NFL Divsional Round, Bears Lose In OT, Bills Heartbreak, Patriots And Seahawks Advance + Who's Back Of The Week

32:23It was just incredible. Dude, he was wearing a sweatshirt to start the game. He was wearing, like, a Hawaiian sweatshirt. Yeah. Did you guys – how many strangers did you high-five after that, Caleb? Oh, I was hugging the guys behind us. Shout out to the guys behind us. We were getting into big miracle talk, hugging the guys in front of us. I love – that's my favorite part of going to a big game like that is you just – the people around you become the best friends you will ever have, in your entire life ever for those three and a half hours it was it was that that was such an incredible moment and the stadium was it was it was just disbelief that that actually happened and uh yeah the the whole how'd you guys deal with the cold i mean it was cold it was very cold zach was it was freezing but yeah i lost my feet at the tailgate i found them in your car on the way home yeah it was unbelievably cold zach had not maybe the best plan for feet and yeah we i didn't feel my feet for the entire second half i thought triple socks i'll be good triple socks and tennis shoes not to play you got to go with a thicker boot they're just laughing at this guy's face he's so cold he's so cold dude he was so cold he was the coldest human on earth i hope he's okay dude it beat the sign out of him he was i can't tell you max he had his sign out every every three minutes in the first half we never saw the sign in the second half because he was so cold i can't believe he stayed i can't believe he brought it he's a diehard bears fan he was pumped but he was just so funny so cold so so cold uh i have a question for memes memes i saw the picture of you meeting Mike Florio.

34:01Yes. Did you turtle or did you say something to him? I didn't say anything. He just said to me, he was like, is this the guy that hates me? Yeah. I was like, yep. I forgot they hadn't met. But you didn't say anything to him. You didn't take him to task about the Jets reporting. No, he hasn't said anything in a while. Yeah. One thing about Florio, and I love him, dude wears a shitload of makeup. Yeah. Like crazy. He looks good. Crazy amount of makeup. has he lost weight he looks good he was going on tv but still it's always shocking to see another man in that much makeup yeah uh who else was on we we were we were hanging out with kyle long he's the fucking man obviously he was on friday's show kyle did so he and frank kaminsky another friend of ours uh was we were hanging out before the game kyle his whole plan was he's like i'm gonna go incognito to the game that's what he kept on saying he's like he was with his wife He's like, I'm going incognito.

35:00He bought tickets in the 300 level. He was crushing beers at the tailgate. We looked down in the third quarter, and he's just on the field doing like the game break little ball toss games and just doing bear claws. And he picked up a kid and just like ran him down the field. Also, Kyle is the last person that can go incognito. Yeah, no, he was a dude. He was a monster. It was awesome for him. It was first time he ever went to a Bears game as a fan. So he had a good time until he didn't. I'm trying to think what else was funny. Oh, when we left the game, it was obviously chaos trying to get out.

35:35And for a moment, we were all together. And then I lost Zach. And you would have thought I lost my child because I just was screaming in a crowd of Bears fans. Zach! Zach! Just trying to find him because I was like, if we lose this kid, we may never find him again. And he's probably going to freeze to death. So that was scary. If I lost you guys, I wasn't making it back. I was going to be at the stadium. Yeah, you were going to be hanging out with the sign guy. There's a lot going on there. He's probably a good time, BFD. He's got to thaw out some. He's staying until Tuesday, he told me. That was a bad call.

36:09I was like, dude, what are you doing? Staying until Tuesday? You live in Hawaii. Move that flight up. Get the fuck out of here. But yeah, overall, awesome to be able to get to go to these games. It was so much fun until it wasn't. And yeah, Rams. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what to say other than And it's going to be one of those losses that, yeah, somewhere around Tuesday or Wednesday, I'm like, fuck, we really didn't win that game. And we really had the most miraculous play ever. And it didn't happen. But it just didn't happen. I bet it's going to be crazy next week, too, because the Rams against the Seahawks, I think they can win.

36:46I wouldn't be surprised if they won. I think it's about a coin flip. What's the spread on that game? Whose line is it anyway? Let me do the DraftKings read. Seahawks by three. I'm going to say Seahawks by two and a half. Oh, yep. Seahawks two and a half. Okay. All right. So we looked at that on DraftKings. What are you doing tonight at five Eastern? Because if you're betting on the NBA, that's when DraftKings puts our best out their best offers. That daily 5 p.m. Drop is DraftKings exclusive star power hour. Limited time offers built around the night's biggest stars. DraftKings Sportsbook is an official sports betting partner.

37:22of the NBA, and they're known for dropping special offers around the league's biggest moments. The triple-double threats, the late-game closers, the players who can swing a night in five minutes. Open the DraftKings app at 5 and claim tonight's offer. Once it's gone, it's gone. Star Power Hour runs now until All-Star Weekend. Same time, new stars. Don't check late. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Use code TAKE to claim today's Star Power Hour in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. New York? Call 877-8HOPE-N-Y or text HOPE-N-Y. Connecticut?

37:58Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, wager tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over in most states. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Daily offers and requirements vary. Check out sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos for more details. Anything else from the game? Thank you for coming, Zach and Memes. It was very cold. it's very difficult for them to get clips i also think memes clips just spammed after the game when he got service again i saw one that was like you guys celebrating that caleb williams throw maybe and it was i think right after the interception in overtime yeah it was not easy getting clips out but they were doing a good job and it was uh fuck man it was right there it's right there it's gotta get the home field thing is like it just shows how important it is because I do think if you play that game inside somewhere, and this is where I don't want to do a dome anymore, but the Rams' offense probably would have had an easier day going.

38:59I think it's going to look a lot different against Seattle, who has a better defense than the Bears, but for some reason. And we've seen these two teams play before, and the Rams are able to move the ball. Yeah, playing in that great equalizer of the cold, the bare weather, the snow. I feel like we're not getting as many snow on the field games as we used to. Yeah, because it seemed to be snowing the entire time, but it doesn't accumulate. It was like a flurry the entire time. Stadiums have heated, like Gillette is heated. Yeah. So the snow doesn't stick. I hate that. We need the snow to stick.

39:31Yeah. I also saw Kelly Stafford, very nice, introduce myself to her, told her, hey, you got Jerry O 'Connell once on your show, but that's it. Yep. No moss. No moss. And I had a future to win. Once the Colcomat thing happened, I was like, I have a future to win a million dollars with the Bears. It's actually going to happen. I was spending the money in my head. So that sucks. Okay, should we do the other game? Yeah, let's do it. The other game is Patriots 28, Texans. What was the final score? Texans 16. So I want to just say, I'm going to let Hank and PFT, you guys kind of take it away because I did not see a play of this game.

40:10I saw maybe, what did you say, memes? like five or six plays memes was kind of walking around with it and i would check in every now and then memes also was rooting so hard against the patriots he i thought there was like a pick six at the beginning of the game and it was just like a dropped pass because we were driving to the stadium he goes oh my god i was like what uh thank you for taking care of the pinky bet i might have to retire the pinky bet this one was a little scary i talked to a doctor this this week and He was like, yeah, dude, I can't just cut off the tip of your pinky. So he's like, I legally cannot do that.

40:45So that would have been an interesting situation. So I didn't get to see pretty much any of this game. My only question, then I'll let you guys go from there. Was there a third and six? Oh, there was a third and six already. Pretty much the most important play. You had to have known. No, I did not know. Dude, we were at the tailgate, and then we went right to the game. I didn't see the game. There's one third and six in the entire game for Drake May. Oh, I saw a stat hole tweet. Okay, yes. We were on the edge of our seats for this third and six. And if you missed Friday's show, we've discovered that Drake May is statistically the worst quarterback in the NFL over the past two seasons.

41:20And by in the NFL, I mean anyone who's attempted more than 10 passes on third and six. So I think he's 34th or 36th in the league. And he has a 27 % completion percentage. League average is about 50. and he got to third and six one time. It's the only flaw in this young man's game who is the future of the league. I think the future might be now. And he's going to the AFC Championship game. Great player, probably the runner-up for the MVP, most improved player on part of my take. The one knock against him is third and six. So he got to third and six once in this game. It was in, I believe, the third quarter.

41:58And it was a close game. I believe it was a one-possession game at the time. Drake May drops back to pass. strip sack fumble. Texans recover. I need that clip from the gambling cave. And listen, Hank, you can deny the existence of the third and six for Drake May. How can I? I brought it up to help him, to help you. You did. And I think this, if anything, I'm glad that happened because maybe it'll wake you up and it'll wake Drake up. I agree. Listen, no one's perfect. You're always looking for ways to improve, things that you can fix about your game. and Drake clearly has a big one that going into the AFC Championship game, he can look at like, all right, third and sixth, how can I be better?

42:37Right, especially he's been really good in the playoffs. No one's perfect. He's got four passing touchdowns. He's got two picks, six fumbles. He's been sacked ten times, 89.7 pass rating. He's had a really strong playoff so far. And the most important stat, you know, I'm not going to say like 192 yards per game, which is a lot, isn't the most important stat. The most important stat, two wins, and you're in the AFC Championship game. Yep, went up against the best defense in the NFL. Hottest defense in the NFL. Three touchdowns. Hottest like D 'Amico Ryan's hot? D 'Amico Ryan's is hot. He was wet, too.

43:08Oh, he was wet and hot today? Damn. So this game was ass. CJ Stroud? CJ Stroud, little bro ass. Little bro ass. That's where I was worried about my pinky, but also CJ Stroud did not make me that worried. He was the most ass he's ever been. Wow. It was that ass. He's been ass before. It was mega ass. Horrendous. Not even just the picks, missing every throw. Wide open receivers nowhere near them. Yeah, and even the receivers, I thought that the Texans came out looking really flat. They couldn't catch anything. C.J. Stroud, on the rare occasion that he would throw an accurate pass, they would drop it.

43:47And they were fumbling all over the place. It felt like, I don't know, I don't know what the snow's all about up in New England, but it seemed like both teams were having trouble hanging on to the football. Well, it's wet. Thank you, Hank. Blake Bortles taught us that a long time ago. Oh, I was just trying to fill in for PFT. I don't know what part of the snow in New England confuses you. Well, it snowed also in Chicago, and the quarterbacks weren't asked the entire time. We talked about how the snow was affecting them, struggling. Yeah, but you agree, Hank, it was an ugly game. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

44:17I mean, it's two great defenses going at it. Defensive battle. Was it the Patriots played good defense or C.A. Stroud was asked? I think Patriots played really good defense. And then Drake May, like, how did he play? When it mattered most, he played well. He was, he, I mean, the. I saw the booty touchdown. That was sick. Unbelievable. He did enough to win the game. He had three touchdowns against an unbelievable defense. I call that a great game. Yeah. Stefan Diggs had a great catch too. The, yeah, the Diggs touchdown and the booty touchdown were 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. Okay. What else is this game?

44:53Really? The story of the game was CJ Stroud was ass. I have to tell you, that's all anyone was talking about. And Will Anderson was absolutely insane. Will Anderson was crazy. He was getting at him the entire time. Drake May had four fumbles, lost two of them, and it never really felt like the Texans, even if they would recover a ball, it felt like they couldn't do anything. They couldn't move it. It was like, you know, we've seen this with the Texans all year long, where their defense is the one mainstay, the constant, and occasionally the offense just doesn't do jack shit with it. Right. And there was a lot of that going on.

45:25People were unironically begging for Davis Mills at halftime. I just pulled up the box score. I didn't realize it was this ass. 20 for 47, four interceptions. And the Texans were winning this game at one point, weren't they? It could have been six. It could have been six interceptions. I don't know if the Texans were. The Texans could have won this game. They could have won this game. They were up 10-7, pick six. Then he threw another pick on the following drop. Jesus Christ. And it felt like every pass was about to be another pick. He's got this weird thing. I don't think he had this his rookie year, but every time he takes a snap, especially in shotgun, he leans forward like it's going to be a draw.

