Latest / The Regulars / Dak Prescott Deserves Better Than The Cowboys & A'ja Wilson Is In a Whole New GOAT Convo

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Dak Prescott Deserves Better Than The Cowboys & A'ja Wilson Is In a Whole New GOAT Convo · The Regulars

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Asia Wilson is the GOAT. Dak Prescott is embarrassing.
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And MLB makes a proposal that will totally save baseball
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forever. Tanya, is that it?
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That's it. I don't have anything else to add to the show. Let's do this,
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Cody. Let's do this. We're the regulars.
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Ballyutations and welcome to a wonderful Friday night because you're amongst friends.
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You're here on a Friday night talking about sports. And,
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um, let's just be real clear. Tonya Rae
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Fox. Nothing's happening, right? This is a normal show. This is how our show always
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looks. Completely normal. And I think we shouldn't acknowledge anything at all.
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Imagine if we were just like, and the show goes on just like this.
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Just no problem. No problem whatsoever. Happy fucking birthday,
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Tonya Rae Fox. Thank you. How old are you right now?
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No one knows. No one knows. I am as old as I look,
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as old as I act. They're very different things. So that's That's really it.
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What matters is we're both developmentally challenged, so it makes us kind of
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ageless. I am a genius at heart, but I never let
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anyone see it. Never let anyone— you never let anyone know your next move.
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That's right. That's right. That's what a good— I have accumulated a lot of wisdom.
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Excited. Excited to celebrate my birthday here on the show. We got a night
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ahead of us, too, with you, with the regulars, with the chat.
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Chris is in the crowd. Yeah, he's our live audience.
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That's right. We got a look at that live crowd, baby.
1:35
Practicing. Fucking Mocha, why don't you ever do that?
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Yeah, live show, birthday show, baby! Imagine if he
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did that every show. He was just like, let's fucking go! Oh yeah, what if
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you were just like Nick Swisher, like the Kool-Aid Man, just fucking kicking in the
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door? And it's not my show. But isn't it? This is actually—
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you don't know this, Mocha, but this 3-person program, this was created as a star-making
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vehicle for you. We always had that. This is actually a reality
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show, and there's been cameras on you for months. Oh my God.
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Shit. Wouldn't that be awesome? Only like for the, like, 2 hours he's here twice
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a week. Yeah. Like, we just catch him mostly just chilling. And you don't know
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this, but you're the most famous man in Indonesia right now.
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I figured he already was. Fucking awesome. Yeah. So yeah, it's my birthday.
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You have— I mean, you brought out champagne for me.
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I did. We have decided we are going to try to pop it. Yeah,
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we're going to pop it live. We do have a towel over here because I
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could imagine this being a shit show. But yes, we are definitely going to pop
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the champagne. I'm waiting for the birthday girl to tell me when that is.
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It could happen at any point of the show. You know what? There is a
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perfect point in the show, actually. It's fairly early too. Oh,
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but there is a perfect point in the show that I just thought of off
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the top of my head because again, I'm a— I may not be the— I
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may not be winning any Nobel Prizes, but I know how to make television.
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That's one thing about me. I know how to make television. Yes, you do.
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So I just thought about it and, you know, boom, dude, she's a fucking genius.
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Just right out the gate, she already knows how this entire thing's going to go.
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That's how you do it on the fly. Yes. And Tanya Ray,
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let's get to headline number 1. We got a shit ton of football this weekend,
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and I'm not going to lie to you, there's a lot of matchups in here
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that, like, I fucking don't know. It's a coin flip. Yeah.
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And, you know, before we actually get into what Week 5
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is going to look like, we had, we had Thursday Night Football. Oh, yes,
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we did. And here's the thing.
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We have been crushing it, Chris and I, on our Survivor pool.
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That. We've been getting, you know, we've been doing everything we needed to do.
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It's like you guys work in the industry or something. Well, here's the thing,
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we made the fatal mistake of picking the Cowboys last
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year. Oh, you dumb fucks. It's— there's a— there was only— it was only them
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or the Vikings. They were the only options. I'm not going to lie to you
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though, like, it— there wasn't a single person alive that I thought that didn't think
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the Cowboys had this well at hand. But like we said it ahead of time,
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like, we're going to get Cowboysed, but like, we have to— like, at some point
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we have— like, they have to come through in a game. There's Nope. Dak usually
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plays well on Thursday Night Football. Nope. What ended up happening was they got their
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asses handed to them by an undrafted rookie.
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So— and he played fucking really well, by the way. By the way,
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second, second week in a row he's played well. Yeah.
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Jalen Daniels is coming for Baker Mayfield's job.
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Baker finally gets his contract. He's about to get
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fucking, fucking Wally Pipped and like This is— it's like very—
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who knows if Jaylen Daniels is going to be the future? Like, I have no
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idea what his— I mean, we've gotten very little evidence to
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go on, but like, it is giving a little Drew Brees,
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Tom Brady if this were to work out, right? Because like,
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I feel like Baker Mayfield has— he's kind
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of— he's not quite Drew Bledsoe, but like, he's good.
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Yeah, he's good. You know, he's a good quarterback. He's a guy that's gotten multiple
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$100 million contracts and just got the bag of $160 million. So I think
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he's feeling pretty good. He got that number 1 overall pick contract. Yes, he did.
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So he's made some pretty good money. And let's be real clear, Hulu really
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spent a lot of money on that guy early on. So did, so did State
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Farm. I liked those commercials. So did I. He was actually quite charming in them.
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He just wasn't playing to the caliber of what those commercials were probably paying him
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at the time. At the time, it was early. So let's
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go through a little bit of what happened. Obviously filling in for
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Baker Mayfield and after struggling with 3 interceptions in his debut against
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Green Bay, he responded with a really efficient performance, 19 of 25 for 189
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passing yards, 1 touchdown, 1 pick, 23 rushing yards. Love to see it.
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Really helped like them control the tempo of the game.
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We should also not talk about this game without talking about Bucky
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Irving, because Bucky Irving's been holding it down on the Tampa Bay
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offense. He's the only one that's been holding it down. He doesn't get nearly enough
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credit. We don't talk about him in the scope of— like, you and I haven't
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even talked about him in the scope of really great running backs. We're calling it
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like the running back season. You know, everybody's looking real running backy. Every team's
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looking real running backy, really running backy. And he's the
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best. He has been like the cog in the wheel for their offense.
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Now, granted, they were winless going into this game. Sure were. But he finished
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with 165 rushing yards on 21 carries, adding a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown.
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So like perfect game, you know, if this was, if this was pitching, he had,
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he'd have pitched a perfect game. Yeah, that's what you want from a fucking running
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back. Phenomenal stuff. It feels like we get these kinds of performances from running backs
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in like, like almost every game at this point. Like I feel
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like every game has some dude rushing for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns these days.
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Um, so not only that, even in college football it's the same exact thing.
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Seems like the ground game is finally back in the end. What, what actually kind
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of changed in the end? Is it quarterback injuries? What do you think it is
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that's actually kind of changed? A lot of people are kind of moving back to
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the ground game. I mean, think about how many quarterbacks are injured. Everybody. I mean,
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fucking everybody. And then even like before that, obviously, like even
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when Lamar is healthy or when, you know,
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uh, Caleb was healthy, like these, these running backs have been stepping
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the fuck up. So I don't know, I— it, it really feels to
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me, if I were to guess it from a genuine football perspective, um, I am
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gonna have to take this off because it's gonna give me a headache, um,
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and I'm gonna try to talk about football really seriously with this fucking tiara on.
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It was fun though, it was fun while it lasted, and it was really cute.
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Thank you. Um, but from a— I— what I'm thinking is that there's been,
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um, defensive adjustments to the passing attack. This happens every couple of years
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where defensive coordinators develop an ability to start
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scheming against the passing attacks. We see passing numbers sort
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of drop a little bit, and then the next year you see the offensive rebuttal.
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You see the offensive response to what the defense is doing. And in this particular
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case, I think the, uh— there's a lot of offensive coordinators across the league
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who've who've really said like, we have to— if we start focusing
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on the run game, that's where we're going to start developing like some mismatches because
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the defenses are— have already figured out all the passing shit we're doing.
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You know, that doesn't work against Brian Flores, but it's working against everybody else.
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So I think that's part of it. It's just— it's the ebbs and flows of,
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of adjustments every couple of years to new scheme things that offenses
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and defenses are seeing. It was like— it was like the West Coast offense was
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all of a sudden the thing. The Air Raid offense was a thing all of
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a sudden. Remember Wildcat? Remember when Wildcat was a thing?
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Well, it came from college, right? So, you know, there's— those
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were, those were like, that was a little more gimmicky, obviously. Very much so.
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But like, but in college it was actually like an offense
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you could like run a lot more, uh, you know, frequently. But in
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this particular— it's sort of like every couple years you see adjustments to
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like safeties and, and quarterbacks. Like, you know,
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for a while there was like, there was a situation where the nickel defense and
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these nickel and dime defenses were becoming base defenses, right? And that's,
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that's a response to what the Rams and the Chiefs were doing and what the
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Patriots in their prime were doing. They start responding by, by now
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adopting new defensive strategies, and then the offensive coordinators and coaches
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respond to those new defensive strategies. Do you think the Eagles are kind
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of behind this because of the whole tush push kind of revolution? And then of
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course they got Saquon Barkley and it kind of pushed them over the edge.
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I mean, certainly. I mean, it's so funny because obviously the Bills and Sean McDermott
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wanted to get rid of the tush push. Now they're successfully running it. Yeah,
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isn't that funny? I mean, which is great. Like, I mean, yeah, whatever. Like,
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I want Josh Allen able to— have you noticed that no one's bitching about the
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tush push anymore? Yep. Isn't that weird?
