The Colts Machine, a Giant Disaster, Hock Tua, Baby Doll’s Luck Corner, and Guess the Lines With Cousin Sal

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Cousin Sal to react to Week 7 NFL highlights and wishing luck with “Baby Doll” corner (2:29). Then, they check in with the Cowboys before guessing the lines for Week 8 and ending with Parent Corner (01:01:13). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Cousin Sal Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo #ULTRACourtside could get you closer to the game! https://michelobultra.com/courtside ENJOY RESPONSIBLY © 2025 ANHEUSER-BUSCH, MICHELOB ULTRA® LIGHT BEER, ST. LOUIS, MO. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I'm pro football Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, and I lived for a long time with something I did not know the name of: major depressive disorder. I carried sadness and anger because I thought I could handle it alone, but I couldn't. Now I want to make sure others know that that support is out there. If you're experiencing similar symptoms, talk to a healthcare professional. Visit MDDAllies.com to watch my story.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Paid partnership with Johnson & Johnson. Brian Dawkins has not prescribed Caplyta lumateperone.

• 0:37Speaker 02

  I needed more from my antidepressant, so my doctor added Caplyta lumateperone, proven to provide greater relief from depression symptoms than an antidepressant alone, building on my progress without starting over. Caplyta is for adults with major depressive disorder when used with an antidepressant and is available by prescription only. Individual results may vary. In clinical trials, weight gain was not common.

• 0:57Speaker 01

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• 1:24Speaker 02

  Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at caplyta.com or call 888-252-4824.

• 1:30Bill Simmons?

  The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. We are also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. On the Prestige TV Podcast, I broke down the season finale of Task with Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney. We talked about where the show is pitted against some of the all-time great HBO shows. And we talked about whether the show's coming back because we thought this was going to be a serious finale, but it seems like it's just a season finale. What is Task, season two, going to be? So we talked about all that stuff. If you get bored of us talking about it, you can listen to The Watch with Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald as well. New rewatch was coming on Monday night. It's the last one for Redford Month. We did-

• 2:14Bill Simmons?

  Quiz show, me and Brian Koppelman and, uh, and that's it for Redford Month. Quiz show is an awesome movie, uh, really, really highly recommend it. Love talking about it. So we're going to do a horror movie the next week. That's why we're cutting Redford Month short. We always try to do one horror movie before we get to Halloween. Speaking of horror movies, Cousin Sal and I are going to talk about Miami's performance in Cleveland, the Giants loss in Denver and, uh, a really fun, crazy day of games. Lot going on here. So we're going to take a break, bring in Pearl Jam and then Cousin Sal talking week seven plus guest lines. This is the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. If you're betting on the NFL,

• 2:56Bill Simmons?

  come on, FanDuel is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlays, quick bets for when you want to jump in live your way. So you can set your own lines on just about anything. The app's fast, it's easy to use and best of all, when you win, you get paid instantly. I've been in Boston, Massachusetts recently. Guess what I did? Used FanDuel. Super fun. Download the FanDuel app or go to fanduel.com/BS to get started. Must be 21 plus, present in select states, 18 plus in DC, Kentucky and Wyoming. Game problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com, call 888-797-777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut.

• 3:59Bill Simmons?

  All right. Recording on a Sunday night, a little past 8:30 Pacific time. Cousin Sal is here. We just watched a pretty crappy Sunday night Falcons Niners game. Not crappy for you.

• 4:09Speaker 04

  It was good. It was good.

• 4:10Bill Simmons?

  Best bet?

• 4:11Speaker 04

  I loved it. I felt, I'm very proud of myself. I feel like I, I pulled out that Denver game. We'll probably talk about that one, right? On the money line. And then I doubled it up on this, my favorite pick, the San Francisco 49ers. I think I analyzed it right. First time like in six years. I feel like I got everything right.

• 4:28Bill Simmons?

  We both had good ones this week because House and I went all in on that Browns Dolphins game. We went all in. We made it our lock of the year. Tua in wind and rain. We'll talk about that later. You watched all the Sunday games with the Ringer crew because we have a bunch of Ringer people in town and we have this movie theater in the downtown LA offices where they put all the games on the big screen.

• 4:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 4:49Bill Simmons?

  And you got to watch the early and the late, including with some Giants fans. The late game. So what was the experience?

• 4:55Speaker 04

  Brutal.

• 4:55Bill Simmons?

  What were the highlights? You had JJ on his phone watching the end of the Dolphin season.

• 4:59Speaker 04

  JJ laying down.

• 4:59Bill Simmons?

  High Fitts watching the Giants collapse. Tell me, give me the highlights.

• 5:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, he had his skinny jeans on, High Fitts. You know, it's great because Spotify flies everybody out for a week out here and it's good. They call it Core Week and then they have meetings during the week and everybody pretends they're recording their podcast so they could blow off the meetings. But at least Sunday, we get together. Huge, huge theater. I forgot how the Youngins root. I mean, they really, they really whoop it up. And some is alcohol fueled and some isn't. And then, and then some watch on their phone. I'm not going to mention names, but they update like, they'll be watching like on FanDuel. So there'll be two plays ahead. So that's kind of annoying.

• 5:39Bill Simmons?

  Is that, you can do that?

• 5:41Speaker 04

  You could do it. You could, you could do it. Yeah. I shouldn't even tell you about it, but it's a.

• 5:45Bill Simmons?

  Oh, please don't.

• 5:46Speaker 04

  But it's great. It's, I mean, High Fitts, I sent you the video. Porter, Danny High Fitts, a big Giant fan. When they were down like 18, I was like, every stupid first down that Bo Nix scrambled for, I'm like, oh, you're nervous now. And then he was actually nervous. I thought he was going to be brought to tears at the end.

• 6:02Bill Simmons?

  Well, I think he was banking on the 1602 straight games with 18 point lead with six minutes left. That's pretty great. Big picture before we go into the games, like, you know, this is the sports wheelhouse time. Like the Blue Jays won tonight. We're going to game seven with that.

• 6:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 6:18Bill Simmons?

  We had Otani on Friday night with, I don't even think it's a debate, the greatest player performance ever. I was, the only thing I was thinking was whether World Series versus regular playoffs and everything else should be like two separate categories.

• 6:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think so. You know, you, God forbid you say something like that, like, you're called melodramatic. Oh, it was the greatest you've ever seen. And then someone's like. On June 12th, 1973, Rick Wise pitched a no hitter and hit two home runs. I don't want to hear about Shohei Ohtani. I'm like, all right, fine. But no, this is, this is as good as it gets. There's only a handful of players who have struck out 10 batters in a playoff game, and there's only a handful of hit three home runs, and he did both, like insane.

• 7:01Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, it makes you think when you watch this, all the lost time when he was on the Angels, not in these games, because the hope with him was always, oh, if he was with the Yankees, or the Dodgers, or the Cubs, and he was in big, big games in a big city, maybe he'll even rise up and go up a level, and there'll be like, true great, and this stuff pops out. And we just didn't get to see it for half a decade. And now we're seeing it, and he actually did elevate. I still feel like, to me, the Reggie three home runs, you know, they're down by a run in game six, you know, they had the last two at home, but the three straight, and the exclamation point at the end, I just feel like World Series has to be kind of over here, and then everything else is over here. But it was certainly the greatest baseball game I've ever seen. I only saw the last two homers. Did you, did you

• 7:46Bill Simmons?

  see everything?

• 7:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, once he, I didn't see, I didn't see the first homer, then I saw everything else. I also think these numbers are screwed up, when they said that one shot was 469 feet, and it's like, it's still rising as we're talking two days later. It's like, they have to fix that. And why wouldn't they? Why are they shortchanging these? This should be big for baseball, right? It should be 510, or whatever it is, or lie, who cares?

• 8:08Bill Simmons?

  I wasn't even sure that was possible, to hit it out of the Dodger Stadium that easily. It was flying out of there. Anyway, so that was fun. College football's in full swing. NBA starts Tuesday. I'm sure you're betting on hockey. We have the Equinox coming up later this weekend. And then today, Broncos Giants was the best game of the year. Just an unbelievable comeback by the Broncos, an unbelievable loss. Both teams lost. I'm not even sure there was a winner by the end of it. And of course, I had the Broncos in a tease, laying one and a half, so I somehow lost.

• 8:42Speaker 04

  Nice.

• 8:43Bill Simmons?

  Even though they came back and won.

• 8:44Speaker 04

  Oh, right, right, right. Oh, man. Yeah. Oh, that's not good. I'm sorry about that. Because that's a fun one to celebrate, if you're on the right side.

• 8:53Bill Simmons?

  Broncos scored 33 fourth quarter points, so.

• 9:00Bill Simmons?

  I mean, they're five and two. This could be like a playoff position game. We could be in week 18, be like, oh my God, they're the two seed because that stupid fucking Giants game in week seven. I can't believe it. And it really looked like, it looked like, uh, like they were going to give it to the Giants on that fourth and 19 with that bogus. I didn't like the rough in the passer call. I didn't think the guy got the first down. The pass interference near the goal line was terrible. It was just, it was, they were playing the hits and it seemed like it was, uh, it didn't pass the stink test.

• 9:33Speaker 04

  And yet the worst call of all was a review that said that Jackson Dart got in the end zone and he did. But if he stopped short at the end zone, that kills two plays of the following drive for Denver, at least I think, right? You know, I'm assuming Giants scoring the next play or the play after, but it would have knocked 40 seconds off the clock. I mean, yeah, there was too much. There's a, uh, just too, I mean, we're cursing Bo Nix, who I still can't put a finger on like we're, oh, this is a carryover from the London game. He's so bad. And then he becomes the first player in history with two passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter in the same quarter. So I think I set a record just on the day for saying the words, they scored, they scored too soon. Like those, right? In

• 10:17Speaker 04

  every game, there was like four games, like, no, they scored too soon. But, uh, you read the stat, man. 1602 games. It's just spectacular that, uh, we saw that with our own eyes.

• 10:27Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I did feel like Dart scored too soon when they scored because the Giants were dead. They're playing in altitude and I, but I, you can't tell the guy not to, we, I feel like we argue about this three times a year. You, you gotta go for it. I, I was thinking with Bo Nix because this is maybe the third or fourth game where he's looked like complete dog shit for two hours and then he kind of revives. It's like, did, did you have in college? Did you have the one guy who would? Throw up and pass out and then an hour and a half later was in somebody's room like nothing would happen. And it was like, he had like a second life and then some and was just awesome. And you were like, whoa, Bo Nix, I thought you passed out. That's, that's

• 11:09Bill Simmons?

  what he's done three times this year where you think he's dead. Like, well, I guess we'll see Bo tomorrow. And then all of a sudden, he's running around.

• 11:16Speaker 04

  If you want, you could get, delete this, but I thought this of our friend, not even going all the way back to college, but about 20 years ago with our friend Jacoby. I mean, he would tie one on with the best of them. And then the next day at seven in the morning, he'd be ready to produce a bit with a tie on.

• 11:29Bill Simmons?

  Definitely not cutting that out.

• 11:30Speaker 04

  No, we'll leave it in. Okay.

• 11:32Bill Simmons?

  It was Bo Nix. It's a compliment. Yeah, he's, you know, he's a mature guy now. Yeah, no, he can rally with the best of them. But I, it's, it's, he's like a Jekyll and Hyde QB. And there's not a lot of these anymore. There's not a lot of guys who just look like complete dog shit for a while. Like, I don't know how many open receivers he's missed on 40 to 45 yard bombs. I've watched a lot of Broncos. I have a lot of Broncos futures. That was my big AFC pick. And it just feels like for two hours, he misses everybody that's open. And then all of a sudden, he settles down. He basically needs two hours to settle down.

• 12:07Speaker 04

  That's it. Right? Yeah. Like he's planted on there. Yeah. He's one of those guys who in four years, I don't know what you'd be more, more confident in. Is he a top six paid quarterback? Or is he out of the league?

• 12:20Bill Simmons?

  Or, or is he like Carson Wentz where he's on some new team?

• 12:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's got to come back and forth.

• 12:25Bill Simmons?

  They're kind of hoping he's okay, but you know, he's not. And you're just kind of waiting for the starter to come back.

• 12:30Speaker 04

  That's Jacoby for you. Yeah.

• 12:32Bill Simmons?

  Amazingly, they're five and two. And we have India six and one, Tampa's five and one heading into tomorrow night. And then the only five and two teams are my beloved Patriots, Denver, Philly, and the Rams. And Denver could either be, it feels that they could be three and four. They could easily be six and one if that leverage team doesn't call. I think what was notable today was their defense was awful. And I thought this was gonna be one of those defense against a rookie QB. Just take them out, you know, but it was the opposite. They were, I thought, really, really bad. And even that last drive, like Dart shouldn't have been able to do that. They lucked out because Dart threw the worst, one of the worst passes of the day that Tua wasn't involved with when they were down 10. It's just all that if you run three times

• 13:16Bill Simmons?

  and punt, the Broncos probably can't win. But I said Dart threw them that pick.

• 13:20Speaker 04

  He threw when he was supposed to be running. And then when he was trying to kill the clock, he should have passed on second down and they, it was, it was, it was bad. They did everything the reverse. And that's why Brian Daboll's breaking chairs in the locker room after the game.

• 13:35Bill Simmons?

  Oh, my God. Well, the Broncos have a one game lead over the Chiefs and yet are the Chiefs favored on Fanduel for that division? They have to be, right?

• 13:43Speaker 04

  Favored to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, they're.

• 13:45Bill Simmons?

  Oh, they're favored to win the Super Bowl, too?

• 13:47Speaker 04

  Minus, the Chiefs are now minus 125. The Broncos plus 230 for the division. Chargers 370.

• 13:55Bill Simmons?

  Chargers have dropped and the Raiders are no longer on the radar. Yeah. And meanwhile, that you have the Chiefs who dominated the Raiders to the point that I felt really good once they scratched Bowers. This game doesn't need to be in the multi-view. We have enough games. I'm gonna just gonna hope nothing happens and they'll get a couple of updates and the Chiefs will win by a lot. It's exactly what happened. They had 30 to three first downs. They try, I don't think the Raiders got to 100 yards. It was like one of the most inept offensive performances, I think, of the 21st century. So that was great. So anyway, the Chiefs have rounded into form. And then you look at that stupid Monday night game they lost against Jacksonville that we lost money on.

• 14:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 14:37Bill Simmons?

  And is one of the three worst results of the year. Jacksonville looks the way they look today. And the Chiefs should probably be five and two anyway. That 99 yard interception return, one of the dumbest plays of the year.

• 14:48Speaker 04

  For sure. Yeah. And it's, that's what kept Jacksonville. I remember what they have, like 14 turnovers in three games. And now everything is like coming back to the norm. But yeah, I love the Chiefs today. I mean, this was the only thing they hadn't done in a while, right? Like lay the smackdown on a team. Like now you have Mahomes favored for MVP. You have the Chiefs favored to win the Super Bowl. They haven't beaten anybody like they had did like in 2022, like Reed and Mahomes type team. And I laid 23 and a half. I got good odds on it. The only thing I don't understand is. Why run a trick play against the Raiders by the goal line? Why wouldn't you save that for a game you're not gonna struggle in?

• 15:24Bill Simmons?

  Which trick play? The one when Mahomes was pretending he was trying to? There was another play.

• 15:28Speaker 04

  So that was the other thing, right?

• 15:29Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, why'd they waste that one?

• 15:30Speaker 04

  This never fucking works thing? That was great.

• 15:32Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 15:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was dumb. So I don't know, like, maybe, I don't know why. I just would like an answer for that, but who cares? They're right back at it at four and three. The toast of the town.

• 15:42Bill Simmons?

  It seemed like a little animosity for the Raiders, who talked a lot of shit the last couple of times.

• 15:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:47Bill Simmons?

  Back to Nuggets. Nuggets, I'm already in NBA mode.

• 15:51Speaker 04

  Stop it, please.

• 15:52Bill Simmons?

  Back into Broncos Giants mode. The Giants are two and five.

• 15:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:57Bill Simmons?

  But probably had, including your Cowboys win, two of the dumbest losses, two of the five dumbest losses. So they could easily be four and three. I think of all the two and five and under teams. So that's, let's see, Cleveland, Vegas, Giants, Zona, Baltimore's one and five, Miami, Tennessee, Saints, Jets. If there's just a round robin tournament of all of those teams.

• 16:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:22Bill Simmons?

  It's the Giants against the Ravens, I think, in the finals. Out of all the crappy teams, right?

• 16:27Speaker 04

  So we have our five cross offs and who are you adding? You're adding the Giants and Ravens and?

• 16:32Bill Simmons?

  I'm just saying, those are the teams that are at least minus three for win totals right now.

• 16:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 16:39Bill Simmons?

  No, well, our new cross up team is Vegas. I think our cross up teams now are Jets, Browns, Tennessee, Miami, the Saints and Vegas.

• 16:46Speaker 04

  And Vegas, that's six.

• 16:48Bill Simmons?

  Vegas is two and five and that it's a wrap.

• 16:50Speaker 04

  Giants are a different tier for sure. But now, like you said, Giants are two and five. Now they play a Philly team on the road who just wants to murder them. Right?

• 16:59Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 16:59Speaker 04

  They're so mad, so they're gonna fall apart here. I feel like people are still gonna love Jackson Dart, but Brian Daboll is a little closer to firing after this game. You know what I mean? Like, that's.

• 17:12Bill Simmons?

  A Giants fan friend asked me, how many franchises could have believably lost that game? And he said, it's only the last 10 years Giants. Cause the Giants were, you know, they won two Super Bowls in the last 20 years. But then. So I

• 17:31Speaker 04

  Not counting, not counting the Washington Generals. I think you're right. Yeah.

• 17:36Bill Simmons?

  Well, I thought Jets would have absolutely, that would have happened to the Jets. Right? The first time in 1602 games, Jets definitely. And I think the Browns are the other one. I don't think. Maybe Jags? I don't know. Maybe?

