Transcript of The NFL’s Coaching Carousel, and a Round 2 Breakdown With Peter Schrager and Joe House

The Bill Simmons podcast, presented by Fandil Sportsbook. We are also presented by the Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new rewatchables on Tuesday. We do What Lies Beneath. We have a really good movie coming out on Monday. Good meaning that we've been dying to do this one for years. So stay tuned for that. You'll be either pleasantly surprised or horrified. It'll be one or the other. This is my fourth podcast of the week. It's our first week on Netflix. We remain on video, and you can listen to us on Spotify as well, and you can find us on any podcast platform you want. We will be going live on Sunday right after the fourth playoff game of the weekend, which is Ram's Bear's Cousin Sal and I'll be here. It should be around seven o'clock. We will be live on Netflix for that, and you'll be able to listen to that one right after. Coming up here, we're going to have Peter Schrager come back. We have Joe House still here. We're a carcass from last We got killed on pics. It's fine. We're going to talk round two. We're going to talk coaches, a whole bunch of other stuff next.

Let's take a break, pro gym, and then boom, let's go. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by FanDuel. Fanduel has got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping in live. They have your way. Go check out your way. You can build the bet that fits your play, your way. Plus, don't miss out on the NFL Playoffs, one of my favorite times of the year, all month long. Download the FanDuel app or head to fanduel. Com. Com/bs to get started. Get ready for the playouts. Let's go. Must be 21 plus President selects states, 18 plus in DC, Kentucky, and Wyoming. Get in a problem, call 1-800, game, or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-777 or visit cc cpg. Org/chat in Connecticut. All right, recording this late afternoon Pacific Time. Joe House here as always, as we continue the carcass that was our Ringer 107 Picks season. I like it at this point. I'd rather with Picks, either be terrible or good, and we've been terrible this year. Peter Schrager joining us. He's been doing media, I think, for 48 straight hours. I've seen him on every ESPN channel. Just Tom and Harbaugh. He's just done Rince Lather, Repeat.

Tom and Harbaugh, Tom and Harbaugh, Tom and Harbaugh. Why was this such a big deal?

Which one? Both of them?

Just the combo of it. It felt like this end of an era, start of a new era thing. But meanwhile, neither guy had won a playoff game. Well, Tom and I had won. He lost his last seven. Harbaugh hadn't made the Super Bowl since when? 2013?

Yeah, since the Superdome.

And yet everyone was reacting like this. Do these guys have anything left in the tank, in your opinion, to be Super Bowl winning coaches?

Interesting because as everyone was doing flips on my ESPN Networks today. And hello to the Netflix audience. I'm happy. If you're watching Emily in Paris, I'm here now. This is good. As everyone's doing flips about the Harbaugh, someone in the NFL, a very trusted source, texted me and goes, I could have sworn you were all doing the same flips about Pete Carroll last year when the Raiders hired Pete Carroll, and they thought that that was the culture guy, and that was going to bring stability. I said, It's a little different. It's a little different in that Harbaugh is 11 years younger than Pete Carroll. In this case, he is what the Giants actually need. Such turbulence there over the last 5, 10 years. I don't want to say this on television because it almost goes to a dark place. But John Maira is sick. John Maira, the owner of the Giants, is sick in a way that in this move is him putting his flag down saying, Okay, whatever happens over the next however long, we know this franchise is at least in capable hands. We know that John Harbaugh is going to at least instill stability and install a professionalism and a culture of discipline-winning Giants football that is what those fans have always known, whether it be Coughlin or Parcells or even Dan Reeves.

There's always been that senior voice, that leader, that guy who's been there, done that before even getting there.

You mean the fans over 18 years old?

Yeah.

Sorry, I hate the Giants. So I'm in Soda's house. No, just they haven't been good in 11 years.

I've been fine with it. I've enjoyed it.

It's like, oh, the Giants fans are so used to this. It's like, there's Giants fans in high school who have no recollection of anything good happening with this team. So it's been a while.

I guess this is my point. No, I know. And the counter to Harbaugh, which there's many... I'm telling you, my phone lights up when I go on these ESPN shows with people in the league who are always just quick to tell me I'm wrong. So as I was praising the higher and saying why this doesn't necessarily work for seven of the eight teams. Giants made sense. Giants need this. That franchise needs this. Someone said, he's 63. He doesn't call offense or defense. He lost the locker room this year in Baltimore of a bunch of 20-year-olds who he didn't connect with anymore. And oh, by the way, for Mr. Special Teams' coach and CEO, they blow leads more than any team in the fourth quarter. So what exactly are you getting? And I'm like, all valid, all fair. The Giants fan base and franchise needed this guy at this moment.

Well, you left out that the hiring of coaches didn't seem like it was one of his strong suits either, other than Mike McDonald, who was awesome for him and a big reason why they were succeeding. Now you're seeing him in Seattle. Are you nervous about being in your division?

Yes, definitely, especially with that Giants' roster. I mean, on both sides of the ball, there's talent. I've enjoyed the ineptitude. And the thing that from the perspective of a Washington fan, they still have that GM, thank God. That GM is still sitting right there in the chair. Somehow he survived over all these years of ineptitude. But here's the thing, man. They needed an adult, and they hired an adult. That's the thing that's been missing. Dable is awesome. And honestly, it's impossible. But the best move for the Giants would be to hire Brian Dable as the offensive coordinator. That would be a team that would honestly be... Wow, has that ever happened?

Well, don't laugh. So Dable is actually interviewing or doing this on Thursday. He's interviewing for the Titans head coaching job tomorrow. I think Eagles actually makes a lot of sense for him. But Mike Kafka, who was the interim coach and the offensive coordinator last year, I got it from pretty good people. He's still in the mix as an offensive coordinator for the Giants. The rare like, All right, so I was offensive coordinator, new head coach, and I was the interim head coach, but I still might be the OC because Dart actually showed a lot of flashes with him. Everyone in the morning was like, Todd Munkin is going to be his offensive coordinator. Well, Todd Monken is interviewing for the Cleveland job on Tuesday I believe, for the second time. It might be the Cleveland Browns head coach. So slow down with putting in who's going to be the coordinators. But these hires, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, are almost as important as landing the plane with Harbaugh.

I thought they were sloppy the last couple of years. And I thought the stuff with Lamar and the relationship was just strange. Guys, one of the best five quarterbacks in the league, and everything about it seemed choppy and weird. I thought they blew just... I mean, how? Somebody How many times did they blow games that we bet on?

I mean, that's true, although I would push back gently on the notion that they were sloppy last year. There were some regular season losses.

No, last year, they were. You're right.

The hallmark. But they were one play away, and they were absolutely as talented, if not more talented than the Bills, they just, because they threw away a stupid Raiders game in the early part of the season last year- At home to Minchou. Ended up having to go on the road to Buffalo, and it was last play of the game situation. And that's been the tale over the last half decade with this Baltimore team.

My thing is it increases their floor, right? Totally agree. Now it's like, if Harba had been in charge of last year's team, they probably don't have the record they have. I like that he's an adult in a city that needs adults and needs, you know.

It'll be interesting. So like the whole... There's a couple of cool meta Brian Curtis, sports media stuff here. The people that were on it were Ian O'Connor, who's not necessarily a Giants beat writer. Art Stapleton, who's the local New Jersey. Com writer. You've got guys who we don't typically get the day-to-day from. It was like, this is an old-school coach, and he's got his people. As we're tracking everything, Everything. What I loved about it was that in real time, it wasn't the 48 hours, let me show you how they got them. People were like, All right, they're at dinner at a restaurant in East Rutherford right now. Or Chris Maira went and flew to Harbault's home and sat with him. The chase was fun. This was a cool ride for Giants fans. And as much as Joe Shane gets shit on and as much people think, Joe Shane landed this plane. I know money talks, and I know that maybe Harbaugh wasn't going to have other opportunities. But to get Harbaugh to agree to do this before meeting with Tennessee, which from all accounts, we're going to offer them the world also. No state income taxes, no pressure.

Kam Ward could have been an opportunity that was interesting. It was pretty cool to watch this in real-time from a media standpoint and not the usual players who are saying, Here's what the latest is. Ian O'Connor dusted off the old notebook and was like, All right, I'm going to be up to one in the morning working on this. Paul Schwartz from the New York Post was like, I'm going to be on this. It had an old-school chase to it. From the journalism standpoint, from the spotlight or from whatever, it was like, All right, there is a place for media in this. And those Giants Beat Reporters did a great job on this one.

And there was a piece about I read on Sports Illustrated about the dinner in the wine cellar. At Emia in East Rutherford, a Mediterranean restaurant. That house, you would have liked it. They went off the menu with the dinner.

Oh, you know how I feel about off-menu.

Some stuff that wasn't normally on the menu. I think the Harbor That thing's fine. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. He's hitting that mid '60s. It's another young team. If he had trouble clicking with the young Ravens, I don't know why that would change with the Giants. The Toma thing was way more interesting to me because he's younger. I think he's a better coach than Harbaugh, and I think there are real reasons why he didn't succeed, which basically stemmed to the fact that they threw with a quarterback position for seven, eight years, ever since Big Ben started to fall apart. I guess the question with that one is, he to discount the quarterback position and never really, even when they could have drafted Jackson Dart, there was stuff in the draft they could have done. It feels to me, House, he just needed a break. I'm excited to have him on TV. I don't know if he's going to be as good as everybody seems to think he's going to be on TV. I reserve judgment because I think he's coming back to the league. Those guys always scare me. But it's like, I'll do TV, but I don't want to be too hard.

But what's your dream scenario for Tomlinhouse?

