Transcript of Cincy Fails Burrow, the Boring Eagles, Guess the Lines, and Crawford’s Brilliance With Cousin Sal

The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I have a new rewatch was coming for you on Monday night. We did a Kevin Costner movie. We did a movie people have been clamoring for for a while. It's a golf movie. It's a sports movie. It's Tin Cup. And that is coming on Monday night. I was also on the Prestige TV podcast because we're doing Task, the new HBO series. We're doing it every Sunday night right after the episode ends on hbo. You can hear me and Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney breaking it down. So there you go. I'm on the East Coast. I don't want to hear any snarky comments about how my eyes look red. My eyes look red because I have terrible eyesight. I have contacts in. It's late at night on the East Coast. I've been up since God knows when, and my eyes are going to be red. Could I use Visine? Sure. Could I use eye drops? Maybe. But I didn't. I don't smoke pot anymore. I'm retired. I had an incident in the mid 2000s.

After that, I really had to scale it back. Might have involved me hiding in a curtain because I thought somebody was stalking our house from the outside. Turned out it was the California marijuana. I'm good. I'm old. I'm completely non pot. I just have blue eyes and they get red late at night. So don't blame me. Anyway, we're gonna talk football with the cuz Next. We're gonna take a break and then we're gonna bring in Pearl Jam and then football week two. Next, it's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. And the NFL is back and thank God FanDuel has everything. They got an awesome app, they have SGPs, they have great futures. They have good prop bets, live betting your way Bets clean app. It's great to use. Been using it for a few years. Every time I go back to Boston or any place that has Fando and I get to use it, I'm always excited. I'm on an airplane Runway. You done the airplane Runway? Yeah, airplane Runway. There should be a button.

The Runway.

I'm on the airplane Runway. I got to get this in. Get your bets in, build something bold, make every game feel bigger. Download the FanDuel app or head to FanDuel.com BS to get started. The ringer committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of this episode code for additional details. You must be 21 + in President select states or 18 + in President DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Get in problem call 1-800- Gamble or visit rg-help.com call 1-887-89777 or visit ccpg.org ChatInCenetic paid endorsement all right, live here on a Sunday night here with cousin Sal. Won the Emmy tonight for the the Pit. You're in that show, right? You're not in the Pit.

I didn't win for the Pit but I did bet on the Pit. So that was a nice little payout. Definitely better than pit, the team pit today. So, yeah, always bet on the Emmys if you can. Makes it such a better show.

People love the Pit. The only person I was happier for the no Wylie was Julia Lippman, who was no Wiley's number one fan. Never gave up on him through the years, through all the made for cable movies and terrible straight to video movies he was in. Never gave up, never quit.

You know, I'm going to sidetrack here. You know our friend fat Jake Lentz who wrote on the show the first few years, right? Jimmy Kimmel Live, he is a consultant on the Pit.

Is he really?

Yeah, he's one of the doctors. He left writing to become a doctor.

Very.

You know, it's a common career path. And he's now a consult. Like he's like a full time consultant on that. So he's a consultant on the Pit.

And he's a therapist for our friend Brad Mulcahy.

Yeah, he does that.

Those are his two jobs.

He's in the Navy too, or something. He does a lot. Yeah.

Well, Speaking of therapy, JJ McCarthy might need one after, after tonight we'll do Falcons, Vikings quick because it was, it was pretty boring. But the Falcons look good. The vikings only scored six points. JJ so House and I took the Falcons in 107. And part of the reason was JJ had a kid on Thursday, Monday night comeback win, kid on Thursday thrown into the fire Sunday night just seemed like a lot. But what were you, what were you the most impressed or unimpressed by tonight?

Well, it upsets me now that to know that J.J. mcCarthy hates his kid. Right. That's the only. What can we take from that otherwise? No, I'm mad. You and House played it perfectly. I took Atlanta and the over and they put the over on a teaser. Is there anything worse than like you got all these points that you don't need and then you take the over. But I think that's going to happen. I'm going to look at MVP odds. I don't think McCarthy jumped up anymore.

You think he popped down?

No, it's still Alan Jackson in love.

I like the east coast right now. I could do a live bet on FanDuel tonight if you're. If you want me to.

Oh, let's get it in. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll give you 40. Gambling is legal.

God bless.

I tied 47 different football bets to Terence Crawford last night. It was really exciting and sadly, only half of them won.

That's what happens. I don't know. It's. Yeah, Atlanta's better. Maybe the NFC south in general is better than we give it credit for. A little bit maybe.

I don't know.

And then.

Yeah, could the. So the Falcons should have won last week against Tampa. We both thought. Right.

Probably.

They did not. They won convincingly today. And I was going to ask you the seven NFC playoff teams. If you just pencil in Green Bay and Philly right now.

Right.

Maybe Detroit, Tampa, Rams. We got two spots left and we have the Atlanta, Seattle, Washington, Minnesota group.

Okay.

Which two would you. Which two would you like? Because I actually like the way Atlanta played in those two games more than Seattle, Washington or Minnesota. I don't know what it means. It's could be a long season, but I didn't think they were going to be in that conversation before the season, but now I do.

Yeah. Well, I didn't like Washington going in. Right. I did like Arizona, but let's just laugh about that and put it to the side for a second.

But I think I can't wait for that.

Out of those teams, probably Atlanta and Seattle. I would say I think Seattle could probably hang with a lot of these teams. Right.

That's what I had and I think so when we were trying to sketch it out before. Well, I'll wait till we do the I give up. We have a section later called I give up. But there was a team I had in the Detroit spot that I do not think is going to get there. Falcons defense today, six sacks, two picks, three fumbles. Force recovered one of them. Zero TDs allowed. And some playmakers. A slate Kyle Pitts arrival tonight. Slate like Collinsworth even got sucked in and it was like watching somebody date the girl that you don't all your friends like, yeah, you got to stay away. And Collins are like, ah, the Kyle Pitts. Maybe he's put it together. Say no, Chris no, don't fall for it. But he was. He was pretty good today. And the Falcons, they have some weapons, man.

I have to be honest. I was. I had the Emmy audio on and I had the game underneath it, so I didn't hear Chris. I'm guessing it was all Mike. J.J. mcCarthy just doesn't have it tonight. But did you see that dress Sydney Sweeney was wearing as a presenter? I may need some time to myself. Let's go to commercial.

Say it. He talked a lot about bottle feeding versus breastfeeding.

Oh, did he?

And, yeah, you missed it. Yeah, it was on the audio. It's going to be a big question.

I don't love when, you know, guys take six months off for paternity, but maybe you get two days.

Maybe your emotions are all over the place, too.

Carson Wentz, it's okay. We'll get you. I mean, you could have a backup. Could have lost 27, six, whatever it.

Was after your first child. And we did nothing, by the way. We're just in the room.

Yeah.

I remember even going to visit you, actually, for, I think, your second child. And we're just like, we're useless.

Podcast with you while my wife was in labor and I came back like, like 12 minutes before she started pushing. It was almost a disaster for me.

We're there to be like, does anyone need a soda?

Yeah, right, Right.

How you feeling, honey? Are you okay? Like, we're there and meanwhile, we're, like, working the tv. We're doing nothing. That's it. But with that said, I was still felt frazzled for a couple days. It's a pretty gigantic life experience. It's weird to think, like, you would then just go right onto a football field wherever it was trying to kill you.

Yeah. Emailing all the relatives, it's exhausting.

Yeah. Of course, take the now you have group text back then you could a little different. All right, I'm done with the Falcons. Vikings. Let's get to the biggest story of the weekend. Joe Burrow got hurt. Yeah, turf toe. I was watching when it happened. I thought it was like his knee or as Achilles. It was the rarely seen quarterback turf toe injury. And it seems bad. And it's going to be a big story tomorrow. Like, what the diagnosis is. Was this a bigger National Football League injury for you or fantasy football injury? Well, I don't have to pick one.

Or the other if I didn't have them. It's an NFL, right? That's an easy question.

Just for ramifications, because it's not like the Bengals were going to do anything dramatic this year.

Right, right, right.

Yeah.

No, I still think it's NFL. I still think it's NFL because fantasy you could get. Well, you can get a lot of guys to replace Burrow and get the three points, four points less a week, whatever. But yeah, when they brought him off, I was like, oh my God, looks like he got his both knees shut off in Vietnam or something. What the hell's going on here? And then to find out it's turf toe. And I was like, what turf toe? He'll be back in the fourth quarter because then really rule him out until like beginning of the fourth quarter. And then it's like no, he's got torn ligaments in this from the turf toe. And so now tomorrow he finds out if he wants to or has to have surgery and that that would spell the end. I didn't get full details. Was that it?

It said it sounded like it's three months.

Yeah.

If he does the surgery which basically takes you to mid December. The good news is 8, 9 might be the 7 seated in the AFC the way we're going. So right could hang around. And they do have a backup. I know he had three picks today, but Jake Browning, we've been here with him a few times and he can make throws and he can get it to those guys and he's feast or famine and you never can feel comfortable whether you're up 10 or down 10 when he's in the game. But I think he's better than most backups. I think they can still put up stats with Chase and Higgins.

Well, he's good. I mean yeah, he was good today. That was a miraculous win and cover. Right. They were laying three and a half. So to get it on the goal line and put it home. His problem is going to be I have to see now their next four games. I saw. So even if he doesn't get the surgery, he's probably out a few weeks at the Vikings all of a sudden not as bad at the Broncos. All right, wait a minute. This earlier this looked versus the Lions at the packers and home against the Steelers. I don't know at first this morning this looked pretty daunting. But that's their five games.

Well and they somehow ended up winning and coming back from Jacksonville. So I wrote down this before he got hurt because I had that game in the multi view. I'm back on the east coast. Had to pick the four games. Had the iPad with four games on much smaller screens. But it was Cincy Jacksonville Was one of the four because I had money on it. I had Jacksonville in the over. I had fantasy guys on both teams and I just thought it would be a really fun game. And I wrote down like 40 minutes in that. That Burrow was just getting crushed. Like, did you watch it? Every time he went back to pass, there were five guys back there. They weren't even coming close. And this is Jacksonville. It wasn't like they were playing the, you know, 1991 Eagles. And he was under siege. And I have him in our Guillotine league. And I was watching it going, I wish I didn't have him. I just. I'm really getting nervous. The hits he's taking. Then of course he gets hurt. Yeah, well, now you don't have him 20 minutes later. Now I don't. Do not have him.

Yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, that.

They never fix that right for him. Like, hey, why can't we just ever see him be great? Can we see Joe Burrow? We put him in the top four. We think he could be interchangeable in the top three. Will we ever get to see him be great because he's given a decent offensive line or two guys who can block? It just seems from year to year it's the same shit.

Yeah, it's not even. I mean, he would probably take decent. This is. It's like awful. Every year I wrote down. I was writing down really dumb analogies. It's like being the biggest cocaine distributor in Colombia but not having any security guards for the cocaine.

Oh, good. Okay.

Thank you. It's like buying a million dollar Maybach and just parking outside your house with the doors open and the keys in it. Like, what's the point of paying Joe Burrow $50 million and then not giving him an offensive line? It's so fucking stupid. What are you guys doing?

Do you want Alanis Morissette to record this for you? Maybe. I don't know what she would call it. What could she call it? Isn't this a coincidence? Isn't this. I don't know, it's something. It's like winning the Emmy, but your whole staff is fired in a few months.

I thought you were going to say it's like being nominated for an Emmy but campaigning for somebody else in the category for Colbert.

All right, there you go. Let's get Alanis on the case.

Who is the seventh AFC playoff team if it's not the Bengals? Because I'll give you some choices. Yeah, Buffalo and Baltimore. I think we can pencil in. We could pencil in an AFC south team. Could you pencil in everyone in the AFC west, all four teams? Would you put the Pats in there? Could you say two AFC south teams? Could we get Houston and Indianapolis is two and. Oh, like. I, I don't know.

I thought you, you had the seven seed as nine and eight, right? I think we both did before the season.

I had The PAT's going 9 and 8, which is maybe even conceivable. I. And I had Vegas going nine and eight. I had two nine and eights getting the six and seven seats.

