Speaker 1: From the King of Sports Books comes the Key Sports
Speaker 1: podcast Unleashed, presented by MGM. Here's your host, Joanna's Papas
Speaker 1: and Olivia Harlan Decker. Welcome in everyone, Happy Happy New Year.
Speaker 1: This is Unleaved by bet MGM, the King of Sports Books.
Speaker 1: We made it. It's two. It's just kind of has
Speaker 1: a good ring to it. Janna, how is your New
Speaker 1: Year's It was gray, We got a baby. I was
Speaker 1: in bed by eight. It was so much fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did it on the couch. You did it on
Speaker 1: the couch. Well, we didn't do it on the couch.
Speaker 1: I mean, get your head out of the gut or Olivia,
Speaker 1: I know, Wait, you starting twenty two off with a bang? Literally,
Speaker 1: well there you go with another pun. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at you. I mean there was no bang and we
Speaker 1: didn't do it. I'm talking about we were on the
Speaker 1: couch with a blanket watching Netflix. I mean, we're so tired.
Speaker 1: We're parents. My daughter. I just spent New Year's chasing
Speaker 1: my daughter around and telling her not to pull things down.
Speaker 1: That's all she's doing now. She's at that stage and
Speaker 1: she just runs around and pulls things off of shelves
Speaker 1: and bangs her head of the stuff. So my job
Speaker 1: right now is to keep this child alive. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: just like a human bumper car. At this point, that
Speaker 1: sounds exhausting. No wonder you're tired by eight pm, kind
Speaker 1: of depressing. You know, you can get a sitter. I know,
Speaker 1: I know, but you know, I don't know if they
Speaker 1: got COVID or what, you know what it is. So
Speaker 1: at this point, it's just she's gonna have to deal
Speaker 1: with me and me and the wife. I'm sure she's
Speaker 1: sick of us. I bet you babies get sick of
Speaker 1: seeing their parents during quarantine. They're like, we get you know,
Speaker 1: can I see somebody new? I've had enough of your face.
Speaker 1: Next time I see a baby, I'm gonna ask him
Speaker 1: that is That is interesting. No one asked what the
Speaker 1: babies wanted. No one knew. Nobody takes their their perspective
Speaker 1: into consideration. Okay, here's the question. Because you've talked on
Speaker 1: the podcast about how much you love Christmas, how you
Speaker 1: think Christmas should be at least eight days, like Hanka
Speaker 1: all this stuff. How long do you leave your Christmas
Speaker 1: decorations up? What kind of level of white trashness are you?
Speaker 1: I keep them up. I mean, you could come into
Speaker 1: my house in May and those puppies are still up.
Speaker 1: I am lit up. I mean it is Christmas till
Speaker 1: May and my house. I'm not gonna say that's whether
Speaker 1: that's because I have Christmas spirit or whether I'm just
Speaker 1: purely lazy, but let's just say it's a little bit above.
Speaker 1: How about yours? When are you taking your rama? Don
Speaker 1: taking it down soon? No, I'm I'm going back to
Speaker 1: the States this week and I will see at our
Speaker 1: house all the Christmas decorations we put up before we
Speaker 1: knew we were moving here. And that's like the single
Speaker 1: saddest thing to do all years, takedown those holiday decorations.
Speaker 1: You know, it's still freezing cold outside and just without
Speaker 1: the festivity. So I just it's a sad day. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's a really sad day taking all that down. Did
Speaker 1: you get a chance to watch the college football semifinals.
Speaker 1: I watched a little bit of the Alabama game, That's
Speaker 1: all I did. I checked in. I saw they were winning.
Speaker 1: I saw Nick Saban he you know, his expression doesn't change,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you know, I know they're gonna win.
Speaker 1: And that was all I really caught. How about you.
Speaker 1: How much do you even get them in? In Turkey?
Speaker 1: They were too late, so it's obviously New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: We went out to a really funding Year's Eve party
Speaker 1: here in istanbuls Blast and we get home. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sober and pregnant. My husband was not. He is
Speaker 1: not either one of those adjectives. And we got to
Speaker 1: try to catch the first part of the Alabama Cincinnati game.
Speaker 1: But you know, that was such a blowout as we
Speaker 1: knew it would. We talked about it on this show.
Speaker 1: That game was pointless and stupid. And I get why
Speaker 1: there's fatigue of college football because so many people are like,
Speaker 1: why do we play this whole season and we end
Speaker 1: up with the two best SEC teams playing each other
Speaker 1: or in a normal year Ohio State. I get it.
Speaker 1: It's the blue bloods are too strong, and here we are.
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled my alma maters in it, Georgia, but I
Speaker 1: worry about them facing Alabama again. We saw what happened
Speaker 1: in the SEC championship and I don't know. I guess
Speaker 1: this year, since I'm out of college football, we'd talk
Speaker 1: so much NFL on the show. I get the fatigue
Speaker 1: now that I'm on the other side. Yeah, what do
Speaker 1: we do? How do we change it? Do we need
Speaker 1: to do like a French revolution type of thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you proposing, your your chay, your your Chegovaris?
Speaker 1: It tell us how we how do we overthrow the
Speaker 1: blue bloods? Do we cut their heads off? I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you talking, Olivia? I'm ready. I guess extended
Speaker 1: playoff helps because you have more chaos. That's what so
Speaker 1: great about the NFL playoffs is anything can happen. You know,
Speaker 1: it's single elimination. It's so great. And I can't wait
Speaker 1: to talk to our guest who's coming up after this
Speaker 1: about kind of looking ahead at the NFL playoff picture
Speaker 1: as we go into the final week of the regular season,
Speaker 1: because anything can happen, even this last week, anything can happen.
Speaker 1: This has been a really fun NFL season. So I
Speaker 1: guess I'm on team extend the playoff. It's a very
Speaker 1: short season, especially now that the NFL seasons one week longer.
Speaker 1: College football seems so short now. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: do you agree, yeah something either that or I know it.
Speaker 1: You can't really do a March madness type of thing, right,
Speaker 1: I've been explained by that's not possible. But the same
Speaker 1: applies for basketball. You know, it's like you never know
Speaker 1: who's gonna win. It's one game elimination and it just
Speaker 1: makes it much more fun to watch. And so they
Speaker 1: got to do something. I think we don't have to
Speaker 1: have a revolution, but we definitely need to have a
Speaker 1: meeting and talk starting. No, that's the problem with college football.
Speaker 1: There are too many meetings, there's too much money, there
Speaker 1: are too many people with job titles. No one knows
Speaker 1: what they do. Then C double A is a very
Speaker 1: confusing web once you peel back that curtain. So no,
Speaker 1: no more meetings for action, you honest. And speaking of action,
Speaker 1: I mentioned we have a great guest coming up in
Speaker 1: this show. I'm so excited. No one better to talk
Speaker 1: NFL with than Mina Kimes, ESPN NFL analyst. Plus we'll
Speaker 1: talk about the final week of the NFL regular season
Speaker 1: and get some betting advice from Peter Andrew. I can't
Speaker 1: wait he is back. We're starting twenty two with a
Speaker 1: clean slate, if you will, with our punishment picks because
Speaker 1: Joannice just killed me in so I'm really looking forward
Speaker 1: for my redemption tour. It starts today in the playoffs
Speaker 1: are almost here. It's gonna be a lot of fun, Yannese.
Speaker 1: You know our bad beat of the Week winner? You
Speaker 1: know who it is for the first week of Is
Speaker 1: it Craig Jones Brad Beat all the Week? Yep, it
Speaker 1: is Craig Jones. And again, like every week, Jannis, take
Speaker 1: this as a lesson. It's one leg of a major parlay.
Speaker 1: This was a ten leg parlay that my man Craig lost,
Speaker 1: and it should serve as a warning sign. But also
Speaker 1: it just makes me want to do it more because
Speaker 1: that's how you win the big money. And I believe
Speaker 1: I'm going to Vegas with bet MGM in February for
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl and NHL All Stars. So that's when I
Speaker 1: really rolled up my sleeves and get to betting at
Speaker 1: our bet MGM kiosks because I just like to do
Speaker 1: it in person, and I think I'm just gonna build
Speaker 1: parlays all weekend. What do you think sounds good to me?
Speaker 1: Go girl, Okay, I may need your help because you
Speaker 1: have a weird lucky streak when it comes to this.
