Transcript of Pablo Torre Weighs In on The JFK Assassination, Mike Tomlin Readies the Steelers for Daniel Dimes, And Why the Chiefs Versus Bills Remains the Best QB Battle in Football

Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans. It's your old pal Dave Damosheck here. Welcome to NFL Week 9. Welcome to Football America, episode 21. Happy Halloween, by the way. We've got Pablo Tori on the way. We're going to make our pics for you for the upcoming games this weekend. And I'm in Miami. Let's talk about all of it, shall we? Let's start the show. Yes, hi, and hello, my fellow football Americans. I am in Miami. I just said that, right? And guess what? Mike and Gino Fuentes are right on the other side of the glass there. I'm over the moon. How excited am I? I said, Listen, instead of getting a guest to help us make the pics, we're so rarely, if ever, together. Let's just do it amongst ourselves today. So that's what we're going to do. But before we jump into it, and like I say, Pablo Touri on the way, excited for that. Had a great time today or yesterday on the Dan Lebitard show. Did I just betray a little too?

Okay, so we do that all the time here. I think it's fine. There's no point. We're recording it on a Thursday. Yeah, exactly. It's fine.

I don't know what's going to happen in the Ravens, dolphins game. You're okay. Can I tell you something? I do know what's going to happen in the Ravens/dolfins game. I'm not going to suggest that I'll pierce my nipples if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty confident that Baltimore is going to win that game. Let's start this show off like we do most shows, which is honoring the episode number and the player who wore that number best in pro football history. Number 21 is where we are. I think it's pretty easy to say. It's Deion Sanders, right? Any debate there, fellows?

I got a few honorable mentions here. Sean Taylor, also wore, maybe the best safety ever. L. T.

That would be my pick.

Man, I am either an old man or you guys have no regard for history. You can't just throw out L. T. That's right. Sorry. It's Ledanian Tomlinson. L. D. L. T. 2. There's an L. T. L. T. 2. Who is already one of the all-time best players. You can then say not as bad as there being an A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, and then Aaron Rodgers decides, I'll be A-Rod. No.

How about we give LT2 a new nickname just for our show? We'll call him The Sequel.

Listen, Ledanian Tomlinson won me plenty of fantasy football money. He is LT to me.

Fair enough. Also, there's Charles Woodson.

There's Charles Woodson. There's the third leading rusher in NFL history, Frank Gore.

No, he's 20.

Compiler.

It says 21 here. Parts of his career.

I have no recollection of that part. But you know what? I'm glad you just mentioned that because I felt like we were so... I should say also thank you for all the feedback on the last couple of shows in particular. They've been real good. I feel like we've done, legitimately, we're on a nice hot streak of about a month of real good shows here. And most recently we had Brandon Perna from That's Good Sports on a week ago today. And we had Jon Hamm on on Monday. Go back and listen to both of those. Appreciate all the feedback. Great stuff from from those characters. But we were so hurried on the last episode. We didn't get their fully honored number 20. Barry Sanders was the winner there, but that might also be on the shortlist of best Jersey numbers across the sports landscape. I think 21 is pretty strong, though, too, because you have Roberto Clemente. Some people say that they should retire 21 across baseball, much the way they did Jackie Robinson.

When we had the All-Star Game down here, there was a big contingent of fans holding up the signs, Get to Retire, Roberto Clemente's number. I don't know if you remember that they had a lot of guys walking around with signs. There was basically protesting.

It was our dad's favorite player.

Dad's favorite player. I just remember a lot of fans were in Clemente jerseys petitioning for MLB to retire that number.

I'm not surprised to hear that. He has great meaning beyond his deeds in baseball, what he meant or actually as a trailblazer for Latinos abroad. He's essentially the Latino version of Jackie Robinson. Speaking of which, Juan Marishaw is number 21. Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett. Is that right? Is he 21?

Tim Duncan, the greatest athlete to ever come out of the Virgin Islands?

Yes.

Five champions. I can't push back with another name. Peter Forsberg is as skilled a hockey player as I have seen. There's Mario Lemu and there's Connor McJeezus. And I think Peter Forsberg is just for raw talent, about as gifted a hockey player as I've ever seen. Stan Makeda. By the way, as we're flapping our gums down here in South Beach, I keep hearing a muffled voice It sounds like it's coming from New York City up there. Bradley, is that you? Yeah, what's going on? How are we doing? Well, you're wearing a mask, and it's a little weird. What are you supposed to be? Yeah. Dr. Dume? I was a deatheater, but the problem with the mask because I didn't realize there's no mouth opening for it.

It was a problem. You got to plan for these things, man.

Well, it's only a show in which you're expected to speak. So, yeah. I know. Priorities. It's giving me gimp-lives.

But anyway, I feel scary.

Mike looks like Mike is a jester.

I just found this hat over there.

Gino is a mad scientist, and I'm nothing. Why is that? Because I'm a curmudgeon about a few things in this world. Nothing more than Halloween as a grown up. I I'm not in on it.

No, you put a little caveat as a grown up, and I understand that because you've had kids already. You've done the trick or treating with them, but you also look like a guy that cuts it up good at a Halloween party.

Oh, listen to me. Listen to me.

Oh, yeah.

College, my 20s, I got as loose as I'd ever gotten on it. And the other 364 days on the calendar. I had some positively gay times. Well, you know what I mean. Or do you? Either way, this thing of having to get dressed up and then you walk into the party and then you feel like, did I overdo it? Did I underdo it? Either way, I don't want to be put in that spot. Just leave me out of your Halloween party.

