NFL Week 18, Playoffs Are Set, Lions Get The 1 Seed, Bengals Bounced + Who's Back Of The Week
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Today is part of my take. Week 18 in the NFL and we finally have a playoff bracket to talk about. We had a lot of games. A lot of meaningless games. We're going to talk about all of them. We had coach firings.

Hank is going to get a new coach. We had some coach not firing. Coach not fires. Did some changes at the top of the draft. We're going to start with fastest two minutes. We'll do who's back of the week as well. It's all brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. Have you played pick six from DraftKings yet? What are you waiting for? You better get on it. The playoffs are here and time is running out. As the official daily fantasy sports partner of the NFL, DraftKings does fantasy sports like no one else ever.

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What? It's the last week of the regular season, Teej. May us be the last to wish you a happy 2024 NFL League year.

We start in Pittsburgh where Mike Tomlin thought he had a job for life after Pat Friermuth, Bader Ginsburg scored a second half touchdown to bring the Steelers back. Jamar Chase Ventura and Alrite Higgins. Jim carried the offense on a cold night in the Steel City. In an episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, Queen had a sack, but it wasn't enough as Russ Wilson thought he had unleashed.

Unlimited timeouts in the end, only to go out as sad as possible. Bengals, 19. Steelers, 17. We go down to Tampa where Mike Evansgate escaped blanket coverage and caught a comet from Baker to hit his 11th straight season with 1,000 yards. Take a big bite out of Jerry Rison's legacy. Clyde, the fresh prince of L.A. slapped the rock a few times with 32 yards on 8 carries.

While Princess Diana Spencer Rattler Failed many drives with tunnel vision As he was chased around all day By his coach Darren Paparizzi As the Saints fall in their finale The Bucks 27 The Saints don't go marching 19 Up to the frozen tundra It was a tough day for guys Who are known for Jordan Love

as Matt LaFleur had to put in his backup Malik Willis and Skip Bayless was named in a lawsuit. 1.5 mil, Teej. Huh? I can't believe you got turned down for 1.5 mil. Huh? How gross is your dick? Huh?

Speaking of the backup, Malik Phyllis had a fat, ugly day at the office. Keenan Allen Wrench said, watch this six-point play. Psych! As he threw a horrendous interception. But the Bears fought hard as Cairo made everyone's sphincter tighten up as he lined up for the game-winning Egypt shot. Bears 24, Packers 22. Who's your daddy? Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

We go down to Dallas where Marcus the Virgin Mary Oda went untouched for a big run to put the commanders in scoring position, making Dan Quinn look like a wise man for arresting Jesus Christ. Trey Lance Bass said, it's going to be my to win this game. But at the end, it was a cowboy saying bye bye bye to Mike McCarthy.

Zach Burts earned every dollar this year, scoring his seventh touchdown on the season. And the Commanders are ready for the playoffs. The playoffs? Playoffs? Commanders, 23. Cowboys, 19. We head to Philadelphia where Max was on the scene.

We head to Philadelphia where Sirianni was saying Tanner. Me Kiki, do you love me? Are we thriving? Now we told the league you are arriving and they want you, but I need you. You're our QB2, QB2.

Jahan G. Spottson was absolutely fucking the Giants D all game as he went on to have his best game of the season. One of the lone bright spots for the Giants had to have been Tyrone Tracy Chapman, who was saying that I could be a fast star, but I need a ticket to get me out of here. Poor guy. Eagle 20, Giants 13. Dice Racks, we head to Foxborough where Hank is with us.

We head to Foxborough where Hank is with us. Mitchell Trubisky was looking sexy in the red zone after a touchdown pass to Keon Amakolman. Bazooka Joe Chee-Min was the bringer of light, rushing for a score and throwing another to Keyshawn Derulo. Boot. Bootay.

In the third quarter, James, too many cooks scored a TD in Tyler. Bass man. Bass man. Intentionally missing that point. That happened in the third quarter?

Three Joey's slide for a white guy. Field goals gave the Pats the lead in the fourth overall pick. Pats win 23-16. I'm hanging. I got a cold, boom. You got a cold, Teej. All right. We go to Meadowlands where Meems, huge win. Jeff O'Rourke's the guy.

Huge win. In MetLife, Rodgers was feeling horny as he hooked up with Tyler Baughlin for his 500th touchdown pass of his career. Ash Ketchumall Davis had two picks to help set up Alan LeCharizard as he burned the Dolphins' defense with a fiery 13-yard touchdown catch. Tyreek Hank Hill said, Damn it, Bobby. I'll tell you what. I'm out of here. Ha ha!

as he had two receptions for 20 yards. Devontae Adam Sandler clicked with Aaron Rodgers for one last touchdown, but fast-forwarded a little too much as time ran out on the Jets' disaster of a season. Jets 32, Miami 20. Thanks, memes. In Atlanta, where cornerback Michael Jackson took a look at the young Phoenix matchup and said, I gotta get a pick. Panthers 44, Falcons 38. What? What? What?

Some spread. In Mile High, where Carson of Sam Wentz looked like he was getting play calls from his dog as Bo Thugs and Harmony Nicks pulled out his thuggish, ruggish bone in the Chiefs' face as the Bengals prayed. And they prayed, and they prayed, and they prayed, and they prayed. Every day, every day, every day. But we'll see them at the crossroads after being bounced from the playoffs.

Marvin just for memes saved Broncos from a die job as he played great, playing the end zone twice on the way to a dominating win. The Broncos 38. The Chiefs, zero points. Goose egg. Zero points. Standing on the corner, Jameis Winston, Cuyahoga, such a fine sight to see.

It's DTR up against Lamar. No more Browns football mercilessly. That's a wrap-y. It's barely zappy. This Cleveland team has been really crappy. The Ravens win the AFC North 35-10.

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Now is the perfect time to get into a Silverado or Silverado HD, our favorite truck and the official truck of Pardon My Take. Go to Chevy.com, check out all the great offers, and even build your own Silverado and visit JDPower.com slash awards for more award details. Okay, week 18 in the books, boys, and we're going to do a little different this week. We're going to break it up in conferences.

to break down the playoff picture and the games we watched on Sunday. We're going to start with the AFC. We are set with our AFC playoff schedule. By the way, if at any point during this show, because we're taping it in part so we can watch the entirety of Sunday Night Football, if they release a schedule, please do breaking news because I know that –

I would say the majority of America, the minute the playoffs are set, spends the next hour just Googling and typing into what's the app called? X.com, the everything app. It's all happening on X. They just type in playoff schedule over and over and over again until someone... Wasn't there a guy we found last year that...

that like his hobby is to predict it he predicts like every schedule yeah yeah on x you are the media and our darling jake marsh has released his prediction so we can just say jake's predictions right now we can and then we could we could we could judge them after let's judge him afterwards okay all right so this is before sunday night football yes we don't know we don't know yet uh he's got 4 30 on prime on saturday prime game the chargers at the texans that is like uh

That's basically like getting... Free space. Yeah, you get a freebie. But he took a shot on this by saying that that's going to be on Prime. Okay. But yeah. No, I think that stuff...

I think that's the shit that Jake knows that we don't know. You think for sure. He would not take a gamble on a network like that. Is it going to be Al Michaels? So we're subjecting Al Michaels to the Houston Texans game? Probably. I took a guess this morning when I was doing my fantasy corner, and all the replies were like, dude, technically this game has to be this because the broadcast is like, all right, I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. I want to just say, like, I want to be able to predict.

The times and then the matchups. Yeah, I don't care about that. This is definitely... He did his homework. Yeah, no, he does his homework. Jake's travel schedules. Jake is reminding the teacher to assign homework to everybody else. Well, let me throw out a question here.

Did Jake do all the travel schedules? Because is Kirk Herbstreit calling? Oh, I guess that's in Texas. Fucking he did it again. He's calling Friday night, Ohio State, Texas. In Dallas, he's just going to go right over to Houston for Saturday. You think Jake doesn't know Kirk Herbstreit's travel schedule? Yeah, that's for sure. He's probably got dog-friendly flights that can take him from city to city. Yeah. Okay, 8 p.m. Saturday, Commanders at Bucks. Okay. Do you want that? I don't think that's where he's wrong. I think he's wrong as well there.

I don't care. Anyone, anytime, anywhere. All right. I love that for you. Yeah. Sunday, 1 p.m., Broncos at the Bills. I think that's the second layup on the schedule. I think the first game and that game are almost guaranteed. Yeah. I mean, especially the Texans. If you're a Houston Texans fan, for the last 10 years, you can just pencil in what you're going to be doing at 3.30 in the afternoon on that Saturday in January. I might, by the way, I think I saw the line open at 7.5. If it...

If it's seven or even six and a half, I might game of the year the Bills. I don't think the Bills are going to fucking demolish the Broncos. You don't think so, Hank? Hungry dog?

I think the Bills are going to fucking demolish. Broncos have been showing some fight. All right, we'll talk about it. They're actually the first game we're going to talk about. 4.30, the afternoon game, Packers at the Eagles. Packers at the Eagles, okay. 8 p.m., Steelers-Ravens. Yep, that would be awesome. That sounds about right. That would be awesome. Hopefully the Ravens just wear their clean black uniforms for that game. Yep. That's what America wants. Yep. And then we've got Monday, the loser of the Vikings-Lions game,

At the Rams Monday Night Football. Okay. So, I mean, those are his predictions. We'll get the final by the end of the show. But let's get into it. So we're going to start with the AFC, the entire AFC picture, and all the games from the AFC today. We have to set the stage. Chiefs, the one seed. Bills, the two seed. Ravens, the three seed. Texans, four. Chargers, five. Ravens, six. Or, sorry, Steelers, six. Broncos, seven. And we'll start with the game that kind of...

It took all the intrigue out of Sunday. Broncos 38, Chiefs 0. I went into this game being like, hey, maybe Carson Wentz will show us something and keep this. I never thought the Chiefs were going to win. I thought the Chiefs might cover 11 and a half.

He, that was stupid of me. He's bad. Carson Wentz made me believe that this might be Patrick Mahomes best season ever. Yeah. That's how, that's how bad the chiefs look today. Yes. Carson Wentz took the job a little too seriously. You could see when he was rolling up to the game and he was dressed like he was the magician opening an act for month Mumford and son. Yeah. That this was going to be a, an all time shitty game from Carson Wentz. What was he wearing? He had the suspenders. He had the like, uh,

weird like 1920s style cap on he had the best way to put it when I saw him I thought to myself this looks like your most arrested friend what he would wear to his wedding to make people think that he had class for four hours right right like I really class this like check this out I've got leather suspenders on oh yeah I'm looking at him right now yeah

Yeah, and he rented a Land Rover to drive around for four hours to be like, damn, I really did. He basically is like, I'm going to look like an English countryside man. Carson Wentz ruined America's Sunday again. Yeah, he was trying a little too hard. Oh, this is the Max. Max is so good. How many pictures do you think? Actually, it's FSU Brando that did it. Shout out FSU Brando. But yeah, Carson Wentz.

Who's the... Sherlock Holmes. He was basically like, if I could be the backup for Sherlock Holmes, the musical. Yeah, the understudy. Yeah, the understudy. I'll do that and I'll show up like that. Not exactly exuding confidence. Carson Wentz made this game...

Just it was never. I mean, it was more Bo Nix was phenomenal and the Broncos came out and they didn't fuck around. And I think that they should wear those uniforms all the time. Oh, for sure. Because those are the not fuck around uniforms. But yeah, Carson Wentz. It was Carson to Carson. Carson Wentz to Carson Steele. Yeah. And Carson to Carson, their stat line.

Carson Wentz was 10 for 17 for 98 yards. Carson Steele was eight rushes for 25 yards. Okay, your Carson power rankings. I got Carson Steele one, Johnny Carson two, and then Carson Wentz three for how they performed. Okay, so I've got Carson Daly one, Carson Steele two, Carson Wentz three.

No, Johnny Carson 3. Yeah, Johnny Carson had a better day. Carson Palmer. Carson Palmer 4. Carson City. Carson City 5.

What other Carsons we got? Ben Carson. Ben Carson, six. Tomorrow, Monday, January 6th. That's a top day for Ben Carson. Yeah, Carson Beck, seven. He just declared for the draft. That doesn't mean he's going to get drafted, but he declared for the draft. Yeah, this was a big weekend for Carson, except for Wentz. I'm at seven. I'm trying to think. Are there any others?

I guess I'll just then go seven Carson Wentz. Carson Kelly hit 240 this year with nine home runs. Okay. Okay, that's pretty good. Yep, that's pretty good. Okay, so put him seven, and then eight would be Carson Beck. You know what? Put eight Carson Beck.

Just parentheses, TikTokers. You know there is one. I don't fucking know. It could be a last name or whatever. I don't fucking know. But there's definitely a famous TikToker named Carson. Carson Wentz needs to be... He's relegated to the Carson Championship Division. Yeah. So Carson Wentz will be number nine Carson for me. Yep. That feels right. Dead last. As for the Broncos, congratulations to the Broncos for making the playoffs. It's actually an awesome story. So this is the first time they've been in the playoffs in eight years.

They were, this is a franchise that what, 18 months ago to, you know, two years, less than two years ago was like, where are we going? Because it was Russell Wilson on a terrible contract. Nathaniel Hackett for 13 games or whatever it was getting fired. They had no way out. And then they get Sean Payton and it wasn't great last year, but,

But Sean Payton, I owe you an apology. You're a hell of a coach. Bo Nix, I owe you an apology. You had a phenomenal rookie season. And the Denver Broncos are back in the playoffs. And if you're a Broncos fan, this has to feel awesome because there are certain teams in these playoffs, and we'll get to it, and we'll talk about it all week. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens have the most pressure of any team ever.

Bills and Josh Allen as well. The Broncos are on gravy train. And I know that doesn't mean that they're not going to try to win, you know, playoff games and get to the Super Bowl. But if you're a Broncos fan...

Getting to the playoffs in the first year of Bo Nix and having your franchise turn around, get out from under Russell Wilson, turn around this fast, have the future look this bright, have your defense be phenomenal. Like, whatever happens in the playoffs, next year in the offseason is going to be a great time just getting pumped for Broncos football. Yeah, this season is a clear win for the Denver

Clear win. Clear win. You've already won. Congratulations. Yeah, but it's going to be tough going to Buffalo. I don't envy them for that, but it doesn't matter. Like, you are playing with zero pressure in this game. Yeah. So, yeah, they shut out the Chiefs. Shut them out. Get Carson Wentz off TV forever. Didn't even make it. Like, we went into today, and we knew all the playoff iterations, and obviously we'll get to the Bengals Saturday night game. Like, they were still alive, and the Jets and Dolphins had implications. Yeah.

I just wanted this game to be a little bit of drama. But the Broncos were just too good. And it's all credit to the Broncos. Because there is a world where the pressure of that game, a win and get in for the Broncos, they have weird shit happen. And you just knew it was their day on, I think it was the second or third touchdown pass by Bo Nix, where it hit...

six different hands from the Chiefs. They got the Chiefs magic. Yeah, they got the Chiefs magic. That's some shit that would happen to the Kansas City Chiefs if Patrick Mahomes threw that pass. But this also is set up. The Chiefs, you know, they're set up for the playoffs. I know they're going to have, whatever, 25 days off or whatever it might be if they play on a Saturday or Sunday with 24 days off. They'll win their first game.

in the divisional round. Do you guys all agree? It will be either the Texans, Chargers, Ravens, Broncos. If I had to say, the only team that I would say... Chargers. The Chargers just because it's division...

And third time. Because the Broncos... Not the Ravens? It's tough to beat a team three times a year. No, the Ravens, they wouldn't play the Ravens until the AFC Championship. The Broncos, obviously, in division, third time. But this game wasn't... The Chiefs didn't have their starters play. The game was over before they even touched down in Denver, right? Because Kansas City was delayed so much. Yeah. They didn't take off until, like, what, 7 p.m. last night to get there? Well, the game was over when Carson Wentz, his wife, put out the, you know...

Whatever the fuck that was. The game was over when he set foot inside Ben's warehouse. Yeah. Yeah. And he was like, you know what? Give me all the accoutrements. I want a vest. I want a hat. Chargers could do it. Oh, you're going to do that now.

Okay, Hank. I see what you're doing. Trolling. Tough to beat a team three times. Trolling, trolling, trolling. I said when they won that Thursday night game, I said they looked good. Yeah, they did. They could make a move. But yeah, credit to Sean Payton and Broncos fans. You should be over the moon because the future is just so bright. And it just has to feel so good knowing that you turned it all around that quickly. And eight years...

I've said it a million times before, but like the Broncos were one of those franchises that was the gold standard and just they never really had bad years. And I think they're one of the only teams that hasn't picked number one overall. They, you know, won Super Bowls with John Elway, won one with Peyton Manning. We're always like,

in the mix so these eight years have been very tough for the broncos and now it feels like you're starting a new opening up a new window of hey we're going to be back to what we were we're going to be in the playoff picture year in and year out you got new ownership yeah and everything around yeah the walton the walmart money yeah that walmart yeah i am happy for broncos fans this has been big for them and bo nicks thank god sean payton looked inside his backpack

Yes. It was like, what's in the bag? Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, Denver is a football town. They love their fucking Broncos. And if they wear those uniforms every day, like every game, every time I see them in the uniforms, like, man.

I kind of love the Broncos. But those uniforms are so good that all it does is make me mad they don't wear them every week. Exactly. That's how good they are. And it's just something about mile high. You got to wear those in the playoffs, right? Yeah. Those are playoff uniforms. I don't know, though. On the road, you don't get to decide. The Bills will probably wear blue, right? I would assume the Bills will wear blue, yeah. So they'll have to wear white. The Broncos will. Yeah. So that sucks. Maybe just do the powder blue uniforms. Yeah.