That's going to be a scramble now, like where we thought like maybe three teams are competing for that seventh seed. Maybe there's six teams competing. And you know, I know everybody wants to say the Chiefs suck, but would you say the Chiefs are better than New England right now? It's probably close.

Well, the Chiefs, and we'll, we'll hit them later, but I, I want to see what they look like in week 14 when they get their guns back.

Right.

You know, they just have no explosive plays right now. I guess the question for me, and we're going to find out tomorrow night, what are we getting from Houston this season? Because all of us wanted to pick anyone else in that division and all of us kicked the tires on Tennessee. We tried that. I couldn't get there. We tried Indianapolis, they had that QB thing and it was Daniel Dimes or Richardson. I couldn't get there. And then Jacksonville, I just fundamentally can't get there.

You got there. Yeah, I want to get somewhere else now, but I got there.

Yeah, you got there.

And now you're looking to relocate. Yeah.

Now you're calling for help. Um, but. And maybe it's Indy, but I think Houston tomorrow night. There's two games tomorrow night and Houston is the team out of the four playing that like the Chargers, I think are at least going to be pretty good. Whether they're as good as they looked in week one, we'll see the Raiders are going to be able to throw the ball. There'll be a.500 team and a little bit dangerous game to game.

Yeah.

Houston, either their defense might be really good and they could throw the ball, or they just might not be good this year. And I feel like we're going to know tomorrow.

Tomorrow and then probably next Sunday they go to Jacksonville on Sunday. So in the next seven or eight days, whatever that is, Sunday to Sunday, seven days, I think we'll know for sure.

Well, what do you think of Jacksonville? Because Lawrence, I was trying to think of a quarterback who's more terrifying inside the other team's 10 yard line for his own team, where you just feel like anything's possible. Strip sack.

Yeah.

Pick, Tip, pick. Hospital ball. Perfect throw into the corner. A great scramble. Scramble where he stiff arms somebody. There's like 15 plays, but it's probably going to be disappointing for Jacksonville is how it's going to end. And they had two of those today. He threw a pick inside the 10. And then that last. That fourth and five, they're up three. It's like under four minutes. The book said to, I guess, go for it.

Yeah.

I would have kicked the field goal and made Jake Browning, who already had three picks, go the length of the field to try to beat me. Maybe I'm nuts. I've watched a lot of football in my life. Maybe have the backup QB with three picks have to go the full field. They went for it, didn't get it.

He had just thrown an interception. Like they could have put the game away. I actually took my eye off the screen. I was like, wait a minute, how does Cincinnati still have. How'd they get the ball back? But I'd love to blame Trevor Lawrence, believe me. He's been a disappointment for what I thought he would be coming in, but they dropped some. They dropped touchdown passes today on him, too.

They did.

That whole team just might be, you know, from the owner up or down. They just, just might be incompetent. I'll use that word.

There's some Brian Thomas Jr. Controversy, which I'm following because he's on a couple of my fantasy teams. There was a. There was an alligator arms player over the middle.

Yep.

He dropped the last play of the game. There was another one. And. And on social media, I went to the Jaguars Reddit page to read what they were saying and they weren't happy with him. The coach was asked about him. This is how I found out about it. Somebody put the clip. They asked Liam Cohen about what'd you think about the effort on Thomas? And he's like, I guess I'll have to look at it later. I don't really know yet. Didn't defend him at all.

It was just weird.

So Lawrence threw him a hospital ball in the preseason. I really like btj. So I just happened, for whatever reason, I happened to be watching. Either it was a replay or something, but he. And the reason it stuck out, it was like, it's their best guy and it's a preseason game. Right.

Right.

And then in the game today, I just didn't think he was impactful this is a guy going for 40 plus in fantasy. Right?

Yeah, I had, I loved him today. I bet him to get a score, a touchdown, scored 10 touchdowns last year. Right. He was definitely a difference make, you know, like sniffed around at the offensive rookie of the year last year. To me it's like Travis Hunter, what are they going to do? I mean you pointed out last week did he have nine offensive snaps? Was that it? Was that all he had? He couldn't have a ton more this week.

He only had the big PI today, which I didn't think was a PI.

Right. Right.

Did you?

No, I didn't. I just. I don't know if he's going to be a force offensively and if he isn't, that that doesn't change the trajectory of this team from last year. No.

And I think when we were doing the pods before the season we were like this is one of the great X factors. You have multi view and Travis Hunters on the screen and get to see and he just hasn't really jumped out the first two weeks which is fine, he's a rookie. But they traded a bunch of shit for him including their first round pick next year. And I hated the trade when it happened. I thought they gave up too much. And you're giving up what they gave up. It either has to be for Abdul Carter or it has to be for, you know, potential franchise QB. I don't think there's. I just don't think a two way guy when we haven't seen it for 35 years. I don't know. Just didn't like it.

I think it was Ohtani ruined everything for all the sports. Everybody's looking for the next Ohtani and you're right, it's probably not Travis Hunter.

Wait, I had one more thing from that Jake Browning is there who's your number one backup QB right now. Coming, coming in cold in the league right now that you feel pretty good about, is there anybody that tops Jake Browning? Is Jake Browning the ceiling?

Let me see. I mean he's pretty damn close to the ceiling.

Just going through your head. Is there anyone?

No Giants? Cowboy? No, not. I would have loved to have said Cowboys, Lions. Jimmy G. Jimmy G. Yeah, Jimmy G. Ish. Maybe his ceiling might be. And no Trey Lance. I'm just looking at these guys.

It's not, I'm telling you man, there's not Cousins.

I was thinking about like Cousins, how many teams he would make better at this point. But yeah, because we know what he can do. But we also saw him Speaking of alligator arms, throwing 14 mile an hour spirals.

Yeah. Not great. Well, tough times for the Bengals and I think it's time to do the depressed fan base rankings. So I think bears are number one and we're going to go into it. Panthers 2, Jaguars 3, Jets 4. If I gave you that list, would you disagree with that order? Bears, Panthers, Jaguars, Jets.

I guess you're saying the Browns are in a class of their own.

Can they be depressed anymore? Like, can the Browns fans feel anything? Are they just dead inside like they have no expectations for this year?

Right.

Can you be depressed when you expect to go two for 15? Two and 15? I don't know.

They're just zombies at this point. I think you're right. They probably should just take all the seats out of the stadium and let the zombie fans roam however they want throughout.

And if they're zombies, that's all. Yeah, they're like the two people at the end of sinners, just kind of wandering the earth at night, just trying to listen to jazz music and not see the sun. I think Bears are one because they were real expectations this year. They had this number one pick in the draft where they get the supposed franchise guy and he's just been awful and there's already been long pieces about how prepared he was during the season. That big piece Tyler Dunn wrote two weekends ago and he looks about as flustered as any QB we're watching.

I'll give you Bears one. The Vikings are just for a different reason. I think you got to get them in the conversation because they go so much. There's so much difference between what kind of team you're getting year to year. You get the 13 win team, then you get the rookie quarterback.

I'm not bringing in the history though. I'm saying right now, people, fan bases that went into this season. Oh, this is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were either like they had their hopes up or, or they were optimistic for some reason. I would say right now, Bears and Panthers, I mean the Panthers are a little different than the Browns because deep down they were hoping maybe it would be a little bit better and it's not. It's really bad. You're right though. I might be underrated in the Browns.

Yeah, well, we can go by over, under wins in terms of expectation and the. And I think the Bears had the highest. What were they? Seven and a half? Eight and a half. What were they? Eight and a half. Right. So I think it's. It's the Bears probably going away actually. If you go Back.

Where are the Dolphins on this list for you?

Oh, man. I guess they're close, too.

They have to be tough. Actually, they should probably be higher because they were booing in the first quarter.

Yeah.

Like, they had. They. They had a. A pick or they. They missed the third down or something, and. And it was like they were loudly booing. It's 95 degrees at like one o' clock on a Sunday in mid September, and they're fucking furious.

They should. Their fans are like, hey, we got so many better things to do. We're in fucking Miami. We can be at the beach. Did you feel like that? That was a weird game. It, like, had ups and down. I felt at some point, I think it was late third quarter, that the Dolphins actually took control of it. And then your boy jumped in there. Good for you.

I got to watch with my dad.

Nice.

We were pretty disconsolate down the stretch there because it this. I. If the Pats lose that game, this season's over. Yeah, they're 02. That's a team that you had. You do come out of the gate and you lose to the Raiders and the Dolphins, you're. You're done. But the real problem is they played really well in the first half. Kicker missed two Pats. They drove every time they had the ball. They had these nice drives. May, I thought, was terrific for him. And they just. And you just look up and you're like, we're up by a point. What's going on? And then Tua seemed like he was gaining confidence as the game was going along. We lost another cornerback, so we were down on D backs, right? And our linebackers in space against these fast Dolphins dudes. Like, I like Spillane, but Spillane got caught with a chain a couple times, and it was like a nightmare. So it just felt like Miami was going to win. Then they get that kick return or the punt return, and it was like, you had to be fucking kidding me. We lost this team. Like, their fans were booing for an hour and a half, and then Gibson returns the kick.

And then the Pats almost fucked the game up again. But Tua just. He just doesn't have it. He's just not good enough. I've been saying this for three years, but he's just not good enough.

Well, he's a tough watch, right? Obviously we have Dolphins fans, friends, JJ just lives and dies by it. I'm not ready to blame him completely this year. I don't like his style. I feel like he has to get that interception at the End is basically because I can't get hit. I can maybe throw a better ball if I took another quarter or second, but I can't afford that. So I'm going to let this go. Right.

I got to dump this.

Yeah, but their defense is really bad at times. Really, really bad. Like his numbers, he was 26 for 32. 315, two touchdowns. Right. And that interception. So there's other places to place the blame. But yeah, I just thought, well, he had three interceptions.

He had three incompletions and three interceptions.

Right.

That's true.

Yeah. That's what it was. 26 for 32. Yeah.

But I mean, you know their longest play, he threw a moon ball to Hill. He Underthrew him by 12 yards and our D back overran it and Hill ended up getting it. It felt like Hill was open constantly. He overthrew Hill in the fourth quarter and that was the play that went around on social media where Hill was just like, you gotta be F. He was open by 10 yards.

Right.

But I, I thought the Pats May made the best play of his career when they really needed it. Big pass rush on a third down roller.

Right.

Miami had all the momentum and he hit Ramondra and that like delayed Will route and just put it perfectly in stride.

Yeah.

And it was just like that's, that's why the Drake May believers like I had multiple people like Nate Tice texted me like, that's it. That I just thought he was really good today. I love this. And the left side of the line, according to the grades. Will Campbell and Wilson, the other rookie, were excellent. So there's signs of life with this team, I think, you know, when they get Gonzalez back, if he's ever coming back, and they're able to cover a little more. The D line was good. They shut down the Miami run and I don't know, they might, they might be able to cheat. She cheat their way to 8, 9, 9 and 8. Not cheating the Belichick way.

This is exciting for me. This is. They'll probably get around to doing that too. But this is perfect. Like Drake May trades off week to week being great and horrific. It keeps the podcast fresh. You're not talking about Sacramento playoffs. You know, I've never wavered. I've never wavered. You were depressed.

I didn't think he was that good.

Well, he wasn't. But you're like, we had Ted Williams and we had this and we had. He was. Yeah. All right. That's what I mean.

Every other week though.

So it'll be great.

He was good. And I thought it was nice to have the McDaniels. Somebody texted me how it was like, putting on a nice old jacket. The dopey McDaniels offense with like these little screens on third down and, you know, these little quick outs and all the little dopey stuff that he does. I thought, here's the thing. It was an incredibly entertaining game.

Yeah.

And at the very least, they're entertaining this year. And by the way, the Jaguars are, too. There's a couple teams that, like, they're not that good, but at least they'd be fun to watch. I think the Jaguars are fun to watch. Dolphins, we blew this last week. We were talking about nicknames for Mike McDaniel.

Yeah. And there were some good ones.

Yeah, well, we forgot we. We. Lombardi nicknamed. And the DJ last year.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

DJ Mikey Mack. That was the nickname. He's spinning his head.