Well, TV for sure this upcoming season. God, we need that. We did a draft, Cousin Sal and Anthony DeBun. I saw that. Yeah. The possibilities range from the new head of the Defense Department, Department of War, all the way to Fox. I think Fox is probably where he'll land. But honestly, BS, you just raised a point that I am fascinated by, and I have to ask Pete, because Tomlin will never tell the truth. What was going on in the front office of the Pittsburgh Stealers over the last decade? Mike Tomlin didn't miss out on drafting Jackson Dart. It wasn't 100 % his decision. The only quarterback they drafted was a tiny person with tiny hands. Why did they do that? And how have they missed? There's been good quarterbacks for eight years now.

Yeah, but they were in quarterback purgatory because of the draft spot. They never had that top 10 pick. So when they took Connie Picket at 20, it was like, all right, he watched Picket every day at practice because they share a facility with University of Pittsburgh. There was a comfort level there. But I can't blame him. Now look, they had the 20th pick, I think, this year in the draft. They passed on them. They took a defensive lineman. But yeah, they passed on Jackson Dart, Shador, Tyler Shuck. Could they have taken one of those guys?

Sure. Tyler Shuck was a tough one. I mean, he went to the 40th pick.

Yeah, but I think in his heart of hearts, they knew they were all in. I had a good feeling that he had an assurance that Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback this year. So, again, I- That's fine.

They could still take Shuck. How about Pirel Edmonds over Lamar Jackson?

All these are fair. I just felt like...

I know he wasn't in charge of it, but he also had an immense amount of power. I'm sure they didn't want him to leave the last five years. And at some point, you got to slam your fist down and be like, I can't do this again with shit quarterbacks. What What are we doing, guys? Help me out.

What's interesting is the stuff that came out afterwards is that he handed his papers in. He said, I'm done. He walked away. It sounds like the Steelers were willing to run it back maybe one more year and have that conversation. Whereas Harbault was flat out fired by Steve Bishadi, who, by the way, the best hour press conference I've ever seen the owner give. I love that. We don't have enough of him on television. He should be on a microphone more. But that said, where that's a firing, this one, Tomlin his papers in and says he'll do it. And he goes out with dignity and he tells the team, and you get the story today that everyone was crying and standing ovation, the whole thing. He's got two more years left on that contract. And as pleasant and as amicable as that was, the Steelers are a business, and they're not just going to let him go anywhere. So he's going to have to sit out at least one year. And then next year, there has to be a trade to get him. Now, he was making more than $20 million a year to be the Steelers head coach.

And he's got two more years left on that. So it's He's walking away in a place where I don't think he wanted to hear the noise anymore. I think he wanted a break. I think he wanted to have a fresh start. And the media deal, I worked, obviously, with Sean Payton the one year he was away. Mike McCarthy and I did the draft together this year when he was away. And it's amazing that these guys still, when Payton was gone for that year, he might not have said too many vitriol like things or gone viral. But watching games with him, he was just peppering every in that green room? What are your thoughts on Bryce Young? What are your thoughts on Justin Herbert? Do you think that Chargers job would be open? He spent that whole year navigating the landscape and getting as much... What do you think of David Tepper? Is that a guy I could work with? What do you think of it? Those were the questions. I would imagine if Tomwen takes a year off, next year will be a fact-finding mission, and he will be the Mike Vrabel hire of next season, where he was away for a year, and now he will have all the information he wants.

Should I have done this after I left ESPN house? Take a year? Just take it a year and just done the Fox Sunday NFL show. Just on those guys and been like, I don't know what I have long term yet.

Steak dinners.

It just sounds great.

A whole year's worth.

It's basically like a gap year. Honestly, I feel like you owe me because I would have invited myself to at least two thirds of the courtship.

I mean, scarcity is the most valuable attribute, right? And look at the coaching cycle we're in right now. There's still, what, six jobs to get filled? Eight. Eight. Eight.

And there's not exactly Ben Johnson and Mike Frable on the market. We're talking about teams are going to be fighting over Jeff Hathley and Jesse Minter. No offense Most of those guys. But that's where we're at. No offense. Also, I would add, with the Gap year and the year away, like Baschadi said something interesting. He said to John Harbaugh, Hey, you're 63. You like to travel. Your wife You guys are in your 60s and your daughter's in her '20s at law school. Use this year because five years from now, when you're '68 or 10 years from now, when you're '73, you won't be able to travel like you want to. You won't want to do these things. Tomlin walking away now, perfect time, come back refreshed, and truly already will be the bell of the ball for the next head coaching opening.

It's tough because if you're a Stealers fan, hard to feel good about the rest of the decade. Tom is like, Okay, guys, we'll see later.

It went all in this year.

Yeah, this is the guy selling the house that he knows that there's all kinds of shit in the basement and there's black mold in the bedroom and the neighbors are about to do construction and there's 90 things that are about to happen. And he's just like, I'm out. I wish everybody the best. Thank you. And he's just gone. I'll be interested to see where he goes, not just for a football, but for TV.

What do you Well, first of all, we have too many people on every show to begin with.

So it's not like, Oh, man, they need one more person on this show. I do think Fox could maybe use a little Botox.

An injection?

I thought Fox was pretty brutal this year. I didn't really understand. I know Schregs. I know you... Schregs is a good at saying. This is tough for Schregs, but I feel like the mix has gotten stale on the Fox show. So I I think that would help. When Jimmy left, there's a coaching seat. Well, MBC, I think, the Sunday Night Show.

Mbc is interesting because then you could do the whole big announcement at the Super Bowl with 50 million people. You could roll out Tomlin. Oh, we got the Olympics. We're going to bring Tomlin to Milan. He could be the shiny new toy for a little bit, too.

But most times they go in the studio, whereas I actually enjoy it more if they knew how to do the games. I know that games are really hard to just get thrown into, but I think that would be really fun to hear him break down different stuff. Well, we talk about this every time this happens, the Pat Reilly MBC factor of you just grow in stature the year off. By the time it's 12 months from now, it just seems like you're the biggest prize imaginable. Maybe House's commander's job will be open by then.

Well, I don't want to divert us too much, but this Brian Floris, defensive coordinator thing really has my attention.

You like it?

Would that be a head coach in waiting, potentially, if this Washington team does not perform up to standard?

They just got rid of... They just parted ways with Cliff because they felt like, Hey, can we have people who are going to be here for a few years? Why would you then hire Flores for one year?

Oh, no, no. It would be for longer than one year because he's the next head coach.

That's not awkward or anything.

Yeah, that doesn't... Come on, house.

What do you think of 30-year-old David Blau, who's never called to play at any I'm not worried about that because we have lots of evidence.

Every one of the most successful young, offensive-minded coaches in the NFL were here in Washington at one point, and they were all young. They were David's age. So let's go ahead and take a swing.

I've gotten to know him a little bit. He's significantly younger than me, which is alarming. But I don't think anyone expected him to be an offensive coordinator, but he is outstanding and is one of those guys. Him and Davis Webb, who we all watched, are both these quarterback whisperers now. They're basically saying, Jaden and him had a great relationship. Let's just elevate him and let's go.

It's great. Listen, after Con Canipple comes in, age 20, does the BS pod for 75 minutes. Everything's just happening younger and faster these days. Third-year-old coach sounds great.

They all grow up quickly.

Yeah, everybody. Maybe it's the internet gets everybody going.

Can I use that to throw out a name for the Cleveland job that's getting a lot of heat right now?

Hold on. Before you do that, I can't think of anything worse than the Cleveland job. I would rather not have a head coaching job. I would rather just pass. Why do you say that?

That's not true.

Because I think they're terribly owned. I think they have not figured out their quarterback situation at all. They have this Deshawn thing hanging over them. I just think that there's seven other teams I would rather be for the next five years in the AFC, hands down, without even blinking. How am I going to turn things around in Cleveland? Good luck.

Go I know there's a lot of former Brown's employees who listen to this podcast. They're grinning right now at that whole comment. That's not why I did it. No, I'm not saying it. Who's the worst franchise for them the last 13 years? They were in the playoff two years ago, for Christ's sakes. They had one year and a Thirteen. Thirteen. They were competent. Congratulations. Still a good defense. What I would say is we're talking about the young... That's the team that goes and swings for that super young coach because there are no expectations next year. They have this really good rookie class. Whether you like Shador or not, he's a part of it. But besides him, it's Schwesinger, and it's Fanning, and it's Judkins, and they got all these guys, and it's a blank slate. Congrats. The two names that are getting a lot of buzz with them and comes from good sourcing. Grant Udinsky, 30-year-old offensive coordinator of the Jaguars, and Nathan Schilhaus, no relation to Joe House, who is the number three on that Ram's offense, who's 35 years old and used to coach at Iowa State. Those two guys might not get to look anywhere else, but they might be the next head coach of the Browns where they just go super young and say, screw it, let's just go with a young, fun vibe.

And by the way, Watson stuff all is off the books after next season, too. So there's a silver lining to all this at some point.

Honestly, I'd rather hire Mike McDaniel than any of those dudes. He I think the McDaniel thing you could really talk yourself into if you started it long enough because Tua was just not a quarterback that you could do anything with on top of all the injuries they had the last couple of years. And it was a weird situation to begin with. I would rather, at least There were some proven stuff happening with him with DJ Mikey Max spending his tracks.

Let me ask you guys, because this is a good debate I had with someone today. Would you rather be the head coach of the Cardinals or the Browns? Or would you rather, if you're Mike McDaniel or you're Cliff Kingsbury, there are so many Are you seeing amazing offensive coordinator jobs open right now. Detroit's offensive coordinator job is open. Philadelphia's, Tampa's. Are you better suited going to one of those teams with an established quarterback, the Chargers with Justin Herbert crushing it for a year? Or do you say, You know what? A head coaching job only comes around so often. I got to take a head coaching job. Because I don't know if anyone's going to have to choose between the two, but there's a lot to like about those coordinator positions, and there's so many negatives to some of head coaching jobs.

I have a take on this, but house, let's say you're a 32-year-old. You're not a red-hot coordinator, but you're definitely respected during the interview process. Would you grab the first head coach job that you could get and talk yourself into it, or would you play the long game and try to basically build your fortitude for a year from now, basically, versus like grabbing something?