46:05Every time. And it feels like it puts him a half second behind the pace of the play. But yeah, the Texans defense played really well until it just kind of got away from them at the end. And Mike Vrabel, to his credit, Mike Vrabel called a great game in the second half. He was like, we're just going to run the football every single play, and we're going to dominate them, and they won't be able to stop it. And he was right. Yeah. Yeah. I saw Charlie Batch caught a stray. He caught a few strays. CJ Stroud has the best defense in the world and has regressed to Charlie Batch. Then Charlie Batch said, how do I catch a stray in this?

46:414 ,000 retweets. I love Chaz Batch. Yeah. He shouldn't be catching strays. Everyone was calling him Charlie Batch. That's crazy. The CJ Stroud lookalike probably had a tough day online today. Yeah. His face was everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah, it was an ugly game. The Patriots were clearly the better overall team. And, yeah, I'm not going to say Drake May was bad. I don't think he had his best game. But he hasn't played his best in the playoffs yet, which is actually a good thing. You only go up. I agree. And you win in football games. Hank, now that we know, so we're going to get to the other two games.

47:17which again we taped earlier in the day so we didn't know the final score now that we know that it's going to be Broncos Patriots would you like to apologize for Bo Nix getting hurt

47:32sure oh okay that was actually big of you I didn't expect you to do that I mean he's still hurt he's not going to make it better maybe you don't know thoughts and prayers I still don't know something's up I'm not going to be convinced Bo Nix isn't playing this game until Sunday He's got surgery. He was walking off the field like nothing was wrong with him. He was doing an interview where he didn't have any weight on his right foot. But, yeah, I mean, it stinks. It is what it is. It's the playoffs. People get hurt. What are you going to say to people who are like, apologize for the easiest route?

48:03I will laugh. I love the cope. I love the people that are upset about, again, this is the AFC championship game. The Texans had the best defense in the league. They were hot. You were worried about your pinky. You were talking about a doctor. So it's like I don't understand. people would say you guys didn't play anyone. Can I step in and defend you? Of course. As somebody who's bet on the Patriots through every round of the playoffs thus far and will continue to bet on them, you got an answer right in front of your face. It's like the Chargers have one of the best defenses in the NFL. Yeah, you played good defenses.

48:31The Texans have one of the best defenses. The Broncos have one of the best defenses. By the way, I'm a believer in you play who you play. I'm just saying you know everyone's saying this. You're thinking about the schedule. Don't think about the schedule. Yep. Max is very upset. I think that he's hot. I could care less. I love it. If you take out the Chargers defense, the Texans defense, the Broncos defense, and then possibly the Seahawks defense, that would probably be the best four defenses ever beaten in the playoffs. It doesn't matter that every quarterback that you play is either injured or sucks.

49:02It is what it is. It doesn't. I know you're right. It doesn't. Thank you. Okay, so Hank, the only other stat that I'll point out to you, because Big Cat brought up the third and sixth thing, who's your backup quarterback? the pastor or not josh dobbs josh dobbs is 12 for 22 on third and six in his career 55 that's double the success rate that drake may has bring him in so that's good he's in the room he can help drake are you a fan of drake may or are you a fan of the new england patriots it's a trick question well no he's saying the team over everything it's real question in josh jobs like would you say that you'd rather die with no super bowls with drake may as your quarterback than ever win a Super Bowl?

49:44No. Okay, so you're a fan of the team. Yes. So if you can have double the success rate on a play, why don't you want that? I trust my coaching staff. They're going to throw a Drake mate. Because, again, there's always room for improvement. A lot of room, sometimes. You just don't. I think the game plan is just don't get into third and sixes. That's a great game plan, yeah. There's ways around it. There's ways around this little stat of yours. It's not my stat. The numbers are what they are. True. No, I'm excited. Mile high, too. It's like everyone's just easiest path to the Super Bowl. We've still got a game to play.

50:20We've never won in mile high in the playoffs. Oh. Air. Got to count for the air. Yeah, and the Broncos defense just pieced up Josh Allen on the Bills. They're not like they're just because they lost their quarterback doesn't mean that much. Memes, what are you thinking? You're shaking your head and you're holding up a hand like you want to smack him. What are you doing? What do you mean? What are you doing? What do you mean? Just say it. Just say it. You're going to the Super Bowl. No. Just say it. It's Jarrett Stidham. Say that out loud. Jarrett Stidham. I called him Jarrett Studdham when he was on the Patriots.

50:55Stardom or Stidham? Stud. Just say you're going to the Super Bowl. He's a stud. Just say it. Look at him. He is like a – If you built a quarterback in a lab, it's Jarrett Stidham. Go off, Max. Have you started planning your weekend of what you're going to do before the game? Definitely. No. No. Have you started looking at the Super Bowl parties that weekend? Yeah, he's thinking. I mean, we're there every year. Not for the weekend. I've been a lot of weekends. I know where things are going on. Hank, he's planning a nice victory Tuesday round at Pebble Beach. No, I'm going to Orlando the week after.

51:29Oh, no. Oh, shit. Sorry. Wait, you already planned your trip to Disney World? True. Oh, wow. Wow. Holy shit. No, I will be in Orlando. I do need to find some places to golf, but yeah. If anyone out there could help you. Oh, yeah. No free shout outs, but please. I'll put it this way. Well, you guys brought it up. Yeah. Hank, what I'm doing probably on Tuesday, I'm going to the bank, and I'm going to have to withdraw$50 ,000 in$1 bills. Oh, man. Oh, man. Because I'm going to need to be able to pay that bet this weekend. I think I got to give them a couple days. It's insane this bet actually is like we all laugh.

52:09It's ridiculous. When you made that bet. But you know what? The other thing you guys laughed about, I guess now, good segue. Best team on the podcast. Okay. Yep. Yeah, I mean, I can't argue now. Can't argue with it. And I should have known better. Yeah. Let's see if you – I am currently a Super Bowl champion. Let's see what you are. What have you done for me lately? There you go. I should have known better because I think I've been the leader on this podcast and giving Hank credit just for being a winner and winning championship DNA. And I was a fool to be like the Patriots won't have a chance in the next five years.

52:43And with a path like this, you guys can do anything. And now Jared Stidham is standing there trying to save you. He's my champion right now. That giggle just tells you everything you need. It's the worst. You know, you're there. We're 0-4 in Denver. It's Jared Stidham. Jared Stidham is a stud. What's Jared Stidham's record in Denver? as a starter? I think he's one in three. One in three? I don't know in Denver. I think he's, oh yeah, I don't know either. Let's see, Jarrett Stidham. I know he played two games. He has eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. I don't think he's had a snap since like 2023.

53:22No, he hasn't. That's that you said yesterday. Yeah. There's, what was it? There's one quarterback this year that hasn't thrown, one backup quarterback that hasn't thrown a pass, like a number two quarterback, and that's Jarrett Stidham. He's got to be pissed. And there was only one No. 2 quarterback that didn't throw a pass last season. That was also Jared Siddham. They've just been saving him, maybe. This guy's life is over. He's got the freshest arm. We heard that. I mean, McDaniels knows his game, too. That's the other thing. McDaniels loves him. Yeah. Does he coach defense? I don't know how it works, but I have to assume that it's like...

54:03Jared Siddham is McDaniels' guy. He knows them front to back. I would assume this is one of the situations where he gets involved a little bit or maybe they talk tonight or tomorrow before they make the game plan. I don't know exactly how it works in NFL teams, but if there ever was a time, he's not going to coach defense, but I would assume he's involved in the game planning for Jared Stidham. Does that make you nervous that your offensive coordinator believes in Jared Stidham? Yeah, I'm not overlooking Jared Stidham. You know what I would do if I were the Buffalo Bills right now? What? And we'll get to the Bills in a little bit.

54:39I would fire Sean McDermott, and I would bring McDaniels in for an interview this week and ask McDaniels how he would have attacked that Denver defense. And then I would call up the Broncos and be like, here's what McDaniels wants to do to you. Yeah, that would totally happen. That's what I would do. Yeah. Nick Foles did body the Patriots on Twitter today, too. What did he say? It was so cold we couldn't even take out our phones. He said, Note for the Broncos and their fans. I know it's been an emotional 24 hours. I feel for Bo and the team. I'm sending prayers for a strong recovery. A positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs in championship-type games.

55:25Oh, Nick Foles. That's as spicy as Nick Foles will ever get. Yeah. Spicy. That's him dunking it and teabagging you raw. That was him being rated R. Yeah. Big time. All right, so you have everything planned for her. Have you texted Dave? Nope. Being like, we going to the Super Bowl? No. Have you texted Gaz? Nope. Has Gaz texted you? I mean, we were just texting. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Have you texted a group chat that has both Gaz and Dave on it? No. Has Fidelberg been texted? Oh, by the way, Big Cat. No. Can you rule on something for me? Yeah. All right. So, as you know, I bet heavily on the Patriots today.

56:04Yeah. I was a big Pat supporter. Do your pod. That's what we're talking about. Before the game, I tweeted out. What? Oh. It's during the game. Okay. So, right after the game started, I tweeted out a video of Hank, the video that he sent to our group chat of him after the dentist on Friday. Which was. Falling asleep. Can we put that video, please, into the show? Let's rewatch it right now. There's never been, no one's ever napped harder. I was sedated. I was sedated. It was actually shocking. Every other clip was just you napping. I was given drugs to knock me out. This is not a nap. All right, so narrative force.

56:41This is HIPAA. Narrative force. Go back. You sent us a video. HIPAA. All right, go back. Start it over. Start it over. All right, they gave me, my cousin drove me. I couldn't drive. They gave me medicine to take an hour before the procedure started. I get there. They're like, it's going to be longer than an hour or whatever. So, like, the drugs kicked in. Yeah. And press play. I'm asleep in the waiting room. This is me, like, barely being able to walk into the thing. Okay. You pre-drugged. That was, yeah. You exerted a wheelchair. Per doctor's notice. And I was like, no way he'll nap again. He just got out.

57:15He's fine. And then turn up the volume on this because this was funny. In the car. Is it me? Yeah. You have that bag. I think I'm holding the bag that they're talking about or that I was asking for. Okay, get in the car car. Thank you Just clean up again asleep Snoring hard dead you talk in your sleep. I don't know my cousin. I wish you cut this off

57:49I'm a crazy I'm not asleep for 20 hours

57:57he cut it off i said go pats and then you make it a smoothie yeah because i said you have to have you know get protein in your system how are you feeling uh i feel better i think adrenaline kind of like bo nicks was able to just walk off the field skipping yeah uh adrenaline carried me through this game oh no so hank got very mad at me when i tweeted that video out but hank had sent that to her hank edited it yeah and he sent it to our group chat like it's not like one quick video where you're like, hey, I'm out of the dentist now. I'm okay. You did an entire production. I kind of did that. Well, you sent it to the group chat.

58:28It was a good video. Shout out to all my cousins. He did a good job. No, but that's that. It's just good to know where the line is on exposing the group chat. I will keep that in mind. Well, you could say not for air. You should have said not for air like Jerry does when he sends us a German model on a track. I don't know. Again, sometimes I'm like, yeah, these guys are my friends. This is a funny video. And then I forget. It's like, no, this is gotcha culture. that's just anything you don't want out there they're going to put out there because they know it's going to make you look bad. I will remember that.

58:56I put it out there because I thought it was... Yeah, no, no, no, no. I know why you put it out there. Because it was such a good job editing that you did. And some people are like, oh, Hank can't edit anymore. Hank doesn't edit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I didn't, so... Whoever edited it did a great job. It was a good production. Yeah, no, trust me. I will not forget that. Okay. No naps. No naps. I was sedated. You're napping so hard My favorite part of the no naps video is Hank saying I'm gonna go fall asleep for 20 hours And I did I napped hard You napped your ass off Okay what do you say Max?

