Hey, part of my take, listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. People keep asking me about my 2026 resolution. I've gotten the usual stuff, read more, maybe workout, maybe stop ordering food like I'm feeding a family of four. This is my real goal this year, get comfy. And that's where Bombas comes in. I've been wearing the all-new Bombas sports socks, and I swear they're the only reason I'm even attempting to run again. They're cushioned in the right spots, sweat wicking, super breathable. I basically live in the Sunday Slippers, quick dog walks, grabbing coffee. It feels like I'm walking on clouds. And underneath it all, their underwear and T's are crazy soft. Once you wear them, everything else in the drawer feels like a mistake. For every purchase, Bombas donates an essential clothing item to someone facing housing insecurity. They've already donated over 150 million items since 2013, which is unreal. So head to bombas. Com/audio and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's b-O-M-B-I-A-S. Com/audio. Code audio at checkout. On today's part of my take, presented by DraftKings, the Conference Championship Championship is set.
We're going to recap divisional round, everything that happens Saturday, everything that happens Sunday. We're going to go in reverse chronological order. So we're going to go bears, Rams, Patriots, Texans, then Saturday games. We have fastest two minutes. We have who's back of the Week. We're going to talk some natty. The national Championship is tonight, and it's what? Our third to last Monday football show. Embrace it. Love it.
We got four football games left and the Pro Bowl.
And the Pro Bowl. What are they playing? Dodgeball this year?
No, they're going to let some Jackass podcasters try to call a play.
Yeah, that's true. But it's going to be a great show, and we're brought to you by our friends at Game Time. The Game Time app gives the advantage back to fans to hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use. The Game Time guarantee means you can trust you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time at the best price. Plus, fees are always included, so what you see is what you pay. Hank, what are the national championship tickets? Let's go to game time for it. He's got that pulled up. Because I actually- Well, I'm looking at the AFC Championship. Okay, give us that.
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What, what, What?
Thumb spread. What? We're going to start in Denver.
We go to Mile High Stadium, 5,280 feet, right in your face, like an orgy at Rex Ryan's house. In the first quarter, the Bills drove down the field, and Josh Mare-Alan-Manson found the beautiful Meekle, the beautiful Meekle. Hardman in the end zone to give Buffalo the lead. But Bo Sir Nixalat said, My arm is going to float one right to the arms of Frank Crum as the offensive tackles Big Butt caught a countdown. The Broncos hung around as little Jordan Humphreys Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humphreys Dumpty caught a big ball to take the lead, and the Bills get the ball back in the end of the half. And Josh Allen with a wap, wap, and a wap, wap. And a fumb ball as the Bills take it, and Will Sluts scores easily.
In the second half, nick Mojito laid it all on the lime and said, Oh, let me rum around this shaker. And even though you meant to pass, I'm going to simply disrupt your serving hand.
But the bill is fought back as James Dane Cook got to be funny to shit on the Broncos' coats, and Keon Scolman dipped out into the end zone.
The comeback was on as Josh found McAuli docking in Cade, home alone in the end zone. But Harry and Marvin Mims drove down the field to take the lead until Matt, like a prater, said, I'll take you there.
We're going to OT. In overtime, the Bills get the ball, and Brandon Walker cooks when fishing for a deep ball, but was unable to complete the act of the catch.
And Bo Colin Kaepernicks took a knee that might cost him his career as he breaks his ankle on the second to last play like Byron Russell. The Broncos win, and New Orleans legend Sean Payton is back in the Mardi Gra mood as he can't wait to show America his stitties.
Bronco 33, Bills 30. We then head to Seattle where Zack was on the scene. We go to Seattle at Lumen Sentapeade Field, where Brock had a purdy mouth. Now, each ship for three hours.
Rasheed Shaheed.
Lumen walked his way into the end zone on the opening kickoff. The 49ers tried to crank that ball down the field, but the cow. News check. Superman that throw to Christian McAfree for a turnover. The Seahawks found Jackson Smith in jigmatism, who looked like a blur running through the Niners defense. But the story of the game was kid as Brandon Walker, who was the cowbell. I mean, the Bell cow. Stay in it. Running back who broke out from his role at Little Brother in a contract here. We'll probably keep talking about the expiring contract nonstop until March and told the Niners defense, Quit hollering. The 49ers could do anything resembling defense with that injured unit. Much like my good friends at Quiznos, they might be completely shutting down the Sele bar at the substation. Seattle roll at speed at every position. Emherse Hemingway. Oh,
DRAKE, Slate Bitch.
May, started things early, connecting with the Mario.
Douglas for seven.
Cj had the Stroud Boys standing up and standing strong after a 10-yard to Chris Charlie Kirk. Shortly after, though, the Stroud Boys were sitting down after getting picked off by Marcus Mike Jones, who went 281, 330, 8,004. Yarn is back for the score. Stefan, Big D It proved he was worth every penny and had Gillette looking like a strip club after a titty, followed by Keisha Boody Boody Boody Boody Bo We finish in Snowy Souljaer field where Bearerweather was looking to slow down Matthew Staff forward in his Ferraris.
The game started with the team's trading touch downs from Kyren and Stimpy and Williams. Kyren and Stimpy Williams and go DJ. That's my DJ, More. Tied at 10th half. The second half was a defensive battle as Jaquan Frisker prevented any bombs, and LA's Jared Universe laid the big bang over and over. Even Devante Adams this Eve was not eating good and couldn't expose the D who has gardened him well until one controversial catch put them in the red zone. From there, it was Tyron Williams who's having a good year and Treadly from the backfield, wanting rubber match with Seattle, but not so fast. The Chicago Hairs didn't turtle and had an ace up their sleeve, and their fabled season stayed alive, marching down the goal line. But like a crowded British pub, the LAD was everywhere, stopping the bears on a fourth-in goal. But it's not over yet, because after a short LA hams possession, a poor kick from the punters put the bears in great field position. And in 2025, bears fashion, a miracle ball to Cole Kmetgala proved they weren't going to go down so easily. And that's where I end the game.
I choose to not remember the overtime, Rams win 20 to 17. And that was your fastest two minutes from the divisional round brought to you by our friends at Chevy. Playoff separate the pretenders from the football, guys. It's win or go home, and you need a truck that plays like it's on a rookie deal. Hungary, tough, and ready to grind. Chevy Silverado doesn't take plays off. No drama, no contract, holdouts, just pure grit. If trucks had stats, this one's leading the league in pancake blocks and yards after contact. So while your team fights to win the big game, make sure you've got the MVP of dependability in your driveway, Chevy Silverado, Built for the Playoffs, Built for football, guys. To learn more about Silverado, visit chevy. Com. Okay, divisional round in the books. We're doing it reverse chronological order, so we're going to start with the bears-rams game, and then we will go backwards in time. We tape some of it before the bears and Rams and the patriots and Texans game. Rams 20, bears 17. Zack, Memes, and I were at the game. We're still thawing out. Fuck, that sucked, man. That sucked because...
I don't know. I want to hear all your guys' thoughts because you guys obviously were watching it on TV, so it's just a different perspective. It was a game that the Theirs were right there, and they just felt like a few plays here and there where they couldn't get third and twos and fourth and twos. And the defense played probably their best game of the season against an explosive Ram's offense. Shout out Bear It definitely affected the Ram's offense as well. But it was like the cornerbacks, the secondary is healthy. You have everyone there. They're playing well. And it just couldn't get those couple of plays. And then you have the Cole-Kamet TD, which The stadium almost collapsed on itself. It was so fucking electric. I, in that moment, was like, I think the bears are just going to win the Super Bowl. They're just going to pull miracle after miracle because that play was so dead. Caleb Williams, it was a video game. It was a Madden video game where you just drift, drift, drift, and then you throw it, and you're like, it's a rage, quit moment for someone who's playing against that.
He was on the 40-yard line throwing Going backwards. Cole Komet, by the way, incredible play on that to not give it away that the ball was coming his way and get that separation at the last second. And then I was like, the bear is going to win the Super Bowl. This is just what they do every single game. This is just crazy play after crazy play to the point where overtime happens, and I was convinced that Mevis was going to miss that kick. Then it was just the finality of it. The stadium, the sound in the stadium was so shockingly quiet right after that kick goes through. You could actually hear Ram's players talking and celebrating on the field because it got that quiet. It was an unreal season, and it's a bummer that it ended like that because it felt like a winnable game.
It really did. It did feel like it was just going to keep happening. It really did. The bears were destined to have these kinds of endings to every game that they play in somehow come out on top. After that catch, it was like, There's nothing that you can do anymore. It was so This is the Pope. The Pope is doing all this.
That play, specifically, was the 2025 bear season, where it was, while you're watching it, it's dead, it's dead, it's dead. Everything's dead. Oh, my God. Then it was like, Holy shit. That worked? It was a countdown?
I actually thought Ben Johnson did pretty good today. I thought that the bears, especially on defense, the bears had maybe their best defensive game of the season.
It was finally having... We had C. J. G. Garner Johnson was back. Kyler Gordon came back last week. Brisker played a great game. It was just having all those dudes. Again, I do think the footing had a lot. I don't know if it came through for you guys, but the Rams just didn't look like they had the speed that they usually have. Not that Puka and Devante are burners, but they were moving in a little bit of slow motion, so it definitely helped. But yeah, the defense was lively all game.
Yeah, it felt like the bears had been playing Russian roulette with five bullets in the chamber for the last three months. I just kept on saying, We need another miracle. It finally caught up him at the very end. But I mean, that last play of the game of regulation, I guess the last bear's play of regulation, that's one of the most unbelievable throws and catches I've ever seen. The ball traveled 53 yards in the air. It was single coverage on Komet. Komet, yeah, did a good job not telegraphing it. The cornerback also completely misjudged the ball. Yes. But Caleb Williams made an outstanding throw, considering he was just drifting back from three guys that were in his face. He was on the 40. It was unreal. I thought that Ben Johnson called a very good game. I thought that McVay This was like- I thought McVay called a bad game. Mcvay called a bad game today. Everything that needed to happen for the bears to beat the Rams happened. Right.
Mcvay, you guys tell me, but I looked up in the fourth quarter and I was looking at the stats on the Jumbotron, and they had 10 runs. I said out loud, I was like, The Rams, they are not... Stafford had 30 passes, the Rams had 10 runs. I was like, They're just not playing the correct game for this weather. And then they started running the ball in that 14 play, breakdown drive, where it was runs, it was the Parkinson broken play on the outside, the Devante Adams catch, which, unfortunately, that was a catch, not a fumble. They just started running the ball, and it all worked again. And it was like, Fuck, they figured out that you just got to run in this weather.
It seemed like, not Matt Lafleur. It seemed like Sean McVay put most of his preparation this week into preparing for the cold. Yeah. I don't know if you saw this, but before the game, they were talking to the Sideline reporters, and they said that the Rams put cayenne pepper in their socks to heat them up. And everybody was like, What the fuck? What's going on with that? Apparently, that does actually work. Oh, wow. If you sprinkle pepper and baby powder into your socks.
We should have done that because we- It It warms you up. The boys, I didn't feel my feet after the first quarter.
Max, do you have your seasoned rack in the car still? What? Okay, no. I didn't know if you had that.
Answer the question, Max.
Don't worry about it.
It's like a pimp my ride.
Yeah, I got a kitchen. I heard you have food, so we put a kitchen in your car.
He drops down the glove compartment.
But yeah, apparently it does work. Apparently, putting cayenne pepper in your socks works. It seemed like a very weird game plan that he had. Matt Stafford didn't look great. Caleb Williams, I thought he might have hurt his hand in that first quarter. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, so he banged it. Was it on Jared Verste or somebody else? I don't have everyone. He was on a defensive player and hit his hand into them. He shaking his hand for the rest of the game. Obviously, something was going wrong there. I thought the only ding against Ben Johnson, because I agreed with every time he decided to go for it, the results, not always optimal.
Well, the results of the first half actually proved to be correct in the fact that it was a fourth down in whatever, three in the first drive on the 20-yard line, went for it, didn't get it. And then the fourth and goal from the two went for it, got it, Seven points is better than six if he had kicked two field goals.
Yeah. So I agreed with him for the most part on those. The pass that he threw to Theo Bennett it, that to me, my thought after that was, I think that is a play that's a fuck you to the Lafleur McVay coaching tree because Lafleur tried to do that to Ben Johnson last week.
Wait, was that? There was only one, though, right? Because he wasn't the main option. Theo Bennett was being reported as eligible multiple times on multiple plays.
Right, but I think they only threw one Yeah, but I don't think that was the...
I think he just dumped it to him because he was like, Fuck.
He wasn't the main guy on that? Yeah, I don't think he was. Because I saw that and I was like, That would be a very funny fuck you to La flora. I can get my tackle to catch a pass in this game.
Yeah, I don't think that... He was I'm eligible, a bunch of plays. But yeah, it just sucked. Oh, man, it was such a win-up. I mean, the defense was so good, and it really did come down to... I obviously got to rewatch the game and just try to figure out what happened. But the Ozie Trupillo injury against the packers and then the decision to move Tooney out to left tackle, and McFadden was the guard who hadn't been playing all year, it felt like there was multiple times when we were in third and fourth down short yardage. We just couldn't get run plays.
I thought McFadden played pretty well.
He did, but it was like, overall, the strength of our team was like the middle of our line, and we just weren't... Maybe it was play calling. I don't know. It just There was multiple... I think we had what? A third and two stop, a fourth and two stop. We had that goal line where we turned it over on downs where we couldn't... We ran the ball three times, couldn't get five yards. That was the strength of the bear's offense. This year is being able to run the ball between the tackles and get those hard yards. Also, like DeAndre Swift, he's really good at cutting and what wasn't a field that you could cut on. Also, I should say, the Rams defensive line was phenomenal. They deserve a ton of credit, not only stopping those runs, but up until late in the fourth, they did an incredible job of keeping Caleb Williams from using his feet. Because there was multiple times where you could tell they just had really good integrity on the outside, and they have some fast dudes. Their verse ran Caleb down, which you don't see very often. Their defensive line was phenomenal tonight.
I feel like that won them the game. I really thought after that Komet, I was like, It's just going to It's going to keep happening. It's going to keep happening, and the bears. And then the interception in overtime. Dj Moore ran one of the laziest routes ever. I don't know. I'd love to hear an explanation for it, but it looked like... And that was such a It was a situation where you didn't have to throw it that far. It's like everyone deserves a little blame on it. Cole Komet, I think, was open on a check down. But DJ Moore, I don't know what you're doing there, dude. What are you doing?
It was crazy. I thought that Calvin Nungai was awesome as usual. But Both catching the ball and running. He's just such a fucking physical dude, and he seems like he's impossible to tackle. I thought this was a great game plan that the Bear said. I thought it was not Sean McVee's best game as a play caller. They ended up winning. But that's what's the killer. It's because it is credit to the Rams for winning that game, even though Sean probably would tell you that he didn't have his best game as a head coach. Their defense just has a lot of dudes on it, a lot of dudes. Matt Stafford, there was that fumble that he had that he fell on. That was actually a great play by Stafford to recover that ball.
