Transcript of Last Call for Giannis Trades, Plus an NFL Round 3 Deep Dive With Chris Ryan, Joe House, and Peter Schrager

The Bill Simmons podcast brought to you by Fandos Sportsbook. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast Network. I put up two rewatchables this week. We did just one of the guys on Monday. We did another 48 hours on Wednesday. It was one for us week. On Monday, you'll be able to watch the rewatchables on Netflix. So you will still be able to get it on Spotify. You can watch and listen to it on Spotify, and you can get it on Netflix right now in America and Canada, and hopefully more countries to come. But we are going to be doing Zodiac on Monday. I'm recording it tomorrow. I am overprepared, very excited. I think I've solved the case. Stay tuned for that. By the way, if you like the rewatchables, February 11th, I don't know if tickets are left or not, but maybe there's secondary market tickets. Who knows? Los Angeles, the Bill Simmons podcast live at the Wiltern. Ringer. Com/events. A rewatchables is almost guaranteed to break out during this live show. If you like the rewatchables and if you like Michael Mann movies, I would highly encourage you to go to this.

That is Thursday, February 11th. No, not Thursday, Wednesday, February 11th in Los Angeles, the Wiltern. So there you go. Coming up on this podcast, we're going to do some basketball at the top because this Yana situation, I feel like I've done this segment five times, but now this is the one. This is the The last version of fake Yana's trades that I've combed through. I'm going to bring in Chris Ryan and Joe House and bounce all of our Yana's ideas off each other. So that starts the pod. And then house is staying. Peter Schrager joining us again because we had good luck last week with our pics. We had a fun football discussion. We're going to talk about the conference, championships, and a whole bunch more NFL stuff. That's all next. We're going to take a break, bring a Pearl Jam. And then Chris Ryan and Joe House. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by a FanDuel. Playoff mode is on. Fanduel has got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live offers to boost your winnings every game day. You do not want to miss out on the playoff action, the remaining playoff action we have on FanDuel.

Download the FanDuel app or head to fanduel. Com/bs to get started. 21 plus in President Select States or 18 plus President DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Get in a promo call, 1-800 Gambler, or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat in Connecticut. All right, taping this late afternoon, Thursday. I was hoping there would be a Yannis Trade today, and so far there has not been a Yannis Trade, but Joe House is here. He's going to be here the whole podcast. Probably complain if I keep him too long. Chris Ryan, taking a break from preparing for our rewatchables that were recorded tomorrow about Zodiac, which what's the over and under in time length? What would Fando put in? Two hours, 40 minutes?

It's always interesting to just see the length of the pod compared to the running time of the movie. I think we're going-157 minutes for the I'm going over.

You're going over the 157?

Yes. I think great shot, Gordo might take a full 45 minutes.

We have fantasy, too. So he's going to... I don't know. He's going to go full. What's his outfit going to be? He could wear a beret.

He's got his bow tie.

He has his necklace.

We're talking basketball. We're talking Yannis. It feels like we hit rock bottom last night with the Bucks. I've done Yannis Trade segments before, but now We have more information with the season. I would normally throw this at house, but Ciar, this is in your wheelhouse. You love hyperbole. You love things that might not happen. Your team might be involved in one of my fake trades. But what would your two weeks left for the deadline? Is there any chance Yannis is on the Bucks in two weeks?

I always think that the midseason trade deadline is a little bit overrated as a fireworks display, but this seems untenable. This really does seem like, I don't really know. They have tried so many different bandaids and fixes for this, and they're out of moves, and he seems to be out of patience.

What do you think, house? I mean, they play OKC yesterday, which is the worst case scenario, a nightmare situation for a team like the Bucks. But the quotes after the game, and I said this in Tuesday's pod, just ask for a trade. The Bucks fans will get over it. Deep down, they're going to understand you win the title for them in '21. It's time. Do it. What do you think, house?

So that was going to be my first question back to you. I was going to answer your question with the question, what do you think Bucks fans want?

They want to keep Yannis. They want to get through this season and not trade Yannis. I think they love Giannis. They want him to retire with the team, and I totally get it.

But for him- That means you're competing for a play- But for him, he won the title there, though.

He did. That's the part. Now, Witzke never won the title in Dallas until 2011. There's some other guys who never won. Like, Karl Malone never won in Utah. In this case, he delivered them the title. So if he asked, he's like, All right, it's time for me now to go. I don't think they can get mad at him, right?

Oh, no. I'm just wondering if I was a fan of the Bucks, what would I want? Now, it's very, very difficult for me to put myself in the shoes of a franchise that's won a title in the last 45, 50 years.

That has a top 100 player.

It's a top. We have two top 100 players now. Who are they? God damn it. Trey Young is top 100, and Alex Sahr is a top 100 player.

Congratulations.

I thought Alex was talking about the Capitals.

The Capitals?

What is that? I didn't realize you had two top 100 players house.

Two top 100 players here in the nation's capital. Wow.

Only three away.

I can only, as a reference point, consider the purgatory of winning 39 to 46 games every goddamn season and not being relevant come playoff time. Relevant is fine, but it takes these extraordinary superhuman efforts by Yannis. We literally watched this in the first round of the just completed a year ago, playoffs, where I actually thought the Bucks matched up quite well with the Pacers, and the Pacers ran them the fuck off the floor, ran them out of the gym. It was not close in any way, shape, or form, even with the most extraordinary efforts by Giannis. So if I'm a fan of the Bucks, I understand the sentimentality and the loyalty of wanting that Giannis thing, but I think it's time to move on.

Yeah, it's tough because they weren't even that close last year, and they feel less close this year. And also, CR, I think the league has changed. We have to vote for this Ringer 100. We got that email today, the 100 best players. And that list is just so much deeper and better than it would have been 20 years ago. You could have gotten away with this weird Giannis Bucks team in 2006, right? They probably would have made the second round, had a puncher's chance to beat anybody in the East, even with the depleted supporting cast. Now, it just feels like everybody's too deep. I don't see it.

Media ecosystem is totally different now, too. Why we're doing five pods a week about Trade Deadline in mid-January. So it's like the pressure that's on these teams and on these players. Just look what's happening in the Knicks. They got a get-right game Brooklyn. But we did so much Knicks in crisis, cat trade, Mike Brown on the hot seat stuff. That's a finals favorite. They're a pretty good team. They're still third in the Eastern Conference. So The amount of pressure and the amount of scrutiny that these guys are under now, and also the weird state of the NBA where we've got a bunch of faces of the league that are mired on mediocre teams while these juggernaut teams are going about their business is really a fascinating inflection point for the league.

It's taking a lot of time, energy, and attention away from the Joel Embiid renaissance right now.

I know that you're being sarcastic, but they're playing the Rockets toe to toe right now. I just heard the Rockets broadcast say, even though he can't move like he used to, you have to pay attention to Joel Embiid.

I think that's an accurate scouting report. He still could get his points.

Even though he can't move at all.

He still can get his points. All right. Well, I sent you a list of Yannis trades, and I intentionally left a couple off. Wait, did you answer what you wanted?

Do you want him to be... Do you think it's best for everybody if he moves on? Or do you think that there's a path back?

I think when somebody is as good as him, to put him on a team like this for the rest of his prime to be is unacceptable. I think they have exhausted every single possibility to try to fix that, including the really, really aggressive Dame Miles Turner thing, which I did not agree with. But they've had a combination of bad luck, and they traded a lot for Drew holiday. But this is the thing that seems to happen over and over again with the league now, where these teams make these trades, where they give up all these future assets. Then three years pass and everybody gets amnesia. It's like, We don't have anything to trade. It's like, Yeah, because you traded all that stuff for Drew holiday. That's why you can't trade your picks now. And that won you the title. It worked out.

I wonder if going back in retrospect, it's like they would have just been comfortable running that title team back more or less into the ground. Obviously, hindsight's 2020 with Dame.

I don't think they would have done the Middleton trade again if they had to redo that one. But it's a hard one. I said this to Mahoney on Tuesday house that these trades now where you get 120 to 130 cents on the dollar for your guy because somebody else feels like they have this short window and they have the assets and they want to do it. The history of those trades is really good for the team getting all the assets. Even if you look, I think the Davis-New Orleans trade probably worked out as bad as it could have gone for New Orleans just because of the actual picks they got and the spots in the draft, and they never really got lucky with one of the lottery picks. But that's how it goes. But they had a lot of bullets in the holster, which I think is what you want with those trades. I'm sure Memphis loves the Bane trade, even though I think Bane's become an important guy in Orlando. I'm sure the nets are happy with the Bridges trade. So I wonder, is there a version of that that you could get 120 cents for somebody like Giannis?

I think there is, right?

I agree. The thing that the fan base has to be reminded of is patience. Even the Pelicans, it's a failure because Zion turned out to not be capable of playing complete seasons. They made They made many good moves. They drafted good guys in the draft.

And Murray blew out as Achilles, and Zion was a let down. But some of the other moves were great. It's tough because here's the big variable that we have to mention before we I'm not going to talk about these Yana's traits, and people have heard these on the other 450 NBA podcast that done this, but we just have to mention them at the top. Look at the disclaimer. They get the worst version of their pick or New Orleans' pick. The Best version of that used to be with New Orleans, but New Orleans traded it to Atlanta for House's guy, Derrick Queen, DMV, AU All-Star. Milwaukee is still getting one of those two picks, and the worst they get, it's not as bad as you would have thought normally, because the New Orleans pick, New Orleans is also not doing well. New Orleans, by the way, might be the best 10 and 36 team in the history of the league. Every single one of their games, it's a two-point game with five minutes left. So it actually is in Milwaukee's interest to become worse this year if they make a trade. And I think that makes this really hard because there's some trades that we'll go through where they're getting good guys back, but you're treading water, and that's not necessarily where you want to be.

All right.

Before you get started, can I ask a question? Yeah. Do you not think that they are now officially competing with Golden State for the pool of assets that are out there?

Well, the Golden State thing is different, right? Because I just think it's over.

So it's just over?

I think it's also over for Milwaukee, but they have a better asset to trade. Golden State is never trading Curry. Did you see CR? Did you see the Golden State box score, the first game without Butler?

I saw Kumingo did quite well, right?

Yeah, but you look at it, it's like Curry and 14 other guys. I bet on that game.

I made so much money on Toronto in that game. Thank God.

It's just they have a bunch of ninth man in Curry, and Drayman is not the same guy.

It's tough though because it's like, Curry's too old to do a like, Oh, I have a phantom back injury. You know what I mean?

He's moving into the Kobe from 2012 to '16 thing where it's like, We can't trade you. You're an icon. Our fans love you, but our team's also not going to be good. So maybe this is just, this is now we're making Equalizer 4 and Equalizer 5 with you. We'll give you a budget. It'll be solid. It's you and a bunch of Italian guys. There'll be nobody else you can recognize it in the cast. And CRR will get it both.

There's literally a blueprint from this. The Sixers did it last year to great effect, to great outcomes. I mean, the only reason we're talking about this Sixers team in any way, shape, or form being relevant is because VJ Edgecom is fucking awesome. He came in and immediately injected life into the team, the franchise. Everybody who plays on the floor likes playing with him. I continue to resent that he doesn't get more shine in terms of the Rooky of the Year conversation. We have him firmly in third place.

All right, stop sucking up to CR.

The fucking Sixies are in nowhere's bill without him.

Stop sucking up to CR. You have him over Knipel and Flag?

I have him over Flag, and I think he's at least equal to Knipel. Now, the shooting by Knipel is amazing.

Knipel, the Hornets shit the bed last night. I was excited for that. They hornered it. I got legs was doing the game. I was excited for a big thing from them?

I obviously think VJH comes the rookie of the year. But I'm basically a cult member now.

Yeah, between him and Maxi. Yeah. This is great. I'm happy for your CR.

That's where it all falls apart. I'm holding on to my Philadelphia real estate. Let's just put it that way.

You're prepared for the Maxi injury that's coming, right?

Shut up. No. He's playing 41 minutes a game. You're talking about. He's young. He's playing too many minutes.

Let him live.

Let him You got to tone that back, CR. It's insane. He really needs to chill for a second, though.

Yeah.

He does need to. Over under on how many weeks he's going to miss.

Well, the other weird thing is that McCain is now... If we're doing Sixers, Jerem McCain is now in the G League, which is just like, I don't understand the rotational stuff for what happened with Jeremy Cain, who still, I think, is an interesting player.

I would have already traded for him if I was one of the other teams.

All right, I derailed us. I'm sorry.

From least realistic to most realistic, but all trades that I'm the teams, the other team probably least had a meeting. Least realistic, Detroit. So I sent most of these to you. Harris, Tobias Harris expiring, Jade and Ivory, Ezea Stewart, who's been awesome for them, and that's a tough piece to give up. And also there's crazy defensive rim protection numbers with him this year, which the eye test backs up. He had an incredible block of Kata in the Celtic Pistons game that day. Kata was just going in for a two-end dunk, and he just went up and fucking swatted him. So Harris, Ivy, Stuart, and as many pics and swaps as it takes in Detroit, it's like, We're going to make a real run at this. We're already in first place. I would not do this if I was them. But if I was the business.

I would not. Can I make the case for it?

Yeah.