• 17:52Speaker 04

  It's tough.

• 17:53Bill Simmons?

  But I think if we were doing a fantasy draft of who would lose this way, the Giants would have been the third pick.

• 17:57Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:58Bill Simmons?

  Right?

• 17:58Speaker 04

  Just when you think they got everything going.

• 18:00Bill Simmons?

  And I would have taken the Browns second.

• 18:03Speaker 04

  For sure.

• 18:03Bill Simmons?

  And then I think Giants third, then probably Jaguars.

• 18:05Speaker 04

  Giants could do it again next week against Eagles. It could be, it could happen like two or three more times this year with this team.

• 18:12Bill Simmons?

  Dart's fun. I like him.

• 18:14Speaker 04

  He is.

• 18:15Bill Simmons?

  I have no idea if Denver, I, I, I just don't know if you're a Broncos fan.

• 18:22Bill Simmons?

  How you think you can like win a couple of rounds with Bo Nix with how he's looked this season? It's just been too erratic, but.

• 18:29Speaker 04

  I think as a, I was, I was gonna ask you as a Patriots fan, and it's looking more and more certain that you're gonna be a playoff team. I know you have your eyes on the division title, but. Have you thought about the who we don't want to play in the first round thing? I, I bet Denver's not on your radar for that right now. I bet like the Colts are much more right, right there for. We can't play this team. We can't match up first round.

• 18:53Bill Simmons?

  Well, the Colts I, I would say are a safe one seed bet right now if the Chiefs would be the two, right? Buffalo, it just seems like they've been too spotty. The Pats. So if they win the division, which is conceivable, that's probably a three seed for them.

• 19:09Speaker 04

  All right. You're, my numbers are all different from yours, but that's fine.

• 19:13Bill Simmons?

  Why? Where would you have them?

• 19:14Speaker 04

  I'm just saying worse, like, let's play this out like, like we know these teams and the Pats are at six and the Colts are at two.

• 19:23Bill Simmons?

  I think the Pats are gonna be in the top five if May stays healthy. Okay. Just because the schedule, the schedule is so, it's so awful.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  That's true.

• 19:31Bill Simmons?

  I mean, it's really like number one with a bullet for easiest strength of schedule. Every week they play somebody shitty or somebody that has some major injury. And I think they're a good team. I don't think they're a great team, but I may has been one of the best players in the league for the last four weeks. Their defense, they can, they can rush the passer, they can stop the run and they can get first downs. Like I, I think they're a good team.

• 19:54Speaker 04

  You were so scared when they were down seven, nothing.

• 19:56Bill Simmons?

  I wasn't.

• 19:57Speaker 04

  Oh, you were terrified.

• 19:58Bill Simmons?

  Hench can back me up. I texted him and I was like, I, we were down 10-3 and I was like, I like this. This team needed a little adversity. Let's see how they respond. May went right down.

• 20:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, but you were crying when he texted.

• 20:09Bill Simmons?

  No, I wasn't crying.

• 20:10Speaker 04

  He was good. He couldn't, I was like, oh, this is exciting. I get to throw the nickname at him again, but then he completed like 14 in a row.

• 20:17Bill Simmons?

  He, he is throwing the best deep balls in the league. They're consistently like in stride with a guy catching them with their hands up. One last thing on Broncos Giants, I just wanted to mention. Thank God, uh, thank God we have win probability rates. Cause I had no idea if that was like an amazing comeback or anything. And then when I saw the charts.

• 20:37Speaker 04

  You need to see the chart?

• 20:38Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Yeah. Once I was like, oh, that, yeah, that really was amazing. If you can combine the win probability charts with how fast somebody ran on a, on Bo Nix. 19.8 miles an hour. That would really be peak.

• 20:54Speaker 04

  This is stupid. It's the same dude. Do you think like in 1929, like the Great Depression, they had charts of like the stock market bottoming out like, yeah, here's your portfolio, sir. Here. So you see this flat line. Oh, all right. Okay. Yeah. Your grandfather's dying. There's a flat line and the, there's an annoying noise going off for a minute and a half.

• 21:11Bill Simmons?

  We really need them for marriage.

• 21:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, right.

• 21:14Bill Simmons?

  It's like, my wife's in a lousy mood. What's my win probability chart for asking her if I could go out tonight? All right. The other game we have to talk about is the Browns murdering the Dolphins, which.

• 21:26Speaker 04

  Let's, let's, let's kill this kicker a little bit. This number 99.

• 21:29Bill Simmons?

  Oh, the Giants kicker.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  This Mackinac ananny.

• 21:31Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Where'd he come from?

• 21:32Speaker 04

  Well, the number 99 with a crazy name like that, like it seems like it's a, from, it's only sunny in Philadelphia. Like a made up name or something like you, you have no confidence. You should just get on Fandel right there and, and bet, uh, bet the other side.

• 21:45Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. You'd at least need like a, a short guy who's been on a couple of teams and kicks like the traditional soccer style. And it's like, oh, I remember that guy when he was on the Jaguars. He deprived us of overtime is what he deprived us of.

• 21:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:00Bill Simmons?

  I felt like that game had some more magic in it. It just could have kept going and going. Browns killing the Dolphins. I, we were texting a lot during this game. I don't even know where to start. Tua finishes after calling out the team. 12 for 23 for 100 yards, three interceptions. Two drop picks, really could have had five.

• 22:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:22Bill Simmons?

  Uh, he had a fumble. He led three wide receivers and they're just getting obliterated. I think all three eventually got up. And, uh, and it was just everything you would have expected from him in Cleveland. The weather wasn't as bad.

• 22:37Speaker 04

  I know.

• 22:38Bill Simmons?

  As they thought it was gonna be and it just didn't matter.

• 22:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 22:41Bill Simmons?

  So you had that and then you had DJ Mikey Mack on the sidelines.

• 22:45Speaker 04

  The best.

• 22:47Bill Simmons?

  I, he had these big sunglasses. He looked like John Holmes in the mid eighties, like one of his last porn movies when it's just the wheels are coming off. I, I don't, I can't even describe how fucking weird he looks and that guy's supposed to be a leader of men. It's just checked out and then has an insane press conference after like, I actually think it seems like he's unraveling. So he's, there's no way he's gonna be coaching them on Thursday, right?

• 23:12Speaker 04

  Interesting. Cause I was talking to JJ, John Jashremsky, who's a big Dolphins fan and he was really just miserable for three hours trying to figure out what year they're gonna be good. And we got like the 2031 and I was like, okay, stop already. Like he couldn't, he couldn't even pull the trigger on, on that year, but battling for the one, you know, number one pick and everything. But yeah, McDaniel is, those glasses, is that everything except like the windshield wiper things on the glasses? Like why don't you just go all out? He's, he's a clown, right?

• 23:39Bill Simmons?

  Why are you wearing sunglasses? It's raining. It's in here in Cleveland. It's 40 degrees. What's going on? Why are you dressed like that?

• 23:47Speaker 04

  We both heard 50 to 70 mile an hour winds like on Thursday. I'm like, oh, we both went under on a teaser. And that's what made that exciting. It wasn't like a 13-7 game. It was like, holy shit. How many interceptions is Tua gonna throw to put this in, oh, under in jeopardy? And it was, almost got there.

• 24:05Bill Simmons?

  I had a giant 13 point tease that actually won, but it took the line up to 48. Tua throws that pick and like basically from his own end zone.

• 24:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:15Bill Simmons?

  And all of a sudden it's 31 to six. I'm like, oh my God, this game's going to go over 49 points? Like Tua is single handedly going to drive this? He was so bad. I, it just, he didn't want to get hit. He was just flinging the ball for grabs. It was really one of the worst quarterback games we've seen all year. And we've talked about him on this pod for four or five years. This felt like rock bottom for him. I, I find it hard to believe he's going to be on that team next year. Don't you think?

• 24:43Speaker 04

  No, I think they have to move on from him and move on from the, it doesn't have to be either or. I know it's like, well, Tua said this, so McDaniel's gone. It's like, no, it's both of them. But I, I was, I really hung in there. I was like, I don't want to blame Tua here because they were right in his face for a lot of the plays. Like if the average, you know, you get the playoff in like 2.9 seconds, he had like point six seconds. But even so, but that goes back to McDaniel. Like what kind of game plan? Just run the ball. You got a chat. Like just run, run, run. That's what the Browns did. That's why they weren't getting blown out in the third quarter.

• 25:15Bill Simmons?

  Right. As somebody bet on the Browns, I was praying that they weren't just going to hand off to HN 38 times. It was a very strange performance. The Browns, there's a couple of teams that I think are good home bets. I think the Falcons are another one. We saw them tonight. But the Browns at home, I don't know. I just think their defense shows up. They can run the ball. Receivers aren't terrible. The quarterback's pretty, pretty tough.

• 25:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:40Bill Simmons?

  He's vanilla.

• 25:41Speaker 04

  Right.

• 25:42Bill Simmons?

  Pretty, pretty mediocre, but they dominated the game. Some of the texts were great.

• 25:48Speaker 04

  He's like a seven for a, for a 1 PM Eastern slot sadly.

• 25:52Bill Simmons?

  Right.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  Should we write, we should start ranking quarterbacks in the 1, 1 PM slot, not this week, but I mean, it's, it's on a curve.

• 26:00Bill Simmons?

  Some texts that we had, Hench said at one point, if you zoom in on McDaniel's laminate, it's Gisillo listings. I thought that was a good one. I, uh, it, the, there was this one moment where they come out of commercial and Spiro Ditas and Adam Archuleta. They have the graphic. It was their 17th Cleveland Browns game together. What members, get them a photo book. Like out of 17 Browns games, how many of those do you think were like fun to announce? Like two?

• 26:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, two.

• 26:32Bill Simmons?

  It's like, sorry, guys, you're going to Cleveland again. And this was just brutal.

• 26:35Speaker 04

  He probably did preseason too. Yeah, they showed that graphic and they freeze framed on those guys. I'm like, oh, are they dead now? Are they in carbon? What happened to these guys? So I know they're calling this one too.

• 26:47Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, they left the booth. Um, I left it on the multi view all game. It was one of my four of the whole thing. I couldn't get enough of it. Every time Miami was on offense, I'll tell you this, uh, I think the most wrong I've been all year was my over excitement for Trevion Henderson on the pass.

• 27:04Bill Simmons?

  Thinking that he could be Jameer Gibbs for them. He has not made, I don't think a good play this entire season. I don't know what happened in the preseason when he was the most electric rookie they've had in 10 years. Versus how he's looked this year. Like he, he basically got buried today. He's, he was the third string running back. And then on the flip side, Judkins on, uh, on the Browns is a stud. And I remember saying after like week one or week two, like this was like a miracle that they took Judkins over Henderson. Judkins wasn't even training camp. And now it's like, Jesus, Judkins looks like they've just recreated Nick Chubb, but like a faster, Yep. quicker version of him. So.

• 27:41Speaker 04

  I was going to bring this up to you because I have him. He's 10 to one to win offensive rookie of the year. I was trying to think like what happened, what has to happen. Uh, you know, they have like.

• 27:50Bill Simmons?

  Like Buka gets hurt like three more times.

• 27:53Speaker 04

  Egbooka darts and fur, darts at the top. So those two would have to get her. Egbooka's already hurt, but, uh, probably playing Tyler Warren, Warren would have to go away too. So just three guys have to disappear.

• 28:05Bill Simmons?

  You know, I had Egbooka as the best rookie that I've seen this year.

• 28:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:11Bill Simmons?

  But Tyler Warren. Is an absolute destructor of defenses and they did a good job. They, at one point they had a graphic today of all the formations, like

• 28:21Speaker 04

  Use him a lot.

• 28:22Bill Simmons?

  Lined up at all these different positions, but um, we've said it every week, like the Browns taking Loveland over him was just weird.

• 28:29Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 28:30Bill Simmons?

  The whole year, he was the best tight end in the, in the draft. And then like within two weeks before the draft, people were like, I don't know, look out for this Loveland.

• 28:37Speaker 04

  Right.

• 28:38Bill Simmons?

  It's coming on. It's like, how about the guy who's always been the best guy at the position?

• 28:42Speaker 04

  What must the Browns think? Like they get shit on for every single pick, every single trade, every single, everything they do. And like, all right, all we need is for this Tyler Warren to be okay, but not great. Like, ah, damn it. Now everyone, now Simmons is calling us out for not taking, for taking Loveland over Warren. It just, it goes on and on.

• 29:00Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 29:00Speaker 04

  Yeah. The bear. Oh yeah. The bears. Yeah.

• 29:02Bill Simmons?

  Well, the funny thing is the, so the Browns end up with Mason Graham, who's been awesome because they did this trade back. And then watching that Jaguars, I tweeted this today and of course Travis Hunter had a couple of garbage time catches.

• 29:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 29:16Bill Simmons?

  But uh, that trade is just like, you watch Mason Graham and it's like, I wouldn't trade Mason Graham for Travis Hunter straight up. I would, I would make, I would make Jacksonville throw in a number one pick. You can find receivers like that. What Mason Graham is doing for the Browns already, it's really hard to find.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I had the same take that I had to cross out that Travis Hunter is a, we don't give him enough crap or the Jags for that. But uh, yeah, then he scored.

• 29:41Bill Simmons?

  You had the Jags? Did you have the Jags? You said? You didn't have the Jags, did you? We didn't, we, House made us back off in the, in the Europe thing. But um, no, it's just, it's frustrating because after that Chiefs game, I was kind of hoping that they would be good. So I'd feel better about it. And I still feel terrible about it. We um, we're going to take a break and then we're going to play a new game. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandel and basketball is back. Finally. The NBA is upon us. Fandel, putting you in control right from tip off. Every day to start the season, you get to choose your reward, play it safe, go for it, feeling bold. It's your move. Whatever your style, you're in control. What kind of better are you? You be doing same game parlays, you can be doing money line,

• 30:24Bill Simmons?

  underdog bets, or you're gonna try to put, I think this team's gonna win with somebody scoring 30-plus points. You should go to the Ringer Futures that we have. Whole bunch of our favorite future bets. Try to get those in before tip-off on Tuesday. However you play, FanDuel is giving you the power to choose your reward and own your game every single day to start the NBA season. Head to FanDuel.com/BS to make your choice. Let's be 21-plus present in select states or 18-plus in present in DC, Kentucky, Wyoming. Opt-in required. Rewards are non-maturable. Restrictions apply, including bonus and token expiration leg requirements and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.FanDuel.com.

• 31:03Bill Simmons?

  Game, problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 1-888-789-777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. So the NBA season is starting. I'm excited about a bunch of different things. We have a lot of, lot of teams up in the air. Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana. What are we getting from these teams? The Lakers, can they hang on and, and still be a top-six team? I think I'm most excited for the Texas teams. I want to see Durant in Houston, Cooper Flagg in Dallas, and Wemby and Dylan Harper in San Antonio. I feel like I'm gonna be spending a lot of time in the state of Texas with my basketball choices. There are a lot of

• 31:45Bill Simmons?

  moments worth playing for. The ones that taste best are served cold, unlike in Texas, where it's usually hot. Whatever happens this season, catch every moment with Michelob Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. Getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats. You heard me correctly. A trip to All-Star Weekend, custom merch, and much more. Michelob Ultra, superior is worth playing for. Enter now at michelobultra.com/courtside. Michelob Ultra Courtside 2025 to 2026. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents. 21-plus begins on October 1st, 2025, ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods.

• 32:26Bill Simmons?

  See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. All right, this is a new gimmick for us. Very excited about this. We're calling it Baby Doll Corner. So the background is, for years and years, I don't know when this started. How far back? When he started wishing people luck, like how far is it before I even knew him? When did this start?

• 32:49Speaker 04

  Probably before we knew him, but yeah, very, very early in on our acquaintance with him. Yeah.

• 32:55Bill Simmons?

  So one of, one of Baby Doll's favorite things to do and that thing that has brought us the most joy is if somebody's like, their show is about to get canceled, they're about to get fired, there, some relationship is going to go, something bad is going to happen professionally. Baby Doll would be like, I wish him a lot of luck.

• 33:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:14Bill Simmons?

  And that has turned into when we sniff out that something might happen, we'll text Baby Doll, baby, get the luck ready. Baby, you gotta go into the reserves and get some luck. You have something in your back pocket and it's just, it's probably the running joke we do the most, right?

• 33:29Speaker 04

  Even if something seems good for them at the time, like, oh, this one signed the deal with Tubi to be the vice president. Like, yeah, okay, great. Yeah. I wish you a lot of luck there. Like, oh, all right.

• 33:42Bill Simmons?

  So anyway, we, uh, we have some luck we want to hand out in honor of Baby Doll. I'm not sure he was watching football. He was probably playing golf. Let's start with DJ Mike McDaniel. I think, I think on the Baby Doll corner, he's a solid 10 out of 10. I think he needs a lot of luck, like a lot.

• 33:58Speaker 04

  For sure. I mean, I wrote a lot of things down in his voice.

• 34:01Bill Simmons?

  Go ahead. You, why don't you do it? You go.

• 34:02Speaker 04

  All right. All right. Yeah. Thanks, Mike McDaniel, for another shitty game and an even shittier press conference. And I quote, this is from his press conference. You ready? Because we're not, I mean, if you are negatively affecting the football team routinely, um, you know, assess another player. You know what, Mike? You're as lousy a motivational speaker as you are a head coach. Good luck to you and your Lululemon pants.

• 34:29Speaker 04

  So that would be something.

• 34:31Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Yeah. That would be a log. It would be a voice text with a couple of misspellings.

• 34:36Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Capital letters, almost all capital, almost everything.

• 34:39Bill Simmons?

  That he's doing on a bridge.

• 34:41Speaker 04

  Right.

• 34:42Bill Simmons?