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Yeah. Why is that? Do you think it's because all of a
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sudden it's not just working for Jalen Hurts? Yeah, I think that might
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be it. Maybe. Yeah, just a tick. Yeah, well, they're 2 and— they're what,
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are they 2-2? All of a sudden the tush push doesn't matter. Well,
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and the crazy part is, it's— I'm gonna be honest, it's far less impressive for
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Josh Allen to do it. Josh Allen has 4 inches on Jalen Hurts.
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He does. I don't know where— I know where he does.
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I don't know where it's anywhere else, but I know where it is in football.
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Yes. Okay. So, okay, we've talked about— we've talked about Tampa Bay.
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Do you have any other thoughts about what you saw from Tampa Bay, or do
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you feel like we have it covered? I don't want to— I don't want to
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take over the convo and not give you your $0.02. No, I think
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we've really covered everything we need to on Tampa Bay. Congratulations. They got a win.
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Congratulations. Baker Mayfield's getting Wally Pipped. Congratulations. Todd Bowles doesn't lose his job.
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Week. I— and I like that because I like— me too, I like Todd Bowles
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as well. Um, for the Cowboys, they're,
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you know, this is a fucking problem. Oh, it's a fucking disaster.
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I have— before we really get into it, I just have to say I
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have resisted the like make fun of the Cowboys thing for a while because
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like it got so tiresome that I was like, okay, this isn't even really fun
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anymore. The Cowboys suck, we get it, like whatever. Yeah, but I've never seen a
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team like this. I, I am at the point, and maybe we'll talk about
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it later in the— like after I talk about Dak, the Dak of it all,
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that I actually don't know what the answer is anymore. I actually
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don't know what to say.
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Every change they make, whether it's head coach or like new
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offensive pieces or whatever, it's like, okay, well, now the defense sucks and the
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defense hurt. And it's like, it's like watching somebody,
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you know, like take 2 steps forward, one step back repeatedly. And then I
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just don't— I don't get the Cowboys. They are. What is
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this? Because Jerry Jones was like a 1960s-level segregationist?
11:13
I don't know if it's because of that, but I don't think it's helping karma-wise.
11:16
Oh, then probably yes. I mean, you would think he wouldn't have had the dynasty
11:19
that made him one of the richest people in America if the karma was there,
11:22
but maybe it was a little late. Well, we'll see. We'll see how the rest
11:26
of his days go. But I don't know, he had so many days. I know,
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a lot of days. And frankly, little Skeletor over there is still running
11:33
wild. What can I say? The guy has the most profitable organization and sports
11:37
fucking somehow. And it's, it's amazing. I don't know how I actually— I
11:40
am— when do we start feeling bad for Cowboy fans? It's not about making fun
11:43
of them. I'm actually starting to feel bad. And I'm a Raider fan. I actually—
11:45
because they get fleeced fucking year in, year out. Just shut up. If they would
11:49
just shut up in the— like, if they would do the thing that
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other downtrodden fan bases are smart enough to do and say,
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like, I'm not doing the— this is the Cowboys year this year. They have
12:01
to prove it to me. I've seen other— this year I've seen other fan bases
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be able to somewhat navigate that. The Jets fan base got knocked right back down
12:09
after the Aaron Rodgers hype real quick, and then they fucking stayed. They were fine.
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Jerry Jones always takes me as a guy that still says the word boy too
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often. We— he literally does. Yes. No, it's not— we can hear
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it. Just, just, just, just think it out loud. Here's the thing.
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The, the Schottenheimer of it all is now
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being questioned. The performance raises questions whether it's defensive issues that
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are like actually fixable in the short term, which they should always be fixable.
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Well, they already made a couple of trades and already tried to bolster it,
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but it's done absolutely nothing in the one week that it's happened. In fact,
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it's clearly been a step and a half backwards. It does sort of make you
12:45
wonder what it was about Micah Parsons specifically
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that made Jerry Jones think he was like not a
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necessary piece for them. It seemed like a stupid fucking trade at the time,
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and now it's looking even more— I don't care that Micah Parsons has been hurt.
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I don't care. Your defense. Sucks. And your, like, pulse on what
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your team needs to succeed is so weird. They always have great wide
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receivers. George Pickens, by the way, carrying their asses. George Pickens has been great.
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Yes, he has. He's been fantastic. When CeeDee Lamb is hurt, he steps
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up. Up until yesterday, Dak has been fucking phenomenal. And I don't— that's the thing,
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is like, I look back and I'm like, what's the common denominator? And the
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common denominator is Dak. But it's not Dak. You cannot convince me
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that it's Dak is the problem. You can't. He's too good for Dak to be
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the problem. I don't— I, I will give credit where it's due
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when, like, I don't think he's the kind of quarterback that is obviously
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elevating the team dynamic necessarily, but he's definitely
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good enough to fucking go to a Super Bowl. This— I'm— you cannot tell me
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otherwise. So that's what freaks me out. Um,
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he— speaking of, like, sort of just how he approaches the
13:54
game, and something I do respect about him is that, like, He seems to have
13:57
a general sense of how to, how to conduct himself. And after the
14:00
game, a very weird thing happened.
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Very weird thing. Oh boy, was it weird.
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The— as Dak was walking back through the tunnel after the loss,
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a Cowboys employee decided to weigh in on the performance.
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Boy, Mocha, why don't you throw us to that Cowboys video
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real quick? Dak Prescott. Boy.
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Dude, I gotta be honest, dude, that's bush league. That is some fucking—
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so here's the thing, uh, I did kind of— 2,
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2 double-edged swords here. One, good job, Dak, for not—
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Dak not going back over there and beating the ever-loving shit out of this guy.
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I think he deserves a fucking humanitarian of the year award.
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I think the NFL should laud him with everything humanly possible.
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Walter Payton Manning Man of the Year Award for not beating
14:58
the shit out of that fucking employee. That being said,
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dude, I almost give the employee like a smidgen of
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credits because fuck this guy, obviously. But also, wow,
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to actually say that to Dak's face. But then when Dak
15:13
turned, you got real fucking quiet real quick, and then you waited
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till he got out of earshot again to kind of say another little thing.
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You heard me. I also really don't like any time it was so— but
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I need to see if that guy was white. I don't like— I don't like
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any of it. That guy's clearly out of a fucking job, right? Oh,
15:30
100%. Like, fucking way out of a job. Yeah. Will never have a reference again.
15:34
Yeah. Won't get a job at Kinko's now. Like, he is blackballed from anything in
15:38
the greater Dallas area. Yeah. He's going to have to move to a different state.
15:40
Yeah. He's going to be like fucking Steve Bartman. Oh,
15:44
poor Steve Bartman. Poor Steve. Poor Steve Bartman. Steve actually, like, made a far,
15:48
far less stupid mistake than that guy did. Um, yeah, that was something. That was
15:52
something. We have a quote of how Dak sort of responded to the
15:56
moment in his press conference. So we'll bring
16:00
up that Dak quote. To use the word embarrassing, it's tough. I feel like
16:04
I'm discrediting the NFL if I use that, and particularly the Tampa Bay Bucs,
16:07
the great Todd Bowles, a coach, a defensive coach team.
16:11
Uh, the, the guy has been winning, a winning coach for a long time,
16:14
whether he's been a head coach or defensive coordinator. That's the plan. And what they
16:17
did tonight is the reason for that. To say embarrassing, I think I'd be discrediting
16:21
them. That is an incredibly— A-plus.
16:25
It's just— it's an incredibly, like, wow, emotionally intelligent response.
16:29
Yes. In a moment where emotional intelligence would be understandably like if
16:33
it were— if it were not there, we would all understand. That shows a
16:37
lot of respect. And I think for— there
16:41
are so few Black head coaches in the league. There's no Black
16:45
offensive coordinators. There's— I mean, there's a real lack of, of Black representation
16:49
in the coaching ranks. And for Dak to understand
16:54
the opportunity he had to either lean in to
16:58
making a joke of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or giving them their
17:01
due respect and focusing it specifically on Todd Bowles,
17:06
I, I think from, from my point of view, I'm not inside of Dak's
17:10
brain, but I think that that was part of the impetus for him saying something
17:12
like that. And there are very few quarterbacks who have the
17:17
ability to express themselves like that in a moment where they're already upset.
17:20
So I was really impressed. Very extremely impressed.
17:24
Listen, Dak Prescott, I don't know what else to say. That was killer stuff by
17:27
Dak. And I feel bad that that happened. That's some pretty,
17:31
pretty, pretty bush— bush league is actually the best phrase you could possibly come up
17:35
with. Again, Give him the awards. He— anyone
17:39
else would have beaten the fuck out of that guy, would have just seen
17:43
red. Nothing but a white-hot, like white-hot flash of fury.
17:47
And then he would have just woken up the next day with blood all over
17:49
his hands. Yeah. And there's some quarterbacks I don't think a team employee
17:53
would dare say something like that to. And so it's really interesting. So I guess
17:57
we can agree that the problem has to be Jerry Jones. Like, he's got to
18:00
go. It's always been fucking Jerry Jones. But the problem is when your GM
18:04
is also the president and the owner and the CEO and the largest shareholder,
18:08
There is no universe where he's firing himself because it's
18:13
that, it's that, it's that, it's that Principal Skinner thing. No, it's the kids
18:16
that are out of touch. That. But Cody. Yes. Carly Irsay
18:21
Gordon takes notes on the sideline. I know. I think Jerry Jones should get on
18:24
the sideline and maybe take some fucking notes. Take a note. Take some notes from
18:27
fucking Carly Irsay Gordon about it. And meanwhile, Jerry Jones has been running this goddamn
18:31
franchise into the ground, like, just for no good reason. You know what's great
18:35
about her? She's saying— I had— she said, like, last week that she has,
18:37
like, a 5th grade understanding fully of the game. Yeah. And I thought that was
18:41
ungodly refreshing because I know for a fact that is so much fucking
18:44
higher level than almost every single owner in the NFL. Yeah. And her, her ability
18:48
to be like— so we're like starting on the level of it's 5th grade,
18:51
already higher than a lot of owners, if you're being— if we're being honest.