You're in the midst of an Eastern conference where the Knicks are in a swoon. The Cavs look like they don't... This nucleus is not going to be to put it together and reach the heights that they were at. You're getting off years and off eras from Miami and Philly and a couple of other teams. This is your year.

Well, on top of it, if you get Yannis, you now have two of the best 10 players in the week.

You might want to shrink that number a little bit.

How's your thoughts?

I don't know. I thought CR was still going. I'm sorry, CR.

No, I'm just saying this is it. This is the moment. You're never going to get a guy like Giannis to be like, I'm signing with Detroit. So this is the shot you have.

Totally agree with all of that. And on top of it, it's a lot of pressure on Cade. And I don't mean the psychological or whatever.

No, it's the game to game, fourth quarter stuff.

Game to game. It's the same as Maxi. I want both those guys to take a little All-Star trip to Boca, trip to Cabo, whatever they need. Get those guys away from basketball for a little while. They're going to go to the All-Star All Star, both Maxie and Kade, are both starting. And I know for sure, Maxie's starting, right?

Brunson's starting?

Oh, okay. Well, whatever. Fine. I think all three of them might be starting.

I thought Maxi and Cade were starting, and Jalen Brown and Brunson. Isn't that what it is?

What those guys really need are breaks from basketball so they can get ready for the playoff run. And that's why Giannis to Detroit makes an enormous amount of sense. It immediately changes the impact. It takes this version of Cade, which is like a 9. 875 out of 10 into north of 10, potentially. And Giannis will absolutely love it. There's nothing in this that's interesting to me if I'm Milwaukee. Not one piece of this interests me.

If you're Detroit and you end up with Yannis, with Cade, with Duren, with Thompson, with a couple of shooters, you're feeling great.

Would anyone ever score again on that team?

Well, and then a rejuvenated Giannis, too, on top of it. I think House made the key point. There's too much on Cade in these games. I'm not that scared of them in a playoff series like you normally would be with a one seed because I think there's a sameness to how they play that I think is going to be trouble for them. If you're seeing it for seven straight games over the course of two weeks, it's like, oh, you're going to do the thing where just Kade has to come up with something again? At some point, you need more than that. I don't think they have enough. You know what they need?

Malik Beazley, who was on their team, who they were about to resign. My goodness gracious.

Speaking of the Knicks, this would be the trade. I don't think either team should do... Well, the Knicks would do this, but Towns in Ananobi to Milwaukee, Yannis with Portis and Kuzma, who would be the Yannis Trade Tax, who's got a deal for this year, next year. And that actually works under the cap. And that would be the lateral move trade for the Bucks. I have no idea why they would do that. I would just keep you honest at that point. I would reject that. I think you guys agree.

Yes. I mean, it would have been an interesting hypothetical world to live in if they had lost to Brooklyn yesterday.

It was like full panic. It would be more interesting if they had three first round pics, they could throw into a framework, all the bridges pics, basically. Before we keep going, I want to mention something. It's a point I made a month ago, and it was near the end of the podcast. I thought it was a really important point, and I'm going to basically karaoke it. Do we think Lessa Yannis as an all-time guy When he seems really available right now and everybody's like, eh. Philly would be like, no, we're not. Max is off the table. No, thanks. I just wonder, I made the point that in the mid 2000s, if When KG became available, every team in the league was trying to figure out how to get KG. When if Duncan was never available, if Duncan had been available, every team in the league would have been like, What do you want? Maxi, done. Let's call it in right now. Something about Yana in how particular his offensive game is, and maybe his age, but I don't know if his trade value is as high as maybe I think it is in my head.

So what do you think of that house?

Not only do I vehemently disagree. Great. I vehemently disagree. I think it's impossible in the collective bargaining agreement world that we live in now with aprons and every other all of these nonsensical efforts efforts at a hard cap in basketball to measure era against era. This is a one of one. And we still haven't really yet gotten to the full effect of the ramifications, the barriers to the old school way of doing trades and stuff. And the only thing that teams are looking at, this is my sense, is what's our flexibility? Flexibility is the thing. Cap space. There's nothing more valuable in the NBA than cap space and flexibility. And so that now becomes much more important than how much Giannis is going to help your basketball team this season or next season.

I wonder if it's just also a referendum on... It's been an unhappy situation for several years now. So we've got equal amount of years of, not necessarily him being unhappy, but the Bucs not firing in all cylinders or having a postseason combustion because he gets injured or something like that. I wonder whether or not people are like, I'm going to keep my powder dry or I like my team. We're going to go through a couple of other teams. I do think Zack and Kirk were talking on Zack's show the other day about there is just a popcorn, butts in seats, ratings and jerseys element to getting Giannis and getting one of the most recognizable names in the sport that I think most owners in this league would probably be like, Yeah, I want that. But I don't think it's any like, referendum on his ability or his legacy or all time standing.

It's just hard for me to believe the three best teams in the league are like, Yeah, we're good. And Giannis is basically on Amazon right now in a lightning deal. Amazon comes along.

If you buy one battle on 4K, you get Yannis.

Well, do you see the Kurt Russell movie, Breakdown? Was a lightning deal or it was like 50% off? I was like...

That's how they get you.

I I was like, Oh, it's a pretty good price for Breakdown. I really like that movie. I get the train crash in 4K. All right, next one. We're starting to move a little more realistic, but I still don't like this either. It's Miami, and there's a lot of variations where you could go with this. And I actually brought in a third team, the one I sent to you, where Miami has to give up Bam in the trade, in my opinion. When we were doing this two months ago, it was Khalil Ware, it was Hero and Picks, and I just don't think I think that's going to do it. Also, Bam's, maybe his trade value has dipped a little bit with how he's looked offensively this year. Anyway, the trade would be Miami gets Giannis and Portis, Atlanta gets Bam, Milwaukee gets the Rozier contract, which I'm just trading until Adam Silver tells me not to because I'm still waiting on a ruling for him. The poor Zingas expiring. Risa Shay, three Miami picks, and they get their New Orleans or Milwaukee pick back. They get all of that and they give up Giannis. Now we're in the neighborhood of there's a lot of assets there that you'd have to think about.

As you look at that, what makes the least sense out of those three, CR?

For which team makes it? Does it make the least amount of sense?

Which team is probably like, eh.

I would probably say Atlanta, I guess. Why would Atlanta help people out here?

But if you could- Well, if you could basically trade Risa Shay and that more than you have.

You get Bam.

I see. And you get Bam.

I got to say, when you did this, I put together my starting lineup for the heat, and I was like, That's nerve-wracking. That would be the newly constructed What did he? Would be nerve-wracking. I don't know. If you're throwing in all those pics, I think this is the best deal you sent us, honestly.

Wow. What do you think, house?

Cr beat me to it. I quite like this trade. I don't know why you have it in the It's a lesser realistic place. It feels very realistic to me.

Probably because it was like Bam was off the table for a long time, and now it's like, Okay, what are we talking about here? If you could do wear in Yannis in a front court.

I guess the hard part is anytime there's a three-teamer, that's why I make it less realistic. I think the three teams are hard. Atlanta would have to decide the Richerche pick and the chance to move into the top three with that New Orleans or Milwaukee pick, you're just cashing in with Bam right now. I don't know if they would do that. Maybe Richerche is just not in the trade. Maybe it's just that pick only and they get Bam. But the Celtics fan side of me is looking at it going, fuck, if Miami could somehow just turn Bam and expirings and picks into Giannis and Portis, who would be the most heat guy since has them. I'd be a little nervous about that.

Basically, they could not get a single injury to their starting five.

No.

But they would be terrifying in playoff series.

Next one. All right, so we marked that one down. We liked that one the most. Next one is just a straight one with the Lakers. It's just Luka and Cleba's expiring for Giannis. What? What did you just say? I didn't put that one on my list with you guys. I wanted the reaction. It's just the Lakers saying, Fuck it, and turning Luka into Giannis, paying Reeves, keeping LeBron.

Bill, is Rich Paul in the room with you?

No, I want to talk it out. The part that makes no sense is Luka going to Milwaukee. But if you're Milwaukee, you do this now and you have two weeks to trade Luka. It's a Luka auction. Remember when all the teams were made last year? Oh, man. Remember last year? Utah, they were like, We have 17 picks. We would have traded all of them for Luka if we knew it was available. It's like, All right, Milwaukee has now acquired Luka. Here's the auction. Let's go. You guys got two weeks to make us your bet, and then they basically just shop.

So is the idea here that Yannis It would fix the Lakers' defensive problems, and then it's Reeves and LeBron, and that's the team?

Yeah.

It's not bad.

It's a terrible trade.

It's not bad. No, it's not going to happen. It would be one of those, I do feel like out of all the things on this list- Were you moving towards realistic?

Why did you drop that one in the ear now?

You thought I should have started with that one? Yeah, maybe.

It's by far the least realistic. Is it? The idea of trading Luka again.

Yeah. Why?

For what? Under what circumstances?

Got Reeves? I don't know. I was throwing it in there. Just starting shit.

Haven't you done enough?

We'll take a break and then we'll keep going. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. We're in the second to last weekend. Three games left to this weekend. A trip We're going to Super Bowl LX60 on the line. Fanduel is turning on playoff mode. Right now, all customers get a profit boost pack during the conference Championship round, aka, Round 3. That means you'll find a pack loaded with multiple Profit Boost waiting for you in the app. More boost means more ways to level up your playoff bets. We are going to be covering all of them when we make Ringer 107 Picks a little bit later in this podcast with Peter Schrager and Joe House. So get ready for that. Visit fando. Com/end. Com. Nfl. Grab your Profit Boost pack for the NFC and AFC Championships. You must be 21 plus present. Select States are 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Opt In Required Bonus issued as non-advocable Profit Boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration, max wage or amount, see terms at sportsbook. Fando. Com. Game Prom, call 100 Gamble or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.

Org/slash-wager-amount. See terms at sportsbook. F Coming back with some Yannis trades. Here's another one on the list that I did not send you. It involves the Philadelphia 76ers. Here's the trade. It's Yannis and the Gary Harris tiny contract.

I always loved Gary Harris.

For Paul George, the 2029 Clips, Philly's swap pick that Milwaukee has in VJ Edgecom.

No.

No. No.

Flat out no for the Sixers.

It's a no.

I want to move on. I want to live in the world where VJ and Maxi are the backcourt, and I don't want to watch Embiid and Yannis occupy the same areas of the four.

So CR is telling us that VJ Edgecom has a higher trade value- No, I'm just saying that there's- than Yannis and Tate Kupa. I'm trying to get this straight.

There's a 5-10 year future of this team that doesn't resist the way you just set it up. I want to cheer for a fun young backcourt. It's been a while since I got to do that. If you're just asking me as a fan, I'm cool standing pat. You know what I mean? This is a fun team to watch on a night-to-night basis. It's a little bit maddening generational divide sometimes on the court, but I don't think so.

This goes right to the heart of what I was trying to articulate, maybe not so artfully a short bit ago in terms of how do you properly assess Yannis' trade value. It doesn't make any sense for him to go to Philly.

Would Yannis and Embiid, would you say they were the favorites in the Eastern Conference?

You know what? I wouldn't. The reason to do this as a long time Darryl has been in my life for 20 years now. Darryl has always been one of those. If I have three of the best guys and I can win the title, I'm going to move the math my way. And this trade would end up giving them Yannis and Maxi in the same with the Embiid wild card. And you could say, wow, if we can get Embiid somewhat healthy in April, May, June, and I also have Yannis and Maxi, who are two all-star starters in a pre to conference, I can make the finals. That would be the conversation you would have. I don't think they would do it either.

How old is Yannis?

Yes. I've stuck CR in. Yannis is 31. He was in the 2013 draft.

You know how you're like, you take the phone call, you go have the coffee? It's like, let's get the coffee, let's walk around the block a couple of times. But I don't...

See, this is like Zodiac where I'm Jake Jelenhaw and you're Ruffalo. I'm like, Arthur Lee-Allen, live 50 yards away. I walked in. You're like, No, I don't know. It's not him. Handwriting sample said no.

I know.

I think you're right. I think they probably would not do this because they'd be afraid of how mad the fan base would be because the fan base has already decided, This is great. Maxi and B. J, sign us up. We're good. House is laughing. He loves this.

Well, I do think it makes sense. It's bananas for the Sixers to just sit tight. They should move off of Paul George by any means necessary.

Yeah, but that's good. He's two years left after this one. So you could say you're getting off Paul George, you're using the Edgecom thing to do that.

God, you have no idea how fun it is to watch him play. He's such a fun player.

I think they say no. So if I knew trade value again, forget about all the reasons for it. I do think VJ Edgecom might have a higher trade value than Yannis, as crazy as that sounds on a rookie deal, 40 games into the season, and it's like, We can't trade him. He might be fucking Dwyane Wade. For real, this might be mid 2000s Dwyane Wade again. We're not trading him.

I love him, man. I don't know how contagious that is for everybody else in the national scheme of things watching him, but it would be really tough to watch him go away. And also, what's Yannis' current deal? How many years is he at?

He's got two years left, so you'd have to worry about that.