Yeah, the credibility, the quals. Yeah, I absolutely adore the Detroit opportunity. I think that's amazing. And that would be my absolute number one first choice without hesitation or reservation. I agree with house. Yeah.

Over like Arizona head coaching job with no question, with doubts at quarterback.

But here's the thing, Shanks.

No quarterback. Who's the quarterback? Who plays quarterback for the Cardinals?

Can I be new coach conciliar for a second? Yeah, please.

Let's do that. That's fun.

This is good.

Who's your quarterback? Who's your owner? That's it. You can figure out everything else. But if you're 0 for 2 with those two things, I'm out. Arizona, who's been a fucking bigger disaster than them other than Cleveland? Arizona, it always goes wrong with them.

Jets would like to be included in the conversation.

I'm saying out of the ones that are available, the Jets have a coach, at least for the next couple of months.

Yeah. Well, Raiders are interesting.

Yeah, but I would much rather have the Raiders' job because at least I have a quarterback in that scenario, right? And I have an O.

And Raiders assuming Mendoza?

Yeah. At least I have somebody that I can talk myself into. Okay. Mark Davis, who's been a bad Riders' owner, but he's been a good WMBA owner. It's not like he's completely incompetent, whereas the Browns- And he spends.

And he spends.

When he hired Pete Carroll a year ago, we were like, That makes sense. Pete Carroll, maybe he can- Kelly, that's great.

We thought and Gino. That was a good risk, a good gamble.

Yeah. I look at it like, I just wouldn't do those organizations organizations unless they had this awesome quarterback. I'd be afraid to do the Tennessee one, too, because I think they're a mess, too.

Oh, I think their quarterback is good.

But you have Cam Ward. That's what I mean. So with that one, it's like QB organization. All right, I can talk myself into Cam Ward. I'm sure Harba probably heard stuff about the organization that made him be like, Oh, I'll do this Giants thing. Longest, longest NFC franchise we have, right? Them are the bears. Who's been around long-Yeah. Those two? Packers. I'm talking out of my ass now.

How do you rate the Dolphins?

Good question. I think that's a bad job. That's the same thing. Organization QB. Well, I don't have a QB. Steve Ross has been not as bad as the Browns owners, but he's in the running.

They've never won a playoff game.

Yeah, they haven't won a playoff game this century. So you're going to just walk in as a 30-year-old guy with no QB and turn that around? Probably not. I'd rather I go to Detroit, build my shit up like Ben Johnson did, and then wait to strike for the... If you're 30 versus when you're 32, what's the difference? Think about the guys, what was that guy, Rob Chudzinski? Yeah. Who took that Brown's job. The Browns couldn't find a coach. They're like, All right, this guy. That guy's career was over after that. Nobody was hiring him after that. I wouldn't want to be that. I wouldn't want to be like, This is a career ender that I took this job. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by FanDuel, the divisional round. I call it round two, where the NFL's best take center stage with everything on the line. Fanduel is turning on playoff mode. More boosts means more way to level up your playoff bets. And all customers are getting a profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day waiting for you right in the app. Fanduel makes them fast, easy, and fun to get in on the playoff action.

When your bet wins, you will get paid instantly. So visit fanDuel. Com/bs and grab your profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day. You must be 21 plus, President Select States are 18 plus, and present in 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. Fando. Com. Game problem, call 1-800 Gamble or visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat-connecticate. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. If you've ever You're hired for your small business. I've done this once upon a time. You know how important it is to find the right person. That's why LinkedIn jobs is stepping things up with their new AI Assistant. So you can feel confident you're finding top talent. Post your job for free at linkedin. Com/simmons. That's me. Then promote it to use LinkedIn jobs, new AI Assistant, making it easier and faster to find top candidates. That's linkedin. Com/simmons. To post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply.

Each franchise is different. I've spoken to a lot of these candidates who are interviewing for them, and it's funny, they're all on Zoom right now until they can meet in person unless they're fully out of a job. I guess I haven't... Like, Katie's very involved with the Raiders one. I think I'm allowed to say that. He was at this fanatics event.

So phone calls from a St. Bart's yacht. That's what I'm saying. From a fanatics event.

He's a baker.

He got this fanatics event at the Intuit Dome the other night.

Hold on, I'm talking to Alex Cooper. I have to call you back.

Alex Earle, late. And then all of a sudden, he's on a Zoom, and he's very engaged and dialed in. Very engaged. That was interesting. That was interesting to me. That was great.

That was interesting to me. He's engaged. He owns a part of the team.

He's leading the interviews, all right? He's playing a big role. I was like, All right, so what's Akeman's role in Miami? Well, once they hired the GM, apparently, John Eric Sullivan, who's the packer's GM, or was the packer's number two, is now their GM. He's running the show, but Akeman's on these calls also. Each The team is different. Who's in the room and who's got the voice? So I think owner and leadership and corporate structure and org chart are almost more important than the quarterback. We'll figure all that stuff out, but give me a stable franchise where I know who I'm reporting to and I have some base. That, to me, is almost more important than the quarterback.

So would you say the Giants are a stable franchise?

I would because it's family-owned and those guys, whether or not they make mistakes.

So stable but incompetent.

Potentially, the last couple of... Yes, they've not been competent the last few years.

Ten plus years is incompetent.

They went to the play-off. A lot of swings and misses.

They went to the playoff three years ago in one of the play-off. A lot of franchises would sign up for that.

They went to the playoff. They I was like 8-1 or something that year.

I got it. Come on.

Come on, Schrags. So house, you're with me?

On what?

Organization QB, if I'm offered to, no way. Of course, yeah.

I feel like we've had this conversation already.

The Washington job from two years ago, I think, has become more interesting because House ends up with Dan Quinn and Jaden Daniels, right? Coach and QB spot available in that draft. Pats end up with Vrabel and Drake May, who easily could have both been the Washington picks. Then you have Ben Johnson, who ends up a year later getting matched with Caleb, but potentially could have had the Washington job. You could write a book about how all these sliding doors. They were on the airplane.

Oh, they were on the plane.

That's right. And they read on Twitter an Adam Schefter report that he was withdrawing his name, and they landed in Detroit and found out that, oh, wait, he's actually going back to Detroit, and they flew back home.

I mean, that could be Ben Johnson and Drake May right now. It's just weird. There's all these variables where it's like, whoa, hey, oh, oh.

You know what the difference between those teams and quarterbacks is in Washington? Washington in the NFC Championship game last year. He did. Yeah. I'm okay.

I'm pretty good. Amazingly worked out for everybody. Ben Johnson waits a year, ends up with Caleb, becomes a cult hero in Chicago. If they win this game this weekend, probably doesn't have to buy a drink again for the next couple of years. I think he's had a profound impact on Caleb. Yes. I based that just studying the locker room speeches and the demeanor of everybody.

You were on that already.

Yeah. The last one was one of the best ones last week. F the packer. Then the Vrabel thing was a miracle that nobody hired that guy for a year.

How about the fact he was with Cleveland last year?

Yeah, just like, what was it? As a consultant, right?

No one thought to hire him the year before. It's Very amazing.

Worst job is what? Cardinals?

Cardinals is tough. Cardinals is tough. That's an uphill battle in a lot of ways.

You're in a division with the Rams, Niners, Seahawks. You have no quarterback.

Facilities are not But facilities are not what the other teams have. You're dealing with Jed York who spends no tomorrow. Stan Cronky, one of the richest men in America, and then that Seattle franchise with the Allen family money, which is just insane. So it's an uphill battle from the start.

You think the Cardinals, you think they feed people on the team charter? Or is it one of those just chips and spring water and soda?

That was the Dan Snyder playbook.

Yeah, that's one of the things they do. This is one of my favorite things, finding out the cheap owners It's like some of the tricks they do.

Or if you want a T-shirt, they take it out of your paycheck, that stuff.

Or the one less bus where it's like some teams will have a lot of busses, the other ones you're crammed onto the bus. You can cut corners every single way. I think the Cardinal's job and the Brown's job are tied for worse. I like the Vegas job. I do, too. Yeah, I think they'll fourth-place schedule next year. The Chiefs are going to be a mess. Who knows with the chargers?

What about the Atlanta job?

What do you think of that job? I love the Atlanta job. You like the Atlanta job, too.

Why do you love the Atlanta job?

Because I think they have a lot of good players. I really thought that was the best team that didn't make the playoffs.

The funniest thing about the Atlanta job is that we basically have to say something nice about the quarterback situation for that to be as appealing as we- You just talked about it, right? We intuit that that's an appealing job because of all of the talent on both sides of the ball. But they're going into the season with who playing quarterback? It's Cousins.

I think Penix is a write-off. It is Cousins.

I know. Isn't that insane?

Penix is a write-off.

So you'll appreciate this because I know you guys love the corporate, how this thoughts. Okay, so Rahim Morris thinks he's keeping his job. They lose that game. He ends up getting fired afterwards. Everyone's shocked. It turns out that that was weeks in advance. They'd already hired a consultancy firm that had already done all the work. Now, this consultancy firm, it's called Sportsology. They gave Arthur Blank a book of recommendations on how he should build his franchise, how the corporate org chart should be, all this stuff. Then Arthur Blank is like, You know what? I want Matt Ryan involved. Matt Ryan and I was involved. They do an interview for a couple of other guys, but it was really Matt Ryan's job, Head of football operations. Now, it sounds like Matt Ryan is the loudest voice that's going to be deciding all this stuff. I mean, this is nuts. It's just honestly nuts.

I mean, the braided thing is nuts, too. These guys have never had any organizational anything. They were just quarterbacks.

But they've been there. They know the franchise inside and out. They know the market.

I'm less dismissive than you.

Bill, you're the same guy who hates the Blue Shirt, Cacky Pants Mafia.

That you work for? Who's that?

