‘Two for the Money’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Cousin Sal

11:26Cousin Sal:We've been selling our Ringer 107 picks and people are pissed.

11:30Bill Simmons:Craig, so this is ahead of your time, this whole world. Yeah. The 1-900 world. Do you believe that this is what we did in the 90s is call random strangers for gambling advice?

11:40Cousin Sal:Of course. I mean, it's still going on today a little bit, right? I mean, you got to pay for Warren Sharpe's website. You pay like however hundreds of dollars it is a year. These guys are the original Substack. And you get your picks.

11:49Bill Simmons:Yeah, it's still going on today. Did the sports advisors create Substack? Interesting. Well, five reasons why I would defend this movie. It's a movie about sports gambling, something that we've really enjoyed for the last 35 years for me. it's a mentor fast riser movie CR shades of wall street shades of devil's advocate what are some other ones like this where it's like and it's always two really good parts I mean training day I mean like you training day there's lots of anytime you bring like a little lamb and he has to hang out with a wolf all day you know and then it's like the teacher becomes the master becomes the student or vice versa yeah

12:26Cousin Sal:oh yeah I'm sorry I was getting a lot of Donnie Brasco in there because it was right there with Giorgino right yeah like you know It's also, I was very struck this time by, this is a weird comparison, it reminds me a little bit of Midnight Cowboy because it is an outsider coming into New York City who gets taken under his wing by a real New York character who's really embedded in the city and he shows him the ways of the city and he basically turns him into a projection of what he wants him to be. So, I have those two.

13:01Bill Simmons:Ed McConaughey is just a great movie hang for movies like this. I'm going to talk about him in a second. The Sports Advisors, it just brought me back. We used to, Jeff will still text me, the Stu Finer, if it seems like it wins every week, if I win every week, it's because I do! Like, we used to just love that guy. And then Pacino, the actual, like, the TV show and the info, like it's kind of dead on.

13:33Cousin Sal:Yeah.

13:33Bill Simmons:They did a great job with the actual show that Walter whatever hosts and he's like here he is. Walter Averis. What was the psych system? The psych system. Go to him. Let's go to this guy and these guys would just come in hot. They've got the like kind of mafioso guy who's just like I'll clip you nuts if you don't do this. See Sal doesn't want to admit something. Young Sal in college. Go ahead. He's like someday I'm going to be on one of these shows. I know you did. I know you and Harry talked about it.

13:56Cousin Sal:Why not? They were our celebrities. What was your gimmick

13:59Bill Simmons:going to be?

14:00Cousin Sal:I probably would have come out with a kilt. Yeah. I don't know what I would have done. Rowdy, rowdy, Sal. When you brought it up, like, it's like, we learned, oh, I hope I don't screw this up for anyone. We learned there's no Santa Claus, like, around six or seven, right? Yeah. We learned wrestling's not real, around 11, 12. Yeah. Before that? Or 45. Yeah. 45. And then, like, it seems like every five years, and then five years after that, we learned these guys don't know shit because you can't unless, like, they don't even pretend to have inside information. That would have made the movie so much better if anybody had any sort of lean on anything.

14:36Cousin Sal:Brandon uses the force. He's like, I know, Maul, and I just know that these guys are going to lose. Why doesn't he read any stats on air? Why isn't he like, look, the defensive line's not going to hold up? I don't want to get too far ahead of it. But the antagonistic relationship towards analytics of this movie is one of my favorite things about it.

14:55Bill Simmons:This is when I always joke about the sports movie consulting thing. I would have had a lot of notes. Oh, yeah. It's like, so Brandon's like, just, does he have ESP? What am I supposed to think of him as a character? Doesn't seem like he really watches football. No. He just knows the teams, the matchups. Because he played.

15:12Cousin Sal:And we know if you played, Pete Rose should have been great at picking games. It was terrible. Yeah. But no, this guy who busts his knee out in a fictitious bowl game, he knows. And better than that, Pacino falls for it. Pacino's been doing this for 30 years, but you got the goods, kid.

15:28Bill Simmons:Well, I mean, he was going like nine and two every week or whatever. Yeah.

15:33Cousin Sal:Right.

15:33Bill Simmons:Yes. My favorite when he's showing how much football he knows, when he's telling the guy behind the counter in Vegas, and he's like, he's like, Gruden coach these guys. He knows Tim Brown loves the ball over his left shoulder. So he's going to put a corner on him and force him. I'm like, what? Tim Brown, he likes catching the ball one way. What receiver? What receiver in NFL history is like, you got to throw, I got to catch it like this. He promised you threw it to my other shoulder. I can't catch it like this. It's got to be turned this way.

16:02Cousin Sal:And really, I don't want to put a complete pin in this, but if anybody actually had inside information, if anybody actually had a gift, they wouldn't tell a soul. You would bet the games yourself. You don't want any stranger knowing this for$25,$50. The money gets out of whack. We'll talk about it in a second. But you wouldn't tell anybody.

16:23Bill Simmons:Well, I think these guys also would have used that 100 down to 50 down to 25. That's how all these— That's what Riley's piece was about way back when, that these guys, they're just trying to narrow it down to that final 10.

16:35Cousin Sal:Yeah, they're trying to figure it out.

16:37Bill Simmons:And the rest are going to fall by the wayside, but that final 10 will give them a bunch of money. All right, McConaughey. We're going to talk about a lot of the gambling with this movie later. McConaughey's in a weird part of his career here from 2003 to 2008. He's in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Sahara, Two for the Money, failure to launch, we are Marshall, and fool's gold. So he had like this initial run when he first kind of burst on the scene after Dazed and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and all that. But like when he first kind of like... Time to Kill was the breakout. Time to Kill, Lone Star, Amistad, Contact.

17:10Like he's working with big directors. He's a guy. He's an A-plus lister possibly. He is minted. Yes. And then he just kind of... I mean, Hollywood or him loses sort of the hold on the tail of what he is and what he should be doing.

17:24Bill Simmons:You just get replaced by Colin Farrell or whoever the next young, handsome guy. And it's like, honestly, some of these movies that he did that he's probably like, that was a dark period for me or that was a fallow period for me. In retrospect, wind up being totally fine, cable, rewatchable kind of movies. But this is a good example of that. It's like Two for the Money is a movie where he probably is like, yeah, that wasn't exactly Dallas Buyers Club. But it's pretty enjoyable. And he goes toe-to-toe with one of the great actors in movie history. Yeah, he'd hit a point. So that first year where we had Kimmel's show, we're not getting McConaughey in 02 or 03 on Kimmel's show.

18:04Bill Simmons:I think he's probably too famous.

18:06Cousin Sal:Right. Right? Plus, we were doing a bit called The Shirtless McConaughey. We'd go like into the wild and like, The Shirtless McConaughey was spotted off the coast of the Sahara.

18:15Bill Simmons:But by 05, 06, McConaughey's coming on Kimmel's show. Like this is the, I'd love to come on. That sounds great. And then it completely flips for him all of a sudden by the Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective, Wolf of Wall Street. When we were doing Grantland, it was like we were in the throes of it. The McConaughey's. A plus Lister. Magic Mike, True Detective, Dallas Buyers Club sets him up. Yeah, so he figured out. I wrote this in 2005. I don't remember writing it, but this is what I wrote. Because it felt like the moment had passed for him. Like it was like, I don't know, he's like Jameis Winston now or something.

18:48Bill Simmons:We're like, oh man, I like that guy. Why didn't it work out for him? I wrote, why do I root for him? in every movie is that the whole Wooderson, Dazed and Confused thing. Wasn't he superb in A Town Killer? Am I crazy? Doesn't it feel like his career should have been better? He's the Jimmy Jackson of Hollywood. Jimmy Jackson was an NBA player 30 years ago. There's no real reason why his career should have turned out better, but it didn't. And now he's stuck making chick flicks in B-minus movies and wondering where the wheels come off. Maybe his biggest problem is his likable presence and a solid actor to boot, but he's not a great actor.

19:18Bill Simmons:He always plays himself. You can't really make fun of him either. So what's left? So what turned, CR? Told you. How did he become a Kade? I think that he basically had to like, not to use a gambling term, but he had to hit rock bottom. He had to be like, I don't really want to make these kinds of movies. I don't want to tell these kinds of stories. And then he got incredibly lucky. I mean, I think Magic Mike to me is like a really turning point movie because it's also a choice for him to be the third or fourth person in a film. Like he's briefly in that film comparatively. But he's like, the material's good.

19:49The director's good. I think people will like me in it. And that's sort of where I think things start to be true. That unlocked it for him. Yeah.

19:55Bill Simmons:What do you think, Sal?

19:56Cousin Sal:I think if you threw this movie at him today or 10 years ago or 20, he would still do it. When I interviewed him, he was close to this storyline. Like I asked him, naturally I asked him, well, what did you do and how did you prepare for this? And he's like, I was in the boiler room with all these characters and I learned. But more than that, my brother was a tout. He had a tout service. He was 27-0 famously over four weeks, and then everybody hated him as soon as he lost. So it was a weird thing. But then he gets into a whole thing about, he's like, you know, when you're betting these things, sometimes you know.

20:29Cousin Sal:Sometimes you just know if it's a winner. I'm like, oh, boy. He's like, because of the intangibles, like East Coast flying to West Coast, or Brett Favre playing on a Monday after his father passes, or, you know, if you just had a kid, you're going to play. Sounds like he's eligible for ring of 107.

20:48Cousin Sal:He was drinking the Capra Kool-Aid, I think. So I think he would have accepted this at any time period you just mentioned.

20:55Bill Simmons:I'll say this. I think he's awesome in this movie. I think this is like as fun of as a McConaughey movie performance as exists. We have a category that we don't often use, which is basically, is this movie perfect for what it is? Yeah. I think that you can make an argument this is. it's basically like a three-hander a two and a half hander yeah that doesn't get outside of its zone it doesn't try to be about way more than it's not it's actually fairly serious for passages but it's a ton of fun and often what happens when people go up against Pacino is they have to bend the knee and they have to be like man this guy's eating all the scenery I just am like a background player like that would be like Chris O'Donnell and center woman yeah something like that McConaughey is like I have such a different pitch than this guy that we can both be going at 10 at the same time and it's not too much so Pacino's got all the New York energy and McConaughey's got all this like Texas swagger and it actually locks together really well because like the movie just asks so little of you in that way yeah it's so Kiana's in this same spot with Devil's Advocate Kiana who easily could have been in this movie playing the guy he played in Hardball in this movie right and I don't think it's as good.

22:11Bill Simmons:Cruise, this could have been an early 90s Cruise part. There's no question. Actually, it would have been pretty good. Yeah. But McConaughey is perfect. Yeah, this is another good one.

22:22Cousin Sal:Vince Vaughn, but not handsome enough at that point.

22:26Bill Simmons:I think it was the last couple years of him as leading man. Maybe. This is right when he does the breakup. It would have been great on this. I think Pitt could have done it at various points in his career, but it's like you need handsome, charming, charismatic. I have to believe you played football in college. Right. I have to believe all women are possible for you during the movie. And I got to be rooting for you. Pacino. How many rewatchables do you think this is for Pacino? How many movies have you done? Is this double digits?

22:54Cousin Sal:Yeah, I was going to say 12.