Yeah, the turnovers just didn't happen, which I said this going into the playoffs. There was that other one where Terraine Edmonds almost was right there on a deflected pass. Stafford also fumbled in the first half, and a Rams player fell on it right away. Just a couple. Yeah, it's hard to win a game when you lose a turnover about a what? 3-0? I think it was, yeah. He got killed through three picks. It was just brutal. I mean, the first one was fourth down play, which he just another time. I thought that was the other lucky thing where it happened twice in the packers game, but the Rams defensive back, picked off Caleb on fourth down and lost them yards. It's like, Okay, this just keeps happening. But it was right there. It was such a winnable game. It's just the Rams were. Stafford didn't have his best game, but that throw to the sideline to Devante Adams on the field goal drive in overtime was so fucking good, and it was just an absolute dart. Sucks. It's hard because this season has been so much fun. I think this is going to be one of those kidney shot losses where I'm a little numb from...
I'm still in shock that it ended because, like I said, I just assumed they were just going to have miracles. But it's like Tuesday is going to hit, and I'm like, Oh, fuck.
We don't have a game this week.
We don't have a game this week. You know what I mean? Because I'm just in this zone of like, Oh, yeah, we got a game coming up. It was such a fun ride, and the team, just every single game felt like they were dead multiple times and kept on coming back. We could do big picture. I think that the future is so bright with Caleb and Ben Johnson. You got to fix some things, and you never can say you'll be back here because we know that's just not true.
But I thought big picture, what was the weakness of your team this year? Your defense was not good.
The defensive line. Actually, This game actually proved that if we had a healthy secondary, which would have been a strength going into this season. Jalen Johnson actually said during the week that he is still not even close to 100% because he had a core injury, which usually takes a guy out for an entire season. He had surgery on it. So Jalen Johnson, if he gets healthy, Kyler Gordon, there's guys that the secondary should be a strength again. And then if you can beef up the defensive line, maybe you can be right back here. Ben Johnson is a phenomenal coach, Caleb Williams. The plays he made in this playoff, two games were just insane. I know he threw some pics, but three of them were on fourth down. I don't think the pick in the overtime was his fault. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how... I'd have to hear from all sides, but I don't... Dj Moore just ran the laziest route ever.
I'm going to wait to see what Caleb Williams says. If Caleb says it was my fault, I'm going to mark that as a positive for Caleb Williams.
Well, he did already say he's got to work on his footwork and his accuracy. That's the thing, is the little things still can get better. The big things are already there. You know what I mean? His wow plays, his chunk gains, all these things are such positive that happen in year two that if the little things get better, it's like, now we're cooking.
Yeah. The defense, I thought that's something that it feels like they can build off of for next year. Brusker was everywhere. Oh, he was a monster. Brusker was everywhere on the field.
Incredible blitz by Dennis Allen when He came off the edge.
Dennis Allen loves that blitz. Dennis Allen has been spamming that blitz for the last two games, and it keeps working.
Yeah, Dennis Allen coached really well in the two playoff games.
He did. You know what my other key to the game was? Why the Bear has lost this?
Why?
Punafolio. Yeah.
We mentioned him multiple times.
He had a Puna problem.
Dude, he's running in the middle. We had a shifted offensive line, and running Puna forward in the middle of the offensive line and running Punaford in the middle of the offensive line. It's not easy.
You had tree trouble going up against Puna Ford.
Puna Ford was spending a lot of time at the heater.
That's a guy that you can win a play off.
He was at the heater the whole time.
Was he? Yeah. No one's going up to Puna Ford and be like, Hey, man, can I get some time at the heater?
Yeah, you're hogging the heater. But yeah, I don't know. What did you guys think from watching it on TV? It was so close and it was so winnable. I think you guys should have gone for two.
At home- I agree.
At home, I don't know. The place was just... The shock was insane. At home, you'd already run... The problem is you'd already run is probably your best two-point play on the fourth and two from the possession before. And you also can't look... I mean, the bears got the ball in overtime. They stopped and got the ball.
I was in that in real-time, though.
Yeah, but they It's not the ball in overtime. They had the chance. I think maybe in old overtime rules, I would have said yes, but the bear's defense was playing well. They weren't moving the ball on us.
That is a tough bounce back for that defense, though. You give up that player on fourth down.
But you You know what I'm saying about- Then immediately go out there and you have to make a stop. But you know what I'm saying about we already had done our best two-point play, most likely. No, Colson Lovaland, because I think he got concussed on that drive. He's a two-point machine. He's the guy who can be a matchup problem everywhere. Yeah, I don't know. I don't blame him for not going for two, especially because you had the ball in sudden death. You stopped him, got the ball. You were 15 yards from field goal range.
I always feel like as an underdog, though, that's a good spot. If you're at home, it's like nobody thought you were going to win. You have a chance to win the game right now. It's hindsight. Yeah, it worked out. You had a chance to win the game in overtime, too. But yeah, in the moment, we're like, Do it, Ben. Go for two.
Yeah. It was such a fun season, such a ridiculous season out of nowhere. The future feels so bright. I know these things are fleeting, but I do believe that Ben Johnson and Keel Williams will be back there because it feels like... And not only that, they Ryan Polls did nail the offensive side of the… I mean, Mnungai and Colson Loveling and Luther Burton are three guys on rookie guys that are impact, rookies right away on offense.
It seemed like they went to Luther Burden a lot early and then stopped.
And there were so many drops. That's a weather thing.
He's so fun, though. That is a guy that is a problem in space no matter who you are. Yeah.
I think there was a lot of drops. It felt like on both sides, and I feel like that's partially weather. These guys, they were struggling to get their footing and run clean, crisp routes.
I also think Rams or bears are getting smoked by the Seahawks.
Most likely, yeah. Listen, watching the Seahawks, and we're going to talk about the Seahawks' Niners game I'm watching the Seahawks on Saturday night. The thought definitely crossed my mind. I was like, I don't know how the bears could potentially do anything against the Seahawks defense in Seattle, but you still want a shot. I mean, the Rams have gone toe to toe Seattle twice.
Yeah, this is going to be a great game.
This is going to be a great game. But yeah.
Hypothetically speaking, would you have rather lost this game the way you did or lose to the Seahawks by 40 points?
Probably lose to Seahawks by 40 points just because if the bears had won this game, the Cole Kometh TD would have been... It will still be like, That was incredible, but you know it won't get talked about the same way. But how could you not in the stadium when it happens, we're like, We're at the Cole Kometh game. You know what I mean? That would be the Kael Williams, the Cole Kometh would have been an all-time play forever. What are you looking at, Max?
This is a clean shot by Max. He just keeps scrolling back to the eagles's Commander's box score from NFC Championship game last year. That's a clean shot. I deserve that. I made the spice rack joke.
I didn't mean to do that. No, that's fine. That was actually memes. Memes just kept saying, scroll back down, scroll back down.
Well, I thought Max was doing it on purpose, but instead, he still doesn't even know what was shown.
No, well, I'm getting mad because this guy cropped out Jalen Hertz of this picture.
That is fucked up. The Photoshop of the quarterback's getting ready to go to the Super Bowl.
And they were like, Last year we had these great quarterbacks, and then he photoshopped Hertz out. This just showed up on my timeline. I got distracted and mad and wanted to read. So I'm sorry. Continue.
That's okay. I don't really have much else to say that I'm just bummed, but also it's like a combo of being bummed but excited for the future. I don't know. It's a weird feeling.
It sucks that the season's over. It was a very fun thing to watch this year. The Bear is Listen, it took me probably about six, seven weeks into the season for me to get over... Everyone's got a picture of the bears in the back of their head and what bears football is. And bears football is very, very boring. No offense. It's a boring brand of football. Even when they're good, they tend to be a pretty boring team. Correct. And they rely on a suffocating defense for the most part. And if you have games where you can run and not turn the ball over, you win those games. And in their best years, they were a fun team to watch if you like defense, but they were never exciting. This Bear's team was probably the most exciting team in the NFL.
By far. They had seven comebacks in the final two minutes. This would have been eight. Every game was must-see TV. Every game was just, what are they going to do next? What way are they going to wiggle out of this one? You know what's weird? It was Zack and I and Eddie came with us, and then I brought two of my friends. At halftime, Eddie and I were talking about it. We're nervous that it's tied. Not that you'd rather be down, but it was such a weird feeling to be like, We're tied, and I don't really know how to feel about how things are going. It just had that third quarter went so fast, and you just said to yourself, We're now in this scenario, like playoff football, where you can't make a mistake. Whereas the packers game, the mountain was so high to climb that you were just one play at a time. One got to get the next play, got to get the next play. This one was a true... It was so tight, just always biting your fingernails, worried that one play can decide it, and one play did decide, the interception in overtime.
Yeah, it's a bummer the season's over.
Yeah, it's going to hit me. I said this on Friday. I think I said it on the act, but we spent all week talking about bear weather. What's really going to suck is tomorrow morning when we wake up When I wake up in bear weather and there's no bears.
Yeah, it's bull weather.
Zero degrees.
Bull weather sucks.
This bear weather is no longer fun because it was fun to talk about bear, and it really did have an impact on the game.
Matt Stafford was wearing a scuba suit.
Yeah, he was. He was wearing a skin diving suit. I thought he was going to have gloves on. No gloves.
Jake Felt wins that game in regulation. That's all I'm saying. That's true.
Okay, so other funny things from the game. We had sign guy, which you guys saw. Unreal. We sit down our seats, and this guy in front of me just turns to me. He's like, Hey, man, I hope this isn't going to bother you, but I really want to get my sign on TV. I was like, What? Okay. His sign said, Here, we'll put it in the video. I took a picture of him. He said it was... Hold on, I have it right here. He flew in from Hawaii. So he left Waikiki to see a bear's playoff victory. The 2C is crazy move. 2c is a crazy move. Here's what happened, though. So he flew from Hawaii. We talked to him before. A nice guy. And he was like, Yeah, I flew from Hawaii. I was like, Dude, it's going to be cold. He's like, Oh, yeah, I'm ready. He was not ready. No. He went and bought a sweatshirt at halftime. That's an extra sweatshirt. Mims pointed out he was vibrating because he was so cold. He didn't pull his sign out for the entire second half because he was so cold.
Yeah. So I saw the picture that Eddie put out of your view on one of the plays where all you saw was the back of the sign. Legitimately happened. I understand that he wanted to get on TV with a sign that says, I'm from Hawaii. I like to be on TV at a bear's game. Did he know that they typically don't show the crowd during the plays?
Dude, it was crazy. The first quarter, he was trying... Every time there was a break in action, he was screaming at the cameraman like, Hey, hey, see my sign? But Listen, Bearweather took him out. It was Bearweather. Some friendly fire. He was so dead in the second half. Yeah, he pulled out that sign as the ball was in the air for a play. And Eddie and I were just sitting there like, Are you serious, dude?
If you're leaving Hawaii, getting on a plane and going to Chicago in the middle of January, there should be an extra layer security of a guy that just says, You sure?
Yeah.
You sure you want to do this? Yeah. I don't think you want to do this, buddy.
That was insane. It was cold. Zack memes. What was your guy's report from the game?
Last thing on this guy. There was just at one point, the bear scored that final countdown, and he just turned him and his face was just completely frozen. It was just incredible.
Dude, he was wearing a sweatshirt to start the game. He was wearing a Hawaiian sweatshirt. Yeah.
Did you Guys, how many strangers did you high five after that, Caleb?
I was hugging the guys behind us. Shout out to the guys behind us. We were getting into big miracle talk, hugging the guys in front of us.
That's my favorite part of going to a big game like that is the people around become the best friends you will ever have in your entire life for those three and a half hours.
That was such an incredible moment, and the stadium was just disbelief that that actually happened. How did you guys deal with the cold? I mean, it was cold. It was very cold. Zack was-It was freezing, Bigat. I lost my feet at the tailgate, and I found them in your car on the way home. It was unbelievably cold. Zack had not It may be the best plan for feet. And yeah, I didn't feel my feet for the entire second half. I thought triple socks. It'll be good. Triple socks in tennis shoes, not to play. You got to go with a thicker boot. They're just laughing at this guy's face. He's so cold. He's so cold. Dude, he was so cold. He was the coldest human on Earth. I hope he's okay. Dude, it beat the sign out of him. I can't tell you, Max. He had his sign out every three minutes in the first half. We never saw the sign in the second half because he was so cold.
It just healed him. I can't believe he stayed. I can't believe he brought it.
He was a diehard bears fan. He was pumped, but he was just-Oh, that was so funny. So cold. So, so cold.
I have a question for Memes. Memes, I saw the picture of you meeting Mike Florio. Yes. Did you turtle or did you say something to him?
I didn't say anything. He just said to me, he was like, Is this the guy that hates me? Yeah. He was like, Yep. I forgot they hadn't met.
But you You didn't say anything to him. You didn't take him to task about the Jets reporting.
No, he hasn't said anything in a while. Yeah. One thing about Florio, and I love him, dude wears a shitload of makeup. Yeah. Like, crazy. He looks good. Crazy amount of makeup.
Has he lost weight, he looks good.
He was going on TV, but still, it's always shocking to see another man in that much makeup.
Yeah.
Who else was on? We were hanging out with Kyle Long. He's the fucking man. Obviously, he was on Friday's show. Kyle did. So he and Frank Kaminski, another friend of ours, we were hanging out before the game. Kyle, his whole plan was, he's like, I'm going to go incognito to the game. That's what he kept on saying. He was with his wife. He's like, I'm going incognito. He bought tickets in the 300 level. He was crushing beers at the tailgate. We looked down in the third quarter, and he's just on the field doing the game break little ball toss games and just doing bear claws. And he He picked up a kid and just ran him down the field.
Also, Kyle is the last person that can go incognito. Yeah, no.
Dude, he was getting mobbed. He was a monster of a human being. It was awesome for him. It was the first time he ever went to a bear's game as a fan. He had a good time until he didn't. I'm trying to think what else was funny. When we left the game, it was obviously chaos trying to get out. For a moment, we were all together, and then I lost Zack. You would have thought I lost my child because I just was screaming in a crowd of Bear's fans, Zack, Zack. Just trying to find him because I was like, If we lose this kid, we may never find him again, and he's probably going to freeze to death. So that was scary. If I lost you guys, I wasn't making it back. I was just going to the stadium.
Yeah, you were going to be hanging out with the sign guy. There's a lot going on there.
Yeah. He's probably a good time, BFD.
Yeah. He's got to thaw out some, but...
He's staying till Tuesday, he told me. That was a bad call. I was like, Dude, what are you doing? Staying till Tuesday. You live in Hawaii.
Move that flight up.
Get the fuck of here. But yeah, overall, awesome to be able to get to go to these games. It was so much fun until it wasn't. And yeah, Rams, I don't know what to say other than it's going to be one of those losses But, yeah, somewhere around Tuesday or Wednesday, I'm like, Fuck, we really didn't win that game, and we had the most miraculous play ever, and it didn't happen, but it just didn't happen.