Me and Amin had a talk about this earlier, and Especially as you get older, one thing that becomes worse is the wearing of a mask, because then you got to scratch your face, you're sweating. Even worse, face paint. Two years ago, I did a really cool Pennywise half clown thing. Let me tell you, between the sweat and the itching, it was awful. Also, has there ever been a Halloween party where you haven't gotten an hour in and been too hot? Yeah, exactly. Or I just don't want to do this anymore.

I had that thing that you see in movies where it was a Halloween party, but it was people who thought they were more grown up than they are. Late 20s people. So they didn't go all out. Except for my pal Tom, we went into the party. He went as a blue man from the Blue Man Group with the cap, and he took an hour and a half. The blue paint his face all the way up. And as soon as we walked in the door, everybody was sitting there like a Jackass. Who brought this asshole in the blue face? And he took the bald thing off. So he's blonde-headed with a blue face. And we had to leave after 20 minutes because he was too embarrassed. And we're walking down the streets on the north side of Chicago with him burning a nail, lamenting like, Dave, I didn't expect everybody to show up without costumes. I was like, Maybe your first clue should have been that me, who you're with, isn't wearing a costume.

Yeah, but you didn't do him a favor. You let him go all the way over there like that. Wow. Now that I think about it, you're the villain in this story. You should have told him something.

Oh, I was delighted. Hey, quick update for you. I haven't updated my Super Bowl '60 pick. You may recall that preseason, I had the Niners and Bills hooking up. Then they got decimated by injury, did the Niners. And so I had to drop them, unfortunately. I picked up the Packers just in time. This was a month ago, at least, that I picked up the Packers. They're now down to 20 to 1 odds for those two teams to meet in Super Bowl 60. I do think we are at the crossroads as we approach Chiefs and Bills. If the Chiefs win that one, get ready. I'm going to change it. As I say, though, for now, 20 to 1, I'm going to stick with the Bills and the packers here. If you're interested, the shortest odds are the Chiefs and Packers and the Chiefs and Lions, both at 13 to 1. But we'll see what happens in this Crossroads game. Speaking of crossroads, shout out to my football American of the Week. It's my boy, Jean-Claude Van Demerschek, and all his teammates at Cresby High School on the cusp of completing an improbable, undefeated season just three years after they didn't win a single game.

So excited for all those guys. It's a real cool thing, and I hope they get to complete that streak. And now, fellows, what do you want to do here? Do you want to make picks while we wait for Pablo, or do you want to lay out a little bit?

I think I like to do the pick six because I would love to be a millionaire on Monday.

Pick six. Pick six time. Let's get into it now. May as well confront our demon. We can't overcome this beast of getting all six of our pick six, picks correct here. Let's change it up. It's time for the pick six presented by DraftKings DraftKings, DraftKings, the Crown is yours. I have, the last few weeks, been focusing squarely on shutdown scores. I'm going to stick by that, but let's change the order. Maybe that'll change the juju up a little bit. Mike and Gino, take it away. Tell me who you think are the best plays in the pick six this week.

Okay, if I'm going to start here, I'm going to go... I just watched the Jets run up and down the field, the Jets who couldn't do anything on offense for the past month before this game on the Cincinnati bangles. And if the Jets can do it, The bears can do it. So I'm thinking DeAndre Swift gets in the end zone at least once in Cincinnati.

Okay.

Yeah, that defense. I like that.

Kyle Monong guy, though, feels like he's getting more and more of the touches there. They could both get in. I think DeAndre Swift has reclaimed that. There was some push to see the rookie overcome DeAndre Swift, but he's turned it off.

They are letting him get beat up at the goal line a little bit, though. I feel like DeAndre Swift to really get when he has taken in from 20 yards out or something like that. But for me, Kyron Williams, he's only got in the end zone on the ground twice this year. He has three receiving touch-ons, but two of them came in one game. So using, like I said before, he's got to get another one eventually. This week, Kyron. We talked about this. Dave's already. A piggy touch-out from the Bay.

We talked about this. I've crapped out seven times in a row. The numbers got I'm going to go my way at some point, right?

See, but this is the thing. Dave goes by this thing called the hot hand fallacy, right? They explain it great in the big short, Selena Gomez is playing blackjack. It's this whole thing, where he thinks that all because that guy scored last week, it's going to keep happening. That only works for Jonathan Taylor. He's the only guy who gets that, right? But it's a fallacy because you think because something has happened so many times, of course, it's going to keep happening. That's not true. But Kyron Williams, since he hasn't scored a rushing shutdown since... Look at that. Well, he had one last week, but that was only his second one since week two against Baltimore. He's bound to get another one this week. Anytime, a breakdown.

If Led Zeppelin... Well, that's a bad example because they're literally incapable of reforming. But okay, rem, I don't know. If somebody got back together, I don't want to hear their new songs. Play the Hits. That's what I'm doing here. Josh Allen is getting into the end zone. Five out of the last six, I'm sorry, not getting into the end zone. He's going to throw more than one and a half TD passes, not just because you can't throw half a TD pass. He'll throw two or more because he's done so in five of his last six. And six out of the eight games he's played this season, he's accomplished that. Patrick Mahomes has done the same in four of his last five, and he's had at least three in four of those last five, too. So he's on a heater. Justin Herbert, he's done the thing, two shutdown passes or more in the last three and five of his eight games. So I think all three of those are pretty safe plays. Jamar Chase, four shutdowns in his last four. He'll make Five Out Of Five. And Rashe Rice, since he came back, three touch downs in his first two games back.