22:56Bill Simmons:14. Wow. It's number two. He moved out of a dead heat with De Niro. No way. Yeah. Do we have a lot of Pacino left, you think? I think we, well, we have Brasco and Scarface is left. Yeah. Dog Day is left. Uh-huh. I think we have like five left.

23:14Cousin Sal:So, yeah, Pacino is two all-time now for us. Cruz has 17, Pacino at 14, De Niro at 13. It's Denzel at 11? Denzel is at 12. Denzel's at 12. So that's just alone at 11.

23:23Bill Simmons:Collinsworth, 500? Oh, no, that's all. I don't think we can get Seagal into double figures. I looked. I tried to figure it out, and I just, I looked at every which way. we'd really have to have to bend a little bit. Pacino, this is like kind of the tail end of when he could do this in a movie, CR. Yes. He's still plausibly in his 60s in this movie. There's pieces of heat. There's pieces of scent of a woman. There's pieces of devil's advocate. He can still turn the fastball on. Like, yeah. It's just like, wind me up and go. Yeah. And I'm not even sure who else could have played Walter Abrams. it's like kind of perfect using a lot of Pacino pieces I wanted to talk to you a little bit about this because there's a much different version of this movie that's like much more serious and it's about addiction and it's also about sexual anxiety because like part of this movie is Walter's trying to basically like have sex with other women through Brandon right like he's like setting him up with his wife he's getting him hookers he's always talking about how you're me 30 years ago Brandon my cock no longer works I just want to sit in a chair and watch you have sex with my wife why are you doing this as Collinsworth I don't know oh Mike

24:40Cousin Sal:I cocked those at work I'll put Collinsworth I don't know why I couldn't do the Pacino I couldn't make my voice raspy enough

24:47Bill Simmons:do Pacino

24:49Cousin Sal:not after that I want to let the Collinsworth breathe a little

24:54Bill Simmons:so he has some classic Pacino lines in here modesty is not a virtue might be a vice. Might be a vice. You're selling certainty in an uncertain world. John Anthony's living large. He's got a direct line to God. Your clients are jumping ship, you lactose intolerant fuck. Yeah, that was the pivot. And then the best part of a drug is in the high. It's the moment right before you take it. Five great Pacino wisdoms. Give us your Pacino. I know CR's relationship with Pacino. What about you, Sal?

25:28Cousin Sal:I think he makes just, everything better. I think this is probably one of the last that he could have like a seven-year-old daughter. You could do that thing, right? In real life, I think he has like a five-year-old daughter. But to me, it's like, you talk about like being cool on screen. Don Draper, the smoking, the drinking, De Niro smoking. This is going to sound stupid, but I think it's cool when he fumbles for his heart pills. I was like, I want to be like that. I want to be the same thing. you grab and you got your, can you get, you snap it and you go and it's right back in and you're good as new in like 10 seconds.

26:05Bill Simmons:It's like, I just want to stay alive for six more months to see Brandon fuck my wife. Oh,

26:11Cousin Sal:I thought for the AFC championship where you can get my three game parlay. On the eve of Super 40.

26:18Bill Simmons:Super XXXX. Yeah, this is the tail end for Pacino here because it starts, he starts getting a little too old. Ebert in his review was talking about how it was a little bit of a Pacino renaissance here in the early 2000s coming off. He directed something. I can feel Raj in the room with us right now. Yeah, Raj was in this movie. He gave him a three and a half out of four.

26:40Cousin Sal:He gave him a good one. Yeah.

26:41Bill Simmons:Raj was three and a half stars. He wrote, you could see Al Pacino doing something he's done a lot lately, having a terrific time being an actor. George C. Scott used to say when a good actor was in the right role, you could sense the joy of performance. Pacino has moments here when he doesn't quite click his heels. It means that positively. And he says, McConaughey and Russo are wonderful too. Yeah. Three and a half stars from Raj. Unfortunately, the general public didn't agree. $35 million budget made$30.5 million. And when I wrote my review for page two, which I didn't remember writing, I was complimenting it, but I didn't want to be blurb for the poster.

27:20Bill Simmons:So I just wrote a lot of words that were basically unblurbable. I was basically like, I knew I liked it, but I think its destiny was cable I don't think it was quite a movie theater movie I think it was at some point this should just be on TNT or Cinemax for five straight years which is what happened yeah this is this is a kind of originalist movie for us where it's like if you are walking by a television and Brandon Lang is getting the pretty woman montage to turn into John Anthony you're like alright I gotta stick around I gotta watch him go to Wingfoot

27:53Cousin Sal:you know like let's go I love that he has to have a makeover like, well, how do we get this schlub? Give him a haircut. Like they took Jack Black off a skid row or something. It's like, all right, he's pretty good looking. You're fine.

28:06Bill Simmons:Yeah, so what they do, they cut, he had like some girth in the back. A little bit, yeah.

28:12Cousin Sal:Slicked the hair back. Got him a couple of new suits. Test drove a car, which we don't know what happened to. I don't know.

28:18Bill Simmons:Yeah, the really nice Mercedes in New York City that nobody ever needs. Taught him a little bit about wine. That's it. All right. Craig any Pacino thoughts before we move on because we've done I don't know how many you've produced where we've done Pacino but probably a lot of them the number two rewatchable actor of all time right now

28:35Cousin Sal:well it's funny because it's like the first experience people my age had with Pacino was like after he kind of jumped the scent of a woman shark so it's actually weirder to go back and watch Pacino when he was like 32 and really subtle and didn't have like the crazy raspy voice to everyone now in my generation he's like everyone's crazy uncle as an actor yeah sure wild eyed yeah

28:53Bill Simmons:Which I think he embraced and was like, not only am I good with this, I'll play this part for however many times you're just going to give me a good check. Yeah. I mean, it's really strange to go back to the 70s stuff and the early 80s stuff and see him doing all this nuanced, kind of subtle acting, especially as Michael. And then to be like, but what you'll be known for

29:13Cousin Sal:is not just yelling. That's like what you're going to do. When did he make the turn? Son of a Woman. Son of a Woman? I think he got that. Son of a Woman in the Heat. Yeah, that was 2000. No, what year? Early 90s. Yeah, early 90s.

29:26Bill Simmons:Okay, all right. It's funny because you watch Godfather 2, which I watch all the time. But the scene with the... I'm blanking on the old character. The guy that Lee Strasford plays. Hyman Roth. Yeah, Hyman Roth, yeah. Hyman Roth does that long story about Mo Green. That man was named Mo Green. And he does that whole thing and Pacino's just kind of watching him and playing off him and just kind of completely still and you just 2005 Pacino I don't know how he plays that when they attack Tahoe and he starts yelling and he's like my house where my children live and sleep you know like that's like that was like the only sneak preview of what we were going to get in the 90s yeah like this Pacino in 05 doing the Fredo can only see can only be here I need to know a half hour ahead of time when he visits my mother and all this stuff that would have been Pacino dialing it up.

30:24Bill Simmons:Right.

30:25Cousin Sal:Wait, I could do this for two and a half hours? Yeah. This one line? All right. Sign me up. You broke my heart, Fredo!

30:34Bill Simmons:It's time to get into our favorite segment, the most rewatchable scene, which is today brought to you by PayPal. From now through December 8th, you can get 20 % cash back when you pay in four with PayPal. No fees, no interest. Save the offer in the app now. Most rewatchable scene. Look, you give me McConaughey playing quarterback in college with crazy long hair extensions. We should have, if we had a hair extension purse, that would have been a good look for you for this part. Just for the beginning of the part. A long, I don't even know where you find those. It's part of the helmet, actually.

31:09Cousin Sal:It's actually. Who do you think that was supposed to, like, what would that?

31:13Bill Simmons:See, like Jake Plummer in Arizona State?

31:14Cousin Sal:Yeah, I was wondering if it was Jake the Snake. Todd Marinovich, maybe. Yeah. He was a little hippie-ish, right?

31:19Bill Simmons:I did, this isn't, doesn't fit for nitpicks or unanswerable, but it's something I've noticed in football movies. They love having the court, the play breakdown and the quarterback just, he's got to basically scramble for 30 yards. And at some point he's running toward the middle about to get tackled and does this crazy spin move that always works. Has it ever worked at midlife ever? Usually the guy gets concussed. Like if Jake May did that, I would have a heart attack. But in the sports movies, they do the twirl around. then they go for the goal line they get hit by three people at the same time yes

31:52Cousin Sal:they do the Sage Rosenfels the helicopter yeah yeah but usually they don't have like a Joe Theismann-esque knee injury at the end of it

31:59Bill Simmons:I was wondering like is this Jackson Dart's problem is he loves sports movies and he's like every time I watch a sports movie this works I just gotta take on five guys at once what would be the worst thing

32:11Cousin Sal:yeah the heroes scramble you know it's not sexy to watch if the receiver makes the catch he's the hero the quarterback's gotta run It wouldn't be cool if he just did a bunch of checkdowns until he got into field range. Or diving for the pylon with no one else around.

32:23Bill Simmons:I mean, the play that you would do now is the Cam Ward play where you scramble out of bounds. You're going at the last minute, right as you're falling out of bounds, getting hit. You chuck it into the middle of the field, and the guy catches it. That would be the realistic play now.

32:38Cousin Sal:Probably just be a tush push or some bullshit. Well, Brandon Lang was just born too early. You just needed a much more wide-open offensive system. The tush push would be hilarious for a sportsman. in slow motion. Four guys on the line moving a second half early. Sierra's like, listen, man,

32:52Bill Simmons:you told me no tush push jokes. I told you I'd do it with Sal. You're right. Not talking about the fucking tush push. You're going to win a division. It's fine. I also love Walter showing a clip of the sports. I love every scene with the sports advisor show. Yes. Yeah. Just I can't get enough of it. I wish there was one. So your first thing is the football preamble. Next one I have is Pacino's first scene with the hard sell to Brandon followed by the Brandon figures out his character and keeps working on the tape. That whole scene's, I love it. Yes. Working on his John Anthony voice. Pumping iron right before I pod.

33:29Cousin Sal:This is Chris Ryan. I'm here on the Rewatchables, brother. Welcome to the watch. The best is because... Vince Gilligan's nuanced portrait of a post-apocalyptic America. Let's go. they gotta work backwards right to get him shirtless right so what do we do there's no real training montage but maybe if he has to come to life moment meanwhile the truth is these idiots in the boiler room there's not a sit-up between them no like they don't look like

33:59Bill Simmons:me it's ridiculous he's shirtless how many times at least three in this movie i think that was yeah multiple times yeah yeah it's like i'll do it but i gotta be sure right uh pacino's gambling rehab speech takes them to rehab and gives them the us lemons. We fuck shit up all the time on purpose because we constantly need to remind ourselves we're alive. Gambling's not your problem. It's this fucked up need to feel something and convince yourself you exist. Do you guys actually, do you ever feel that close to it? That primal feel? I don't gamble on sports, so I was just curious. But he made it like it was losing

34:33Cousin Sal:is what is great.

34:34Bill Simmons:But that's what I'm asking. Sal and I are on the opposite end. We don't like losing. I like the winning part.

34:41Cousin Sal:I do too. You guys are just the best, most well-adjusted gamblers. Yeah, we like when we win the best. We want to introduce this concept to a whole new audience.

