Transcript of One Score Supermen, Simmons Sleeves, and Love Wins (feat. Nick Kostos)

We're not smoking here.

Can we not smoke in here? They don't allow smoking in, in, in the postgame pressers and haven't for about 50 years there, coach. Hi and hello, my fellow football Americans. Welcome to the NFL Week 9 review. We have to review a crazy Saturday of college football as well. News on that front. Welcome to Football America, presented as ever by our pals over at DraftKings Sports, available in all 50 states. Thanks to everybody right out of the gate here who checked out last week's midweek YouTube exclusive show that Nick Kostos, Major Randy, Social Mede, and I did.

Not out yet. Sick of my balls about what happened Saturday night, but I'm guessing we'll get to that at some point. It was a catch.

You think so?

The easiest catch of the day, but whatever. We'll, we'll, we'll digress.

Do, are we really going to indulge that? I really I we only have so much time.

If you want to, if you want to indulge.

Well, we only have so much time to talk.

Okay. Are we indulging?

We're really going to discuss what plainly wasn't a catch?

What was absolutely a catch.

Pretend like we thought it was.

Football moved two steps, he catched the ball, then you go outside, and then it gets hit outside of the playing area. Should be a catch. Whatever. Your, your show.

Okay. I have no rooting interest in that game sincerely, or maybe I have some minor concerns about, you know, how it impacts my favorite team in the mix for the 12-team tournament. But that plainly wasn't a catch if you watch it in real time. It just wasn't a catch in real time, and then you move on. So let's we're going to get into it. It's episode 98. Buddy Bidalski filling in for Gino behind the glass. So, Buddy, how are you? And who wore the number 98 best in football? Nay, in all of sports history.

I mean, number 98 right now, when I think of that number, what comes to mind is Connor Bedard up in Chicago and just how the Chicago Blackhawks have completely abandoned him and left him out to dry. Though we are monitoring the Roman Canceroff situation there in Chicago. In the NFL, though, we've got Robert Mathis, Jesse Armstead, Casey Hampton, Tony Siracusa, and right now, of course, we have Max Crosby, who is just dominating the NFL.

Dave, some incredible names. And, and, and Buddy starts a hockey America?

Yeah.

What are we doing?

What are we doing here?

What are we doing?

Buddy, you watching puck all weekend? I don't want to think about football right now.

You're watching puck all weekend?

I don't want to think about no, I watch football all weekend, and I don't want to think about a lot of football because the Gators lost again, and it was just.

What about the what about the big snack? Casey Hampton, who belongs in the Hall of Fame. Hey, by the way, in the meantime, in the here and now, the Packers are in last place.

Crazy.

They're also a wild card. The Canes, as we say, lost in South Bend, but it seems like the good news, Tony, is that they're going to make the playoffs, so you don't have to sweat it too much. The trade deadline is fast approaching, a matter of minutes until that wraps up, literally. And a huge Week 10 on the near horizon. Steelers bungles. Really, I feel like that's going to settle the hash of the AFC North. Niners and Cowboys getting it on, Vikes and Packers. Texans and Browns, a big one, obviously, now for the Browns if they want to stay relevant. And the Patriots and Lions overseas somewhere in Europe, I can't remember where, I think Germany, Munich specifically, in the college football playoff.

I'm 43 years old. I'm trying to think. Is that the best compliment I've ever been paid?

I didn't say your face looked like Keanu Reeves. I just said your hair.

I was going to say, "You look like Keanu Reeves in Speed," is maybe the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. So you we've started the show off on a great foot, Dave Damishack. It is great to be here with you on Football America, my fellow football American.

You're a you're really a swarthy Keanu Reeves, in a way. You know, as we just hear Sean Payton talking about burning nails in the press conference and all of that sort of thing. Just randomly, you don't strike me as somebody who enjoys a drink. Am I wrong about that?

Well, I so at this era of my life, so my wife does not drink. So she will have, like she will get tipsy once a year, let's say. So by virtue of that, I don't really drink anymore. We went to brunch on Saturday. These are the things you have to do when you work in this profession. Saturdays, we went out and had had something to eat, went out with a couple friends. I had a glass of wine, and I was buzzed at the end of the glass of wine because I don't drink during football season. Now, if you had talked to me two decades ago because I'm busy all the time. If you had talked to have a young kid, if you had talked to me two decades ago, I was basically blacked out for my entire 20s and early 30s, both living in South Florida and in Manhattan.

All right. I guess good for you. I don't like when people get evangelical about their sober lifestyle. It's too.

Well, who said I was sober? I just don't drink.

Okay. Well, okay. I'm picking up what you're laying down. But yeah, I don't I don't dig the whole.

A joint.

