mahomes in his first Super Bowl, talking Chiefs, talking bills. We're going to get into both games. We got Firefest. We got a great Friday show before an incredible Sunday, and it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings Playoffs. We're talking playoffs. Getting on the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting part of the NFL. Scoring touch downs is key to winning in the NFL playoffs, and the key to you scoring big is betting on them at DraftKings, the number one place to bet touch downs. Ready to place your first bet? Try betting on something simple like a player to score six. Go to the DraftKings Sportsbook app, make your pick. Here's another reason to watch your favorite players crush it in the playoffs. New customers bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Score big during the NFL playoffs with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code take. That's code Taked for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings Sportsbook. The Crown is yours.

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Guys who like football, they like me back, and I like them back.

If you guys don't like football, they try to avoid me because I'm always trying to get them to like football. Football.

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Score big during the NFL playoff with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code Taked. That's code Taked for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks. Only on DraftKings Sportsbook, the Crown is yours Today is Friday, January 24th. Boys, we have arrived. We have arrived. We're on the Eve of, pardon my take, Civil War.

I call the north.

The tensions have been high all week. We've had brush fire wires between Max and PFT. What are you shaking your head? Don't shake your fucking head.

I don't know how he can call the north when we're clearly the north.

We're the north, too. What was the capital of the north?

This is what we've been dealing with all week.

Max, I'm just curious. What's the capital of the north was?

I'm just curious. Where did the commanders play?

What was the capital of the north?

Wait a minute.

State of Maryland is where they play, Max. Now, remind me again, what side was Maryland on in the Civil War?

The Line. The Line of the South.

Was that line have a name?

No, we were- Mason Dixon.

No, there it is.

We were in the north.

Bare.

Maryland was in the north. Firmly in the north. Washington, DC was, in fact, the capital of the Union.

Not the first capital.

That would be Philly. Yeah, but then bang. You can protect your Crown.

Bang from three. All right, so yeah, we're going to preview the game. That's just a little preview of- A battle of history is not one I'm going to win. Yeah, no, you're not. We've had this all week. It's been great. The tension is real. We're We're getting ready for the game. Before we do the preview, though, we should at least congratulate Memes on getting his new head coach, Aaron Glenn. That's your top choice. Congratulations, Memes. That's history. It was cool. I'm a sucker for any time a team hires someone for a player that played there, and they just do old highlights. I'm like, Yeah, this makes sense.

I watched an interview with him where he said he decided that he was going to get back into coaching, get back into the NFL after he took a break off when he retired. He was like a restaurant owner. Then one of his restaurants was right next to one of the stadiums, I think NRG Stadium. He would watch some of the games and be like, They're fucking everything up. This is really bad. His wife was like, Stop yelling at the TV. Go coach. You can coach. I love that. Then he said when he joined a coaching staff, he didn't want to be promoted to being defensive backs coach or defensive line coach or anything like that in-house. He was like, Start me at the bottom. Send me out on the road, have me be a out because I want to learn every step of the process. He worked his way up. Seems like a great dude. His players love him. Memes, I'm happy for you.

Yeah, your first choice. I'm happy for me, too.

Good.

I think this is a great hire. He was on the Jets when they were bad, and then he was also on the team when they got good with Bill Parcells. It's just good to get someone in the building, establish pride back into the franchise. Even though it's been bad, there were moments of pride. It's good to get someone like that into the building. What would you say to anyone who says this is a bad hire? Racist.

Okay.

Okay, good. I like that. They're good. You got that in your arsenal. Yeah, no. Aaron Glenn is a good coach. Now, I don't feel bad, but maybe we'll just give a hollow apology to all the AWLs listening to this from Detroit, because this podcast has singlehandedly taken the Lions for a ride this past week because you took them out of the playoffs. Ben Johnson went to the bears, and now Aaron Glenn goes to the Jets. I don't know. They can't handle much more from PMT.

So I think that the Lions are going to have to raid the Bucks. That's what they're looking to do. So just, yeah, fuck Steven Chey up.

Yeah, fuck Steven Chey up. But yeah, it has not been the best week for Lions fans. They've been very upset. They're calling Ben Johnson a traitor. They're mad about how the game went, not having their eye on the ball, all that stuff. It sucks, but I also don't feel bad.

Yeah. What did Belichick say about that, Hank?

He just said it's fair for people to be upset that coordinators are distracted, the play callers, when they're trying to be making plays for the biggest game of the year, and that the bad teams get to basically come in and distract the teams.

Yeah. The lines did have a buy week, too. I know Ben Johnson didn't even go to Chicago. He did Zoom interviews and then decided. I can't imagine that that was super So distracting.

I do like how Ben Johnson is picking a fight with the rest of the division, too. Saying stuff about Matt LaFleur, Kevin O'Kana. I'd say that's the best coach division in football.

Well, we'll see. Ben Johnson has lots of proof, saying 6 out of 10.

Okay.

He's got a lot to prove. You can't win the offseason. You got to win the season.

I guess they can't go 6 and 10, but that- Well, they can start 6 and 10.

6 out of 10?

6 and 10 of 1, yeah.

Okay. I appreciate that, Hank. I didn't really even think about that until right this second.

Troll brain always working.

Here's something good for us memes. The Jets of the Bears are not the Jaguars because the Jaguars fired Trent Balke after they were turned down by Ben Johnson and Liam Cohen, which is such a dumpster fire move because they were essentially like... Remember when Trent Balke stayed and Doug Peterson got fired and everyone was like, League sources are shocked that Trent Balke has survived another head coach. Yeah. Everyone was like, This is crazy. How are you going to get the top higher? Turns out they couldn't. Then retroactively, they're like, Actually, we are going to get rid of him.

Yeah. I mean, better late than never, I guess. But it just goes to show you that Trent Balke He had a lot of power in that organization, just being the person that was informing Shad Khan of what was happening at all times. Because you can spin it whatever way you want. If you go out there and you lose to the Texans and some guy that you brought in plays really poorly, then you can go to your owner and be like, Yeah, you misused our timeouts and it cost us the game. You are the news. You're the only source of information in a lot of cases for some of the owners. So he was just doing whatever he could to scrape by. Then they got rid of it. He's also obsessed with arm length. This guy is like... He's obsessed with drafting injured players. I think guys with short arms. So, Trent Balke, you're better late than never. But I guess you learned if you're the Jaguars, Okay, well, going through this decision, everyone's turning us down because of him. Maybe Maybe he's the problem.

Yeah, maybe he's the problem, which has got to be a tough realization that you... Because Liam Cohen just said no, thanks, and he got a pay raise with the box. Yeah, that can't be a good feeling. Also, I think, is it Brian Schoetenheimer might get hired by the Cowboys?

It's looking like that right now. Yeah. He got his second interview today. Okay. I just want Deion. I just want Deion. I think that'd be so fun to have Deion as a coach of the Cowboys. But I'm tracking Jerry Jones' flights right now. I'm reporting Starting at 4: 19 Central Time, Jerry Jones's helicopter took off from the practice facility, flew out to AT&T Stadium, did a full circle, one full circle, and then flew back. That feels like a closing move, doesn't it? Yeah. The guys verbally agreed to it, and Jerry's like, Let me go show you where we play ball.

Yeah, let me take you for a little loopy loop.

Yes. See that hole? That's where Sunpoak came.

Yeah. No, you're right. That is definitely the final. Don't they do on the Bachelor or something? They always take a hot air balloon.

Yeah, now they're going to the fantasy suite.

Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. Jerry's going to come in his shoe for him, and it's going to be a done deal.

Yeah. Also, congratulations, Hank. You got your offensive coordinator. Oh, yeah. Josh McDaniel. Putting the band back together. Pumped.

Kirk was right. He had the first of it. You have to be excited.

All the way excited. That was the person I wanted. It was the best offseason you could have.

Yeah.

It would be very funny if some team, let's say the Patriots-We're reloaded. If they win 11 games this year, and then Josh McDaniels gets hired as a head coach somewhere else. That'd be very funny.

For the cults. Okay. Anything else before we do what everyone is here for, and that is the preview of the games. I did see Mark Andrews posted a long Instagram note basically saying, I fucked up. I feel bad for him. But Buffalo fans did donate $95,000 to his charity, which is awesome. Which is nice. Very nice. Probably would still rather have caught that ball and not fumbled the other one, but still nice.

Yeah. If you're Mark Andrews, are you happy? Are you like, This is good. Thank you, guys. I think you have to say thank you, but you're also pretty bummed out that they are donating all this money.

Yeah. Really, Lamar should actually donate money to Mark Andrews personally because he's gotten a lot of the IRO. Speaking of which, has anyone gotten deep enough into the Ryan Clarke, Marcellus Wiley beef to understand? I've looked at I want to say I've done about five minutes of research, and I think Ryan Clark is in the wrong in the fact that he's basically been exposed for a massive double standard with Lamar and Josh and Marcellus Wiley has just basically been like, Dude, you have a double standard, and he's gotten very upset about it.

Are you talking about the Vegas stuff?

No, I don't know the Vegas stuff.

That's what I'm concerned about.

All right. So to set the state, I think a lot of people are going after Ryan Clark right now because last year when the Bills lost, and that was the game that they lost by what, a field goal and a miss field goal, and Stefan Diggs dropped a bunch of balls, and he basically was like, Josh Allen has to play better. It's on him, blah, blah, blah. And then this year when Lamar lost, he's like, Chin up, number 8. This isn't on you. You made the plays when you had to make. And it was like, All right, this is weird. So now what happened with Vegas?

So he tweeted at Marcellus Wiley, Hey, Marcellus Wiley, you forgot to tell all your followers about our interaction at Catch for the Super Bowl. Like I said, we were not alone in Vegas. You just couldn't let me be when I ignored you. So now I'm not ignoring you anymore. Let's have this conversation man to man. And then he did a screenshot from a text message that he was having with somebody. It's been cropped, so you can't see who it was. Somebody says, Marcel is tripping again. He always is. I'm just finally tired of it. And he's acting like Vegas didn't happen because he's a bitch. Oh, shit. And then the other person says, Lol, I remember the interaction vividly. Lol. Oh, I know you do. You actually made it funny. Then the other guy says, Lol. There's actually no context. What happened in Vegas? But it sounds hilarious. Hilarious. It sounds like this guy's actually hysterical with laughter right now. I don't really know what's going on here, but now I want to know what happened at catch because it sounds like Ryan Clark ignored Marcellus Wiley at catch. Then Marcellus Wiley got up in his feelings because Ryan Clark was ignoring him.

Got it. That would probably piss me off, too. Yeah.

Listen, we're biased on this show. We have biases. We just are pretty transparent about them. We like Josh Allen a lot. I just feel like Ryan Clark should probably just be like, I'm maybe not treating them the same.

Yeah, you can always get off a take.

Yeah, you can always just be like, Hey, I like Lamar a lot more than Josh. Yeah, you could say that. This is why I'm going to treat it differently.

You could say that or you could say, I was wrong about Josh. Yeah. That's okay, too. I think what he's opting to do is just wait until he's right again about Josh. Then he'll be like, See, I was right about Josh.

Yeah, how he reacts on Monday. Although I think what he's going to do because he posted also something on Inside the NFL praising Josh. I think if the bills lose on Sunday, he's going to go on Get Up and be like, It wasn't on Josh. Try to pave over that.

I like Ryan Clark. Maybe it's because he used to be on the Redskins, but I think sometimes he's okay. Sometimes when he gets on TV, he delivers these sermons while he's dressed up like Austin Power. Then I'm like, Okay, I can tune this guy out right now. I thought that he's always been wrong about Josh, and it seems personal.

That's the thing. It does seem personal.

He has something against Josh Allen. Right.

I don't know what that's about. Maybe it's a race thing. I don't fucking know. But it was a good media beef that I couldn't fully understand because of what happened in Vegas.

The race stuff always happens in boxing. That's when it's very normal for everybody. If there's a white fighter and a black fighter or a Mexican fighter against a Canadian fighter, then you just squad up and you let it all happen in between the bells, and then afterwards, you're like, okay, back to normal. But in football, some people don't do that.

Well, and the problem, too, is that Lamar and Josh are different in the fact that Lamar has been the best quarterback in the regular season for whatever, three out of the last six years. You can't really dispute that. Josh's losses in the playoffs have been in large part not because he's not played to his level. Lamar has had games where he's not played to his level.

The thing about quarterbacks is 50% of them suck depending on what just happened. So if you lose, you're like, See, that guy sucks. That guy sucks. And that guy is the best. That guy will never be good again. He's the best, and that guy sucks. Yeah.

It's really whoever's winning the game at the time. Yeah.

And then the other guy, you're like, What are you doing?

It's quarter by quarter. How could you throw that?

How could you drop the ball when you got sacked, Lamar?

How could you possibly throw that?

My thing about Lamar is, does he know it's the playoffs?

He might not. I wouldn't have thrown that.

No. I'd protect the football.

The thing about me, I don't have arm strength to throw that interception.

To me, the football is sacred.

The whole franchise.

I would limit turnover.

In your hands. Okay, let's get to the weekend preview. It's presented by Dove Men's as you prepare to host game day celebrations. What are some possible whole body odor-related issues you may encounter that make you less confident in your hosting studios? Are you afraid to take off your shoes when you enter your friend's house? That can happen. Getting nervous, your team is at halftime. Maybe you start smelling bad, sweating. Tackle a whole body odor with Dove Men plus care. Whole Body Dio. This whole body Dio defends against all your odor zones from pits, privates to feet. It's long lasting with 72-hour odor protection. Find Dove, Men, Whole Body Dio at Walmart today. Make sure you're smelling good, especially when the games heat up, because it's going to be heating up this weekend. So go You get Dove, Men, Whole Body DO at Walmart today. All right, boys. First game, NFC Championship game. Philadelphia Eagles are six-point favorites. Over-under is 47. 5. I feel like I just need to just be like, Go ahead, both of you. Just fight.

Well, Max said something very interesting before we started taping, which was he just wants to fast forward and get to the end of the game when there's zeros on the clock. He doesn't even want to watch the game. Maybe For me personally, I wouldn't mind fast forwarding to maybe 30 minutes before kickoff, see some of the pageantry, the flyover, everything. But Max just wants to be at the end of the game when it's all over. I don't know if Max likes watching ball. For me, The thing about me is I can't wait for kickoff. You love ball. Yeah, kickoff is that's my time, baby. Max?

I don't care about that. I'm stressed out. I'm done with being stressed. I'm excited for this game. I'm excited for this game. I'm also excited for this game to be over. I'm hoping that... I'm confident that the Eagles are going to win, but it's taking a toll on me.

My analysis for this game is very dumb. The Eagles have better players at almost every position, except for the most important position, and that's quarterback. I keep coming back to, I think the Eagles defense is better than what Jaden Daniels has played in the last two playoff games. I think the Eagle's offense, not better than the Lions, but Saquon Barkley is out of control right now, and they're going to be able to run the ball. I just keep going back to the fact that if the commanders have the ball at the end of the game, Jane Daniels is going to do something special, and we're going to have maximum pain for Max.

I hope that's how it works out. I think the Eagles are a really, really fucking good team.

Do you agree with my assessment that they are probably better at almost every position except for a quarterback?

What about running back? I'll give you the nod at running back. I'll give you the nod at left tackle, right tackle as well.

Terry McLaren is playing better than A. J. Brown right now.

Yeah, I'd say Terry McLaren better than A. J. Brown at the moment. On defense, yeah, maybe. I mean, if you look at Latamore, how he played last week, if you look at how Sanra still played last week, they both played excellent. Really good ball last week.