34:50Bill Simmons:We're trying to do it through Ringer 107 where all of us are 28 and 30 or whatever our records are.

34:56Cousin Sal:That was mine too. How is it? Do I jump in if it's mine? I'm going to go through all of them

35:01Bill Simmons:and then if I forgot one, tell me. The TV show scene where we've... What was the psych system? I'll tell you. Do you want to know? Yeah, what is it? Stats, records, rankings, whether if the goalpost is tilted just a little bit, the psych system uses 42 proven indexes and to eliminate the guesswork in sports wagering.

35:22Cousin Sal:I'd use that right now. All the time. That sounds amazing. It's just stats. It's just like, it's not like it's like some hidden algorithm. Do you think house practices the psych system? I think so. Yeah, I could see it. He has, people have their models, right? Yeah. So this is like Raheem's model. Raheem's model, the psych system.

35:40Bill Simmons:Oh, yeah. So Raheem should call it the Raheem system. Sure. Instead of him talking about a model, he should be like, I checked out the Raheem system. I looked at the stats and records in the Raheem. Yeah. I have a minus six in the Raheem system. So we're doing something wrong with Ringer Gambling. We need more branding and more big, giant things. I think you guys need more characters. You guys all have to adopt a character. Well, I don't know if you've seen Raheem. I think he qualifies. I'd like to think J.J. qualifies.

36:09Cousin Sal:A little less character.

36:10Bill Simmons:Dabundo, we're trying to pull the character out. Tony Dollars. Yeah, Tony Dollars has been doing great.

36:16Cousin Sal:But when you talk about models, no one ever holds you to it. It's the same thing. It's a psych system. Because it's proprietary. You and I should say we have a model. I went to a wedding. I did this. I saw someone who goes on TV often, talks about how he or she has a model. And I was like, let's see what's going on. She said, oh, no, I could never show you. I could tell there was no model. It's like a cooking recipe. It's fine.

36:38Bill Simmons:I have Symbotics for before the season. That was the only model I created. My whole system for picking teams for futures. Yeah. Well, it was a joke. I named it Symbotics, but I kind of stuck with certain things. But you have your little systems, right? I do. You and Lombardi used to have blue chips, right? Blue chip, red chip. Yeah, I have a whole ranking system I do. I have the playoff manifesto. Yeah. But nothing as good as the psych system. How often do you stick to the manifesto? I try for playoffs. I try to stick. I mean, it's funny. I've been... By then we have no money. I've been violating it in real life.

37:11Bill Simmons:How did we not bet against J.J. McCarthy and Lambeau? How was that one of my five picks? Well, we did the next best thing.

37:18Cousin Sal:We bet on him. We did not.

37:21Bill Simmons:I put a little on the money line, yeah. Stupid. I needed the psych system. It didn't exist. We also have that Chuck Adler guy who's coming in hot. He's just having an aneurysm. He's from, obviously, the Philadelphia area. Is he? No, I'm just guessing. It wouldn't surprise me if he was Tri-State area. Yeah. Maybe. He might have been in task. I'm going to give him preemptively the Ruffalo, Hannah Rubin, and Partridge overacting word. That guy there, like, hey, Chuck Adler, coming hot. CR, why wasn't this McConaughey's first Oscar? His scene where the sports advisors, it comes to him and he goes, Every key B knows the secret.

38:01Bill Simmons:the key to victory is anticipation. The ability to see the future and react to it. Yeah. And just the way he makes love to the camera. Well, because it's like, he's been going so over the top as John Anthony so far. And then he kind of has that little kernel of like, it's just you and me talking here, you know? Right. Yeah. Just the two of us. Let's make some bets together, brother. I was in. I thought that scene could have been five minutes longer. If you're turning on sports advisors, who do you find yourself most drawn to? Oh, psych system. Yeah, psych system. Yeah, psych system. completely that guy's got 42 variables I want to know what he's thinking who would you have drafted to Craig on the sports those four guys who would have been your guys

38:45Cousin Sal:you always got to be wary of the guy who's too attractive like when you look at McConaughey this guy's a snake oil salesman you got to go with the ugliest guy at the table that's always the move but McConaughey broke it down he didn't stick to the script he's like this is not like he's like i'm just i'm just gonna tell you how it is how it is and this is when the executive producer would blow up the show but pacino's like no no it's always the best part is when a guy's just like they've written me this speech i'm supposed to give you but i forget and pacino knows the camera's only on on brandon and he's talking to the director he's like let it go yeah this is gold but brandon's on a heater at this point yeah so it's my understanding this takes place over one football season right yes so he's gone he's hot for like five six weeks right?

39:29I think so. It's probably. And a little

39:31Bill Simmons:unrealistically hot. I mean, not to pick nits, but you're not going 13-0.

39:36Cousin Sal:10-0 and hit the Monday night parlay. Wow.

39:39Bill Simmons:I have to tell a quick Sal story. Sal, when I was at ESPN in Greatland, along with CR, Sal ended up on SportsCenter giving picks. Right. And you had your, what was it, your best bet? Yeah,

39:54Cousin Sal:Thursday night, I would go on, I would give four picks and, uh, You got what? You're going to say my record? I was like, no,

40:01Bill Simmons:but you had one where you, you hit every week for like 11 weeks or something. Yeah.

40:05Cousin Sal:I was 18. Oh, and two. Yeah. Wow.

40:09Bill Simmons:He, Sal hit a heater and it's on ESPN. Yeah. That's right. And Sal and I thought this was like the most important story in sports. We thought this was like the heats 27 game win streak and Sal's heater and nobody cared. And I'm sending angry emails to ESPN PR. I was like, you don't understand. Yeah. He's 18. Oh, and two. they're like whatever we don't care Yahoo scoop Yahoo wrote an article about it yeah Sal was Sal was deranged I was so mad who was the sports anchor you were usually doing it with it was Neil Everett okay it was great what was your system

40:40Cousin Sal:I love him he just got fire Sally Sykes system but no it was ridiculous and I'd have one parlet one teaser and like three straight bets but and I was so mad you're right like we were all mad that ESPN wasn't doing anything about this and I'm like Yahoo is scooping you your competitor is scooping you they didn't care The producer called me and he's like, look, we have to dip our toe in the water. If we keep making a big deal out of this gambling thing, we're going to lose the Monday night game. It was different times. Little did they know. Exactly.

41:10Bill Simmons:So I was wandering around the extended LA area just telling everybody he knew, I'm 18-0-2. It was like just a dream. You're doing this. They're like, what's your name? He's like 18-0-2. I had a couple doing my goal in my column was always to go 11-0. was always the, it was 11 playoff games. Can you hit 11-0? And I think I had, I think I was 8-0 heading into one of the conference weekends. And it was the only thing I cared about. I thought about it all day. I just wanted to do 11-0 once. Never happened. Now it's 13-0. It's like, I actually think that's genuinely impossible to pick 13 playoff games against the spread.

41:45Bill Simmons:But anyway, Brandon was there. Have you ever had a reason,

41:48Cousin Sal:like anything that you thought was the most important thing in the world and then nobody gives a shit? Yeah. There's no feeling like it. There really isn't. I can't even imagine. That was Liz doing the Country Strong rewatchables. I stand by it. That was a great episode. Do you think anybody could get this famous now? Is there too much gambling out there? How hot would somebody need to go where they actually became a sensation? I think it would have to be something that was more of a stunt. Like they're betting a million of their own dollars every game or something like that. Where it's like almost watching a guy on like who wants to be a millionaire or something.

42:22There are people who go viral on Instagram

42:24Cousin Sal:and it's like they kind of do gimmicks. It's like I'm betting the Angel Reese will miss her first shot every week and it works for like 10 weeks in a row. But do you think anybody could genuinely get on SportsCenter famous giving their picks every week and everyone's tuning in or is there just too much gambling content out there now for that to happen?

42:40Bill Simmons:So here's what I think has changed. I think the margins are basically gone. It's almost like in baseball when like two teams knew about on-base percentage and they were snapping up guys for years and years and nobody else knew. And it's like, oh, we'll get this guy. His on base is$380 and he'd go for like$2 million. I don't, everyone knows all the same edges now. They know all the, any sort of home splits or schedule stuff or think about how much time and energy we put in all this. The only real edge now is the futures. Yeah. Like the, in July and August, like trying to figure out. Oh, betting, betting.

43:19Bill Simmons:Yeah, division bets. Yeah. looking at like the Pats were a great example this year or like a new coach. But aren't you just throwing like money into a well and hoping your wish comes true then is like, yeah, you're not, you're not getting until five months later. I think you, I just think the odds are always like, we always talk about this. The odds are like perfect now. They weren't perfect in the 90s.

43:38Cousin Sal:They're very tight and the AI and everything. And that's a kick people off of sports betting sites because they see a pattern and it's just too hard. But like Billy Walters is a great example. He's one of like three people has made money sports gambling. in the last three decades. And he was on my show for a little bit. I was like, wow, he wants to be on the show and he was giving picks. And I was like, you got to look at the data here. And I was like, oh my God, no, you need an Al Pacino type giving these picks. You have to have, like, you do have to have the personality. Otherwise, it doesn't matter.

44:07Cousin Sal:It really doesn't.

44:08Bill Simmons:Oh, go ahead. The real way to do this, which just isn't fun, is to just zag against the general public. Like, we're taping this on a Monday. The obvious game this week was Saints-Falcons. we all had it in Ringer 107. It was like, Saints minus one and a half. Everyone loved the Saints. And Sal and I, we've known each other a long time. Anytime that happens, we're like, this isn't good. Because the general public doesn't win in gambling. So you know, if nobody's taking the Falcons, probably just take the Falcons. But nobody wants to do that.

44:38Cousin Sal:Right. They'll post it. FanDuel will even advertise it. Here's the top five bets of the week. X, X, X, X, check. You never want to have the top five bets. Right.

44:46Bill Simmons:Because the general public usually loses. It's also worth noting that what Moneyball, the book, is 0-2? Yeah. Right? Yeah. And then Sloan comes around. 0-9-10, yeah. Yeah. So this is right. This is still like really at the beginning of the idea of like you could have a psych system and you're one of like a minority of people who are looking at that stuff because people really were still. I think this is the way I prefer to consume stores. media is to read writing about it rather than a bunch of numbers but like people were like yeah you know what this guy's just got grit or momentum is swinging their way where i feel like you know the weather's changed and this is a dome team and all the stuff that like you would just kind of go off of your gut rather than like yeah like peyton manning outdoors he never wins right exactly that stuff would kind of fade away yeah i think now 60 is like oh yeah oh my god now if they they made the sequel to this and be like, I've hit 61 % of my bets.

45:50Bill Simmons:Like, whoa, that's really high. Great job. More rewatchable stuff. The arguing about everyone's dysfunctional childhood. Yes. Which includes Pacino saying, my father, five foot arms like this. He had a cock like a Hebrew national. I feel like that was Pacino. Yeah, he slipped that one in. Yeah. It's worth it. Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy's brother wrote this movie, but I think there was some improvisation. The Armand Asante scene. I just like when it's like this super rich guy with like this amazing, it's like the succession kind of like, here's our new character and they just had the greatest house.

