Transcript of NFL Week 8 Picks And Preview, The Brewers Win The WS, Bears Are All In + Robert Lewandowski In Studio

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Hey, Football guy, Martino, AWM.

Part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take, yeah, part of my take. Welcome to Part of My Take presented by DraftKings. The crown is yours. Today is Friday, October 30th, and the Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history. They close it out. They beat the Rays 4-1 in the World Series. What an insanely impressive team they were, PFT. They were the word I used to describe what the Brewers were this year because they were basically just wire to wire, just the best team. 103 wins in the regular season, 11-2 in the postseason.

Yep.

They were relentless. They were relentless both hitting, they were relentless pitching. They just were relentless and they were the best team by far. And, uh, I gave up on, on, on like having true hate in my heart about 2 weeks ago because I was like, what, what am I gonna do? They're just relentless. And they showed it. They lost 2 games. They lost 2 games in the entire postseason. They did not give up more than 4 runs in the entire postseason. It was crazy. So Congrats to them. Special congrats to our good friend Christian Yelich. I think we can all agree competing in a home run derby after that, like, what's the point?

Like, you have—

he has an MVP in a World Series.

Yeah, it's beneath him to participate in like a sideshow. No, no, you got a ring. You don't need to be doing that, Christian. Don't worry about it. Your career, I'd say, is finally complete. You've got the crown jewel. So feel free, retire whenever you want. Yeah, they didn't allow more than 4 runs in any of the 13 games. Um, 6 since the playoffs expanded in '69. The only other teams to do that, 1990 Reds, 1983 Orioles. Um, the bullpen had a 1.38 ERA. They held everyone to a .173 average. Uh, I believe that's the best of all time in postseason history. And they're just, they're just a fun team to watch too. They're relentless, but they're very, very fun to watch. Uh, I, I think, did they, were they in last place in Major League in, um, total home runs hit. I believe they might have been, uh, the last in home runs, but they were the second in runs scored. So they play very, very exciting baseball. I like their manager, Pat Murphy. Seems like a good guy. Uh, and they're kind of set up to, to keep this thing going, provided we have baseball that continues.

We are, remember?

We are.

We decided we are.

Yep. Yep. They're pretty young.

We decided we are.

They've got, um, not, not only do they have young superstars, They were not last.

They were not last, but they were— they did not hit a lot of home runs.

I thought they were last in home runs hit this year. I thought I saw that.

I'm looking at it right now.

Definitely towards the bottom.

Yeah, it looks like the Rays hit less. The Cardinals hit less. The Jays hit less. But I don't know. I just also AI'd it, so I have no idea. Okay.

Yeah.

Not only do they have a bunch of really good, talented young players, they also have, I think, the number one prospect in all of baseball. That's not on their team. So their farm system is one of the best farm systems in the entire league right now. So they're kind of set up to keep this thing going.

Yeah, they, they, there was an article that was written after that was basically like they were, they were, we already knew it, but they were very close to getting Skubal, which they were and ended up not. Yeah, they, they listen, they like you mentioned the bullpen, the bullpen pitched 118 innings like that. That's— or sorry, the, the, the team pitched 118 innings. The bullpen pitched 65 of them. 55% of their innings were bullpen. Ashby didn't give up a run. He pitched 18 innings. He didn't give up a run. And like, you know, Miz, who was kind of up and down in the playoffs, like, he not—

not—

he wasn't bad, but he didn't go deep. He showed up for Game 5 and he went scoreless. Like, he was, he was, he was dominant. I mean, Yeah. Did they need to like pamper the mound after every half inning? Yes. But no, I mean, like I said, I don't like the Brewers. They just— they are the hammer. The Cubs are the nail. But I gave up a while ago because they were just that good. And honestly, earnest congratulations to their fans because they had never won a World Series. They had been close. You know, they've had these some tragic moments happen. You know, I think about like the CeCe Sabathia year when they went all in. Um, the, the— what was the, what was the, uh, Polar Bears home run? That was, uh, what year was that?

Memes.

Pete Alonso, 2 years ago. Yeah, like those type of things. Getting swept by the Dodgers last year, and they just came back with a vengeance, and they were just ready to go. And, uh, they were an insane team. And Sal Freilich is like just one of those guys that you just are drawn to, to, you know, like rooting for. I like— Contreras was just insane. I think he hit .400 in the playoffs. He won the MVP. He was nuts. Uh, the whole team was just— they were just so good. And then we find out afterwards they were also cool because they were smoking cigs before each game.

Yeah.

There's a story comes out that Yelich would just— he was like, yeah, we'd just be walking by the, the batting cages, guys would be smoking cigs and be like, hey, if we're gonna get hot here, like we're gonna torch one here, we're gonna get hot in the in the game. So they had it all. They had it absolutely all. And they were, like I said, like the most relentless, dominant team. They were never— weirdly, the Padres were probably the closest. The Padres were the closest to beating them. And like, that was a 3-1 series. And it was just that. But that was the only kind of stress it felt like that they were ever really in this entire postseason. Yeah.

So Contreras also, I believe one of the stats that they pulled up when they were saying why he was getting the The MVP was he had an impeccable World Series when it came to the ABS system.

Oh yeah.

The challenges. He, he was dominating the ABS in the World Series. I doubt we'll ever see a performance like that again.

Yeah, he was, he was incredible. Yeah. Vogelbach, their, their, their hitting coach.

Yep.

Who was very funny when he was a player. It felt like we talked about it on Wednesday's show, but the 9v1 thing where it's like they just attacked. They attacked, attacked, attacked. And it was like, it's one of those things that you, when you're watching them play throughout the postseason, you're like, oh my God, they keep getting lucky breaks. They, the other team keeps making errors. No, no, no, that's not lucky breaks. That's them putting constant pressure on the other team.

Yeah.

Forcing them to overthink situations, to make base running errors, to, to, to, you know, send a guy home, try to steal third, to bobble a ball. That's all— that's not luck. That's just the Brewers and what they did to you mentally, where it's like you have to be perfect and almost made teams like just become a worse version of themselves because of what the Brewers were doing to them.

Yeah, they forced the most errors in baseball. I think they're also the shortest team in baseball.

Oh, short kings.

Yeah, short kings back up. Everybody's like 5'9 on that. in that lineup except for Christian Yelich, who's like 6'3. But taking advantage of the— finally they're measuring people's accurate strike zones now. So a short guy gets a little bit of a, a little bit of a break when it comes to measuring that. And then they're just deep. Like Pratt came up big.

Yeah, rookie.

He's super young and they got— yeah, everybody was contributing to it. And I just think that this is like, as somebody that doesn't have a dog in this fight, I'm not a Brewers fan. I'm not a Rays fan, but the Brewers, like, that's how you should play baseball. That is the perfect way to play baseball. I love watching them. So congrats to them. Congrats to the city of Milwaukee. And I think they're going to go on a nice little tour of the entire state, maybe the entire Midwest. They're off to a hot start by showing up on Thursday Night Football.

That was a no-brainer.

Shithouse.

Yeah, that was a no-brainer. I said it on the stream. I was like, are the Brewers there? Have they shown them yet? And I think Stephen was like, why would they be there? I'm like, dude, Why wouldn't they? Like, you win the World Series, you go to everything. You just go and get applauded everywhere. Yeah, they— I actually think the parade, though, is too soon. I know it's a Friday parade. It's probably sick, but it's like you probably want a couple of days to just keep partying and then do the parade. But Friday parade is awesome. Halloween weekend, Friday parade.

Yeah.

They probably didn't do it. They probably did it because Halloween on Saturday, like People like, we want to celebrate the Brewers, but we also have kids that need to go trick-or-treating. The, the, the— are we, are we officially— so this is the end of the 2026 championships, right? Like, we're going to get the next one.

We're going to—

I guess the Dream and Valkyrie, we got to wait for that. And MLS, we'll talk to Robert Lewandowski. But can we officially say that 2026 was the, was the craziest year in giving out championships? Because here's what we had. We had USA, Team USA, win their first men's gold medal in 46 years. Arsenal, who just lost to Fleetwood Town, which was hilarious, won their first EPL title in 22 years.

Tried me hardest.

The Carolina Hurricanes won their first NHL title in 20 years. Not that big of a gap. The Brewers won their first title ever. The Knicks won their first title in 53 years. Michigan basketball won their first title in 37 years. Indiana football won the national title. And then to put a cherry on top, Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl in his elite. That's pretty nuts.

And the Philadelphia Waterdogs became the first multi-PLL championship winners.

I don't know if that's true either, but it sounds—

sounds good.

Yeah, it sounds good. I feel like we got one. I feel like the Archers or some, some, some for the Redwoods probably fucking won 4.

Yeah.

But it is a crazy year.

It's been a crazy year. It's awesome. I love, I love how chaotic it's been for all the talk of, you know, it's only a handful of teams have a chance to win at the start of the year. It's fun to mix it up, to get some new blood in there. I looked up what we were talking about the other night, Big Cat, that the Brewers, they swing at 27.3% of first pitches. So that's the second lowest rate in all of baseball.

That's what they do.

When they swing, they hit .377 on swings when they do take a crack at the first pitch, and that is the best in baseball.

Yeah, and they let the ball come in deep in the zone. They hit it opposite field. Yeah, it's just big hits after big hits. We will, by the way, I— there was a lot of people, I, I appreciate the AWLs being like, you have to have Yelich on the podcast today. I, I'm gonna let him, uh, be drunk for a little bit. We will absolutely try to get Christian Yelich on the podcast next week at some point when he checks his phone and wakes up because we do want to— he has been one of our friends and like good part of actually a great part of the history of this show. And so we want to give him his flowers. I am very happy for him. He's, you know, he's been there for the longest. He, you know, basically they went through a rebuild with him there, with him the centerpiece. He became the first captain in Brewers history. And then he delivers them, you know, he's, he's getting a little older in his career, delivers them a World Series. And up until Hank mentioned that he hadn't hit any RBIs, he then just went and got hot.

You're welcome.

Yeah.

Zach, last thing about the World Series.

I feel like we said all of this year and even late last year, Brewers never lose.

Oh no, I was going to ask a question, but I appreciate you just going with the statement there. Now, You aren't a baseball fan.

Fair. Super fair. There's definitely guys who watch more baseball than me.

Yeah.

You don't watch any baseball, so you're not a Rays fan. Never pretended to be a Rays fan. You're just, you're just, you're just a guy who grew up around that area.

That is true.

Around racists. You grew up amongst racists.

Yeah.

Amongst a plethora of racists.

Do you have anything to say for the fact that it was like 90% Brewers fans on On Wednesday night in the trop?

I-4 East, man.

Okay. But so I-4 East doesn't exist for Brewers fans.

It might be a little different if you're taking Ubers from the airports, you know.

Oh, so they fly— are they landing somewhere? Are they landing on the other side of I-4 East?

That's a good point. Also, no, maybe there's a shuttle there from the airport. Airport travel is different than domestic travel usually. Or you just tip your cap to the Brewers and say they travel well.

Yeah, first of all, Zach, you fill out that seat nicely. You look good. Um, second of all, you're absolutely right. It's the caravan situation. They got Sprinter vans, they got the airport shuttles, so they don't have to worry about traffic. That's why they were there.

Yeah, a lot of families do have sedans as a, like, a 4 to 5 seater. If we're doing shuttles, who knows how many seats.

Matt, when they were doing the trophy ceremony though, it was kind of crazy because it was nuts. Close your eyes. You thought that it was in Milwaukee?

Yeah, big time. Max, any last thoughts on the baseball season? You are a baseball guy, by the way. I had Max. It was awesome yesterday. I brought my 7-year-old to do some practice and Max gave him some hitting lessons. It was fucking sick. He's a lefty. Max, a lefty.

Try my best.

It was very fun.

Yeah.

No, Max, I've never given a hitting lesson before, so it was, it was an adjustment. The Brewers are the best team in baseball. They were the best team in baseball all year. There's nothing really more to say. I've said everything about the Brewers. They didn't change anything the last few games. They just continued to play Brewer ball except for when Bowers dropped that one ball. But other than that, they're the best team in baseball. The best team in baseball deserved to win.

Yeah, I was really— so I wanted more baseball. I wanted to watch more World Series. But also, did you guys see Ken Rosenthal's question?

Insane.

Insane. Did you see it, PFT?

Yep.

Who do you ask to?

Walls?

Uh, I think DeLuca.

Oh, okay. So he asked a Rays player, uh, did— after the Game 4 win, is it good to win this one so you could feel like you belong?

And he just responded, that's a very disrespectful question. No, it was Walls. It was Walls. It was Walls.

Crazy, crazy question. So I was like, this would be such a funny Ken Rosenthal story arc if the Rays went on to win. win the World Series? Like, dude, what are you asking? You're asking a professional who's in the World Series, a team that won the AL.

Yeah, that's the, that's the worst part. Like, that question would kind of make sense if it was like a wildcard team that snuck their way in.

Yeah, like an 82-win wildcard team.

They were the best team in the AL in the regular season and in the playoffs. How can you ask if you think that they belong?

I don't want to get aggregated again with an entire week of me bashing Kendrick Saul. I'll say, that was a side question.

And then journalists coming to Yeah.

And the fact that he's sitting there like lurking in the background with his little shitty bow tie.

Yeah.

And that like smirk on his face, like a, like a puppet version of Pee-wee Herman asking him, hey, he's like looking down. He's like, oh, you poor little thing. Give me a fucking break, Ken.

Yeah. Also shout out to— I played it for the boys. PFTL sent it to you after. But there was the postgame news. Local news is always so funny. There was this woman who Oh, sure. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So people who didn't see that right now. Yeah. So she, she pulled up a picture. They, the reporter came up and she pulled up a picture of her and her dad when she was like 3 years old. And she's like, I'm just thinking about my dad right now. This is us at the Brewers, like a Brewers game 20 years ago. And the reporter was like, so, you know, like, that's very nice. Where's your dad? She's like, oh, he's in Waukesha. I just couldn't make it home tonight. 20 minutes away.

Yeah.

Sneaky funny part about that was she just tossed in that her dad's single.

Yeah, my single dad.

So ladies, if you're, if you're interested.

She was just like, yeah, I wish I was with him tonight. Couldn't make it home in time. 20 minutes.

Yeah.

What do you think about Pat Murphy?

When he—

who was he talking to? Which player was it? The guy that was on the Yankees?

He was talking to Bowers. Bowers. Yeah.

And he was—

he—

I think the quote was, you're going to be a rich fucker. Just remember when you were on that horseshit Yankees team and you guys were all playing for yourself. Just remember, say, this is the way we used to do it.

Yeah. So Bowers is about to get paid.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I don't like Pat Murphy, but he— I'll say this. That is who Pat Murphy is. And he doesn't change like that is, you know, the whole underdog, like we're the, you know. So that's basically what his message is.

And he— it works.

He's an incredible manager. Like, it's clear that his message works. And, you know, he obviously— the, the dynamic of the fact that the Cubs stole Craig Counsell and then Pat Murphy took over and took them to a World Series— I will push back a little on that. There's only— I think there were only 6 guys on the, on the last, uh, postseason roster that Craig Counsell managed for the Brewers. So it's a different team. There's a lot of new players on this World Series team. But Pat Murphy's an awesome manager. He knows how to motivate these guys. And I think that was just him. not breaking character. Like, he didn't break— he basically was like, yeah, go get paid. Like, you, you know, this is what a real team is.

Yeah, I think that's one of those things that would be, uh, like completely appropriate and, and very, very normal if there wasn't a camera and a microphone on him. Yeah, but the fact that we heard it, then it becomes like a, a spectacle in and of itself. It was kind of weird to hear that.

But well, um, so I think I—

he's obviously a great manager. The guys love him.

Yeah, so he, he— like, I saw some people bashing Pat Murphy for that, and I like, as much as I would love to pile on Pat Murphy, I think that that interaction is exactly why the Brewers were where they are, because of his motivating tactics. He is a little bit of a hard-ass, but his guys will die for him. And like, that was his message, and he can't break the message. So I, I had no problem with this. Like, you can't, you can't be like, oh, how could he say that? No, he could say that because that's how they're there. That's how they're celebrating the World Series. Pat Murphy's an incredible motivator and manager, pulled all the right strings the entire postseason. That's the type of guy he is. He's fucking— he's awesome at his job.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Uh, all right, that was World Series. Thursday Night Football real quick. We're gonna get to Jeffrey Simmons when, uh, PFT's back in studio, uh, and then the week preview, because I'm obviously very excited about Jeffrey Simmons. Thursday Night Football, can we please ban NFC South teams from playing, uh, on primetime games?

Yeah, a motion to include the NFC East as well.