They released a rookie tackle leader. I saw this. That was tough. And Commanders fans were trying to dunk on Eagles's fans because Quinian Mitchell was not on the- That was rookie tackle leader.

Yeah, for cornerback. It was pretty tough. There was one Commander fan.

You're fighting to get somebody who's not here.

Where's Quinian Mitchell? Then everyone replied. They're like, You actually don't want your cornerbacks leading the team in tackles because that means they're giving up a lot of passes or your linebackers.

Yeah, it's true. Congratulations for dunking on the dumbest people online.

No, but you were just like, Sander Still is not better than either of the two Eagles D-backs.

I'm just saying the way that he played last week and how he's been playing recently.

But you can't just look at a game, a whole player by one game.

He might be better than Cooper.

Cooper Dujin. Number one, he's not. Cooper Dujin was nominated for defensive rookie of the year.

Okay.

Sanders Still was not. Okay.

Point, Max.

I said he might be.

Okay.

Okay.

Jalen Hertz might be better than Jane Daniels. I disagree.

What is Jalen Hertz status?

He's good.

Good.

He's good? Good. Because I think that's really what... I mean, not to It oversimplified the game, but it really like, if Jalen Hertz is banged up and doesn't have the mobility that he needs to have, it's going to be a way different game.

I have a question about the end of game thing. Would you have said that same thing about Matt Stafford last week?

In the snowy conditions? No. I mean, he couldn't hold onto the ball.

That's incorrect. He did it the drive before. I understand. And then he did it up until that drive until the Eagles made the big plays to win the game.

I would Jaden Daniels is playing better right now than Matthew Stafford.

I mean, you talk all the time about how good Matthew Stafford is.

I know he's a Hall of Famer, but he wasn't playing good. He wasn't playing good the last two months. I would feel more confident with Jaden Daniels having the ball in his hand at the end of the fourth quarter right now than Matthew Stafford.

But it's the Eagles's defense.

I understand. I agree. You asked me a question.

I'm giving you my answer. Yeah. I just think that I don't know if that answer, I agree with that answer.

I'll say confidently, with the exception of quarterback and punter, I think the Eagles have the better roster. Yes. I would probably agree with that across the board. Kicker. Punter.

You have the better kicker.

No, we have the better punter. Tressway is a fucking legend.

And kicker.

Yeah, Jake Elliott's a problem. That also makes sense.

I am giving you an extra player there. That wasn't a... He did. You were getting angry. I was giving...

No, Max, I actually have a stat about Jake Elliott because this is crazy. In the postseason, Jake Elliott is 22 for 22 on field goals. In the postseason, Jake Elliott is 25 for 30 on extra points. Jake Elliott is the most accurate kicker in NFL history in the postseason on field goals. He is the least accurate kicker in the NFL in history in the playoffs on extra points.

But he's also 4-0 when he misses an extra point.

That's also true.

That's a stat. Remember that stat I gave you?

Isn't that crazy that he's the best of all time at field goals and the worst of all time at extra points in the No, that is crazy.

But I think that right now, his head is fucked.

Field goals are worth more. The voice you just heard there was Philly Hank. We need to address this. Hank is wearing an Eagles shirt. Hank is, I believe going for the Eagles, but he is so far inside Max's head that Max doesn't believe him. I think-Max also, Hank, I don't know if everyone in this room knows this, but Hank is texting Max at 10: 00 PM every night this week, just birds.

I think he has an alarm on his phone at 10: 00 to text Max birds. It's bird out. It's been every day this week at 10: 00 PM, he texted me birds.

No, I've explained my stance. I'm financially backing the birds. I had these futures in from before the playoffs. I didn't know they were going to go against the commanders. That might have changed things. But when you have futures at this level, and it's such a big game, all I've been thinking about this week are the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds, the birds.

They're going to run.

I know it's fun, and we're talking about it. It's fun little robbery. It's not going to be close.

It's not going to be close. He's getting upset about this.

Jane Daniels is a rookie. The slipper is going to come off. He's going to turn back into a pumpkin. Three interceptions.

Oh, he turned his mic off. He turned his mic off. Turn it back on.

It's sad because Hank really can't win. When he's going against Philly, you hate the guy's guts. When he finally does the bloods in the crypts, tying the handkerchief together, you're like, Turn this guy's mic off. Don't let him talk.

Wait, so you think Jay Daniels is going to turn into a pumpkin? Mm-hmm.

Their eagles defense is so much...

Stop. Please stop. I'm asking you to stop.

The lines were playing with XFL players. You sound like me with my kids right now, Max. I was like, Please stop. Please just stop doing that. I'm asking you nicely.

You want to know an interesting stat about Jalen Hertz, about his playoff record? So he's four and three in the playoffs all time. When he throws for less than 155 yards, he's won all four games.

Yeah, that was the stat I gave Max on Sunday.

When he throws for over 155, they lose all those.

Yeah, the key to the Eagles's winning is Jalen Hertz throwing for 125 and Jake Elliott missing two extra points. So his injury doesn't even matter.

It doesn't matter. That's the key. All right, can I say something that I've noticed this week? Okay. I would like to read a tweet. I would like to pull it up, and I will be doing so right now. Okay. Here we go. This is from Ben Standig. He is a beat reporter for the Washington Commanders. Okay. The Commanders are practicing in the bubble with the Fly, Eagles, Fly song, pumped during the practice. Are you aware of what that song is to the Eagles?

That's your countdown song.

They played the song during their entire practice. Are they just preparing to let up a ton of points?

I think they're just preparing to be annoyed.

But that means if they're going to be annoyed by the song, that means the eagles are scoring.

You shouldn't be listening to that song at all.

That's an interesting song choice.

You're creating the most hostile environment possible for yourself.

By playing the eagles score song. You know there's probably a couple of guys in practice that were singing along by accident.

I don't know about that.

It's hard. It's hard not to sing along. And watch our eagles fly.

My eagles fly on the road to victory E-A-S-G-L-S.

Do we have a statement on... Was it the mayor?

Yeah, thank God. She said that before the Rams game. They're 1-0 after that chant.

Okay. She was E-L-G-S-E-L-S.

I love it when mayors try to talk sports. It was a robot.

Did you also see the Washington Commander, Defensive Coordinator, Joe Witt, said that they're going to try to hit Jalen Hertz like a running back?

Yeah, it's good defense. When he's running with a football, hit him like a running back.

I got no problem with that. No, I like it. He's telegraphing it, too. Yeah, sure.

Goes both ways. Goes both ways. Your running back also likes to run like a... Your quarterback also likes to run like a running back.

Yeah, but we also agree to turn injuries off.

I don't know if your defensive coordinator agreed to that.

No, we agreed.

What happened? It makes you wonder about these questionable Frankie Louvou hits the past couple months. It makes you wonder what's going on in Are you claiming there's a bounty gate going? I'm not saying it. It raises a question.

Okay, because he hit Jared Goff, that one. And then what else?

Jake Ferguson? Do you want to look at the Jake Ferguson one?

Should we look at the Jake Ferguson one? I got my Windhorse fingers up.

I have not seen the Jake Ferguson one. Sorry that we play physical football. You know what? People in Philly would never celebrate an opponent getting injured.

That's a good point, PFT. Yeah, let's keep doing.

Why was the first thing JFK getting dome shot? I was like, I don't think that was Frankie Louvou. But if If that happened to Pat Mahomes, they'd suspend him from the league.

Oh, man. All right. This is the Jake Ferguson getting hit.

Nope, I haven't found it yet. Okay.

All right. Good job producing.

Well, I mean, you brought this up.

No, I didn't.

You brought up Jake Ferguson.

You brought up the defensive coordinator.

Yeah, I brought up Joe Witt. I didn't have a memory bank of every bad hit Frankie Louvou's had. I did.

That's Oos. Put some respect on Frankie Louvou's name.

I don't know if you're going to find it. I don't know if you're going to find it. I think I'm going to bet the Commanders plus 6. Now, I do have that future on the Eagles, but I'm going to try to double-dip, I think. Because I do think the Commanders... I think it's going to be a tight game. I disagree with what you're saying, Hank. I do not think it's going to be a blowout.

I think it's going to be close. I hope it's close. Everybody's saying that the Commanders, this is the start. They'll expect to be back. I disagree with that. When you're in the NFC Championship game, you have to need to win. They should try to win it. I'm declaring this a must-win game. This is a must-win game for the commanders. Max? It's been a great season, but you must win this game.

Would you like to counter with a can't lose?

No, I would like to follow up with a must-win as well.

Oh, we got a must-win off.

Okay. Also, one difference in this game from the other two games that we played this season, Jonathan Allen is back for the commanders, and he makes a difference in defense and tackles. I'm happy about that. I think the formula for this game is is just don't let Saquon Barkley score a 70-yard breakdown.

That's a really good formula.

He's going to have some 20, 30-yard runs. Just don't let him score on those runs. If you can force him into kicking 33-yard field goals, that'd be great, too. Just simulate an extra point. But I'm on edge. I'm not as on edge as Max is. Max is just a basket case this week.

He has been.

Shocker. Max, if you lose this game, maybe you'll get to I'm worried about it.

Yeah, Hank, you're just... Which actually should make you worry, PFT, because Hank does- He brings winning energy. And he also... This type of bets, he hits him.

I don't know. Yeah, he does.

I don't hit him.

I was going to tell Max, if you lose a conference championship, you might get to play Boise State in the first round. That'd be nice.

Shot of Penn State there, Max. He's so focused on trying to find this phantom Jake Ferguson hit that he can't find.

This is a screenshot of it, but I need the full video.

That looks dirty, that screenshot.

That's screenshot.

I would also feel a lot worse, but thankfully, Jalen Hertz didn't even play, and the commanders barely beat the Eagles. And so that way, it takes away the top to beat the same team three times.

Yeah, it's true. What about this? No team has ever beaten Jaden Daniels twice in the same season.

He's a rookie.

No team.

No team has done it.

No team has done it.

Think about that.

Well, yeah, the other two teams in the division sucked.

Well, also the Bucks.

Bucks didn't do it.

Didn't do it.

Didn't think about that, did you?

So it's four teams.

Although, technically, Marcus Mariota beat the Cowboys the second time.

That is true, but Jaden was the first one. Well, Jaden played for half of it. Not well. Kind of. Then he was on the sidelines, first guy cheering. Did you guys see the report about Jaden Daniels' mom?

Yeah.

What did she say? She does not let him date. There's a lot of- Married to the game. A lot of skirts running around, and she's like, No, you're not getting close to my Jaden. The big graphic that I saw just said it was a picture of Jaden Daniels. It said, No Girls. Love that. No girls. Football only. He's married to the game, which I love. I'm so excited, Max. I really am excited to watch this game.

I'm so excited as well. We're going to be streaming. Coach Gruden will be there. It's going to be great. It's going to be an incredible watch. Is that the hit? Let's see. Oh, yeah. He got him from behind. All right.

Here he comes in.

Headshot him a little bit from behind.

I mean, he's getting thrown.

Yeah, he did. He went helmet to helmet.

He's getting thrown down, and then comes in to make a tackle.

I don't really know what point you were trying to make. That he's the defensive coordinator trying to get injured people.

It's a physical man.

We'll put a pin in the bounty gate. Max was the first to report it, potential bounty gate on the commanders. Yeah. Have you guys decided on a bet?

By the way, the reason I couldn't find it was because the tweet I saw actually, I was looking up the words in the thing, and he actually referred him as Franky Doudou.

Oh, got him good.

Got it good. You should have just called him Franky Doodoo instead of going on this wild goose chase. I'll be like, Good point, Max.

Yeah, Frankie Doodoo. Also, Max, will you be wearing the overalls?

Yes, I will be wearing the overalls underneath my sweatshirt. Okay. Same outfit for all plays minus one of the Rams game.

I will not be giving you use of my phone in this game because I'm going to let it play out on the field. You don't have any superstitions with my phone, which powerful against the Rams. You have to admit.

It's not going to be necessary.

Hank, the fact that Hank, he has $30,000 on the line and still wants to be a fucking asshole?

I'm confident. He's rooting hard.

He's rooting hard.

No, Hank is either in a position where he wins $50,000 or he can make fun of me. I would never do that.

Me, personally, I would never I want to do that. That sounds crazy, Hank. I want to win.

I don't want to lose.

Who would ever do that?

I'm glad that Hank is so confident because we'll get to our interview with Fred Smoot, who basically just... You cannot lay a jinks on thickerer than Fred Smoot laid on by how confident he was in the commander. So I'm glad that Hank is here counterbalancing that. I appreciate that.

If you did not watch a second of NFL football this year and you just listened to Fred Smoot's interview, you would think that the commanders were the greatest team that ever was created on God's Earth. It was that. All right, so wait, do we have a bet?

We had talked about doing the wax.

Okay.

Upper body wax.

A torso wax, basically 40-year-old virgin wax.

Okay.

You got a lot to give, Max.

Yeah. I got a decent amount of hair on this chest, and we talked about the Brazilian, but if you're doing Brazilian, then you have to actually go to a waxing person, take all your underwear off and be like, Hey, can you wax my ball? And then that's just weird. Then also somebody would be filming that.

We were talking about it the other day. I know people want to see a bet, and I think this would be good because we'll make it a PMTV. You guys have so much at stake. Yeah, there's a lot. It's so much at stake. No bet can change how you feel about this game.

Yeah.

This also will suck.

Yeah, no, this will suck.

This is obviously something that neither of us want to do. It's going to be very painful, and I will have to take my shirt off on camera, which I never like to do either. That's a punishment on its own.

Yeah, that's a fact. Max, do you have keys to the game?

Yeah. What do you mean?

Do you have eagles keys to victory?

Sure.

What are the keys to victory?

Win. I don't care about anything else. Win the football game. That's a good key to victory.

I had want it more. I had dial something up, and no girls. That's pretty good. Also make another fucking sweet pregame Hype video. When is that dropping? I'm working on it right now. I got my team on it. Shout out Quigs. I got a guy, too. Yeah, Quigs is doing a great job.

It's just a guy that already makes them, but I've DMed with him a couple of times because he makes sick Hype videos.

Nice. This one's going to be better. Nice.

All right, final score of prediction? Memes, I'll start with you. Memes, who are you rooting for? I don't know.

Memes, this one's Chaos.

I saw the Curse of Jim Kelly clip pop up, so that made me think the Commanders are going to win. And Schefter's tweet from last Super Bowl saying, Commanders Chiefs are in the Super Bowl, makes me also think the Commanders are going to win. So I'll go, Eagles 34, Commanders Which 21?

Counterpoint.

Super Bowl logo. What's going on with it?

That didn't happen last year.

Taylor Swift, Purple. That's what people are saying.

Okay.

It was the dumbest thing.

So what is it this year?

You can't counteract memes. You can't tell It seems to change his prediction.

No, my counter act of weird stats.

Okay, so that does look like Chief's Eagles again.

No, Bills have read.

Oh, yeah, Bills have read, too. But you mean Chief's are all read? Chief's are read. Okay, 3421 eagles, max. That was Meme's prediction.

Wait, you said 3421 Eagles? Mm-hmm. Wait a minute.

Just think of two numbers. No.

Someone else go first. I refuse to go right now.

All right, I'll go. 26, 24 eagles. Commanders. 26, 24 Commanders. Wow. I think James I was going to do something special to you. I think Zane Gonzales. I think you're going to get a... Wait, 26, 24.