I bet it's going to be crazy next week, too, because the Rams against the Seahawks, I think they can win. I wouldn't be surprised if they won. I think it's about a coin flip. What's the spread on that game? Whose line is it anyway? Whose line is it anyway?
I'm going to guess- Let me do the DraftKings read.
Seahawks by three.
I'm going to say Seahawks by two and a half. Oh, yes. Seahawks, two and a half. Okay. All right. So we looked at that on DraftKings. What are you doing tonight at 5: 00 Eastern? Because if you're betting on the NBA, that's when DraftKings puts out their best offers. That daily 5: 00 PM drop is DraftKings exclusive Star Power Hour. Limited time offers built around the night's biggest stars. Draftkings Sportsbook is an official sports betting partner of the NBA, and they're known for dropping special offers around the league's biggest moments. The triple double threats, the late game closers, the players who can swing a night in five minutes. Open the DraftKings app at five and claim tonight's offer. Once it's gone, it's gone. Star Power Hour runs now until All-Star Weekend. Same time, new stars. Don't check late. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code... Sorry, Use code take. That's code take to claim today's Star Power Hour in partnership with DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 Gambler. New York, call 8778 Hope & Why or text Hope & Why. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas, wager text pass-through may apply in Illinois.
21 and over in most states, void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Daily offers and requirements vary. Check out sportsbook. Draftkings. Com/promos for more details. And Anything else from the game? Thank you for coming, Zack and Memes. It was very cold. It was very difficult for them to get clips. I also think Memes clips just spammed after the game when he got in service again.
I saw one that was like you guys celebrating the Caleb Williams throw, maybe, and it was, I think, right after the interception in overtime.
It was not easy getting clips out, but they were doing a good job. It was, fuck, man. It was right there. It was right there. It The home field thing is like, it just shows how important it is. Because I do think if you play that game inside somewhere, and this is where I don't want to do a dome anymore, but the Rams offense probably would have had an easier day going.
I think it's going to look a lot different against Seattle, who has a better defense than the bears. But for some reason, and we've seen these two teams play before, and the Rams are able to move the ball. It's yeah, playing in that great equalizer of the bear weather, the snow. Why doesn't I feel like we're not getting as many snow on the field games as we used to. Yeah. Because it seemed to be snowing the entire time, but it doesn't accumulate anymore.
It was like a flurry the entire time.
Stadions have heated, like Gillette is heated.
Yeah.
The snow doesn't stick.
I hate that.
We need the snow to stick.
Yeah.
I also saw Kelly Stafford, very nice, introduced myself to her, told her, Hey, you got Jerry O'Kanaugh once on your show, but that's it. No moss. I had a future to win. I was once the cold Comet thing happened. I was like, I have a future to win a million dollars with the bears. It's actually going to happen. I was spending the money in my head. So that sucks. Okay, should we do the other game? Yeah, let's do it. The other game is Patriots 28, Texans, what was the final score? Texans, 16. So I want to just say I'm going to let Hank and PFT, you guys, take it away because I did not see a play of this game. I saw maybe, what do you say, Memes? Five or six plays. Memes He was walking around with it, and I would check in every now and then. Memes also was running so hard against the Patriots. I thought there was a pick six at the beginning of the game, and it was just a dropped pass because we were driving to the stadium, and he goes, Oh, my God. I was like, What? Thank you for taking care of the Pinky Bet.
I might have to retire the pinkie bet. This one was a little scary. I talked to a doctor this week, and he was like, Yeah, dude, I can't just cut off the tip of your pinkie. He's like, I legally cannot do that. That would have been an interesting situation. I didn't get to see pretty much any of this game. My only question, then I'll let you guys go from there, was there a third and six? Oh, there was a third and six.
There was a third and six already. Pretty much the most important play.
You had to have known. No, I did not know. Dude, we were at the tailgate, and then we went right to the game. I didn't see the game.
There's one third and six in the entire game for Drake May.
I saw a stat hole tweet. Okay, yes.
We were on the edge of our seats for this third and six. If you missed Friday's show, We've discovered that Drake May is statistically the worst quarterback in the NFL over the past two seasons. In the NFL, I mean, anyone who's attempted more than 10 passes on third and six. So I think he's 34th or 36th in the league. He has a 27% completion percentage. League average is about 50. He got the third and six one time. It's the only flaw in this young man's game, who is the future of the league. I think the future might be now. He's going to the AFC Championship game. Great player, probably the runner up for the MVP, most improved player on part of my take. The one knock against him is third and six. He got the third and six once in this game. It was in, I believe, the third quarter, and it was a close game. I believe it was a one possession game at the time. Drake may drops back to pass. Strip, sack, fumble. Texans recover.
I need that clip from the gambling cave.
Listen, Hank, you can deny the existence of the third and six for Drake May. How can I? I brought it up to help him, to help you.
You did.
I think, if anything, I'm glad that happened because maybe it'll wake you up and it'll wake Drake up.
I agree. Listen, no one's perfect. You're always looking for ways to improve, things that you can fix by your game. And Drake clearly has a big one that going into the AFC Championship game, he can look at like, All right, third and sixth, how can I be better? Right.
He's been really good in the playoffs. No one's perfect. He's got four passing touch downs. He's got two picks, six fumbles. He's been sacked 10 times, 89. 7 passer rating. He's had a really strong payoff so far. The most important stat, I'm not going to say like 192 yards per game, which is a lot, isn't the most important stat. The most important stat, two wins, and you're in the AFC Championship game.
Yeah, went up against the best defense in the NFL, hottest defense in the NFL, three touchstones.
Hot as like Demeco Ryan's hot.
Demeco Ryan's is hot. He was wet, too. Oh, he was wet and hot today?
Yeah.
Damn. So this game was... It was ass. C. J.
Stroud?
C. J. Stroud, little bro ass.
Little bro ass.
That's where I was-put a period on it.
Worried about my piggy, but also C. J. Stroud did not make me that worried.
He was the most ass he's ever been. Wow. It was that ass. He's been ass before. It was mega ass.
Horrendous. But not even just the pics, missing every throw. Like wide open receiver is nowhere near them.
Yeah. And even the receiver, I thought that the Texans came out looking really flat. They couldn't catch anything. C. J. Stroud, on the rare occasion that he He would throw an accurate pass. They would drop it, and they were fumbling all over the place. It felt like, I don't know. I don't know what the snow is all about up in New England, but it seemed like both teams were having trouble hanging on the football. It's wet.
How did-Thank you, Hank. Blake Bortles taught us that a long time ago.
I was just trying to fill in for PFT. I don't know what part of the snow in New England confuses you.
Well, it snowed also in Chicago, and the quarterbacks weren't asked the entire time.
We talked about how the snow was affecting them, struggling.
Yeah, but you agree, Hank, it was an ugly game.
Oh, for sure. Yeah. I mean, it's two great defenses going at it. Defensive battle.
Was it the Patriots played good defense or C. A. Stroud was ass?
I think Patriots played really good defense.
Then Drake May, how did he play?
When it mattered most, he played well. I saw the booty touch on.
That was sick. Unbelievable.
That was a great throw. Yeah. He did enough to win the game. He had three touch downs against an unbelievable defense. I call that a great game.
Stefan Diggs had a great catch, too.
Yeah. Yeah, the Diggs' touch down and the Boody touch-down were 10 out of 10.
Ten out of 10? Okay, what else is this game?
Really, the story of the game was C. J. Stroud was ass. I have to tell you, that's all anyone was talking about. And Will Anderson was absolutely insane. Will Anderson was crazy. He was getting at him the entire time. Drake May had four fumbles, lost two of them. It never really felt like the Texans, even if they would recover a ball, it felt like they couldn't do anything. They couldn't move it. It was like, we've seen this with the Texans all year long, where their defense is the one mainstay, the constant. And occasionally, the offense just doesn't do Jack shit with it. And there was a lot of that going on. People were unironically begging for Davis Mills at halftime.
I just pulled up the box score. I didn't realize it was this ass. Yeah. Twenty for 47, four interceptions. And there probably could have been six. And the Texans were winning this game at one point, weren't they?
It could have been six. It could have been six interceptions. I don't know if the Texans The Texans could have won this game.
Were they up 10-7? They could have won this game.
They were up 10-7, picked six. Then he threw another pick on the following drop. Jesus Christ. And it felt like every pass was about to be another pick. He's got this weird thing. I don't think he had this his rookie year, But every time he takes a snap, especially in shotgun, he leans forward like it's going to be a draw every time. It feels like it puts him a half second behind the pace of the play. But yeah, the Texans defense played really well until it just got away from them at the end. Mike Vrabel, to his credit, Mike Vrabel called a great game in the second half. He was like, We're just going to run the football every single play, and we're going to dominate them, and they won't be able to stop it. And he was right.
Yeah. I saw Charlie Batch caught a stray.
He caught a few strays.
C. J. Stroud has the best defense in the world, and it was regressed to Charlie Batch. Then Charlie Batch said, How do I catch a stray in this? 4,000 retweets. I love Chaz Batch. Yeah. He be catching strays. Everyone was calling him Charlie Batch. That's crazy.
The C. J. Stroud lookalike probably had a tough day online today. Yeah, that guy. His face was everywhere.
Everywhere.
Yeah, it was an ugly game. The Patriots were clearly the better overall team. I'm not going to say Drake May was bad. I don't think he had his best game, but he hasn't played his best in the playoffs yet, which is actually a good thing. You only go up. I agree. You win in football games.
Hank, Now that we know, so we're going to get to the other two games, which, again, we taped earlier in the day, so we didn't know the final score. Now that we know that it's going to be Bronco's Patriots, would you like to apologize for Bonyx getting hurt?
Sure.
Oh, okay. That was actually big of you. I didn't expect you to do that.
I mean, he still hurt. It's not going to make him better.
Maybe.
You don't know. Thoughts and prayers?
I still don't know. Something's up. I'm not going to be convinced Bo Nicks isn't playing this game until Sunday.
He's got surgery.
He was walking off the field like nothing was wrong with him.
He was doing an interview where he didn't have any weight on his right foot.
But yeah, it stinks. It is what it is. It's a playoff. People get hurt.
What are you going to say to people who are like, apologize for the easiest route.
I will laugh. I love the cope. I love the people that are upset about, again, this is the AFC Championship game. The Texans had the best defense in the league. They were hot. You were worried about your pink. You were talking about doctor. I don't understand people would say you guys didn't play anyone.
Can I step in and defend you? Of course. As somebody who's bet on the Patriots through every round of the playoffs thus far, and we'll continue to bet on them, you got an answer right in front of your face. It's like the Chargers have one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Yeah, you played good defenses.
The Texans have one of the best defense. The Broncos have one of the best defenses.
By the way, I'm a believer in you play who you play. I'm just saying you know everyone's saying.
You're thinking about the schedule. Don't think about the schedule.
Max is very upset.
I think that I could care less.
I love it.
If you take out the Chargers defense, the Texans defense, the Broncos defense, and then possibly the Seahawks defense, that would probably be the best four defenses ever beaten in the playoffs. It doesn't matter that every The third and sixth quarterback that you play is either injured or sucks.
That is what it is. It doesn't. I know you're right. It doesn't.
Thank you. Okay, so Hank, the only other stat that I'll point out to you because Big Cap brought up the third and sixth thing. Who's your backup quarterback?
The pastor or not?
Josh Dobbs. Josh Dobbs is 12 for 22 on third and sixth in his career. 55%. That's double the success rate that Drake May has.
Bring him in. That's good. He's in the room. He can help Drake.
Are you a fan of Drake May or are you a fan of the New England Patriots?
That's a trick question. Well, no.
No, it's a real question.
He's saying the team over everything bringing Josh Dobbs.
Would you say that you'd rather die with no Super Bowl with Drake May as your quarterback than ever win a Super Bowl? No. Okay, so you're a fan of the team?
Yes.
So if you can have double the success rate on a play, why don't you want that?
I trust my coaching staff. If they're going to throw a drink mate... Because, again, there's always room for improvement.
A lot of room sometimes.
I think the game plan is just don't get in the third and sixes.
That's a great game plan, yeah.
There's ways around it. There's ways around this little stat of yours.
It's not my stat. The numbers are what they are. True.
No, I'm excited. Mile high, too. It's like everyone's just easiest path to Super Bowl. We still got a game to play. We've never won in Mile High in the playoffs.
Oh. Air. Got to count for the air. Yeah.
And the Broncos defense just pieced up Josh Allen on the bills. Just because they lost their quarterback doesn't mean that much.
Memes, what are you thinking? You're shaking your head and you're holding up a hand like you want to smack them. What are you doing?
What do you mean?
What are you doing? What do you mean? Just say, You're going to the Super Bowl. No.
It's Jared Stidham. Say that out loud. Jared Stidham.
I called him Jared Studdham when he was on the Patriots. Stardham or Stidham?
Studd.
Just say you're going to the Super Bowl.
He's a stud. Just say it. Look at him. He's like a... If you built a quarterback in a lab, it's Jared Stidham.
Go off, Max.
Have you started planning your weekend of what you're going to do before the game? No. Have you started looking at the Super Bowl parties that weekend?
Yeah, he's thinking-We're there every year.
We know-Not for the weekend.
Not for the weekend.
I've been a lot of weekends. I know where things are going on.
Hank, he's planning a nice victory Tuesday round at Pebble Beach.
No, I'm going to Orlando the week after.
Oh, shit.
Sorry. Wait, you already planned your trip to Disney World?
True. Oh, wow.
Holy shit. No, I will be in Orlando. I do need to find some places to golf, but yeah.
If anyone out there could help you.
Oh, yeah. No free shoutouts, but please. I'll put it this way.
Well, you guys brought it up.
Hank, what I'm doing, probably on Tuesday, I'm going to the bank and I'm going to have to withdraw $50,000 in one dollar bills. Because I'm going to need to be able to pay that bet this weekend. I think I got to give them a couple of days.
It's insane. This bet actually is like we all laughed.
It's ridiculous.
When you made that bet. But you know what?
The other thing you guys laughed about, I guess now, good segue, best team on the podcast. Okay.
Yeah.
Listen, I can't argue now.
Can't argue with it. And I should have known better. Yeah.
Let's see if you... I am currently a Super Bowl champion. Let's see what you are.
What have you done for me last? Currently.
There you go.
I should have known better because I think I've been the leader on this podcast and giving Hank credit just for being a winner and having winning Championship DNA. I was a fool to be like, the Patriots won't have a chance in the next five years. And with In a path like this, you guys can do anything. Now, Jared Stidham is standing there trying to save you. He's my champion right now.
That giggle just tells you everything you need. You know you're there.
We're in Denver.
It's Jared Stidham.
Jared Stidham is a stud. What's Jared Stidham's record in Denver?
As a starter? I think he's- He's one in three. One in three?
I don't know in Denver.
I think he's... Oh, yeah. I don't know either. Let's see, Jared Stidham. I know he played two games.
He has eight touch downs and eight interceptions.
I don't think he's had a snap since 2023.
No, he hasn't. That's that. You said yesterday.
Yeah.
What was it?