But do you wind up going right back into, will Yannis stay or will he go? And is Yannis happy? And does Yannis like nick Ners? And does Yannis like playing with Joel Embiid? And does Yannis like the apartment that he got in Philly or whatever? You know what I mean? I'm just really enjoying the page turning that's happening for the Sixers.

Cr was like Andrew McCarthy in San Homo's fire. He's like, I love her, man. I just love Maxing, man. Roll it as that. All right, we're moving on the next one. I did not come up with this idea. It did come from a mailbag emailer named Will. Jason Tate him for Yannis straight up.

I'm glad that you're doing some self-reflection here.

He wrote, I don't want to do this, but this Celtics team is the Yannis team that he's always needed. And JB is the exact teammate that Yannis needs. This team and what they have going this season is team Yannis needs. I don't want to do it. Tatum is going to be awesome. But would you have to have a meeting about it? I wouldn't do it.

Would you have the meeting?

I think karma-wise, no. I love Tatum. I think he has a chance to have a Curry type of career. It is amazing how logical of a basketball trade it is because for Milwaukee, it's an official tank. They'll tell Tatum, Come back in October. And then Boston just turns Tatum in Yannis, basically. Basketwise, it makes sense, but I don't think Boston would ever do that.

Would Danny Inge do it?

Danny Inge would have done it already. Tateum would already be doing it.

He would have done it while Jason Tateum was on the ground.

He would have done it as Tateum was working out on Monday. It would have been done. I don't think anyone else that is affiliated with this team would do it, though. But it is a really interesting basketball trade. All right. There's three teams plus this next one. And this is the last semi-unrealistic one, even though you guys like my Miami trade. But there's a Golden State scenario where it could be Giannis and Kuzma. Kuzma is the Giannis tax. Milwaukee gets Butler's contract, which she's not playing this year and maybe comes back trade deadline next year. You could either trade them, whatever, Kaminga, Podzempski, and then just all of the pics and swaps you can possibly get from Golden State. You're just going for broke. Yeah, I'll take all of them. Give me the next seven years of stuff you you have. And in whatever order you want to do, I'll take everything you have. And you're basically betting on shorting the warriors. And if you're the warriors, you're like, we have this generational curry thing going on that we still might have three, four years left. We're adding Yannis. We can build around this. Who cares about the pics?

It's mildly interesting. It becomes more interesting now that Butler's hurt because it helps Milwaukee this year. But what do you think of this house?

I need to know more about what the pics are. Do they have their own first-round pics for the foreseeable future at Golden State?

Yeah, they have it here. I have a whole document. They have basically all their own first-round pics, and then they have this weird 2030 situation with Washington where- Not weird.

Washington got that for Jordan pool.

Yeah, but it's like they still keep it under a lot of different scenarios, right? All right. So that's it. I don't think this trade will happen. I think Golden State would be nuts to mortgage their entire future for Curry Yannis and nothing else.

Well, I mean, it's almost like it's too late. They could have mortgaged their future a year or two ago.

Well, they did. Kind of. That was the Jimmy Butler acquisition.

Yeah. All right. We'll move on. Just towards ACL. That's all. Three teams left. Here's the big three. We got to talk about the Rockets. I did every machination. The one I sent you guys was just Yannis, then Vlitz in it, Schengen, a 27, Phoenix first and an unprotected 20, 31, Houston first. Maybe one more pick needs to be in, I don't know. But you're basically turning Yannis into Schengen, $20 million last year in a couple of pics, and It seems like a pretty Fairtrade.

I think that if I was Milwaukee, this would probably be the most excited I would be.

You're getting a young center who's on a really good contract.

Who might even be, at least analytically or statistically would probably even pop more in a world where there wasn't so much sharing going on. Right. Even though he's a great passer. But yeah, I think this would get me the most piped up.

House, would you rather pursue him or Ahmed Thompson if you had a choice? That's a great- Which player do you like more as a building block for the next 10 years?

I might be higher than is rational on Sengu. I think Ahmed Thompson is going to be incredible. He already is incredible. But I feel like the direction the league is in right now, having somebody around the rim who's as effective as he is, that's an asset. That's an outsize asset in this day and age of mine.

I have no doubt that Ahmed is going to become what we all think he's going to become. But it's just like, I feel like you can build around Singun and you can run a system based on him. And Amen seems more complementary.

Both of those Thompson kids, like the South that came on Monday night, they weren't even guarding the Detroit Thompson at the end of the game. Yeah, they were just like, Do whatever you want, man. So he was roaming around like a free safety on offense. But I got to say, I wouldn't do this if I was Houston. It's weird because the Durant timeline confuses them. It feels like then they should have urgency because the ages have. But that wouldn't make me want to... I still feel like Schengen and Thompson, I care about that with Jibari and with Reid, and I feel like that's my team, and that's my team for the next seven years. And KD can help us with the ceiling of it. But I'm not making trades because I have KD, I think is where I've landed, and I wouldn't do it. I would keep Schengen, especially 20 million less. So it sounds like we all agree. This next one is more interesting. So I sent you Yannis, the Kuzma tax, and a small contract coffee. For Vassell, Olinx expiring, Barnes is expiring, and Dylan Harper. Under the old adage, if you're going to get something, you got to give up something.

So it's like, You want Yannis? Give us Dylan Harper. Like, pony up.

I don't think the Spurs would do this.

I don't either. It's a realistic basketball trade, though. It's a really good trade.

But it's a realistic basketball trade.

It's exactly the trade if the Bucks are They're going to trade Giannis. They're like, What did you get back? We got a guy who can be an all-MBA guard in four years. Have you seen him? If anything, he's fallen off a little for San Antonio because they're too good. He actually is a little bit of a up and down, But house, your thoughts?

I'm looking at it and I'm like, well, where are the picks? Because if I'm Milwaukee, I want some pics. But the answer is, well, the pick is... We have a pick. You have a pick. It's Dylan Harper.

They were sending you a potential franchise guy.

And guess Guess what? You don't have to go into a draft and take a swing. This guy can play. We've seen him. He can play in the NBA. He can be impactful.

He's probably ready to be more than what he is now, even. Even at this early age. This is similar to the Philadelphia conversation, but if you're San Antonio, aren't you thinking, these guys are on Wemby's timeline. We like our team. We've worked really hard to get this. We got really lucky with Castle and Harper. We have We're very excited about this guard rotation. Why disrupt it?

That's where I would land if I was San Antonio. I would not do this trade. I wonder if people are listening and they're like, You're insane.

If you have a chance to get Yannis, you do anything you can.

I guess the question is, if I'm trading for Giannis, I need to feel like I'm actually going to win the title. When the Celtics traded for KG and what they gave up ended up not being maybe as potent as it seemed in the deal, But it was like, We're getting this, and we now are the favorites in the East with this trade and have a chance. I don't know if Santana did this, if I would feel like they were the favorites in the West. I would still think it's okay to see.

How would they play together? That's part of the thing.

Well, that's the other thing. Wemby and Yannis together. I'm not even positive. I like it. I think they should trade for Trey Murphy and actually overpay for him. That would be fine. I talked about that on Tuesday. All right, so we're crossing them off. Well, this last thing, this is the deal that made the most sense to me by far. It made the most sense six weeks ago. It makes the most sense now. It's especially now that CJ McCollum is an expiring contract, and you can put him and Porzingas together, two expiring, 60 million. Risa Shay, that New Orleans or Milwaukee pick. They also have the worst version of the Bucks or New Orleans pick in '27. Give that back. Maybe even give them another one and just give Atlanta Yannis. Now, if I'm Atlanta, I have Yannis, I have Jalen Johnson, Daniels, and I can patch together everything else, and I'm relevant in a way that I just... Even though they've had good teams, they had a 60-win team once. It's different. This would be the biggest star they've ever had on the Hawks since Bob Pettit. I love Dominic Wilkins, but it's just a fact.

Yannis would be the biggest star they've had. Bob Pettit.

What it's worth. I wonder if Yannis... I don't know how much Yannis, obviously, hasn't officially requested a trade. I don't know how much information influence he's going to have over a prospective destination. But I wonder if he wants to stay in the Eastern Conference just to stay out of the blood bath in the West. So you stay in the East. It's a soft East. This is why I was excited about this for Detroit, even. It's like you just have an easier path to the finals this way, I think.

House?

Yeah, I agree with that. The thing I wonder about to the point, the observation around what would Giannis want, doesn't he want to go to a team that he feels like he can take over the hump?

That's the problem with this trade. If I'm Giannis, I'm like, Well, the Hawks have three more wins than the team I'm on now.

Right.

Yeah.

That would be the issue. What evidence? What proof? That's why that Miami trade is fun because it's basically the same trade, except you're just putting him in the bam spot with Pauertas, and now Now I have this bolster as my coach and I have a bunch of shooters and maybe I have more of a chance.

Yeah, my body fat content is already heat level. I don't have to worry about that.

The thing I don't know yet because nobody knows is how loyal they would be to a Yannis Trade Request where he's like, I've decided I'd like to be traded and I'd like to go to Houston, or wherever he says where he's just like, I want to go to that team. What is the responsibility to them to them make a deal with that team when you basically don't have the leverage? Because we saw this, allegedly, with Durant, with Phoenix and Brooklyn, when they basically just figured out that whole trade and didn't involve other teams. We've seen teams do this, but that's a pretty tough spot to be in if you're the Bucks, where somebody is I don't get the- Or somebody is like, Trade me, but one spot.

House, do you get the impression that once Yannis disappears, if Yannis leaves, is off the Bucks, I don't feel like there's a lot of guys working at the Bucks who are going to be there next year. They're not incentivized to be like, oh, yeah, and then we'll work on this five-year rebuild. They're probably like, there goes my job with this. So I think that changes things a little bit.

Well, you would have to have so much confidence around the pics that come back with that. And the problem with Houston is we all think Houston is going to be good for at least the next three years, probably longer. I like Houston. But at least the next three.

I do, too. I think when they have When they have... Well, now Adams is hurt. But when they had their two centers with everybody else, I'm like, I would not want to see this team in a series ever. As soon as one of those guys is missing, it feels different. But I thought the size that they have is really unlike anything anyone else has. All right. Well, I don't even know where we landed.

No crazy wild card team? No.

I looked. I tried. Well, to me, it was the Lakers, and you guys laughed me out of the room. You accused me of trying to start shit.

Why did you say Luca?

It made me clutch. It made me, I'm sorry.

I'm giving a- Clutch my butt cheeks together.

I listed 10 teams. Yeah. He had a top seven guy for a top seven guy. That would be By the way, if they traded Giannis for Luca, I think that would be the biggest pound-for-pound NBA trade ever. I was trying to think from an actual the talent of the two guys and the stature. Because remember when the kid Marbury trade was just a straight up and we were like, wow, what a cool trade. Like a slightly younger, awesome point card in his prime point card. These never happened. Trades like the one for one has never happened like that.

Why again wouldn't Tatum for Giannis make sense.

Tell me again why. It would make sense. I just don't think Boston would trade Tatum.

Why?

I just don't. Because he's been loving it in Boston.

He's going to be back by Valentine's Day.

Everyone in Boston loves Tatum.

He's coming off of a torn Achilles. Why wouldn't Boston trade Jason Tatum? He delivered them a freaking title. He made them relevant, competitive for the entirety of the career. They were on an accelerated timeline because of him. They made the Eastern Conference final. Would you have traded a bunch of years. Would you have taken a Vecchia? Gladly. Gladly. I would have... But I'm not in the business of trying to take money out of good hardworking people from Bethesda, Northern Virginia. Just come on down here and watch this team flame out in the first round of the playoffs every year. That's not my business. It's none of my business.

Would you trade Jay to Daniels?

No, I would not.

Yeah. Tatum is pretty beloved. I don't see it. We'll see. I think out of the actual wild cards, I would say Philly is the wild card, not just because CR is here, just because I think Darryl is like Danny. I don't think he gives a shit. When you talk about the I don't give a shit GMs, Danny in Utah, he's not in this discussion because they're never getting him. I I don't think Polinka cares. I think he'll slice somebody's hamstrings if he has to, if it's going to make team 10% better. I don't think Boston is wired like that right now. Maybe, Reilly used to be wired like that, I guess.

Well, the Reilly thing would be the last great work, right? That would be like, I'll finally paint my masterpiece after six years of being in hot and heavy rumors for any given available star and missing out on Dame and Durant and I mean, where does Yannis' brothers want to go?

Miami has got to be up there.

I forgot to put them in the trades.

Miami has got to be up there.

Somehow I think they'll make their way to wherever he is.

By the way, I was reading that Laker story that Baxter did, and Baxter was on Zack's pod today for people listening to this one about all the Bust family drama. I was thinking, if it got really contentious, wouldn't the fuck you move to just trade Bronnie? If we were like, we're tired of this guy. We're really in FU mode with LeBron. You just trade him to Sacramento with a sacrum pick, just like a dump, just to basically do this. It would have been an amazing trade. I don't think it's that bad. I don't think it's great, but I don't think it's acrimonious like that. I don't think Genie's like that unless it's your family member.

That felt like family members. It was some old family business stuff more than it was about LeBron.

Pretty fascinating. I got an email from somebody that asked me what family was more fucked up, the Buss family or the Roy's.

It's close.