I mean the helmets you go with the helmet you can go yeah the blue helmets all white jerseys yeah um okay next game Bengals 19 Steelers 17 so this obviously happened Saturday night uh the Broncos game made this irrelevant but for 24 more hours the Bengals were alive they are not alive anymore they did not make it to the playoffs they ended the season with a win kind of hot but

That's got to be one of the most frustrating seasons for a fan base I can remember in a long time. And not like frustrating the Jets or the Bears or the Giants. You had Joe Burrow in an all-time season, Jamar Chase, who got the triple crown, and you just didn't get a shot at the playoffs. And it's like a what if in your head. I don't think they would have done a lot of damage because of that defense, even though the defense has been playing better.

That what if would drive me insane. We can say right now Chiefs really dodged a bullet by getting the Bengals bounced. Yeah, the Bengals just weren't a very good team. They just weren't there. You have to be able to play defense and stop somebody occasionally. How weird does that week one game look now? Yeah. Week one, Bengals lose to the Patriots. That cost the Patriots the number one pick overall in the draft. And it also kept the Bengals out of the playoffs. Kept the Bengals out of the playoffs. And the weird part about the Bengals season is,

on Saturday night against the Steelers, it was their defense that saved them because, you know, that first drive was on easy mode for Joe Burrow. And then they didn't score. They didn't get a touchdown again. And Trey Hendrickson was an absolute monster. They came up with stop after stop and,

He had three and a half sacks. He gets the season record. So he's 17 and a half sacks on the season, leads the league. I still, every time I watch him, especially in the cold without gloves on, I get very intimidated. And yeah, I don't know what, like to have your defense finally play that type of game.

It's like, God damn it. Everything just nothing worked at the right time for the Bengals. They just ran out of time on everything. When was the last time a team finished with the best passer, most yards, the top receiver, and the top sack person and missed the playoffs? I mean, I'm just going to assume the Chargers. Probably Chargers. 2011? Or 8 or whatever it was. Yeah, whatever that year was. Yeah. But it's extra. Like, if you're the Bengals...

It already was frustrating knowing you needed a lot of help this weekend. But then to have a game like Saturday night where your defense finally bowed up and made stop after stop, and your defense has looked a little bit better down the stretch. Nope, not going to happen. Not going to happen. Pickens put up, I think, one catch for zero yards in this game. Was so bad. Looked checked out.

Not on the same page. Yeah, not on the same page, turns out. Who gets the blame for that deep pass? I think Russ missed him on that one. Russ didn't play well either. I think Russ missed him. It was very funny because I was watching. I went to Derek Rose night, and then I came home, and I got the last three minutes of the Bengals-Steelers game.

and I was watching in bed, and my wife was like, who are you talking about who's not on the same page as Russ? And as she said it, it was that pass that would have won them the game. And I was like, it was that guy. And he laid there, and he was so frustrated, and he dropped. Yeah, he had one catch for zero yards, six targets. Yep.

I think three drops. I don't know what the Steelers... The Steelers just do the same season every year. And it's obviously... The reason for it is that since Roethlisberger, they've been in just complete quarterback purgatory. They've been taking shots at guys year after year. But they've lost four in a row.

Three out of four of them were to legit playoff teams, the fourth being the Bengals. They look like completely lost on offense. They did kind of fix it on defense, finally. But I don't – this is what happens every single year. That third and one and fourth and one at the end of the first half when they couldn't get a yard. Yep.

They're just not a threat. Yeah, they're not a threat. And by always being right around 500, but a little bit better than 500, they do miss on the opportunity to get quarterback. So they're probably going to do another bridge quarterback. Yeah. Or Rodgers. Yeah, maybe Rodgers, Kirk Cousins. I don't know. I don't know who you're going to bring in, but they're not going to be in a position to draft one, at least one that's any good.

And so it's like you're going to see the exact same Steelers season repeat itself over and over again in the future. Yeah. I saw a meme. It was like two hallways. Like Steelers start well, Steelers start poorly. And then both of the hallways led to 10 and six bounce in the first round of the playoffs. Yeah. And that's just what it is every year. But the thing is, they could beat the Ravens. The Ravens are obviously a much, much better team right now.

And on paper, it seems like the Ravens should dog walk them. They could because of the Tomlin. It's the Tomlin Steelers Ravens thing. Yeah, it is. And they were. If Russ doesn't fumble in that game a couple weeks ago, like going in, they would be up 14-7. They already beat the Ravens once this year. I don't think they're going to beat the Ravens because I just don't know where the offense is going to come from. But maybe it's one of those weird Lamar throws a couple picks and...

And you get a lucky fumble. I saw a highlight reel of Lamar Jackson's interceptions this year. I think he's thrown what? Four. Four of them? Four. And I think three of the four were like tipped balls that weren't really his fault, like either deflected off his teammate's hand or something like that. Lamar's just not turning the ball over this year. Yeah. But in a weird way,

Although you'd like to see, if you're the Steelers, you would much rather go play against the Chargers or something like that. I guess it wouldn't be the Chargers. The Texans. The Texans. You would much rather play against the Texans. But I feel like they have a decent chance against the Ravens. If you're a Ravens fan, the Steelers are not the team you wanted to see. And I'm not saying that the Steelers are anywhere near as good as the Ravens. The Ravens are far, far better than the Steelers. It's just...

the familiarity and how these teams always play has to scare you because it's just a single elimination, a fluke bounce, and the Steelers are the best at fluke bounce. But I feel bad for Steelers fans, not in a way that like, not when Billy said he felt bad for us. I feel bad in the fact that

You can't complain if you're a Steelers fan because you go to the playoffs routinely and Mike Tomlin never goes under 500. But you can complain because it's so frustrating living in this purgatory. And I understand, like, as much as I love Mike Tomlin, when Steelers fans are like, I'm sick of this, get me off this ride, I'm starting to realize, like, yeah, they're actually right to be able to complain here. You're good adjacent. You're good. And you're good enough to know...

how you lack that one thing that will put you into being a very good team. Yeah, they're good-ish. You're good-ish, and you're always going to be good-ish. You're going to play teams hard.

But you're probably not going to do anything in the playoffs. You're going to win a couple games you didn't expect to win during the course of the season. You're going to lose a couple games you didn't expect to lose. And then you're going to end up with a 6 or 7 seed and then lose in the playoffs. There's only one way to break this if you're the Steelers and you're getting your bridge quarterback. And you want a guy that's going to take chances. And if it goes well, it's going to be electric. But completely reset the identity of what your offense has been. And that's James Winston. You get James in there, worst case scenario...

You finish with a bad enough record where maybe you could draft a better quarterback. I like that. Although I like that. If things go right, it's completely different. It is like is the antidote to everything that you've been in the last four. I like that a lot. Jameis Jameis and Pittsburgh Jameis and Pittsburgh. Get it done. Do you think the Bengals re-sign T Higgins? No, I was leaning. No.

And it's probably still no. But Joe Burrow, that was as direct as you can get. You don't let that guy out the door. Yeah. And Joe Burrow is your franchise quarterback. I...

Maybe. I mean, you should. Maybe. I want to be very clear. I'm not saying that you shouldn't. Will they? I don't think that they will, especially if they do move from Zach Taylor, which I guess is a possibility. I don't think they will. I mean, how much of this season can you put on the head coach, though? He would be one of the best coaches to be fired. Yeah, he definitely gets blamed for this season. So it's a pretty big failure. Yeah. Given the talent that you have and the expectations...

He's got to get some of it. And listen, we love Joe Burrow, friend of the program. But this does feel the famous window speech he gave. Remember when he's like, the window's always open when I'm here? This feels like a curse season from that. Yeah. Where it's like, no, because you can have seats. The window's not always open because it's the NFL and the ball bounces wrong a couple games and you're having a career year and still out of the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough.

This is why we need NFL bowls. He also told the burglars that his window is always open. Yeah, that's true. This is why we need NFL bowls. I'd watch the Bengals in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Just give it to us. Okay, so Bengals, who would you have them play in a bowl? I would have in a bowl... Maybe the Falcons? The Falcons would be a good one. Four-netters.

Bengals Cardinals? Bengals Seahawks. That'd be a good game. Bengals Panthers. Little Andy Dalton revenge. Yeah, I'd watch that bowl game. Give us one bowl game. Do it, you know, I don't know, Thursday night after the first round so that we can still have Thursday night football and have it be for, I don't know,

uh 10 million dollars extra in cap space you don't think the bangles would do that i don't think they would use that cap space yeah they were just like we're still not resigning yeah they'd have it can you trade cap space because i think the bangles would do that okay next game chargers 34 raiders 20 so this is the other consequential game so the steelers losing the chargers winning the chargers get the five seed they go to houston on uh wild card super wild card weekend and

This was the Chargers finishing 11-6 on the season. Incredible turnaround. Quentin Johnson was insane in this game. I think he finished with 13 catches, 186 yards, making awesome catches. And the Chargers finished the season strong. Feel like, Hank, they could beat the Texans. They're favored against the Texans. I think they will beat the Texans. And then they'd have to go to Arrowhead. I would ride them. What's wrong with you right now? I'm sick. You are? I'm sick.

Yeah, can't you hear? Yeah, I guess I didn't really notice because you were... Is that...

Is that why you've been a little chippy today? Because you're on medicine? Are you a little loopy? A little loopy. You have been a little... Have you noticed Hank's been a little like... Hank was very feisty. Yeah. He's been sneezing more aggressively than any man has ever sneezed before today. Is that true? Are you being a bitch by your sneezing? I'm not sneezing. I'm not bitching. I just... I like didn't want to be sneezing in front of everyone. Is that a handkerchief? Three hours. It's a towel. Yeah. He's got a towel. She's got a cum towel? Oh, that's Stu's towel. It's Stu's cum towel. Yeah.

I think the Chargers, yeah, could make some noise. I think they're officially in my make some noise category. I mean, the way Herbert's playing, yes. Yeah. He's playing really well. Yeah. He's running with the ball well. I'm not going to put anything past Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh can 100% beat the Texans. Yes. What do we think about what the Raiders are going to do?

Brock Powers, by the way, finished over 1,000 yards. Phenomenal season. Rookie record for catches, too. I kind of think he might be a bridge quarterback in place. He might be good enough for the Raiders to go into next season and be like, you know what? Let's just run it back and let's have AOC and Gardner Minshew battle it out this offseason. We'll see who's going to be QB1. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you think they're going to fire Antonio Pierce? I think they might because I think Tom Brady, like your good friend Mike Florio was saying, is going to be leaning a lot more heavily into decision making than his 1% stake ownership would lead you to believe. Yeah. Is there a chance Mike Vrabel can coach three different teams at the same time? Yeah. Mike can do it. Yeah. He absolutely can do it. Actually, can you grab Shane? Shane is our Chargers fan. He said he might go to this game.

He said he might go to this game if it's the Saturday afternoon game. And I was like, dude, it's the Saturday afternoon game. Don't worry about it. 346 yards. That's a haul. Oh, no, it's in Texas still. Yeah. Haul.

But he's never been to a Chargers game. He's never been to Texas. Never been to Texas. Never been on an airplane. He's never seen a football game live. Yeah. He's actually never touched a football. Houston Airport, God help you. God help you. All right, Shane. What's up? Chargers talk. Real quick, for the people. Shane is a diehard Chargers fan. He's wearing one of his finest Chargers sweatshirts.

I didn't realize you were sick. Changes my whole perspective on today. You have a fever? I thought you were in a good mood today. I didn't realize you were just fucking doped up on NyQuil or DayQuil or whatever the fuck you're taking. We're all going to get sick. Emergency? Shane, how are we feeling about the Chargers? I feel great. Everything that needed to happen happened. Yep. And are you going to beat the Texans? Yeah. Are you going to go to the game?

I'll try to. What does that mean? I'll see. I mean, it's a Saturday. Football game's on. I might have to work. Yeah? Yeah. It's going to be on Saturday. I hope it's on Saturday. 430. We're telling you right now it's Saturday. They already announced it? Yeah. Basically. No? It's the Texans. It's going to be Saturday, Shane. It'll be a good game. What are we talking about? Shane, it's going to be Saturday. Okay. So are you going to go? I will try. You need to go.

Game time will send you. Come on. I mean, that would be awesome. Yeah. First game. So what are the keys to the playoffs for the Chargers? Well, biggest key was just like five seed. Like Ravens, no chance. But I don't know. Just got to not fall apart on offense. Okay. That's good. That's a good key. Score points. Give up little points.

Give up little points. Yes. Like field goals, safeties. Yes. Those type of points. Can I give you some tips? No touchdowns. You've got to run the football, and then you've got to stop the run. We've got to pass occasionally. Little points. Win appropriate. I don't think I've ever heard little points, but I like it. Little points. Okay. Thank you, Shane.

Shane is one of our hardworking guys on PMT, also Italian. We have too many Italians here. Way too many. Way too many Italians. Is he really Italian? Yes. He's got blonde hair. Yeah, blonde hair. I don't know. Northern Italian? He's got a vowel in his last name, doesn't he? He does. Mario. Everybody has a vowel in their last name. We need more Italians. No, it's the last thing we need. Yeah. Okay. Next up, Ravens, 35. Browns, 10.

The Cleveland Browns got the second pick in the draft, which kind of was out of nowhere. Like they were the going into the season. I don't think anyone thought they were going to be a great team, but no one thought they were going to be the second pick. And then Deshaun showed up and he was terrible. And then Jameis showed up and like, oh, they're definitely not going to be the second pick because he's going to win a couple games. And then they went to the saddest quarterback duo of all time in Bailey Zappy and DTR.

That bummed me out watching that game. So they scored 10 points, which is actually an improvement of what we've seen from the Browns in the last three weeks. They've now scored 26 points in four games. So is that six and a half points per game? Yes. Under the DTR slash Bailey Zappi two-headed monster? Yes. And then Ken Dorsey got fired for not being able to squeeze blood out of a stone. Yep. For not being able to activate DTR appropriately. Yep. But getting fired by the Browns as a coach, that's a prestigious group that you can count yourself among.

Yeah. Right? Because didn't Belichick, was he fired? Everyone gets fired by the Browns. Saban was probably fired by the Browns. Yeah, when you get fired by the Browns, they probably give you like a nice Rolex. Yeah. Like, thank you for your service. We appreciate it. Hugh Jackson shows up first to those meetings probably. Hey, guys. Yeah. We're all great coaches here. Hey, what's up, guys? Oh, yeah, we're all awesome. Yeah, oh, yeah, I won one game in two years. But if you talk to Mike Silver, he'll tell you I got a raw deal. Yeah. But, yeah, the season's over for the Browns. You're probably glad.

It's probably a good thing for you guys. The Ravens just looked like they were going to continue to be nearly unstoppable. Yeah. It's like on easy mode for Lamar right now. Yeah. Although Zay Flower is getting injured. How injured is he? Have you seen an update on that? I know there was an MRI scheduled. I don't know what happened with the MRI. But yes, that is very, very significant. This is a big part. Although Bateman looks pretty good, too. Yeah.

And Mark Andrews is like fully, fully back. So I know there was that stretch of the season was like, what's up with Mark Andrews? Is Isaiah likely the guy? No, Mark Andrews is the guy. Let's see. Can we find anything about Zay Flowers? Look it up, Max, while we talk about the game. Lamar is probably going to win the MVP. I don't know. It's close. It's an awesome MVP. I hope it's Josh.

Lamar, so he's the first player in NFL history to have 4,000 yards passing and 900 plus rushing yards in the same season. He's also the first player in history to have over 40 touchdowns with under five interceptions. 41 and four is what he finished with. He was insane all season.

It is one of the coolest MVP races we've had because it's such a good MVP race that the guy who has 2,000 yards rushing is not even talked about. Yeah, so if you're a Ravens fan, are you more confident going into this postseason than you were last year?

You have to be because of Derrick Henry, but you don't have home field. You don't have home field, but you have to be because of Derrick Henry and what he did this year. Derrick Henry statistically probably had his best season. I know he had a 2000 yard season, but he had, he carried the ball, I think 60 or 70 more times that season. Uh,

He turned 31 on Saturday, and he had 1,921 yards and 16 touchdowns. It's insane what he did this year. That is crazy also to think that Derrick Henry's just 31. Yeah. Because in running back years, he might as well be like 60. But he had an incredible season, and I think the presence of Derrick... You can't refuse to run the ball like they did last year against the Chiefs when Derrick Henry's in your backfield. That's just a fact. It's almost...

You put Derrick Henry there so that you have to remind yourself all the time, oh, yeah, who's that guy who's standing on the sideline who's a beast that no one can tackle? Oh, yeah, we should probably run him. Yeah, that's why you get the biggest guy you can find to be your bell cow running back. Right. Because it's impossible to ignore Derrick Henry. Right. So, yeah, I think you feel more confident going into this year. I think you are still, though, very nervous because –

This is the most important playoffs in Lamar's career, I think. Because he's going to be coming off what most likely is going to be three straight MVPs or two straight and then his third overall. I think it's two straight and his third overall. And you have everything. I know you don't have home field. It might be his best season and he's skinny. Yeah, and you have everything. And the defense of the Ravens has played a lot better in the back half of the season. I know their secondary was a worry for a while. It's gotten a lot better.

So, yeah, I think this is the – if you had to do the – maybe let's do that on Wednesday. Let's do pressure rankings. Which team has the most pressure? I like that. I think it would be the Ravens. I think Lamar Jackson has the most pressure. I would agree. I think if you don't win it this year in Baltimore, you're like, we're never going to get it done. If you don't at least get to the Super Bowl. Super Bowls can go 50-50. It's one game. If they don't get to the Super Bowl, if they lose to the Bills or the Chiefs, there's going to be a lot of questions. What are you thinking, Max?