59:31Nevermind Say it Well you just said no naps and then you said I napped hard That's again For doctor's orders, napped hard What about Vrabel's orders? So Vrabel's more I was sedative I couldn't fight the sedation. Are there any Pat's injuries right now? Any surgeries or something? I'm sure those guys probably napped. I'm sure if Rable was fine with that. Did anyone get injured today? I think a player on the Texans got injured because C.J. Stroud threw such an inaccurate pass that he had to go to his knees. You need to rewatch this game. I'm actually being serious. It's insane how bad C.J. Stroud was.

1:00:12I see the cut up of C.J. Stroud. It couldn't have looked worse. I mean Memes did update me A few times At the tailgate He was like CJ Shrop fucking sucks He sucks Yeah there was a Sorry memes In the interview After the game They asked D 'Amico Rines About it He goes CJ is our guy Oh You got the our guy He's our guy Our guy Never good What are you about to say Say Hank Say What are you about to say What Nothing Say it Say it You have to say You have to say It's the last thing Before we go to the other games Let's take it to ourselves I was gonna go Oh you're about to say Say something so cocky right now.

1:00:47Say it. Say it. Say it. No. Say it. I'm not paying you$50 ,000 unless you say it. You have to say it. No. Come on, Hank. Say it. This is a podcast for people. It's bad juju. Say it. Say it. Bad juju. Text it to PFT. He'll say it. Bad juju. He'll say it. Text it to Zach. Zach will say it. If the Patriots win on Sunday and then go to the Super Bowl, I think memes should come with me to do social. That is so mean. That's so fucked up. That's so fucked up. That's so fucked up. I agree. That's so fucked up. That means cut to yourself right now. That's so fucked up. I agree, but... The look on your face.

1:01:22But with one addition, I think somebody should go with memes to do social memes. As he's hating doing social memes. Shane. Oh. He's getting it. Just your graveyard? Hank is the Green Reaper knocking on every single door. Oh, that's so mean. On the flip side, if the Seahawks or Rams win, that'll be your Super Bowl. Yeah, that's true. True. Yeah Imagine Sam Darnold Sam Donald. Coming full circle. The team that ruined his life, essentially. Well, no. I mean. No. Ghosts. The mono and the ghosts were all one day. Yeah, but the Jets ruined his life. Would you truly like to see Sam Donald winning a Super Bowl?

1:02:11The Jets had more of a hand in ruining his life for that stretch. And that was the mono, the Adam Gase. Yeah. Adam Gase is the Jets. Yeah. Kind of winning the same. Oh, man. Okay. Let's kick it to ourselves. We'll talk Saturday's games. And we've got some national sports podcasts. And who's back of the week. Okay, before we get to Saturday's games, the world moves fast. Your work day even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, and analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear path to your best work.

1:02:58Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 Copilot. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 Copilot. Okay, boys, Saturday, we're going in reverse chronological order, so we're going to start with Seahawks 41, Niners 6. What a beatdown. Game was over on the initial kickoff. It felt like that Seahawks-Broncos Super Bowl where it was an ass-kicking from start to finish. And we did get an earthquake, technically, on the opening kickoff return by Rashid Shahid. I think it registered at like a 1.2, which is like a really big fart. But it did technically measure on the seismograph thing. It was over after that.

1:03:44And then the Niners get the ball. Niners can't do anything with it. Seahawks got like three possessions in Niners territory to start out. It was just like, it was an ass kicking. It was an ass kicking. Yeah. And also the, the, the, on Friday, we mentioned that the, the Seahawks have won 10 straight now 11 straight home playoff games with fans in the crowd. And that was the perfect way to remind everyone how loud that place is when there are fans there, because it was an electric start. We also had Eddie Pinheiro with one of the saddest flags possible when he, he tried to slide tackle. and it's a kicker tackle it was it was so pathetic yeah and and that was basically the tone because yeah you're right like going into this game we knew okay the Seahawks are seven point favorites they beat they beat them in week 18 they completely shut them down offensively we knew that the the Niners were gonna have to play a near perfect game and the near perfect game went out the window So instantly, not only with the kick return, but then the fourth down where they didn't convert, the Niners didn't convert on their first possession with the Kyle Yushek running to the short side, which I still don't understand that play.

1:04:58The Seahawks just completely shut that down. He pitched it to Christian McCaffrey where he was almost one foot out of bounds. It was way too late. Then it's 10-0. Then you have the next drive, a fumble, 17-0, game over. It was that fast. The Niners had to play perfect. They didn't play perfect for any part of it. And the credit to the Seahawks' defense and Kenneth Walker, who was awesome unleashing Kenneth Walker. Now the Charbonnet might be out because it did feel like that. It was like, hey, this guy's really good. And it was a perfect game script for Sam Darnold with one of the weirdest injuries we've had in the fact that he didn't throw a ball for the back half of the entire week, has an oblique, everyone was freaking out.

1:05:42There was weird comments. Schefter was reporting that he hasn't thrown a ball. He's not in warm-ups, all this stuff. Well, you know what you can do for Sam Darnold? You can jump out to a 17-0 lead and be up the entire game and have your defense completely rock the Niners, and Sam Darnold only has to throw 17 passes. This might be an unpopular take, but I think kickers should be allowed to trip. I think they should just give him that. Like, make the slide tackle if you want. It was extremely sad. But, yeah, you're right. Kenneth Walker. The thing about the Seahawks running backs is Kenneth Walker and Charbonnet are both really good.

1:06:14They're never really good at the same time. But Kenneth Walker was awesome last night. It seemed like they didn't miss a step at all with Charbonnet out. And there was really, yeah, there was nothing that the Niners could do. I think injuries finally caught up to the Niners. Yeah. There was nothing else that they could scrape together. There's no way that Salah could have fixed that defense good enough to a point where they can stop the Seahawks, especially if you're turning the ball over and giving them short fields. It was just as thorough of a beatdown as you see in the playoffs. The score of 41-6 I don't even think does it justice.

1:06:44Yeah, and this is what the Seahawks are. I think they are the best team in the NFL, and they have been doing this throughout the year in some of these games. It just happens that this one happened during a divisional game because remember, there was a game. Who do they play? I mean, they've just been killing everyone. and they killed the Cardinals. Obviously, these games don't matter as much. When the Max Brosner-Vikings game, when it was one of the worst offensive performances you've ever seen, the Falcons, they've been killing teams all year, the Saints. It just so happens that a lot of those teams are bad, and you're like, oh, okay, well, maybe there's a chance.

1:07:20No, no, no. The Seahawks are this good. They play perfect defense. They have enough. I mean, Jackson Jigba didn't even have to do much. Again, Sam Darnold, perfect game plan for him with his oblique. I still don't really know how injured he is. Yeah. Because he looked like he wasn't having fun. No. He threw it fine. I don't think it's a fake injury. And some people pointed it as a fake injury when they heard that he had an oblique and that he wasn't, you know, it was doubt. Or was he officially doubtful for he was questionable for the game? Yeah. He was questionable because there's no probable designation anymore.

1:07:54So they wanted to say that he had an injury. But the fact that he didn't throw a ball Thursday or Friday tells me it was probably real. It was. Because you would ideally like your starting quarterback to practice before an important playoff game like this. But if Sam Darnold had not set foot on the field and nothing else had happened in that game, the Seahawks would have won 7-6. Yeah. The game was over after that first kickoff. Maybe like 10-6 just because they did get that fumble and then got a field goal off of it. Yeah, maybe. You're right. But if the offense hadn't set foot on the field, the Seahawks still win that game.

1:08:30And it's not a knock at Sam Darnold. It's just, again, the perfect – it was the perfect game for a quarterback that has an oblique issue and you think he probably is going to get healthier going forward. Kyle Shannon did mention that he fully expected him to play because Toradol is a hell of a drug, which they do use all the time. I know we were debating that the other time. I did reach out to a couple of our friends who were former pros, and they said they took a Toradol shot every game. Every single game. Yeah, every game. Not great for the kidneys. No, but great for ball. The Seahawks, it was also funny when they tweeted, like, the QB1 is entering the game.

1:09:03Yeah. They had them both walking in at the same time. So the Seahawks knew. The way they were talking about it before, they were not concerned about it. Yeah. They're like, QB1 is entering the facility. It was just both of them walking in. It was such a blowout that maybe the best analysis I saw was, did you see your guy Paul Pierce tweeting about the game? Paul Pierce had two tweets from the game. the first one was Niners cooked Purdue can't throw downfield and the second was Minnesota had Daryl'd lol and Lee Lee him go is that written by Paul or were there some ladies over at the house I don't know but that was where this game we had a drunk Paul Pierce having the best tweets out there but yeah it was I don't know Seahawks are just really fucking good and the Niners again yeah great season incredible you know job by Kyle Shanahan you know losing Tonjes to get like another substation injury with Tonjes Christian McCaffrey said afterwards that was the hardest year I mean they couldn't run the ball all year they they just didn't they were trying to throw trick plays at them none of them worked we saw Mac Jones at the end of the game it did make me think was there a part of you Max watching this and you're like the Eagles actually go lower in the power ranking because this Niners team that just got demolished beat the eagles in philadelphia yeah eagles sucked yeah yeah because it's like you you you go away from wild card weekend being like wow the niners what a win on the road i don't know if it was because the seahawks are just that much better yeah i mean the niners obviously very very flawed team i think what we saw last week against the eagles that was that was the last gasp that was like they put everything that they had into that game and there was absolutely nothing left did you see brock purdy the stats they had the he ran 413 yards on 33 dropbacks during the game that's crazy that's insane how much he was running for his life just scrambling letting it fly just trying to make something happen they don't have anyone to catch the ball they didn't have any way to run the ball against that defense and the defense that they put out on the field was like missing probably seven or eight guys and the seahawks are just better and see every way seahawks are awesome the seahawks offensive line played really really well last night everything about them they they are a very complete team it's just about what Sam Darnold are we going to get.

1:11:17And sometimes you don't even need to get Sam Darnold. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at it, obviously the offense didn't have to do a whole lot for the Seahawks, but they basically, if you look at the stats, they basically played a perfect game. They scored 40-plus points. They rushed for 150 yards. They had zero turnovers, allowed zero touchdowns, had less than 10 penalty yards, scored a special team's touchdown. No other team in the NFL's history has done all of that in any game, regular season or playoffs. Now, that's obviously a long list of crazy stuff, but that's basically a list of, hey, we just played the perfect game.

1:11:50Yeah. It was perfect. It was perfect. And guess what? By the way, Seahawks have the fourth most cap space going into the offseason. That's pretty insane to realize. Who are they going to get? I don't know. Like, where do they go with it? I don't know. That's such a luxury that they have right now, because if you were to say, like, what is the weakness on the Seahawks right now? What would it even be? Yeah. Like maybe you could get a game-changing tight end. Yeah. They've got good tight ends, but what do you do with that money? And we've talked about, you know, yeah, I don't know what you do with that money.

1:12:21You just... Distribute to the fans. Yeah, give it to the fans. So Kyle Shanahan, this is another crazy stat I saw. Kyle Shanahan, yeah, there it is. That's cap space next year. The Seahawks are at four. And they change every, you know, they probably, part of the reason, or part of when you draft so well, you then have to use a lot of your cap space on re-signing the guys. Right, because JSN's still in his rookie cap. Yeah, there's a bunch of things that will shake out that they will probably not go into free agency with the top four cap space because they have a lot of good players. This is a crazy stat as well.

1:12:50So Kyle Shanahan has coached in the NFL for 163 games. He has had his team be held under seven points how many times? If you had to guess. Three. It's four, and two of them are by the Seahawks in the last month. That's crazy. Yeah, it was nuts. That's nuts. And again, they're injured, but still, the Seahawks defense has put Kyle Shanahan, again, to reiterate, 159 out of the 163 times he has coached an NFL game. His team has scored more than seven points. So the other four, two of them have happened in the last two weeks, basically. So you have a Seahawk problem? He might have a Seahawk problem.