You know what that is, right, Phil?

Yeah. It's any of those middle managers. That's what I used to call the middle managers, the former giant company I used to work for.

I don't even I don't know if it's that company. It's any company.

Middle management. They just show up in waves like coyotes wearing blue shirts and khaki pants. Office space. They have generic notes for everybody. Hey, guys, here are generic notes.

You missed work yesterday. I wouldn't say I missed it.

Now you got Troy Akeman and Tom braided and Matt Ryan who are like, I actually have done it. I actually respect that, too.

It's like, Matt Ryan, you've been on the set of CBS for the last two years. We need your thoughts on how to rebuild our football organization from top to bottom. Come on in. Go down. Hear the car case. Please tell us what to do. I don't understand. I don't think this is that hard. The fact that Vrabel was sitting there for an extra year, I almost feel it's probably like us with the Ringer 107 Picks house. We just stare at too much information and you're the brain breaks. And you can't just step away from it and look at stuff, logically and be like, I'm taking Trevor Lawrence against It's Josh Allen. What am I doing?

I have to ask Pete, did the Titans put out some bad words about... Did they let some whispers? Because there was acrimony that led to that split. And Drabel was always the We understood from our side of things, it seemed like he was the one that should have outlived that situation.

Yeah, in hindsight.

Well, not even in hindsight, in real-time.

Let me speak first. Schragg is reporting that. I don't know if he wants to do or not, but he's a big outsize personality alpha, and some people don't want that in the building. I don't think Washington did either. You get that guy. That's your guy. The whole culture is coming from him. The Patriots don't care because they had no culture. Their owner is 85.. Yeah, and they were like, Fine, take this.

He was there.

Yeah, and they knew him. Whereas Washington- Why did you mention Washington? Because Washington hired Peters. They They had the new ownership. I think Peters and Braves could have coexisted. No, but they didn't necessarily need the awesome- They were together. But they didn't necessarily need the one-man culture show. They wanted to do this group thing where a bunch of people are in and Dan Quinn fits that. Don't get it twisted.

Survival for these executives is always in the equation. It's why Belichick got one interview. It's why a Vrabel isn't for everybody because you're handing the keys over to Vrabel. And I give Elliot Wolf, who preceded Mike Vrabel as a GM, a ton of credit for saying, you know what? Bring it on.

Ready in the room.

Yeah. This could save my job also if we start winning because at the end of the day, it won't. And then today, Joe Shane could have very easily argued for a 33-year-old defensive coordinator because that means he's going to be the biggest voice in the room. Joe Shane is no longer the biggest voice in the room, but no is what's best for the franchise is to hand the keys over to a 63-year-old, and he's going to say, I'll do my job the best I can, but this is the new face of the franchise.

Well, he wouldn't have had a voice if he didn't go for that. Can I just read you Bob Kraft's house? No way you saw this. Bob Kraft gave an interview a couple of days ago, and one of the things he talked about was Gerard Mayo's firing. He was talking about how tough it is. He said, I would say that was one of the one or two hardest decisions I've had to make because to fire a guy after one year. And By the way, it was very expensive because it was not only his contract, but 25 other coaches. It's the worst financial implication since we've owned the team. Oh, I'm sorry, Bob Kraft. You're like a freaking multibillionaire. The team's worth $8 billion. You print money. We spent 50 million unspent money this year. You're complaining because you hired the wrong coach. You had to fire him. I love Bob Kraft. Thank you for bringing us six Super Bowl's. But come on. You can't complain about how expensive it was. You're the fucking owner. You've printed money from this team for 30 years. Just stop. We're going to take a break. We're going to go through the four games.

We only have four. We have some great subplots. I can't wait to talk about them. So quick break. All right, we'll go through the games in order, fellows. Same scenario as last week with the Bills, who are now one and a half point underdogs in Denver. And this all comes down to what is your appetite for betting against Josh Allen? Last week, it seemed like a great idea. I stand by the pick. I feel like Jacksonville lost the game in the first half, but they're hit a point in that game where every third and seven, you just felt like Josh Allen was getting it, and it felt really dumb to bet against them. So, House, why is this different this week? Why would this be different in Denver?

Because Sean Payton is not Liam Cohen. I mean, honestly, the thing that we miss in the handicapping of that Jacksonville game is we did not spend time thinking through. We're so dismissive of McDermott. I think somewhat justified, the countdown with a minute left that gave the other team the ball back with a chance to tie. Probably not the best decision in the highest leverage moment. And he's got a lot of those on his resume. But respectfully, respectfully, because I am a huge Liam Cohen fan. He just wasn't up to it. I mean, he botched the play calling. And that Jacksonville team did exactly what we asked of them, go run down Buffalo's throat. Keep doing it. Never stop. Run, run, run, run, run, I'm glad that we're continuing to build him up. He is your franchise quarterback. Next season, they should be good again. But it's the playoffs, motherfucker. It's time to go win the football game. Take advantage of your advantage. The advantage was the run game, and they didn't bite down hard enough on it, and they lost because of that, in my humble opinion.

So that's the question for me, Schrags. Do we throw out the result last week because Jacksonville screwed the game up? Or is Buffalo in 2006 Pats Mode, where they somehow made the AFC title game with braided and Richie Caldwell and Jibar Gaffney and Ben Watson and Lawrence Moumeroni? It's just like, how this happened. I look at the Bills who now are down to Shaquire, Brandon Cooke, who was in the league six weeks ago. Samuel, who just came off IR, banged up Kincaid.

I think Nicole Hardman, I saw.

Yeah, and Austin Knox, close to running backs, Shavers out.

No Gabe Davis.

Gabe Davis out. Now they're missing two safeties.

No Poeyer, no Harrison.

Honestly, House, the line should be Broncos by three. You're getting a point and a half just because of Josh Allen, and it sucks to bet against Josh Allen. That's it. I can't think of another reason other than Bo'Nicks just shitting the bet in this game, which is the other thing you have to think about with Denver. Oh, shit. I took Bo'Nicks against Josh Allen. Why did I do that?

I also saw a good... They were underdogs to start the week. Now they're fired. They were the first number one seed in the AFC ever in the divisional to be an underdog at home. They are the second ever since... And the only other one is the Eagles in 2017, who, Carson Wents had just gone down with a knee injury, so no one believed in foals. There's no reason that the Broncos should have ever been Underdogs. Now, they're favored by a point or whatever. The disrespect is out of this world for Bo Nicks. And you got to think full two weeks, but really three weeks because of that week 17, that week 18 game. Trey Lance.

Yeah, that was an exhibition Been resting, home field advantage, out of control.

Besides the Jacksonville game, they didn't lose at home. So on paper, and they got a Super Bowl winning head coach, and Sean Payton, who is a master motivator and doesn't let these guys take their foot off the pedal.

And they're healthy.

And they're all healthy.

Healthy.

So on paper- It seems like their biggest problem is Patrick Sertan is awesome. Who do we put him on? There's nobody left on the bills. How do we use this advantage? We don't even have a number one receiver to throw him on.

I say all this, and I'm with you because you and I rode the Mahomes train all those other years in the playoffs, and it was always the right move. This guy is Superman, and it's his time. He's been knocking on the door for years, and the path is clear. I can't pick against him, dude.

Wow.

I can get into the Xs and O's.

I was expecting I spent a year with Sean Payton and this guy's Bill for this moment. No, didn't do it at I mean, the game plan, the bills just have to be close in the fourth quarter and then let Josh be Josh.

Just hang around. That's it. That's the game plan.

It's a fun game.

Alan has five playoff losses, four to Mahomes, one to Deshawn Watts, someone who was good.

Wild card round.

That was an overtime game.

That was an over time game. It was like baby Josh Allen.

He threw that crazy lateral.

An Alzheimer's.

My fear is for this game from the Denver side other than Josh Allen. I thought there were some weird game management stuff with Payton this year, as good of a coach as he is, and I think culture setter, motivator, all that stuff. There was some weird Over-aggressiveness at times, some just do the thing you should be doing. To me, I love R. J. Harvey, 90 plus yards rushing in this game is plus 400 on Fandil. After watching that Jacksonville game where they should I've had 200 plus yards in that game.

I think they average seven yards a carry.

Just feed R. J. Harvey. Have Bo Nicks doing some design rollouts. Just fucking run and keep the ball and don't let Josh Allen have it. Have these long-ass drives. Then on top of it, no safeties. Courtland-sutton, 30-yard pass reception plus 195. I like him hitting one. I think Denver is just... It would have to be a collapse on their part, combined with Josh It would have to be like that Jaguars game where it's halftime. You're like, Fuck, they blew it. They left all the shit in the table. Now I know where this is going.

They've also, like Chicago, have won a ton of one-score games in miraculous fashion. As we've seen time and time again, sometimes that stuff wears down towards the end of the season, and it doesn't happen in the playoff. So they've won all these games. They were winning at home. That Jaguar's loss was real. They got beaten in in their building. And a lot of these guys, they're young still. Now, they played Buffalo in the playoffs last year. Bo Nicks, they threw for 140 yards and completed 55 % of his passes. But that was in Buffalo, totally different circumstances. I don't know. Is it their time? Might be.

Or it's not. The Broncos. Yeah. It might be. This is the fascinating piece of it to me, right? If they run, then they don't need very much from Bo Nicks. And if the Bills They're standard, too high, and they take away the explosives, and they throw the sky's coverages. Because McDermott is a good defensive coordinator.

Bobby Babich is calling the D, and he's really good, too.

Yeah. They can throw a defense at Bo Nicks that will bottle him up. But if the Broncos can establish the run, then you don't need very much out of Bo Nicks. You just need them to really not turn the ball over.

Now, Bill, I I heard you with Sal and you said you're kicking yourself. But then again, the outlier is the Eagles's Chief Super Bowl last year, where we all took Mahomes because we're like, on paper, it should be the Eagles. Did you not? You took Philly?