They have such a tough road. I know, but that's... They have to go on the road to Buffalo and then on the road to Kansas City. But they're a really good team. And last year, they obviously had home field advantage. They blew that. They've blown home field advantage a couple times as the one seed. You don't think that they're number one in pressure rankings? Yeah. Would you say the Eagles have more pressure? I personally think the Eagles have more pressure. I do not think the Eagles have more pressure.

I think the Ravens have the most pressure because Derrick Henry is also not getting younger. And Lamar, again, Lamar is the best player in the NFL right now, playing the best football. He's going to win an MVP, most likely. I hope it's Josh. But you got to do it. He hasn't been to a Super Bowl. I think it's 1-2, Lamar, Josh, for most pressure in these playoffs.

I would say... I think Josh has more pressure. Yeah, I was going to say, I think the Bills and the Ravens are just about the exact... Because they're both fighting the same battle, which is to finally be able to beat the Chiefs. Yeah, the only reason I would say the Bills don't have as much pressure is just because this was supposed to be a mini-rebuild year. Yeah, but... Where you flip the roster. The Ravens have nine pro bowlers. But once you're there, though... No, I know. Once you're there... I agree. And you've had as good a season as the Bills have had... I agree. I think...

Bills fans are definitely as nervous as they've ever been. Last year, they might have had more pressure because that was the end of that roster. And they're home. I know. The Bills are going to be home in that game and favored. We'll save it for pressure rankings on Wednesday. We'll have a debate. Maybe we can go to Supreme Debate. I don't know if we want to go there. We can think about it. Depends on how sick Hank is. Well, I don't know. Skip Bayless method. Supreme Debate. That's why Hank got this job, actually. Yeah. Paid him a half million dollars. Fuck me. Mm-hmm.

He said no. Oh, by the way, Michael Pierce, that interception was awesome. But the bus ran out of gas. Yep. I really wish he had tried to give us a little bit more. Why is that? He's so big. Him running was so funny. He kneeled right away. I think it was perfect, though. He was just like, fuck this. Yeah. He was like, I'm already tired. My plays are usually over after four and a half seconds. You can't expect me to run with this football. Who do the Browns take with the number two pick?

Maybe Cam Ward. I'll say it. I don't know. I don't know if I would take Shador one or two.

I know you're not supposed to say that here, but I'm going to say it. I think I would take Cam Ward before Shador. I would take Cam Ward. I have Cam Ward ahead of Shador on my big board. I do too. But I got Travis Hunter number one overall. Yeah. I also think that this is not a good QB draft that maybe you just take a really – there's some really good players in this draft that are just not QBs. I got Cam Scataboo number one overall. Number two, I've got – Tyler Crowe. Actually, no, I don't. I have – Hunter is two.

And then I've got Cam Ward, then Shador. Okay. That's my top four. Nice. So you don't have Ashton Gentry? I don't have Ashton Gentry on there. Okay. No. All right. Let's take a break with a couple of ads, and then let's talk about Hank firing his coach. Before we get to Hank firing his coach, he's brought to you by Game Time. There's college football this week. We got NFL games coming up this weekend. Super wild card weekend for the Penn State game, Max, on Game Time.

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These games are also brought to you by our good friends over at Netflix. Netflix has a gripping new limited series coming called American Primeval, starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin. American Primeval is about one of the most beautiful, brutal, and isolated parts of America in 1857 as men and women violently clash over land, culture, religion, and community. American Primeval is a very violent story of rebellion, pain, hatred, fear, and ultimate survival.

as one woman fights to save her son as they try to get through the land. American Primeval is brought to you by Pete Berg, Mark L. Smith, and Eric Newman. American Primeval is only on Netflix January 9th. Okay. Oh, before we talk Patriots, Bills, Breaking Moves. Breaking Moves. I got mad cow disease. Breaking Moves. We do have our playoff schedule.

So, uh, Jake Marsh went four for six. Pretty good. He's beaten himself up a little bit, but, uh, we were exactly right. Chargers and Texans are going to kick it off on Saturday. Uh,

at 4.30 Eastern, 3.30 Central. So somebody posted the history of the Texans in this time slot. And 2011, Saturday, 3.30. 2012, Saturday, 3.30. 2015, Saturday, 3.30. 2016, Saturday, 3.30. 2018, Saturday, 3.30. 2019, Saturday, 3.30. 2023, Saturday, 3.30. 2024, Saturday, 3.30.

330. Have they won like two of those games too? Like I feel like they don't win often. They beat the Bengals in one of them because the Bengals used to be the king of the Saturday 330 and they passed the torch. They beat the Raiders in the one that Derek Carr got hurt right before. And who the fuck started that game? It was, I think, an ex-Michigan State. Oh, yes. Yeah. It was. Was it a Cooper? No, it was a Michigan State quarterback. Fuck. I think Cook. Yes. Connor Cook. Connor Cook.

But yeah, Shane doesn't know ball to be like, oh, the schedule's released. Are you sure it's Saturday at 3? Yeah, it is. It's the Texans. It was always Saturday. It's the Texans. You know what? Part of my take is the first report. The Houston Texans will play on wildcard weekend in 2026, Saturday, 3.30. Yes. So we're starting off with the Chargers at the Texans. Then we're doing Steelers at Ravens Saturday night, which I love.

The Broncos at the Bills, the early game on Sunday, which we all said was a guarantee. Those are the two guarantees. The early Texans, early Broncos at Bills. Then it is Packers at Eagles. Max, afternoon spot. Are you feeling okay? You like it? Yeah, it's a good spot. And then PFT, you have the night game on Sunday.

I was a little surprised for the night game on Sunday. I thought you were going to get the Monday night game, to be honest. I thought Monday night was a possibility. I thought Saturday night. Sunday, it's like that's the game that they think America wants to watch the most. Yeah, it's NBC. So it's Jaden. Yeah, and then we have the Minnesota Vikings going to the LA Rams on Monday night for the Super Wild Card weekend. So we're very excited. I'm very excited for football. And we have Thursday and Friday football, too. Okay, Patriots at Bills. Patriots win.

They blow their shot at the number one pick.

It was very clear. We had this debate, I feel like, about the Bills maybe throwing it. And you're like, I don't know if they will. They did. They did. They started Josh Allen, Hank. They did start Josh Allen for play. That's 115 straight starts. I think the moment where I was like, yeah, they're not trying to win this game was when they punted from the Patriots' 35-yard line. The missed field goal to keep it so that it was basically a two-point game instead of a three-point game. The missed extra point, sorry.

And then they took out Mitch. Yeah. They took out Mitch, put in Mike White. We just had Mike White siding. Joe Milton. Joe Milton. Bazooka Joe came out today. Joe Milton looked awesome. You can't blame Bazooka Joe. You get a chance to play, you ball out. Yeah. That's what you do. When he scored that rushing touchdown that he did a casual backflip in the end zone afterwards.

Man, you might have two great quarterbacks. He had a couple passes across his body that were thrown like 150 miles an hour. He's got a cannon. We are still in phase one of the Joe Milton experience. He was playing against backups, but still. Yeah, but still, it's Joe Milton. He can bomb it. And then the big story is maybe an hour and a half after the game ended, the Patriots officially fired Gerard Mayo. So he's a one-and-done coach. Pretty crazy because...

What was it? In September, Robert Kraft said on a broadcast that he basically picked Gerard Mayo to be the next head coach five years ago. Yeah. I mean, Hank, you wanted this to happen. I feel like this was a smart decision. I do think it was a smart decision. I also think that...

They wouldn't have done it as quickly as they did if they didn't know that they are getting the coach that they want, which I believe is Mike Vrabel. And the fact that Mike Vrabel had just interviewed with the Jets, he was going to interview with the Bears. On Wednesday, I believe. It felt like Robert Kraft was like, I have to make this decision now because Mike's my guy. I guess he also interviewed with the Jets and then shortly after changed his Twitter profile picture, which he's not a very active Twitter user, to a picture of him when he was playing for the Patriots.

Mike Vrabel did? Yeah. He has a Twitter? Yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. Really? Oh yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that. I think there's a good chance that Mike Vrabel went into that interview and just said, fuck you guys. I'm a patriot. Yeah. And then left. He actually probably went in there and got a bunch of info on how they run. So he's like, I'm going to be a division foe in a matter of hours. He could have got their info on how they run with the latest Madden update. Yeah. Or just followed Brick on Twitter.

Instagram. Yeah, so the note that Robert Kraft dropped, it was a lengthy breakup note that he published for the world. Did you have a chance to read it? I did not. Oh, you didn't? You should read it. It's like Robert Kraft opened up his diary. The one part that stuck out to me was when he said... Is Robert Kraft on X the everything? He is not, but the New England Patriots are, and they released this. It's not that lengthy. It's three paragraphs.

I mean, come on, Hank. It's 2025, dude. That's lengthy. Like, I am not a reader, and this wasn't like, I'm not reading this shit. Well, you didn't read it. I'm sick. I didn't even see it. He's sick, you cat. Oh, yeah, he's sick. Hank, why don't you read it, and then we'll put it in, like, 600 speed.

After the game today, I informed Gerard. You can't read it one speak. What are you doing? I had no Gerard for 17 years. He earned my respect and admiration as a rookie in 2008 and throughout his career for his play on the field. His leadership in the locker room and the way he conducted himself in our community when he joined our coaching staff, his leadership was even more evident as I saw how the players responded to him.

When the other team started requesting to interview him, I feared I would lose him and committed to making him our next head coach. So it basically sounds like that. He was just. Yes. He hired him because he was scared. Yeah. The fact that he included this in the statement was like. That's tough. I'm trying to escape blame for this. The only reason I hired him was because I thought somebody else would hire him. That was my mistake. Winning our season opener on the road at Cincinnati strengthened my conviction. So they won the game. That was it. Yeah. We're good. We beat Joe Burr on the Bengals. Dynasty back on.

Since buying the team, I've always considered myself and my family as custodians of a public asset. That's a big time corporate speak. This will be an 800 speak. You got the gist of it. Yeah. So you are going to get Mike Vrabel.

Yeah. It was basically everyone, every fan base that had an opening dreamed of Mike Vrabel. I did that. I know memes did that. If you have an opening, you want Mike inside that opening. Yeah. Even the Raiders did that, and they don't even have an opening. Yeah.

And then this happened. It's like, well, there goes that. So Mike Vrabel will be the next coach in the New England Patriots. Do you want to report it first per Henry Lockwood? No, I'll let the things play out. I don't want to jump the gun. All right, that's fine. Me and Big Cat will do it. Yeah, per PFT and Big Cat. No, per Henry Lockwood. Hank doesn't want to report it. No, I know, but you can write whatever you want on a report. Good report, Hank. Per Henry Lockwood.

I don't get why they didn't do this last year. Is he going to be the next head coach of the Patriots? I think so. I am of the belief that the answer to that question is yes. Okay, so per Henry Lockwood. Yeah. Put it out. Per Henry Lockwood's beliefs. Belief system. Memes is the one. So I wanted Mike Vrabel as the coach of the Bears, but I also am in a spot, and we'll get to the Bears package. I've already mentally moved on from Vrabel and Ben Johnson because I've heard some things through the grapevine that

The Bears are going to end up with Brian Flores or the DC of the Dolphins or... Maybe the Lions. Some random college coach that no one's thinking about and it's like, oh, okay, this is awesome. So I already moved on. I already moved on. Memes, though. Memes is a little upset because memes...

was very confident that he was going to get Mike Vrabel. And not only was he confident he was going to get Mike Vrabel, now he has to deal with the fact that Mike Vrabel is going to be going against him in the AFC East. Memes. Nothing's confirmed yet. Okay. So you're not in denial? No. Are you denying Hank's belief? No.

It sounds like you are, though. I'm denying that nothing is official yet, per me. Mike Vrabel's interest in the Jets was just a smokescreen to pressure the Patriots to make a move at head coach. Yep. Makes sense. Damn. You were used. Used and abused. Yeah, you were a rebound.

Mike Vrabel went on a date with you, took a picture, popped it on Instagram. His ex is like, let's get back together. Go back to that one. Go back to that one. Was told that Mike Vrabel's dalliance with the Jets was a pressure on the Patriots to make a move with a young, incredibly promising QB who improved every week and despite very little talent. Did Drake May write this? No, it's Jaha. Aditi Quinwabah. More cap space than anyone in state leadership course in here. What is this tweet?

There's no way that was close to being the correct pronunciation. I just think of Jake. He does it so confidently. Did he queen hole bad? Hank, just report that Mike Vrabel is going to be your next coach so that other teams don't even interview him.

No, I don't want to set this franchise back years by cursing it. Okay. But would you say overall, I mean, it feels like you've come out of this bad season outside of obviously blowing the number one pick today. Pretty damn good. You got a lot of cap space. You got Drake May and you have Mike Vrabel. There's also a decent to beyond decent chance that the writing was on the wall in Mayo like

was gunning for everything to win that game. In which case, why would you let him coach this game? That doesn't make sense. It's the old Lovie Smith. That does not make sense. Lovie Smith in Texas. My gut tells me that the writing was on the wall and players probably had an idea. He definitely had an idea.

But yeah, they should have just done it before the game. The fact that Schefter said it before the game tells me that somebody knew. People had talked about it. And then to let him go out there, coach the game, win the game, cost you the first overall pick, and all that could have gone along with it for a trade. That's kind of a weird decision. But yeah, it's the first Patriots coach to be fired after his first season since...

Rod Rust. Roddy. Old Rod Rust in 1990. It doesn't happen often, the one and dones. It's probably been, what, like 10 of them in the last 20 years or so? Yeah. Get rid of a coach one season too early instead of one season too late. And it's actually hard to remember him. Steve Wilks. Oh, what's the guy from the Browns? Chudzinski? Yeah. Did he get one? Nathaniel Hackett. Freddie Kitchens? No.

Was he interim? I think he was interim. No, Freddie was. Oh, yeah, he was. He was a head coach. Shit, we're going head coach. What did you guys do? One and done. Two years of Trestman? Frank Wright. Oh, yeah. He had two years for Trestman. Let's see who else. Oh, is there another one in the Cardinals? Shit. The Cardinals. No, I don't think so. Oh, this is good. The one and done. Can we get any more?

I don't pay for this. Was McAdoo? No, he had two years, right? Yeah, he had a couple. He had two years. If you could have started this season and said that... Jeff Saturday. Drake Bay is going to play well. Yeah, Jeff Saturday. He was like one week in dunce. He's going to be leading all the graphs. He's going to be the head of the graphs, graph talk.

The Patriots are going to have the fourth overall pick, and Mike Vrabel is going to be our coach going into 2025. That's a win of a season. You could not write up a better season. Hank finished. The first pick sucks, but again, you've got to look at the big picture. The Patriots finished with the second worst record, and they also had probably a very positive season at the same time. Yeah, the arrow's pointing up for you. That pickles. I wish I could give that.

win to the Bengals. Oh, that's huge. If you're listening to Cincinnati, Hank can't, but he would love to. If he could, he would love to give you that win. Put you in the playoff. That sucks for Gerard Mayo. But also kind of not like in a weird way. It was like you don't want to be the guy who follows the guy. And now they got the buffer guy. Mm hmm.

It's kind of what you did with Cam Newton, although Mac Jones wasn't the guy after that. But the buffer guy is always a good guy. Because then he's just like, oh yeah, there was a guy in between. It is nuts to go... Being a bad team in the NFL is hard, and I'm just happy that we kind of have a path outward. It's tough to just, you know,

week after week going to these games. Memes, talk. Turn on your mic. They're still bad. They are still bad. You still don't have a head coach. Mike Vrabel could be coaching anybody. He's in Chicago next week. He's in denial. He could be in Jacksonville. A lot of places. It's better to just move on mentally.

But you would say whoever gets Mike Vrabel that they're going to be on the right path forward, right? Depending on the correct roster. Mike Vrabel in Tennessee inherited a good roster. How does the Patriots cap space look like? Ooh, good question, Max. $130 million. How is his free agent selling? Is that a lot?

How was whose? How was his free agent signings? How was his drafting? Will Compton. I've heard of him. That has a lot to do with the GM, too. Yeah, that's the GM. No. Mike Vrabel. Listen, memes. You're going to get Aaron Glenn. He did a great job tonight. It'll be fine. Yeah, he's a good guy. Rex Ryan. There you go. Rex Ryan. Ron Rivera. The names go on.

See, memes is... I feel like memes is always one step behind me in the process where it's like I went through this process and I was like, we're not getting Ben Johnson. We're not getting Mike Rabel. You and memes will never be on the same thought process ever with your team.

I understand. I'm saying I'm one step ahead of him. But he'll never get to your step. Right, right. He will never accept that the Jets suck. Right. We had this discussion the other night where he was like, the difference between me and you is you were in denial. And Memes was like, yeah. I was like, dude, you're still in denial. And he's like, what? We could have won 11 games. We could have won 11 games. One season away from what, Memes?

memes success okay all right here we go the uh one and dones we got reich we got oh lovey smith was one and done yep hackett cully

Could not pick Cully out of a lineup. Urban Meyer. You remember his collars? He always had unusual collars. Max just clicked away from that very helpful graphic we had up. Yeah, being the one who done... I was going to look at David Cully. Fred Kitchens, Chip Kelly. All these guys, do you even say that you used to be a head coach? Obviously, some of them are different. Chip Kelly and Urban Meyer are different. Lovie Smith's different because they coached somewhere else for a very long time. But if you're Steve Wilks, if you're...