1:13:31He might have a Hawk problem. He might have a Hawk problem. I'm looking at the upcoming free agents for the Seahawks. Okay. They will have to replace some guys or re-sign some of their own guys. Kenneth Walker, unrestricted free agent. Reek Willen, UFA. Kobe Bryant, Mafe. They've got some guys they'll need to reach out. But the bottom line is the Seahawks are very, very well-rounded, very complete team right now. And the fact that they have Shahid, who everybody thought, like when they got him in that trade midseason, it was like, look out. Yeah. Because I can't wait to see what the Seahawks do with Shahid's skill set.

1:14:03And he didn't really do that much in the regular season. No. But we saw last night, that's why you get him. Speed kills. Fast as fuck. They even had Velas Jones in a play, and I was like, what? Yeah. I couldn't believe it. Did they just say Velas Jones? What do the Niners do? Just roll it back? Move. Move. Move. Yeah, invest in the aluminum suits that you wear after a marathon. Yeah. Build a giant metal wall. It was because it was like last year was the year where it was like, okay, maybe they have to retool everything. And then they put together this year where they were playing for the NFC West title.

1:14:38Yeah. week 18 they have a you know a still a very good core but i don't know guys are getting older so this will be interesting i don't know what the plans are for the teams going into the super bowl is anybody going to practice at the niners team facility and if they are offered that practice space do you say no i think you have to say i think you got to say no i also feel like they wouldn't allow either team to practice there anyway because it's right next to the stadium I feel like that's a competitive advantage. Maybe, yeah. They're going to have San Jose State and other local colleges give up their fields.

1:15:13There are going to be so many reporters out at that substation. Yeah, the substation will be a big story of the Super Bowl. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. This was like, okay, Niners objectively terrible way to end your season last night. This was a great season for them. Yeah. This was a great season. They didn't expect it. They didn't have Brandon Iyuk. They lost everybody in injury. Mack Jones played for a significant portion of the season. Fred Warner was going to come back next week. One of my favorite parts of the game was Fred Warner started the game last night up in the booth. And then he came down on the sidelines.

1:15:48And I think Tom Brady said, now they know Fred's here. Now they know they got to be on business. They got to do it. They got to be on business because Fred's on the sidelines now. Yeah, it was never going to work out against the Seahawks team. And I'm very happy for the people of Seattle. They've had a rough go of it recently in sports and their sports fandom. But this team is special. It feels like this team is now the team to beat in the NFL. Yeah, it feels like they're the best team, like top to bottom. And the question is just Sam Darnold, as always. And if they can play like this and their defense can play like this, Sam Darnold doesn't have to do a ton to win a Super Bowl.

1:16:24I'm also pumped to see an NFC Championship game in Seattle. Yeah. That crowd is going to be fucking crazy. The kickoff was a reminder, like, oh, shit, I forgot. how loud the 12th man really is yeah we'll have to get a dome report from spencer haws i'm sure he's gonna go absolutely um all right let's go to the afc game picture this it's monday morning you open your laptop outlook hits you with 87 unread emails your calendar looks like a game of tetris played like a toddler your boss your boss wants a report your team wants a presentation you want a nap your microsoft copilot copilot summarizes your emails boom you're all caught up It drafts your report in Word.

1:17:00It builds your slides in PowerPoint. It even pulls insights from your Excel data. Suddenly, you're the office hero. People think you're organized, responsible, maybe even promotable. All because Copilot did the stuff that you didn't want to do. So if you want to reclaim your time or at least pretend you have your life together, try Microsoft Copilot. Copilot, because sometimes the smartest move is letting AI do the work. Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 Copilot. Okay. Bills, Broncos. Broncos 33, Bills 30. Let's do this in order because I feel like we could get lost. There's so much to talk about with this game.

1:17:36Let's go Broncos, Bills, refs. Okay. Does that feel right? Yeah, it sounds good. Because I hate – the one thing I hate about how this all went down is that it was an all-time game. It was just – while we were watching it, you had that feel of, like, the third quarter into the fourth quarter. You're like, this is an unbelievable playoff game. And then to have it all be the conversations the refs after sucks. So let's talk game, bills, and then we'll go refs. Where do we want to put in Tony Romo? Tony Romo, we can start off the top. I thought I was on drugs watching this game in the first half. I thought that I was watching a man.

1:18:10I tweeted out, let's give Tony Romo some credit here. Because he does a phenomenal job announcing games that he absolutely does not care about. He does not give a fuck anymore. And to do that, to be able to, I'd say, hit an 85 % strike rate, is pretty good. that's pretty impressive but tony does not give a fuck anymore there was that drive in the first half where josh allen reached out for a first down clearly like we saw what happened on the field he was short of the sticks they get up they run the qb sneak yeah he gets the first down then he's got the ball they hand it off and tony roma was like now you put yourself in a dangerous spot here running the football it's like what are you what are you talking about tony that's when i was like am i am did i get laced with something did someone slip something in my drink yeah am i watching the right broadcast what's going on what's going on tony and then on the next drive that the bills have he called josh allen mahomes yeah which is it's great what is what's tony romo doing have you guys seen this trend that's going around on twitter where people just tweet nonsense sentences all mashed together with weird words and stuff it's supposed to you start to read it and you're supposed to get like almost instantly confused yeah these words all are real words but but they don't line up.

1:19:22That's how I felt listening to Tony Romo. Yeah. It felt like you're having a stroke. Yeah. I was like, I'm so confused right now. I don't know what's going on. Yeah. The Colin, Josh Allen, my homes thing was, was bizarre, but I do think that that is a deep part of Tony's psyche that he loves Patrick Mahomes so much that he thinks every quarterback is now in my homes. It's like him and Collinsworth. I could, I could see Collinsworth doing that too. Yeah. So yeah, that's the Tony Romo thing. I do think he did make up for a little bit. He had some good insight that he put out there later. Yeah. Yeah, later.

1:19:51Tough start. So the Broncos, hell of a win. It felt like at times in this game that the Bills were just significantly better than the Broncos. And it was just that the Bills kept on turning the ball over. But that Bo Nix drive at the end of the game, down 27-23 when he goes, you know, four minutes left in the game. And he goes 73 yards, making big pass after big pass, was awesome. and they, you know, it felt like they were on the, as much as they were in control, especially at the end of the first half, it felt like they were on the ropes kind of the second half after the Bills mounted their comeback.

1:20:26So for them to sustain and be like, hey, we're okay, play defense, take the ball away, even though they were getting gashed at times, they took the ball away in big time moments. That was a hell of a win. And then an hour after the game, we find out that Bo Nix broke his ankle on the second to last play of the game. Yeah. Which is such a bummer. It's a big time bummer. When Sean Payton came back out there, he ended his press conference. He was done talking to the media. And then he comes back out for a secret surprise second press conference. And he was like, yeah, I miss talking to you guys so much.

1:20:56I want to just let you know because we just found out Bo Nix is going to be. They had all the information. It's like Bo Nix fractured a bone in his ankle on the second to last play. He scheduled his surgery with this one particular doctor in the state of Alabama. They had like an entire treatment plan planned out for it. And then you go back and you watch the play that it allegedly happened on. And it's just it seems like a regular football routine play that he might have aggravated when he took a knee. And apparently he has broken. He's broken. He's had this type of injury twice before in high school and in Auburn.

1:21:27Yeah. Now. If you're a Broncos fan, I have a very good friend. One of my best friends is a Broncos fan. He was mad that Sean Payton said this right after the games. He was thinking like, wait till Tuesday for game plan purposes. That probably doesn't really change game plans. But I do actually think there's a very fair point if you're a Broncos fan to be like, hey, Sean Payton, could you wait just so we could celebrate for one night? Yeah. Could we have one night where we go out to the bars after the game and have an awesome time instead of just dropping this on our head immediately after and bumming us all out?

1:22:00He did kind of steal it. He ruined that part of it. Yeah, for sure. In terms of the game plan, I don't think that you're going to game plan like, well, okay, now we got to reinstall our defense because it's going to be steady. Right. You would have found out on Tuesday because they would have had practice reports and Bo Nix would not have been there. Right. That's the other thing. When he said that Jared Sittum was going to start because he's been their guy, he knows the system. Initially, I think we were all like, oh, fuck. Well, congratulations to the Patriots or the Texans who wins that game.

1:22:27But then he referred to him as Stiddy. Stiddy. And Stiddy, I feel like Stiddy can get you a playoff win at home. I might be on board the itty bitty steady committee. Dude, the way that Sean Payton was talking about steady. Yeah. And if you look at what happened when Sean Payton got to Denver, I think Jared Stidham might have been his very first free agent signing when like free agency, the first day of free agency, he signed Jared Stidham. And then Jared Stidham was the backup to Russ for a couple of years. And then guess what? He gave him another contract. Yeah. So Sean Payton is saying, like, this was always the guy I wanted to be the backup.

1:23:05I believed in him enough that I went out and was like, there's a million guys you can get his backup. He's like, no, I want Stiddy. I think Sean Payton's got something with Stiddy that we don't know about. I also really, really trust Sean Payton. Yeah. Like, Sean Payton is a very good football player. I feel like the running the ball yesterday was a very weird setup because the Bills' defense was not good against the Rush, and they only ran one handoff in the fourth quarter. Yeah. And I think both their guys – I've got to look it up. I think both their guys were averaging five yards a carry, and they only ran it like 10, 15 times.

1:23:40So, Sean Payton, but maybe this is better to have Stidion. You can run the ball a little bit more. Yeah, 10 runs. McLaughlin and RJ Harvey had 10 runs, so McLaughlin was 5.3 yards per carry. RJ Harvey was 3.3. So they weren't running the ball that well. But it was interesting to not have more of an emphasis on the run game when they were up in the fourth quarter against a Bills defense that can't really stop the run. So we're on record. We're Team Stiddy. Stiddy. We think Stiddy might be able to get it done. I think Stiddy might. I don't know if Stiddy can get it done. All I know is Sean Payton loves Stiddy.

1:24:16He might be a Stiddy. Like, there might be something with Stiddy that we don't know about yet. There's something about Stiddy. There's something about it. Yeah. I'm going to trust Sean Payton, And I'm going to think that he can cobble together a game plan that minimizes Stiddy's possibilities for mistakes. Yeah. Max, you going to Stiddy fuck? No, he's going to suck. He's going to suck? Big old Stiddy's. Patriots are just going to have the easiest path in the Super Bowl in NFL history. Well, we're recording this before the game, so it could be either or. We already talked about that. Yeah, we already talked about that.

1:24:51We had a break. We did a really good job of not fucking that up, and then you just had to, because you're mad. I'm not mad. Jarrett Stidham, dude. I'm just saying. You sound mad. I thought the biggest concern for the Broncos yesterday, the Bills were just running the football up their dicks in the first half. It was pretty bad defense from a team that's been really, really good all season. Then when they were able to kind of get at Josh Allen, really the fumble at the end of the first half by Josh, that's bad Josh. You have to know that you're going to get bad Josh. That was about as bad Josh as you'll ever see in the playoffs.

1:25:25And then to start the second half, the sack fumble, not really on Josh, more on the protection, kind of pushing the edge rusher. Was that Benito that had that sack? Yeah, it was the last minute of the first half and the first minute of the second half. That basically cost the Bills the game because it was a 10-10 game and Bo Nix makes a great touchdown pass to make it 17-10 with 20 seconds left. I do not know what Sean McDermott is doing in that situation. I guess it's both Sean McDermott and Josh Allen. Josh Allen, you can't run the ball there because the half's over. You're not going to run for – the half's over.