  And maybe you should give your sunglasses back to Marvin Gaye.

• 34:49Bill Simmons?

  I think he'd have some luck for Tua.

• 34:51Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, but Mike McDaniel, well, first of all, wasn't it funny every time they showed Mike McDaniel, he was looking down at the play chart. He was looking down. It was almost like he knew the camera was on him and he knew everyone was staring at him and he couldn't bear to look up. Like if you know someone's walking on a plane that you don't want to see and you like pretend you're sleeping, like that's what he was doing. He was like, yeah, we see you, Mike.

• 35:12Bill Simmons?

  What are his other options?

• 35:14Speaker 04

  Where could he look? He could cover his face with it. I don't know.

• 35:16Bill Simmons?

  Like, what if he just went in the blue tent and just kind of peeked out?

• 35:21Speaker 04

  Mike McDaniel is in the blue tent. Nothing physically wrong with him. He's just hiding.

• 35:26Bill Simmons?

  He's, he was probably mad he didn't have darker sunglasses. He should have had like the Ray Charles glasses. Uh, Tua would definitely have some luck.

• 35:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:35Bill Simmons?

  We told Baby we were doing this and he demanded that Aaron Glenn, Aaron Glenn was number one on his list for, for luck. So I don't know if you want to do.

• 35:46Speaker 04

  I don't have an area.

• 35:47Bill Simmons?

  I have it too. I have like seven or eight. Do it to it. Go do it to it.

• 35:50Speaker 04

  You know what, Tua? I wish anyone over 65 luck trying to pronounce your name, but you know, good luck in the workforce, throwing your boss under the bus and then shitting all over yourself every Sunday. Yeah, that'll work in the real world.

• 36:04Bill Simmons?

  Good luck.

• 36:05Speaker 04

  Good luck to you. I guess they should all end with good luck. Yeah.

• 36:09Bill Simmons?

  Well, he wanted to wish Aaron Glenn luck. So I looked this up. It was hard to figure out, but I think I'm right. Aaron Glenn started out 0-7. So the, the, the worst start by a head coach, again, somehow Hugh Jackson not involved, Cam Cameron, that one Miami Dolphins year for him, he started out 0-13 and then our guy Dan Campbell was 0-11 and 1.

• 36:33Bill Simmons?

  You know, I, I looked at it here. So he'd have to go 0-14 to own the record. They're at Cincy, uh, bye week, home Browns. That could be.

• 36:46Bill Simmons?

  I don't know, maybe they're two and a half point favorite or underdogs, something like that. At Pats, at Ravens, home Falcons, home Dolphins.

• 36:54Speaker 04

  Dolphins.

• 36:55Bill Simmons?

  So basically Browns, Dolphins are the ones to get him to avoid that record.

• 36:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:00Bill Simmons?

  So we'll see what happens.

• 37:00Speaker 04

  Dolphins, December 7th. That was the team they lost to. That's the only team the Dolphins beat. That's gonna be, that's gonna be spectacular. Yeah. I don't know. So with these guys, off the baby thing for a second, but these guys like, you want to cut them some slack if they don't have the quarterback in place, right? But he wanted Justin Fields, right? Like that, this was his guy. So he kinda, he can't kinda ride out the string and go like, oh, and 16, oh, and 17, right?

• 37:26Bill Simmons?

  See, that's the thing where these guys, I know they have to get people with football backgrounds and people have coached and coached in college or been a coordinator, QB coach, whatever. It really does feel like they need to hire somebody who watches football for 14 hours a day like us.

• 37:40Speaker 04

  Right.

• 37:41Bill Simmons?

  Just as a consultant. Be like, hey, Bo, what's your, what about Fields for

• 37:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:45Bill Simmons?

  two years, 20 million a year? What do you, just give me your blink test thought. And I would just been like, dude, the Steelers quit on that guy in five weeks.

• 37:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 37:54Bill Simmons?

  And he wasn't even playing that bad. And they were just like, there was one, that one game, that Sunday night game, and they were like, we're out with this guy. If he's behind, he get, like, you can't do this. Justin Fields will never be the answer. Don't do it.

• 38:08Speaker 04

  Hey, Justin, guess what? You, we figured it out. You lied on your fucking resume. You can't throw the ball forward. Ty Taylor is more capable than you are. Good luck getting back on the field. You're gonna need it.

• 38:21Bill Simmons?

  I think that might have been it for him, by the way. He, he, so he was, what was it? What were his stats today? I have them here.

• 38:29Speaker 04

  41 yards, 40, I guess that's better.

• 38:31Bill Simmons?

  Six for, six for 12 for 45 yards.

• 38:34Speaker 04

  45, yeah.

• 38:35Bill Simmons?

  Benched at halftime. And then Taylor came in. It's like, Taylor gave him some life. He, he gave the other team some life. He threw two picks.

• 38:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, that was bad.

• 38:43Bill Simmons?

  It finished with six points.

• 38:47Bill Simmons?

  I have, I have one piece of luck that I think baby.

• 38:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:50Bill Simmons?

  Might wish Tom Brady getting inside info from his Fox gig and giving it to the Raiders. I think we need to, I think we need to wish that storyline luck.

• 39:01Speaker 04

  You think it's bad info he's getting?

• 39:03Bill Simmons?

  It's like, this is such an advantage for the Raiders. The Raiders have gone backwards like more furiously than any team in the league. I'm pretty sure Tom Brady's not helping them out. Um, how about our buddy Carson Wentz? Who was playing all the hits today and even had like a blooper reel at some point that was floating around on social media. I think if he played better, they would have won that game.

• 39:24Speaker 04

  Yeah. If he played better, if Hawkinson doesn't slam that into the turf slightly, they were right there. They got behind too early.

• 39:32Bill Simmons?

  That wasn't a catch though. I don't know why he was mad.

• 39:34Speaker 04

  He's really pissed off.

• 39:35Bill Simmons?

  The ball got loose after it hit the ground. I thought it moved enough.

• 39:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, we've, we've seen that enough to see that that's incomplete, but, but that's how close everything was, right? With them, he just got, yeah, the Eagles, like, I guess, like, as boring as we think they could be for three hours. There's always gonna, always gonna be like two or three big play capabilities. It's weird. They're not coming from Barkley, you know, and they came from A.J. Brown, but it's good enough to beat a lot of these teams. That's for sure.

• 40:01Bill Simmons?

  That was the most exciting they've been all year.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 40:05Bill Simmons?

  The Eagles, they actually had some explosiveness. Um, Geno Smith.

• 40:08Speaker 04

  I think it would have been embarrassing, right? If Carson Wentz like that, the embarrassment factor is never, never, you can never put enough emphasis on it. Just like if Vrabel had lost to Tennessee, those were the two games.

• 40:19Bill Simmons?

  Right. Well, I think with Wentz, there's a lot of, like, he's close to being a good quarterback, right? When you watch him, like, you can actually see the potential, like, he'll have some nice throws. And there's like that one, that ad lib piece is just missing with him, like when a play goes wrong and he's got a, and that's just when it unravels for him. Do you have luck for Geno Smith? Cause it feels like his career is on the precipice.

• 40:44Speaker 04

  How did I miss that? Go ahead. Yeah. Go ahead. Do your, do your.

• 40:46Bill Simmons?

  Well, I, I just think it's, he's in range. The only reason I would give them grace is, and this is why I thought throwing.

• 40:53Speaker 04

  Grace is my daughter's name, by the way. Go ahead.

• 40:57Bill Simmons?

  The Chiefs money line, I thought was the safest money line parlay ad of the year today. Cause the Raiders scratched Bowers, like they're clearly, just get us to the bye week. We'll be two and five. We'll get Bowers something. Bowers hasn't been healthy since week one. So I don't, I don't want to write off Gino yet, but it's, it's not been great.

• 41:16Speaker 04

  Jacoby Myers was solid last year. He's, I think he's like, the last three games, he barely went over a hundred yards. Gent, if you bottle them up and there's no Bowers, like you said, there's going to be not a lot of offense out of this team.

• 41:28Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. Who, who else did you have on the baby doll?

• 41:30Speaker 04

  I have, let's see, I have Brian Dayball. Hey, oh wow, Brian, you broke a chair in the locker room. Listen, you have no talent and no hair either. And look at me, I have a head of hair, a 25 year old would covet, baby. Good luck to you, Dayball. You're going to need it.

• 41:46Speaker 04

  Let's see.

• 41:47Bill Simmons?

  Do you think he's in range? Like if they get killed by the Eagles next week, would they be like?

• 41:55Speaker 04

  It could be. They have a few. It's not just the Eagles, right? The, the 49ers are decent. They play them. They're at the Bears and Packers, Lions, your Patriots. Like that's a, that's a mess. That could be like three and nine. So I don't know. Do you keep them at that point?

• 42:08Bill Simmons?

  Well, one thing he doesn't have to worry about is Bill Belichick stealing his job.

• 42:12Speaker 04

  Bill's another one, by the way, and I like to wish Hulu luck for giving millions to Bill Belichick, the creator reality show. And they made a shitty pilot and kept the money. Yeah, that money is gone Hulu. You're not getting it. Jordan squandered it on designer purses and graphic artists.

• 42:32Bill Simmons?

  They really, they really roped it up, Tulu.

• 42:34Speaker 04

  They really did. That's the only one you can beat. He can't beat anyone else.

• 42:38Bill Simmons?

  They filmed it and then they're just like, nah, actually we're going to take the money.

• 42:43Speaker 04

  I got a couple more.

• 42:44Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, let's hear it.

• 42:45Speaker 04

  All right. Oh, London. Yeah, good luck, London. You didn't get a good NFL game today or last week or ever. In our eyes, you're barely worthy of the Jaguars. You'd be fortunate if we named you our 51st date. I wish you a lot of luck. I might be mixing egomaniacs here, but that's, yeah. Oh, whoever designed the Chargers uniforms, I got news for you. The Savannah Bananas look is not working for you. You want a designer? Hire whoever designs for my girls, the Nader sisters. Love thy Nader, a show which I happen to be an executive producer on. They dress all classy and shit. They're sweet girls, you know, never embarrass themselves like the Chargers team had a wardrobe or whatever. I wish you luck.

• 43:31Bill Simmons?

  We should mention Baby Doll does represent the Nader sisters. He's branched out.

• 43:35Speaker 04

  We'll give you his number at the end of the show if you want to contact them for any reason.

• 43:39Bill Simmons?

  The next time we do this, we should just have Baby Doll on camera for the segment.

• 43:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, you should show a picture in those five, just at least a picture, just the, whatever. One more, Andrew Luck. I wish him a lot of luck. You were locked for first ballot Hall of Fame and oh, then, oh, you retired because you fell out of love with the game. Oh, that's too bad. And now you're the GM of Stanford football as if that's even a fucking thing. Well, guess what? Your team's a 30-point underdog to Miami this week. Good luck to you.

• 44:08Speaker 04

  I could do this for like three hours. I'm done. I have no other.

• 44:15Bill Simmons?

  I thought you might have had some, uh, some related luck for Brian Callahan and his dad.

• 44:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, go sell, go sell your shitty tires somewhere else, Callahan. We don't need you.

• 44:32Bill Simmons?

  I want to put, uh, in case we do this again on luck watch, I think Kyler Murray might be on luck watch.

• 44:37Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 44:38Bill Simmons?

  Presley's pretty competent, two straight weeks. I know they're, uh, two and five, but, um.

• 44:44Speaker 04

  He does seem to have that offense in a better rhythm than, uh, than Kyler.

• 44:49Bill Simmons?

  And Spencer Rattler, who has moments and has moved the ball, I think would also be on on luck watch because if they're gonna be one and eight, like at that point, you gotta put in Tyler Shuck and see if he's competent or not.

• 45:04Speaker 04

  Do you feel like?

• 45:05Bill Simmons?

  Rattler was bad today in the weather.

• 45:07Speaker 04

  Well, those 1pm Eastern games, you're just gonna get a slew of bad quarterbacks, right? Or new quarterbacks or struggling quarterbacks, whatever. Is it like hate watching a bunch of shows now? I feel like it's like hate watch, hate watch, binging five shows at once. Like, okay, there's the bear. I know I'm not gonna laugh. I know it's best comedy, everything else, but it's like, I feel like I'm, that's where it is. Are you with that? Like, why do we do this to ourselves?

• 45:31Bill Simmons?

  It's, to me, it's like those, it's the latest seven hour serial killer show. There's a John Wayne Gacy show.

• 45:38Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 45:39Bill Simmons?

  John Wayne Gacy, worst Rotten Tomatoes serial killer. Like, I think the lowest Rotten Tomatoes rating. Just like, not a fun hang. It wasn't a fun hang in the moment. Like, there are other serial killers just eclipsed him. There were like, more fun ones, more entertaining ones. Like, Gacy's just like weird. And, and him and Ed Gein were the two that Hollywood kinda laid off, cuz it was like, man, there's just nothing to work with here. And now we're making eight hours about these guys? We've just run out.

• 46:09Speaker 04

  I love it. I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about, but I love it. They're the 1pm Eastern serial killers?

• 46:16Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, just running out of them.

• 46:17Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 46:18Bill Simmons?

  Um, speaking of the Jets, the Panthers are four and three. Had to mention that. Of course, Bryce Young hurt his ankle in the game. Dalton had to come in for a little bit. But Panthers over under, I think was, what was it, six and a half?

• 46:33Speaker 04

  Six and a half, yeah. So they're, they're gonna get there, it looks like.

• 46:36Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. I mean, there's a couple of over unders that are almost done. Like, the Colts, that one's done. You know, I was in Boston the last couple of days, and I had made some, some future bets on Fandel in August when I was there. All stuff we talked about on the pod.

• 46:52Speaker 04

  Right.

• 46:53Bill Simmons?

  One of them was a pretty sizable Pats over seven and a half wins bet.

• 47:00Bill Simmons?

  And FanDuel was like, do you want to buy this out now? And they were like, you can, you can basically buy it out for like 80%. It's, it's really interesting. I was like, no, no, thanks for the offer, FanDuel. I'm going to ride this out, but they give you the buy it, the buy it price, which I think is, is fun for the futures. Cause I had a Minnesota one where I was like, oh, maybe I should just get out of this now. Do you, do you get out of future bets?

• 47:25Speaker 04

  No, I never do.

• 47:26Bill Simmons?

  Once you're in, you're in.

• 47:27Speaker 04

  We should, I have friends that do that, not even with future bets, but just regular bets. They'll cash out. I feel like it's, I feel like it's a loss, but I also feel like FanDuel should be as if you're like leasing a car. And you're like, yeah, yeah, I don't like this. I'm going to go somewhere else and like, let me talk to my boss for a second. I'll be right back. You know what, Phil, I'll give you 88% for that Patriots bet.

• 47:49Bill Simmons?

  How about that? We just take 90?

• 47:52Speaker 04

  We don't ever do this, but don't tell anyone.

• 47:54Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I had another one. I had a Pat's Denver one that they were like offering 90%. Like the ones that are, but the reason I bring that up is like, if you had the Colts over,

• 48:05Speaker 04

  easy.

• 48:06Bill Simmons?

  You're at like 97% for the FanDuel buyout. Like you're not even getting any value of that anymore. Packers Cardinals, yet another weird Packers game. There was a couple, couple notable things. Parsons finally got going.

• 48:21Speaker 04

  Really good.

• 48:22Bill Simmons?

  Called him out last week. We had nothing to do with it, but we did, we did point out last week that he was not jumping out of the TVs. I really liked something LaFleur did in this game that we've talked about in the past in different pods, where they brought the field goal kicker out to tie it with like two and a half minutes left on fourth and two. I think they're on like the 27, 29, somewhere there, like two minutes left. And then changed their mind, went for it on fourth and two, got it.

• 48:48Speaker 04

  Long pass, right? Like wasn't even a, yeah.

• 48:51Bill Simmons?

  It was like a ballsy call. They get it. It's one of those where if they don't get it, I think he gets criticized. But the reason I liked it, I just felt like the Packers needed something like that. They needed some sort of like, hey, are we good or not? Cause I feel like they were in no man's land for three, four weeks. And it was the kind of thing you do when you have a good team. So they did it. They got it. I think it's gonna help them. I still don't know if they're good. What do you?

• 49:12Speaker 04

  Well, they're good. I mean, listen, they're.

• 49:14Bill Simmons?

  No, but I mean, good, good.

• 49:15Speaker 04

  I'd be surprised if they make the playoffs. I think we talked about on the pregame show. What was your confidence meter with the with the Packers after they beat the Lions, like a nine or 10?

• 49:25Bill Simmons?

  Right?

• 49:25Speaker 04

  What is it now? Like a six, seven right now in terms of like right there, but?

• 49:30Bill Simmons?

  Well, how many NFC teams do you like more than them?

• 49:32Speaker 04

  Well, that's, yeah, that's probably it. Probably three, if it came down to it. Even though they spanked Detroit, I would still say Detroit.

• 49:39Bill Simmons?

  One of the three?

• 49:40Speaker 04

  Dallas is, well, we tied them, so they have to be on the same level, I guess. No, it's probably Tampa, Detroit. Do I say Seattle yet? I don't know. I don't know. Well, I mean, they're they're right in there. They're good.

• 49:50Bill Simmons?

  I still think Philly has to be in there.

• 49:52Speaker 04

  Yeah. They beat Flacco and Jacoby Brissette in the last couple of weeks, so, but Parsons is back.

• 49:57Bill Simmons?

  He's right there.

• 49:58Speaker 04

  Three sacks, 10 pressures. He's good.

• 50:00Bill Simmons?

  It's so weird, because when you're watching the game and it's like, I like that guy, really like Tucker Kraft. Wow, Golden's really good. Ah, Jacobs is excellent. Wow, what a play by Love. And you watch them and you you're wondering why they don't have like 40 points.

• 50:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 50:15Bill Simmons?