David Culley. Do you say to someone, like, yeah, I was a head coach in the NFL? And they're like, wait, what? I think that if you're a David Culley or a Steve Wilks, and when the time comes and you pass away, it's probably not the first thing that's mentioned about you. No. Like, former Texas coach? No. Probably not. No. Okay, you know what, Meeam? Since we're talking about it. I'd truthfully forgotten that Chip Kelly was the coach of the 49ers. Yeah. Yeah. He didn't go well. No. Well, he was, what, two years at the Eagles and then 49ers?

I want to say three years with the Eagles. Might have been three years, yeah. All right, so, Meeam, since we're talking about it, let's talk about your big win. You had a huge win. Massive win. Jets 32, Dolphins 20. Aaron Rodgers throws his 500th career touchdown, throws three touchdowns. Looked good. Ulbrich might be having – he might have something cooking, Meeams. We were headed in the right direction. I was kind of freaking out during this game because I thought we were going to fall to number nine. But it was a good win.

And we just fell one pick, so it was a good win. It was a good win. It was a good win. It wasn't a terrible win. It wasn't as bad as the win could have been. No, I thought we were falling to nine, and then it would have been the worst. It would have been a horrible win. So Aaron Rodgers looked good. Do you think maybe give him an extension? He's going to be a lame duck quarterback next year. Jets fans probably won't like this. I would do another year. Yeah, you would. It's the denial part. Well, there's no other options. If you lay out all the options, it just –

Get a young guy in. Let Aaron Rodgers teach him. Oh, because he's notoriously good at that. Yeah, but you just try to go for it next year. Okay. Because if you say with Aaron Rodgers' stat line that he had this season, top 15 quarterback, that he played this well, you would think they won more than five games. Top 15 quarterback, that's quite a line to draw. Yeah, but do you think he wants to come back to the Jets? No.

Florio told us exactly what was going to happen. He wants... No, he doesn't know. He knows dick. Florio laid it out. Aaron Rodgers doesn't want to have to beg to come back. He wants to be told... He wants the Jets to break up with him and then he can go somewhere else.

But if you get Mike Vrabel or Aaron Glenn in there... True. Mike Vrabel's not going to coach the Jets, dude. Anything could happen. Anything could happen. The big story, though, from this game is the Dolphins obviously two didn't play, so it didn't matter because the Broncos ended up winning so easily and so quickly. But...

they had a chance to win and get in if the Broncos had lost. And then after the game, Tyreek Hill said that he, I just got to do what's best for me and my family. If that's here or wherever the case may be, I'm going to open that door for myself. I'm opening the door. I'm out, bro. Yep. It was great playing here, but at the end of the day, bro, I got to do what's best for my career. I'm too much of a competitor to just be out there.

Do you think that's best for his considerably large family for him to just be like, I got I'm going to leave the state. I'm out. You guys can move with me if you want. It's the first time he hasn't been in the playoffs. So he's dealing with that emotional right after a game. I am going to make a guess that someone's going to sit down, Tyree kill and be like, you see all these zeros that they gave you.

You should stay with the Dolphins. He's like, all right, fine. I'm back in. Maybe. Maybe. And that's kind of what Mike McDaniel said afterwards was like, he's probably very emotional. So I'm not going to talk to him right now. I'll talk to him in a couple of days. But that's as definitive as an answer as I've heard where he's like, I'm out. That is also what I feel like he does that shit all the time. Like, didn't he do? He tweets cryptically about shit like that sometimes where I don't know. I'm not surprised by Tyreek Hill saying that. I need to go coach.

Yeah, I need to go coach. I think he might have meant, like, coach, get me out of here. Yeah. So we'll see how that goes. But the Dolphins are back. And then Stephen Ross declared that everyone is safe. Everyone's safe. Stability is important. Stability is important. I mean, they did have... They had a decent second half of the season. I would say if you're the Dolphins, you...

It's probably worth taking one more shot at this iteration. I would also say that you probably want to invest very heavily in a backup quarterback. Yeah, so their plan going into the season was like the Raiders' plan going in with their starting quarterback, which is like, you're really going to do that? We're going to do Skyler Thompson again. Yeah. We're going to do Snoop Huntley. That's going to be your solution. Get a good backup. Just like hope that Tua stays healthy. Yeah, they should run it back, I think. Mike McDaniel's a very good coach. Yeah.

And they just, they got better in the second half of the season, but it does continue. What happened after that, that whomping of the Broncos where the Broncos just kept improving and the dolphins just kept getting worse. Yeah. They kept on getting worse. I'm also, I'm happy. The Broncos are in the playoffs and not the dolphins. I said this, I know dolphins fans were upset, uh,

But I just didn't really want to see Tyler Huntley have to go to Buffalo and play a playoff game. And they'll say, oh, well, we only lost by three to Skyler Thompson. That's fine. I still would prefer Bo Nix. Yeah, it's probably better for you that you don't have to go through that. Yeah. Just move on. Yeah. Okay.

Other last two games in the AFC Texans, 23 Titans, 14. Wait, there was one other thing from Aaron Rodgers. Oh, yeah. They read him a report at the press conference saying that people close to you have said that you're likely to retire after the season. And his answer was people said they were close to me, which is a great turnaround on him. Like nobody's close to me. Yeah. I like that. He's so mysterious. I do like that. So I guess it's not a no.

Yeah, but I don't think there... Yeah, I wouldn't guess there's more than like... No, there's probably no one close to him. Yeah, probably no one super close. Well... I watched some of his Netflix. I kind of want to do an Iowa...

Devontae Adams, maybe, but not really. They did walk off the field again together. That was kind of nice because they did that last time with the Packers. Who knows? I think he's got one or two more years left. It would be hilarious if he found a way to get to the Vikings. I think that's pretty crowded, but it would be very funny. Or the Steelers. Steelers. Titans would be a bummer.

I could see it, though. I don't think so. I think he's got to go to a team with a really good defense and just be a game manager. Vikings. Nope.

Memes is going to say that's the Jets. We could just load up on defense. He's going to say that's the Jets. Load up on defense. What about the San Francisco 49ers? It's coming home. We talked to Flory about that. Memes won't stop talking about the Jets winning the Super Bowl. Ever since we got off the Jets, our mics have been muted, and he just...

Keep saying Peyton Manning. If they load up, Peyton Manning Super Bowl year. What? He had nine touchdowns, 13 interceptions. He had a horrible year, and he was a game manager, and he got him to the Super Bowl. That defense was elite. So you're saying get a bad quarterback. No, no, no, no. I'm saying if you take Aaron Rodgers with his stats right now, and you load up on defense, top 15, you have a chance to do it. Where are you getting a young Vaughn Miller?

We have Jermaine Johnson coming back. Von Miller was out of this world. You could draft someone. He was Defense Player of the Year. You have a Defense Player of the Year? You never know. Will McDonald, Jermaine Johnson. Okay.

I believe if sauce doesn't hit the links this off season and that's true. Perhaps. No, he, he, he bounced back after Arizona. He had, he had a good second half of the year. Okay. Um, all right. Tight Texans, 23 Titans, 14, the Titans finished two and 15 against the spread. That is a, that's about as shocking of a status. You can have, yeah, it's got to be pissed. Yeah. Two and 15, two and 15 against the spread. Uh,

The Titans also got the number one pick, which that was kind of out of nowhere. That wasn't a team that was going into the season you would have said they would be the number one pick. And now they have it, and they're probably going to pick a quarterback because they did both today, Will Levis and Mason Rudolph, and it didn't work out.

And the Texans did a little warm-up. They had C.J. Stroud in for one drive, six for six, 50 yards. Joe Mixon carried the ball like five times, 30 yards. Touchdown, boom, they're ready to go. Playoffs. Damian Pierce with a huge game today. Yeah. He had that, what was it, 80-yard run? Yeah, what did he end up with, like 170-something yards? Yeah. I've always liked Damian Pierce, but I understand that he hasn't been the player that a lot of people expect him to be. But I still think he's a nice running back when Mixon's not getting it done.

Yeah. I would like to see them use Pierce a little bit more often, but...

Yeah, this game was not really anything, nothing really noteworthy. Davis Mills landed on his neck. Yeah. That was pretty entertaining. The Titans wore the Oilers jerseys. Those are always awesome, but they shouldn't get to wear them. They shouldn't get to wear them, and they got to know at this point, karma's not on your side when you wear those in Houston. No. I think Schefter said Brian Callahan is safe, which I'm happy he is. I don't think he should be a one and done. But yeah, this was just a bad team and a very...

like season to forget for, for the Tennessee Titans. They feel like a little bit of a loss franchise. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they have to, they have to figure out quarterback. Yeah. But they're in a position where they can do that. Yeah. Okay. Last in the AFC Colts, 26 Jaguars, 23. I'm going to say it. I think Doug Peterson never lost the locker room. They actually fought pretty hard in this game.

He's going to get fired. It would be funny if they just forgot to fire him because we all thought he was going to get fired, what, two months ago? Yeah, after their bye week. But I don't think he lost the locker room. I mean, they played an OT game in week 18 where the season's been over for months and months and months.

He might not have lost the locker room. I bet there was some radical transparency going on in that locker room. I bet you Doug Peterson after the bye was like, guys, just so you know, I'm fired. Yeah. Okay, I'm not coming back. Just keep trying. But keep trying and remember that you might get signed to a better team if you play well on this team. Yeah. Also, Brian Thomas Jr., you're awesome. Yeah, he had a... Keep doing you. Broke the rookie record 11 games at 75 plus yards. He's awesome. Mac Jones took a hilarious sack, third and six.

In overtime He took a 16 yard sack Where he just was spinning backwards

That was very funny. Also, this might have been it for Joe Flacco. Yeah, this could be. And he went out with a win if he did. I think he said he wants to play next year. Good. I want you to play next year too, Joe. He actually should be the backup in Miami. That's not a bad idea. Yeah. So did you see the fan of the game that they had today? Yeah, Seth. This is our Colts guy. Yeah, yeah. They brought him out before the game. I think they played his fight song on the Jumbotron before the game. Yeah. Great job by Mr. Ursae. But then...

Mr. Ursa ruined all that goodwill because after the game put out a statement saying that everybody's safe. Yeah. Everyone's safe. Chris Ballard is getting his job, keeping his job. I thought Shane Sykin would be safe. The Chris Ballard thing is insane. He's Rasputin. Yeah. He's the only guy that filters stuff out that goes to and from Jim. So he knows exactly what to tell Jim Ursa to make him feel good about everything. He knows everything.

the right buttons to press, and then he's got a very safe job because if you can make Jim Irsay love you or at least think that he can't go on without you, then you're just not going to go anywhere. Yeah. So I would be very frustrated if I was a Colts fan. I feel bad for Colts fans. Chris Ballard is...

It just feels like a mess, and you're just going to keep going with the mess because they just are good enough to win seven or eight games, and you can look at it sideways and be like, oh, not too far. Anthony Richardson is not the answer. I've been saying that for a very long time. I think most Colts fans agree.

If Flacco had played every game this season, do you think that they would have had a couple more wins? No, probably not. I mean, he went 2-4. Yeah. So I don't know if you can say Flacco was the answer. He wasn't the answer, but he might have been an improvement over Anthony Richardson. But he wasn't record-wise. Then we could be talking yoffs. But he wasn't record-wise. Yeah. Yeah.

But there were some games. You remember Anthony Richardson lost some very winnable games. For sure. For sure. But Joe Flacco also. That's what a couple game-winning drafts. Lost. Yeah, he did. He had a couple really nice ones. I mean, who knows? Maybe he'll figure it out. I've never been the biggest fan of his.

I am rooting for him to figure it out a little bit because it does feel like the whole world's coming at him, and that sucks. Seems like a nice guy. Seems like a nice guy, and the stories are not great. And I also want to give a little credit to the Colts. I don't remember the last time I've seen exactly this, but if you look at the box score...

Jonathan Taylor was the only one to have a carry for the Colts, and he had 34 of them. I love that. Yeah, that is cool. 34 for 177. Not a single carry by anyone else. I love that. I thought that Flacco ran with the ball one time. It wasn't. It was a penalty problem. Yeah, and I think it might have even been a sack because he didn't get there. Okay. But yeah, it was just a cool stat to look at, the Jonathan Taylor. That's a real bell cow. Look at that. Look at that.

You don't see that very often. That's clean. Yeah, that's as clean as it gets. That's a clean-ass box score. Joe Flacco threw all the passes. Jonathan Taylor ran all the balls. Man, the Colts are a bummer. And the Jags are a bummer, too. But the Jags are going to get Ben Johnson. I've resigned myself to that. I think that's exactly what's going to happen. You're going to get Trevor Lawrence back? What do you mean? They're going to get Trevor Lawrence back, and they're going to get Ben Johnson. So good for them. Happy for the Jags. Okay.

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Okay, NFC. We have the Lions at number one seed, the Eagles two, Bucks three, Rams four, Vikings five, Commanders six, Packers seven. And we'll start with the Sunday Night Football game. Lions 31, Vikings nine. That was an absolute ass-kicking by the Lions today.

both defensively and then in the second half offensively, Jameer Gibbs especially, four touchdowns. He is so goddamn good. And the Lions win the NFC North. They, you know, I don't want to say deserved, but the Lions were...

That was, I mean, after watching that game, they deserved it because they throttled the Vikings. The Vikings' offense looked abysmal tonight. Yeah, the Vikings tried to do the Dan Campbell thing, and they thought, like a lot of us, you have to score touchdowns to win this game. Yeah. So they, instead of kicking field goals, I think turned the ball over on downs twice inside the five-yard line. Yep.

It seemed like Kevin O'Connell was thinking to himself, like, in order to beat Dan, I have to become Dan. And Sam Darnold was bad tonight. He was really bad. And he's usually very good against the Blitz, but he was not tonight. He was missing everything. Terrible against the Blitz. Yeah. Overthrowing...

just didn't see it looked like he could not see it and uh Alex Anzalone coming back felt like it was a big boost for the Lions defense did you see his arm yeah Anzalone's arm with all the stitches on it crazy it's absolutely insane it looks like he turned his forearm into a football yeah it's

It's crazy. What do you say? Like, everybody wants to be a dog until you have to do dog shit? Yeah. He did some dog shit tonight. Yeah. That's a hard quote. That is a very hard quote. I'd like to say that at some point in my life. Yeah. But the Lions now have home field advantage, and the Vikings have to go on the road to the Rams. I am officially back to worried about my pinky because the Vikings were not inspiring tonight. Now, you could make the argument, and I thought about it after. You know when you're watching a game, you're like, man, I feel stupid for this.

The way the Vikings celebrated after winning the Packers game, it did feel like they maybe got a little ahead of themselves like we did it. And this game... I mean, it wasn't... I know it was close in the first half, but it wasn't close in the fact that the Vikings...

They just couldn't make a big play when they needed to at any point. Yeah, the run game was okay. The Cam Akers had that big run. And then what happens? Like, they can't score. It's just it was time and time again. They weren't able to make a big play. What would they have? Two times they got they got.

you know, turnover on downs within the Lions' five-yard line. They just couldn't make a big play. Yeah, they tried to beat them in the first half by saying, we're going to have to get six every time we're down here. And then the Lions will break off big plays against you. It's just a matter of when. They tried to do the thing in the first half where they're like, okay, Gibbs, we're going to spell him for a little bit with, what was it, Patrick?

Reynolds. My bad. Yeah, Reynolds. And then they thought to themselves, why are we doing this? We don't have to have like a two running back system. Let's just feed Gibbs. Yeah. No, Gibbs was he had 139 yards rushing, 31 yards receiving four touchdowns.

He did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to do it. And it's a lot of credit to Aaron Glenn, future coach for memes. I felt like he had a perfect defensive scheme for Sam Donald. And it just, he was never comfortable and it never felt like the Vikings could get any type of momentum. Like I don't remember. We watched that whole game. Do you remember more than,

I mean, they had that Cam Akers run all the way down. They had the Jared Goff interception at like the 50-yard line. They almost had another pick six from Jared. Yeah, but...

I don't remember any drive where it felt like the Vikings went down the field and it was like play after play. They were hitting it and found a rhythm. They had no rhythm. Their rhythm was like occasional passes to Naylor. Yeah. And besides that, they weren't really doing a whole lot. Are you... Now that the Lions have home field advantage, Max, were you kind of hoping for the Vikings to be the one with the home field advantage? Okay, so how does this change your perspective? The Lions also...

They really turned it on in the second half, but in the first half, they looked very beatable. But their defense was always there. Their defense played their best. That was the best defensive performance the Lions have had in a long time. Aaron Donald had three wild.

How many times did you just miss a wide-open guy in the end zone? But it was part of the pressure. But Sam Darnold sucked. But still, I'm giving credit to the Lions in the fact that they have had some really bad defensive performances in the last month, and they've been very injured. This was a very good defensive performance by the Lions.

Would you not agree? They had him just completely flustered. What did he end up? 18 for 41. Do you think Sam Donald cost himself some money tonight? He might have, but at the same time, it's like one game. Well, it's basically... It's an important game. I don't think he cost himself money tonight.

But it could be if he has a bad game next Monday. Yeah. Because then it's like, because this was a playoff game. It made you think a little bit. Yeah. It made you think, oh, shit, that wasn't good. Yeah, I don't think that we can look at this and be like, Sam Darnold is back into a pumpkin. No. But if Monday night, if let's just say Vikings fans probably aren't feeling super easy right now. No, I mean, they lost to the Rams. I know. I'm saying they don't feel easy right now. They went to sleep not feeling easy. And I'm telling you, Vikings kicker.

His face, negative confidence. I know he kicked it Alabama, but it's just negative confidence. He did kick a couple in the first half. He kicked a couple, and then at the end of the half, he kicked it out of bounds with 20 seconds left, and the Lions were able to get three points out of it. And then he missed a 52-yarder later on in the game. He missed it badly, too. Badly. And then you could tell he was thinking about it. Right. And you could also tell he was like, damn, this is late for a school night. Yeah. I need to get home. He is faceballed.