46:29Right.

46:30Bill Simmons:John Anthony hitting a million dollar over thanks to an intern. I had that. Brandon goes into a gambling swoon. Nothing's ever three and three, four and four. It's always easy. He's either 11 and 0 or one and 11. And it starts after he's asked Walter to wet his beak a little bit. Right, right, right. Two more. You're going to have to rip it out of my talon. My personal pick, Pacino. What do you want to know?

46:56Cousin Sal:I'm gambling again!

46:59Bill Simmons:The funniest scene in the movie. And then the ultimate bad beat, Atlanta 24, New York 20.

47:06Cousin Sal:Yeah.

47:06Bill Simmons:The Hail Mary from the 30s somehow connecting, which seems like that was an actual USFL play and they lose and it seems like everything's big. Did you have anything else for most rewatchable?

47:16Cousin Sal:I just, I had that scene. To me, I could watch it ten times. It's such a great device infiltrating the Gambler's Anonymous meeting. Yeah. Just so good. And telling them they're all lemons. By the way, we should bring that word back. Lemons. Calling somebody a lemon. Yeah, a lemon. Yeah. Right. Lemon of a person. Lemon of a pick. And just talking about, it's not you. You're a lemon. You can't. They would get great lines in that. And just then handing them his card. Like, you suck as gamblers. It's not an addiction. you suck personally but if you want to lose more here's my car get my card yeah beautiful would you have i had the first the sports john anthony's first sports advisors broadcast with the psych system and then john anthony yeah that i am switching my pick i think that's right those

47:59Bill Simmons:two i mean this is why this movie is so rewatchable though it has these multiple awesome scenes in it all right that was today's edition the most rewatchable scene brought to you by paypal from now through december 8th you can get 20 cash back when you're paying for it paypal no fees no interest. Save the offer in the app now. Whether it's a must-have toy or a tiered cheese board, PayPal helps you make the most of your money this holiday. Expires 12, 8. See paypal.com promo terms subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com slash payinfor. This episode is brought to you by Boris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli?

48:34Bill Simmons:Well, Boris Head just did that. Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means planning your whole day around it. Presenting the Friars Turkey Breast only from Boar's Head, a backyard tradition now available behind the counter. Visit your local deli today, discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. PayPal, Inc. NMLS 910457. We're going to take a break, do the rest of the categories. This episode is brought to you by Subaru. For Subaru, the holiday season is a time to give back. That's why during the 2025 Subaru Share the Love event from November 20th to January 2nd, Subaru and its retailers will donate at least$300 to charities nationwide for every new car sold or leased.

49:23Bill Simmons:They've supported over 2 ,700 local causes, and by year's end, donations will reach$350 million. Learn more at Subaru.com slash share. Sal, what was the most 2005 thing about this movie for you?

49:40Cousin Sal:There's a lot. There's a lot. Nobu? No, Nobu's still popular. The fax machines. The fact that they allude to the internet. The internet's coming. You know, there's this kind of thing. What else do we want to do?

49:55Bill Simmons:Those sports advisor shows existing. Just those shows. It feels like those are dead now. Yeah, for sure. John Anthony, when he's first doing his first recordings, I think it's the one after pumping iron, he goes, he gets onto the phone and he says, it's a scud attack this weekend. I forgot about that. Desert Storm era joke. There's also a casual, this guy would never be president, Donald Trump joke about his hair.

50:24Cousin Sal:I wonder if that was a USFL dig. I wonder if he... Oh, I wonder, yeah. Yeah, he gave him trouble even getting rights to those. It's possible. I had the Trump thing. Yeah, and then just sports betting still being illegal in most states. Needing four TVs to watch four games. It's kind of the OG quad box. How about four TVs to watch one game? At one point, right? Just had the one game. When did NFL League Pass come into being? Late 90s.

50:52Bill Simmons:I had it like 2000, basically, I think.

50:55Cousin Sal:The headsets, the telemarketer headsets that are the size of specialized football helmets now.

51:01Bill Simmons:I have two extras. Paul Taguibu, commissioner back then, banned commercials from the movie for the first week at NFL games. They wouldn't let them advertise on NFL games.

51:12Cousin Sal:Oh, interesting.

51:13Bill Simmons:Now they'd be like freaking... Let's have McConaughey and Pacino in Jerry Jones' box. I need to wet my beak. Yeah. Right, right. This is my favorite though. Third iPad. Yeah. I don't have a third one this is it Pacino's telling Russo what he wants to do with John Anthony and he goes I'm gonna do this whole dot com thing around him right I think that's the last time anyone said dot com that was it in a movie it ended right there because at that point dot com's like pretty popular right here's one thing I looked it up a little bit and got somewhat of a better picture but I wanted to ask you guys because I feel like you probably what is John Anthony's or Brandon's job when he's working in the cubicle?

52:00Like the talk to text 900 number thing.

52:02Bill Simmons:It's some sort of 900 seemingly multimedia company in Vegas where you could do gambling or sex or all kinds of things. And he's trying to get people to call Jessica Simpson's like hotline. That sounded great, by the way.

52:16Cousin Sal:I would have called that. Is that? Because I have a lot of friends out of work. Is that still a thing? I would love to hook them up. Jessica Simpson trivia or whatever's going on. Hey, I took my job, so now I host the 900 number by Jessica Simpson.

52:30Bill Simmons:Yeah, would you tell people you had that job back then? I can't remember. I think if I was like, if I looked like Matthew McConaughey, I'd probably be like, yeah, I'm just doing a 900 number. It's going great. Yeah. All right. What's aged the best? Hold on. See, this new iPad I'm not using as well. So Al Pacino's character being based on Stu Feiner Right It's just gonna age great every year for the rest of my life And now Feiner's on the Barstool show Still kicking around Yeah Same stuff Wait is he still How's he doing? He's doing great 10 and 0 last week 10 and 0 But then 0 and 10 It was weird I have a bunch of woods Give me your best one Like I said before bringing a character into New York City for the first time Yeah It's always got like a little bit of like a Wizard of Oz thing I really think Pacino's line you shut your fucking toilet when I'm talking to her nobody I've never heard somebody describe another person's mouth as a toilet I really like that Walter's take on family dysfunction and winged foot is still really hard to play apparently winged foot yeah

53:37Cousin Sal:I'm gonna be gone all week Makane's pecs I think yeah pretty good look great Piven's pettiness yeah right that's never gonna really how's that move and just the pep talks of all for all. I also think that they nailed the Russo casting where it's like believable that she's with Walter, but believable that like...

53:58Bill Simmons:She's the right age where she can kind of go between both of them. Is she?

54:01Cousin Sal:That was the director's wife? Screenwriter's wife.

54:05Bill Simmons:Who was the director? DJ Caruso. Probably should have mentioned that at the time. Yeah, he did Eagle Eye and a bunch of other stuff. His movies definitely have a certain feel to them, which I think worked for this. I add for what's age the best. It's the struggling hairline Super Bowl between Pacino, McConaughey, and Piven. Wow. Just three guys that had a lot of issues over the years. Pacino has a very, very, very straight hairline. An unrealistically straight hairline. Yes. This is right when the wheels really came off for it. Piven playing basically Jerry Sykes as Ari from Entourage, but working for a 900 hotline.

54:43Cousin Sal:Yeah.

54:43Bill Simmons:I think he had just finished filming an Entourage season. And he's like, should I change these characters at all? Fuck it. No.

54:49Cousin Sal:He's just Ari. By the way, Ari Gold would have been a better name for... That's right. Anything gold, anything money, anything whatever, for a tout service guy.

54:57Bill Simmons:You know, that's Craig's favorite show.

54:58Cousin Sal:Is it? Anthourage? One of them. It's up there. Right? Good for you. Did you feel like this was Ari? Yeah, exactly the same. I wish he was in a movie like... I wish he just played Ari in a movie every year. Yeah. For like the whole run of the show. I think he would at this point. Yeah, bring him back. Yeah, I think that might be in play. But then you don't see his range.

55:14Bill Simmons:Yeah. CR this is one of my favorites can't believe you didn't mention it slicking back your hair as a movie identity change yes what's better yeah where it's like who's this guy coming out of the dressing room I'll never forget when that Miami Vice season 5 when Crockett got amnesia became a bad guy and they fucking went right back it's always either you're becoming a bad guy or you're becoming dangerous that should be our last episode before Netflix is when we're truly just like, what else have we got? I might, when we go to Netflix, I might just slick my hair back. I might just do it. I might do the McConaughey, grow it out in the back, do a little ponytail.

55:51Bill Simmons:That's where you got the Seagal. That's how you're going to get the double digits with him. I want to mention for what's age the best and nine other categories, that guy from, I think, Mystic River, Kevin Chapman. Oh, yeah. One of the great that guys who's now Kevin Chapman. You've seen him in a million stuff. Dickie Barrett's friend who he used to bring to Kimmel Show. Right, right, right, right. This is my friend Kevin. and he's an actor. And this guy was like, Massachusetts guy, his character in this movie is named Southie. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Just tremendous. They didn't even want to give him, like, call him Sully.

56:23Cousin Sal:They didn't address him.

56:24Bill Simmons:And then, I really like the parody portion of this, but I do, maybe this is a What's Age of Worse. I just think Piven should have been in front of a green screen doing this psych system. I can't believe they didn't do that. Yeah. Let's go to Jerry Sykes. He's in Las Vegas. Jerry, what's going on there? Or like Jerry Sykes is in his math laboratory where he's cooking up more models. Guys, I went to MIT. I have six of the best engineers. Big Kuna Burger where best use of food or drink ripped through these quickly. Probably the$1 ,000 bottle of wine. Yeah, I also just like, I think there's multiple Smith and Walensky references in this movie.

57:00Cousin Sal:I like Pacino cleaning up whatever dessert that was. It makes me think, what was that? Whatever that was, that looked great. Good for them. This is a wonderful creme brulee.

57:12Bill Simmons:I'm trying to redeem my Pacino after I started out as Collinsworth Oh Mike, this brain will lay Mike, this brain and leg Terrible It was an abortion, Michael

57:30Bill Simmons:What'd you have for Great Jack Gordo, Chris? You know, I wouldn't say that this is the most cinematically mind-blowing film I've ever seen but I did really like the introduction of Walter's character to Brandon is just his hand hanging out the window with a cigarette. And it's also foreshadowing of how Walter's always watching. We haven't really talked about the fact that midway through this movie just turns into kind of a thriller. Walter is puppeteering Brandon's whole life and every sexual interaction he's had, Walter is paid for and he's setting him up with his wife and all this stuff. But that's a great little character flair thing.

58:09Bill Simmons:Kid Cudi Pursuit of Happiness the word for best needle drop this movie has good music including Pusher Man from Curtis Mayfield I like that it's not unusual from Tom Jones but the winner the Monday Night Football theme in a movie just brings me so much joy and they really they really go for it it's like I don't know if they paid or ripped it but I loved hearing it it's awesome against my wife's

58:36Cousin Sal:better judgment we came out on our wedding night to the Fox pregame show. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Did you really? Did you really? I was mad when it ended. Yeah. I got away with it. Oh, that's amazing. We didn't even clear it. It was good.

