46. Pick Six: Half a Billion Dollars, No Brand Deals & The Girls in the SI Swim Show

0:18Victoria:Hey, and welcome back to what we are calling season two of The Game, your favorite football podcast, Where the Girls Go. I am so excited to be back with a new format we are bringing to you this season and, of course, some amazing interviews with some of the most influential women in the NFL. Last night, I got to go to the World Cup, which was my first World Cup game ever, and I'm not going to lie, it really made me miss the NFL. It was at Hard Rock Stadium where the Miami Dolphins play. And that stadium is actually so cool because the F1 track is actually right outside the stadium. So you walk over the F1 track while going into the stadium.

1:04Victoria:And then obviously it's the Dolphins Stadium, which I'd never been to before. And then we're watching the World Cup. So it's just like a very sporty afternoon in general, but it really did make me miss the NFL. And just the hype and the game day experience of the NFL is so elite and well curated and intentional. And obviously the World Cup, it was not a USA game, but just kind of just planted that seed. So I'm really excited to be recording today and coming back to the pod and kind of all the NFL details and stories. So let me tell you about our new format that today we are debuting. It is called pick six, and it is the best six stories in the NFL from the week.

1:55Victoria:And this is a mix of football and culture. Of course, I'm not just doing stats. I'm not just doing culture. And I'm not doing just one or the other because we know that all the women who are here in this community that listen to the game that play in our fantasy league are intelligent, badass, interesting women who are lawyers and doctors and, you know, marketing experts and amazing, amazing women and people who also love to gossip and love things like Summer House and Love Island. So we are not sticking it to one specific type of coverage. We are doing it all. And I think ultimately, this is kind of what I always wanted the show to be, but I just never really found the format for it.

2:42Victoria:So I'm so excited to bring it to you on Wednesdays from this point forward. I would also love to open it up to your opinions, hot takes, and favorite stories or anything that you guys are thinking. So if you have something interesting to say, a listener question, a kind of NFL style prompt, or a hot take, send them in to me at victoria at thegamethepodcast.com or you can dm them to me over at our new instagram handle thegamehq which i just think encompasses everything that we're doing and not just the podcast although the podcast cups will be there as well of course so if you have something to say a hot take about the season what's going on that week in the nfl victoria at thegamethepodcast.com or thegame.hq on Instagram.

3:38Victoria:You can also follow me at HeyVictoriaHunderson. All fantasy details will be coming out a little bit later this summer, so no need to join your boyfriend's fantasy league. Living in a fantasy is coming back. So it's time. Let's get in to our very first pick six, the top six stories and events in the NFL this week. All right, we're going to start with a very obvious one, one that obviously is breaking, obvious, obvious, obvious, that is breaking the news and has become the highest valued NFL contract in history. Of course, Mr. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback. I don't know how many people in the U.S.

4:29Victoria:wouldn't know Patrick Mahomes' name, but maybe I'll give you some info today that you didn't know about Mr. Mahomes. So this new contract is through 2033. And Patrick, I believe, is my age, 31. and he's been there since he got drafted in 2017. That is a long career in the NFL and a long extension, given that he's coming off of an ACL and LCL tear that we all saw during their pretty rough season last year in 2025. They have said that he is recovering very well, and Andy Reid said that Mahomes attacked the rehab, and Brett Veach called him way ahead of schedule. Not shocking given Patrick Mahomes in general.

5:19Victoria:People love to hate him, but there are some things about Patrick that you just really can't ignore. So this contract has an overall value. So from, it's a 10-year total contract that they just renegotiated,$504.75 million through 2023. 2023. So the new money on this deal is$239.05 million with the total value now at that$504.75 million from 2026 through 2023. And the first four years are guaranteed at the signing. A couple of things you may not know about my homes because I was like, I need to know more because we all know the Holmes are being flashy and we know that he's Travis Kelsey's quarterback.

6:14Victoria:But like what's going on with him in general? He is a Virgo, went to Texas Tech and got married in 2022 to Brittany Mahomes, his wife. He's 6 '2 and has three kids. One thing that I do want to note here is Brittany Mahomes has been kind of in and out of the media and a lot of people have an opinion on Brittany Mahomes. But one of my favorite things about her is that She co-owns a women's pro soccer team, the Kansas City Current, that she founded with two co-owners. And what people don't realize is that Patrick Mahomes actually joined that investment in 2022, but not when Brittany joined the investment from the jump in 2020 with her co-owners, Chris and Angie Long.

