Transcript of The Juggernaut Packers, Realistic Clippers Punishments, and Week 2 NFL Picks With Joe House, Jason Concepcion, and Chris Ryan

The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I had a new rewatchables going up on last Monday. We did legend of Billy Jean, an '80s classic. You can find that on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel as well. Watch this video podcast on Spotify. Next Monday, pretty big movie coming, fairly big, starring Kevin Costner. That's your hint. You be able to guess what it is. There's still some good costume movies left that we haven't done. Anyway, that's coming on Monday. The Prestige TV podcast, After Task is on HBO, as soon as it ends, me and Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney are doing the recap. We had a lot of fun doing the first couple. I've only seen three episodes because we've done all the reca for the first three. We're watching one at a time. We don't cheat. We don't go ahead because that's not honorable. Anyway, coming up on this podcast, At the very top, Joe House and I are going to react to what we saw from Packers Washington on Thursday night, House's team being involved. We had to stick around for that one.

Then Chris Ryan, an old friend, Jason Contexione, are going to come on, and we're going to talk about everything we learned about the Balmer scandal this week, which is really the biggest thing that's happened in the NBA in a while, not on a basketball court. Then last but not least, Joe House is going to come back because we did We're on 107 for Week 2. We did not do well in Week 1. There were reasons for that. We feel good about Week 2. We're going to go through the slate, go through the picks, and it's all coming up next. We're going to take a break, do Pearl Jam, and then House and I on Washington Green Bay. It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by Fandil, and the NFL is back. And thank God, Fandil has everything. They got an awesome app. They have SGPs. They have great futures. They have good prop bets, live betting, your way bets, clean app. It's great to use. Been using it for a few years. Every time I go back to Boston or any place that has Fandil and I get to use it, I'm always excited. I'm on an airplane runway.

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All right, recording this. It is 8: 30 Pacific Time. Just watched Green Bay throttle the Washington Commanders house's favorite team. I went to this game, and even this season, thinking the packers had a to be the juggernaut, but it was a big reason why I had them tonight. I bet on them. I attached them to different parlays that some of them we're going to talk about later. But you take care of business on a Thursday night in front of Al Michael's and Kirk Herb Street. International TV audience when you have a chance to be a juggernaut. Did you feel that way as they throttled your team?

I mean, yes. This was when you sit down in the summer and look at your team schedule and try and plot out what your team's path to wins looks like, this was a schedule loss. And I'll just complain a little bit.

Oh, let's hear it. I didn't know we were complaining this early.

This could have been and should have been a measuring stick game for Washington But traveling to Lambo. So Green Bay gets to start the season with two home games against the Lions and the Commanders in a short week for the Commanders. The advantage early in the season is outsized. And the bummer is In addition to the significant challenge for the team on the road, the injury stuff, man. Jaden reads out. Ekewer looks like he's out. Noah Brown got hurt. I hate these early season Thursday games. This short week, we just put it right in and we're losing important players on both sides because it's just too early in the season for this. But this is an old man yelling at windmill bullshit. So I'll just roll with it.

Counter. I had a great time watching a Thursday night game. You have an old team. That was the fear going in with Washington along with the regression and all the other stuff. Ecor gets hurt today. But this is when you have a bunch of old guys, the fear is the old guys aren't going to hold up over the course of the season. So you've already lost one.

But this is the challenge for this team in terms of its current construction, for sure. And And Washington was outmatched on both sides of the football. That was also a problem. I'm complaining. But look, Green Bay was the better team. The speed of that Green Bay defense, especially. And we're going to keep seeing this kid, Nixon, on the left side, he shuts down every receiver that lines up against him. And he played as though he knew Washington's playbook. I mean, Noah Brown got no separation. Jalen Lane got no separation. Nobody could get any separation against Nixon.

They basically doubled your yardage until that last drive. They were ahead more than doubling your yardage. It ended up being 404 to 230. You were one and three on fourth down. Last year, we were 20 and 23 for the season. So that flipped a little. But the big thing was you couldn't run the ball at all. No. And over and over again, it felt like it was like third and six, third and eight, third and four, fourth and fourth, fourth and three, and you couldn't really get it going. I didn't understand the pace. It's not how I would have attacked the packers. They were almost trying to do the eagles slow possession thing, trying to limit the number of possessions in each half. I actually thought the way when it got into garbage time and they started playing a little more pace, I probably would have done that. I'm also not sure it was going to matter because you had Jordan Love going, what was he, 15 for 17 in the first half? Is that the point?

Yeah, that's the downside of playing with pace. You turn the ball over on three downs and the defense has been off the field for 45 seconds.

Right. And then Love was good. And then Tucker Kraft killed you, who, of course, was I started him in one league, and he was on my bench in the other behind Brock Bowers, who has a big red flag on him. I don't know what I was thinking that.

Our guy, Dubundo, loved Kraft, gave him out on our Wednesday show with a cousin Sal. Every Kraft prop of Kraft, Anytime, Touchdown, All over it.

I had that today. I had my FanDuel tweet today. I had the Kraft Anytime TD. Well done. Plus like 230, something like that. I guess the one thing with them, so they lost another receiver today. Golden, did he not have any... Yeah, I guess he had two rushes, no catches, but they missed him on a long pass. But I guess if you're worried about the packers at all, the longevity of this run, it's just like, as Schrager said on TV this week, they don't have a number one, but they have a lot of number twos. Kraft might be like a 1B. I wouldn't put him in the Bauer's Kittle level, but maybe he has a chance to be right on that level below. And then they're running the ball really well, too, with Jacobs was 23 for 84, but it's just a good balanced team.

That's it. That's the key. If you have a tight end with a skill level that Kraft seems to possess and they can run the ball, there was never a moment where it felt like they needed two or three yards that they couldn't get it. And this is a footprint that is reminiscent of how the Eagles had their success all last year. On both sides of the ball, they're winning in the trenches. I'm just telling you, man, that defense is as fast as defense. They can get horizontal and they can get vertical, and they rushed four and dropped three, and Washington had nothing. Zackerts didn't get a look, didn't get a target until almost the second half because the middle of the field was consumed by those backers dropping.

And you have a guy that can... You have a possession ruiner in Parsons. That one, one of the big plays when he got the sack as he also drew the holding penalty. But you have seven, eight possessions, and he might ruin two of them. We talked about Love a couple of times during the preseason, and I picked him. I think I picked him in the Futures draft with the Cus at 25 to 1 for MVP. And Shield did some stuff with him before the year when he was I'm talking about the three tiers of MVPs and how the MVP almost always comes from a 13 or 14 win team, which seems like the pack is right of that way. As I go to Fandil right now, he's third in the odds. He's nine to one. Alan is three to one and Jackson's plus 380, and then Jordan Love is now nine to one in the three-spot. So that makes him the NFC leading MVP begetter. But watching the game tonight, it's like, yeah, I could see the case. If he ends up 35 TDs, six picks. The team goes 14 and three. That would be the blueprint.

I don't know if anyone... I mean, God only knows what Alan and Lamar have in store for us the rest of the season, but that would be the case.

The packers all the way down to plus 750 for the Super Bowl and plus 370. The Eagles are first to win the NFC at plus 360, packers plus 370. So they are in that class. They have put themselves in that class, and they deserve it, in my opinion.

Well, when you say that class, we have four teams, the Baltimore, Buffalo, Philly, Green Bay all have basically the same odds to win the Super Bowl now. And they were not... Before the Parsons trade, they were in the vicinity of I don't know, the Lions, the Rams, the Niners, teams like that.

I have a 22 to 1 Green Bay Super Bowl ticket from the spring.

One thing... I mean, it's one of the few home teams you feel solid about. I feel like home field advantage has slipped at least a little bit over the years. It's certainly not like it was when we were growing up, when you just felt like being home was this incredible advantage. But I do feel like they have somewhat an advantage. I did this with the Cubs last week.

Buffalo and Green Bay. Buffalo and Green Bay. Those are your two that are really stuck.

I did this with the Cubs. I wanted your take. They go at Cleveland, at Dallas the next two weeks. And that Browns game is 10 days rest. Buy week, bangles at Cards, at Steel, on a Sunday Night, Panthers, Home Eagles, Week 10. Are they going to be undefeated as they head into that Week 10 game? Could you see it?

I think so. If they're healthy, that's always the giant if. But especially on the defensive side of the ball, the only team that could put them in a mode where you end up with something that looks like a shootout that becomes more is the bangles. If the bangles get their offense going, it always takes the bangles a month. So right about that time is when they catch the bangles. If that bangles offense gets going a little bit, that's the best case I can make. I am, too.

Then you're dumb, Tim. You got Raiders Home next week.

Fine.

At Falcons, At Chargers, the next two, which are games... At Chargers looks like a lot harder of a game than it did three weeks ago.

I don't even love At Falcons.

You have At Cowboys, At Chiefs later in the year. You get the Dolphins in Madrid, which is a game that looks a lot more palatable than it used to. Just kiss.

Just Kiss. Piaia for everybody.

And you have At Vikings, At Giants, at Eagles, is the rest of the road game. The road road games, somehow the Cowboys is the easiest road game of all the road games you have. The rest of those are not easy. So you're one-on-one. Be honest. Does your team make the playoffs?

It's a jump all. I had them at nine or 10 wins. I bet on them to win 10 games. Ten and seven makes the playoffs in the sixth spot.

So you're saying it's a jump all?

Yeah, I think it's a jump all.

Well, who agrees with you? Fandol, because they have you a plus 100 to miss the playoffs. It's literally a jump off.

We see the world the same way.

Okay, well, let's go through the NFC then. What teams are you worried about taking your spots? Can we just, for the hell of it, put in Philly and Green Bay as those two? Sure. The NFC West winner and the NFC South winner, so there's four. Who were you worried about out of Lyons, Minnesota, Arizona, Chicago, San Francisco, the Rams? Definitely not.

Probably.

You feel I think you're in the 5-7 range, hopefully.