Yeah, motion, motion approved. I, uh, I, I listen, I disagree though. I disagree.

I think the Falcons in primetime are fun.

Yeah, the Falcons, the Falcons are fun. The, the Packers are, uh, they're, they're good. Like, I— they're gonna get Micah Parsons back.

They're good.

It— like, you— the only thing that Bryce Young— I don't know what the Packers are doing. I think it's actually honestly a credit to Jonathan Gannon as defensive coordinator. Because this is now 2 games that we've watched in primetime where the team playing the Packers feel like they have zero ability to pick up a blitz. So that's clearly a defensive coordinator, what they're doing. Like Bryce Young just was never comfortable. And I'm talking obviously about the Cowboys game where Dak was just, it felt like there was just blitzes every time and they just never knew where they were coming from. And he always had a rusher in his lap. That's what Bryce Young was dealing with tonight.

And sometimes it wasn't even on a blitz. Sometimes it was—

Yeah.

There was a couple times they rushed 3, they rushed 4, and they were just getting to him. And when, when they were getting to him, all you have to do is just like grab his shoulder and Bryce Young's gonna— he's gonna fall down. Um, so he was uncomfortable for most of the night. And Bryce Young, he's, he's definitely improved. He's definitely way, way, way beyond what we thought he was going to be in his first 2 seasons. But still, when he, when he does have games like the first couple quarters, first 3 quarters, He's a big bummer to watch.

Oh yeah.

He's not playing well.

Well, because he looks tiny. He looks tiny when he— when no pass rush is getting home to Bryce Young.

He like—

he's like 6 inches shorter.

That's a fact.

Yeah.

Medically it is. And then in terms of the Packers, yeah, they're going to get better. And Golden is just— he'd probably be up there close to JSN numbers if he could catch like 75% of the passes thrown his way.

We also should mention Christian Watson with— he literally just went Attitude Era like WWE Monday Night Raw. The, the fact— and, and look, I— it sounded— it seemed like he had a chest injury, so it's like, gotta go get it checked out. I don't think I've ever seen that though, where it's like a guy goes to the hospital, then comes back, gets out of the ambulance. I, I joked at the time, I was like, I half expected Vince McMahon to be driving that ambulance or the ambulance to blow up. He comes out of the ambulance, comes out of the tunnel, gets back in the game.

It looked like a prop ambulance, you're right. And the lighting in, in the tunnel, it did look like Monday Night Raw. Yeah, so he, he goes down the tunnel, I think Did he still have the bracelet on? I was hoping he would keep the hospital bracelet.

No, that would fuck the Rock. You know what?

So he goes, yeah, not only that, but like the ride back to the stadium, he was riding shotgun in the ambulance.

Yeah.

So he gets out, shoulder pads on, by the way.

Yeah.

He just popped in for an X-ray, put them back on, came back to the stadium, hops out of the ambulance, runs onto the field. That was awesome. And that was great.

Stephen Che aptly pointed out in the Gambling Cave, there's no way he could have done the paperwork that fast, which I agree with. Like the—

having that— maybe this was, uh, like pro bono at the hospital.

I don't know, but that paperwork sucks. Like, do you think he— do you, do you think in his sock, like Joe Horn— or Joe Horn had it under the field goal post, but do you think— or maybe it was Ochocinco had a Sharpie. Do you think he had his, uh, his, his insurance card in his sock?

T.O. T.O.

Yeah, yeah. Uh, Max, yeah, I want, I want to let Max rant real quick. Because Max had a very good point about the end of the game. Max, would you like to— I don't want to steal your point because it was—

What, about the Panthers?

About both teams.

The, the way that game ended, it acted like the Panthers were winning the game and the Packers were losing the game.

Correct.

That the Panthers were down 2 scores with, I think, 8 minutes to go and wouldn't stop running the ball to Chuba Hubbard for 3 yards up the middle and then like taking their good-ass time to, to get the next playoff.

Yeah.

They were— they had zero sense of urgency. And then when I thought it was all done and over, LaFleur just throws 3 Hail Marys when he gets the ball back, loses 15 yards, and stops the clock on every play.

Yeah.

It made no sense.

It was crazy.

What happened at the end of that game. They almost blew it.

Like, the Packers almost blew that game.

They tried to blow that game.

Yeah. It was crazy.

And then he wouldn't kick the— try and kick the field goal for the over, which pissed me off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the Panthers, I mean, they got 20 yards of field position. I know, but Josh Mack is so bad.

Josh Jacobs, they're just like, we're going to keep running him and he's going to continue to suck, but we're going to keep doing it and eventually you'll just wear down. He was— I was not impressed with Josh Jacobs tonight.

Well, also, can we just say the handcuff— absolute piece of shit to do the handcuff celebration for his arrest for domestic violence as a TD celebration. You're a piece of shit.

Yeah.

What the fuck?

Like, that's crazy.

Yeah.

Crazy bad guy.

You didn't want to see the ones that Ray Carruth had planned, but that was— this one was bad.

Bad guy.

He kind of made himself in. He's going to try to play like I'm the victim card.

Yeah, that's exactly what he's doing. I mean, he didn't show remorse when he was— when he came back and he was just like, remember, I read the quote where he was like, 6 games feels like it was a lot. It's like Yeah, dude, how about just say sorry and be like, I'm thankful that I actually can— that this league, if you're good, it doesn't matter how bad of a person you are.

I do think they have to do something about the other guy that's known as Smack on that team. The kicker is not— that he's going to be a problem. He is going to cost them a playoff game unless they make a change.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. No, he's really bad. He's really, really bad. All right. Anything else?

Yeah.

Billy Napier is fucking insane.

Yeah.

He's actually an insane person.

Stop playing Thursday Night Football. You lost again.

The poop curse is upon us. But also, like, more importantly, I would like to apologize, hand up to any Florida Gators out there because I did not understand how bad you guys have had it the last 4 years. Because he is— he, like, the way that he coaches, he gaslights everybody. He is like, he's coaching and he's making us think that we're all insane because he's so confidently doing the wrong things, and it makes no sense, any of it. It's an out-of-body experience. He should be arrested.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I, I've never seen a coach coach like that. And then I, I hit up Jacob and I was like, hey, is this like par for the course? And Jacob's like, yeah, that's pretty much it. JMU had 3 touchdowns on their first 3 drives. They went up 21 to nothing and then did jack shit for the rest of the game.

Yeah, it was crazy.

Every other drive was 3 and out to nowhere. It was, it was terrible football. And then the decision-making at the end of the game, I, I need to go back and rewatch it. Um, but it is—

Well, Hank, you were watching it.

I'm blown away.

It was crazy.

Yeah, JMU just couldn't— they were just throwing Interceptions left and right.

Yeah, I wasn't—

I was watching it like a little bit, and every time I looked over, Jamie would throw another interception, and then I live bet Troy, and then I couldn't— I couldn't believe that they threw a Hail Mary, and then they almost got it too.

That was crazy. Yeah, they almost caught the Hail Mary.

Yeah, no, Hank, the interceptions were not great, but that's not nearly the problem. The problem is Billy Napier is actually a fucking psychopath.

Yeah.

Jeffrey Simmons to the Bears. The Bears trade, uh, their first-round pick this year and next year. All in by Ryan Poles. I love the move. I know that, uh, I'm dealing with the allegations of fleece online, and I get it.

You're—

I'm going to defend the Bears' move, but I truly believe what I'm about to say. Jeffrey Simmons is an absolute game wrecker, top 3 at his position, changes everyone around him. The Bears had a weakness in their defense, especially run defense. They made it a strength. And here's where I really come down with the 2 first-round picks. You were going to have to draft defensive line in the next 2 drafts, at least this draft, but most likely the next 2 drafts, because we all knew it was a weakness. It's been a weakness for a long time. The whole plan in the build of Ryan Poles was they built up the offense with a lot of really young, good talent. They built up the offensive line. Caleb's on his rookie deal. This next draft was going to be the defensive draft. That's why I always said it was the year before the year. You were hoping to get a player half as good as Jeffrey Simmons in the first round next year.

He's elite.

So that's why, like, I, I, you, you were going like, you can't draft guys like Jeffrey Simmons. They're so fucking good. And you're, the draft is a crapshoot. So I'm, I know it's too expensive. I do not care. I love what the Bears are doing. all in and you have him for the next— I think he just signed a new deal and he's the type of position that he's not going to be bad all of a sudden.

So he's 29 years old. The deal I think was 3 years, $100 mil, something like that. So you will be paying him a lot and you gave up a lot to get him. But when he's at his best, he's, he's a dominant force and he would be worth it. He is the kind of player that if you're going to be playing well into December or into through January into February, Um, you'd like to have a big guy that is more than capable of stopping the run. That's exactly what he does.

He makes everyone else good. The, the defensive line is not a really good unit. He now makes it a good unit because everyone else now gets single teams.

We were talking about it because like it's, it's been crazy, uh, when the Commanders traded Chase Young and Montez Sweat. I was saying that Montez Sweat's a better player than Chase Young at the time. Um, and now Montez Sweat has kind of taken a step back on the Bears, but we think that he is actually a really good player if you're— if he's not asked to be The number one player on the defensive line.

Yeah.

So I think that will make the rest of the defense better for sure.

I just love also like watching a team with a sick defensive tackle is such a different watch. Like I think about one of my, one of my favorite Bears, Akeem Hicks, like when you watched him play football and like the guy who just basically takes up the entire middle of the offensive line and just absorbs it and your linebackers are firing and everything. It's just a fun watch when you have a guy like that.

Can I, can I poke a small hole in this?

Yeah.

Can I play devil's advocate?

Yeah.

All right.

So Jeffrey Simmons, great player, great talent. You see him on all the up-and-coming lists, all the top lists of guys that do his job. He is a Mississippi State guy.

Yeah.

Do you think that if he moves to Chicago as a Mississippi State guy, he'll start to make everything about himself?

Yes.

And won't actually raise the floor of his teammates around him. Might even not— might not even learn the guys' names.

Yeah.

The Hakeem— he'll do the Jeffrey Simmons Show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I could see it happen.

That is a possibility. I just wanted to say I think it's a good— it's a good move as a, uh, as a future ticket holder in the Chicago Bears. I like this, and I think it's a good deal for the Titans too.

Yeah, yeah, no, the Titans have to rebuild, and they've, they've been kind of in a rebuild. So yeah, it's an absolutely good deal for the Titans. I, I— listen, I get it, uh, there could be no good deals online ever. We joke about it all the time. So I, I just— I, I personally I'm okay with paying a, a very expensive price for a very good player.

This is going to be a trade that will be impossible to accurately evaluate until I'm going to say 3 years from now. And if the Bears have won a Super Bowl, yeah, then it was worth it. And I would say if, if you haven't won a Super Bowl, then fleas. Yeah.

Yeah.

If you give up 2 first-round picks, that's kind of the— that's the expectation. That's, that's the bar for success.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I do think that it puts you in that conversation.

And you, and you, you got like, you go all in when you have your quarterback on the rookie deal.

All in my ass.

You do. You have to go all in. I love, I love the deal. I love Jeffrey Simmons. It's going to be fun to watch. So I'm excited. I thought they could win the Super Bowl before Jeffrey Simmons. Now I really do. So, okay. Should we get into week 8 in the NFL?

Yeah.

We have some bye weeks. Saints, Giants, 49ers, Texans are on a bye this week.

Matthew Judon can spend more time with his families.

Yes.

Yes.

That's an important time of year for that.

The—

I always look at the bye weeks just because, like, how is this going to dictate the, like, the slate? Not having the 49ers play football is definitely going to hurt us a little.

Yeah.

Like, we didn't have the Bills last week.

Yep.

And it was like, oh, I noticed an absence of the Bills.

But it was great. It was great not having the Commanders or the Chargers.

Yes, true. And it will be great not having to watch— I actually don't really want to watch the Texans and the Saints. Have been a bummer.

Yep.

Saints have been a bummer. Okay. So speaking of the Bills, first game up, Ravens-Bills. Bills -3.5, over-under is 53.5. Let me actually pull up because the line might have changed. I think Lamar is going to play.

I think so. Yeah.

I think Lamar is going to play. I'm excited to watch this game. This game is getting sound.

I would agree.

You guys all agree?

Yeah. This is the crown jewel.

This is the game. Feels like the Ravens are kind of in. Oh, it's actually -3 now because of Lamar news.

Over-under 45.

54.5. Feels like the Ravens are in a put up or shut up kind of game because if they fall to 4-4 in a very tough AFC, they lose to the Bills.

What—

where—

what's happening now? You know, like someone, someone in the AFC North, no matter what, after this weekend is going to be 6-2 because the Browns and the Steelers play each other, right? So if they're 4-4 and it's like, what the fuck? They've already lost the Browns. They've already lost the Bengals. They got— this is kind of a back-against-the-wall game.

It is. So the Bills defense has not been great. They've given up 30 points in 4 games this season, and they're 4-0 in those games, which is kind of crazy. That is crazy because if you look across the rest of the league, if your team gives up 30 points or more, the rest of the league is 8-47.

Yep.

And the Bills are 4-0. That is a Josh Allen stat.

I, I think Ed Oliver is coming back this week.

That'd be huge.

So that would help.

It'd be very big. Buffalo has also recently kind of owned this rivalry.

Yep.

They've won 4 out of 5 against Baltimore.

Remember the game last year, week 1 game that was crazy, the big comeback?

I think what we're seeing— I don't want to completely write the Ravens off, but my thought has been that what we're seeing from the Ravens has been, you know, historically, they're the 4th quarter Ravens have not been a great team. That 4th quarter Ravens has started to creep its way into the 3rd quarter Ravens. And I think eventually it's going to keep creeping earlier and earlier in the game. I don't think it's going to get better because the defense— I don't know, maybe, maybe Minshew can turn things around, but the defense does not look good.

Yeah.

And they're getting old.

And it's time.

Marlon Humphrey— I thought that Marlon Humphrey retired like 3 years ago.

Yeah.

But that's just because he was doing like a whole lot of podcasts.

Yeah.

And anytime you get a starter doing a lot of podcasting, you think to yourself like, this guy's— he's, he's pre-retired right now. But he's still playing and he has not been good this year.

No, he's not. I, uh, your point about the Rams that you made 2 weeks ago, like, hey, you can't really fuck around much more. That's how I feel about the Ravens. Yeah. Where it's like, I don't think the Ravens are a bad team. They just have not given themselves much leeway to fuck around anymore because the AFC is going to be very tight. The AFC North specifically has a lot of teams that, you know, all 3, all 4 teams are above .500. And you have the Bills this week and the Jaguars next week. And yeah, maybe you have some games coming after that, but those are 2 massive games that you can't fuck around with.

And the one thing I will say though, in the Ravens' favor is Lamar. Yes, he misses some games. He's very confusing sometimes with his health, with his injury status. But when he decides that it's time for him to come back, when he feels 100%, he usually knows his body pretty well. And when he gets back, he reminds the world, oh yeah, this is why Lamar Jackson's so good.

Yeah. DJ Moore should be back. So that will be a boost to the Bills offense, which has been phenomenal. They're just a fun watch. They just score points and give up points. What more could you ask for?

Yep.

It's like really, they're the perfect team to bet on, to watch. Like, hey, we're not going to get any stops and we're going to— every time we have the ball, we're going to go down the field.

Yeah.

Okay. Any— Hank, I don't want to bring up Hungry Dog because you've had a tough Hungry Dog, but is the Ravens—

It's been a good year.

No, you haven't watched.

We've been close.

Yeah, close doesn't count.

All it takes is one weekend, though.

It's true.

That's the beauty of the hungry dog.

I do like the Ravens this week. You do?

There's not a lot.

There's not a lot. There's not a lot of picks. I have one, another gross one, but—

Oh, I do like to— excited for the gross one.

What's the spread here? The spread is 3.

3. Okay.

3. Yeah, it's 3 now. It went down from 3.5 to 3. Okay. You have a gross one. All right, other big— the other big, big game. Um, well, I guess there's actually a few big games here, but, uh, one of the other big games in the early window, Vikings at Lions. Lions -3, over-under is 46.5. This is a fun game because it's a what are these teams type of game.

I like, I like the Lions in this game a lot.

Okay.

I do.

Can I, can I I did as well. And then I had a memory which I don't know if you guys even have like thought about because it does feel like, what was even that?

I know what you're talking about.

Yeah. The Christmas Day game last year.

It was, it was a bloodbath.

The Lions were the team that everyone was like, don't let them get in. They're like, if they can win. And the Vikings were playing for nothing. And Brian Flores Buttfucked him.

Yeah.