  And meanwhile, it's like, you know, 16 to 13 with eight minutes left and they have weapons everywhere. Every time they throw to Tucker Kraft, that's 15 yards. He's basically Laporta or Tyler Warren for them. They never throw it to.

• 50:27Speaker 04

  And they get Watson and Jayden Reed back soon, so it's it's gonna be like 10 guys that could throw it there.

• 50:32Bill Simmons?

  Cards a cross off range for you? Two and five?

• 50:38Speaker 04

  I think so. Yeah, two and five. They've lost four in a row. They probably should have lost five in a row. So I haven't seen their schedule in a minute, but it looks like they're not gonna be favored in a lot of these games, right? They're at Dallas after their bye. They're at Seattle, San Francisco Jaguars, Tampa, the Rams. I mean, that's oof, one or two wins in there.

• 50:59Bill Simmons?

  So I think 10 wins for NFC, so that means they have to go eight and two last 10.

• 51:05Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, no, that's not happening.

• 51:07Bill Simmons?

  Listen, I I got a lot of things wrong. I was up and down on the over unders. I'll probably end up over. Probably I'll probably be like 18 and 14, 19 and 13, something like that. The cards I never, I there were a lot of smart people really on the cards this year, and I just didn't understand it.

• 51:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 51:24Bill Simmons?

  I didn't, I didn't get it. I didn't think they had the talent.

• 51:27Speaker 04

  Good luck, Sal, getting Fandel to cash out your NFC West Division Cardinals bet. Yeah, good luck.

• 51:34Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, they're they're offering you like 7% for that one. Philly, Minnesota, we talked about earlier. The the big one was the Philly receivers had 304 yards catching today, which I think people got excited about. I did have to ask you about Minnesota, though.

• 51:51Bill Simmons?

  This McCarthy ankle sprain does not pass the Bill Simmons stiff test.

• 51:55Speaker 04

  Oh, interesting.

• 51:56Bill Simmons?

  I watched that game. I wasn't positive that he was hurt at any point in that game. Then they said he was. And put it this way, I don't think Tom Brady in like 2012 is out for six weeks with this injury. And I wonder if this was a soft benching. I know I'm not the first one to speculate this, but if you had to bet soft benching or his ankle is really fucked up, where would you put the ratio for that? Because to me, I'm like way on the soft benching side.

• 52:29Speaker 04

  Is it even soft? I mean, what was his performance? I know it was the ankle that did him in, but.

• 52:34Bill Simmons?

  He was terrible. He had one good quarter. He that he the fourth quarter, that Monday night game, that first house that I lost on. No, it was Minnesota, I thought. No, not Minnesota, Chicago.

• 52:48Speaker 04

  Was that it? Yeah, okay. Yeah, right. Yeah. Oh, that was a good quarter. Yeah.

• 52:52Bill Simmons?

  He played that one good quarter in that game. Other than that, was was bad. And then this this very fortunate ankle injury popped up out of nowhere. We haven't seen him since. And I just, I don't know, it doesn't pass the sniff test to me.

• 53:05Speaker 04

  I think you're right. And well, they had once their bye. Now I can't see where 23rd.

• 53:14Speaker 04

  Did they have their bye? This dumb thing I'm looking at.

• 53:16Bill Simmons?

  I think they had their bye.

• 53:17Speaker 04

  They had their bye. They did. Yeah, they're three and three. Yeah, I don't know. They have to bring them back sooner rather than later. The one thing I saw in that game that I liked that in Minnesota, this guy, the Vikings baddie laying down on the tush push.

• 53:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, explain that to me. Why did that actually work?

• 53:33Speaker 04

  I don't know. I think it threw. First of all, I think it just threw them off. Like when like when Chosen blocked Daniel La Russa's crane kick. Like, holy shit, this is happening. They're gonna have to figure something else out. All anyone has to do is lay down. I mean, I'll lay down. I'll be the guy who lays down if they want to do that. But good for them if that's what if that continues to work.

• 53:54Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. So he gets hurt in that Falcons game, week two. Since then, they played the Bengals, Steelers, Browns in London, bye week last week, Eagles.

• 54:05Bill Simmons?

  And then they're at the Chargers Thursday night at Detroit, week nine. We're and then week 10 against the desperate Ravens team. We're running out of spots to just slide JJ back in.

• 54:18Speaker 04

  Right.

• 54:18Bill Simmons?

  And if they missed on that pick, that's pretty significant because.

• 54:22Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 54:23Bill Simmons?

  What was he? What was he? The seventh pick?

• 54:25Speaker 04

  Well, even Schefter is like, hey, could I, do I have to report on him every Wednesday? Like what, what, what's going on here? It's fine. It's fine. If you want to take him out. Uh, 10th overall, right?

• 54:37Bill Simmons?

  Right.

• 54:40Bill Simmons?

  Ankle sprain for a QB? Distabilitating? Like you're out for over a month? I don't.

• 54:46Speaker 04

  Yeah. He's got to step up the excuse, I think.

• 54:49Bill Simmons?

  You think we need the NBA countdown crew to come in and tell him to step up?

• 54:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:52Bill Simmons?

  JJ McCarthy, they let Sam Darnold go, but I was thinking if they had paid Sam Darnold. Who I think has been pretty good on the Seahawks and was really good for them last year. They.

• 55:06Speaker 04

  They gave him a lot of money though. Yep.

• 55:08Bill Simmons?

  They probably win that eight, 21 18 Steelers game. I think they win today.

• 55:16Bill Simmons?

  Arguable that they win that week two Falcons game, but they had probably have two more wins that they just kept Sam Darnold. They put some of that money toward like defense and I get it. Like they spend it differently, but.

• 55:26Speaker 04

  At least four and two. Yeah. He's got a, if that's a sprained ankle. Meanwhile, I'd like a cramp. I'm such a pussy. I have a cramp in my ribs. I can't wait for the next break so I could, uh, stretch, but yeah. McCarthy's got to step it up.

• 55:37Bill Simmons?

  No, it's fine. You want to wish your ribs some luck?

• 55:41Bill Simmons?

  The Bears have won four straight and the Patriots have won four straight. What is crazier to you?

• 55:45Speaker 04

  Wow. The Bears.

• 55:48Bill Simmons?

  How about this? I didn't even know they won four straight until I watched the Ben Johnson post game locker room thing. And he was talking about four in a row and I'm like, for what? Four, oh, four wins? Four wins in a row. They beat Dallas, Vegas, Washington, and then New Orleans today.

• 56:05Speaker 04

  I know they went over. They, they were the only team to go over their point total every week before this week. And then what? They only had 26? I don't think they did it this week, but yeah, he had some bad numbers too. Caleb Williams, then he, he had like one interception, two fumbles, like 160 yards. I can't remember how many yards.

• 56:24Bill Simmons?

  I gotta be honest. I thought Caleb was pretty bad in this game.

• 56:27Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:27Bill Simmons?

  They won, they won today because their defense was excellent and, and they really, and Rattler had a couple of bad throws, but their defense was really good, really lively. And they're leading the league in takeaways now.

• 56:41Bill Simmons?

  They had an interesting moment at the end of the game. Now I'm just scouring for the post-game speeches. It's my favorite thing to do during the Sunday night game. And Ben Johnson is just trying to step it up and he's, he does this very aggro. He's almost like a South Park character with his, with his post-game speeches.

• 57:01Bill Simmons?

  But then he gave the game ball to Dennis Allen. We forgot it was a Dennis Allen revenge game, the defensive coordinator of the Bears. Gives the ball to him. Dennis Allen comes in and gives this speech that's way better than what Ben Johnson's speech was. He almost sounded like a preacher. He's, and the guys were like locked in. They were really excited for him. And I was like, dangerous move when you're the coach to hand off the speech to somebody who's better than you at the speech.

• 57:26Speaker 04

  Interesting.

• 57:26Bill Simmons?

  So maybe, maybe that speaks to the, the camaraderie, the coaching staff. I don't know.

• 57:31Speaker 04

  It's either that or Ben Johnson knows how bad a head coach Dennis Allen would be and has. No threat at all. It's like, go ahead, take the mic, whatever you need to do.

• 57:40Bill Simmons?

  He looked at his, he looked at his record on Pro Football Reference. He's like, ah, this is fine.

• 57:43Speaker 04

  Go do karaoke. You're fine. Whatever you want to do.

• 57:45Bill Simmons?

  I'll give it to him. I am not a believer in that Bears team. So they are four and two.

• 57:53Bill Simmons?

  Next week, when we do guest lines, they're at the Ravens, which is our first playoff game of the year, basically. Because if the Ravens lose, it's over.

• 58:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:02Bill Simmons?

  You're not making the playoffs, one and six.

• 58:04Speaker 04

  No doubt.

• 58:05Bill Simmons?

  So this will be our first actual playoff game stakes for one of the teams.

• 58:10Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 58:10Bill Simmons?

  Uh, and then my team, the Patriots, who beat Carolina, Buffalo, New Orleans, and Tennessee, three stinker teams. Well, two stinker teams. Carolina is okay. Uh, and then Buffalo is the big win there, but um, they, the, everything's going great. Couldn't be happier with May, the Lions, all that stuff. The one thing is May keeps taking these hits.

• 58:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:33Bill Simmons?

  And I thought he got concussed today, had the head bounce off the,

• 58:37Speaker 04

  And he shook, shook his head too. Yeah.

• 58:39Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. And then I was like, fuck, cause I think he had two last year and I, I'm reasonably confident I've seen every single play of his career for the Patriots. He's had at least four of these now where it seemed like it's, it seemed like he got concussed. Some guys just seem like they take hits, but I'm, I'm starting to wonder should he wear like the Grogan neck brace to

• 59:01Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 59:01Bill Simmons?

  Protect his head, but it's just like, that's my one fear with this is these hits that he takes.

• 59:06Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 59:07Bill Simmons?

  He's such a good scrambler, but the protection broke down a couple of times, which was atypical for this team. Um, but for the most part, this is a really good, at the very least, a really good bad team. And they might even be a good team. I, I'm leaning toward that.

• 59:21Speaker 04

  Oh, they're a good team.

• 59:22Bill Simmons?

  I think they're actually good.

• 59:22Speaker 04

  You're trying to get me to say they're a good team?

• 59:24Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, of course they're a good team.

• 59:25Speaker 04

  See, I knew that would work.

• 59:26Bill Simmons?

  They're a good team.

• 59:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, thanks.

• 59:27Bill Simmons?

  Playoff team.

• 59:28Speaker 04

  We are a good team.

• 59:28Bill Simmons?

  They're fine.

• 59:28Speaker 04

  I'm glad you just said it.

• 59:29Bill Simmons?

  You're gonna beat a bunch of bad teams that you're not gonna get credit for.

• 59:32Speaker 04

  For sure.

• 59:32Bill Simmons?

  Still, like, it's just, it's, you're gonna have 11 wins and two or three of them are gonna be good. But I, I almost feel like everybody's right there with you as I look this over. But I was wondering how many good quarterbacks have fans that are worried about them like you are, like in terms of?

• 59:49Speaker 04

  Their quarterback is going to take a beating like Jackson Dart isn't there yet.

• 59:54Bill Simmons?

  But I think the Giants fans are probably terrified. He's going to get concussed over and over again with the way he plays. May has at least been more cautious this year. The one today was a little bit of a fluke, but um yeah, look. If you look at the Pat's schedule, the at Buccaneers game, week 10 is probably the toughest game left on the schedule. And they're playing a bunch of crap teams. There's a chance. I mean, they they might, they're they might play four teams this year that will have fired their coach either during the season or after.

• 1:00:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:00:26Bill Simmons?

  But they can keep piling up wins. I mean, the one thing with them is Vrabel has had big win total seasons before. He kind of knows you just kind of move on to next week, move on to next week. The one thing that was interesting about them this week, some of the quotes. I was surprised like uh they were talking, they're not talking about like, well, if we can make the playoffs, that'd be great. They're like, look, we got to measure ourselves. But we're they they're talking about themselves like they're a playoff team already.

• 1:00:51Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 1:00:52Bill Simmons?

  And it's crazy because they were one and two four weeks ago, but now I think they I think they know that they're good.

• 1:00:58Speaker 04

  Well, they knew they couldn't lose to both the Raiders and the Titans, right? Like then it doesn't even matter if you end up in the playoffs. No one's gonna.

• 1:01:06Bill Simmons?

  That's the point. They have two losses. They lose to that shit Raiders team. And they that was the worst game May played all year. And then the Steelers game, they turned the ball over five times. The one thing with Vrabel, who I I've been fascinated with how he's changed the culture. That what he did for Remandre this year, I thought was really notable. Because Remandre had all those fumbles and it's just he had this fumbling issue for a couple of years now. And then he had a couple of big ones. He cost them the Pittsburgh game and Belichick. I mean, the guy would his body just would have been found in Rhode Island, like on the side of a highway with like missing a head. It would, if cops would have had to.

• 1:01:42Speaker 04

  Is that the ending of task? Don't tell me.

• 1:01:46Bill Simmons?

  The cops would have ID'd him two weeks later. Like, he just never would have played for Belichick again.

• 1:01:51Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 1:01:52Bill Simmons?

  And Vrabel was like, you know, Remandre the next game and in the, when they gave the game balls out and he was basically made it clear, like, I'm not quitting on somebody who fumbles a couple times. Did the same thing with the kicker. He set the kicker up for when that kicker made the game winning field goal. Set him up. It was like, I knew you were gonna make it. Like, he doesn't bail on these dudes. And I think they really like that. Cause you have all these coaches and all these people who just they'll bail immediately on whoever. And he's like the opposite. So I don't know. It feels like there's something really actually happening.

• 1:02:22Speaker 04

  Well, I hope you have the same sunny outlook next week when Remandre fumbles and you lose to the Browns. Let's see.

• 1:02:29Bill Simmons?

  Well, you know what, Remandre, he's, you're part of this team and everybody makes mistakes.

• 1:02:35Speaker 04

  Is that what Dennis Allen said?

• 1:02:37Bill Simmons?

  You have a culture guy too in Dallas.

• 1:02:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:02:41Bill Simmons?

  Let's take, let's take a break and talk about that quickly. This episode is brought to you by Carhartt. We spend a lot of time talking about football, the players, the coaches, the big plays, but there's a whole other team we rarely think about, the people who make the game possible. The workers building stadiums, paving parking lots, growing the grass, welding the goalposts, even making the footballs. They're committed to their craft and they're doing the work long before kickoff. Carhartt is proud to outfit those crews. So next time you're watching a game, take a second to appreciate the people behind it. Learn more at carhartt.com/jointhetrades. It's football season and Uber Eats is delivering deals every single day. This week, buy a four-piece signature chicken from Popeyes and get another one free on Uber Eats. When your watch party

• 1:03:24Bill Simmons?

  gets hungry, order in and keep everyone's attention where it matters on the game. Order a four-piece signature chicken from Popeyes. Get another one free. No matter who scores big tonight, you'll score great deals on Uber Eats all season long because it's not football without food. It really isn't. Popeyes offer valid through November 1st. Add eligible menu item to order prior to checkout. Taxes, fees, and terms apply. Product availability varies by region. Exclusions may apply. See app for details. So here's the thing with the Cowboys season, which seemed pretty grim when you traded Michael Parsons. You now have a top three most fun team in the league?

• 1:04:05Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, really, really fun to watch the Cowboys and the attitude is just that something about the something's different. So what is it other than that you have two good receivers?

• 1:04:14Speaker 04

  If you don't root for them, it's fun, right? Like they're going to score a lot of points. Like if you had to have a fun Super Bowl or NFC Championship, you probably have Dallas and Tampa and forget the records, right? Like you know, that would be probably a fun game because you know, Dak is playing out of his mind. I think he's plus 115 for comeback player of the year. I didn't see odds for offensive player of the year. He doesn't, they won't be good enough for him to win MVP, but I don't know. They're like, I was trying to think like they're like Krispy Kreme Donuts. Like they're, they great taste, but you'll get violently ill if you have to have them every meal. They're going to disappoint your bowels. So, um, yeah, 4422 is a gigantic win over the, the commanders. We'll take it.

• 1:04:55Bill Simmons?

  Tough one for the commanders. Daniels gets hurt. The defense looked awful.

• 1:04:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:05:01Bill Simmons?

  Some real dark moments on the, uh, on a text thread with all the people I bet the commanders versus the Pats. I gave everybody two wins and, uh,

• 1:05:10Speaker 04

  Dark moments. Who was it? David Chang? What's, what's the thing?

• 1:05:14Bill Simmons?

  Chang, Chang, we did a separate bet where it's, it's a certain dollar number per win over one way or the other. So if the Pats go like 13 and four, 12 and five, whatever, and Washington goes like seven and 10. Plus I have the plus two because they were two wins lower than the, the Washington over under. So it could get up there. Chang offered to do a, uh,

• 1:05:41Speaker 04

  A buyout?

• 1:05:42Bill Simmons?

  Buyout.

• 1:05:43Speaker 04

  Like a FanDuel buyout?

• 1:05:44Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. He wanted to do a FanDuel buyout and I'm like, he's like, we gotta talk about, uh, some sort of a deal. And I'm like, the only deal I'm making is with Venmo or PayPal.

• 1:05:54Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:05:55Bill Simmons?

  So Chang's mad at me now because I won't, I won't do a deal.

• 1:05:59Speaker 04

  What kind of, what percent do you want to give me?

• 1:06:01Bill Simmons?

  I thought I was doing bets with men.

• 1:06:02Speaker 04

  Right. Oh, wow. Look at that. So he's not a man because he offered you a deal.

• 1:06:07Bill Simmons?

  He let a weasel out of his, his Washington Pats thing. Be a man. Stick to 18 weeks.

• 1:06:14Speaker 04

  Come on, Chang. Shit, now I have to root for Washington. This is, this is weird.

• 1:06:21Speaker 04

  Why do you think he's not a man all of a sudden?