1:26:02Well, you can run, but just don't get tackled like a fool. There's no reason to run. I know there's no reason, but it does happen. So don't run. It does happen a lot, and I don't know if he was thinking maybe I get downfield and we can try to get one more play to get in the field goal range. but the way he was holding the ball was like, what are you doing, Josh? But situationally awareness, like don't run the ball there. Don't, you know, the minute it gets bad, just give yourself up and go live to fight another day. And then, yeah, so it goes from a 10-10 game with 30 seconds left in the first half to all of a sudden it's, you know, a minute into the second half and it's 23-10.

1:26:35You're like, what just happened? So let's talk about the Bills. Josh, you know, the turnovers were bad. You can't say it was a big-time Josh Allen game in the fact that the good plays were wow plays and the bad plays were like, fuck, how did this happen? And the fumble was bad, the first pick. The second pick's really not on him, which we can talk about when we get to the refs. The play where he had Dawson Knox at the end of the game, that's a touchdown. That's probably a touchdown. That's probably game over. You're playing in the AFC championship game and he missed that throw. And it sucks. I feel awful.

1:27:15Like I can, I can do, I can say Josh Allen, you know, had plays in that game that cost him the game while also saying, I feel really bad for Josh because obviously we love him. And it just, you saw it on his face after they've just been banging their head against the wall over and over and over. And it sucks for them. And he knows that he has to play better without Josh. They're not in the playoffs. They don't get there. they're not driving to win the game at the end of it but he also has a lot of responsibility on this loss and it's one of the first playoff losses that the bills have had where you can say yeah this is this is kind of on josh allen that they lost this game um there was a lot of uh discussion actually there have two been two discussions that have been going on in the last like 24 hours regarding josh allen one is whether or not america is going to have a conversation about josh allen is america going to have this conversation because should we start the conversation about josh allen Sure.

1:28:09Okay. What's the conversation about Josh? I don't know. Okay. All right. Hank, Hank. Do you know what the conversation is, Hank? Hank can lead it. Go ahead, Hank. Is he ever going to make it to the Super Bowl? Yeah. He's getting old. Yeah. I have a fix. Well, maybe not a fix. What's the window? How open is the window? I think the window. It's a fair question. I think you've got to start asking a different conversation. We should have a different conversation before we have the Josh Allen conversation. Okay. McDermott? How long are we going to give McDermott? And we like being their GM. But I think it's fair to also say, like, hey, man, are you just never going to get Josh any receiving help?

1:28:46Yeah. Or, I mean, this was the other part of this. This was the worst Bills team of this last five-year run because they were just defensively not very good. But it also was the most wide-open playoffs. Josh Allen would have been the best. He was the best quarterback remaining. And now, so it feels like a wasted opportunity. I think you have to move on from Sean McDermott I don't know it's not that he's a bad coach you can't keep doing the same thing every single year you can't keep losing in the playoffs every single year this way and expect things to change you just have to say hey thank you so much the Bills in the last so since 2019 when they started going to the playoffs with Josh they are 83-33 that's really fucking good and they also in the last six years the Bills have scored the most points allowed the fewest points have the best record and have a point differential of 902 no other team is over 600 they have been an incredible team and they don't have anything to show for it and you're not going to get rid of Josh Allen it's kind of like the Lamar Harbaugh situation you're not going to trade Lamar Jackson you're going to get rid of John Harbaugh I think you have to do the same thing here I also saw a stat that was kind of shocking, which I never really put together, but I'm going to pull it up right now.

1:30:07It was from Josh Dubow AP at Josh Dubow AP. So there have been 36 head coaches who have won a Super Bowl. Of the 32 that were hired in the Super Bowl era, so it's like not counting Vince Lombardi, who was hired before the Super Bowl era started, even though he won a Super Bowl. of the 32 that were hired in the Super Bowl era this is the years that they won their first Super Bowl uh four of them won in their first year with their team eight of them won them in the second year with their team four of them won in the third year of their team seven of them won in the fourth year five of them won in the fifth year and then you go six seven eight there's just one in each of those and then Bill Cowher won it in the 14th year what it basically is saying is if you don't win the super bowl with your new team in the first five years historically like it says the odds are against you yeah i get another stat from that same guy okay so the bills are the first team ever to win a playoff game for six straight season without winning a super bowl in any of those seasons yeah so it it does speak to yeah sean i think leads the i think he now is uh number one most playoff wins without a super bowl appearance yeah and and i think sean mcdermott like you said is a very good head coach but if you're the bills under sean mcdermott you you have now reached the point where you pencil in an extra sad loss every single january yeah and you expect that to happen now it's in the back of your head you know it's going to happen you know it's going to come i don't know what he does for the messaging this offseason if they give him back like if it hasn't worked for the previous six years i don't know what you do going into the seventh year and it's it does feel like it's probably time to go a different way.

1:31:52And I think I would imagine that almost every single team in the league would take Josh Allen as their quarterback right now. Yes. Almost every single one would. Josh, after the game, he was emotional. Zach, you're a cry guy. You've cried on camera recently. Big time cry guy. What was your analysis of Josh weeping on camera after the game? He wasn't holding back whatsoever. Those were real pain in those tears. It's got to be just insanely frustrating. Like he, this one, this was the first time, like you said, PFT, this is the first time that Josh Allen has not, if you look at his stats in big playoff games, he's played games.

1:32:29Like the 13 second Chiefs game, he played a perfect football game. There's games where he has not been the problem. This was the first time where he said, I let my team down. And yeah, there's the four turnovers are really hard to overcome. And it's like, and again, it's, it's not like taking away blame from Josh Allen to say that Sean McDermott should should be they should move on from him yeah it's just that you aren't going to get rid of Josh Allen yeah will Josh Allen win a Super Bowl I say yes I hope so I think that he will I'm rooting for him hard oh I know the conversation okay this is a conversation that America I don't know if they're ready to have yet but we should have it it was a thought starter from Mackenzie Lozano she works at Barstool she produces macrodosing she's a diehard Bills fan Oh, yeah, this is not great.

1:33:14I'd rather die with no Super Bowls with Josh Allen as my quarterback than ever win a Super Bowl. So let's discuss. No. No. You wouldn't? I'd rather win a Super Bowl. Love Josh. Than die with no Super Bowl. Yeah. Embrace debate. If it's not with Josh, she won't be as happy. It is. Do you think Bills fans are watching the games today? I think they're probably. They might be going to bed. They love football. You're so mean, Hank. I genuinely was wondering that. It fucking sucks for Bills fans that they've had this window where the Patriots finally stopped being dominant in the division. They owned your division for how many years now?

1:33:55It was six years, basically. Six years. Obviously, this year the Patriots won the division, but the Bills have been the force, and it coincided with the Patriots' dynasty taking a dip, and now the Patriots are back in the playoffs winning the division, and people are asking if the window is over for Josh Allen. Yeah. It sucks for Bills fans. Josh Allen's 0-3 now in overtime games in the playoffs. It feels like every year it's just – and again, I think the worst part watching this game because no wide – or, you know, a decimated wide receiver core, a defense that was leaky, you walk in this game being like, hey, there's a version that the Broncos are just better.

1:34:37They weren't. The Bills looked like the better team for big portions of this game. The turnovers told the story. And then the other story was the refs and the catch-non-catch at the end of overtime. So the good news is, if you're a Bills fan and you're coping with this right now, you do have just an insane amount of screen grabs that you can just go. We talk about this all the time. Come play off. That if you're going to lose, if you can at least get some screen grabs that you can just fight online about for the next week, it's at least a consolation prize. Not a good one, but at least something.

1:35:19There are some incredible screen grabs that you can take from that catch where he's on the ground, he has possession of the ball, the Broncos defender is like two-hand touching him down. Jaquinn McMillan. I would say that this is even a better screenshot than the one where it was against the Chiefs where it looked like Josh got the first down. Yeah. I think that this is now. This might be the number one screenshot of all time. This is number one in your arsenal of reasons to be pissed off at the NFL. So Brandon Cooks catches the ball, goes to the ground. Does he? Well, he did catch the ball. We don't know if it was a catch.

1:35:50Got it. But he did catch the ball, right? The ball was in his hands. The ball was in his hands, which some people would call a catch. That's not the NFL rule. But the ball was in his hands. He goes to the ground. Ball still in his hands as he hits the ground. the ball gets dislodged on the ground and uh the cornerback for denver was his name again mcmillan mcmillan uh rolls away with the ball before the ball touches the ground or before i guess brandon cooks makes an act common to the game of football and then they do the most convoluted review process ever that america didn't get an insight into that's that's the problem i think that's the biggest issue usually i would like to see a ref go under some sort of a hood or walk up to a monitor.

1:36:35And even if you got Mark Butterworth chirping at him in the New York studio where they're doing the replay. Oh, Butterworth's fingers are all over this thing. It is. This is a classic Butterworth situation. This is a Butterworth joint. We want to see the ref that's on the field, the guy that's wearing the cleats. I'm assuming refs wear cleats. We want to see that guy looking at a monitor and maybe hearing through his earpiece that Butterworth says it's an interception. Then he walks out to the field, says that they take a look at it and that it's the Denver Broncos football. Instead, what we got was just a couple of replays shown on TV, and then the game just started again.

1:37:07You need to allow us to take a breath. You need to allow us to sit there and just watch it over and over and then debate it. They robbed us of that, and I think that has a lot to do with the anger people have. So my first knee jerk was, that's a catch. How is that not a catch? After watching it, I don't know, a thousand times, I actually think that it's an interception. and if you told me I have to watch it a thousand more times I might go back to catch because it's that close but as I sit here right now I don't know if he I don't know if he caught it like I visualizing the idea that if he had if the ball had popped out right when McMillan grabbed it would that be called a catch no it'd be called an incomplete right and that's kind of what sealed it in my brain yeah I I think it looks like it looks like a catch when you first watch it by the logic of the NFL's rule book, I think that it's the correct call for it to be an interception.

1:38:04So it looks like a catch, but that's not what the NFL rule is. Do you guys all agree? Well, there's one problem with this. It's cut and dry. There's one problem with it. If you remove McMillan from the situation, like he's catching that on his own, he catches the ball in the air, hits the ground, it pops out in completion. There's one problem with it, and that's that the refs have not always seen this the exact same way every time. So like Aaron Rodgers, when he threw that interception the other week, where he caught it, went to ground, and it got stolen away from him. You remember that play? Yeah.

1:38:36He like fell to his knees. That is a very, very similar play to this. I think the NFL is saying that Aaron Rodgers made a football move by like intentionally bringing his knees to the turf. Yeah. Before it got ripped out. I think that's where the distinction is. But it's like almost an identical play when you look at the logic applied to it. we just would have liked to see like give us a chance to digest it and to have you know gene sterator or whoever pop up on the screen and walk us through it as opposed to butterworth getting on his his uh like auv headset and paging down to the refs and being like hey guys uh that's broncos ball yeah let's get this game going yeah it just it left us all saying what the hell just happened and then we have the pass interference calls, which I don't...

1:39:24So the first one I thought was wrong because we also had the... There was a... Bill's fans will point to incorrectly. It's basically a war right now going on of what about this play? What about this play? What about this play? There's the hold in the end zone for the safety that would have ended it. That one hurts for Broncos fans. Yeah. Oh, yeah, because Bo Nix. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. They're the real victims in this. Yeah. It's crazy to do this out of order because it could be like a totally different. No, regardless of what happens, that's facts. Yeah. All right. So, and then they had the, just to be fair, the Bills, there was a no call of the Bills looked like a pass interference in the end zone on the Broncos at the end of regulation.

1:40:06The first one, I thought, Teron Johnson, I thought wasn't a pass interference. The second one, Tredavious White, was. But here's the problem. the refs spent the entire game not calling pretty much anything yeah then they decided to start calling stuff in overtime that's where i that's where i think it's bullshit that's where i side with bill's fans in their plight is that it's not that this wasn't tredavious white by the letter of the law he was he was past interfering he was that's a call that can get made they just didn't call anything for for the majority of the game and let a lot of stuff go and then in overtime I'm like, you know what?