There's one quarterback this year that hasn't thrown... One Backup quarterback that hasn't thrown a pass, a number 2 quarterback, and that's Jarrett Stitt. He's got to be pissed. There was only one number 2 quarterback that didn't throw a pass last season. That was also Jared Stittam. They've just been saving him, maybe. This guy's life is over. He's got the freshest arm.
We heard that.
I mean, McDaniels knows his game, too. That's the other thing. Mcdaniels loves him.
Yeah. Does he coach defense?
I don't know how it works, but I have to assume that it's like... Jared Sittam is McDaniel's guy. He knows him front to back. I would assume this is one of the situations where he gets involved a little bit, or maybe they talk tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow before they make the game plan. But I don't know exactly how it works in NFL teams. But if there ever was a time, he's not going to coach defense, but I would assume he's involved in the game planning for Jared Sittam.
Does that make you nervous that your offensive coordinator believes in Jared Stitt?
Yeah, I'm not overlooking Jared Stitt.
You know what I would do if I were the Buffalo Bills right now? What? And we'll get to the Bills in a little bit. I would fire Sean McDermott, and I would bring McDaniels in for an interview this week and ask McDaniels how he would have attacked that Denver defense. And then I would call up the Broncos and be like, Here's what McDaniels wants to do to you.
Yeah, that would totally happen.
That's what I would do.
nick Foles did Body the Patriots on Twitter today, too.
What did he say? It was so cold. We couldn't even take out our phones.
He said, Note for the Broncos and their fans. I know it's been an emotional 24 hours. I feel for Bo and the team, and I'm sending prayers for a strong recovery. A positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs and Championship-type games. Oh, nick Foles. Nick Foles. That's as spicy as nick Foles will ever get. Yeah. Spicy. That's him dunking it and teabagging you raw.
That was him being rated R. Yeah. Big time. All right, so you have everything planned for... Have you texted Dave? Nope. Being like, We're going to the Super Bowl? No.
Have you texted Gaz?
No.
Has Gaz texted you?
I mean, we were just-Yup, yup, yup. Have you texted a group chat that has both Gaz and Dave on it?
No. Has Fidelberg been texted?
Oh, by the way, Big Gap, can you rule on something for me? Yeah. All right. So as you know, I bet heavily on the Patriots today. Yeah. I was a big Pat supporter. Do your pod. That's what we're talking about. Before the game, I tweeted out-What? Oh, it's during the game. Okay. So right after the game started. I tweeted out a video of Hank, the video that he sent to our group chat of him after the dentist on Friday, which was falling asleep.
Can we put that video, please, into the show? Let's rewatch it right now. There's never been No one's ever napped harder. I was sedated. It was actually shocking. Every other clip was just you napping.
I was given drugs to knock me out.
This is not a nap. This is HIPAA. This is HIPAA. Narrative for us. Go back. You sent us a video.
Hippa. All right, go back.
Start it over. All right.
My cousin drove me. I couldn't drive. They gave me medicine to take an hour before the procedure started. I get there. They're like, It's going to be longer than an hour or whatever. The drugs kicked in. Yeah. And press play. I'm asleep in the waiting room. It's me barely being able to walk into the thing. Okay.
You predrugged.
That was, yeah.
He was in a wheelchair.
Per doctor's notice.
And I was like, No way he'll nap again. He I just got out. He's fine. And then turn up the volume on this because this was funny in the car. Yeah. You have that bag.
I think I'm holding the bag that they're talking about or that I was asking for.
Okay.
Get in the car. Set car.
Thank you.
She clean up again, asleep.
Snoring hard, dead.
You're talking your sleep?
I don't know. My cousin, I wish you could cut this off. I'm pretty much good. I don't even say anything crazy. I'm about to sleep for 20 hours. He cut it off. I said, Go, Pat.
And then it's you making a smoothie.
Yeah, because I said you have to get protein in your system. How are you feeling? I feel better. I think adrenaline, like Bo Nicks was able to just walk off the field skipping. Yeah. Adrenaline carried me through this game.
No naps.
Hank got very mad at me when I video out. But Hank had sent that to her. Hank edited it, and he sent it to her group chat. It's not one quick video where you're like, Hey, I'm out of the dentist now. I'm okay. You did an entire production. My cousin did that. Well, you sent it to the group chat.
It was a good video. Shout out to my cousin. He did a good job. No, but that's that. It's just good. It's good to know where the line is on exposing the group chat. I will keep that in mind.
Well, you could say not forever.
You should have said not forever like Jerry does when he sends us a German model on a track. Well, I just assumed.
I don't know. Again, it's like sometimes Sometimes I'm like, Yeah, these guys are my friends. This is a funny video. Then I forget. It's like, no, this is got you culture. This is anything that you don't want out there, they're going to put out there because they know it's going to make you look bad. I will remember that.
I put it out there because I thought it was- No, I know why you put it out there. Because It was such a good job editing that you did. And some people are like, Oh, Hank can't edit anymore. Hank doesn't edit. I didn't. So whoever edited did a great job. It was a good production.
Trust me, I will not forget that.
Okay.
No naps. No naps.
I was sedated.
You were napping so hard.
My favorite part of the no naps video is Hank saying, I'm going to go fall asleep for 20 hours.
And I did. I napped hard.
You napped your ass off. Okay, what do you say, Max?
Never mind.
What? Say it.
Say it.
Well, you just said no naps, and then you said, I napped hard.
Again, for doctor's orders, napped hard.
What about Vrabel's orders? So Vrabel's more I was sedative.
I couldn't fight the sedation.
Are there any Pat's injuries right now? Any surgeries or something? I'm sure those guys probably napped. I'm not even sure if Vrabel was fine with that.
Did anyone get injured today?
I think a player on the Texans got injured because C. J. Stroud threw such an inaccurate pass. That he had to go to his knees.
You need to rewatch this game.
I'm actually being serious.
It's insane how bad C. J.
Stroud was. I see the cut up of C. J. Stroud.
It It wouldn't have looked worse.
Memes did update me a few times in the tailgages. It was like, C. J. Stroud fucking sucks. He sucks.
Yeah, there was a-Sorry, Memes. In the interview after the game, they asked D'Amico Ryan about it. He goes, C. J. Is our guy.
Oh, you got the R guy.
He's our guy. Our guy.
What are you about to say? Say it, Hank. What are you about to say?
What? Say it. Say it. Say it.
You have to say it. You have to say it. It's the last thing before we go to the other game.
Let's kick it to ourselves.
I was going to You're about to say something so cocky right now.
Say it. No. Say it. I'm not paying you $50,000. You have to say it. No.
Come on. Say it. This is a podcast for people.
It's Bad Juju. Say it.
Bad Juju. Text it to PFT. He'll say it.
Bad Juju.
He'll say it. Text it to Zack. Zack will say it.
If the Patriots win on Sunday and then go to the Super Bowl, I think Meme should come with me to do Social.
That is so mean.
That's so fucked up.
That's so fucked up. I agree.
Look at means cuts yourself right now.
That's so fucked up. I agree, but...
The look on your face. But with one addition, I think somebody should go with memes to do social memes as he's hating doing social videos.
Shane.
Oh, he's getting it. Just your graveyard.
Hank is a Green reaper, knocking on every single door.
Oh, that's so mean.
On the flip side, If the Seahawks or Rams win, that'll be your Super Bowl.
Yeah, that's true.
True.
Yeah. Imagine Sam Darnell. Sam Darnell.
Coming full circle, the team that ruined his life, essentially.
Well, no. I mean, no. The Mono and the Ghost were all in one day.
Yeah, but the Jets ruined his life.
Would you truly like to see Sam Darnell winning a Super Bowl?
I think the Jets had more of a hand in ruining his life for that stretch. No, it was Mono, the Adam Gase.
Adam Gase is the Jets.
It's the Jets. Kind of winning the same. Yeah, we get it. Oh, man.
Okay, let's kick it to ourselves. We'll talk Saturday's games, and we got some national sports podcast, and who's back in the week? Okay, before we get to Saturday's games, the world moves fast. Your workday, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, and analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through, clutter, and clear path to your best work. Learn more at microsoft. Com. /m365copilot. Learn more at microsoft. Com/m365copilot. Okay, boys, Saturday, we're going in reverse chronological order. We're going to start with Seahawks 41, Niners 6. What a beat down.
Game was over on the initial kickoff. It felt like that Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl, where it was an ass-kicking from start to finish. We did get an earthquake, technically, on the opening kickoff return by Rasheed Shahid. I think it registered at a 1. 2, which is a really big fart, but it did technically measure on the seismograph thing. It was over after that. Then the The Niners get the ball. Niners can't do anything with it. Seahawks got three possessions in Niners territory to start out. It was just like...
It was an ass-kicking. It was an ass-kicking, yeah. And also on Friday, we mentioned that the Seahawks have won 10 straight, now 11 straight home playoff games with fans in the crowd. And that was the perfect way to remind everyone how loud that place is when there are fans there, because it was an electric start. We also had Eddie Piniero one of the saddest flags possible when he tried to slide tackle. It's a kicker tackle. It was so pathetic. And that was basically the tone because, yeah, you're right. Going into this game, we knew, okay, the Seahawks are 7. 50. Favorites. They beat them in week 18. They completely shut them down offensively. We knew that the Niners were going to have to play a near-perfect game, and the near-perfect game went out the window instantly, not only with the kick return, but then the fourth down where they didn't convert, the Niners didn't convert on their first possession. It was the Kyle Usheck running to the short side, which I still don't understand that play. The Seahawks just completely shut that down. He pitched it to Chris McCapry, where he was almost one foot out of bounds.
It was way too late. Then it's 10-0. Then you have the next drive, a fumble, 17-0, game over. It was that fast. The Niners had to They didn't play perfect for any part of it. And the credit to Seahawks defense and Kenneth Walker, who was awesome, unleashing Kenneth Walker. Now, the Charbonneau might be out because it did feel like that. It was like, Hey, this guy's really good. And it was a perfect game script for Sam Darnold with one of the weirdest injuries we've had in the fact that he didn't throw a ball for the back half of the entire week. Has an oblique. Everyone was freaking out. There was weird comments. Schefter was reported reporting that he hasn't thrown a ball. He's not in warmups, all this stuff. Well, you know what you can do for Sam Darnold? You can jump out to a 17-nothing lead and be up the entire game and have your defense completely rock the Niners, and Sam Darnold only has to throw 17 passes.
This might be an unpopular take, but I think kickers should be allowed to trip. I think that they should just give them that. Make the slide tackle if you want. It was extremely sad. But yeah, you're right. Kenneth Walker. The thing about the Seahawks running backs is Kenneth Walker and Charbonet are both really good. They're never really good at the same time. But Kenneth Walker was awesome last night. It seemed like they didn't miss a step at all with Charbonet out. There was nothing that the Niners could do. I think injuries finally caught up to the Niners. There was nothing else that they could scrape together. There's no way that Salah could have fixed that defense good enough to a point where they can stop the Seahawks, especially if you're turning the ball over and giving them short fields. It was just as thorough of a beat down as you see in the playoffs. The score of 41 to 6, I don't even think does it justice. Yeah.
This is what the Seahawks are. I think they are the best team in the NFL, and they have been doing this throughout the year in some of these games. It just happens that this one happened during a divisional game because remember, I can't There was a game. Who do they play? They've just been killing everyone. They killed the Cardinals. Obviously, these games don't matter as much. When the Max Brosmer Vikings game, when it was one of the worst offensive performance you ever seen, the Falcons, they've been killing teams all year, the Saints. It just so happens that a lot of those teams were bad, and you're like, Oh, okay, well, maybe there's a chance. No, the Seahawks are this good. They play perfect defense. They have enough... I mean, Jack Smith, N'Jigba, didn't even have to do much. Again, Sam Darnold, perfect game plan for him with his oblique. I still don't really know how injured he is because he looked like he wasn't having fun.
No.
But he threw it fine.
I don't think it's a fake injury. Some people pointed it as a fake injury when they They heard that he had an oblique and that he wasn't... Was he officially doubtful? He was questionable for the game? Yeah. He was questionable because there's no probable designation anymore. They wanted to say that he had an injury. But the fact that he didn't throw a ball Thursday or Friday tells me it was probably real. It was. Because you would ideally like your starting quarterback to practice before an important playoff game like this. But if Sam Darnold had not set foot on the field and nothing else had happened in that game, the Seahawks would have won 7-6. The game was over after that first kickoff.
Maybe 10-6 just because they did get that fumble and then got a field goal off of it.
Yeah, maybe.
You're right.
But if the offense hadn't set foot on the field, the Seahawks still win that game.
It's not a knock at Sam Darnald. It's just, again, the perfect... It was the perfect game for a quarterback that has a oblique issue, and you think he probably is going to get healthier going forward. Kaushiannan did mention that he fully expected him to play because Toradol is a hell of a drug, which they do use all the time. I know we were debating that the other time. I did reach out to a couple of our friends who were former pros, and they said they took a turtle shot every game.
Every single game?
Yeah, every game. Not great for the kidneys. No, but great for ball.
The Seahawks, it was also funny when they tweeted the QB1 is entering the game. They had them both walking in at the same time. The Seahawks knew. The way they were talking about before, they were not concerned about it. They're like, QB1 is entering the facility. It was just both of them walking in.
It was just such a blowout that maybe the best analysis I saw was, did you see your guy Paul pierce? Yeah. He talked about the game? Paul pierce had two tweets from the game. The first one was, Niners cooked, Purdue, can't throw downfield. And the second was, Minnesota had Darryl, L-O-L, and Lee Him go.
Is that written by Paul or were there some ladies over at the house?
I don't know. But that was where this game, we had a drunk Paul pierce Having the best tweets out there. But yeah, it was... I don't know. Sears are just really fucking good. And the Niners, again, yeah, great season. Incredible job by Kyle Shanaher, losing Tanja to get another He had a station injury with Tondjus. Christian McCaffee said afterwards that was the hardest year. I mean, they couldn't run the ball all year. They just didn't. They were trying to throw trick plays at them. None of them worked. We saw Mac Jones at the end of the game. It did make me think, was there a Is it part of you, Max, watching this and you're like, The Eagles actually go lower in the power ranking because this Niners team that just got demolished beat the Eagles in Philadelphia? Yeah, the Eagles sucked. Yeah. Because it's like you go away from Wild Card Weekend being like, Wow, the Niners, what a win on the road. I don't know if it was because Seahawks are just that much better.
The Niners are obviously a very, very flawed team. I think what we saw last week against the Eagles, that was the last gasp. That was like they put everything that they had into that game, and there was absolutely nothing left.
Did you see Rock Purdy, the stats they had, he ran 413 yards on 33 dropbacks during the game. That's crazy. That's insane. He was running for his life.
Just scrambling, letting it fly, just trying to make something happen. They don't have anyone to catch the ball. They didn't have any way to run the ball against that defense. The defense that they put out on the field was missing probably seven or eight guys.
The Seahawks are just better in every way.
Seahawks are awesome. The Seahawks offensive line played really, really well last night. Everything about them. They are a very complete team. It's just about what Sam Darnold are we going to get. Sometimes you don't even need to get Sam Darnold. Yeah.