Speaker 1: Although I have no idea how, I really have no
Speaker 1: idea how. I'm telling you I'm on the right side
Speaker 1: of history. Well, my man Craig, he got to win
Speaker 1: a hundred dollars of bet MGM site credit, as does
Speaker 1: our winner every week. So keep submitting your bad beat
Speaker 1: of the week. It could be you. I hope it's
Speaker 1: not me in a couple of weekends. But if you
Speaker 1: have a really bad beat, let us know. We'll help
Speaker 1: you out. Okay, this is the part of the show.
Speaker 1: It's I'm ready for it this week. I am ready
Speaker 1: for it this week. I knew right away what I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about for our Unleashed segment. Ye honest,
Speaker 1: it's time. No one let's on. It's okay, So everyone
Speaker 1: knows what happened with Antonio Brown and the Buccaneers this
Speaker 1: past weekend. Right. He was welcome back to the team
Speaker 1: two weeks ago by Bruce Arians after faking a vaccine
Speaker 1: card or obtaining a fake vaccine card. That's still kind
Speaker 1: of under investigation, which by the way, is a federal offense,
Speaker 1: so that's pretty major looming over him. But he was
Speaker 1: in a jersey, he was playing. He was dealing with
Speaker 1: an ankle injury, but cleared by every doctor the whole team.
Speaker 1: Everyone said he was healthy. Ready to play. Middle of
Speaker 1: the third quarter. He makes a big show after questionably
Speaker 1: being benched, but Bruce Arians was asking him to go
Speaker 1: back in the game and he didn't want to. He
Speaker 1: said his ankle was injured. All this stuff, so we
Speaker 1: still don't know all of the rigamaro there, but what
Speaker 1: we do know is what happened next. He makes a
Speaker 1: big show, his teammates telling him calm down, sit down, nothing.
Speaker 1: He walks off the field, kind of dances off the field.
Speaker 1: He takes off his paths, he takes off his helmet,
Speaker 1: he takes off his undershirt, stripping on his way to
Speaker 1: the locker room, waving fans again, loving the attention. Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians has since said he has done. Here's my thing
Speaker 1: with Antonio Brown, and this is like chapter five hundred
Speaker 1: of his story of mishaps. Very few people in life,
Speaker 1: in any profession, get as many second, third, fourth, the
Speaker 1: six chances as he does. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: are dealing with a lot of issues, a lot of
Speaker 1: mistakes made with one one dred of the talent, of
Speaker 1: the money, of the friends and high places as Antonio Brown.
Speaker 1: He was kicked out of Florida International. He questionably robbed
Speaker 1: a delivery truck with some assault charges involved sexual assault
Speaker 1: allegations from a personal trainer, something about a helmet, smuggling
Speaker 1: a helmet from the raiders. I believe doing something wrong there.
Speaker 1: He's stiffed people for money before, and then this fake
Speaker 1: vaccine card, which again, if it's all true, as a
Speaker 1: federal offense. His own friend and chef ratted him out
Speaker 1: on that, which tells you a lot. I cannot find
Speaker 1: a good thing to say about Antonio Brown. There's no
Speaker 1: redeeming quality, no sign of character or remorse for any
Speaker 1: of these things or moral compass that were aware of.
Speaker 1: He was even laughing about it on the car ride
Speaker 1: home from the game, his driver put on social media.
Speaker 1: This driver has also gone on some podcasts since that,
Speaker 1: so making a whole mockery about that. And now let's
Speaker 1: talk about how he's letting his teammates down and really
Speaker 1: greatly affecting the Buccaneers playoffs scenario. They lost Chris Godwin
Speaker 1: for the season, Mike Evans has been a bit banged up,
Speaker 1: and most recently with the hamstring injury. Gronk has kind
Speaker 1: of been the same story, injury prone, having some issues.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady does not have many playmakers on the outside.
Speaker 1: He needs Antonio Brown, their offense will have to adjust.
Speaker 1: His absence greatly impacts their next few weeks, which are
Speaker 1: very important weeks, and maybe most of all, look how
Speaker 1: he's let Tom Brady down. First of all, have you
Speaker 1: seen the video of Tom Brady looking up saying what happened?
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't know, he's he's they were down,
Speaker 1: they were in a hole. He was trying to win
Speaker 1: the game, and his top receiver, his friend, the guy
Speaker 1: he has stuck his neck out gone to bat four,
Speaker 1: is running off, prancing around, taking off his shirt, blowing
Speaker 1: kisses to the crowd. It just makes me sick. Now,
Speaker 1: none of us know his mental illness, If he has
Speaker 1: CTE all these things, or if he's just a narcissistic asshole,
Speaker 1: we don't know. That's way above all of our pay grade.
Speaker 1: If he does have clinical issues, I really hope he
Speaker 1: can be helped. But boy, are we given him the
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt time and time again. I can't
Speaker 1: figure out why. As a human being, I certainly have
Speaker 1: empathy for someone who's greatly struggling, and I really find
Speaker 1: it gracious and honorable that Tom Brady at the end
Speaker 1: of all that keep saying, have him have compassion. He's
Speaker 1: such a class act. But as a football fan, I
Speaker 1: do not have empathy for Antonio Brown as he's running
Speaker 1: off the field laughing, proceeding to make a mockery of
Speaker 1: the people who have protected him and helped him, the
Speaker 1: fans who have supported him in the game that's given
Speaker 1: him so much. So with that I dropped the mic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, who knows what's going on there? All I
Speaker 1: have to say is kids got great abs. I did
Speaker 1: notice that. That's a redeeming quality, right, And also a
Speaker 1: little empathy because they were losing to the Jets. So
Speaker 1: if someone's going to do something that is really inexplicable
Speaker 1: and a distraction and lose it, I would think it
Speaker 1: would be during losing to the Jets. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: agree with you. It's unfortunate. You know, sometimes when people
Speaker 1: are born with so much talent, they take it for
Speaker 1: granted and they're used to getting away with things because
Speaker 1: the people look the other way because of their talent.
Speaker 1: I would assume some of that plays into this. You know,
Speaker 1: when you look at such a long history of problems
Speaker 1: and such a high level of talent, you gotta say
Speaker 1: at some point he just probably thought he could continuously
Speaker 1: get away with things because of his talent. So it's sad,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I mean the bucks are in a pickle, now,
Speaker 1: Buckster in a pickle. Do you think he's done? I
Speaker 1: think he's done. I think he's absolutely done. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you go on a team with veterans like
Speaker 1: Tom Brady won the Super Bowl last year, and you
Speaker 1: don't make it work there. You're it doesn't work out there.
Speaker 1: There's no other team that's gonna give him a you know,
Speaker 1: Fresno State that you know is Fresno State and basketball
Speaker 1: used to be that team. When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: it was like, no matter what you did in college football,
Speaker 1: Jerry would take you. And they're just that's that's not
Speaker 1: how it works when there's money on the line. And
Speaker 1: so the NFL is such a team game that you know,
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown is going to learn the hard way now
Speaker 1: that you know nobody's bigger than the team of the game.
Speaker 1: And so that's it. I mean, his his luck has
Speaker 1: run out. No one's too talented to overcome all of this,
Speaker 1: I think, and keep in mind Tom Brady leaving New England.
Speaker 1: There are a bunch of reasons, but Antonio Brown was
Speaker 1: a part of that. He wanted to bring Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: back and Bill Belichick wasn't having it. And Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: was right as he is a lot of times so
Speaker 1: and he let a b stay in his house. They
Speaker 1: celebrated holidays together. I mean, Tom Brady has has been
Speaker 1: a saint to this man who from the outside looking in,
Speaker 1: we don't know everything. I don't know what he's done
Speaker 1: to deserve that, but I don't think he deserves a
Speaker 1: second chance after this on the football field. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and you know, with football who knows.
Speaker 1: Let's hope it's not something like ct like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: and I I hope he's a narcissistic GasHole because you
Speaker 1: just don't want anyone struggling with anything physical that affects
Speaker 1: their their mental well being or you know, their mental
Speaker 1: well being. So hopefully he's just a narcissistic GasHole. Otherwise
Speaker 1: he obviously needs help, as every on saying, and it's
Speaker 1: just an unfortunate story. And boy would it be great
Speaker 1: if Tom Brady wins another one. Having gone through with
Speaker 1: he's gone through with Antonio Brown and with the Bucks
Speaker 1: have gone through there's so many great stories. Like we
Speaker 1: mentioned the Raiders. I mean, you know, it could be uh,
Speaker 1: the Bengals have a great story. There's so many great stories.