Yeah, well, he could have a couple of nicknames. I mean, Shaq has like six.

Yeah, that is true.

Yeah, we got around.

So the dolphins are 02 and they play Buffalo on Thursday night at Buffalo.

Yeah. Monster.

And 03 is a death sentence. You're not making the playoffs after 03.

That's our first cross off. Maybe. We have a special podcast Friday morning to commemorate it. Big ceremony.

I was going to do this later. I'm ready to do it now, though.

Oh, really?

Because I thought, whoa. So you think Miami. Because I think Carolina has to be in there, too. I would say Carolina and Miami are the two cross off leaders. Like even. Even the Saints, I think, have been relatively frisky both games. Like, they easily could have stolen either overtime or maybe even a win, even though they're not that good. But Carolina, they're the same team.

Like, they'll screw up your cover and that's kind of it. And then count on three to five wins. Otherwise.

I would not cross up Miami yet. Just because of the 9 and 8 East. I would cross South Carolina. I think they're really bad. Arizona, that was classic. Arizona has everybody and their brother has them in an eliminator, a moneyline parlay or a tease or whatever. They go 273 and all of a sudden it's 27 15. I didn't even know it was happening. All of a sudden Carolina had the ball and it was 27:15. We put it back in the multi view and there, you know, my dad is still trying to figure out this whole multi boom universe. He's like, what happened? We had that game. I was like, well, I took it off. Now I'll put it.

It's kind of elder abuse, what we put our parents through when we start doing four boxes and switching shit on.

Yeah, yeah, He. The thing he asked for was to put the audio on the Pats game because that helped him concentrate.

That's fair.

So I was like, I can easily do that for you.

I'll tell you what happened. 4th and 16 happened. Fricking Bryce Young came back from the dead and converted 4th and 16. And then they score just with nonsense. And then they get the onside kick. And I'm like, oh, good. I'm like, you know what? Good now that they didn't cover because we had them in Ringer 107. Me and the bundle. I was like, I hope Arizona loses. And then I look at my losing ledger of bets. I'm like, shit, I have Arizona Moneyline.

On like four things here, right?

And then they get the onside kick. And it was a miserable, miserable drive after that onside kick. Really bad for Carolina.

Yeah, I like McMillan. He's jumped out to me the first two weeks. I wasn't sure about that pick. It seemed pretty high for him and those big receivers, you never know. But he's been. It's a couple times a day where he's jumped off the TV with some plays. So that team needs a lot of work. Let's take a break for the podcast. We'll keep going on the YouTubes. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel football fans. Best way to game day is on FanDuel. The FanDuel sports app is your home for all your favorite NFL bets. I'm on the East Coast. I made a few of my favorite NFL bets today. Turned out okay. The Broncos could have treated me better. But from yards to touchdowns to who win with FanDuel, any play can be the play of the game. And that's why we have two Monday night games. Buccaneers and Texans, Chargers and Raiders. And FanDuel is giving all customers a 30% profit boost token on both games. That's right. You can get it on the action with two 30% profit boost tokens. I probably like the Buccaneers, Texans under, and I would say Raiders, maybe alt, alt, line, take them to plus four and a half at home, something like that.

And I would parlay those together or do them separately or just take the Raiders money line, but that's what I like. Make FanDuel your go to app for any snap FanDuel.com BS that's the URL to bet the Buccaneers versus the Texans and the Chargers versus the Raiders with two 30% PBTs. Play your game with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. You must be 21 + President select states or 18 + in President, DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Opt in required bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply including any token expiration max wager amount. See terms@sportsbook.fandrew.com gam problem call 100 gambler or visit rg-help.com call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chadinconnecticut this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like expecting the leadership of a team captain on the football field, but getting a sea captain. Sure, they're both captains, but who's going to run your offense? You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team, so don't settle for just any insurance. When it comes to getting the help you need, State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Let's play. I give up. I told you to write down some things that you're just giving up on after two weeks. They could be a future bet. They could be a team. They could be a player.

This is fun.

They can be anything. So what was the first thing after two weeks you've given up on?

I've given up on trying to enjoy Chiefs games. They're not fun to watch unless you're enamored with the Taylor Cutaways. They're just way more exciting teams to watch. Move the ball. Including mine. Including yours. I don't care how many wins we end up with. I think it's time to give them 1pm kickoff slots. You know, take away the full dose of primetime games that they have. They have like six. That's the most you could have. It takes them 11 minutes to score. And you know when it's a dozen play drive, some dumb shit happens. Like Kelsey did. Like hits off his hand and interception the other way at the goal line. I mean, I was looking at this three years ago they averaged 29 points per game and the five years before that they were anywhere from 29 to 35. Right? Since the three years it's 21, 21 and 21 and a half. That's gigantic movement. Like I'm not saying that's all Tyree Kill. I don't know what it is, but we could Pick any team that scores 21 points. Mahomes is just good enough to figure out how to win these games. So, um, I just don't.

I'm. I'm done with it. I don't think I need to see him every time. Give them the 10am slot on the west coast. They don't need to be one of three games and the featured game on a Sunday afternoon.

Chiefs fatigue sounds like now. I remember when the Patriots, when. When my team was taking all the shit that they took in the 2010s when everybody got really tired of them. I. The Chiefs have been way more in your face than the Patriots ever were with the tail. Like Kelsey coming in today with the suit with the shorts on and all the wedding stuff and Mahomes and they have this giant documentary series about them. And meanwhile they're still playing Andy Reid. All this stuff. Like I don't. The Pats, you know, were winning and maybe some, some people felt like we're cheating but they were never like just bombastically in your face like this.

Well, that's more.

I'm more tired of them from that standpoint.

The other thing is that their point, they still scored. I'm a defensive guy too, but the Patriots put up points like you don't go an hour without see them score. When Randy Moss left the team, it wasn't like you went down from 35 to 25 points. Right? Like Brady was still there. It was enjoyable to watch. I just can't watch these Chiefs try to move the ball up and down the field.

Well, congratulations. That was a great way to start the game. I had them fourth in this exercise.

Okay.

My number one team, very similar to your case, is the Philadelphia Eagles. I just don't enjoy watching them play. And it's a lot of the same stuff you said. I don't even think their fans enjoy them playing like Shield Capadia. Our friend who works at the ringer, he even thinks now like they're just trying to troll everybody by being intentionally entertaining. He had a tweet about that today. I fucking can't stand watching them. That game was like watching paint dry. I wanted to take it off the multi view, but there were only three games. There was nothing to replace it. It would have to do WNBA playoffs or something.

Your father's like F9 more games. What are you doing?

Like they throw. They threw deep to Devonta Smith once and it was like, oh, something happened.

Yeah, right.

Otherwise it's just like these swing passes to Barkley, these boring runs up the middle every 4th and 1, 4th and 2. You know, now I'm watching Australian rugby for a play and I just don't enjoy it at all. And I like a lot of the players in their team. I don't like watching them play football. These are two games in a row that I fucking snooze fest. I'm on my phone the whole time as the football game's happening.

Every team in that division is more entertaining than them. I'm going to give a two way to your 1B. And I give up trying to convince people to Tush push sucks. You know, more specifically, it's not a football play. As you mentioned rugby. It's fat guys shoving a world class athlete forward. Now it's worse than ever because everyone is so offsides. The refs have no idea what to do.

What happened with that? We had. The Broncos lost a game because of some ambiguous leverage rule on a field goal kicked. I still don't even know what happened. And meanwhile the Chiefs. Every time four guys are jumping forward before the ball snapped.

Yeah. The. The Eagles. Right. Yes. Yeah, I know. Everyone's. The refs have no idea. And the guys on both sides are jumping. It's like. Well, eight guys moved early. Ah, fuck it. We'll let it go. But.

And it's a ball they can't see. There's 20 guys huddled together. I didn't even know it's happened.

It's humanity. You can't see the ball at all. And they're.

It's idiotic.

My team's division rival. So I'm. I'm extra worked up about it. But you know, it would be worse if the. If then just the Eagles being good at this. If everybody was good at the Tush push. Think about how unwatchable football would be if only first and second down mattered. And big guys on offense can push everybody around on defense on third and three and fourth and one. That would just go back to this. Not be. At one point it was banned. Let's ban it again. Why do we have to wait for someone to get injured? Who cares about that part of it? It's important. But let's just get rid of it.

That's the only way it's getting banned is when.

So stupid.

There's going to be some absolutely horrible injury and it's. Then what? Then it will be banned. I was trying to think of another type of play that would be technically a football play but would be as ludicrous to watch because it has no correlation with anything else we watch. During the course of 10 hours, and I decided it was on a field goal kick, if on the defense, guys were allowed to climb on each other's shoulders, almost like college kids trying to climb over a fence. And you just had three guys climbed on shoulders and one guy had his hands up. And then they kept blocking kicks, and we were just like, what is this? And now you had the offensive line trying to knock the three guys standing on top of each other, and somebody gets hurt. That's kind of what the tush pushes. It's just not. Yeah, it's not football. It's fucking stable.

It doesn't look like it. Yeah. I think I came up with an idea where imagine Christian McCaffrey sits on, like, two linemen's shoulders, right? And they carry him like playing chicken. And at the last second, he lunges over the goal line, right? From just, like, six feet up. Like, would that. Is that a play? Is that a football player?

Or if. Yeah. McCaffrey, he had two linemen, and they flung him like a slingshot once he had the ball.

Yes.

And they just flung him over the line like he was like a boomerang.

Yeah. Yeah.

Technically you could do that.

But I'm telling you, if everybody got good at this, it would really ruin all football.

Well, explain to me this. Explain to me this. People who run football. So leverage. Which. The Broncos game. Now, if. If the Broncos game was fixed today, I apologize because it had all the elements. I don't think it was, but if it was, I apologize for what I'm about to say. Yeah. This leverage play set the scene.

The Colts try a field goal, they miss it.

Colts try field goal. It's 10 yards short, and it's wide right. It's like. It basically lands on the goal line, and the Broncos win. And then they're like, no, no, no. There was a leverage play. This is after the Broncos. They've thrown a pick inside, you know, inside Colts territory. And the 10 minutes left when it seems like they're going to put the game away. Then Dobbins runs all the way down to the 20 with under four minutes left, gets up and spikes the ball like a jerk. Delay a game. Next play. Penalty face, mask on the tight end. Now we're suddenly at the 40 yard line. Of course, Lutz has to hit the goalpost.

Right?

Right. So then we come down the other way, and it all leads to the Colts with this fucking leverage play after the Broncos stop them.

Yeah.

And so here's my question. Leverage. This is apparently unsafe for the center because one guy leaned him down so the other guy could jump behind him.

Yeah.

What's the tush? Push. But it's safe to have a running back and shove from behind by his teammates. That's not leverage.

Yeah.

So leverage is good or bad. What is it? What do we do?

In NFL, leverage is good. It's good in almost everything.

Right.

You want leverage in contract negotiations, you want leverage in relationships, you want leverage in almost any situation. If you're looking for a raise, whatever, they need to call it something different, call it like a cheat jumping or something. But. But whatever you call it, the guy didn't do it. He. He didn't. It didn't happen.

Do you think they could protest that and just be like, we lost and this was the wrong call?

Yeah, those things don't usually hold up. And, you know, we can get into like, how Steichen, like really ruined that beat, by the way. He's the favorite for coach of the year right now because they're two and oh, but he didn't do him any favors kicking that 60 yard field goal unless he knew the leverage was coming, like you said. Yeah.

That could not have missed more dramatically.

Awful.

Well, that was my next. I give up was I give up. With NFL officiating, we had multiple games today determined by it. There were flags everywhere. The Cardinals, Panthers game, as the Panthers were driving, it was just flag, flag, flag, flag. These. The giants had like 14 penalties today that the. The Patriots had, I think 12 and still one. It's just we've gone penalty crazy. I'm not really sure why, but I give up even getting mad about it.

Isn't it like that the beginning of the year until guys to figure out how not to hold and everything.

The worst ones were the leverage play and the hunter pass interference actually swung games.