My life is better now. Right. My my life is better now. I'm cleaner. I'm living a healthy lifestyle. Really, it's your wife's fault because it's not fun. You think, like, I don't care. You go out with people, and they're like, "I don't care if you drink. You should enjoy one." Like, what's going to be weird if I sit here and am drinking alone? I've overcome that those concerns, though, over the years.

Yes. I could tell based on based on how weathered your face looks. I can tell, but I haven't drank.

Initially, it could be a problem, but now but now, I'm not worrying about it.

No, but, like, I will have, like, a drink, maybe two drinks when I go out. I just cut it off there. I just don't have 17 like I used to. So that's where the cut I don't not drink. I just don't drink to get drunk.

Who do you think you look like if not Keanu Reeves in Speed?

At this moment right now, if I were to honestly assess myself, I think I am in an ugly period at this moment, and it's making me very upset. My hair is growing back. I put a couple I got a walking pad in my office. I used it the whole day yesterday while I was watching games here. It was great. I'm trying to drop a couple pounds. So I'm actually very bullish on where I'll be, probably early December. But right now, I'm not that pleased with my physical appearance. So I can't give you a great someone ugly. I feel like I'm pretty ugly.

They're literally in midseason form, which I always think isn't the most flattering way to describe a team when the season starts. They're already in midseason form. What you want to be is in postseason form, right?

Yeah.

And so what you're trying to do is get into postseason form in time for the postseason. Speaking of that, before we go through the consequential games of Week 9, the ones that we circled going into the weekend and what they end up meaning, I think we can kind of look at the results here and take a 30,000-foot view or something in between there. Because if you looked at where the standings are, I don't mean the divisional standings. I mean the playoff seatings as they are structured right now. It's very interesting. I mentioned at the top, obviously, a lot of people are going to be buzzing about the fact that the Green Bay Packers, as mighty as they look, are in fourth place in the mighty NFC North.

I actually disagree with that as far as the AFC is concerned. And I will answer your question by asking you a question. Which quarterback, Dave Damishack, do you think because you watch all the games, right? Who has been better this year? And is it close? CJ Stroud or Drake Maye? And this will lead to another question after you answer this one.

Stroud, of course, right?

Not even close. So CJ Stroud has thrown this year after his after he nuked the Chargers yesterday, 16 touchdown passes, two interceptions. Drake Maye in one more game, 18 touchdown passes, 11 interceptions. So as it stands right now, the Patriots are five and four. I anticipate them in the international game this week against the Lions getting boat raced. I love the Lions in the game. So I think through 10 games, the New England Patriots are going to be five and five.

I agree with that.

The Houston the Texans are three and five. This week, they're on the road in Cleveland against Deshaun Watson and the Browns. I love the Texans. I think they will win and move to four and five. Then they host whatever the remains of the Indianapolis Colts will be after the trade deadline on a short week on Thursday night. So I think both the Texans and Patriots, after 10 games, will both be five and five, comparable schedules down the stretch, except the Texans have the better quarterback. I think the Texans will be the final playoff team in the AFC, Dave Damishack, not the New England Patriots.

Okay. You know what? I have to take that back, and I'm going to tangentially or that's not what I mean to say, but astray. I'm not going to Jerry Orbach it here because I agree completely with what you just said there, and I think I misspoke in getting into that. Yes, the Patriots are going to fall away, but that's the mix of teams that are in the wild card chase.

What did you get? Too much sun this weekend, Buddy? Like, you're looking like you're a little haggard right now. Did you fall asleep in the sun?

What I don't even know what that's what you're even getting at.

You look weathered right now. Like, what happened? Did you fall asleep outside?

No. I what I will if I do look red, there was a lighting issue before the show started just before it didn't started flashing.

The lighting looks fine. It's just your face.

You look like Johnny Drama in Entourage when he said, "I'm orange, and it'll turn to a maple syrupy brown." You haven't turned to the maple syrupy brown yet. You look orange.

Now, well, maybe the lighting's a little bit off, but I compliment you with Keanu Reeves, and now you can compare me to one of the Mooks in that Dreadful Show.

I don't think Dreadful Show was great.

I don't I never get the people who are otherwise have good taste in things and good sense of humor. Was there ever anything funny in that show? You might have found it compelling, the story of a superstar who brings his pals with him out the house.

Was anything funny in Entourage?

Did you laugh watching that show?

Of course. Of course I I mean, this was in my blackout period. I was laughing at everything. Absolutely.

Jeremy Piven was the comedic breakout star of that show. That's all you need to.

I mean, he is funny.

Is he? Okay.

In that show, he is.

I think his hair plugs are funny. That's for sure. So then you have the Steelers and the Chiefs at six and two, and like I say, a massive one in the AFC North, Pittsburgh heading to Cincinnati. You know what? While we're on that one very quickly, I'll give you my formal pick later in the week. But, Kostos, we won't talk with you before then. How do you see that one playing out?