And I am— you know why I'm also thinking about it? Because I think I want to say the Vikings were wearing the weird helmets. Yeah, right. Weren't they wearing like all whites or something?

It was something weird on Christmas Day. I remember that.

Was it Max Brosmer?

No. Was it?

I don't know. It might have been. Actually, I actually think it was Mike.

I just remember— I remember it as being the Van Ginkel game.

Yeah, I think it might have been Max Brosmer. It was, yes. Okay. Because we're like, Max Brosmer against the Lions, there's no way the Lions can win. And then Brian Flores took his dick out and just slapped him around. So that's what's in my head, PFT. That's what has me scared.

Brian Flores is— he's just on a completely different level every game. We say that he's like done— he's doing things that no coordinator's done before. And then every week he finds a way to one-up it. Last week they blitzed 85% of the time, which is, which is crazy. But the thing is, the Lions, are very good against the blitz. Yeah, that's the only thing. So, okay, but all right, I was gonna say against them, I got a couple numbers. Yeah, against the blitz, the Lions are, uh, 8th in terms of lowest sack percentage. They're 5th in terms of lowest pressure rate allowed. They're 7th in terms of yards per attempt. Granted, they have not been getting blitzed by the Minnesota Vikings.

That's what I was gonna say.

They've been getting blitzed by teams that are not the Vikings, which They're worse at blitzing, but it is something that the Lions have seen and that they've showed that at least they know what to do and they can handle it.

I feel like the, the against the blitz numbers just have to be categorized in 2 tranches. Got to be against the blitz, against the Brian Flores blitz, because everything we've heard, everything we've read, everything that anyone has said, that is the— it's not that he just blitzes. It's that he, he brings it from exotic places. He brings it so often. He brings it when you're not supposed to. that it just kind of wears you down. So Max Brosmer, by the way, had 51 passing yards in that game.

Hell yeah.

They won 23 to 10.

Hell yeah. So there's, I mean, Kyler Murray—

That's in my head.

That's killing me.

We're forgetting that Kyler Murray is a massive upgrade.

To Max Brosmer?

To Max Brosmer, yes. How many yards did you just say?

51.

51.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Kyler, he's not making mistakes.

He's not. He hasn't looked great.

No, he has not.

Although Max Brosner did average 8 yards a carry against the Lions last year.

Did you know that Kyler Murray is the only quarterback in the history of the NFL to be the starting quarterback for the last remaining unbeaten team with 2 different franchises?

Whoa.

Think about that.

The Cardinals?

The Cardinals in 2021, I believe.

That's right.

Yeah.

Don't ask what happened after that.

That was the first Kingsbury.

Yeah, that was, that was Yeah, Kingtober hit and then everything went to shit.

Hmm.

Just something to think about.

That is something to think about. That's not a fact I would have guessed. By the way, did you guys see Jamo? I think we got to bet. If we're going to bet anything, it's got to be Jamo because the fit— not only the fit, but did you see the, the sandwich of money?

Yep.

Sandwich of cash was pretty cool.

We should, we should sell that and part of my cheesesteak.

Yeah.

Cash sandwich.

He was just a stack of— stack of hundreds in between white bread with a fork in it.

I loved it.

And I love the pants. The pants were my favorite, though.

Yeah.

He's just wearing pants with the word sex all over them. Yeah, I heard that those pants might cost like $20,000.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

I feel like you could make your own sex pants for way less.

And he's just in a gas station, too. That's the best part.

Half of his pics on it. I actually went through his Instagram last night. Half of his pictures are just him in a convenience store.

Yes.

The guy just loves convenience stores.

That's great. Yeah, that's great. All right.

Would you—

do you like the Vikings here, Hank?

No.

It is such an interesting game because the Vikings are— I mean, they're 30th in offense EPA. They're 1st in defense. The Lions have all the offensive weapons. The Lions defense has been bad, but Brian Branch is back.

Kirby Joseph, maybe.

Yeah.

Is he going to play this weekend?

I don't know.

Because the defense is getting better.

Yeah, man. Okay. I, I think I lean— I don't know. I actually— this is one of those games that I feel like no matter which way I pick, I'm going to be wrong.

Kirby Joseph did return to practice, but no decision on whether or not he's going to play.

Yeah.

So the defense is— it's improving. And I've been thinking more about the decision Dan Campbell made. this week. And I think Big Cat's point, the more I think about it, makes sense.

Yeah.

That if you're going to give the ball to the other team, you might as well give them the ball closer to your goal line than further away. I understand that. But then I also just keep hearing people be like, this is garbage. Don't— this is— the analytics have ruined the game that I used to love. Like all the old heads are saying that. And in this case, that's pretty much the entire argument. And they also might have a point too. It just doesn't feel right for some reason. Maybe that's just me struggling with—

Oh, it definitely doesn't feel right. But that's kind of the beauty of it. That's kind of what Dan Campbell— like, that's where I love watching him because he's just like, I'm— you think I'm a meatball? I'm going to do things my way. And yeah, I don't know. I think he just has so much trust in his offense. Like, I was watching, I don't know, it came on my algorithm. It was from, I think, last year. Remember the Lions-Packers game last year where the Lions could have kicked a field goal to win the game with like 50 seconds left and it was 4th and 1 and he decided to go for it?

Yeah.

Instead, so that they had 0 seconds left and everyone's like, what the fuck? But like listening to him and Goff talk, they were mic'd up for this. They were Like the confidence they both have in each other, it's crazy. So I think that's just really like they confidently thought they were going to get that 1 yard.

Yeah.

And they knew that the downside they could live with.

And the fact that it's Dan Campbell, that he's doing it and that he always does stuff like this, it's better than if one coach just decided to do that.

Yeah.

Because that guy would probably get fired if it didn't work out. Dan Campbell, at least he's got a track record and reasons why he does stuff. And so, yeah, I guess just kind of stick with who you brought to the dance. And that's kind of what Dan Campbell's always done. So I get it. But that's the one example where I just think, yeah, I just think to myself, like, that just doesn't feel right that you do it.

It doesn't feel right. But my whole thing with the aggressiveness, don't be aggressive, be aggressive, just consistency. Be aggressively you and don't waver and change who you are and like cower in moments because that's when you lose the edge.

Like, don't switch it up and pick a favorite for the hungry dog, right? Like, this is who you've been, right? It should always have a plus sign next. Always.

Don't change who you are.

Always an underdog.

Yeah. Be your— as my good friend Matt Nagy used to say, be you.

P.U. P.U.

He should write it to himself.

Okay.

Titans at Bengals. By the way, Zach, and chime in anytime because you are back. I think we said at the beginning of the show, how are you feeling?

I feel good. I'm glad to be back. I miss you guys.

Okay.

No one gets more sick than you.

Well, I'm good for once a year.

I don't mean that as like in a bad way, because I do actually— you texting me being like, hey, I'm so sorry for being sick, was a crazy text. You don't have to apologize for being sick.

Well, I'm just making sure there wasn't anything, anything needed to be done outside that could be done sick.

I got a question for you, Zach, because you, you hit us up on Sunday and you said that you were sick and that you couldn't come in, which understandable. We don't want you to come in. We would get mad if you did come in while you're sick. And then you said that the fever broke and you would be fine. And then you missed the next couple of days, which again, if you were sick, I think that's—

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait.

No, I'm saying you made the right choice. I'm just wondering if you lied to us initially on Sunday about not being sick anymore. Or if you were uncomfortable saying, I'm still sick, because we want you to be able to tell us when you're still sick.

No, I didn't have a fever anymore. I was just keeping updates. I feel like I made sure to go through proper channels. Tested yesterday.

All good.

Okay.

Tested for what?

I took a COVID test and a flu A and B test.

Wow.

They still have COVID tests?

It was like a combo test.

Oh.

Which make— I was a little hesitant because it's just, oh, you can jam all that in one test. But yeah, there's like a beaker and stuff attached.

I kind of felt—

it kind of felt like a science experiment.

Shane's never passed the combo test. No, no, not once.

Okay, uh, Titans-Bengals. Bengals are now 11.5-point favorites because of the Jeffrey Simmons news. Over-under is 46.5. I don't really want to spend much time on this game. I just think the Bengals should win this game and they should win it easily and we should move on.

I agree.

The Titans are trading— they traded their best player today. They're basically saying we're, we're going for the future, which they now have 4 first-round picks the next 2 years.

Yeah, it could be a case where everyone— like a big letdown spot because everyone realizes we're, we're officially waving the white flag. But also, it's also putting everybody in that locker room on notice.

Yeah.

Like, do you want to get out? Jeffrey Simmons got out. Maybe if you play as good as Jeffrey Simmons—

We'll let you free.

You'll earn— yeah, you'll earn your way out of Tennessee. Also, what you put on film right now, it is kind of defining for you if you want to continue playing in the NFL next year. Um, but yeah, that's more of something that you get when you have an interim coach, not necessarily starting a fire sale. So I like, I like the Bengals.

So we are in week, uh, what, we're week 8. The Titans have played how many games? Have they played? Did they have their bye yet? What's the Titans record? They're 1-5. Is that right?

1-6.

1-6. So they played all 7 games. Uh, will this be the week that Cam Ward gets 1,000 yards? Right now he's at 867 yards and 8 touchdowns.

Yes, because I, I expect them to be playing from a deficit for most of the game.

Okay.

So I think they're gonna have to throw it.

Also, those were JSN stats because that was going viral, uh, all week where, uh, this is from Patrick Simpson. He said someone said Cam Ward stats look like JSN stats, but seeing it side by side is nuts. And it really is.

Yeah.

Cam Ward has 998 yards, 4 touchdowns. Jaxon Smith-Njigba has 867 yards, 8 touchdowns. It's like, what the fuck?

That's wild.

It's wild.

Yeah.

He's only, he's only 100 yards behind a starting quarterback.

Do you think that most Titans fans are, they've, they've had the conversation with themselves? Are we at that point? Or there's still room to go, I think, for some of them. If you're, if you were a true Cam Ward day one guy, you're probably thinking to yourself, you're looking up all the stats for every quarterback that was bad through the first 2 seasons. And convincing yourself that like Cam is still that guy. I'd say it's probably reached the tipping point where over half the fan base might kind of sadly understand that he might not be the guy.

I think the trade of Jeffrey Simmons basically tells you they probably don't think he's the guy, right? Because they're compiling assets to maybe potentially get the guy, right? Right.

Yep.

So it just has never— it just hasn't looked I don't know. I haven't, I haven't watched him and ever been like, oh my God.

And the thing is, we don't know what it would have looked like if he went to a stable franchise.

For sure.

We don't know. We'll never know.

Absolutely. Until he goes to the Vikings and the Vikings trade him and then he wins a Super Bowl.

Yep.

That sounds like it's right.

Yeah.

The Bengals are really, really good. By the way, what was it? What was Dexter Lawrence traded for? Because that actually is a good comp. I know he was probably less because he's a little older, I think. Because if you ask any Bengals fan, would they do the Dexter Lawrence trade again? Oh no, he's actually a little young.

He's 28.

Would they do the Dexter Lawrence trade again? They'd definitely say yes, right?

Yeah, I think the—

he's been awesome.

Improvement that the defense has made is exactly what they need.

Yeah.

Flip side would be Quinnen Williams.

Yep.

Yeah, true.

Quinnen Williams for sure. But you got to get the good ones.

What?

You got to get the good—

difference is Jefferson's defensive tackles. Yeah.

Good.

Yeah.

I think it was just—

oh, they had to give him a contract extension.

That's right. Okay.

So just one.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. But yeah, I mean, that's, that's it. Dexter Lawrence has been a game wrecker. He's been awesome.

So yes, it was just one pick.

Got it. All right. Next game, Cardinals-Cowboys. Cardinals +6.5. At Dallas, over-under 54.5. Anything on this game? Cowboys are going to look good and everyone's going to— like you said, they're going to— the conversation is going to start happening.

Well, that's what I was thinking. But then I also remembered last year. Remember that? Was it Monday night game?

Yes.

Cardinals and the Cowboys.

Yes.

Was that one of the weird, like, animation games, if I remember? Yep.

I—

the Cardinals could come out and shock you. I don't think it's going to happen. this week. I think this is going to be the Cowboys look right. Everything's great in Dallas. Jerry's happy. They just beat the, uh, the remaining skeleton of the Eagles and the Cardinals. And everyone's thinking, okay, this is the year that Dak puts it all together. We go on a deep run and then reality is going to smack him.

I do think I was thinking about it more because I agree with you on, on the surface of it, of like the conversation about the Cowboys making this deep run is crazy. I do think the Cowboys, not to, not to steal your Steelers bit, but I think they could win one, one playoff game because they've done it before. Well, and they would be home, right? Like, that would be a home game.

We've, we've seen that before.

Yeah, for sure. They could definitely lose it too. But like, I could see them winning a playoff game and then, and then just getting thrashed by someone in the top.

What was your reaction to seeing Jerry Jones and Stephen A. Smith, uh, buddy-buddy?

Uh, I've seen— I feel like I've seen it a bunch of times. They just do it all the time. Yeah, he's like Stephen A. Stephen A. will just— he'll, he'll, he'll buddy-buddy with any type of power.

Whenever I see that, I just think, I think to myself, like, this is Stephen A. Smith is just laying the groundwork right now for— he's not actually a Jerry Jones fan. He's laying the groundwork for an elaborate troll.

I think Jerry Jones is a Stephen A. fan. Yes, because Jerry Jones is definitely one of those guys where, and credit to him, He doesn't care whether you're saying bad things, good things, whatever. If you're talking about the Cowboys, he's happy. It does not matter. Like, he wants, he wants the Cowboys to lead every show and you could bash them, but they're leading the show.

Yeah. I'm just saying Stephen A is about to break out the Cowboy hat soon.

Yeah.

And then we're going to go through that whole song and dance again.

Yeah.

I put it like 50-50. Cowboys don't have to be good to win the NFC East. That's the thing is like they could. look like they're pulling it all together, but in reality they might just be winning that division.

Here's a weird stat. Dak Prescott is 1-10 against the spread against the NFC West since 2020. Now the NFC West has had some really good teams, but like you said, the Cardinals last, last year beat them. Jacoby.

Cardinals also used to be in the NFC East. Yeah, what a weird time that was.

Uh, fuck Michael Bidwell. We'll just throw that in there.

People are real mad about the Casitas. Yeah, I didn't realize that the Casitas were a hot-button issue, but it sounds like some, some fuckery.

They moved, they moved like the cheap— basically where fans could get cheap, low-level seats, like close to the field. They basically like, haha, fuck you.

Yeah.

And I think the way they did it too is they moved them out without basically giving them an option for like better seats. So yeah, the guy's a bad owner. I just can't stand owners that don't want to own it. They don't want to win. They don't want to own a team. They just own a team and they try to grab, squeeze every dollar out of it. Give the fan— give the fans something else. If you're not going to sell a team, hire someone who actually can run it. That would be my other thing. Hire someone and get out of the way.

But when they, they had Bruce Arians running the show, that's when it was at its best, because Bruce Arians is probably like not afraid to tell Bidwell, fuck off.

Yeah, bad guy. Okay, let's see. Raiders-Jets memes.

Geno revenge game.

Yeah.

What'd you say?

Is that a revenge game?

Oh yeah, basically ruined his career.

Okay, well, the Jets— how did the Jets kind of ruin his career too?

Because he got punched in the face. That was—

But are you saying that the Raiders ruined his career so badly that his only choice was to go and play for the Jets?

Yes.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

I mean, I can't argue with that.

And that also, that just leads me into my other theory that Geno is gun-shy this year and he's trying to play for a contract. Like if you look at his stats, he's actually having a really good year. But if you look at the film, if you look at the film, he's so gun-shy.

He's not trying. He's trying to purposely not throw any interceptions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Even though he did do that last week, but he's only got 2 interceptions on the year. He led in interceptions on the Raiders last year.

So he's looking at like a contract to be the, uh, like the Titans quarterback next year.

Yeah.

A bridge quarterback. And then he has a good year. They have a young guy that they want to move in and start ahead of him. And then a team like the Jets picks him up after—

Yeah, exactly.

After playing for the Titans.

Essentially. Yeah.

Okay. That's actually not a bad business model if that's what Geno's up to. He's kind of got it all figured out.

Aren't you in must-lose, like, mode now that your season's over?

No, not yet. We have so many picks that it doesn't really matter.

They have other teams' picks.

So, yeah, we have the Colts pick.

So you're not in must-lose, not must-win. You just exist.

We just exist. We're the Hank of football.

I know.

I'm—

I'm—

we're existing.

You can't. No, you can't.

Yeah, you can exist.

Then you're not me.

Yeah, because I cannot exist.