You've got to have a kicker that has at least the ability to grow a beard. Yeah. So, yeah, it looked like Aaron Glenn had the answers already.

written down before the game even started. It was never even an option that was going to be close. That shot of him sitting on the sideline? Yeah, he sat down. He was just hanging out. This is so easy. He's like, we got this. I got Sam Darnold in my back pocket. Because I feel like even though Sam is good typically against the Blitz, not all Blitzes are created equal. Yeah, so what is it saying for Terry and Arnold's possible fibula?

possible fibula, external rotation of ankle, worry for high ankle sprain, but officially a foot. Well, he does have a foot. That is officially a foot. But they also have the bye now. And their second round matchup, how would you feel about going to the Lions? Anybody, anytime, anywhere. I like that. That's smart. That's smart.

And it could be the Vikings going back to the Lions. That is true. Very true. I mean, if everyone holds serve except for the Vikings or the Rams. That's what Dan Campbell said to O'Connell after the game. What did he say? He said, see you in two weeks. Oh, wow. A little NFC North pride. That's disrespectful. That's good for you, Max. That means the Eagles won. Yeah, I would take that win. Dan Campbell said you were going to win. Dan Campbell's a winner.

What a season for the Lions, 15-2. Do you think that he was going to go for that? No, I don't. I actually don't. Dan Campbell's crazy. So what Max is asking is there was a moment in the game with about six minutes left, and the Lions were up 15 points, and it was fourth and two from the six-yard line-ish line.

the Vikings six yard line, the lions got to the line of scrimmage. Like they were going for it. Got a Vikings to go off sides. I actually think he was going to kick the field goal there. Yeah.

Yeah, he was not going to go for it. You don't know that. I know I don't know that. I didn't say I know it. No, PFT said it. I know it. No, you don't. I know they were not going to go for it. They changed their entire cadence. Did you hear the broadcast? Yeah, but they could have called the timeout and then gone for it. Dan Campbell has definitely done that before. No, because it would have been to make it an 18-point lead, Max. Obviously, Dan Campbell does dumb shit all the time like that. No, he does winning shit.

He's a winner. He's 15-2. Has he won a Super Bowl? No, but he's... Does he have the highest winning percentage in the NFL? This year? Yeah. Out of current active NFL head coaches. This season, yeah. Did you just learn a new stat? No, I've already said... I said this last week. Okay. So if you want to talk about regular season winning, Nick Sirianni is a winner. Yeah, but... So, yeah.

Dan Campbell's a good regular season winner. So is Nick Sirianni. Let's see what happens in the playoffs. But Dan Campbell also took over a dumpster fire of a team. Nick Sirianni took over a team that had won a Super Bowl two years before.

Yeah, and then they were coming off a dumpster fire every year that led to the firing of Ed Goach. You're talking about the Detroit Lions. I mean, Dan Campbell went 3-13 his first year on a terrible team that has rebuilt everything. Dan Campbell's a better winner in the last two years. You can't say that a guy's a bona fide winner until he wins a Super Bowl. How many times are we going to say it? We say it about every other guy in every other sport. Win a Super Bowl, then you're a winner.

Okay. Who's a winner? Win a Super Bowl, then you're a winner. Hank, what are your thoughts about regular season wins? You got the one seed. Don't mean shit. Okay. Thank you. All right. Win a Super Bowl, and then you're a winner. So there's barely any winners. Bill Belichick, winner. Sean McVay. Sean McVay, winner. Okay. Mike Tomlin, winner. Mike McCarthy. Mike Tomlin. Is there an expiration on that? No. Winner. Okay. Because it does feel like there could be an expiration on...

Kevin Oli, winner. Kevin Oli, winner. Yeah. But you can't just say someone's a good coach because they're a winner. Doug Peterson. And they've never won a tournament. I don't remember how this debate started. Max is getting overly emotional because he's afraid of the Lions. Okay. No, no, no. It's just that...

Dan Campbell does the same shit as Nick Sirianni, but for some reason... No. For some reason, Dan Campbell... Wrong. People think that it's fine. It's because he's a winner. No. Dan Campbell does it consistently, and he has, like... So does Nick Sirianni. No. You know that Nick Sirianni chooses when and when not to do it. He does stuff sometimes where he kind of loses his mind.

So does Dan Campbell. But it's always consistent. I've made this argument a million times. Dan Campbell is crazy, but he's consistently crazy. Then you think that he should have gone for it today. No. If you're saying that, that's what you're saying. No, because it actually made sense to kick it there, to go up three scores. But he does shit that doesn't make sense all the time. When has he done that? I can't remember the exact play. When has he passed up going up three scores? He might have. I don't know. Do you have a time? No, but there was something in that...

I think, what was it, the Bills game? Late in the fourth quarter where we were like, what the fuck? Yeah, he kicked the onside kick. That was stupid. No, that wasn't it. Are you talking about against the Cowboys?

No, it was a Sunday night game. All right, fine. Do a little homework and come back to us, okay? Max, why are you so upset that we're lavishing praise on Dan Campbell for getting one seed for the Detroit Lions? Everyone's an enemy right now. It's playoffs. Correct. Everyone's an enemy. Okay. Yeah. Everyone's an enemy. It's playoffs. Except, actually, there's only one team that's not an enemy for you.

The Commanders. Well, they could be if they make it to the... Yeah, but you're... Right there, you're just assuming that they're not going to make it to the Champions. No, no, no. I'm saying that at least for a few weeks, you don't have to... Like, the Commanders and you guys can't play each other for at least two weeks. No, everyone's an enemy. But you can't play each other for two weeks. You know who's not an enemy? Bears. You know who's not an enemy? Jets. You know who's not an enemy? Patriots. Those aren't enemies. All right, you know what? Fine, fuck it. I'm not going to give you the blueprint on how to beat the Packers.

Fair. You shouldn't have done that. I could have told you all the secrets because that's all I do is beat the Packers. All right. That was good talk about the Lions. We were talking about the Lions.

Yeah, so the Lions. We said a lot of nice things about the Lions until Max had to just poop all over you. He's in playoff mode. I love it. Let the fucking Detroit Lions fans enjoy a one seed, Max. They're 15-2. All I was doing was just asking the question of whether he was going to go for it, and then this conversation spiraled. I do not think he was going to go for it.

I do not think he was going to go for it. Also, this is just a hypothetical that has no answer. So that was a stupid thing to bring up in the first place. If it hadn't worked, which would you have to, Max, you have to be consistent, right? We've talked about this. If you're going to criticize him, you have to compliment him for going with it and having a plan where it worked. That did work. Yeah, it did work. That did work. And listen, if the Lions defense can play like that,

Vikings offense is good. The Lions defense play like that. They are. That was the perfect if you ask the Lions fan before the game, that

That was the perfect way for that night to end. Win the NFC North and do it with your defense looking good. You didn't want to win a game, another game where it was 45-42, and you're going into the playoffs feeling like, look at what happened against the Bills. Look at what happened with the Niners game with a bunch of backups, and they were just going up and down the field. That felt good. And they didn't do it with huge chunk plays either. Yeah. They did just by grinding them down. Yeah. Yeah. So credit to the Lions. One seed.

deserved 15 wins sucks for the Vikings winning 14 games and having to go on the road but that's just how good the NFC North was this year yeah so they're going to go to Los Angeles on Monday night

I'm worried. I'm a little bit worried, too. This is a Sam Darnold face mask game. We can talk about the Rams when we talk about the Rams, but that's another thing. Yeah, I'm worried. I'm just worried. Okay, so the other thing we had to decide besides seeding in the NFC today was the Bucs. Bucs 27, Saints 19. Bucs win the NFC South. Bucs get the three seed. Going to take on your Commanders PFT. This is a good one.

This was a weird game because the Bucs, for the first two and a half quarters, looked like they thought they could just show up and win this game without even trying. They looked like garbage to start the game. Yeah, it was very sloppy. And then Baker Mayfield had back-to-back drives that ended the game, essentially, where they went 12 plays, 82 yards, 12 plays, 94 yards, touchdown, touchdown. They let...

I guess the Bucs were correct in the strategy of like, hey, Spencer Rattler can't play four quarters where he's good. And that was correct. But the Bucs looked slow, finished strong. And then we had Mike Evans get his thousandth yard, which now makes him tied for Jerry Rice. 11 seasons, thousand yards. Pretty awesome accomplishment. He's in Hall of Fame wide receiver. Very, very cool. The last play of the game, though, where they hit Mike Evans on that.

You like that? I do. I didn't like it. $3 million, I like it. Yeah, okay. I get that. I get that part of it. But also what I don't like is it looked like the guy on the Saints that was matched up against him was like, yeah, just run your five yard out. I'm going to turn around and go downfield like you're running a deep route. And then we'll all turn around and tackle you. If this was Mike Evans, two things. One, if this was Mike Evans' second year in the league, third year in the league, that's bullshit. He's been in the league for over a decade.

He's a veteran. Seems like an awesome dude. I'm okay with it for five yards.

And the second thing, the more important thing, I'm okay with it because he missed, what, four or five games for injury? Yeah. If he had played all 17 games and they needed that shit to get him 1,000 yards, I'd be like, oh, come on, dude. But how many games did he end up missing or not play? Because he would have gotten 1,000 yards if he didn't get injured. I know injuries are part of the game, but that does change it a little bit in my head. And he was only, what, like five yards away from it? He was five yards away. It wasn't like he needed 100 yards.

Maybe I'm old school, Big Cat. I don't like the idea of a guy letting you have yards. You got to fight for every yard of this league. So he played 13 games because he got injured in one of them, I believe. So yeah, he missed four games. He would have had it easily if he hadn't gotten injured. I'm okay with it. I don't know. It's $3 million, dude. Yeah, I'm happy for him to make the money. I'm curious to know what Jerry Rice's thoughts are. I don't know. Mark Gastineau? We have to ask Jerry Rice. He wants those yards back? Yeah.

Yeah, I had no problem with it. I mean, the only argument I would consider is like,

It technically is a very dumb thing because what if tragedy happens and you throw a pick and your playoffs are on the line? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, it could have cost them the game. That part makes sense. I would have liked it a lot more if the Saints had at least pretended to play defense on it. Yeah. Done a little something-something. Otherwise, it just looked like a scripted play. What were you looking at me like that for, Max? Nothing, continue. You found something? Yeah, I found exactly what I was talking about. Okay, so go ahead. Against the Packers. Okay.

Green... Wait. Oh, no. Oh, no. No, you can't cut it. Do not cut this. Do not cut this. What I really was going to say was in that same game, it didn't work out. They were up three points at the beginning. At the beginning, we're at the very end of the third quarter. Went for it at fourth down. And they're on their own 30. Didn't get it. Gave up a touchdown. Gave up the lead. But the Lions came back and won. But that has also not... A three-point lead, which is not... On their own 30, but...

but that's not the same as what we're talking about and kicking a field goal to make it 18 points. Good segment, man. Well, that's why I didn't, I didn't even, that's what I didn't want to talk about this. You said you looked at me and I, and I, then I went, I thought exactly what I was talking about. Good work, Max. I'm cutting the, all of them. No, you're not. Yes, I am. You can't do anything about it. There's nothing I can do about it. And I wouldn't know if you cut it or didn't. So that sucks. Uh,

Other two, Jalen McMillan is awesome. Yeah, he's very good. He's really good. And I still love Bucky. Yeah, Bucky's awesome. You've got to get in war mode. Don't compliment them too much. I can compliment him. I'll compliment him. You don't. Great player. Don't. Just a rookie, though. They brought the duck back. Did you see that pregame? Yeah, I did see that. The duck was there. You've got to...

You might have to go down and kill that duck. I think we got to sign Carson Wentz to be the backup. Go down there and execute that fucking duck. Yes. What the hell do the Saints do? Who's going to take the Saints head coaching job? I don't know. I don't know who's going to get the Saints job. It could be a real wild card of a hire. I feel like every open job has had someone name attached except for the Saints. They're just going to get whoever's left.

I'm thinking it's going to be somebody very boring. Drew Brees. Give it a shot. Yeah, why not? He's boring. What about Coach O? Coach O would be sick. Get Coach O on the Saints. So sick. I mean, okay, here's what I'll say about the Buccaneers. Congrats to them. Five straight playoff appearances. Bit of an NFC South merchant, those Buccaneers. If you ask Stephen Chay, they're one of the most dominant teams of the first half of this decade. The NFC South has been so fucking bad.

Outside of the Tom Brady years. Great for the Bucs. Good job. You won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady at the end of his career. That's awesome for you. The NFC South has been so bad year in, year out. Panthers? What about them? Cam Newton? No, he's talking about the last five years. Yeah, last five years. A bit of an NFC South merchant, if we're being honest. Yeah, even Tom Brady's last year. What, did they finish 9-8? And then they did beat us in the playoffs. No, no. That was the year they lost to the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Yeah, 2020. But I do like Baker.

I'm going to have to turn on Baker this week. He's such a dog. He ends the season with 4,499 yards, 44 total touchdowns, 71.4% completion percentage. He's awesome. He did the thing today where he ran over a guy and then stepped over him and

and basically started an entire fight between both teams while walking away. Yeah, he was like, keep talking about me while I'm gone. Yeah, he was the Joker meme with the hospital blowing up. He was like, this is what I just started. Yeah, Baker scares me a little bit, I'll be honest. Jalen McMillan also should probably put his guns away for the playoffs. Yeah, so that was an interesting moment because he did the first down sign, but they thought he had trigger fingers or at least a handgun as one of his hands.

but he actually had his fingers taped together from an injury. Yes. Then he goes up to the ref and shows him it's not a gun. My fingers were just taped together. Yeah. Is that an excuse? No, because they kept the penalty. Yeah. It's not an excuse. Yeah. Also, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would never allow guns in their stadium. No. Besides the giant cannons. Absolutely not. All right. So are you worried? Are you ready? You wanted the Bucs. No. You said you wanted the Bucs. I wanted anybody. I really wanted the Eagles. I'm bummed out that we're not going to get the Eagles. I wanted that. Yeah.

The Rams concern me because Sean McVay concerns me. The Bucs also...

I mean, we saw it in that game against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. I feel like they don't rush the passer great, so that should give Jaden a lot of time. They're good at stopping the run, though. They are good at stopping the run. Todd Bull is kind of a bird brain when it comes to making decisions about things. That was one play that sticks in my mind from this game today was Clyde Edwards-Zeller got a little bit of daylight, and he ran into Vitave, and Vitave didn't even tackle him. He just stood with his belly out.

Yeah. And he literally ran into him and fell backwards. Yeah, Vita Vey does concern me a lot. Yeah. He's a monster. Another guy who doesn't wear gloves. Yeah. Scary. So, I mean, you guys could win this game. It's a three-point spread. A three-point spread. Also, Mike Evans, great player. Very happy that he got 1,000 yards. That was very nice to see. I was cheering super hard for that.

Marshawn Lattimore kind of has a history of locking him down and getting him kicked out of games. They like to fight.

They like to fight a lot. I think the stats are that historically, Marshawn Lattimore limits him to like three catches per game and something like 47 yards per game. So that's good if Lattimore plays. Okay. Keys to the victory. Keys to the victory. Lattimore plays. Is he not going to play? Bring Carson Wentz with his shotgun. Well, he didn't play today. Okay. But, I mean, you guys sat Jaden half the game. He's a Bucs specialist. Yeah. He'll be back. Okay. Next up.

in the NFC South. So the Bucs looked like they were going to maybe blow this, but it turns out the Falcons were going to blow it on their own anyway. Panthers 44, Falcons 38.

Bryce Young was incredible. Five total touchdowns, 250 yards. Did you see he did the Steph Curry look away? Yeah. So he threw a touchdown pass, and before the pass was even caught, he turned around and started celebrating. I like that we've reached a point in the Bryce Young reclamation where he's like stunting on people now. Yeah. Like what a turnaround that's been literally in this game. Yeah. So since he got benched,

When he came back, he's had 20 total touchdowns, six interceptions, 2,100 yards, and 61% completion percentage. And Dave Canales said, after the game, we've got our guy. And I'm happy for Bryce Young. I'm happy for the Panthers. That...

This season was going in such a bad direction. And Dave, Dave can now it's coach of the year. She probably gets some credit. Yeah. So is, is O'Connell still your coach of the year? Uh, not after tonight. I think it's Dave Canales. What about Dan Campbell? Uh, might be Jeff Olbrich. Mine might be Dan Campbell. My, my, my PGA for Oprah. I just love how consistent he is. Yeah. He's a winner. Dan Campbell's a winner winner. Uh, but yeah, the,

Panthers, arrows pointing up. And the Falcons, I don't fucking know where they're arrows pointing. Because they're just the Falcons. Yeah, but I feel like Penix is the guy. You ready to say it already? I think he's the guy. Already? Three games? I'm ready to say right now I think he's the guy. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. I need to see more. They're just the Falcons. Drake London is the guy. How do you know? You need to win this game. They lose the two games.

In ridiculous fashion the last two weeks, they fought all the way back into the division. They're just the Falcons. They are the Falcons. They're just the most frustrating organization to look at from afar. Yeah, but I think overall this season it turned around a little bit. You got more exciting. You got a better glimpse of the future. You saw that Kirk Cousins is not the guy. And you can move forward. But that's even the Falcons, the fact that they did –

Kirk Cousins signing and Michael Penix drafting, we said at the time, made no sense. It looks even dumber now. Maybe if Kirk Cousins plays two years and brings Michael Penix along and you get to the playoffs with Kirk Cousins, you can tell yourself, hey, that was actually good in the long run. None of that happened, and you just wasted all that money and took Michael Penix, who I'm not ready to say he's the guy, but...