Speaker 1: Stafford going to the Rams, like, I hope it's a
Speaker 1: good story that wins the Super Bowl, you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. All right, So now it's time for me
Speaker 1: to unleash here. And I am gonna unleash. There's no way.
Speaker 1: If you've been listening to the show and you know
Speaker 1: me and Olivia, there's no way anyone guess she was
Speaker 1: gonna unleash on anything else. You know, that type of
Speaker 1: behavior gets her goat. Okay, she likes people behaving. You
Speaker 1: like people behaving. And Antonio Brown there's other examples. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna bring up his name because we talked about
Speaker 1: him too much, but you like people behaving. And as
Speaker 1: you know, if you know me, you're such a square,
Speaker 1: your bb um. You know. I love the Giants, okay,
Speaker 1: and what we're going through is the tragedy. It's a
Speaker 1: national tragedy. COVID is bad, but I think the Giants
Speaker 1: are worse. So I'm going to be unleashing on my
Speaker 1: hometown Gigantes. Okay, why are we still seeing actual guys
Speaker 1: on the roster on the field. At this point, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's at least make it an event. If they're gonna lose,
Speaker 1: let's make it a spectacle. Don't get me wrong, I
Speaker 1: appreciate that they're losing because at this point, winds means
Speaker 1: less than nothing but negative ten passing yards. If we're
Speaker 1: gonna do negative ten passing yards, let's keep going. Let's
Speaker 1: make it worse. I want say Kwon Barkley coaching. I
Speaker 1: want Joe Judges the water Boy. I want giant fans
Speaker 1: playing in the game in uniform. Okay, if we're gonna
Speaker 1: play bad, let's make it a spectacle. Let's have some
Speaker 1: celebrities play quarterback one down at a time. Who wouldn't
Speaker 1: love to see Tiktoker's getting tackled. That would be fun,
Speaker 1: you know, just having them out for the season so
Speaker 1: they can't make TikTok videos anymore because they got absolutely
Speaker 1: hammered the offensive line. How about they just start live
Speaker 1: streaming every down so we can hear what the what
Speaker 1: the defensive line is saying to them. Why not, they'll
Speaker 1: probably do a better job of protecting the quarterback if
Speaker 1: they're filming at the same time, and the defense should
Speaker 1: be allowed to take naps in between times they're on
Speaker 1: the field. I mean, because the Giants defense was exhausted.
Speaker 1: I want to send them all of my pillow. I'm
Speaker 1: ordering a whole bunch of my pillows, and I'm sending
Speaker 1: them to the Giants defense. They were, they were on
Speaker 1: the gridiron like what seemed like the whole game. Now
Speaker 1: I want them to keep losing because it means draft opportunities.
Speaker 1: I just wish it was worse, is what I'm saying. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's all I'm saying. How about we make the mascot
Speaker 1: of the Giants French World War two soldier. You know,
Speaker 1: just let them know that we're getting rolled over and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get beat and beat easy. Have some fun
Speaker 1: with it. We suck. It stinks and I'm hurt. That
Speaker 1: was great. That was a great unleashed I really hope
Speaker 1: you don't ask our guests coming up about the Giants.
Speaker 1: You you usually find a way to work in one
Speaker 1: Giants question, and it just seems very irrelevant now more
Speaker 1: than ever. So just promise me you won't ask mena
Speaker 1: kids about the Giants. I can't promise you that I'm
Speaker 1: going to okay without further ado. Let's bring in Mina Kimes.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in our guest. I'm very excited to talk
Speaker 1: with her. She's the sharp witted NFL analyst on ESPN,
Speaker 1: an amazing Twitter follow. If you haven't followed her, you should.
Speaker 1: She has a very sarcastic, dry sense of humor. It
Speaker 1: cracks me up with every tweet. And apparently she's a
Speaker 1: crossword whiz. Mina Kimes is here. Mina thinks so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, guys, now, crossword whizz walk me
Speaker 1: through that. Have you always been good at it? Where
Speaker 1: do you find the time to even do them? I've
Speaker 1: always been passionate about them. I wouldn't say good at them,
Speaker 1: but you know, once I got the New York Times
Speaker 1: at which is what I use, I had more time
Speaker 1: to do it every day. Well not every day. I
Speaker 1: really only do Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: travel a lot now, so I have time on the
Speaker 1: road to do them, and I do them at night,
Speaker 1: and it is incredibly nerdy habit. You know, you have
Speaker 1: a kind of an unusual career path to where you
Speaker 1: are now. Can you just tell people a little bit
Speaker 1: about that. Sure. Yeah, so after ten years of playing
Speaker 1: in the NFL, I felt like it was time for
Speaker 1: a new now. Um I was a business journalist for
Speaker 1: actually eight years about so it was a bit of
Speaker 1: a career pivot for me. I worked for Fortune News
Speaker 1: and then a Bloomberg Business Week, and then ESPN hired
Speaker 1: me as a writer, which I was a writer. Then
Speaker 1: I joined ESPN the magazine as a writer doing football
Speaker 1: profile not just football but profiles and cover stories and
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. So, um, I went from being
Speaker 1: a writer to an analyst and then a full time
Speaker 1: NFL analysts this past year. Can you stay non biased
Speaker 1: about the Seahawks considering the bond that you had with
Speaker 1: your dad over them? Or is that something that when
Speaker 1: you're talking about the Seahawks, your your co workers know,
Speaker 1: all right, she's not going to be so accurate on
Speaker 1: this one. Her heart's too too much in it. I
Speaker 1: think they know that I'm angrier than people who don't
Speaker 1: root for them, because I'm probably more critical and more
Speaker 1: upset when things don't go right. But you know, fortunately
Speaker 1: for me, we haven't had to talk about them for
Speaker 1: a few weeks because they've been irrelevant, which is a godsend.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they you know, they were really obviously relevant
Speaker 1: for a very long time, so I did talk about
Speaker 1: them for quite some time, and I always tried my
Speaker 1: best to be critical. Well. A couple of teams that
Speaker 1: are relevant, and I think was the best game of
Speaker 1: the Sunday Slate was Chiefs Bengals. It's so exciting to
Speaker 1: watch all these young players and we're going to see
Speaker 1: him for years to come. What's your take on the
Speaker 1: Bengals season. They have the two thousand yard receivers who
Speaker 1: are under twenty three years old. Joe Cool is smoking
Speaker 1: cigars in the locker room looking like Len Dawson. They're
Speaker 1: so easy to get behind, and they they're just extremely
Speaker 1: fun to watch right now. And you're right, that was
Speaker 1: definitely the best game in the most exciting game of
Speaker 1: the weekend. You know, for me, I think watching that
Speaker 1: offense in particular, it's fun. They're almost like a basketball
Speaker 1: team live. I know you're big basketball fan because all
Speaker 1: the wide receivers play different roles, like there's you know,
Speaker 1: the power forward in jamaar Chase and Higgins does his
Speaker 1: thing boyd underneath the zama and it presents such a
Speaker 1: matchup nightmare for every defense that plays him. As you
Speaker 1: saw yesterday, you can't play man covered, you can't play
Speaker 1: you know, I sew up Jamar Chase really using the
Speaker 1: basketball wards here. But by the same token, if you
Speaker 1: bracket in, you're gonna leave Tee Higgins opportunities. And Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow is just so good against pressure and delivering the
Speaker 1: ball to them. So I'm excited to watch them in
Speaker 1: the playoffs because they I think really showed yesterday that
Speaker 1: playing that caliber of competition in Kansas City, who had
Speaker 1: been on a bit of a heater, they can keep
Speaker 1: pace and that's really exciting. I mean, I love watching
Speaker 1: you on television. I've heard you speak about the Giants
Speaker 1: a few times, but I'm a huge Giants fan. You
Speaker 1: know every year it's like we talked about always that
Speaker 1: the offensive line is it Daniel Jones. At what point
Speaker 1: can we start blaming the organization and say this is
Speaker 1: a semi problem. Yesterday you see Joe Judges press conference.