Yeah, the leverage one is something you don't really see a lot. And they didn't need to call it on a 60 yard miss. Field goal.

What do you have for your next agua?

What do I have? You know, I give up trying to figure out if Justin Fields is good. I thought I had a good grasp going into this year. Like, you know, he was like, you'll read it all, the stats. 35th and expected yards, 32nd in red zone, 39th, 30 15th in this. And it's like, oh, wait, he's on the jets. All right. He teamed up with his former wide receiver hookup from Ohio State, Garrett Wilson. They scored 32 points versus what we thought was like a vaunted, you know, Pittsburgh Defense and then a big fat nada versus the Bills, who allowed 40 last Sunday night. So he has a concussion. I hope he's okay, but I am done judging Justin can't figure it out.

Their offense was awful and I actually thought they did a pretty good job for about a quarter against Allen. Then there was this weird moment in the game when he got hit and it looked like he got a concussion or something. He ran off and he took his helmet off.

Yeah.

And if you had jets money like me had already given up the game, you're like, all right, Trubisky's coming in. I guess I have to leave it on the multi view now. But it turned out he just had like a bloody dose. Then he came in and just completely crushed.

Right.

And I continue to think he's the best player in the league.

Oh, really?

I do. I continue to think he's the best quarterback we have.

Okay. I thought you were talking about Justin.

Josh Allen.

I'm like, oh, I may have to change my thing here a few days.

No Josh Allen. But I mentioned all of this because today, first of all, House and I took the jets plus six and a half. I put a little money in the jets as well. And maybe you need. This is where you need like a betting conciliari or just need. You know, FanDuel will shoot those ads like, you've been on the site for 15 minutes.

Reality chat. Yeah, it was. Yeah.

Maybe there should be an AI person that comes in and be like, we just wanted to remind you that you're betting on Justin Fields against Josh Allen and be like, oh, shit, I am. Why am I doing that?

I love it. I love it.

That should be the AI. What the fuck are you doing? Guy from FanDuel.

So you have to.

I'm giving them that idea.

You have to set it up ahead of time. Like, slap me in the face if I bet on Justin Fields. Slap me in the face if I could cash out on this bet at 15 to 1 and I'm instead waiting to see if this 48 yard field goal goes in.

It's like a. Don't be stupid. Your computer or your iPad just starts vibrating.

Yeah, it's a reminder. It's got to be worse than vibrating. I think you got to.

I needed it today because if anybody had said that to me, I would have been like, you're right. What am I doing? This is insane. This is like, oh, I'm. I'm taking the jets. Because the Bills are banged up in their secondary, the jets can't throw the ball.

Yeah, I don't think. Well, here it is. We can't go on and on every week about how Josh Allen is number one. He's my mvp and this and that and then just better. We just as long as like the weather is okay and everything they're going to score for. I know they only scored 30. They could have scored 45, 47 that game. They kind of let. That took their foot off the gas. That's just where they are. So if you think the jets are going to score in the 30s, 40s, then fine. But no, not even close.

Well, so how many points did the Bills end up with? They had 71 points in two games.

Yeah.

Pretty good. My next. I give up. Travis Kelsey. I think I'm good. He seems like a nice guy. I know people who are friends with him. No shots fired. I'm just some good. I'm good.

I'm with it.

The suit with the shorts. Today he has the big drop and he makes two plays and he's doing the WWE flexing. And then of course, the ball bounces off his hands for the interception for the biggest play of the game. He's one of the best tight ends I've ever seen. He's not the best. His wedding will be the. His wedding will be the biggest wedding we've had since Princess Die. I'm happy for them. I'm a big believer in true love. I'm just good. I need a break.

All right. I think you were probably on the bubble for getting invited to that wedding, but now you can forget it. You're not.

I don't need to be invited. I need it. I just need a break. I'm good. Yeah, I'm good.

Because how he broke every bone in Xavier Worthy's body. Like a break like that.

That's the thing. He's probably cost him two games. I'll say this, too. He was one of the best guys in the league. But the tight end position is so loaded and great right now. I don't think he's one of the best eight or nine guys I'm watching week to week. Like, the Colts have this dude Warren, who for some reason the Bears took a tight end 10th in the draft as the first tight end taken. And it wasn't Tyler Warren, who looks like a cross between Gronk and Bowers and Kelsey, like he's just a fucking beast. But you watch like, even like the Jags have that guy Strange.

Yeah.

You know, you go. You go on down. It feels like everybody has like a tight end who can catch balls now. And what Kelsey does doesn't seem as special.

I'll do you one better. He's a podcaster. That's all he is. And there are probably three better podcasts. Three podcasters who are better at football than him right now. Amy Poehler, Van Latham. So let's.

Yeah, Van could get in there.

Yeah, of course. Let's rank him as a. What he is. He's a podcaster, that's all.

Yeah, we'll see. Because unfortunately they really need him these next 10 weeks.

You're not kidding.

I have a. That's another. I give up. Actually. I just don't think it's going to happen for the Chiefs. I have Chiefs fans of my life where like, we'll be fine. We'll be fine. Trust the infrastructure. Rice comes back week seven, we'll get.

We're.

We're going to get worthy back. Like, we're going to be explosive. And I see the case, but I think the pass rush is not there. And I don't know, like, you can explain the wide receiver part to me, but you can't explain why you don't really have a pass rush anymore.

Right?

I just don't. I just don't think they have it. And Mahomes at some point with these long balls, all the stats from the past 25 games, like, there's something really wrong with him throwing deep balls at this point. He did connect to one with Thornton today, but he overthrows dudes three, four times a game. It feels like.

Right. Well, I like it. At least he's letting it go at that time. Like, oh good.

It's true.

40 minutes since we've seen you throw anything other than like a four yard slant or take off for a first down yourself. But. So they're owing to. What do we think? They have to go 9 and 6 to be in the mix at 9 and 8 to get like a seed like that or 7.

9 and 8 gets them in. So they. I still would.

They should beat the Giants this week so we could, we could come back to this. They're not a cross off just yet.

We don't. FanDuel doesn't have the playoff bets yet.

They don't have playoffs yet.

Yeah, they do have divisions.

Divisions, Right.

The Chiefs are down a plus 210 in the AFC west now.

Right. So they were minus 110 to start the season.

They are plus 550 for the AFC and Mahomes is 20 to 1 now for MVP.

I mean, how is he even 6 though, at this point? Oh, that's weird. That's weird.

Another Mahomes thing. You can't tell me this is good. Mahomes has 123 yards rushing this year. He's on pace for a thousand yards. That's. There's no way that's good. Why do I want him rushing for 1,000 yards in a season? I don't want him getting hit ever.

Right.

If I'm the Chiefs, he's definitely taking out.

Taking off at a necessity for sure.

Listen, you can only pay the piper for so long in the NFL with this cap and trying to get lucky on these picks over and over again. And it looks like all those rookie offensive linemen and these young guys, rookie and second year guys, they're okay. Not great. The defensive line, it's okay. It's not great. Running back, skill position guys, it's really like a lot of senjam when Rice comes back and Rice is really good.

Yeah, look, I said this is, you know, we want to think of them as the Bills of the early 90s that scored a million points or the Rams, you know, that scored a ton of points or any sort of. The Bills. This year's Bills are the only team like that. This is the Chiefs that can score 20 or 21 on average. And they're either going to get a little help from the refs or Mahomes is going to pull them out of a ditch in the fourth quarter. Otherwise they're going to lose a lot of these games.

You know who sounded really happy today?

Who's that?

Tom Brady announcing that game.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah. He's like, assign me to more Chiefs games. This is fun. How many Super Bowls does Pat have? Oh, three. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Do you think he has an app where he checks his legacy? The.

The.

How much difference there is between this guys.

He's like, oh yeah, good throw by Pat. It's a nice job by him there, you know, like kind of like slightly condescending with his announcement.

He's got a mute button where he's celebrating. He's like high fiving everyone. Another overthrow.

I would hit that guy Owen. Two teams. So right now we have the Jets, Dolphins.

Are we done with the game? I give up. We give. We give back.

Just on the Chiefs. Really quick.

Yeah.

Jets, Dolphins, Browns, Tennessee, Kansas City, Giants, Bears, Carolina, New Orleans. We have 9,02 teams. This isn't a death sentence, but it's never good. We talk about this every Year when we're heading into week three, the 24 Rams were 02. They made it 23. Texans were 0 and 2. They made it 22. Bengals were 02. They ended up making the AFC title game. So one of those teams, Jets, Dolphins, Browns, Tennessee, Chiefs, Giants, Bears, Panthers, Saints. One of those teams, the Chiefs are.

In so much better shape than any other name. They just. Because they're the Chiefs and Texans.

Maybe.

Yeah.

So you're going to be Chiefs or Texans if one. If the Texans go and the Texans lose. Yeah, one of those two. Right.

It's easier now though, right?

Because no case for the Giants, for.

You, there's more playoffs. I don't know if they play up my Cowboys every week. They'll get there. They'll have 10 wins. Good God.

Major points. What do you have for. I give up.

I got one more. Yeah. Complaining about quarterbacks trying to draw defenses from the shotgun. Offsides from the shotgun. I'm done with it. These guys. It's fourth and half a yard and you'll see a guy line up in the shotgun and his deafening roars from the crowd. You need like Superman esque hearing out of body hearing to be able to hear the cadence instead of being on the ball and trying to get these exhausted D linemen to jump off sides where like just a little head shake could do it. What's with the shotgun? Like, I don't know. I don't care because I'm. I'm done complaining about it. I just don't understand it.

80 cookies.

What's he saying? Yeah, but get up close. You would scare me. You're doing that on Zoom and I'm getting a little jittery, but if you were right in my ear. Right. It'd be a little more effective.

I don't know how you're not over center if you're trying to draw people offsides.

Right.

I completely agree with you. It's a great point. I have one more. I give up.

Go ahead.

Well, I actually have two, but we can talk about one of them later. Daniel Jones jokes.

You're not done with those. You don't give up.

He's pretty good in those two games. Yeah, he really was. I thought he. I thought he made good plays. I thought he had a. I don't know. I thought he had good command of the offense. Taylor was great. Taylor really seems like he's 100% back. I mean, he's got to be one of the three best running backs right now. I don't know. I thought he was all right. He definitely. You know, for a guy whose career seemed over last year, it did not seem over in these two games, including today.

Wait, wasn't he better than all right. Denver's defense is supposed to be good. It was top five, six last year. He had three.

Trying to be calm about that because it's Daniel Jones.

No interceptions.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was. He was legitimately good in that game.

I don't want to give up the jokes just yet, but if he has a great running back, I know he did in Barkley also. I also wonder if Brian Dabolla could get fired just based on Daniel Jones performance on the Colts. Like having nothing to do with what the Giants do this year. Like if the coats go 12 and 5 and the Giants.

I mean, he got 400 something yards out of Wilson though, who's half dead.

Yeah, I know, I know. Well, that's not.

Seemed like a good breakup.

Yeah.

I'm not ready to give up on Caleb. Williams was the only other guy I had in there. But I. I did want to ask you right now, how many 20, 24 NFL Draft QBs would you take before you took him in a draft?

Yeah, let's hear him.

Well, you tell me.

Oh, all right.

Well, I'll go with who was the second guy in that draft? Hold on, I'm queuing it up. I should have had this.

No, it's all right. It's Jaden Daniels.

Oh, Jaden Daniels. You're taking over him? Would you rather have Drake May or Caleb Williams?

Come on, man.

Come on. Come on.

Let's go the other way.

Who's taking Caleb Williams over Drake May? That's ridiculous.

I say Penix and Knicks, both them.

So you take Knicks over Caleb Williams?

Yeah, I think so.

You take panics over Caleb Williams?

Yeah. I don't know about Drake May. You sure this kid's good.

Why are you doing this to me?

What's their record? It's probably the same. I don't know.

I mean, finally got protection today and he was excellent.

Right.

All right, so that's basically.

No, a lot of them. A lot of them. Yeah.

No, there's other quarterbacks in that trap.

Well, I think it was just six, right? Oh, that's the first round. Yeah.