7:01Victoria:Let's talk a little bit about Patrick's on-field stats, which are he's played 126 career games. His team record when he's playing is 95-31, a 66.2 % completions percentage, which I was actually kind of surprised by because we all know Patrick for being very clutch, very good in challenging situations. So 6.2 just really didn't feel like enough for me. But then again, he is extremely clutch in the situations where he needs to make something happen. And maybe he's just better at that than anyone else. He's not putting pressure on himself until pressure is really necessary. And I guess that's why they always win in the fourth quarter.

7:45Victoria:My favorite stat is his career yardage, 35 ,939 yards, which is just insane to me. that's 40 ,000 yards over his career so far, 267 touchdowns, 85 interceptions, 11 of which were in the really rough 2025 seasons. We're just going to skip over that. And for the fantasy girls, 2 ,713 total fantasy points over his career so far, and 284.7 in 2025. Given what they're saying, I think that he is going to make a comeback at the beginning of the season, even though So if you saw my Instagram, I said that I do want Patrick to kind of hold it and not come back right away because I am a big lover of Justin Fields.

8:35Victoria:I think that Justin Fields has just been in such turmoil since he joined the NFL. He's been on three different teams. Every team he's been on, the head coaches have gotten fired or released and the GMs are fired. So he's just really had no stability. And if I look at his demeanor from what I can kind of guess about him, he seems to be someone who kind of thrives in a little bit of stability. And, you know, change is the only constant, blah, blah, blah. But I do think that Justin Fields in a stable organization could really produce an incredible player. And if Patrick Mahomes is still recovering and he's talking to Justin Fields and they're learning the way that the team plays, Justin was known in college for using his legs, which is also what Patrick Mahomes is known for in a lot of ways.

9:26Victoria:So I would just really love to see Justin Fields go out with the Chiefs team this year. Obviously, I want Patrick to get better. It's really cool to watch kind of a dynasty-style quarterback, but I would love for Justin Fields to have his moment. So that's what's going on on the Patrick Mahomes over$500 million or half a billion dollar deal. He can make up to$522.25 million through incentives and escalators. He's averaging about$64 million per year on record. I do think that Patrick Mahomes and Brittany Mahomes will become billionaires. They have a couple of other business ventures going on. And he's making, you know, maybe$7 to$10 million is what Chad GBT says on sponsorship deals every year as well.

10:23Victoria:So that's all on top of what he's making just from the Chiefs. All right. In other money news, the golden boy of the draft, the golden boy of the college football championship, Fernando Mendoza has been in the news for giving away and turning down money. Okay, my first thought, I have to be honest, my first thought, and this was like, this is so annoying, Fernando. Like, just take the money. Like, take the money. Like, it's money. Come on. You know, and if$500 ,000 is thrown in your face to do, like, I don't know, a Burger King commercial, like, why wouldn't you do it? And so genuinely, my first response was like, just like eye roll.

11:07Victoria:Like, you're not better than anyone who wants the money. Like, everyone wants money. Everyone needs money. Some people are not money-driven, but after looking more into it, what he actually said was right now. So it could be through training camp, and the internet has kind of given this whole thing a life of its own. So who knows what he actually meant by this. But let's talk about the actual money that he's making, because once I looked up his contract and really thought it through, I was kind of like, all right, all right, I get it. So Fernando Mendoza with the Raiders is on a$57.2 million fully guaranteed deal with the Raiders with an option for a fifth year.

11:59Victoria:And it includes a$38.1 million dollar signing bonus. So$38.1 million signing bonus at a new team at the Raiders. I get why he's not taking deals. Like I'm someone that if I have too many things going on and there's too much pressure at work and then if there's anything going on like in your family or in your life or your back hurts or whatever it is, I get pretty overwhelmed. And so I think that it's reasonable, especially he just had to move to Las Vegas. And I apologize if you live in Las Vegas and love Las Vegas, but that's got to be a pretty big change. So his home, his family is in Miami and Miami just always, always, always had something going on.