It's close. It really does feel like the Buss family matched that last season of the Roy kids just ready to fuck each other over for the throne no matter what it took.

That element wasn't there. I had no idea how many brothers were employed by the Lakers in different jobs and were pulling- Then there was another one that was like the...

I didn't even know about Sean Buss. That was the mother's kid. I didn't even understand that one. Yeah, it's really something. This worked out great for the Lakers. They had the Dodgers owner who spends a cajillion dollars and doesn't seem to care about money. I would say it was probably a win for them. We'll see how it goes. Ciar, who's your football pick this weekend?

Seahawks and Patriots.

All right. Well, we're going to send you packing. I'll see you tomorrow for our three-hour Zodiac session.

I'm just going to start drinking hot water and lemon right now.

House is staying. We're going to do some football right after this. So playoff mode is turned on and Fandil has it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for Jumping Live offers to boost your winning Every game day. I'm going to stay away from the Patriots. Here's a same game parlay I like on the other side in the Seahawks Ram. Seahawks Money Line. Rasheed Shahid, five plus yards rushing. So five-yard run, he's got Cooper Cup 30 plus yards. That is plus 420 on FanDuel. You can use your 30% SGP profit boost token as well. Getting even higher payout. Wow. Look at that. Tell my bet, make your own bet on another game. The possibilities are endless during play off mode with FanDuel. All right, Peter Schrager is here. You can see him on ESPN. Sometimes I'm shows with three or four people, sometimes on shows with six, like I saw today. It was a six-person studio show. I always admire ESPN's... Espn's Persuance. Persistence? What's the right word? Persuance?

Persuance works, man.

Is it Persuance a word? I don't even know.

Insistence?

Before you popped on, you asked us, what was the first conference championship game you remember watching? House has no long-term memory, so it's a tough question for him. You and I- It's not.

What is it House? Phil, you and I have that brain where I remember exactly where I was, when I was watching it, who I was with. I just posed it because you guys are sports junkies. I want to hear your answers.

Well, I thought I had that brain until I forgot the Seahawks won the Super Bowl on Sunday's pod.

That's on Sal. Come on.

That was this week.

Terrible. Amazing. Outrageous. I genuinely think the first one I remember watching was the Drew Pearson game. Was that conference championship? The Hale Mary? Yeah. Wasn't that a conference championship game? Against the Vikings? Yeah.

Is it '77?

No, that was '75. I remember watching that game, though. Okay. Then probably somewhere in the '75, '76 range.

Because you used to have a column, and I used to love it. This was probably 15, 20 years ago, where one time you just wrote out every Super Bowl, the winner, the loser, and the MVP.

From what I remember to the game?

Yeah. This guy shares my brain. Mine is 1990, Candlestick Park, Leonard Marshall, Sacking Joe Montana, Gary Reasons on the fake punt, and then Lawrence Taylor recovering the Roger Craig, and then Matt Barr hits the field goal. I know exactly where I was in my living room as a kid with my father and my brother, and I was eight years old. But that's the earliest conference championship game memory I have. House, what about you?

That was before the conference championship, my pick. That was around before. Was it just a playoff game? Yeah, I don't remember the '75 ones. I do remember Vikings-Rams in '79? That was '76 because I love Sammy White as a kid. He was the only non-patriot I liked. Remember Sammy Whitehouse? Of course. I love Sammy White, so I remember watching that game. What was yours, House?

The 1982, '83 Washington Redskins, because that was at an age where... Oh, I shouldn't say this out loud. I could be a lusty fan. I was going to make a head something. I was going to talk about the stage of my own development as the pre-presidence and all of that. It was Washington against Dallas in the conference Championship, 1982, for the chance to go to the Super Bowl. I was with my cohort, and we were all going crazy for it.

You're watching just Mark Moseley bang field goals, and you're bang it. Okay.

This is something I've been- We beat Dallas's ass.

That's the key.

This is something I've been thinking about it a lot the last couple of weeks because I started following that Kevin Gallagher guy who just posted a clip for the football. But I had never been following him until December. He was posting these games. I was realizing that, first of all, I've been watching football now since '74, '75 range. All these huge games. I cared about all of them, and I watched them, and I thought about them. And then when I was writing a column, I was writing extensively about them, podcasting about them. But there's almost been too many. I started this I had a document two weeks ago, and I was just writing down all the games. Oh, I love this. Just with the scores to refresh my memory. I wrote down all the conference championship games. What I realized, you think about it, there's two games a year. House and I, we go back to 1974, '75 range. That's over 50 conference title games in each conference. So now that's just 100 games out of those, 100 plus. That are in your brain. Plus It's like 52 to 54 Super Bowl. So these are 160 of the most important games that I watched that I have to jog my memory to remember what happened.

It's not like basketball house. Basketball, I can still remember all this stuff. I can tell you about- See, I can tell you about- The football was harder for me.

See, I could tell you about Steelers, Colts, and Harbaugh playing Pittsburgh in '95. I remember all of these games. And I think NBA, I would be a little shaker.

I go backwards With NBA, with NFL, I'm always moving forward. Today, somebody was talking about on Twitter was talking about Moreno's last chance in '95, the Chargers game. Yeah. And Stoanovic missed the 48-year I was like, I think I bet on this game, and I think I covered. And I just went on YouTube and I watched the last five minutes of it, and it was fucking awesome.

It's an amazing game.

The charges went down. They scored with 30 seconds left. Then Moreno got a pass interference. And I was like, This is great. It's almost like we have football amnesia. I didn't remember any of the details. I was like, I might just spend the offseason just watching one football game a day until the play-off. You know what I'll do?

And I think you'll appreciate this. There's one that's called like, Giants VHS Tapes. It's a Twitter feed. They'll show the intros to the game. I love those. So it's like, summer all in Madden 92. It's Cowboys versus Niners. It's just like, you get chills and you're there.

Then you get the ads. The ads are great. House, I really missed Dick Embert. That was one of the things I watched in a couple of years.

He was with Trouby a lot, right?

Yeah, he was with Merlin for a while, and I just thought he was lights out. I really like Charlie Jones. It was great. But yeah, so you think in one of the recurring themes when you see these old games is how important weather was. It's just this fucking crazy variable that football has where the chargers don't win one year because they go to Cincinnati and it's freezing rain in Cincinnati outdoors. They just got- It's the week after Kellen Winslow game, they go to Cincinnati and it's ice cold and it's the coldest game ever played. They're in the ice storm, basically. But yeah, the weather. Last week, I felt like I thought the bears outplayed the Rams, but I don't know how much of it was weather-related that made the Rams look that way. I don't know what do you take from that game. But anyway, it's going to be my offseason project house. I love it. I'm diving I'm jogging my memory because I was writing columns about these games. I barely remember half of them at this point.

Do you ever go back and watch or think about any of the Bills' AFC Championship Games in the early '90s? Oh, my God. They're early '90s. Wow. They would kick the shit out of these teams. I think they beat the Raiders, 53 to three. Just huge blowouts four years in a row. And then obviously, we know what happened in the Super Bowl. But conference Championship Week, to me, has a real special place. And even this week, they were interviewing McVay and McDonald and variable. There's an NFC, NFC Championship logo in the background. Even that, I get tingles. I don't know. It's very historic and very reminiscent and nostalgic to these classic weekends as a kid. I love it all.

Yeah, I think my favorite non-Patriots one was... Maybe that wasn't the conference. What was the one where Emmet had the separated shoulder? That was a regular season game. What was the one when...

It was against the Giants. Yeah, it was against the Giants. Of the Giants.

But then in the play- It was like Week 16. But he wasn't right. Then in the play-offs and just threw the Cowboys on his back anyway. I just love that whole Emmet run. It was really enjoyable. The Niners, when the Montana got knocked out, was an amazing game, too. There were so many good ones. We're going to talk about two games. Which one do you want to start with? Or do you want to do offseason stuff first?

No, you choose whatever. Before we do the games, give us your number one coaching subplot this That's what I want.

All the roulette that went around.

Coaching subplot that's interesting to me.

Mcdaniel picking the charger's job, so he couldn't get a head coaching job? What happened?

He could have been in the running in Cleveland, and he said, I'm going to call my name. Jim Harbaugh said, We'd love to have you. Basically, he knew he wasn't getting the Baltimore job. So he told them he's in. His wife is from Southern California, and he and Harbaugh hit it off. Now, can you imagine the conversations that the two of those guys are going to have? Two of the most enigmatic personalities in the league, Harbaugh and McDaniel, but they're going together. And then he withdraw his name from the Cleveland interview process, which so did Jesse Minter. But we knew that the reason Minter was withdrawing his name from Cleveland is because he was getting the Baltimore head coaching job today.

I don't blame McDaniel for that because he just lived in a world where he didn't trust his quarterback. And now you go to Cleveland and you're in this same situation with worse weather. Why would I do that? He You go to the chargers. You resuscitate Herbert, maybe even try to get him to win a playoff game before his career ends. And then you're the hot candidate a year from now if it goes well. I think it's smart. You like it, house?

Buffalo is the one that we could really dive into.

Well, let's do it.

I saw you on TV doing your whole Davis Webb, 30 years old. Can you hire your best friend as the coach?

What do you think?

I don't know. I don't know if I'd hire House as my head NFL coach if I was the quarterback. What happens if we disagree on something?

So McDonald gets fired. We have the fiery press conference. Everyone is crying for Keion Coleman for a full day. And then the next day, it's like, all right, they have to hire a coach. So today, they interviewed Lou Anna Rumo and Dable. We're doing this on Thursday. They have Udinsky, who's the 30-year-old kid from Jacksonville, interviewing Sunday. Anthony Weaver is interviewing this weekend, and there will be a couple of others. The wild card is Davis Webb, who, 30 years old, was Josh Allen's backup for three years. Also, his best friend was, I believe, a groom in the wedding. And his final year with the Bills as a backup quarterback was running the quarterback room. Went to the Giants for a year with Dable. Then Sean Payton, the second he met him, was like, You are going to be a coach. You're retiring today. You're going to be a coach. He's been on Payton's hip for the last three years. All this happens. Josh Allen, I'm told, is going to have a voice in the head coaching process. And that led to this conversation, which I guess we could open it up. Do you let the quarterback have a say, first of all, then B, this is such player empowerment era that we see in the NBA.

But if he really wants to push hard and be like, I want Davis Webb as the coach, are we okay with that, considering their relationship off the field as blood brothers, whatever it is?

What do you think, S?

Fuck, no. I mean, what are you talking about? It is insane. The quarterback is going to say who the... What?

No. No, no, no. But he might prefer that.

The answer, well, I mean, I'm not going to take too much time on Web. Web yet could be a good answer.

It's not the answer to who should be the- It certainly seems young to me. That's right. That's really pushing it.

And his best attribute is he was under the tutelage of Payton. That's a good attribute. What's the experience in terms of being leader of men? We just went through this. We have a lot of failures, more failures than not. Dable is the right answer. Bring Webb in as whatever, the quarterback's coach or whatever. Let him be there in waiting.

As you guys were talking, I looked up the Emmett ears. It was the 92 one, but I think it was the year before he hurt his shoulder. But that, so 92.

They beat the lion?

No, they lost. It was Dallas winning in San Francisco in Candle sick, January '93. Emmett was 24 for 114, seven catches for 59, which is fucking awesome. I love Emmett Smith.

Amazing. So good. Who did they beat in the wild card that year?

They beat... Eagles? Yeah, Eagles. And then they killed the Bills. But the Niners, it felt like such a big game. Oh, my God. Those Niners, Cowboys, and then when the Redskins were in there for a couple of years, Giants were in there. It just was like those four teams all together. It was great. I want to get back to that. If it's not 30-year-old Davis Webb, who is it then?

Could it be 30-year-old Udinsky? You wouldn't want that either, Joe?

Joe House?

No, Joe House would not want that. Too young. What happened? I'm 12 hours behind the cycle. Where's Floris? I know Floris signed an extension with Minnesota, but he has the possibility of... If he gets a head coaching job at one of two places, he can leave. He interviewed in Pittsburgh.

He interviewed in Pittsburgh. He hasn't interviewed in Buffalo yet.

Okay, well, both of those are good, perfectly fine answers. I like the Pittsburgh spot. Both of those would be great answers to me.

You know who could give Pittsburgh some 14 to 12 type of games? Brian Flores. You're interested in a 15 13 final? Yeah. Don't need a quarterback. I'll just have an awesome defense. That'd be fun. I'm excited that Buffalo overreacted, even though I think it was probably the right reaction. The press conference was a disaster. It was the complete opposite of that Ravens press conference. It got people feeling bad for Kean Coleman, who, by all accounts, was a schmuck this season and had to be benched even though they needed receivers. Oh, we feel bad for Kean Coleman. How about just showing up for work every day and being reliable? I don't feel bad for him, but it just feels like a mess. It's so funny. It felt like they had the AFC East unlocked for 15 years. It just flipped on them.

Two things can be true. It's amazing. For the first eight years, that local fan base and that media was pretty harsh on McDermott. Then when he gets fired, but Beam doesn't, suddenly McDermott is this night in shining armor. Look, could they have fired both of them? Sure. The other eye side of it is, should the GM be Without to pick his coach one time. Usually in the NFL, the GM will get that opportunity. Mcdermott's defense is playoff games. Gave up 31. 5 points per game. That's tough when you're a defensive coach.