18:53
Very. And all the other owners are completely unwilling
18:58
to admit that they just don't understand football, including Jerry Jones. Like,
19:01
understanding business is the same fucking thing. Ain't that great? And yeah,
19:05
I mean, Um, all right, so let's move on to looking
19:08
ahead to Week 5. I highlighted the best games of the week,
19:12
um, or the most interesting at the very least. So we have the Eagles
19:16
at the Jaguars in London. So the London, uh, the London
19:20
Jaguars getting their little London home game. Little home game, that's nice.
19:24
Can Philadelphia stop the bleeding is the real question. The Eagles, uh,
19:28
enter after back-to-back losses and injuries have complicated matters.
19:31
Lane Johnson retires. They sign— was it
19:35
Cam? I can't remember his name. Me neither. Um, from— I
19:39
think it was the Ravens or somebody, whatever it was. Uh,
19:42
Cam Jordan, was it? No, that's the Saints guy. Oh yeah, you're right.
19:46
Um, Jacksonville meanwhile has emerged as one of the AFC's most interesting
19:49
teams under coach Liam Cohen. They have developed a more resilient identity
19:54
and a defense capable of disrupting opposing offenses. Their defense has looked kind
19:58
of big play disruptive. Like, I don't— like, I don't think that they're the most
20:01
consistent, but they have the opportunity to make big plays. Here's the thing,
20:05
I do think that the Jaguars are very
20:09
likely going to win this game. Like, London games are like home games for the
20:12
Jaguars. A lot of Jaguars fans in London because they've been like the ones playing
20:15
in London every year, like since they started it. Um,
20:18
and we have— we don't— we can't have us— we don't have a sense of
20:22
how they're gonna fix whatever's wrong with the offense.
20:26
The convo around Jalen Hurts is as bad as
20:30
it could possibly be because it is exactly— so they're 2-2.
20:34
Okay. It is very clear that
20:37
this offense is broken far outside of Jalen Hurts. That's super
20:41
fucking obvious that nobody watches this game and thinks Jalen's blowing it
20:44
for the Eagles. And the conversation is yet again,
20:48
are they going to have to move on from Jalen? Have to move on from
20:51
Jalen Hurts? Are they going to have to move on from Jalen Hurts.
20:58
I, I have never— and I'm going, I'm gonna say this outright,
21:03
I have no problem saying it, I genuinely know I'm correct— I
21:07
have— it has never happened that a quarterback with his level of success,
21:12
with his level of experience, and the type of postseason performances
21:16
he's had, it has never happened that they would get
21:19
rid of a quarterback like that at his age, at this stage,
21:23
this far removed from a Super Bowl. It doesn't fucking happen.
21:26
You're right. I, I don't know what else to say. I've never seen a city
21:30
more like desperate to discard a fucking successful
21:33
quarterback, like ever. Like fucking ever. Not just them,
21:37
the whole national media wants him. Crazy. And I don't know why.
21:40
I truly don't know why. And by the way, why— how is, how is Sirianni
21:43
kind of skirting all of the blame right now? I'm really confused by that.
21:46
A good amount of blame in Philly, is he? Okay, because I— the national media
21:50
is, is all over Jalen. They act like he doesn't coach. They act like a
21:52
head coach doesn't exist there, which is weird because they were up his ass pretty
21:55
early on and then they backed off. He won a Super Bowl, whatever. It seems
21:59
like the Super Bowl really secured their faith in Nick Sirianni but not Jalen
22:04
Hurts. And it's like, I think we know that
22:07
the Super Bowl also had— like, there was an offensive coordinator there that made a
22:11
massive difference for that offense. You guys had, you know,
22:14
AJ Brown and Saquon Cookin'. Like, we know what worked.
22:19
I, I am beside myself.
22:22
Like, I, I'm so confused by how
22:25
people have arrived at this conclusion about Jalen Hurts. But I
22:30
mean, I obviously know that there's just extreme racism, this sort of jealousy and
22:34
put-uponness by Jalen's lack of interest in, in kowtowing
22:39
to them. Yeah. But like, even then, like,
22:43
I've seen them be real racist to Cam Newton. And real
22:47
racist to some of these other quarterbacks, but the idea of moving
22:51
on from them entirely is fucking crazy. Now I
22:55
know that Jalen Hurts is not Lamar Jackson or Cam Newton, or, you know,
22:59
like, I understand that his performance is a much more ground—
23:03
grounded leader, like lead through calmness
23:07
and understanding how to manage a game, and then you, you pop
23:11
off when the moment comes. Yeah, you know. But isn't that Tom Brady,
23:15
like, in his first, like, 5, 6 years of his career? Pretty much exactly that,
23:19
you know, until he's— until the offensive coordinator
23:22
started getting a lot more intricate and until he had much better
23:26
weapons. That's what he did. I don't— I don't know, Cody.
23:30
It's— it's blowing my mind. It is quite wild. And I look very forward
23:34
to seeing him win a Super Bowl with another team that's gonna be more deserving
23:37
of it. Like, just— just think about this, like You know, Kyler Murray hasn't quite
23:41
hit yet in Minnesota, right? But can you imagine if Jalen Hurts is over there?
23:44
Oh my God. A guy that, right, like, that would be crazy. Um, like,
23:48
you're telling me Jalen Hurts can get the ball to Justin Jefferson? I mean,
23:51
you kidding me? Get the fuck out of here. Like, the guy— it is what
23:54
it is. I don't get it. But hey, someone else is going to take this
23:57
discarded trash and, uh, fucking win another Super Bowl, and he'll get another fucking Super
24:01
Bowl MVP. I look forward to seeing what happens. Pray for it. Me too.
24:05
Pray for it at that point. Um, I think it's probably time to pop the
24:08
champagne because we have some goodwill between the two of us we need
24:12
to build right now. Really? Why is that? Why do we have to build goodwill?
24:15
What happened? Well, um,
24:19
the Patriots are playing the Raiders this week. You see, you don't need to worry
24:23
about that. It's not that I'm worried about the outcome of the game because
24:27
you already know what the outcome is going to be. Oh no, not at all.
24:30
You don't know? No, we had— that's what we're going to talk about. This is
24:33
the segment that's coming up. Some of us know. All right, let's see if he
24:36
can do it without spilling. I'm sorry. Worried. Don't pop it. I'm not gonna pop
24:40
it in your eye. I'm just gonna pop it on my own birthday.
24:43
You got it, you got it.
24:46
This guy's got it.
24:48
See,
24:51
it didn't overflow.
24:54
Let's go, bitches! I told
24:58
you it wouldn't. I'm a pro. Happy birthday,
25:02
Tanya. Thank you so much. We got a little—
25:05
celebrating an upcoming fucking Patriots lost, baby!
25:09
All right, so Mocha, we have one for you as well.
25:14
We are, we are going to be handing Mocha his, his champagne
25:19
off screen. Hang on, wait, you're getting a little more, getting a
25:23
little more champagne. Okay, pay no attention to the man behind the
25:27
curtain. And there is— this is as much as you
25:31
get to see him. There's Mocha's show debut, baby!
25:35
What a handsome hand. Yes. Oh,
25:38
yes. Thank you. All right. Cheers. Before we
25:41
get into this, we've done it. We did it. We,
25:45
we did it. We made it to Patriots-Raiders. Mm-hmm.
25:49
Now we're going to have to make it through. Oh, it's so bubbly. It is
25:53
great. Thank you so much for that. Champagne. Champagne. Champagne.
25:57
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about what's
26:00
about to happen between our 2 teams. Um,
26:04
this is— oh, gotta turn that down. Las Vegas,
26:07
uh, has opened the season like looking genuinely like one of the
26:12
more productive teams in the, in the AFC. I mean, I wouldn't say that they're
26:15
like a top 3 AFC team, but I wouldn't say top 5. I would say
26:18
they're maybe around top 6, top 5. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. And they're
26:22
relatively healthy, all things considered, in this league. Yeah. Uh, you know,
26:26
can't really blame them for the loss last week. Like, it I mean,
26:29
it's the Chiefs. It's fucking right. So New
26:33
England, wildly inconsistent. Bad,
26:37
good, bad, good.
26:40
And it's just like, okay, I don't know what the fuck's going on here.
26:44
Um, the one thing that has stayed consistent for both of these teams is
26:47
the Raiders look great offensively and the Patriots look great defensively.
26:51
Perfect way to match these because that's what the matchup is going to come down
26:54
to. Yeah, it's going to come down to whether or not the Patriots defense can
26:57
shut down the Raiders offense. Because honestly,
27:01
Drake Maye and, and the Patriots offense are wildly inconsistent,
27:05
and, and the Raiders defense hasn't done much to truly impress me.
27:08
They're not awful, they're not good. So that's,
27:13
that's the, the real question is, what is, what is Mike Vrabel and,
27:17
you know, his defensive coordinator Zach Kerr,
27:21
what do scheme up. Yeah. For Kirk Cousins and Brock Bowers specifically.
27:26
If this were the Belichick Patriots, they would spend all
27:29
week figuring out how to shut down Brock Bowers and they would let whoever else
27:33
on the team wants to cook. They would not care. That was always their thing
27:36
was like, we will take away your best weapon and dare you to beat us
27:39
with everybody else. The thing about the Raiders is they
27:42
were winning without Brock Bowers. They were. So 2-0,
27:46
right? That's what I think is the most interesting about the
27:50
game. I already thought that this was going to be like a 5-win Patriots
27:54
team a week ago, and then they go and beat the Bills. So I don't
27:57
know how to feel about them. If anything, I want them to prove to me
28:00
that they can like put together a legitimately good game against a good team
28:03
that isn't the fucking Bills. Because like a division
28:07
rival, like, oh, we went and beat you and like we surprised everybody. No,
28:09
play a fucking team that isn't in your division that you don't have some like
28:14
emotional response to and play well. On the flip side,
28:17
if they lose to the Raiders, I'm not mad about it. Like, what am I—
28:21
I don't want them to lose to the Dolphins, you know what I mean?