Before I round this out, I'll round it out for you. Jamir Gibbs averages a countdown a game so far this season. He'll get in there. Hey there, my fellow football Americans. You feel that chill in the air, don't you? I do, and I'm in Los Angeles. It's officially football weather out there, don't you know? And from tailgates to watch parties, there's only beer to pair with fall and football. I'm, of course, talking about my beloved Miller Light, the light beer that's been the one beer for beer lovers since 1975. Fun fact about me, I'm a beer lover. For me, it's still the go-to every time. Why? Because Miller Light is the great tasting light beer for people who love beer. That's me and maybe you. It's brewed for taste, and simply put, it just hits different. Not too heavy, not too light, the beer you can drink from kickoff to the final whistle without missing a beat. It's that smooth golden flavor that somehow feels like football season. After 50 years, Miller time is and always will be a good time. When the game's on the line and we're all holding our breath, there's comfort in having a Miller light in hand.

It's part of the ritual, after all. Whether I'm in a crowded bar or kick back on the couch, it's the beer I reach for. It's dependable. Like Brandon Aubrey from '68. Miller light, great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight. Com, FBA, to find delivery near you, or you can pick up some Miller light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories and 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces. Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans. Quick detour from Pigskin to remind you, the NBA season has tipped off, and so has DraftKings' newest fantasy game. Draftkings' Pick 6 is the easiest way to play for big wins, with every possession giving you a shot at real money. Here's how you play. Just pick more or less on two or more stats and unlock the upside every game brings. Pick 6 is available in Texas, California, Missouri, and more. And new DraftKings customers get $50 in bonus pics with just a $5 entry on your first pick set. So don't just watch basketball, cash in on basketball. Download the DraftKings Pick 6 app now and use code Dameshek.

That's Dameshek, D-A-M-E-S-H-E-K. Play just $5, get $50 in pick 6 bonus pics, make the call, ride the Side in partnership with DraftKings Picksix. The crown is yours. All right, here we go. I'm going to be honest with you. You know I don't like to jive. I'm a little nervous for this one, and not because I think he's going to investigate me. I have a very boring life, but he is the guy who's made learning fun again. He's the host of Pablo Tour. He finds out it's Pablo Tour. How are you, man? Thanks for joining.

I often get the sense that people are trying to butter me up so that I don't investigate them, and it only makes me want to investigate them more. So full disclosure, I want to investigate you more than I did five seconds ago. Okay.

All right. Yeah, maybe I opened up a can of worms by saying too much. You and I met, I'm sure you don't remember this, but we met in Atlanta at an after-hours thing in a Super Bowl week with Mina Kimes. Actually, I was about to say neither you nor Mina was the most famous person in there. Can you name who it was? But I think you and Mina are probably at this point, more famous as There was a high-profile quarterback in that After Hours barge. Can you name who that was?

Oh, man. For some reason, this is the sad reality of my brain, is that I was sure until you said quarterback, that the answer to this question was John Rocker. But I don't know if that was the same night when I encountered John Rocker in Atlanta. That might have been for the college football playoff or something.

Who was the quarterback? You notice I said high profile. I didn't say good. Blake Bortles. Blake Bortles was in there. Blake Bortles. It was very strange. Also very strange and captivating and all the rest of it. Your latest episode, pretty much all of them are, but this one continues the saga, the Melodrama Cinematic as it is, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier. I was going to ask you, what director, if this were turned into a movie, would you like to direct it? I have one in mind for you.

Oh, I mean, it's always the Coen brothers to me.

That's exactly right. That was exactly right.

If I can choose a pair. I mean, it's the mixture of high drama and high stakes and truly office water-cooler level incompetence in which you have, again, a list of just truly bold-face names acting in a way where you're like, I can't believe they're putting this all on Instagram, basically. And yet, here we are.

Incompetent criminals. Yeah, that's pretty much every Coen Brothers movie.

Allegedly.

Yes, alleged incompetent criminals.

Come on, come on, damn it, Shaq. I'm trying to get us both invited to the next Bortles Fest. You got to make sure we're buttoned up here.

Mind in my Ps and Q's. I don't want John Rocker turning his nose up at me next time I'm in the Beach State. That's right. More broadly, or I guess 30,000-foot view of this, does it strike you with this particular story that's unfolding with the NBA, the gambling, and two legs to it, that guys at the level financially that these NBA... I mean, it's a story of all this time, but is it like to invoke another movie like Heet Tom Sizemore saying, The action is the juice. I mean, does it basically come down to that? Why would Tyrone Lou or anybody else need to be involving themselves in this?

Yeah, this is a question that I contemplate, and there are two ways to answer it. One is to point out that a lot of these guys do, in fact, need more money than they ever want to admit and/or we would ever expect, despite there being lots of reporting. There's stuff that I've done in the past about there's a staggering rate of athletes going broke that would blow your mind, even though it's well-established at this point. That's the one thing. But the second deeper thing, which takes us to, I'm trying to think of which Which psychoanalytic. A little Darren Aronowski, maybe, in this one. You're crawling into the brain of someone for whom what seems like a luxurious life is also this nightmare. And I think in that nightmare, we can think of someone like Michael Jordan, who has famously said, he's not addicted to gambling, he's addicted to competition. I urge you to find the distinction in that difference. I urge you to find the clinical diagnosis in that non-diagnosis, perhaps. But yeah, man, I think there's something very, very familiar to the action being the juice, to wanting to win and wanting to risk something, given that sports asks any athlete.

I respect this part so deeply and so sincerely because I don't have it. I don't have the thing. Well, maybe I do now that I'm investigating them. But before, I was like, the idea that you put your name on something and put humiliation on the line every time you stepped out in public, right? That's on some level the juice in sports, in gambling. And I'm not surprised, I guess, that a bunch of these guys find that level of a high in something that feels beneath them.