Yeah, exactly. Yes. Rams and Cardinals. This purdy injury makes it such that the Ram's and the Cardinals are going to be in the front runner, the driver's seat for the West. One of the others should get a spot. What's Minnesota to make the playoffs?

To make it?

Yeah. It's got to be plus odds.

Well, JJ had a kid. I don't know. So they're plus You're minus 110 to make the playoffs. I'm sorry, minus 110, and you're minus 122. Okay. And you're minus 122.

Yeah. Okay. So Washington is slightly ahead of Minnesota.

Listen, we have to have this part of the conversation. I hate to do this to you. Has Jaden Daniels looked that good in either of these games that you watched this year, Giants game or this game?

Well, I'm trying to answer this in a way that's fair for who this team is.

How about fair from a...

They threw for 200 yards and rushed for 200 yards in week one against the Giants. That was a game where they controlled the line of scrimage, and it was fine. He hasn't really shown anything in terms of getting vertical. The offense has not gotten vertical. Everything has been yards after the catch. That's why Debo has been so important thus far, and he got that cheap countdown. Thank God, Debo, on my Yahoo fantasy team.

Yeah, he got a lot of cheap yardage near the end.

Truckstick Joseph collecting Debo yards, Debo oil out there.

The problem is you're putting him on kick-offs and he's going to get hurt if you're going to do that. That's an injury waiting to happen. I detest it. I can't believe they're doing that.

I can't either. I detest it. I can't say strongly enough how much I dislike that.

Well, from what I've seen, it's only been two games, and you might flip it around the next game. But the case for the commanders this year was that even Even though there are all these regression signs, you have an older team in a much harder schedule, this was the year that Jade and Daniel shows that I need to be put in that Josh Allen, Lamar Mahomes. If I'm on your team, you're going to win between 11 and 13 games because I'm on your team. And the way he's played the first two games, it has not looked like he is that guy. But we'll see. It's a long season.

Yeah. And I don't think if you're going to try and measure his performance, you have to... This is why I pause so long when you ask the question, the team misses Brian Robinson already. If you need tough yards from a running back, I like Brian Robinson going for those yards. I don't like Bill Crosby-Merritt so far. He's tough. And Echler got a whole bunch of touches out of the backfield. And I don't have a good explanation for that. And his season's over.

And his season's over. It was weird that Kirk and Al, we've seen too many of those Achilles ones. You know right away at this point. I feel like we're not going to miss on a, whoa, that looked like a torn Achilles. I felt bad for him. Me too. You know right away, they fall, they stop, they fall to the ground, they reach for it. You just know.

He knew.

Yeah, he knew. So you traded Brian Robinson. You have no backup running back now. And I actually liked I didn't mind Brian Robinson. I didn't really understand that one.

I mean, they have a guy, this guy Chris Rodriguez, but he didn't get on the field in week one. So I guess we're going to see some Chris Rodriguez coming up here. Ten days to get some rest.

I mean, honestly- You know what that sounds like to me house, we're going to see some Chris Rodriguez here. Nine and eight.

I just said it.

Nine and eight.

These Thursday games are survive and advance. Try and minimize how many season-ending injuries. I don't like it.

What's interesting, you go Eagles Week 16 at home on a Saturday, Cowboys Christmas, and then you finish at eagles in a game that- Come on. Might mean nothing to the eagles. That might be like, let's play the third string. Who cares?

That's the best case scenario for Washington sitting there at eight wins at that point, maybe. Needing that ninth win to get into a playoff, tiebreaker mode.

So if you had to guess one seed in the playoffs in the NFC, you would say Green Bay.

I don't know that I would. Let's see if these- Can I give you the odds? Let's see the Eagles play the Chiefs.

Green Bay plus 260 on Fandil.

And?

Philly plus 350. Okay. Rams, 7: 1. 49ers, 8: 1. Get that the fuck out of there. Bucaneers, 9: 1. Vikings, 12: 1. You know what makes sense is just bet the packers and eagles.

Yeah, that's fine.

One unit on each and you hit one of those, right? Who else is getting the one seed?

Nobody. Absolutely nobody.

Maybe Minnesota, if McCarthy's awesome?

No. Do me a very, very quick favor. Well, I'll do it. I don't have I don't want to subject people to it to the bottom. I want to see the Niners to miss the playoff's odds. I want money on that right now. I have that for you. I don't want to wait. Don't wait. I want to rush to the window. I want to get that ticket.

I already bet on that six months ago. It's plus one, 52.

Great. Done. That covers off the loss I'm going to take on them to win the NFC West because of that schedule that they have. It doesn't matter. If Mac Jones plays however many games it looks like he's going to play, let me have the Niners to miss the playoff. That is a take it to the window ticket.

Well, we broke down the Mac Jones-Spencer-Rattler matchup much later on the Ringer 107. You're going to take a break. We're going to bring in Chris Ryan and our old friend Jason Concepcion to talk about all the latest bomber news and what's going to happen with Clippers. And then, magically, we're going to go backwards five hours to when we did Ringer 107. House, I'll see you in a little bit.

Can't wait, buddy.

Thanks, buddy. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Nfl Sunday is coming. You got your crew, your your couch, your food, your drinks, whatever you're up to. We're not going to judge you. Just do your thing. Fanduel is coming in with something extra. It's your chance to place the perfect parlay, player prop, whatever floats your boat. Right now, all customers can get a 50% profit boost on any NFL bet. House and I are going to have a lot of suggestions coming up when we do our Ringer 107 segment. However you play your game, Fandil has got your back with something extra in your account because that's what Sunday should feel like. Visit fandil. Com/bs to download the app and get in on the action. Before kickoff, you must be 21 plus, President Select States are 18 plus, and President DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Opt In Required Bonus issued as non- withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration, max wage or amount. See terms at sportsbook. Fandle. Com. Gamble problem, call 100 Gamble or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat-in-connect. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats.

Parents, if there's one thing you deserve to make it easier on yourself, it's back to school season. I know that's how I feel as well. On Uber Eats, you can get up to 40% off back to school essentials like notebooks, pencils, calculators. You got lunch boxes to fill? Get discounts on fresh fruit, juice boxes, string cheese, and more. Get everything you need for back to school delivered right to you. Just to tap away in the Uber Eats app. Offer ends September See app for details. All right. It's an absolute disgrace that this hasn't happened sooner in the 2020s. It's been a while since this threesome has gotten back together. Two of the stars are Take Hunter, the award-winning series of the 2010s, CR Chris Ryan, and our old friend, Jason Concepcion. It's great to see you. It's great to have you back. Listen, you knew it would be big circumstances to get us all back together, and I hope it's not the last time. This Balmer thing, I just found myself thinking like, Man, back in the day, back in the way back, we would have been all over this week after week on NBA desktop.

So, JC, had to get your takes. Let's just unleash them. Let's go.

My take. Well, I'll say this, first of all. It's a lot of smoke. It's a suffocating... We're suffocating in the smoke. Smoking gun, question mark. I think there's enough just ambient smoke that certainly looks as if something on Tortoise happened. And where are the trees, Bill? Where are the trees? No trees planted as far as I could see.

That's the thing, man.

That's the bottom line is no trees actually got on the ground. But this is what I have to say. After Kauai and the Uncle Dennis stuff bubbled to the surface, after he left Toronto, ended it up in the Clippers. After the Lakers complained, after Toronto complained about all these crazy asks that have since come to the surface in a recent Toronto Star article about they wanted chairs in the maple leaves, this, that, and the other, and Uncle Dennis describing a structure that looked very much like what aspiration is, the NBA looked at it and said, Okay, carry on. So So I just hope that as this investigation continues, how that happened will be part of it. Because I think that that to me- I like this. Great first take. Really nice. That to me is the underrated part. It's the part that we're not talking about. Because if Uncle Dennis then just said, Okay, you don't want to do this? I'll go find another taker. And the NBA looked at that and said, Okay, well, I guess there's nothing. It seems like a speeding ticket type of stuff. And so we're going to carry on.

I don't know what happened there, but what happened there seems very important to me if now this is a problem. That's my take.

I'm ready to hear from Uncle Dennis and Kawhi. I feel like they got Balmer out there with Ramona. They rolled him out there. We've had multiple Pablo Tori podcasts. Every NBA podcast has been covering this for whatever, 10 days for a week now. I'm stunned We have not gotten even a no comment from Kawhi. I mean, if we have gotten one, I haven't seen it. And I know he was at the US Open for tennis the other day, and I was like, This is amazing. This guy is just hanging out. I don't know if Uncle Dennis rolls with him like that and they go watch Sabalenka. But I'm ready for something because actually, I feel like the silence from their direction isn't doing anyone any favors on the Clipper side right now.

Michael Dennis, supposedly a huge sinner guy. That's what I heard. Exactly. He's a big sermon ball guy. Always the word in the street with him. So, yeah, you're right. If this happened to LeBron or KD or even one of the younger stars like Anthony Edwards. This would have been treated like an episode of the West Wing with how they got their public response. Kawhi, I can't tell if he's oblivious or doesn't care. Which is it? To me, he probably just... Jason doesn't give a shit. He's like, he got his money. Yeah, I mean- The check's cleared. I think he's good.

I think it's a measure and maybe a good lesson for all of us, how far you can get ability-wise if you just don't say anything ever, if you simply do not speak. He's gotten a lot of mileage out of that. And listen, what I love I would love to hear from Uncle Dennis, whose voice I could not recognize from Adams.

I don't know what he looks like. I don't know if I've ever seen a picture of him.

I've seen one blurry picture of him that looked like a mob photo. They took the FBI took outside of the Bergen hunting Fish Club in the '80s from across the street.

Captain Rameis in Hunt for October. They're circling pictures of him in the back. That was a hint, Bill.