I took Mahomes. The lesson I learned from that is if literally the only reason I have is the quarterback, and I don't want to bet against them, that's not a good enough reason.

Well, then you're taking Denver.

I think I'm leaning toward Denver house. Where are you leaning?

Unfortunately, I already bet on Denver. I like Denver. I understand exactly the harm that I'm putting myself in front of. You and I have been terrible, terrible at this.

It's fine. At this. Everyone has a bad year from time to time.

I still don't think that our analysis of the Jacksonville situation was wrong.

And the packers wasn't listening either. We should have hit both of those.

I mean, we should have at a minimum been three and three across the six games. You had New England Shregged perfectly.

Yeah, and then I drew the dumb under. I know. It's my fault.

I told you not to do that.

I know you did.

We had the Panthers figured out. That was a good angle. Yeah. Stupid packers, they had that game in hand. But let's ask Shreggs, we moved on too quickly. Who is Green Bay trading Matt LaFleur to? And what will he fetch it in return? So he could be a head coach somewhere.

That's a good idea.

That's funny because he still doesn't have an extension. Now, he's going into the final year of his contract, which none of these guys- Still doesn't have an extension?

Oh, really?

Yeah. They didn't fire him, obviously.

Right. Because they can get something in trade.

New President, SkyEd Policy, who's trying to put his imprint on things. And the truth of the matter is this. It's like they're talking about a deal. Lafleur is not one of the higher paid coaches. There are some head coaches in this league that have been hired in the last few years that make significantly more money than him. So he's got a point, too. The question is, can we win without you or do we just suck it up and pay the extra six, seven million that you think you need? That's going to be one that they have to decide. But time is ticking. You're going to do this when. So I don't know. I think he stays, but I could be wrong.

All right. House, Bo Nicks, 25 plus yards rushing. Love it. Harvey plus 90 and the Denver Money Line, that's 12 to 1 as the same game part of it.

Let's go. That's it. That's how we're playing it. I'll take the L. It'll be the second week of going against Josh Allen in the year that the AFC is the most wide open it's been in his His entire career, and he is the best quarterback in that conference. Here we are going against him two straight weeks.

A weaker team than they were a week ago. In a game they should have lost. He's more banged up than he was. I just can't. I don't think they have enough. This is disrespectful to Denver to think that somebody can go in there with Shaq here and Cooks and Samuel. The thing we didn't talk about was could James Cook actually cook in this game because Jacksonville shut him down.

Well, Denver's defense is really good, too, against the run.

And healthy. I just think this is a bad spot for Buffalo. To me, if I had to pick the narrative, Buffalo wins. The narrative is, Oh, my God, Josh Allen, this is your superhero. The other version is Denver just controls the game, beats them, and then we turn into a, They're not doing right by Josh Allen, and we do that whole thing. Why didn't they get a wide receiver? This is their fault. They wasted a great Josh Allen season. All right, so we're going to go Denver minus one and a half. I honestly think that line is... I think this should be Denver by three.

Okay, then definitely take it minus one and a half if you can.

Next game, Seahawks, seven. Over the depleted 49ers who are just losing guys left and right and are under attack by electromagnetic rays at their practice facility.

Has an article ever gone more viral?

No, it's amazing. Kittle out We've lost him. Trent Williams playing, but just is like, I'm just not healthy. I don't feel great at all.

Gave up six pressures last week.

Yeah, just not doing good. Seattle, two week rest.

Well, major news today.

Killed this team. And yet the Sam Darnal comes out of nowhere with a weird abdominal injury.

Middle of the day on a Wednesday, Thursday.

At practice.

What are we? Come on. He's running with the theragun.

It's listed as an oblique. And Clint Kubiak said in his press conference, who's the offensive coordinator, that Drew Locke took a lot of snaps with the ones. Certainly. And I was with Orlowski today in Bristol, and I'm like, I don't know enough about each injury. I'm like, oblique? He's horrible for a quarterback. Horrible. It hurts to run. Every throwing motion, it's as bad as one of the arm injuries.

Well, that's why we have drugs, Shreggs.

That's what I said. Is that something you can just shoot up.

That's why we have Torrinal.

I don't know. Can you get it?

I have a question for you, House. Go ahead. Sam Darnold versus Drew Locke. How much of a drop off is that for you? If I have a better defense, I'm just going to run the ball and I barely ask my QB to do anything.

So no joke. What do you think the line will be? Let's play guess the lines. What will the line be if Drew Locke is announced Saturday morning as the quarterback of the Seattle Seahaw?

I think it drops to Seattle four and a half.

Yeah, five and a half, four and a half. Sure.

I think we're going to the biggest zone. Only a point and a half, only two and a half. That's the difference between Darnold- Because I don't think for this game- and Locke.

One of my ideas, you'll love this house, was a parlay with this game.

I'm out. Go ahead.

Seattle Money Line under 49 and a half.

No, sir. No, no, no, thank you. No, absolutely not.

I mean, the bet I would We're not allowed to do this in the contest, but Seattle Money Line with Kenneth Walker to rush for 60 plus yards plus 109.

Like that bet in general. We'll bet that. I'm going to bet that. I'm not bet. The contest?

No, but in real life, yes.

I'm willing to be talked out of it over the next four minutes. I just don't want to take the Niners. I don't see it. I just can't believe how many injuries they had. We just did this. I thought they got dominated. I thought that game should have been like 30 to 3.

A hundred and 74 yards of offense. It was the least amount of yards a Kyle Shanahan offense has ever had.

And by the way, if I'm Seattle and I'm their fans, this is it, man. This is now lined up to win the Super Bowl, right?

But wait, look who They'd beat. They'd have to beat, let's say, hypothetically, their archrival Niners, and then their archrival Rams in their building.

Absolutely beatable Rams team playing their third straight play off road game. A team that they know really well. And then AFC, are they scared Are they scared of any of those teams? They have the best unit of any... I sound like I'm a Seahawks fan. I just feel like this is laid out for them. They could easily fuck it up. But if I'm a Seahawks fan, I'm like, holy shit, we might be able to win the Super Bowl for real. Our defense could just dominate the Niners this round. We go to the next round, we get the Rams at home, fine. Then we're going to play Bo Nicks in the Super Bowl or this Pats team that has the youngest team in the league. Or Josh Allen with no I like my chances against anybody.

I want to try and make a case for San Francisco. I want to try. I want to see what you think about this. So first of all, it's not like Kyle Shanaher and the San Francisco 49ers had an infinite amount of time to prepare for the Eagles defense. And yet he looked at Vic Fangio right in the face and said, eat this, big boy. Robinson deep, over the top, twice in the first half. Nobody had him on the Bingo card. Trick plays.

Reverse sky bang is what that play was called.

I have some ideas for that one.

How's he trying that tonight?

The circumstances are so upsetting.

Netflix just canceled us.

No, they encourage that. But The question is, he knows Mike McDonald very well now, right? He's very familiar with what Seattle is bringing to the table. He's seen it. They had, over the course of the two games that they played, 17 drives on offense that were non-neal downs. Of those 17 drives, nine of them reached... They were inside the Seattle 40-yard line. 17 drives, nine of which landed inside the Seattle 40-yard line. And they scored a grand total of 20 points over those two games. There were missed field goals, there was blocked field goal, there were turnovers all inside that 40-yard line. So there is a demonstrated ability for San Francisco to get into the scoring zone, but they couldn't capitalize in any way, shape, or form. Again, I'm just trying to make a case here to make sure that we're thinking it through.

There's a couple more manifesto rules here for this. Aware of the nobody believes in us team. That's the Niners and all flashing colors and neon. That's rule three. Rule six, never pick an underdog unless you genuinely believe they have a chance to win. I can see them winning. I don't think it's inconceivable more because the Seahawks offense, I could just see throwing a turd sandwich out there and it just being like a 10 to 7 game in the fourth quarter or something.

It was four months ago, but they beat the Seahawks in Seattle week one. Yeah. They've done it.

I don't trust the Seahawks offense at all. If you can just limit JSN a little bit, then they're going to have to run the ball.

They have been running the ball, and they've been doing it successfully. Like, the last four games, they established the run.

That's why I like them heading into this podcast because I think they can run on the Niners. But then there's the when in doubt gravitate toward the one pick that screws over the most gamblers and experts. That's a Seahawks tease or money parlay. That's the logical bet. Everyone has it. I might even have it right now. I might have already done it. But people are just like, Oh, cool. I can move the Seahawks down to one, and then I'll do other stuff. And that makes me nervous.

Kyle Shannon, to house his point, is a mad genius. And whether or not you think he's good in the late stages of a game or a Super Bowl or a big spot, no one prepares and outschemes these defensive coaches better than Kyle. So you're banking on Kyle and Purdy, who's been outstanding the last few weeks, with the exception of the Seattle game. You're just thinking that they're going to find a way. Again, this is not Xs and O's. This is purely you're betting on people and you're betting on Kyle Shanaehan to outcoach Mike McDonald.

You're betting on the nobody believes in us factor.

The Nobody believes in us, but I would say this.

There's one other thing you're betting on. Sorry to interrupt you. The Mike McDonald. We've seen it a couple of times. The underwear gets a little tight for him.

This is his first playoff game.

This is his first play-off. I'll take the points. I don't know if I 100% trust him. Anyway, go ahead, Shrex.

San Francisco is playing completely free.

San Francisco is not wearing underwear anymore. They're just fucking free-balling it.

You can tell Bobby Salas is swinging that baby maker every which way.

No doubt. I don't think there's more of a Nobody believes in us team that we've had that might actually be able to back it up in a while.

I would add, they were pissed as hell at the leak. But when I tell you, furious at the league, that they chose ratings and the thought of a Chicago and LA market Sunday night.

It's fucking outrageous.

It is bad.