1:40:44We're going to start calling it. That part would be bullshit to me. Tredavious White. That was pass interference. I don't care what they called or what they didn't call earlier in the game. It sucks that that's kind of how the game ended. Oh, I do care what they called earlier in the game because they set the tone of how they were calling the game. And it was a physical game that they were letting a lot of things go. But I still think they don't. That's where it pisses me off. I still think that one in particular, that's it sucks to watch. But that was pass interference no matter what they called.

1:41:10But they let the one go earlier for that was clearly on the pass interference. on the Bills receiver. On Brandon Cooks. Yeah, yeah. I think that was also pass interference that they missed. Right. But they were consistently not calling those during the game until overtime. Yeah. And they're like, oh, fuck it. We'll start calling them. That's bullshit. I would be pissed if I were a Bills fan. Now, Sean McDermott went through all the emotions after the game. He seems like he's just like in denial about the way that it ended. And he's just asking for, you know, clarification. He's trying to fight it.

1:41:40Which is fair because clarification is really the biggest part Part of this is like they should have stopped and told us everything. But this has been our problem with Butterworth the entire time is he's sitting in his office like an evil villain. Like that guy from Inspector Gadget that's got the cat with his back turned to the camera. Butterworth moves in the shadows. You can never nab him down. Yeah. He's so elusive. You're like, oh, you see a little smear on a little greasy smear on a table. You're like, Butterworth was here. God damn it. I do think that, you know, we talked about the difference between the refs that are on the field and then a guy like Butterworth that's sitting up in his booth that has never, he's never been in a locker room.

1:42:20He's never put his cleats on. He's never stepped on the field. I do feel like the refs on the field would be more likely to rule that a catch than a guy sitting in his rule book lair that's watching everything in Super Bowl. Super slow-mo with all the angles on it like he's in the Matrix. Maybe that's just a hunch that I have. I feel like a ref that's on the field with these guys would be like, yeah, it's a catch. Yeah. Such a bizarre game, though, to have it be so great, have it end in a pass interference, have it end in a controversial play, have the Bills get their absolute guts ripped out yet again, and then have the Broncos have Bo Nix get hurt.

1:42:56It's like, who even won this game? Yeah. It was such a wild swing of emotions. The Broncos hadn't won a playoff game since their Super Bowl win in 2015. it should be nothing but the happiest times and yet it just all got sucked out of there and everyone's like walking away from this game being like well who won before we did our own research on steady what were your first thoughts on what the broncos should do i i had i had two that came to mind yeah this is officially just like fan fiction time when you hear a quarterback goes down like this what would be the most awesome storylines my first one was drew breeze yep give him a call would have been awesome see if he can play one more game somebody pointed out that he can only throw like 30 yards now.

1:43:35I don't care. The altitude up there makes a difference. Yep. Then number two was Tebow, just because Tebow's always number two. And then third was Phillip Rivers. Oh, you're missing one crazy storyline. What if Phillip Rivers came and played for the Broncos? We're missing one crazy storyline. What if Brady? Oh, yeah. That'd be crazy. Yeah, just shits on Peyton Manning's legacy as a Broncos quarterback. He wins the Super Bowl as a Bronco. Well, the fact that he owns a team that's in the same division Yeah, probably wouldn't work. Less likely, but also more chaotic, which I would appreciate. But he would also be the one that you would take out of all those four.

1:44:10Maybe Phil Rivers, because he just played. And again, before Max ruined kayfabe for us, before we disclosed that we didn't know who won the Texans-Patriots game. That's on me. That's all right, Max. You're not a steady guy. You're not a steady guy. I'm not. Just in this alternate take universe. Stitty's a good guy. Thing of the show. You're just mad because as we're sitting here right now, it's an hour before the Patriots and Texans kick off. I'm about to go to the Bears game, and you are mad because you're like, the Patriots have the easiest path to the Super Bowl. NFL history. But what happens if they lose the Texans?

1:44:53Let's go Texans. I wish they had that to say. They're not going to lose to the Texans because, I don't know, Willie Anderson and Daniil Hunter and C.J. Stroud and Woody Marks are all going to get the flu before the game. They're not losing to the Texans. They're not. Nico Collins and their right tackle are both out. Totally broken immersion. But just imagine. They're doing their little thing. I love it. What if Tom Brady came back and beat the Patriots in Denver? For the Broncos? Yeah. Oh, I would come. Talk about having a stroke on TV. I would have a stroke for sure. Different kind of stroke.

1:45:31You're crazy about Stidham. Stidham might be a guy.

1:45:37Maybe. I would love for him to be a guy. He's not, but he might be. Have you guys heard the theory? McDaniels loves Stidham. Have you guys heard the theory that Bo Nix actually didn't get hurt in that play? Well, yeah. So after it happened, I believe that he did now like 95%. Maybe 90%. 90%. 90 % that's where he got hurt The other 10 % of my brain was like They were fucking partying in the locker room Boenick slipped in the shower Too much horseplay It's a horseplay related end He gets up quick after this play Hey did you tweet after like Shout out to Bills for breaking his ankle before Like to end the game No Did you think that in your head No Not at all I'm with Max I don't think that's where it happened.

1:46:26Something makes no sense. You think something's up? Something is up. Something is up. Something is up. He gets up so quickly for a guy who just shattered his head. I'm not looking past the Texans, but like. Tracy Wolfson did tweet in real time. She's like, something to monitor. Bo Nix looks like he has a limp. Yeah, I think she said it might have been his knee, but she did say that he was limping off the field at the end of the game. She was the first to report. And that's before Sean Payton came out. But Max, I'm going to put my fingers up. Yeah, I'll go with you. I'm just going to say 90%. I'm going to say 90%.

1:46:58It's weird that Sean Payton came out. Injury update. Here's the full plan. We've got his appointment. He's checking it at 9 o 'clock in the morning. He's going to be using his Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. And then he's got his first rehab assignment on February 7th at 7.30 a.m. He had the treatment plan. Oh, you guys think what I'm thinking? Script. Soft benching. Soft benching, yeah. Is this the most high-profile soft benching of all time? Yeah. They got to see what Stiddy's got. They got to see what he's got. Think about it. If Sean Payton benched Bo Nix, everyone would riot. Now he's got a fractured ankle and he's going to Alabama, and it's Stiddy, his guy that Sean Payton's thought has been the guy since day one, soft benching.

1:47:44I mean, Sean Payton, he gets his guys that he falls in love with. I know. He might be like he was in love with Taysom Hill for so long. He might just be in love with Stiddy. If he's in love with Stiddy, I got no choice but to ride. Yeah. Okay. So let's do – I do feel bad for Pills fans. This is – I know that we are biased towards Josh Allen. He had to play better. That's a fact. And it sucks that he's going to now – it sucked watching him that emotional. I think the answer is you have to get rid of Sean McDermott Again, not a bad coach But it's just you have to change something And you're not going to trade Josh Allen It's time It sucks Because I do think he's a good coach Just like nine years in If you do that, you have to have a plan though You have to be sure that you can get somebody better than Sean McDermott Somebody that's still out there But I think just any type of newness Is going to help Mike McDaniel would be very funny If he went there and then proceeded to beat the Dolphins if you can't beat you can't beat daddy join them yeah okay let's talk some uh let's talk some college football national championship yeah before we get back to the football it's brought to you by microsoft copilot the ai assistant that actually helps you get stuff done we spoke about earlier it is truly a lifesaver copilot works across microsoft 365 so we got word excel powerpoint outlook it turns chaos into productivity if you need a presentation Copilot builds it.

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1:50:19SimpliSafe's monitoring agents have your back, even when you're busy, asleep, or on a plane. Right now, you can get 50 % off any new system this month only. It's a great time to upgrade to security that actually helps stop crime before it starts. Go to simplisafe.com slash PMT. That's simplisafe.com slash PMT. There's no safe like simply safe. Okay. We got a national championship. How do you guys think it's going to go? Did you see Carson Beck was asked how class was this week? And he's like, dude, I graduated two years ago. I haven't been to a class. It's going to life. Yeah. I just played. What an incredible life.

1:50:56I'm a professional football player. That's what I do. In Miami. For the good Miami team. Yeah. Yeah. I did see that. That was very funny. I think Indiana is just going to keep rolling. It feels that way. They've just been they've been so dominant recently, although I will say with all the talk of Indiana cheating, if there's one guy that could stop Indiana from spying on stuff, from doing whatever it is that are allowed alleged to have been doing. Mario Cristobal was a secret service agent. True. Like this is a man that knows how to set up a perimeter. Good point. This is a man that can keep prying eyes away from high value targets unless they're on a sloped roof.

1:51:31I think that Mario Cristobal is uniquely positioned to be able to at least put to bed any allegations of cheating win or lose this weekend. But I do feel like Indiana is just, they don't make mistakes. They're methodical. They suffocate you, and they don't stop. So if they get a lead, it's not like this is a team that's going to sit on the lead and open themselves up to a second-half comeback. I don't think they seem like a team that will get a lead and they will just not stop scoring on you until the final whistle. The one thing I'll say about Miami is they do play big boy football. Their lines, the offensive line, defensive line are massive.

1:52:08And they do like it's not going to be a physical mismatch in any way. You know, sometimes it'd be Big Ten ACC school. You can be like, oh, no, Miami is built more like a Big Ten school or a really good SEC school than it is ACC. ACC so I think they'll be competitive are you going to live hedge at all because reminder you have a 16 to 1 yeah national championship future on the hurricanes on the hurricanes and I feel terrible about it going to this game I think Indiana's eight and a half point favorites now yeah right it's going up that far so what on the money line what does that make them like minus 320 right now let's pull it up on draft kings minus 340 minus 340 for Indiana so yeah I'm I'm going to hope that miami if miami goes up like seven to nothing it'll probably get down to what indiana minus 170 maybe maybe and in that case i might do it i really hope they go up 10 nothing or 14 nothing in which case i will i will absolutely hedge because i think that indiana is they're just they're inevitable yeah they're one of the best football teams that we've seen in college in in a very long time and i don't i don't see miami beating him kurt signetti did say that he is a college football coach through and through yep so that was that was that was made pretty clear that he's not going anywhere mike buckarthy is now gonna interview for the steelers job yeah which is very funny so with with the allegations directed towards indiana recently i was thinking last week of like if you had an unlimited budget and unlimited technology so like not including magic if magic isn't part of this i'd like to have some magic no magic i'm not i'm not granting you any magic how would you imagine johnson how even yeah you get you get magic yeah how would you even go about cheating no magic no magic you can't use magic but unlimited budget cyber cyber warfare Yeah, cyber warfare.

1:54:07That's all I... You just hack into their meeting rooms. Yeah, I don't understand how any of that works, but I just know when you add cyber to it, it's like, oh, fuck, they're really doing something serious. Yeah, you got two guys in a van with earpieces that are sitting outside their facility, cracking into the mainframe. Yeah, you get someone... You pay someone on the Miami team to give you all their plays. That would be a way to do it, too. Yeah. I thought of one thing yesterday when I was watching the Bills-Broncos game, a way that you could cheat, I think. If you had a guy that was in the booth up above, you remember the vibrating anal beads thing in chess?

1:54:43It wouldn't have to be anal beads, but some sort of vibrating thing. Well, let's just make it anal beads. Okay, anal beads, for the sake of this argument. If they were stuck up Josh Allen's ass at the start of the second half, if that was a halftime adjustment, it's like lube these things up and toss them up there, Josh. When there's a guy coming at the blind side at a quarterback, you hit the button, the guy up in the booth hits the button, it buzzes it means just take off because there's a guy that's about to strip sack you you could actually cheat doing that you might but imagine possessions a year but here's the problem with that i like the idea but the one time that the anal beads don't work you like don't hit the button fast enough you basically your your guy dies your guy dies because he's got the the the false sense of security that as long as the anal beads aren't going off in my asshole right now there's no one around me you just like you're second late yeah or it just doesn't hit you didn't plug it in oh now the the worst feeling would be if you got sacked and you were on the ground and there was a delay in the communication so you're laying there dead on the ground and then your butt starts to vibrate because the communication comes through late yeah you're on the pile and it's just vibrating but yeah i i think indiana i think they're gonna do it and i think they're gonna win by double digits it's a hell of a season and we will we will give them all their flowers if they complete it because it's been one of the craziest stories in sports.