But I would love to hear. Yeah, I would love to hear from But moreover, again, I feel like, listen, the second April era, right? You've got teams looking in the couch cushions for money. You've got free agents sitting on the sidelines wondering, When am I going to get signed? If the money is being restricted by the rules to an ever-increasing degree, my opinion is the deterrence should also. If you go, Hey, the speed limit is now 30, but don't put a cop on the side of the highway every once in a while, then what does it really matter? I feel like the NBA needs to look in the mirror just a little bit and be like, What are we doing to dissuade this from happening? Because now this type of the owner's jet, the owner's beach house free perks, I think you could argue that stuff matters more now in this era.

Well, don't leave out the, let me tell you about this investment, get in on this early, tell your guy, because I think that's the number one thing that's happened over the last few years. You talked about all the smoke. It just made me think, let's say I had a 17-year-old son. By the way, I'm not saying this is the case, but let's say I had a 17-year-old son on a bad path. Every time I walked into his room, it was like the Dazed and Confused scene when all the people are in there and it's just like, insets is going. It's like, Hey, dad, what's up? That's just happening over and over again. I just choose not to see it. Then one day, the there because there's just bails of marijuana in my garage that I had no idea. Jason's basically saying that's Adam Silver right now. There's been insets just burning nonstop, and this is now we're at the bails of Marijuana stage CR.

Do you guys think that there's anything to the... We're in such a different era now. Honestly, I think about the Calangelo story when this is happening just because of the unconventional way in which it came to light. Obviously, Pablo is doing a very different thing with his podcast in terms of how he's parseling out information, how the reporting is happening in real time with him. But you watch the reporting side of it and you watch the reaction side of it. And it's so... Almost... The way people are speaking is very human, very everyday speech. Hey, this is happening, this is happening. Pablo is obviously very buttoned up. But then you have the responses from Balmer and the League that are very like, we're just going to have to let the investigation see where it leads. And it's just going to take its time. I heard Howard and Zack talking today on Zack's podcast where it was like, this might take until next spring. I'm like, people aren't waiting until next spring. You guys have to stop talking like lawyers. The only thing you can pray for is that we get bored and something else happens.

Because otherwise, this is the only thing people want to talk about with the League right now. And you can't just be like, these This law firm is just going to have to do its due diligence, and it's just going to take nine months. People don't like that anymore. People don't take that as an excuse. I wonder how long they can use that.

Maybe, JC, maybe a Friday news dump, right as the two college football players semi-final games are starting. Yeah, by the way, Tyler coaches the Bulls now. Yeah, just got to sneak that in.

I will say Silver's comments outside of the governor's meeting did not What lead me to believe there was a hammer about to be dropped anywhere in the offing. It really felt like, Hey, guys, the burden's on us. We got to look, and it's tough to look for this stuff. We love due process here. We're going to let this investigation go where it leads. Again, I would be shocked if they come down super hard, I think, at this point, even despite the amount of smoke. Remember, Remember the Joe Smith thing was like, they found a piece of paper that was literally like, Hey, don't forget, we have to illegally pay Joe Smith. Okay? We have to do that tomorrow.

All the figures were on it, the whole thing. Yeah. So the report that Pablo had today. It was just more smoke. It was more like, huh? It becomes a question of how many coincidences are you going to accept before you're like, all right, come on, guys. Because what they did with this one, with the latest report about how the minority owner had funneled 2 million to this company, right as they're laying off all a bunch of people, right as Kawhi is do a money figure that's just slightly under that. So he doesn't do the exact figure. It's just a little more. And then it's the same thing with the bomber puts in 50, right as Kawhi is getting the 28 plus the 20. And it's just a little tilted off, but not totally. This is how you would do it if it was a bad sports movie that we were watching, which is why I think this has gotten progressively funnier as the two weeks have gone.

It also feels a little bit like any great piece of conspiracy text. You think about the movie JFK or something like that, where it It's more of a contagious idea that it seems like... Not only do I not know, I also don't have a dog in the fight, but it seems like something I could see people beneath Balmer on the org chart I'm freelancing a little bit more than I can see Balmer doing it. It's not because I have any great admiration for Balmer out of whack with anybody else. It's just like, I wonder whether this is the person who is implicated today in Pablo's reporting was this guy dead As long as he was a minority owner in the Clippers, but a college roommate of Balmer. Tough day for Dennis.

Dennis?

Yet another Dennis.

Dennis's kids are like, Dad?

Wait, don't give away a free pot idea. Dennis and Dennis I mean, I can't wait.

Dennis and Dennis, and then who is the guy? Who is the backwards cap guy who sits there and goes, wow, that's so crazy.

Yeah, exactly.

You need a third Dennis. Yeah.

But yeah, I think that there's something to this idea of perhaps this wasn't a conspiracy as much as it was a series of unfortunate events, but that might not matter in terms of the judgment. Do you think, Bill, that part of the reason why nobody really knows what to do, or at least how to feel about this, is because unlike, say, a Sarver or a Sterling, I don't know, maybe even the fact that this is not demonstrably- Because everyone likes bomber. Yeah, everybody's just like that guy built a cool stadium in the All-Star Games there, and he gets up on stage and screams developers, and he's freaking out at charging calls, and he seems like he really likes basketball. There's part of, I wonder whether or not it's like, yeah, but he seems like, what's he done to hurt the league? It seems to be an issue here.

Well, and then you have on top of it. So the two biggest scandals since Donahee were both Clipper scandals. Yeah. The whole Sterling, V. Stiviano catastrophe, that like, submarine the 2014 playoffs, basically. And then this, they're both Clipper related. And it's just like, I mean, when I wrote my Curse of the Clippers column for page 2. It was 2009. It was Obama's first year of his presidency, and I listed 33 years of clipper shit. And now that, think of all the other shit that's happened since. I don't know. J. C, they might just have to move. This could be the final piece where maybe they just have to go to Seattle and we just call it a day with the LA Clippers.

I mean, that would be an amazing outcome, I think, for everyone. I'm I'm left wondering, to your point, and again, I'm not saying that Balmer or other dentists, Dennis Wong, knew anything, but if they did, do you think they are wondering, Man, why did we let it go bankrupt? That was the That's the rookie mistake.

Oh, why didn't he just fund it? You got to keep- Why didn't he just fund it?

Yeah. You got to keep aspiration on its feet if it's truly this money laundering vehicle that you hope. Yeah, I mean, to your point, there's too many things. I think that also, how many generations would actually need to pass for the Clippers to truly establish themselves as an equal rival to the Lakers in this city? How many years would have to go by?

The ship has sailed. I mean, the ship sailed a long time ago. It's the same thing for the Nets and the Knicks.

It would have to be like 50 years of the Nets kicking the Knicks kicking the Knicks Ass. It would have to be that.

Then the Knicks could go 43 and 39 once, and it'd be like, The Knicks are back. The Nets do a full identity change every six months. Now they have like, Hey, guys, Michael Porter Jr.

Is our mouth We have five first rounders. They all need the ball.

I want MPJ Junior to weigh in on this. I want MPJ to weigh in on Uncle Dennis and Kua.

Honestly, a budding podcast star. He was coming in hot over over again.

Mpj should sign Dennis and Dennis to his network.

His podcast network, yeah.

I'm going to give you my hottest take of this whole scandal. I'm not saying I invented it, but I actually believe it might be true, but it's also crazy. What if Kawhi just never knew about any of this?

And it's just all Dennis?

Dennis freelance this. The smoking gun for this theory is is, Kawhi doesn't want to do any work. He doesn't want to have to do anything. Flip this around. Why would they be so determined to not have Kawhi do any work? It's actually easy to go film an ad for an hour. It's easy to do five tweets a year. This is more like, Kawhi is not going to do anything. Or is this understood? It's got to be, he gets paid to do work that he didn't actually do. Almost like when you're watching a movie or a TV show from the '70s or '80s and the guy has the fake job. And I wonder if maybe they constructed it that way so that Kauai never knew about the money. Yeah. But by the way, how many family members are... Like the fucking Billy Joel doc that just happened. His brother-in-law just stole $30 million from him. I'm not ruling it out. I'm not ruling it out anything, Jason.

I have not heard that before, but honestly, it feels very plausible. Listen, if you're a pro athlete, you really aren't thinking about much other than work out, get ready, what's the game, what's the scouting?

Michael Porter, you're thinking about a lot of stuff.

Yes, clearly. There's the exception of proof of truth rule occasionally. But this is a fairly convoluted scheme, and it would not surprise me. That's why you have a team. When you're at that level, you have people that their job is just go out and find me opportunities, put it in front of me, I the thing, and that's it. It would not surprise me at all.

That's what CR has. If this was the Law and Order episode, that would be the big twist at the 48-minute mark.

That he had no idea.

They'd realized that Kawhi actually had no idea this was ever happening in the first place.

The confusing element of this is the reporting about how the company had a series of Colombian media stars who they were essentially acting as a laundering They were money laundering where they would send them, I send you 50 grand, you send me back 55 or whatever it is. And so there's obvious elements. I just don't think that the way, if that's the case, and if this whole thing is a Ponzi scheme that had participants who were putting in and taking out money. They're not doing a great job. Balmer just being like, I was defrauded. These guys were frauds, is not up to the level of detail of Pablo's reporting. He needs to be even more detailed in like, Hey, look, here's where I was on these days, and here's my communications, and here's what Kawhi and I talked about. And honestly, I was joking when it first started. But this is where somebody on the Kawhi side would be helpful to Balmer to be like, Our relationship with this company had nothing to do with Steve Balmer and had nothing to do with me staying with the Clippers. It's weird that he has not said that.

It is weird that nobody has said that.

I would not be surprised, going off your theory, Bill, if Uncle Dennis ends up being a fall guy in this.

All right, let's stay with that for a second. All three of us love watching movies all the time.

Yeah.

Who is the Donald Sutherland JFK character of this for you, CR? Who emerges from the woodworks?

It's whoever this person with the modulated voice and the person calling Pablo. So it's the aspiration VP? Yeah.