So I I don't know yet. I have a bunch of pretty strong opinions already on Week 10. This one's flummoxing me a little bit. I think Joe Burrow's going to win MVP. And if he's going to win MVP, they kind of have to win this game. Like, they have to win the division if he's going to win MVP. So a betting opinion, since he's a three-and-a-half-point favorite right now, almost four, I think I would take Pittsburgh plus the points. Part of me wants to just take the Steelers to win the game outright. I don't know what I'm going to do yet.

I am now saying it's funny because I am leaning in the direction of the Cincinnati Bengals in that one, and you just said it. I think that Joe Burrow is tracking to get an MVP. I think the Bengals are legitimately I said it in August, and I stand by it are a legit Super Bowl contender. I do think when all hash is settled. Right now, let's wait out the trade deadline because you see stuff like Jesse Bates moving to the Jags, and that only makes that defense better, which is, by the way, I don't know if everybody's paying attention to it. I know. I always talk about the apathy around the Jacksonville Jaguars and that it feels uninspiring to the football world that that team might wind up in the Super Bowl with the turquoise and the dumb helmets and the lack of enthusiasm emerging from Florida around this team and all of that.

And this NFC North is tracking right now, the 2026 NFC North, Dave Damishack, to be the best division in the history of the NFL.

And what did they get what did the Vikings heard Nick Kostos on Football America a week ago say that they should go get Kirk Cousins? Because guess what? The Raiders should definitely be listening to that. And I if you think, well, Fernando will learn at the knee of the savvy vet Kirk, I get that story. But what's more important at this point? If you can get a decent pick for him.

I think they think they can. I don't think they can. And I'm guessing by the way you said that, you don't think they can. They're going to try and make the playoffs.

I think you're right.

And they're going to hold on to him. I think it's a mistake. They should be playing Fernando Mendoza. They should trade like, the Vikings should call and make a godfather offer for Kirk Cousins. But I think he's going to stay with the Raiders, Dave.

Hey, by the way, I you know what? I'm a real heel here. I'm a you know what? Maybe I did get too much sun, even though I wasn't really out in the sun all that much. You know what, though? Hoover Damishack did have a under-12 soccer game on the middle of the day on Saturday, and I was outside for an hour. So that's probably why I'm a little sunbaked here. I haven't involved 10 Day Tony in this conversation. Tony, how say you on all that? First of all, do you agree with our assessment that it's the Texans who ultimately close in on the Patriots and claim that final wild card spot?

Yeah. So as I was looking through the last couple of weeks, probably starting in Week 5 or 6, where Houston was one and four, one and five, I was like, man, something's going on here because they're playing well, and it seems like the sum of their parts is better than what's actually being put out on the field and competing week to week. And now they're starting to fall in line with what we thought earlier on in the season. Browns, Colts, Ravens, Steelers, their next four. Like, this is a team that could be six and five by the end of week what do we call it? 11.

You can't turn I mean, in 2026, you just can't turn the ball over at the rate that he does. It's not 1983.

I'm just surprised at how many teams have one or two losses all the way down the line here when you look at this AFC, right? Like, the Bengals are the sixth seed, and they're six and two. Like, when have we ever seen this many high-grade teams this late into the season? It feels like there's always three or four losses somewhere in the three to six range.

And then you go to the other side, the other conference, the Packers are six and three and in last place in the NFC North and holding down the last playoff spot in the NFC right now. The Rams and Seahawks, both at five and four, are out of the playoffs. Something is going to shake out there where the Rams or Seahawks.

Buddy, are you just repeating stuff Dave Damishack has said in the last like two minutes of the show? Because Dave.

I've been a little flustered.

Buddy, we're going to get to you. We'll get to you in a second. Listen.

I just want to hear from you.

He's got in a coma over there. It's amazing how loaded these two conferences are.

Get back into your coma.

Well, like Damishack literally Dave literally said the Packers are six and three and less and the Rams and Seahawks are outside looking in. They come to you and you'll go, "Hey, you know what? Greene is six and three and in last place are the Rams and Seahawks are on the outside looking in."

Oh, now it's a work. I want to know what you're jumping in for. If you have too much on your plate, then why are you jumping in? They're three grown-ups having a conversation.

I'm going back into my coma. I'm going back into my coma.

I will say this. The Rams aren't making the playoffs. Flat out.

Are or are not?

Are not. Are not making the playoffs. It's a weird thing. What we thought going into the season, is this the could they have a perfect season? They have the best defense ever. They're offense, this and that. The Rams are not going to make the playoffs. I'll say it right here on November 10th or 11th or whatever we are. I mean, I just.

If Puka's out for a long time.