They're just the most frustrating organization. So do you think that it's going to be any sort of possibility that Kirk Cousins plays next year for the Falcons? No. I mean, why would you? If you're Kirk Cousins or if you're the Falcons? If you're the Falcons. The only explanation would be that the Achilles is like a two-year recovery. But why would you... Like, he probably wants to start...

There's no reason to start him. You drafted Michael Penix. You already went to him. He is your guy now. Because weird stuff happens. I mean, the Falcons are a weird organization. They are very much a weird organization, but that would be insane if they were like, hey, Michael Penix, you're not our starter next year. Open competition. That would be nuts. It would be crazy. No, I think they'll...

They'll probably try to unload him somewhere, trade him. I don't know where. Maybe he's the Raiders. I guess the reason why I still kind of like the Falcons is because they've got good, very good players on offense. Yeah, they draft number one picks. John Robinson, awesome. Drake London's awesome. Drake London, awesome. Michael Pinnock's, some are saying he looks like the guy. Kyle Pitts, whatever. Yeah, he's there. Yeah. Good offensive line. Yeah, but no, I just...

The Falcons arrows pointed, I don't know because of the Falcons is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Okay. Commanders 23, Cowboys 19.

Marcus Mariota played the second half of this game, won this game with no time left, basically. That had to feel good. Yeah, it was great. Terry McLaurin set the Commander's record, the franchise record for most touchdowns in a year with that last touchdown catch. I'm just very happy for Terry. And this season has just been like 12 wins is unreal. Yeah. Never in a million years did I think 12 wins. And I was looking at the roster.

And how far this team has turned around in a very, very short amount of time. Which is why any time a coach tells you four years for a rebuild, they're full of shit. Yeah. Don't listen to that coach. We have 13 total pro bowlers this year. So that obviously includes the selections and then the alternates after that. Out of those 13, how many of those guys do you think were brought in under the Ron Rivera era? One. Zero. Oh. None of them. Ten of them are brand new this year. Mm-hmm.

First year with the team. Wait, who brought in Terry? Terry, I believe that was Jay Gruden. Okay. I think he drafted Terry. Okay. So, yeah, the turnaround has been just unreal, and I feel like this has been a dream season. I hope that Jayden's okay. They said that he had leg soreness after the game. Oh, I thought he was just sitting there because this is kind of crazy. He was getting hit.

like a decent amount that's what you look super sharp yeah that's what concerns me is the first half our offensive line wasn't great the center or backup center wasn't really able to handle michael parkins when or micah parsons when they hired they uh lined him up right over top of him jayden got killed a little bit his leg was sore he said he would have played if it meant something okay

But it kind of did mean something. And then he didn't play. And then Marcus looked pretty good. Are you bummed that you don't get to play the Eagles? I'm so bummed. I wanted the Eagles, but it's anyone, anytime, anywhere. That's what I say. Were you rooting for the Bears against the Packers or no? I was rooting for my friend Big Cat. Yeah, he was being a good friend. I was being supportive of your friend. You should try it sometime.

Simultaneous wins was great. Yeah. It was like within five seconds of each other. We had. Oh, do we even mention we had the PM? Oh, yeah. We all won a game today. That's pretty insane. I don't think that's ever happened. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. All five of us looked it up and said it was the first time since 2017. Wow. But that would have been just three. I don't know. That's 2017. I didn't do too much research. Someone just said 20. I mean, you're getting five teams next year. We got to do that every single week. I do the parlay money line parlay on them.

That's crazy. Oh, my God. We'd lose so much money. But it would have won a lot today. Would it have? Yeah. Bears are 10-point underdogs. Yeah, true, true, true. And, Max, I'll honestly answer your question. I was rooting for the Bears. I was. I was doing it to support Big Cat. Thank you. And also because, theoretically... Right, right, right. Theoretically, the Commanders could host the NFC Championship game now. Mm-hmm. In theory. And I actually...

You missed this part, Max, but PFT whispered to me at one point. He's like, hey, I want the Bears to win this game so that you can share all the secrets with Max on how to beat the Packers. Yeah. He said that. That's shit. And now you said you won't do that anymore. Yeah. Sorry. You should try out being a good friend once in a while. By the way, Dan Campbell went for it on fourth down in a tie game with 30 seconds to go. Again, that's not. Just saying. It's a different scenario. That's what I was trying to find.

Earlier when the segment got cut? Oh, now you've got to bring the segment back. Nope. Yeah. Max tried to... No, you've got to leave that in. I'll leave some of it in. Okay. I'm sure we'll have another update about Dan Campbell's coaching errors. No, it wasn't an error. He got it. Oh. Yeah, okay. And it was a tie game with 30 seconds left? Tie game with 30 seconds. And did they win? Correct. And where was the ball? This is the whole... Yeah. Yeah.

So is Nick Sirianni. I got a question for you guys about the Commanders because I'm blinded by them. Again, I feel like this whole thing's been a dream because it's crazy from the owner to the head coach to the quarterback, all this shit. I have a question for you guys. Are the Commanders a likable team? Yes. Yeah. Because I think they are, obviously. I thought you were going to ask a different question that Hank was going to have a hard time answering. Okay. Okay.

I think the Commandos are a likable team. I think they are a likable team. I root for them. I do think Jaden smiles a little too much. He smiles all the time. It's starting to bother me a little bit. But I think they're a likable team. I like Dan Quinn. Terry McLaurin I like. I like Brian Robinson. It's similar to the Lions. Lou Vu. That's a guy. Lou Vu's awesome. They're the Broncos. They've won Super Bowl, so it's a little different than the Lions. But it's like teams that have been bad for a long time. Yeah. No, they're likable. You root for them.

Because I have no frame of reference as to whether – I guess the only thing I can point to is that we're playing in the Sunday night game, which means that somebody wants to watch us. Yeah, I mean, that's Jaden Daniels. Jaden Daniels. Yeah, he's had an incredible season. That's the Sunday night game. I thought you were going to ask a very different question. Okay, ask the question I was going to ask. Should I ask it to you or Hank? Ask it to Hank. Okay, Hank. Ask it to him first. Hank. Do you think the Washington Commanders are good? No. No.

Hank turned to me in the middle of the Cowboys-Commanders game. He goes, they fucking stink. I was thinking about the Saints game, too. I was like, the last few games we've been watching, they have been struggling against really bad teams. Here's the thing about the Commanders, though.

So we're not that good, but Jaden Daniels finds a way to do things at the end of games. And today was Mariota. But if you look at since the Hail Mary game, we've scored like a million times in the last minute, minute and a half of games. Yeah. And just max fact check that crazy innings back. I think it was a million times that we scored the commanders less than a million. I honestly don't think that the commanders are a great football team.

We might not even be very good. But you're in the playoffs. You're one. Yeah. You know what we are? Is we're winners. Yeah. Yeah. And we figure out ways to. That's true. We're figuring out ways. Dan Quinn's a winner. We figure out ways. He was a Super Bowl winning at one time head coach. Yes. That's fast. And something happens at the end of games where time slows down for usually Jaden, in this case Marcus. Yeah.

And it just ends up working out somehow. I don't know how they do it. I don't think that they're a very good team, but they're so fun to watch. Against bad teams. Against bad teams. Well, the Eagles. The Eagles are a good team. True. They're playing... Kenny Pickett. Yeah. The Eagles are a good team. We'll see. How many wins would they have with Kenny Pickett? What was the score when Jalen Hurts went out? Does Kenny Pickett play defense? That's true. Good point. Is the Eagles' defense good? That's a good point. Okay, interesting. But they could have... If Jalen Hurts... Go ahead, Max. No. No.

He's still trying to find Dan Campbell stats. No, I already found the one. The one you're exactly what you're saying. No, I was wrong. By the way, it was the one I was exactly what I was saying, but I got mixed up and whatever. What? I got nervous. And when I went to say the one that I was actually saying, I was like, oh, that was actually a good idea. But I didn't realize it was tied when he went for it. Yeah. Yeah. Max, do you think the commanders are good? Yeah. No, I think they're honest, Max.

I think they're... I mean, they're definitely... They're a playoff team. I think that they could beat the Bucs. Mm-hmm. Like... Yes, I would agree. The Bucs have weaknesses. Yeah, I think they're good enough to win a...

To win a playoff game. Here's the thing. I don't think there's anywhere near Super Bowl contenders. I think that one of two things is going to happen against the Bucs. One, we're going to win in the last 45 seconds of the game. Some crazy shit is going to happen. Todd Bowles will probably screw something up in terms of a timeout or a go-forward strategy because he's no Dan Campbell. And then we somehow figure out a way to win a game that we were losing by 17 points in the first half. That's option number one. Option number two is we lose by 25 points. Okay.

Because we're not good, but we win. And we're fun. Wait, would you win in option one, you said? Yeah, option one is we win. So, Commander's Moneyline or Buck's Alternate Spread? Yeah, that would not be a bad bet. I might have to do that. But I love this team. Equal amounts. I love this team. Yeah. Mike McCarthy, they asked him after the game what he thought about his future. Did you hear his quote? No. He said, I don't like to talk about myself, but I'll just be clear. I'm a winner. I know how to win. Max...

He said, I'm actually going to win a Super Bowl in this building, as a matter of fact. I'm actually going to compliment... The Steelers don't really... The Commanders don't really get blown out of games. No. So, like, I don't agree with that. I think it's going to be a close game. Well, the Bucs blew us out. But week one... And the Ravens. Oh, no, that wasn't close. I think we lost by one score. They lost by seven points. Yeah. So, like, I don't think that that's necessarily...

I feel like that would be going out on a limb to say that it's going to be a blowout or the commanders win. I just think that there's a good chance that the Bucs get up on an early lead against us. And then if, you know, a couple things don't break our way, then it's going to be pretty ugly in the second half. But there's an equally good chance where we're losing by 17 and we end up winning by two.

I think it's going to be a competitive game. I don't know necessarily who's going to win. I think the Commanders can win that game. Yeah, there was a great moment in this game. It reminded me a lot of the Bears-Hilmeri where your cornerback started celebrating and waving goodbye to the crowd. Malik Hooker on fourth down.

put his hand up to be like, we got this stop against Marcus Mariota as Marcus Mariota still had the ball and was running like 30 yards downfield. That was a great screenshot to look at. We also had a cheerleader get absolutely domed by a kickoff. That should count as a point. She got smoked. Yeah, that should count as a point. Disagree. Why?

I think hitting women shouldn't count as a point. I didn't say women. I said cheerleaders. I never said the gender of the cheerleaders. Dallas Cowboys historically have. Could be. You don't know. Cheerleaders come in all shapes and sizes. Yeah, that was a crazy, crazy kick. That was Aubrey, right? Yeah.

And doesn't Evan McPherson or is it the other Bengals kicker that Evan McPherson, I think, has a girl, his girlfriend or fiance's on on the cap. But that was not her. Yeah, I got hit. I don't think so. But yeah, that was that was crazy. It was like a bullet. Yeah.

Yeah, and then they zoomed in on her. She wore that like a champ. She did. Shout out Tress Way. Ask her if she was okay. Great guy. That is awesome. Great job, Tress. Great job, Tress. All right, anything else in this game? No, I think I'm ready for the offs. I think that I'm ready for the offs. This, much like the Broncos season, this whole season was a win, no matter what happens. Yeah, definitely. Obviously, I want to win in the playoffs. But yeah, it's been a great year. Map out a road. Okay. Okay.

Here's the road. Because I know you've done it in your head. Yeah, we beat... You might as well do it for us. Okay, so we beat the Bucs. Okay. Then the Packers beat the Eagles, which would break my heart because I want to see... I want to play against the Eagles at some point. That would legit break my heart because I would have...

of getting to cheer for the Eagles' demise. But that's part of the road. Part of the road is we somehow take over home field advantage. All right, so that happens. What was that face? There's a way that you said that. I feel like there's going to be a part of you rooting for the Packers. Absolutely not. Max, I can be more clear. You need to end the Packers, and then I'll root against you. I am 110% Eagles on Saturday.

Or Sunday. You and Hank. It couldn't be more clear. If the Packers beat you, if the Packers beat you and I'm not even allowed to make fun of you for losing, that's the worst. You'll make fun of me. No, I...

No, because you should be like, the Packers just won. Let's get back to the commanders. All right, go ahead. All right, here's the path. Okay, we beat the Bucs. Then we've got the Packers beating the Eagles. Okay. Then we have the, I'm going to say the Vikings beating the Rams. And then you've got the, sorry. So all the. All upsets. Yeah, five, six, seven. And then you've got the Lions. They would have to play the Packers. The Packers beat the Lions. Okay.

You beat the Vikings? We beat the Vikings. Okay. That's possible. It's possible. It's not crazy. And then we beat the Packers in the NFC Championship game at home.

Cinderella. Cinderella story. Who do you play in the Super Bowl? Then the Super Bowl, we play against the Steelers. Houston Texans. We play the Texans in the Super Bowl. They change the kickoff time to 3.30. Oh, nice. And then, yeah, we take out the Texans. That's huge. No, there's probably no chance. No, that's a path. I'm just happy. I'm just happy with everything. I think the NFC kind of is a path.

It's wide open. I think that didn't sound that crazy what you just said. Would it be crazy to say that the Packers beat the Eagles? No. Not crazy. Would it be crazy to say that the Vikings beat the Rams? No. No, not crazy. Would it be crazy to say that the Packers beat the Lions? No. Maybe. No, I don't think so. Not that crazy. No. It's the playoffs. You don't think it's— Russ versus Russ. I mean, maybe if Dan Campbell gets stopped on fourth and one in that game, it just happens. That's a good point.

Has he ever done that? No. Yep, it was a tie game. Went for it on fourth and one. Crazy. So there's a path. However remote it might be, there's a path. It's the playoffs. Memes is frustrated about something. God knows what. Well, Memes just is such a different fan that he thinks that, like, the Jets are winning. You're talking too down on yourself. Mark Sanchez done as a rookie. Jane Daniels is a lot better. That's true. You go into Tampa. You beat Tampa. You're starting to talk like Gruden right now. Yeah, why are you talking Pittsburgh?

Then you go up to Detroit. Rank your favorite memes voices. Mine is number one, Hank Hill. I didn't know you had that in you. No, that was good. That was great. And then two, we got Pits. We got Gruden memes. Yeah. Yeah. No, listen. Get your confidence up. It's a possibility. I am confident that we can beat the Bucs. There's definitely a way that we beat the Bucs. But there's a lot of good teams in the NFC.

But they all have flaws. They all have flaws. That's the biggest thing. They all have flaws. Yeah, I know you really wanted the Eagles. I'm sorry for you. Pisses me off. You wanted the Eagles. I knew you did, too. Yeah. All right. Before we wrap up with the last four games, BetterHelp. Part of my take is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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The Seahawks Rams, Seahawks 30, Rams 25, Rams sat everyone. Jimmy G played. The Rams were actually pretty live in this game. They had a chance to win it at the end.

and they had like a fourth and three on the 10-yard line with 30 seconds left. So Jimmy G still got it a little bit. So what was Sean McVay thinking going into this week? He just didn't think it was important to have to avoid the Lions or the Vikings at all? Yeah, no, he was just like, I want to rest my guys. It's just kind of a weird move, though, isn't it? I think he's been there, done that. Play whoever you play. Yeah.

Because, I mean, ultimately, who would you rather play in the playoffs? The Commanders or maybe the Lions? Yeah, I think he just wanted to play. I think he wanted to get healthy. Because he's got an old quarterback. So this is what concerns me about that move, is that I feel like Sean McVay knows something. Yeah, no, I'm nervous about the Rams now, especially watching the Vikings play against the Lions. I'm back to nervous about my pink.

Yeah, they weren't good today. And some of that has to do with Jimmy G at quarterback. But they almost won the game. They almost won the game. Yeah. In the Geno incentives game, which he hit all three of them, by the way. Oh, easily. He got $6 million in incentives today. Good for Geno. But the fact that Sean McVay did not care about winning this game makes me think that the Rams are going to be very dangerous. Yeah, I'd agree. Because if you were desperate, if you had doubts in your team, you would be like, we need every edge we can get. Yep.

let's go out there, win this game, and try to avoid a great team from the north. I guess you also don't know how the other games are going to go, although they had already played. No, if they had won, they would be the three seed. Yeah, I was saying you didn't know. Going before the game, if the Packers had won and the Commanders had lost, it would have been the Packers. Right.

you know, and you're, you're setting a plan for going forward probably days before being like, this is what we're going to do. Yeah. So you're just not concerned at all. Yeah. So that, that's what makes me concerned about the Rams. Yeah. Uh,

And as for the Seahawks, year one under Mike McDonald, it wasn't terrible. No. I mean, they won 10 games. It was very frustrating. It was extremely frustrating. Because you felt like you could have won at least two or three more. They had that. I mean, the fact that the Seahawks, they kind of have a similar setup as the Bengals. They look back. They lost to the Giants. Yeah. Like, how did that happen?

Yeah, the Colts and the Seahawks lost to the Giants. How do you let that happen? Because other than that, they lost to teams that were... They lost to the Lions, understandable. They lost to the 49ers before everyone got injured, understandable.

They lost the Bills and the Rams, the Packers and the Vikings. Those are all not terrible losses. So if you look at the Seahawks season, it really just comes down to you don't lose that Giants game. You're in the playoffs. You're one in Mike McDonald. And so I don't know. I feel like arrow pointing slightly up for the Seahawks. I think you're happy overall, but you're also very frustrated. Yes. Okay. So Rams. Because I think when they moved on from Pete Carroll, they at the very least wanted a coach that would attempt to run the ball.