Yeah, it's like, what is your number one thing you're bringing to the table? If you're a head coach, if it's like, it's not really offense. It's obviously not really defense either, because over and over again, we saw that team not get stops. And then it's like, well, is your game management awesome? And does your team good when it really matters? Thirteen seconds. Yeah, over and over again. That's been bad. So I don't know. I felt like... I actually thought what the owner said was the right answer, which is like, we took this as far as we could go. We needed a new voice. I was like, I actually agree with you.

Yeah. And I think the NBA is a better comparison than the NFL. But Mark Jackson took the Warriors to a certain point. Steve Kerr got them over the top. Doug Collins got the Bulls to a certain point. Obviously, Phil Jackson over the top. Thibodeau got the Knicks to. They hope Mike Brown... We see this in the NBA a lot. These teams that fire coaches despite great playoff appearances. The NFL, we don't see it quite as much.

Yeah, you know, especially now in this era where the coaches seem to have a shorter shelf life. I'm going to whisper this, but you could argue maybe that should have been Andy Reid's last year or last year. Why hasn't that been a topic? Who was more disheveled and weird and seemingly increasingly rudderless than the Chiefs last year? What did they really do to fix it, Schrake's?

They brought back Eric Biennemi.

Oh, my goodness.

From 2018 to 2022 was the offensive coordinator when they were humming.

And the hope is if Andy isn't necessarily the, what's the term, the red ass that people wanted at times, Eric Biennemi is that guy. And the hope is that his voice coming back sparked something new. But Andy He's going to be able to say when his time is up and he's going to be able to ride off into the sunset.

I think he said it with his coaching job last year. It's pretty right. We watched that happen with Belichick with the path when some of the game management stuff started slipping, it was pretty alarming. But they just didn't seem prepared to me. They weren't fixing issues they had. I don't know if the locker room was that great behind the scenes. I don't know. There was a lot going on there. It didn't seem like a happy team to me.

There were a lot of voices on my network and other that were throwing Belichick's name in for Buffalo. The premise being the roster is built already. They're one win away. Can Belichick give you one or two years to get this team over? It's a great take. Can you see it or no?

What do you think, house?

Of course. Can you see it? Yes, yes, yes. I can see it. I mean, you don't let him anywhere near the player personnel room. You don't even say, Oh, that room has its own set of keys. We don't know. Nobody has it. As long as it's just come in and coach up that defense and get some... The pressure's on me now.

I didn't see that. That's really interesting. That's just talk show stuff. There's no actual smoke to that.

No, there's none at all. I know guys in Buffalo, and I would tell you that that name- Oh, let's aggregate it. Fuck that. That name has not come up, but I saw it. We did it on get up for a throw away segment, and then I saw someone else talking about it. When you think about it just on paper, the rosters built, we got the same guys. We have playoff experience. We just need to get over the hop. Is there someone who can just win us a game or two more? I don't know if anyone can win you a game better than Bill Belichick.

That's really good. That's a good get up segment. That's like the coffee hasn't hit in yet, and then somebody's throwing that out like, whoa. It's like throwing a shot of espresso in there. Well, it's a moot point because you said it's not happening. But if If he wasn't involved with any picking the players? Well, then the other question would be, he wasn't exactly awesome at hiring coordinators and coaches the last few years. No.

The better question is, as a Patriots fan, would you be more worried about him or would you be more worried about Davis Webb being hired?

I'd be more worried about Balachek.

That's telling.

I would. House agrees?

Of course, House agrees. What are you talking about?

See, now I'm going to get worried this might It's fun. As a Patz fan, I hope to hire a third-year-old coach. That would be the dream. How old was McVay?

Mcvay was 30. He's the youngest ever.

Then this Udinsky is younger than him. Mcbay is a fucking unicorn. If you're thinking about matching that again. Good luck.

Mcvay was hired after... And House, you remember this season, they lost to the Giants, Washington in week 17 to a Giants team that already clenched. They lost 19 to 10. Mcvay was the play caller, only one year. They I remember talking to him. He's like, I just pissed down my leg. I have no shot at being a head coach. It's never going to happen now. He got interviews with San Francisco and the Rams, and he won the Rams' job despite being on a team that didn't make the playoffs, being 30, and despite falling on his face in week 17. That is such a swing. I don't know if the Bills or the Browns are willing to take a swing on you, Dinsky, who's 30, or Davis Webb, who's 30. I love being aggressive, Not when you have Josh in the prime of his career.

House, what would be... You can't say Hugh Jackson or people like that. What would be the funiest coaching hire for the Bills? Is it Mike McCarthy? Where it's just you could talk yourself into it.

I could talk myself with Mike McCarthy.

That's not the difference. But it is funny where you're just going sideways from Sean McDermott to Mike McCarthy.

No. Tony Dungy would be funnier to me. It would be like grabbing somebody off of TV.

Jason Garrett would be the funiest.

Jason Garrett would be That's not the funniest. But he got an interview in Tennessee, which was literally amazing.

He did not get a second interview.

One of my favorite stories was.

Then your guy, Nine Kids, Salah, got the Tennessee. Got the job.

Nine Kids, they're going to be moving from San Francisco to Nashville. His third place in three years. Pack the kids.

Let's go. That's great. I mean, perfect place to live. Get a nice house 20 minutes away from the city. You get a nine bedroom house.

Living that Brentwood, that Franklin.

Incredible place to live. Yeah. Great job. All right.

I I want somebody in his life to say, The Jets to the Titans isn't like the line. You just went through chaos, and chaos was it, and you saw how much it sabotaged you. Because I actually think that Sal is… Bobby's a… I think he's got a… There's a coach in there, a good coach in there somewhere. And what he did with that defense, Hey, that's San Francisco defense. But going to the Titans with that?

That brings for us. Well, I'm a quarterback, though.

The key is the quarterback. I think this pod and the three of us last week were very positive on Cam Ward. I got text from people being like, Whoa, you house in Simmons. Sure love Kam Ward. I'm like, he showed great flashes. And that's why that was an attractive job. There's also a new stadium coming next year, and there's a lot of salary cap space. And their new GM, Mike Borganzi, is a smart dude, Boston guy. Smart guy. That's it. All right. The offensive coordinator position is what matters because Salah doesn't call the offense. So you hire Salah, and now we're two days later. Cliff hasn't He's not admitted anywhere yet. He might go to Baltimore or Nashville or maybe Vegas. And then who else are you talking to? You're thinking Dayball, maybe, if he doesn't get the job in Buffalo. But that's going to be the most important hire there because Salah has got nothing to do with Kam Ward and third and six. What are we calling?

I thought it was interesting what happened in the Jets defense after he left, where it became clear the Jets defense was overachieving when he was there, and you could see it just do this right after. So Dayball to Buffalo is probably the most... That would be the second most I'd be as a Pats fan because he knows the city. He gets it. He's worked with Alan. He's from there, too. He's been really good. I think you could argue that Giants thing, he just had bad luck left and right for years and years and years, and maybe he learned some stuff.

Who's the defensive coordinator, though? I need to know the answer to that before I have an opinion.

Luana Rumo. Maybe he's bouncing around. Could be. Last one, Vegas. That's not terrible. The A Vegas one, as you know, I love that job. Mendoza, I think, has stocks even higher than it was two weeks ago. I think they have talent on the roster. I don't mind the job. So who gets that one?

I was there on Monday night at the college football playoffs, and I'm on the sideline before the game just doing my usual walk around, whatever, a nebbish. I'm watching, braided, Mark Davis, John Spitech, Egon Durban, the other owner, the four of them just staring at Mendoza, just watching every...

I thought you were going to say staring. They're at a bar at 2: 00 in the morning, checking out a check.

I thought you were. I thought he was going to say staring at Abuela Danger. Abuela Danger.

Staring at Alex Earle. Just watching how everything he did. Yeah. That's what I do when I go to basketball games. I love watching the guys in the warmups. I like watching them during timeouts. You can learn so much from that stuff.

He played amazing. He was awesome. On fourth down, makes the play that's everything you'd think braided would ever want. Just give up your body and just dive and flip and do the helicopter, whatever it is. I would think he's their quarterback, I would think, not knowing anything. I think I said this last week. Like, Brady's going to make that decision. If braided isn't a fan of Mendoza, that won't be the quarterback. Anything I say or Danny Kelly says or Field Yates or Mel Kiper or Daniel Jeremiah says means nothing. It's whether braided thinks he's the guy. But I think braided was I'm incredibly impressed by that. The coaching position is fascinating, though, because I had been hearing Minter as a popular choice for Vegas, and then Davis Webb's name keeps coming up there also. So you've got-Not Cliff. Defensive coach, Yeah. Or Cliff hasn't interviewed there. They haven't given Cliff an interview. So Vegas, to me, who's going to be best with Mendoza? That's it, right?

That's the answer to that. If you take Mendoza, then Then you need a coach that is going to help that kid become the best version of himself.

Do you have to hire... Is there a time limit to hiring a head coach? No. Has anybody ever dragged this along until March? Just been like, Yeah, we still don't know.

Well, the cold were left at the altar when Josh McDaniels left and they hired. Who did they end up hiring that year instead? I'm going blank.

Was it Chuck Pagano?

Yeah.

No. They fired Pagano. Whoever's between Pagano and Shane Steiken.

I'm so embarrassed. Right now. Frank Wright. That's who it was. Frank Wright. Then last year- House and I made...

If we made money on Frank last year. Frank was a go-to.

Then last year, Kelen Moore wasn't officially hired until after the the Eagles won the Super Bowl, they can't meet with any coaches in person, and they can't interview them in any way if the team is still alive in the playoffs. If Shula, or Shilhaus, or Davis Webb, or Vance Joseph, or Clint Kubiak, you go down the list of all these guys. I don't think there's anyone in New England who's interviewing for head coaching jobs, but any of those coordinators win another week, well, that only pushes it back even more. I don't know if these teams are looking to wait.

I was worried about our precociously young defensive coordinator who had to step up. Zack. He's like 28. Zack core. Because our defense has been really well-coached and has gotten better week by week, month by month. It's noticeable. It's way different than it was. I think he has to get credit for that.

Yeah, well, Tara Williams fell ill early on in the season. Then this guy has been calling the plays, but is maybe the most underappreciated gem of this entire- He's been great. Patriot's run. Everybody likes him. He was an inside linebacker's coach.

Him and Matt Collins, the two unappreciated gems of the 2025 Pats season. All right, we'll do the games.

I just want to say, beyond the record, I think Kubiak would be amazing in Vegas. I like that. I think Kubiak and Mendoza would really, because what Kubiak did with taking what every single one of us, at least, I won't put you in our box, Schrager, forecasting how the Seahawks was going to do, the bit that we were most concerned about was that offensive line, and somehow that offensive line turned out to be absolutely perfectly. Sam Darnold was back there, thriving. Over these last six weeks, they established a run game, a two-headed monster. Kubiak has really just excelled, I think.

I agree with that. And I I looked at Vance Joseph's Broncos thing because I remember not feeling great about him as a coach, but not feeling terrible. But then you look back at the teams that he had. He had no quarterback at all. It was like Osweiler. Yeah, it was a mess.

Paxton Lynch.

I think these guys that have failed, but they failed specifically because they had no quarterback whatsoever, that was how Atlanta jumped on Stefansky right away because you could excuse the last couple of years. Now, whether it's valid or not, you find out when he's in the next spot.

One team that's interesting is Arizona. There's very little reporting on it. The team does not announce when they interview coaches, which is so refreshing and fun. All these teams put out the social media post.

I don't get that at all.

I don't either. Let the reporters do the job. Go find out who reported. I will say this. Raheem Morris interviewed very well there. He could find his way back into the head coaching Can you just hire a game management assistant? They won their last four games after being eliminated. There's something to be said for that in Atlanta.

I think he would be awesome as a defensive coordinator of the Bills. Dayball and Raheem Morris would be that. Now, that would be something.

I've made this point multiple times. I thought Atlanta was easily the best under 10 wins team in the league. If there was a play-in tournament of all the non-playoff teams, I think they would have been favored. They were one of the best teams the Pats played.

Oh, they should have done that game. We talked about that missed extra point, but I was there when they beat the Rams. I was there when they beat the Bucks. They win. I was there when they beat the Bills.

Weren't they three kicks away from being 11 and 6, basically? I think that's what it was. It was like a miss P-A-T, the coup field goal, and one other one. All right, which game do you want to hit first house? You pick, Broncos or Seahawks-Rams.

No, let's do Seahawks-Rams first because the Broncos and Pats It's just so hard to put arms around, I feel like. There's more straightforward one is just this rubber match.

Seahawks minus two and a half. That's the line on FanDuel. Threatened to be three for a while. Settled there. Big question is what we're getting from Sam Darnold. So Schrags is going to tell us right now, how healthy is Sam Darnold? Because I was worried about him last week. I ended up hedging some bets and felt stupid because he was fine.