It is fine. If you're an act of player, that's one thing. But the anecdote that I always go back to with this thing is I was having a catch with Michael Irvin, name drop in Indianapolis on the field before the Super Bowl, one Super Bowl week. And I threw him a pass in the corner of the end zone, and he caught it, and he turned around to the empty stadium, to the seats, and he did his iconic pose to them where he puts his hands out to either side. And I said, What is that like, man, when you do something in life and then 70,000 people applaud you for it? And he said, Man, I've had a crazy life. I've had a wild and great life. There's nothing that beats that moment. And it really is. I think once you get done with that, that probably life has a weird... You're searching for some meaning or what you're looking for is action, right?

Yeah. Look, I think about... I keep on going back to Jordan and even Barkley as a point counterpoint here because both of those guys love gambling. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong inherently with really enjoying gambling. The question becomes, what are you using it to fill inside of you, so to speak, to get back to that interiority, what a movie are we watching? Michael Jordan, the guy could not have one more. He is the person for whom we consider the synonymous figure, the face of winning. And yet that wasn't enough. You watch The Last Dance, as I have multiple times, and I marvel at just how the thing that's supposed to be at the end of the rainbow wasn't there for him. Meanwhile, by the way, Charles Barkley, again, loves a casino, but at the same time did not win in the way that Michael Jordan did. It is, in fact, synonymous with the other way to be embarrassed in public. He never want a title. And yet I look at him and I'm like, That guy seems happy. And maybe I'm buying into a different fiction. Maybe Charles is miserable. Although I will say in every interaction I've had with him, name drop, he seems unbelievably thrilled to be Charles Barkley.

I think there is just something around, what were you expecting that was going to fill that round peg, round hole problem inside of you? I think that some guys, they keep on searching for that thing, for that high, for that thrill. And you're right, man. I've talked to... I mean, look, as somebody who was based in LA, it remains very familiar with very famous as people, I think it is really hard to not feel that anymore. I think the whole thing of an athlete dying twice, to be, whatever, high for looting about it, is not just unique to athletes, but it is unique to people for whom the spotlight and those stakes really meant something. I get it. How else can you replicate that, if not by feeling some danger?

That extra edge. Yeah, it really is. And you mentioned LA. I've always I said, it's like the Ginger Maryanne or Luke Skywalker, Hansola, which side do you lean to? It's the Shaq or Kobe thing. Shaq was, and I would be Shaq, by the way, in this equation, I'm good enough. This has worked well enough to get me some MVPs and some NBA titles where Kobe was never satiated. And that distinction is what drove him apart, ultimately, huh?

Yeah. Look, the whole thing of what is enough. And by the way, here's what's funny about the Shaq thing, right? We were talking before, I think we started recording, assuming that we weren't already taping when we were talking about pharmaceutical commercials, not to pull the curtain way back. But Shaq will endorse anything. I just think there's a funny... I don't know. I'm trying to wrap my mind around what archetype is he. And he's a guy for whom he wants to play himself into shape when he was in the peak of his powers. And that was infuriating to Kobe Bryant and to many Laker fans. He's also someone for whom brand management is just not a concern. Simultaneously, maybe that is connected. There's so many things, so many jingles, so many commercials. I only know because Shaq endorsed it. I think of the Dollar General.

The General. I was just going to say, yeah, that's the worst. That's the lowest of the low. Him talking to the little cartoon general.

A little cartoon general. Yeah. Come on, Shaq. There's a deeper metaphor in talking to a little cartoon I'm not quite equipped to find it just at the moment. But yeah, that guy will basically put his name on anything. And by the way, simultaneously, he seems pretty happy, relatively speaking to the theater of misery that is the Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant school of thought.

Let me give you a quick because you're now in a large in a meaningful way, have put the spotlight back on sports journalism, investigative reporting, and all that. Just to check where you come down on some enduring mysteries. Lee Harvri-Oswald, Acted Alone?

I feel like that I am going to be very embarrassed to report here that I'm not somebody who knows a ton about the JFK assassination. I know there's a grassy knoll, and there's the city of and there's a convertible, and there are allegedly multiple shooters, and it's a Pruder film. That'll get me through the first five minutes of a conversation with a real JFK head, so to speak. After that, I'm nodding along. I'm nodding along. A person who doesn't know sports is nodding along to someone who's giving me Jets takes. I'm embarrassed to admit that. I feel like I need it for branding reasons. I should probably study, and I have it.

I've gone to the plaza, and what's striking to me about that- Of course, you have. Well, and let me tell you something. All the talk about like, Oh, that's a shot that only a military sniper, and even at that level, it would be a hard one to make. When you see it, it's like, Don't look that far to me. It's right there. I could probably hit him with a football.

You're doing this thing where you think that you irrationally feel like you could do these feats of history thing where you could hit that shot. That's not how it is.

No, I saw somebody- It's a pretty dark feat of history.

Yeah, it is, but you'd never hit that shot.

I saw a YouTube video where someone took a tape measure and put it out there. It's a shockingly short distance. Yeah, it looks good.

Yeah, you wouldn't hit it.

I don't know much about gunplay, but...

Now you're telling me this is like the punt, pass, and kick contest.

Exactly. See, Dr..

Pepper challenge. Yeah, you're not going to do it. Yeah, you're not going to do it. Cussinations. Kids can do this. Just throw the bullet sideways. That's fine.

You're not winning a scholarship, Dave. It's not happening.

Well, the other thing is, it's the same thing as sitting at home and watching Jeopardy. How do they know that when you add the pressure? Lee Harvey Oswald was under some amount of pressure there. Allegedly- Lee Harvey Oswald, clutch jean. Moon landing, real.