• 1:06:24Bill Simmons?

  I don't know. Yeah, I'll probably end up making a deal. I want to stay friends with Chang. He was really upset about the Washington game. He feels like this bet has ruined the season that they they put bad juju on Jaden Daniels.

• 1:06:37Speaker 04

  Well, he does look in. He looks. I know he's also injured, but he looked like he was playing injured up until then. Right? Like the rushing yards are not coming easy.

• 1:06:46Bill Simmons?

  He hasn't looked healthy once this season, has he?

• 1:06:48Speaker 04

  They looked very slow. I know their receivers are out, right? Like they had like no receivers. But last year they looked so much faster than everybody. And now like to a man, and I get it, some starters are out, but they're they're just look very average. I mean, now they're below average. Are they three and four?

• 1:07:04Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, this was a hard under for us.

• 1:07:07Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:07:08Bill Simmons?

  Because there was a lot of like regression stuff with them. Their defense was old. Every year we see this with that. There's always an old team that thinks they can, you know, buck the system.

• 1:07:18Speaker 04

  Well, and they were very lucky.

• 1:07:19Bill Simmons?

  Guess what? Old guys get injured. That's how it goes.

• 1:07:22Speaker 04

  That's what Chang should know. That's the lesson you should teach him as you collect 100% of your bet.

• 1:07:28Bill Simmons?

  I mean, I guess I'm willing to talk a deal with him, but I feel like he should ride it out.

• 1:07:34Bill Simmons?

  Get me next year. Oh, and then Jacksonville. You don't you have nothing else in the Cowboys? You're you're playing it cool. You're three, three and one.

• 1:07:42Speaker 04

  I want to play it cool. I would have been a lot more excited, I promise, if they had beaten Carolina last week. Because now it gets it gets kind of ugly, you know, you know, at Broncos, we'll go over the Lions in a second. They'll have the Eagles, the Chiefs, the Lions and the Vikings in consecutive games in November. So not pretty.

• 1:08:01Bill Simmons?

  You're minus 340 to miss the playoffs.

• 1:08:04Speaker 04

  It's a good bet. I'm going to bet Chang on that.

• 1:08:06Bill Simmons?

  You your win total.

• 1:08:10Bill Simmons?

  Now Chang, if you if you start winning the bet, he won't give you the satisfaction. He just he demands to settle it.

• 1:08:16Speaker 04

  Okay. Seven and a half? What's our win total?

• 1:08:19Bill Simmons?

  Seven and a half, but some juice on the over minus 125.

• 1:08:23Speaker 04

  Okay. Yeah, they're exciting. I'd rather bet the Dak award stuff. I mean, it was great seeing C.D. Lamb back, right? And George Pickens, I'll say a little more. I feel like he's gonna lead the league in defensive pass interference calls, right, against him, or for him, rather.

• 1:08:41Bill Simmons?

  It's unbelievable.

• 1:08:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, and they're all are, like, they're all legit. And also, he's a great, great number two receiver. Like, the Steelers lift on that. Like, maybe he doesn't fit in their offense. He fits in Dallas' offense really well right now.

• 1:08:56Bill Simmons?

  The smartest thing about that trade, and it's something you should always be thinking, is like, that guy was never with a good quarterback, ever. Right? You're getting this guy who clearly was talented. I wouldn't have gone near him. I just thought he was so erratic on the Steelers. But maybe he was erratic because he was losing his mind because his quarterbacks were terrible. Now he's this quarterback who throws, he'll go down the sideline, jump up, and put his hands up, and the ball is right where his hands are, three feet over his head as he's flying. Like, it's all the stuff he's good at. So he must be delighted.

• 1:09:28Speaker 04

  You think he should be a benchmark for receivers or like their agents? Like, they go out like, hey, my guy, whatever, he doesn't put up the great numbers, but he's never been with a quarterback who could throw a ball. Take a look at George Pickens, what he did. I feel like there's a bunch, we could, we could hold off on a couple of those, but they're probably all on the Raiders.

• 1:09:46Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, Devante Adams right now.

• 1:09:47Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:09:49Bill Simmons?

  So Dallas, does that tie count as half a win?

• 1:09:53Speaker 04

  I mean, they'll...

• 1:09:54Bill Simmons?

  How does that work on Fandel? What, like, what if, so if you go...

• 1:09:57Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:09:58Bill Simmons?

  If you go eight, eight and one...

• 1:10:01Speaker 04

  You still would have to be over eight and a half wins. It's no good.

• 1:10:04Bill Simmons?

  So it doesn't count at all?

• 1:10:05Speaker 04

  No, it wouldn't. No, but if for the playoffs, eight, eight and one is better than, I don't know, eight and nine, right?

• 1:10:15Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:15Speaker 04

  Or nine, seven and one is better than nine and eight, so.

• 1:10:18Bill Simmons?

  I don't think you're excited enough about the Cowboys. You killed Washington. You hate Washington.

• 1:10:22Speaker 04

  Come on, the Panthers, that was just unbelievable garbage. They lost that game.

• 1:10:27Bill Simmons?

  And then Jacksonville, 13 penalties, zero sacks, two for 10 on third down. One lost kick return TD on a bogus block in the back. They led five touchdowns to Stafford with no picks. And yet another horrible game where if you woke up a half hour late, you heard Rich Eisen and it's already 14-0 and it's like, maybe I should just roll over and go back to bed.

• 1:10:54Speaker 04

  It could put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. It's a long NFL day, right? And you're probably going to pick the game wrong, whoever you take. So if you could afford to stay away from it betting wise, then do so.

• 1:11:08Bill Simmons?

  Staying away from the winning games this year was a great idea.

• 1:11:12Bill Simmons?

  Uh, week eight, guess the Lions. We have six bye week teams, so.

• 1:11:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, this is a fantasy from hell week, right?

• 1:11:20Bill Simmons?

  Including Jacksonville.

• 1:11:23Bill Simmons?

  I'm not sure if there's any Jacksonville fantasy guy you'd be excited about. Brian Thomas Jr. is just pulling a John Wayne Gacy on two of my fantasy teams.

• 1:11:36Bill Simmons?

  Las Vegas, they had 95 yards this week, so maybe we don't miss any of those, but we are going to miss some of the Lions.

• 1:11:43Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:11:43Bill Simmons?

  We are going to miss some of the Rams. Arizona, probably not, and then Seattle.

• 1:11:48Speaker 04

  Seattle.

• 1:11:48Bill Simmons?

  Those are our six ones. So we're, we're, we're losing almost all of the NFC West.

• 1:11:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're losing three NFC West teams. I don't know if that's happened before and why they did that, but I'm sure there's a reason.

• 1:11:58Bill Simmons?

  Guess the Lions, what, what's the record?

• 1:12:00Speaker 04

  Four, three, you're up four weeks to three. I think I scratched out a win to cut the deficit, but I don't feel good about this. I know.

• 1:12:08Bill Simmons?

  Short week.

• 1:12:10Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:12:11Bill Simmons?

  Thursday night, Chargers home from Minnesota.

• 1:12:16Bill Simmons?

  We'll see if J.J. McCarthy recovers from his high ankle sprain.

• 1:12:21Bill Simmons?

  I have the Chargers minus three.

• 1:12:24Speaker 04

  All right, you're going to get it. I said one and a half. I just felt like that's where all these fall with the Chargers. It's two and a half.

• 1:12:33Bill Simmons?

  You know, we probably didn't talk about that Colts game enough. I, we could talk about it when the Colts, when we, when we do their game.

• 1:12:43Speaker 04

  People get mad if we don't talk about their team enough.

• 1:12:45Bill Simmons?

  No, but that one we should have talked about. I, what was notable to me with the Chargers was, I mean, Herbert, especially in the last like two hours of the game, they were really moving the ball, but their defense was helpless. Like, the Colts would get like incomplete, Shane, or run to the ground on first and it'd be second and 10, you'd be like, they're gonna get eight yards. They're gonna get 12 yards. Like, oh, they're gonna get 20 yards. They were moving, wasn't just that they were getting yards. These guys were like wide open. Taylor was just slicing through. It felt like if they could have had the ball more, they could have had like 50 points.

• 1:13:19Speaker 04

  That's the, that's what we're missing from this Chargers team, right? From, from the first couple of weeks to toughness, with the Harbaugh toughness on defense. Like, where is it supposed to be? I know there's some injuries there, but they, yeah, I mean, they couldn't get off the field on, on third down. And those Colts, like, I'll say that, like, I'm never, I'm no longer expecting the hammer to drop on them. Like, they'll lose games, but you don't feel like, oh, wait till they go to Kansas City. Well, wait till they go to Buffalo. Like, those are all, could be one score games. They outscore everyone.

• 1:13:49Bill Simmons?

  I thought, we had the Chargers, the Colts had had a couple of injuries, and I really thought that, that, House and I both thought it was gonna be like just a Herbert MVP game. And he was really good in the game, and it didn't matter, because the Colts were awesome.

• 1:14:04Bill Simmons?

  They have nine two touchdown quarters in the season, where they've scored two touchdowns in a quarter.

• 1:14:10Speaker 04

  Wow. They don't punt a lot.

• 1:14:14Bill Simmons?

  So I think Daniel Jones, so if we have Gino in 22, Baker Mayfield in 23, Darnold in 24, now Daniel Jones in 25, this is the fourth straight year with a

• 1:14:24Speaker 04

  Has to be, yeah.

• 1:14:25Bill Simmons?

  A QB redemption. Like, if you watched Jones in this game, you would think he was one of the five best quarterbacks in the league.

• 1:14:32Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:14:32Bill Simmons?

  He was, he was doing everything perfectly. Every guy was hit on stride, every deep ball was the right throw. I, I thought he was fantastic.

• 1:14:41Speaker 04

  Really good. They can't stop scoring. I, I, I couldn't really ignore it, because Anthony DeBundo's a Colts fan, and why he wasn't at that game, I have no idea. But screaming, screaming in our ears, every, every, every touchdown, every first down even.

• 1:14:58Bill Simmons?

  My Indiana sports cluster theory. Sunday marquee. So this is a weird one because the Ravens are one and five. But I think this is the game of the weekend. Ravens Bears in Baltimore. Playoff stakes for the Ravens. I think they have to win a couple in a row.

• 1:15:16Speaker 04

  And Lamar's back for sure.

• 1:15:18Bill Simmons?

  Mars back. After watching that Bears team, that's a team they should be able to beat at home. I don't care how banged up their defense is. And I think they're going to be favored by three and a half.

• 1:15:28Speaker 04

  That's exactly what I said. And those are amateur guesses, Bill. It's six and a half.

• 1:15:35Bill Simmons?

  Wow.

• 1:15:36Speaker 04

  I mean, they, it's kitchen sink written all over it.

• 1:15:40Bill Simmons?

  That has to be a record for a one and five team against a four and two team.

• 1:15:44Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:15:45Bill Simmons?

  A spread that's almost seven is just nuts.

• 1:15:49Speaker 04

  That is nuts. And they get, they, it doesn't, just because Lamar comes back, doesn't mean the defense is fixed, right? Chicago could throw the ball all over the place this game. I'm not taking Chicago. Don't worry about it.

• 1:16:06Speaker 04

  This is going in your ring or 107. This is going in your 107 parlay. This is bet number five.

• 1:16:11Bill Simmons?

  I'm scared of the Ravens because I think not only the Lamar thing, but I thought Harbaugh had a really, really, really rough year so far. And I just don't like the look of them.

• 1:16:20Speaker 04

  So you could bet.

• 1:16:22Bill Simmons?

  It's probably a stay away for me.

• 1:16:22Speaker 04

  You could bet to miss the playoffs Ravens minus 128, or you could bet the Ravens on a teaser here.

• 1:16:30Speaker 04

  You know, or, or I guess I just said that the other way around. You could bet the Ravens to make the playoffs. That like plus 105, or you could bet a teaser here.

• 1:16:39Bill Simmons?

  I was already looking at a Ravens Pats combo. Because with the Pats of the Browns. Only one watchable game. Texans home for the 49ers who despite all the injuries, we didn't talk about them either. We jumped, we jumped the Sunday night game. We didn't really talk about that patchwork defense they threw together. And then how bad Penix was. Yeah. Just a bad spot, right?

• 1:17:09Speaker 04

  Penix was bad everything.

• 1:17:11Bill Simmons?

  Awful.

• 1:17:13Bill Simmons?

  I don't know what to make. He, to me, he's like Tua. When it's bad, it's you just know it right away and you know it's not gonna return for the game. But the Niners, like, you know, Kittle was back. The receivers are gonna slowly come back. Purdy will be back, I think, next week. McCaffrey is still one of the five best offensive players in the league and somehow they're gonna win 10 games.

• 1:17:33Speaker 04

  Those are great spot for San Francisco, right? We talk about, let's just talk about our five cross off teams, which is now six. Aside from those teams, no one is good or is as good or as bad as they looked the week before, right? So Atlanta just throttles Buffalo, cuts off all of Josh Allen's lanes. He can't run. He can't do anything. Bijon is gonna go for 400 yards if there's like another five minutes in that game. There's no way they're gonna be as good as that, traveling to San Francisco on a short week. And the 49ers aren't gonna be as bad as they were. So that was a nice spot for us. But yeah, that, so now that division, we'll pick the line in a second. Who do you think's favored to win the NFC West?

• 1:18:14Bill Simmons?

  I would say the Rams.

• 1:18:15Speaker 04

  Barely. Plus 140, Niners 45.

• 1:18:20Bill Simmons?

  Jesus.

• 1:18:21Speaker 04

  Seahawks 310.

• 1:18:22Bill Simmons?

  You know, the one thing that sucks about doing the picks on a Thursday is I wanted to see who was gonna be playing for the Niners.

• 1:18:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:18:29Bill Simmons?

  Definitely like them, but you just don't know. Like, we had the Chargers and Joe Alt, I don't think ended up playing, but on Thursday, it seemed like he was gonna play. And I'm not positive I would have been jumping on the Chargers without Joe Alt.

• 1:18:42Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:18:44Bill Simmons?

  It's almost, it's almost like we should, I guess we can't.

• 1:18:46Speaker 04

  Who'd you want as quarterback? You wanted Purdy or Jones? What would have made you commit?

• 1:18:52Bill Simmons?

  I think, I, no, I, we didn't know if Kittle was playing.

• 1:18:55Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 1:18:57Bill Simmons?

  We just, we didn't, we didn't know who was playing for the Niners. There was like still stuff. We didn't know what receivers were playing. I don't know.

• 1:19:03Speaker 04

  All right, Bill. It doesn't matter, cause let's take a look at our 4K Sky Cam delivered by Walmart Plus. It's Christian McCaffrey who makes a difference on this team. You can't stop CMC, man.

• 1:19:13Bill Simmons?

  They made it National Running Back Day. We need another national day?

• 1:19:19Bill Simmons?

  What is the cutoff for running backs? I have to congratulate.

• 1:19:23Speaker 04

  I don't know. Uh, yeah.

• 1:19:25Bill Simmons?

  Like is Harrison's flag football team? Do you have to congratulate all the running backs?

• 1:19:28Speaker 04

  I think you should. Next week's tight ends game. Yeah, Vrabel didn't cut, um, what's his name? Remandre? That was what he gave him as a gift for national running backs guy.

• 1:19:37Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, you get to keep your job in your locker.

• 1:19:39Speaker 04

  This is so weird.

• 1:19:41Bill Simmons?

  We gave, we gave, who did, who did Mickey give Rocky's locker to?

• 1:19:46Speaker 04

  Oh, who was it? Yeah.

• 1:19:47Bill Simmons?

  In Rocky one?

• 1:19:48Speaker 04

  Yeah. The other Italian, right? Who was it?

• 1:19:51Bill Simmons?

  Wasn't Spider Rico.

• 1:19:52Speaker 04

  No, I guess not. We'll look that up.

• 1:19:56Bill Simmons?

  Can't remember. All right. Well, I have Texans minus two and a half in Houston.

• 1:20:01Speaker 04

  I got this one exactly. It's one and a half unless it moved. It's Houston.

• 1:20:05Bill Simmons?

  TikTok zone.

• 1:20:09Bill Simmons?

  Well, listen, we're going to find out about Houston tomorrow because Seattle's a tough place to play. I'm not convinced they can run the ball, Houston. I'm not convinced they can block. Seattle's defense, their front seven is going to be really good and it's the kind of game if Houston has a chance to come back and try to be a playoff team, it should at least be a good performance tomorrow night.

• 1:20:32Speaker 04

  I think if they win, it's gotta be a low scoring game. They've averaged 12 points on defense.

• 1:20:36Bill Simmons?

  Like a 19 of 14.

• 1:20:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, they play shitty teams, but they are one of the top defenses and maybe Darnold isn't so successful throwing downfield for one fricking game. I don't know.

• 1:20:47Bill Simmons?

  Fairly watchable. Falcons, Dolphins. I have this as a fairly watchable just because I don't know who's coaching. It could be DJ Mikey Mac could be back for another week where, uh, dressed like John Lennon.

• 1:21:01Bill Simmons?

  I have the Falcons minus seven and a half.

• 1:21:04Speaker 04

  No paycheck. Um, seven and a half is exactly right. I said six and it actually opened at six and it's seven and a half. So they saw, what did happen? That it's, is someone out? Who the hell could be out for Miami to make that go up?

• 1:21:20Bill Simmons?

  I probably just people betting it because I think.

• 1:21:22Speaker 04

  People saw highlights.

• 1:21:24Bill Simmons?

  People saw Miami highlights, but Atlanta is our own team.

• 1:21:27Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:21:28Bill Simmons?

  Pats Browns. I had trouble with this.

• 1:21:32Bill Simmons?

  It's either seven and a half or eight and a half.

• 1:21:36Bill Simmons?

  But I went with seven and a half because I'm not sure people believe in the Pats yet.

• 1:21:39Speaker 04

  I wish you would have gone to eight and a half. It's a, it's seven. So you got that.