Dave has always said it. The Jenga piece is Puka Nakua, and they're running him into the ground like a rented mule. How many targets can we get you? 19? Perfect. If you're going to catch 14 of them, you're going to get hit 19 times in those 14 catches. Like, I just don't see how sustainable he can be throughout a 17, 18, 19, 20-game season if you get to the playoffs. This offense just has no juice. Terrence Ferguson got hurt again. Tweaked a hamstring. He's going to be out a couple more weeks. Devonte Adams is handing me. We don't know when he's coming back. Like, who are you going to play? They have nobody.

Well, here's the Devil's Damishack of that is, and I completely agree, and obviously, I said Puka Nakua. If it's not JSN, the Jenga piece of pro football this season was going to be Puka Nakua, and it's kind of played out that way. The thing is, though, the other side of it is Miles Garrett is now back and looked real good back there. And now you turn it over to the defense and dominate, and the Seahawks won the division and won the Super Bowl with that method a year ago. So why not the Rams doing that there? The answer is probably because they have a long way to go still to catch up to the Niners.

What year is this?

I like I think that that's the way it goes. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

It is.

The same way that the SEC and Big 10 might be better than the Big 12, but if you win the Big 12, you are guaranteed a bid into the tournament. That's the way the NFL is structured. How say you?

Yeah. I mean, absolutely. I mean, if all of that were true, we wouldn't have gotten the beast quake game against the New Orleans Saints in Seattle and that wild card game when I believe the Seahawks finished under 500 that year and won the NFC West. So yeah, like, obviously, we're going to see a team from the NFC South make the playoffs. I actually think it might be the Saints, the only team in the NFC South that won this weekend. If the Saints beat the Panthers on Sunday, Dave, New Orleans will have sole possession of first place in the NFC South.

But here's the thing. What we have to resolve is, are we going to as a football nation and as a show that wears I'm humbled by the fact that we represent the entire conversation around football in these United States, can we just decide as a collect let's just not talk about the NFC South until they require us to talk about it. It's a waste of our breath. Let's talk about the teams that matter because we know whoever wins that division might pull who knows what might happen on wild card weekend and win a game, but they're not going to the Super Bowl.

I think that they are the purest expression of offense in all of sports right now.

Yeah, but they can't run the ball, and that's offense, which is fascinating.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, but yes, and you literally said that it doesn't matter, and it doesn't. They are like the Walter White Blue Meth of offense in the National Football League. This is the purest expression of offense. This is an offense where, like, when I've played football video games throughout my life, starting a Tecmobile to age myself to this past version of Madden, this is how I play offense in a video game. Bombs away. This was Al Davis's dream. This is Darryl LaMonica back in the day with the Oakland Raiders. Jordan Love is the new mad bomber, and he has two wide receivers, and Christian Watson might be like 75% of prime Randy Moss, which is a tremendous compliment to Watson.

Well, I did say it a few days ago before these games were played that if Jeffrey Simmons makes the Bears, if he elevates them, and that's sort of the rhetoric around him now that he's been put into that now they're a Super Bowl contender. The same must be true for won the Rams with Miles Garrett, right? That was the whole offseason conversation. And Micah Parsons going to the Packers. I do wonder, is it a limiting you know, in the last was it in the last 10 years or so, the Patriots had offenses that could score a lot of points and really couldn't run the ball.

Yeah. So I don't think they need a running back. I think Jacobs is fine on the field, maybe not off the field, but on the field is fine. And look, like, can you get a decent run game with Pierre Strong and Caleb Johnson and Chris Brooks and Marshawn Lloyd if you have a decent offense? Lloyd? That's Jeremy Piven in entourage playing in the role of Ari Golds. I don't know if you knew that.

That was a pretty good callback just for such an uninspired TV show that that's what you quote. I quote Cheers and The Simpsons and Larry Sanders show. You're out there quoting that.

Bro. Buddy, buddy, you're so old, and you have no idea how old you come off.

I'm better saved.

Like, when you say Larry Sanders, I know who that is, but I don't know if the football Americans know the Larry Sanders name.

Yeah, Milwaukee Bucs.

Yeah, it's Larry Milwaukee Bucs.

Okay. Well, I guess the crew knows about Larry Sanders. I had Mike Garroff's shameless plug. Had our buddy Mike Garroff all on my show, my national radio show.

I was wrong.

You better you bet this one. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. He floated out Robert Hunt, the Carolina Panthers' interior guard, as a potential trade candidate for the Packers. If I'm Brian Gudekunst, I'm running the Green Bay Packers here, and you look at what Chicago did with the Jeffrey Simmons trade, Seattle trades for Quinton Nelson, the Niners go get to Forrest Buckner, I think the Packers can win the Super Bowl. It is in their range of outcomes. Go get an offensive lineman. Quinton Nelson's off the board. Go get somebody else. Maybe it's Hunt. Maybe it's elsewhere. But I think the Packers, Dave, to your point, do need to take a swing here to try and fix this run game if they want to raise the Lombardi Trophy.