12:50Victoria:And then he's going to the Raiders, which to me, the Raiders culture just does not seem as comfortable maybe as going into like a Detroit Lions culture or even like a Jags culture right now. It's just been a little messy for quite a while over at the Raiders. And I think that everyone's expecting Fernando Mendoza to be the guy right away. So given that he just moved, he stayed with his family for the draft because his mom has MS. And now he's in Vegas. He has all of the expectations of everyone in the world on him. Has like not really that much of a team to back him up. Max Crosby's still looking like he's going to go.

13:35Victoria:So I don't blame him for putting another thing on his plate and another thing to worry about and be concerned about. And also, he made around reportedly$2.6 million in 2025 to 2026. So all of that money is around$40 million in the last year. Like financially, he's fine. But I guess it could be a good way for him to make some friends outside of the NFL in the Vegas area if people would come to him. One thing that he is doing, though, he put a trademark request for Nandalorian, which was apparently a joke with the schedule release and Kirk Cousins. So he's doing things. He's putting trademarks and he's working with whatever agency he's working with.

14:20Victoria:But he has said he's not taking partnerships and like turning down some pretty big money. I do believe he said that if it wasn't like the perfect kind of partnership. And honestly, I don't blame him. I kind of like that the Internet's running with it. I like that they're like saying things about it personally. I don't know. I kind of get it. If you told me that I had to move to Vegas, I'd probably want to just like go to do my job and go to bed and like get new furniture or something. Okay, story number three, Rashi Rice. This story is way crazier than I had originally thought. So let's talk about it.

14:59Victoria:If you didn't know, Rashi Rice is a wide receiver on the Chiefs. And in 2024, he was involved in two third-degree felonies. He originally pleaded guilty to them in 2025, and the felonies were a collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury. and this all came from a multi-vehicle high-speed street racing crash in Dallas on the Dallas Central Expressway which if you've ever driven on Dallas or it's the North Central Expressway if you've ever driven on the North Central Expressway like that is terrifying on a regular day but really don't come for me on this one but it's not that shocking that this is where he was doing it like That is one of the scariest freeways in the U.S.

15:50Victoria:It's just like chaos and people drive way too fast and way too slow. And it is just a total mess. So I'm not shocked that that's the freeway that it was on. He was driving a Lamborghini. The Lamborghini crashed into the center divide. And then four other cars were caused to crash, which is where the bodily injury came from. He did have to pay money to the victims of the crash. There's no reports of any of them dying, but bodily injury, I believe, is$119 ,000. Okay, so he gets arrested. He gets suspended. Then he's on a five-year probation. rashi rice decides to smoke or eat marijuana which violates his probation and then he has to go to jail also just note he was driving uh he reportedly driving 119 miles an hour when he crashed and his friend that he was presumably racing with was driving 91 miles an hour.

17:11Victoria:Okay, so then there was a warrant that went out and he turned himself in. And he went to Dallas County Jail. So naturally, I go and I search Dallas County Jail because what else are we going to do? We're girls. We look it up. We want to see. We want to know. I want to know the details. Let me find out more. And literally the first thing that I see is a documentary on YouTube saying inside the most barbaric Texas jail. And then the Dallas News, there's an article from March 24th, 2026, that says Dallas County jail deaths are unacceptable and the sheriff can't be silent. So Rashi Rice violates his probation with weed, which I don't know.

17:57Victoria:I don't know the clauses and I don't know the details of this. I don't know if he's allowed to like drink alcohol, if it's total sobriety. I have no idea. But jail time for weed is crazy to me. Like I know that there's like at one point there was a huge problem in this country with people being incarcerated for marijuana and then laws changed and they're still incarcerated for it. I grew up in California, so weed is not crazy to me. People have been smoking weed around me for forever. It's not crazy to me, to be honest. And this being the probation violation to then go to a jail that has, that's like inside the most barbaric jail.

18:39it's crazy to me I think that his like he was punished for his crime um he's young and I really

18:49Victoria:do hope that he learns from this I am I don't want to say I'm glad to see but I would rather it have been THC that violated his probation and not and not something else you know he didn't go to another high speed chase. He wasn't doing hard drugs. He wasn't, you know, like there's no DV charges, anything like that. So I just really hope that this is like a little bit of a wake up call to him. I think that the NFL really has their eyes on him. They had his suspension, no further suspension at the moment, but I do think the NFL really has eyes on him at this point. But so he also had surgery one week before he turned himself in for violating the probation.