Yeah. Which they did a little bit today. But Mike McDonald, he failed that part of the test year one. How did the...

The Rams see, I mean, listen, Sean McVay, Kevin O'Connell, they know each other. Those guys know each other. It's funny, too, because that was kind of the launching off point for the Rams season. Remember, that was early on in the season. They were two and four. And it's like, if they don't win this game, they're pretty much dead, which turned out to be true. They needed to win that game. And they won that game. It was a Thursday night game. And Stafford carved up.

the Vikings defense. I think that was the game that everyone came back right before. You know, like it was like we didn't know if Puka was going to play or not, and then he played like it was announced right before, and then he carved him up. It's going to be an interesting matchup. Yeah. Interesting matchup. I think I like the Rams. Yeah, I probably like the Rams too. All right, Cardinals 47, 49ers 24. You got anything on this game? Nope. Josh Dobbs played. He did play. Yep. Kyler looked okay. Yep.

Trey McBride didn't catch a touchdown or no? Trey McBride did get a touchdown. All he does is score touchdowns. Yes. And he also had an awesome play where he carried Fred Warner like a backpack. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Season from hell for the 49ers over. Yeah. Six and 11. So what do you do if you're the 49ers? You see how bad Brock Purdy's hurt, and then you go from there. And Christian McCaffrey? Walls? He'll be back. Okay. What about Debo? What do you do with Debo? Cut. Cut.

You cut your wide back? I don't know if cut is... I don't know what his contract is. I'd say you move on from Debo. You find a way to move on from that contract. Yes. Yeah. That one you move on. You get Ayuk back next year. Ayuk comes back. Debo's a little older. Also felt like there was times where Kyle Shanahan tried to spam Debo. So maybe you just got to...

It might be better for Kyle Shanahan to not have Debo in his life. Because he's always thinking, I want more Debo. What if I use Debo for this play? Yeah. Like this run, this sweep, what if I Debo'd it? You'll get Trent Williams back. Yeah. That'll be good. Yeah. Fred Warner's still good. Yeah, I think the 49ers will be a buy-on team next year. Yeah. They had a bad year. They had a season from hell. They get to rest up. They don't have to play deep into January. Yeah.

Kittle's going to be fresh. Kittle's going to be fresh. They'll get a higher draft pick. They'll be fine. John Lynch is a very good GM. Kyle Shannon's a very good coach. I don't like that the 49ers were such a bummer to watch because say what you want about them in the past, they've always been fun. Yeah. And they were not fun this year. But they definitely have to – I think their roster is like on the older side that they have to make some hard decisions and kind of reset. But it can be done very quickly. Look at the Bills. And what do the Cardinals do? Uh –

Hope next year's different. Okay. I don't really know. I'm not the biggest Kyler guy. I think they should keep him around. I think you stay rolling with Kyler for a little bit because at least they have, like I know what the Cardinals are in my head. And it's Kyler Murray scampering around, having two games where he looks awesome, a couple games where he looks just awful. And then that's all the mental headspace you have to have on the Cardinals. Kyler's not a confetti quarterback.

Can you close your eyes and see confetti coming down on Kyler? Maybe on a game show or something. Because, like, think about it. Like, there's so much confetti. Then you're like, where'd Kyler go? Can't find him. Gets lost in it. Yeah. In the esports. It's like a dog going into a leaf pile. I love those videos of the dogs going into the snow. Oh, the best. Like, you could actually measure snow by taking Kyler outside and by just tossing him. I watched a video where a dog... There was a GoPro...

attached to the dog and he ran from the house. It looked like an Italian villa or something. He ran from the house all the way down these like windy rocks and jumped into the ocean. Probably the Mediterranean. Yeah, that was a good one. And it was like two and a half minutes long. It's like that dog has the best life of all time. That dog was all gas, no brakes. Yeah. And so that's what we do with the Cardinal season. Get a GoPro, move to Italy, put on Kyler and just run down to the water every single day. Yeah, pretty good. Good plan. Okay. Okay.

Last two games. You want to do Eagles-Giants? We can skip it. Eagles 20, Giants 13. I guess the only question I'd have about Eagles-Giants is Jalen Hurts out of concussion protocol. Nope. Uh-oh. So what does that mean? You're less than seven days away from...

Your first-round playoff game. He went through a walkthrough yesterday. And the line for Eagles Packers just moved to full point. To where? Four and a half. Okay. Okay, so that means he's probably going to play? Or it means someone bet a lot of money on the Eagles. Probably the former. That he's going to play? I get former and latter mixed up sometimes. I do too. Yeah. Latter is the most recent one. Yep, probably the latter. So you think somebody bet a lot of money on the Eagles?

Not that he cleared concussion protocol. I just don't think that they're going to say that he cleared concussion protocol in like 1045. Right. But do you think he will clear concussion protocol? Yes. In my heart of hearts. Do you wish Saquon had played? No. Because he's healthy. And the offensive line is healthy. And you saw a lot of people get injured today. On the Eagles? No, on other playoff teams. What about Tanner McKee?

future great he's the qb2 of the future he's wow good that's good you got that figured out yep he's so good so kenny and then tanner key for the playoffs so good tanner key is so good yeah i hope jalen hurts clears concussion protocol same same well no i won't take that back i hope that he clears it whenever it's good for his body yes brain his mind to clear it not a second earlier me too

Agreed. I hope Jalen Hurts clears concussion protocol, but not until like Friday because I'd like to see Max's brain just be like, what does this mean? See, that's how there's a part of you. Like if you're really rooting against the Packers this weekend, you wouldn't say that. Why?

Okay, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. You would want them to have a full week of practice. I'd like at least two more days of him not clearing concussion protocol. I'd like at least one more report where they say he has not cleared concussion protocol. You want one more show for me to be nervous about concussion protocol. I want you to become an expert in concussion protocol at some point this week because you're so nervous. If Jalen Hurts doesn't clear concussion protocol...

Will you give us permission to concuss you and put you in protocol? I already have a history of concussions. Okay, so we won't do that. We will not do that. I think we should just give Max the concussion test before every show. Yeah, that would be a good idea. Baseline. Giants. What even pick do they have now? Fourth? They still might get Shador. Third. Third. They could get Shador. They could get Cam Ward. Yeah.

And I don't know if they're going to bring back Dable. Things seem to be trending towards not. Yeah. And again, we talk about when they had Ben McAdoo and Mara said that they would not fire Ben McAdoo. Then two weeks later, they fired Ben McAdoo. Yeah. Did the same thing with Joe Judge. This season, they said they're not going to fire Brian Dable. It's not necessarily a good thing to get a vote of confidence from Mr. Mara. Yes, from Mr. Mara. So if they do fire Dable...

What about this plan? Sark. And then you just wait for Arch. You do one season of tanking. If you look at the schedule that the Giants have to play next year, not easy. They have to play the NFC North. Well, that's because they're also the Giants. Yeah, that's true. But they also have to play the AFC West. Okay. So a lot of good teams. So that's six playoff teams right there between those two divisions. Yeah.

Are we sure Arch is worth tanking for? Then you tank a little bit. You should tank for somebody. Agreed. If Arch Manning is not worth tanking for if you're the Giants, then who is? I don't know. I'm just asking the question because if Arch Manning was worth tanking for, I would have thought Arch Manning would be playing in the playoffs. Right now? Yeah. Well, that's because Sark is keeping him fresh because he's going to become the Giants coach, then tank, and then draft Arch. Because I'm also kind of done watching Quinn Ewers. I'm not.

I am. I'm done watching Quinn Ewers. I'd rather watch Arch. But if you're a Giants fan, that should get your blood going a little bit, right? Yeah. Like just picturing a Manning jersey. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, what does it have right now? It has them taking Travis Hunter. Okay. Abdul Carter to the Jets. Way to go. Kelvin Banks. Offensive tackle. I like that. Ash and Jenny for sure is going to be a Cowboy. That is the most Cowboys pick ever.

Oh, my God. He's going to run for like 1,500 yards, and they're going to go to the playoffs, and everything's fixed. That is the most Cowboys thing ever. Oh, McMillan is a stud from Arizona. Love that. That would be nice. Just what we need. Yeah. Okay. Last game. Bears 24, Packers 22. What can I say? We beat the Packers. That's what we do. Packers specialists. That's what we do. We beat the Packers. Fake punt.

Not fake punt. The fake punt catch was awesome. That was a great play. The Keenan Allen interception, awesome play.

So funny. That was a very funny play. Almost bears the fuck out of this game with the fumble late. And then the Packers, I don't know what they were doing on defense at the end of the game, but that's just the difference between good organizations and bad organizations. Bears find ways to win these games. Caleb got clotheslined so hard on that final drive. Yeah. Yeah, he got horse collar tackled. But yeah, Caleb made it through a ball perfectly to DJ Moore. Cairo Santos, revenge.

Fun fact for you, the Bears and the Packers in the vaunted NFC North, both 1-5, and the Packers needed a block field goal to win that one game. I can't remember who it was against because the Bears owned the Packers. In 2025, the Packers have never beaten the Chicago Bears. Listen, I know we dropped like two spots, maybe three spots in the draft order. I was saying it before my...

My oldest is five and a half. He's halfway through kindergarten. He has never been alive for the Bears to beat the Packers. So this was kind of nice. Yeah, it's nice to beat the Packers. I told you you could do this and you were being a negative Nelly. Well, I mean, we needed a lot of things to go right, including, you know, to completely fake them out with that punt return. We need Jordan Love to go out.

We needed the Packers to play the dumbest defense I've ever seen. But I'm happy for Caleb Williams to end on a high note. Feels good. A lot of things to work on. The organization is not in a good place. But we own the Packers. Trending up or trending down? Trending down.

Trending very far down. That should make the Packers feel awful. Yeah. Even after you beat them, you're like, yeah, we're not in a good spot. Here's the thing. I know Packers fans will tell themselves, well, we just screwed you out of a couple picks in the draft. It bothers Packers fans to no end because they love beating the Bears, and they love beating the Bears all the time, and we haven't beaten them since 2018, and we haven't won a road Sunday game in three years.

We're the Packers' daddy. Is this like an Ohio State situation where even if they win the Super Bowl, it's kind of a lost season because they didn't beat the Bears? I'd rather them not win the Super Bowl. I'll say that right now. I do not want the Packers to win the Super Bowl, but good question, Hank. We are the Packers' daddy, though. We own them. Could this be a moment where, you know, for the last five years, all you've wanted is to beat the Packers, but at what cost? No, I mean...

I've just wanted them to be good. Yeah. And they're not good. But we beat the Packers. And it's great that it happened at the last game of the season so I can just be like, hey, we're on a winning streak. I will do...

A clock, you know, somewhere in the summer where it's like it's been 200 and whatever, 50 days. You got to hope that they schedule you for super late in the season. Or not. Let's not even schedule next year. Let's just, we'll do it the year after. What if you just destroyed the entire franchise? Yeah. It bothers the Packers. They lost to the Bears. I love it. I fucking love it. So, Caleb's rookie season, his numbers, he leads...

The Chicago Bears franchise history in total yards. So he did that in one year. How is that possible? I mean, we have never had a quarterback, Hank. That's how it's possible. Wait, say that stat again. He has the most total yards, so rushing and passing, in Bears franchise history in one season. That's pretty good. 4,030. I think Jay had like 4,000 in, I don't know.

Five or something one year. Is he the guy? We're working on it. Wait, so one year all time? All time and for one season? For one season. Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about... For one season of all time. For all time. One season. Yeah, and he ended with 3,500. Now, if you told me before the season that he had 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns and six interceptions, I would have been like, holy shit, we're in the playoffs. Didn't go that way. Didn't go the way I thought it would.

A lot to work on. Caleb's got a lot to work on. The Bears have a lot to work on. I have more confidence in Caleb working on the things than the Bears working on the things because everything that I've read and heard, the Bears are going to hire Brian Flores. They're probably not even going to interview Ben Johnson. Mike Vrabel is going to be the Patriots head coach. Ryan Pohl is going to keep his job, and that's going to be an awkward, I don't know what's going to happen where he's got one year, and then the new coach is like, hey, this guy, and whatever. Whatever.

Another time, another day. The Bears beat the Packers. We own the Packers. I have some advice for the McCaskey family. You got to at least... Don't swear. Okay. To dearest McCaskey family, I hope this missive finds you well. Yeah, by the way, happy birthday to Virginia, 102 years old. Happy birthday to Virginia. Sweet Virginia.

Very happy to have you around for hopefully many more trips around the sun. This is to Virginia. No, I couldn't. I reflexively said no when you said hope to have you around for many more trips.

I shouldn't have said that. Happy birthday. We're glad you're not dead. I'm glad you're not dead. No. I am. Oh, okay. I'm glad you're not dead. Again, happy birthday, Virginia. And Miss Virginia, excuse me, Mrs. McCaskey? Wood. Yeah. Wait, is it a Mrs. or is it a Miss? Is there a Mr. McCaskey? No, I mean, her husband died like a long time ago. Oh. She's 102. What did you say, Hank? Wood? Yeah. Try to be nice. Happy birthday. She got a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, anyways, Mr. McCaskey. Let's go back to it. You have to at least pretend to interview Ben Johnson. Yeah. She's not... Address this to George. Mr. McCaskey. George, her son. Her son. Her full-grown adult son. Her seven-year-old son. Who doesn't swear, yes. Mr. McCaskey, you have to at least pretend to interview Ben Johnson. Yes. At the very minimum, get him on a Zoom call. Yes. And then you can say, we didn't think that...

His vision for the future of this offense aligned with Chicago Bears values. Yes. But you can't just hire Brian Flores because Ryan Pohl says, this is my buddy. Yes. What are you laughing about back there? I just looked at a picture of her where she looks so old, and then underneath it, it said 1999. Yeah. Yeah. That's insane. That's when she fired her other idiot son. What is that guy doing now?

Michael McCaskey. Wait, I think he might have. No, I'm thinking of someone else. Yes. He died. No, he died. He died. But yeah.

They're a mess. I'm not going to think about it today. Today's about beating the Packers. Listen, you have to at least pretend to interview Ben Johnson. And yes, give Brian Flores an interview. But also, let's not forget about the 40th anniversary of your vaunted 1985 Chicago Bears team. And what better way to move forward as a franchise than by honoring that season and by bringing back a small piece of it, dual head coaches Jeff Fisher and Ron Rivera. That would be fun.

She was 62 years old when that happened. She was old. That's so old. When the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl, she was old enough to be confused by the rap in the Super Bowl shuffle. Yes. Probably offended, yeah. Yeah, offended by, like, this isn't music. No, seriously, happy birthday. I don't think she's doing, like, she's a sweet old lady. It's not her fault anymore. I mean, I guess it kind of is because she hired her son and whatever. It's...

Today is about beating the Packers. Nice mom. Today is about beating the Packers. Great mom. Well, she fired one of her sons. Smart move. Today is about beating the Packers. We beat the Packers. We are the Packers daddy. Packers fans, you're 0-1 in the last one. Max, I'm going to give you the blueprint on how to beat the Packers. Hell yeah. Thank you. We're back. We're back. I'm going to do it. Are the Packers better with Malik Willis at quarterback? Yes. Jordan Love just throws off his back foot. That's all he does. He's really good at it. He is good at it.

I do. Is Christian Watson hurt? Christian Watson, it looks like he's out. Jordan Love is out. That's actually significant. That does suck for the Packers because he is their field stretcher. And I do think that when Malik Willis gets in the game, LeFleur gets more invested in the coaching. Where he's like, I really have to get in my bag. And he calls more creative shit, does things a little bit more unorthodox. They're more fun to watch, I think, when Willis is playing. Yeah. By the way, did you guys...

I think I did mention this, but the Bears have the same division record as the Packers. One in five. One in five. And I think technically in division they get the tiebreaker on head-to-head point differential because we beat them by two and they beat us by one.

Oh, that's big. So this season. So on aggregate, yeah, that's correct. We beat them by two and they beat us by one. So yeah. So like going off college football. In the NFC North. Yeah, on college football division rules. Yes. You finished in third place in the division. Correct. Packers finished in last place. Correct. Anyone can beat up on all the other teams. Yeah, in the big North. Anyone, literally anyone. Yeah. Could, you know, beat teams like the Colts. And, you know, they could do that. But, or the Cardinals. Yeah.

Not everyone can just fight in the NFC North and win on a technicality. Is Thomas Brown the guy? No. No.

They're going to interview him for a head coaching job, which is nice. It's good. He's doing that. It's good. But no, definitely not. They fucked Thomas Brown over. They made him. He was doing fine. There was a three-game stretch where Caleb looked more confident because he was up in the booth being the OC. And then they're like, hey, dude, you did pretty good for three games, which he started the season not as the OC.

became the OC three weeks later became the head coach they fucked that guy over he did such a good job at being OC that they promoted him they just that was really stupid and very Bears like but yeah the future is as grim as possible I'm not I'm not gonna get my I've said this before I'm not gonna get myself excited what were you saying Mims?

Vrabel. No. Vrabel's the coach of the Patriots, dude. No, Chicago. Maybe the Jets. I'm not going to let myself get excited until they actually show me on the field. He hasn't signed. Yeah. To my knowledge, he hasn't even interviewed with the Patriots yet. Me neither. Yeah, I don't think he has. But he has interviewed with the Jets. So really, the only job he could take right now is with the Jets. Yeah. That is true. The top of his big board is probably Jets. Jets. Yeah. Yeah.

on his Etsy board. I'm not going to let myself get excited in the offseason and talk myself into something that they have proven time and time against they can't deliver. I will spend the offseason talking about how we're 1-0 against the Packers in the last one. And that's fine. You know what I am? I'm based in facts now. I'm based in results. I'm a results-based guy.