Doing what's right and what's fair and what seems to be- Integrity of the game. Health and safety. All this stuff. That's right. You would think you wouldn't want a team playing on six days when they can play. Another team gets eight days. So all that. But guess what? Jed York, John Lynch, Salah, Shana Khan, they get the players going. Hey, the league doesn't want us. The league doesn't think we're a big enough market team. They don't want us to be good. We're getting screwed again. We're getting screwed. And the players, they hear that, they respond, and they galvanize. Now, whether or not that plays out on the field, that's a different question. But I know that the motivational tactics are at play here.

Well, and when you go back to that last game, Trent Williams didn't play in that game, right? No. Kittle played, but Kittle has been in and out all year, and I do feel like they can replace some of his production.

Tungus is a stud. Get every Tungus now. He's good.

He's good.

Pearsall this week, they're hoping Pearsall goes. Fred Warner is not ready yet. He'll be ready, they're hoping next week.

I don't know how. He might have won me over in this one.

Straight up or with the points?

No, with the Plus seven.

I just don't- We have to make a pick. I like this. Teams playing on a short week like the 49ers against a team off the buy, nine and six against the spread in recent memory. The third time playing, I feel like that always gets weird in some way.

But I like the... I don't even think... I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago because I always text Danny and Mina about the Seahawks. I don't even think they fully trust the Seahawks. The people that have watched them week in, week I don't think they trust their offense. So you're throwing in this same Darnold abdominal thing that we know about on Thursday, which is like, okay, they're not going to need them that much, but they're still going to need them. We know he's hurt.

They're playing 48 hours.

They're playing 48 hours. It's clearly something.

Not to be so obvious.

Number one seeds, favorite by seven or more, 21, 25 and one against the spread. Just keep doing it. We can just keep pounding the trend game.

The part that I mentioned earlier that it is so lined up for Seattle. So lined up for the next couple of weeks that it almost makes you nervous. Well, maybe we take the points. For this next game, I have a featured bet, and it's a featured bet from Fandil's Sportsbook because they have turned playoff mode on. Fandil's got it all. They have same game parlay as quick bets for jumping in lives, offers to boost your winnings every game day. My patriots are playing, and they wanted me to do a three-teamer, same game parlay. I bet they did. Which I happily obliged. Here's where I landed because I have to have the pats winning it. We'll talk about the game in a second. Ramondre Stevenson over two and a half receptions. More and more as the season went along, he He's gotten better as a receiver. Drake trusts him. There's a couple where he's in trouble and he dumps it off to him. They'll have a design wheel route for him. I just feel like he's getting three. And then Drake for 225 plus passing yards. Everyone's terrified this Texas defense after that Pittsburgh game. I have some thoughts on that.

But anyway, that total price right now is plus 370. You can use your 30% SGP profit boost token. Getting even higher payout. Tell my bet. Trust me. Don't throw away the last 19 weeks. Tell my bet, make your own bet on another playoff game. The possibilities are endless during playoff mode with Fandil. All right, Patriots favored by three. No Nico Collins, it looks like.

Likely out, concussion protocol.

He can't possibly. You can't have a concussion and play five days later. That's nuts.

It's like the playoff concussion protocol. Let's not do that. Let's not do that.

Here's where I became confident about the game, guys. Josh McDaniel, a press conference this morning, just raving about the Texans defense. These guys are the fastest defense we've seen all year. They don't make mistakes. We're going to need our best offensive of the year to compete in this one. Just doing the butter up routine. I'm like, I don't believe that for a second. I agree with all that, by the way. It's a zone team.

I'm persuaded.

I think they think they could throw on them. I've seen them do this before. They rave about the other team, and then they, meanwhile, have five things up their sleeve. I think they're going to move the ball.

How does New England score on this Texan's defense, Bill?

Drake May.

A couple of big deep shots to Boutet.

We've seen the Texans get beaten by deep shots. It happened in that chargers game.

Yeah. Riley Leonard.

We saw Rodgers. And Alex pierce. We saw Rodgers because a lot of times they're just rushing for it. We saw Rodgers with opportunities to run where he didn't because he's old. Drake may will run. I just think the pats are way better than the Steelers. But that Steelers team, in hindsight, maybe we should have predicted this house when we actually made our picks. But the Ravens game was the Super Bowl for them. The moment they... And they still almost had a chance. It was 7-6. They still had a chance.

We weren't on the wrong side of the analysis. They just ran out of steam.

Well, they just weren't good enough offensively.

They were not good enough.

That's right.

I was pushing you guys hard to pick the Steelers that day for the Ravens game. I felt vindicated. Then I picked them again to be the Texans, and I felt like an idiot.

The big issue with the Pats is the left side of the line and Campbell not being good. He's taking some heat. He got a little salty in an interview. But I also think that there's stuff you can do. You can put an extra tight end on there. You can roll coverage away from Will Anderson. There's things in place. Schrags, what do you think?

I've seen the Texans defense up close now, twice this season. Seattle for a double header, Monday Night Football. They lost the game, but they crushed Sam Darnold. I think I picked him off three times, and they were in the backfield the entire game. Then I was at Monday Night Football. I am blown by all three levels of this defense that I am going to give you the biggest hyperbole of all. This might be like the 2000 Ravens. They might not need to do anything on offense. They might just win games 13, 10, 16, 13. We might wake up the Monday after the Super Bowl and it's freaking Will Anderson on a float in Disneyland. This defense is that good. They're that fast. I just don't see how the Patriots score enough to beat them. And the only way they lose to the Patriots, and I know they're a young team on the road, play-offs, is that their quarterback holds them back and their offense just isn't good enough and they give the ball away. Because if they just protect the ball, I think you're underestimating this defense in a serious way. I think it's historically good.

Definitely not underestimating. But my question is, this Texan's offense going against the Pats defense, which was really good last week and is healthy and is a different defense than the Milton Williams. I I don't think they're going to be able to run the ball in the pass at all. Is that going to be a worse matchup than Drake May, who's been one of the best players in the league all year, a really good offensive coordinator, playing at home, cold weather that they're used to, Houston plays in a dome, all these other factors that go into it, that Houston defense would have to overcome all that. They were able to do it on Monday night. But that game, like Pittsburgh blew that game.

No, 7-6 in the third quarter.

They were in it. Stroud was broken. What makes you think Stroud is not going to be broken this week? What do you think has?

It really comes down to how many plays do you think that Houston defense can make? Because I don't see a scenario under which Houston establish as any offensive rhythm whatsoever. The difference between- Especially with Al Collins.

Agreed.

It's like, Oh, we're replacing with Christian Kirk. Christian Kirk has bounced around for three years. Get out of here.

I don't think we're properly rating the significance of Milton Williams. I mean, I know you, Bill Simmons, understand the difference.

I've been saying it all year. He left the defense and everyone could run on us.

Yeah. So when he's in the lineup, 3. 8 yards per carry for opposing runningbacks, that's the second best run defense in the NFL at that rate. They give up 83 yards. The high runningback rush when Milton Williams was in the lineup was 58 yards, and he got hurt in that game. That's how that Runningback got to 58.

Yeah, Marks' over is 55 and a half, and I think it's dropped four yards during the week.

Don't you feel like Lee Marks, he has a season-ending injury every game and then just plays the next week?

Yeah, then it's fine. He misses four carries because he's in the blue 10. Four to six carries.

And they have Chubb as the backup. I don't think they're going to be able to run the ball at all. And I think Stroud is going to be in a lot of trouble. Keep going, house.

Well, I mean, that's it. I just want to make the case for the New England defense and how the version of this defense. Gonzales was a full participant in practice today, Thursday. Tonga is back. How do you say his name? Chris? Kyris? I don't know how to say it. Tonga. Tonga, the defensive tackle.

We call him Tonga.

We call him Tonga. That's part of the run defense as well. I think that they can get a little bit of a pass rush going as well. They were in Justin Herbert's lap all game Sunday night. They served out.

Also, Schraig, some manifesto rules this week, and you just laid out one of my favorites. This is the number one rule. Beware of the looked a little too good the previous round team. This is textbook with the Texans D. Texans D was awesome all season. It was one of the three best. They went up a level against this Pittsburgh team that offensive line wasn't good. They didn't head Metcalf. That's about it. Rogers was slow. That's as good of a situation as they're probably going to get.

Texan's offense was not good against the Bills, but they sacked Josh Allen, I think, nine times on a Thursday night.

It was Thursday night.

And they won. All right, that's one. Chiefs, season on the line in Arrowhead. Texan's offense, nothing special. Stroud made a couple of plays. They eliminated the Chiefs with their defense. Their defense travels. What's interesting is I'm the same way Defense travels, but offensive lines do not travel.

That sucks. Fair. And their line in the If the Steelers game didn't travel, it's not going to travel in New England.

I think there's also, we look at those logos, and I think you said this because I covered, I was in Foxborough for about three of these. And the Texans always with Matt Shabb and with whoever else used to go up there to Foxborough in a divisional round game on a Saturday night, and they just get the shit kicked out of them by the Patriots. And we know that visual. It always happened. I would say this particular group of Texans, they have been to the final four of the AFC the last two years. So It's not like they're just this neophyte team that's going in with wide eyes. They've banged on the door. They took the Chiefs to the Wire last year. They did. The year before that, they took the Ravens with Lamar to the Wire. If it was for a couple of plays, they could have won that game. They're not this group of just wide-eyed guys that are like the old Texans where we don't belong in the same field as braided. If anything, they've got more experience than this Patriots team when it comes to big games.

I want to hear from BS, the recipe on offense, because part of the reason why I was bullish on the chargers last week, the case I made, that defense was excellent. That was the first top 10 defense that the Patriots had faced in quite a while, maybe the entire season, depending on the metrics you want to use. This defense is an entirely different class altogether. One of the props that I'm already on is Drake Bay over 35 and a half rushing yards. I don't know if it's going to still be there. I like that one. It might go even further up. Scramble yards. Forty, of course. And those scramble yards were really the only thing available to Aaron Rodgers. But the problem for the Patriots is because Houston doesn't blitz and they don't have to blitz, they just put four-man pressure, they take away the middle of the football field because their linebackers can all go back. And you're saying to the Patriots, who's going to beat us in the middle of the football field? We're going to take that away from you. And I absolutely adore your Ramondre play. That's one of the ways, right?