Oh, McCarthy.

Yeah. McCarthy. Not yet.

Would you rather have Rattler or Caleb Williams?

Caleb Williams.

Okay.

Although I want Rattler around. I do like betting against him. Money line at least.

Would you rather have Florida State's Jordan Travis or Caleb Williams? Hopefully Caleb will be fine, but it's. It's pretty grim. That's why I didn't want to put it. And I give up. But it's. He has a couple plays a game that just look like when you're watching like a bad college game. And Sean McDonough's like, oh no.

Yeah, one of the.

He has a couple of those passes.

This has to be one of the more depressed evenings for Ben Johnson. Right? Like, I'm annoyed. I didn't. We didn't. I didn't convince you to us to bet the Lions over 27 and a half points or whatever it was because this was the fu. Ben Johnson game. Right. So if they were ever going to break out, it was going to be this one.

I guess that would be an I give up because I give up on my Bears playoff prediction and the bet I have on them. I think out of the teams I I try to take a couple swings with the picks and that's the only one that feels dead already because I had Seattle. I feel. I thought Seattle was good today. We'll talk about them in a second. Pat's not giving up on that. Vegas. But the Bears doesn't look great.

The Lions aren't going away. I think I put them at a four. When we did the panic meter thing last week, I think I put them at a four. They're still going to be solid. So now the Bears have.

Here's the thing. Green Bay might be fucking awesome. So that loss in Week one doesn't look as horrible as it did in the moment because Green Bay is the best team in the league. You know, they're playing the Bears. It's a little.

Listen, that Micah Parsons trade crushed the Cowboys and was not good for Caleb Williams. Those are the two entities that really suffered.

Well, you wouldn't have been able to pay your cornerback who's already out.

Right?

Right.

That's true.

We wouldn't have been able to do that.

We're not going to be able to pay our kicker that the kicker is the one we're going to have to. Jerry's going to have to back the truck up for.

Oh yeah. Let's. We'll take another break for the pod. Keep going on the YouTube. So let's talk about your team. So I wrote down because you have the uniforms and it was a high scoring game and it was the icons on the screen where it's like Cowboys versus Giants. So it feels big. But it's like those when you go on Amazon and it's like it's a new movie with John Travolta and Bruce Willis and you're like, oh, oh, that's probably not going to be that. That. Did that come out in 22? They're cops. What?

So mean. It's so, so much meaner than what I said about Drake. May. So mean.

Well, it's like a straight to video movie. It's basically Cowboys, Giants here. The Cowboys, the Giants.

These are cover.

Kevin Spacey's the bad guy.

They're not the real band. It's just cover bands playing each other.

Yeah, it's really depressing. I wish it had been a tie. The highlight of the game, though, was you have the ball, you're over midfield and there's nine seconds left and there's time to really try to get into field goal range. And Schottenheimer does a handoff left for 3 yards to set Aubrey up on the right on the left. Hash mark from 64 right.

He's like, no, no, we got.

We got him in any. And then Aubrey fucking nails it. And I'm like, what am I watching? I watched 19 people miss Pats today. And the Cowboys are setting up 64 yard field goals and draining them.

I love Greg Olson, but today he was like, when Javante Williams gets that carry, they have nine seconds left and a timeout and he gets a carry and immediately trips forward and there's like, well, when, you know, when you get the ball like that, you don't know what nine seconds is like. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You can get six yards and then like call time out if you're on the ground. Yeah, right, exactly. It's like, I know everybody. Oh, Brandon, Aubrey's gonna make any kick he tries. They. All they have to do is get to their own 30s. Like, no, even the 64 yarder barely made it. Can we get to a decent spot? But, yeah, that was a miserable. I mean, I just. Early on I was like, okay, my team sucks. So when your team sucks, you just want to win certain games, right? You want to win home against the Giants, you have to win that. I'll take 4 and 13. If I can get out of this somehow with a win, I promise I will. And it was just a matter of what's going to happen first. Is Russ going to throw for 500 yards or the Giants going to mass 500 yards of penalties?

It was that sloppy a game.

14 penalties for the Giants, 54 first downs in the game. Yeah, you had 31 or 32, almost 1,000 yards in offense and some genuinely nice Russell Wilson throws.

Definitely. Yeah.

And neighbors Was unstoppable. Now you don't have any defensive backs anymore. But he was all running amok.

That's a problem.

I thought it was very entertaining. I enjoyed it. I thought the announcers were good. I thought, you know. But it was two teams that combined. How many wins Cowboys and Giants combined this year? 12. 10.

Oh yeah, that's 12. I think it's Giants. Yeah. Well, they have to play each other again, so that's going to be one. They could tie. They could tie that. It was close enough. Yeah. It's bad news. It really is. I don't know what this is.

I was happy for you. You didn't want to be O and T. No, I didn't want having like two.

I was texting my buddies, I take a tie right now. I like, I will take a tie. Probably four different times I said, I'll take a tie.

But well, it felt. You know what it felt like the last night, the Netflix, the undercard fight, mobility against. Oh yeah, Martinez.

Right.

And these guys are just beating the shit out of each other for 10 rounds. It's like they always call these like the rock em sock em robot fights.

Gotti Ward. Yeah.

Just a thousand headshots and nobody's getting phased. And then at some point it's like, this is going to just make it a draw. There should be no loser for this. And it was a draw. That's how I felt about Cowboys, Giants.

It was like that. If there were like 40 low blows in the fight, I mean you said there were 14 penalties. There was one penalty. I don't think they even counted where the Giants had four penalties on the play and the Cowboys had one and it offset. So they really.

Oh, and it counts for only one.

Yeah, it accounts for none. It's like CD Lamb like taunted somebody and they're like, well, well, we have to disregard the other four penalties. But.

So the Pats won. They had 12 penalties, two missed pts, roughly 500 missed tackles and they give up a kick return TD and somehow, somehow they won. The Colts had 473 yards of offense, two touchdowns and five field goals at seven scoring drives and.

And leverage. And leverage.

And leverage. I wrote this down, so I'm trying not to get too excited about them because if you remember 12 months ago, the New Orleans Saints and Derek Carr went two and oh, and had all this offense. And I think I came on for this podcast heading into week three wondering like, ah, they feel a little 99 Rams ish.

Right.

And it's one of the worst Moments in the recent history of this podcast. I am not saying anything about the Colts, but they did win and they're two and oh. And I have no idea if it's going to last, but I will say Taylor and Warren might be top five to seven at their positions, right. Their receivers that Pierce always gets open once a game, deep, they have downs, they have Pittman, they have a little bit of a pass rush like they get. Their defense is okay, good special teams.

Their defense definitely better than last year. Definitely better AFC south, which is did all, you know, anyone's game always. But it begins and ends with the quarterback, right. And we've seen all of these, you said, right, Derek Carr like these old guys or who were good or some guys who were never good between the Derek Carrs and the Zach Wilsons. But then there's a Sam Darnold who wins like 13 games. So you can't discount all of them. But you have to keep your eye. You gotta be, gotta be levelheaded.

Yeah, I, I told you I test drove the Colts for AFC south, right? And I talked to a Giants friend of mine who watches every play of every Giants game and I was like how bad was Dimes last year? We talked about this in the over under spot and he was just like so bad. Don't do it. Don't take, don't stay away. And it did sway me. But he does look better than last year. Couple more games. The Lions, Bears, Detroit had seven 20 plus yard plays in that game. Yeah, the Bengal, the Bears. A friend of mine who's a Bears fan was sending all the draft picks they had who like did nothing in this game because they had a lot of first seconds. They made some trades, sure. And they might especially if they don't hit on Caleb. Piece just seems like a write off. I don't know if they're a cross off, but they would certainly be on the list. I would still have the Panthers over them. Could we officially make the Panthers our first crossoff team?

You want to do it now? Really?

Yeah, they're the first one.

There's no way they make the playoffs if Tampa loses. Aren't they a game out?

No, the Carolina is not making the playoffs.

Oh yeah?

No, let's cross them up.

They're not making it. I just, I feel weird doing it before the Saints. I don't know why you like Spencer Rattler over Backdoor Bryce.

Backdoor Price. I had that written down. Tepper 38 and 82, is an owner in 120 games.

He's good.

120 games, 38 wins for him. The Seahawks, Steelers. We did not talk about. I think I was right about the Seahawks and I think they just fucked the game up last week. They were much better this week.

Right.

Their defense is good. They did get a break of Caleb Johnson just forgetting the new kickoff rules. But, you know, considering that at one point they had two picks on the road. Right. And it just feels like, oh, they're going to go in too. But they, they clamped down in the second half. They have a couple jsn.

Yeah.

They can run the ball.

He made some plays. I was looking. Did you see their. Did you say their division odds or. That was somebody else who said no.

But I can give them to you because they got to be a little better than they were with this. They're. They're still nine to one.

What were they. Was that what they were. Were they 10 or something?

They haven't budged.

That's pretty good. That's pretty. I mean, what other one on one team do you think has a shot and you get 9 to 1 odds?

Might bet that right now.

Yeah.

Yeah. Cause The Cardinals are 2 and oh, and the two games could not have been less inspiring. They barely held on against Spencer Rattler and Bryce Young. Like, barely held on down the stretch like that. Like they're holding on for dear life and they had some D back injuries and you know, I'm with you.

I don't know why I had them win in 10, 11 games, but.

Well, you.

You two. Two might be.

They're two and oh, two might be it. One thing on Pittsburgh and Rogers is it's like last year, if you pressure him, he sucks. And there's now there were stats coming out of today's game where it's like just as long as you're making a move around, he's not good. I don't know what happened in that run defense.

Yeah.

Because the jets ran all over him. And then Seattle was able to get whatever they wanted today. So I don't. I don't think Pittsburgh has it.

Pittsburgh and Denver defenses are wildly underwhelming. So far. Right. In terms of teams you thought were going to be good coming in, I.

Don'T think it's fixable either. Ravens killed the Browns. We need to talk about that.

Hey, 23 and I had minus 23 and a half. We do need to talk about that.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you. Four to one odds.

That was. Got a little hairy there for a little while.

Yeah, it was. I mean, that touchdown The Brown scored was hilarious. I mean not for me, but.

Niner Saints. I wrote down this question for you. What's the opposite of a multi view game? Is it an oh no tie view? Yeah, Christopher Maltisante view. Like I don't. There's gotta be some name for it. But I really didn't want to ever put this in my four. And then there are a couple moments when we got near the end of the first early game hour, the ending where it's like all right, fine. Now we're watching. My dad's like, whoa, this multi view is crazy. Now we're watching Saints, Niners.

I'm like watching college teams. How'd you make that out?

I thought that was yesterday. What's this guy's name? Spencer. What? Spencer Rattler. Mack Jones. The oh no tie view. I don't know.

I had to watch it. I thought I was smart by making the Niners my. Because it went from seven and a half and then Purdy's out and Mac Jones is minus three. And I looked at Mac Jones's stats. He's like six and three against the spread as a starter. It's like wow, how did. Really is that good? And then Rattler was like oh, six and one or something again. I was like, I'm going to keep betting against the Saints until they give me a reason.

Great job. The mutilate view. Then Rams, Titans, nothing really to say other than Tennessee is just not well coached. He had that 1.3 penalties in two weeks.

You see his touchdown pass though?

I watched it live. It was incredible.

That was something else. That gives you hope, huh? It was like a 50 yard pass across the field.

They'll have a new coach next year. I mean really, that's the type of quarterback Ben Johnson should have been aligning with. Instead he went all in on Caleb. Okay, we'll take a break for the pod. We're going to do guess the lines. Thursday night, Bill's Dolphins. It feels like this is the Thursday night, week two or week three game every year. Yeah, I don't know why. And it's in Buffalo. You beat me the first two weeks in Gastellans.

Yes, I did.

Dave Jacoby the most excited.

He really likes it.

He loves. He really roots for you.

Wait for that text. Every Monday.

I have the Bills favored by nine and a half over the Dolphins.

Oh, you son of a bitch. I had nine. It's 12 and a half. Whoa, 12 and a half. How many money line everything are we putting that with?