I would say that the Texans might be the Hank of football where it's like, oh, all you say is our offense needs to get better. Well, our offense got better, but now your defense is better. Well, I can't exist.

Yeah. What do you say, Mike?

I'm a strong believer that unless you need a quarterback and there's like a quarterback that you're like going for in the next draft, it's better to win games for the future of the franchise. It's better to build a winning culture for the guys that will be there for the, for the years to come. Rather than like going 0-16 and getting the first pick instead of the 8th pick isn't going to change a franchise. Providing like a winning culture will.

Counterpoint.

Go ahead.

Want to do it on 3? 1, 2, 3. It's the Jets.

Oh, my counterpoint would be—

You can't build a winning culture.

Is he going to be your coach?

Yeah, that's a good point.

Like the coach doesn't matter. You know what I mean? You can't winning games with Aaron— like if Aaron Glenn's not going to be your coach, the culture is going to change anyway, and the culture starts with the coach anyway.

So that's a good point. Yeah, I guess I'm looking at winning and you have such a young roster. Yeah, I think it's better to win. Like, I'm— I, in football, I think it's better to win because that teaches—

it just establishes like an expectation.

Yes.

Well, I also think it's—

there's so many—

It's too early to talk about. Like, if this conversation is happening in mid to late December, When it's like 3 games left, if you lose out, you can go up to like the number 2 pick and you're sitting at the 8th pick or whatever, then it makes sense. It's, it's not even Halloween. You have to try to win games still.

I'm doing— I'm looking at this as a bias of— I hear some Eagles fans like wanting to lose and I think that's bullshit. Yeah, no, I think trying to win games, the Eagles aren't going to do anything this year. They're not going to make the playoffs. I still want them to win games. I still want them to change what's going on in like the culture of the team right now.

I agree.

What were you saying about culture and the Jets?

You just can't— like, you— it's hard to build a winning culture ever. It doesn't matter what you're doing if you're the Jets.

It's a fair point. Yeah, it's a very fair point.

Still the Jets.

But, and to that point, we've been picking in the top 10 forever and we suck ass.

Mm-hmm.

So win some games.

Do you—

how do you feel about Aaron Glenn saying he kind of admitted like, hey, it actually is pretty difficult to call the defense and manage the game?

Yeah, you should probably give one up.

Yeah, correct.

Correct. He's right about that.

I feel like, hey guys, just a heads up, like I'm actually really kind of struggling at my job.

Yeah, it's a hard job.

I'm a little in over my head.

It's such a funny thing. Yeah, it's him for being honest. It's like, yeah, this is actually really difficult for me.

I thought my job was just going to be to like yell at dudes. Now I have to be smart and I'm not. And that's weird. It is. It is 2 different skill sets for a head coach. Yeah. You have to be— if you're a defense coach or offense coach, you have to be good and understand how to coach a football team and how to install plays, like the small details of all that, the overall strategy. And then you also have to be able to understand game management, the clock, when to go for percentages, analytics. It is 2 completely separate job descriptions. And if you're lucky, you get one guy that's awesome at both. Maybe some team is just going to start hiring just like a straight-up dork.

Yeah.

To be— have full autonomy on game day. And I'm like, Aaron Glenn, you take care of all the football shit. This guy is only going to be worried about the clock and timeouts, and he has 100% autonomy on what to do. But the second that guy fucks up at his job, he's fired. Like, we might go through 2 or 3 of those guys in a year.

Yep.

But maybe that would be a better idea for certain organizations that can't find the guy that can do both.

And I don't know if this to be true, but manage— calling defense and managing like the game clock feels— those are kind of at odds because it's like when you're on offense, you're in control of it and you're— that's when you're trying to think about like, all right, where do we want the clock to be? Defense, you're more reacting.

So yeah, it's probably pretty confusing for for him.

Yeah.

Has there been any like straight up defensive coach that has been awesome at game management and clock management?

Belichick, probably. That's pretty good.

Yeah, good point.

Okay.

McDonald's. Immediate great point.

See, Aaron Glenn might not be great.

Immediate, immediate great point with Belichick. Yes.

Yeah. It might just be Aaron Glenn.

They got to stop hiring first year coaches because Robert Saleh did the same thing as opening press conference. He was just like, I probably should have been more hands-on with the defense. I just let everybody do their job.

It is a fun— like, not fun for Jets fans, uh, thought exercise, but what, what would be your record? What's your record right now? 2-5?

Yeah.

What would be your record if you had John Harbaugh?

It's a good question.

Probably 3-4 at least, maybe even 4-3.

Lost Bears would have been a loss.

Yeah.

Dolphins probably would have been a win. Like, that was some mismanagement and just like not prepared.

Lions win, Patriots win.

Yeah. So Packers win. So yeah, that's like 6-1.

Yeah.

They're the best team in football.

Yeah. No, they would.

But you're right.

Start—

hire someone who's done it before.

Yeah, there's no point because everybody learns here and they're like, oh shit, I made so many mistakes.

Yeah, I gotta go somewhere else.

Can I throw out just a name?

Yeah.

Rex Ryan?

Nah.

Should you have hired Rex?

No. Game's past him.

Okay.

Uh, I'm going with my theory. I, I hate that I'm taking the Jets in this game, but Kirk Cousins outside.

You think Kirk's gonna last the whole game?

I don't know.

They're saying maybe trade bait too. Like, who would, who would, who would trade for Kirk Cousins right now? Is there a team? I mean, obviously injuries happen.

Yeah, he instantly become like probably the best backup.

Yeah. Trying to think who's— you know who actually should trade?

The Vikings.

I was going to say the Bengals, just as a— as we have a pretty good season going.

Yeah, I can see he would look awesome in that orange.

Yeah.

But don't they have— do they have Flacco?

Yeah, they have Flacco.

So they're good. Oh, I think I honestly— the Vikings should trade for him.

The Falcons should trade for him.

Yeah.

OK.

Last thing on this game, Ashton Janty did say the Jets don't want to tackle. So, oh, there's some red meat on the table.

Red meat.

Yeah. Love that.

Kind of challenging their manhood.

Yeah, it's a beef game.

That's a big-time beef game.

Oh yeah.

A little lamb game, maybe.

OK, same thing.

Big brother becomes little brother game or no, little brother becomes big brother game. Browns +3.5 against the Steelers. Over-under is 39.5. I like the Steelers in this game. I think the Steelers— I've been, I've been thinking about it more, been ruminating about it more because I have, uh, we, you know, a lot of our Steelers analysis is essentially they're the same Steelers. I'm ready to say they're not just because Jalen Warren. Yeah, we alluded to it a little bit on Monday's show, but I— they are not the same Steelers. I think they are definitely better than the last few iterations. Their offense has more pop. Aaron Rodgers is seemingly taking more risks. Like, he'll throw it over the middle. And I like Jeremy Bernard's good. I, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm kind of buying in on the Steelers.

The chemistry's there with Jeremy. I also think DK has, he's had some high-profile drops. And when he, when he drops, it's like he really drops the ball. Like, they're comical drops, but he's also had some really big plays in almost all their wins. DK has made a reception that has impacted the ending of that game in a good way for the Steelers.

Yes.

So it's not like he's, he's really, really bad. It's just he's had some high-profile mistakes. But overall, I think he's been a big help to that offense. And they're finally throwing the ball more to Darnell in the red zone, which is what we've always looked for. And this is just a history game for me. It's just a history game. The last time that the Browns swept the Steelers, it was 1988. It's been a very long time.

A 37-year-old has never seen it happen.

It's been a very, very long time. Do you know anyone who's 37? Any Browns fan who's 37? No. Jeff DeLo.

Oh, is he?

How old is Dom?

Dom's like 21.

Is he really?

Yeah, he's so young.

He's very mature.

He's so much more mature than everyone. Yeah, but actually, no, he's actually gotten a— he, he's less mature now because I banned him from wearing black shoes. Yeah, can't wear black shoes anymore. Black shoes did make him seem way older.

He looks like a— yeah, in black shoes you look like a restaurant.

You banned Zach too?

Yeah, I did.

I got, I got some, some Black Nobles, and Zach was like a little sad. I was like, you like these, Zach? He's like, yeah, those are nice, but I got banned.

I'm not allowed.

Banned in place, man.

That's what it is.

I don't know why. I like— this is one of those situations where part of me is like, hey, should you just relent a little? But I honestly want to puke every time I see you.

Or he would wear black. Zach, Zach, Zach, I feel like would wear them appropriately. Don would wear like black shoes and like white knee-high socks.

Yes.

And you just look— Zach will wear like black on black and like, Dom would make it work.

Dom would wear black shoes and he would walk around with like a plate of pigs in the blanket and you just be like, what are you doing?

The only guys that can pull off black shoes are guys that would probably kick your ass if you made fun of their black shoes.

And shoes don't get dirty, though.

That's true. That's a very reasonable point. But also, there's cool black shoes for sure.

But it's just like, yeah, you can't. Black running shoes are never cool.

It's really—

running shoes are never cool unless you're fast. Unless you're fast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You make everything—

I'll, I'll, I'll let you get the Noble because the Noble— the Nobles make like good black shoes. So put them on and I'll, I'll test them out.

Those Jordans look good.

The Black Cement 3s are the best black shoes.

Those are good shoes.

But yeah, so yeah, I agree with you. History game. I like the Steelers in this game. I think the Browns are a fun story. I do not think the Browns are very good.

The Browns are the first team in the history of the league to win 3 straight games by a field goal in the final 10 seconds. It's never been done before.

That's crazy.

So yes, they are a fun story. And I'm happy for Cleveland Browns fans. And I'm happy that we get closer and closer to having a very uncomfortable discussion about Deshaun Watson, which is, is he going to win Comeback Player of the Year? Just, just a fun thing to think about.

Yeah, that's all.

Kenny, maybe if, if it's a new position like quarterback, cornerback, linebacker, running back, comeback. Yeah, he would be the comeback, like number one comeback guy.

Would he, would he, would he be eligible just if he hasn't had any incidents in the last year?

Cleaned up his act.

Yeah.

Like he's already a better person because he hasn't done anything bad in a while.

Like if you If you are actually the worst person in the NFL, but you just don't reoffend.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah. Then you've actually made giant strides compared to somebody who was already a good guy that maybe just had like a broken leg that came back the next year.

Yeah. I also, I'll say right now, I'm, I'm just going to look past the fact that the Steelers did play in France and didn't take a bye and are coming back. I'm just going to be like, you know what? That didn't happen.

Aaron Rodgers is old. Yeah. Travel probably wears on him a little bit more.

He did say it was the best flight that he's ever had in his career. The most fun. Probably my favorite flight back from a road game in 22 years.

They did the Kirk O'Chains thing with him.

Yeah.

They put jewelry on Aaron, took pictures of him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They said the crew was amazing. They let us kind of take over the hallways, the alleyways. There's a lot of good times we'd had on that flight.

It's actually very dangerous to do.

Yeah.

You got to be international. You got to be, you got to be down.

Come on. What are we doing?

Okay. Next game. This is actually a sneaky good game and an important game. Falcons +2.5 at the Bucs. Over-under is 44.5. I'm going to say it, boys. I've done some more thinking. And my take that like, hey, watch out, the Bucs could win the South. Yeah, I just forgot about Todd Bowles to like its full extent. I think I want to— I think I want to walk back from what I said because I just like— it just kept on eating away at me. Like, dude, Todd Bowles, Todd Bowles, Todd Bowles. Like, Kevin Stefanski is a very good coach. Todd Bowles is not. That's where this game goes down to. Go ahead.

No, you're on the right track. Last week you had some good gas for the Bucs. We have to forget about the head coach and just think about the guys. We have another week of healthy thumb. I know. Listen, I also— I know the Panthers run defense not that good, but we established a run last week. We're undefeated in the division.

Come on.

You gotta give us a little something.

Yeah, I think you're not wrong that in order to convince yourself, you can't, you can't look at a coaching matchup in this. This is like a big Baker revenge spot too.

Oh yeah.

Like, this is not a made-up Baker, I have a perceived slight against me because some team didn't trade for me when I was on the market. This is Baker Mayfield against Stefanski. They haven't talked since he left Cleveland.

Yes.

So this is a, it's a revenge spot for Baker for sure.

And remember, He also had the shot. Yeah, the— so the tweet you're referring to was someone said Kevin Stefanski had a dumpster fire of quarterbacks in Cleveland. Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson failed, which started a chain reaction to 11 other starters. QB Shedeur Sanders closed out last season with 7 starts. Baker quote tweeted, said, failed is quite the reach, pal. Still waiting on a text call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can't wait to see you twice a year, coach.

Hmm.

That's got to fire you up a little bit. He's still thinking about that. You know he is. And the rest of the guys in the locker room know that this game means that to him.

Yep. We might see a little, some Kyle Pitts action this weekend. He's got 629 receiving yards in 8 games against the Bucs. So that's the most against any team historically played pretty well against him. He's got 4 touchdowns in the last 3 games. He scored 6 touchdowns against Tampa, which is double his highest total against any other opponent.

Okay.

I love Kyle Pitts this weekend. I always love Kyle. Every weekend I love Kyle Pitts.

And he's going to probably disappoint you and it doesn't matter.

And it's okay because I'll keep taking that drug. Yeah, I'll get back on it the next week.

It'll be fine.

Yeah.

This time the high is going to feel good. I, I do like Michael Penix on the road as an underdog. He's 5-0 as a road dog as a starter.

Oh, I think, yeah, he's playing well. Like what Tommy Reese is doing.

Against the spread, that is.

Yeah. What Tommy Reese is doing with the Falcons, like the Falcons are a good team. I think that, I think they're, you draw out the first 2 games of the season and they've been a pretty good team.

So I think I like the Falcons in this game. I think I do. And it's, it's almost because of like, this is such a big revenge game for Baker and I don't think he's 100% healthy. So he's going to be playing like he's 100% healthy. Yeah. Like when he's not, I don't know. And I also do like the Falcons. So I think I'm going to lean to the Falcons.

And we talked about, I mean, the Bucs at home, it's been the same game over and over and over. and over and over.

Yeah, but this is the re-re-re home opener.

Yeah, it's true.

Something to think about.

What are you gonna say, Hank?

Do you—

are you taking the Falcons?

No.

No, not on the Hungry Dog?

Nope. No, probably not. Nothing's official when we record the show.

Um, there are 3 teams in the NFL right now with a losing record with a positive point differential: the Bucs, the Rams, the Cowboys. That kind of makes sense. That tracks a little bit.

Yeah, you know, they, they just absolutely fisted the Panthers.

Right. And also they've, they've lost games in horrific ways that they have not— yeah, the Bucs have not gotten blown out.

Right.

They've just been really bad at the end of games, which is the Todd Bowles part.

Yep.

That's where it all went back to. It's like, dude, what are you talking about? I do actually believe in the Buccaneers. I believe in Baker when he gets healthy. I believe in the Buccaneers defense. I think their offensive line is awesome.

Todd Bowles.

We just got to forget about Todd.

Todd Bowles.

He's not there, big guy. He's not there.

Todd Bowles. All right, you want to do this game quick? Colts at Jaguars. Jaguars -10, over-under 46.5. Colts are— what, Hank? What?

Colts?

What?

Okay. Do you know what? Do you know the history here?

Do tell.

Do you know how long it's been since, since the Colts have won a football game In Jacksonville.

What?

I don't hate this.

2000— 2012.

I mean, it's important. I'm glad that you're taking a risk here, but you should just know the last time they won was 2014. It's been 11 years since they've beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville.

And they played— Jacksonville is not like the hardest place to play in the world. The Colts have just been bad.

I'm just saying that's a That's a long time and they play each other every year.

That's true.

Okay. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't look at historical.

I don't like, I'm not like, oh, I'm picking the Colts. Oh, they haven't won 11 years. I can't do that.

The locker room's got to be a little fired up right now.

Yeah.

Trading all the guys. I like it. I like it.

I don't have any leg to stand on because last week I thought he was crazy to take the Giants and he turned out to be right. He still lost the hungry dog just For everyone keeping track at home. But he was right about that leg of it.

Hang the banner.

Yeah, it's his— it's Hank's bet. He can do with it.

You know, the, the Chocktober banner. That's, that's the joke. Yeah, yeah.

But if you're going to be making jokes about the Hungry Dog, hang the fucking banner.

Okay. Do you want to make a banner? Sure.

No, you would.

Well, we got to wait till the end of the season, and then when you don't win it, we'll say, hey, you know, 6 times he went 2 for 3.

Great, great.

You're a hater of the dog.

Well, the dog usually— the dog, I mean, I get yelled at for the dog when I root for my own team. I get yelled at for the dog. There's the— the dog is— the dog is—

I'm hopping back in the dog kennel this weekend.