He threw a pass across his body in the back of the end zone to Jackson, Smith, and Jigua that I'll put up against any pass that was thrown this entire NFL season. It's just beautiful precision. I would say his oblique is going to be fine. That's now eight days, nine days removed. We went on the pod, you and I, Bill, house, you weren't with us. It was the one day you were out, and I filled in, and it was after Seattle-Rams part 2, and that game was unbelievable. I have gone back and watched the first two times these teams played. If you were to do a prize fight which we love talking boxing. You were to say each quarter counts as a round. Chris Shula's Ram's defense was up seven to nothing on Clint Kubiak's City Hawks offense. That included all those interceptions from Darnold, seven interceptions, all that. But then the fourth quarter and overtime of that second game, they started doing play action. They started doing trick plays. There was all sorts of... And Sam Darnold came alive. It's like seven to 1 as far as the rounds go, but the rounds that mattered, Seattle at the end there.

It's like any issue of like, Oh, the Rams defense has dominated Seattle. I throw it out the window because they crack some code there in the fourth quarter in overtime. I think they're going to be okay as far as an offense goes. They showed flashes there in that second game.

The two questions I have on that note, how impactful do you think the Charbonneau loss is And are we a thousand % confident that Charles Cross is a hundred % ready to go, no issue whatsoever, not diminished?

Don't know the latter. The former, I will say this because I couldn't tell you the Xs and O's of it. I was talking to Orlowski today, who you see on ESPN all day, every day. He's just an energizer bunny. But I was with him today and I said, tell me, like Charbonneau says, the thing that no one will know or that no one talks about too often. He's like, I watch all the tape. Kenneth Walker is not a great pass blocker. And that's why Charbonet is in as much as he is. And in fantasy football, you want to bang your head into the wall. If you're Kenneth Walker owner, you're like, why is he ever out? So that might be what they're missing more than just the interior runs.

I thought Charbonet from an actual running standpoint was pretty grim. And he was, I think, a very frustrating Seahaw for the fans. But the pass protection stuff is worrisome. Gambling Manifesto, beware of the looked a little too good the previous round team is just pulsating Seahawks. You can't have a better game than that. It was actually a little too good of a game. There's some gambling stats about if you blow somebody out like that in a playoff round, what happens the next round? The beware of all dome or warm weather teams playing outdoors in cold weather. I don't think It's not going to be cold, right? It'll be okay. Decent. It's not going to be in the Seattle one.

It's not going to be Chicago. Yeah.

Aging Q being cold weather, we don't have to worry about that. The only other one that really stood out to me, because even the coaches one is out, we have four really good coaches. Rule number 13, don't dismiss the nerd evidence if the nerd evidence is absolutely overwhelming. I just feel like the Ram special teams has to come back and haunt them in one of these games. Is there a third road game, third road game in a row, and a road game where you end up in the worst spot in the league for a road game, Seattle. It's the furthest anywhere. So you're flying where they go. Carolina, they're in the Southeast, come Then they go to Chicago, come back. Now they're going to the Pacific Northwest, which from LA is in six hours. But the three road games in a row really worries me. And then the bigger thing, Schraggs, I just didn't think the Rams looked that good the last couple of games. It was almost like that Ram, especially that Ram's game, the Ram Seahawks Week 16, as they lost steam in that game, they never got the steam back. I thought Carolina could have beaten them.

They weren't better, but they could have. I just thought the bears were better and should have won the game. I went back and I watched the fourth quarter in the OT. The bears had it. They're in midfield. They fucking had the ball. They had momentum. They had everything.

How about McVay not letting Stafford throw the ball in overtime, first drive, three runs in a row. It's weird. How about two minutes?

Everybody.

Two minutes, eight seconds left, and they decide to run the ball and they call a time out before the two-minute warning. Sean opened I talked to him afterwards. He openly was mortified with the way he called that game. And he's like, The players bailed me out. Mevis bailed me out. And Cam Curl, former Washington commander, bailed me out.

I'm incredible. Don't think that was lost on me. How so in the Forbes?

How so? For sure, the Ram's defense is that good? No. Because the advanced metrics like it a lot more than my eye test is like dating back to that week 16 game. It feels like teams are now just going up and down the field on them. Fucking, Bryce Young was doing it. So we have all these... We have the advanced stats, and it's like a four-month sample size. I feel like they're a team that's running out of steam a little bit.

When you need it most on a third down, McVay calls time out. He talks to Stafford. They see the hot route. He throws it to Pukha.

No, I'm talking about defense, not offense.

I know. I'm saying when you need it most, though, their defense came up with the interception.

Yeah. And then their offense- It was a terrible miscommunication play and a play that I'm not sure why you're trying to get to the 20-yard line when you need to get to the 38.

They weren't being stopped. Caleb Williams used his legs, got two first downs.

Just use your legs, throw it to the tight end for five yards, do a design scramble. If I was a bears fan, that game as the weeks pass. House, let me throw this at you. The Rams, who have been an awesome offense, they're a little slow to you. A great defense like the Seahawks. I think that at home, I think we can give them the great tag. Not like 2000 Ravens great, but really, really up there. And I don't think they really have any-The way they defend the run gets great. They don't have any weaknesses. And the Rams, the way they do it, it's methodical. You go down the field and then hope I don't know Puka can break a play. They're not getting the long plays like they used to. And I don't really know who their speed guy is.

Well, it's 2-2 at Will, and he didn't dress last game. Right.

And then Puka, you look at the game, he was like five for 50 last week. Their biggest play that anyone made was Parkinson on a little tight-end route. And I just wonder, are the Seahawks going to move everybody up and basically dare the Rams to go over the top and attack and hit Puka and just keep everybody in front of them and just make it a game where it's going to have to be twelve play drives to go down the field on them.

So I thought where you were going with this when you started, and I actually quite like it as I'm thinking about it, is are we waiting on the Rams to go up tempo? This methodical bit that you're talking about.

I don't think you can do that in Seattle.

But they did it in overtime.

That's what they did in overtime.

And it worked.

Tough for three hours. Tough for that crowd. Let me throw another thing. Stafford does look 100% healthy to me at this point, and I think had a couple of really hard games there. Adams, we know, is in 100%. And Puka has taken more hits this year than anyone else in the league and now has to go against the Seattle defense.

Forbes went down with the ham string. He'll play, but that's real.

I I think that there's a lot of miles that have added up on this Ram's team that makes me really nervous about them on the road. I think the line should be three. What do you think the line should be house?

Yeah, I'm listening.

I'll give you another little Schrager side note, fact, anecdote type deal.

Schraiger's side notes.

That's good. That's it. Not notes.

Not for Pete's sake.

Not for Pete's sake. Not this one. Very difficult conversations they had internally after the season, and they were like, It's time to from Cooper Cup, who is a beloved Ram. Triple Crown winner, Super Bowl MVP. They basically told Cooper, We're not going to pay you what you were making, and you're free to go explore. He was a free agent for quite a bit. A couple of days, there were no real takers. The Seahawks paid him a lot of money, and they're like, Well, we got a spot for you. Meanwhile, the Rams used all that money and paid Devante Adams. It looked great for the Rams all season long. Cooper Cooper Cups is a competitor. Keep that in mind. Ernest Jones, Super Bowl hero from the Rams, they said, This isn't working here. They moved on from him. He had a nice little couple of years, whatever, in Tennessee. Then he's become the Seahawks' best linebacker. Hacker, and he is a vocal player, and he is a super spirited guy. I love revenge stuff. I love all that.

You know I knew.

Cooper Cup, Ernest Jones. Just put those two out there.

Ernest Jones cost me so much money because Because when the Rams moved away from him, I was like, Oh, so the Rams are tanking. The Rams are getting ready for whoever the next quarterback is going to be. I can't remember what the quarterback class was. They rope a dope this shit out. Because that defense was a no-name defense. They had two incredible draft picks, then they immediately fortified the front again.

Kobe Turner and Byron Young.

Yeah. And Verse has been incredible. God, it's okay. I mean, the money's gone. I lost it fair and square. But that's part of why I have to give McVay credit. They retooled. They did not rebuild in any way, shape, or form. They pulled a defense together like that.

I think the argument for the Rams is that they're not going to be scared of going to Seattle. They've won there for years. Third game is always scary. Mcvay's one playoff game's there. It's just he's a fucking unbelievable coach. He's had a bad game last week, and they survived. He's not going to have a bad game two weeks in a row.

Case for Seattle, other than what we've already talked about, they've only lost one since week five. They've won eight straight. In the last few weeks, they beat the Rams and they beat the Niners twice. Now, the Rams game was goofy, obviously. The revenge stuff you mentioned. They seem pretty healthy, other than the Charbonnay thing. They're home. Ram's special team scares the living shit out of me. I just did not like what I saw from the Ram's the last two weeks. I don't know how you can feel good about it. And I think playing three road games in a row in the playoffs is fucking meaningful. I don't think you can skip over that.

They're the first team in the Super Bowl era to not cover the spread in the first two games. They have arrived at the conference championship without covering in either of the two previous weeks.

It's really, really hard.

One of one. And they also have a rest disadvantage. And there's a nice action network. Teams with the rest advantage, 21 and 7 straight up at home. Seattle at home with the extra day.

Have you guys been to a game up there in Seattle before? I have.

I'm dying to go.

It's so cool. And I did Monday night football this year against the Texans. But I was at the playoff game where they played the Michael Crabbtree, Aaron Andrews game. That one, I was at the Sherman game. When it gets like last week when Shahid returns the kick, it's almost...

Camera trumbly.

Yeah. Yes. And it's It's like an avalanche. You can't stop it. It's just too much of momentum. They don't lose many playoff games at home. The one that I remember was against the Rams, but it was during COVID, and it was a weird year. And it was Jared Goff with nine fingers beats Russell Wilson off, and Goff came off bench, but they don't lose many games at home. When that crowd gets going, especially in a night game, it's very hard to win there.

Well, one other thing I like about this, it feels like every week they've gotten a little bit better at using Shahid and figuring out what weapon that is. But him on special teams, I think, should be terrifying for the Rams with how bad they've been. But then they can just get him involved a couple of times in different ways. I think they can throw on him. Now, there's a chance Arnold could just shit the bet again. Can't be rolled out.

But he's thrown seven interceptions in two games against this team.

Not great.

Mike McDonald's first conference championship game as a head coach.

Just want to say that last. I like the look of it. Second, well, he was a coordinator for Baltimore, lost to the Chiefs.

I like the two and a half, too. That's where I'm leaning in, unless you want to try to talk me out of it. Perfectly fair number.

No, it's super fair. One and a half, whatever it was, three weeks, go two and a half now. I think the extra point, half of that extra point for the incredible home field advantage in the playoffs, and extra half a point for how good that defense looked last week.

Shahid I'm going to score a countdown in the first half, 18 to one.

See, I like Cup. I think they're going to get him going.

I'm sorry, to score the first countdown, 18 to one. First countdown?

Yeah, Cup is an anytime score.

Kup, anytime score, plus two.

They want to get him in there, trust me.

I got to make a note of this. Hold on.

I like the Seahawks minus two and a half. I like Stafford Interception minus 114. That Stafford will throw a one pick. I would like to For Ringer 107, we have to pick both games straight up, and you can parlay them or go straight up, and then props or unders for the other two. I would like to suggest as a possible prop house, Stafford Interception minus 114.

Did I don't have... Go ahead, Pete.

Did you see the whole thing with the Pope and the Seahawks? Have you seen that?

What's that one?

Oh, this is up your alley. In 2005, we got a new Pope and the Seahawks went to the Super Bowl. In 2013, we got a new Pope and the Seahawks went to the Super Bowl. In 2025, we got a new Pope to the Seahawks.

It sounds like I have to add this to the gambling manifesto if it happens. Don't bet it gets the Seahawks in the year of a new Pope.

It's a great one.

Make this a social clip, will you?

Well, I was thinking the flip side of this, Patriots 2001, Brady's first Super Bowl, they upset the Rams. It all comes full circle in 2018. Brady's last Super Bowl, they beat the Rams. Now we're starting the Drake May era. Could it be Drake May trying to beat the Rams for his first Super Bowl, and we're basically just bookending? I like your Pope thing more, though. All right. It sounds like Schrigs understands why we're going Seahawks minus two and a half, but doesn't really want to say, I don't think the Ram. I'm not saying a pick.

I laid out some things and I'm not disagreeing.

Donald against the Rams, you could make arguments to the contrary.

Patriots, Oh, my gosh.

By the way, you read Klosermann's book, right?

Yes.

Do you have any knowledge of that bloody Sunday that he wrote about, the Super Bowl 10 Calgary Cowboys versus Stealers, and the line started off at two and a half, but nobody was betting it.

Then it kept on going up. Oh, the Jackie Smith? Yeah, that was the Jackie Smith game. That's the most famous- Did you know that story? I had never heard that story. That's the most famous gambling story. I had never heard that story. They moved the line around and basically, the books lost on every version of every bet.

Got smoked with a middle, right? Yeah.

That was the first famous gambling story I think I ever knew.

I had never heard that. Basically, if you haven't heard of it, Chuck writes about it. I ripped through that book in three days. It was two and a half. No one was betting on the underdog, which was the Cowboys.

I thought it was three and a half.

Was it three and a half? Yeah.

It moved between three and a half and four and a half. It bounced back and forth. Every time the line moved, it ended up winning.