Yeah. He's been built in. I like his yardage. I like his reception overs. But let me hear the recipe from your perspective.

All right. The viewers probably noticed there was a little edit there. It was because the power on my street went out and I lost power for five minutes right as I was about to answer House's question about why I thought the Patriots could move the ball on the Texans.

I don't know if that was an open.

I wish I had a better answer than this. I really believe in Drake May, and I felt what he did in the second half of that chargers game against, I think, a good defense where he just figured it out as the game went along. I think he got out all his playoff rookie sea leg stuff. I don't think he was happy with how he played. All the dialog all week was, Drake's got to be... Just slightly nudging him. I think he's He's going to love playing in this game against Houston. I think he likes this shit. It's like, Oh, this is the best defense. We've seen teams move the ball on Houston. The 2000 Ravens, I get it. That feels like a little bit of an overreaction trick.

It's hyperbole, I know.

After a Stewards team that we've seen other defenses do that to.

The Browns.

I just like our defense's chances against their offense as much as, I think, the reverses. They'll patch it together. The McDaniels will have one crazy play. Henry will be involved. Drake will use his legs to save some plays. That's what Rodgers couldn't do last week. He didn't save any plays. I have a bet house that you're going to absolutely love.

Love or hate?

No, this is a FanDuel prop.

Okay, great. I'm going to love it.

First half of the game is a tie. Why? Why, though? Why? Patriots win. No, this is for Ringer 107. First half of the game is a tie. So it's like 3, 3, 6, 6, 0, 0, 7, 7, whatever. Patriots win. 17 to 1. Wow. So you're just rooting for a 3, 3 first half and then- Do it. I thought those odds were great.

Now you're talking about it. We got to do it.

This is my favorite bet of the entire second round. Cj I'm not sure how to throw a pick minus 125.

Fine.

He doesn't throw a pick. I'll be disappointed. Schraggs is in on the Texans. There's a bunch of manifesto rules against you, including The law of Lombardi. You got Lombardi. Bad offensive lines don't travel. Just throwing that one out. We're just throwing out the dome team outside. We're just throwing out C. J. Stroud. Looked like he was having a legitimate meltdown last week. It's I'm not going to be worse. Obviously, I have to take the pats, but I think the line's fair, and I like the minus three. How do you agree?

I'm fine with it because I can't come up with on the offensive side of the ball for Houston.

A way for them to get 14 points?

There's no rhythm. I might just play on the pregame show.

You guys watched Monday, Jalen Petrie, like a scud missile on every I mean, there was not a second. They were amazing.

It's Christian Kirk and it's all these guys. Yeah, Petrie was amazing. That's absolutely.

It was like Schrags went to the Boogie Nights set during the filming of Spanish pantalones, and he's like, You don't understand this, Dirk Diggler. I was there. I was there. This guy is the best porn star I've ever seen.

He was, too.

Am I Scotty in the corner?

He would go doggy style. He'd go straight up.

Diggler, really? He really was that, though. No.

You think Dirk was the goat?

That's the problem. Pete's right.

That could be the issue. Roller Girl did say he was the goat. All right, last game, the most fun one, and the one I actually feel the most strongly about. Bairs Getting Three and a half at Home Against the Rams.

Can I set the table for you and your listeners?

Both of you guys? Just go. Just cook. Let's do it.

A little bit was made out of it. And Steven A. Actually hit on it a touch. But that handshake and all that mother F, mother F stuff from Ben Johnson did not go over well with the McVeigh tree, if you will, and around the league. Mike Lafleur is Matt Lafleur's little brother. He's the offensive coordinator for the Rams. Sean's best friend in coaching is Matt LaFleur. So when you do the utter disrespect in the brazen locker room video where you're saying, F the packers, F that coaching staff, and the social media team clicks go, send it, put out in the And then the next day, when you've got 24 hours to really think about it, to say, No, I'm fine with what I said, and my owner's got my back on that, too. It's the stuff that I know you and Sal were talking about. It's the stuff that I live for. It's like this is the the the the WWE part of this where this actual personality is involved. And I think McVay wants to kick the snot out of Ben Johnson. And I think Ben Johnson, who's beaten McVay the last two times when Detroit played the Rams, has no problem with that.

I'll beat the snot out of you. I love these two guys, two young alpha offensive minds going at it in this game. I can't wait.

Wow. Schregs got it legitimately aroused.

I did. I'm right there with them. I love that shit so much. And Schregs, he just put the the hairs on my neck. No, I did get a nice haircut. Let's go, man. Let's go.

In a league where every coach hugs the other coach. They give the jerseys.

Great effort.

Two of the loses to the Steelers on a Monday night game and is seen there, hugging Jelen Ramsey, trading a jersey. That's the stuff that this is the opposite. These guys do not like each other right now, and I think that's great.

What's your take in the game, has?

I can't get past the bear's terrible run defense. That's the starting point for me.

I love that where you start.

It might be the ending point as well. The ability of the Rams to establish the run. I think all of this stuff with the weather and everything, we're just overdoing it. I'm just not going to use that as an element. But for sure, It's the case. The Rams can run the football. They have one of the best run block win rate percentages. They're number two in that. All three, they're guys. Jackson, he's playing at McClendon. It looks like they're getting Kevin Dotson back.

They're hoping Dotson is getting back. They're hoping. That's a big deal. They haven't had him since Seattle. That would be a big deal. He's big.

He's big. He's huge. I mean, he's huge for their run. But they've been doing this two-headed run monster here with some success over the last six, seven games. And this is the way that they keep their defense off the field because their defense since week 13- It's a S. Trash. I don't want it to be a shootout scenario where the bears have the ball in the fourth quarter and they need to go down to tie or win. At some point, it feels like that luck will run out, but who the hell can say when?

Who can say when? Well, here's the thing. The bears have won in crazy fashion. They have won games in the wildest ways, and the Rams have lost games in crazy fashion. Like that Seattle game, the San Francisco Let's go Thursday night game, the Carolina game. Yeah.

So it's- Philly?

Did you say Philly?

Philly, the polar opposite.

That was the craziest.

No doubt. The cold weather thing is interesting. So you could say it's going to be eight degrees, and the bear's playing that, and that's just what they are. The Rams are a warm weather team. I would argue Lake Coram went to Michigan, Kieran Williams went to Notre Dame, Pukus went to B-Y-U, Devante Adams played at Green Bay. Stafford's a Detroit guy. I don't know.

He's at least an NFC North guy. He's played in Chicago when it's cold before.

I don't know if I make as big of a deal as it is. Bill, what do you think?

Rule number 8, beware of any AGQ being cold weather.

By the way, a finger that's real.

Rule number 12, beware of any team that celebrated the previous weekend's playoff victory.

They just won the freaking Super Bowl. That's the thing.

There is one We have one of those in this game.

Rule number 13, don't dismiss the nerd evidence that the nerd evidence is absolutely overwhelming. So that goes both ways. Bairs run defense that has mentioned. Can we talk about how bad the Ram special teams is and how that's going to be the demise of their season? It's a problem. In 8th-degree weather, is there ever been a better blueprint for getting your season fucked up? God. I'm in on the bears.

Wow. Wow.

Stafford and freezing cold, Ram special teams, and the bears have just done this too many times that I'm tired of watching. I think they're going to be able to throw on them. The eight degrees thing is meaningful. It's going to be freezing cold. The Rams are a fucking dome team. I know they have the profile up that can do outside and run the ball and all that stuff. But I just feel like the bears are... It's like a legitimate Michael Meyer You have to be up 20 points before you feel safe. The packers were up 20 points, or they're up 18. They basically didn't go up to 20. I just think this has all the makings. I can see it in my head, the Collins, Werd, Torrijos, Oh, Mike. Just going nuts. Just the shots of the Bear's fans freezing. They let the crowd. Yeah. Bear's fans just loving it. Them cutting the Rams and them being like, Jesus Christ, I've never been this cold in my life. You say Stafford was from Detroit. They played indoors in Detroit.

They played in the NFC. They played in Lambo and.

I get it.

But he lives in LA. I go back east when it's cold and it takes me two days. I'm just freezing the entire time. It's a real thing. The Edwards thing really wears me.

Yes.

How about the left tackle?

How about the left tackle? They have their left tackle. It played a great season. He's injured.

Is he definitely out?

Right now, he's trending that way.

The The hook is great. I like that this could be Rams 27, 17, and I could still get a hook at the end and steal one with the bears. The picks have been terrible all year. It'll be more fun to root for the bears. That's really my case. The Rams going road game last week, road game this week, road game looming next week, I think is unless San Francisco can somehow win. There is this other weird scenario where Rams win, Niners win, and then all of a sudden, we have the Rams going in because they have extra rest for completely unnecessary reasons.

When the Rams won the Super Bowl that year, they were the five seed and the Niners were the six seed. Same thing happened. They hosted them at the end of the championship game.

Well, can we do worst-case scenarios for each side? Because I think this is the perfect game to do that.

Okay.

Worst-case scenario, you bet the bears. You can't stop the Rams running game. They just have the ball the whole time. Caleb gets it three and out. We're passing the game. Ram's back. Puka makes his one 50-yard play that he broke three tackles. You can't get the ball back. And you're like, We just want to get it to the fourth quarter. And then it's 27 to 10, and you never had a chance. Is that the worst case scenario for the bears? Just the Rams on the field, 39 minutes of possession.

Do you know what team scored the most points in the wild card round? The Rams. They score. They're going to score. The fear is that they come out and they just put up 40 on you.