It's not somebody on the inside with the clippers? No. Because usually in these movies, it's usually like- So you think it's like Lawrence Frank is meeting Pablo in the Washington Monument? Not initially. Who's the guy who's like, Pablo, You're close, but now you have to follow the money. But it's always somebody who either... Maybe it's somebody who works for the Lakers. It's somebody who's around the mix, but not totally.

What if it's Robert Downey Jr?

Exactly.

Because here's Here's my JFK conspiracy theory about Aspiration, that this thing is like a... It existed as a money laundering Grand Central station that served multiple properties looking to both launder and receive money. And that Balmer and Wong were just one of several clients that used this Grand Central station to send money around. Because I think it's not clear to me how the CEO went to jail or faced federal charges. And I think it's about this stuff. It's clearly there's a larger piece of the iceberg than just the Clippers piece of this.

Bill, early on in this process, Kevin came out. Mark Cuban came out. And while he is no longer the owner of an NBA team, he still is pretty defensive of Balmer, at least, if not the Clippers. Do you think it's notable that we haven't had a lot of other public offers of support from the other NBA owners?

Well, here's the problem. The Clippers are good. They took Denver to the brink. I actually thought they conceivably could have won that series. And they were probably the fourth best team in the league last year. So if I'm any of the other teams that are good, I'm like, this is great. I was worried about the... Think about during the summer, people were saying they were the big winner of the summer with free agency. So I'm sure around the league, people are delighted by this. I I like when... Some of the stories have talked about how furious other teams are that this is a breach. Get the fuck out of here.

That's how I feel.

Half the league does this. I wish I could say 10% of the shit that I've heard over the last 20 years about all the shit that everybody does. It's unbelievable. Everything you think is happening is happening. Just period.

I love that idea that I, the honest owner, I am sick of this. And by the way, I, again, the honest owner who in the business, non-sports business world, and the most hard-nosed gladiator killed your dog to get an edge in a business deal. The one thing I'm scared of is Adam Silver docking me three second rounders. I'm terrified of it, guys.

Yeah. I don't want to get fined. I'm a multibillionaire. They're coming after me.

I was hoping that Balmer was like, when he was doing the remote interview, that he was like, What you going to do, Adam?

Let's go. Well, so everyone's been talking about punishments with this. I've been thinking about this a lot. They could dock them four or five first-round pics. You're almost punishing the fans more than the owner and the team, right? You're just basically destroying basketball in some way for- For dozens of fans, yes. You can't find Balmer. Yeah, for a dozen of it. You can't find Balmer because he's worth $150 billion. The huge card would be that you have to sell the team, which I haven't heard anyone mention, but they did that with Sterling. They made him sell the team. And if they find... Let's say all this shit is true. All the smoke from the from Pablo Pods, some of the other reporting. And this is true. And they did this.

I think it's within- This is how Kawhi agreed to stay with the Clippers, is if they circumvented the cap and gave it an extra $48 million.

Yeah, they prove it. I think they could make him sell the team because they did it to Sterling.

You know what would be dope is if he was like, Cool, I'm taking the dome with me. We're turning it into a roller-skating rink. And now there's no Clippers home. Nobody gets to buy that.

I'm buying the LA Kings. We're just going to have hockey. But I do think it's within his... We always heard that you couldn't make an owner sell, but they did make Sterling so. Now, he had to agree to so, but they all put so much pressure on him. He had to do it. I don't think that's out of thing. I think we need a bigger smoking gun than what we have, though, Jason.

I agree. There was also the wrinkle with the Clippers where his wife had control of it for some other tax evasion reason that Sterling was doing.

She was planting trees as well.

So that they convinced her. It was really like they got her to do it.

That's why she has mid-court season tickets still. That's right. No, seriously, that was one of her things.

I think there's almost no chance that they may him. I think I would not be surprised if they- Really?

You go no chance?

That they sell it? I think they banish him. I think you see Silver go, you have to stay away from the team.

He can't be the governor, but he doesn't have to sell it or something.

And you have to stay away from the team and all of its facilities for a year or two years or something like that.

There's history of that in different sports. That happened at George Steinbrenner. This has happened over the years where somebody's like, you're out for a year. In this case, he could say to Balmer, We find you guilt that you're fined for first-round picks, and you cannot be around the Clippers for five years. Who enjoys going to a basketball game as an owner more than Balmer? That would kill him.

He just built the Intuit too. I'll put on highlights.

I'm like, Balmer's at this Pacers Clippers game on a Tuesday.

Oh my God. He loves it. I was watching him during the playoff games. Nobody is more into it. It's almost like the way you would be if you're watching your kids play sports or something. He's five times beyond that. So I think that is one level for them.

Can I ask you guys a question, though, for when the season, as the season approaches? Does this feel like they have an unfair competitive advantage to you? Do you feel like this is the Astros? You mother.

I actually don't. I don't. I personally don't think that. You don't either, Jason? No.

The rules are so strict now, basically because of bomber, because of anxiety around him and his ability to throw his wealth around, that you really can't move, leverage your money in the way that you used to be able to. And to Bill's point, it feels like there's so much ambient gray area stuff happening around the edges that I really don't feel like they have some massive advantage. No one's scared of the Clippers in that way, except maybe the other owners who are terrified of bomber's wealth. But it feels like that's been neutered to an effect.

I wonder how it'll feel when we get to November and they're getting asked about this every single day after every single practice. Or if they are, you know what I mean? Whether there's media scrutiny that approaches deflate gate or something like that, and there's people in Taillou's face and Kawhi's face, and if it's not Kawhi, it's Harden or whoever. They're like, Hey, what do you think about this? Do you think it's fair this? Did you read this? What's your comment on that? Whether or not that becomes just too much for the team and they have to make a more declarative statement or something, I don't know. But it'll be really interesting to see how this plays out as both a media story and whether Pablo keeps finding stuff and other people keep finding stuff and there's more digging into this company, or whether it is a lot of modern media stories where it feels like it's the biggest thing in the world for six days. And then it's like, Balloon Boy, and everybody forgets. And will we be watching the Clippers and just be like, Oh, yeah. And then there's that weird thing with Kawhi, right?

Yeah. They're going to get asked about this. Adam's going to get asked about this. Anytime he does a press conference, it's going to be the first thing. I was trying to think if Stern had been in charge, because the Donahee thing was one of Stern's greatest moments where they got a whiff of that there was some FBI investigation brewing, not just with Donahee, but potentially other reps. There's some pretty good evidence that he probably leaked something to the New York Post to get it out, that there was this investigation happening. So then basically there's nothing more that could happen with the investigation because everybody knew about it. I think Stern, in this case, would be moving swift and fast to not let this overshadow. Before the season. You're starting this new season with Amazon, with MBC. It's this complete reboot, all this money coming in the league, these new partners that are supposed to be more positive, and you have this crazy story. But I'm with CR. I don't think competitively, to me, this isn't that much different than letting your best player use your private plane 40 times during the year with all his buddies or giving people season tickets for every game that really the team is paying for.

There's so many gray areas to this. This is more just stupid.

I think it's an issue of scale and less of what actually happened. An outcome that I would find unsatisfying is they ding bomber in the clippers fairly for whatever. And then we are all You're left with the feeling like everybody else just got away. And this is still happening on some level that's less than this. If we have rules, then we have rules. And if you really want to enforce them, then clean them up. Or don't, but don't...

This is where you get into, why are you into sports, though? Are you into sports because you're just like, I want to watch basketball and my life is full and at the end of the day, I just want to watch a game? Or are you into sports because it's a window through you view the world and fairness and competitive balance and antitrust and- Billionaires ruin everything.

Tax rules and all this stuff and money ball and the edges that guys are using.

It matters to you. I feel like my entire life, you start out and you're a kid and you're just like, This is amazing. These guys are gods. I'm going to watch these games for the rest of my life. And then the more older and older you get, the more you find yourself thinking more about the cap and the law and taxes and rumors and innuendo and stuff like that. It is an interesting litmus test for why you watch sports.

Well, if Kawhi didn't know anything about this, which, again, I cannot rule out, it would be interesting if he was about to get suspended and then came out and said, I didn't know anything about this. If he goes- He'd have to proactively throw Uncle Dennis. Because if this was a movie- Kendall Roy? He does the press conference? Yeah. If this was a movie or a TV show, at some point, he would turn on him.

My uncle Dennis is a malicious force behind the scenes, corrupting everything he touches.

Yeah.

So we'll see. All right. Any last takes before we move on from this? Because I had one more question for you.

Every day, there's going to be another shooter drop, so I feel like you just got to wait.

Well, the one today made me think, this is In the court of my house law, I don't know if I can really make excuses. It's funny because some people in my life were like, Well, you probably don't want it to be true. You're a Clipper fan. It's like, I have Clipper tickets. I'm a Celtic fan. If they did break the law in the NBA, they should be punished for it. I don't know what the punishment should be because we've never been here before. Jason, what NBA storyline are you least looking forward to this year beyond this one?

What am I least looking I'm looking forward to? Yeah. Gosh. I am least looking forward to- What are you dreading? I'm dreading just the devastation of the East. I am dreading how lopsided this season certainly appears it's going to be in terms of the power balance between its conferences. Listen, the East has been the weaker conference for what feels like my entire adult life at this point. Our lives. Yeah. But this season, it feels like it's really going to be crazy, and I'm not looking forward to that.

How about you, Ciar? On a personal level. Maybe I don't have to ask you.

I think that I saw a picture, and it was like I was scrolling fast, but it was like a picture and it's like, Embiid is practicing without a knee brace. I was like, You sons of bitches. Just when I thought this heart didn't beat. I was like, I have no idea when this picture is from or who the report was from, but I fully believe I believe this. I am not looking forward to the will he or won't he with him this year. What else am I not looking forward to? That's a pretty good one.

I have the tatum.