Speaker 1: That's one of the wildest I feel like it's almost
Speaker 1: flown under the radar, maybe just because of everything going
Speaker 1: on with Antonio Brown and the Chiefs, the Bengals or whatever,
Speaker 1: but that Joe, Joe, judge, pardon me that press conference
Speaker 1: he gave where we went on like a teen a
Speaker 1: rant like was while then by all accounts he's staying
Speaker 1: with the organization. My favorite part was when he told
Speaker 1: the story about former Giants. I wish they were with
Speaker 1: the Giants, you know, big my girlfriend in Canada, kind
Speaker 1: of energy. But I think this is a team where
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones is not high on the list of people
Speaker 1: I would blame. Obviously has not been played because of injury,
Speaker 1: just because the roster and the team are so broken.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Antonio Brown. We talked about it earlier in
Speaker 1: the show. What's your read on what we saw Sunday? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to know exactly what happened in that moment,
Speaker 1: right there's conflicting reports coming out about what was said
Speaker 1: between him and coaches. Bruce Arians head coach, said, you know,
Speaker 1: they had a conversation, didn't reveal what was said, did
Speaker 1: say he didn't know or hear that he was injured.
Speaker 1: So I don't really know, But we also know this
Speaker 1: is a player Antonio Brown, who was quit on multiple teams,
Speaker 1: been accused of things that are much worse than putting
Speaker 1: in a football game. So I think at a certain
Speaker 1: point you have to kind of just blame the organization
Speaker 1: candidly for giving him. It's not even a second chance,
Speaker 1: like a fifth, sixth chance, Like this is a gamble.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean this is a gamble that they
Speaker 1: made bringing him back, even after the fake vax scar thing,
Speaker 1: bring him up again and it blew up in their face.
Speaker 1: I really don't know what else to say. Now. They're
Speaker 1: in a tough spot because he was the with Chris
Speaker 1: Godwin injured, he was the number two wide receiver, and
Speaker 1: I think it's going to really affect their chances down
Speaker 1: the stretch. What do you think? I hate to say
Speaker 1: it this way, but do you think there's some CTE
Speaker 1: going on here? I I really don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: with Antonio in terms like his physical and mental health,
Speaker 1: all I can say is history of very bad decisions
Speaker 1: and accusations of worse actions. You know, something we've seen
Speaker 1: in the NFL time and time again is if you're
Speaker 1: talented enough, and he has a really really special talent,
Speaker 1: people overlooked at for a long time. Well, the Buccaneers included,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of teams kind of been to
Speaker 1: the finish line completely depleted, certain position groups also taking
Speaker 1: a bigger toll than others with this extra wear and
Speaker 1: tear of the eighteenth game, the eighteenth week. What are
Speaker 1: the pros and cons to you about extending this season?
Speaker 1: Is it worth it? Well? I mean the pros for
Speaker 1: the league and the players are money is why they did.
Speaker 1: But um, from a football perspective, you're right, you know,
Speaker 1: losing players two injuries. We obviously the more football you play,
Speaker 1: the more likely it is that you're gonna lose meaningful players,
Speaker 1: you know, important players. And then you've got a team
Speaker 1: like the Green of Packers who are actually getting players
Speaker 1: back as the season goes along, and that's just kind
Speaker 1: of how things shook out for them. I think the
Speaker 1: league did look out in a way because heading into
Speaker 1: this week eight team there's still a lot in the air.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of parody this year and as
Speaker 1: a result, this long season, it isn't one where I
Speaker 1: think we're looking at the eight teen nobody really wants
Speaker 1: to watch and it feels like everything settled. There's still
Speaker 1: so much to be determined. The charges in the Raiders
Speaker 1: likely playing for a playoffs spot. The Niner is you know,
Speaker 1: going up against the Rams, and just a lot of
Speaker 1: meaningful football in this final week, and I'm excited to watch.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the Niners, real quick, we saw Trey Lance
Speaker 1: get his second start of the season for San Francisco.
Speaker 1: He's the only rookie quarterback who hasn't really gotten this
Speaker 1: extended playing time. They get the win. He threw for
Speaker 1: two fifty and two touchdowns. Has your opinion of Lance
Speaker 1: changed at all after seeing that performance? You know, this
Speaker 1: is an interesting one because he looked really uncomfortable at
Speaker 1: the beginning, inaccurate and struggles with decision making. But as
Speaker 1: the game went along, you saw him settling in and
Speaker 1: then ultimately making some of the throws, both with his
Speaker 1: legs and his feet. That explained why they drafted him right,
Speaker 1: And I think watching him admittently against Houston, you can't
Speaker 1: help but wonder, well, what if he had played the
Speaker 1: entire season, where might he be now as a quarterback?
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at the Jets where they've
Speaker 1: had so many struggles on offense, But finally it feels
Speaker 1: like Zach Wilson is starting to cut down on the
Speaker 1: mistakes and improve his decision making, and you see the
Speaker 1: benefits of a young quarterback, saying that's something San Francisco
Speaker 1: didn't want to do because they viewed themselves as contender
Speaker 1: as this year and didn't want it to be a
Speaker 1: developmental year for Lance. And I understand that, but I
Speaker 1: do think watching him play, you can't help but leave
Speaker 1: with some questions about whether or not it would be
Speaker 1: better for him to play more. What about the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: you know, big impressive victory shorthanded last week. What are
Speaker 1: their chances and do you think Murray should get like
Speaker 1: an extra five yards just when he completes the past,
Speaker 1: just for being able to see over the line. I
Speaker 1: like that idea, like a like a bumper bowling kind
Speaker 1: of situation. But then you know, defenses would say you've
Speaker 1: got to take it away because he's so fast, and
Speaker 1: he is an unfair and advantage in that way. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got he looks really hard to tackle, right like
Speaker 1: I feel like the harder than any player. I think
Speaker 1: that they want they beat the Cowboys because Cala Murray
Speaker 1: took over that game with his legs able to connect
Speaker 1: on some of those go routes that I think he
Speaker 1: wasn't hitting for a few weeks. Uh, not having Deander
Speaker 1: Hopkins had offense is huge amplifid I think because of
Speaker 1: the nature of the offense. But um, if you're a
Speaker 1: Cardinals fan, you know, okay, we get DeAndre Hopkins back,
Speaker 1: and the fact that they were able to have this
Speaker 1: kind of offensive performance, and Murray in particular was able
Speaker 1: to perform this well against the Blitz using his legs,
Speaker 1: knowing that you have to be optimistic with the realization
Speaker 1: that Hopkins is probably we're hearing coming through that door
Speaker 1: at some point. Now. You mentioned their win over the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: They also did it with defense. The Cowboys offense was
Speaker 1: so stymied. Who are the Cowboys? We saw him dip
Speaker 1: in November, come back in December, they crushed Washington, But
Speaker 1: who are they now? You know, they're pretty flawed team.
Speaker 1: I think. Incredible pass rush and when the offense is clicking,
Speaker 1: they look really versatile and Dacrescott, you know, the decision making, accuracy,
Speaker 1: it's all there. But then you have games like this
Speaker 1: last one against Arizona where they can't really run the
Speaker 1: ball well, there's no downfield passing attack and the offense
Speaker 1: is sort of predictable in a way, which is how
Speaker 1: you end with all those bad passes and the defense
Speaker 1: knows you're not your it's going to be a a
Speaker 1: screen or a short pass. So I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to really rediscover their identity on offense and that
Speaker 1: Prescott's gonna have to make more plays and take more
Speaker 1: risks down the stretch because what we saw versus Arizona
Speaker 1: is not going to cut in the postseason. This is
Speaker 1: one of the most interesting m v P races this year.
Speaker 1: We ask every guest we have on who is their favorite?
Speaker 1: What do they think? Who do you think it's gonna be?
Speaker 1: Is it Aaron Rodgers, Jonathan Taylor, Cooper cop I mean
Speaker 1: nobody talks about Davante. I feel like he makes Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers life very easy. What is your call? So I
Speaker 1: think it's Rodgers right now. I think it's pretty close.
Speaker 1: And it's certainly not one of those years like last year,
Speaker 1: for example, where he really was an unequivocal m v P.