If you look at it, obviously, the offense didn't have to do a whole lot for the Seahawks, but if you look at the stats, they basically played a perfect game. They scored 40 plus points. They rushed for 150 yards. They had zero turnovers, allowed zero touch downs, had less than 10 penalty yards, scored a special team's shutdown. No other team in the NFL's history has done all of that in any game, regular season or playoffs. Now, that's obviously a long long list of crazy stuff, but that's basically a list of, Hey, we just played the perfect game.
Yeah, it was perfect. It was perfect.
And guess what? By the way, Seahawks have the fourth most cap space going into the offseason. That's pretty insane to realize.
Who are they going to get? I don't know. Where do they go with that cap space? I don't know. That's such a luxury that they have right now, because if you were to say, What is the weakness on the Seahawks right now? What would it even be? Maybe you could get a game-changing tight-end.
Yeah.
They've got good tight ends, but what do you do with that money?
We've talked about, I don't know what you do with that money.
You just- Distribute to the fans.
Yeah, give it to the fans. Kyle Shanaher, this is another crazy stat I saw. Kyle Shanaher, there it is. That's Capspace next year. The Seahawks are at four. They change every... Part of the reason or part of when you draft so well, you then have to use a lot of your cap space on resigning the guys.
Because Jason is still on his rookie track.
Yeah, there's a bunch of things that will shake out that they will probably not go into free to see with the top four cap space because they have a lot of good players. This is a crazy stat as well. Kyle Shanahan has coached in the NFL for 163 games. He has had his team be held under seven points how many times? If you had to guess.
Three.
It's four, and two of them are by the Seahawks in the last month. That's crazy. Yeah, it is nuts. That's nuts. Again, they're injured, but still, the Seahawks defense has put... Kyle Shannon, again, to reiterate, 159 out of the 163 times he has coached an NFL game, his team has scored more than seven points. So the other four, two of them have happened in the last two weeks, basically.
So you have a Seahawks problem?
He might have a Seahaw problem.
He might have a Hawk problem.
He might have a Hawk.
I'm looking at the upcoming free agents for the Seahawks. They will have to replace some guys or resign some of their own guys. Kenneth Walker, unrestricted free agent. Rick Wullen, UFA, Kobe Bryant, Mafe. They've got some guys they'll need to resign. But the bottom line is the Seahawks are very, very well-rounded, very complete team right now. The fact that they have Shahid, who everybody thought when they got him in that trade midseason, it was like, Look out, because I can't wait to see what the Seahawks do with Sheed's skillset. He didn't really do that much in the regular season. No. But we saw last night, that's why you get him. He is fast as fuck.
They even had Vilas Jones in a play, and I was like, What? I couldn't believe it. They just say Vilas Jones. What do the Niners do? Just roll it back? Move. Yeah.
Invest in the aluminum suits that you wear after a marathon. Yeah. Build a giant metal wall.
It was because it was like last year was the year where it was like, okay, maybe they have to retool everything. Then they put together this year where they were playing for the NFC West title in Week 18. They have still a very good core, but I don't Guys are getting older.
This will be interesting. I don't know what the plans are for the teams going into the Super Bowl. Is anybody going to practice at the Niners team facility? If they are offered that practice space, do you say no?
I think you have to say no.
I think you got to say no.
I also feel like they wouldn't allow either team to practice there anyway because it's right next to the stadium. I feel like that's a competitive advantage. Maybe, yeah. They're going to have San Jose State and other local colleges give up their fields.
There are going to be so many reporters out at that substation.
Yeah, the substation will be a big story of the Super Bowl. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay.
This was like, okay, Niners, objectively terrible way to end your season last night. This was a great season for them. Yeah. This was a great season. They didn't expect it. They didn't have Brandon Ayuk. They lost everybody in injury. I know- Mac Jones played for a significant portion of the season.
Fred Warner was going to come back next week.
One of my favorite parts of the game was Fred Warner started the game last night up in the booth, and then he came down on the sidelines. I think Tom braided said, Now they know Fred's here. Now they know they got to be on business. They got to do it. They got to be on business because Fred's on the sidelines now. It was never going to work out against the Seahawks team, and I'm very happy for the people of Seattle. They've had a rough go of it recently in their sports fandom, but this team is special. It feels like this team is now the team to beat in the NFL.
Yeah, it feels like they're the best team, top to bottom. The question is just Sam Darnold, as always. If they can play like this and their defense can play like this, Sam Darnold doesn't have to do a ton to win a Super Bowl.
I'm also pumped to see an NFC Championship game in Seattle. That crowd is going to be fucking crazy.
The kickoff was a reminder. Like, Oh, shit. I forgot how loud the 12th man really is.
Yeah, we'll have to get a dome report from Spencer Hawes. I'm sure he's going to go.
Absolutely. All right, let's go to the AFC game.
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Okay. Bills, Broncos. Broncos 33, Bills 30. Let's do this in order because I feel like we could get lost. There's so much to talk about with this game. Let's go Broncos, Bills, Refs. Okay.
Do you feel right?
Yeah, it sounds good. Because the one thing I hate about how this all went down is that it was an all-time game. It was just while we were watching it, you had that feel of the third quarter into the fourth quarter. You're like, This is an unbelievable playoff game. Then to have it all be the conversation as refs after, sucks. So let's talk game, bills, and then we'll go refs.
Where do we want to put in Tony Romo?
Tony Romo, we could start off the top. I thought I was on drugs watching this game in the first half.
I thought that I was watching a man. I tweeted out, Let's give Tony Romo some credit here because he does a phenomenal job announcing games that he absolutely does not care about. He does not give a fuck anymore. To do that, to be able to, I'd say, hit an 85% strike rate, it's pretty good. That's pretty impressive. But Tony does not give a fuck anymore. There was that drive in the first half where Josh Allen reached out for a first down. Clearly, we saw what happened on the field. He was short of the sticks. They get up, they run the QB sneak. He gets the first down. Then he's got the ball, they hand it off. Tony Romo was like, Now you put yourself in a dangerous spot here running the football. I was like, What are you talking about, Tony?
That's when I was like, Did I get laced or something? Did someone slip something in my drink? Am I watching the right broadcast?
What's going on? What's going on, Tony? Then on the next drive that the Bills have, he called Josh Allen Mahomes. Yeah. Which is great. What's Tony Romo doing?
Have you guys seen this trend that's going around on Twitter where people just tweet nonsense sentences all mashed together with weird words and stuff? You start to read it and you're supposed to get almost instantly confused. These words all are real words, but they don't line up. That's how I felt listening to Tony Romo.
Yeah, it felt like you're having a stroke.
Yeah. I was like, I'm so confused right now. I don't know what's going on.
Yeah. The Call him Josh Allen Mahomes thing was bizarre, but I do think that that is a deep part of Tony's psyche, that he loves Patrick Mahomes so much that he thinks every quarterback is now on Mahomes. It's like him and Collinsworth. I could see Collinsworth doing that, too. Yeah. So, yeah, that's the Tony thing. I do think he did make up for a little bit. He had some good insight that he put out there later.
Yeah, later. Tough start. So the Broncos, a hell of a win. It felt like at times in this game that the Bills were just significantly better than the Broncos, and It was just that the Bills kept on turning the ball over. But that Bo Nicks drive at the end of the game down 27, 23 when he goes four minutes left in the game and he goes 73 yards making big pass after big pass was awesome. And they It felt like they were on the... As much as they were in control, especially at the end of the first half, it felt like they were on the ropes the second half after the Bills mounted their comeback. So for them to sustain and be like, Hey, we're okay, play defense, take the ball away, even though they were getting gashed at times, they took the ball away in big-time moments. That was a hell of a win. Then an hour after the game, we find out that Bo Nicks broke his ankle on the second and last play of the game, which is such a bummer.
It's a big-time bummer. When Sean Payton came back out there, he ended his press conference. He was done talking to the media, and then he comes back out for a secret surprise second press conference. He was like, Yeah, I miss talking to you guys so much. I want to just let you know because we just found out Bo Nicks is going to be... They had all the information. It's like Bo Nicks fractured a bone of his ankle on the second to last play. He scheduled his surgery with this one particular doctor in the state of Alabama. They had an entire treatment plan planned out for it. Then you go back and you watch the play that it allegedly happened And it's just it seems like a regular football routine play that he might have aggravated when he took a knee.
And apparently, he's had this type of injury twice before in high school and in Auburn. Now, if you're a Broncos fan, I have a very good friend, one of my best friends is a Bronco's fan. He was mad that Sean Payton said this right after the games. He was thinking, Wait till Tuesday for game plan purposes. That probably doesn't really change game plans. But I do actually think there's a A very fair point if you're a Bronco's fan to be like, Hey, Sean Payton, could you wait just so we could celebrate for one night? Could we have one night where we go out to the bars after the game and have an awesome time instead of just dropping this on our head immediately after and bumming us all out? He did steal it.
He ruined that part of it, for sure. In terms of the game plan, I don't think that you're going to game plan like, Well, okay, now we got to reinstall our defense because it's going to be steady. Right.
You would have found out on Tuesday because they would have had practice reports and Bonyx would not have been there.
Right. That's the other thing. When he said that Jared Sedam was going to start because he's been their guy, he knows the system. Initially, I think we were all like, Oh, fuck. Well, congratulations to the Patriots or the Texans, whoever wins that game. But then he referred to him as Stitty. Stitty. I feel like Steading can get you a playoff win at home. I might be on board the Itty Bitty Steading Committee.
Dude, the way that Sean Payton was talking about Steading, and if you look at what happened when Sean Payton got to Denver, I think Jared Stittam might have been his very first free agent signing. When free agency, the first day of free agency, he signed Jared Stidham. And then Jared Stidham was the backup to Russ for a couple of years. And then guess what? He gave him another contract. Sean Payton is saying, This was always the guy I wanted to be the backup. I believed in him enough that I went out and was like, There's a million guys you can get as a backup. He was like, No, I want Stitty. I think Sean Payton has got something with Stitty that we don't know I also really, really trust Sean Payton.
Sean Payton is a very good football player.
I feel like the running the ball yesterday was a very weird setup because the Bills defense was not good against the rush, and they only ran one handoff in the fourth quarter. I think both their guys... I got to look it up. I think both their guys were averaging five yards of carry, and they only ran it 10, 15 times. Sean Payton, but maybe this is better to have Steadian. You run the ball a little bit more. Yeah, 10 runs. Mcglachlin and R. J. Harvey had 10 runs, so McGlackland was 5. 3 yards per carry. R. J. Harvey was 3. 3. So they weren't running the ball that well. But it was interesting to not have more of an emphasis on the run game when they were up in the fourth quarter against a Bills defense that can't really stop the run.
So we're on record. We're team Steady. We think Steady might be able to get it done.
I think Steady might... I don't know if Steady can get it done. All I know is Sean Payton loves Steady. He might be a Stitty. There might be something with Steady that we don't know about yet.
There's something about Steady. There's something about it. Yeah. I'm going to trust Sean Payton, and I'm going to think that he can cobble together a game plan that minimizes Stitty's possibilities for mistakes. Yeah.
Max, you're going to Stitty fuck?
No, he's going to suck.
He's going to suck?
Big old Stitty's.
Why? Patriots are just going to have the easiest path in the Super Bowl in NFL history.
Well, we're recording this before the game, so it could be either or. We already talked about that. Yeah, we already talked about that. We did a really good job of not fucking that up, and then you just had to... Because you're mad. I'm not mad. Jarrett did them, dude.
I'm just saying.
You sound mad. I thought the biggest concern for the Broncos yesterday, the Bills were just running the football up their dicks in the first half. It was pretty bad defense from a team that's been really good all season. Then when they were able to get at Josh Allen, really the fumble at the end of the first half by Josh, that's bad Josh. You have to know that you're going to get bad Josh. That was about as bad Josh as you'll ever see in the playoffs. Then to start the second half, the sack fumble, not really on Josh, more on the protection, pushing the edge rusher. Was that Benito that had that sack?
Yeah, it was the last minute of the first half and the first minute of the second half. That basically cost the bills the game because it was a 10-10 game, and Bo makes a great countdown pass to make it 17-10 with 20 seconds left. I do not know what Sean McDermann is doing in that situation. I guess it's both Sean McDermann and Josh Allen. Josh Allen, you can't run the ball there because the half's over. You're not going to run for... The half's over.
Well, you can run, but just don't get tackled like a fool. There's no reason to run. I know there's no reason, but it does happen. So don't run. It does happen a lot. I don't know if he was thinking, maybe I get downfield and we can try to get one more play to get the field goal range. But the way he was holding the ball was like, What are you doing, Josh?
But situationally, the awareness, don't run the ball there. The minute it gets bad, just give yourself up and go live to fight another day. Then, yeah, so it goes from a 10-10 game with 30 seconds left in the first half to all of a sudden, it's a minute into the second half and it's 23: 10. You're like, What just happened? Let's talk about the Bills. Josh, the turnovers were bad. You can't say It was a big-time Josh Allen game in the fact that the good plays were wow plays, and the bad plays were like, Fuck, how did this happen? The fumble was bad, the first pick. The first pick, the second pick is really not on him, which we can talk about when we get to the refs, the play where he had Dawson Knox at the end of the game, that's a countdown. That's probably a breakdown. That's probably game over. You're playing in the AFC Championship game, and he missed that throw, and it sucks. I feel awful. I can say Josh Allen had plays in that game that cost him the game while also saying, I feel really bad for Josh because obviously we love him, and it's just you saw it on his face after.
They've just been banging their head against the wall over and over and over, and it sucks for them, and he knows that he has to play better.
Without Josh, they're not in the playoffs. They don't get there. They're not driving to win the game at the end of it. But he also has a lot of responsibility on this loss. And it's one of the first payoff losses that the Bills have had where you can say, Yeah, this is on Josh Allen, that they lost this game. There was a lot of discussion. Actually, there have been two discussions that have been going on in the last 24 hours regarding Josh Allen. One is whether or not America is going to have a conversation about Josh Allen. Is America going to have this conversation? Should we start the conversation about Josh Allen? Sure. Okay. What's the conversation about Josh Allen? I don't know. Okay.
Hank, do you know what the conversation is, Hank? Hank can lead it.
Is he ever going to make it to the Super Bowl? He's getting old. Yeah.
I have a fix. Well, maybe not a fix. What's the window?
How open is the window?
I think the window-It's a fair question. I think you got to start asking a different conversation. We should have a different conversation before we have the Josh Allen conversation.
Okay. Mcdermott.
How long are we going to give McDermott? We like being their GM, but I think it's fair to also say, Hey, man, are you just never going to get Josh Josh, any receiving help?