When they don't play good defenses, they average 32 and a half points. They have scored 27 points in 11 of their 14 games, the Rams.

Worst case scenario for the Rams, couple of dumb things happen. Stafford pick, miss field goal, block field goal, some kick return, something.

And they're just frigid.

And it's close late. Caleb starts heating up and you have the Rams minus three and a half and you're like, fuck. Why did I bet against this?

This team has done this seven times.

It bears them the seven times. The 19-week schedule where they've had these crazy comebacks. I don't know how you can bet again. This feels like the last hurrah for them because then they go to Seattle the next week and But I don't know. The hook, I wish this line, if it was two and a half, I'd like the Rams. The three and a half, I feel like it's an extra point house.

What do you make of a few of the Rams assistants interviewing for head coaching jobs this week?

Distraction. Distraction. It's distracting. You have to weigh that against the Ben Johnson hatred, which emotion is going to carry the day.

They might hate him in obviously a football sense, not personal. Yes.

That's, of course, football.

But he has run the ball and done whatever he's wanted with Detroit's offense the last few times they've played also.

Can we talk about the Rams last two months? Would be my other thing I wanted to bring up. Yeah, Carolina last week, Arizona week 18, whatever. The Atlanta game, they lose. They lose the Seattle game by one. The Detroit game is back and forth. They end up winning by seven, 41-34. Arizona, the other game, throw out. Carolina, they lose by three. Is there a ton of evidence this is a juggernauty team at this point? I would say none whatsoever. Would you argue a beatable team house?

Of course. The Panthers almost beat them. They were play away from winning that football game, the Panthers.

So last piece of my case.

They deserved it.

Last piece of my case, what if Caleb went up a notch? What if he actually went up a level over these last couple of weeks and that fourth quarter was actually like, this might be closer to who he is now versus this guy who takes two hours to warm up. What if he just comes out and he's really good in this game? What if he's just awesome in this game? It's conceivable, right? Yes. Of course.

We know the bears can run. They've demonstrated against defenses at least as good run defense-wise as this Rams team. If Ben Johnson gets any a weakness, it's what he did to that Philadelphia Eagles. He's like, Oh, I have an advantage here. Let me just keep running the exact same play for 260 yards on the fucking ground. Let's see how that works out. And they just beat him.

Last week, Coker, nine for 134. Mcmillon, 5 for 81. The other thing is, Loved one's turned into an absolute monster in the last four weeks. I really like their passing offense. I think they can throw on the Rams and keep the game, even if the Rams score on them. I think they can come back and score on the Rams. My whole thing is if you feel like either team can win, you got to take the points, right?

It's totally fine. I'm not getting you where you're. The other thing you have going for you is the first bet I made this week was Seattle-Rams-Money Line Parlay. Then I put Indiana with it as well. You know how this is going to go.

I feel like either team can win this game. Bears plus three and a half. That's my last one. Schrake's hates it.

I hate it.

I forgot one bet that I really love from the Texans game. Drake made to have the most rushing yards in the game, plus 410.

Okay. More than Ramond.

That could be 47 yards. Could be the most rushing yards in that game, right? What is it? What are the odds? It's plus 410.

I got to take a break.

We take a break. It's 66 last week.

What's the over under in that game? What's the total?

Well, that was one. This is my last thing talking about the picks. Over under is 40 and a half.

Patriots, Texans.

House, we could do Pat's Money Line under 51 and a half. The game would have to do 52 points to beat it.

Why is he doing this?

He hates these bets.

No, no, no.

House, what's What scenario does this go to 52 points?

It doesn't fucking matter. What scenario did the Chargers and the Patriots not get to 31 points? How did they not get to 31? It doesn't matter.

You just don't see totals. You're done?

No, We do do totals and we lose because of it.

It's one of the reasons we have a 40 and 55 record in Ringer 107.

Honestly, I think the parlays, if you took out the parlays, we'd be damn near 500. We're on the correct side many times on these parlays.

Today's Ringer 107 brought to you by FanDuel. We're picking four playoff games. House would not allow us to do any parlays. We went against Peter Schrager's advice.

On all four games, I think.

Is that true?

No, I was with you in Seattle.

Broncos minus one and a half over the Bills. When the only case is don't go against Josh Allen and you can't come up with a single other reason to take the team, sadly, you got to take the Broncos. And I actually think that line should be minus three. Next one, 49ers plus seven over the Seahawks. We're all aligned on this one. Line's a little too high. Don't know about this Dardle It's an abdomen thing. Haven't loved the Seahawks offense the last couple of weeks. Third time these two teams have played, which usually leads to something wacky. Next one, Patriots minus three over the Texans. Some people are asking, How are the Patriots going to move the ball against the Texans D? I ask, How are the Texans going to move the ball in cold weather in New England against the Patriots D? Low scoring game. I just think this is a quarterback's game at some point. This is Drake May versus C. J. Stroud. Pick carefully. And then last but not least, bears, plus three and a half against the Rams. Schrake's was horrified by this pick. House liked it. I think I talked him into it.

Two things here. I think either team could win. I like the hook, and I think the bears are going to be able to move the ball. I actually like the over in this. I think what was that game you played last year, House? Was it the Washington-Philly game? What was that? Like 52 to 30? Fifty-five to...

Yeah.

Usually cold weather games don't do that. It wasn't 8 degrees.

It was the NFC Championship game.

Cold weather games tend to bring that down. All right.

Hey, Bill.

Wait a second. That was today's Ringer 107 brought to by Fandil. Od subject to change. What do you got, Shrex?

I was going to tell you, you're still on fire. We were talking about this two weeks ago. Your Payton Manning, OJ Simpson, mailbag question was one of the... You're still in your apex moment here. You're still on fire.

It's a re-apex.

Re-apex. That's exactly right. You're on Apex Mountain in the re-Apex with the sliding doors and the whole thing. I'm telling you, on fire, whatever you're doing.

Do you agree with that house? I'm not believe it. Modern OJ would-I missed the mailbag. I did it. Yeah, it was within the last 20 hours. I'm trying to Tell them what the answer was. If the OJ car chase happened again, who would be the athlete that could compare the most to how we felt about OJ in 1994 when that happened? My answer, after offering Serena Williams and Charles Barkley. I forgot who the third one was. Jason Kelsi.

Kelsi.

But the answer is clearly Payton Manning. Fame, being shocked that it's happening. My mom Tom wouldn't care. I think he's the answer.

Then house, he's like, They would break into even the Oscars.

Yeah. Super Bowl, Oscars. Name an event. Stranger Things season finale.

Every event. They would be interrupted. Payton Manning is in.

Who's in the car with Payton Manning? Who's in the car with Payton Manning? Who's in the car? Austin Colley? Dwight Clarke? It's probably Marvin Harrison, actually. Oh, God. I got to look around. I'll focus that here.

I'll say that. Yeah.

So you agree with that answer, Schregs?

It was amazing. You're on fire, dude. Please, whatever you're doing, no carbs, no sugar. Just keep it going. You're on fire right now. You're kicking ass, and I love being a part of it.

I'm going to see him in three weeks, all that's going to hell. I'm telling you right now.

Yeah, House and I are going back for Bob Coozie's court retirement at Holy Cross.

Naming ceremony. College of Holy Cross in Woodson.

It's the weekend of Super Bowl. We don't care.

Skipping the Super Bowl. Are you Are we going to go Super Bowl weekend? Yeah, it's Bob Coosy.

It's the fucking Coos.

I'll be back in time.

No, we'll be back for the game, but we're not going to... I don't want to go to Santa Claire and have the electromagnetic rays being shot at me. I care about my tendons and my ligaments.

No Super Bowl week for you at all?

No Super Bowl week.

Oh, that's a disappointment.

It's going to be a Holy Cross weekend. Me has some Jacko. We're back.

Jalen Coker.

Yeah. Are Maybe Jalen Coker will be our fourth house. Should we ask him? Yeah, he's invited. Nine catches last week.

It's either him or Gordie Lockbaum, one or the other.

Shrigs, Kuz is 97.

It's unbelievable.

He's still killing it.

He was so old in the movie Blue Chips, and that was 30 years ago.

He's the absolute best. One of the reasons we love being at Holy Cross 30 years ago is we had this Kuzi Hindson legacy. It was just so cool that they won the NCAA title in IT. It was a big part. Now, it's so many years ago. I don't even think the kids there probably even realized those guys went there. I love it. We're going back.

I'm going to miss you in San Francisco. We usually have a good hang during Super Bowl week. I'm a little sad.

I mean, San Francisco, Santa Claire, it's all over the map. I don't know what to tell you. You love Super Bowl, though. There's nothing more you love than saddling up to a minority owner and a TV exec, and then a retired quarterback just being able to just move around. I I've seen you in action.

You, me, Mike Tarriko, and Bryce Young in a conversation last year.

Yeah, that happened last year. That was great. That was really fun. All right, guys. All the greats.

Well, I mean, that rivals this appearance by Lena Dunham on Netflix. I'm on with Lena Dunham and Bill Simmons. That's amazing. Hello. I forgot about that. Look at Lena.

House here in Ringer Gambling Show on Saturday. Schregs, any more TV this week for you? Yes.

Friday morning, I'm on Get Up.

That's tomorrow.

Yes. In a couple of hours.

I'll get up for that. Jesus, go to bed, Schregs. I will. Thanks, guys. Thanks to Gehow and Eduardo as well. Don't forget, I'll be back here live on Netflix on Sunday night after the Rams, Bear's Game. You'll be able to watch and listen to that on Spotify as well. Enjoy the weekend. Enjoy the gambling. Great to see you guys. Must be 21 plus in President Select States for a Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in President DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Visit rg-help. Com. Call 888-79-7777 or visit ccpg. Org/chat-n-kneticat or md-gamblinghelp. Org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelp-line-ma. Org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 877-8 Hope-Ny or text Hope-Ny in New York.