Speaker 1: I think out there Tom Brady into the mix, you know,
Speaker 1: pulling his team back from the brink yesterday after that
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown incident with some really really remarkable throws. But
Speaker 1: Rogers just in terms of like the consistency while at
Speaker 1: a wall with that offense. Yes, he has helped by
Speaker 1: Davante Adams, but they are down multiple offensive lineman. His
Speaker 1: floor has been so high. You know, he still continues
Speaker 1: to play quarterback at such a high level. I can
Speaker 1: see the case for going Taylor and even Cup you know,
Speaker 1: in non quarterback. But the value he brings to that
Speaker 1: team is Rogers rather is apparent, and it was really
Speaker 1: apparent when he did play. You did such a good profile,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers for ESPN magazine a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: He's gotten so much criticism this past year, some fair,
Speaker 1: some probably not fair. What do you think fans don't
Speaker 1: understand about him? As you got to dig a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper. I think people have gotten to know him
Speaker 1: a lot better since then. Yeah, he does all these
Speaker 1: appearances now, so yeah, I don't know if there's much
Speaker 1: that people don't know. I mean, I think probably this year.
Speaker 1: You know something I've gotten master about with the m
Speaker 1: v P s. You don't agree with his common terry
Speaker 1: about vaccination and the importance of it, but you are
Speaker 1: he's your pick as m v P and I and
Speaker 1: I've said it's the most valuable player I think, And
Speaker 1: that's sort of how I look at the award and
Speaker 1: I think, what, perhaps I don't think it's getting lost
Speaker 1: in it as well all but I do think he
Speaker 1: is having a remarkable season and the fact that he's
Speaker 1: still playing at this level, I think despite not only
Speaker 1: his age, but some of the issues that they have
Speaker 1: had on offense, so the absences, rather and coming off
Speaker 1: of a few years before this, these last two seasons
Speaker 1: where things weren't so easy on the field, has been
Speaker 1: a little bit lost. You know, these last two seasons
Speaker 1: have been so remarkable that people kind of forget, oh this,
Speaker 1: you know, Roger's Aaron Rodgers was not playing his best
Speaker 1: football from two thousand seventeen through nineteen maybe or twenty.
Speaker 1: I think that's right, and so to I think have
Speaker 1: that sort of turnaround this year is something that I
Speaker 1: think is really interesting and I'm always interested in hearing
Speaker 1: more about why and what went into that. Do you
Speaker 1: think he stays I think so, honestly, in large part
Speaker 1: because the language we're hearing coming out of Green Bay,
Speaker 1: but also, um, I'm not sure there's a better situation.
Speaker 1: I mean, I alluded to some of the absences they've
Speaker 1: had on that offense, but this is a very good
Speaker 1: defense with a lot of stars and as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you honest I think the best wide receiver in football.
Speaker 1: What about if he shows up in Seattle though you
Speaker 1: won't be mad. No, I don't know what's going on
Speaker 1: in Seattle though, so I don't think if I ran Rodgers,
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't go to Seattle. Yeah, hopefully Russell's coming
Speaker 1: to the Giants. But speaking of quarterbacks, Big Ben appears
Speaker 1: to be wrapping up his career at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. Is there any chance you see him leaving
Speaker 1: the door open to come back to a different team?
Speaker 1: And what do the Steelers do next year? I don't
Speaker 1: see him continuing to play just I don't really think
Speaker 1: he should frankly, I just purely football perspective. Not playing
Speaker 1: at a very high level feels like a natural ending
Speaker 1: point for his career. As far as about the year
Speaker 1: should do. It's a tough spot because they will have
Speaker 1: some cap space with Ben gone, not like a ton,
Speaker 1: but you know you're going into a draft you're not
Speaker 1: picking high. But there's also not a lot of quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and there aren't a lot of free agents aside from
Speaker 1: the Rogers and Wilson's and that kind of speculation, it's
Speaker 1: kind of the usual cast of suspects and free agency.
Speaker 1: So it might be a year to take a flyer
Speaker 1: on someone in the draft, take a beat, focus on
Speaker 1: rebuilding some other parts of the roster, and then take
Speaker 1: another swing next year in the draft, maybe if you
Speaker 1: want to take a quarterback higher. Serious question, Mina, because
Speaker 1: you're you're obviously an analyst. You sit and analyze plays,
Speaker 1: game scheme, but you also know a lot about personnel
Speaker 1: in front office. Does any part of working in an
Speaker 1: NFL front office appeal to you? Uh? No, I I
Speaker 1: don't know that much. So by the way, I'll throw
Speaker 1: this other thought out there with Green Bay, that is
Speaker 1: a front office that deserves a ton of credit. And
Speaker 1: we came under a lot of got a lot of fire.
Speaker 1: I guess this last offseason because of all the Rogers stuff.
Speaker 1: But when you watched this team and you look at
Speaker 1: this roster and see all the contributions they've gotten, not
Speaker 1: just from players they drafted, but guys they've picked up.
Speaker 1: It for agency, the deounded Cannibals sold douglasses is of
Speaker 1: the world. That is a front office that's doing a
Speaker 1: very very good job. That's all said. Can you walk
Speaker 1: us through what your normal NFL Sunday looks like, because
Speaker 1: your your responsibilities are large. But I also know you
Speaker 1: have basically everyone's dream of sitting in that big screening
Speaker 1: room and watching with some amazing former players and coaches. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's over there, we called the war Room. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: for me, a lot of it is you know, obviously
Speaker 1: you can't watch every game, and even you know you
Speaker 1: don't learn anything by watching Gradzone. You can't watch the games.
Speaker 1: So I always want to go into is a Sunday
Speaker 1: with an eye towards the games I know we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about. You're obviously open to if something crazy
Speaker 1: happens or unexpected as an upset, you might have to
Speaker 1: rewatch it later, But always have a sense of maybe
Speaker 1: you know which two game aimes simultaneously in the morning,
Speaker 1: In the afternoon I want to dial in on and
Speaker 1: take notes on. And then later on in the day
Speaker 1: once you have the condensed film, I can kind of
Speaker 1: catch up on some of the things I didn't get
Speaker 1: to see. Which show is the most fun for you
Speaker 1: to do over at ESPN? Oh gosh, they're all I mean,
Speaker 1: they're all fun in different ways. I really love the
Speaker 1: Tuesday episode of NFL Live when we have Ryan Clark
Speaker 1: in studio watching him and Daniel Lavsky do tape stuff.
Speaker 1: It's very fun, just like to for me as a
Speaker 1: fan and student of the game to learn watching them
Speaker 1: and seeing kind of them bounce ideas off of each other.
Speaker 1: And then of course Laura Relige Marcus Spears probably two
Speaker 1: most fun people to be around on television. We had
Speaker 1: Dan on the show and he did his dog impersonation,
Speaker 1: and then he did his Peyton Manning impersonation, which we
Speaker 1: felt like was not up to par. What's your views
Speaker 1: on his Peyton man Is it shit? I actually haven't
Speaker 1: heard that, but I'd like to take some ownership for
Speaker 1: the dog thing because he was He just did that
Speaker 1: one day in the green room and I looked at
Speaker 1: him and I was like, did that come from your body?
Speaker 1: And he was like, yeah, it's just a weird skill
Speaker 1: I have. And so I taped it and put it
Speaker 1: out on the internet because I was like, people need
Speaker 1: to see this. This is uncanny, and I don't know
Speaker 1: how he does it. He says it's something to do
Speaker 1: with throwing his voice or but it is. Honestly, Anne
Speaker 1: is very smart, very talented, but that is by far
Speaker 1: the best thing he does as a person. I think
Speaker 1: he was on our show like that week, so we
Speaker 1: got him at the perfect time. Yeah. No, he's uh,
Speaker 1: he's Look, he's great to listen to. He's so smart.
Speaker 1: But he probably had a lot of times on the
Speaker 1: sidelines to work on that when he was a player.
Speaker 1: You know, that's entirely possible. You you can developed him.
Speaker 1: I'd be on the sideline doing cross words, he'd be
Speaker 1: on the sideline and practicing his dog impression. I totally
Speaker 1: agree with you to Laura Rutledge is one of the
Speaker 1: rare people in this business. I've I've gotten to know
Speaker 1: her well at my time at ESPN. She's just incredible.
Speaker 1: Your crew is incredible. You guys do a great job.