Tony, you remember like a month ago, maybe it was five weeks or so ago, where there was a lot of noise that it was over for Matt LaFleur in Green Bay?

I do. I mean, the offensive line was terrible. Jordan Love didn't have a second to throw to anybody, and now it's been completely flipped, and we don't really know why, right? Like, it's not like they got added pieces to the offense. It's not like they got Josh Jacobs back, and he's been abysmal, at least from a efficiency standpoint, but they haven't really done anything. It's just Matthew Golden and Christian Watson coming out of the ambulance in full pads just seemed to beat everybody. They beat Christian Gonzalez like a drum yesterday. Like, I kept updating the stats, and I'm like, oh my God, they have how much? Oh my God, I can't like, when you're watching it, you realize, okay, yeah, they're getting big chunks, but then you actually see the stats, and it's crazy.

I have to meet with my pastor and other people close to me to really figure this out, but where you're going and what Kostos said 10 minutes ago. For the soul of football, I think that we're now far enough away from the Super Bowl with the Seahawks and all of that. And when it's going on, it's a big event, and you're not going to diminish it in the run-up to it. And then after the fact, Vrabel and Rossini happens, and then that sort of like obscures everything else that's going on in football weirdly for a little while.

Wow.

More than last year.

Wow.

Let me finish my thought.

Can win the Super Bowl.

Wow.

I'm not down yet. I'm not done yet.

I'm not done yet because I am reacting to what we saw 10 months or so ago, which was the Seahawks, the Broncos, the Patriots, and even the Texans. If CJ Stroud hadn't forgotten to throw the ball for six weeks, they would have been a bigger player. They obviously were in the divisional round as it was. It was all defense nine months ago. And in the push and pull of the NFL, the offenses are pushing back this year. That's my point.

I would love it. And just from a Green Bay perspective, quickly, we'll get a lot of answers, I think, next Sunday when they host the Vikings. We remember what happened in week one. Flores blitzed 108% of the time, which is crazy because you only have 100%. But they blitzed like hell. The Vikings had the big comeback at the end of the game. If the Packers and Jordan Love can survive this blitz and get the ball down the field next week to Golden and Watson and company, I'm going to have a lot of faith they can do it against anybody. I think next Sunday against the Vikings will give us answers as to if this Packers passing offense without a run game is going to be viable in the postseason.

The NFC South doesn't matter, and so I don't want to talk a lot about it. I also feel like the NFC East is kind of sort of like that too, and I want to get your thoughts on my pick that the Cowboys are still going to win it, and you're holding on to your Giants. I'm happy for you and for New York-based football fans out there that the Giants are halfway decent this year. But first, I don't know. Buddy Badalski, you know he was licking his wounds. I don't know what happened to him if he suffered a head injury, but a week ago, he was in a coma. He missed the entire weekend of football, and since he's an empath, he's now going to provide the information.

Well, no. What happened is the Saints and Browns put me into a coma, and I've suffered an injury here, as you can tell, while asleep. So I have my observation.

Suffer the injury while asleep?

Yeah, you know.

Do they put people in a coma? Get a neck brace? I've never heard of that.

It's just what I could find around here to make sure that everybody's okay.

Why did you find it? But at the hospital, they didn't take your cap off. They were like, just work around the cap.

Hold on. Let me get right here.

There we go.

Sorry, Dave. I'm doing a lot back here. Anyway, no, what happened is I've seen him do nothing for 25 minutes.

Buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy. What are you digging ditches, buddy?

Yes. I'm digging ditches. I got a shovel back here.

Got their thing.

Yeah. Anyway, okay.

I would actually like to I would like to know what buddy's doing.

I'm organizing the whole show back here.

Interrupting conversations.

He's organizing the whole show while Walton's back here.

I'm pulling sounds. I'm cutting things for a while. Nothing anybody cares about is going on back here, but just know that I'm doing a lot. So anyway.

And yet you feel the need to keep bringing it up.

Make sure you bring that up when you're sitting with the bosses for your performance review. Nothing anybody cares about. That boss. That's what I do.

Nothing anybody listening to the show cares about, but it's interesting.

And I would say this. Where the neck brace? Where the neck brace to try and curry some favor. You may need it. Smart.

I'll do that. Anyway, the Browns and Saints put me into a coma. So I have the top five things that I couldn't believe when I got out of that coma. Are we ready?

Okay.

Number five. We'll start right there. The Browns had a two-point conversion to win the game in overtime. What happened? How did that game go to overtime? How did the Browns have a chance to win? There was a touchdown in overtime, like Harold Fannon galloping through the secondary I saw. What happened? Number four.

The voice goes up.

Yes. We're not off to a great start here. Let's see how this progresses.