28:23
Yes. You don't want to lose to the Green Bay fucking Packers. Yeah. Like,
28:26
I don't want them losing to bad teams. Yes, I get that.
28:28
But, but the Raiders aren't bad. And if the Raiders win this game, I mean,
28:32
that, that's a combination of winning 3 games. Then you go over and you do
28:35
lose at home against the Kansas City Chiefs, but it was a hard-fought fucking game
28:38
against the Kansas City goddamn Chiefs. And then you go to
28:42
New England to beat the recent AFC champions. I'm gonna feel real fucking good
28:46
about where the Raiders are if they come back to Vegas 4-1. But here's the
28:50
thing, if they don't and, and they are sort of in the offense struggles against
28:54
the Patriots defense, now you have to question whether that brings me back to like,
28:57
we might be back to like the Kirk Cousins ceiling, maybe not really being
29:02
able to elevate past the better defensive,
29:05
uh, teams in the league or the better defenses or the better schemes or the
29:08
better coordinators. Like, that's where, that's where Kirk Cousins always
29:13
sort of like tops out. Is like, are you
29:16
the kind of dude who can elevate over, over all of that?
29:20
Yeah. Usually the answer is some— is most of the time during
29:23
the regular season and then definitely not in the postseason. So I would be a
29:26
little bit concerned were he not able to get past Patriots
29:30
defense. They're not like the best defense in the NFL. They're just really good.
29:35
It also wouldn't be a death knell by any means. Yeah, of course. Yeah.
29:37
Listen, it's going to be a good weekend. I'm looking forward to this game.
29:40
I'm, I'm putting my stock in my Raiders, man. I feel good about where they're
29:44
at. But again, We shall see. This, by the way, wasn't interesting
29:48
to me until it became interesting really fast, and that's the Bears and Green Bay
29:52
Packers. Because Green Bay Packers suck, and the Bears, you know, they're getting wins even
29:55
despite not starting Caleb Williams. Well, now Caleb Williams— they look great, they look great.
29:59
All of a sudden he's practicing on Thursday, the same day the announcement of— he
30:03
was also limited today as well. He was limited today with— and, uh, Mike Dicca
30:06
also died, so you know it's gonna be all hands on deck. Oh shit,
30:09
yeah, for the Chicago Bears. Yeah, I have no idea. It's always interesting because it's
30:12
It's like the Saints game last week or where it's like everybody
30:16
in the crowd really feels it. How does that affect
30:20
the actual field? Yeah, because they're going to be in Green Bay.
30:23
True. So this— it's like the team itself, I guess it depends on
30:27
how many Packers fans show up, Bears fans show up in Green Bay, which a
30:31
lot of— a lot do. Obviously, they are geographically close enough that a lot of
30:34
players and a lot of fans do show up.
30:37
But If it were in Chicago, I think it'd be
30:41
a fucking blowout. Oh dude, it'd be crazy. Fucking nuts over there.
30:45
But at the same time, these players don't know who the fuck Mike Dicca is.
30:48
They, they like get told who he is, but they don't like—
30:52
he's not been around, you know. He— it's— they look,
30:55
they see the mustaches and all that stuff in the crowd and probably like
30:59
have just put 2 and 2 together just now. Like there's like 7— yeah,
31:03
that guy. That's what the You know, for a fact, several of those players
31:07
were like, oh, the guy who just died. And then he looks like that.
31:10
Oh my God, that's what they've been dressing up like this whole time. You know
31:12
what really sucked is when I saw that he died today, my first thought was,
31:15
oh, SNL's back, so they're going to definitely do a Bob Schwartzke's Superfans.
31:19
And then I realized pretty much everybody from that group is dead. I don't
31:23
even remember that. What? Bill Schwartzke's Superfans? No. Oh my
31:27
God. Come on. The Bears. Well, I remember the Bears. I remember that.
31:31
Yeah, like, but who was it? Like George Wendt? No, George Wendt, who wasn't
31:36
on the show but somehow would come back every week for this fucking sketch.
31:40
Uh, I guess Joe Mantegna was in the first one because he was hosting that
31:44
week, so maybe Joe Mantegna wants to make a sweet cameo. Maybe Robert Smigel
31:48
was one of them, so Robert Smigel can be there. Uh, Chris Farley was one
31:51
of them. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, uh, it's funny
31:54
because like I do think at this point that the 85 Bears and the dickhead
31:58
of it all is, is basically inside football. Like it's just so—
32:02
I don't know that like casuals know too much other than
32:05
like the Bears as a as a like signal about something.
32:10
I think that the Bears are going to beat the Packers. I just, I don't
32:13
really— I think so too. I just, I would be really shocked if they don't.
32:16
Agreed. I will say I love division games for the reason that like sometimes
32:20
maybe some chaos will happen. Yeah, well, like these divisional games are
32:24
always chaotic and we've got a few of really big ones. This is a big
32:27
one. I would like to see Caleb play. Like,
32:31
I'm getting sick of this shit. I'm going to go another week with no
32:34
Caleb and no Lamar now. I'm— it's a tough week for
32:38
you, man. It's fucking rough out there and it's supposed to be a fucking rainstorm
32:42
all weekend. That doesn't bother me. You know, I love weather. You know, I love
32:46
something that makes a game sloppy and hard.
32:52
The fuck? I got him. I got Mocha.
32:57
Okay. Fucking sloppy and hard. Name of
33:00
this show. This game is intriguing to me purely because I actually think that
33:04
we could learn a lot about both these teams very soon. The Lions and the
33:08
Cardinals. Lions and the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah.
33:11
Detroit's offense is going up against like a vulnerable
33:15
pass defense, but Arizona's offense also has been good.
33:19
Detroit is a team that looks like they're past their Super Bowl window and
33:23
are proving like very— they're trying very hard to hang on for
33:27
dear life. Their fingernails are scratching into the rock
33:30
on the cliff. Meanwhile, Arizona, no expectations. Nobody expected anything from them.
33:34
And even though they're only a 1-win team, they've looked really good in every game
33:38
they've played. They really put up a fight. They almost beat the fucking Niners.
33:41
And they look like a team that is getting turned around
33:44
by LaFleur 2.0. Meanwhile, his brother up in Green Bay
33:49
is fucking shitting the bed, but he looks great. Mike, Mike crushing it. Um,
33:53
so like, I feel like they're both straddling this
33:56
line between good and bad. I'm not here to— I cannot
34:00
say that either one of these teams is good or either one of these teams
34:04
is bad. And so I find that fascinating
34:07
because I do think that the Cardinals could come out of this game, beat the
34:11
Lions, and actually be like in a conversation of like, are the Cardinals kind of
34:14
good? Yeah, I think you're right. Well, on the flip side,
34:18
the Lions need to beat the Cardinals just for me to fucking believe that they're
34:22
in any way, shape, or form not dead in the water. No, no question.
34:24
But I do think that at the end of the day, they're dead in the
34:26
water. I'm starting to actually think they might be along with the Green Bay Packers.
34:28
Packers, maybe worse than them based on— I know their offense
34:32
is better, but man, they give up a lot of points and I'm completely worried
34:36
about this. Their offense is definitely better. Jared Goff's playing better than— yes, than George
34:39
Gibbs is fucking great. Amon-Ra St. Brown is having a great run, but that's
34:43
about it. Yeah, the rest is dog shit. Yeah, and if you were to ask
34:47
me like who, who has, you know, the capacity to
34:51
sort of elevate their game more from where they're at right now, I would say
34:54
Jordan Love. Like, I think we've We've seen what Jared Goff can do. He can't
34:57
really elevate from here. You really think Jordan Love's got more in the tank?
34:59
Jordan Love can play a bit better than the way he's been playing. Okay.
35:02
What I mean, and I don't think like Jared Goff's actually been playing well and
35:05
they're still losing. True. That is factual. That's a problem. What do you think about
35:08
San Francisco 49ers versus the Seahawks? Because I do think it's interesting. It is in
35:12
Seattle. The Niners, I feel like, who are as tough as fucking can
35:16
be considering the fact they're going out there like ace bandaged from fucking head to
35:19
toe. What else is new at this point? I expect that. It's amazing. Play like
35:22
that. I— now, they— I— as far as I know, they don't have many guys
35:25
that aren't playing in this game. True, but they're all fucked up.
35:28
Sure, everyone's like, beat this shit.
35:32
Aren't we all, Niners? Um, Fred Warner
35:36
is my favorite defensive player in the league right now. Um, and I'm
35:40
really excited to see him go up against the absolute fucking weapons on the Seahawks.
35:44
I just love— I love when these teams play. I love when
35:47
the Niners play the Seahawks. I like— in this iteration, I think So fun.
35:51
It's the game I'm most excited to watch for football reasons.
35:54
I can't predict this fucking game. I'm not going to act like I can predict
35:58
this game. Can you? Coin flip. I'm leaning a little towards the Seahawks,
36:02
but it's only because they're at home. That's about it. I am. Yeah, literally.
36:05
Yeah. You give the plus— the plus 3 points advantage. That's all I got.
36:09
I got no other reason to say anything else. I will say I would like
36:12
to see how Brock Purdy plays against the Seahawks defense because right now He is
36:16
in MVP conversation, early MVP conversations, but we're into week 5.
36:19
Okay, we're starting to get into a place where we can have those conversations.
36:21
I want to see him, you know, really show up against
36:25
a very good fucking defense. Not— and
36:29
that doesn't mean when I say show up, I don't mean like he hasn't been
36:32
showing up. I want to— I want to— can you do like MVP shit against
36:35
the Seahawks defense? Because that's— that's what'll start getting me like really jazzed. I agree
36:39
with you. If you do this to the Seahawks and then everybody needs to shut
36:42
the fuck up, he's on the list. The end, period, stop. Exactly. Oh,
36:46
you poor thing. Um, poor thing.