So if, if the Bills kill The Dolphins and the Dolphins are on three. And there's 10 days until the next game. This is. This is where DJ Mikey Mack might meet his demise.

Oh, right. I didn't even think of that.

Right.

Yeah.

If it's bad. Just throwing that out there. Sunday marquee game. I do not think this is the best game to watch next week for reasons we described earlier, but it is. The Eagles and the Rams in Philadelphia because that's a rematch of an excellent playoff game last year. Kind of know how this game's going to go. I'm not going to enjoy it that much. The Eagles will probably lead for most of the game. The Rams will come back late. It'll be exciting for about 10 minutes. And I have the Eagles favored by three and a half.

I guess we split it. I said five and a half. It's four and a half. Vegas right there in the Vegas zone. Yeah.

Not sure about the Rams yet. The running back situation. I mean, what was Kyron Williams going for in Fantasy Leagues? Like 38, 40.

Right. And then it's Blake Corum getting the.

Looks like a goal line. Carries. Yeah, yeah. Split backfield situation. The two receivers are putting up yards.

I don't know what it is for me. I don't get excited for their offense. Right. I should. Naku is a dynamic player. Great. Now he's getting handoffs and everything. And it's just fun to see Stafford succeed. Right. Long as you can. But. Yeah. That. This already bores me, this game. Yeah.

It's like, if I'm. If I'm. Who is it going to be? Brady and Brady and Burkhart.

Yeah. Probably. Yep.

I'd probably be like, yo, what are the other games?

Can you get me a date with Saint? Seahawks?

I only have two watchables. First one, Washington and the Raiders. I just think this will be a fun game. I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah.

Super. And it's in Washington.

Let's do it.

Washington with. With a lot of rest. Raiders coming off whatever happens in the Monday night game. And I have Washington favored by three and a half.

That's what I had. And it's five and a half.

Ooh.

That's where we split that. It's a little high.

Two Vegas zones out of the first three. This is. Let's be careful. Week three. The other one is Chargers, Broncos, which I thought long and hard about putting in the Sunday marquee.

Wait, you don't put your team as a watchable. This is watchables we're doing.

Yeah. I'm Doing it for America. I can't be selfish.

Oh, you're doing it for America.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, Steelers pats is watchable for me, but I don't know if for America, watching those two teams, two non playoff teams playing, I wouldn't. Watchable category charges. Broncos. This is a good game.

Ooh, this moved.

Did it move? I had Chargers by two and a half.

You'll get it either way. I had two. It was two and a half. It moved to three.

There'll be a lot of Denver fans at this game we should mention.

Yep.

Well, we're, we'll know. We're going to know tomorrow night with the Chargers if we have a real contender with them or not. Right?

Yeah. I mean, I'm on, I'm on Vegas tomorrow. That's one of my 107. So you could root against that.

But I, I have money on Vegas.

You do.

I'm with you.

Okay.

Yeah. Bowers is playing.

Yep.

I think they, I don't know. I wouldn't say they have a home field advantage, but they do have a good crowd.

Yeah.

And we'll see. We're going to find out a lot from the trophies.

It's just like neither of these two teams put together two good games in a row ever. So it's like, I'll take the points.

Well, if the Chargers spank them tomorrow, they have a case for being the third best team in the conference.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Well, I was, I was predicting you and I talk about Pete Carroll as one of the coach of the year contenders if they win.

If they win that game right there. Fairly watchables. I have seven. Let's describe it as a fairly watchable week three Packers. Browns normally would go in the poop fecta, but it's in Cleveland and I like watching the Packers. So I have packers by nine and a half.

I was going to say you better get it. Exactly. Because I did eight and a half.

All right.

They can't lose that. Right? It's not cold. It's not anything.

I mean that is a. The definition of a three team teaser slash eliminator pool. Just keeps throwing it in things.

I feel pretty good about that. Speaking of keep throwing. I mean this is supposed to be like Flacco semi retirement. He's thrown 90 passes in the last two weeks. I know. He's like 56 for 90, I think. Poor bastard.

Do you see that thing today about how shedeur the Ravens told him they're going to take him in the fifth round and his Team discouraged it. Did he want to back up Lamar?

Yeah. Right. And now he's the fourth backup. Flacco, that can't.

You want to back up Lamar. Who is a better person to back up and learn? Like, go to a great franchise and back up Lamar and try to pick some shit up. You're not going to be a starter for a couple years anyway.

Did he say this in the third round when no one had taken him? His team. Was he still, like, trying to.

I think they're going to. According to the report, they're going to take him in the fifth round and he didn't want them to, like, that day.

That day or. Yeah. I mean, if you would have told him the day before the draft, like, go screw yourself. Yeah.

Well, he thought he was going to the first.

Right. Right.

Colts, Titans. Wow. Is this. This. This game is pulsating as a Don't be careful. It's in Tennessee.

Yeah.

It has the makings of like 92% of the people on whatever have picked the Colts. I have. Colts by three and a half.

We have. We hit that. Exactly.

Yeah.

Yep. Both of us. That's tough.

Is a. That is a. Be careful.

Yep. That's a leverage all week.

Colts 2 and oh. Daniel Dimes rejuvenated. Ursay's daughters. She's on the sidelines with the headset, taking notes. There's a new energy around this team. Everything is so great. Colts, Colts, coats. And then it's like punt return. Titans up 10.

Nothing. Leverage play against.

See it coming.

Exactly.

Vikings, Bengals in Minnesota. Jake Browning aboard. I. This has to go in the Vegas zone. I had. I had the Vikings by five and a half.

Did this move. I. I'm sure moves.

He can cheat.

It's three and a half. No, I promise. No, I had five. It's only three and a half. I mean, we probably should have adjusted this after I did this before the. Before that miserable game we just saw.

Yeah, but that line. That doesn't make sense to me because how many more points is Joe Burrow worth than Jake Browning? Like 6, 7. So if Joe Burrow was playing, the Bengals would be three and a half point favorites in Minnesota?

I think so. I mean, I think the better question is how many more points is JJ McCarthy worth than Browning?

That line's too low. That's going to go up. Next one is Steelers at the Pats. I think I hit this one. Exactly. I did not see it.

Go ahead.

Steelers minus two and a half.

It's. Yeah. You're going to think I Cheated. I said two. It's one and a half.

Oh, they tic tac'd me.

They tic tac'd you. That could move, though.

I think we can win that game. We think we can run on that team.

That's a fun one. I like that game. Really good.

As you know, I love the locker room videos. Yeah, fantastic. Vrabel, locker room video. He's about to give his first game ball. Kraft wanders in. Hold on a second. Then it just grabs it and does a little speech for Vrabel, gives him the game ball. And then Vrabel goes around and gives game balls to, like, Ramondre and Milton Williams and all the heroes of the game. And then the last game ball turns to the kicker, this motherfucker who missed his first two pats and then field goal and made the 53 yarder to kind of pseudo ice the game. He's coming in and we're like, they're gonna. This guy missed two pats. They're gonna. He's gonna do a 50. And he nailed it, right? And Vrabel throws in the ball, and he's like, hey, we believe in you. We sent you out there. Cause I knew you were gonna make that kick. And team shared. They did.

But that was a fake cheer. Like 48 guys, they're like, get rid of the ball. I work. And then miss extra points. What are you doing?

I was like, we. We had to work our asses off because the shithead missed 2Ps. Now he gets a game ball.

This is a participation trophy. What is this?

I liked it. He was like, this is my kicker, right? Jaguars, Texans in Jacksonville. And if I've ever seen a one and a half line, this is it. I have the Jaguars by one and a half.

You nailed it good. I said one. You get that? It's a good game. That's.

So if the Texans are awesome tomorrow, let's say they beat the Bucks. This line immediately flips to Texans minus one and a half, I think.

I guess so. Yeah. They're counting the short week here, but they're not counting the long hair on Trevor Lawrence.

What do you think the AFC south odds are right now? Did you look?

I haven't looked.

What do you think? Who do you think the favorite in the AFC south is right now?

So the Colts are 2 and. Oh, Jags are 1 and 1, Titans 0 and 2. Texans 1 1.

And we're favored the whole preseason.

I mean, God, did they make the Colts the favorite? A slight favorite.

Slight favorite plus 160. Texans plus 185 Jags plus 260. Titans down to 13 1. So the Texans win plus 160 is pretty enticing.

They have a minus. If the Texans win tomorrow, they'll have a minus.

Oh, I forgot.

Yeah.

We're legally prohibited from betting on the AFC south division. Yeah, Trump signed that rule. He said he didn't allow anybody to do it.

That I would abide by what is.

A rare win for Trump.

We have something like that.

We have the NFC south is going to win more games than the AFC south. And we have juice toward the NFC South. And then we also have under 29 and a half wins for the AFC South. We have two AFC south bets.

Oh, well, okay. What was Hench complaining about?

I mean, that's all Hench is complaining because the Colts won in that bump. That's three now.

We're all right.

We're okay. The problem with doing these future bets with Hench is he talks about them every week, and at some point, you almost start mentally rooting and gets them. So, you know.

What was Hench complaining about? Could be a whole nother segment on this podcast.

Well, he did not like the Broncos. Hench had some thoughts on the leverage rule. Bears, Cowboys. This is a borderline loser leaves town match. And it's in Chicago. And there's going to be a week of Caleb Johnson, Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson, Ryan polls. This is the referendum week. How did we get this so wrong? What's going on with this team? Nick Wright picked them to win this to make the Super Bowl a year ago. He did that? Yeah, he did. High hopes for two years with this team. I picked them to make the playoffs this year, and now it's a big referendum and now they're playing your dumb team.

I was off by a half a point. I'm warning you here. And I'm proud of myself for getting it even that close.

I tic tac'd it. I went Bears one and a half.

Son of a bitch. That's exactly right.

Am I winning?

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 2, 3, 4, 7 to 6. You're winning.

Oh, great. Last one. Niners cards with Mac Jones because Purdy's not going to play and it's in San Francisco. And the Cards are the one of the least impressive two and O's that we've seen. They can't believe they're two and. Oh, I have the Niners one and a half.

I mean, you're closer than I was. I had the Niners by three and it's Arizona by one and a half.

Oh my Lord.

Let's say. Wait, let's look at that for a second.

Really?

Arizona Cardinals minus one and a half. Minus 104. San Francisco Four nines plus one and a half. Minus 100.

Yeah, I really disagree with that.

Yeah, I do too.

Then again, you get to bet against Mac Jones, so why not Mac Jones? Poop. Facta. Bucs, jets in Tampa and I have the Bucks by six and a half.

Oh, come on. Do you really? Let me say it.

What is it?

Let me say it. I can't see. It's six and a half. I said seven. You get it.

Is that a tease for us?

Yeah, I think so.

Old school.

The test of Verde Bowl.

All the six and a half level teases, parlays were hitting the first two weeks. Which means we're due for one of them to.

Yeah, a lot of oversight.

Cardinals today was a great one. Falcons at Carolina. This is interesting. I had three and a half before the Falcons game today and I bumped it to Vegas Zone afterwards. I have Falcons by four and a half.

It's three and a half. I said four. We split that, right?

No, you win that then. Wait, Shirts. Three and a half.

Oh yeah, I do want it.

Yep.

Three and a half. I. I didn't write it because we. We didn't have it.

Still three and a half.

I'll keep staring at it. Yeah. Falcons 3 1/2 at Panthers. Yeah, I get that.

Who's taking the Panthers plus three and a half?

So somebody. We have to. You know that thing you were talking about where the AI warns you not to bet it? That we can't bet this either the Panthers upsetting the Falcons or like you said, the Titans are upsetting the Colts.

Well, this is Falcons outdoors. Falcons as a road favorite.

Right.

Falcons with positive momentum and good feelings and good vibes and. Yeah, it's a stay away for sure. And if it drops to three or below, I'll be betting it. Seahawks in Seattle against the Saints and this is either seven or seven and a half. And I went back and forth and I landed at seven and a half.

Seattle is seven and I had nine and a half. So it doesn't matter. You get it? Yep.

Yeah.

You like that better than any teaser.