I think I'm not looking forward to this moment where it feels like the NBA in five years is going to probably be different. And it's like, is this going to be one of the last couple of seasons of the Pelicans? Just watching some of the dead weight of the NBA and watching some of the stuff that doesn't quite work anymore. I was thinking about that the other day because of the expansion or not conversation. Does that mean teams are moving? I feel like the way things were going at the end of the season with the Memphis stuff, it was just a bummer. And I wonder whether or not that's going to keep going with the way the media talks about the league, affects the way people feel about the league.

Mine is just the Tatum roller coaster that I'm about to go on.

Bill, come on, man. He's just not going to play, dude.

I know. Don't believe that.

He might go.

Hold on. He's Wolverine or something with it.

Just like Jalen, have a crazy year. Enjoy for I don't know what it is.

I don't know if you noticed or you know about how fast he had the surgery after the injury.

I do, but I also know that he's not Wolverine. Within 10 hours.

He's four months ahead of schedule. I don't know. If the Celts hang around, I do feel like it's going to be... I just don't even want to go there. I don't want them to play this year. But if they're 26 and 20 and shooting a bunch of threes, and all of a sudden they're a four seed and they have the shots of him scrimaging, I know I'm going to get sucked in, and I'm not looking forward to it. The other one, I just trying to figure out how LeBron is going to handle this season where he's clearly not the center of attention anymore as a Laker. There was an athletic story this week about Luka, how great he looked at Eurobasket It's changing how the Lakers feel. Just seeing LeBron push to the side like this, how he's going to handle it from a getting stuff out standpoint, I just think is going to be... At some point, you got to be Nicholson in the Deparded and just Steal some scenes, but this is Leo and Damon's movie, and just be happy to steal some scenes. I just don't know if he's wired that way.

Who's Damon in this? Is that Austin Reeves? Who are we talking? He's still...

Yeah, fuck yeah, it's Austin Reeves. What do you mean? How dare you? Yeah, so those are probably my two. All right. What's your favorite TV show you're watching right now, JC?

Oh, wow. That's a good one. I'm doing a Deadwood rewatch, but I think the Studio was my favorite show that was on recently. New show. That's interesting.

Yeah. I know CR's all in on. They made Task for him. Yeah. An AI machine made Task. Riding Ingle speed. Just made it for CR. Whatever he wanted.

Us as a society, it was worth it.

When they had in the third episode, I don't want to spoil it, but the guy has a flyer's phone cover, one of the characters. Now, it's like, they're just fucking with CR now.

I hope that there's a moment where one of the characters talks about a CR clip from a pod. That would be great.

You see this guy? He's got a lot of great ideas.

He starts talking about take on her. All right. Concepcion, great to see you. Great to see you. Pleasure as always. Cr, great to see you as always. Thanks for popping on. I appreciate it. Now it's time for Don't Settle, a new segment presented by our friends at State Farm. You may think that insurance is all the same. Let me tell you, having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. Don't settle for just any insurance when there's State Farm. It's like, take the Tampa Bay Bucaneers. Seem pretty set at receiver, right? Mike Evans, Future Hall, Famer, Chris Godwin's coming back later this month. They had Jalen McMillan. It didn't seem like they needed a drafter receiver. Well, what did they do? They had the 21st pick. They drafted a Meccaegbuca from Ohio State. And by the end of August, he was a team captain. He was a fantasy football darling. He caught two touch downs in the first game and helped them beat Atlanta. And it looks like he's going to be this year's Michael Thomas Jr. And the whole point of this is that Tampa Bay did not settle. They're like, You know what?

Let's be receiver. This guy's great. Let's add him to the group. You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team on the football field. Shouldn't it be the same for your insurance? Don't settle for just any insurance when there's State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. All right, as promised, we traveled back in time to do Ringer 107 Picks on Thursday afternoon. Joe House is in an undisclosed location, sitting in a big chair. It looks like he had a couple of drinks at dinner. It's like a little buzzed house, which I think we needed because we went one and four in Ringer 107. You know what? I looked back at the Picks last week house. No regrets.

I'm in the same boat as you. I think we had the right analysis. We were on the right sides. The only game, honestly, that I regret is the Chargers.

Because we messed with Brazil, which we're never doing again. But we lost in the Falcons. They completely outplayed the Bucs. The Bucs were incredibly lucky to win.

That's right.

And then we had the Ravens, which was the right pick. I would do that 100 times out of 100. Me too. Listen, I'm not going to make excuses. I'm not going to apologize. And we lost the bears on Monday night in the halftime. When that pick six happened, I thought that game was over.

If only the game was only 45 minutes. The last 15 minutes really got us in that bears game.

Well, let's go through. We're going to bounce back. I'm not worried at all. Yeah, I feel fine. I have a good process. We've always done well in week two. Yeah. I'm going to do the stay aways first. Jaguars plus three and a half at the bangles. Two bad offensive lines, two bad defenses. There's backdoor potential. I don't want to bet on Jacksonville. This is a complete stay away to me. You agree, correct?

Absolutely, because we don't want to bet on Jacksonville, and Jacksonville is the correct side in view of the history of the Bengals in the first couple of weeks of the season. Did their defense show us anything by virtue of what they did against the Browns. I don't think so. So let's just stay away. We're not messing with that.

The next one, Niners Saints, where you have that line has dropped three net points because Brock Purdy is out. Spencer Rattler, 0-7 in his career versus Mac Jones, 4-19 in his last 23 starts. I would lean Saintz, but if it's okay with you, I'd like to move on.

It's a hilarious game. I did bet on the Saints when the number was in the 4-and-a-half, 5-and-a-half range or at the beginning of the week, not because I thought that Purdy was going to be hurt, but just because I thought the Saints were pretty goddamn lively against the Cardinals. I agree.

I thought they... I agree with you. They were not bad and they had a chance to win the game, but we are...

We are not gambling on this game this week. No.

Cardinals, Panthers. There's some money line potential with this. The cards are favored by six and a half. This goes back to the, let's never put Kyler Murray in a money line or a tease, which I just think is a good rule for life. The only caveat here is the Panthers We're the worst team in week one, and I don't see a lot of signs that that's going to change going forward. They're low on receivers. They've had some injuries already. Their defense looks awful.

Awful.

It's going to be hard to talk myself out of this, and yet I'm going to talk myself out of it.

I came this close to showing up for today's show and trying to argue to you that we should get on the Cardinals, lay the points, because that Panthers run defense is as horrendous as we imagine. They didn't improve one lick. And for the Jaguars to run all over them, this Cardinals run offense is good. This is a top 10 run offense. But the problem is the look ahead for this game was four and a half. Now it's six and a half. Just can't do it. And the Cardinal's almost lost to the Saints, or at least it was almost a tie game going to OT. There's even a great revenge argument to be made. The The Panthers beat the Cardinals down the stretch last year, 36 to 30 in a shootout, and it really had an effect on the Cardinals making the playoffs, but I don't want to do it.

You know why it had an effect? Because it knocked them out of the playoffs.

It knocked them out of the playoffs.

That actually scared me for this because the Panthers, an ultimate nobody believes in us, looked the worst out of anyone last week, but then has the belief of, Hey, we beat these guys in December. Come on. I'm staying away.

Okay.

Texans, Bucks, We're still not back for the Bucks. I thought the Bucks, on the one hand, I do still like them as a playoff team, but I really thought they were lucky in a variety of ways last week against the Falcons. And yet Houston can't block. Texan is favored by two and a half at home, and I just... I don't want any part of it. We can move on. Yeah, can't do it. Let's go to the possibles. Titans, Rams. This is Titans at home, plus five and a half. The Rams I have some middle of the offensive line injury stuff. Tennessee arguably could have beaten Denver. They were right there. They were right there. They got a bunch of turnovers. The Power had a big fumble. I didn't think they played that bad. They don't have Latham at right tackle. And the Rams, they had 14 points last week. I looked at this long and hard, and I just... I couldn't get their house.

Well, here's the thing. I share your sentiment. I think the Titans are super live. I think that five and a half is two and a half point too many. If you want to say, Ram's five, three, that's fine. But here's the problem. That goddamn coach for the Titans is a moron. He is who we thought he was. We came into this season like, well, look, the Titans are lively. Do we want to get on their futures? Well, here's the limiting factor. The coach might be a moron. He proved it beyond a reasonable doubt. This goddamn guy gave the Denver Broncos a touch down. They He lost by eight last week, and he gave them a touch down in the last 45 seconds of the first half by not just running the ball. Denver had no timeouts. The moron threw the ball three times. He gave Denver the ball. They were from their own one-yard line. Or Denver was like, Oh, thank you very much for this present. We'll take the touch down. This dummy also doesn't know that an elbow counts for the purposes of inbound. They didn't challenge the fact that their receiver was inbound and had a successful completion because dummy goes in front of the press and says, well, an elbow doesn't count for two knees, so I didn't want to challenge.

We dispense with it. So that means, first of all, he's getting bad advice. He's got a moron in the booth, and he himself is a moron because he doesn't know the rules. We can't bet on Tennessee. I'm sorry.

It's a shame. This is what we worried about when we thought about them for a long, long, long shot for the AFC South, because I don't like anyone in the AFC South, but the coach was so bad last year. He was bad in that first game. I really I thought they hung with Denver, and I thought their defense looked good. I liked how Cam Ward played, even though the stats weren't there. Me too. No, me too. I had that game on. He's a gamer. Just marveling it like he was hanging around. Anyway.

I mean, Cal and Ridley's dropping balls. Come on.

If you had to do a bet for the AFC South, Houston plus 175, Jacksonville 185, Indy 240, or Tennessee plus 950 on FanDuel, what's the best value in your opinion? My answer is none, but I think Tennessee plus 950 might be the best value.

So something like a quarter unit on that. But honestly, we're going to find out. It might be Indy. It could be Indy. What if their defense is good? What if?

We'll get to them. And then another possible. I have this one in bold. Jets plus six and a half against the Bills.

I really want to bet on the Jets this week. I'm not going to do it. I They really want to do it.