• 1:21:44Bill Simmons?

  What'd you have?

• 1:21:45Speaker 04

  Oh, I had eight. Yeah, I had eight and a half. I went higher.

• 1:21:50Bill Simmons?

  That's a teaser.

• 1:21:51Speaker 04

  Oh, you're, you're loving it. I mean, I'm over under 16 and a half teasers you have with the Pats on it next week.

• 1:21:58Bill Simmons?

  I just think Dylan Gabriel on the road is a non-starter. Like he, he's really gonna come in and to New England and out duel Drake May?

• 1:22:06Speaker 04

  He's literally a non-starter.

• 1:22:07Bill Simmons?

  Today?

• 1:22:10Speaker 04

  There's a lot of non-starters in the league.

• 1:22:11Bill Simmons?

  What's the deal with Deshaun Watson might come back?

• 1:22:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:22:16Bill Simmons?

  That he's there like, is that, does that help him? I don't know. I can't figure it out. By the way, I just noticed I have my hot rod glass.

• 1:22:24Speaker 04

  Oh, good for you.

• 1:22:25Bill Simmons?

  And you have a hot rod behind us.

• 1:22:26Speaker 04

  Right there. Wait, right. Yeah, right there.

• 1:22:30Bill Simmons?

  Double one.

• 1:22:30Speaker 04

  I miss Roddy.

• 1:22:31Bill Simmons?

  There's some Twitter account that posts old wrestling matches from the eighties and nineties. I can't, I want to say rabbits in the title, but they had the, uh, the Roddy, the, the strap, the, what was the match with?

• 1:22:44Speaker 04

  Valentine?

• 1:22:44Bill Simmons?

  Valentine when he busted his eardrum?

• 1:22:46Speaker 04

  Dog collar match.

• 1:22:47Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was even too far for wrestling.

• 1:22:51Speaker 04

  That was a lot. Yeah.

• 1:22:52Bill Simmons?

  Having two guys with dog collars on, I just don't know there was any way to fake any of that. And apparently there wasn't because he'd lost.

• 1:22:59Speaker 04

  He claimed he had permanent injured ear damage and it was true because he, I have conversations with him and he'd snap by his ear to try to rejuvenate it. Yeah. Wrestling's real, guys.

• 1:23:09Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:11Bill Simmons?

  Eagles Giants in Philly.

• 1:23:15Bill Simmons?

  I couldn't get to seven. I did six and a half.

• 1:23:18Speaker 04

  Uh, we're gonna split it. I could get to seven. I went seven and a half. It's seven.

• 1:23:23Bill Simmons?

  Ah, god damn it.

• 1:23:26Speaker 04

  Oh, man, it might be simple. I mean, why not?

• 1:23:28Bill Simmons?

  I'm not teasing that. I'm not putting the Eagles that. No.

• 1:23:31Speaker 04

  They're gonna lose twice to the Giants?

• 1:23:33Bill Simmons?

  No.

• 1:23:33Speaker 04

  Really?

• 1:23:34Bill Simmons?

  I don't trust them at all.

• 1:23:36Speaker 04

  They have to be pissed off.

• 1:23:36Bill Simmons?

  Can't do the Jalen Hurts. I can't do the Jalen Hurts and a tease.

• 1:23:41Speaker 04

  Uh, do we think, I mean, isn't it possible that that giant loss was like that Bears' loss to Washington and it just, everything tumbles now? Even though it might be a decent team, like they just can't now scratch together when after that Denver collapse?

• 1:23:54Bill Simmons?

  It is possible. Bills at Carolina.

• 1:23:58Bill Simmons?

  Minus five and a half is my guess with the Bills being favored. I put it right in the Vegas zone, unapologetically.

• 1:24:05Speaker 04

  I think I get this. I said six and a half and it is seven and a half.

• 1:24:11Bill Simmons?

  That, come on.

• 1:24:13Speaker 04

  What? They have to if they're all the teaser idiots like us. They have to.

• 1:24:21Speaker 04

  So when they win 21-20?

• 1:24:21Bill Simmons?

  The Bills haven't played a good game yet.

• 1:24:25Bill Simmons?

  Now, I do think they get their two suspended D linemen back though this week, right? And probably add Oliver back. So they have a full defense for once. Bryce Young is hurt.

• 1:24:36Speaker 04

  You just think the line's big. You don't think Carolina's gonna pull off an upset and go four and three, right?

• 1:24:42Bill Simmons?

  I think Carolina's a pretty good home team.

• 1:24:44Speaker 04

  They are four and three. They're gonna be five and three. Bills four and three.

• 1:24:47Bill Simmons?

  No, I'm not saying they'll be five and three. It's just, you know what I like? They have two running backs now.

• 1:24:52Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 1:24:53Bill Simmons?

  Like they had Dowdell and Hubbard today. They were kinda doing the one-two punch. It was bad.

• 1:24:58Speaker 04

  Yeah. They would've lost if they played any other game, any other team today.

• 1:25:04Bill Simmons?

  Bucks at New Orleans.

• 1:25:07Speaker 04

  That's another one.

• 1:25:09Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I Vegas on this. I had Bucks by four and a half in New Orleans.

• 1:25:14Speaker 04

  Uh, so I get it. I said seven and a half. It's six and a half.

• 1:25:18Bill Simmons?

  Oof.

• 1:25:20Bill Simmons?

  Well pricey.

• 1:25:22Speaker 04

  Well, five and one versus one and six. They didn't play yet this year, did they?

• 1:25:27Bill Simmons?

  I'm trying to remember, has there ever been a normal Bucks Saints game in New Orleans? Does that ever happen?

• 1:25:32Speaker 04

  It's been a normal Bucks game in years.

• 1:25:35Bill Simmons?

  I mean, there's no way that game's not coming down in the final two and a half minutes. Just lock that down. Oh, we're redoing the 1977 Super Bowl Broncos Cowboys.

• 1:25:46Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:25:47Bill Simmons?

  It's in Denver. So I had this as a fairly watchable and I'd like to apologize because this should have been the watchables.

• 1:25:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, Denver's offense might not be watchable for a couple of hours.

• 1:25:57Bill Simmons?

  Your team is an automatic watchable against any decent team.

• 1:26:02Bill Simmons?

  I had the Broncos in Denver favored by four.

• 1:26:06Speaker 04

  Uh, I hit this exactly. It's three. All right. I'm doing okay here. Two, three, six, five me.

• 1:26:13Speaker 04

  This is the Super Bowl. You ever see Butch Johnston catch the touchdown pass and just like put it on the goal line? Yeah, they called it a catch. Like it's phenomenal example how seventies football is different.

• 1:26:24Bill Simmons?

  I remember thinking, what am I, seven years old at that point? Really being upset that it wasn't a catch.

• 1:26:32Speaker 04

  It was a catch. It was a touchdown.

• 1:26:34Bill Simmons?

  So when he dropped the ball, I thought he dropped it too soon.

• 1:26:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:26:38Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:39Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:26:39Bill Simmons?

  I thought something was fishy about it.

• 1:26:41Speaker 04

  Now a coach would beat him up for that.

• 1:26:43Bill Simmons?

  The one that really made me mad was the Mike Renfro play, the Houston Pittsburgh game.

• 1:26:48Speaker 04

  Oh, right, right, right.

• 1:26:49Bill Simmons?

  Cause that was basically the play that created replay. But yeah, he definitely caught it and they just like they were in the back.

• 1:26:55Speaker 04

  Was it test of years later with test of Verdi like?

• 1:26:58Bill Simmons?

  That was when the replay stuff started. I don't know when they actually

• 1:27:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay.

• 1:27:02Bill Simmons?

  Came up with it, but the Renfro thing.

• 1:27:04Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:27:04Bill Simmons?

  Wasn't it Renfro? That's what it was, right?

• 1:27:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:27:07Bill Simmons?

  That was the I thought it got swung that one. Uh, poop fact that two games Bengals Jets.

• 1:27:13Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 1:27:14Bill Simmons?

  Joe Flacco against Tyrod Taylor. I think they might've played together at some point in life. I put this right in the Vegas zone Bengals by five and a half.

• 1:27:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're gonna edge me out here. I said six and a half. It's what is it? It's four and a half.

• 1:27:28Bill Simmons?

  Oh, still Vegas.

• 1:27:30Speaker 04

  Hold on a second. Every team should give the Jets seven points. I mean, come on. Enough.

• 1:27:39Bill Simmons?

  What did you think of that Bengals performance on Thursday night?

• 1:27:41Speaker 04

  Pretty good, right? Like they, I think Flacco, well, first of all, I think we switched like when we saying Puka Nakua is the greatest wide receiver in the game. If he's not playing, I wouldn't think about the Rams. Now it's Chase. Now he's like right at the top and like, doesn't matter. Like, what is he gonna have like 22 catches in two weeks? It's phenomenal. So as long as those two are there, they're gonna score points and they're not on the Jets. That should be a touchdown.

• 1:28:09Bill Simmons?

  Well, it reminded me of, uh, what I said 11 minutes ago about Dak and Pickens. Watching Flacco.

• 1:28:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:28:17Bill Simmons?

  I don't think Flacco is a very good quarterback anymore, but he is good at that little 20 yard throw down the sideline and it just, I don't know. It's just he had chemistry with those guys. I thought it was funny that Tom campaigned about the trade.

• 1:28:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:28:30Bill Simmons?

  And then, and then got beaten by it.

• 1:28:32Speaker 04

  Right. I didn't get the point of that at all. Anyway.

• 1:28:34Bill Simmons?

  I gotta hand it, I mean, they're about to come up when we do this Sunday night game, but I gotta be honest. I thought Rogers was awesome in that game.

• 1:28:42Speaker 04

  It was good.

• 1:28:42Bill Simmons?

  I think the last two weeks Rogers has, uh, I thought he was done unabashedly thought he was washed. I thought he's looked awesome.

• 1:28:52Speaker 04

  He's very good.

• 1:28:52Bill Simmons?

  Really, really good.

• 1:28:54Speaker 04

  It hurts me to say.

• 1:28:54Bill Simmons?

  To the point that, yeah, it's, it makes me wonder like, what's, what's the ceiling of that Steelers team? Because it, I mean, it's, he hasn't looked this good for three years.

• 1:29:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, but he looks great. It's a great fit for them. He's hitting everybody in stride, but again, this team goes as far as the defense goes, right? I think they had like 15 or 14 or 15 sacks over the previous three weeks and they only put Flacco down twice. So that's it, man. It's gonna be a game every time if that happens.

• 1:29:26Bill Simmons?

  Kyle Brand had a really funny thing I saw on TV about uh how he identifies with Rogers at this point in his life because he's like the typical frustrated guy in his 40s working with a bunch of younger people. He's always put out. Like when that lineman knocked him over, he's like, Jesus Christ.

• 1:29:42Speaker 04

  That was ridiculous. That was so.

• 1:29:44Bill Simmons?

  You should see the few seconds before that because he like pats him on the head, which even that was like a little rough. And then he like chases him down like he's like trying to pull his wallet or something. Yeah, I don't know. But uh, yeah, no, I listen, I did not expect to have an entertaining Rogers, but I thought he, I thought he was really fun to watch in that game.

• 1:30:04Speaker 04

  It's fun, but they're not a lock anymore, right? Like that made you think, like that division, you probably talked about it Friday, right? But uh.

• 1:30:11Bill Simmons?

  No, I didn't. We, we didn't. I taped before that game, so I'd never talked about it. I think that Stewart's defense looks fraudulent to me. I thought with the Pats, we moved the ball on them for three and a half quarters. I like, I just don't think their defense is what people might think it is.

• 1:30:27Speaker 04

  And they're both plus 130 to win the North. And the Bengals are five to one. But God, yeah, we'll talk about it.

• 1:30:34Bill Simmons?

  Well, one more poop fact of the game, Colts Titans. It's in Indianapolis and I think, I think this is the week for the ultimate respect for the Colts. A giant line. I went all the way up to 13 and a half.

• 1:30:48Speaker 04

  Oh, you're smart. I said 12 and a half. It's 14 and a half.

• 1:30:53Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:54Speaker 04

  They know.

• 1:30:55Bill Simmons?

  It's time. After they did today, you gotta do it. You gotta treat them like they're like a real contender because they are. And they're playing the shitty Titans and they have to be favored by this much.

• 1:31:06Speaker 04

  On a scale of um, your mother-in-law tells a joke to pulling a Norm MacDonald's clip online, how hard did you laugh when Cam Ward just dropped that ball? Just dropped it, just flat out fucking dropped, just like.

• 1:31:19Bill Simmons?

  I was waiting for it for two hours.

• 1:31:20Speaker 04

  But just the way he flings it like a magician.

• 1:31:23Bill Simmons?

  Just throw a test, Cam. I know you want to. Yeah.

• 1:31:25Speaker 04

  Just drop it here and then get shoved out of the way. Yeah.

• 1:31:27Bill Simmons?

  I loved it. We scored two touchdowns in like 11 seconds or something.

• 1:31:31Speaker 04

  Unbelievable.

• 1:31:32Bill Simmons?

  I loved it. Sunday night.

• 1:31:35Bill Simmons?

  Really good game Steelers Packers in Pittsburgh. And I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of talk all week about what we just said about Rogers. Like, uh, not just the fact that he's rejuvenated, but playing his old team.

• 1:31:46Speaker 04

  This is a fun one.

• 1:31:47Bill Simmons?

  Has he? I can't remember. Did he play the Packers last year?

• 1:31:50Speaker 04

  As a Jet? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Right? Didn't they, uh, now we gotta look this up.

• 1:31:56Bill Simmons?

  I don't remember.

• 1:31:56Speaker 04

  Let's slow this down. We can't keep saying I don't remember.

• 1:32:00Bill Simmons?

  Are you sure he played them last year? He must have.

• 1:32:02Speaker 04

  I'm almost positive versus Packers.

• 1:32:06Bill Simmons?

  What are you looking at?

• 1:32:07Speaker 04

  Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah, maybe not. Wait.

• 1:32:10Bill Simmons?

  I don't think he did.

• 1:32:11Speaker 04

  He didn't?

• 1:32:12Bill Simmons?

  No. Well, he's playing them Sunday night.

• 1:32:15Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:32:16Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, Mike, I just, I can't believe how good Aaron Rodgers is.

• 1:32:20Speaker 04

  Come on, Mike.

• 1:32:20Bill Simmons?

  I can't believe it, Mike. Tic Tac Zone for me. Steelers minus one and a half.

• 1:32:26Speaker 04

  Ooh. Steelers minus one and a half?

• 1:32:30Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:31Speaker 04

  I said Green Bay minus two and a half. It's Green Bay minus three.

• 1:32:36Speaker 04

  Then we are tied.

• 1:32:38Bill Simmons?

  Green Bay minus three?

• 1:32:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're a better power ranked team, right?

• 1:32:45Bill Simmons?

  We just talked about how we didn't trust the Green Bay and what was going on with them.

• 1:32:51Bill Simmons?

  And they barely beat Jacoby Brissette today.

• 1:32:53Speaker 04

  Both are lacking. Steelers are, Steelers have a little rest advantage.

• 1:32:58Bill Simmons?

  You know what? This line makes sense because I, I'm probably gonna bet on the Packers.

• 1:33:01Speaker 04

  There you go.

• 1:33:03Bill Simmons?

  Monday night Chiefs. Ah, this game kinda sucks now. Chiefs home for Washington.

• 1:33:09Speaker 04

  I was off by two points. I probably shouldn't even give you that much, but whoever wins this takes the week.

• 1:33:14Bill Simmons?

  I have Chiefs by eight and a half.

• 1:33:16Speaker 04

  What number?

• 1:33:17Bill Simmons?

  Eight and a half.

• 1:33:18Speaker 04

  Shit. I had seven and a half. It's nine and a half. You win.

• 1:33:22Bill Simmons?

  Damn.

• 1:33:24Speaker 04

  Come on.

• 1:33:27Speaker 04

  Eight, seven.

• 1:33:28Bill Simmons?

  Nine and a half.

• 1:33:31Speaker 04

  There's a lot of.

• 1:33:32Bill Simmons?

  That is all the makings of a seven point tease.

• 1:33:34Speaker 04

  You love it. You love it.

• 1:33:36Bill Simmons?

  Three teamer.

• 1:33:39Bill Simmons?

  So we could do Chiefs

• 1:33:42Bill Simmons?

  with the Patriots and the Falcons against DJ Mikey Mack in his last offense game if they don't fire him. That sounds fantastic.

• 1:33:49Speaker 04

  And just throw the Colts on there just to have fun as a money line.

• 1:33:56Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I'm trying to think. So if Simmons, so the best two Titans on, well, two of the best three, because I thought Sweat was good in the game today, but Simmons got hurt and Sneed got hurt.

• 1:34:08Speaker 04

  What does it matter?

• 1:34:09Bill Simmons?

  If Simmons doesn't play against the Colts, like, I don't know if you can make that line high enough.

• 1:34:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, it might as you could put Bill Simmons in there. It doesn't matter. You're gonna be fine. That's, that's a disaster of a line.

• 1:34:21Bill Simmons?

  So do we just think that

• 1:34:23Speaker 04

  Can't believe it.

• 1:34:23Bill Simmons?

  At no point Daniel Jones is gonna turn into Daniel Jones? This is just how it's gonna go for the rest of eternity?

• 1:34:29Speaker 04

  I think you called it exactly. This is, you compared him to those other quarterbacks that stood up, that came out of some, pretty much nowhere each year from 21 to 25, and he's Sam Darnold. So what did they win 13 games?

• 1:34:43Bill Simmons?

  But Sam Darnold turned into a pumpkin in Week 18 or Week 17.

• 1:34:47Speaker 04

  Week 18, the last week, and then the playoff week. That's fine. That's still a successful year if that happens.

• 1:34:55Bill Simmons?