Then it ends up being a four-point game. And all the betters who came in early and all the betters who came in late all one. And I'm like, This is incredible.

And then the pushes, which is the worst case scenario for the books. Not great either. How to start us off with Bronco's Well, the starting point is what your perspective is on the amount of line movement, because where is it sitting right now? It's four and a half. It's four and a half. It's bounce between five and a half and four and a half. I personally think it should be three and a half, but fine.

So you have to first get yourself comfortable with the math problem, which is in the In absence, if Nix was playing, I think Denver would be favored by one and a half. Do you agree with that or no?

Yeah.

Denver at home. That's all we're saying.

This is the problem with this line, and I said this Sunday night. I don't think going from Nix to Stittam should be worth six points. I thought it was going to be worth three. That's the starting point. I was way off. I picked Pats by one and a half, and the line opened at five and a half because I think there's ways for them to win the game without having to rely on Stittam too much. I just thought it was an overreaction. If it was Josh Allen, I get it, but not Bo Nix.. I get it.

And game plan-wise- That's seven points better. Here's the thing. The way that the Broncos decided to scheme offense last week against the Bills. They threw the ball 51 times. The strength of the Buffalo's Bills defense was supposed to be defending the pass. Now, the way that Denver played all season long, I think they were either second lowest or lowest air yards. They don't go down the field. Everything is around the line of scrimmage in terms of how the ball comes out. That's something where they have such an implicit trust in Knicks, that they're going to have success with that. And so if you want to say, can they replicate that with Stittam? Are they going to be comfortable doing that with Stittam? Can they run that?

You left out the other variable because the Pats run defense. People are finally starting to realize it's really, really good. They're going to have to throw the ball on us to beat us.

Denver can't run the ball. I tried that last week. I invested in R.

J. Harvey. There's some McDofflin in there. Dobbins might come back. It was lose money.

Take my money and set it on fire. The Broncos are not going to try and stuff. The J. K. Dobbins thing, what's the current state of affairs? Do we think that he's going to play?

By the way, is it going to really make... He's going to come back out of nowhere and his foot's going to... I don't know. I'd be surprised.

The practice window is open. We'll see. It's got two days.

That It could change. Because he did establish the run with him.

Let me give you some history with this Jared Stidham situation. Not sure if it was covered on get up. Might have been. Greeny might have been on this. Past 50 years, playoff home dogs of Four plus points or nine and oh against the spread.

It's true.

No QB has ever made his first start of the year in round three. It's never happened.

Well, Stalback did it in '72, but it was the second round.

Round three. It's never happened.

It was the NFC Championship game, but yes, there was only two rounds. Go on. Sorry.

Yeah, true. He's the seventh QB since 1950 to make his first start of the season in the playoffs. I'm going to talk about the other six. One of whom was near and dear to house this hard, Taylor Heineke in 2020 with the Washington Commanders.

Covered.

Covered. They lost. Tampa's favorite by 10. They went by 8. Heineke throws 306 with a countdown.

Played well.

Ron Rivera. Next one was Connor Cooke for the Raiders. I don't even remember this game.

I'll tell you, that was against the Texans. Here's what happened. It was Derek Carr got hurt late, and then Matt McGloin was supposed to play, and he got hurt in week 18, and then they had to start Connor Cook.

Well, they lost by 13, and he threw one shutdown and three picks. I do remember this next game, Joe Webb, the 2012 Vikings. Packers, favorite by 10.

Saturday afternoon game, Christian Ponder's wrist, I believe, was what the issue was the morning of.

Joe Webb threw 30 passes. How many did he complete house?

Oh, I remember this.

We won money in this.

Less than 12.

Yeah, it was 11.

It was a Saturday day game, and then the night game was that crazy Arizona Green Bay game when Rodgers hit two Hell Marys.

Oh, right. 1992, the only win out of all these first time starting all your playoff guys. Can I guess it?

Frank Wright?

Frank Wright. Great call. Amazing. Here's how it's a little different, and this has happened in a couple of times. Frank Wright, he played a bunch the week before. He at least got his feet wet because I think Kelly got hurt. Buffalo was favored by two at home over the oilers. They fell down 35 to three, staged the biggest comeback in the history of football. Just an amazing moment. I definitely gambled on the game, but I don't remember who I had. But I was definitely gambling at that point and had one of the two sides. Maybe I must have had the oilers because I think I have blacked out. That's the only win. This one is a great one. 1983. The Detroit Lions are playing Montana and the Niners in San Francisco. Niners are-They win this game, right? They do not win this game. They do cover because the Niners were seven and a half. They lose by a point. Gary Danielson? Who was it? Gary Danielson, 23, 24, they lose.

They lost on a miss field goal or extra point that was a chipping.

Well, that's one of the reasons they lost. They also lost because Gary Danielson threw five interceptions.

That hurts.

The full De Lome?

He did a full De Lome on us. I don't know if any of them were a pick six.

Before De Lome?

And then the last one was Stabak with Dallas got killed in Washington. So 1972. So six quarterbacks, they go one and five straight up, three and three against the spread. The only thing that's different is that Buffalo was the only one that was home, and that was Frank Wright who won. I don't know what we learned, house.

I'll give you... I mean, just he hasn't thrown a pass in a game in over 730 days. That's a lot.

All right, so we had him in New England.

I could empty the bag on what Payton's told me if you wanted me to give you the rallying cry behind it?

Well, here's the thing. When braided left, he was supposed to be the starter the next year, and he got hurt. He hurt his back, and he missed the whole They ended up doing the Cam Newton thing and Brian Hoyer. But it was supposed to be Stittam's job, and they liked Stittam. The McDaniels went to Denver and was like, I need Stittam. Vegas. I mean, Vegas. Took him with them. He was like, I'm taking Stittam. That's my guy. Then Payton was like, I like him, brought him to Denver. He's been a pretty fairly paid backup. I think he's one of the highest paid backups in the league. I think coaches have liked him and think I think he's at least competent.

Coaches and players. His nickname is Stitty. He's got a ton of charisma and swag. Jason McCorty was on those Patriots teams and was telling me, Stitty thinks he's the number one quarterback in the NFL, and he acts that way, and he almost loved it because he's on the scout team that whole season, and he's talking shit to all the defensive players. He was beloved in New England. The very first day of whatever it was- By the way, they let him go because I think they got Mac Jones.

I think that was one of the reasons they were like, Okay, good luck, Steady.

So McDaniels brings them with them. Obviously, they bench Derek Carr. It's great controversy. Derek Carr, his brother, talks on NFL Network, having this off, everything. And then Stidham comes in against the number one defense in the entire league, the 49ers. And Stidham throws for 350 yards and lights up the Niners as a Rater. Free Agency comes. Sean Payton's first year with Denver has a big board in his office, and he's listing out his priorities. Now, he's already got Russell Wilson, who's there on the hook for for about a billion dollars. And the first name on the list is Jared Stidham. And they paid him as high a salary as any backup quarterback in the league. And they brought him in. And then you'd say, Okay, well, Russell didn't work out. Why would they draft Nicks? Well, they fell in love with Nicks. They took Nicks. He's been there all along on Payton's hip, on Davis Webb's hip, on Joe Lombardi's hip. When I tell you, talking to Payton in the summer, tell me stories about Stitty. They love They love Stittam.

Well, did you buy anything when he came out and did the press conference immediately that he got hurt? Yeah, he's a master... What was that? Because I saw in one of the shows, they were like, he wanted the Patriots to know he was fine with going to war with Jared Stitt in the next week.

Yes, it's also for the Broncos to know that. Instead of Schefter coming out with a tweet during the second half of the Seahawks game, Payton gets the news, runs to the podium. There's never, ever been a second coaches press conference. They assemble the media and he's like, Yeah, Nix is hurt. We got Stitt. We feel great with Stitt. Stitt is good. Look, I'm going to give you a quick Sean Payton history lesson here. You know that he won a Super Bowl and you know that he got suspended for a year from the league. That's two big things in his career that everyone knows him for. Gut-wrenching, horrible, all-time playoff losses. You're talking about Minneapolis miracle. You're talking about Alex Smith to Vernon Davis in Candlestick at the last second to be True Breeze. You're talking about the Nicole Roby-Kholman play where they didn't call the pass interference. They were home and lost an NFC Championship game. You're talking about that wild game against the Bucaneers in the playoffs where they were the home favorite team. And Tom braided lights up the Bucaneers, it lights up the Saints and wins in the division round. Then the Beastquake where they're 11 and five and they got to go to Seattle.

So they've had horrendous, Sean Payton has had horrendous playoff losses. And it's almost like...

Well, I mean, the worst one ever was that Rams one. That's probably the worst call of the quarter century, right? House, is that the number one worst call?

Non-call.

It was such a bad non-call that they brought in a brand new rule that they never used one time. We'll review pass interference.

I honestly don't understand how they messed that up. It was one of the most blatant pass interferences, probably the most blatant pass interference that wasn't called that I can remember.

Now, the Ram's fan We'll tell you this because I've often said that. And the Rams fans retort is the Saints were up 13-nothing at home and lost that playoff game. They also got the ball in overtime.

I get it. Then Drew Breeze threw a terrible pick. I remember making that point in the podcast. They did get the ball in overtime. It was still a bad call.

Anyway, Payton's had all these horrible losses. It's like he's always got some crazy way to lose. Is this the year with Stidham that they get over the pump and he gets back to the Super Bowl? Crazy stat. No seven coaches have coached two different Super Bowl with two different teams. No coaches ever won a Super Bowl with two different teams. Payton would be the first.

House, give us your Jared Stidham thoughts, because I'll just tell you right now, he violates at least three rules in the manifesto. There's multiple rules that try to cover this. I don't have any Jared Stidham thoughts. Don't talk yourself into Jared Stidham as a manifesto staple.

It's a scheme concept. You just have to believe in what the Broncos doing scheme-wise. They do have one of the top three offensive lines in all football. That will be a difference for the Patriots. The Patriots had the luxury of playing at home against two of the worst offensive lines, and now they're going up against, by many measures, a top three offensive line. You know that he's going to be comfortable at home. You know that he's going to be comfortable with the rhythm that they want to play at. It's just execution. I have no effing idea. How can you handicap that?

You figured there's some kitchen sink stuff in this game with the Broncos, right?

Every trick you can imagine.

They're going to be all the stops. Yeah, whatever. And pro-state him stuff other than that. We know Payton likes them. There's a really gruesome Patriots in Denver playoff history.

So have you guys ever wanted to go in there?

Not in the playoff. 0-4. Not in the playoff. 0-4 and bad losses. Rulon Jones is a legendary loss. Denver Altitude, not great. Denver is not going to be able to run the ball, and I think Denver is going to know that. Instead of, it's not going to be like, Hey, sometimes you're... I think they're just like, Dude, you're going to have to chuck it in this game or we're not going to win, which I think might be good or might be terrible. If you're going anti die. If he starts out slow and a couple of bad things happen, the crowd's going to die.

Yeah, and the team morale is going to go in the tank.

We've seen this where it's just like it gets dark. Then I think McDaniels really knows him. He does. So he's going to... Inside and I would say Sean Payton is his biggest supporter.

Josh McDaniels might be his second biggest supporter in the world. I mean, so much so that they had him as the guy and put that in New England till the injury, and he brought him to Vegas with him.

He knows everything he can do and not do.

A hundred %.

Pro-pat stuff beyond the run deep. Matt Collins coming back is huge. I'm just telling you. He really is going to help them run the ball. He's Drake's twice a game guy on a third and eight. I feel like is due for a good start to finish game. Maybe he's just too young in his career, but he has this habit of just starting slow for an hour and then it kicks in. But Denver's defense, not as good as Houston or the Chargers, I don't think. I think Denver's defense has had some games where they look pretty shaky. Then the Sean Payton thing talking about, they're going to have plenty of rest. The fans got to be loud. They're going to be plenty of rest in two weeks. Vrabel is going to fucking jump all over that all week. What are you doing? You can't do that with Vrabel. He's going to bring that up all the time. Those have been my big ones. House, any other? If you're going pro-Pats, anything else you're looking at?

No, I was thinking more. I wanted to hear whether there's any indication that Stidham can run? Because Nix ran 12 times last week. Now, it was only for about 30 yards or so.

But the ability of the quarterback- It scares you enough, at least.

Yeah. Does he have that?

Do we think he has that? He's got it, but it's not like we've seen it. I mean, he's got that in his game. Apparently, he can move. I asked the same thing, and yeah, he's got some mobility, but he's not Bo. Bo Nicks can run.

Yeah, he definitely can.

I don't like this line at all.

Wait, Bill, A couple of thoughts on the Patriots for you, and I want to hear your thoughts. First thing, Drake May, six fumbles in two playoff games?

Not great.

Will Campbell, he might start in a Super Bowl at left tackle. I'm not sure this guy is your franchise left He might be an amazing left guard. I understand Kaleel Mack and Will Anderson are unbelievable. But every time May went back last week, it was, Hold your breath. This nick Benito can run and can rush the quarterback. So that's something I would watch out for.

Schrigs, I'm aware. I'm going to float this at you. Are we sure Will Campbell is healthy?