Number four. The Broncos won their 17th consecutive one-score game. How is that possible? How do they keep how does Bo Nix keep getting away with this? Threw another terrible interception yesterday. There was an interception that got batted off an arm. They are the luckiest team in the NFL right now.

I don't know what buddy is looking at, but probably himself. But I liked it better when it was one question, Kostos. Like, the Broncos won their 17th one-score game in a row.

And then it leads into him reading.

I got nothing from you guys, so I had to expand.

It leads into him reading the AP game recap from there. Like, Bo Nix threw for 241 yards, and they intercepted a pass in the end zone, and Sean Payton called out a reporter for smoking a cigarette.

Top-line rhetorical stunning question. That's what we want from each one of you.

Okay, go ahead. JJ McCarthy and Jameis Winston beat Joe Milton in the Eagles?

See, you have to stop, and then you go on to the next one. See, that's pretty decent. Okay.

Thank you.

That is a wild result. If you really were in a coma starting in August 31st, and you woke up, and you're like, what the hell's going on in that division? Wait, JJ McCarthy?

You can't take off your neck brace.

Don't take off your neck brace. Come on. I got to adjust it. Hurts so much.

All right. You have two more to go. Go ahead.

All right. Number two. Mike McDaniel calling plays from upstairs didn't magically solve all the Chargers' problems?

See, like this is the winning formula. This is good.

They still stink? What a shock.

No, you don't go back.

You don't go back. Yes, and you can't editorialize and be like, oh, what a shock.

Number one. Jason Higgins combined for three touchdowns and were not the best wide receiver duo in the league yesterday?

All right. Pretty good. I'm surprised that's your number one, but still pretty good. Kostos, any notes before we move on?

I think it's.

Not apparently.

Well, I think it just needs to be so the neck brace was okay. I think it just needs to be just the question, and I do like how the voice rises at the end of it. So I think that's the winning formula, and you just lay out and just let silence tell the story.

Yeah, well, the dead air is very uncomfortable because I'm like, is it funny? Is it not funny? Did this land?

But that's what makes it funny.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Like, if you leave the dead air and you leave us to just stare at you, that's what's funny.

Okay.

You're uncomfortable now.

We'll give it another go next week. I'll spruce it up a little bit more. Maybe I'll get a few freezes.

You need to be like you freeze.

Yeah, you need to be like a few freezes. You need to roll in a dream back here and do that. What do I got to do? Everything around here, buddy?

Throw in the press box. Tony, see what you can do to have him in an actual hospital bed.

I'm going to try my damnedest.

Quit not smoking here. Please. Oh, you're not smoking. You got a pencil. I'm sorry. I thought you were smoking. I owe you.

All right, that's enough.

I had a flashback thinking, who's smoking a cigarette? All right.

What the hell? What a pain in the ass this guy is. And the only thing worse than starting a sentence with "um" the way he did there is when people type it on social media. Um, dot, dot, dot. Don't type out "um," and don't say it if you're the head coach of a pro football team. Um, can we not smoke in here? It's so Karen. How say you, Kostos?

Um, I think he was doing it.

He starts with um.

His best mean Gene Okerlund impersonation there when Ric Flair won the WWF title at the Royal Rumble in '92 when he said to someone off-screen, "Put that cigarette out." So I wonder if Sean Payton is a closet WWF fan from back in the day. Yeah, I mean, Payton seems to be a curmudgeon. He seems to be, I would say, settling into this role, but really, he's been in it for quite some time. I don't really have a problem with it. If anything, the reporter that he called out is going to be more famous as a result. So I got no issue with it. I'm fine with it.

If you want to be a hard ass, be a hard ass. Like, what do you know about when Payton gave it to that guy? I mean, he's obviously recurringly a jerk. Like, what do you know about running downhill was his thing a year ago? At least that was being a hardo. This is Karen-y. Um, can you go ahead and not smoke in here?

Well, I mean, but to be fair, like this is 2020. People don't smoke indoors. You'd probably be pretty alarmed if you saw that, no?

Let the guy smoke a cigarette.

I wouldn't be policing. What I wouldn't do is police other grown-ups in a bar, in a press conference, or otherwise.

But isn't that so his job is to police like his football team?

No.

Right?

No. To police his team, the reporter's not on his team.

But it's like he's in charge of the Broncos organization. These people are not directly representing the organization, but they are kind of under his purview. So if the head coach says, "Stop smoking," I think that that should be grounds for the media, and I am in the media. I think that's grounds for them to stop smoking. I think he's within his rights here.

I think this is disgraceful stuff that we're learning about you right now. You listen to what the man tells you, no questions asked.

I just think that if we want to if we want to be in a society where rules don't exist and laws don't matter, I don't want to be a part. You can go live in the Lord of the Flies with that reporter smoking the cigarette.

He's not smoking a cigarette. That's the point.