Yeah, that's pretty good. Spencer Rattler in Seattle. Defense is good. Get a nice win on the board. Run the ball. Saints outdoors. That's. That's a. I would like it more.

Seattle was coming. If they were coming off a loss, they always have the one fucked up home game right?

Sunday night, Chiefs at the Giants.

I got this exact. I'm mourning you.

Okay? I. Vegas owned it. I did chiefs by four and a half.

It's five and a half. Fuck.

So I'm up one.

Man, there's a lot of teaser games. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 2, 3. Oh, you're up too. It's over. Oh, Jacoby. It's over.

Finally. W for this guy. The good guys finally got one.

Jacobs.

Resting my starters for the Monday night game. Ravens home for the Detroit Lions. A game that a week ago I wasn't that excited about. And now I'm like pumped. Yep, a great game. I did Ravens minus three and a half.

All right, I said four. Doesn't matter. It's five and a half. So you win 10 to nine.

So we have, let me see.

There's a lot of teaser Vegas zone games there.

Three, four Vegas zone games. And then we have, and then you.

Have Green Bay.

And then packers minus eight and a half for the teasers.

And Seattle. Right, Seattle.

In Seattle.

Oh, we're going to get crushed next week. This is bad.

Bonus. There's no answer for this yet, but Crawford, Canelo, rematch. Who's favored?

All right, so Canelo was What, like a minus 180 going into last night?

Yeah.

Man, I think it's a toss up like minus 120 each side even.

There's no line yet. I looked because the rematch hasn't been announced yet. So I don't think they have lines. I think it would be Crawford by minus 125 to minus 130. Yeah.

Yeah. Because people are, I hope people appreciate what Bud Crawford did Saturday night. Right. To go up to.

I want to talk about it. Oh, first of all, my sources, my, my sources say that there will be a rematch.

Yeah, there should.

Yeah, that is happening. I, I, I rarely am like awe stricken by a sporting event, but I thought, been watching boxing my whole life, dating back to Ali in 1974 all the way through.

And you were 18 months old then.

He's watching fucking Wide World of Sports, watching Ali fight whoever. Like that's when I've always loved boxing. And Crawford's one of the best fighters I've ever seen. He's, if I'm making some list, he just has to be on it now.

No question about it. And I feel like he falls victim to the fact that boxing hasn't been good in, I don't know, 15, 20 years. I don't even know what it is. So it hurts his legacy. And Canelo's too, by the way, that there's no Sugar Ray, there's no De La Hoya, there's no Hearns, like even like a winky. Right, right. Like those guys were great, you know?

Well, his best, his super biggest fight was Spence and he killed Spence to the point that it almost didn't seem like they were on the same level, which wasn't his fault.

Yeah, he's 42 and oh, and Spence is the only one anyone cared about. And most people, like, a lot of people only knew about Crawford like last night, but that doesn't happen. Going up two weight classes like that and winning as a 37 year old, it's just crazy. Right?

It's a crazy thing to do. He gained 21 pounds and fought a dude who is naturally already one of the strongest people in the history of that division. Who by the way, has one of the. Max said this last night. I thought Max was great.

I love him, I miss him, I miss him.

Max was so good on that fight. But, but Max was saying he has one of the great shins of all time. And it's like, yeah, he actually does. Like there was that great social video that happened of when Crawford stunned him and, and Canelo did like almost a 180 and was like, whoa, I've never, I've never seen stars before from a punch.

Like.

But Crawford, like the chess match that was going on, it was just such a high level of boxing. It was so different than that rock em sock em fight from the three fights earlier. Yeah, it was just these guys feeling each other out. And Crawford, right as Canelo was starting to feel like he had momentum, he just shifts, he gets inside in his body and starts using his athleticism. Then he moves back again. He's moving side to side. And it was just a masterpiece, man. It really was.

It was a clinic. Like young, young boxers should learn from that, that, I mean, you know, Canelo's not in his prime either, but that the game plan for a lighter guy is always hit and move. Right? Just hit and move and don't get in the clench. And somewhere early on he must have realized, like, I could take Canelo's best punch. I don't care, I'll fight inside against him. Or he just doesn't give a shit. Right? Like, that's probably it. He's like, I'm so tough, it's all right. I have a good chin too. And listen, it was just great. It's a shame boxing only produces a fight that we care about that doesn't Involve one of the Pauls every four years. So that better be a rematch. Yeah.

Like when, when Sugar Ray came back and he moved up to fight Hagler, which was the same spring as Hogan versus Andre. I think it was like two weekends apart. And it was, you know, for us, it was like this one of the greatest stretches ever.

Yeah.

I was so scared for Leonard moving up. Like, I really felt like he was like, potentially gonna die. It was, this is suicide mission that he's doing this. And what Crawford did was like five times crazier.

Yeah.

Like, to move up, jump two divisions like that. And even the first couple rounds, Canelo's hitting him on the sides. Right. He's hitting him on his hips and he's hitting him low. And it's just like he, there's no way he's ever felt punches like that before. But he was just there bouncing off him really good. It's like Superman. He's so good.

Were you nervous for Hogan when he went up in class to fight Andre? Is that what you're saying too you.

I was nervous the whole time. I was unbeatable.

He's going up anywhere from £250, maybe. We can't get a reading. Yeah.

When Leonard fought Hagar, he, he was so surgical about how he would attack the rounds, and he would just kind of, he was on his, on his bicycle, and then we come in, do little flurries, get out, and he would pick like these little 15. Crawford wasn't doing that at all. Crawford said, I'm fighting this guy.

Yeah.

And I'm not afraid of him. He can't hurt me. I'm faster than him. And I thought, especially in the later rounds, it felt like Canelo got really discouraged. Like there, I, I, I thought in the 10th or 11th round, it almost seemed like, not that he was quitting, but like he had kind of just lost.

Yeah.

I don't know what. And, but then he, he came back. But the, of course the cards were outrageous.

Well, I mean, two judges.

Five.

Five. Yeah. Going into the 11th. That's, that's terrible. I don't know what the answer is to that either, because I was like, maybe we just let AI score these. But the Netflix AI had it a drop, so I'm not sure what the deal. Thankfully, they didn't screw Crawford. And then I'm reading online, like, oh, he was. There were people describing it like, you said that it might have been like, oh, he really didn't. He only engaged with them in four rounds. Like, no way he was taking it to Canelo, like he didn't care.

No, he was in command of the. The command of the fight has to matter if you're scoring it. I just. I don't think we've ever totally figured out how to score these things. We should have more than three judges. It's crazy. They only have three, right? Talk about small sample size. You just need two people to fuck up out of three, and you have the wrong decision. Should be five. But then you have these rounds, like the first round, where nobody wins the first round, and people are just like, oh, champ gets that one.

You should be getting nothing. I think you. I think you're frowned. It's frowned upon if you're a professional judge and you give a 10, 10 round. But some. Some rounds are.

First round was a 10, 10 round. Nobody won the first round.

One guy lands six punches, the other lands five. What do you got? You got to pick one. Come on. Yeah, but the ones that were won were won by way more, were won by Crawford.

I thought Canelo won three rounds and given the first round. Congratulations. But I thought for boxing, it was a great night. I mean, they. They. I don't know what the official audience was, but it was probably like 60 million people watching that.

Yeah.

Which. So it's the biggest boxing event ever. Most of those people have only tangentially heard of Crawford. And he has his greatest fight. Spence. This was his most important fight, but took it to him. And I think if they fought 10 times, I think he would beat Canelo every time. Maybe one of the 10 times. Canelo would maybe catch him once. But athletically, he just was never in danger, ever. And I really thought he took it to him a few times, too. That's what was special about it.

Canelo. It's funny we say that because Crawford's got three years on him, three years older. But Canelo, if you look at his last. What do you have? He's coming off seven unanimous decisions. Right. And the volume, Right. Just isn't there. Like, it was like cinco de Mayo 10 years ago. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. And the. And the power, I think, is gone through. He does do that thing that you were talking about where he'll just, like, turn his head, like, oh, did that hurt? Did that hurt you? Or did that miss completely? So right. He really does have a good chin. But he had to use it for sure.

There was a little bit of this meant more to Crawford than Canelo. Not that it didn't mean something to Cano, but even his quotes afterwards, Canelo's like, minted. Whatever happens, he's one of the most popular fighters of the last 30 years, and he's already won a shitload of fights, and he's made a shitload of money. And whether he won or lost this I don't think really ultimately mattered. But for Crawford, it did, because Crawford had to win this. Now he's on this completely different list. He's one of the two or three most important boxers of the first 25 years of boxing. And if you go back to the last 50 years since Ali, he's on that list, too. He just has to be on there with Mayweather and Hopkins and whoever else you want to put on, and that. That's what he needed it.

But, I mean, how many times have we seen a guy go up two weight classes like, ah, shit. And we root for the little guy and it just doesn't happen. It just gets. It just gets, you know, engulfed. But it wasn't like that at all, so.

Well, I wonder. He probably. He could probably go down to middleweight and win that one, too, if he wanted, because I don't think anybody there could beat him. He could also go up to 175 and try to fight B ball, which would be fucking crazy. But imagine if he did that. He's like, all right, I'll just. Just now go to 175.

That's going to be his 40s. Yeah. That's what he's going to do in his 40s.

Nuts if he did that.

But right. You know, well, Bernard Hopkins was doing that right late in his career. He's just taking all the fights and making as much money as he can, and the weights were all over the place. But he's great. He's great. I'm glad a lot of people got to introduce to him yesterday.

There's a charisma and a coolness to him, too, that I think is unusual. Like people like Hopkins, Larry Holmes, like some of these guys who had these great records or streaks. But there was something slightly missing from a personality standpoint. Hopkins and Hopkins knew it and was always trying to overcompensate for it. But Bud's just. He's just got it. There's something about him that. I don't know. There's just that charisma to him. I wish I had gone. I really regret not going, but I came back east and trying to be a good parent.

You were in the wrong, you know, she doesn't want to transfer to unlv. You can see a lot of the Fights there.

All right, we have to do. Let's do a little parent Corner.

All right, let's do it.

Hold on. Oh, yeah. Parent Corner brought to you by Workday. Are you a forward thinker? Then you need an HR and finance platform that thinks like you do. Workday is the AI platform that helps propel your organization, your workforce and your entire industry into the future. Workday. Moving business forever forward. What do you got, Sal?

All right, so my 12 year old now is on this travel baseball team and they've been playing together for like three or four years. And this is the year at 12, you go to Cooperstown, right now, it used to be, oh, only the best teams in the country go to Cooperstown now. You could just organize your own. There's so many tournaments up there, right. So you don't have to be great. And it's in July, and so as long as Harrison doesn't get cut between now and then, he's batting like 240 right now. So let's cross our fingers. But so you go a week to Cooperstown in July, you're there. Upstate New York. It's great. You guarantee like five games as a home run derby. It's beautiful, but the shit's expensive. It's like $2,600 per kid. And that includes like flight boarding. They're all in like bunk beds in a hotel in Cooperstown, like in the barracks. It's fun. And you get food and that's just for the kids. The rest of the family pays for themselves. So we're trying to fundraise.

It couldn't be harder to get to either.

It's very hard. Yeah. You have to land. There is an airport in Albany, but you're probably going to land in the city.

And I think there's busses.

Yeah, it's going to be. It better be fun because it's a. It's a trudge for sure. So we're trying to fundraise because at 2600 a kid, I think we're trying to raise like 35,000 to get the. Just that the team part of it paid for. So as a fundraiser, we have all these parent parties.

That was your Broncos bet today?

No, it's a kid. Believe me, it gets there. You have all these parties, right? And you sell tickets to these parties and it's raffles and everything's going on. And like, I'm gonna help run the super bowl squares pool, but I'm gonna buy like half the squares, right? And it's not like these kids do anything they don't sell lemonade or, like, Christmas wrapping paper or something. It's all on the parents to get together for these fundraisers. So Friday night, Melissa's at the fundraiser. We already bought the tickets. I can't go because I am at Harrison's flag football game. So there's a family that's nice enough to host. She goes, I go to Harrison's football game. All the while, I'm watching on my phone. I bet the Mets. Stupid. Dumb. Just dumb. And I bet ucla, which is even stupider, right? The coach has been fired since, so I'm bummed. We get home around the same time from the flag game and from the. From the fundraiser. And I said, how was it? She says, it was fun, and we love all the parents. Like, they're dynamite. So she had a good time. I get a little gossip from the party, and then she mentions there's a 50.