Yeah. The other part of this is the worst Bills team of this last five-year run because they were just defensively not very good. But it also was the most wide-open playoff. Josh Allen would have been the best he was the best quarterback remaining, and now... So it feels like a wasted opportunity. I think you have to move on from Sean McDermott. I don't know. It's not that he's a bad coach. You can't keep doing the same thing every single year. You can't keep losing in the playoffs every single year this way and expect things to change. You just have to say, Hey, thank you so much. The Bills, since 2019, when they started going to the playoffs with Josh, they are 83 and 33. That's really fucking good. And they also, in the last six years, the Bills have scored the most points, allowed the fewest points, have the best record, and have a point differential of 902. No other team is over 600. They have been an incredible team, and they don't have anything to show for it. And you're not going to get rid of Josh Allen. It's like the Lamar Harbaugh situation.
You're not going to trade Lamar Jackson. You're going to get rid of John Harbaugh. I think you have to do the same thing here. I also saw a stat that was shocking, which I never really put together, but I'm going to pull it up right now. It was from Josh Dubot AP, @joshdubeautap. There have been 36 head coaches who have won a Super Bowl. Of the 32 that were hired in the Super Bowl era, so it's not counting Vincent Bartie, who was hired before the Super Bowl era started, even though he won a Super Bowl. Of the 32 that were hired in the Super Bowl era, this is the years that they won their first Super Bowl. Four of them won in their first year with their team. Eight of them won them in the second year with their team. Four of them won in the third year of their team. Seven of them won in the fourth year. Five of them won in the fifth year. And then you go six, seven, eight. There's just one in each of those. And then Bill Cauer won in the 14th year. What it basically is saying is if you don't win the Super Bowl with your new team in the first five years, historically, it It says the odds are against you.
Yeah. I get another stat from that same guy. Okay. So the Bills are the first team ever to win a playoff game for six straight season without winning a Super Bowl in any of those seasons. Yeah. So it does speak to Sean McDonald, I think, now is number one, most playoff wins without a Super Bowl appearance.
Yeah.
I think Sean McDermott, like you said, is a very good head coach. But if you're the Bills under Sean McDermott, you have now reached the point where you pencil in an extra sad loss every single January. You expect that to happen now. It's in the back of your head. You know it's going to happen. You know it's going to come. I don't know what he does for the messaging this offseason, if they give him back. If it hasn't worked for the previous I don't know what you do going into the seventh year. It does feel like it's probably time to go a different way. I think I would imagine that almost every single team in the league would take Josh Allen as their quarterback right now. Yes. Almost every single one would. Josh, after the game, he was emotional. Zack, you're a cry guy. You've cried on camera recently. Big time cry guy. What was your analysis of Josh weeping on camera after the game?
He wasn't holding back whatsoever. Those were real pain in those tears. It's got to be just insanely frustrating. This was the first time. Like you said, PFT, this is the first time that Josh Allen has not... If you look at his stats in big playoff games, he's played games. Like the Thirteen Second Chief's game, he played a perfect football game. There's games where he has not been the problem. This was the first time where he said, I let my team down. And yeah, the four turnovers are really hard to overcome. And again, it's not like taking Taking away blame from Josh Allen to say that Sean McDermott, they should move on from him. It's just that you aren't going to get rid of Josh Allen.
Yeah. Will Josh Allen win a Super Bowl? I say yes. I hope so. I think that he will. I'm rooting for him hard. Oh, I know the conversation. Okay, this is the conversation that America, I don't know if they're ready to have yet, but we should have it. It was a thought starter from Mckenzie Lozano. She works at Barstool. She produces Macrodosing. She's a diehard Bills fan.
Oh, yeah, this is not great.
I'd rather die with No Super Bowl with Josh Allen as my quarterback than ever win a Super Bowl. So let's discuss.
No. No.
You wouldn't?
I'd rather win a Super Bowl. Love Josh.
Then die with no Super Bowl. Embrace debate. If it's not with Josh, she won't be as happy.
Do you think Bills fans are watching the games today?
I think they might be going to bed.
They love football. You're so mean, Hank. I genuinely was wondering that.
It fucking sucks for Bills fans that they've had this window where the Patriots finally stopped being dominant in the division. They owned your division for how many years now? Six years, basically. Six years. Obviously, this year, the Patriots won the division. But The Bills have been the force, and it coincided with the Patriots' dynasty, taking a dip. Now, the Patriots are back in the playoffs, winning the division, and people are asking if the window is over for Josh Allen.
Yeah, it's It sucks for Bills fits. Josh Allen's own three now in overtime games in the playoffs. It feels like every year it's just... And again, I think the worst part watching this game because no wider... A decimated wide receiver core, a defense that was leaky, you walk in this game being like, Hey, there's a version that the Broncos are just better. They weren't. The Bills looked like the better team for big portions of this game. The turnovers told the story. And then the other story was the refs and the catch-non-catch at the end of overtime. So the good news is, if you're a Bills fan and you're coping with this right now, you do have just an insane amount of screen grabs that you can just go. We talk about this all the time, come playoff, that if you're going to lose, if you can at least get some screen grabs that you can just fight online about for the next week, it's It's at least a consolation prize. Not a good one, but at least something.
There are some incredible screen grabs that you can take from that catch where he's on the ground, he has possession of the ball, the Bronco's defender is two-hand touching him down. Jaquin McMillan. I would say that This is even a better screenshot than the one where it was against the Chiefs, where it looked like Josh got the first down. Yeah. I think that this is now- This might be the number one screenshot of all time. This is number one in your arsenal of reasons to be pissed off at the NFL. Brandon Cooke catches the goes to the ground. Does he? Well, he did catch the ball. We don't know if it was a catch. Got it. But he did catch the ball, right?
The ball was in his hands.
The ball was in his hands.
The ball was in his hands, which some people would call a catch. That's not the NFL rule. But the ball He goes in his hands. He goes to the ground, ball still in his hands as he hits the ground. The ball gets dislodged on the ground, and the cornerback for Denver, what was his name again? Mcmillon. Mcmillon rolls away with the ball before the ball touches the ground or before, I guess, Brandon Cooke's makes an act common to the game of football. Then they do the most convoluted review process ever that America didn't get an insight into. That's the problem.
I think that's the biggest issue.
Usually, I would like to see a ref go under some a hood or walk up to a monitor. And even if you got Mark Butterworth chirping at him in the New York studio where they're doing the replay.
Oh, Butterworth's fingers are all over this thing.
It is. This is a classic Butterworth situation.
This is a Butterworth joint.
We want to see the ref that's on the field, the guy that's wearing the cleats, I'm assuming refs wear cleats. We want to see that guy looking at a monitor and maybe hearing through his earpiece that Butterworth says it's an interception. Then he walks out to the field, says that they take a look at it, and that it's the Denver Broncos football. Instead, what we got was just a couple of replays shown on TV, and then the game just started again.
You need to allow us to take a breath. You need to allow us to sit there and just watch it over and over and then debate it. They robbed us of that, and I think that has a lot to do with the anger people have. My first knee jerk was, That's a catch. How is that not a catch? After watching it, I don't know, a thousand times, I actually think that it's an interception. If you told me I have to watch it a thousand more times, I might go back to catch because it's that close. But as I sit here right now, I don't know if he caught it. Visualizing the idea idea that if the ball had popped out right when McMillan grabbed it, would that be called a catch? No, it would be called an incomplete. That's what sealed it in my brain.
Yeah, I think it looks like a catch when you first watch it. By the logic of the NFL's rulebook, I think that it's the correct call for it to be an interception. It looks like a catch, but that's not what the NFL rule is.
Do you guys all agree?
Well, there's one problem with it. It's cut and dry. There's one problem with it.
If you remove McMillon from the situation, he's catching on his own, he catches the ball in the air, hits the ground, it pops out in completion.
There's one problem with it, and that's that the refs have not always seen this the exact same way every time. So Aaron Rodgers, when he threw that interception the other week where he caught it, went to ground, and it got stolen away from him. You remember that play? Yeah. He fell to his knees. That is a very similar play to this. I think the NFL is saying that Aaron Rodgers made a football move by intentionally bringing his knees to the turf before it got ripped out. I think that's where the distinction is, but it's almost an identical play when you look at the logic applied to it. We just would have liked to see... Give us a chance to digest it and to have Jean Sterritor or whoever pop up on the screen and walk us through it, as opposed to Butterworth getting on his AUV headset and paging down to the refs and being like, Hey, guys, that's Bronco's ball. Let's get this game going.
Yeah, it left us all saying, What the hell just happened? Then we have the pass interference calls, which I don't... The first one I thought was wrong because we also had the... There was a... Bills fans will point you incorrectly. It's basically a war right now going on of, What about this play? What about this play? What about this play? There's the hold in the end for the safety that would have ended it.
That one hurts for Bronco's fans.
Yeah, because Bo Nicks.
They're the real victims in this.
It's crazy to bring this out of order because it could be a totally different- No, regardless of what happens, that's facts. All right. Then they had, just to be fair, the Bill's, There was a no call of the bills looked like a pass interference in the end zone on the Broncos at the end of regulation. The first one, I thought, Taran Johnson, I thought wasn't a pass interference. The second one, Tredavius White was. But here's the problem. The refs spent the entire game not calling pretty much anything. Then they decided to start calling stuff in overtime. That's where I think it's bullshit. That's where I side with Bills fans in their plight is that it's not that this wasn't... Tredavius White, by the letter of the law, he was pass-interfering. He was. That's a call that can get made. They just didn't call anything for the majority of the game and let a lot of stuff go. And then in overtime, they're like, You know what? We're going to calling it. That part would be bullshit to me.
Yeah, Tredavius White, that was pass interference. I don't care what they called or what they didn't call earlier in the game. It sucks that that's how the game ended.
Oh, I do care what they called earlier in the game because they set the tone of how they were calling the game, and it was a physical game that they were letting a lot of things go. Then they don't, that's where it pisses me off.
I still think that one in particular, it sucks to watch, but that was pass interference no matter what they called earlier.
But they let the one go earlier. That was clearly on the pass interference on the Braille's receiver.
On Brandon Coox. Yeah, I think that was also pass interference that they missed. Right.
But they were consistently not calling those during the game until over time. They're like, Oh, fuck it. We'll start calling them. That's bullshit. I would be pissed if I were a Bills fan.
Now, Sean McDermott went through all the emotions after the game. He seems like he's just in denial about the way that it ended, and he's just asking for clarification. He's trying to fight it.
Which is fair because clarification is really the biggest part of this is like, they should have stopped and told us everything.
But this has been our problem with Butterworth the entire time, is he's sitting in his office like an evil villain, like that guy from Inspector Gadget that's got the cat with his back turned to the camera.
Butterworth moves in the shadows. You can never nab him down. He's so elusive. You're like, Oh, you see a little smear on a little greasy smear on a table. You're like, Butterworth was here.
I do think that we talked about the difference between the refs that are on the field and then a guy like Butterworth that's sitting up in his booth that has never... He's never been in a locker room. He's never put his cleats on. He's never stepped on the field. I do feel like the refs on the field will be more likely to rule that a catch than a guy sitting in his rule book lair that's watching everything in super slow-mo with all the angles like he's in the matrix. Maybe that's just a hunch that I have. I feel like a ref that's on the field with these guys would be like, Yeah, it's a catch. Yeah.
Such a bizarre game, though, to have it be great, have it end in a pass interference, have it end in a controversial play, have the Bills get their absolute guts ripped out yet again, and then have the Broncos have Bo Nicks get hurt. It's like, Who even won this game? It was such a wild swing of emotions. The Broncos hadn't won a playoff game since their Super Bowl win in 2015. It should be nothing but the happiest times, and yet it just all got sucked out of there, and everyone's walking away from this game being like, Well, who won?
Before we did our own research on Steading, what were your first thoughts on what the Broncos should do? I had two that came to mind. This is officially just like fan fiction time. When you hear a quarterback goes down like this, what would be the most awesome story lines? My first one was Drew Brees. Give him a call. Would have been awesome. See if he can play one more game. Somebody pointed out that he can only throw like 30 yards now. I don't care. The altitude up there makes a difference. Then number two was Thibault, just because Thibault is always number two. Then third was Philip Rivers.
Oh, We're missing one crazy storyline.
What if Philip Rivers came and played for the Broncos?
We're missing one crazy storyline. What if braided?
Oh, yeah.
That'd be crazy.
Yeah, just shits on Peyton Manning's legacy as a Bronco. He wins the Super Bowl as a Bronco. Well, the fact that he owns a team that's in the same division probably makes it less likely, but also more chaotic, which I would appreciate.
But he would also be the one that you would take out of all those four. Maybe Phil Rivers because he just played.
Again, before Max ruined K fabe for us, before we disclosed that we didn't know who won the Texans-Patriots game. That's on me.
That's all right, Max. You're not a Stitty guy. You're not a Stitty guy. I'm not.
Just in this alternate take universe. Stitty is a good guy.
The thing of the show.
You're just mad because as we're sitting this right now... What?
Stutt them.
Stutt them? As we're sitting here right now, it's an hour before the Patriots and Texans kick off. I'm about to go to the bears game, and you are mad because you're like, the Patriots have the easiest path to the Super Bowl.
Nfl history.
But what happens if they lose the Texans?
Let's go Texans. I wish they had that to say.
They're not going to lose the Texans because... I don't know. Will Anderson and Daneel Hunter and C. J. Stroud and Woody Marks are all going to get the flu before the game.
They're not losing to the Texans.
They're not. Nico Collins and their right tackle both out.
He's fully broken emersion.
But just imagine.
Well, they're doing their little thing.
I love it. What if Tom braided came back and beat the Patriots in Denver? For the Broncos? Yeah. Oh, I would come. Talk about having a stroke on TV. I would have a stroke for sure. Different stroke.
You're crazy about Stidham. Stidham might be a guy.
Maybe. I would love for him to be a guy.
He's not, but he might be.
Have you guys heard the...
Mcdaniels love Stidham.
Have you guys heard the theory that Boedix actually didn't get hurt in that play?
Well, yeah. After it happened, I believe that he did now, like 95%. Maybe 90%. 90%, that's where he got hurt. The other 10% of my brain was like, they were fucking partying in the locker room. Bonyx slipped in the shower. Too much horseplay. It's a horseplay-related end. He gets up quick after this play.
Hey, did you tweet after, like, shout out to Bills for breaking his ankle before? To end the game? No? No. Did you think that in your head? No. Not at all?
I'm with Max. I don't think that's where it happened. Something makes no sense.
You think something's up?
Something is Something is up.
Something is up.
He gets up so quickly for a guy who just shattered his head.
I'm not looking past the Texans, but Tracy Wolfson did tweet in real-time.
She's like, something to monitor, Bo Nicks looks like he has a limp.
Yeah, I think she said it might have been his knee, but she did say that he was limping off the field at the end of the game.
She was the first to report.
And that's before Sean Payton came out. Max, I'm going to put my fingers up. Yeah, I'll go with you.
I'm just going to say 90%. I'm going to say 90%.
It's weird that Sean Payton came out. Injury update. Here's the full plan. We've got his appointment. He's checking it at 9: 00 in the morning. He's going to be using Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and then he's got his first rehab assignment on February seventh at 07: 30 AM. He had the treatment plan.
Oh, are you guys are saying what I'm thinking?
The script.
Soft benching.
Soft benching, yeah.
Is this the most high-profile soft benching of all time? Yeah.
They got to see what Steady's got. They got to see what he got.