36:49
Ravens-Falcons, man. Poor thing. Um, a Lamar-less
36:54
Ravens. Yeah, it's looking like Lamar's not playing. It's looking like they're
36:57
rolling with Tyler Huntley. Um, this sucks. It does.
37:01
This was gonna be so fucking— this was gonna be a banger. This Michael Penix
37:04
Jr. fucking led team right now has looked so good for 2 weeks. This was
37:07
gonna be a banger. It would have Like, and these
37:11
2 teams have such a, like, similar identity in my
37:15
mind. Like, they just, like, seem so destined
37:19
to have excellent football games at, like, at this stage of the— like, Penix is
37:23
so cool. He comes out in the durag. He's got his B. Robinsons. Like,
37:26
they're just cool, right? Lamar is so fucking cool.
37:30
I wanted to see them go against each other. We're not getting that.
37:33
So what I will say is You know,
37:37
Baltimore's looked vulnerable. Atlanta's looked like they're a new
37:41
team. There's uncertainty on both sides because we have to see,
37:44
like, is Atlanta— is what they're doing going to hold up against—
37:48
you know, I would think it is the way they're playing. They look so fucking
37:51
good. It's crazy. Here's the thing. Yeah. These are 2 head coaches that
37:54
I think have proven through the first
37:58
4 games are doing really good work in their positions. They're both new
38:02
to their teams. Stefanski is a head coach with a lot of experience. Jesse Minter
38:05
in his first year as a head coach.
38:08
One's defensive, one's offensive. I would like
38:13
to see it. I want to see who out-schemes each other because at this point,
38:17
this is not going to be the quarterback battle that we thought, right?
38:21
Although Tyler Huntley has put together some fucking crazy— yeah, no, no, as a backup.
38:24
No, I want to make this abundantly clear. Tyler Huntley is fucking great. It's just
38:27
he's just not Lamar. Yeah, that's just what it is. Like when you, when you
38:30
were about to get it, when you're about to get a fucking heavyweight bout,
38:33
when you're about to watch Tyson versus Holyfield, and then you're told Holyfield's out,
38:37
but don't worry, we got you Butterbean. Butterbean's a great puncher.
38:40
We were about to see the Robinsons against— goddamn it, we're about
38:44
to get something great with Penix in the mix. Like, fuck, no, I feel you.
38:47
That's a good— it's a good point. But I, I am enough of
38:51
a football dork that I can say I do actually want to see who comes
38:54
out looking like the better coach, um, because there's, there's a lot
38:58
that Stefanski still has to prove to me as a head coach.
39:01
And Mentor is brand new. So both of these people
39:05
have a lot to prove to me. It seems like Stefanski's got that fucking locker
39:09
room rolling right now. So Mentor, what can you do when your team is down
39:13
and you're missing your starting quarterback? And what is Lamar— you know, was Lamar present
39:16
on the sideline? I'm— there's intriguing stuff, but I am being robbed a
39:20
tiny little bit. You are. But here's the thing. This might end up becoming the
39:24
Derrick Henry game, and that just is what it is. Yeah. I mean, he's fucking
39:27
King Henry for a reason. And he's a king in, in, in the world and
39:31
in our hearts. In our hearts. The Bills are playing the Rams, which would have
39:34
been like the coolest game ever 4 weeks ago. Now I'm trying to figure out
39:37
which one of these idiots is going to fucking blow it. I think it's going
39:39
to be the Bills. I think it might be the Bills too. These are 2
39:43
teams that like legitimately were the like Super Bowl favorites
39:47
heading into the playoffs. Yes. Everyone was expecting this to be like practically the Super
39:51
Bowl. Like everybody. Yeah. Rams-Bills would have been a Super Bowl pick. They just—
39:55
the Bills just lost their first game of the season last week, but it doesn't
39:58
feel like it because they were so fucking bad against the Chargers. The Rams doing,
40:03
doing some bullshit, blowing games, game-ending picks,
40:07
all that shit. Same kind of thing. They both sort of look like they're having
40:10
the same issues, but they're not.
40:14
And here's the thing. I won't feel
40:18
hopeless about the Rams if they lose this game. And I will
40:22
start to be very concerned about the Bills if they lose this game. That's kind
40:26
of how I'm entering into this, which is like, unless the Rams get like,
40:29
get their asses kicked by 30 points,
40:33
they have Sean McVay. And Sean McVay has proven
40:37
that he can like figure this stuff out. They're missing some pieces. They'll get stuff
40:41
figured. I trust what he can do. I don't know what Joe Brady can do
40:44
as a head coach. And I am— I— the
40:48
last 2 weeks of Josh Allen and that offense and
40:52
their defense, frankly, have been alarming. And I— they have not earned the
40:57
benefit of the doubt for me in the same way that Matthew Stafford and Sean
41:00
McVay have. So this is like a much more
41:04
of a must-win for the Bills, even though they have one more win on the
41:07
season. Yeah. Does that make sense? Absolutely. You agree? I do agree.
41:10
I think this— I think the Bills are fucking kind of weirdly floundering right now.
41:13
We've talked so much about his hero ball, and what's funny, this is
41:16
hero ball quarterback versus hero ball quarterback. The only difference why I'm giving
41:20
the edge over to the Rams on playing more better hero ball is he's got
41:23
better targets available to him. That's all. He's gonna have Davante Adams, he's gonna have
41:27
Puka Nacua, he's gonna have, uh, everyone pretty much out there relatively healthy.
41:31
Well, I wouldn't— I don't know, man. The, the Bills weapons are pretty fucking good.
41:34
I know, but the Rams weapons are a little better. I mean, Puka is better.
41:38
Yes, Puka is much better, but Davante is pretty fucking good too. He's got James
41:42
Cook. He does have James Cook. And like, his— he's got 2 great tight ends
41:45
and he has a great— he didn't have pieces. I'm just saying. I, I mean,
41:48
it's barely an edge is what I'm saying. Well, not as much of an edge
41:50
as you think it is. Then we shall see. We will see who decides to
41:54
play worse hero ball in the fucking 4th quarter. Uh, it's, it's gonna
41:59
be a battle on who wants to give it away more. They both really do
42:02
that, man. I know they do. But they also both— like, I also wouldn't be
42:06
shocked if both of them threw for 400 yards, no picks. Like, you know what
42:09
I mean? Like, yeah, they'll play MVP ball, right? So it— you just never know
42:13
with these 2. It's, it's some gunslinger action. As soon as,
42:16
as soon as these white men get over 6'3, they start acting weird. It's crazy,
42:20
isn't it? I'm saying, I never had to deal with that. 5'11, baby. Short king.
42:24
Um, really quick before we move on, um, just really
42:28
quick, our biweekly reminder. Did I send you this? Uh, yes, we do have this.
42:31
It's, it's very important that we have our biweekly reminder of how great
42:36
Mr. Flores is. This is the Brian Flores situation, uh,
42:39
where the Vikings are at right now on defense. Mocha, if you could pull that
42:43
one up for us. Um, just, we can't let a football segment go
42:46
by without pointing this out. This is what the fucking Vikings defense is doing under
42:50
Brian Flores right now. What are you talking about? What are you
42:53
talking about? Doesn't leave a whole lot of room for error. It's— this
42:59
is what it's taking to drag that offense in. So much for KOC.
43:02
Brian Flores is head coaching that fucking team right now. Me.
43:06
Reminder to you guys that Brian Flores doesn't have a head coaching job
43:10
and hasn't, even though he was just as good in The,
43:13
the Dolphins didn't get any better. No, they didn't. Sure fucking didn't
43:17
get any better. Glad you know that too. Turns out Tua was actually the problem,
43:21
and he has now been like blackballed out of the opportunities
43:25
to head coach. That's what he's doing. So anyway, we're gonna continue to tell you
43:28
Brian Flores is a fucking insane maniac evil genius
43:32
as a defensive coordinator, one of the best defensive coaches I've ever seen,
43:36
and I love him. You love him. We love him. Fucking love you,
43:39
Brian Flores. We fucking love you. Uh, let's switch it over to headline
43:43
finally, number 2. I can't believe it. Excuse me, this is my job.
43:47
I'm the— I'm the headline person. You do— you do cold
43:51
opens, you do the fun little thing,
43:54
I do the topic transitions.
43:59
It's your birthday, it's your sweet 16,
44:02
whatever you want. I can't believe I'm finally 16. Whatever you want to fucking do.
44:06
Jesus, I get you a tiara and you fucking act
44:10
like a fucking princess. That— what did you expect? Fuck.
44:13
What did you say? You gave me an inch and I'm taking a mile.
44:15
You're like Angelica from Rugrats. I really am. Um,
44:19
well, more importantly, I'm just really excited to talk about Asia Wilson.
44:22
I know you are. I'm like, please don't take this from me. I will not
44:25
take this from you. So sorry. Please womansplain me about
44:29
Asia Wilson, please. Um, Asia Wilson is in
44:33
the conversation of one of the greatest team athletes of all time.
44:37
I will say, as I put this headline in for our
44:40
discussion, I was reading the headline from The Athletic and
44:44
it read, Aces star A'ja Wilson wins 5th WNBA
44:48
MVP award, solidifying place among the greats.
44:53
Now I'm wondering what,
44:56
what the 4 MVPs— if this is solidifying it,
45:00
I don't love the phrasing. Well, I guess I know it's nitpicky, and I don't
45:04
think it's very— it is very nitpicky, but it— but is it? Because it's like
45:07
solidify. Well, I think she did it with the third one. No, no,
45:10
she, she already did it, but like, I guess 5 puts
45:14
her in a level that is like— when we're talking basketball,
45:17
like, we're talking MJ, we're talking Bill Russell,
45:21
right? We're talking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This is a great opportunity actually
45:25
to pull up the graphic that we So this is where— this is the company
45:29
that A'ja Wilson is in now for the amount
45:33
of MVPs that she has. This is across the major, like, you know,
45:36
men's leagues plus the WNBA.