I mean, I once saw a video of Buzz Aldrin literally punching someone in the face for questioning whether it was real or not. I feel like that guy is rightfully frustrated. I feel like that thing happened. I feel like Buzz Aldrin putting the courage of his convictions on a viral video. I encourage you to find it. It's great. Yeah, I'm going real on the Moon landing. Yes.

If you go around the Comedy Writing rooms, you'll usually find that the people there probably were propelled there by being considered the class clown by their peers growing up. Did you, as an investigative reporter, watching The sixth Sense? How early in that movie did you go like, Oh, he's dead?

I was inspired to become an investigative journalist because I didn't see it coming, and I vowed to never feel that embarrassment over again.

The origin story.

We have a Pablo origin story.

Like in science, M Night Shyamalan is the cave that Bane was raised in for me. I'm just like, Oh, it was water? The aliens didn't like water? I never got over that.

Like Spider-Man with his powers. I will never let bad deeds go unchecked again. Here's one I'd want you to investigate that doesn't have to do with sports, but I'm intrigued by this. The Louver Thiefs who stole those jewels, what do they possibly have to do with those jewels They can't go anywhere. What are you going to do with them? Good for you. You have millions and millions of dollars of these jewels. There's nowhere to take them. Can't spend them.

I feel like they're going to pop up at like fanatics fest. Next to Michael Rubin, Hawking a PSA 10 Tom braided Ricky card, it's going to be like, whatever. Princess Diana's amulet.

Only an eight-graded French Crown jewel. It didn't quite pass the test. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah, by the way, the authenticators, I love that. It's so much bullshit.

I love that they are here.

I love that they exist. I love that they're like, You know what we need is a regulatory Agency for Trading cards. And it's like, Well, who decides? It's like, Don't worry about it. Okay.

In movies, it's always settled by at the Hawk Shop, and it always ends up like, This is a priceless item. I'll give you 50 bucks for it. Fine, give me 50 bucks. If you were doing the work you're doing now during the many Patriot scandals, which one would you have been most... Which would have piqued your interest most? Spygate, The Flategate, the TB12 controversy, the demise of the dynasty?

I still love the Deflater as a character. Remember that guy? He showed up and he was like, And you'll never guess who it was. The guy they nicknamed in the building, the Deflater. That's some Coen brothers stuff, man. I love that. Okay, a couple of things I remember about the deflate get, right? The Ideal Gas Law. Remember there was a press conference? I feel like maybe it was Belichick who had to come out and basically mutter because he obviously wasn't trying to take the blame for what braided was doing with the deflator in the bathroom, near the field tunnel. And Belichick basically had to mutter about the ideal gas law. I was like, This is great. I love this scandal.

The deflator. Belichick, you've done some work on him. Maybe we'll have time for that. But quickly, I just wanted to ask you where you are in a couple of pro football, well, different levels of scandal. The field mics, Miles Garrett, hitting Jason Rudolf with the helmet. Does that one intrigue you at all? What happened there? Is it plausible that all microphones on an NFL field for a primetime game, national coverage and all of that? Is it plausible? Does the explanation, the field mics were out?

Does that check out? No, I don't believe that for a second. My thing, by the way, on the field mic and the miced up thing is that there is a fascinating Let's call it almost... Maybe it's generous to call it the equivalent of a seven-second delay, how they say it's live, but it's not really live. There's always the ability for the people in the control room to recognize, Oh, no. We should effectively stop on this tape. And let it never be released. I think that happens all of the time. And so purely based on informed, or not even informed, just vaguely informed speculation, yeah, why wouldn't there be? In this era in which people... In this era in which kickers are kicking balls into the wires for a spider cam. You're telling me there's not a tape somewhere of a microphone hidden in a pylon. I just don't believe that.

We were talking about it on the Dan Lebitard show after your appearance on Thursday. I'm not trying to be cute. For real, you said people now don't want to take my calls. Do you get nervous at all? I mean, we were talking about, did you anticipate that this was going to be part of what you were doing when you started the show? I mean, you're dealing with the mob, you're dealing with Congress, you're dealing with the FBI. This is some heavy stuff, man.

Yeah, I don't know if I've necessarily fully adjusted my behavior in with my actual reality.

Hanging out with John Rocker. Yeah.

Me, John Rocker on the subway, just saying whatever we want.

Singing Jardian songs, singing prescription drug commercials. Yeah.

My sense of How much I should be worried is that... I don't know. I live... This is, I guess, fully disclosed, so no use of pretending. I do live in New York City. I do ride the subway with John Rocker style characters every now and again, and I don't really think about it. That said, it does occur to me that if something were to happen to me, and I am very sound of mind and body, and I am very happy, and I should establish these things, I'm told I should ethically establish, I'm not trying to hurt myself. I guess that's the thing I should do now. Beyond that, I genuinely don't... I don't know. I don't think about it, and yet I recognize that if you're trying to get me right now, there are a lot of suspects, so it's a pretty good time to try. So I should recognize that. I don't know. Do you think Leventard would let me expense?

I'm not trying to be glib, by the way, about this. I really do. Because you start out, I'm going to do a sports show, and I'm going to investigate some things, and all of a sudden, it feels like every week, Pablo Tori is breaking news that national news is picking up. We say, the government is-FBI? Yes, Gina.

I'm going to jump in here, Dave. Pablo, we're worried about you. The whole Levatard crew, everybody here. I think Tony mentioned it today. He's like, We're very worried about you, Pablo.

So go watch or go stand by his side, man. Me?