19:37Victoria:And he was allowed to get medical care at the hospital during his 30-day stint. And given what the internet is saying about this jail, that was probably the best part of his week. Andy Reid has also been pretty, I would say, kind about it. But Andy Reid talked to the league and said, we are all given chances to learn. And I do think that's what Rashi Rice is going through. So I hope that his act stays clean. I think that there's a redemption arc to be had, you know, on the field, but also just in the character. And I hope that he doesn't make decisions like he made previously. Obviously, it's super dangerous for other people.

20:21Victoria:And in some ways, he got lucky that everyone kind of survived and that, you know, a month of jail time is all he got. OK, let's move on. Since we're on the. On the the terms of arrests and affairs. A couple updates on other NFL charges. Jonathan Cooper on the Broncos was arrested twice in a week for alleged domestic violence, harassment, and violating a protection order. And then there was an additional felony for assault by strangulation. Alaric Jackson from the Rams was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence after police observed visible injuries. Brandon Ayuk posted a video of him driving at excessive speeds.

21:11And Nolan Smith this year arrested for reckless driving.

21:14Victoria:So a couple of arrests going on. I think the NFL really needs to make a change, especially in the domestic violence department, if they want to keep their feminine audience viewership up. I think that they need to seriously consider what they are sharing with the public about how they are handling these cases. Because as a woman, it gets harder and harder to watch every time domestic violence specifically comes up and there's arrests and allegations. It's a little hard to watch. And it's definitely challenging to talk about where women, we all have a friend who has been, you know, like assaulted.

21:57Victoria:And that's really sad. And I think the NFL needs to take a stance on it in a positive way for women, especially if we're going to continue to market to women. So I'm going to get off of my soapbox on this one, but I would like to at least see a report of what is the NFL doing. And I believe that like Rashi Rice should get league provided and league mandated therapy from an outside practitioner. I don't think that internal NFL therapists, I think it's really vulnerable to talk to the same person that every single other person in the building is talking to potentially. So I think that a mandate on therapy sessions would be important.

22:47Victoria:And remember that therapy comes in so many different shapes and sizes. There's narrative therapy, there's EMDR, there's all of these amazing types of therapy. And then just talk therapy, like just having someone, you know, to kind of help guide you that's not just the team seems important to me especially if we're going to let players keep playing after um allegations or assaults or felonies or jail time like where's the accountability in the league if you can be so accountable um when your team loses why can't you be accountable when someone is like losing and in the life game i don't know maybe that's harsh, but that's what I think.

23:29Victoria:All right, moving on to a more fun. We have some spotted. So there have been NFL players doing everything. It is the offseason. They are out and about. Puka Nakua, who was in rehab earlier. Sean McVay actually had a very classy response to Puka Nakua, just saying like, we really care about the person and didn't really mention so much about on-field play, which I thought was just like a classy and healthy way to respond to him being in rehab. But him and Jackson Dart were at SoFi's match for the World Cup. And Pukunukua had a Coca-Cola bottle in front of him. I don't know what else went on. I was not there.

24:08Victoria:Did not see it. But hopefully he is doing well. Jackson Dart and Pukunukua together make me a little nervous. Like kind of feels like like they could both go on Love Island and given what Pukunukua has been through this year. I don't know if they're the best match, but also, I don't know. I don't know Jackson Dart. So Lamar Jackson put a meme up on Instagram about having to watch the Knicks game, like a Ninja Turtle, like from the Raptors. So he ended up like outside in New York City, like running around for the Knicks game. So there's a bunch of selfies of people who saw him and I just thought that was funny.

24:48Victoria:And, you know, being an NFL quarterback, you get a lot of access, but sometimes you still got to buy those tickets. Taylor was seen recording in New York City. There are wedding rumors everywhere. I feel like every single day I get a notification on my phone like they can't have plus ones and NDAs and the wedding's here and the wedding's there. So I'm not going to speculate on this because I genuinely have no idea. And people are saying like Easter eggs for her wedding. I kind of wouldn't be surprised if I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of Easter eggs in their wedding, but I also wouldn't be surprised if there are just like absolutely none, especially her just being like such a lover girl, unless she's going to do like a lover adjacent album with Travis, which would actually be so cute.