  Is he a top five MVP for you, Daniel Jones? Or would you have Taylor as their MVP?

• 1:34:59Speaker 04

  I gotta look here.

• 1:35:02Bill Simmons?

  Because Taylor should be the number one offensive player of the year.

• 1:35:05Speaker 04

  He is. He is. He's minus 140. He's actually minus number now.

• 1:35:09Bill Simmons?

  He's been incredible.

• 1:35:11Speaker 04

  Yeah. So Daniel Jones is seventh. Do you put Stafford and Goff ahead of him?

• 1:35:18Bill Simmons?

  I thought Stafford's been great. What's Drake May now? What are his odds?

• 1:35:21Speaker 04

  Uh, we don't have to talk about it. He's 7-1. He's fourth.

• 1:35:25Bill Simmons?

  7-1? He's fourth?

• 1:35:28Speaker 04

  How the hell did this happen?

• 1:35:29Bill Simmons?

  Who's, who's leading? Mahomes?

• 1:35:31Speaker 04

  Mahomes plus 175, Josh plus 350, Baker plus 450.

• 1:35:37Bill Simmons?

  So why would Josh be second? What has he done? As you know, I think he's the best quarterback in the league. What has he done this year that would make him the number two MVP? Like, why is he have better odds than Drake May?

• 1:35:48Speaker 04

  No, he shouldn't.

• 1:35:49Bill Simmons?

  When the Pats have a better record and they've beaten them already?

• 1:35:52Speaker 04

  I think they're anticipating, I mean, I guess you could just

• 1:35:55Bill Simmons?

  They're anticipating a Josh run?

• 1:35:56Speaker 04

  Well, what is, what's the win totals for either of those teams?

• 1:36:00Bill Simmons?

  First of all, Baker should have the best odds.

• 1:36:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, I agree. I agree.

• 1:36:04Bill Simmons?

  And I would argue Drake May should have better odds than Josh Allen.

• 1:36:07Speaker 04

  What do you think the Patriots win, projected win total is right now?

• 1:36:11Bill Simmons?

  Oh.

• 1:36:15Bill Simmons?

  10 and a half?

• 1:36:16Speaker 04

  That's exactly right. What do you think Buffalo's is?

• 1:36:21Bill Simmons?

  What's their record? 4 and 2?

• 1:36:23Speaker 04

  Buffalo is 4 and 2. Yep.

• 1:36:28Speaker 04

  Don't cheat. Just whatever comes to your...

• 1:36:29Bill Simmons?

  I'm gonna say 11 and a half for Buffalo.

• 1:36:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's what it is. So I guess that's the only reason he's ahead of them.

• 1:36:33Bill Simmons?

  What is it for division?

• 1:36:36Speaker 04

  For the division, Buffalo's still favored minus 190, Pats plus 155. So you have to win the division.

• 1:36:46Bill Simmons?

  Pats plus 155 is a pretty good bet if you look at their schedule. Cause there's a chance.

• 1:36:56Bill Simmons?

  What's like they, I think 12 and 5, if they can stay healthy is conceivable with how bad the schedule is. Which means the Bills would have to go 11 and 3 and win the game in New England.

• 1:37:11Speaker 04

  11 and 3?

• 1:37:14Bill Simmons?

  Or 10 and 3. 4 and 2?

• 1:37:17Speaker 04

  No, 8 and 3. Yeah. They're 4 and 2, plus 8 and 3 is 12 and 5.

• 1:37:21Bill Simmons?

  I used to be good at math. 8 and 3.

• 1:37:23Speaker 04

  8 and 3, yeah.

• 1:37:24Bill Simmons?

  They'd have to go 8 and 3 and win the game in New England.

• 1:37:29Speaker 04

  It's so...

• 1:37:30Bill Simmons?

  Cause if we beat them in New England, they would have to go one game ahead of us with those two losses.

• 1:37:35Speaker 04

  Right. So New England to win 12 games or more is plus 175. I guess it's about the same thing then as the division, right? It's a little...

• 1:37:44Bill Simmons?

  I mean, honestly, Fanduel having the, I know they have reasons for this, but Fanduel having the Ravens plus 130 and the Steelers plus 130 to win the AFC North is just batshit crazy to me.

• 1:37:55Speaker 04

  You think the Steelers should be ahead of them?

• 1:37:57Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. If, put it this way, if you were gonna bet your life

• 1:38:01Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 1:38:02Bill Simmons?

  on the outcome of that, and it's like you're, you're gonna die if you're wrong. Would you bet on the 1 and 5 Ravens?

• 1:38:08Speaker 04

  They're pretty, they're pretty far behind the Ravens.

• 1:38:11Bill Simmons?

  Like, yeah, a lot has to go right for them to come back. The Steelers are a way safer bet.

• 1:38:16Speaker 04

  They have to beat them twice. So they play them twice. They absolutely have to beat them twice. And then the Steelers' schedule gets really weird now.

• 1:38:26Bill Simmons?

  Here's the other one. Colts. So now I'm looking Colts are minus 240.

• 1:38:31Bill Simmons?

  Jags are three to one. Good luck there.

• 1:38:35Bill Simmons?

  I need to bring baby back for, for the Jags at three to one. Good luck. And then Houston plus eight 50 is insane. Like if anyone's going to win that division, it's Houston.

• 1:38:44Speaker 04

  That's dumb. Yeah.

• 1:38:45Bill Simmons?

  Other than Indy, but I would bet Indy minus 240.

• 1:38:48Speaker 04

  What's wrong with Eagles Colts?

• 1:38:51Speaker 04

  Minus 109 for a division.

• 1:38:54Bill Simmons?

  How about this Eagles? Colts? Steelers?

• 1:39:01Bill Simmons?

  Plus 355.

• 1:39:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, that is good. That is good.

• 1:39:05Bill Simmons?

  Now throw in the Pats. Now I'm at that plus nine 11.

• 1:39:08Speaker 04

  Now you're a loner dick now.

• 1:39:10Bill Simmons?

  Now throw in Tampa minus 425. That's, that's 11 to one.

• 1:39:15Speaker 04

  Have we ever picked five division winners eight weeks in?

• 1:39:20Speaker 04

  Now throw in the Cardinals. It's 377 to one.

• 1:39:23Bill Simmons?

  I had a future bet that I, if I had picked Minnesota, if I had picked Green Bay instead of Minnesota, I think I'd actually have a chance at it. That was like 23 to one. Yeah.

• 1:39:34Speaker 04

  Well, you won. Let me ask you this. We were talking about it.

• 1:39:39Speaker 04

  Patriots and Bills have at least have 12 wins. Jets and Dolphins have 12 losses. Very doable, right?

• 1:39:49Bill Simmons?

  Jets and Dolphins would each have to have 12 losses.

• 1:39:52Speaker 04

  12 wins for the top two, 12 losses for the bottom two.

• 1:39:55Bill Simmons?

  That's gonna happen.

• 1:39:56Speaker 04

  I might even say 13, 13 for a top two and 13 for bottom two. I want to see.

• 1:40:02Bill Simmons?

  Well, Miami's, Fando has over four and a half for Miami now, plus 110.

• 1:40:07Speaker 04

  So that's either 12 or 13, right?

• 1:40:09Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:11Speaker 04

  And then the Jets can't be better than that. Yeah.

• 1:40:15Bill Simmons?

  The Jets are.

• 1:40:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, I guess we could just bet it. We could just parlay.

• 1:40:18Bill Simmons?

  Jets are three and a half.

• 1:40:20Speaker 04

  Jesus. I'm not betting.

• 1:40:22Bill Simmons?

  By the way, the Jets are gonna win four games like.

• 1:40:24Speaker 04

  Nah. Nah.

• 1:40:26Bill Simmons?

  Jets under three and a half seems like a lock to me.

• 1:40:29Speaker 04

  We just went over the, what the ones they could potentially win is two of them.

• 1:40:34Bill Simmons?

  So to make them. To make the playoffs, the Pats are minus 420 now.

• 1:40:40Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:40:41Bill Simmons?

  The Broncos are minus 280.

• 1:40:45Bill Simmons?

  How are the Jaguars minus 162?

• 1:40:48Speaker 04

  They are, huh?

• 1:40:50Bill Simmons?

  You think the Jaguars are a playoff team?

• 1:40:54Bill Simmons?

  In a million years, would you see them as like a seven seed?

• 1:40:57Speaker 04

  So does that mean one AFC North team gets in?

• 1:41:03Speaker 04

  That's a lot.

• 1:41:04Bill Simmons?

  So it'd be.

• 1:41:06Speaker 04

  Patriots, Denver, Jaguars, those would be the wild card teams?

• 1:41:10Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I'm looking. So it'd be Indy, Pats, Denver, Buffalo, Pittsburgh,

• 1:41:19Bill Simmons?

  KC. So basically they're saying between Chargers, Jacksonville, Cincinnati and Houston, Jacksonville is the most likely. I would rather, I would rather go with Houston, but I guess if Houston loses tomorrow, they'd be

• 1:41:31Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:41:32Bill Simmons?

  two behind them.

• 1:41:33Speaker 04

  Maybe they know something.

• 1:41:34Bill Simmons?

  God, I think Jacksonville, I was so, they were just so awful.

• 1:41:39Speaker 04

  I loved them too. Just for the year.

• 1:41:43Bill Simmons?

  And then in the NFC, what's like the perfect, so the Ravens are plus 104, which is hilarious. And the Steelers are minus 122.

• 1:41:56Speaker 04

  The Ravens aren't grabbing a wild card. You might as well just take them to get the division.

• 1:41:59Bill Simmons?

  Might as well just take the division. And then out of the, out of the longer shots, Houston plus 205.

• 1:42:07Bill Simmons?

  Minnesota plus 390, I'm not against.

• 1:42:11Bill Simmons?

  As, as like a crazy wild card.

• 1:42:14Speaker 04

  I like Seattle plus 132.

• 1:42:17Bill Simmons?

  Yeah. And then your team plus 260, who knows?

• 1:42:21Bill Simmons?

  Who knows? Can throw the ball, man.

• 1:42:23Speaker 04

  Why do we even do this?

• 1:42:25Speaker 00

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• 1:42:50Speaker 01

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• 1:43:02Speaker 02

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• 1:43:22Speaker 01

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• 1:43:49Speaker 02

  Ask your doctor about Caplyta. Learn more at caplyta.com or call 888-252-4824.

• 1:43:55Bill Simmons?

  This episode is brought to you by Workday. Guessing is for game shows, not your business, especially when your margin for error is zero. Workday is the enterprise AI platform for HR, finance, and IT with a deep understanding of your organization's context and guardrails. So every AI action is permission-aware, giving you accuracy 24/7 and the ability to not just get work done, but get it done right. It's a new Workday. Today's Parent Corner brought to you by Scout Motors. Parenting can feel like fourth and long on your own 10. No timeouts, meltdowns, and a full-on blitz. You're familiar with that, Sal.

• 1:44:31Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

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• 1:44:51Speaker 04

  All right. I want to know, as a parent watching a sport, and I think your Parent Corner might have something to do with this, too. So we might as well, we might want to, they might want to join them together here. But as a parent watching a sport...

• 1:45:06Speaker 04

  What's your freak out level on umpires, parents, coaches? Like, what has to happen? Like, I feel like I think I have a lot of tolerance because I know how embarrassing it is for my kids and my wife and everybody else if I lose my shit because that's happened. But when we have like a six run lead and this happened Saturday and then it's a four run lead, then it's a two run lead and the opposing coach is screaming at his players and screaming at our players and the team is banging on the fence and banging their garbage can. Like, I'm fucked, I'm gone. That's it. I'm hulking out. I'm turning green right there, right there in, in West Covina, California. That's 8:30 in the morning. I just can't, I can't take it.

• 1:45:51Bill Simmons?

  That's where the Boogie Nights house was.

• 1:45:53Speaker 04

  Is that where it was? West Covina?

• 1:45:54Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, you could have just stopped there after.

• 1:45:56Speaker 04

  They should have sent me off there. Yeah. Wasn't there a suicide there? I could, I mean, it was really like, I just, first of all, in Little League, as soon as you shake a fence or bang it or use a bat to hit a garbage can to root your own team on, the umpire goes crazy, loses his mind. Not in this game. And it went on for like a half hour. And like, finally, I said to our coach, like, you gotta do something. You gotta say something. Now everyone's looking at me like I'm the bad guy here. And luckily, they tie it up and we win in the bottom, bottom of the sixth on an error. And I'm like high fiving the shit out of everybody. Like, it was a big win for me. And like, even my kid is like, I hated those kids, Dad. I hated them and I'm glad you hated them too.

• 1:46:40Speaker 04

  I'm like, well, I didn't hate them. I just thought there should be better sportsmanship and everything. But what has to happen? I think this leads into your parent corner, but what has to happen for you to?

• 1:46:50Bill Simmons?

  No, that, this, first of all, thanks for asking. This is a passionate topic for me. I think there's two things that you're allowed to get mad at as a parent, no matter what the age group is. One is the coach trying to either yell at players on the other team, intimidate them in some way, or fuck with them. I think it's just out of line. It just shouldn't happen, especially if it's like 13 years and younger.

• 1:47:17Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:47:17Bill Simmons?

  The, the players on your team should never hear anything from the other coach. There should be a respectful thing, and if that's not there, I think you have a right to be pissed. The other, this, I mean, this is more of a soccer thing. I think it's harder on baseball unless they're like throwing at the kids, but if the kids, if there's a physicality where their kids are actually like in danger of getting hurt and the officials aren't officiating it correctly, I think you have a right to get mad.

• 1:47:44Speaker 04

  Okay. Is that your-

• 1:47:45Bill Simmons?

  I think I told a parent corner story at that time about when we were screaming at the 17 year old ref and-

• 1:47:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:47:51Bill Simmons?

  And he fled to the 10 after, but the other team was like, you know, submarining our kids, trying to hurt them.

• 1:47:58Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:47:58Bill Simmons?

  And at some point, if you have to like look out for the kids, like the whole goal of any sporting event for kids is can we not have anyone get hurt?

• 1:48:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:48:08Bill Simmons?

  And if somebody's trying to hurt the other team, like you have to intervene. So those would be my two.

• 1:48:12Speaker 04

  What about your first example, though, where the coach is just like yelling things and, and, uh, you know, it's not exactly supportive of the other team and then you yell shit back, but then most of the parents are like, hey, you gotta be bigger than him. Like, I do, because that just means he gets away with it and keeps getting away with it. Do I have to be bigger than him?

• 1:48:35Bill Simmons?

  I don't think so. I mean, you're talking to a guy who started yelling at the Campbell, Campbell High Women's High School soccer coach, cause he was talking shit to our team and we got into it a little bit on the sidelines.

• 1:48:46Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:48:46Bill Simmons?

  I think there's gotta be a respect level that, you know, these coaches are supposed to be stewards. They're supposed to be teaching people and setting some sort of example. And if, if they're doing the opposite, it's just, that's when it gets weird.

• 1:49:00Speaker 04

  Good.

• 1:49:00Bill Simmons?

  I don't think you should feel bad at all.

• 1:49:02Speaker 04

  I'll consider that a win. Thank you.

• 1:49:04Bill Simmons?

  I don't think you should feel bad at all.

• 1:49:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, I know. I just gotta, I got a lot of years of this left, or maybe not many at all.

• 1:49:11Bill Simmons?

  What if you were, got into it with the opposing coach and then you kinda got to a good place, then he's like, hey, who do you like tomorrow?

• 1:49:18Speaker 04

  That's almost kinda happened.

• 1:49:20Bill Simmons?

  What's your wise wager?

• 1:49:24Speaker 04

  Give me a winner, we'll make it square.

• 1:49:26Bill Simmons?

  You think you take Simmons tomorrow night and guess the odds?

• 1:49:28Speaker 04

  I'll give you three losers.

• 1:49:30Bill Simmons?

  Really love you guys.

• 1:49:32Speaker 04

  Who do you wishing luck to?

• 1:49:36Bill Simmons?

  My parent corner is about, uh, about my dad and my stepmom.

• 1:49:42Bill Simmons?

  So, you know, they, they, they had a dog die last year. They always have two golden retrievers. And anytime one died, cause golden retrievers, they go between 10, 12 years old, somewhere in there. They're not really like, uh, long lasters. And they would always get a second one. They're always girls. They always named them IE names. And they've had, since the mid eighties, I think they've had like seven or eight golden retrievers, maybe eight. So, uh, so Sally dies last year, Sally with an IE. So only Winnie's left. And my dad is going to be, you know, 78 this, this next month. So my wife and I are like,

• 1:50:25Bill Simmons?

  you can't get another dog. You just can't. You can't do it. You can't do it. They're like, no, no, we won't, we won't.

• 1:50:33Bill Simmons?

  So then gets to like January, we had some Simmons family stuff, like, you know, my, my dad's sister passed away. So they were like, in between that and the dogs, some other stuff, like, all of a sudden they decided to get a second dog, almost like, like, uh, like the, just to try to change the karma of the situation, which I understand. But my dad is 77 and should not have a puppy. And so they tell us, we're FaceTiming them. And they're kind of excited about it at this point, cause they're about to get a puppy, which I understand. And they tell us and, and my wife and I, our faces dropped and my wife's like, you can't, you gotta cancel it. This is crazy. And, and they're like devastated that we're so upset. And we're like,

• 1:51:18Bill Simmons?

  you guys haven't had a puppy in eight years. Like you forget like how hard this is, like you can't, like we wouldn't want a puppy now. We're in our 50s. And so anyway, they decide to get the puppy anyway. Then they get the puppy, the name, the puppy Ruby, super cute. The puppy is like a freaking maniac. The all time, so now the puppy is like eight, eight and a half months old. So when I was in Boston and I was going to see them. And my dad is like, just making jokes like, can you take, can you take Ruby with you on your way back to LA? Like, kind of serious.