I appreciate that. I'm not here to diminish what I think is work that I try so hard at that I sometimes don't actually internalize how much someone hates me for doing it. So there is just that. I also do think when comes to the unsavory characters that I tend to talk about, I guess what I hope, and this is going to sound... Now, I'm going to sound like an absolute idiot, but I'm like, I think the mob is going to like this episode. I think they're going to get what I'm going for. There's a reveal. There's a character development. I'm trying to give a three-dimensional view of what they're really up to. It wasn't me, by the way. Other people are talking about this. I'm not the guy who is there with a microphone. I'm talking to other people. Maybe consider that, sir.

Your old man was a doctor, right? I bet you he would watch shows, ER and Grey's Anatomy or otherwise, and say, That doesn't happen in real life. I get the sense that mobsters like being portrayed in movies. Maybe this is it. Maybe that's it.

That's what I'm hoping. I feel like, look, if I may appeal to the mob for a second. Please. We haven't heard about Lacosa Nostra in a while, and this has been a real development in the brand. Four of the Five Families were mentioned in this indictment, and I say this very sincerely, having reported the story in a real way, I am more impressed with the state of Lacosa Nostra today than I was two weeks ago. You guys are up to stuff.

It's nice to say.

We have you- Shout Shout out to you. Please leave me alone from a pure, Hey, I'm just podcasting here.

I admire you greatly, too. And you, FBI and Congress, everyone else who we've brought up here. Where do you come down? Because you, again, are doing legitimately marvelous work and stuff that transcends mere sports. This is high-end journalism. What do you make of, I'm not looking for you to impune anybody, but what's replaced journalism largely over the last decade is the notion of the newsbreaker. To me, these are transcribers. What value do you think that has, if any Yeah.

I think the question is always, if you waited five more minutes, would we have known about it? That's really the question. I'm not above such things being exciting and worth refreshing my timeline for. But I think on some level, without making this too binary, I do think there is something to reporting stuff that would not be known otherwise. And more than that, reporting stuff that others don't want you to know. And so I think, if anything, speaking to the brand the ending problem of journalism and other like the Italian mob, a once proud profession that has fallen on some hard times until recently, one might say, I would say that we need to distinguish who gets to use that word. I do think that journalist, reporter, even host. I see all of this stuff online, and what an old-sounding ass sentence, just like, I see all this stuff online, and I'm like, This is not a host. This is not a journalist. This is not a reporter. This is somebody who's talking into a recording device, which is to say, Miles Garrett, all of us may be claiming to have not said something that would get us in trouble later.

But I do think the reality is we need to draw lines around, Hey, I think there's something to the craft of this, to the intentionality of this, and trying to report something that other people don't want you to report. I think that means something.

It just feels to me like spiked information, obviously. Parties incented to get word out and then reporting that in advance of something. There's very little, if any, evidence, to your point about investigation. There's a lot of speculative stuff out there, but very rarely do the news newsbreakers tell you something is about to happen before it actually happens. And that, like I say, turns them into transcribers, high-end, highly paid ones who then turn themselves into martyrs by saying, It's hard to have a regular life. I can't have a regular life because I'm too busy.

I'm sorry for that. I have two cell phones, and they're ringing all of the time. Like, okay. Look, I think that on some level, the word newsbreaker is a vocabulary where we just got to change. Is this actually news, are you actually breaking it? Are you being fed this by an agent or by a lead source? And by the way, if you're going to use an anonymous source, so do I. That's cool. I do think it's worth wondering, why do you need to use this? I think there's some justification, perhaps, if there is some threat to someone's security or the sensitivity of an investigation. I think anonymous sources are incredibly important. But the whole idea of lead source tells me that sixth man on the Minnesota Timberwolves is going to get a contract extension. I'm like, I don't think we need to deep-throat this one. I think you might be able to even say who's telling you this and why in a way that is perhaps inconvenient for the What do I want to put this? The theater of news as opposed to the actual breaking of it.

Well, people- Why did you have to go over Nas Reid?

I'm sorry. I can't. What did Nas Reid do to you, Pablo. I've been trying to balance something like a serious journalistic identity, and this guy with the Dr. Dume mask is just yelling at me.

Two for two on being called Dr. Dume. Wow.

Is that not what we're doing?

No, he's like something from Harry Potter or something. I don't know, some dork shit.

I want to know the investigation and then Pablo goes, but I'd like to know where Mike Lombardi gets those hats he wears. He wears them all the time. They're nice. They're very natural-looking. They're like Oh, yeah.

They're brown.

They're always brown. I can't tell what they're made out of.

There's a metaphor in that hat. I think there's a metaphor there. I don't want to be too a glib.

I'm picking up what you're laying down on top of somebody's head.

I do think there's something very perfect cinematically about someone who thinks they're getting away with something and absolutely is.

That's spot on. We'll leave it there. Hey, Pablo Tori, really appreciate the time, man. Everybody's already checking your show out, but Pablo Tori finds out is one that is essential right now. Make sure you're getting in on board with that. Thanks for the time, pal.

Tell Bortles, I say, Hey.

I will. All right, there goes Pablo Tori. Very him to take the time to answer my stupid questions. That was great, though, right? From his side, at least.

I was very intrigued that he's not really knows anything about the JFK assassination. I figured that he read up his alley.

I like his origin story, right? It's neat that it drove him into this line of work. Maybe next he could investigate who in the hell Bradley is supposed to be because it seems like Dr. Dume. I don't understand what that- It's a deatheater. I don't know what that means. Harry Potter.

You have to watch Harry Potter. No. The followers of Baltimore? No. The followers. It's actually a pretty cool mask, I got to say, Bradley. It's not a bad-looking mask at all.