45:40
She is in a very elite class
45:44
of all-time players that have won 5 or more MVPs.
45:48
Wayne Gretzky, obviously with 9, which is insane. Barry Bonds
45:52
with his 7. Kareem and Gordie Howe both have 6. Peyton Manning,
45:56
Michael Jordan, Bill Russell with 5. And now Asia joins them. And if you're
46:00
asking me to be honest, Peyton Manning should only have 4. I agree with that.
46:03
Like, no more than that. We talked about this last show. Give Steve McNair his
46:07
fucking MVP. I still can't believe— oh, you're gonna have half? He still can't believe
46:10
that was a thing. That should read 4.5, but Steve has a full one.
46:14
Okay, I don't know, it just pisses me off. Yeah, he really should not be
46:17
on that 5 list. Um, Um, and there's more in basketball for
46:22
obvious reasons, because basketball is— it's just 5 players out there, whatever else. There was
46:25
2 guys in hockey. Like, you can have a really outsized
46:28
influence on a team, on a culture, and in a game
46:32
as an elite player on a 5-person basketball team,
46:36
right? You know, and so I think that that's why we see so many basketball
46:40
players on that. But even then, the so many is Kareem, Michael Jordan,
46:43
Bill Russell. It's, it's as rarefied air as it gets in
46:47
the world of basketball. You are you're like one of one,
46:50
period. In the women's side, you are exactly that. She's one of one, the end,
46:53
period. So just real quickly, just to like laud her a little bit,
46:57
she put together a very like sort of comprehensive season. She led the NBA—
47:01
WNBA in scoring, 26.2 points per game,
47:04
blocks and player efficiency rating and total win shares. She also
47:07
finished 5th in rebounds per game and 12th in steals.
47:11
None of these are career best numbers even, you know, that's just just—
47:16
yeah, it sucks she had such a down year. Yeah, right, down year for her
47:19
5th MVP. Pretty sure. Um, she— the
47:23
cool thing about Asia is like nobody saw this coming. Asia was a great
47:26
college player, don't get me wrong, but like nobody predicted that
47:30
she was going to dominate the WNBA.
47:33
And she just— I, I love that, obviously. I love
47:37
when somebody comes into the league and surprises everybody
47:41
with how hard they work and how much they get. Like, because this is a
47:43
person who works hard all the time to improve on things
47:47
and to get better and better. You don't win that many, that many MVPs without
47:51
that. You don't have the longevity to do that without that. Um,
47:56
I, I am very picky about putting athletes
48:00
into my like GOAT of a sport conversation.
48:04
I'm very picky about it. She's obviously on the Mount
48:08
Rushmore of WNBA players. That goes without saying. But I— this
48:12
elevates her into a conversation that very,
48:16
very few people can be in. And I just— I
48:20
don't know where you're— where you land on it, but I mean,
48:24
we're like— we're putting her into like all-time sports GOATs,
48:27
right? Yes. Yeah. Yes. She's gonna have a massive statue over
48:31
there in Vegas, and they should probably eventually name the MVP
48:36
award after her because again, this is her 5th, not her last. This is not
48:39
her— it's gotta be the A'ja Wilson. Like, let's be real clear, this is just
48:43
her 5th of her next 5. Craziest part is that she's not even that old.
48:47
No, she's got plenty more to go. Again, this was a down year and she
48:50
won her 5th fucking MVP. She's gonna win fucking 3 more.
48:54
How old is A'ja Wilson? I know Chris probably knows off the top of his
48:57
head. Old enough to party. But like, uh, I said about
49:01
everybody now and every age, she's only 30, bro. Yeah, she's winning fucking 4 more.
49:04
She— you knew. He fucking knew. She's only 30.
49:08
She's only— she's 5. Wait, now I want to look up how many of
49:11
these idiots had 5 MVPs by 30, because that's nuts. That's crazy.
49:16
Probably just Wayne Gretzky. I mean, or maybe Gordie Howe. I don't
49:19
know. But yeah, that's— that's nuts. She's gonna win fucking at least 2,
49:22
3 more. It's fucking crazy. Wow. All right, so like, shout out to an absolute
49:26
motherfucking legend. Um, and yeah. Yeah,
49:30
they're— the statue better be as cool as Lisa Leslie's because that's a cool ass
49:34
statue. It was a very good statue. Real fucking good, dude. They've been knocking it
49:38
out. Listen, I love their game. I don't love going to crypto, but their
49:41
fucking statue game is pretty fucking elite. Well, yeah, the Kobe one
49:46
with— I've heard the Kobe one with— it's really nice. It's good. It's really good.
49:49
Yeah. You can't fuck that one up. You can't make them look weird. Better not.
49:52
Yeah, exactly. You can't Ronaldo this shit. No. I'm so
49:55
glad that Ronaldo one exists, though. I do. Very, very. Me too. I don't want
49:58
him to have another one. In fact, when he eventually dies, I will only remember
50:02
his face as that statue. It's beautiful. It is stunning. Yeah.
50:05
All right. Headline number 3, real quick.
50:09
You know, there's not a ton for us to get into this, but I did
50:12
find this really fascinating. The NBA defended
50:16
the second apron after a Knicks player said it sucks for the middle class because
50:20
obviously James Dolan is very much trying to avoid hitting the second apron.
50:24
Yeah. The state— the NBA statement
50:30
said recent reports asserted that the second apron is hurting lower and middle class players.
50:32
That's untrue. Since the implementation of the second apron, the number
50:36
of players on team rosters, uh, has remained the same and annual
50:40
salaries have increased by nearly $1.3 billion,
50:43
resulting in pay increases of approximately 30% for all classes
50:47
of players. Not sure I really like how they phrase that.
50:50
It sort of made it seem like everybody's making more money. It's like, no,
50:52
your superstars are making more money. I think that's that's the point he was trying
50:55
to make. Yeah, so it feels like they were like a little bit of— there
50:58
was a little bit of parsing there. Um, also, that's not true is like very
51:02
funny. That's untrue, guys. Of course you're gonna say it's untrue. Like, now we're playing
51:05
he said, she said on Twitter with the fucking NBA. Um, the statement comes
51:09
one day after guard Bruce Brown's comments. The 9-year veteran was
51:13
asked whether players were frustrated by the effects of the second apron, a provision implemented
51:17
in the 2023 CBA that imposes significant financial and roster-building penalties on
51:21
teams above a certain payroll threshold.
51:24
He said, I'm sure there is. After Thursday night's game, the new CBA is good
51:28
for max guys, new free agents, and rookie extension guys. The middle
51:31
guys, it kind of sucks for. That's not— there's not a lot of people
51:35
getting that full mid-level. The NBA implemented
51:39
the second apron, the highest in a series of escalating payroll thresholds, as part of
51:43
the '23 CBA. Teams whose payrolls go over that,
51:47
which is $221.7 million, lose the ability to make the
51:52
types of trade— certain types of trades and most types of free agent signings.
51:55
If they stay expensive for long enough, they can also see far-out
51:59
draft picks sink to the end of the first round. Um,
52:03
I, I looked into Bruce Brown's sort of like contract situation from
52:08
the last couple of years, and he was making like $10 to $11 million a
52:12
year and has been like on a 1-year, like, you know, veteran deal for the
52:16
last 2. Yeah. And I think that this is an interesting conversation.
52:20
The reason I want to bring it up, because number one, you've been a player
52:23
and you've like— you do understand the like economics
52:27
of not being a superstar. Yes. The lower tier guys do not make nearly what
52:32
you think. It just is factual. And in the NBA, in the NBA, to be
52:35
fair, nobody who is actually on an NBA roster is making—
52:38
is making poverty level money. This isn't single,
52:42
double, triple-A baseball money. We're talking about millions of dollars still. Even when I was
52:45
in the big leagues, I was making major league minimum. But at the time,
52:47
major league minimum was roughly about after taxes like $3,700
52:52
a day. And now it's more. Now, like, that's great.
52:55
So like, but I do understand the plight with the amount of
52:59
money that's out there. I do understand the plight of the people in that middle
53:01
tier and bottom tier because there is no trickle-down effect at
53:05
all. And that is kind of also what like the league's bread and butter are
53:09
in these CBA negotiations. They try to prey on the younger guys and the guys
53:12
that are not making those middle tier To be like, well, we want to make
53:15
sure these guys get more money. And they kind of tried— that's basically what the
53:19
owners are trying to do is like, no, we're going to make sure everyone gets
53:22
more money, but we need a salary cap. And that's kind of one of their
53:25
ridiculous arguments. Another reminder of just how brutal these salary caps are. And I hope
53:28
that the MLB is paying attention because like the,
53:32
the famous rich dudes, they always make their— like the superstars,
53:36
they always make their money. They will always make their money. It will, it will
53:39
always be them. Well, look at LeBron. He's making more money this year than he
53:41
did last year because of that sweet Polymarket deal. But they'll always make
53:45
their money even from the league. Like, they'll always be very
53:49
well compensated. But on the flip side, you know,
53:53
these middle— like, this is a veteran, like, you know,
53:57
role player guy. He played in 82 games last year.
54:01
He played 82, like, he coming off the bench, right?
54:04
And so for him, it's like, he's not a young guy on a rookie contract.
54:08
He's not a guy on a max contract. He's not
54:12
He's just one of those dudes who probably should be making $5 to $6 million
54:14
a year and he's not. And 5, 6 years ago he
54:18
would have been. And so my whole point of bringing this up
54:22
is just that we are essentially transitioning this conversation
54:26
into Major League CBA. Oh, I see
54:30
what you did there. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is going to be
54:33
a big fucking problem. Yeah, big fucking problem. So excited to ask you about
54:36
this. Oh, by the way, you talking about the new proposal they put out there?
54:38
Yeah, the proposal is interesting because there's a lot of things in there that I
54:42
don't hate, and there's one thing in there that I'm just like, what the fuck?