Because think about it. If Sean If Sean Payton benched Bo Nicks, everyone would riot. Now, he's got a fractured ankle and he's going to Alabama, and it's Stitty, his guy that Sean Payton thought has been the guy since day one, soft benching.
Sean Payton, he gets his guys that he falls in love with. I know. He might be in love. Like he was in love with Taysam Hill for so long. He might just be in love with Steady. If he's in love with Steady, I got no choice but to ride. Yeah.
Okay, so let's I do feel bad for Bills fans. I know that we are biased towards Josh Allen. He had to play better. That's a fact. It sucks that he's going to now... It sucked watching him that emotional. I think the answer is you have to get rid of Sean McDermott. Again, not a bad coach, but it's just you have to change something, and you're not going to trade Josh Allen.
It's time.
It's time. It sucks. Because I do think he's a good coach, but just Nine years in.
If you do that, you have to have a plan, though. You have to be sure that you can get somebody better than Sean McDermott, somebody that's still out there.
But I think just any type of newness is going to help.
Mike McDaniel will be very funny if he went there and then proceeded to beat Dolphins. If you can't beat Daddy, join him.
Yeah. Okay, let's talk some college football national Championship.
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Okay, we got a national championship. How do you guys think it's going to go? Did you see Carson Beck was asked how class was this week, and he's like, Dude, I graduated two years ago. I haven't been to a class. It's what a life.
Yeah, I just played football. What an incredible life. I'm a professional football player.
That's what I do. In Miami, for the good Miami team.
Yeah, I did see that. That was very funny. I think Indiana is just going to keep rolling. It feels that way, doesn't it? They've been so dominant recently. Although I will say, with all the talk of Indiana cheating, if there's one guy that could to stop Indiana from spying on stuff, from doing whatever it is that are alleged to have been doing. Mario Cristobal was a secret service agent. True. This is a man that knows how to set up a perimeter. Good point. This is a man that can keep prying eyes away from high-value targets unless they're on a sloped roof. I think that Mario Cristobal is uniquely positioned to be able to at least put to bed any allegations of cheating win or lose this weekend. But I do feel like Indiana is just... They don't make mistakes. Mistakes. They're methodical. They suffocate you, and they don't stop. So if they get a lead, it's not like this is a team that's going to sit on the lead and open themselves up to a second-a-half comeback. I don't think. They seem like a team that will get a lead, and they will just not stop scoring on you until the final whistle.
The one thing I'll say about Miami is they do play big boy football. Their lines, the offensive line, defensive line, are massive. It's not going to be a physical mismatch in any way. Sometimes a Big Ten ACC school, you can be like, Oh, no. Miami is built more like a Big Ten school or a really good SEC school than it is ACC. I think they'll be competitive. Are you going to live hedge at all? Because a reminder, you have a 16 to 1 national Championship future on the hurricanes.
On the hurricanes. I feel terrible about it going to this game. I think Indiana is eight and a half point favorites now. It's going up that far. On the money line, what does that make them like? Minus 320?
Right now, let's pull it up. On DraftKings.
Minus 340.
Minus 340 for Indiana. I'm going to hope that Miami... If Miami goes up seven to nothing, it'll probably get down to what? Indiana minus 170? Maybe. Maybe. In that case, I might hedge. I really hope they go up 10-0 or 14-0, in which case I will absolutely hedge because I think that Indiana is... They're inevitable. They're one of the best football teams that we've seen in College in a very long time, and I don't see Miami beating him.
Kurt Signetti did say that he is a college football coach through and through. So that was made pretty clear that he's not going anywhere. Mike McCarthy is now going to interview for the Steeler's job, which is very funny.
So with the allegations directed towards Indiana recently, I was thinking last week of if you had an unlimited budget and unlimited technology. So not including magic. If magic isn't part of this. I'd like to have some magic. No magic. I'm not granting you any magic. How would you- We're not Magic Johnson. How even... Yeah, you get magic.
Okay, you get magic. Yeah.
How would you even go about cheating? No magic. No magic. You can't use magic, but unlimited budget.
Cyber warfare.
Yeah, cyber warfare.
That's all I use.
You just hack into their meeting rooms.
Yeah, I don't understand how any of that works, but I just know when you add cyber to it, it's like, Oh, fuck, they're really doing something serious.
Yeah, you got two guys in a van with earpieces that are sitting outside their facility cracking into the mainframe.
Yeah, you pay someone on the Miami team to give you all their place.
That would be a way to do it, too. I thought of one thing yesterday when I was watching the Bills Broncos game, a way that you could cheat, I think. If you had a guy that was in the booth up above, you remember the vibrating anal beads thing in chess? It wouldn't have to be anal beads, but some vibrating thing. Well, let's just make it anal beads. Okay, anal beads. For the sake of this argument, if they were stuck up Josh Allen's ass at the start of the second half, if that was a halftime adjustment, it's like, lube these things up and toss them up there, Josh. When there's a guy coming at the blindside at a quarterback. You hit the button, the guy up in the booth hits the button, it buzzes. It means just take off because there's a guy that's about to strip-sack you. You could actually cheat doing that. You might still have four possessions a year.
But here's the problem with that. I like the idea, but The one time the anal beads don't work, you don't hit the button fast enough, you basically... Your guy dies.
Your guy dies.
Because he's got the false sense of security that as long as the anal beads aren't going off in my asshole right now, there's no one around me. You're a second late or it just doesn't hit.
You didn't plug it in. Now, the worst feeling would be if you got sacked and you were on the ground and there was a delay in the communication, so you're laying there dead on the ground, and then your butt starts to vibrate because the communication comes through late. Yeah, you're on the pile and it's just vibrating. But yeah, I think Indiana, I think they're going to do it. I think they're going to win by double digits.
It's a hell of a season. We will give them all their flowers if they complete it because it's been... It's one of the craziest stories in sports. It really is. Okay, National Sports Podcast, anything? I had a couple of things before we do Who's Back of the Week. Kyle Tucker, I know this happened on what on Friday. Kyle Tucker is a dodger. It's fucking whatever.
The lineup is insane for the Dodgers.
I don't know who to get mad at. Memes, help me out. Who am I mad at? Bo Bichette's a Met. Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker? Mets gave more year. Fuck Bobachet. Met's gave Kyle Tucker one more year? No, more money. Oh, and he said no? He said no. Oh, so that is the problem. He ran from the ground. If guys are now taking less money to go to the Dodgers and the Dodgers have unlimited money, that is a The same thing happened with Edwin Dias. He said he couldn't win with the Mets, and he just joined the Dodgers. The problem I keep struggling with is that, yes, the Dodgers are spending too much money, or they spend all their money. They're going to be so much better than everyone. They have a competitive advantage. But for all the teams that cry poor, I really do wonder if you just could snap your finger. Maybe we use magic for this. Snap your fingers and be like, Pirates, you have the budget that the Dodgers have. Reds, you have the budget the Dodgers have. I don't think any of those teams actually spend the way the Dodgers do.
They just take a profit, which is bullshit. I agree. That's the part where I'm like, I know the system's broken, but I have a hard time blaming the Dodgers because they're just doing the things that the system has allowed. Until you fix it, they're going to keep doing it, and they're going to keep winning. Yeah.
I mean, obviously, having an owner that's got more money than the other owners is a benefit. It's an advantage. But still, the real benefit is having an owner that does not give a fuck about his own pocketbook will spend whatever it takes to win, knowing that you'll make more money in the long term if you have a dynasty of a baseball team, which is what the Dodgers are going for. So here's the projected lineup for the Dodgers. At opening day, 2026, facing the Nationals, Shoheya O'Tani, Kyle Tucker, Muki Betz, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Max Munsey, Tiasca Hernandez, Tommy Edmund, Andy Pahes, That's a fucking insane lineup.
It's an insane lineup, but I will say, just warning Dodgers fans out there, Kyle Tucker did have the perfect spot in game five against the brewers and had a perfect pitch to hit an extra base hit or a home run, and he fucking did nothing with it. Came up so small. Fire, beware. And that might be me just being a little salty bitch, but I don't care. There. The guy came up small. No, say he sucks. He sucked in the second half. He sucked. Sucked. He was hurt, but he sucked.
No, don't give him an out.
Yeah, he sucked. He was a pussy about it. He thought he played through his entry.
Do you guys have any guesses as to how much the Dodgers have on their books? Current salaries. Deferred or not deferred? Yeah, including the deferred payments.
It's got to be billions. 2.
11 billion dollars in payroll.
It's got to be billions.
I don't understand deferred payments.
Yeah, I don't either.
Everyone talks about it, and it's like... It's like, We will pay you all this money, but we're not going to pay it while you're on the team. Bobby Baneja is a classic one that people. Got it. It's like, We will pay you a million dollars a year for 30 years on this date. You push everything back. There are some teams that have been able to be very successful, where there are other teams like the Nats have not been able to because they were tied up in legal proceedings. The money, yeah, it seemed like it was going be there, but it wasn't as rock solid a thing as the Dodgers can promise Shoheya O'Tani all this money for the next 15 years or however long that contract is. He's like, Yeah, I know you're good for it.
Yeah.
Got it.
Still don't fully understand it, but that is a good explanation.
Why don't you just pay it?
Like right all up front? Because you had to move a few things around.
I think also Shoheya is getting so many advertising deals, endorsement deals that he essentially is probably making... He's making tens of millions of dollars right now because he's playing. Then when he retires, he's going to keep making tens of millions of dollars from his playing days. Yeah. That will... Epe will be able to do as many parlays as he wants.
Yeah, that's actually a great example for Shohe. It's like, traditionally, you would like as much of the money up front as possible because then you can invest it in things. But if maybe you're investing in things like Russian soccer and Czechoslovakian table tennis, Let me actually- Maybe you'd rather have a better future runway for, I'm going to get paid $20 million on this day, 10 years from now, $20 million, 11 years from now. So you know that money's coming in.
Max, let me talk to your language. You know the best bite of a sandwich? Just leaving yourself that for after you eat everything else.
Yeah, it's good. That's a much better way.
Much better way. Thank you. Now it all makes so much sense to me. I just needed the sandwich.
Is that last bite? It's the last bite. Everyone knows that last bite.
Yeah, with nachos, you save the one nacho for the end.
Oh, you never have the best nacho to start. No, you got to save it.
No, you got to save it. You're a psycho move if you go for the... If I'm having nacho with somebody and they take the nacho right off the bat, it ruins the entire meal.
Bad guy. That's like an all-time bad guy move.
That was when Dana tweeted his bagel bites and he had 30 of them, and he said, Which one do you go for first? I always pick the absolute worst one to go for first. I eat it standing up. It doesn't even count. You just basically clean it off the board, being like, Hey, we're going to get rid of you. You can't leave that one. You got to just fucking take it. That's a pro move. The crispiest fry, you got to leave. The soggy fry, you got to take right away. Get yourself going. These are the things that you do with deferred payments and running an MLB team.
That's what the Dodgers doing right now. It would be so fucking awesome to be a Dodgers fan.
It really would. Although, is there a point where-I disagree. I don't know.
There's a point where it's like, Fuck it. What's the fun in this? Yeah.
No, it is fun. Hank, is winning championship always fun?
Yes. But I think what Max is saying, and there's a little part of him, like watching your own guys go progress through the system. That is a fun part of baseball that they, again, they're not really complaining, but they're just doing heroes. They're doing the Avengers every single year. Dodgers also have the number one farm system. Yeah, I know. That's the crazy part. I don't even understand that. I don't understand how that works.
I still think it's awesome. I think that Dodgers fans are happy. Oh, yeah. No. They're Having a great time.
I was forced to move the Cubs ceiling with the Kyle Tucker signing. The ceiling has changed for the Cubs season. Before the Kyle Tucker signing, it was Cubs lose or Cubs win two games, the NLCS. I think now the ceiling might be Cubs get swept by the Dodgers in the NLCS. That's the ceiling. But how awesome- So I was just taking away two NLCS games.
How awesome would it have been if the Blue Jays had beaten them? I know. Then we could all look at this and be like, You guys are down so bad. You're panicking. He's down so bad, panicked by the Dodgers.
The Phillies have done stuff, right? Yeah, I knew that.
Bo Bichette, right? You told me Bo Bichette was signed with the Phillies.
Well, they met his demands on Thursday night, seven years, 200 million, and then the Mets fucking panicked and gave him just a billion dollars.
Congrats, Memes.
Congrats, Memes. That's huge.
But the Mets are also worse than they were last year, so it makes no sense.
Are the Mets doing the thing where they're just trying to build an entire team out of infielders? Yeah, they're slowly building a not terrible roster. Pretty good. But you got a lot of infielders. A lot of infielders, and they're just relying on the young pitchers. Got it. But they might get Cody Bellinger. Okay. So they're slowly adding, even though Mets fans have been pissed off with how the offseason's going.
So last week, I forget if it was on Thursday. I think it's probably on Thursday. Steve Cohen tweeted out something very cryptic about what the Mets were up to. Meams, was he talking He said something like, Look for the smoke coming. That was all about Kyle Tucker. It was about Kyle Tucker. So he was insinuating that the Mets were about to get Kyle Tucker, right?
Yes, but also that they were just waiting.
I think Kyle Tucker was just playing everyone along. But then you guys got Bo Bichette.
Then we got Bo Bichette.
Who's very good. He's stud.
He's really good. Yeah, very, very good. I have a rowback question for you, Max. Rowback. Com. Promo code take 20% off your first purchase, Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, roback. Com, promo code take. Is there anything you'd like to say about this report about the discourse in the Eagles's facility? Did you see that? Was it Roussini? No, it was Michael Silver. It was a Michael Silver joint. Basically, everyone-That's a no. Let me just give you the gist.
Was it Jalen Hertz thing?
No one thinks Jalen Hertz is good except for Howie and Jeffrey Loury.
Sure. Fine.
Okay, so you saw it. You didn't see it.
You don't care. I didn't read it. I saw the headline about it. Okay.
Do you think that's the problem?
Super Bowl MVP.
Yep.
Fact. What have you done for me lately?
He's done in the biggest spots.
Brian Dable may be to the Eagles.
Yeah. If Brian Dable comes, Brian Dable is coming because of Jalen Hertz, we'll see what happens there.
So Harbaugh was officially Usually named Giants' head coach. There was a weird couple of days where it was announced, but it wasn't done. Matt LaFleur, back with the packers. Kevin Stefansky, Atlanta Falcon's head coach. I do feel a little... Because we had some pushback every time we defend Kevin Stefansky. Everyone was like, or there's some people like, There's no way he's going to get in their job. He's a very good coach. And winning a playoff game with the Cleveland Browns counts as a Super Bowl. He was there for a very long time, and I think he's going to be... I'm excited to see him in an offense with these guys.
I like that they're saying that doing a Philly reunion in Atlanta because Matt Ryan is now the President of Football for the Atlanta Falcons. Fucking sick-ass job title that he's got. Forget this executive vice President of Football operations bullshit. He is the President of Football for the Atlanta Falcons. He's a Philly guy. Stefansky's a Philly guy. They're building Philly South in Atlanta. Go birds. Yeah.