1:56:06It really is. Okay, National Sports Podcast anything. I had a couple things before we do Who's Back of the Week. Kyle Tucker. I know this happened on, what, Friday? Kyle Tucker's a Dodger. It's fucking whatever. The lineup is insane for the Dodgers. I don't know who to get mad at. Memes, help me out. Who am I mad at? Boba Shett's a Met Kyle Tucker Kyle Tucker Mets gave him Fuck Boba Shett Mets gave Kyle Tucker one more year No more money Oh and he said no He said no Oh so that is a problem He ran from the ground If guys are now taking less money to go to the Dodgers and the Dodgers have unlimited money that is a problem The same thing happened with Edwin Diaz He said he couldn't win with the Mets and he just joined the Dodgers The problem I keep struggling with is that yes the Dodgers are spending too much money or they spend all their money they're gonna be so much better than everyone They have a competitive advantage.

1:57:00But for all the teams that cry poor, I really do wonder if you just could snap your finger. Maybe we use magic for this. Snap your fingers and be like, Pirates, you have the budget that the Dodgers have. Reds, you have the budget the Dodgers have. I don't think any of those teams would actually spend the way the Dodgers do. They just take a profit. Yeah. Which is bullshit. I agree. So that's the part where I'm like, I know the system's broken, but I still have a hard time blaming the Dodgers because they're just doing the things that the system has allowed. Until you fix it, they're going to keep doing it, and they're going to keep winning.

1:57:34Yeah, I mean, obviously having an owner that's got more money than the other owners is a benefit. It's an advantage. But still, the real benefit is having an owner that does not give a fuck about his own pocketbook and will spend whatever it takes to win, knowing that you'll make more money in the long term if you have a dynasty of a baseball team, which is what the Dodgers are going for. So here's the projected lineup. for the Dodgers. Opening day, 2026, facing the Nationals, Shohei Otani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Max Muncy, Teoscar Hernandez, Tommy Edmond, Andy Pajas.

1:58:16That's a fucking insane lineup. It's an insane lineup, but I will say, just warning Dodgers fans out there, Kyle Tucker did have the perfect spot in game five against the Brewers and had a perfect pitch to hit an extra base hitter or home run, and he fucking did nothing with it. Came up so small. And that might be me just being a little salty bitch, but I don't care. Guy came up small. Say he sucks. He sucked in the second half. He sucked. Sucked. He was hurt, but he sucked. No, don't give him an out. Yeah, he sucked. He was a pussy about it. Even though he played through his injury. Do you guys have any guesses as to how much the Dodgers have on their books?

1:59:04Current salaries. Deferred or not deferred? Yeah, including the deferred payments. It's got to be billions. $2.11 billion in payroll. It's got to be billions. I don't understand deferred payments. Yeah, I don't either. Everyone talks about it. It's like we will pay you all this money, but we're not going to pay it while you're on the team. So like Bobby Bonilla is a classic one that people do. Got it. It's like we will pay you a million dollars a year for 30 years on this date. You push everything back, and there are some teams that have been able to be very successful where there are other teams like the Nats have not been able to because they were tied up in legal proceedings.

1:59:43So the money, yeah, it seemed like it was going to be there, but it wasn't as rock solid a thing. It's like the Dodgers can promise Shohei Otani all this money for the next 15 years or however long that contract is. And he's like, yeah, I know you're good for it. Yeah. Got it. Still don't fully understand it, but that is a good explanation. Why didn't you just pay it? Like right all up front? Because, I don't know, you had to move a few things around. I think also like Shohei's getting so many advertising deals and endorsement deals that he essentially is probably making – like he's making tens of millions of dollars right now because he's playing, and then when he retires, he's going to keep making tens of millions of dollars from his playing days.

2:00:27Yeah. And that will – Ipe will be able to do as many parlays as he wants. yeah that's actually a great example for shohei it's like traditionally you would like as much of the money up front as possible because then you can invest it in things but if maybe you're investing in things like russian soccer and czechoslovakian table tennis let me maybe you'd rather have a a better future runway for i'm gonna get paid 20 million dollars on this day 10 years from now 20 million dollars 11 years from now so you know that money's coming in max let me talk your language you know the like the best bite of a sandwich yep just leaving yourself that for after yep you eat everything else yeah it's good that's that's a much better way much better way thank you now i get now now it all makes so much sense to me i just needed the last bite it's the last bite you just everyone knows that last bite oh yeah with nachos you say you save the one nacho for the end oh you never have the best nacho to start no you're not a psycho move if i see if i'm having nachos with somebody and they take the nacho right off the bat it ruins the entire meal yeah that guy that's like an all-time bad guy move that was like the when dana tweeted his bagel bites and he had like 30 of them and he's which one do you go for first i always pick the absolute worst one to go for first i eat it standing up it doesn't even count you just basically cleaning off the board like being like hey we're gonna get rid of you you can't leave that one you gotta just fucking take it that's a that's a pro move the crispiest fry you gotta leave the soggy fry you gotta take right away get yourself going these are the things that you do with deferred payments and running an MLB team.

2:02:02That's what the Dodgers are doing right now. Yeah. It would be so fucking awesome to be a Dodgers fan. It really would. Although, is there a point where? I disagree. I don't know. Yeah. There's a point where it's like, fuck it. Like, what's the fun in this? Yeah. Winning champ. No, it is fun. Hank, is winning championships always fun? Yes. But I think what Max is saying, and there's a little part of him, like, watching your own guys go, like, progress through the system. Like, that is a fun part of baseball that they, again, they're not really complaining. But they're just doing superheroes. They're doing the Avengers.

2:02:36Every single year. Dodgers also have the number one farm system. Yeah, I know. That's the crazy part. I don't even understand that. I don't understand how that works. I still think it's awesome. I think the Dodgers fans are having a great time. I was forced to move the Cubs ceiling with the Kyle Tucker signing. The ceiling has changed for the Cubs season. Before the Kyle Tucker signing, it was Cubs lose or Cubs win two games, the NLCS. I think now the ceiling might be Cubs get swept by the Dodgers in the NLCS. That's the ceiling. But how awesome. Just taking away two NLCS games. How awesome would it have been if the Blue Jays had beaten them?

2:03:13I know. And then we could all look at this and be like, you guys are down so bad. You're panicking. Down so bad. Panicking by the Dodgers. The Phillies have done stuff, right? Yeah, I knew that. Bo Bichette, right? You told me Bo Bichette was signed with the Phillies. Well, they met his demands on Thursday night, seven years, 200 million, and then the Mets fucking panicked and gave him just a billion dollars. Congrats, memes. Congrats, memes. That's huge. But the Mets are also worse than they were last year, so it makes no sense. Are the Mets doing the thing where they're just trying to build an entire team out of infielders?

2:03:49Yeah, they're slowly building a not terrible roster. Pretty good. But you got a lot of infielders. A lot of infielders, and they're just relying on the young pitchers. Got it. But they might get Cody Bellinger. Okay. So they're like slowly adding. Yeah. Even though Mets fans have been pissed off with how the offseason's going. So last week, I forget if it was on Thursday. I think it was probably on Thursday. Steve Cohen tweeted out something very cryptic about what the Mets were up to. Memes, was he talking? He said something like, look for the smoke coming. Yeah, that was all about Kyle Tucker.

2:04:21It was about Kyle Tucker. And so he was kind of insinuating that the Mets were about to get Kyle Tucker, right? Yes, but also that they were just waiting. I think Kyle Tucker was just playing everyone along. But then you guys got Bo Bichette. Then we got Bo Bichette. Who's very good. He's a stud. He's really good. Very, very good. I have a Roback question for you, Max. Roback.com, promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com, promo code TAKE. is there anything you'd like to say about this report about um the discourse in the eagles facility did you see that it was russini no it was michael silver it's a michael silver joint basically everyone or that's a no let me just give you the gist how it was jalen hurts thing no one thinks jalen hurts is good except for howie and and uh jeffrey lurie sure fine okay so you saw it you didn't see it you don't care i didn't read it i saw i saw it like a headline about it okay no okay we had do you think that's a problem super bowl mvp yep fact what have you done for me lately he's done in the biggest spots brian dable maybe to the eagles yeah if brian dable if brian dable comes brian dable's coming because of jalen hurts yeah we'll see we'll see what happens there so harbaugh was officially named Giants head coach.

2:05:47There was a weird couple days where it was announced, but it wasn't done. Matt LaFleur back with the Packers, Kevin Stefanski, Atlanta Falcons head coach. I do feel a little because we had some pushback every time we defend Kevin Stefanski. Everyone was like, there's some people like, there's no way he's going to get in their job. He's a very good coach. Winning a playoff game with the Cleveland Browns counts as a Super Bowl. He was there for a very long time. I'm excited to see him in an offense with these guys i like that they're saying that they're doing a philly reunion in atlanta yeah because matt ryan is now the president of football for the atlanta falcons fucking sick-ass job title that he's got forget this executive vice president football operations bullshit yep he is the president of football for the atlanta falcons he's a philly guy stefanski's a philly guy they're building philly south in atlanta go birds yeah and arthur blank had a um stake so the according to the the the report from albert breer they went stefanski had an hour and a half um meeting at arthur blank's house then they had dinner blank had planned a steak and potato bar but then surprised everyone by cooking the ribeyes himself that's not really a surprise i would care about hey guys watch this i'm gonna cook the steaks instead of a chef okay dude i mean he owns home depot he's probably got a sick ass grill yeah it's just like a uh like you imagine just be like surprise i cooked them all right there's there's still steak right so there was a very funny picture that they they put out of stefanski and matt ryan and arthur blank and the uh falcons brass can you pull that up yeah the picture that they they posted yesterday it was good it was uh it was a funny picture because first of all it looked like stefanski didn't know that they were be doing the picture thing yeah which i i'm by the way i i i did uh reach out to coach defansky and i said thank god that you're gonna still be in the yearly picture at the the coaches meetings the owners meetings and he was like i couldn't do that to you i couldn't miss that so yeah i'm that was the first thing i thought of was like we didn't lose to fans we got to keep these guys around so this picture it seemed like they got the deal done and he was like oh i didn't know that we were gonna like take a picture and post it online afterwards uh but look at her look at arthur blank look at that sassy girl we yeah he does zoom in on his face that well you know what that looks like he knows a man that he's a man that knows he just cooked yeah a fire fucking ribeye that sealed the deal the the face of a man who's gonna sleep well tonight knowing he surprised the boys by cooking the ribeyes yeah what a surprise nailed it can we can we as a as a group of men that you know we we have we have a big listenership we have some some type of poll we've got to get rid of the the arms around shoulders picture it's the we always look bad in it in golf pictures and like we always look this looks awkward would you rather do the uh prom picture like skinny shoulder i think you i think guys just gotta stand i think we just gotta stand as guys and be like it's okay to stand and not put our arms like this is guys you don't think about what to do and then he just i know but look at safanski that doesn't look comfortable for him to have both his arms locked behind him you know what maybe maybe change starts at home here maybe when we take our pictures we guess like hands on the hips yeah i don't know what i don't know what the solution is but i know that we as guys have run out of like that we just all look bad when we do it we're like hey let's get 15 guys standing in a line we'll all put our arms around each other so we're all kind of awkwardly standing uncomfortably it's just there's got to be a better way maybe we got to start flexing i don't know but yeah arthur blank that's a fucking ribeye chef right there he nailed it what a what a beast what a beast oh man someday someday i would like to get i would do i'd like to do like a documentary about that dinner and just be like all right be honest to us matt ryan or kevin stavansky he overcooked those steaks well we wish we wish that that was a chef not him is he a guy that said how do you like your steaks to everybody and then tailored him or was he like i cook my steaks medium rare yeah and then just made you eat his steak yes we're looking at pug's final picture we nailed it you nailed it except for shane shane's a weirdo shane fucked it up like just standing as guys is totally normal and okay we need to let the message be shown when you when you get a bunch of guys in a picture and we all go arms around each other we always look bad what do you do this might be because i have breasts I fully admit that.