All right, Dr. Dume. All right, let's say it's time. We're going to leave- I've never got a compliment from you before. Voice the muffled tone. Bradley, Dr. Dume is going to sit this one out, and Gino, Mike and I will get through the week nine countdown. We're going to go through the five games, in this case, six games that strike my fancy, and we're going to figure out which is the best direction to lean if you're going to put a little money to make it a little more interesting. Here we go. Number 5, the Minnesota Vikings against the Detroit Lions. We finished up the pick six with a mention of Jamir Gibbs getting into the end zone. Detroit's at home, laying eight and a Half. Total is 48 and a half at the time of this recording. I'm going to start with you here, Gino.

All right, so eight and a half. Okay, so Dan Campbell has this thing where he likes to punish division opponents, especially ones that can't keep up with his team. Plus, they're at home, so he'll probably want to put on a show for the crowd. That's my thinking. The over-runer here is about 48 and a half. So that implies what? 3810 Detroit. That sounds about right. That sounds like a good ask.

Well, with 3810, properly, it would be under then.

We're going to want to Let's go 39, 10, just for that.

39, 10. All right. There you go. Mike, how say you?

Great bailout. What a team player is this Dave Damoshe. I've never been a JJ McCarthy guy. I don't know why they reached for him so early. A hard ball made it a point to not have him throw the ball when he was at Michigan. Gave it to Blake Foreman a bunch of times. I just think we're off the rails in Minnesota. I mean, they look really bad, letting Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones walk, two guys that are doing just fine this season. Kevin O'Neill probably should be questioned about that more than he is. But Detroit, they seem like they've got it together. And bad, bad one o'clock window for a Minnesota Viking fan.

Wait a second. That's the glass half empty view of KOC. The glass half full view is that the two front runners, even though we don't talk about MVP candidates this early in the season and at the halfway point, is still not late enough in the season to be debating MVP. Still, it's Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold is in the conversation. I think you could say that, well, they learned that the knee of KOC, and they sent out a better version of themselves into the football world, right?

Yeah, but you probably could have got Daniel Jones for really cheap, and you could have held on to him, which means you didn't realize the talent when he was there. That's interesting.

Yeah, exactly. I think that's the play. Then you To avoid all the Carson wins.

Sam Darnold, he had to pay because he had the best season of his career. He wins you, what, 14 games?

Well, once you burn a high first on JJ McCarthy, you can't then give the big long term deal to Darnold.

That's where all the mistakes started. You Should have probably cut bait, tried to get something back for JJ, kept Sam Darnold, kept it rolling.

Because of the injury, and I think a lot of people announced JJ McCarthy as a bust way too early. I mean, he played that one game where he had the great second half against Chicago. Then his wife or his girlfriend, whatever, has a baby before the next game, and he doesn't look good in that one. That's understandable from the human side of things. Then it's Carson Went and all the rest of it. The Vikings are hard to figure out here. I'm inclined to ride with KOC, even what is veering into a lost season, except for another QB whisper, and that's a short list, is Kyle Shanaher, and he has his exception that proves the rule, named Trey Lance. Who knows at this point, if JJ McCarthy is going to be that for KOC. I'm going to take the Lions here to win by double digits. At home against the Vikes, they understand that they are in a heavyweight division, and they have to keep up with the Green Bay Packers who are playing very well themselves. At number 4 on the countdown. Instead of one game, I love these two massive numbers, and I want to see what you guys think about these.

Rams are laying 14 at home to Tyler Shuck and the Saints, and the Green Bay Packers a meager 13 and a half against the Carolina Panthers. Mike Fuentes, would you bet either favorite here?

No, I like Carolina. I know it's going to be Andy Dalton, but Andy Dalton has proved to have been servicel before, and he can't possibly be as bad as he was last week. So I like Carolina. The thing about Tyler Shuck. I'll never say his name right. What is it? How do you say it? Shuck. Shuck? Like Shucks? Shuck. Like Shuck? Shuck. Like Shucks.

Like Bayou.

Like Shuck. Yeah, like that. Go ahead. Okay. Well, he's playing the Rams. He's traveling all the way out to LA. That's a tough place for a rookie QV to start. I could see that getting away from them and him just not being really able to do anything. So if I had to pick one 13. 5 point, 14 point favorite here, it's probably going to be the Panthers.

I would go. I just turned my nose up at these massive numbers. The supremely gigantic number in NFL games doesn't usually pay off. The Rams, though, gets a rookie with that pass rush. That should add up to a big win for the Rams. Gino, how say you?

I think the Rams are going to cover here. But I think Andy Dalton, he looked really bad in the first game, but he's a vet, and I'm sure they've been trying to figure stuff out. It may not be close, but I could see some garbage time closing of the gap there, which is going to just ruin anyone that went over. So I'm going to say Carolina versus Green Bay and the Rams in the Rams versus- Interesting.

New Orleans. Well, Andy Dalton, for what it matters, and it could factor insignificantly, it depends which side you think this favors, Matt LaFleur and Andy Dalton are no strangers to each other, understanding each other's tendencies, who that favors. Probably the packers. At number three, the Indianapolis Colts, the AFC front runner, paying a visit to the banks of the Three Rivers, the Steelers for the second week in a row, a home dog plus three. Egan, yuck. Fed and double fed. Gino, how say you?

So 50 and a half point total here. There's going to be some points scored here is what they're saying. They're saying the Colts, the one weakness they have is that they can't really cover people. I think DK Metcath is probably going to have a big game here. I would take the Stealers in this case, the spread, even though I think they lose by one or two points, possibly on a last second field goal.