58:49Bill Simmons:Did Jimmy go on a run when he was doing Fox? Didn't he go on a run

58:53Cousin Sal:with upset picks? Yeah, but it was... Everything was straight up then. You couldn't pick by the spread. You probably can't... They don't even do it now, really. But yeah, we were 4-0 three weeks in a row there. I like for cinematic, if I could jump back, when I feel like when he was making out with her on the steps and, you know, Pacino's watching, there's that shot. You could add any music to that. You could add Righteous Brothers, Third Eye Blind, doesn't matter. I thought that was nice.

59:20Bill Simmons:Chess Rockwell, Brock Lander is a word for best character name. Is it John Anthony? I think so. Yeah, okay. What do you have for a flex category, CR? I mean, I'm sorry to be predictable, but the Sean Penn, I brought my own pack, and excellence in on-screen smoking goes to Pacino. Yeah. Especially because he's smoking through multiple heart attacks. I was going to say, like, if we had had this category for all the Pacino movies, he would have won each time. It would have been like when Wayne Gretzky was just winning the Art Ross Memorial Trophy year after year. Amazing. Hall of Fame, first ballot smoker.

59:53Bill Simmons:I agree. Which is girlfriend award for week link of the film? I like Armand Asante as an actor, but it's a strange character to introduce, make into a huge threat, and then just kind of abandon. Yeah. So the whole Novian thing kind of like… He pees on him, and then we kind of never see him again. He's like, oh, no, he peed on him. Yeah, and he's like, I know where your family lives, and it's like, well, okay, so then what happens next? Are you always in hock to this guy?

1:00:24Cousin Sal:Right. Because he just lost him like$8 million, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was a weird way to wrap him up. Like, is he teaching him a lesson? Is he a gangster? Is he this? He's the bad guy, and then Walter becomes the bad guy like 10 minutes later. Right, exactly.

1:00:37Bill Simmons:Do you think it's a better ending if they win the big game at the end, he's in the airport, he's starting to walk away, and then he just gets shot in the head Uncut Jeff style.

1:00:48Cousin Sal:Definitely a better movie, yeah. It's just like, oh, he's dead. Or peed on from the top. And the guy pees on him after he shoots him. I had I had the seven-year-old daughter she sucked every line forced what was she doing trying to steal the scenes no I have to say Piven and really not him but the character I think I don't think they knew what to do with him they did it was just kind of lazy entourage thing he should have sabotaged them right isn't this isn't there a sabotage thing where he pours bleach in the that would have been a great a great like antagonist for the movie if he made Sykes a little bit more.

1:01:24Yeah, you needed that.

1:01:25Cousin Sal:He was kind of down the middle. Yes. His send-off was... I think the idea is that Walter runs hot and cold with people and that's so like... Right. Even the chauffeur in the beginning of the movie is like, I've only walked for him for two weeks. You know? Right. Everybody seems to come in and out of his orbit. But yeah.

1:01:39Bill Simmons:Yeah, but then you need the talented Mr. Ripley Marge scene where she's like, when Dickie, when he wants to be with you, it's like the sun shines on you. Yeah. And when he finds someone else,

1:01:49Cousin Sal:Right, right.

1:01:50Bill Simmons:the weather becomes cold. We didn't have that scene.

1:01:53Cousin Sal:Sykes should have started to take the opposite of Brandon's picks. That would have been the move. Walter says that at one point. You just make your picks and then we'll bet the opposite. That should have been Sykes' play.

1:02:04Bill Simmons:Can I tell you what I think happened? I think Piven had a week between Entourage and Entourage Season 2. They were like, we got Jeremy's red hot right now. We only have him on the set for four days. We got to figure out some reason for him to leave the movie with a half hour to go. That I grew through. He should have been a bigger part of this movie. My weak link, I just don't like the ending. With winning the big game, saving the business, basically. John Anthony wins his one last pick, but at the same time, we have this Rene Russo trying to save her marriage thing interspersed with the game, and I'm like, I just care about the game.

1:02:41There's a comeback going on right now.

1:02:43Bill Simmons:Tampa's coming back, or Kansas City, whoever it was. I just want to know what's happening here. And she's like... Then it's like back to another...

1:02:50Cousin Sal:did they try to do a rocky thing there where you're trying to listen for the results, the decision, but also you have to catch their embrace and everything, and you have to zigzag through that.

1:03:01Bill Simmons:It just didn't work. Yeah. What stage is the worst? I think guys having heart attacks at work. And taking pills, and then they're fine? He's been successfully medicated out of existence, right? Have you ever seen a guy have a minor cardiac event, but just take a pill and be like, oh, that was a big one?

1:03:20Cousin Sal:other than my dad that's gonna be me I'm hoping I'm telling you it's cool also before the pill even reaches your stomach it appears to have worked yeah it's just like it's like almost a placebo effect of putting it in your mouth yeah

1:03:34Bill Simmons:I have this era of sports gambling as a wood stage where it's just because it's gone yeah like I'm saying it literally has an age well because it's a completely different era of gambling now this was the era of having a bookie 900 lines over the top advisor shows nothing being policed you could fix games like this era is like from seven centuries ago now compared to where we are in 2025 and they lied

1:04:00Cousin Sal:there's not 200 million dollars going through that office there just isn't like I just they made it like it was a a tech startup yeah I think that we're supposed to intuit that Walter's been lying about all that stuff because he's got so many mortgages out and loan shark notes and stuff like that

1:04:16Bill Simmons:how are they collecting? well at one point they win one of those bets and the lady has all this money and she's counting the money it's like

1:04:22Cousin Sal:what do people drop the bets off yeah why do you have all the extra money now so that's how they do it you're on a subscription for a year or you do it week to week or you do a 25 call you don't get a piece of their bet imagine trying to track down someone's bet no like that was just you

1:04:39Bill Simmons:didn't need that part of it um people not realizing back then that john anthony was brandon lang so I guess this hinges on how famous Brandon Lang was if he was like Johnny Manziel level like a real famous QB or even Shane Footsteps Falco I think people would be like yo Brandon Lang's on that fucking Sunday Sports Advisor show this is crazy I think he's supposed to be what the quarterback for Nevada right? so you think it's a lower level it's like a mid-December bowl game I just think in the mid-2000s I did not know who the quarterback for Nevada I'm definitely bad on that.

1:05:15Cousin Sal:But his name is Link, right? It's Brandon Link. Link. But the real movie, it's Brandon. The real guy is Link. Yes. Okay.

1:05:22Bill Simmons:Yeah. I didn't, there's a whole based on a true story thing with the real Brandon, but that guy has been debunked in so many different ways. I don't even know if you want to give him this space. I know. This is the ultimate. This is based on a true story. Right. I don't know how true. And it was like the screenwriter, Dan Gilroy, like met him once at a golf course, right? That was like, kind of like the, where the Genesis came from. Okay. Yeah.

1:05:43Cousin Sal:You know, Dan Pastorini is the only ex-athlete back then, I think, that I knew that did that, right? Remember the, was it Oilers quarterback? Rams also? Pastorini, he would do these. He was a tout. He was like a 900 guy. Yeah, yeah. So other than that, though, these guys stayed away from that stuff.

1:06:04Bill Simmons:Here's the big what's age the worst for me. I just don't, I wrote this 20 years ago. I still don't understand it now how we ended up with this title, which I know is a rewatchable character. I don't know what two for the money means. What does it mean? Does it mean a parlay? Two for the money. What do you think it means? These two guys are in business together. I think that's it. Two people for the money? Yeah. Isn't it one for the show, two for the money, three... Isn't that like a saying?

1:06:33Cousin Sal:One for the money, two for the... Yeah, two for the show, three to get ready.

1:06:36Bill Simmons:In the column, I had the titles Chasing the Vig, Hot Streak, and Laying Wood. Even Moneyline. That's good.

1:06:42Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:06:43Bill Simmons:Moneyline is good. The Sprint.

1:06:45Cousin Sal:Money Grab, Moneyline.

1:06:46Bill Simmons:Parlay Kids.

1:06:48Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:06:48Bill Simmons:Two for the money just doesn't work. Being John Anthony. Ooh. We definitely could have found a different title. All right. The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford hottest take award. When we come up with a hot take, what do you have, CR? It's not that hot. They should remake this movie as a period piece. I think the problem with this movie is that it doesn't imagine a different world. a world where gambling becomes legal, a world where we have it all on our phones and stuff like that. And if you went back and did it as like, this is what the Wild West of sports gambling was before it became legal, I think that you would get a lot of the details.

1:07:25Prestige TV. Plus also, I wonder if at this point, the NFL would be like, sure, go ahead. Use Marvin Harrison in this. And you could have like real games that people were betting on, which probably would have grounded it more for people.

1:07:37Cousin Sal:Oh, I think Vandal would have been all over it. I think we would have used real uniforms and real everything. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So I would either go back and be like, back in the day, they were like the cowboys on the range of sports gambling, like selling their picks and sometimes selling a dream that would never happen. And you could just do it in a different way. Whereas in the movie here, they're almost taking it for granted that we are like, yeah, of course, the sports advisors. Right.

1:08:03Bill Simmons:Well, I have an announcement. We have sold the movie rights to the Ringer 107. Whoa! It's called Two Games Under 500. For the money? It's called None for the money. It's a real-life story. We lose more than we win. Five podcasts all going under 500. So what is the expectation for Ringer 107 that one of you guys would be doing better than this? Maybe two, three? We thought somebody was going to be at like 60%. Who's winning Ringer 107 right now? You personally or fantasy?

1:08:33Cousin Sal:It's the fantasy show. Who is the driver? Is it a tie though? Well, we're tied for first. And our method is basically what Brandon Lang does at the end of the movie where we just, we're basically flipping coins. Yeah. Two for no. Two for no. Two for no. Two for no interns and just like, you pick. Honestly, yeah. Two for no money. I don't understand that. Like, so like, why did, the intern gets to pick it, right? So immediately he's a fraud because everybody knows this. Yeah. But everybody in the boiler room he's been, and then he loses 10 in a row after that. Like, why is everyone so connected to him still?

1:09:06Bill Simmons:I think that it's the idea. Pacino likes him more after he goes, oh, it's so much. Because Pacino likes losing more than winning. He's like, you love that feeling. Yeah. Interesting. Do you have a hottest take, or do you want me to go?

1:09:18Cousin Sal:No, I do. I think James Babydoll Dixon as Pacino right there.

1:09:24Bill Simmons:As for the remake?

1:09:25Cousin Sal:Yeah, for the remake. Do it. Guy, good luck with the Buccaneers. Call me with 50 grand. Wire it to my subordinate Jonah, or else go fuck yourself.

1:09:37Bill Simmons:call me now I'm smoking

1:09:41Cousin Sal:baby doesn't gamble I know I know Vince Vaughn was my other for Rob but that was it

1:09:49Bill Simmons:listen I wrote this in that column I've said it a million times I'll say it again I just want one TV show or movie where the guy just wins the whole time and then the movie ends I don't know why we have to have the this is I'm supposed to escape when I watch a movie or a TV show we always have to do the thing where it starts out great. Yeah. Oh my God. Rock bottom. Three-hour storytelling. How much is one where the guy wins for two hours? Pretty good. Yeah. Like we have all these different shows where it's like we get to escape with we go on below deck. We get to have a vacation for a week. That was kind of happening on Landman with the sun for a minute where it was just like I guess this guy's just going to hit every oil well that he digs.