Speaker 1: I also really love you on the podcast ESPN Daily.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if that kind of brings out something
Speaker 1: in you that you love because it's a bit more investigative. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed hosting that before the football season. Now,
Speaker 1: Pablo Torre posted does a terrific job, but you know
Speaker 1: it's that is a little bit more, or was for me,
Speaker 1: a little bit more like being a reporter because you're
Speaker 1: kind of looking into a story interviewing someone. I don't
Speaker 1: really do interviews that much anymore. Occasionally, you know, for
Speaker 1: a Countdown feature. I just story and justin Herbert this summer,
Speaker 1: but I rarely do reporting the way that I used to,
Speaker 1: and it's definitely something I miss. Okay, So, what moment
Speaker 1: this season in the war Room, like you've discussed, made
Speaker 1: people's jaws drop the most? What shook people the most
Speaker 1: in a good or bad way? Gosh, I don't know that,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of the season looking back
Speaker 1: and trying to identify would have been some of the
Speaker 1: biggest games. I mean, there's been so many involving the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: I would say so many involving the raven is coming
Speaker 1: down to the final play making the you know, going
Speaker 1: for it and succeeding going for it and failing on
Speaker 1: two point conversions absolutely remarkable. I wasn't in the war
Speaker 1: room this last Sunday, but this Jamaar Chase game from
Speaker 1: the Banga is the best single game from a wide
Speaker 1: receiver in recent memory. So that's wild as well. Speaking
Speaker 1: of rookies, Micah Parsons is just completely taken over the game.
Speaker 1: Pologies to your Giants, but on on defense that have
Speaker 1: really made my jaw drop. So um, you know, it's
Speaker 1: an exciting time to be a football fan. A lot
Speaker 1: of young talent. What do you think about the Ramps
Speaker 1: big comeback win over the Ravens, who seemed to be
Speaker 1: going south even though it looks so strong at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year. And what do you think about
Speaker 1: Stafford as a ram what are their chances this year
Speaker 1: to go all the way? Well, you know, they're not
Speaker 1: my favorite to go all the way, but like I said,
Speaker 1: there is a fair amount of parody and a lot
Speaker 1: of teams are pretty flawed, and I don't really think anyone,
Speaker 1: including the Packers, is totally dominant. So they certainly got
Speaker 1: a shot at it. Because when the offense is click.
Speaker 1: You saw that in the second half of Stafford is
Speaker 1: playing really well. They look unstoppable, you know, But you
Speaker 1: also have seen some of the inconsistency that I think
Speaker 1: you did see during his career in Detroit, not just
Speaker 1: in this last game versus Baltimore, but in the last
Speaker 1: few games, multi turnover games that make you give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of pause. So ultimately, I think they
Speaker 1: go as far as Matthew Stafford takes them and we're
Speaker 1: about to see how far that is. Who would you
Speaker 1: like to see in the Super Bowl? Most you know,
Speaker 1: anything can happen in the playoffs. But right now, as
Speaker 1: we go into the last week of the regular season,
Speaker 1: who do you think are the two best teams? Oh? Gosh, well,
Speaker 1: who do I like? And who I think? I think
Speaker 1: the two best things? I still think even though they
Speaker 1: lost that it's the Chiefs and the Packers. I think
Speaker 1: if I had to pick a Super Bowl, we get
Speaker 1: Rogers Mahons, which is amazing. What a match that would be,
Speaker 1: you know, fantastic, Yes, yes, totally. Yeah, so just a
Speaker 1: great throwback game. But what I would like to see
Speaker 1: is I'm always reading for new team's new representation, you know,
Speaker 1: like the Bengals would be amazing for that fan base.
Speaker 1: Is a team like the Cardinals, you know, where you know,
Speaker 1: you just have these kind of young quarterbacks and that
Speaker 1: that to me is always exciting and fun. But do
Speaker 1: I think the most likely outcome? No? Not not really.
Speaker 1: Do you bet you put any juice on games? Do
Speaker 1: you want us to open account for you at at MGM?
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't bet, but I do give advice
Speaker 1: a lot. Sometimes it goes better than others. I actually
Speaker 1: have been pretty good against the spread this year though,
Speaker 1: and my family has a straight up pick um that
Speaker 1: I am about to win. So not to you know,
Speaker 1: to my own horn too much, but beat beat but yeah,
Speaker 1: you know a little bit, a little bit. I also
Speaker 1: speaking of the war Room, I am about to win
Speaker 1: the war Room Fantasy League. So what yeah, take that
Speaker 1: lowis ridd it be to you in the first round? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good about that. That's incredible. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've reached such peaks in your career. There's
Speaker 1: so much still ahead of you. It's so obvious every
Speaker 1: time watching you, are listening to you, how well respected
Speaker 1: you are. Everyone just loves working with you, has such
Speaker 1: a good things to say about you. What would ten
Speaker 1: year old men think if she saw you right now?
Speaker 1: Uh should be really confused. I think that, uh that
Speaker 1: I'm on television. Forget the sports thing. That's the more
Speaker 1: surprising aspect of it. Yeah, I mean tennel me and
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a writer. I was a writer
Speaker 1: for quite some time. Maybe I'll go back to being
Speaker 1: a writer at some point, but in the meantime, I'm
Speaker 1: enjoying doing what I think every football fan, not everything
Speaker 1: a lot of football fans dream of doing, which is
Speaker 1: getting to talk about the sport that I like for
Speaker 1: a living. That's awesome. What is it about football that
Speaker 1: drew you so much to it? Was it just the
Speaker 1: Seahawks and your dad or was there like, is there
Speaker 1: something about the game that you just really, you know,
Speaker 1: connect to on a visceral level, unlike the complexity of it.
Speaker 1: You know, every week, every day I learned something new about,
Speaker 1: you know, gameplay, play calling, statistics, personnel, all of it.
Speaker 1: I think you could spend your whole life studying it
Speaker 1: and still learn new things every day. And I think
Speaker 1: that's what makes it so fun to me, because I
Speaker 1: guess I'm just a nerd and I like studying, and uh,
Speaker 1: I like learning, and I now the other thing that's
Speaker 1: really cool is just getting to be around people who
Speaker 1: teach me a lot. Is such a privilege. That's awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us. You've taught us a lot.
Speaker 1: Our listeners will love to hear your great insight. There's
Speaker 1: still one more week of the regular season, long season,
Speaker 1: but it's been so much fun. Mina. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Thanks for having me, guys. Patris Chief spoken.
Speaker 1: Ye all right, he is back, ladies and gentlemen to
Speaker 1: start off two strong Peter Andrew, Happy new year, Happy
Speaker 1: to your guys, back at it and ready for hopefully
Speaker 1: some more winners for the year. Joannest, what do you
Speaker 1: think are we doing a fresh slate this year? Jannest,
Speaker 1: I can't keep up with you from last year. You
Speaker 1: just whooped my ask. Now we're doing a fresh slate.
Speaker 1: Pete's got a fresh, new strong immune system, just back
Speaker 1: from battling COVID. He's got San Francisco pride on his head,
Speaker 1: just from one week a good football, you know. So
Speaker 1: his hopes are up, but they're gonna get let down.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you healthy, brother. It's good to
Speaker 1: see you back. Yeah. I missed you guys, not being
Speaker 1: there last week. It hurt my soul so which was
Speaker 1: worse than than COVID. But good to be back here. That, Yannas,
Speaker 1: we're worse than COVID. That's that should be our byeline
Speaker 1: for the podcast. Oh no, you're not. You're better than
Speaker 1: COVID because I felt worse than COVID, right right, we're
Speaker 1: better than COVID what uh you know? I see you
Speaker 1: got your San Francisco hat on, buddy? What is it?
Speaker 1: Are you? Trey Lance? All the way? Now? What should
Speaker 1: they do? Should Jimmy Jimmy Garoffalo says somebody Tanya harding
Speaker 1: his knee? I mean, what's the solution over there in
Speaker 1: San Francisco? How do you get rid of that handsome fucker?
Speaker 1: Which is just so part for the Garofo. We'll get
Speaker 1: your guys thoughts in a second, because that'll be part
Speaker 1: of you know, teaser, one of your picks that I'll
Speaker 1: ask you to make, and we'll do a little bit
Speaker 1: different this week. But I think Niners five and oh
Speaker 1: in their last five starts against the Rams, I think
Speaker 1: you gotta go back to Jimmy because he was started
Speaker 1: for all five of those. So hot take loved Lance.