I actually did hop in the dog last week with the Texans or with the Giants. As soon as it got over, I took them to the over.

You can't pick one game and be like, I hopped in the dog.

Oh yeah, I won.

You know what the problem is?

Yeah, I won.

Oh, I took the Bears.

I took a puppy.

I took the Bears first quarter and then for them to lose and be like, I actually was rooting for the Bears last week.

No, I took the puppy. I want—

you know what my problem with the dog is? I think the dog is more successful when it's Hater Hank and you intentionally throw in one of our teams to root against. Nah. And you've been too— you've been too impartial recently.

No, I'm that— I'm never impartial.

I like it better when you don't do that.

No, you— you are impartial.

Yeah, you're being too impartial.

I'm— yeah, I'm always impartial.

No, you are always impartial.

There were some times when you would Intentionally, like—

No, I actually will back up Hank on this. But I do.

I think it wins intentionally.

I think he just likes what he likes.

I think, I think it wins when he does that, though.

I don't do that, though. So, wrong.

All right.

And it also doesn't win.

It does. It won last year, won the year before.

Back when you were a real hater, not this new kinder, gentler—

There's a lot of years.

There's a lot of years.

I don't think you guys understand the math behind the Hungry Dog. If I win one week, I'm even. And if I win 2, I'm up.

All right. So I'm hopping in.

Colts.

Yeah.

Okay.

You're not. You said this last week and then didn't.

I'm going to do it. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't. I mean, I'm sorry. I loved the Seahawks last week. I apologize.

Okay.

What do you want me to do?

Okay.

I gave you your flowers for being dead right about the Giants. That was a great pick.

Okay.

Colts.

Colts. I'm just going to say it's so crazy. This is one I like.

I think I think that's the worst pick that you could possibly make for the Hungry Dog.

I love that. I love that. That probably means I was going to wear that.

I like— I'm so against that pick, Hank.

Love it.

That it probably means good things for you.

All right.

So Jaguars off a bye. We haven't seen them.

Everyone's getting traded from Indy. Everyone's demanding trades that haven't been traded yet.

Every conversation about the AFC kind of forgets about the Jaguars when they've been really, really good, really consistent.

Ed Dodds, wheeling and dealing. Oh my God. You're forgetting about the Ed Dodds factor.

Ed Dodds factor is always present in the NFL. Everyone always knows what Ed Dodd is doing. I'd actually imagine that before Ryan Poles traded for Jeffrey Simmons, he called Ed Dodd just to be like, hey, I just want to give you a heads up. This has nothing to do with you.

Just tapping in.

Just tapping in.

Hope that's cool.

I don't want a trade to go down without Ed Dodd knowing.

The Bears might move to Indiana. I don't want Jeffrey Simmons to be on your turf if that happens. If you got a problem with it, you let me know, Ed Dodds. The 6, the 6 words no player wants to hear is Ed Dodds wants to see you.

Can I give you a bad stat for this, Hank?

Yeah.

Daniel Jones, his career as a starter versus teams over .500, he's 10-28-1. So basically, if you're a good team, he doesn't beat you.

It's a bad, that's a bad record.

That's a bad record.

I'm just saying, like, the more we think about it, the more stats there are against Hank's bet, the more likely it is.

Yeah, for sure.

It's going to hit. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, the Colts fought last week.

They were—

And everything you said about people overlooking the Colts, like the Jags are too, probably.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that Anthony Richardson should be allowed to play.

I would love that.

And I think, I think it would be Hungry Hungry Dog. I think he should be allowed to play stoned if he wants.

Yeah, great.

That would be much more fun.

we—

how many games do we have in the afternoon? We have 3 games in the afternoon. Oh my God, is that— am I reading that right, boys? Oh my God. This is what I What did you guys say? We've talked about this before, but on Pick 'Em, I did a rant about how the NFL is— they're ruining their scarcity thing where they're just the Tuesday, Wednesday games.

I have a take. Yeah, I have a take. Did you see the report that came out? Adam Schefter publicized it today. There's been a lot of this bouncing around recently, but the NFL has acknowledged a study that like 75% of players that died between— what year was it? Like 2000? 2008 and 2006. I forget the exact, but it is a multi-year study.

Okay.

75% of players have some form of CTE at the time of death. Not good stuff. I almost think that the NFL should play less games.

Yeah.

I'm going to say it. I think that 17 games is too much. I like the scarcity. I like if you brought it back to 16, because the NFL has also been playing this game for a long time where they have to find safer-looking ways to do a dangerous activity, which is like, oh, okay, you know what, we'll put in another game. But if that's the case, we'll let you guys smoke weed.

Yeah.

Or we'll make sure that we have concussion spotters and we'll have a blue tent that you have to go into in exchange for doing one more game of the thing that is actively hurting you.

Yeah.

And it's all to cover their ass against litigation. The only, the only way at this point I think they can actually say with a straight face that they care about player safety is to reduce and go backwards. 16 games, I think, is a good schedule. I don't— I, I did not mind 16 games. When it jumped to 17, all it did was confuse everybody because now you have to— no team finishes .500 anymore. It's, um, I, I think that's what the NFL should do. And I also think that it would make for a better product on the field, uh, and it would be just like I said, it'd be the right thing to do if you really do care about the player safety.

They don't. Yeah. Uh, I I have no problem with the 17 games. I'm just more the way we're trending. The Florio theory last week where he's like, they're going to play on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I think that's the biggest mistake of all time. I think that's where I just get— I start to— I will still watch. But when you take games away, Sunday's supposed to mean something. Sunday's supposed to be special. And they're now making it so that every day feels like an NFL day. The part of the reason why the NFL is the best is Sunday's a religious day for the NFL.

I would imagine that we love football more than 90%, 95% of football fans. Yeah. And I'm okay. Like, 16 games is good. That's a good schedule. Yeah, that's a lot of fucking football. There's a lot of football. I just don't think now that the talk of going to 18—

Well, it's going to go to 18. It was always 17. It's impossible.

If they go to 18 games, they're going to be signing themselves up for a future lawsuit.

They're going to go to 20. What do you say, Max?

I think just do more bye weeks.

Like, yeah, 2 bye weeks is great.

Would be great.

Keep the same amount of weeks, like keep the same amount of football that you get to watch throughout the year. Just give the guys more break.

Yeah, I agree. 2 bye weeks. Universal bye.

No, I don't want universal.

Universal bye, bad. Because you would miss it so much. It would make you— What would we do?

Would we just not do an episode? No, then I would be—

no, I'm saying give it to college football. Give that weekend to— yeah.

If we got universal bye.

Yeah. No, give it to college football.

Nah. Whole bye. Whole weekend. Hank, thoughts?

No, no, you need, you need your football. All right, Hank, so let's talk about it. Patriots-Dolphins, one of the 3 games in the afternoons. So there's main TV this afternoon is going to— Chiefs and Broncos has to deliver because Patriots-Dolphins, Chargers-Rams, Chiefs-Broncos, it could sting. It could sting. Main TV.

Yeah.

Definitely.

I don't really care. I'll be upstairs getting ready for the show.

Great.

Sure. Thoughts on Patriots-Dolphins? Dolphins +7, over-under is 43.5.

I could see the Patriots not covering just because it's in Miami and they always play weird in Miami. I appreciate them playing this game in the afternoon so it's not like a bajillion degrees. They get a little shade, but Patriots— Drake Maye is 16-0 and he's a 3-point favorite or more. Like 12-4 against the spread. I think this is just a take care of business. Win, maybe not cover, but win, move on. Try not to get hurt.

Are you happy that the Dolphins won?

I don't— yeah, actually, yeah.

Yeah. It makes it way less likely that this is a trap for you.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's definitely fair because at the very least, Vrabel is going to have some, some film to cut up and be like, these guys are good. Look at these plays. Don't— yeah, make sure to take them seriously.

Extra rest coming off a loss in a game they could have won. Like, I think they're going to come out, you know, ready to go, fired up and just belt ass.

The Drake May weeks 1 through 3, 1 touchdown, 7 giveaways, averaged 12 points a game. Since week 4, 14 touchdowns, 3 giveaways, 31 points a game. So he's been— the yips have been solved.

Turn it around. And he had— he probably spent the last week and a half doing that simulator.

What was the simulator?

The simulator online.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Figure out like what happens when you throw it here, what happens when you throw it there.

Does Glenn have anything for us today?

Well, there was no game. He already broke down the film last week.

Yeah, that's right.

So I can't imagine that he had anything.

I actually do have something from Glenn.

Oh, but he already broke down last week's game.

Oh, I haven't watched it yet, but I do have something from—

Bonus Glenn.

Okay. I wonder what he's going to talk about.

This is when—

are we good for 6 minutes?

Dude, this is the— like, I go— when I go to a movie, I'll always look up the runtime. And if it's over 2 hours, I'm like, I can't see this movie. I'm the opposite with Glenn. If it's— if it's— if it's over 4 minutes, I'm like, oh, I really need this.

I hope if it's 6 minutes, at least he has something fresh to talk about. And it's not just like film breakdowns.

Right.

He's got it.

It can't just be like a football film breakdown.

He is a film guy.

He is a film guy.

That's OK. All right, let's take a look.

Welcome back to another Tape Watch with Glen. We're gonna be breaking down some very, very valuable film and hopefully learning something today. One thing I always share, especially at the Glinder Gardner level, is you don't want to make kids specialize in things. We want well-rounded athletes. If you want a good quarterback, if you want a good football player, a good football mind, it's important and healthy to be well-rounded and to diversify your skill set. Don't just focus on one sport. We do love football. In fact, I've got some friends, we like to have a little fun with it and say in the fall, if you're getting married, uh, don't invite me to your wedding because I'm gonna be watching football instead of going to your marriage. So it's kind of a little joke that we have about, you know, we're kind of sickos, but, um, we do like watching football, but it's important to watch other sports too. So in the spring I say, don't invite me in that stuff because I'm probably watching golf. I'm a bit of a golf sicko. I'm a pervert. One thing that I didn't understand until just the other day is that the origin of the word pervert, it means the pervert.

Like, like as or of, and vert is French for green. So it's like of the green, par vert. It, it's kind of like one of those things where if you really, if you enjoy golf and watching golf and playing a lot of golf, it means that you're kind of a, a sexual freak.

Hmm.

So, um, yeah, it's kind of one of those funny things. So don't really trust anybody that, uh, makes golf like their, uh, favorite hobby. So anyways, I'm saying all that to say we do have a spot available in the upcoming Glitter Night Glinda Tassel. In fact, Special announcement, it's now being co-hosted. We've hired a fundraising chair, Ben Mentz. So if you are looking to get into the— it's now called the GlareNet Invitational. Ben Mentz is going to be happy to take your money in for that last spot. He's doing the keynote speech. So just let Ben know and I hope to see you out there. Now I'm saying all that to say we're going to be diversifying a little this week. We're not just sticking to football on my page, as much as I love football, because I've got some people behind the scenes at Barstool Sports. And, um, they sent me a sneaky link to apparently a match between Hank Lockwood and PFT. Hank is doing callouts where he calls out his friends and his coworkers and tries to embarrass them on the golf course by beating them. I don't really understand it. It doesn't really sound like, um, content that, that I would care for, but, uh, I'm a big Hank fan, so I thought maybe I'd give it a shot.

I did watch some of Hank's, um, previous videos this week, but he's for some reason stopped putting out the match against PFT.

Hmm.

My contact, who's Very, very big over at Barstool Sports, had access to the footage behind the scenes that Hank wasn't gonna put out, sent me the link, and so we're gonna break it down right now. We're gonna put that out instead of, uh, football. We'll get back to football next week. Uh, 6th hole here, par 5. Uh, Piffy is a chutzpah, can't blame Bryson's strategy, way off in the woods but got underneath the fairway. Hank loves this one. Look at that pose. I think he just knows how good he looks in the sun. He's kind of under a tree. Oh, he loves it. Nope, he does not like it. Hank is pissed off because he sucks at golf. PFT hitting his second shot down the wrong fairway. Just, you know, normal guy stuff. Hank making up for that bad second shot with probably a worse third shot.

Here's 4.

Punch it back out to the fairway from behind a tree. Uh, PFT again with Stu Farner, uh, playing their own hole. Made their own rules down there. There's another golf— that's— that is the golf cart path in between the 2 holes. Um, so that's how far out PFT was. Hank hits another bad shot. Oh my God. The ball still floated across the green. It just kept scooting. PFT, a little chip up there. Little tour sauce. He's gonna have a par putt for 5 coming uphill. And Hank, I believe that is, uh, for his 6th shot, still off the green. Now it's on the green. Uh, PFT for his par. That putt by BFT, hopefully clean that one up. Here's Hank for his 7. Oh no. Oh no. Don't worry, he'll make the 8.

Oh no.

All right, well, he gets a 9 on the 6th. Oh no, he missed the 9. That's a 10. That's a, that's a quintuple bogey. Hank didn't even record PFT making his last putt. Now it's back-to-back par 5s. Here is the next hole. PFT kind of in the fairway-ish. Hank on the hill next to a bunker, out of a bunker hill. He's a New England guy. Here's PFT's second shot. Oh, looks like he stuck that one up hole high. Hank, yeah, a little tour sauce from Hank right there. PFT with a chip-up. That is a green regulation to go, Eric Solonberger. Fairway regulation, green regulation. Hank with a chip, he loves it. Uh, a putt from Hank. Yeah, I missed it, but don't worry. At least, at least Hank, when he's playing bad, he plays fast. So you don't have to worry about getting stuck out there with him. He'll just go ahead and clean this one up and we'll be on our way. Uh, nope. He's gonna step off. He doesn't like it. Uh, he's gonna wait. That putt for double's gonna have to wait. PFT, really terrible putt. And, uh, not a bad par for PFT.

And Hank, let me just break down Hank's swing. That'll be my lesson film. One thing I want you to see with Hank's swing— Is as he comes down to the ball, What is this? What is this move that his shoulders are doing? That his, uh, crotch— is it that his butt is doing? It's almost like he's shitting and puking at the same time as that club comes down at the ball. Just so much going on with that upper body. Uh, we're gonna have to figure out a way to, to fig— to, to straighten this out, Hank. My advice to you is, um, if you want to improve this swing is you should probably quit and then it'll be better because it won't exist anymore. Um, that's, you know, I mean, or maybe just go back to being right-handed. Maybe you should go back. I think God meant for you to be a righty. Uh, for a long time they would kill left-handed guys, and maybe we should bring that back. I don't want to, I don't want to go too far, but after watching this swing, I'm thinking maybe we should just bring back, um, executing Left-handed individuals because they're probably witches.

Um, so that's the end of the round. It looks like Hank got the call-out reversed on him. Um, good news for Hank is he can always go back to golfing right-handed and he is invited to the Glitterknight Invitational. Um, so Hank, if you wanna reach out, tell 'em I sent you and, uh, we'll see you out there on the fairway.

That's actually informative this time.

We can use that video this, this week too.

Yeah. Breaking down the golf swing.

Ah.

What was it like watching?

I haven't signed. I haven't signed.

Oh, no.

What was it like seeing your swing broken down like that?

That was, that was, that was interesting. He made some good points. Did you know the swing looked disgusting? Yeah, that swing. I didn't realize how ugly it was until I saw it from that.

Yeah, it's tough.

That view.

It's tough, man. Good shot. Good shit from Glenn. He's the best.

He makes a good point about not specializing in one sport. That's where we go wrong as a society. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

And fall weddings.

So Patriots.

True. Patriots cover. Maybe not.

I'm OK.

The Dolphins are— it's always a weird game.

Yeah.

Like, I'm not going to say the Patriots are 100% going to cover, but OK, I will be betting on the Patriots.

I do believe the Patriots this weekend.

I think they're going to win pretty easily too. Dolphins got their win.

Yeah.

OK. Chargers-Rams. Chargers +6.5. Over-under 45.5. No, Hank, right?

Oh no.

I've said—

I feel like I've said this. They were just on a bye week last week.

I'm—

the Chargers are the underdog until they win.

They're coming off a bye.

Yeah.

Oh no.

So not only are they losing, they're also 0-8-1 against the spread in their last 9 games. So do Yeah, the Rams are a little dinged.

Yeah, this is just— they're such a bummer of a football team. They're such a bummer. I guess credit to Mike Vittale, he kept his job. I thought he was gonna get fired.

Well, they, they said like, we're gonna spend the bye week, no stone will be unturned. Yeah. And then they came back and Harbaugh was like, yeah, we looked everywhere. It turns out we're gonna keep doing— we're gonna keep doing exactly what we've been doing. Yeah, doesn't make a lot of sense.