But he thought he was. But he thought he was.

Okay. Mind your own business, Sean Payton, would be my answer to that. And as far as this goes.

He's right. If someone's smoking a cigarette during a postgame NFL news conversation, why is this guy smoking a cigarette? Come on.

He's on the other side of the podium. Who cares? Let the reporter smoke a dart. Who cares?

It's exactly.

It's a professional setting, and he's the head coach of the team. He's within his rights to ask for that to stop.

It's always a reporter, first of all, and the tradition is that he should be burning a nail while he pounds out on the typewriter his pages to make it in time for.

What is burning a nail? Is that like how the old decades era line?

That's going in the RCA.

Smoking a nail?

Yeah, it's smoking a cigarette, like his forefather would have done as a reporter. And while we're on the subject, whether it's LeBatt or otherwise, you should be drinking if you're a reporter covering a game. Why this is becoming evil in me, I'll never understand. Next.

Well, can I just throw this out there? When I was drinking, all it would take was one drop of alcohol, and I would want to eat a cigarette sandwich. They were the best.

I also heard you talking about Sidney Sweeney as the one. Is that your buddy?

Well, no. This was a Garrafolo.

I know, but you agreed that she is the one that makes other women the craziest right now. Like, if you hold up, it's like Sidney Sweeney is the ideal woman in 2026. Is that right, buddy? You're the youngest among us. Is that sort of the we picking up what your generation is putting down there?

Are we right that she's the one?

She's the number one.

The number one. Like, woman that pisses other women off.

You're going to get buddy in a lot of trouble, Dave, unless you ask him really specific questions.

It's a really tough spot here.

That's it. It went back into his coma in the big spot.

That put me in a really tough spot.

Just say yes and keep him moving.

No, Tate McCray is the number one woman right now to me. She's my girl right now.

It's not the question is, buddy, who do you fantasize about? That's not the question.

That's how I'm dodging the question.

All right. Okay, more roast. More roast. I don't mean to extend this more than we need to. Opponents, I get the idea that when you're going out to play another team, that you're at odds with them. They're your foe for the next three hours. But that can't apply to the people making the uniform decisions for the two sides. You need to work together so it's aesthetically pleasing, so that it coordinates in such a way that it is not an eyesore. And that's what we sent overseas. Did you see the Bengals and Falcons?

But I feel like they're usually right.

No, they're not. Pay attention. This is going to drive you crazy when they're like, "Looks like we got a holding on the defense," and then they come back like, "Hands to the face on the offense." Shut up, then. If you don't know, what are you?

Well, because what's happening.

You can't play wizard?

Well, for what's happening there, for people that don't know, apparently Dave Dammichek, people that have never been in a broadcast booth when a game's being called on radio or TV, is there someone called a spotter who is pointing out to the color analysts what it is. So chances are I'm just going to use Troy Aikman as an example. Like, Troy Aikman is not getting that wrong. The spotter is getting that wrong and giving him incorrect information.

Don't share it on the air. I don't care. We're not looking for you to look into your crystal ball that sees four seconds into the future. We'll wait for the referee to tell us the call.

Why does it bother you?

I'm upset. It's the same. You ever play golf when the guy goes or you play pickup basketball and you shoot a three and your teammate walks away? Sort of like Larry Bird in the warm-up jacket walking away in the three-point shooting contest, but it doesn't go in. The guy who's like, "Wait, when you hit a 20-foot putt, and it looks like it's going to go in," he's like, "You got it. You got it." And then it lips out. I hate the guy for talking that way. And not that I think he cursed it or anything. It's just like, "Why'd you open your yap?"

Can I share just at the risk of taking off track for a second? Am I okay if I do that briefly? You'll like it, I promise. So Sunday Night Football, Todd Bowles opts for a field goal at the end of the first half instead of going for a touchdown, right? And then he explained I didn't love it. Explains himself to Melissa. It wasn't the word. Aaron Glenn would have gotten up there and been like, "So at least Todd Bowles explained himself, right, and made himself sound okay." So then we go to Maria Taylor and Mike Tomlin.

That's what Aaron Glenn sounds like in an interview. I haven't heard one.

Yes, he has nothing to say ever. And it goes to Maria Taylor and Mike Tomlin. And Mike Tomlin, I think, has been pretty delightful on TV this year. And Tomlin immediately launches into this diatribe about how if Todd Bowles wants to win this game, he needs to be more aggressive and unconventional in how he calls and makes decisions. And I'm sitting there on my couch thinking, "Hey, Mike, you are aware that we watched you coach the Steelers for 20 years, right, and that you would like the way that buddy thinks about Tate McCray, you would think about sending Chris Boswell out to kick a 22-yard field goal.