I'm not going to talk about hypotheticals and who we add and offensive linemen and coach. And we're like, oh, you know, the Bears are going to be great. No, no. Facts. 1-0 in last one against Packers. This year. Undefeated this year, right? Yep. Facts. Not a lot of teams can say that. I guess the Super Bowl champ. Actually, all of us can. Yeah, all of us can say it. And also the Super Bowl champ will be able to say that for sure. Actually, unless one of you wins the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I guess memes. Hank and I are going to finish 2025 or start 2025 without a loss. Yeah. Whenever they say only one team finishes with a win in their last game, that's actually not true. No. There's a lot of teams. Yeah. 16 of them. What do you say, Max? Well, we all started 2025 without a loss. Yeah, that's what you're saying. But you guys are the only ones who have a chance to lose in 2025, which actually I'm happy I don't have a chance to lose so far in 2025. Yeah.

You understand that? No. No, that made no sense. It makes perfect sense. He's saying he's happy that they don't have a playoff game that they could lose. Yeah. Because Big Cat would rather not be. I'm going to stay 1-0 for the next nine months. You'd rather not even be in the playoffs. In 2025. There's a good chance you guys are not going to be, you're going to take at least one loss. No, I'm a winner. I'm not going to lose. Okay. That's the spirit. Yeah. Anybody, anytime, anywhere? I wish, I wish we could, fuck, I just wish we could change the bracket and play against the Eagles. Yeah.

Nothing would make me happier. I know you're rooting hard for it, too. You're really hard for it. Okay. Should we finish up with who's back the week? Oh, I have a rowback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com promo code take 20% off your first purchase. Rowback dot com promo code take. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Rowback dot com promo code take. My rowback question is who ended up losing the picks competition?

Great question. That would be me. Oh, Max, you lost. Yep. That's a shame. I have a rollback question. Yeah, Hank, go ahead. Rollback question. Hit us. Well, I guess for... Do you want to clarify what the punishment is? The punishment is the loser of the Picks competition this year has to go to an AWL's bachelor party and get drunk with AWLs, which isn't really a punishment. It's actually a reward. But some of us...

don't love traveling when we don't have to work. So that's the punishment this year. So I was thinking about this last night and, you know, even just the past week, obviously with the new year and the show and how much we appreciate our fans. And I was just thinking like we have non-male fans.

AWL fans. Yeah, that's a good point. Like, we did just pigeonhole this contest into just bachelor parties. Yeah. What about the female AWLs and bachelorettes? Yeah. Good point. It sounds like a good idea for another punishment, but it's a shame that this one is a bachelor party. No, I don't think that's...

That's a good point. This is also a bachelor party. I was just thinking that a lot. It's like, do you not care about our female fans? No, I do. I care about our female fans. I agree. This sounds like a great idea for another punishment that we can do. But why? It's a shame that we already made this one a bachelor party. I wish we didn't.

I wish we didn't need that. But we could vote. We could vote. No, yeah, for our next punishment, we can do that. No, we can vote right now for this one. No, no, no. Are you saying you wouldn't want to hang out with our female, like, you wouldn't want to go to a match-ride party? No, I just want to oblige by... Oblige? Oblige to the punishment that we were doing. What is that word you're saying? I don't know. Oblige. I want to oblige to the punishment that was said. Is that what you think the word is? Oblige.

I want to oblige to the punishment. And unfortunately, we said this was a bachelor party. What about now? Would we leave open those fucking freaks and weirdos that do a combined bachelor and bachelorette party? No, I said they're out. Yeah, they're out. If you're listening to this show right now and you do that, stop listening to the show. This show's not for you. And if you're a female...

not we care about you unless unless you're no no i think that's a great idea unless your fiance made you do the combine then you're all i i i don't know if i had lost i would say it's going to be equal opportunity because i think that we should shine more light on some of the female awls out there that sometimes listen to the show yeah i don't want to oh am i the only one guys you want to let them know i think that we should do that it sounds like you want to ask a question can i'm gonna i want to role play real quick like i lost hank asked me uh

if I would do that. Hey, big cat. Like I know we, we said bachelor party, but I was kind of thinking last night. Are you thinking bachelorette party? Yeah. I'm in. See, go. That's how, that's how I would act because I love our female listeners.

Yas, queen. I'm in. I have a question, Max. Max. Rollback question. PFT. Why are you afraid of girls? Yeah. They're scary. Good answer. Fair point. All right. So bachelor and bachelorette parties. You guys can go get your hair done. Everyone submit even bachelorette parties? You can submit anything. But we're the ones deciding where you go.

Correct. On the bachelor party, that was the punishment. Okay. Anywhere? Yeah, anywhere. And it sounds like there's no time limit. Yeah. So it could be like... Well, I can't miss work. No, you can. I can't. Yeah, you can. We're saying you can right now.

I can cover. Also, if you're one of those bachelor parties that likes to do an activity instead of the whole going out and drinking and getting drunk all the time, if you're doing a group marathon or something like that, we're all going to travel together and compete in this endurance race, that's cool too. Yeah. We're definitely in for that. Japanese AWLs, don't feel like we care about you guys too. Yeah. Yeah. Japanese AWLs, shout out.

Tokyo's probably, Japan's probably fun. Yeah. Also, is memes, does he have to go to a retirement party? Yes. So we need to find that. Because you finished second place? Yeah, we got to find that.

Or a divorce hearing. Or a divorce hearing. I would prefer a divorce hearing. I think that'd be funnier. Memes in the back like Harbaugh, Judge Judy. I still think the funeral wasn't that crazy, but whatever. We'll not do that. So, Max, congrats. We had quite a testy Saturday night. I know. I don't know why I was so upset. I lose every punishment. It's like, dude, PFT had to drive across country. PFT wanted to drive across the country. 60 minutes of stand-up. It was my punishment, and I did it.

Meme still hasn't gotten over doing 15 minutes of stand-up. It changed him forever. Yeah, actually. And you were like, oh, this is bullshit. No, I was just pissed. It was...

I was just pissed in the way that I lost because I was looking forward to getting riled up for Sunday. It was more so that I lost than I was about the actual punishment. Because you lost on the push. It was the only way I could have possibly lost on Saturday night, and that's what it was. Yep, and you kept on leaving the group chat over and over. We had to keep adding you back.

You're getting very upset. Yeah, no, I shouldn't have done... I'm excited to make friends with some AWLs. Love that. I'm excited. Male or female. Boy or girl, yeah. Yep, the bachelor party is going to be great. If you're listening to this and you want to invite Max to your bachelorette party, just maybe put a male name. Also...

There's no way that any bachelorette party would want me there. Disagree? No way. Challenge accepted. Are you challenging them? No. We're challenging the AWLs. I'm not challenging them. I'm not. There would be a bachelorette whose maybe her fiancé is a big AWL and she wants to make him jealous. Invite Max from Parvati. I would love to see the face of some of the girls being like, this is the worst stripper ever. Why did you bring him? He walks in a boot.

I got to, yeah. Okay. Camera. So we'll get it set up. I'm excited for you, Max. Yeah, it'll be good. We're going to pick something good. And I'm doing the $9 stream. Yeah. In two weeks. Yeah, and I'm getting a tattoo probably actually this week because there's a group of tattoo artists coming in. And I'm going to get a perm. Yeah.

And I'm going to... The baseball thing, Max hurt his foot. Yeah, that really threw a wrench into things here. We're going to do that. We're going to do that. Okay, should we finish up with who's back of the week? Who's back of the week? Henry, who's back of the week? No ad. My who's back of the week, I've got a couple. I think I'll save one for PFC. I'm guessing he's going to take it. My other one, LiAngelo Ball. Go on. Not in the NBA, but he is a...

He's basically got the number one song in the country right now. Is he good? It's really good. Yeah? It's a song I've been putting for the Jumpsuit January songs. Oh. It's one of those songs that it is popular. At first, he put out a clip of it, and all the youth were saying this song would have been a banger in 2005, kind of making fun of how it sounded like an old school song, which is one of those moments for me where I realize I am definitely old because...

This is like the music that I like. Like when I was, you know, way younger and like stealing my brother's iPod to listen to music, it was like this type of music. But now people are just ironically, unironically enjoying the song. Like he put it out on streaming. It's got 2 million views on YouTube. Like people actually like the song.

And it's a good song. Is his dad still kicking? What's his dad up to? He's still kicking. Haven't heard much from him. He's been right about everything. He did what he said he was going to do. He got his sons to the league. Jello didn't pan out, but now he's panning out as a rapper. And then Lonzo, another clip came out last night from the Bulls locker room where Lonzo was playing a different unreleased song, and now that's going to be a hit. Oh, hell yes. So Jello's just...

Low-key, just going to be a famous rapper. What's the name of the song? Tweakin'. Okay. And you love it. I love it. You love Tweakin'. Unironically, yes. And you listen to songs hard when you listen to songs. I have listened to his songs. Should Billy Strings be worried? I would love it. I said to my friend, I would like to see the BBBB crossover, quadruple B. Billy, Big Baller Brand Billy. Big Baller Billy. Nice.

Okay, good who's back. Baller strings. Balls. PFT? Hank, who was your other who's back? Because I have two. USA. Oh, you can do that. Yeah, go ahead. Hockey? We won the world whatever. Oh, world juniors. Fuck yeah. Ryan Leonard, MVP. Love it. My who's back. In Canada, I can't even make it to the fucking championship. Wow. That's very sad. Wow. And they lost their prime minister. What is Max listening to?

I was listening to the song. I had never heard it. Oh, I thought you were listening to like some... I swear on that camera. Am I Who's Back of the Week is Luke Littler. Darts is back. Luke Littler, we have a new world champion in darts. He's 17 years old. He's a...

He beat Michael Van Gerwen in the finals. Smoked him. Smoked him. Oh, Michael Van Gerwen. And crushed him. Absolutely dominated him. This guy's a unit. They call him Luke the Nuke. He's a big boy. Wait, so Luke the Nuke, he's 17? 17. He looks like he's 30 plus. By the way, have you seen the clips of the old school, the Penn State football players from the 1980s? Oh, yeah.

I don't know what was going on in the world, but if you were 20 years old in the year 1988, you looked like you were 50. Yes. Absolutely. Smoking. Smoking, yeah. Smoking in bars. That was why everyone looked so much older. Wait, so Luke Nuke is 17? He's 17. So he's just going to be the best darts player for the next 40 years? He's the next Michael Van Gerwen. So in the speech that Van Gerwen gave after the darts were over, he said...

you know what they say, a star comes along once every 17 years. Basically, in his congratulations speech, he was reminding everybody that he was a star and he is a star. But now 17 years after that, when Michael Van Gerwen was 17 years old, now another 17-year-old has taken the crown. Luke the Nuke. Luke the Nuke. Fucking love it. He's a beast. Love it. Stud. And British.

That was a championship? That was a championship. Absolutely crushed him in the championship, too. Look at him. We should try and get him on. Yeah. He's sleeping with a dart stroking. You should do that, producer. Yeah. Okay. That's a great haircut. Josh will get him. Yeah. Look at that haircut. Yes, we should get him on for sure, especially before you're a nine-darter, Hank. That would be great. Yeah. That would be a great interview. My other who's back was going to be Jimmy Butler. Oh, yeah.

Ah, Jimmy. Back in the news. Wait, what'd he do, PFT? He's not happy. He pulled a Tyreek Hill, and he's not happy being in Miami. Well, no, Tyreek Hill pulled a Jimmy Butler. Yeah, it is the Jimmy Butler. So Jimmy Butler, I'm shocked that Jimmy Butler is no longer happy. On a team? On a team. He is on a team. No way! He doesn't want to be on the team anymore, and he's making a very public demand to be traded from that team or move on. Is this redemption for Shams?

Yeah. Kind of. I just, this is, I mean, Jimmy Butler just, he's ready to move on. Yeah. Back to the Sixers?

No, but there was a report that they tried to do that in the offseason. The Sixers did? Yep. They couldn't get a deal. Before Paul George, they tried to get Jimmy Butler back. Maybe now they could. Super team. No, I don't think it would work. Yeah, I can't believe Jimmy Butler. I don't think he wants to go to a contender. I don't think he wants to come to Philly. He wants to go to contender. Sixers beat the Nets yesterday. Oh, the Nets are really good. Yeah.

They looked not so great against the Warriors. I don't know. I like Jay Butt. I like Jimmy Butler. I mean, as a player, sure. But as a guy in the locker room, doesn't feel like... Well, he's been pretty good in Miami. Yeah, but at some point, if this is your fourth team... Yeah, I don't know.

It might be you? Yeah, I think it's probably him. But he was relatively good in Miami. Yeah, of course. He didn't blow the team up until now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm saying, like, as a teammate, he seemed to be a good teammate for a while. But I feel like Jim, he's on the downside. Yeah. It's not getting better. It's actually kind of nice that, like, Miami has to deal with this for once.

Yeah. Like, there are players being like, I want out of Miami. Everyone always wants to leave wherever they are to go to Miami. Well, Dwayne Wade wanted out of Miami. That's true. Okay. My who's back. I probably saw that statue and was like, is this how they treat their superstars? Yeah.

My who's back is Derrick Rose because Derrick Rose night, I attended it Saturday night. Awesome ceremony. Very cool. Made me kind of sad because it was like, oh, I remember when it was cool to have a team and players that were fun to root for. Very, very fun. Also very Bulls that they are retiring his number next year. So they'll just do another Derrick Rose night. But it was very cool. Derrick Rose means a lot to Chicago, and it was like,

Like, it was a very emotional night. Joe Keem spoke very well. So it was cool. The speech he gave to his son, too, or like about... Yeah, you want to be good or great? Yeah. It's awesome. So they retired his number last night, but they're going to retire it again next year? They didn't retire his number. They announced they're going to retire his number next year. On Derrick Rose night. Right before Derrick Rose night. Okay. So they can do another Derrick Rose night. What prevented them from retiring his number last night? They weren't ready to do it. It takes a while to get a banner. Yeah, the banner. And...

But it was a cool night. It was fun. I actually thought it was going to be the highlight of Chicago sports in 2025 on January 4th. Turns out we ended up beating the Packers. So kind of having a hot 2025 so far. It's a pretty good two-day span. Yeah, and they beat the Knicks.

I love that they're waiting a year to retire. Yeah. Because they're going to bring him back and do the exact same thing. Exact same thing. Except with a banner. And I'll probably go again. Yeah. Because it was fun. And the United Center was packed. The highlight packages were playing. All the old guys were back. Wal Dang, Joe Keem, all these guys were there. It was very cool. It was a cool ceremony, cool night. The Bulls actually did it correctly, unlike last year when...

They invited everyone back and like no one came. Then they booed Jerry Krause's widow. So, yeah. Well, that wasn't they booed Jerry Krause's widow. They booed Jerry Krause on the Jumbotron because the Bulls are idiots and they should have realized if they put them up, that was going to happen. Whatever. Either way. And then my other who's back is Fox Sports. Yeah.

What happened? They got some stuff going on. Lawsuit. Did you read any of it? I read a little bit of it. It's interesting. It's just a lawsuit, so we don't know. It's a civil lawsuit. But apparently, allegedly, Skip Bayless tried to pay a co-worker one and a half million dollars to sleep with him. That seems like a lot of money. And she said, no, that's got to make you in a real down bad mindset. Yeah.

1.5? 1.5. 1.5. Allegedly. Do you think he started... Did he start with 1.5? Yeah, I think that's... I think that you just say that and you're just like, that's the number. But you couldn't just say a million? I'll give you a million bucks. That is quite a lawsuit. We'll see how that goes. And I saw Joy Taylor was in the mix there. Listen, my statement here is I'm going to wait and see how it goes. But...

I saw Emmanuel Ocho having to delete tweets. That's very funny. That was very funny to me. Did you see the video that he put out? Yeah, that was... Oh, he put out a statement? No. It's an old video. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the video from 2022. Yeah, it's an old video where he... That he deleted after. Yeah, which is like, dude, people are going to figure that out. I just... Emmanuel Ocho doesn't like us. I'm not the biggest fan of his. He's a weirdo. It would just be very funny just to watch him have to...

squirm a little i think emmanuel ocho is the weirdest person on television yeah he's very strange and yeah in the video he was like just talking about how great joy taylor was kind of out of nowhere yeah and then he deleted that video because he's like people are going to find this and repost it which is so weird which is just strice sanding himself yes exactly we'll see we'll see how that goes i don't know that was a bombshell skip obviously is just tweeting and not

Addressing anything. At all, because he doesn't follow anybody on Twitter. Yeah. I also don't know how you do address it other than with lawyers, right? Yeah, you probably shouldn't address it. Yeah, probably should just let it play out. Also, Colin Coward seems like whatever happens with this lawsuit, he was like exonerated. Yeah, no creepy stuff about him. Yeah, he's not a creep. I want to say for the record, I would have taken $1.5 million to sleep with Skip Bayless. You would have taken $0 with Skip? Yeah, one night with Skip.

Your pillow talk? Yeah. Okay, let's wrap up. Oh, we got one last ad for the lottery ball. It's brought to you by our friends at Jack Pocket. Feeling lucky? Well, get ready to try your luck with Jack Pocket, America's number one lottery app. With Jack Pocket, you can order a Powerball and Mega Million tickets

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Okay, numbers. Five. 33. 11. 11.

Let's go eight. 99 per. All right. Were you obliged, Max, in 16? There's no way you think that's how you say that word. I obliged to Bachelor Party. 85. Oh, Virginia's looking down on us. Well, no, she's with us still. Yeah, 85 barriers. Yeah. There you go, Virginia. 62. Love you guys. ♪♪♪