We call him OCD Gonzales.

Zane Gonzales misses an extra point, so it's 24, 23. Then he makes a field goal. Prove it.

Cash out.

I'm not going to cash out. I'm going to bet the Commander's plus six for probably more than the money. I'll show you the bet before.

Actually, I'm happy that you did that.

What did you get me there?

Yeah, because if Big Cat I would take in the Eagles, and Hank takes the eagles, you take the eagles, I was just going to abstain. So we had the graphic that was all eagles. Yeah.

No, I'm not going to cash out of the eagles's future, but I'm going to bet the Commanders because I do think no matter what, this is going to be a very close game. I honestly believe that. That's my analysis of the game. I think these teams, I think Jane Daniels is the X factor that will make this game close. Hank?

42, 13, Eagles.

Wow. Confident. Bird game. Confident. Slaughter.

So I shouldn't take Commanders plus 6?

No, we're looking at pick 6. 250, take one.

I don't know why you do this to me.

Believe in you?

Yeah, he's being a good friend. He's supportive.

I'm going to go Commanders 30, Bird's 25.

Okay. Max?

28, 24, Eagles.

So you're telling me I should bet Sanders.

Yeah. He said good pick, Big Cat.

Yeah. I don't care about this, Fred. Yeah, I know. No, you just picked them to win.

I can't get it out of my head that something's happening and that when JD Daniels gets the ball at the end of the game, something happens.

The only thing is too many people are saying Team of Destiny. Too many people are saying it.

I actually have not said Team of Destiny.

I know, but I've heard it a lot.

I just think something's happening where it's like- It's not Destiny.

It hasn't happened yet. You got to go out there and you got to earn it, and this is going to be a very hard game, very, very hard environment against a great team.

What's the weather? I also think in all these scenarios, what is the path of maximum... What do the sickos want the most and what is the path of maximum destruction, and it's commanders beating the eagles, and then the chiefs absolutely butt-fucking the commanders. That's what it is.

Yeah, that's just pain all around.

That's pain every which way and everyone's unhappy and everyone's pissed off. That's what's going to happen. What?

Never mind. What? Never mind. What?

Say it. We're on a podcast.

I mean, just no matter what, I will be... The Commanders, I will not be ready to win the Super Bowl, no matter what, I will not be a Commanders fan.

Okay. I feel the same about the Eagles. Yeah.

Okay, so maybe- Good point. Wait, new vision. New vision I just dropped. New vision. Eagles beat the Commanders. And then Josh Allen beats the Eagles, and we all celebrate. Max is miserable. Yeah.

New vision. That'd be good. Wow. I'm down.

Wow. New Vision. New vision just dropped.

That'd be cool.

That would be... Because the sickos would get their payday twice, and we would become the sickos with the A WLs, we would join the A WLs. That's the best case scenario. Turn it on Max.

That's the best case scenario.

The glazing that we would put on Josh Allen after that.

Oh, my God. We would be taking victory laps while Max is just completely devastated. Oh, my God. Yeah, that would be...

Win this week.

Yeah.

Win this week.

Everyone's got to win this week. I do have one numerology. We got into it for the Ravens. There is some numerology for the commanders. Excuse me. Yeah. January 26, 1992. Okay. The Redskins beat the Bills in the Super Bowl on that day. This game will be played on January 26, 2025. That was 33 years ago, same day. They beat the Bills in the Super Bowl. 33 years before that, January 26th, 1959. Fidel Castro marries revolutionary Vilma Espen. Every 33 years, Akame gets a ring. And this is a ring game.

Not really a ring game.

No, you get a ring.

I love the numerology.

Factor fiction, you get a ring if you win this game.

I think it's every 33 years, Akame has a big day.

You get a ring.

We also learned from the Ravens that that means nothing.

That's true. That's true. But that was only two examples. This is three.

No, they had two.

Oh, yeah, fuck. You're right. You're a fucking idiot. Yeah, I fucked myself.

Damn Also, Maryland played both sides in the Civil War. Oh.

Go on.

I don't know. That's why I looked up is that they were a slave state, but they were technically in the Union. So some parts of Maryland fought for the Confederacy. Some parts of Maryland fought for the Union.

They were a Union State, though.

They were a border state.

They were a Union state.

Border state. It's south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

I don't think you understand. Max has read all of two sentences about the Civil War in the last 30 minutes. So I'm an expert.

To Max's point, there were definitely some malicious from Maryland that fought on the South.

Not from Pennsylvania.

Okay.

To my knowledge.

I still called the North in the Civil War this podcast.

But I said south of the Mason Dixon Line, and I was correct.

Yeah. Okay. All right. I just want this to be a great game. I don't want it to be Hank's 42: 13.

No, I don't want that either. Although if it was 42: 13, I would actually like that a lot if it was for the commanders. Yeah, that would be fun for you.

All right. Afc Championship game. Is I mean, it's crazy because obviously, there's a Civil War in our podcast. This game is so, so huge. Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs are one and a half point favorites. The over-under is 48. I don't know where to start other than I'm rooting for the Bills. I'm worried about the Bills, though, because I don't know. Their defense is banged up again. The weakness of the Bills defense is the middle of the field, Travis Kelsey, middle of the field guy. Maybe they'll just try to shut him down. It's Patrick Mahomes as an under a field goal favorite at home in the playoffs, and it just feels like that's what they do.

We've seen this story before. I've convinced myself that the Bills can do it. Even though I know all the history, I know that you shouldn't doubt Mahomes in the playoffs, but that's the part of me that just wants to see the Bills in the Super Bowl. That's the part of it. I think, in all honesty, if you're putting money on this game, I would probably bet on the Chiefs to win this game.

That's how I feel, but I'm not going to bet the Chiefs.

It feels like they will find a way to get it done. Josh Allen is going to be standing there on the sidelines just with that same look in his face, thousand-yard stare. This happened again. Oh, my God. I can't believe it happened again.

Here's what I'm hoping happens, and obviously, I'm hoping the Bills win, but here's what I'm really hoping happens. I hope that Sean McDermott and Joe braided and the Bills organization says, We've one of the best quarterbacks in the world who had an incredible season. And in the Ravens game, they were conservative in the second half. You can't leave this game up to a last possession. You just can't. It's happened before. It doesn't Although Patrick Mahomes has proven it time and time again. If he gets the ball, it's what we're saying about Jaden Daniels. But Jaden Daniels is more of a feeling. Patrick Mahomes is literally facts. You see the facts. This is what he does. I hope the Bills let Josh Allen just fucking chuck it, and I hope they let him just be Superman, and I hope they realize that to win this game, and this sounds very simplistic, but to win this game, you got to step on them early and never let them back in it. Because if you let this be a one possession game in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs are going to win. That's what you have to do.

If it doesn't work, you went out on your sword. I don't want the bills to get tight. I don't want the bills to feel the pressure, and I don't think they will, but I want them to take the shots necessary to trying to stomp out the Chiefs because if you let them hang around, they're going to win the game.

Yeah, I think that this is a situation where you let Josh be full Josh. Turn him loose, and then we're going to see, how many downfield laterals are we going to see between Josh Allen and Travis Kelsey? That's a good question. Maybe four or five this game. That's a good question. I hope Josh does all the crazy shit, all the stuff where sometimes he saves himself in the regular season. I hope he's jumping over people. I hope he's doing pump fakes 25 yards downfield. I hope all that happens. I want a very fun game out of this. What sucks is that between me and Max, one of us is not going to be able to enjoy this game for how good of a game it probably is going to be. Correct. But yeah, I mean, if Josh can have one of his better top five of the year performances, I think the Bills have a very, very good chance of winning this game. I agree. It sucks because they've had some playoff losses that have not been on Josh Allen, but that's how we're going to look at this. After this game's over, we're either going to look at Josh as the conquering hero and what a great story for him, or we're going to look at him as just the guy that can't get it done.

It sucks. It's not fair. But as a member of the media, that's what we're duty bound to do. Yes.

So the Bill's injury report is not great. Christian Benford was limited in practice. He has a concussion. Taran Johnson was limited. He has a neck shoulder injury. Matt Milano was limited. He has a bicep ham string injury, and Taylor-Rapp safety did not practice with a back hip. You need those guys. You need those guys. I hope that the Bills can get as close to full strength as possible because that's really the part. I think we all agree, the Bills defense is... It's had moments where it's looked good. It's also been injured. They did a great job against the Raven in the first half last week. They got bullied in the second half. I want the Bills defense to give the Bills offense a here. That's my main concern because you're going up against Patrick Morris because I think the Bills offense is going to have success. Their offensive line is legit. They do have weapons. I think the Chief's defense is good, but not maybe a little overrated. I just... Man, Man. Come on, Josh. He's Superman.

For the ref group, Cleet Blakeman, let the boys play. Let the boys play. Let them play. Josh and Pat, they like to flop. They're going to try to bait you. Please let the boys play for America because if you throw a flag, you're probably getting the flag wrong. Yeah. Let the boys play.

Hank, do you have any thoughts on this game? Are you going to bet this game?

It's going to depend on the result of the Eagles game. I'm going to bet the Bills, though, I guess, either way. But if the Eagles win, I'm in a head spot with the Chief. Probably just bet the over and just pray, pray, pray for the Bills. Pray for the Bills.

Yeah. One crazy thing to keep in mind for the-Pray for the bills. For the AFC, this is how dominant Mahomes and and and Peyton Manning and Ben Rathesberger have been. Only seven quarterbacks have started at quarterback for the AFC since 2001 in the Super Bowl. Only seven guys. And in the NFC, in that same time span, there have only been two repeat quarterbacks. It's crazy. So I think that's 22 quarterbacks versus seven. Yeah.

And Mahomes is... If he retired tomorrow, he's a Hall of Famer. Yeah. He should retire, you're saying.

It's funny because you're fighting a three-front war against the Chiefs as a Patriots fan. You're fighting a Where are you front more against the Chiefs? As a Patriots fan, you're fighting the Andy Reid, Belichick. You're fighting the Tom Brody, Patrick Mahomes, and you're fighting the Kelsey Gronk battle.

Kelsey Gronk.

Which one would you say that you're winning in right now?

We're winning in the Oh, there goes some dove. We're winning in all three, but we don't have time. We're done. They have time on their side. A loss in this game would be huge for all three fronts. I don't think the Gronk one. I think Gronk is the greatest of all time, no matter what.

The Bill's Mafia being in New Orleans would be quite something. I've already received word that if it happens, Ed and Alicia will be coming down with a truck, which will be incredible. I just think that she's mad at home.

Sister City saying.

Mahomes. I got to find the stat. Let me find the stat.

Yeah, that's right. It's snowing in New Orleans. That means that winter is coming. I'm going to find the Mahomes. There's There's no snow in Kansas City ever.

There is snow. Yeah, never. It's never snow. I think we have good weather for both, right?

It's going to be like 40 in Philly, I think. That's what the early report is. That's beautiful. Yeah.

That's beautiful. And then what about the- I They have it up 43 and cloudy in Philly.

The other game doesn't exist to me.

I'm the same way, Max. When I was prepping for this show, I was like, I need to focus. This is the biggest game of my life.

Okay, here it is. Same. Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is 15 and 2 straight up in home or neutral site games in January or February. The only loss is to Joe Burrow and Tom braided. In the playoffs, Patrick Mahomes is 7 and 0 straight up and against the spread when either listed as an underdog or a favorite of less than a field goal, covering the spread by 5. 9 points per game.

Josh deserves this.

Yeah, I know Chiefs fans are going to be mad because... Fuck Chiefs fans. Listen, you've had... Let Josh go to a Super Bowl.

Yeah, but Hank, you know how it is. If you're a fan of a dynasty, it becomes you against the world, and now you're defending the wall. That's what you're doing. That's the only thing that you can do. You're laughing at people that are blaming the refs. You're laughing at everybody in the media that says something bad about you or something that's perceived to be bad about you.

I also saw a stat from our friend Jay Cuda, who does the best stats, follow him on Twitter. I believe it was the Chiefs and the Bills have played 10 games over the last 10 years. Both have five wins, both have five losses, both have 251 points for, both have 251 points against. Unfortunately for the Bills, all their losses have come in the playoffs, pretty much. Keep beating them in the regular season, losing in the playoffs, but not tonight. Tonight, Friday night?

That's the miracle. Nine times out of 10, they beat us.

Okay. Last thing before we get to our interviews. Pft and Max, you guys are going to create parlays for the people for your game. Hank and I, Hank, would you like to collab with one, maybe a whiteboard parlay on Championship Sunday for the late game? I loved it. Two of us just getting together. Who could imagine? All right. So DraftKings with NFL teams playing to see who's the king of the grid iron. Get it on the playoff action and see who's the king of the end zone at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports spending part in the NFL playoffs. Draftkings has been the number one place to bet touch downs all season long, and the NFL playoffs aren't keeping them out of the end zone. They're going all in with $2 million in bonus bets up for grabs every game day during the NFL playoffs. Here's how it works. Place a $5 pregame bet on an offensive player to find the end zone. If they have the longest rushing or receiving TD that day, they're the king of the end zone, and you win a share of $2 million bonus bets. Draftkings Sportsbook is crowning a king of the end zone every NFL game day.

Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code take. That's code take to compete for a share of $2 million in bonus bets only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 Gambler. In New York, call 877-8-Hopen-Y or text Hope-and-Y-467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccfg. Org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One token per customer. Tokens expire at the start of the final of NFL game each day when offered. Use token on day's longest countdown scorer to receive equal share of 2 million in non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 168 hours. Additional wagering restrictions apply. For additional terms or responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook. Draftkings. Com/promos. Okay, what do you guys got?

Real quick, the Jaguars are hiring Liam Cohn.

Oh, so it was literally Trent Belkee.

Yep.

That's hilarious. So the beginning of the show made no sense. Yeah, so- Sorry, our bad.

Breaking moose. I guess they sent Liam Cohn back. Liam Cohn also agreed to a deal in principle with Bucks that would have made him the highest paid coordinator in the league.

Oh, this is great.

And then he left the box.

Memes is saying that this is incorrect.

The two sides are discussing the deal that would make Liam Cohen the next head coach of the Jaguars. I think we have a reporter off right now.

Oh, shit. We have a source off between Memes and Adam Schefter. No, no, no.

So I wrap Rappaport and Chepter.

Oh, I love it. What does Rappaport say?

The deal is not done with the Jaguars, but for Liam Cohen to be in the building in Jacksonville, speaking with the Jaguars about their head coaching job, days after agreeing to the extension, it's clear he's the favorite to be the next coach. And Schefter did Chepter is confirming that he's the next head coach. Oh, shit. Let's see. I got to call Steven Shay because he was puffing his chest out that Liam Cohen was staying. This would be awesome if we break the news to him Oh, my God. I hope we break the news to him. Who doesn't pick up their phone at five o'clock? Five o'clock. The beginning of the show makes no sense now. That's okay. We podcast by the seat of our pants. You're ready? Gosh. What? What are you going to say?

We don't know.

We don't know. It's a reporter off.

It's a reporter off.

If they get Liam Cohen, how much did he hate Trent Belky? A lot. Really smart by Liam Cohen to be like, I'm not going to do this job if you keep this guy here.

Fire that guy. We'll talk.

Okay, so that might be another spot that's no longer open. So it's now down to the Cowboys, Raiders, and Saints.

Yeah. I'm feeling like Mike McCarthy to the Saints. I do, too. That feels better by the day. Yeah.