No, your comments for the last 20 seconds are spot on. We park our cars in the same garage. I was thinking the same thing, but I also agree with your larger point. I'm surprised by how good Tomlin is. I didn't think he was going to be so delightful, to your point. I thought he might be well-informed and provide some keen analysis, but he blows away. Like, what have we been messing with Jason Garrett for all?

Oh, my God.

I mean, I think we are.

Tony's favorite.

That's Tony's favorite.

Tony loves Jason Garrett.

Most electric man on TV.

Yes.

He always goes with the cameras, gentlemen. Always.

Yes, electric in the way you take a toaster plugged in into the bathtub with you. Electric in that way.

And that moves neatly in. You bring a toaster in to toast, and now it's time for the LeBatt toast. And that goes to my boy, Jean-Claude Van Dammichek, whose season nay his entire high school football career ended on Friday night. They went down 35 to 14. It looked like a wrap, and so it ended up being. They rallied back. They had a couple of he's the long snapper among his many duties on his football team. And it wasn't his fault. I'm not casting any blame on anybody, any 17-year-old kid.

Yes, you are.

In the second half.

I'm not going to listen. Whatever happened. They missed a couple of points. You hate the kicker that missed the extra points. We can all tell it's a kicker.

No, it was a bummer because it really wasn't. They got the ball with seven minutes to go at 41:39, and the rally was a furious one. All of a sudden, the other team that was a real good team couldn't move the ball. They were trucking them in the first half, second half, couldn't move the ball. Crespi, my boy's school, was driving, and as we can tell by as you can tell by the score, pulled off this great rally, and they got the ball with seven minutes to go down to and came up just short.

Well, Crespi's helps.

Was a joy.

Can I do an impersonation of somebody?

Yes.

Ready? Wait. Crespi came back and almost won the game?

Who's that? Who are you doing there? You got to add another point, though, Nick. You got to add another point that didn't make sense. Who are you doing there? Is that me? That's supposed to be me.

Kostos, since we won't get to talk with you. Oh, you know what? Let's get into it, everybody. Can we all squeeze into the DeLorean real quick? Leave buddy behind. We've got that bad neck. There we go. All right.

It's really rough on the neck right now, I got to tell you.

Before you go, Kostos, jump to Thursday night. It's the Commies who you contended, and I didn't think it was a crazy thought, and they looked halfway decent against the Rams on Sunday, but the Commies are more or less finished now. At the first place, New York football Giants, how say you in that game?

Two thoughts. Arvel Reece is Micah Parsons. That's what this is going to be. He is a transcended defensive player. He will win defensive rookie of the year. I believe he will wreck this game. Number two, and the reason why I am confident in the Giants, my Giants winning on Thursday night. John Harbaugh and Dan Quinn.

You already saw the game. That's why we're in the DeLorean. So we went to Thursday.

Oh, yes.

Friday, 1:00 AM.

All right. So it's not as fun. What I was going to say. They will win because Dan Quinn doesn't know what day it is, and John Harbaugh is a good coach. The end. I had a really funny thing to say. Now I feel like I can't because I'm constricted by the stupidity of this.

Oh, but I mean, you were but listen, you learned at the knee of the great comedy of the 21st century entourage. Surely you can summon a hilarious quip here.

Yeah. So here, what I was going to say is, it's like when you play FIFA against someone online, and they use San Marino, and you use Spain, and they beat you 6-1 because they're better at the game than you. John Harbaugh is better at the game than Dan Quinn, even if the commanders are better at football than the New York football Giants. That will be the difference in the game. This will be a John Harbaugh win, much like Sunday against the Eagles was a John Harbaugh win in a game that Brian Dabell would have lost, in a game that Pat Schermer would have lost by 20, and Joe Judge would have lost by 30. The Giants won.

It's one of the best bits in the show.

It trips everybody up. It's great.

It's a bad bit.

You're a stupid bit. Beat it, Kostos. Make sure you check him out tomorrow. He'll be there for you at 9:00 AM to noon. You better you bet. He's very good. I was going to say best in the business, but not after that insult. Not after that. Not after that. There goes the great Nick Kostos, everybody. Tony, we don't have time for anything more. Quickly, we're still in the DeLorean. We have not returned to Monday morning yet.

Perfect.

Bills, Vikings, give us the final.

What a game. And the quarterback that you thought was going to do it didn't do it. Josh Allen falls to the knee of Brian Flores. What a game by Carson Wentz.

Wow.

Threw a couple of touchdowns to Justin Jefferson. Josh tried to rally him late. Let the Crespi Cells fell just short to the defense, and a massive blitz package that sent Josh Allen really running behind. You know how Josh Allen does, where he runs the opposite way and then turns around to throw? They ended up getting him for a sack on fourth down, and the Vikings barely escape with a three-point victory. What a game.

Carson Wentz beat Josh Allen in a game? I don't know.

Who are you doing there? Who are you doing there, Dave? Is that me?