Well, I test-wise, they hung with the Stealers and their offense looked good. And Fields, I thought watching it, I thought Fields was actually good in the game. And then all the stats backed up, the advanced metrics were in his favor. He just played really well. Their offensive general played really well. They were who they told us they were going to be. They were pounding the ball. Brees Hall looked fast. And Fields was good. The problem is their defense couldn't stop Aaron Rodgers. It feels like this line is three points too high when You think Bill's coming off an emotional Sunday Night win. Ed Alvarez in a walking boot right now. Their secondaries in shambles. They didn't really stop the Ravens ever until they got the Derrick Henry fumbal, and then the Ravens had to do their turtle hard Rockets routine. We have no idea if the Bills defense is even decent, and it's in Jersey. I think the line's too high. I'm not willing to cross this off yet as a possible bet for us.

Let's keep it. Let's keep it Because you hit on the important things. The credit that I will give to the Jets organization for constructing an offense, recognizing who Justin Fields is, this is possibly we're only one game in. The smallest sample size possible. But Homey, they constructed an offense that maximizes his talent. They were not having him sit back there and putting him in a position of having to make super accurate deep throw. That was a very efficient offense that they ran, and I'm impressed.

When he used his legs, it was purposefully, it wasn't almost like Caleb in that Monday Night game. I'm running backwards. My guys aren't open. I'm going to run around. I'm going to go this way. We'll mark that one down. Ravens, Browns, I'm not allowing us to bet any direction. Why?

The browns were one of the most obvious sides last week against Cincinnati, and you didn't allow us to bet it because it's the browns. But another divisional game, it's way too many points.

Well, I wrote down this line is four points too high. I think this line should be Ravens by seven and a half.

That would be fine. And then we would just dispense with it. But the reason that I want to stick on this and just make sure we talk it through is because it's a division game. The Browns absolutely positively snatched defeat from the Jaws of victory. They invented ways to lose that game last week against Cincinnati. They beat Cincinnati pretty soundly in the underlying metrics. They just had horrendous special teams. Okay, I'm convinced. That's it. No, we can't bet it. I mean, the special teams thing is like, well, you can't put that guy out and have him kick.

They brought the kicker back, Shit Schmidt, whatever his name is. Whatever. Shit Schmidt. I did read... I did some deep diving on this one because I wanted to see how the Browns felt after they should have won last week and they didn't. And then just heading into this Ravens game. There was some nobody believes in us quotes floating around. The defense was legit good against the Cincinnati offense that we all felt that it was going to be this point machine. But they had a little more juice on offense. And it wasn't just that the Sean wasn't playing. This guy, Fanon, the rookie tight-end, who I picked up on a couple of weeks because I was watching the game, they were designing a bunch of stuff for him, and he looked really good. They just have a million runningbacks. You never know who has the ball. They have Judy.

That's another thing, man. The Flacko interceptions, they hit the receiver. I mean, that's the problem. But they weren't really terrible throws. They were extremely lucky bounces for the Bengals.

Yeah. Well, there was one terrible throw.

One terrible throw.

I have it marked. Falcons, Vikings. Vikings played Monday. They played 15 good minutes and win the game. They're banged up. They lost Blake Cashman, who's their shotcower. Right. Ginkl has a concussion, and I always feel like with concussions, you're out for the next week. I think that's the unwritten rule. So there are basically four guys down on defense now. And then Darryl Sal, the left tackle, and Ryan Kelly, the center, are both questionable. And then on top of it house, JJ McCarthy just had a kid. In the last 24 hours, had a kid. Congrats. Yeah, miss practice, had a kid.

Good job.

We've had children. It's a tense 48 hours. I don't love the thought of my quarterback having a child and then having to play the Falcons on a Sunday.

Do we go back to the well?

Do we do it?

Do we dare?

Listen, I went back, I looked at the stats. I wanted to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. I thought the Falcons played the best other than the Ravens of any team that lost in week one. I'm including the Browns, you name a team. I thought they moved the ball and did whatever they want. They just did dumb shit and their kicker kept fucking up. That's why they lost.

Because they're the Falcons. I like the three and a half.

I like the hook. I feel like they have cheap shutdown potential. I think we should at least mark it.

Yeah, mark it.

Okay. Seahawks, Stealers. Seahawks plus three. The Cousin Sal Special is plus 503 for this. Seattle wins first half. Steelers win game. It's a Metcalf revenge game. I really want to take the Seahawks, but I'm just not going to do it because that coach, there was that moment in that game when... And Sal and I got really mad about it Sunday when he didn't go for it and he kicked the field goal and gave the Niners back.

They kicked a game losing field goal. Congratulations, Coach.

Well, This is interesting, though. He talked about it after the coach McDonald, and he said his nerds, they said, go for it. The book says, go for it. He didn't go for it because he didn't trust the offense. And that's why the nerds are telling him, go for it. You got to go for it. And he's like, I don't know. That tells me he doesn't like his offense.

Well, you recall a week ago, you and I had a conversation. You really wanted to bet Seattle against San Francisco.

I know. You talked me out of it.

Well, you know who else doesn't like their offense? Me.

Right. So you and Mike... Yeah. I would take them, but the fact that he doesn't like the team made me nervous. All right. Giants, Cowboys. I think this line is too high. It's too high. The left tackle, Andrew Thomas, limited in practice. I'm just not betting them if we don't know if we have him or not. I'm not doing that on a Thursday, and I just want to stay away. But I would take the Giants normally.

I understand. I am endorsing your lean here, and I'm also endorsing the idea of staying away because Russell Wilson not being able to move, and he's as bad as we remember.

If he plays, we might just get dart on a Sunday. That's what happens. There's too many variables.

That's what happens. Okay. It's a stay away, but yeah.

And then Eagles Chiefs. The Chiefs are underdogs at home. I was stunned to hear that on Sunday with Sal. The EGLEs are favorite by one and a half. Mahomes has never lost three straight games in his career. Mahomes is 12 and 2 as a home dog. Philly threw everyone off their scent in that Dallas game when they Milton Burled it, and they just pulled out the tip. Just did enough. They didn't use A. J. Brown at all. Just a little bit of the tip, just enough to get some pea in the urinal, and that was it. And were they saving it for this game? This is a really hard one to figure out because from a football standpoint, I feel like the Eagles are undervalued just because they didn't have Jalen Garder 10 days ago. And just all the nerves are, well, you got to take KC at home. My homes and all these things. But I just don't think KC is that good.

Yeah, This is the hardest game on the board because I really have a strong conviction in favor of the Eagles here. Let's hear it. Well, the thing that we watched in the Super Bowl was the Eagles controlling the Chiefs on both sides of the ball in the trenches. And we watched the LA Chargers go down to Brazil and repeat that exact same footprint. They beat the crap out of them physically. They Justin Herbert just stood back there and went through progression number one and progression number two. And he didn't have to get to progression three because he found a guy open because the secondary for the Chiefs is super vulnerable, not an impressive It's a bit of secondary.

Well, the only thing that worries me about this is, what if the chargers are really good?

This is exactly the concern.

This is the problem in week two. We talk about this all the time. It's not about overaction, underaction. It's about the previous week, coloring your opinion this week. It's like, wow, the Chiefs didn't look that good against the Chargers. But that might be because the Chargers are good. That's what we have no idea with. I just think, worthy, might play, might not. No, Rashi Rice, the Chiefs didn't look explosive at all. I really feel like Philly was roped open everybody in that first week. I think there's a lot more coming with them.

I think they can score when they want to score and when they think they need to score. I don't have any concern about that Philly offensive line, putting them... If they need to go down the field and get a score, a three or a seven, they can do it. I don't see the Chiefs putting up any resistance to that. That defensive line, it's basically just Chris Jones. Tell me what game Chris Jones is going to have, and then I'll tell you.

Carlaptais on third down. Yeah. I was thinking about narratives coming out of week two. Chiefs going 0-2 heading into that Sunday, Monday would be the biggest story in the league, right? Everyone's like, Oh, my God. The Chiefs are 0-2. Do we have a new king of the AFC West? I just feel like we're going to do that, and then they'll probably be fine by week 10. This is it. We're done. And then the Chiefs will be like seven and three.

Baltimore started last season, oh and two.

I don't know if we should actually bet this, but I have a hard, hard, hard lean on the Eagles.

So do I. So we'll see as we work this out.

Bears, lions. Bears are getting six and a half in Detroit. There's some major lions uncertainty on the offensive line. There's some bears defensive back uncertainty, although it seems like they're going to get some corners back. I wish we had known that for sure when we did that bear's pick on Thursday. Basically, you could feel it in the fourth quarter. They were just on all their backup D-backs.

Down two guys. They're two of their best guys.

This game, and the reason I had it bolded was It's one of my favorite scenarios, the old offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator who intimately knows the team that he just coached for the last few years and knows every little button to push, every weakness, every single thing because he's coaching this team week after week going, Man, I hope they don't do this against us. I hope they don't realize blank. He knows all of these things. I think the line is too high. I also don't think the lions are... I thought they got their asses kicked. The DVOA rankings came out for week one, and they were in the bottom four, I think. They got their asses kicked against the packers, and maybe the packers-The packers might be good.

That's the problem.

Well, yeah, that's the problem. But I just thought the line was too high, and it seems like an overreaction to me because of how that Monday night game played out at the end.

I agree, and I especially like your angle, the correct angle of Ben Johnson understanding how the order of operation for that offense and how that offense can be most successful there in Detroit, and sitting all week with his defensive coordinator and saying, This is how we're going to defend this. This is the right way to try and take away some of this stuff. And Green Bay was super effective at taking away a bunch of that stuff.

Yeah, they should work. Did you see that stat about Jared Goff when he doesn't have Sean McVay and Ben Johnson calling plays for him?

He had to win a game, right?

He was like, oh, in '75.

Whatever it is. Yeah, it's right. Exactly.

But yeah, I'm not done with the bears yet. I just think that was a weird game. They got that pick six, and it just felt like they were off to victory. And then JJ just made a couple of big plays and big throws, and the bears just died. It was weird.