Sean McVay's 30, uh, and 12 to the under as a home favorite since 2020. I kind of like that because I do think the Chargers do not have an offense and their defense isn't so, so bad, right?

Yeah, but that's one of those things that that's going to run out too if the offense continues to be dog shit.

Yeah. Also, Davante Adams, uh, apparently is Wolverine. That's a quote from Sean McVay because his 6 to 10 week injury is closer to 6. than 10. So that's good for the Rams.

Great.

They can just— I mean, it is a must-win for them. They're in must-win territory right now till they get above .500. Yeah, they could maybe— maybe they'll just run the ball like they did against the Raiders. That'll be big.

Yeah.

OK. Last one in the afternoon, Chiefs-Broncos is a huge game. Broncos +1.5, over-under 40.5.

This is main TV for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, of course.

Sure. I mean, Duh.

I know, but we— you entertained it because you said you weren't going to be here. I just wanted to make, make it clear this is main TV.

No, I was, I was trying to get Hank to be like, oh, thank you so much in the moment. There was never—

OK, it was never going to be OK.

I just want to make sure.

Yeah.

Come on, Hank.

You knew that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You knew it too. We all knew it. We were playing a dance. Yeah. As Stu Foner said, we're being performative.

I don't think that Denver is going to do what they did on Monday Night Football. Which is forget how to tackle.

I agree.

I think they've learned how to tackle since then. I also think that Bo Nix, more mobile, big deal. They're 4-0 when Nix rushes for 35 yards or more.

My—

I love the— I love the Broncos in this game. I've loved the Broncos all week. My only concern, huge locker room addition in Justin Tucker.

I agree.

I agree.

I think this is actually— it's a, it's a chess move. by the Kansas City Chiefs because now all the fans are like, Harrison Butker's the good guy.

Yeah, true.

Yeah, he gets to be calm again.

Yes, exactly. So maybe because he's been bad for the last couple of years, I think he's missed more field goals than anybody.

Yeah.

So this is going to be— it's just essentially a big magnet for all the hatred that Butker was getting is now going to be laser-focused on Justin Tucker.

Do you think they're Like he just walked in and immediately it was the Step Brothers. Like, did we just become best friends?

Possibly. Yeah.

The— I saw the tweet too. The Chiefs would sign Osama Bin Laden if he ran a 4.3. So we're getting there. But that's— listen, they have— they can afford to do this shit because they have a locker room with Patrick Mahomes and coached by Andy Reid. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, like, you know, right or wrong.

I'm just saying when you have a locker room like that, I mean, I'll say it would be wrong to sign Osama bin Laden.

No, no, not Osama. What I'm saying is, you know what I'm talking about. Like the teams that have an established coach and head and quarterback will take risks more often than the other teams.

And Andy Reid has always been a guy that he does not care. Yeah, he'll sign you if he thinks you can help him win a football game. And the Chiefs are well served by having Reid, who is like a relatively clean-cut guy. And, you know, aw shucks, that's just old Red running the show. Yeah, that type of image. It does. allow him to get away with stuff that I think a lot of other teams couldn't get away with. My question is why? Why Justin Tucker?

Yeah, I don't understand it either.

I don't. And why to the practice squad?

Like, you could sign anyone. Why would you sign him?

Are you worried that somebody else was going to sign Justin Tucker and then you wouldn't get to use him? Because it's very bizarre. Like, if you— I would— it would make more sense if you just signed him to be your kicker.

I actually do think your theory is correct. Like, they're taking the heat off Harrison Butker.

Yeah.

Like, you thought our kicker was a bad guy? Oh, we got a way worse guy.

Yeah.

The, uh, did you guys see the— there's some very funny memes, but one of them, I don't know if it's Avengers or something, 2 guys fighting and it's just got a word bank and it says R-A blank I-S-T and it's the letter C and P fighting each other.

Got it.

Justin Tucker.

Got it.

I don't know where this is from. This is basically also a trade for You know what? Oh, hmm. Hmm. Want to put up your fingers for a second? Chiefs looked really bad on Sunday Night Football, right? That was one of the worst games I think Mahomes has ever played. Like straight up, he was a really bad game. People start talking like, hey, is something wrong with Mahomes? Mahomes not what he used to be. How do we change the discussion about Patrick Mahomes? We just signed Justin Tucker. It's like, yeah, no one's talking about Mahomes right now.

It's the Phil Jackson technique.

Yeah.

Of like, I'm going to make the— I'm going to distract from any criticism of my players by me being a weirdo.

Yep.

And in this case, it's just like, let's sign, uh, who would probably be like the biggest headline guy that you could bring in to get people not talking about the stuff that actually matters. Because it doesn't— it does— the move doesn't make sense, especially like Harrison Butker not— has not been that great the last couple years, was a really good kicker before that. Same thing could be said for Justin Tucker too. Like, they're both kind of old and washed kickers.

Yep.

That used to be great. So if you're going to do— I mean, it's an iron sharpens iron thing.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Okay. So I'm buying on the Broncos. I've been buying on the Broncos. Broncos are 5-2. I think they played the toughest schedule. So that's, that's something. What are you guys laughing about in the booth?

Nothing.

I have a question.

Literally nothing.

One last thing regarding Justin Tucker.

Yeah.

Are we waiting for, for Queen to make a statement? Like, her silence is low-key signaling—

Really good point.

Kind of signaling being complicit.

Whoa.

I'm just saying, whoa. I think she owes it to her fans and to the millions of—

How could she support this team?

Little girls and boys who look up to her as a role model.

Wow.

Just, you know, silence is violence.

Because if you support the team, you support everyone on the Hmm. Well, he's great.

Like, he's gonna be showing up to the Christmas parties.

Hmm.

Interesting.

Something to think about.

I was looking at the Broncos schedule, by the way. So they have the Chiefs this week, but then they have the Raiders twice, the Chargers, the Dolphins, and the Jets. That's 5 of their last whatever games. So that's I mean, that's nice. They got a nice schedule coming up. They have a very— like, this is a start, start talking to everyone about maybe the Broncos becoming the 1 seed again territory.

And Jonathan Cooper's back. Yeah, there's also that.

Is Surtain back? I don't think so.

I don't know.

I mean, the Chiefs don't have a wide receiver to stretch the field anyway, right?

So Rashee Rice is coming back in the next couple weeks, I think. I don't know. He's not playing this weekend, right?

No.

And then, yeah, I've read a lot of other stuff that they, they will be looking to make An additional wide receiver if they can.

Yeah.

Okay. Last one, boys. Eagles-Commanders. Okay. That was our Eagles-Commanders preview.

Yeah.

This will be the first NBA— NBC's first Sunday Night Football game outside of September that features 2 teams with a win percentage below .300. Oh, it is possibly NBC's worst game on paper to date since they started airing Sunday Night Football in 2006.

Yeah, I don't like it.

I mean, you're not getting any arguments from me.

No, I know.

I don't like it any more than anybody else.

else.

Yeah, no, I really don't.

We all agree that they should have been flexed.

What are you gonna do?

You got to just live with it now.

Agreed. The only thing I will say is that Jayden Daniels might have a fro. Oh, he's probably just gonna get his hair done before the game or at some point between Thursday and Sunday. Um, but right now he does have a fro and I think it looks awesome. And I could see Fro 5 making a little run here.

There's that.

And then, um, I just, I I do want to win this game. I'm afraid that we go on a little run and then my hopes get brought back up and then I just get— right now, my expectation that I'm at right now is actually perfect for where it needs to be. But if you let us fuck around and win a couple of games, I will— I know myself, I will allow myself to buy into winning this division at 9-8.

Yeah.

Going on a little run and then anything can happen.

Anything can happen.

And that's not going— it's not going to happen. But anything could happen.

Anything could happen.

So I, I do want to win this game. That I am certain of. I'm just afraid of what that will do to me.

You also can't go 9-8.

Oh yeah, true. If it's a tie.

That's true. Yep. Fair enough. Valid. 8-8-1. 8-8-1 might win this division and that would be the funniest record of all time.

Max?

That's idiotic of you to say. There's no way the Commanders are winning the division. There's also no way that the Eagles are winning the division. I just, like I said earlier, I want them to keep— I want them to start winning some games to Not just become a loser franchise.

Yep.

Which is what you should be thinking, but you're not.

Well, I'm also thinking—

You're a loser franchise.

I'm a loser. I personally, myself, I personally, PFT, am a loser franchise. Yes. But if we win too many games, that would mean that the current head coaching staff—

That's a good point.

Would stick around. And then I think that would make us be more of a loser franchise in the long term.

That's good.

As opposed to wasting the dynamic, easy cap years of your young, talented quarterback. That's what I'm— that's, that's what I'm concerned about. That's what I'm weighing. But I will allow myself to buy back in.

Speaking of coaches, Jeffrey Lurie has fired 4 coaches. He might have fired— no, I think that's all the 4 that he has. He's fired 4 coaches since he's been the owner of the Eagles since 1994. All of them have happened after a 5-plus-game losing streak.

And I believe Doug Pederson was fired after a Sunday night game against the Commanders.

This would be the 5th game for Nick Sirianni to lose.

Remember that, Max? Yeah, the Nate Sudfeld game, right?

I don't think they should fire Nick Sirianni, but I'm just pointing it out that Jeffrey Lurie, somewhere around 5 games, he starts to get a little, little gunched, you know, like a little crazy.

I, I have something to say.

Oh, please.

I don't want them to fire Nick Sirianni. If they do, I wouldn't hate it being in the middle of the season. See what you got in Sean Mannion.

Oh, as head coach.

See what you got. Like, if you already know that you're going to fire him, if you already know, like, why just go through the— like, there's no hurt of knowing, of seeing what Sean Mannion would do as a head coach.

That's famous last words.

Why?

There's no harm in seeing what Sean Mannion can do. Memes was making a face I've never seen from a man before.

Like, I'm just saying, like, he looks like you just shit in the booth.

Memes, what's, what's going on?

Yeah, I don't think, I don't think you want that either.

But what's the, what's the harm? Tell me, tell me the— I don't even care if it's Sean Mannion. If it's, if it's anybody else.

I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I think the harm would be.

If you're already— I'm saying if you already know that you're going to fire him after the season.

Right.

What's the harm of seeing what somebody else— you just get like a free trial.

OK.

You're just, you're just running through the system for no reason if that's the case.

I think when you put it that way, if you're— if you've already made up your mind—

That's what I'm saying.

I'm saying I would not fire Nick Sirianni to roll the dice for the rest of the season, see what Sean Mannion has, because I do think that it would be very short-sighted because Nick Sirianni, for all the weird shit and easy stuff to poke holes in, He had— he's a Super Bowl head coach and he's gotten to 2 Super Bowls and he's doing something right.

This is—

You're forgetting how I started that season from hell. You're forgetting how I started, started that discussion.

I might be.

Is that I said that I was like, I don't want to fire Nick Sirianni.

Okay.

I'm saying if you've made up the decision to already do it after the season, don't wait.

For an interim head coach. Yeah. But—

But why not? Like, why not? Why? Like, basically what Big Cat said, he was like, You know, Jeffrey Lurie gets, gets gun-shy and he—

Itchy, itchy finger.

Whatever he gets. And if that's the case, then, then just do it. Then just do it now.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.

That's, that's, that's all I'm saying.

See what you got.

I, to be clear, I don't think that they should, that they should do it.

I don't either.

But I'm saying if that were the case, just do it.

Mm-hmm.

I agree with that. I don't think they should fire him.

Neither do I. Yeah.

Okay. I'm excited to watch this game. Are we going to—

No, you're not. Don't say that.

I'm excited to watch you— watch you two watch this game. Yeah.

Like, we're— this is not really the least amount of juice that we've ever had going into an Eagles-Commanders game.

Are we going to record the show during the game?

I think we should.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think we should. I'm, I'm a little bit— there's parts that I'm excited for, but it's going to be a bummer. I don't think anyone who's not—

What are you excited for?

I'm excited. Maybe Jayden looks good again.

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah.

I mean, I guess he's been playing well, so there's a possibility that he does some exciting shit and that I feel good. And then I feel good for like 2 hours.

I'm excited. That's what I'm excited for. Absolutely nothing. Nothing.

There's The team is—

there's no— it's all— it's a practice squad team. We're just, we're just playing with— we're just doing practice squad on an NFL Sunday.

All right. Do we have— do we have Jerry?

We have 2 videos from Jerry. He just updated one.

Why?

He said this one is funnier. So we're in a funnier situation.

We want to watch the funnier one.

Yeah, let's watch a funnier one. I think everything Jerry does is funny.

That's the problem.

What's— what, what's our record? We still don't know.

I'm locked out. He's— it's been a full-on mutiny.

Oh, fuck.

Wait, I did— I see— I saw some activity in the group chat.

Was it Jerry? All right, here we go. This is the funnier one. Oh, okay.

This is not— this is not how I thought this was.

He's wearing a, like, a painter's jacket. Breaking Bad.

He looks like Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad.

But he's wearing a hazmat suit.

Fresh lettuce bag salad. Big, huge one.

Okay.

What the hell is this? Hey, what's up, guys?

Happy Halloween.

Start the music memes. I'm the poop lettuce from the summer. Remember the lettuce that made you shit your pants?

No.

That's what I am this summer. Um, okay, we're gonna, uh, we're gonna, uh, start, uh, we're gonna start PFT for that lesson in Latin. That was really cool. Um, uh, percent, part 100. Uh, we're gonna sit PFT for that, uh, weird, uh, peptide take that he had. That's, uh, Save that for macrodosing. Uh, Big Cat, look at me. Off your phone, Big Cat. I'm actually the only one not on my phone. Um, we are gonna sit you guys for having such weak takes on Pat McAfee. Come on, man. Like, uh, we're gonna start McAfee, who's doing a big new kickoff in Indiana, but careful, weird vibes there. Dillinger was shot there. Careful. Uh, we're gonna start Jacoby. We're gonna start Chiefs defense, Jags defense, and, uh, I guess Josh Jacobs is back.

I guess so.

Oh, I did it.

1 minute. F you, Big Cat.

Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

Oh God.

Let's see. That was a funny one.

It was really good.

I also want it on the record, Jerry. I was the only one not on the phone. Hank and PFT were both buried in their phone for that fantasy. I was, I was locked.

I wasn't paying attention.

You're right.

I was looking up the fantasy group chat.

I was waiting for you guys to laugh.

I did.

Which part?

He was the poop lettuce.

Poop lettuce is so funny.

Yeah, it's a very topical It was also like, who would ever wear that?

There's poop lettuce.

It's poop lettuce. You know, everyone remembers the poop lettuce.

Hank, do you remember the poop lettuce?

Yeah.

There you go.

Okay. Jerry, I— good job, Jerry. Keep going, Jerry. You got this.

I love Jerry.

I love Jerry. Hank hates him.

I love him.

I love him.

You don't.

I do.

Love them.

Me too.

By the way, we talked about it on Pick 'Em, which is obviously it's, it's appropriate to bring it up again here. But DraftKings, you could, you could, you can bet in any state. There's prediction markets in California, Florida. So we are going to PMT, we are going to do a stream at some point, a Sunday stream, full, full Sunday stream at some point at Rosillo's house in California. We got to have Jerry come, right?

God, I'm down. Yeah. God, of course. Hank.

Yeah, I have to sit next to you. Yes.

We have a message from Jerry for Hank. Go ahead.

He said shut the fuck up, Hank.

OK. Yeah, agreed. All right.

Let's do parlay first.

I lost last week.

TD parlay. I think we all did. Well, yeah. No, I hit— no, I didn't. None of us hit it. We went over 3. We were garbage.

Garbage.

You 3 can go.

Ollie Gordon.

Ooh.

Rhamondre Stevenson.

OK, so double— doubling up on that game.

Mm-hmm.

You want to go night game?

You want to pick—

want to pick a commie?

I do want to pick a commie. Pick a commie. We'll go with— go with Diggs.

Okay.

Stefan, let's go, boys.

That's gonna be a juicy one. Let's do our picks and then we'll get to Robert Lewandowski, one of the best soccer players of all time. And we'll finish with Fyre Fest. Where we'll be in costume. What do you got, Max?

What is it?

If you place $10, you will get $123.

Whoa.

Okay. Love this.

All right.

Picks time, Zach. Well, no, it's not your pick. You're 3-11.

Yeah. Sometimes guys get hot, guys get cold. This is a temperature check week.

Here we go.

So Max, uh, if we would go points, we get a point— you get a point for a win or half a point for a push. Max has 9, PFT has 8, Memes, myself, and Hank have 6. Zach has 3. Zach, I just like roll out of bed and you lose. It's crazy. There's so much season left and you're not even close.