50 raffle. Thousand dollars, and she won. I was like, oh, my God, this is great. I was like, a thousand dollars? Like, Well, I won 500 because it's 50.

50.

50% goes to the fundraiser. I'm like, okay, wow, 500. That's great. And I'm like, I'm thinking about. I lost my ucla, and maybe I can get my money back here, you know? Like, can I see it? Can I at least see the 500? Maybe I won't get any of it, but let me see. It's like, oh, well, I gave it back. I mean, it's all for the fundraiser. I was like, you gave it back? What is the. The fun. What? How. Why don't we just pay for our kids? If this is what it's like, you gave it. I had UCLA and the Mets. And she's like, but this is what you do. If you win, you give it back. I.

So then it's a 1000 fundraiser.

Yeah, that's it. It's a Z. You got to change it from 5050 to 1000 or 0. And she's like, well, all the parents are doing this kind of thing. I'm like, yes, but all the parents aren't betting UCLA and the Mets. So it just weirded me out. And like I said, I love. And all these parents listen to this, and they're going to think I'm a nutcase here. But fundraising for kids is kind of a joke. It just is. You've done this, right? You had to have lacrosse, something, soccer.

I never knew people pocketed the 5050 part. I always thought that went back to the thing oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just thought it was like a Ponzi scheme for the. You just gave it back. Anyway, it's really 100 0.

But the fun. It's not a fundraiser if you're paying all the funds. If everybody. All the parents are paying. I don't know, they have to change.

Would have been funny if you won and you're like, yeah, you're waving the 500 hours. Can't wait to spend this in Cooperstown off.

I'm getting my kids some. Some hats. Some signed vintage hats. Shit. All right, well, maybe I'm the idiot then. Whatever.

I missed out on Cooperstown because it was the year my son was 12. It was Covid.

Oh, right, right.

We had a whole Cooperstown thing. We were about to do all the same stuff. And then no tournament in July, no trip.

You should go next July. You know what? I'll fundraise for you. I can get $2,600 for you to go.

My wife and my dad. You didn't have a daughter and you miss out on the daughter. Wife dynamics, which are just spectacular.

I love that.

So I flew in Friday night, and I was getting here in time to maybe go to dinner. My wife was already here. So my wife was here. I'm here. We're going to go out to dinner with my daughter, who's playing in a game the next day. And I'm just going to read highlights from the text thread as I'm on the plane and we're trying to figure out the dinner. And I'll redact the restaurants, okay? So I said, blah, blah, blah. I suggested a restaurant. I'll drop my stuff off and meet you. Zoe says to my mom, did you see this? Blah, blah, blah. It's too late. Let's go to the second restaurant. What time are we going to eat? That's now a bunch more text. So now I'm on the plane. I'm watching this. I'm like, oh, boy. It's like watching the two hockey enforcers out that are skating around and they're about to get into it now. Zoe goes, I'd rather eat earlier because of the game. Is 8 o' clock possible anywhere? I agree. Do you want Italian? Then she suggests a steak place. Zoe comes back, what about American? And then she says, I want Italian.

Let's go to the North End. Then my wife now is getting mad. She's like, well, dad's flying in, he's going to land. He's going to drop his stuff off. That's going to be Too hard. I suggest the place. Zoe shoots that down. She does this other place. It's supposed to be amazing. 8, 15. All right in there. She can't get a reservation. We do another thing. We try another one. Now we're up to 10 restaurants. We've tried just on the text thread. And I'm like, now we're going to get in a fight. It's going to happen. Finally, my wife gets mad. Change of plans. We're just going to order in. Z, you can just come over. I like this idea. Now Zoe starts suggesting restaurants we should order from. Now we start arguing about that. Finally, hold on, I'm scrolling through all the text.

Have you put your input at all at this point, or are you just watching it go?

I've just chimed in a couple times. But now we're on our fifth postmates thing. And I finally text. It's too bad we couldn't have made this more complicated over the past few hours. Joking. Zoe comes back. All you've done is fly today. Chill as a text. And then I say, I'll do whatever. And then Zoe does the I can also do my own thing for dinner and hang out later.

Oh, boy.

Now Carrie comes back with this seriously exclamation point. Let's fucking get it from somewhere else. Then I'm like, oh, now we've had enough bomb. Now Zoe goes, why are you guys being so crazy? It's not too complicated. It's dinner. Who cares? She suggested 15 restaurants and seven Postmates restaurants. And we keep going. We keep going. And then my wife does that. I've spent a lot of my day and a lot of energy talking about dinner, and I'm being super rude as I spend all this time on a meal. Just call me and let's figure this out. Pick up the phone. And then Zoe goes, well, who cares? I didn't think this was such a big deal. And it keeps going, and it keeps going and it keeps going.

No.

Zoe says, I don't understand how this is upsetting. It's dinner. Geez, fine. I don't even care where we eat. She's up to 17 restaurants. That's at this point. I've had a super long week. More texts, more texts. This is honestly bumming me out. It keeps going. This is going to stress me out. And we just go. And then we finally just ended up getting postmates somewhere. And it was an American. No. This is when. Whatever. The version of the Iran Contra hearings when they confiscate the phones, people just be studying to 700 texts that led to me having a chicken parm that was like a B minus from someplace at 9:30 at night. You missed out on all of this though. And then they were mad at each other for like two hours.

Oh, that's terrible.

Picked up the.

They should have called on the phone. It would have been fine. Right? Or you make the decision.

The last text on the thread is, no one says you can't come over and see us. It's just easier if we don't have to deal with winner. Because you can't seem to make up your mind.

And then.

It'S really something.

Do I have to?

You missed out on all of this.

I know.

You just have your wife just getting disappointed that your son doesn't show enough affection.

Right? Yeah.

Meanwhile, I'm flying cross country to see my daughter.

You should get point. You should get to pick dinner then that you absolutely should. I mean, I know you're not gonna be able to explain that to a kid. Like.

And here's the other thing. She's gonna be mad now that I even talked about this. How about this? We don't even have to go to dinner any night.

It's gonna be another 80 text.

I love it. Yeah, I'll keep you posted.

All right. Let me keep me postmated.

I'll keep you posted. That was. That was today's Parent Corner, and it was brought to you by Workday. If you're a forward thinker, you need an HR and finance platform that thinks like you do. Workday. The AI platform that helps propel your organization, your workforce, your entire industry into the future. Workday. Moving business forever forward. Learn more@workday.com. how's it going at the Ringer Gambling show?

It's good. It's a lot of fun.

Who's your favorite partner? You have Tate on Tuesdays.

Oh. Oh, man.

You have the Bundo and House on. On Wednesdays. The Bundo and High Fitz. Do you want to power rank or you want to wait till October?

I gotta wait a little bit. I think the shows are all really good. I'm closest with Joe House and Tate. I gotta. Yeah. Don't make me do this. Don't make me. This is like ordering dinner. I can't find this.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun, guys.

Yes. If you're a forward thinker. Tuesday at noon with Tate. Wednesday with Joe House and the Bundle Live. This is all in the Ringer gambling channel on YouTube. And Friday with my Ring of 107 partner, Anthony DeBundo and Danny Heifetz. It's all a lot of fun. And then the Sunday pregame show, we gave out a bunch of winners, probably losers, too.

But no, you had some winners today. There were some good ones today.

Will you please tell Raheem, God bless him, he can't take the Chiefs as an Underdog if they're minus 107. I, I if it. Howie and Terry, do it. Whatever. It's fine. They don't know anybody.

That's. I think that's your number one pet peeve.

I hate it. I hate it. And then I have to be salty the whole rest of the time. And when I give my underdog, I'm like, your head's going to spin because I have a plus. Money, dog, underdog. You're not going to understand this concept, Raheem. And he's like, what? Why are you getting so mad? Underdogs have a plus.

So what was the best underdog that went today? It was Colts plus two and a half.

Should have been the Giants, but should.

Have been the Jaguars. Oh, Seahawks plus three. Patriots plus one and a half. Falcons plus three and a half. That was the biggest one.

Falcons. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Falcons plus three and a half. Yeah.

I don't know if. Yeah, we did. We definitely didn't have like a plus 200 or higher. Moneyline.

No, but you can't take minus. Stop. Come on. You can't take a minus as a, as another dog.

That's too bad. I apologize that he did that. You went on Crawford, right? You bet on that?

I did. I loved it. I was a little nervous. I bet. You know what, though? To Raheem's credit, that's a nice hedge. The draw if they don't feel like giving the challenger the win sometimes. But there was already a draw on that card, so I was like, all right, well, there goes the draw. They're not going to have two draws, but that's a good way to hedge a little bit.

I didn't necessarily know who's going to win. I just thought the odds were off.

Yeah.

And I thought it meant a little more to Crawford. But I also would not have been surprised if Canelo won. But I thought the Plus140 was a little insulting.

And how rare is it that we're on the fun side of history on some of these?

Right.

We won. We did.

Was great. Who was your favorite celebrity that was there?

I like that Saudi guy in the front row who wasn't watching. I assume he's famous. Yeah.

Booed.

He did.

Yeah.

He's on the undercard of the rematch. I don't know. I wasn't. Who. Who'd you like? I mean, I like Tyson always.

You know, they interviewed Mark Wahlberg at one point, and I've done. I've had him on. I had him on the pod when I was espn. I thought he was a good guest. But some of these celebrities don't feel like they have to try to be that entertaining when they're being interviewed. They're in that no man's land of they want to talk about the fight.

Right.

And they. But they, like, if you go on a talk show, they come in with their stories, but when they get interviewed for things like this, they kind of don't know how to act. I think there should be a consultancy firm to help them out with stuff.

Oh, really? Yeah.

They come in, they're like, they don't really have jokes, but they don't have expertise either. And they just kind of go, it's great to be here, man. I'm so excited. But they don't really have. That's a great idea.

That's really a good idea.

It's like, hey, Mark, tell a story about the time you met Lennox Lewis and you bought, like, they should have anecdotes.

Because I was trying to think, like, the publicist isn't enough. Right. Like, our dear friend Louis K. Could give some advice to someone, a client that's coming on for the first time. But yeah, you're right as far as, like, structuring stories and stuff like this will work.

Just have, like, one anecdote.

Yeah, I like that.

The time you met Muhammad ali at the 2012 Olympics or. I've loved boxing since the day of World War I.

Do your best three parent corners and just read texts. Yeah.

Has Chris Chan invited you to play at Bel Air yet?

No. Play what? Golf.

Chris Chan, our friend, belongs to Bel Air Country Club now. And he got upset last week. Cause House and I talked about it.

Oh.

Cause he was trying to keep it quiet because he didn't want to have a lot of people know. Because then people want to play there.

Right.

And then we talked about it, and now he was upset because a lot of people had reached out to him. So I didn't know if he'd reached out to you yet about playing at Bel Air.

I see. No, no, he hasn't. He hasn't. But. But we're off the air, right? Because then even more people on. Oh, we're still on.

Oh, all right.

Okay. So good for Christian.

Maybe he'll Maybe he'll invite you. You don't play golf, though.

I don't, but I'm glad.

Maybe I'll come invite you for a hang.

I'm glad you mentioned it now. I'm definitely going to reach out to him. Yeah.

Reach out to him. We're in a couple.

Country club's a good place to start for me. Yeah.

All right. Thanks to Gahal and Eduardo. Don't forget I have rewatchables coming Monday night. Tin Cup.

Oh, nice.

And Prestige tv. We've been covering, we've been recapping Task, which is an excellent, excellent show on hbo. So have that too, cuz I'll see you in a week. Good job by you.

Good job by you, buddy.

Must be 21 plus in President select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 + in President D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help.com, call 1-887-897-777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit Gambling Helpline massachusetts.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text Hopeny in New York.