1:10:29True.

1:10:30Bill Simmons:Landman is our one hope. Yeah. I really miss that. Just slick back your hair start getting winners and that's it let me go for the ride with you my god you went 29 and 2 that was amazing end credits now I'm rich end of movie maybe there's a sequel maybe not casting what ifs not a lot here other than Russo's husband wrote the movie and wrote it for Russo Ampicino right yeah other than that couldn't find anything best that guy award there's some great candidates here. Brandon Lang's dad in the beginning was one of the bad guys in Roadhouse. Yes. He's the one who's like having sex in a closet. One of the first people Swayze fires ends up coming back as one of the bad guys.

1:11:20Bill Simmons:Him and John Doe were in that scene. Yeah. Geddy Watanabe is the chauffeur. He's not a that guy but you might remember him as from 16 Candles. Yes. And from Gung Ho. For sure. and then uh ralph garman that's gonna say arman this was a big deal this is you knew you knew

1:11:40Cousin Sal:ralph jimmy was still at k-rock ralph garman was the producer at k-rock he would do voices he was great and uh this was a huge deal back then for him and kevin and bean show how did you know anything about how he like wound up in this movie was he going out for acting roles mostly voiceover stuff okay and you know talk to the right people and uh no gambling issue or anything that's i was I'm so jealous.

1:12:00Bill Simmons:Dion Waiters, would you go Piven or Chuck Adler? So I have Piven, but I also have, and I can't remember this character's name. I think it might be Tanya. The woman who... Oh, comes in for one scene. The woman who slides... Yeah, Tammy, who slides down into McConaughey's lap and was like, Walter wanted you to have a good day. Yeah, why didn't she come back for another scene? But she certainly does a lot with her one scene. Jamie King might be in there too as the prostitute. I think the winner is Chuck Adler. He's in for two minutes, comes in out of control and hits it.

1:12:35Cousin Sal:Stayed very focused, didn't care about any of this other outside stuff between Piven and it was good.

1:12:40Bill Simmons:What do you have for recasting Couch Director or City? I have the... I have Brandy Bain played by Edward Norton. So there is a version of this movie that I think is much darker and is much more like a psychosexual thriller about an older guy who's trying to live vicariously through his young puppet. and... So it's directed by like Paul Verhoeven? Yeah, and it's like Michael Douglas and Edward Norton or something and this winds up being like a much more entertaining movie but there is like a lot of weird stuff going on in this movie with that. Like even the idea of him turning him into John Anthony Yeah.

1:13:14which is kind of a porn name and just being like yeah, you're John Anthony now like you're gonna go out with these hookers. It's so strange. I'm gonna sit in a chair

1:13:24Bill Simmons:while you have sex

1:13:26Cousin Sal:with my wife. John Anthony see I had something maybe this is a little off the grid Tracy Morgan doing McConaughey's character guess what I did Pacino I got your wife pregnant again are you looking for support in your weight management journey ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection.

1:14:11Cousin Sal:ZepBound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZipBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems.

1:14:46Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar.

1:14:58Cousin Sal:Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. We are live from Fetty's house. Guests are gathering around the TV, even with a big storm outside. Are we worried about the feet? Nope, They have Xfinity Wi-Fi.

1:15:22Bill Simmons:Get reliable fiber-powered gig Wi-Fi with Peacock included to stream the beautiful game this summer. Xfinity, imagine that. Restrictions apply. New gig internet customers only. Actual speeds vary. Offer for Peacock Premium with ads currently at$10.99 a month value and limited to Xfinity internet members with newer upgraded gig speed or faster service. Activation required to access content. Peacock must be activated within the first 90 days. Management of existing subscriptions may be required to avoid multiple subscriptions and duplicate charges. Third-party built subscriptions continue until canceled.

1:15:45Bill Simmons:This episode is brought to you by Fox One. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World Cup live in 4K for just$19.99 a month with three days free. Build your own multi-view, choose up to three streams, and follow player spotlights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights, and instant replays. The FIFA World Cup, streaming live on Fox 1, offers a subject to change. See fox.com for complete terms and conditions. I don't know. That's a good one. uh all right we'll take a break then we'll do uh craig's flex craig did we take up your flex

1:16:22Cousin Sal:no not really i i wanted to point out so we have the 4chan 3 clap award for the most gifable moment i think pacino is the actor gif goat i think you have yeah heat you have the great ass that's a big meme out there you have godfather 3 pull me back in is a huge one you have the once upon a time in Hollywood, what a picture. How the hell is I'm gambling again not a gif or a meme? That might be his best one ever. It's kind of surprising that every time somebody's team starts doing well again, you're just like, I'm back in. I can't believe it's not a thing.

1:16:56Bill Simmons:Maybe this podcast will We have to start it.

1:16:59Cousin Sal:It's one of Pacino's best moments.

1:17:01Bill Simmons:So what award would that be?

1:17:02Cousin Sal:It's the most gifable moment.

1:17:05Bill Simmons:Yeah, that's pretty good. Or it's book about medals. That's pretty good. Did we have in my mailbag last week I was saying how we were going to add the Nico Harrison Award for worst decision. Was there a worst decision in this movie? I mean, letting the intern pick the game, but I guess that worked. Also, Brandon never betting his own bets.

1:17:27Cousin Sal:Yeah. Of course, that's it. I got him in the bathroom right before he goes live. His paper's fucking everywhere. It's the most stressful shit I've ever seen in my life. I know. He's drenched in sweat. They're like in the sink. They're all wet.

1:17:41Bill Simmons:All of his data. I have the Nico Harrison award winner. Just quitting on Jerry Sykes. Sykes system had a couple rough weeks. There were 42 variables, and I wouldn't have quit on it. I really put some time in. I'd be very curious to know how Sykes did for the rest of the season. And where he winds up. He hung his own shingle. He had to. Do you think he's working for the Rockets? What is he doing? I think he had a cup of coffee in the best damn sports show period. Got fired from there. maybe like another cup of coffee at Yahoo. Right. And then... But does he wind up doing like the analytics for like the Buffalo Sabres or something like that?

1:18:20Like, does he wind up ever getting into advanced statistics?

1:18:24Bill Simmons:Like Sloan Conference? I think he's one of the guys that goes to the Sloan Conference and hopes he can run into somebody who works for a team and it never happens. Just looking past everyone. Half-ass learning research, the USFL footage, all real. All from the mid-80s. Teams that were in there. The Bandits from Tampa Bay. Boston Breakers. Portland Breakers. Houston Gamblers. And the New Orleans team. Did those guys get paid?

1:18:53Cousin Sal:Did they get$500? Did they get residuals?

1:18:55Bill Simmons:Maybe. And then the phone number featured on Walter's show was 1-800-BET-ON-IT. That was an actual sports advice service. Right. All right. Apex Mountain. All three stars? No. Jamie King, maybe. I don't know what else. She was... And she had a moment. This was like Red Tail into the Maxim era. Yeah, for movies though, right? Yeah, for movies, I don't remember her being in a bigger one. Sports gambling movies? Probably still The Gambler. She was in White Chicks. That might have been better. Yeah. And Pearl Harbor. So Pearl Harbor was her impact. Sports gambling movies, The Gambler with James Caan or The Gambler with Mark Wahlberg?

1:19:34Bill Simmons:Can we give us both? Or is it, I'm gambling again! getting peed on in central park yeah getting pissed on by a gangster in central park one 900 lines in a movie south what about it did we have a better when is there i mean whoopi goldberg did she have a 900 number in ghost no reality bites it was a big part of reality bites for like 15 minutes i don't think so i think this might have a lot of 900 stuff Yeah. What was, what 900 number did you call the most?

1:20:05Cousin Sal:Well, my father at his business paid for his phone. He would work from home like once a week and it was, it was huge that they paid for the phone and I would call like Georgia Championship Wrestling. I would call like Titan Sports. I remember talking to Lord Alfred Hayes and then I would call 976-1313 to get sports, solve the sports news instantly and then there was some 976 numbers that I'm not proud of that I would call too.

1:20:30Bill Simmons:Yes. When I was working at the Herald, one of the grunt jobs for like the lowest level people, which obviously I had, was answering the phones. And a lot of the times it was people calling in high school games. So it would be like, situate 42, Swamp Scott 24. I'm like, all right, thanks. But then some people would call in and asking for like scores for NBA games. Would you give them to them? Sometimes, yeah. Would you charge them? Hey, do you have a Knicks Sixers score? and be like, yeah, yeah, they won 108-100. All right, thank you. And then hang up. You know what though? That sounds like a pretty good job.

1:21:04Bill Simmons:Yeah, it wasn't bad.

1:21:06Cousin Sal:It was bad. I would call the Daily News, the front desk, the sports desk. And because like, you know, when we did fantasy, I would run these fantasy leagues. And if there was a Monday night game, you wouldn't get it until Wednesday. And so, if a buddy and I were in a closed game, I'd want to know Tuesday. So, I'd call him like, hey, can you tell me, Mark Duper, how many receiving yards? and like four receptions, 77 yards. I'm busy, kid. I'm like, okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can you just tell me if he ran the ball? Did he run the ball too? It's like, I'm not. And they'd hang up instantly. We have to explain this to Craig

1:21:38Bill Simmons:who hosts one of the biggest fantasy sports spots. I think we just had a better country where people would just call the newspaper. People used to call my dad's office at the Enquirer or my dad's desk and be like, what time is Phantom Menace playing at the Chestnut Street movie theater? And he would sometimes be like, three. You didn't have a lot going on. So you'd be like, all right, I'll answer this. So on the East Coast, USA Today, the Monday edition, or the Tuesday edition, most of the time wouldn't have the Monday score. So you'd have these fantasy leagues hanging in the balance, and we'd have no idea what the box score was until Wednesday.

1:22:13Bill Simmons:And then somebody would have to then finish the scores and either call us and tell you the scores or mail them out. But you'd have to wait until the Wednesday USA Today to even know what happened on Monday.

1:22:24Cousin Sal:That's past waivers. How does that even work? Well, they didn't have 30-night waivers back then. You're right. There were no waivers. It's a little bit easier. We only had trades. Should we start the fantasy advisors now and we just advise rich people's fantasy leagues and we take 20 % of their winnings, but no fee up front? You're basically talking about here is go back to blind fantasy. So it's fantasy with no stats, no immediate statistics. So it's just faith in your team. You don't even know until you get an email. Yeah, and you don't find out until Tuesday whether you won. I mean, we drafted our fantasy league with no technology.

1:22:55Cousin Sal:maybe that's what we do next year. Yeah, sure, it was fine.

1:22:57Bill Simmons:I got to be honest. I'd be much happier if I didn't know until Wednesday. We're in our knockout league. I was going against Wondell Robinson yesterday who immediately had like 18 points and I was so fucking bummed out. It was like 10-09. I just missed the idea of like not immediately like declining any phone number. I don't know, you know, like which is what you do now. But like, it would just be fun if like somebody was just calling you and be like, Like, hey, what's that dolphin score?