I don't think I can get there with the bears because they can't run the football. And if you can't run the football, it just put Caleb in so many situations where he's having to go through reads and he's backpedaling, and he's sprinting left, sprinting right.

Did you read the excerpts from that giant piece Tyler Dunn did about Caleb?

No, no. Talking to all the people.

It's a substack piece, but it's pretty damn Climbing, man. It did not make you feel awesome about whatever's happening with them, or if you have them on two fantasy teams like I do. Chargers, Raiders, Chargers minus 3 in Vegas, which is the overreaction line of the week, I think. Carroll versus Harba. I had the Raiders all week, but this Brock Bowers, maybe not be 100%. I'm not locking in the Raiders, and then Brock Bowers is out on Monday night because that's going to be a loss.

Well, Mike Maher got all of the routes. He was pretty successful.

Yeah, but he's not Brock Bowers. Like, Barack Bowers killed the... So this is another one of those week two.

What do you think should be the right line then? If it's an overreaction? Chargers one and a half?

I think it should be Chargers, one and a half or two and a half. I don't think it should be three.

Okay.

But I think maybe some of that has to do with Bowers. I will say this, though, going back to the earlier discussion about how week one shapes week two. The Raiders might be pretty good, and it might have made the Pats look a little worse than maybe they are because they're just really explosive. They had dudes all over the field, and Gino was hucking it. And he makes the two or three dumb Gino plays. But for the most part, they were maximizing who he was. The thing is, the Pats shut down their running game, and they were still able to get all these explosive plays. But I like their offense. I think they're going to be able to move the ball.

I regret not having more balls. I should have argued with you about getting on the Raiders. I really like that situation for them.

I said in the thing, I thought they were going to win, beat the Pats in week one. I mean, there was no Gonzales. Anyway, The Gonzales thing, we didn't know for sure until after the show.

No, we knew. We knew for sure. I knew. Yeah, but you know.

Then the last two, these are my favorites, Speaking of the Patriots, I swear, even if the Dolphins didn't have all this crazy shit going on, I would still like the Patriots in this game. But the fact that they have all the crazy shit going on makes it even better. Patriots plus one and a half in Miami. I I honestly don't think Miami should be favored over any team in the league except for Carolina. Their secondary was so bad in that Colts game. They were so poorly coached. All the Colts were doing were just stacked in the middle, and Tua didn't seem like he knew who to throw to. I just think Miami is a mess, and I actually think the Pats might be a little better than they showed last week. I watched the game again after Sal and I did the pot, and it was Yeah, it was a little bleak, but they also didn't run the ball at all second half for some reason. I thought it was from a strategy standpoint was the bigger issue than a talent standpoint. I don't think the Pats are... I don't think they're that bad. And González looks like he's coming back this week.

Vrabel has done great against Tua over the years, and I just like the Pats. So this is going to be one of my picks, house.

Well, here's the only thing that I would want to make sure that we're feeling about is González coming back. We said at the outset that he's vital, that he's a crucial piece to that. I get it. If we know he's coming back, then I feel good about this. I don't disagree with the idea that the Patriots should be favored. What we're really fighting against here is math because the history, the trends, the legacy of a team that got beat the way that the Dolphins did in week one, there is a strong inclination over the years that that team bounces back in week two. It's not nearly as bad or bleak as it looks. It's as bad and as bleak as it looks from my perspective.

There's a counter trend of that where both teams lost against the spread in week one. The underdog is like 70 something % in week two. I looked at all the trends. They all contradict each other. I'm going to look at this trend. Mike McDonald trending. Mike Mitek are trending on Monday because He's been relieved of his duties after this game. I think it's a likely outcome.

Good. This one's in. Put this in. It goes in the 107.

I will say this, because I think the Dolphins are the worst team in the AFC. If the Pats can't beat the Dolphins, this is going to be a disaster of a season. They should be able to beat the Dolphins. I think they're going to be able to run the ball. They'll use Henderson more. The thing with the Pats this year, and it really jumped out when we watched it, was they do have speed this year. Like, Boody, he's I've been a 100-yard guy basically for four games in a row now. They have Diggs, and they have Henderson, who I think they're just going to end up using more. But it's just not last year's team. I think they're going to get Drake and they're going to start rolling them out. I think if you can get a lead on Miami, you can break them. That's one of my picks. Then the other one, I'm not going to get shaken off the Broncos because they fell asleep at home against a team that they thought was going to suck. They got Super Bowl smoke, blown up their ass for the whole offseason, and Bo Nicks just absolutely sucked in the game.

I don't think he's going to suck all season. He sucked in the game. You better not. It was a bad game. It's I don't like that Colts defense is going to harass them. I thought Tennessee's defense was good in that game. This line being under three feels like a miracle to me because I would have bet crazy money on this in August. Fyi, why do we trust Daniel Dimes and the Colts? Because they lit up this awful poorly coach Miami defense. They're going to keep doing that? I don't see it. I think the Broncos have an awesome defense.

It's indisputable. They do have an awesome defense, and we love the idea of that defense against Mr. Daniel. The problem is Bo Nicks. And I am concerned. I'll just voice the concern. I'm not going to argue you out of this position. I like it. I endorse it. But this Colts team was about to blow the doors off this Broncos team last season.

I remember. They did two and a half quarters, they were doing it.

Jonathan Taylor was about to cross the goal line and the big dope dropped the ball before he got crossed, and that was going to be the end of the game. And we just need to see basic competency out of Bo Nicks. He cannot do what he did last week. If he does that, we're going to lose this bet.

I'm betting on Sean Payton kicking these guys in the ass all week and kicking himself because he coached a really shitty game last week. He did. I actually think that was a good, terrible win for them. It was like, Hey, guys, we're not just showing up. Let's fucking try to go deep in the playoffs. Let's go. I think they're going to be actually almost like they lost last week, with that thing. I just don't think the Colts are good enough. Colts beating Miami, Colts playing any of these AFC South teams. It's a different caliber. It's lower. The Broncos are like an SEC team. They're an individual that might have four playoff teams, by the way. There's a chance we could have four AFC West playoff teams. It's inconceivable.

Okay. I'm not going to argue out of it.

Do you like a second AFC East team? Do you like a second AFC North team? Maybe Pittsburgh. Do you like a second AFC South team? I don't even like a first AFC South team. We could go nine and eight and above in the AFC West. So I just think that's the best division, not only in the AFC, but maybe in the whole league. And I've seen Daniel Dimes when he's going against a good defense, that it's pretty ugly. So My two are going to be Pats Broncos. We have to agree on two, but what's your pick? What's the one? You get one.

I have three candidates. Let's choose them.

No, you choose. This is your call.

Unfortunately, Personally, I am going back to two teams that kicked us in the nuts last week.

Well, give us the Bronze and give us the Silver, and then give us your gold medal winner.

All right. So the Bronze is going to be the Eagles. I really, really, really want to bet on the Eagles against the Chiefs, but I just have too much respect for Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, and I don't want to do it. The thing that is the challenge with the Eagles defense is it's a cast of characters that are new to a Vic Vangio defense, and we've seen so many times, so many years. It takes a little while for them to get it. They will get it ultimately, but they're so susceptible and vulnerable. They could have definitely lost that game. Now, I know no Carter, but still. So that's the Bronze. The Silver is the Bear.

I'm surprised. I thought you were going to throw the Eagles at me.

I really wanted to do it, but I just have too much respect. I don't want to sit there on Sunday evening like, God damn it, why did I go against the Chiefs? And that is counter to what I did at the Super Bowl. I love the Eagles at the Super Bowl. I bet them every which way. That proved out. But this is it. This is... Arrowhead Stadium is not a neutral stadium. And this is really it for the Chiefs. You said it. If they lose this game to the Eagles, we might be in reckoning mode, even though they can turn it around. My Bronze is the bears because the This is your silver.

I knew you would screw this up.

You just threw it at me. The silver is the bear's.

That number is- I'm going to just ask you to reverse gold medal standing.

It's ridiculous. The number is ridiculous. 6. 5 is preposterous. I am definitely going to bet on the bears, getting the six and a half. And yet I just don't want to be in Caleb's hands. I just don't want to. I didn't enjoy that fourth quarter. I didn't enjoy watching him run around. I didn't enjoy the inability of the bears to establish the run in any meaningful way. And the playbook just got thin real quick. They were on script, and then when they went off script, it was a bad offense. So I just don't want any part of it.

Okay.

I'm playing on the Atlanta Falcons. I'm sorry. Wow. That's my pick. It's the numbers wrong. If you wanted to tell me it was like a one and a half or two or whatever, but I don't... It's a number based on priors, and that's fine. It's in line with look ahead. I just think that this Falcons team showed us a version of themselves. They're better. And they lose games by self-defeating. They lose games by self-sabotage.

Maybe we just take them every week until we can hit one of them.

So are you going to be mad if we have to look at this Falcons team?

I knew this was coming. I had them already in a spot.

All right. So it's the Falcons. That's my pick.

Well, so if we do Pats and Broncos as my two picks, now we have to agree on two. And here's where I can offer you for agreeance, Jets plus six and a half in Buffalo or at home against Buffalo.

I want to do it. I think that Bill's defense is so depleted. And what we saw out of Baltimore, I think the Jets, they really- Noah and Oliver, can they just run the ball? Did Buffalo... They can.

Well, let me ask you this. If Henry doesn't fumble and Baltimore just runs out the clock on them, that game is 40 to 25, and we spend the whole week going, Oh, my God. What's up with Buffalo's defense? What's the line for this game? Is it now plus four and a half? Did we just get two free points because Buffalo came back?

I need to look at the look. I'll try and look at the look ahead in the meantime.

No, just in your head, what would it have been? If it's 40 to 25, they just lose.

Honestly, Vegas zone. That would have been my guess.