Oh, wow. You're really finding a tight middle there. I talked to my pal, Kent Bryant, the Yinzer Kent Bryant, and he did a good point. I mean, I'm down like most Pittsburgh Steelers fans are. I get it. People look at the team. They're four and three. They're playing well. They're in first place in that division. Yeah, I get it all. But they are not playing well. Mike Tomlin, just before the season, said, or suggested at least, that this defense had a chance to be historic. In the meantime, it got disgraced by the decrepit Joe Flacko, and then again by Jordan Love in front of the national audience last week. I think I'm not somebody who advocates to see other grownups get fired. I certainly don't think the straw man argument, What do you think they should fire Tomlin right now? Not before week nine. No, I don't think they are going to fire him in the middle of the football season. I do think this one feels different. After the Russell Wilson experience last year, in which he was supposed to be the missing link, as portrayed by Mike Tomlin, now we have the expected amnesia to then embrace Aaron Rodgers, who has not been the problem this year, It's been the defense, a.

K. A. Mike Tomlin's specialty, his handpicked pieces for that defense. I do think if they don't make the playoffs this year, in a year that was held up as a year to try and get over the pump, the weird standard that is, We got to win a playoff game. Okay, great. If you win in the wild card round, the stink is off at that point. I don't understand. I could possibly see them. I suspect, my hypothesis is, that the reason Art, too, the current owner Owner of the team, who is Dan Rooney's son, who is Art Rooney's grandson. The streak of Art Rooney and the Dan Rooney who picked Chuck Noel, and then Bill Cauer, and then Mike Tomlin, that is a streak that has yielded three head coaches since 1969. I don't know if you've ever heard about that before. I think Art, too, understands. If I get rid of Mike Tomlin, and then I'm responsible for hiring his replacement, what if I make a mistake and hire someone like Adam Gase? I will have destroyed this great familial streak. I think that probably, I would be worried about that, too. All that being said, I'm going to take the Steelers.

This is a Mike Tomlin special. When you think they're all down and out and there's nowhere, the bottom is falling out. I think this is the game he wins, Mike Fuentes.

The Colts, they're riding high. They're seven and one. Nobody expected this from them. Jonathan Taylor, he has 14 touch downs in eight games. He's not going to keep this up. It's almost impossible. Like you said, this does seem to be one of those weird games where the team you don't expect to win somehow pulls it off. Chris Boswell is probably my favorite bet every week, over one and a half. So I can see them covering this game and also winning by a field goal at home. It's probably one of those games where Danny Dimes looks more like the Danny Dimes that we're used to and not so much Indiana Jones. But then also, what the hell do I know, man? The Indiana has been blowing out everybody. I could see Jonathan Taylor getting two games, Michael Pippen getting in the end zone, Warren getting in the end zone, and Indiana Jones looks amazing.

I don't know what Mike Tomlin knows. He's the one talking about how great this defense going to be, and everybody who goes up against him is the best version of himself. At number two, Broncos, Texans, the two best defenses in the AFC. Texans, surprisingly, to me, at least, laying a point and a half here, total 39 and a half. Mike Fuentes, how say you?

I have no faith in Houston Texans. That's basically what it comes down to. I think C. J. Stroud, we crowned him way too early. I feel the same thing about Jaden Daniels, to be honest. Jaden Daniels found himself in the NFC Championship game, and yes, he's been hurt this season, but even before that, he wasn't really a world beater like we thought he was. Denver has this thing where Bo Nicks tends to play out of his mind when you need him to, and I'll take him over C. J. Stroud, even if it's on the road, only one and a half point spread. I'm going to take Denver to cover in this one and try to keep pace there with the Kansas City Chiefs.

I'm spoked by the Broncos being a dog. I just think that the specific matchup at the line of scrimage, the defensive front of the Broncos against the nonexistent O-line of the Texans, seems to mean Denver, and I'm take them. Gina.

The only reason I can think that this line exists the way it does is that Pat Sertain is out. There's no other explanation to me. It looked like the Texans figured something out the last game, but they figured something out against a hobbled San Francisco team. I think it's the line of scrimage, like you said, Dave. I would take the Broncos in this one as well.

All right. Number one, the clear-cut most important game, you would think for the AFC, it's the Chiefs at the Bills. The Buffalo Bills are a home dog catching two and a half. 52 and a half is the total. Gino, go.

This is going to be a fun one. I'm going to bet the over on this one, even if I don't think that's the case, just because we already have, what, two touch downs predicted in our pick six for both Allen and Mahomes. So I'm going with the over here. I'm going to say the Bills because they're at home and it's the regular season, and that tends to be the case between these two teams. And then in the postseason, it's the Chief. So I'm going to go with the Bills here.

Usually, these games come down to who needs it more in the moment, two high-end teams. And I don't know that either team needs it more than the other. They're both chasing the one seed. The Chiefs are coming on, obviously. The Bills typically prove something to themselves and their fan base against Mighty Kansas City, and they get it in the regular season. The Chiefs are coming on, and they are the best team in the conference. I'm taking them.

Yeah, I agree with you, Dave. I think the Chiefs, now they got everybody back. They got worthy back. They got Rice back. Kelsey seems to be like the old Kelsey again. He's playing out of his mind. They got all the cylinders firing. They're tired of hearing all this shit about how the Bills or the team in the AFC They're going to go in there. They're going to make a statement, and they're going to cover. They're going to win in Buffalo this time around, and then they're going to beat them again in the playoffs.

We'll be back on the other side of NFL Week 9 to break it all down and try and make sense of it for you. Until then, for Gino and Mike Fuentes and everybody here in Miami, and Bradley, and that stupid Dr. Dume mask up in New York City. Thanks so much. It's a death Eater. Thanks so much, Football Americans. It's been a thin slice of heaven. Sheesh. Heaven. Shit.