25:30Victoria:But she was seen recording in New York City yesterday. Wedding rumors are running about, I don't know, I think maybe they already got married. Who knows? We'll find out eventually. I'm sure. Jameis Winston was seen picking up trash with Japan fans. So Japan, And after sporting events, they pick up their trash, which like I feel like the NFL fans could never like beer and like popcorn everywhere. But James Winston was seen picking up the trash. And I love that. I think we should bring that. I mean, God, what a what a nice thing. Like pick up your trash. It's crazy. Leave no trace. That's the California outdoorsy girl in me.

26:07Victoria:Chloe Kim and Miles Garrett were seen at the time. 100 red carpet and party, I believe. and Miles Garrett carried her out in like a cute romantic like sweep her off her feet way. Okay, moving on. We have two more stories to go. So story number five. This is my favorite story because I didn't realize how deep this really is. So we are talking about the Browns quarterback battle. So let's talk about what is happening. So mandatory mini camp at the Browns, we have Deshaun Watson and Shadur Sander. So let's break down each of these guys because I did not really clock Deshaun Watson's full story. And I think it's important that we do.

27:04Victoria:Deshaun Watson, Clemson's Golden Boy went 12th overall to Texans in 2017. By 2020, he's leading the NFL in passing yards with 4 ,823 and yards per attempt at 8.9. Franchise record of 33 touchdowns. He's a three-time pro bowler. Looked like really a top five league quarterback. Then he had more than 20 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct during massage sessions. And 20 of these were filed against him in 2021, which effectively ends his time in Houston. He never played for the Texans again after the allegations. Then he sat out the 2021 season, and then the lawsuits were settled in 2021. The NFL gave him an 11-game suspension in 2022 after its own investigation.

28:04Victoria:Then Cleveland trades for him in March of 2022. So he's effectively had two years off. Cleveland trades for him in 2022, giving Houston three first-round picks, a third and a fourth pick, so five total picks, and immediately signed him to a five-year$230 million contract, which was the largest fully guaranteed deal in ever. NFL history at the time. Think about the deal Patrick has right now. And then this deal was the same thing, except 2022 after allegations and settlement for sexual misconduct. That's crazy to me. But I digress. There was a no trade clause attached, and it's one of the most criticized contracts in league history, given what's kind of happened since.

28:54Victoria:So then he goes on the field in Cleveland across his three healthy-ish seasons. He started 19 games and went 9 and 10. So effectively, he's killing it in Houston. He gets caught for being gross and mistreating people. and then he effectively sucks. Then he tore his Achilles in week seven of the 2025 season on my birthday, actually, October 20th against Cincinnati, had a surgery five days later, retore it during rehab, needed a second surgery 12 weeks later and Achilles recovery is typically nine to 12 months. So even if you're super optimistic, you would kind of think that he wouldn't make it back.

29:41Victoria:But now he's back at minicamp going kind of shoulder to shoulder with Shadour Sanders. He's gone 90 for 133 with 13 touchdowns in minicamp. And the headline is kind of, you know, a guy who's tore his Achilles tendon twice is looking pretty functional quickly. It's kind of, I think the craziest part here is the deal that the Browns made with him for$230 million after all of these allegations. And then he sucks. And now he's like trying to make it back. He's also 30 years old. So this is all fascinating. Then we have Shadur, and Shadur is one of my favorite things to talk about because Shadur has his own cult-like following that really has nothing to do with his backup status.

30:42Victoria:We know that last year he was really seen as a person who was going to be the number one pick and then fell all through day one all the way to round five and went pick 144 where Cleveland picked him up. They also used Pick 94 on Dylan Gabriel, which is interesting. I think the entire discourse around Shadur after this, like his dad is Deion Sanders, who coached him in Boulder and everything around him just has to, feels to me like it has to do with like perception, which I guess is everything. but I don't know I I think that like what if Shadour had gotten the treatment of Fernando Mendoza what would this look like and what would Shadour look like right now and how would he be producing versus he got the villain edit like he literally got the villain edit and I don't I don't know if his villain edit to me I don't know if it's fully justified there are so many men in the NFL, we can make the villain.