2:10:18At the end of a round of golf, Hank, is there anything else that you do or always arms around? Well, with golf, you can hold the club. You can hold the club, which is good. So maybe we need – you know what we need to do? Guys just need to walk around with bats. So if you ever have to take a picture, you just do the bat. You just hold the bat on your shoulder. That's a cool picture. All the guys holding bats on their shoulders? Or just a football. Maybe that's what we need to do for whatever we do meet and greets. Just have a bunch of bats ready? Mm-hmm. Anything. Or do the boxer pose, just like the fists up.

2:10:49Thumbs up, boxer pose. I don't like doing thumbs up, but I sometimes will just do it. Pointing at each other. Just hold up one. Number one. That's why gang members have it all figured out. Right. You'll see gang members going arms around each other. Yeah. It's crazy. Okay. Let's wrap up with Who's Back of the Week. It is brought to you by our friends at Twisted Tea. Who's Back of the Week brought to you by Twisted Tea. twisted tea is a refreshing hard iced tea made with real brewed tea and 5 % alcohol it's a perfect drink to keep the good times going all day and all season long whether you're hanging out at a friend's house catching a game at the stadium or at the bar or day drinking with friends twisted tea is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time grab a refreshing twisted tea today and get twisted we love the half and halves the peach we're gonna get some twisted tees today it's gonna be a great day hopefully twisted tea thank you twisted tea okay hank you're who's back the week um who's back the week speaking of twisted tea 2016 yeah i don't know what i believe i believe whatever magic voodoo went into the year 2016 i don't know why it is the case like it's not like in you know 2024 people were like oh it feels like 2014 or 2023 it feels like 2023 but something about 2016 people just love i think fetty wap got out of jail so that's what kind of started the the trend of people being like oh it feels like 2016 again but it's just it's everyone's talking about 2016 again now we're talking pre-harambe or post-harambe just the whole year the whole year had something to it summer 2016 harambe was you know a big a big part of it but yeah huge part of it it's when everything changed it feels like 2016 again that obviously for us it was when the podcast started so i do i i've Whatever voodoo was like, 2016, something changed.

2:12:41Something was in the air. Something happened. Cubs? Cubs, 2016. But yeah, that summer, we hadn't moved to New York yet. We were working from home. I was on the beach all the time, drinking a lot of Twisted Teas. It was a great year. Great summer. Great fall. Great winter. Gas and beers, Chuck and Knox. Yeah, 2016. So 2016 is back. And I like it. Some trends, it's like, this makes no sense. This one is one of them, but I love 2016. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is about what it is, man. This is really deep shit here, Hank. Well, no, but it is a trending thing. Say that last thing again.

2:13:17I don't know about what it is what it is. I don't know what it was or what was in the air in 2016, but it was a special year. I agree with that. I'm happy it's being, you know. Back when shit was cool. Yeah, it's just for, I don't understand why, again, people are talking about it a lot. They're probably trying to get the AI. But they could have been like that in 2015. In 2025, no one was like, oh, my God, 2015 was 10 years ago. Same with 2024 and 2023. Something about 2016. Do you think maybe it's like the AI robots are trying to get facial recognition? But that's the thing. Yeah, I know. I saw someone say that.

2:13:56But what about all the posts you made in 2016? Exactly. They're like, oh, people post parties like, yeah, no cell phones on site. It's like, yeah. No, that was still like people had cell phones. Oh, yeah. Very much. Oh, yeah, very much. Oh, yeah. I'm more bummed in the fact that I don't think in my head 2016 was 10 years ago. No, no. I think of it in my head as like three years ago. Yeah. It's like the stat that I threw out that still blows my mind that I've been a dad for longer than I wasn't a dad on this podcast. That's weird. Right. Anything that involves the timeline of this podcast existing, I don't think is that long.

2:14:32Right. Maybe that's a testament to us in keeping things fresh in the marriage of the podcast. We don't... When time is going so fast, we don't even notice it. Right. It doesn't feel like 10 years. I never got the 10-year itch. I did enjoy going back through the 2016 photos that I have in my phone of the podcast in 2016 and seeing all the weird shit that we got into that first year. And no gray hair. Yeah. Stella and Leroy. No gray hair either. No beard. Were you in college, Max? Oh, yeah. Oh, jeez. Zach, were you in high school? I was playing baseball for Hofstra that year. Zach, what grade were you in?

2:15:1112th grade. Okay, you were a senior. I was 22. When I think of a 22-year-old now, I think they're super young, but I was 22 when this podcast was incepted. Yeah. I refused to post any pictures from 2016. Skinny. So skinny. Skinny. What about the beard? I had a beard. Full beard? I had a full beard in eighth grade. You want me to go back through your Venmos from 2016 again, Max?

2:15:36Why aren't there so many tree emojis? What does that mean? A couple of de-comple trees. You were really big into skiing? Yeah. Was it cold? It looks like it was probably cold in Philly. There's no skiing, Venmos. All right, PFT, you're who's back of the week. Speaking of skiing, my who's back of the week is crotches and ski jumping. Oh. There's a major scandal going on right now in the world of Olympic and World Championship ski jumping. Okay. So Norway is traditionally the best team in the world at ski jumping. Obviously. Yeah, that makes sense. They've got a shitload of gold medals. I thought Japan was really good, too.

2:16:13I think they might be good, but Norway is like they are the Yukon women's basketball of ski jumping. This just, I want you to keep going. I just totally forgot that we're like two weeks away from the Olympics. Oh, yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, we're super close. Yeah. So there are three officials from Norway's men's ski jumping team that have been suspended for 18 months. And they were also fined by the Ethics Committee for manipulating competition suits at the Nordic Ski World Championships that they had in Trondheim. Okay. So their head coach, Magnus Brevik, their assistant coach, Thomas Lobin, and their suit technician, Adrian Lievilton, have all been sanctioned based on an investigation into some crotch alterations that they made at the men's large hill event in March 2025.

2:17:03So there's very strict regimen. It's like a NASCAR motor. Yeah, yeah. Everything that goes into a car. There's certain limitations on what you can put on these suits. and they apparently took out some of the stitches and made modifications to make the crotches bigger on these ski jumping suits which apparently assisted them in getting a couple extra meters or inches or whatever the fuck it was i love this so they they uh they didn't find anything that was illegal when they did the initial check okay my guess is they probably don't get too into it on the crotches yeah at that point but then after the race they they found the materials in the seams that had been changed and apparently there's also a video that shows somebody on the team making alterations before they got them right in so i i would think the other way that if you made the crotch smaller that would be more aerodynamic but if apparently you have a bigger crotch it is i don't know if that's gravity or weight when you're going down the hill huh um but if you're if your dick appears bigger as you're going down the hill it can actually help you in ski jumping Well, are they ski jumping?

2:18:10Is it just straight distance or are they voting on it too? I think this is just straight distance. Okay. It's a hundred percent. I don't, I think you have to land it cleanly. Got it. But I think it's, I don't, I don't really know, but I just love any of these type of weird stories that come up. So now at the Olympics, they're going to have to have a crotch guy. Yeah. They're going to have to have a dude that's like lifting up the grundle, like breaking out the protractor and making sure everything is above board. They got to. Yeah. They got to do it for the women to... Whoa, Max. All right, Max just found a woman who is very attractive, possibly AI in a ski suit.

2:18:46Oh, definitely AI. She's got fucking bombs. You remember Jake Browning's girlfriend? This is our just getting horny part of the show. Okay, my who's back is perspective. Perspective. Yeah. Because Ed Cooley in Georgetown. He really made me think. Yeah, Georgetown... It has not gone well for Ed Cooley at Georgetown. He's going there to revive a program. They're 1-6 in conference play. They're 9-9 overall. And he said after the game, there's a lot worse happening right now than Georgetown losing a basketball game. You know what we are. We're blessed. We're blessed to be 9-9. We're blessed to be 1-6 in the league.

2:19:25It could be a lot worse. I can't imagine Georgetown fans are pumped about this one. It's got to be. You can't be happy that the guy who came. who came, Providence has just, Providence has not won on the court, but they're winning the breakup otherwise. A hundred percent. Yeah. Is Ed Cooley wrong? There's a lot going on in the world. Things could be worse. I actually don't think that they could. I don't think that, I think that Georgetown basketball being where they're at is actually the worst thing in the world right now. Well, it's, if you are making, if you're a Georgetown fan, if you're Ed Cooley and you're saying that the world is in a bad spot right now, and then you add in the fact that you're 1-6 in conference, you are actually in the worst spot in the world.

2:20:08Yeah. The world could be a little bit better. You personally. Like, be the change that you want to see in the world. Maybe have Georgetown be 500 in conference play. We do this as a joke when our teams lose. He did this fully real, this is going to work. He should have just gone out there and been like, okay, so we're going to talk about the Bills-Ravens Monday night football game. Yeah. he's one step away of just bringing homeless pets to the press conference and being like you see this little guy someone needs to adopt him then I will answer a question about you know starting one and six in the conference in the arms of an angel a one eyed cat just sitting stroking a one eyed cat as he gives another losing press conference he's like I appreciate all your guys questions but I will not be answering any of them until one of you takes this cat home today what about the homeless epidemic in Washington D.C.

2:20:57in our nation's capital Have we thought about addressing that before we start sending reporters to sporting events? Why do we even have media? There's so many other things that they could be looking into. It's a good point. It's a really good point. Okay, Zach, finish us off. My who's back is going to be Andy Edwards absolutely making a splash last night. Yeah. Did you guys see this? Yeah. Dropping a 55 piece. Yeah. I mean, 26 in the fourth? They did lose. But I mean, you guys seen the highlights from the game? I saw some highlights of the game. I did have a question about this because Andy Edwards is awesome.

2:21:27At what point is Anthony Edwards, can we just say he's the face of the league and not? Because he just keeps getting dubbed the future face of this league. He's got to win. He's got to win? Yeah. Okay. He is the future face of this league. What about MVP? MVP, I guess. You could be a face of the league with MVP. But you've got to win in the next few years. Like, is Josh Allen, has he been the face of the NFL? No. Future face of this league? No. Scotty Barnes? Yeah. I mean, it was two future faces of this league. It was Victor Wembe-Nanema and Ant going back-to-back. Wembe had, what, 39? 39-9? Yeah.

2:22:04It's just a future face of this league off. A couple of those mid-range shots are just absolutely in guys' eyes. Yeah. I think Jokic is the upper arms of this league. Yeah. Who's got the legs? Who's got the legs? The legs of the NBA? Maybe Paolo? He's got good footwork. Luka's got a pretty fat ass. Apollo's having a bad year Bad year Yeah Future face of the slicks This kid can't stop saying it, Max Future face Scotty Barnes Future face of the slick All-star caliber player He's got the hairline of the league We're going to get into NBA soon enough We'll probably do After the Super Bowl We'll probably have Varsila on For a full breakdown A preview, yeah Yeah, a preview of how the NBA is going to go This season is going to go Okay, good show, boys Let's do numbers 100 Let's go 7 for the Patriots Number 7 Super Bowl Let's go 2 I thought you were going to say 99 No Let's go 36 Hey I forgot I won 18 37 10 66 8 Colton what was yours?

2:23:15Colton What was yours? 10 Colton have you ever gotten this? Have you ever gotten this? Not yet I'm close 92 92. Love you guys.

2:23:58Thank you.

2:24:25Thank you.

2:24:54Thank you.