Get ready to roll back into bed. You have 6.

How did you—

how did you do?

Last year, though, I started very bad. I started very slow. But like I, like I'm saying, literally roll out of bed. You had the over in the Saints Steelers. Oh, yeah.

Timing-wise.

Yeah.

Oh, that's over.

Yeah. All right.

Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah.

I take back what I said about you rolling back into bed.

No, no.

Yeah.

Timing-wise. No, I haven't been good either.

But you also said he has 6. He has double the amount as you.

Yeah, I do. I've doubled the amount.

You— that's a weighted— that was a weighted fraction you just pulled.

And I'm pretty sure I started— I'm almost positive I started 0-4. So I was—

yeah, guys, ebb and flow.

You're, you're, you're flowing, guys.

Get on.

I'm ebbing. You're flowing.

All right, who's up first?

Max.

Max is up first.

Is there any AWLs who are just fading Zach? Because that would be smart.

Yeah, I know one of them.

Zach was 17-23-1. Who? Shane?

Nope.

Colton?

Nope.

Jacob?

Nope.

Memes?

No. No, it sounds like a yes.

I'm just—

I'm reading Jerry's text right now. What is he saying? He's spiraling.

It was memes.

Okay, wait, what was he saying?

Last Sunday night you were like, oh, I'm, I'm taking the Seahawks because Zach has the Chiefs.

Yeah, that's right.

So look, that's a good strategy.

You should continue to do that.

Hank should have done the same thing.

That wouldn't be Hungry Dog. I'm going to take Ravens-Bills over 54.5. Ah, yeah, that was one that I knew people were going to want to take.

Oh, I'm going to take the Browns in the Browns-Steelers game. Browns +3.5.

I'm going to take the Vikings and the Lions under 45.5.

Oh, shoot. All right, I'll take a gross one. I'll take the Commanders-Eagles over 40.5. I feel like both your defenses are worse than your offense.

I actually— I bet on that the second line.

Yeah, the offenses are not great, but they're better.

Yeah.

You're giving a little too much credit to the Eagles offense. They had one decent week last week.

You're not— you're giving too much credit to the Commanders defense.

I might be.

No, Max's.

Yeah.

I'll take a sucker pick over 40.5 in Chiefs-Broncos. OK, feels way too low.

Cardinals-Cowboys over 54.5.

Jacoby.

And +6.5 for the Chargers. This is the week.

I'll take an easy one because I'm taking a money line. So Colts +10.

I'll take the Broncos +1.5.

I'm going to take— I'm going to take the Cardinals. Is it 6.5 or 7?

7.

7. Nice. Cardinals +7.

I'm going to take the under in the Cowboys-Cardinals game at 54.5.

I am stuck between 2.

Come on, Max.

I'm going to go with Lions -3. Did anyone take that?

No.

Okay. Lions -3.

Okay, let's get to our interview. Robert Lewandowski when we come back. Firefest of the week.

Okay.

We now welcome on a very, very special guest. He is one of the greatest. Can I say you're one of the greatest soccer players of all time?

You can say whatever you want. Okay.

It's Robert Lewandowski of the Chicago Fire, former fame all over Europe. But I'm going to say it. You're one of the best soccer— how many goals have you scored? In your entire career? Do you have— you don't have the number?

More than 700, but you know, it's tough to say exactly. Probably if you Google them, you'll know better than me.

Do you have a favorite goal? Like one goal that you think when you close your eyes, when Robert Lewandowski puts his head on the pillow at night and he's like, I think back to this goal.

Directly when I heard the question, in my mind was like, because I scored 5 goals in 9 minutes. The 5th goal, I think that was like something special with the amazing volley that I was like, not only because I scored 5 goals in 9 minutes, but the last one's like special.

Was special.

I'm seeing over 750 senior career goals, somewhere anywhere between 716 minimum to over 750, depending on, on what games officially counted. That's a lot of goals.

That's a lot of goals.

And you're still counting, huh?

And you said, you said 5 goals in 9 minutes?

9 minutes.

Yeah.

Why didn't they just foul you on the line after 4 goals? Shouldn't somebody have just like taken you out and been like, we're not letting this guy score again?

I have to say, because in that game or during the game, when I, because I was on the bench, I was injured a little bit. So I couldn't play for the first minutes, but still I was a little bit hungry that I didn't start from the first minutes. But okay, the coach, Pep Guardiola, decided and we were losing 1-0 in the first half. So I came in. in, in second half, direct in 45 minutes. Uh, I was so focused just to score one goal and the second goal because I want to win the game because that was very important game for us, like in the league. Uh, we were playing against the second in the league. That was very, you know, but that time I scored the first goal and I talked to myself, okay, we need one more. Then I scored the second one. I say, okay, if I score the next one, that will be the game will be, it's going to be easier. And I scored the 3rd one and then I scored the 4th and 5th. And I, I have to say that after the game, I didn't know what I already did.

I was like, okay, we won the game. I scored the goals and that's fine. But no, everyone was like in euphoria, some ecstasy. But I didn't, I didn't know what, what's happened exactly because I was in a different world. I was so focused. I was, I want to just score the goals. But the first time, That was on, I think, October, something like the game. But the first time that I was starting to thinking about what I achieved, that was the Christmas time. The first time that I sitting with my family on the table and was couple of days off because normally we're playing all every 3 days, you know, we don't have time to thinking about what's going on, what's happened, but the next game. And that was the first time in the Christmas that I was thinking, oh, fuck.

Yeah, you could say, you say, you say, oh, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Oh, that is, that's something special that probably staying with me all life, my entire life, because nobody did this and probably nobody's gonna do it. Because if you're starting to think about this, it's impossible to break this record or make this record.

Yeah, it takes him long enough just to take the ball out the back of the net and get it back to midfield. Like, that's, that's so tough to do.

Yeah.

And then when you get your next game that you play, did you feel like a real loser because you didn't score 5 goals?

And like—

But I scored 3 goals, I think. I think in this league, because we play every 2 days, I think in the next, in 3 games, I scored 12 goals. So that was like not only probably this game, but this game was 5 goals in 9 minutes. But the next game, I scored 2, the next 3, and next game, or maybe 4 games, 12 goals. And the next game also 2 goals. So I was like some different world. I was like in Matrix that's just focused on my job, you know.

Can I give you a little critique on how you should answer this question going forward. If you wanna be the greatest soccer player of all time, when I, when someone asks, what's your favorite goal? You gotta say the next one. Just let everyone know you're, you're not done.

I, I, I did this so many times, so I tried to figure out something new now. You know, it's like, also, you know, it's, I score so many goals, but that was something that legendary. I think that not because of one goal, but because of the game and the minutes that's happened.

Yeah.

Well, I, I'm fascinated with especially European soccer, how, how skilled you guys are and how skilled you are at a young age. Was there a moment when you were growing up where you're like, oh yeah, I am different? And like, was it someone noticed you? It's like, oh, this guy is going to be incredible. He's on the path because it like the soccer academies and how it all works. Like it feels like they can find guys when they're like 9 years old. It's like, yeah, this guy's about to be the best.

Because I'm the football guy.

Yeah.

At least in soccer in the US. But you have to stay humble because it's tough. It's, it's, that is in this sport is, it's not important how good you are when you are 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, you know, um, because change a lot, not only physically, but technically, skills, performance, mentality, you know, that in, in soccer is everything is important. Not only how fast you run when you are young or how good with the feet you are with the ball when you are young. No. Because you are growing, you are, you have to develop every skill, every performance, every year, every second, every single game. So in the end, the first time, even that, that you want to ask me exactly when I want that the soccer is going to be my future, that probably I knew when I was 18, 19 years old. So quite late.

Yeah.

Because before I wanted, that was my dream, but I wasn't sure that's going to happen on this level that I want to be, you know, the high level, staying on the big stadium. the big club, starting to earn more money. But even that time, I didn't think about this because you want to just play soccer. But, you know, you have some players who start very early, but you have also some players who start—

Late bloomers.

Late, yeah.

Because it's not in the soccer, it's not depends when you, how you start, but more important is how you finish.

What was, how old were you when you started playing professionally?

in Poland?

Um, you're a teenager, right?

Yeah, the question, what does it mean professional? But I think I was, um, if you compare generation now and mine, that was like 19 years old, 1890s. Now the kids starting playing with the professional team, like the best team, the number one, like 16, 17.

Because, yeah, I mean, Jamal was what— I mean, he was—

I, I was trying with Flamengo when he was 15, you know. That's for me, that was like I could, I'm 2 years older than his dad.

Oh my God.

You know, so can you imagine that I'm starting to play with some players who is like, he can be my son, you know, it's like, oh, that's going crazy. But he was from the beginning, some different players, some special players. But in the end, I think that for him, that will be challenge to staying on the top for the long term. Because if you start earlier, it's more tough, more difficult to stay on the top. Like if you are 28 and 30 or 32, because It's like, especially now, they're starting to earn money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Not like we need, we have, we had to be more patient. Now it's like you score a couple of goals. Okay. Go, go up. Give you money, pay for the transfer fee, you know? And it's much more easier, you know, before you have to achieve something that someone pay not to you, but to the club to transfer you. So it's like different time. But of course, it's like depends of the, of the, of the players and of the club, what, what they need.

Yeah, did you have— was there somebody that, that helped you along when you were young, emerging as potentially a future superstar, that, that kind of showed you what that would work for them, what didn't work for them? Was there anybody that you were close with that helped you kind of navigate that transition?

In my, my case was a little bit tough, difficult, because I lost my father when I was 16, uh, and of course my family and my father, my mom, that was my biggest support at that time, and they Um, they drive with me to that, to put me on the training, like one half hour one way, then one half hour by car the way back, you know. And, and my dad never saw my professional game, you know, because he passed away before I started to play for the professional club. But even now I know it and I see, I feel him that he watching on me on the first, you know, line in every stadium that I'm playing. So I feel that he's He's still looking on me from up and for sure he's very, very proud from everything what I'm doing, what I achieve. But in the end, that time, especially that in my country, you know, I didn't have any players before like that I could looking forward, looking up that, oh, he achieved some level so I can follow him, not one-to-one everything, but some way. So in my case, I had to do myself everything, you know.

Mm-hmm.

To open the door that even was closed, you know, to crush the wall that was From, from me, from the people from my country, from— because nobody from my country achieved what I achieved.

Yeah.

In entire, you know, history. So I was the first one probably. And it's— I think it's easier if you can follow someone, not do it the same, but you say, oh, he achieved, so I can, I can do this the same. It doesn't matter where I came from. It's more important when you want to be. And in my case was like so many difficult moments that I could, um, I could fall down, you know.

Yeah.

Like, even that, when I lost my father, that was— I have 2 ways, um, to leave the soccer, to say, okay, it's too much, maybe I had to go to be more focused on my study, uh, education, you know, and, and going that way. Or like, no, don't do this. Keep, keep doing what you love, what you want to, to do, and keep, um, and Probably the second one also, because I forgot. It was like the one club let me go after my injury. So I didn't know what's going on. My contract was left. So I was asking that, you want to renew my contract? You want to keep doing with me or not? I was 16 or 17 years old. That was like after one year after my father passed away. So From one day to the second day, I got the information from the secretary of the club that they don't want to renew my contract.

What idiots.

Especially that was after injury. So it takes time to a little bit. I need more time to coming back on the right track. But the doctor that time said that I never come back on my level that I had before. So I don't know exactly who decides this in the end because nobody tell me that in my eyes. But from the young guy who lost father like 1 year, um, uh, ago, and now it's like, oh fuck, what's going on? I don't have club, I don't have contract, so I'm 17 years old. So that was the second time in my life that, um, that the life or the world wanted maybe check me.

Yeah.

If I believe myself and I want to show them that they doing mistake, or like, guys, yeah, maybe you are right.

No, I—

but I choose the They're right.

Do you remember that doctor? You should, you should be like, I mean, 750 goals after that doctor was like, yeah, he's never going to be good.

Maybe that was excuse for the club. I don't know exactly. You know, maybe it was like, what's up? Maybe they have too much confidence on doctor. But you know, it's like, especially the young guy that I remember when I choose the next club, I still, I was running like with my leg because that's the muscle injury. That was it. So I couldn't run, you know, like I run like a little bit. Like my leg was behind me.

Yeah.

But even that, you know, the club that give me the chance, you know, that we believe in you, we believe that you're coming back, you, you show us the best performance, you score for us a lot of goals, and then you, you're gonna do the next, uh, step.

You might not remember that guy, but I, I promise you that guy probably thinks about you every day.

Oh yeah.

He's like, I really fucked that one up.

Yeah.

He probably got fired.

You know, I am the guy that—

You probably made him quit.

I'm not thinking too much about past, you know. It's like, okay, it's your problem, not mine in the end. If you feel like that you're doing mistake, okay, I'm doing myself. I'm show you that you was wrong, but in the end it's my life. So I have to take care of my life, not thinking about that you're, or if you say something or you decide something that for my life, my life change. No, I have to be the person who take responsibility for myself.

But PFT's right. Like if 5 goals in 9 minutes, that must have been the worst day of That guy, he probably quit medicine.

He's like, he's watching that just being like, that kind of felt mean when you, when you scored 5 goals in 9 minutes. That's very mean what you did to that doctor.

Oh, you want a Champions League? That guy's watching it. He's definitely a soccer fan.

He already knew that he screwed up, but then with the 5 goals, he's like, okay.

Yeah, that was all— I think that the 5 goals was 10 years after this, probably.

Yeah, even so, he was like, maybe I was right. And then boom, there you pop up.

Yeah, it's very impressive though that you, like you mentioned, you didn't have anybody that had done it before, so you had to make your own way. Did you always—

did—

what, what did you believe was possible? Did you set goals for yourself at a young age and, and you then would, would check them off? Like, how, how big did you think that you were capable of getting when you were 16, 17 years old?

Um, I think there's so many things what I did, um, I didn't analyze too much, you know. I just— okay, my heart tell me a lot of things. My you know, intuition that, okay, you can go, you can go in this way because someone tell me that. I did— I couldn't— I cannot explain you why I did this, why I choose this way. You know, sometimes you have to listen your voice, you have to listen your hearts. And after I lost my father, I knew that, okay, so many— I have so many questions without answers. So I try to find this answer during my life, during my career life, you know. Um, and of course that so many times I want to speak with someone, you know, but not like son with mother because it's like different connection, you know, always with son with the father. It's like something special. I don't want to say which one is better because both are amazing. Even that I, I know that my, for my mom, for my mom also was the tough, um, tough moments. And that time when we lost, um, my father, I know in 16-year-olds, I have to take care responsible for my family.

Even probably they didn't want, they didn't expect this, but I stayed like the only one man in our family. So maybe it's like something, um, that I knew it, I didn't want, but I had to.

Yeah.

So in the end, I tried to do my best. Of course, I did many mistakes for sure, but I trying to do my, um, my best. I trying so many things that, that in the end, when I looking myself in the mirror, I say, so long you trying, that you— it means that's a lot, you know.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, yeah, it's like in my entire career, I had so many, so many, like, tough moments that I had to jump on this and prove myself that I can do, I can achieve my goals, I can achieve what I was dreaming, you know, to win the titles, to win the Champions League, to score goals, to to win everything what is possible. Even that time, I didn't know that can happen. Yeah, but I believed.

Yeah.

Can I ask you a couple dumb questions?

Oh, it's not— I don't think that you have dumb questions.

Oh buddy, they're gonna be just some dumb questions. Uh, can your wife kick your ass?

If she wanted, probably. Yeah.

She's a 3-time karate champion?

Yeah.

That's badass. So she ever like— like, if you're like, don't do the dishes, she's just like, hiya. Like, get ready, Robert.

Yeah, she's like, yeah, she can, um, she, she had this in blood. You see some, some situation that she was ready to, you know, to kick. Maybe not me, but you know, that situation.

That's super impressive.

Yeah, you know, I, I know this, um, this sport because my father was also judo.

Okay.

So we trained a lot of, um, a lot of times at home, but he didn't want that I'm going that way because he knew how tough is it. Yeah, you know, it's like you have to spend so many hours, like you usually wait in the end before the tournament, before some championship, and And it's not, he decide that I should go to soccer because I love the sport from the beginning when I was young. And even that I met my, that time, girlfriend, now wife, and we're starting to spoke about judo, karate. And, you know, I saw it that in her eyes that she has this something special that she know what does it mean to be the athletes, you know? She know what does it mean to win the titles.

3-time world champion.

Yeah, it's like a Europe champion as well. It's like unbelievable. Yeah. I saw her first time, I saw that she trained ballet or tennis.