54:44
This is— there's a carrot in this that they keep dangling every fucking
54:48
CBA, and I don't fucking understand why. All right, so the
54:53
MLB has proposed returning to a 154-game regular
54:57
season. Yes. Adopting best-of-7 division series and opponent selection
55:01
in playoffs. That's— it's that last part. Okay, so I want
55:04
to ask you about, about that, and so I'll go through a couple of the
55:07
details here. Um, so 154
55:10
a game regular season. Honestly, I don't think that's shaving enough off the regular season.
55:13
I think it should be 130. I think you should take an entire month off
55:17
the season. That's my opinion. Of course the division series should be best of 7.
55:20
I agree 100% because you know what, we just got fucking robbed because that Padres
55:23
fucking Brewers series should have kept going. Yeah, that was so fucking good.
55:27
It's really, really bizarre. Um, I actually— let's cut to the
55:31
sort of the MLB postseason graphic.
55:34
Because I think this really illustrates how weird it is that, that there's so little—
55:38
there's so few playoff games to make a World Series.
55:42
It is kind of funny for the season that is so long. This is a
55:45
comparison of, you know, the percentage of games
55:49
that are played in the regular season compared to how much game is played in
55:52
the postseason. And obviously the WNBA has a fairly
55:56
short season and a pretty significant in
56:00
terms of, you know, their actual regular season portion
56:03
of it is part is the playoffs. Um, I would say
56:08
the NBA and the NHL kind of have it nailed a little bit. Like,
56:11
you know, it's like a lot of people think it's a little too long.
56:14
I don't. I think it's kind of like what you want for if
56:18
you're gonna play an 82-game season. I don't want it to come down to like
56:21
fucking, you know, 12 games. Like, I just don't want that.
56:25
But goddamn, the stark difference.
56:29
160-something games of baseball just
56:33
for it to all be decided in 11 games or whatever the fuck. Like,
56:35
no, you don't want that. So I love— I love October. I love
56:39
the whole aspect of October. I love that it's one month long. But I do
56:43
think the Major League Baseball should be one month shorter. That's just one month.
56:46
I also love that October is one month long. I meant more the playoffs
56:51
rather than your fucking 9-month playoffs that you love so much in your NBA.
56:53
Jesus. Christ. Also, every game has fucking 9 days off in between.
56:58
You can fuck up. That's how the NBA's nailed it. I, I genuinely have no
57:02
issue with it. I have a couple issues. Yeah, I don't— I, I like that.
57:05
It's like, I like the NHL playoffs. There's a scene in baseball where like the
57:09
announcer's, we are now in month 9 of the basketball playoffs. It's just,
57:13
that's how it feels in the NBA sometimes. This last, this last NBA playoffs just
57:17
happened to be— I think it's probably more about the quality of, of basketball.
57:20
It was quality because NHL is also very equally long And
57:24
very good. There's something about October baseball that I love so fucking much. But I
57:27
do think there should be more games. I think— I do think that the wildcard—
57:30
why would we get— so if we're not going to get more games in the
57:33
playoffs, we got to get way fewer games in the regular season. I agree.
57:35
That is because what we're talking about is the,
57:39
you know, the teams grinding it out for
57:43
a number of games that is fucking absurd, only to have their season over in
57:47
3 games. So here's the thing. Like, think about what the Red Sox did across
57:51
the course of the fucking back half. Oh, how they came right back up and
57:53
they were done. They were. And then it was is 2 games. Yeah, you're out.
57:55
I'm with you on that. No, no, I think the wildcard round should be a
57:58
best-of-5 series. I think that the division round should be 7. I think 7,
58:01
7, 7, 100%. I think it should be 5, 7, 7, 7,
58:04
7, 7, 3 7s. And 3 7s. So you don't want
58:07
wildcard anymore? I want 7. I want 7s across. You want 7-game
58:11
series for the wildcard round? I want— I want it to be like the NHL.
58:15
7-game series for the wildcard round? I want 7 games every
58:19
time there's a playoff. 7 games for
58:23
the wild card. I do, I do. I think—
58:26
why the fuck, dude? Shave 40 games off the regular season and give
58:31
us some more. I'm okay with doing that, but we don't have to change anything.
58:34
Listen, I'm— I love the 777. I also love 5777.
58:39
I love 7 sevens. I love sevens all aboard. Okay,
58:42
so you want 4 sevens? I want 20. How many days is that? I want—
58:46
I want someone to possibly play 28 8 playoff games.
58:50
Okay, so like, then no days off. I say you just fucking go. Fuck it,
58:54
let's— yeah, let's do no days off. So how do we keep it in October?
58:57
Let's fucking kill all these guys. Yeah, yeah, let's fucking—
59:00
let's fucking— first of all, I'm not obsessed with needing it to start in October.
59:03
You're the one who's freaking out. Listen, no, no, listen, it can start— there are,
59:07
there are traditions in baseball like that, that I will freely admit.
59:10
Slow down. I'm willing to go down to 130 games, so clearly I'm not
59:14
exactly a fucking old guy. You're willing to go down to 130 games? I'm trying
59:18
to take this shit down to 100. You don't need to be a dick about
59:21
it. I'm trying to tell you, you don't need to be a dick about it.
59:24
100 and 7,777. Think about it.
59:28
100 games. Jesus Christ. Let's— come on. Yeah, what do we— what do we— yeah,
59:31
and pitchers and catchers doesn't start till April. I'm okay with that.
59:36
I know, because we're cutting out one month. 130 games,
59:39
it's perfect. Well, we're cutting out more than that because pitchers and catchers doesn't start
59:42
until April. Oh, well, fuck that noise. No, they can come up— they come in
59:44
March. I— but I just already made my own rules. So we have just— I
59:48
don't like your rules. We're like the MLB and the MLBPA. We're not— we
59:52
can't see— we're not meeting in the middle. At least we agree no salary cap.
59:55
Everybody's spending their fucking money. And so I will say, um, the MLB responded
59:59
to this proposal, uh, yesterday and said the league made
1:00:03
multiple scheduling, uh, proposals today. We are reviewing these materials, including the
1:00:07
proposed changes to the playoff format. Players will weigh in on these proposals and we
1:00:11
will respond at the bargaining table. Unfortunately, the league once again made clear that all
1:00:14
of its proposals are contingent on players' agreement to a salary cap.
1:00:18
Cap, a system that guts player rights and compensation as well
1:00:21
as other anti-player proposals. And so essentially what they're
1:00:25
saying is you are either going to agree to this along
1:00:28
with the salary, and you will get your extra, you know, your extra playoff games
1:00:32
and fewer regular season games if you agree to a salary cap. But if not,
1:00:34
you're going to keep playing your asses off in the regular season for fucking 10
1:00:37
games in the playoffs. Okay, this is fucking pathetic, dude. It's,
1:00:41
it's so, it's so annoying. So this is, just so you all know,
1:00:44
fucking dead on arrival. There is no salary cap. It's not gonna
1:00:48
happen. We're getting 30 fucking games next year, maybe a playoff. I don't know what
1:00:51
it's gonna look like. It's gonna be interesting. This is gonna be a shit show.
1:00:54
And the fact that this is all contingent— and the funniest thing is that last
1:00:57
carrot that's in there. Oh, and you get to choose your own adventure. What the
1:01:01
fuck? What does that mean? We don't fucking care. What is
1:01:05
this? Is that— do they genuinely mean if you're like the 1 seed,
1:01:08
you get to pick your opponent? I guess. Or whoever's the higher seed gets to
1:01:11
pick opponents. I guess that, that's a nightmare. Why the
1:01:15
fuck? What is fucking Chris Harrison going to come out with a fucking rose and
1:01:18
you get to like, Brewers, you are our opponent? Yeah,
1:01:22
that will really fix people being mad at the Dodgers. That will really,
1:01:25
really fix people being mad by letting them fucking be like, hey,
1:01:28
we're picking, you know, the worst team we could possibly
1:01:32
find. Oh, oh, the Padres are on a streak. We don't want to play
1:01:36
them. We're going to pick somebody else. Like, yeah, dude, I don't fucking get this
1:01:39
at all. That's literally not— no. And that's not how sports works. Like, I'm actually
1:01:42
mad now. I didn't even understand what that meant. Oh yeah, I literally saved it
1:01:45
to ask you, and now I'm really upset. It makes no sense. And by the
1:01:49
way, this has been mentioned in the past before, and it's never made any— it's
1:01:52
the same thing. Major League Baseball— this is how out of touch Major League Baseball
1:01:55
is. This is like Major League Baseball, it like dangles carrots in every CBA.
1:01:59
Like, for instance, the National League DH. Major League Baseball weirdly like dangled that carrot
1:02:03
for like 3 straight CBAs, and we'll give you the National League DH. Players Association's
1:02:07
like we don't really give a fuck. Like, you guys not
1:02:10
giving the National League DH is like more just you guys fucking up the product.
1:02:14
Yeah, just make it a universal fucking DH. You're the one who keeps making
1:02:18
your pitchers fucking hit. Like, we don't give a shit. You somehow think
1:02:22
this is just like, this will, this will get us a salary cap,
1:02:26
more DHs. Yeah. And now they've been like dangling this
1:02:30
thinking like this is the winner, that they get to, they get to fucking play
1:02:33
a game of Sims while playing baseball. Meanwhile, every single one of these teams is
1:02:37
like, we Most of us know we're never going to be like a higher seed.
1:02:40
So like the 1 seed or whatever. This is so weird. That's so fucking
1:02:44
weird. I'm so annoyed by that. I'm so annoyed by the entire fucking— so fucking
1:02:47
stupid. Okay, so we're still on the side of players. Don't— there's going to be
1:02:50
no salary cap. This isn't fucking happening. We're not getting baseball for a while next
1:02:54
year. And these idiots are coming up with the stupidest shit we ever heard.