1:23:25Cousin Sal:Well, I actually kind of hate checking my fantasy score throughout Sunday. I almost wish I couldn't. That's what I mean. That's what I'm saying is let's go analog. It's kind of nice.

1:23:33Bill Simmons:Now you get alerts that you don't even want. It's bad. More Apex Mountain. Movies that play You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You, the Dean Martin song. I think it's probably Swingers for this. Yeah. But it's been in a few. Piven? I think you could make a case Apex for this. It's right here. It's between Entourage season one and season two. Yeah. He's in this movie. The career's taken off. I think he's a big thing in Hollywood. I think it's probably...

1:24:03Cousin Sal:He won Emmys, right, for Ari Gold?

1:24:05Bill Simmons:Oh, yeah. Yeah.

1:24:06Cousin Sal:He's done hair restoration commercials, like, in the last three years.

1:24:09Bill Simmons:Movies with USFL footage? It's been a lot of them. Yeah. This probably leaned on the most. This is my favorite for Apex Mountain. Movies with Pacino as a cuck. Still Heat, right? Oh, yeah, because he comes home and he finds a guy watching his TV. Is it Roy? No. No.

1:24:34Cousin Sal:What's Dan? Fuck. Hold on. Is that Donnie Brasco? That's close. Is he cucking Donnie Brasco?

1:24:40Bill Simmons:I mean, just like... You're not getting my TV. Yeah. Walter? Is the guy's name Walter and Heat? Ralph. Ralph. Right. Ralph. you cannot watch my television cruiser hanks it's obviously oh wait i had one more apex mountain yeah what is i'm sorry um is brandon lang apex mountain for fictional football players plagued by injuries so an injury derails a fictional football player's career we could be jason street jason street johnny utah i was i had utah when you posited the question joe pendleton Jimmy Dix Paul Crew kind of more of like Jimmy Dix was last Boy Scout what was his injury? he just his pills and I think yeah a bunch of other stuff isn't it Johnny Utah?

1:25:37Bill Simmons:I guess so because he seemed like he was headed to be like a top 10 right he played for Ohio he was in the road all the fucking surfers yeah all the surfers recognized him he seemed like he was like legit famous yeah that's like when they're like holy shit Johnny fucking Utah my bad man

1:25:51Cousin Sal:Jason Street, though, was top. He was going all-American.

1:25:55Bill Simmons:He would have been like a div one. I mean, Johnny Utah did it. Right. Johnny Utah was already where Jason Street's best case scenario was. I have no idea what Johnny Utah was as a prospect coming out of high school. That's all I'm saying. Jason Street was going straight. That was like he was going to Notre Dame. Yeah, maybe don't throw that pick and then try to tackle the guy, dumbass. That's true. God Cruiser Hanks This is the most Cruisy Cruise performance Yeah I'm trying to figure out Where would he have run In this movie Like away from Armand Asante Yeah Running through the Central Park Running through Central Park Or running to get out of Running through the airport At some point A Brooklyn Bridge run Would have been cool Yeah Yeah Oh McConaughey does jog In this movie a couple times Yes Cruz would have loved that A lot of mountain biking Cruz is getting trained In jogging by Steve Prefontaine's uncle he could have jogged around the hooker's table yeah

1:26:49Cousin Sal:maybe a few times

1:26:49Bill Simmons:before he settled Scorsese or Spielberg this one's pretty easy Scorsese this is a pretty interesting Scorsese movie yeah what role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played a different version of the Armand Assante character Novian yeah you could talk me into Walter too yeah older Philip Seymour one of those guys Pickin' Nets I have a slew of them so if you guys want to go I'll save mine for the end what do you got I mean the over under on the Super Bowl is 36 so I looked this up there were four that were lower than that including our favorite Super Bowl Ravens it's 33 what? yeah really?

1:27:31Cousin Sal:yeah I looked it up from 2005 on the lowest was 43 but that football changed 2004 well that 2004 was yours I think it was like 35, 36 but I think they could have made that a little higher. It did jump out at me, though. Yeah. The other thing is, the one trend they use is like, Kansas City is 6-1 against division opponents coming off a Monday night. It's like, whatever it was, it would have spanned a decade. I don't know why anybody would have fallen for that. But yeah, just a million little things like that. Walter just spends a tremendous amount of time and money surveilling Brandon. And maybe he should have just concentrated more on the picks.

1:28:10On the picks. Yeah.

1:28:11Bill Simmons:I had that as well. Walter, who doesn't seem to own anything and was going bankrupt, but was able to spend 5K on a hooker and another 2K at dinner to give Brandon more confidence. Yeah. Brandon played quarterback in college. He's fine. Renting an elephant, buying a camcorder. Suits. Yeah. Cartier. The car. Yeah, he's just got money. That didn't end up either. One more, sorry. Yeah.

1:28:36Cousin Sal:Okay, bear with me here because there's a lot of crazy shit. But there's one great pick, right? He's got one great pick in him a week, and he's going to Puerto Rico, he's going to give it to that guy because that guy's going to give him however. What does he want? $250 ,000 up front. He wants$250 ,000. And then, what is it, 10 % of his winnings? Right. Yeah. What is the point of giving him$250 ,000 if the$1 ,000 player is getting the same pick? Right. Just find that guy, put him on the street, have him call Brandon, and that's that. I don't know. Right?

1:29:12Bill Simmons:I do like should we start doing pick of the years House and I did that once when we weren't doing well in Ringer 107 we had a game it was our favorite game of the year we went all in on it we were like this is our game and it actually won yeah but you should do it for like Hornets Pistons this is my NBA

1:29:29Cousin Sal:Central Division they can't match up with Knipple

1:29:31Bill Simmons:I've run my psych system

1:29:33Cousin Sal:but they do they fraction it it's the afternoon game in the Central Division of the year you know you can end up having a thousand is a nit slash question i think they mentioned baseball briefly but like what do these guys do for the other six months of the year are they betting basketball there's no basketball at all are they betting dodgers games like yeah yeah they're doing this in october the world series

1:29:56Bill Simmons:is happening there's no college football or there is but they don't really talk about it ever right well brandon comes from college football yeah but then like he's i think he bet college football for a while before he goes to the pros but i just don't understand like after february Do these guys just go to Barbados and like hang out until, until training camp? No, it's the same. This is actually big for soccer picks too.

1:30:18Cousin Sal:Oh yeah. Yeah. That's right. Brandon's getting on. If Sal was the gambling advisor,

1:30:22Bill Simmons:he would have been like, there's not nearly enough tennis right now. November is huge in Asia. There's a lot of satellite tournaments. My pick and nits include Brandon's TD run in college. When he gets hurt at the end, when he does the spin move. It's an amazing block in the back. Doesn't get called. one of the linemen. You watch it again. Like, it's just... Let's Mountain West. Can't believe they missed it. Mid-aughts, you know? Mention his reasons for liking Tampa over Oakland at the sportsbook. Where basically, Brown only likes to catch the ball over his left shoulder and Gannon will throw three to four interceptions because of how they use their linebackers.

1:30:59Bill Simmons:That was it. But he did tap into the coach going against the world team thing. Why don't you just say that, Sal? Yeah, right. Nothing I love more than a coach going against. He knows all their weaknesses and strengths.

1:31:12Cousin Sal:But what's the chances that Brandon's the only guy who noticed that? Yeah, Brandon's like getting bets. The guy behind the counter who's taking thousands of bets a day is like, oh, man, you're right. You're right. How did we never think of this? You're right. John Gruden coached the Raiders.

1:31:27Bill Simmons:Why didn't Brandon just bet on his own games? He's in Vegas. Yeah. You're winning all the time. You need money. He's living with his mom and his brother. his brother apparently stole a Thunderbird and is like souping it up. Yeah. You have Grey's Sports Almanac.

1:31:40Cousin Sal:Do you sell the pics? Right. No.

1:31:42Bill Simmons:The cousin, maybe the brother needed to be like a little more in dire straits. I kind of wonder whether there's more family stuff that got cut out because like the whole dad scene in the beginning, you'd think. Set something up. That they were going to bring him back in and he's calling Brandon. I don't know why Johnny Anthony needs a fancy car in New York City. I'm just going to mention that. Also, there's never any traffic when John Anthony is driving? No, never. John Anthony goes 12 for 12 at one point. Yeah. That would be like one of the great flukes of all time. Nobody's ever gone 12 for 12, I don't think.

1:32:19Bill Simmons:ESPN wouldn't report it, but yeah. We didn't talk about Amir who doesn't really want to bet and then starts betting, and then we see him and he's got a Ferrari and girls. I don't know. Just a classic movie device, but then he loses$380 ,000 in one weekend. What book is taking that bet? He was taking a$380 ,000 NFL bet. He's a dry cleaner. Yeah. Who is he connected to who's just like, yeah, I can carry that?

1:32:47Cousin Sal:Yeah. So what was his record? I feel like he was like 60-4 before he went on the losing streak. Yeah, I should add it up. No one made enough money to bail themselves out of a future loss. They only bet on the last one every time. Brandon gets a mirror after he's been hot in Vegas. So I think he has like two good weeks or three good weeks. And then that's when he starts. Whenever it is that Walter is like, you're going to have to rip the money out of my talons. That's when Brandon starts going.

1:33:16Bill Simmons:So was, I don't know if this is nitpick or I'm dancing well, but was Brandon a prodigy or wasn't he? Or was he just the guy that got hot for a while? It was hot.

1:33:26Cousin Sal:Yeah. Okay.

1:33:26Bill Simmons:I think he just got hot for a couple of weeks. And then my last one, And we mentioned it before, but that move where you go from 100 to 50 to 25 and you keep... Why weren't they just doing this in the movie? It's such an interesting strategy. Like, he could have laid that out. And it's like, here's the science of what we do. We get a thousand people. We narrow that down. And by the end of the day, we have 100. And those are the whales. No, and that would have been the cool thing. It's a better movie. Brandon comes along and he's like, no, that's not what we're going to do. We're going to do pure picks.

1:33:55Exactly.

1:33:55Cousin Sal:He's like, this is what these guys do. What I want you to do is be you.

1:33:59Bill Simmons:you know sequel prequel prestige to be all black cast are untouched but i like the prestige going backwards like a madman i think you were onto something with that one cr uh there's definitely just a brandon as a rising college oc movie sequel yeah like because he ends the movie coaching kids football but just watching him go up the ranks so mccannay comes back yeah maybe after we are marshall he didn't want to pursue that is this movie better with wayne jenkins It's Danny Trejo, Mad Dog, Russo, Doris Burke, Buffalo Bill, Sam Jackson, Nell, Byron Mayo, Tony Romo, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview, Long Legs, or Wilford Brimley in the firm.

1:34:35Walter is doing Byron Mayo in this movie. He's just like, Brandon, Tony, while the cat's away, the mice will play. I think

1:34:47Cousin Sal:Mad Dog. Mad Dog. Mad Dog screaming it, yeah. Don't tell me about Texans Jags. If that was playing in my backyard, I wouldn't draw the blinds. We're betting Tampa Bay here.

1:35:04Bill Simmons:James Gunn being involved, I think would have been good. Buffalo Bill. Yeah. Tampa. Brooklyn. Just want to ask her who gets it. Pacino? Best supporting? I don't know. Sure. Okay. I have a probably unanswerable question. Let's hear it. For you guys. is Monday night football's popularity really based on the gambling losses of bettors from the weekend?