Okay. Max, PFT, you guys got your parlays for us?

Who wants to go first?

Max, you can go first. I'll go first.

Don't let him do that to you, Max.

I'm going to go right off the rip.

Right off the rip.

Break the streak. Jalen hurts 175 plus passing yards. This is the game that he tells everyone to suck it.

Wait, but That means the commanders are going to lose.

I mean, the eagles are going to lose. I thought it was the eagles to win as well.

But if he goes for over 155 yards, they lose.

I don't care.

Okay.

I He doesn't care what you say.

He doesn't care what you say. All right.

Is your next bet that Jake Elliott won't miss an extra point? Fucking idiot.

Okay, so Jalen Hertz, 175 plus passing yards. Aj Brown to score a countdown. We've done it every week. He has to get in there once. Eagles to win, and my favorite play on the board, Jalen Carter, one plus sack.

Okay. You're doing just a streak break.

Jalen Carter, one plus sack?

No, not that. Just-filled off Eagles to win? No, AJ, TD.

I mean, I did two of the four.

Okay.

You're calling your shot. Keep that energy, Max. What's the payout?

Right now, it's nine to one, always subject to change.

Okay. I'm going back to Austin receiving yards. We had it last week. That bet hit. I like it even better this week. I think that they're going to use them a lot out of the backfield. 25 plus receiving yards. I've got Commanders over 23 and a half team points, and then I've got Olamide Zakeas, 25 plus receiving yards. People forgot about Zakeas because of the emergence of playoff Diami. We also have playoff Olamide, and this is also a revenge game for them. The Eagles didn't want them. Okay. Birds I didn't want them. 25 plus receiving yards.

I will not say the same of Jahaan Dotson.

Yeah, who won that trade? Remember when we had that? That was at Camp Barstool.

We'll see who wins this weekend.

Yeah.

All right. So yes, Sunday, we'll be streaming it. Gruden will be in the house. Nate will be in the house. I don't think Ron is going to be here. Although I did leave it open-ended saying, Don't tell us if you're coming. So he could just show up.

That's good. That way you're leaving yourself a little treat.

It's like leaving the tickets at front. Hopefully, you come to my concert.

Yeah, listen, I would love to watch the game with Ron, but he scares me. I love him, but I would rather him not be in that room.

Max?

I don't care. I don't care the elements.

Put on the overalls and win a football game.

Just win a football game.

Win a football game. Okay, let's kick it to ourselves with Fred Smoot and then Super Bowl champion Mitchell Schwartz, and we'll finish up with Firefest. Okay, before we get to Fred Smoot, a quick word from our friends at Kevin's Natural Foods. If you haven't tried Kevin's Natural Foods, you're missing out. I had the Thai-style coconut chicken the other night, and it was so good. They've got heat and serve entrees like Thai style coconut chicken, Korean barbecue, garlic chicken, salancher lime chicken. They also have stir fry kits, honey garlic chicken, General So Sejwan chicken. It is so, so good. If you want a delicious protein-packed meal on the table in five minutes, Kevin's Natural Foods' heat and serve entrees are perfect. These clean, nutritious meals taste like something you'd get in a restaurant. Kevin's entrees include cooked beef or chicken in incredible sauces, so all you need to do is heat and eat. It's hard to believe something that's tasty and healthy can be ready this fast, so skip the greasy takeout. Grab Kevin's Natural Foods instead. It's the perfect mealtime hack and is faster than takeout to find Kevin's in the refrigerated section at your local grocery store.

Also, my kids love Kevin's Natural Foods as well. If you're someone with kids and you're like, What do we do for dinner? What do we do for dinner? It's always a battle. Just heat these up and you're ready to go. Kevin's Natural Foods. Skip the greasy takeout and grab Kevin's Natural Foods instead. It's the perfect mealtime hack and is faster than takeout, too. Find Kevin's in the refrigerated section at your local grocery store. Okay, here he is, Fred Smoot. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest, and for the first time we can say co-worker. It is Fred Smoot. Now, I wanted to just address this off the top because I saw you have so many fans in the DMV area, and they were like, Don't steal Fred Smoot from us. Fred is joining Barstool on a part-time basis. He's going to be doing the pro football show next year with Coach Grunin and myself, and also come to the office mixing it up. He's still doing everything else, but it is great to call you a coworker because you're insanely talented, and it's fun to have you part of the pirate ship. But we wanted to have you on this week because the commanders are in the NFC Championship game, and I can't believe I'm saying that.

But let's start there. Are you shocked at all by this run and the fact that they're playing on Sunday to go to the Super Bowl?

Big Cat, I told you when I was visiting that this was biblical. This has already been written. Do you remember Daniel 5: 17, when he has to walk Did you see the lions then and have to conquer those lines. I told you we had something going here that was special. Dan Quinn and his leadership. And don't forget about the fact that we got a Jedi at quarterback, Jedi Five, the ultimate force multiplier. It's changed everything, but it ain't just them. It ain't just the coaches and the players. I got to give a lot of love to this new ownership. Josh Harris and those guys, they have changed everything. They have set a standard. There's a very high standard. And I think everybody is getting to see right now that America has had a new team. We are America's new team, the nation's capital, the Washington Commanders.

One thing I've loved watching about this team is that they're getting better. I don't know that we've seen their best yet, which is a crazy thing to think about. And certainly in the future, you would like to imagine that given the cap space and everything that we got going on, we're going to be able to improve the team as it keeps going. But that said, I don't like the people that are saying, Oh, the commanders will be a good team for the next 10 to 15 I've already heard that. I've heard people talking about that because we have a good quarterback. It's very, very hard to sustain excellence in the NFL. You got to take this opportunity. Don't take it for granted that we're going to be back next year, the year after. We're here right now. It's the Bengals. Yeah. You can say window is open, that's fine, but also recognize it's very hard to get to this point, and not every team that gets here is guaranteed to get back. But what I've seen, especially from this defense, is the defense gets better almost on a weekly basis. It's gotten better consistently throughout the year.

And what we saw last week with Joe Witt going up against Ben Johnson and Jared Goff and the lines offense, I was really impressed with. So the Eagles, different animal. But taking them on is going to be a different game plan from the Lions. What do you expect our defense to do to try to slow down? Because you can't stop them, but just try to slow down Saquon Barkley.

I'm going to be honest with you. I understand where everybody's coming from because We're at ground zero right now. When I say ground zero, this was our quarterback's first year. This was our Office Coordinator's first year. This was Dan Quinn's first year installing his culture. So what they're saying is it can only go up from here. All right, think about it. We got 80 million plus in cap room. All right, so that means we can go out here and sign an event. We got draft capital. We're only going to put better pieces around him. And the thing about it, I think this is what Jay has did a good job of. He's showing you how he going to play when we had to pay him 300, 400 million, and we can't buy all the receivables, we can't have all the tight ends. He's showing you, I am the ultimate force multiplier. I'm going to make everybody around me better no matter what, so I can understand why a lot of people are so excited. But when we talk about Philadelphia, the only thing I can say is different when it comes to them in Detroit.

I think Detroit, especially the way that Jalen Hertz is throwing the ball right now, the Detroit Lions had another level to their offense because not only can they run the ball with that great offensive line, they could push the ball down the field with J-Moe and Saint Brown. When I look at Philadelphia, even though they got A. J. Brown and DeBunte Smith, something's going on with Jalen Hurts where he's not pushing the ball down the field. Then he gets another anchor injury this week. So I'm wondering how they're going to use him. Is it one of those things where we need to crowd the box and stop, say, Coyne Barkley and force Jalen Hurst to beat us? I'm very eager to see what Coach It does when it comes to that figure in that situation out, because you said it, our defensive backs play well last week. Seren still making two intercepts. We got guys taking balls to the house. It's a different defense, and I knew it was going to be a different defense from week one to what? Week 18, 19, 20 right now? They have gelled together. They have grown.

Yeah. All right. Another thing, though, that we should mention is the Eagles defense is a lot better than the Lions defense, and the Eagles defense is a lot better than the Bucs defense. You lose Cosme, and Jalen Carter is playing his balls off right now. Are you worried at all about the fact that the Eagles defense, they have guys at every level. I know Nekobi Dean's out, which is a big injury, but their cornerbacks are elite, their defensive line's elite. This feels like the step-up game for Jaden Daniels, especially with the stakes, and he's playing against a defense that is, I think we all agree, better than the previous two defenses he Hand down one of the best defenses in football.

You're right. They got Jalen Doomsday Carter at the defensive line. They got Sweat coming off the edge. They got linebackers. They got defensive big backs. But I don't know how healthy Quinian Mitchell is, one of the best rookie cornerbacks to come out in a long time. They do have their team. But don't forget, guys, we played this team twice. Last time, James Daniels played this team. He threw for five touchdiles against this vulture defense of backfield when they was fully healthy. And then you go to the first game. I always tell people, everybody's talking about the game that we won. I'm more impressed with the game that we lost because that game was in Philadelphia, and we turned the ball over a ton, and still was at the end of that game. So when we're playing against the end division of four and you're playing them for the third time, everything comes together at that point. It's like finding your little brother or your big brother. I know all of your moves. Now it's all about who can withstand it, who can play four quarters, and who's not going to make mistakes. And my quarterback doesn't He turned the ball over.

Jalen Hertz turns the ball over. He's the key to this game. Jalen Hertz is the key to this game.

Yeah, I would agree with that. I am scared of Saquon Barkley, though, because it seems like every- I couldn't see you last night because of Saquon Barkley.

A nightmare.

Yeah, he is keeping me up at night. Like, literally, last night, I was up until 2: 00 AM watching film of Saquon Barkley just being scared of him. So I don't think you can stop.

Let me give you a fact right quick. He has those four long runs against us. You take those four long runs out and he's averaging 3. 2 yards of carry against us. So we found a way to bother him up. That first game, he broke those runs in the fourth quarter. Joe Witt has found a way to bother him up. But can we consistently do it and not let him come with the back-breaking run that he's done week in and week out? The guy is special.

Yeah, I was just going to say, I think the key to limiting Saquon is to make sure that when he It does break one because he's going to break a few off. Yeah, he is. Just don't let him score. If you give up 30 yards to him, have your safety, make a big tackle, have your cornerbacks ready to hit. Because there's always going to be gaps that offensive line is going to create. I'm looking at Franky Louvou this weekend. I think it's a big weekend for Franky Louvou because he's violent as fuck. And if you want to stop the Eagles's offensive line from opening up big holes, especially when they get moving side to side, you just knock the fuck out of their guard. You knock somebody back a little bit, disrupt the timing of the office. And I think that Frankie Louver is the psycho that is going to be ready to do that.

Well, he's a penetrator. He's organized chaos in a bottle. He's the Tasmanian devil. He's everything that you want at the linebacker position. Yes, he can make plays, but we need to D-line to play on the other side of the ball because they get behind that mammoth offensive line, and they let Saquon pick his holes. So they're running a zone scheme. That's why you see him bouncing from hole to hole. And once he finds that crack, that's when he hit him. So it ain't going to be one of them things where it's just Frankie Lou. Frankie Lou is going to have to bring some of his homeboys to the party. It's going to take a group to stop Saquon Barkley. So it's one of the things where it's going to have to be Bobo Wagner to the boat, Cora Martin to it. And Jeremy Chin has been an enforcer. I don't know if people have been watching Jeremy Chin, but Jeremy Chin has been playing light side in the strong safety position. It's going to take a group. It's going to take a family to stop Saquon Barkley. Luckily, I think we got the guys with Payne, Allen, rest of those guys, I think we got the guys to make this happen.

Okay, so we're making the case for the commanders. Obviously, you're picking the commanders, Fred. Pft, obviously is as well. Max, our producer is a Big Eagles fan. Max, do you have any counter to this? Because it is one-sided right now to the idea that the commanders... I'm probably going to pick the commanders against the spread, but Max, what do you say? I mean, Fred's right here. Face him head-on.

Yeah, no, I think the defense you are greatly overestimating how much better this defense has been than the past couple of defenses you've been playing. Jaden Daniels hasn't looked as good as he has in the past couple... As he has the past couple weeks against elite defenses, and the Eagles are an elite defense. Yes, Jaden Daniels is very good, but this is a different animal. I understand that Detroit was a tough place to go into and win, but that team you were playing is a third- string defense. This isn't the same team.

You know what? I You know the fact that you got your version and I got the truth. Now, let me give you a couple of facts when it comes to the truth. You've already beaten you all. We let you off the hook when we was in Philadelphia. Let's be honest, when we played in Detroit, we can go position for position, comparing our officers, and they got better players than us at every position besides one. That's quarterback. My quarterback is better than yours. That's what I told them to give Jay a go. Well, guess what I'm going to say against the Philadelphia Eagle? My quarterback is better than yours. So at the end of the day, the in the back position. Sometimes we find that. And don't forget, I know you like to forget. You say you had been praying so well. We threw five touch downs against you when we beat you on the walk off. Touchdown the last time we played. So this is all I'm going to say. One of them always told me the truth hurt just a little bit more than a lie. But if you want me to lie to you, I'll make it sound fly to you.

All right. There's another fact that if you want to talk about facts, you said that the Eagles had a completely healthy secondary, but C. J. G. G. Johnson got kicked out of that game for talking shit.

Was he healthy?

He got everything he deserved.

Coming from you. Talking shit. Everyone should get kicked out of the game for talking a little shit. It happens when you go across the line.

The one thing about it is our team doesn't hurt itself in that type of way. Our team plays with discipline. It's a difference between a dead queen coach team and a Seriani coach team because- Your guy punched him in the face. No, the one thing is you all got guys on the sideline reading the Bible.

We don't do that over here.

We don't know that he lost.

We'll see, Jalen Carter. It's going to be a tough day with a backup going against Jalen Carter.

Well, actually, it's not a backup. We got Taylor B. Otish at the center, and I don't know if we can introduce you to him because he dominated everybody from Dexter Lawrence and anybody else he's right. We're going to be fine. Next man up mentality. At this point of the year, everybody got people hurt. Philadelphia got people hurt. Will you tell us, how hurt is your quarterback, the one that you got the fat hand of right behind you? How hurt is he?

He's not... I mean, we'll see. He didn't look great at the end of last week, but a lot can change in a week.

Yeah.

In the last time we played, you all right? He was out for two weeks after we ran into him a couple of times, Mr. Frankie Louver.

Yeah, helmet to helmet. We don't condone helmet to helmet.

Player safety is paramount. All right, so, Fred, I got a question for you about the mentality here because I do think this is the interesting aspect of the game. It's not saying that windows open or anything, but the commanders are underdogs. It does feel like there's a lot of pressure on the Eagles because this team is... Their defense is young, but they got some older dudes on the offensive line. You don't know how many times you'll be back here. Do you think that that is real, that the commanders can play a little more free and that underdog role of like, Hey, no one's expecting us to be here. We don't have the same pressure. We can play a little more free. We can play a little more like that underdog role. Is that real thing that happens in the locker room?

I just think we're in an unexpected wonder. I don't think we want to call ourselves underdogs. That ain't what Coach Quinn teaches. He said they weren't a couple of times. That ain't what we do. We're here because we're supposed to be here. We're a team of destiny. It's a different. Like everything's good. Sometimes it takes the football guys for things to follow you all the way. You all remember the open hand with Tom, Bradley, and child? You all remember Pat Mahomes numerous times? Things happen in this game. And the one thing we're not is saying we're not supposed to be here. We're playing with house money. No, we're not playing with house money. We're a team of destiny. The only thing is in our way is a city with a broken belt in there and a statue of a man that don't exist in Rocky. So at the end of the day, we're going to Philadelphia, and we're not going there to eat Chibi Steaks. We're going there to get a victory. We're four quarters away from a Super Bowl. Nobody would have gave us a chance to say that at the beginning of the year.