And Arthur Blank had a stake. So according to the report from Albert Breer, they went Stefansky He had an hour and a half meeting at Arthur Blank's house. Then they had dinner. Blank had planned a steak and potato bar, but then surprised everyone by cooking the rib eyes himself. That's not really a surprise I would care about. Hey, guys, watch this. I'm going to cook the steaks.
Instead of a chef. Okay, dude. I mean, he owns Home Depot. He's probably got a sick-ass grill.
Yeah, it's just like, you imagine, just be like, Surprise. I cooked them. All right, there's There's still steak, right?
So there was a very funny picture that they put out of Stefansky and Matt Ryan and Arthur Blank and the Falcon's Brass. Can you pull that up? Yeah. The picture that they posted yesterday? It was good. It was a funny picture because, first of all, it looked like Stefansky didn't know that they were going to be doing the picture thing.
Yeah, which, by the way, I did reach out to Coach Stefanski and I said, Thank God that you're going to still be in the yearly picture at the coaches The owner's meetings, the owners meetings. He was like, I couldn't do that to you. I couldn't miss that. That was the first thing I thought of was like, We didn't lose to fancy.
We got to keep these guys around. So this picture, it seemed like they got the deal done, and he was like, Oh, I didn't know that we were going to take a picture and post it online afterwards. But Look at Arthur Blank. Look at that sassy girl.
Yeah, he does look sassy.
Zoom in on his face.
Well, you know what that looks like?
He's a man that knows he just cooked a fire fucking rib eye that sealed the deal.
The face of a man who's going to sleep well tonight knowing he surprised the boys by cooking the rib eyes. Yeah.
What a surprise. Nailed it.
Can we, as a group of men, that we have a big listenership, we have some type of poll. We've got to get rid of the arms around shoulders picture. We always look bad in it. In golf pictures, we always look... This looks awkward.
Would you rather do the prom picture, like skinny shoulder?
I think the guy's just got to I think we just got to stand as guys and be like, It's okay to stand and not put our arms.
I think as guys, you don't think about what to do, and then he just- I know.
But look at Stefansky. That doesn't look comfortable for him to have both his arms locked behind him.
You know what? Maybe change starts at home here. Maybe when we take our pictures, we guess, like hands on the hips.
Yeah, I don't know what the solution is, but I know that we as guys have run out of... We just all look bad when we do it. We're like, Hey, let's get 15 guys standing in a line. We We'll all put our arms around each other, so we're all awkwardly standing uncomfortably. There's got to be a better way. Maybe we got to start flexing. I don't know. But, yeah, Arthur Blank, that's a fucking rib eye chef right there.
He nailed it.
What a beast. What a beast. Oh, man. Someday I would like to do a documentary about that dinner and just be like, All right, be honest to us, Matt Ryan or Kevin Stefansky. He overcut those steaks. We wish that that was the chef, not Is he a guy that said, How do you like your steaks to everybody?
And then tailored them? Or was he like, I cook my steak's medium rare, and then just made you eat his steak?
Yes. We're looking at Pug's final picture. We nailed it. You nailed it except for Shane. Shane's a weirdo. Shane fucked it up. Just standing as guys is totally normal and okay. We need to let the message be shown. When you get a bunch of guys in a picture and we all go arms around each other, we always look bad. What do you do? This might be because I have breasts. At the end of- I fully admit that.
At the end of a round of golf, Hank, is there anything else that you do or always arms around?
Well, with golf, you can hold a club.
You can hold the club, which is good. You know what we need to do? Guys just need to walk around with bats. If you ever have to take a picture, you just do the bat. You just hold the bat on your shoulder. That's a cool picture. All the guys holding bats on their shoulders?
Or just a football.
Maybe that's what we need to do for whatever we do meeting greats. Just have a bunch of bats ready? Mm-hmm. It's anything.
Or do the boxer pose. Just like the fist up.
Thumbs up, boxer pose. I don't like doing thumbs up, but I sometimes will just do it, pointing at each other.
Hold up for one. Hold up a one. Number one. That's why gang members have it all figured out.
Right. You'll see gang members going arms around each other. It's crazy. Okay, let's wrap up with Who's Back of the Week. It is brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Who's Back of the Week brought to you by Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea is a refreshing hard ice tea made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. It's a perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long, whether you're hanging out at a friend's house, catching a game at the stadium or at the bar, or day drinking with friends. Twisted Tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time, a great time. Grab a refreshing Twisted Tea today and get twisted. We love the half and half, the peach. We're going to get some Twisted Tees today. It's going to be a great day, hopefully. Twisted Tea. Thank you, Twista T. Okay, Hank, your Who's Back to the Week?
My Who's Back to the Week. Speaking of Twista T, 2016.
Yeah.
I believe whatever magic voodoo went into the year, 2016. I don't I don't know why it is the case. It's not like in 2024, people were like, Oh, it feels like 2014 or 2023. It feels like 2023. But something about 2016, people just love. I think Fetty Wap got out of jail, so that's what started the trend of people being like, Oh, it feels like 2016 again. But everyone's talking about 2016 again.
Now we're talking pre-Herambe or post-Herambe.
Just the whole year. The whole year had something to it. Summer 2016, Herambe was a big part of it.
Yeah, huge part of it. It's when everything changed.
It feels like 2016 again. That, obviously, for us, it was when the podcast started. So I do... Whatever Voodoo was like, 2016, something changed. Something was in the air. Something happened. Cubs? Cubs, 2016. But yeah, that summer, we hadn't moved to New York yet. We were working from home. I was on the beach all the time, drinking a lot of twisted teas. It was a great year. Great summer, great fall, great winter.
Gas and beers, Chuck and Nucks.
Yeah, 2016. So 2016 is back, and I like it. It's some trends. It's like, this makes no sense. This one is one of them, but I love 2016. And yeah, I don't know what it is about what it is, man.
Is that what society is?
This is really deep shit here, Hank.
Well, no, but it is a trending That's the thing.
Say that last thing again. I don't know about what it is, what it is.
I don't know what it was or what was in the air in 2016, but it was a special year. I agree with that. I'm happy it's being…
Back when shit was cool.
Yeah, It's just for... I don't understand why, again, people are talking about it a lot.
They're probably trying to get the AI.
But they could have been like that in 2015. In 2025, no one was like, Oh, my God. 2015 was 10 years ago. Same with 2024 and 2023. Something about 2016.
Do you think maybe it's the AI robots are trying to get facial recognition? But that's the thing. I saw someone say that, and they're like, But what about all the posts you made in 2016 that just exist online?
Exactly. They're like, Oh, It's online. People post parties like, Yeah, no cell phones inside. It's like, Yeah. No, that was still like people had cell phones.
Oh, yeah. Very much. Oh, yeah.
I'm more bummed in the fact that I don't think in my head, 2016 was 10 years ago. No. I think of it in my head is like three years ago. Yeah. It's like the stat that I threw out that still blows my mind that I've been a dad for longer than I wasn't a dad on this podcast. That's weird. Right.
Anything that involves the timeline of this podcast existing, I don't think is that long.
Right. It still feels… Maybe that's a testament to us in keeping things fresh in the marriage of the podcast. When time is going so fast, we don't even notice it. It doesn't feel like 10 years. I I never got the 10-year itch.
I did enjoy going back through the 2016 photos that I have in my phone of the podcast in 2016 and seeing all the weird shit that we got into that first year.
No gray hair.
Yeah. Stella and Leroy, no gray hair either.
No beard.
Were you in college, Max? Oh, yeah. Oh, jeez. Zack, were you in high school?
I was playing baseball for Hofstra that year.
Zack, what grade were you in? Twelfth grade. Okay, you're a senior.
I was 22. That's why when I I think of a 22-year-old now, I think they're super young, but I was 22 when this podcast was incepted.
Yeah.
I refuse to post any pictures from 2016. Skinny. So skinny.
Skinny. What about the beard?
I had a beard. Full beard?
Do you want me to go back through? I had a full beard in eighth grade. You want me to go back through your Venmos from 2016 again, Max? Why aren't so many tree emojis? What does that mean? Couples of couple trees.
You were really big into skiing? Yeah.
Was it cold? It looks like it was probably cold in Philly.
There's no skiing, Venmos.
All right, PFT, your Who's Back of the Week.
Speaking of skiing, my Who's Back of the Week is crotches and ski jumping. There's a major scandal going on right now in the world of Olympic and World Championship ski jumping. Okay. Norway is traditionally the best team in the world at ski jumping. Obviously.
Yeah, that makes sense.
They've got a shitload of gold medals.
Wait, I thought Japan was really good, too.
I think they might be good, but Norway is like, They're the Yukon women's basketball of ski jumping.
I want you to keep going. I just totally forgot that we're two weeks away from the Olympics.
Oh, yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, we're super close. There are three officials from Norway's men's ski jumping team that have been suspended for 18 months. They were also fined by the Ethics Committee for manipulating competition suits at the Nordic Ski World Championships that they had in Tronheim. Okay. Their head coach, Magnus Brevick, their assistant coach, Thomas Lobben, and their suit technician, Adrian Leverton, have all been sanctioned based on an investigation into some crotch alterations that they made at the men's Large Hill event in March 2025. There's very strict reg... It's like a NASCAR motor. It goes into a car. There's certain limitations on what you can put on these suits, and they apparently took out some of the stitches and made modifications to make the crotches bigger on these ski jumping suits, which apparently assisted them in getting a couple of extra meters or inches or whatever the fuck it was. I love this. They didn't find anything that was illegal when they did the initial check. My guess is they probably don't get too into it on the crotches at that point. But then after the race, they found the materials in the seams that had been changed.
Apparently, there's also a video that shows somebody on the team making alterations before the-They got them right in. I would think the other way that if you made the crotch smaller, that would be more aerodynamic. But if apparently you have a bigger crotch, I don't know if that's gravity or weight when you're going down the hill. But if your dick appears bigger as you're going down the hill, it can actually help you in ski jumping. Well, are they ski jumping?
Is it just straight distance or are they voting on it, too?
I think this is just straight distance. It's 100%. I think you have to land it cleanly. Got it. But I think it's... I don't really know.
I just love any of these type of weird stories that come up.
So now at the Olympics, they're going to have to have a crotch guy. They're going to have to have a dude that's lifting- Crotch inspector. Lifting up the grundle, breaking out the protractor, and making sure everything is above board. They got to. Yeah.
They got to do it for the women to... Well, Max. All right, Max just found a woman who is very attracted, possibly AI in a ski suit.
Oh, definitely AI.
She's got fucking bombs.
You remember Jake Browning's girlfriend?
This is our just getting horny part of the show. Okay, my who's back is Perspective.
Yeah.
Because of Ed Cooley in Georgetown.
He really made me think.
Yeah, Georgetown. It has not gone well for Ed Cooley at Georgetown. He's going there to revive a program. They're one and six in conference play. They're nine and nine overall. And he said after the game. There's a lot worse happening right now than Georgetown losing a basketball game. You know what we are. We're blessed. We're blessed to be nine and nine. We're blessed to be one and six in the league. It could be a lot worse. I can't imagine Georgetown fans are pumped about this one. It's got to be. You can't be happy that the guy who came. Providence has not won on the court, but they're winning the breakup otherwise.
A hundred %. Yeah. Is Ed Cooley wrong?
There's a lot going on in the world?
Things could be worse. I actually don't think that they could. I think that Georgetown basketball being where they're at is actually the worst thing in the world right now.
Well, if you're a Georgetown fan, if you're Ed Cooley, and you're saying that the world is in a bad spot right now, and then you add in the fact that you're one and six in conference, you are actually in the worst spot in the world. Yeah.
The world could be a little bit better. You personally. Be the change that you want to see in the world. Maybe have Georgetown be 500 in conference play.
We do this as a joke when our teams lose. He did this fully real, This is going to work.
He should have just gone out there and been like, Okay, so we're going to talk about the Bills Ravens Monday night football game. Yeah.
He's one step away of just bringing homeless pets to the press conference and being like, You see this little guy? Someone needs to adopt him. Then I will answer a question about starting one and six in the conference.
In the arms of an angel.
A one-eye cat just sitting He's stroking a one-eye cat as he gives another losing press conference. He's like, I appreciate all your guys' questions, but I will not be answering any of them until one of you takes this cat home today.
What about the homeless epidemic in Washington, DC, in our nation's capital? Have we thought about addressing that before we start sending reporters to sporting events? Why do we even have media? There's so many other things that they could be looking into.
It's a good point. It's a really good point. Okay, Zack, finish this off. My who's back is going to be Andy Edwards absolutely making a splash last night.
Did you guys see this?
Yeah. Dropping a 55 piece. Yeah. I mean, 26 in the fourth? They did lose. But I mean, you guys see any highlights from the game? I saw some highlights of the game. I did have a question about this because Anthony Edwards is awesome. At what point is Anthony Edwards, can we just say he's the face of the league and not... Because he just keeps getting dubbed the future face of this league.
He's got to win.
He's got to win? Yeah. Okay. He is the future's face of this league.
What about MVP?
Mvp, I guess. You could be face of the league with MVP, but you got to win in the next few years.
It's Josh Allen. Has he been the face of the NFL? No.
Future face of this league? No.
Scottie Barnes.
Yeah. I mean, it was two future faces of this league. It was Victor Wembeyanima and Ant going back to back. Wemby had, what, 39? 39-9? Yeah. It's just a future face of this league off. A couple of those mid-range shots are just absolutely in guys' eyes. Yeah.
I think Jokić is the upper arms of this league. Yeah.
They're just Who's got the legs?
Who's got the legs? The legs of the NBA, maybe Paulo. He's got good footwork.
Luka's got a pretty fat ass.
Paulo's having a bad year. Bad year.
Yeah. Future face of the slicks. Can't stop saying it, Max.
Future face.
Scotty Barnes. Future face of the slick.
All-star caliber player.
Who's got the hairline of the lead?
We're going to get into NBA soon enough. After the Super Bowl, we'll probably have her still on for a full breakdown. A preview, yeah. Yeah, a preview of how the NBA is going to go, this season is going to go. Okay, good show, boys. Let's do numbers.
100.
Let's go seven for the Patriots number seven Super Bowl.
Let's go two.
I thought you were going to say 99. No.
Let's go 36.
I forgot I wanted. I'm on the same.
Yeah, 18.
37. 10. 66. This is Mickey Mouse. 8.
Colton, what was yours?
Colton, what was yours? 10. Colton, have you ever gotten this? Jerri May.
Have you ever gotten this?
Not yet.
I'm close. 92. 92.
Love you guys.
Divisional Round and we start with Fastest 2 Minutes then talk about every game from the weekend in reverse chronological order. (00:00:00-00:08:47)
Rams 20, Bears 17 (00:08:47-00:40:19)
Patriots 28, Texans 16 (00:40:19-01:01:53)
Seahawks 41, Niners 6 (01:01:53-01:17:03)
Broncos 33, Bills 30 (01:17:03-01:48:30)
We then do some national sports podcast talk and who's back of the week. (01:48:30-02:22:38).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take