1:35:31Cousin Sal:See, I always thought it was Sunday night because there wasn't Sunday night football, right? And then there was, and they're like, oh, they may have stumbled upon it, but I think Sunday's when you lose. Monday is when typically the bookies collect Monday morning. Okay, so you're not trying to like one last bet before. One last bet, I think, is Sunday night, right?

1:35:51Bill Simmons:I think Sunday night is the chase because it's fresh off. You're not thinking rationally. You've just watched Eagles-Cowboys. The games have just ended. You're like, the Eagles were up 20-0-0 and I somehow lost that. I'm going to tease the Rams in the over. You just go to that cover, by the way, Rams in the over, 34-7. 34-7. That tease, that probably covered.

1:36:12Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:36:13Bill Simmons:Yeah, settle day is Monday. Monday is like you're spending the morning trying to figure out if you have enough finances to make it or whether you should join the Navy or go to Mexico. That's on Monday. It is funny. What happened to Brad?

1:36:28Cousin Sal:Our friend Brad, I was just going to say, told the story. He lost the Monday night game and didn't even stick around to try to... Well, because the boat was leaving Wednesday, I think. So he took off. Are you serious? He joined the Navy for three years to avoid a bookie. You didn't know the story? No. Oh, yeah.

1:36:42Bill Simmons:Tell the story quick because it's been... We don't have my podcast but not on the rewatch.

1:36:46Cousin Sal:I don't know the exact numbers. Tamaric Vanover. Tamaric Vanover. They were... The Florida State guy? Getting forward. It was on the Chiefs. Yeah, it was on the Chiefs. Getting four, up seven with two minutes left and the ball. And somehow, it was a punt return to tie it. And then in overtime, he lost by six. Okay. I don't know the other specifics of the players. The way he tells it is so much better. And then, like, he owed, like, that was a double up game.

1:37:11Bill Simmons:I think it was a kick return touchdown in overtime to lose the game.

1:37:16Cousin Sal:Yeah.

1:37:16Bill Simmons:By Vanover. Right. And he had it. He thought it was done. Thought it was a wrap. Getting four, winning. By the way, how many times does a kick return end a game? I mean, it's probably less than 10 times. So he loses and he disappears. He joins the Navy. How much was he down?

1:37:32Cousin Sal:I think it was like$4 ,000. But when you don't have it, you know, whatever. Yeah. He had Ponzi schemed it. Yeah.

1:37:40Bill Simmons:Lost, lost, and put everything to try to win it back. 93, 94 range, right? Yep. Disappeared for three years.

1:37:50Cousin Sal:Holy crap. Not worth it. 1096 days 1096 days Randy on that boat and I was shell shocked anytime fireworks go off it was a great trade off

1:38:05Bill Simmons:the Vanover game worn jersey is not a good gift for Brad yeah would you give that to him for Christmas I love it Randy it's a good one how quickly can you

1:38:14Cousin Sal:join the Navy though like doesn't it like can you show up the next day 36 hours let's set it up yeah

1:38:19Bill Simmons:if the bet lost he was joining the Navy movie uh that's great my probably an answerable question is pacino the number one draft pick for the movie cook draft for guys you'd want to play the cook it's just so good at it so who's who's in the lottery here i don't know i'm trying to think of other people that would be in there is hackman michael douglas i just think because he has he's seen so much like weird sexual like anxiety. Gear did it in the Diane Lane movie where Gear goes and kills the guy with the Christmas globe. Sure. We did that one on Rewatchable. Unfaithful. Yeah, we did that one. It's a great one.

1:39:01Bill Simmons:I don't know the answer.

1:39:02Cousin Sal:I have one too. Well, the sunglasses and doors. Yeah. That's in his contract. That's good. And it's the Oakley wraparounds too. Yeah, that's the best part. They're really good. How much did John Anthony earn? Did we figure out how much he made? 10%. of the winnings. But that was the 10 % came late. He wanted 10%. Yeah, he only gets a hundred grand or 200 grand from like multiple million dollar wins. It was a two million dollar win and he got a hundred grand. Yeah. So it's 5%. That's 5%. And he wanted 10. But over the week, so you think he made 150 grand for this whole thing? More, right? Gotta be a little more.

1:39:41I don't know. I think it's just like everything else. It's like everything is on credit. You know what I mean? Like I think his apartment is paid for by Walter. the girls are paid for by Walter Walter's sounds great yeah it's like Sal's dream job sign me up we had the entire 90s for this you can pay me 65 ,000 but if you gotta get everything else right

1:39:59Cousin Sal:and he did have sex with her he didn't with Rene Russo no they set up Walter they do like a fake little kiss and then it's like I know I know that's the story what does Walter want he's like kind of setting up McConaughey to have sex with his wife but then he spies on him this is the part of the movie that's actually pretty interesting is this old guy getting kind of obsessed with like the sexual vitality of the production. He's the sexual lemon. Yeah, he is a sex lemon. And he's betting her.

1:40:26Bill Simmons:He's gambling her. See, this is when you've watched a movie for 20 years straight. These are the kind of things you start picking up.

1:40:32Cousin Sal:The rush is him wondering if McConaughey's going to have sex with his wife. That's the rush. That's why it's so odd when you're watching it and you're like, wait, why is the end of this movie all about whether or not like Walter and Tony stay together. But if you go back and watch it that way, the entire movie is about Walter replacing himself with Brandon.

1:40:54Bill Simmons:So maybe probably an answer, bro, is if they had Viagra in 2005, then Brandon would get hired. Yeah. He's like, my cock is a rocket ship right now. I can cut diamonds. What piece of memorabilia would you want or not want from this movie, Sal? There's so much.

1:41:12Cousin Sal:I guess the car. He's not driving. I'm not going to go with that. I'm going to go Jeremy Piven's hair. Yeah. I really love it. If I had it... Just put it on. I'd wear it every Sunday night on Guess the Lines. Yeah. I think it'd be terrific. Same thing. I'd do algorithm, psych system algorithm. Psych system, the book. I'd love to get what he was looking at.

1:41:34Bill Simmons:I'd go game-worn McConaughey's Sun Devil's jersey for the opening scene. And maybe with the hair extensions. That's good. Coach Finstock wore a best life lesson. Modesty is not a virtue. It might be a vice. Great. hot streaks go cold, cold streaks go hot. Should we start saying that? I think the life lesson is just the speech he gives in the Gambling Anonymous media. What's your double feature choice, CR? I would probably go Rounders. Now after you mentioned it. It's basically like, even the way it opens with the voiceover and stuff like that, it just feels very of a piece. I had Devil's Advocate.

1:42:16Bill Simmons:I would watch that first, follow it up with two for the money. Imagine Walter is Satan. Who won the movie? Pacino. Pacino. I have McConaughey.

1:42:26Cousin Sal:Nice. Yeah, I think McConaughey because it pivoted his arc, right? Could do serious movies after this? Not really. He had a couple more bad years after this. But Pacino, this is like really right in the sweet spot of like it's super fun and hammy, but it's also like an actually pretty good character and pretty good performance.

1:42:44Bill Simmons:He won it for Ebert too. Who won the movie for you, Craig?

1:42:46Cousin Sal:You know, the movie goes from fine to entertaining and rewatchable because of Pacino. Like, if it was just another actor doing something, I don't know if he'd revisit it as much. But like we said, Pacino is the gift goat. Like, half the things he's doing in this movie are hilarious. Yeah, like the fake heart attack in the airport. Yeah, right. The Hebrew National dad's penis. Like, that's what keeps you coming back. This movie, this show, I actually, this sounds insane to say, but, like, I get why this show's called The Rewatchables. because upon first watch, I was like, you know. And then even just kind of going back and watching clips like yesterday before we did this, I'm like, you know what?

1:43:22Cousin Sal:I'm starting to like this movie a little bit more. It is something that you just kind of want to throw out. The thing is like, I think I thought of this movie as basically a joke for 10 years. Yeah. And then I was like, you know what? That movie's actually pretty good. And now it's like, I barely needed to rewatch it for this. I think McConaughey and Pacino have really good chemistry. I wish you. I like the old versus young pairing together. You know, if you remade this now, they should do McConaughey and Glenn Powell. I like seeing the old guard and the young guard mixing together as one is leaving their prime and the other one is entering it.

1:43:52Cousin Sal:It's such a great combo in movies. The premise is outrageous, and yet they made it work. It really is outrageous. It was a two-hour movie for something we knew the whole time. It's luck. Might as well flip a coin. Oh, he did flip a coin. Look at that. I wonder if it would have been a much more popular or beloved movie if it was just about sports gambling, if it was just about sports bettors. and he was like, we have a syndicate or like we pool our money to bet games together. But then this guy comes in and he's like the big dog and I wonder if the sports advisors touting thing made people like not understand it.

1:44:27Cousin Sal:Yeah, it also could have been a lot bigger. I mean, there's like a tiny Wolf of Wall Street feeling to it when everything starts working and you're in the office and everything's a little crazed. But the movie stays small. They never really leave Brooklyn Heights. No. They could have gotten bigger and the parties could have been crazy and they never really dabbled in that, but that was an angle to go. That is actually the piece of memorabilia is the townhouse. That would have been awesome to have an office in the house. You got the second floor where everybody's watching the games and stuff.

1:44:54Bill Simmons:I still think if this movie came out in early March, I think it would have done really well. I'm always confused when they open movies like this during weeks when people like us would never go to the movies. On Saturday and Sunday, Sal's watching football. He's not going to see two for the money. the only movie you ever saw during football season ever was Blood Diamond that time right

1:45:15Cousin Sal:I was forced after the Romo game yeah and I cried I was sobbing at the end of Blood Diamond

1:45:20Bill Simmons:one of my favorite South stories not at the end

1:45:22Cousin Sal:throughout the entire movie yeah over and over again also one last nitpick you guys are are you full are you 100 % Italian half Italian no my mother's you're half Italian I'm half Italian Brandon says Bruschetta correctly and they correct him and say it's Bruschetta but he's right it's bruschetta interesting right the original pronunciation

1:45:44Bill Simmons:it's become bruschetta for some reason yeah all the small plates restaurants two for the money just another classic congrats to Pacino thanks to Craig and Gahau thanks to CR Sal I don't know what our next one's gonna be but it's always fun to have you on the Rewatchables

1:46:01Cousin Sal:three for the money I think we're doing it with Tracy Morgan back to the future three for the money yeah

1:46:06Bill Simmons:thanks guys

1:46:12Cousin Sal:Stitch Fix. Stop shopping. Get styled. Not today, sweatpants. Somebody's wearing jeans that fit. Wow! No photos, please. I'm just a regular dad who happens to have a stylist.

1:46:24Bill Simmons:I really look my best when someone else makes the decisions. Hey, we can all see you two-way mirrors. Just share your size, style, and budget, and your stylist sends personalized looks right to your door.

1:46:36Cousin Sal:Stitch Fix. Get started today at stitchfix.com. I want to hug you. I'm going to hug you. I'm coming in for a hug. Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? Scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans. And they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip, they stay for hours. They don't move on, they manifest. They're not a demographic group, they're fans. Spotify Advertising. You're among fans.