And the team that's in front of us that's trying to stop us is a team that we already beat one time, and we to the brink at home. We're not afraid of the Philadelphia East. I can't wait because I really do. I'm loving this. Everybody said all year long, the NFC North was the best conference in football. Psych is the NFC East.

I did it with the Psych. This is actually unfair what we're doing to Max right now because bringing in Fred Smoot as a mouthpiece for the commanders is the most tilted you can get in an argument.

He's also just not saying that Kenny Picket was the quarterback in the game that he wanted. That hasn't been mentioned once.

Well, he wasn't talking about doing anything against the office. He was talking about five touchstones.

I mean, that is a big piece of the game.

Look, he was your back-up quarterback, just like when Marcus Mariota comes in the game for us, all he do is ball. Because guess what? We took time and we picked the right guy. You all pick Kenny Picket. He's nothing like you started. Your whole office changed when he come in the game. So I can't blame the fan base, but I can't blame the front office.

But you agree, PFT. You can't argue with Fred Smoot.

No, it's impossible.

You're going to lose. You're going to win by three times.

Because you could say something, you could make a great point against him, and then he's going to come back and make a louder point that rimes. Yeah. And then you're like, Fuck.

I can't compete with the rhyme. I can't compete with the rhyme.

Fred, I think I love the vibes. I'm a little bit... I'm backing off saying Team of Destiny just yet because I respect the Philadelphia Angels.

One stop you from saying that because Because I don't think we're playing with house money because I think house money means we looked up and got here. We beat legit playoff teams. We went to Tampa and beat them on the road. We went to Detroit and beat them on the road. We have beat playoff teams all year long. We beat Philadelphia. We have beat playoff team. We have been bro to bro with Giants. We have back down from Mode 1. Like I said, long as we enter a game and my quarterback is the best quarterback on the field, we feel like we can win the game. We walk in Philadelphia this week. We don't feel like our quarterback is better than yours.

I'm with you. I'm with that. I love the mentality. I just don't think saying Team of Destiny is a good... Because you got to go out there and you got to earn it. If you go into it thinking Team of Destiny, then it's like, Oh, we're going to win because we're the team of Destiny.

That's quiet self-confidence. They're saying that we're not playing with house money. When you say you're playing with house money, we smoking to the braille, that's a hint of we're not supposed to be here.

No, no, no. When I say house money, I think the commanders are very good. I think Jaden Daniels is the best quarterback in this game. I'm saying more like this season, going into it, you never expect to be in the NFC Championship game. You can play loose, you can play fast, you can play this feeling of, Hey, what we've been doing, we're on this incredible run. Let's just keep being ourselves and play the way we want to play. Hopefully, the other side gets a little tight here and there because their offense hasn't looked as crisp as as the commanders have. It's not a diss. House Money is a great thing to have because you're just sitting there like, Hey, we're going to go out and be ourselves. And I do think, I said this maybe, I think it was after the Falcons game. It's like, there's something about Jaden Daniels that he makes everyone better on that team. And when he has the ball late, you just expect him to do something and you have that faith in him that I think elevates an entire team.

Big hit. Let me ask you this, Big Hit. All right, let's just say the game is 25-25. We got the ball last with two minutes left. Who we going to game?

Yeah, you guys. I said it in the Bucks game. I turned to, I think it was Hank, I was sitting next to when the Bucks kicked the field goal. I turned to him and I said, Bucks aren't getting the ball back. They just not getting the ball back. There's four minutes left. I was like, They're not getting the ball back. Jaden Daniels is going to figure this out. And that fourth down, you guys have been running so hot on fourth down, which obviously, what is it?

20 of 23? We got a best fourth down team of all time, said, which Can't this be kid?

No, it's insane. Now, are they going to be 20 of 23 percentage-wise for the rest of his career? Probably not. But it doesn't matter because they're 20 of 23 right now, and that's how they're running. I love that Dan Quinn is staying aggressive. That Marcus Mariotta fourth down to start the Lions game was bad. He didn't blink. He was like, No, this is what we're doing. It's almost like the commanders have gotten into the push, the push-push territory where if they can get into If you look at the statistics and you compare it to...

I heard you say this, Smoot. You compare it to 2022 when the touch push was unstable, the commander's fourth down has been better than the touch push.

Yeah, and it's that point where it's like, if they can get... All they have to do, it changes the whole approach offensively because they basically are saying, Get us to fourth and three. If you get us to fourth and three, we'll convert it.

Actually, we've been more dangerous because we've been doing it on fourth and seven, fourth and eight. The thing about it is the four best Yes, fourth down teams are the four teams that's left in the playoff right now. The just pushing Philadelphia, Josh Allen in Buffalo, and of course, the God's gift, the Prince that was promised, Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City, they all four are ranked one, two, three, and four, and fourth down. I think that has a lot to do with who makes it to the Super Bowl because of that, because you're talking about four teams that don't turn the ball over much. You're talking about four teams that can run the ball not with just their runningbacks, but they They're legit running with their quarterbacks. You're talking about four teams that's optimistic on defense and play great special teams. So this is going to come down to the end. Both games going to come down to the end. And if Jedi 5 gets their ball last, made a four be with you.

I love that. I love that. Do you have any thoughts on the AFC Championship game? Do you have a pick?

I think it's going to be another classic, man. Think about an end game with Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen, hand-line this game. This game can go either way. And for the first time in a long time, somebody's going to go to Kansas City that's not afraid of the cold, because Buffalo is not afraid of the cold. One thing we know about Buffalo is James Cook get to running that ball down here, and they get to possessing that ball and make it Pat Mahone, watch that game. We could have that all rematch up. I don't know if there was Super Bowl 23 or 24, but you remember Washington and Buffalo played a Super Bowl that we ended up beating them in. I don't know. Maybe we get another replay of that.

If we're lucky enough to make it to the Super Bowl, I think me and you should host a love boat party on Lake Pontchartrain. What do you think?

Yes, we should. Yes, we should.

Get a boat out there, get some ladies, get some liquor out there.

We'll have a good time. Nobody will tell us for pissing.

We need to go there and brave in Bourbon Street. That's what we need to do. We need to go and take on New Orleans like never before. You're talking about a fan base that hasn't had this chance in three decades, almost four decades. You all have awakened a sleeping giant. We got fans from Australia to Canada to China. We got so many fans when it comes to it. They have nothing to cheer for for over three decades. And now we are back as America's new team, this is the new Monaco.

All right. I'm going to look at boats if we win this game. I'm not going to look at boats until after the final whistle on Sunday.

Make sure it's a yacht.

Yeah, we'll get a yacht.

It's got to be a yacht. Or maybe a fan boat. Maybe get strippers a fan boat out there.

It'll be fun. Don't come out there in a tug, boat.

You get no love. All right, well, Fred, I have one last question for you. It's the rowback question. Robackk. Com, promo code take, 20% off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowbackk track. Com promo code take. Give us a final score.

Final score, I think it's going to be a Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em, Bring Yo' Riddale, little Snop Bubble football game. It's going to be physical old NFC East. I wish we had Man College in this game. I think it's going to be a 30-27 game. It's going to come down to the wire. It's going to come down to the lid of a kick. I call them Big Game, Gonzales. So hopefully, he can close it for us. 30-27, Washington going to New Orleans. I think we will outlance Philadelphia in Philadelphia, and I cannot wait to go to King Street and get me a Philly cheesecake on my way back home to the DMV.

I love it from your lips to God's ears, Fred. Yes, please.

We We need it. We need it.

This is a good fair and balanced preview of Commander's Angels. I was going to say, we just invited Fred on to just fucking bash Max over the head.

That's what Philadelphia is usually doing to us. And it has got to a point where Philadelphia fan base is so hostile that our fans are afraid to just travel up 95 and go to a game. But we acted this because everybody got a cousin nephew, brother, somebody with a teardrop on their eye that don't believe in following the rules. So we're going to get all them in the car and we're heading to Philadelphia to fight back this week.

Oh, man. I love it, Fred. I hope you're right. I hope you're right. I love the confidence. I wish I could be as confident as you. I'm nervous.

Because what I'm hearing, Philadelphia is still a little worried. What scared you? That there ain't a Super Bowl wonder, and we're not. That makes you afraid?

No. No, I respect the hell out of their defense. And Jalen Carter is a guy that will wreck a game, and you can't really stop him for the full 60 minutes. Then Saquon Barkley might be the best offensive player in the NFL. There's a lot to be concerned about, but that's You remember Sexy Dexy Lawrence from the New York Giants who dominated everybody this year?

He didn't dominate us. Viottis shut him down. Do you remember Villa Vea, one of the best defensive tackers in football? Viades made him come up missing, still putting him on a mail card. But you remember all the D-chapters that we faced all year? And Jane, he's included in that, him and Gordon Davis. We've been there, we've done that. The only people we're afraid of is Jesus. If you're pulling him out, we ain't afraid.

All right, well, Fred, I think the commander- And Big Dom. The commander should be 14-point favorites if you're listening to this.

I respect Big Dom, so he scares me, too. But I love it. I'm confident. I think we've got a real chance at winning And if we play our game and if we operate fast and no huddle, tire the defense out, I could see it happening. I hope you're right. I hope you're right.

Why not us? That's all I'm going to tell you. Why not us?

Oh, man. All right, well, Fred, thanks so much, man. And hopefully, we see you in New Orleans because that would be great. Most definitely.

We got a couple of weeks, fellow, but we know after this weekend, are we back in? I'll be back in the Super Bowl window. Coach Gilles talked about it this week. And you know when the Joseph talks, we listen Der green. Been talking about it. So come on, man, the football guys are landing for Washington right now. Right now between the football team in Washington, the baseball team in Washington, the Capitals are number one. This is Washington district of Champions. All right, and if you all I'm going to come and jump on the bandwagon, you're welcome to.

All right. Thank you so much, Fred. We appreciate it. And congrats on joining the pirate ship. We love having you as a coworker.

Yeah, very happy.

I can't wait to work with you all, guys.

We're going to have some fun.

Fred Smoot was brought to you by our great friends at Kevin's Natural Foods. They've got great entrees, super easy to heat up. Kevin's Natural Foods are a perfect alternative to take out. It's just as tasty, but it's faster and it's healthier. I had the Sichuan chicken the other night. It is so good. I'm telling you, the chicken that you have from Kevin's Natural Foods, it tastes like restaurant chicken. They cook it sous vide, and then you heat it up, and it tastes like perfect chicken. It was unreal. The best fast meal that I've ever had. Kevin's heat and eat entrees and stir fried kits. They're packed with protein. They're ready in under 10 minutes. They've got General So's chicken, honey garlic chicken, garlic chicken, Korean barbecue. The Thai style coconut chicken is absolutely delicious. They have paleo and keto certified options, so there's something for any lifestyle. If you're big on taste, big on convenience, Kevin's is a no-brainer. Find Kevin's natural foods in the refrigerated section at your local grocery store. Mitchell Schwartz is going to be brought to you by our great friends at Mountain Dew. You can add a blast of refreshing tropical lime flavor to your game day with Mountain Dew Baha Blast, one of the goat sodas.

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Okay, we now welcome on a recurring guest. It's been a while, but we thought he'd be a perfect guest to come on before Championship Sunday. It is Super Bowl champion, four-time All-Pro Mitchell Schwartz from the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns. We got to throw out the Browns there, too. Mitch, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. I want to do the hardest question first, if that's okay. I want to do the real hard question first, then we can do easier questions about the game after. The hard question is, when you were playing for the Chiefs, winning a Super Bowl, how did it work with the refs telling you they were going to throw the game for you? Was that during the week or was it just on Sunday morning where they would come in the locker room and be like, Hey, guys, don't worry, we got your back?

Yeah, it was Sunday before the game. They didn't want us to mess with our preparation. Then I was really thankful for that because my career ended with a second back surgery. I just got to thank the reps for causing me all that pain that ended up requiring another surgery because I'm so thankful to have back pain for the rest of my life.

Yeah, I figured it'd be during the game, in WW, when they whisper something into each other's ears, the rep is going to be like, I'm going to call hands to the face, act like you hit you in the face. And then you just go out there and do that. You did a great job, you're a great actor. Yeah.

Thank you. That's honestly my thing. If people actually think that that's realistic and that's what's happening, then treat it like wrestling. Then it's fake and treat it like wrestling and stop complaining about it. You don't care or treat it like wrestling. It's one of the two.

What's your take on all of this because obviously the Texans game... Now, we had the take after the Texans game that, listen, I don't think the Texans, those weren't the two plays that made them lose the game. They were bad in special teams. They didn't get a couple of big, fourth-down conversions. The Chiefs convert on the big plays and take advantage of big plays time and time again in the play-off. But what do you say to people who are conspiracy theorists and being like, the Chiefs get all the calls, and this is bullshit?

There's only so much you can say. I think the first call was legitimate. I mean, there's that camera angle from the side that for every reason, they didn't show Buck and Akemen when Akemen was complaining about it. They only showed the one from behind that looks like he doesn't get hit in the face. But there's one from the side that you can argue that Homan is touching Pat's face mask But there's, in general, that forcible contact to the head and neck area. His head snaps back. And it's defined in the rulebook, if you're unsure, throw the flag because we want to protect the quarterback. So that one sucks if you're a Texans fan or you're reading against the Chiefs, but I think the reps were correct on that. The second one I disagree with. I think that it was a late slide and the guys were already committed. It wasn't the Trevor Lawrence slide that I felt like Al Shair had plenty of time to pull up. I felt like Pat slid late, and there probably should have been a penalty, or there shouldn't have been a penalty. So yeah, I mean, one out of two.

And I've seen people say, obviously, I've got a lot of Chiefs fans in the follows in the timeline. If that penalty doesn't get called, it's second and six. It's not like that was the end of the drive. It's not like that was a turnover type of play. It ends up being second and six in a game that, to your point, Kansas City largely controlled, especially defensively. So I understand why people get frustrated when there's ticky-tack calls, but I think it's just a volume thing. The Chiefs have been on TV in primetime the most of any team the last seven years, and people like to root against you when you're having success. Of course, there are going to be plenty of calls. We see them in every game, every single week. The reps are not as good as we want them to be. It's just we see a lot more high leverage calls with the Chiefs playing.

The volume thing is something that I don't think I ever brought up, but that's a really good point. They are on TV the most, and they're in these big games. They played the most playoff games in the last six or seven years, so you're just going to see it. Whenever it happens for the Chiefs, everyone's like, Well, it's a conspiracy, Terry.

Right. I'll give you a little bit of amumetition that you can use, and Chiefs fans can use this, too, this weekend. The referee assignments for this weekend. Cleep Lakeman is the head ref. The Kansas City Chiefs are nine and seven with Kleep Lakeman as the ref since Patrick Mahomes was the starter for the Chiefs. That sounds like not a bad record, nine and seven, until you realize that the Chiefs in that same time period are 90 and 26. If you just If you look at that, Kleep Lakeman is the most effective person in the NFL at stopping Patrick Mahomes at 9: 00 and 7: 00.