Somehow that bought us points. Let me walk you through a little thought experiment because we didn't talk about a parlay, which we're allowed to do as one of the pics.

I'm listening.

Sadly, it brings the Arizona Cardinals into our lives against Carolina.

We know better.

Well, do we? Because we could take the Eagles to plus four and a half on FanDuel in Kansas City and just bet on that being a close game. And we could put that with Arizona, and that gets us under the minus 120 number. It's minus 113. Arizona to win, Philly to plus four and a half in Kansas City, a team we both think is going to win. But let's say they don't win. Is KC going to blow out Philly? No. They're going to win by a countdown by 10? This is good. I think if they win, they pulled it. If they win, Mahomes pulls this out late in the game, right?

Yeah. A late store field goal.

The issue would be if it's 2020, and then they... Yeah, 20. But I just think this is a tight game or Philly wins.

Okay. Tell me the number. What's the number? What do we get with that?

We get it to minus 114. Fine. That gets it.

Done. Say less. I'm there. I'm convinced.

All right.

So I got the look ahead. The look ahead for that Buffalo Jets game was eight and a half. So it's already down two points from that, right?

Yeah. But nobody knew the Jets were going to look like that.

Right.

All right. And before we pull the trigger on this parlay, are we sure we feel okay about putting the Cardinals in anything?

They just have to win, right?

Just have to win.

Just the W. That's all we're asking. Go home. If they're going to be a team that contends in the NFC West, a darling to win the NFC West, the Cardinals, a lot of people got in on them.

Because we could also nudge the bears up to 11. 5 and do that. Put that in double digits against Detroit.

I know how ludicrous it is. I trust Kyler more than I trust Caleb.

Okay. That's Also, maybe the Saints are okay. Maybe that's why the Cardinals look a little shaking. I personally think the Cardinals should be able to rush for like 290 yards against the Saints.

I feel the same way.

I mean, against the Panthers.

I share your conviction. Yeah. Okay. I didn't hesitate. I think that Cardinals-Egals combo is a nice one.

It's tasty. All right. Great. Those would be the two we agree on. Okay. As always, today's Ringer 107 is brought to you by our friends at Fandle. The Ringer 107 Picks for Week 2. Tough start for us, one and four. I only regret one of the four losses. We easily should have been three and two. We should mention that I called you as the Ravens were up by 15 points to talk about how we still had a chance to get to three and two for a week. And like Derrick Henry, it's like his ears were ringing and he fumbled and the rest was history. You know who else's ears were ringing? Chris Chen, our friend who joined the Bel Air Country Club last week.

Yeah, our buddy Chris Chen.

Yeah, we talked about how he joined and he was like, All these people are hitting me up to play. Can you not talk about that on the podcast again? So I want to apologize to Chris Chen for not...

For nothing.

For telling people last week that he belongs to the Bel Air Country Club. And by the way, it's available for golf if you've ever met Chris Chen. Magnificent. Just ask him. He'll host you. It'll be great. He'll set you up. One of the greats. Yeah, Chris Chen available. Okay. The Ringer 107 Picks for week 2, one and four last week. Your pick, the one you loved, was the Atlanta Falcons. I really do love it. Who absolutely kicked us in the nuts and broke our hearts last week. They did it.

He did that.

We think against a little bit of a depleted Vikings team coming off a big win last week. Big comeback win. Short week. Jj McCarthy just had a kid. Short week. Defenses is injuries all over the place. And very least, Falcons, there's some backdoor cover potential, all kinds of stuff. We're taking the Falcons plus three and a half. We agree on the Jets plus six and a half against the Bills.

We do.

It's in Jersey, and we think they can run the ball and that this game could be a nice competitive game. By the way, shout out to Membo, the right tackle for the Jets, because I talked in the preseason about how he was really bad in a preseason game, and he was lights out in the PFF ranking. He was. Maybe they got a thing, but I feel like they can hang in this game. And this is like a let's be careful out there. If you're throwing the bills in a parlay, tease, elimination pool, whatever, I would steer clear because the Jets looked good last week. And by the way, they lost on a 60-yard field goal. And because their punt returner who they waived, messed up a punt. That's right. That's a fumbler. Two variables that... The next one we agreed on is a little parlay. We're going to use our parlay card here. The Arizona Money Line at home against Carolina, the worst team in either conference unless Miami can top them. With Philadelphia in Kansas City, adjusted alt line on FanDuel, plus four and a half. Put those together. It's minus 113. So Eagles plus four and a half, Arizona Money Line, that's our fourth.

Broncos, you were a little nervous about this. In Indianapolis, this is one of my picks. I'm not wavering from preseason. I think the Broncos are really good.

Yeah, I'm not talking to you out of it.

I know who Daniel Dimes is, and I'm doing Broncos minus two and a half. Colts. That's fine. Then last but not least, I didn't think the Pats would win last week, and they didn't. I thought the Pats were going to be terrible last year, and they were. I think the Pats are going to win in Miami this week. I like the plus one and a half. I'm grabbing it. I think this is maybe even a little less about how bad the Dolphins are and a little more about... I think there's something in there with the Pats, especially if González can come back. Those are our Ringer 107 Picks for week 2. Today's Ringer 107 was brought to you by our friends at Fandil. Remember, odds are subject to change over the course of the weekend. I'm just going to start calling the Country Club and charging stuff to Chris Chen. Also an amazing- Can I get two orders of the pigs in the blanket just for the bar? Thanks.

They have an off-the-menu burger. That's phenomenal.

I wanted to shout out Louis K to our publicist because he sent me the voicemail eight out of nine times.

What happened?

I texted him and I was like, If you send me the voicemail again, I'm going to be looking for somebody else, even though we've been friends for 23 years. So to his credit, he was like, I'm at a screening. I'll call you when I get out. And he called me. So we're okay for now, but I would just monitor it.

He's busy. He's got... Amy Poller is calling him.

Well, that's the thing. It's like at some point- Jimmy Miller is calling him. You got to figure out how to juggle me a a little bit with your massive clients. Anyway, shout out to him. How are you feeling about the guillotine league we're in? Oh, I'm phenomenal. Try to be nice.

Well, first of all, the concept is amazing. I can't believe we're slightly behind the curve in terms of guillotine. You've been doing it a couple of years now?

No, I only did it last year. I went to a Dodger game with our friend Dave just randomly, who was one of the people threatening to be cut. He needed just a little more from DeAndre Swift down the stretch. We're in somebody's suite watching this bears game over watching the Dodgers, who, by the way, we're throwing a no hitter at the time.

A no hitter on It's a baseball field in front of your face.

He's just staring at, just praying for a DeAndre Swift touch, and they finally get the ball back. Near the end, they're down, whatever, and they're just in like... He's studying which receivers are out for the Hale Mary lateral play. Swift's not out there. It's like,. Ends up losing by two points. The guillotine is great. It really is. It's really amazing. He was devastated. He was like, I love this league. I didn't want to leave. It's really like survivor, where it's like you fly to some crazy location and then you get voted out in a day.

I offered my team to him. I finished in first. I offered if he wanted to pay me- Over the winnings of what the league would have been. A fair amount of money, that's all. Do you want the first-place team? I tried to make a fair price. That's what I offered. He didn't buy it.

I had George Kittle in this league, and I'd never have George Kittle in fantasy because he always gets hurt. And this year, he was sitting there, we were doing a snake draft, and I was like, All right, George Kittle was healthy last year. He'll be fine. He's fine. He got hurt in an hour. I had to pick up Fin and on the brown. So now I've got Harold Fin in stock.

That's pretty good.

Well, and then we're in the Ringer Yahoo fantasy thing, too, which we did for the Ringer. And I did my five QB strategy. And I think one of them has already been waived, Matthew Stafford. Two is on the choppy block.

Why would you waive Stafford and keep two?

Well, because I just can't do it with Stafford. All right.

I can't. Fine. I understand completely.

You can't move anymore. I mean, God bless him. But 14 points last week. Anyway, fantasy is the most fun it's ever been.

Don't call it a comeback. It's great. Yeah.

All right, House. Great to see you.

Always.

Thanks for staying relatively sober for us. Do you have any last thoughts on the Steve Ballmer scandal before we go? I talked about it earlier in the pod.

Well, it is what we thought it was. You've made made the point. A lot of smart people have made the point. It doesn't matter. We don't need to go find smoking guns. And I think there are some. Pablo keeps on digging up more stuff that makes it look worse and worse. But the appearance of impropriety is sufficient. You just can't have the thing that they did. He invested in a closed investment and Kauai benefited in almost exactly the same amount of money. That's enough. We don't need any other discussion about it. It looks bad to the other owners. And what's coming out this owners meeting will be really interesting.

I don't have a sponsor yet for this new studio, so I'm calling it the Aspiration Studio for now. The Aspiration Dome. Getting ready to go.

I'm worried about that, though. Why would you want to do that? They don't have any money.

Well, they're hot right now. It's a hot brand.

You're putting the stink on your studio.

That's a good point.

It's a Ponzi scheme.

Yeah, that's a good point. All right, I'll come up with another name. All right, House, what's We'll celebrate our Riner 107 come back in a couple of days, and I'll see you next week.

Only when the games are over. Don't send me any text while the games are going on, please, for the love of God.

By the way, when's Ryder Cup?

It's in two weeks. And I'm going to go.

I will be there. When do you start? When How do you start getting fairway rolling the odds and start talking about all that? Next week or the week?

We've been talking about it, but we'll have a little bit next week and more the week of the Ryder Cup for sure.

All right. See you, house.

See you, buddy.

All right. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to House and CR and Concepcion. Thanks to Gehow and Eduardo as well. I am not going to be back until Sunday, which will be the same day we put up that Prestige TV podcast with the recap of episode 2 of TAS. I'll see you with the Cus on Sunday. Must be 21 plus in President's Lake States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 100 Gambler or visit rg-help. Com. Call 188-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp. Org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline ma. Org, or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support, Massachusetts, or Hope, NY, or text Hope, NY in New.