Speaker 1: I think he settled in nicely yesterday. I guess a
Speaker 1: pretty crappy team. M but you gotta go back to
Speaker 1: Jimmy if he's healthy. I want it. Before we dig
Speaker 1: into this weekend slate for the final weekend of the
Speaker 1: regular season, Updated futures, m v P Offensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year, Rookie of the Year, Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Speaker 1: Everything it seems like this is Aaron Rodgers v. Peter
Speaker 1: Win And after that what really trickles down because there's
Speaker 1: so many names still in the conversation and it kind
Speaker 1: of seems like Brady's out of it, although he did
Speaker 1: have an incredible, uh save the day performance on Sunday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about this in a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Hard to see Aaron Rodgers probably two three
Speaker 1: weeks ago, back to back m vps. But now, I
Speaker 1: mean the way he's playing. I mean again, we're recording
Speaker 1: this on Monday, playing yesterday against the half of the Vikings,
Speaker 1: I guess is what you can say. Obviously no Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: but absolutely dominant. I mean everything went their away from
Speaker 1: essentially a first drive, even the couple of field goals
Speaker 1: to start, but they looked so good, and all that
Speaker 1: trickles down from Aaron Rodgers down to Davante and the
Speaker 1: running game. You're right, I think it's you know, it's weird.
Speaker 1: It's mine's two fifty. I think right now that is
Speaker 1: the biggest lock of the century. I was talking about
Speaker 1: it with something today. I need to put a bet
Speaker 1: down on it before it changes to five thousand. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's anyway he doesn't win M v P.
Speaker 1: I think we've seen you know, you mentioned Brady has
Speaker 1: dropped a little bit, you know, not in a crazy way,
Speaker 1: but has not kept up to the Aaron Rodgers kind
Speaker 1: of level. And even Jonathan Taylor too, where he had
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks where you know, he didn't rush
Speaker 1: for two hundred yards and four touchdowns, So he was
Speaker 1: probably that kind of guy that could have snuck in
Speaker 1: and stole it. But it's Rogers all the way. The
Speaker 1: intriguing one now for me is we talked about offensive
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year where it's kind of been back
Speaker 1: and forth Mac Jones because of how well they've done
Speaker 1: another community performance, but exactly Jamaar Chase just goes for
Speaker 1: two hundred plus yards and three touchdowns, was clearly the
Speaker 1: best best player on the field yesterday. How could it
Speaker 1: not be Jamar Chase. Mac Jones has done well, but
Speaker 1: that's been a you know, a kind of a team
Speaker 1: victory where they've gotten a click playoffs spot. Where's t
Speaker 1: Mar Chase is? You know, um, I think we said
Speaker 1: it the other day, He's probably one of the top
Speaker 1: three wide receivers with Justin Jefferson Davante Adams, it's probably
Speaker 1: those three and then it's everyone else, so hard to
Speaker 1: say anything otherwise. Did you see where Joe Burrow after
Speaker 1: the game said, I just said effort and I knew
Speaker 1: Jamarro was gonna be There's like third and seven, Like
Speaker 1: that's so bad, ascid cool. I love this Bengals team.
Speaker 1: I gotta admit everything about Joe Burrow is just awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean, coming back from the a c L injury,
Speaker 1: his name played falling off his jersey yesterday. He I mean,
Speaker 1: he just even the other day they were up. I
Speaker 1: think I forget what they're playing a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: throw up twenty one points and he's still just slinging
Speaker 1: the ball around, just completely dominant. And he gets to
Speaker 1: play with a guy in Jamaar Chase that he went
Speaker 1: to l s U with, So there's already that connection
Speaker 1: and they are just dominant and they're gonna be dominant
Speaker 1: for the next seven to ten years. And I think
Speaker 1: they put the NFL on notice a bit where they
Speaker 1: can actually still I think they can still clinch the
Speaker 1: number one seed in the a f C there's four
Speaker 1: teams I think Collinsworth said can do it, and they're
Speaker 1: one of them. That's pretty impressive for a team that's
Speaker 1: on the up and a guy that just came in
Speaker 1: off a c L surgery and he's come back and
Speaker 1: looks How bad a week was it for the book?
Speaker 1: With the Giants game, I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: had them winning big, So you guys must have handed
Speaker 1: out a lot of money. Yeah we got you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. We got lucky on a couple, so the bucks,
Speaker 1: the Bucks losing would have been amazing, but the Bucks
Speaker 1: not covering was great. You had a couple, you know,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys are obviously always a favorite for people to
Speaker 1: bet on across the country, so that was a good
Speaker 1: result for us. But then he had games like that
Speaker 1: where the Bears, I mean they dismantled the Giants, and
Speaker 1: Giants I think had one receiver healthy who was on
Speaker 1: the roster last week. They had to bring up all
Speaker 1: practice squad guys. I mean that game was over before
Speaker 1: it started. Between that and then the late game, what
Speaker 1: was it nine seven to three at one point in
Speaker 1: the Packers game according to ESPN, I saw that too,
Speaker 1: I mean, what was it. I mean it was thirty
Speaker 1: seven three whatever was. But that game, you know, the
Speaker 1: late game, when it doesn't go our away, it always
Speaker 1: changes what looks like a decent day, it turns intoto.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, we got shaken up a little bit because
Speaker 1: the favorite one, and you know, everybody's trying to bounce
Speaker 1: back and put money on that last game. Rams didn't cover,
Speaker 1: but they were the highest bet team of the weekend.
Speaker 1: I believe that was a good result for us in
Speaker 1: one way, whereas obviously spread betting, but actually a lot
Speaker 1: of people have them within their money line bets too,
Speaker 1: and because they pull it out. Um, you know, people,
Speaker 1: you know when you start seeing all these favorites win
Speaker 1: and trickle into a late game and then Packers clinch
Speaker 1: it for basically everybody that had those kind of favorite parlays,
Speaker 1: that's what does a dirty a lot of times. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't awful. It wasn't an awful week. It was
Speaker 1: pretty even down the down the road, and yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: get it back next week or our customers will get
Speaker 1: it back from us. Well let's start that right now. Jannie,
Speaker 1: what do you think do you think in two I
Speaker 1: make a soaring comeback. I don't think so. I don't
Speaker 1: think so. I don't think two is going to be
Speaker 1: your year either. You know, right now, you've got a
Speaker 1: lot of chemicals going on. Your judgment is gonna be off. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, you got your making a baby. It's a
Speaker 1: big baby. So and you think this is just not
Speaker 1: going to be my ear right, It's just not going
Speaker 1: to be horrible thing to say to an expecting mother.
Speaker 1: I just feel like, no, I mean, football wise, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be your year. You know, you canna have a
Speaker 1: beautiful baby. But I look at you, you're kind of
Speaker 1: like the Ravens. You know, you started out strong and
Speaker 1: then you just fell apart. That's gonna be my nickname
Speaker 1: for you, the raven Also something to not say to
Speaker 1: an expecting mother. You've just kind of fallen apart. No,
Speaker 1: I don't mean physically. I mean, you know, I just
Speaker 1: mean your picks, just your picks. I mean, only had
Speaker 1: one dinner tonight, So I'm not in the mood you've
Speaker 1: only had one I'm gonna be very quiet during this conversation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean only one dinner for a pregnant woman. I
Speaker 1: mean that's like anorexia. Yeah, it feels like it. Yeah, Olivia.
Speaker 1: You know she used to be kind of cute, but
Speaker 1: just was not her year. You know, she started eating
Speaker 1: for two and I mean the size of that baby
Speaker 1: that you're gonna have inside, you better just start getting
Speaker 1: used to going to McDonald's at three in the morning. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: if any listeners are still listening, let's get to this week.
Speaker 1: As I know you wanna start with New Orleans in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: It's in Atlanta. The Saints are eight, Nate Falcons seven
Speaker 1: and nine? What do you think in here, Pete? Give
Speaker 1: us a little preview and then we'll need to make
Speaker 1: a pick. Yeah, So we're doing things a little bit
Speaker 1: different this week because all these games really matter for
Speaker 1: playoffs seating or to make the playoffs. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: money line only, so I'll give odds, but importantly, you know, Saints,
Speaker 1: if they win, they're in. So I'll go through the
Speaker 1: games really quickly and then we'll go one by one
Speaker 1: because they all kind of have an effect on each other.
Speaker 1: So Saints win and Niners lose. The Saints are in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, Saints lose no matter what Niners are in.