Yeah, it was the thing with, I think it was the Texans game. They're like, Oh, the Chiefs are 4: 00 or whatever. They've never lost with the ref. It's like, yeah, when you're 80 % over the guy's career and there's 20 reps. There's going to be a few reps that have never called a game that the Chiefs lose. That's just the percentages. But I don't think anyone who's still talking about the reps and talking about it in a meaningful way wants to hear both sides. They're just stuck in with their side. They want to complain about it. They want to be online. So it's not even fun to try to actually use stats. There's a lot of people out there who are compiling different things. Every single data point shows that this isn't a real thing, but people just don't want to hear it. And That's okay. You don't have to.

It's people who are blowing off steam, and they're angry because the Chiefs are really good, and there's a lot of fan bases that have been personally affected by the Chiefs that don't want the Chiefs to win anymore. Sometimes it's easier to just complain, just bitch and moan about it. It's the American way. Yeah.

They have a right. They have a right to do that. All right, so in terms of this game and the Chiefs this season, you know the game at such a high level. You watch the Chiefs, you know what that locker room is like, Andy Reid. Are we in the mindset that the Chiefs have a switch that they're able to flip for the playoffs and their offense is able to hit a different level? Or is it, Hey, maybe this offense is not going to look great for this payoff run, but it doesn't matter because Patrick Mahomes will get you the big third downs, and he'll find Travis Kelsi, and it will work, and all that matters is winning games?

Yeah, I don't think it's a switch that gets flipped. I think there is a human element to it that it is really hard to play a lot of football games to be the best team and every year have every team treat your game like it's the biggest one on the calendar. In week two or three, whatever it was, when Kansas City went to Atlanta, there was some saying that this was Atlanta's biggest game since 2017. It's like, okay, well, this is just another another Sunday night football game for Kansas City. That's a huge difference when one team is treating it as the biggest game in the last eight years of their franchise, and for the other team, it's just another ho-hum game. As much as we want to discredit that human element, that's part of it. It is hard to match the other team's energy level every single week throughout the course of a season, let alone over the last five years. I think it's been really interesting that in the media, the players that have come to the Chief's defense the most have been the Patriots guys because they are the only ones that have been through something similar to this.

Obviously, they had a 20-year run, but they understand how difficult that is to be the team that gets hunted year after year after year. It seems like they have a lot of respect for what Kansas City has done and still putting out the records they do, winning the Super Bowl. I think once you get to the playoffs, you're able to, from the Kansas City perspective, that sense of urgency. It's cliché and sounds dorky, but this game could be your last. The sense of urgency is upped. Obviously, these guys have shown that they have an ability to raise their games in the biggest moments. So it's not like, Oh, on first and second down, we'll just do whatever and Pat will make us right. Somehow, he does make most things right on third down. I still don't know exactly how that's the case other than he does it, and he's done it since he started playing for Kansas City. But no, it's a combination. Really, that's the biggest thing I learned last year. After the Raiders game on Christmas, I was like, Okay, Chief's going to make the playoffs. It's going to be really hard to win four straight games against good teams and win the Super Bowl.

And then they won four straight games against really good teams including going to Baltimore, who is a consensus best team, top five offense, top five defense, top five special teams, and that one pretty convincingly and then had a good Super Bowl. We now have evidence and proof that Kansas City can elevate in the playoffs, but I don't think that means that they're not trying as hard necessarily in the regular season. It's just an element of how important the playoffs are.

Yeah, and it does feel like it comes... It doesn't feel like the whole team flips the switch, but it does feel like that is the case for Kelsey in terms of he's later in career. And that stat that we talked about on this show, but everyone's been talking about the 14 straight playoff games where he has 70 yards or more. What is it about Kelsey and how he's able to operate? Is it really like sometimes in the huddle, he's like, I'm just going to be open, find me? Because it does feel like that, where it's like he's not even running a route that's predetermined. He's just finding open space, and whenever they need a big play, he's there.

Yeah, he doesn't have to say that. It's just understood that whatever the lines are on the paper, And Travis is going to use that as his jumping off point, and then he's just going to feel his way through there and figure out exactly where he needs to be to get open. I think, again, he's 35. It's hard to play tight in in the NFL. I mean, again, this gets into the grand comparison, but Bronx has been retired twice now, and Travis is still kicking. It's hard to be an elite tight-end into your mid-30s, late-30s. There is that element of doing what you need to do and not necessarily more in the regular season, understanding that you need to play your best football in January February. The help of the schedule in terms of getting the one seating the buy and being able to rest in week 17, we saw that last year. The start of the season, Travis injured week one, and I feel like never really got fully healthy until that week 17, or I guess week 18 now, he got the week off that he chose not to chase the 1,000-yard record. This year, the guy's got 24 days.

Travis obviously looks a little more spry, a little bit more juice in those legs at 35. There's something to understanding what's needed when your best is needed. Also, I think people understand how important Travis is to the team, but the emotional leadership that he provides on the offense, as he goes, the team goes. Again, getting back to what I said earlier, it's hard to be that emotional leader every single game all the time be hyped at all times and do it at the age that he is. It does make sense that it's easier to conjure that magic for all 60 minutes in the playoffs.

There's another guy that always shows up in big moments, and that's Chris Jones. It seems like every big third down, he's making a play. I'm curious to know from your perspective as an offensive lineman, and you can get as detailed and nitty-gritty as you want, what is it about Chris Jones that makes him such a pain in the ass for offensive lineman to deal with?

Yeah, he's been showing up in big moments since the Ryan.

He showed clashes.

The thing with Chris is he's so naturally strong. When you're watching a film or one of the scouting reports, the reason he wasn't a clear first rounder, well, he plays high and he's got to get his pad level down. Turns out you don't have to get your pad level down. You're not level down, you're stronger than the guy across from you. What Chris combines is a great natural strength with really skilled hands and the ability to basically make the offense alignment wrong. If he beats you with power and that bull rush and that strength, your tendency as an offensive linemen, you want to get your hands on the guy, you want to try to lock him up early, you want to shut down the rush before it gets started. Well, the second you throw your hands at Chris, he swipes them. He beats you on the corner. You do get your hands on him. We call it a Hamilton technique, but basically he grabs your wrist, lifts it up, and converts into power, and and walks you back to the quarterback. So he has the ability to make you wrong however you want to block him.

If you want to be handsy and be jumpy and try to get on him before you get started, you're going to get swum and you're going to get beat with those Hamilton techniques. And if you want to play Patty Cake and back up and shake with him, he'll just run right through you and get to the quarterback either way. It puts the offense alignment in a really tough bind. You're not quite sure what technique to use because typically, there's one thing I can try to take away, and if the guy beats me on a second or third best move, I can deal with that. But Chris's two best moves counter the two things you want to do as an offense alignment. He really makes life difficult. Unless you've played him, unless you understand how to block him, I think you have to do that in real time. And obviously, that's a pretty difficult task.

You always see the offensive lineman doing that sad little turn after their hands get hit to the side and he's by you, and you know that he's by you. They do the sad turn where they take one step like they're going to try to catch him and block him again, but he's like halfway to the quarterback, and they just have to, I guess, run a couple of steps so they can help their guy up after he gets sacked.

Well, usually guys get beat so bad, they get so discouraged that you don't even think to go get the quarterback. You're just like, Oh, man, and you drop your head. There's some times where guys criticize offensive lineman for not picking up the quarterback. It's like you are so disheartened that it happened that you don't even remember to go get the quarterback. You just know that inner shame is so strong that you almost forget to go get him. So yeah, it is a sad little thing. Obviously, whenever one of us gets beat, they like to draw the circles and make sure everyone knows exactly who you are and how you got beat. So it's not so much fun.

The other sad thing is when they call illegal man downfield on an RPO. And what are you supposed to do as an offensive lineman in that situation? Is that your fault? Do the coaches end up chewing you out because you got the flag afterwards?

It depends on the timing. I know you love good questions. That's a good question. It depends on how good your coaches are. It depends on how locked in you are as a lineman. But you know if it's an RPO and you have You have to change your angles and you have to change your timing to not be downfield. If the quarterback is getting rid of it within the acceptable window of RPO, you're reading somebody, okay, the read tells me to throw it. I'm going to pull it and throw it. The offensive lineman should not be downfield. If the offensive lineman runs up to the linebacker immediately or if he's using his correct technique, staying at the line and then goes past the line of scrimmage and still gets the flag, then you know it's probably on the quarterback. It can be the offensive lineman's fault for sure. There's also times where you realize that you're a little bit too downfield, you realize it's not a run play, and you try to turn around and backtrack. Sometimes you do the old dumb truck technique, you just start backing up. Sometimes you turn and try to get a couple steps in and get closer to the line.

There are some tricks as well if you do realize your downfield.

I feel like people have gotten smarter about offensive line play through the years, and especially to the point where I think it's now common knowledge amongst football fans that Sacks are not always on the offensive line. There's times when the quarterback is holding on to the ball too long or he steps to a place where he shouldn't step to and he's not stepping up, and there's a pocket there. When you were playing, would quarterbacks ever say to you like, Hey, that was my bad. That wasn't on you Even though technically, if they replay it, it's like you got beat to a position, but the quarterback had a spot where he could have gone. He just didn't go there.

Yeah, absolutely. It's usually not necessarily during the game. You're just in the flow of the game. It's not like He's like, God, you suck. You need to give me more protection. You don't play for that guy either. It just snacks happen and you move on and you try to make the best of it. But after games or the next day while you're watching film, quarterbacks definitely will come up to you and say, Hey, I screwed you guys there. It's typically not holding onto the ball per se. I think that's more of an understood thing. At times, they'll come in and say, Hey, I'm going to get rid of it a little sooner. You guys are doing a good job. But it's more that depth of the pocket or where he's supposed to be. Sometimes guys can get a little deep. Sometimes they like to bounce around too much when they feel things. It's a good notice from you, Chicago fan, and the quarterback situation. I'm sure you've got your spreadsheet of how many of those sacks are on the O-line versus the quarterback.

Yeah, people have pointed that out. Was it hard to adjust to blocking for Mahomes? Because he does float sometimes, but he does it so effectively. When Mahomes is floating, it never feels like he's floating in a panic move or he He's not in control. It's just he has that spatial awareness that only the elite guys seem to have.

No, he makes it easy for us. I think that blocking for a guy, especially as the right tackle with a right-handed quarterback that can flush to your side. If my guy goes too far up the field runs that loop too high, that opens up Pat's throwing side. We've seen defensive coordinators now try to use that to their advantage, and then you have the spy popping over the top. Probably see that a little bit with Milano or Terrell Bernard, one of those guys chasing him down. But It fits to my advantage because in that defensive end, it doesn't feel like he gets to rush the way he wants to. He has to have that contained in the back of his head. I think we were playing Denver, and my guy didn't allow Pat to stay in the pocket. Pat got outside, and I just heard the coach scream me at him, You got to keep contained. I'm like, Okay, so this definitely does benefit me. But there are some interesting stats. If you really want to get into the niggerity, you can look at quarterbacks, look at offensive tackles, and look at how often guys see inside moves.

Some of those sites now that break things down. You'll see against mobile quarterbacks, offensive tackles are likely not getting as many inside moves because, again, if the offensive tackle blocks it correctly, they flatten it off. You've now opened up the outside area to where the quarterback can scramble, where he can make plays happen on the move. Yeah, it's always beneficial to block for a quarterback that's running in my mind. It's not beneficial when they take a long time in the pocket to realize that they should break a container, that they should run. That's definitely the hard part. Yeah.

For this specific game, how are you feeling about the Chief's offensive line? Because they They haven't had the best season. There's been some ups and downs. They move Tooney out to tackle, which he's done a good job there. You could make the argument it's probably hurt their run game a little bit, but maybe protects Pat more. But how do you feel overall in terms of how they're coming together because we've seen it. The only time Patrick Mahomes has really had a horrific, I guess, the Bengals game in the AFC Championship game, but the Super Bowl against the Bucks when he was just under fire the whole time, no one can win in that situation. But how How are you feeling about this particular matchup against the Bills?

It's going to be tough. The Bills run defense-wise played so well in the first half against Baltimore. I think we all expected Baltimore to run the ball and be effective, but the Bills run defense showed up. Von Miller It seems to be, we talked about Kelsey earlier, turning on the playoff. Von's turning it on, Ed Oliver's turning it on. Rousseau has been an ascending player for a while. So they've got all the pieces there. I think maybe a benefit to Kansas City's O-line, I felt like they didn't play their best game against the Texans in in large part because the Texans are so good. But when you're watching the film back and you're looking at certain things, it wasn't maybe the performance from the start that the offensive line wanted. I thought they had played well in that three-game in 10 or 11-day stretch, regressed a little bit against Houston. So that feeling of, Hey, we need to do better. We need to show our guy that we're in control and we can kick ass and do what we need to do to make him feel better. That makes me a little bit optimistic. I think that's going to be, honestly, the key determining factor to the game On the other side of the ball, the Bills' offense line, I think, has played fantastic all year.

I think that's really the under-talked-about part of... We see all the chatter now with Buffalo. People say we don't have weapons. It's like, well, your offensive line is probably, aside from Josh Allen, your best offensive weapon for the course of the season. You watch him and he sits back there. The pockets are beautiful. He's got all day. He's able to do what he wants. I think they don't necessarily get the individual accolades. Dawkins gets some. Spencer Brown got a big contract and has ascended as a player. But But by and large, they don't get the accolades on an individual level that Kansas City's outline does. But I think for the whole and especially from a past game perspective, they've done a really great job throughout the course of the year.

Yeah, they're able to run the ball really effectively against Baltimore, too. Your rushing defense might be a different story. Spagdunl, he always seems to have something planned. He's always thinking a couple steps ahead. I heard somebody talk about this a couple of months ago, and it made me wonder that Spag should be a Hall of Famer as a coordinator. I don't think there are any coordinators in the Hall of Fame. Are there no offensive coordinators, no defensive coordinators? Obviously, guys have gone on to be head coaches later. But I feel like if you get three in a row and this defense plays well again, I think Spag should probably be considered for the Hall of Fame at that point.

I agree. I mean, he's won, I think it's either four or five Super Bowl as a defensive coordinator. He shepherded in that the new era of the four defensive ends in a rush package. I think he inherited that from the '06, '06 Giants, and then made it his own, that NASCAR package back in the day. That changed football. How you got after quarterbacks, being able to put smaller guys in the big gaps and run some funky things on third downs. That evolution of what he's become. He went to St. Louis, didn't have success. Not many people did have success there. I don't know how much you pin on him, how much you want to pin on just the general tenor there. But yeah, what he's been able to do for Kansas City, Bob Sutton had a lot of success as a defensive coordinator. Things got a little Dale, got rid of him, brought in spags. And that's really been a key point of the Kansas City run. And lucky enough that he's older and he did fail in his first spot, that he hasn't gotten poached away. Most guys with his level success will have gotten a head coaching job at this point when you look at the body of work the last five years.

So definitely belongs in the Hall of Fame. If you're looking at best coordinators, I don't know how you can have a list without him pretty high on the defensive side. Yeah.

On the other side, tell me about what a great job Matt that Naguih has done this year.

The whole Chief's offense, I think, has been interesting. Okay, so here's my thoughts on the Chief's offense. Hollywood Brown was going to play a massive role. He was killing an OTA as the guys were really excited about him. He essentially was the closest thing to Tyreek since Tyreek in terms of the burst, the long speed, the route running, being able to run the offense through him. Rasha had the role as that slot guy, the inside guy, intermediate, and obviously, Kelsey's Kelsey. Hollywood goes down, and I think that just completely threw off what the offense was looking like. Now, where she comes out, has like 30 catches in the first three weeks. He gets hurt. He's out for the year. Now, you're out, both of your receivers. And I think that honestly threw off what the Chief's offense was going to be, Xavier worthy, gets drafted in the first round. You're thinking he's going to be the third option at best. But now he's the number one receiver because your top two guys are down, and he's learning on the go. Obviously, Travis is being Travis, and as we talked about earlier, maybe not play off Travis throughout the course of the season.