Fair. He missed what? Three or four weeks at the end of the season?

He doesn't look like he has the same side-to-side movement that he used to have. I'm a little worried about that.

Then I have a flip side thing for you. I've seen this a lot. A lot of hate on this Patriots run and that we should discredit it based on the teams that they've played and the easy schedule and all that. As someone who follows the NFL, I am here to tell you, and I am not a Patriots fan by any means, it is the most ludicrous thing to say that a team that's on the eve of a Super Bowl has had an easy path. I think it's absurd. That defense that they faced last week against Houston is one of the best defenses the NFL has seen in years. And the Chargers defense, whether or not they play that way consistently all season was phenomenal. Against the Patriots that week. Denver is good, too. But if I'm a Patriots fan, do not apologize for anything. This has been an amazing run.

I made that point on Sunday. The Chiefs had that first Super Bowl, Mahomes one where they played the freaking Texans and then Tate Hill and the Titans and Jimmy Garoppolo in the Super Bowl. Nobody was like, Oh, who'd they play? There's some stat going around on one of my Pat's text threads about the DVOA of the defenses the Patriots have played this year is seventh, and the Ram's defense is ninth. Why don't they mention that? I think the line is too high house, but I also think the Patriots are going to win. Okay. So I think this is going to be a close game. I think it's really hard to win a game convincingly in Denver with a team. It's one thing if Stidham came in in the second quarter and they're like, Oh, shit, we got to change everything. They've had all week to figure out exactly how to do this, they're going to be able to throw on the pats a little bit. Then it's really going to come down to, is Ramajay going to be able to run the ball and is Drake not going to turn the ball over? I don't know the answers.

I think Ramondra is going to be able to run the ball.

I want to ask you. You need to run the ball.

For God's sake, can we get to Dr. May?

Can Dr. May run the ball? Is that too much to ask for?

The fourth quarter, finally, they started running. It was crazy.

A couple of the bets that I like for the props. Yes. Dr. 'S longest run is twelve and a half yards. He did that in six of his last eight games.

Ramondre is- Not against Houston.

No. Ramondre's longest reception, ten and a half yards is the over-under. He's done that in seven in the last nine.

Is he 100% healthy? What's the deal with his eye?

He's fine. He got poked in the eye. I like that. Then there's some Stidham props. Stidham, basically, to throw 20 completions or more is 19 and a half as the completion number. I just don't think they're going to be able to run the ball that well on the paths, and Stidham is going to have to throw the ball. How many times they throw it last week? 51? Yeah. Plus he scramble 12 times.

46. 46. 46 passes.

Then Stidham, 199 plus yards, I thought was interesting, too, because they're going to get offense. Schregs, I know you love the tie first half, Money Line second half game. That was the best last week.

I was texting you throughout the first half. I'm like, I don't like this. They're up 11. I don't like this. They're up 4.

That's 16 to 1. Do it. Then there's some money line stuff we can do house. You can do Pat's money line with the under of 50 and a half. That fits Ringer 107 roles. You could do Pat's money, Denver plus 14 and a half. It's minus 108. Basically, the Pats win between one and 14 points. We could do that. We could do Pats plus five and a half with Denver plus eight and a half. That's minus 111. Basically saying it's going to be either the Pats will lose a close game or Denver is going to lose by less than a countdown. Those were probably the ones I was looking at the most. But the Pats money line with the under 50 and a half, there are going to be He won points in this game? It seems pretty high.

If we knew how many turnovers there would be, then I would feel more comfortable with it. But I just...

Let's just hope there's not a close call at the end because the NFL has got to get it going. We got to kick off afterwards.

Shrigs, Broncos D gave up 29 to Indy, 32 to the Giants, 24 to Dallas, 26 to Green Bay, 26 to Washington, and 30 to Buffalo last week.

Yeah, and yet they rushed the passer, which is what you have to be worried about with your quarterback.

Yeah. Can we just target Raleigh Moss and throw them?

I think they might have led the league in Sacks. I could be actually throwing that number out. They might not even be good at Sacks.

Can we go big picture? Did you think Denver was that good this season?

Cardiac Kids type season, like the bears, just one amazing games, but I don't know if they're that good. They're the number one seed, though, and they earned a home field advantage, which I think is huge there.

I thought they were good. House?

I thought they were good.

I think the Seahawks I thought that was good. Another level than the- The Patriots.

I think they're good. They're fine. Two fine teams. The conference Championship right to go to the Super Bowl.

Fine.

So it sounds like we have to trust the manifesto.

What's the manifesto Net out with? We had a lot of different arguments there.

It says, beware the nobody believes in us team for the Broncos. That's scary. Beware of any team that could use a notable offfield distraction, major injury or tragedy as a galvanizing force. They fit that one. Never pick an underdog unless you genuinely believe that it has a chance to win. They hit that one as well. Rule number 11. Don't talk yourself into a terrible QB ever for any reason.

It's tricky. We don't know if he's terrible.

And be super careful with first-time playoff QBs who are basically 20 and 42 straight up and also terrible against the spread. Then Then remember the law of Lombardi, bad offensive lines don't travel. That could be the Patriots.

Yeah, that's the Patriots. Denver's offensive line is pretty good.

Rule number 18. Take one last look at the quarterbacks.

It doesn't help us.

The fear of this is- It's the ultimate variable. You talk yourself in the Broncos all week, and then Jared Stittam sucks. The reason he sucks is because he's been a backup QB his whole career. You're watching the game and you're a half hour in, you're like, what did I do? I just bet on the Broncos backup QB in the AFC title game. I'm an idiot.

Sean Payton loved him so much that he drafted Bo Nicks in the first round with him on the roster.

He loved him so much. He used the biggest draft capital piece he had on a competitor that could take his job.

Here's what I envision. And when you're talking about, oh, shit, you start the game and you're like, wait, House is exactly right. One of those wide receiver to Marvin Mims or Courtland Sutton, and he throws a wobbly ball, and it's a pick six to start the game, and you're like, All right, here we go.

House, we're taking the pats minus four and a half.

I hate it.

We're not? Too many points.

You got to take Denver. The math says take Denver. From the perspective of just the basic math of it, you have to play Denver.

I can't do it.

You can't lay four and a half. There's no basis for it. It doesn't make any sense.

All right. So I'm going to do Pat's Money Line with the under 50 and a half then.

Okay. I'm not going to argue with you. We haven't had great success tying things together.

Maybe this will be when it turns.

It could be. We did go three and one last week.

We should have gone four and a half. We talked ourselves into the stupid Niners.

I know. That was me.

No, it was fair.

Very interesting nugget here. Maybe my most insightful stuff. If it goes as you guys say, we'll have two mics coaching against each other in the Super Bowl. If it goes the opposite way, it'll be two Shons coaching against each other in the Super Bowl. My work is done.

That is so dumb.

Do you like You don't like any under in the Seahawks, right? That's the stay away. All right, Wanger 107 is presented by Fandil's Sportsbook. That's where we get the lines from. Our first game is going to be the Patriots-Broncos. We are going to take the Patriots money line parlayed with an under of 50 and a half. So if this game goes to 51 points and up, we lose. We're scared of the line.

It's happened before.

Broncos plus four and a half at home. There's no sign of history of this not covering, which is a little worrisome. There's also some bad bet. We covered all of it in the pod. That's one. Second, Ramondre Stevenson, longest reception, 10 and a half yards, over. Little Maybe a little bailout. Or maybe a little wheelbath. I adore this. Something. He did it seven of his last nine times. That's our second bet. Chef's kiss.

Love this one.

Third bet. Going Seahawks minus two and a half against the Rams. Rams, third straight road game. I think the Seahawks are the best team in the league. We'll see if Donald's oblique can hold up. Then last but not least, what do you think, Matthew Stafford for the interception minus 114?

What is the cup anytime, TD?

We But we're doing Ringer 107. We don't need to take a risk. Got it. We could do Stafford. You could do the Drake May longest rush, twelve and a half yards, or we could do Stidham plus 19 and a half completions. What excites you the most, house? Staff or interception? No. That would be the most fun to root for. You don't like that one?

Well, he just doesn't throw a ton of pics. It's not his thing. And he didn't throw it, whatever that was, three weeks ago, no interceptions.

Schrigs, is there a guy in the Seahawks-Rams game you feel that could be heard from?

Could I give you- I like Cup.

You'd like the Kup alt receiving?

I feel like they're going to... It sounds absurd. I feel like they're going to make a priority and an emphasis on getting Kup involved against his former team with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

Kup 30 plus yards, minus 114. Fits our I like it. You like that one house?

That's my favorite of all the ones.

Really? You like that more than the- My second favorite is Stidham completion.

So you can tell where am I at.

Do them both and the tie.

Well, I'll parlay it.

I could also offer you Rasheed Shahid, five plus rushing yards at minus 108. It's one sweep around the corner.

They had that great sweep for a big play last time.

Just one time, one little gimmick sweep.

I love that one. Why did you wait so long to do that one? I We'll do that one. That's doing my favor. That's a terrific one. That's one run.

Shahid, five plus yards, minus 108. Today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by FanDuel, odd subject to change. Schrags. So you're on the Super Bowl?

Yeah.

And then what happens?

Are you at one of these games this weekend?

I'm not. I work on Monday Night Football, so there's no Monday situation. I'll say this. There's supposed to be this horrendous blizzard, Joe House. I know you're aware. It's coming. I think the NFL is in cajoots with the weather gods. The ratings are going to be absolutely insane. No one's leaving the house for two days, and we just have two football games on. I can't wait.

There's even stuff in Texas. Dallas is getting violated like they did at that Super Bowl.

We were at that Super Bowl.

We were. That was my favorite Super Bowl. We were the only ones there. Nobody else could get there.

Treg, were you at that one?

Of course I was. That was the best one. That was my favorite one. I don't think we were higher on the strengths of that.

We had a great time.

I don't think we hung. I think the first time I hung with Bill at a Super Bowl was New Orleans when it was 49ers Ravens. Oh, wow. I think Louis K introduced us, and I was like, A kid in a candy shop.

I was there. That was 2013. That was me against Cousin Sal.

Were you there the last night before the game in Dallas when we went to that party and nobody was at the party and they had a million things of booze?

Was that the party that Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher?

Yes. We were all huddled under the heat lamps.

Yeah, with Aaron Andrews. Name drop, motherfucker. We did it all.

E. A. Was there. Louis was there. We had a bunch of people, but- Lewis was there. We were drinking and freezing to death. I flew from there to New York and I got bronchitis. I was the sickest I've ever been. I was in, ironically, the Trump Plaza Hotel in New York City for two days, having fever dream, thinking I was going to die, level six, and missed multiple flights It's back. I was the most sick I've ever been, but I had a great time. Thank you, Dallas. I think it's worth it.

Thank you, Dallas. Thank you, Dallas. Thank you, Dallas. Did you go to that nick and Steph's? Great steakhouse down there.

Definitely did that.

Or nick and Tony's.

The funny thing is with Dallas, Dallas is set up where it's like they have no snowplow. They have no ice, they have no salt for the ice and the things. They just have no plan. If there's ever bad weather, it's like, sorry, guys, you're on your own. It's the strangest thing I ever saw. Nobody could drive around.

No, the bus drivers didn't know how to do it. They careened off the road, if you remember. It was like a middleman.

It was like a middleman.

Yes, it was brutal.

Honestly, Dallas's handling of bad weather would be the most inexplicable thing this century with Dallas if they hadn't tried to Luka Donchik for a banged up Anthony Davis. That's still number one.

How about you suggesting Luca? How about you suggesting, what was it? Lebron James for cat. All my Nicks fans texting me.

Were they going to get mad? No. Everyone's sick of killing it. You missed earlier in the podcast, we traded Luca for Yannis.

He just tried that.

Yeah, he tried it. It got rejected.

All right, real quick.

Shrigs, real quick.

Oh, go. Netflix, they've had this whole thing. Netflix is a joke. I've seen all these ads about Tim Dylan doing something, and this one's doing something. Can we get a Simmons in House May? Netflix is a joke, a live event where you guys are doing something for Netflix. Can I go and attend that?

I would love that. I'm actually doing that because I'm doing something with the guys from Tires. Those guys are good. Shane and those guys. We're doing We're doing that in May.

I have to invite myself to be in the audience for that. Can I come? You can definitely come. You and I will be backstage.

We're in Bill Simmons T-shirts.

Where's the food? She's throwing an alley to Shane. It's in LA.

Oh, great. I think I'm going to see Shane Gillis this weekend. If the snow doesn't stop me, he's playing at the Garden.

New York City. I have friends that are going to that. Happy for that, dude. Joy. Schreg's great to see you. House, thanks for sticking around for 2 hours and 9 minutes.

House of the East Side Golf. Howyes, you did it again. You know how we do it.

Thanks to Gehow and Eduardo as well. Don't forget, new rewatch was coming Monday. We're first time on Netflix. It is going to be Zodiac. You can also get it on Spotify. Spotify as well. We're taping it tomorrow. Could be three hours. Yeah, me and fantasy and Chris Ryan. Fincher. And that's it. We have a bunch of more pods going on Netflix as well, starting on Monday. Guys, enjoy the weekend. Go Pats.

Let's go football.

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