Speaker 1: So that's why I wanted to pick those two games,
Speaker 1: and then the last one, which we'll get into in
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes' charges Raiders where winning you're in,
Speaker 1: which is a cool scenario for those guys on Sunday
Speaker 1: night football. So first one, Saints minus two hundred at
Speaker 1: the Falcons, who are plus one sixty five. Um. So
Speaker 1: this is just to win outright, huge game. Falcons playing
Speaker 1: a little spoiler. They're not having that bad of a season,
Speaker 1: not as bad as everybody had anticipated. Kyle Pitts looks great.
Speaker 1: I think he's breaking records for rookie tight ends. But
Speaker 1: the Saints obviously playing for something. So game at Atlanta.
Speaker 1: What do you guys like? Here? Go ahead, Olivia pregnant
Speaker 1: woman's first you know. I'm looking down the line though,
Speaker 1: at NFL stats and where the Falcons fall, because, like
Speaker 1: you said, they still find a way to win some games.
Speaker 1: I really am not sure how their bottom of the
Speaker 1: league and like almost every stat so, I I don't
Speaker 1: know this one. Being at home in the Dome, their
Speaker 1: fan base is wild. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 1: have ever been to a Falcons game, but come you know,
Speaker 1: with a taser in your pocket. They're they're nasty fans
Speaker 1: in the best way. But gosh, I don't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take Falcons here. Saints. Who's even starting a
Speaker 1: quarterback this week? Drew Brees. I think it's at this point.
Speaker 1: Who knows. It's just like, yeah, I'm gonna go Falcons here,
Speaker 1: kind of surprise you there. Yeah, I'm gonna have to.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to agree with Olivia Falcons. I'm just
Speaker 1: going off momentum, how they look recently. I'm going with
Speaker 1: the Falcons. So we agree on that one. Cool. So, uh,
Speaker 1: that's great because that means the Niners are in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys for that I did for you.
Speaker 1: You deserve it after what you went through with COVID.
Speaker 1: Thank you. The good thing about this or bad thing,
Speaker 1: depending on how you look at it, all these games
Speaker 1: are at so these teams will not know if they're
Speaker 1: in or not unless they basically take care of their
Speaker 1: own their own game. So that's why the league obviously
Speaker 1: does it. It's at the same time for Niners at
Speaker 1: the Rams. Like I mentioned earlier, Niners have won five
Speaker 1: street against l A, but the Rams a little bit
Speaker 1: different obviously l b J. This time around, they are
Speaker 1: playing for the division so if they win, they're in
Speaker 1: and they can actually get I think as high as
Speaker 1: the two seats. So they're playing for something Niners plus
Speaker 1: two hundred Rams Mine is two fifty. What do you
Speaker 1: guys think? I like the Rams at home. I think
Speaker 1: what we saw last week from l A is the
Speaker 1: two editions that they made mid season, Oh b J
Speaker 1: and von Miller that kind of won this last game
Speaker 1: for him, which was really incredible. Von Miller kind of
Speaker 1: sealing the deal there at the end the final two
Speaker 1: plays I think on defense, and that just showed how
Speaker 1: adaptable this Rams team has been. And I'm not so
Speaker 1: sold on Matt Stafford, but he can get the job done.
Speaker 1: Some people say they want in spite of him last night.
Speaker 1: He got a lot of flak last night. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take the Rams here, sorry, Pete. I'm going with the
Speaker 1: hot Niners. They're hot, baby. It's a hot hand riding.
Speaker 1: I'm riding it. I'm riding a hot hand. I'm going
Speaker 1: with the Niners, and you're welcome, Pete. Here's another one
Speaker 1: for what you went through with COVID to know here
Speaker 1: honest uh pandering early in the year. Yeah, it would
Speaker 1: be an interesting one, like I said, hot hand, you know,
Speaker 1: one five in a row. But who's that quarterback? And
Speaker 1: what he said, ram are playing for something, playing for
Speaker 1: home field advantage. They don't want to have to go
Speaker 1: to Arizona or I have to go somewhere else. So
Speaker 1: it's a big game. And then the last one here.
Speaker 1: So this is now flex to Sunday Night football. Awesome
Speaker 1: game justin Herbert and the Chargers against car at the
Speaker 1: Raiders in Las Vegas. So you know it'll be bumping,
Speaker 1: probably the first real meaningful game in Las Vegas. Chargers
Speaker 1: minus one fifty and Raiders plus right now, what do
Speaker 1: you guys like here on Sunday n Football. I think
Speaker 1: the Raiders got pretty lucky last week. I mean props
Speaker 1: of them, really fun game to watch at the end,
Speaker 1: But I think the Chargers are the better team. I
Speaker 1: think they're so efficient on offense. Or boy, Austin Ekeler,
Speaker 1: everyone go back and listen to that episode preseason. He
Speaker 1: was incredible talking everything outside of football on Unleash. That
Speaker 1: was incredible. It's hard to go away from the Chargers
Speaker 1: in this one. Never bet against Vegas. The house always wins. Baby,
Speaker 1: they're at home. The Raiders are gonna win. They're going in.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be an exciting game. I'm pumped. I'm sitting down,
Speaker 1: I'm popping a couple of relief and I'm going to
Speaker 1: enjoy that one. The only thing I'll say about the
Speaker 1: Chargers is they have been very inconsistent where they have
Speaker 1: all these Keenan Allen Ekeler, Herbert Mike Williams, but somehow
Speaker 1: they've found a way to lose games. I think the
Speaker 1: Chiefs one was an example where they look really good
Speaker 1: for most of it and kind of threw it away
Speaker 1: in the fourth and obviously until overtime. But I think
Speaker 1: this is obviously the game of the week and there's
Speaker 1: two teams that can win. Vegas has gone through a
Speaker 1: lot this year, so it could be great for them
Speaker 1: just as a as a franchise moving forward where they've
Speaker 1: gone through some tough stuff with Robinson and things of
Speaker 1: that nature. So it's gonna be a great one. And uh,
Speaker 1: I think it'd be a good week of football this
Speaker 1: week for Week eight team. I mean, it's amazing that
Speaker 1: the Raiders are still in the conversation in Week eighteen
Speaker 1: after what they've been through this year. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Groot in the rugs. It's it's been quite a season.
Speaker 1: And Derek Carr. I don't think they could have gotten
Speaker 1: anywhere near this without Derek Carr. He's such an impressive individual,
Speaker 1: he's such a good leader. So that's it's been fun
Speaker 1: to watch. I'm I'm with them with their story and
Speaker 1: even their best player, Waller, Darren Waller out for the
Speaker 1: last I think it's five weeks or so. I mean,
Speaker 1: doing it without him as impressive. He's a top probably
Speaker 1: top three, top four tight end in the league. So
Speaker 1: are you're asking to be a good one. God wants
Speaker 1: them to win. So I go with God. God's the
Speaker 1: Raiders from God lives in Vegas. God loves the story.
Speaker 1: He loves the story, what they've been through. He's pulling
Speaker 1: for them. You know, like you guys just said, all
Speaker 1: they've went through. They went through some tragedies, they went
Speaker 1: through some emails. Well they didn't go through you know,
Speaker 1: the NFL went through some emails. Okay, God's just he's
Speaker 1: with he He loves Vegas. Baby, God does not love Vegas.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go ahead and make sure there are
Speaker 1: any children listening. They know that right now. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: a perfect place to wrap it up. Peter, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. We're glad to see you doing better,
Speaker 1: my friend. We can't wait to our wedding in fight
Speaker 1: should be coming in the mail pretty soon. You already
Speaker 1: said I can bring my baby and my whole family
Speaker 1: and that it's an open bar. So thank you very
Speaker 1: much out my pleasure. It's gonna be fun. I'll let
Speaker 1: the listeners know what it is too if they want
Speaker 1: to crash. Okay, everyone, don't forget to follow us along
Speaker 1: all year. Boy do we have a lot of fun
Speaker 1: coming up before the super Bowl. We're gonna have a
Speaker 1: different NFL related guest every week, and so much to
Speaker 1: talk about as the regular season winds down this weekend
Speaker 1: in the playoff start. It is a beautiful time of year.
Speaker 1: You can follow at bet MGM on all social media platforms.
Speaker 1: You can follow at Jana's pampas for pictures of him
Speaker 1: doing weird things around Connecticut, and we can't wait to
Speaker 1: see you guys throughout the year and see you next week. Thanks,
Speaker 1: and follow Olivia for a baby bump picks.