And so they finally found that groove in weeks 10, 11, 12, figuring out exactly what the roles were going to be. Hollywood comes back, trade for DeAndre Hopkins, bringing McCole, he's hurt now. So I do think the offense has had to adapt on the fly, and As people want to talk about other offenses and Lamar from this past, he's without wide receiver one, and he's without this and without that. It's like, well, the Chiefs have been in without wide receiver one pretty much all year, whether you wanted to define that as Hollywood or Rashi. People don't want to necessarily speak about that. On the fourth left tackle. They've had all these different injuries as well. So I think that the offense has had to change. I do think they have done a pretty good job of figuring that out. I think the Texan's defense is just pretty good. And so it's not what we're used to seeing from 2019, in 2020 where it just bombs away and scoring 30 plus points every game. But I do think the offense understands what they want to be now, and they can lean into that identity.

Yeah. You could see it, too, with even Xavier worthy. They started getting his targets up towards the end of the season, and it was clear that they're starting to trust him more. Because I would imagine just from a guy like Patrick Mahomes, he can't just immediately say, Oh, we drafted this guy high. I'm going to throw it to him 10 times a game. You have to find that second nature where you can trust that they're going to make the play, you can trust you can throw them in the ball. It feels like they finally are there. Is that right?

Yeah, for sure. There's the way, again, the quarterback is supposed to play the game on paper, and then there's the way Pat plays the game, which is similar to the way we talked about Travis earlier, just feeling space, understanding that not everything that you're supposed to do on the sheet is the thing that is expected of you. There's a lot of adjustments. This is what's made passing offense It's come down a little bit. It's what's made things so difficult from the offensive side, is defenses are so much more complex. We see all the cool clips of safety spinning around and this invert, too, that everyone likes to talk about and sound smart. All these different things that defenses are doing, realizing, hey, we can still play the cards that we want and confuse the offense. Well, if you're a receiver and you're a rookie and you're trying to figure out, is it cover two? Is it cover three? Is it cloud coverage? What's my adjustment off that? Is the quarterback expecting me at a different level? That's a lot to think about while you're trying to go full speed on third and twelve. There definitely is a learning curve in terms of what's expected of you for the offense, and then also how Pat sees things and how he plays it.

Coach Reid talked about that last year with Rasha, learning Pat being Mahomes friendly. He's We talked about a little bit this year with Xavier, and you can definitely see a huge difference. To your point, he's being asked to do so much now. He is really a full compliment receiver who just happens to be smaller and really fast, but he's not being used as a gadget guy. He's being used in all facets of the offense. I think that is one of the things they realized once he was thrust into that role, once he grew from weeks 1 to 10, that, Hey, we can trust him, and we can put him in these spots and let him be a true receiver. He doesn't have to just be speed or jet sweep.

It's been really interesting to watch them develop. They just overcome everything. That's the thing about the Chiefs, is as long as they have Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelsey, it feels like they'll figure the rest out, and it's going to be a different solution every single year, but they'll end up getting there. From the weather perspective, it's not going to be like it was last year, where you had the dolphins coming into town and it was like six degrees. It's going to be like 34, maybe down into the upper 20s by the end of the game. Offensive linemen, sleeves or no sleeves?

You're not supposed to wear sleeves. We've gotten loose and soft as an offensive community and allowed guys to start wearing sleeves over the years. If you are super cold, the thing you can do is put on elbow sleeves. Those things are nice and thick and insulated. I always wore an elbow brace on my inside arm. If it was super cold, I would just throw a sleeve or a brace on the other arm, and it looks O-line sweet. Yeah, my elbows suck, and I get to wear these things. But it actually keeps you pretty warm. That's the workaround. If you want to look, quote, unquote, old-school O-line tough, but still want to get a little bit of extra warmth in there.

I like that.

That's a great trick. I would say the colder it gets, the less you should wear sleeves. I would actually be okay with the live and wearing sleeves if it was like 30, 8 to 45 degrees outside. You wear sleeves then, who cares? But if it's 20 degrees, no, sleeves off. Got to show those guns.

I think it was Strahan that was like, I'd rather just feel good and play good and get sacks instead of being miserable there and being cold and not producing. Again, we've gotten away with some old-school toughness stuff that's just stupid. You want your guys to be comfortable and play well. That's really the most important thing at the end of the day. But from a psycho crazy perspective, yeah, I think we still respect the guys who are out there, sleeve-less. There's not too many gloveless guys anymore. I think Nolan Smith on Philly is one of the few. But anytime you see a defensive end who's not wearing gloves, you assume he's a psycho. There's no valid reason to do it. I think Jared Verce maybe doesn't wear gloves either. No surprise why he's going to win Defensive Rooky of the Year.

Vita Vaida. Every time I see Vita V, I'm like, How is he? He's just in the bottom of every pile, and he's just got no gloves.

Trey Hendrickson.

Yeah, it's nuts. It's so intimidating. Mitch, your Twitter account. I love following you on Twitter because I do think that you put out really good nuance takes from someone who played in the NFL for as long as you did. Everyone should go follow it, MitchSwartz71. I have a two-part question for your Twitter account. First is, how awesome does it feel when someone who just watches film tries to correct you on how to play football and how to play offensive line? Because I've seen that happen a couple of times where someone will literally be arguing with you or your brother Jeff, who's also great on Twitter, and it will just be like, you guys are arguing with people who actually played in the NFL and know what they're talking about, and it's someone who's sitting and watching film and just guessing what's happening.

I I will say if you're at least watching the film, I'll respect the fact that you're trying to do this correctly. 99% of what I get is people who are not watching film or who just watch the game on TV and think they know what's happening. That 1% of people who are watching the film, I respect that you're trying to do it. I get really frustrated when people have a following and people are looked up to because they study football and they watch film and they put out analysis, and then they're putting out bad analysis. You can't It can't necessarily be Twitter corrector. You just are the Jackass who corrects everybody on Twitter and you look terrible. But it does frustrate me when people with followings put out bad info. So like you said, for the most part, I try to do things in a respectful way and nuance, and I try to have the conversations and try to teach because I do want people to understand better. But it is frustrating when people don't take your experience into account. I at no point say I'm always correct about things. I'm willing to talk through everything.

But at some point you have to at least account for the fact that I did it. And maybe I know a little nugget or two or maybe this is the thing with... I don't think former players are the only ones that should be analysts. I don't think you had to have played to have this certain high-level understanding. But I do think it shortens the time to see something and to understand what's going on. I can watch something and have a really good gut feeling about either what happened, what the guy was intending to do, maybe what the protection was supposed to be, that maybe other people who weren't in my shoes and didn't live that life would have to take a few more watching is to figure out exactly what was supposed to go on. I do think that's where it's advantageous to have played because you can just look at stuff and you're so used to seeing it that like, Oh, yeah, I know that's supposed to happen. The right tackle had a sift here and he was indecisive because he saw this. That gut feeling is what's really helpful having played the game.

It does have to feel awesome. You took the nice approach, but I would be like, if I had that type of expertise, dunking on someone would feel so good. The other thing was, you treated about this, I think it was either yesterday or the day before, I found it fascinating because we're dumb fans, and there's a lot of Lions fans who this podcast specifically has been putting them through hell because the NFTs' commanders beat them. The Bears got Ben Johnson, memes, Jets got Aaron Glenn. We've rated the line, so I do feel bad for them in that respect. But you pointed out that anyone who's blaming Ben Johnson for not being focused on the playoff game because he was doing interviews, doesn't realize that these guys are not It's not like an all-nighter for seven days straight trying to get a game plan. They have a game plan. They have their convictions. There's time when they're not working on the game plan, because if they did, they would just be getting way too nuanced and probably analysis by paralysis. That's the reality of it, is it not?

It is. I think the best example for that, and he had admitted it after the fact, is Sean McVay, that Super Bowl against the Patriots, where he had two weeks and he just drove himself crazy. He He did too much and he tried to change too many things, and he's a grinder by nature. That's why he burns out. You can't watch 20 hours of film for 14 days straight. You're going to overthink things. The way the football week works, we get, for the most part, Monday, Tuesday off. You're in for one of those days, you're watching the film, you get a lift in, and that's about it. Our work week technically starts Wednesday. Well, Wednesday, when we show up and we get the base game plan, the coaches did all the work Monday and Tuesday. Those are their long days. Those are the awful days where they're staying at the office all night or they're sleeping there for a couple hours. That's their Super Bowl of the Week. We get our install Wednesday, we go through practice. We get install for certain situations Thursday, practice. Install for red zone on Friday, we practice. At that point, the game plan is pretty much put together.

You're still going to tinker with things. If you're a first 15 guy as the offensive coordinator or head coach, you're going to try to figure out exactly what that combination of plays looks like. But for the most part, all the preparation is done because from the player perspective, after Friday's practice, you're not putting in anything new. You might be adjusting things, you might be fine-tuning some stuff that didn't look quite right on Friday. But Saturday morning, you're watching Friday's film. You're not getting a new install, and you're doing a walkthrough of all the plays you've already done that you want to hit again, you want to see again. That game plan is pretty much shut by about 3: 00 PM on Friday. Coaches, they'll go on date night. They'll get to see their wife for the first time all week. They'll go to their kid's high school football game. They'll do all these other things. You can't just be locked in and doing it all the time. In that tweet, specifically, I said, some coaches, they'll start watching film for the next week, Saturday, once it gets later in the day and they got nothing else to do.

Sunday, if it's a night game, you're just sitting there all day. You don't have to stare at your 100-play call sheet all day for 12 hours. There's nothing that's going to change. It's already printed, it's laminated. You can turn the page and get a look. That doesn't mean that they're not going to coach as hard that Sunday night. People don't necessarily understand how the work week goes. If you're going to blame Ben Johnson for that, like I said, blame Kellyn Moore, blame Spags for having interviews, blame Aaron for having interviews. Blame everybody else for having interviews, but it's only a guy that lost when his side still did pretty good stuff that's getting the heat for it, and that I just don't understand.

Also, it was a buy week. They had a buy week, which that's 14 days where they had nothing.

I think it's going to be good for the rivalry. I think it's going to be great for Chicago versus Detroit. You're going to get some of that. Then I think a fair thing to say for your Alliance fan would be like, Well, yet you're also taking three of our coaches with you. So I think it's Antoine Randall, They're O-Line Coach, and there's somebody else.

No, the O-line coach is not coming to Chicago.

Oh, he's not? No. It's not Farley?

Farley, I think he's interviewing Seahawks, but I don't think he's... There's a report that he's probably not going to go. St. Johnson actually was like, I don't want to raid their whole staff.

Okay, yeah. You're bringing a couple of guys. Then the fan starts thinking, Oh, were you having these conversations all week? Like, looking at Zillow together and circling neighborhoods and being like, Oh, is this where we're going? So you create a whole fan fiction in your head. But again, I think that this is good for the rivalry in the NFC North. I think that's awesome that there's going to be genuine animosity between those fan bases.

Oh, for sure. Then he just throws that jab at Matt Lafleur, and I don't really understand where that came from because I don't think they're friends that work together.

No, they're not. I thought they were friends.

I thought that was like, Can't wait to take on Matt. Matt I've seen him twice this year.

No, I don't think they've ever worked together. No, I mean, no one can focus on one thing all the time for an entire work week. Your mind has to wander at times. You're allowed to do other things in your life. No one has questioned his preparation until this specific week. He has been the genius of the NFL the last three years who turned Jared Goff into a top quarterback who weaponizes his right tackle into this weapon that everyone loves. Dan Skipper, the sixth of the Line, and all the fun stuff they do. The trick plays galore. All of a sudden, one single game in which his team underperforms, and now he's not committed. It's dumb. When you say it out loud, it's dumb. We're just not going to give that any more, Credence. Yeah.

Well, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it, Mitch. You're very smart. Yeah.

I had one last question. It's a rowback question. B-a-c-k. Com, promo code TAK, 20% off your first purchase. Oh, yeah, you're wearing the Roback right now. You got to get the new Hezzy hoodie. Super comfortable, rowbackk. Com, promo code, take 20% off your first purchase. How's the golf game? Because I know you built This is weird that I… Well, no, you put it on Instagram, so that's not weird. I follow you on Instagram. You built a simulator in your house which rocks. How is the golf game going?

Golf game is good. It's been pretty frozen out here in Kansas City, so I do have the simulator. I've been getting some lessons. I got burnt out on it. As you know, with kids and stuff, it's hard to do everything that you used to do the same between having a baby and working on golf, I was just burnt out on the golf stuff. Back around the last couple of months, been working on it. Hopefully, it gets sunny, it gets warm, I get to start playing outside. It's my outlet. I mean, as an offensive lineman, you tend to just hate yourself and feel bad at all times. So golf, you're never going to feel like you played well. It's the perfect outlet for an offensive lineman to hit balls, feel like you suck, watch film, try to get better, and go out there and just be miserable.

I love that.

I felt too good recently. I would like to feel shitty so I can know what I can improve on. It's a cool mindset.

I love that. Yeah. Is it also... This is a stupid question, but how sick is it living in a city that you won a Super Bowl?

It is pretty cool. My Super Bowl has since been surpassed by a couple of Super Bulls, and there are some much more famous and important guys for the city. But it is Well, it keeps you grounded. That's why we love Kansas City. The people are great. You still get noticed every now and again, but everyone's respectful and just like, Hey, thanks for what you do, blah, blah, blah. I love all you on social media, all that stuff. It's pretty cool. Stroke's the ego every now and again when you need it. Then I go downstairs, hit balls, and start hitting myself again.

Yeah. It's a smart move. If you win a Super Bowl, just stay there.

Yeah, 100%. When you went from Cleveland to Kansas City, were you a free agent at the time?

I was, yeah.

Was there a moment where it was between Kansas City and some other team, and you look back on them, you're like, Thank God I chose the Chiefs.

Yeah, it was between Kansas City and Tennessee, or the last two that were in it. Definitely worked out to choose Kansas City. I mean, the Cleveland thing, we don't have to go back to that. I wanted to stay in Cleveland. My wife's from Cleveland. I met her there. Joe Thomas, Hall of Fame, or Alex Mack, John Greckeo, Joel Betonio. We had a great offensive line. I loved doing that every day. I wanted to stay. They were in the shed as Assets get draft picks, Suck and Tank phase, so they weren't resigning anybody. Turned out to be the best thing for me. I don't really look back on that too much. I just appreciate the fact that I was able to come to Kansas City. I didn't realize how important the Super Bowl was. I mean, to your point, if you're the Rams, if you're the Chargers, is it going to be as important to win a Super Bowl in that city and live there? Probably not. Living in a sports-crazed city, the one that's so passionate about the team, I think is more important. You a better bond to the city than some other places.

I think it just happened to be that perfect mixture of finally getting our homegrown Kuba 50 years since the last Super Bowl. The city loves football, so I just got really lucky, and I feel really good about that.

It's a good choice. It's pretty cool to be like, I blocked for Patrick Mahomes because that will be something that you could say probably 50 years from now and people are like, Holy shit, that's awesome.

You kept him healthy while you were there. Yeah.