Yeah.

Because she was very skinny, you know, blonde hair at that time. And I was, how is possible that she, that this kind of girl can be like karate girl?

Yeah, kick your ass.

Yeah, she can kick your ass.

Yeah.

But in the end, I saw a couple of tournaments and, you know, it's like, oh, I saw that in her eyes that she loved this. And in the end, she has to decide, you know, to do this different way, not anymore karate, because she knows that also she has to more focus of family. family of us, and she supports me a lot, and she helped me a lot also in my, my career to, to achieve this level what I achieved.

Okay, all right, next dumb question. What's it like being a god in Poland?

Oh, I, I don't feel like a god.

No, but come on, you're a god in Poland.

But I, I'm, I'm very grateful, you know, because—

Can you walk down the street?

Oh, no, it's in Europe, the, the soccer for the people is different, you know. It's like Um, it's for some people's religion, you know.

Yeah.

Not like in Poland, but even if you're talking about the soccer in Spain, in Italy, on South America, you know, they love soccer, you know. It's like, um, the culture, especially that when we lived in, uh, in Barcelona, that the fans are amazing. They love soccer. They, they support a lot, you know. It's like, of course, if you walk on the street, so many people coming, asking about the pictures, autographs. It's like something normal. Even here in Chicago, you have a lot of also the people, not only from Poland, but like from South America, you know, it's like you feel that they, they know a lot about soccer.

Yeah.

Of course, in Chicago, you have so many different sports. You, I think you have 6 different teams in Chicago. So you can enjoy many different sports, so many athletes. So for the people, some daily work to see someone on the street, probably that, okay, you play baseball, okay, you play football, soccer is like something normal.

Yeah.

And I enjoy a lot.

I have to say.

Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be nice to be a little bit more anonymous. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That is. But I expect that even more than this.

Yeah.

I'm— but I have to say that the life here is really, really special.

All right. That was a very humble answer for being a god in an entire country because you're the best. I mean, you're the best ever. in your country's history. That's pretty awesome.

Yeah, but in the end, I am like, what I achieve as athletes is different.

I'm—

Yes, you're humble. Personally, you know, I would have answered it different. I would have been like, yeah, it's fucking awesome being—

Yeah, but I don't have built my, you know, ego to be like—

You should.

Even I know that I have the big ego if you are talking about the soccer and everything what is going on the field. Yeah, but off the field, you have to stay, you know, it's like we are all the same in the end. Yeah, even that. Okay, of course I achieved some goals that But probably from many millions is like the dream.

Yeah.

But I achieve my dreams also because that was my dreams as well.

Yeah, you should kind of feed the ego a little bit. Like every now and again, maybe go into a nice Polish restaurant here in Chicago, a lot of Polish people, and just walk in and just, just stand there.

Yeah.

And then when they're like, oh my God, can I get a picture? Like, yeah, sure.

Yeah, but I don't need to have more, you know, here to growing up to, to, to feel that I am special one. It's like I feel so confidence myself that I don't need extra, you know, some situation that confirms, yeah, I am already here.

You're the man.

I'm the man. Even that I know I'm the man, so what? This is the difference. Nobody can change my mind, you know, even that talking about the bad way or the good way, you know, I know my value and this is the most important thing for me.

Yeah, you actually did answer that perfectly because if you're the man to be like, I know I'm the man, but I don't have to flex on everyone, that's the true sign of the man.

Yeah, of course it's nice to hear so many, you know, good words about me. But in the end, I'm coming back to home and I want to feel natural. You know, it's like not that someone— the difference between the off the pitch and off the pitch, you have to be different. You cannot be the same person on the pitch than at home with your family because that's going to be crazy.

Yeah.

I have a dumb soccer question for you. You're a pretty good penalty taker, right? Were you better for the national team or for your club teams?

As a penalty taker or as a soccer player?

As a penalty taker.

Whoa, probably the club I score more penalty, you know. So probably I had more opportunity to miss some penalty. But in the national team, you have less games. So in the end, probably I score less penalty as well.

What's the, uh, what is the, the secret to being a good penalty taker? Because we saw in this most recent World Cup, the pressure just makes some people crumble. And you can see it in their eyes. Like they say, I don't want to, I don't want to go, don't pick me.

Yeah, every club you have like 90% of the players that they're afraid to score penalty because it's not for everyone, you know. You have to show your balls in the end, you know. If you go to take the penalty and you not only on the stadium watching on you like 70,000, 80,000, on Camp Nou in Barcelona was 90,000, you know, 95,000. The new stadium is going to be 150,000. So you, you take the ball and you are you and your goalkeeper and everyone watching you and television, couple of millions, you know, expectation that everyone believes in you, that you have to take responsibility. In the end, it's not about your skills, you know, it's about what you had in, what you have in the head right now.

Mm-hmm.

So mentality things is like in this moment, probably the most important thing to take everything out of your mind. head. Even you probably, you missed a couple of chances before the penalty.

Yeah.

And your self-confidence going a little bit during the game, going a little bit down. But the penalty came. Yeah. I have to be ready. You have a couple of seconds to prepare your mentality, to prepare your head and to know it, what you, what you want to do that you have to in the end to score the penalty. But it's like you're fighting with, not with your opponent, you're fighting for yourself. everything what you have inside your head.

Mhm.

And it's like you have in couple minutes, uh, seconds, sorry, not minutes. If you have minutes, that would be great. Couple of seconds, you have to be calm, you have to be very focused, and you, for you has to be like slow motion. Because if you have this movement, if you run, if you kick, how you kick, what kind of power you put on the ball, which side, um, which side you choose, you know, and you also, you fight if your opponent is only goalkeeper. If he chooses the same side that you score, that you want to score, that you want to put the ball, it's like, it's a little bit game also between the goalkeeper and the kicker. But in the end, yeah, it's like so many different points of view of if you're looking, if you are talking about the penalty, that in one second, couple of seconds, you have to take in the right place, in the right moment. So in the end, it's not easy. But of course, it's not for everyone for sure, because even that we're in the club, in the national team, you have spoke how many players want to take the penalty?

You have, you don't have so many because it's like not, it's not everyone to be like in this moment front of, from rest of them.

Yeah. Was there one goalkeeper that had a lot of success against you in penalties?

No, no, I don't have one. It's happened that I missed penalty, but because I did something wrong, you know, I don't know that I scored amazing and the goalkeeper take this ball, keep the ball, you know. I probably that time miss, I didn't score exactly close to the post, you know, something, or maybe too less power. But in the end, if I miss, always in this competition, the winner is only goalkeeper because the kicker has to score.

Yeah.

And if he doesn't score, then it means goalkeeper is winning. If you score, for goalkeeper, nothing happened.

Yeah, everyone expects it.

You're supposed to score.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, what, what— so your transition to the MLS and the Fire, and the Fire are gearing up for the playoffs, which we're excited about. So like, when you get over here, was there anything that shocked you about the game? Because I, I love— like, you're, you're so accomplished and you were so good in Europe. It's— you come here, MLS has come a long way, but was there a part of you that's like, I still can be better than everyone because I can think the game better and I have this skill that maybe they're not up to my par? What has that transition been like?

You know, in the beginning, I was still, I am very excited because I expected exactly in this moment of my life something different, you know. So I didn't compare the Europe and MLS one-to-one because of course you have salary cap. But for me was to not only enjoy the life, but enjoy playing soccer in this team. I know it on the beginning can happen that But the team needs a little bit more time. It's like the process, yeah? And of course, that maybe takes time, that the team needs more time to use my performance, the skills, that I am the best one in the area finishing, you know, to bring to me the ball that I can finish, that I can score the goal in different positions. But also, I knew that I have to take care of the different things, not only when we play the game, because I have experience, I have knowledge.

Right.

Not only about how to score the goal, but how works that in the club, in the team, tactical things, you know, so many different things that if I can, I can help and I give my advice. I can give the people in the Shakira of Fire also my, my knowledge about what I saw with what I know, experience as well. But in the end, of course, now we're going to play in the playoffs. I know that is the moment that I have to be ready.

Yeah.

The team has to be ready to, to use my best performance. Even that the couple of games I didn't score the goals, but we won it. Okay, I don't expect that in the regular season that I'm going to score many goals. It's like, of course, that will be amazing, but you have to be patient in the end. You know, it's like in soccer, it's the process. And especially now that I'm like, I'm feeling really well in Chicago. I love Chicago as a city, you know. And now it's like to use how the club, the team can use me the best.

Yeah.

option, the best performance that I can give back to the team. And I think when the playoffs start, that also, that will be the difference level. Yeah. Not only in the soccer, but in the football, in NBA, everyone. And I think that we're going to be ready of this and playoffs starting to be for the real men, you know?

Yeah.

And I hope that—

You're going to start being the man. You're going to start scoring the goals.

Yeah.

You have to be the man.

Yeah.

So it's like in the end that you see the difference between the teams who are ready to achieve something or not yet.

Is there anything about American culture that you've really enjoyed or something unexpected that you weren't ready for and you're over here now and you're like, wow, this is actually really amazing?

In Chicago, the first things, there are people. The people, they're very kind, helpful. You know, it's like for me, that was even that in Barcelona, the people about them, the people from Spain, they talk, they are very open, very warm. But here in Chicago, the people, that they want to help me directly, you know, with the smile on the face. You need this? What do you need? You need some contact? You need some help? That was no problem. Everyone want help me with different way, you know, it depends. So that is the first things. Also, Chicago is a city, you know, it's like I was surprised so good city Chicago is and so many opportunity you have during the summertime, even the weather, temperature that, you know, it's like you have like Michigan. You can— I love the area in Chicago West Loop, the River North. It's like you enjoy the life. And my kids also are very happy in the school. So I think this is the most important. The kids are happy. That is the first step for the adaptation. But of course, the wintertime is still in front of us. Yeah. But I'm from Poland, so I don't forget how it's a little bit colder in the wintertime.

You moved at the right time. Let's say that you moved in the spring, right?

Yeah.

So you got all the good months.

Now I'm 3 months in Chicago, you know, till now the weather is really nice. I'm really surprised in a positive way. And you know, it's so— you have so many restaurants, you know. I couldn't see, not yet, everything, you know. Still I have time to visit a couple of places, but also the different sports.

Yeah.

I enjoy to watch the baseball, the Blackhawks, Still, my dream, oh, because when I was young, I woke up at 4 o'clock AM to watch the Chicago Bulls, you know, that time, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, of course, Michael Jordan, because it was at night in Europe.

Yeah.

And, you know, I never been on the NBA games and I hope that I can soon go for them, one NBA game and see how it looks like in life, you know, to see the players, how they're playing. And that is my dream. And also the difference when I was in baseball that, and I have to, you know, to go into the pitch, you know, to make the first throw. And that was, I was a little bit stressful.

Yeah.

When I was staying front and I was, how far is it? I was thinking, oh, fuck. It's far. I cannot miss, you know? And I never did this. I never, and that was like in a couple of seconds, I have to go going down, you know? And okay, do easy, but not too easy because I didn't want that looks like, oh, Yeah. I put the ball just—

Stressful.

You know, it was a little bit stressful. But in the end, that was amazing experience to watch the baseball game in the live. And when I see that the people enjoy a lot, not only like the game, but like before the game and during the game, because takes time sometimes. Baseball takes 2 and a half hours or even longer. I came to the stadium like 6:30 and the game was finished at 11. You know, it's like, whoa.

Yeah, it's not like soccer.

But the people like, you know, to spend the time to watching the different sports.

Are you Ronaldo or Messi?

You know, it's like, I—

You gotta answer. You could say Lewandowski.

I say, oh, I say always Lewandowski. But for me, I, for me, I was, that was competition.

Yeah.

Right.

It's different. It's hard to ask that.

I know that. I know I don't want to compare myself with Leo Messi and Cristiano that I was on the same level. But, you know, I was the best player in the world in 2 times, 2 years in a row. at the time that Cristiano and Messi, and I won against Leo Messi. Of course, he won against me a couple of times. I won against him as well. I tried to be close as possible, you know, to them, you know, both to not only score the goals, but to play. Of course, it's hard because they're legends. They're like the best players in the world since years. And this competition between them, that was like the last 15 years. That was amazing. And I was a couple of times, I was there, you know.

Maybe we got to beat Lewandowski.

Even I want to beat them a couple of times, you know. And this is for me the proud that I never imagined. I never imagined that I could beat them and win something or win the titles to be like on the top 3, like the best football players in the world. And I was on the first, you know, places, not only one, but 2 times in a row. So it means that I did something special and I have to be proud of myself.

All right. That's a good answer because that's a tough one. Do you have Is the biggest what-if of your career when you almost played in Europe and then the volcano, Ija Faka Loko?

Yeah, but it's like, I think that is more story, but I, that, uh, um, that was the plan to travel to England to see.

Yeah, in 2010.

Yeah, to see the club, to see the stadium. But to be honest, I didn't want to go there.

Oh, okay.

That was, I was young, so I was very open guy to see how looks like the professional club in different country, how looks the stadium, how looks the training facility, you know? So for me, this kind of experience, was nice to visit the place, but I know that I'm not going, I'm not going there. Only one time that I say yes to the Premier League club was 2012, that Sir Alex Ferguson called to me. And no, no, his accent, he's from— he's not from England, he's from, uh, I think Ireland or Scottish.

Scottish.

So you know the accent, it's like tough to understand him, you know. And I was very young, I didn't speak well in English that time. So he called to me and he's starting to talk, um, to me. I understood couple of words only, you know, and say, I want you. Yeah, I understand. And then our conversation later was like, I say, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I didn't even know what he told to me.

Yeah.

But I was, you know, so excited because this is like legendary coach in the soccer He achieved so many titles. He achieved, really, that was the first coach in the soccer that he won everything. And he was like so many years in Manchester United. So that time I say yes. And that was, I think, only the first and the last one that I say yes to the Premier League club. But Dortmund, my club that I was playing for, Borussia Dortmund, they say, we never, we cannot sell you because even that we sell you for, I don't know, 30, 40 million that time, we cannot. replace your place. Nobody on the market, you cannot. It doesn't matter how much we can spend for one place, we cannot replace you. So we prefer that you stay because you earn much more money for us than we're going to sell you now.

Yeah. It's interesting in high-level European soccer because you do have so many different languages being spoken on the field at the same time. Would you guys, depending on what team you're on, default to one language as what you would typically speak? And would you change that depending on who your opponent was? and it's like, hey, I know that they, they don't have anybody on their team that like, I don't know, speaks Italian or whatever, so let's move over to that. Like, how did that work out?

Yeah, sometimes we use this because, you know, if you play in Europe, you have— of course, if I played, um, 12 years in Germany, so I had to speak in German language. Yeah, with the players. But sometimes join new players that doesn't speak German, so we have to find how speak with him— English, Spanish, you know. And it's sometimes also with the players, especially I think in Bayern Munich, we're starting to speak Polish, but very easy, like 1, 2, 3, 4, because we know that nobody understands the Polish. So I'll teach them how to speak in Polish, couple of words, you know, especially in the set pieces, that we didn't want to say, you go to first post, I'm going second post. So we say, we try, I learn them, go like in Polish, piew się drugi means first, the second one, you know.

Yeah.

So we change the language to Because we know that nobody in the opponent's team speaks Polish or understands what we're going to do. But even in Spain, I had to learn Spanish as well because I know that nobody there, maybe a couple of players speak English, 2 players speak German, but in the end, so many players doesn't speak any different language than Spanish. So I had to, I knew that I had to learn also the Spanish language. So I took the teacher the first 3 months. I started to teach with my, I started to learn with my teacher. And after 3 months, I started to, okay, I know how basically speak in Spanish. So I'm starting by myself during the travel to in the plane when I was at home evening before sleep. So after a couple of months, a couple of months, I could speak Spanish. And if you speak English, if you speak Spanish, you have already half a word that you can speak or make the conversation in these 2 languages. Because of course, the main language in the world is English, but the second one probably is Spanish. And for me, that was much more easier.

You know, even now I have so many friends in different countries. I can speak many languages. So it's easier to communicate with many, many people and understood also the culture. For me also, when I decide to go somewhere, first to Germany, then to Spanish, now to Spain, now to US, for me it's always to understand the culture, to know how— I'm not the guy who for me it doesn't matter. No, I'm careful of this because I want to feel better in this country. I want to feel that I'm in the right place, that I feel like at home, you know. So also in Chicago, I am open for, for many things because I want to feel at home. And so long time now, I have to say that every week, every day, I'm feeling much more confident. I feel almost like at home, even that I don't know how long I can stay here in Chicago. But for me, the rest of the life, that will be also my city because I'm living now.