• 1:51:54Speaker 04

  Oh, no.

• 1:51:55Bill Simmons?

  Can you take her? And my stepmother's getting mad about it. And it's, it's, it's just dominating their life. Like they, Zoe has a game. They have to like rush out after because the dog's been in the crate for two and a half hours. Dog gets out, I was over there the other day. In 10 minutes, she hurt me three different times. Like she crashed into my knee. She left this long scratch over my chest. She jumped over a couch like she's an absolute, they're in a condo. Like she's just a maniac. And, uh, and they have to walk her all the time. They got to walk her in the morning and, uh, they just didn't listen to us. And, uh, and I, I think I might have a chance to get this dog as my parent caller.

• 1:52:33Speaker 04

  Oh, good for you.

• 1:52:34Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, I'm gonna, I might just actually just kidnap her and I tell them.

• 1:52:37Speaker 04

  Oh, before, okay, all right.

• 1:52:39Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, because I actually really like this dog. No, it's, I made the joke there and my stepmother got really upset about it. And it's like, no, no, no, this is, there's no way we, these are our dogs. And, and, uh, I could just see my dad. It's, it's like the all time, why did we do this?

• 1:52:57Speaker 04

  Right, right, right.

• 1:52:59Bill Simmons?

  Maybe the dog will settle down, I don't know. But I just wanted to say this as a PSA to the, to the parents out there who have parents.

• 1:53:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:53:07Bill Simmons?

  I think, what's the cutoff age for maybe you shouldn't get a dog?

• 1:53:10Speaker 04

  Well, I said, that's why.

• 1:53:11Bill Simmons?

  Like 75?

• 1:53:12Speaker 04

  I wasn't sure where you were going with it. So was it the hardship of caring for a puppy was bothering you? Or that the dog, the dog was gonna outlast them? And you think that would be a bummer like that's?

• 1:53:23Bill Simmons?

  Oh, no, not that, no, that, I'm not worried about the outlasting part. Because I think they're gonna be fine.

• 1:53:29Speaker 04

  Oh, so if they had a four year old dog, you would have been okay?

• 1:53:31Bill Simmons?

  It's the rigors of the puppy.

• 1:53:33Speaker 04

  Right, right, right.

• 1:53:34Bill Simmons?

  It's like having a baby.

• 1:53:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:53:37Bill Simmons?

  Like this is like dominating your life. You can't leave. You have to constantly, if you're out for two hours, you gotta rush back. You're up in the morning. They're peeing all over the place. They get UTIs like,

• 1:53:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:53:47Bill Simmons?

  It's, it's just never ending.

• 1:53:49Speaker 04

  So you want to create a sliding scale where like a 60 year old parent could get a puppy. But once you hit 70, the dog has to be like four or five years old, if you're gonna even get one.

• 1:54:00Bill Simmons?

  So my stepmother's younger than my dad. So that might be the only way they have some wiggle room with this. But I'm gonna say if either parent is over 75.

• 1:54:11Speaker 04

  No dogs?

• 1:54:12Bill Simmons?

  I, no, I, I think there should at least be, somebody should come to the house. Like if you're adopting a foster child or something to like meet the family and make sure, like, ask my dad, like, well, how many steps do you walk a day? And my dad's like, steps.

• 1:54:27Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:54:28Bill Simmons?

  I mean, I walk from the couch to get a ginger ale and I come back. What do you mean steps?

• 1:54:31Speaker 04

  It's a nice walk for a dog.

• 1:54:32Bill Simmons?

  I walked three blocks to go to a restaurant the other day. Um, no, I, I think 75, I think there should be, there should be somebody that comes to the house. Make sure.

• 1:54:42Speaker 04

  That's a good idea. I like that. I think that's good.

• 1:54:46Bill Simmons?

  They kept little Ruby in the kitchen and my dad would sit in the kitchen with her. And this was like for six months and they wouldn't let her out in any room, other room in the house because she would pee all over the place. Um, so I think that's partially why she's so crazy. So my wife and I, we joke that she's the Brie Larson character in Room. Remember? Brie Larson was stuck in that room for eight years. So anytime she gets out of the room, it's like daylight, trees, ah, and just loses it. Um, so it's partially their fault.

• 1:55:16Speaker 04

  She's, uh, she's Ruby license, Ruby Larson?

• 1:55:20Bill Simmons?

  Ruby Larson, yeah.

• 1:55:21Speaker 04

  That's it. Well, anyway, 75.

• 1:55:23Bill Simmons?

  But here's the only thing, like some.

• 1:55:24Speaker 04

  If your mom adopted a dog right now, what would your reaction be?

• 1:55:27Bill Simmons?

  But, oh, forget it. It would be like it is with everything she does. So I would lose my mind. But, but some older people want to have their life dominated by something. You know what I mean? Like they don't, if you're not active and everything, like, all right, I just want something that controls our lives.

• 1:55:43Speaker 04

  This is like a monkey wrench.

• 1:55:44Bill Simmons?

  Let's do it. It's fine. You know, we'll get through it, even if we have to stay home most of the time or whatever. I don't know that your dad's like that and his wife, but that is part of it. I think that's what he thought before, um, before Crazy Ruby got in there.

• 1:55:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:55:59Bill Simmons?

  On the bright side, um, Boston Blue started on Friday. My dad was pretty excited.

• 1:56:03Speaker 04

  Oh, nice. Okay.

• 1:56:04Bill Simmons?

  New CBS lineup last week. All the new shows premiered and, uh, Boston Blue, Donnie Wahlberg. Donnie Wahlberg's character came back to Boston.

• 1:56:12Speaker 04

  Nice.

• 1:56:13Bill Simmons?

  So we had that. Anyway, uh, I'll, I'll keep you posted on Ruby though.

• 1:56:17Speaker 04

  I want to hear about Ruby.

• 1:56:18Bill Simmons?

  She's minus 300 to make it to the end of the year in their house.

• 1:56:21Speaker 04

  Well.

• 1:56:21Bill Simmons?

  I might just have to put her in a suitcase.

• 1:56:23Speaker 04

  You're, well, your dad listened to this? He might listen to this and then like, I'll, I'll show him. We're keeping him for another two months.

• 1:56:29Bill Simmons?

  They might get upset. It's fine.

• 1:56:30Speaker 04

  There we go.

• 1:56:31Bill Simmons?

  Cause we told them.

• 1:56:32Speaker 04

  Right. You said this all.

• 1:56:33Bill Simmons?

  You can't.

• 1:56:34Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 1:56:35Bill Simmons?

  Or if you're gonna get a dog, adopt a house-trained dog that's like a year old and then you skip.

• 1:56:41Speaker 04

  That seems like the, uh, thing. Like, why do you think he wanted a puppy? Like, he could, it's, it's just a golden, it just has to really be a golden retriever.

• 1:56:47Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 1:56:48Speaker 04

  Ultimately, right? So.

• 1:56:49Bill Simmons?

  When we got Murph, who turned five today, by the way, happy birthday to Murph. Um, it was COVID times and we were home a lot.

• 1:56:56Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:56:56Bill Simmons?

  And we were able, but even that was like a complete nightmare. I don't know if I'd be able, uh, even at my age, go through the puppy thing again.

• 1:57:03Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. We have a COVID dog too. Same kind of thing. Yeah. It's a lot.

• 1:57:07Bill Simmons?

  How old are your dogs now?

• 1:57:08Speaker 04

  Well, I just have the one and he was a COVID dog and he got hit by a car in Mexico and my cousin Katie, Jimmy's daughter, rescued him. And then we took him from her and, uh, yeah, he can't see. He doesn't bark. He doesn't acknowledge us. He doesn't like to be a pet.

• 1:57:22Bill Simmons?

  Easy. I like that dog.

• 1:57:22Speaker 04

  I mean, it's barely a dog, so.

• 1:57:24Bill Simmons?

  But you wouldn't get a puppy though.

• 1:57:25Speaker 04

  No, no, no. I wouldn't at my age. What am I? I'm not 70 yet, am I? I might be there.

• 1:57:31Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, but you live in, you're, you're in South Bay. It's like nice to walk the dog around.

• 1:57:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:57:37Bill Simmons?

  A lot of dogs down there.

• 1:57:38Speaker 04

  All right, fine. I'll get a dog.

• 1:57:39Bill Simmons?

  Just get a dog. One of us needs to get a dog just for a parent corner. Cause I can't even do, I mean, if I did parent corners about my son, it would be like about the 30 second interactions I have with him when he's miraculously home.

• 1:57:53Speaker 04

  I thought you were gonna talk about-

• 1:57:53Bill Simmons?

  Say, hey, I'm going out. I'm going out right now.

• 1:57:55Speaker 04

  A certain soccer game you saw this weekend, bud. You kind of alluded to it. It's fine.

• 1:58:00Bill Simmons?

  No, we saw, I came back, saw two wins.

• 1:58:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:58:03Bill Simmons?

  Oh, you thought I was gonna talk about Mount Holyoke's strategy?

• 1:58:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:58:07Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, they parked the bus for two hours. I've never seen a team park the bus in a 0-0 game. Just play for a 0-0 tie.

• 1:58:15Speaker 04

  Well, they got chippy too, right?

• 1:58:17Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, a little chippy, but you know, it's college soccer. You think somebody's been trying to score a goal.

• 1:58:22Speaker 04

  That's fun. You can watch college athletics.

• 1:58:24Bill Simmons?

  It's-

• 1:58:25Speaker 04

  You have to fly out there because you murdered that app that would once show the games. They went under.

• 1:58:32Bill Simmons?

  You know that app?

• 1:58:33Speaker 04

  Flow.

• 1:58:33Bill Simmons?

  First of all, the Flow Sports.

• 1:58:35Speaker 04

  What happened?

• 1:58:36Bill Simmons?

  I've definitely heard from some people that work for them.

• 1:58:39Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:58:39Bill Simmons?

  Or they're urging that they're gonna-

• 1:58:42Speaker 04

  Oh, you're gonna get all Zoe's games in 4K now. This is gonna be fucking ridiculous.

• 1:58:46Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, well, it turns out that there were more disgruntled parents than just the parents on my team, I think was what we learned. But, uh, I mean, listen, I'm gonna give them a chance to rectify everything. We'll see how it goes.

• 1:58:57Speaker 04

  I think this is how they're rectifying, like, hey, Bill Simmons said, "Parents will pay anything to watch their kids." So we're raising the monthly fee to $1,500.

• 1:59:06Bill Simmons?

  $15. Oh, my God. We'll see if it works. There's two big games this week. Hopefully, hopefully, it's gonna work.

• 1:59:12Speaker 04

  All right.

• 1:59:13Bill Simmons?

  Anyway, that's it for Parent Corner, which was brought to you by Scout Motors. Join the waitlist for the Scout Tire and Scout Travel at scoutmotors.com. Concept vehicle is not available for sale. Features and performance specifications preliminary and subject to change. Joining the waitlist does not guarantee purchase. Visit scoutmotors.com for details. When somebody tells you they have kids, what ages do you hear that you're the most jealous of? For the ages the kids are, when you think about your experience having kids? Like, what do you think the best ages were?

• 1:59:43Speaker 04

  I would say 40 and 42, when they say their kids are that old, because you don't have to deal with them.

• 1:59:52Speaker 04

  Like five and seven.

• 1:59:54Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, that's what if somebody says, I have an eight year old and a six year old. I'm like, oh, man. What a great run.

• 2:00:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's good. That's good.

• 2:00:01Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:01Speaker 04

  That's like the sweet spot. Take care of each other. Yeah.

• 2:00:03Bill Simmons?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:04Speaker 04

  Dogs is a different story, but yeah, kids.

• 2:00:07Bill Simmons?

  Probably worse is when they're like, I have a 15 year old and 11 year old.

• 2:00:10Speaker 04

  Yeah. What are you gonna do with those?

• 2:00:13Bill Simmons?

  Yikes. You're right. Or anything under four is a nightmare.

• 2:00:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:00:16Bill Simmons?

  All right. So you're Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, bring your gambling show?

• 2:00:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. And the Sunday pregame show, let me give you a couple basketball. You tell me what you think here. Sabonis.

• 2:00:27Bill Simmons?

  Oh, let me hear it.

• 2:00:28Speaker 04

  Sabonis plus 20 plus points per game. He had 19.1 last year, plus 270 for that. I feel like he's healthier. He went from 38% to 41%. Shooting from it's continued success from three is one of the biggest X factors, I think.

• 2:00:44Bill Simmons?

  That's what you're leading with a Sabonis.

• 2:00:46Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 2:00:46Bill Simmons?

  Points per game prop is your number one?

• 2:00:49Speaker 04

  That's it.

• 2:00:49Bill Simmons?

  Wow, okay.

• 2:00:50Speaker 04

  You don't like that one? Plus 270? All right. He's at 19. He's just like, it's 20. And Edwards, most threes per game, also plus 270. He lost to Steph 4.4 to 4.1. Isn't there a world where Steph doesn't qualify? Give me plus 270 and Edwards. And you were wrong. I listened to all four hours of your thing. Good. Great to learn that Cooper flags are generational talent. Wow. I don't know where you're getting that insight anywhere, but no. Pistons, I like it over. You don't like 50 plus at plus 182? Bickerstaff, third year, this is how he turns a team around?

• 2:01:23Bill Simmons?

  I don't. That's your favorite one?

• 2:01:25Speaker 04

  Duncan Robinson, that's, that's an improvement, I think, right? Cunningham, top 10 player. You really don't like that. You like that under.

• 2:01:33Speaker 04

  Someone in the East asked, I know you have your picks for the East, but that was mine to

• 2:01:38Speaker 04

  get the gap of plus four wins on their total.

• 2:01:41Bill Simmons?

  They do. I would rather personally do Milwaukee if you're going to bank on one of those teams from that division as like the. Better than you think, team?

• 2:01:50Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 2:01:50Bill Simmons?

  I think Milwaukee's gonna be good. They put a bunch of specials up. Ringer futures on NBA.

• 2:01:57Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:01:57Bill Simmons?

  And they have some good ones, like Indiana to win 35-plus games and make the play-in, plus 164.

• 2:02:05Bill Simmons?

  This Bucks and Celtics to both make the playoffs, plus 152, but they had a whole bunch of them. But I sent them, I sent them a slew of them and they put our favorite win totals.

• 2:02:14Speaker 04

  What did we do? What did you make us do? That, that, boy, that, I don't like the division bets, but the one you laid out was like even money and it really looked good. What was it? Knicks, Thunder, Cavs?

• 2:02:25Bill Simmons?

  Knicks, Thunder, Cavs for the division.

• 2:02:27Speaker 04

  That was even?

• 2:02:27Bill Simmons?

  Plus 130 or something. That was better than that. Yeah, it was plus 120. I really liked that one.

• 2:02:33Speaker 04

  That's good.

• 2:02:34Bill Simmons?

  Yeah, we did that one. I roped you guys into another one.

• 2:02:37Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah, you're excited. This is good. Football's over for you. Look at you. There's your picture right there on the page there. You're wearing a suit.

• 2:02:44Bill Simmons?

  I'm doing great.

• 2:02:45Speaker 04

  About to adopt a dog. This is fun.

• 2:02:47Bill Simmons?

  NBA starting, this is our time right now.

• 2:02:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:02:50Bill Simmons?

  Who do you have for game seven of the World Series?

• 2:02:51Speaker 04

  We have, uh, the World Series?

• 2:02:53Bill Simmons?

  I mean, of, uh, ASAS.

• 2:02:55Speaker 04

  Boy, it's gonna be hard for Toronto to lose now. I know they don't really, I, I had Seattle, so I'm gonna have to hedge here. It's Bieber against Kirby, but these guys are gonna go like three innings. I'll take Toronto slightly. I'm gonna go against myself. But the Dodgers, they're minus 122, Toronto. That's a fun one. You got two Monday night games and the baseball all at once.

• 2:03:15Bill Simmons?

  The problem for Toronto is if it's a nail-biter.

• 2:03:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:03:19Bill Simmons?

  I don't like their relievers.

• 2:03:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:03:22Bill Simmons?

  If it's like a 4-3, 5-4 type game.

• 2:03:25Speaker 04

  But, you know, I went into the Dodgers pick saying, I don't like their relievers and didn't fucking matter at all.

• 2:03:30Bill Simmons?

  We didn't even see the relievers.

• 2:03:31Speaker 04

  Never, I don't even know if they have any on the roster.

• 2:03:33Bill Simmons?

  It's unbelievable.

• 2:03:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:03:34Bill Simmons?

  Crazy. All right, cuz, good job, Ian.

• 2:03:36Speaker 04

  Good job, buddy.

• 2:03:38Bill Simmons?

  All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Sal, thanks to Gao, thanks to Eduardo. Uh, I'm going to be back two more times on this feed. You can also hear the new rewatchables, Monday night quiz show, and then Prestige TV breaking down Task. That one is already up. I'll see you on Tuesday.

• 2:04:09Bill Simmons?

  Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18 plus and present in DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-797777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York. This episode is brought to you by Core Power Protein Shakes. You know how we always talk about the little things that separate great athletes? Post-workout recovery is a big

• 2:04:50Bill Simmons?

  factor. Core Power Protein Shakes help you keep going after your workout with high-quality protein to build muscle and electrolytes to help hydrate. It's all you need for your recovery in one bottle. Available in 26 and 42 gram protein options to pick what works best for you. Visit corepower.com to learn more. This episode is brought to you by 7Up. Okay, this one's a case for conspiracy bill. Let's bring them in. Ever noticed lemon is everywhere, from lemon recipes to lemon-scented cleaning supplies? And when it comes to lemon-lime sodas, why is lemon always first? There's a reason. A shadowy organization called the A Lemonade has been padding the stats, keeping big lemon in the lead for decades. But let me tell you something, the sip is

• 2:05:32Bill Simmons?

  about to be flipped. 7Up is fighting back, swapping lemon-lime for their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7Up, flip the sip.