Yeah. I, responsibly, am the one to to keep him healthy. Since I've gone and done other things, he seems to have a lot of those ankle injuries about, too. So I'm going to take credit for that.

Bust. Actually, a bust since you left.

All right, well, Mitch, thank you so much, man. We really appreciate it. Always fun having you on. Everyone do go follow him because you just make us smarter as football fans, so we appreciate that.

Thank you.

Good to see you guys.

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Okay, Firefest of the Week to wrap us up. Hank? Yeah. You had a Firefest? Yeah, I had a mic. Your mic's not on, but you got a Firefest.

Classic memes, taking away your First Amendment. Memes.

Well, that's because Hank, one of my Firefest was Hank. This is one of the biggest weeks, should be one of the biggest weeks in numbers for part of my take. Monday's show had to be taken down because Hank was breathing too heavy in the mic. Wednesday's show was taken down because someone had a G-U-N on the show. Hopefully, this doesn't get age-restricted again.

But yes. Which I mean, if we're going to have one taken down, having it be Stavi with a revolver, I think is a pretty good reason. I'm willing to make that short term sacrifice.

Yeah, that got age-restricted, so that was why you had to log in to watch us on Wednesday's show.

It wasn't Hank. Hank was He was just existing. He was just existing. He was just breathing like he normally breathes.

Does he have a mic now?

What? Why are you looking at me like this?

I'm wondering if he's going to let me fall on the sword or not.

Are you going to turn on Hank's mic?

I didn't show the gun. He knows I didn't show the gun.

You can't say the G-word. What? He's talking about Mondays. He's talking about Mondays. I feel like Hank's still not on.

He's very low.

He's very low.

Can't get your tongue?

Memes is trying to silence Hank. That's what they're doing. You can't exist. That's what I'm saying. Hank, for the first time ever, I agree with you, they're trying to stop you from existing. I got your back.

No, but with Hank's looking at them, he's waiting for them to apologize for not taking Hank's breathing out. So now we have a stare-down going on between Hank and the booth.

The podcast... Whatever. I took the breathing out.

Okay. Hank?

Of the podcast.

I mean, I can't- Why is his mic not on? Why is his mic not on?

This fucking thing sucks. It breaks every time we- Keep all this in. I He just starts to talk to Pete about it, and then he just starts saying a bunch of words.

Pete's too busy getting on more dogs.

He just starts saying a bunch of words that I don't understand what they fucking mean.

Yeah. We're not the smartest, Pete. It's his fault. Oh, there it is. I feel like I just heard Hank.

Pete's over here using three-syllable words.

Memes also just not talking into a mic either. Memes just keeps saying, I got it, but he's not saying it into a mic. This is some good stuff. Number one sports podcast for a reason, folks. I fixed it. All right, there it is. I fixed it. All right, Hank. Yeah. A lot just happened. Care to address?

No, I mean, the breathing thing, I was a little sick, so I was breathing loud. But also, if I'm talking for 5% of the episode, I don't think you need to have my mic on the whole time. That's neither here nor there. It's a fair point. Max cut it out of the It's a podcast. It didn't get cut out of the video. Max probably could have told the person who edits the video to cut it out of the video like he did, but that's fine.

Hank's not allowed to breathe.

That was so now- Max would normally be very happy if you weren't breathing. Is it Max's fault or Pug's fault? Or is it your fault because you're technically in charge of all of them.

Well, yeah, that's where it's like, it all falls on me.

No, it all falls on me.

But you just said the podcast was fine and said nothing about it. You didn't take anything.

I know, I know, Hank. We've already had this conversation How many times we're going to have this conversation?

Pugs do have very labored breathing processes.

Yeah, that's true. A little snout nose.

But yeah, that was a tough wake up Monday morning.

Also crazy that it was like the There was really loud breathing and it wasn't me or Max. That's huge. Huge for us. Yeah, huge. Because whenever there's a fart on the podcast, Big Cat or Max, that was big win for us. Hank was the one who was breathing with his mouth way too hard.

No, my nose was stuffy, so it sounded... It was a vocal breathe.

Okay.

My Fire Fest, which I've gotten over in the past 24 hours, but in hindsight, it was just 2020, I should have vetoed the nine starter. I didn't. Now I am going to deal with the consequences of my own action. I feel bad for the booth because they're also going to have to deal with it because I'm just going to be living at this office forever, I think.

I've seen you tweeting about it a lot.

I also have people like, You're bitching, bitching, bitching.

No, he hasn't.

I tweeted, I threw darts, I'm in trouble.

And that was it. Yeah. No, you haven't been bitching.

I have something to say. We as a community here, we got to stop freaking out when one person says that we're bitching about something, and we just got to do it.

Who are you freaking out about? Is that not how I'm sorry, this fucking this fire.

I know. Well, people bitch, and then everyone gets freaks out about it. Let people bitch.

People are going to bitch about everything.

Yes, it doesn't matter.

People are going to bitch. Hank, I do remember it is It's funny that it all goes back to the dunk because you should have just taken Marathon, but you didn't- It wasn't an option to take.

That's the other thing.

You had a veto.

I had a veto, but that doesn't mean I would have gotten Marathon.

Okay, that was the one reason you said you didn't use the veto.

Yeah, I know. It does all go back to the dumb cat. Wait, didn't you suggest putting the nine daughter in there? No, that was fucking dumb ass over there.

We said so much shit.

I like how me and Big Cat knew exactly who he was talking about. He was dumb ass over there. He wasn't talking about memes.

We're not even talking about the eagles, and we're fired up.

It's been a long week. Listen, no.

All right, let's just reset. Hank, you've done some work in the last 24 hours. You're going to be here for a long time. But you've also, it sounds like you made peace with the fact that you're just going to have to do it.

Yeah, so I feel it's- Eventually, you're going to be close enough that you'll just be able to put it in. Yeah, and I'm going to go through it all. I just am concerned concerned that at a certain point, my arm is going to get to a point where I can't throw, and then I don't know what I'm going to do on stream. Then people are going to be like, Throw darts, but I'm like, I can't.

Have you thought about getting a blow gun and shooting darts?

A blow gun? Oh, good idea.

No, that's a good idea, though.

Yeah, that's a really good idea. You got to get a blow gun. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's going to suck. I didn't like that professional starter who quote-treated you and was like, I've been playing darts my whole I've only done this twice. That felt... You didn't need to say that, dude.

He was definitely talking about a full nine starter.

Yeah, I know, but still- Well, no, that's where it's 180.

It's also extremely… I've gotten a lot of people that are like, I play darts every week. I've played darts every week for 20 years. I've gotten 180 twice. Yeah. These are people that are significantly better darts players.

Blowdart is a really good idea.

Blowgun, maybe. Is there a dart gun? Yeah. The blowdart gun is one thing, but a Nerf-style trigger, or would that get taken down from YouTube?

I don't know. Not if Stavi's not holding it.

When Stavi holds a gun, you think it's going to be used? Yeah.

I think you need to figure out a blow dart. Okay. Because that be a good... Because that will be still very difficult.

It adds probably a couple of feet closer.

We know that you've got some really good lungs with breathing through your mouth on Monday's show. You got this. The marathon The marathon, though, that's a... Just because you thought you were going to dunk, and then you didn't dunk.

It's funny to also think that the marathon would have been the much easier choice. It would have.

Because he could have lightly jogged it, walked a little bit. It would have taken seven hours at worst. Yeah.

No, that was, again, high-size 2020. I'm dumb as fuck, and this is just added to the long list of examples of me being an idiot.

It'll be good content, though. I'll stop by for a little bit of Yeah. You love buddies.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Michael Van Gogh. Oh, Michael Van Gogh. Yeah. Just get that going.

But yeah, We'll be live until the game start on Sunday, and then back again Monday if I'm not done. Okay. I will be staying at the office.

Pft?

My Firefest of the Week happened last night. I I accidentally went live on the part of my take Twitch for about a half hour by mistake. Okay. I was trying to record myself flying from Washington, DC, from Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia, up to Philadelphia to do a flyby for the Eagles Commanders game at Lincoln Financial Field. I downloaded Microsoft Flight Simulator. I hopped in my F-18. I buzzed the tower of the Commander's facility, flew all the way up, which is, by the way, a pretty boring game to play. I think you just get up to altitude and then you just cruise there for a while. So I was just trying to do a flyby.

As opposed to other flight simulators?

Yeah, combat simulators.

When you're dog fighting.

When you're dog fighting, that's when it rocks. But this is just you fly up in the air and the object is to not inflict violence on people. So I'm flying up to Philadelphia. I think I'm recording it on OBS on my computer, which is the program that we use to stream on Twitch. Instead of clicking the button that says start recording, I accidentally clicked the button that says start streaming. I had no sound, no volume, for real. I was in turn fucking with the chat because they were all like, no sound, no volume. But I didn't know I was streaming. I do this for about 25 minutes, and then I quit because I crashed twice. Then I go back to OBS and I'm like, Oh, shit. It says Stop streaming, not Stop Recording. I click Stop recording, and I immediately call Hank. I'm like, Hey, Hank, my bad. Can you delete this from our Twitch account? Before Hank did that, I went back and I watched it, and I just saw all the comments coming in that were just like, no sound, but for real. Honestly, no sound. They didn't know if I was fucking with them or what was going on.

But yeah, it was just a complete mistake that I made by clicking that button, which is right next to the start recording button. But I think it was It was pretty electric stream. I did an inverted flyby through Lincoln Financial Field, about 20 feet above the bleachers. But you crashed? I crashed not into Lincoln Financial Field, which credit to me, I thought I was just playing on my own. I could have just steered that motherfucker right into the stands, and then I would have been caught in 4K. But no, I crashed maybe two seconds after I got right past Lincoln Financial. So in the lot? Yeah.

How many Eagles fans did you kill?

It was people that live within a quarter mile of the stadium, so I think probably seven or eight. Probably my brother. Yeah, I killed Max's brother on stream last night. But yeah, I just didn't know what was going on when I was like, Oh, shit. Have I been streaming this entire time. So my bad. If you tuned into the part of my take Twitch last night, you got a push notification.

Scary phone call to get because you don't know when you're like, I was accidentally streaming on the part of my take Twitch. It's like, oh, streaming what?

Yeah, I'm Shannon Sharp. Except when Shannon Sharp's thing goes off, he's not doing a flight simulator at 9: 00 PM on a weekday night.

Your life is cool, too.

Yeah, it is. But it was fun. It was fun being able to do a super low altitude... Dude, Microsoft Flight Simulator, not that fun of a game in terms of actually flying everywhere, but they've got a real 3D representation of the Earth. They had everything. I could see Xfinity Live. Almost drove into that. So, Max, you know that even when I think no one's watching, I'm not crashing planes into your stadium.

Yeah, you just didn't do a successful flyover.

Oh, I did two successful flyovers, then I crashed.

So two out of three. Yeah.

Yeah.

You think it's bad vibes?

I mean, it's not a great omen.

Probably not.

Especially when you weren't trying to show people this. You were trying to do this in secret.

Yeah, I was trying to be... Well, yeah.

And you would not have shown the crashes if you weren't streaming.

Oh, yeah. I never crashed on stream when I'm flying in the simulator.

Well, not over the... I mean, fly over.

Yeah. At least I didn't get shot down.

That's true.

That would have been way worse.

Max's brother shot you down.

Yeah.

All right. My Firefest is... I think I said this. That's why I missed the Commander's Lion's Game. My wife was out of town, so I was solo dadding for the majority of the weekend and then Monday as And it's essentially like the best way to describe it is being a backup quarterback, and you get in for a drive or two, and you're like, All right, I can do this. I can do this. And then if you have to stay in for longer than that, everyone's like, Oh, shit. Mike White might not be the die, that thing. But I thought I did an okay job. I missed giving Stella her medicine maybe two days in a row that I doubled up. So we're fine. But I likened it to the Office episode when Dwight gets fired and all the plants die. I did okay. It was a lot of like, I'd tell my oldest, Hey, I need your help. A lot of pep talks, a lot of eating cereal for dinner, all that shit. Then my wife did come home, and it turns out I do have plants in my house, and I didn't water any of them.

I had no idea. If you had asked me if I had plants, I would have been like, no fucking way. That's a detail I've never paid attention to.

They have these plants now that have these basins at the top that are the thing that you leave for your cat. When you go out of town where it meters it out, you fill up the top basin, and then it just slowly releases. I need that. Yeah, they're awesome. The plants never die.

I would say I probably didn't win the game, but I didn't look like I was... I don't know what quarterback I wasn't Tim Boyle.

Yeah, but if you were to pick one thing in your house to forget to give water to, I think the plants are probably the one that you'd circle.

I also forgot about the Stella Medicine.

The Stella Medicine. But the water.

I was over three on dressing my daughter every single time I'd dress her, and she'd be like, I don't like this. Then she'd just go dress herself. It's like, All right, that's fine.

Yeah, wear what you want to wear.

Yeah. She was like, I put her in. The one that hurt was I put her in a Badger shirt, and she goes, This isn't beautiful. Then she went on a dress, and I was like, damn it.

Was Bucky on it?

Bucky was on it. But we're back. We're back. Yeah, I'm not a starter. I'm a backup. Yeah, but- I'm a backup guy.

For those scripted plays, you look pretty good.

Yeah, right. For a couple I can do it for a night here, night there. But when it's an extended, this was me having to... The starter went out for three weeks of the season, and we didn't go 500.

It is true because if it was for one meal, then all the fans would be like, he should get more minutes.

Yeah, he made an incredible mac and cheese. He might be the guy. Did I make an incredible mac and cheese on the third day that we had mac and cheese? When we had bagel bites for lunch and dinner, were people like, Hey, Can this guy only throw right? Yeah, probably. But we survived. Okay. Numbers. Three.

Eleven. Nine. What number do I want?

Five.

Here comes the boys.

Here come the boys.

Boys are all going low today.

What number is it? I went three. I'll go 31. 31? Shout out Aaron Glenn. Okay. Pug-99, Pug. Pug, by the way, can you hear me? Pug, max, threw you under the bus about the mouth breathing thing. What the fuck? What? What, Max?

What did he say?

You threw me under the bus?

That's not true. I mean, Pug. Hank is just...

Hank. Why was Hank thrown in there? Hank is just what?

I'm Bird Gang.

See, that is bullshit. All right.

All right. Pug, what's your number?

99.

Bird's Pug. Pug.

Go go. Shane, Jack? 45. Wait. Give Jack the headphones now. Jack texted me because I had to do a video this morning. He started to text Good morning, Big Cat. That was weird, right? That's a weird start to a text.

It was morning.

It was too formal.

We have a real problem with Jack on the text thread because it happened one time before, and ever since then, every single time he hits us up with a favor, I think it's Jack McCarthy. I do every time.

I want to do your favors. I don't want to do Jack McCarthy's favors.

That's probably on my end. I need to change your name to Jack Good. Yeah. The A good one.

Nothing wrong with Good Morning. On a text? No.

I think that's too formal. I don't need a good morning. It just started. I won't send good morning. All right, I appreciate it. Let's just get right to the chase because I know you got a job to do. I got a to do. It wasn't a good morning either. I woke up at 5: 00 in the morning. I've been awake for fucking 10 hours. Okay, what's your number, Jack? 45. 45. Shane? 21. I don't remember any of these.

9.

5. 31. Darder. Darter. Darter.

6,9. Oh. Sixty-nine.

Eagles. Eagles are actually the smartest animal.

Love you guys.