1:02:56
So just about right. That is exactly right. So enjoy the final World Series ever.
1:03:00
Great. Let's head on over, Cody, to Media Corner.
1:03:04
I'm actually really excited to talk to you about this. I think this is a
1:03:06
really interesting conversation and I don't know that we're going to come from in the
1:03:09
same place on this. I don't know. I'm excited to hear.
1:03:12
So Bomani Jones, uh, revealed an underrated aspect of
1:03:16
Pat McAfee's success. He was sort of talking about why he
1:03:20
thinks Pat— why he thinks Pat is such a sort of successful media personality
1:03:24
and brand. Um, you know,
1:03:29
in the, in the actual article that I pulled from Awful Announcing, they said if
1:03:33
you tune in at any particular moment Each day on this show, you're likely to
1:03:37
find the Pat McAfee crew kind of goofing around, hyping players up,
1:03:40
kind of just doing like a frat bro thing, which you and I have talked
1:03:42
about. But Bomani said that, you know,
1:03:47
I think the underrated part of McAfee's show or why it had been as
1:03:50
successful as a digital property and it is a little trickier to take it
1:03:54
over to television is that it's vibes. It is an incredibly positive
1:03:58
show and they say very nice things like it's not mean. I think that people
1:04:02
who don't watch Pat have a bit of a misunderstanding about what the appeal is.
1:04:06
They're just like, oh man, it's bro stuff. Eh, I have consumed
1:04:10
a decent bit of that, and I think a big part of it is McAfee
1:04:13
basically ends the show almost like Ellen DeGeneres, like be kind to
1:04:16
each other type stuff. It's a big part of the vibe.
1:04:20
Now, Awful Announcing notes that McAfee unfortunately uses that positive messaging
1:04:24
as a shield sometimes when he wades into politics
1:04:28
or sits idly as Rodgers unleashes a smear. McAfee sometimes
1:04:31
will claim he is doing so in the name of patriotism
1:04:35
or some sort of athlete empowerment. In spite of these moments,
1:04:38
the genuine passion that comes from McAfee's show is still a breath of fresh air
1:04:41
that counters the counterform— the argumentative format of other shows.
1:04:45
I think, I think that though the way that they sort of framed
1:04:49
it from Awful Announcing, um, this was written by Brendan Clean,
1:04:53
um, I think he framed that pretty well where it's like, I understand a little
1:04:56
bit of what of what Bomani's saying, but he's flattening it out a little bit.
1:04:59
I would agree with that. Yes. Um, here's the thing. I,
1:05:03
you know, I really— I actually really respect Bomani. I don't always agree with him,
1:05:06
but I like— I feel like I like that he's trying to have this conversation.
1:05:09
I think you and I have given Pat plenty of credit for being like pretty
1:05:12
good at the thing he does. Yes. On the show. I would agree with that,
1:05:15
that ESPN has sort of taken it too far and putting him in every
1:05:18
corner of their branding and their marketing and their shows.
1:05:23
Um, I'm gonna tell you my problem with it, and you can
1:05:27
tell me if you disagree. No, I'm legitimately interested. You don't have to agree
1:05:31
with me just because it's my birthday, because no, the truth is, I, I'm— I—
1:05:34
wherever you're gonna go with this, I already haven't formed my opinion yet, so I'm
1:05:37
looking forward to it. Okay, cool. Um, I want to talk about
1:05:41
the well-meaning, I'm just a good guy talking to people
1:05:44
and asking questions trope that seems to only work
1:05:48
for men in media and entertainment. Especially white men. Okay, talk to
1:05:52
me. Um, I see this a lot with Theo Von as well, and I think
1:05:55
that— oh yeah, he's— I, by the way, thank you for using that first.
1:05:58
My biggest pet peeve of this exact trope. Yeah, continue. So I
1:06:02
think that's— it's a Pat McAfee-Theo Von thing, which is like— I actually— it's also
1:06:06
a Joe Rogan thing. I— no, he's not well-meaning. No, no, no, there was a
1:06:10
time where he was. I actually think Pat and, and Theo are
1:06:15
like if you, you've hung out with Pat, like,
1:06:18
these are dudes who, like, you actually enjoy being around. Like, they're pretty
1:06:21
fun. I've hung out with Theo. I disagree with that. Dudes, whatever. Like,
1:06:25
this is a dude— these are people who their whole thing is like, I'm just
1:06:29
sitting here having a conversation and I'm just asking questions and I'm just like blah
1:06:33
blah, right? But that, like,
1:06:36
playing dumb hype— I,
1:06:39
I do like the idea of hyping somebody up, and I do think that
1:06:45
that Pat McAfee, by and large, in comparison to the absolute wasteland of argumentative debate
1:06:49
TV shows, is more positive. But I don't think that that's
1:06:53
because he actually is more positive and more like well-meaning and
1:06:58
genuine than anybody else covering sports. It's just that the bar has been put in
1:07:01
fucking hell. The bar is in hell.
1:07:05
And this is only something that white men can
1:07:10
get away with in media entertainment. Being the playing dumb,
1:07:13
just throwing stuff out there. Oh, I accidentally said something racist or sexist about
1:07:17
a fucking WNBA player. Sorry, that's my bad. I'm just out here talking. I'm just
1:07:21
trying to be a good guy. I've heard this dude say some really fucked up
1:07:24
shit on air. Like he said that he lets— he lets, you know,
1:07:28
Aaron Rodgers come on and say whatever the fuck he wants. He has literally
1:07:32
involved himself with MAGA, like publicly.
1:07:36
Very much so. And so like, what do you mean? Like, yeah, I do love
1:07:40
that he's not like hypercritical of football players,
1:07:44
but he's been a dick about a bunch of other things. And he's also
1:07:48
a former football player. Like, wow, what a fucking revelation that he's not
1:07:52
hypercritical of football players. That's not— that's— this is not like—
1:07:56
it's very frustrating because as a, as a woman in the industry, if you're
1:08:00
a woman, if you're a Black person, if you're a Black woman, if you're anybody
1:08:03
who's not a white man, you don't get to just be that, oh, I,
1:08:06
I'm just asking questions, smoking a little weed, fucking being a good time
1:08:10
guy, and then say crazy shit and align yourself with MAGA and be like,
1:08:13
this is vibes. What? This is vibes?
1:08:17
Like, I mean, I will acknowledge he's good at what he does, but that's
1:08:21
not just all good time vibes. This guy is like, what are we fucking talking
1:08:24
about? Okay, I'm done. Okay, I'm willing to
1:08:28
be talked down off this ledge, but I do
1:08:32
actually agree with you a lot more than you think. Okay. No, because you're not
1:08:35
wrong. Like, so Pat, uh, I will by and large blanketly
1:08:40
agree with the initial statement because he, he is absolutely right. You know
1:08:43
what, what this has been. Hell, I, I was, I was pulled into a meeting
1:08:46
at Fox a couple years ago. They were— and this was so weird— they were
1:08:49
like telling us why we want— they wanted our show to be the party show,
1:08:52
but then they never let us be the fucking party show. We never did anything,
1:08:54
right? It was just the same fucking show. We're the party show. Show. Yeah,
1:08:57
like, this is the fucking party show. This is the fucking party show. Having a
1:09:01
party. There's cake here. Drinking with cake, bitches. Yeah, no, like,
1:09:04
that was like— but that was the idea, like, because they, they had— they told
1:09:08
us, they like, there's been so many— we've done so many focus groups, everyone wants
1:09:11
to get away, every listener is getting exhausted. Yeah, of this kind of fucking tension,
1:09:15
head-to-head type of fucking just endless negativity, like just
1:09:19
not enjoying anything. So then like, all right, cool, we get to fucking have some
1:09:23
fun, and then we had no fun, and then— but that was like what they
1:09:27
were getting at the time. Pat kind of does scratch that urge a
1:09:30
little bit. Yeah, absolutely. He— you're done with First Take and hearing all the
1:09:34
bullshit you just listened to. Okay, here is a fucking frat bro that
1:09:38
is good in a clubhouse that just brings all the boys together. Yeah,
1:09:41
which is why when Bomani says, oh, it's not just that, I'm like, no,
1:09:44
I think it kind of is just that to me. And no, it is absolutely
1:09:48
just that. Yeah, it is a place for a bunch of bros
1:09:52
and, and fucking ex-athletes that were in high school to feel
1:09:55
comfortable, like they're among their own, right? Because Pat also has
1:09:59
this thing that I really do also appreciate about him. He's got a real good
1:10:02
sense of humor about exactly who he was in his career. Yeah, he's a fucking
1:10:06
punter. He was a pretty good punter too. Fucking great punter.
1:10:10
I mean, like, make no mistake. But like, at the end of the day,
1:10:13
what fucking punter is the head of any sports media empire?
1:10:17
It's a fucking punter. They're, they're as noticeable fucking chairs. There is talent
1:10:22
to what— like, he did rise to fame by being funny.
1:10:25
100%. He's funny. He's a funny dude. He's a very charming dude.
1:10:29
I've met him many times. Good dude. I've liked him. Like, what, over like,
1:10:33
what was it, 12, 13 years? What I was doing, like, like,
1:10:36
that's Palomalu, bro. Like, when he would go viral for those moments,
1:10:40
he was great. Like, and that's great. Yeah,
1:10:44
I'm not taking that away from him, that he was funny and there was an
1:10:47
elevation. Now, to get to your point, because I— listen, I think Pat, for what
1:10:51
he he does, he does really well. How do I know he does it real
1:10:54
well? Because everyone else keeps trying to fucking copy him. FS1 just tried
1:10:58
to bring in Barstool and look how well that's fucking gone. It's really actually
1:11:02
funny because prior to Pat McAfee, Barstool was trying to do Pat
1:11:06
McAfee. I know, like it was almost like they'd been trying to do Pat McAfee,
1:11:08
but at the end of the day, time, and no one's ever been able to.
1:11:10
But the funny thing is he actually still has some credibility because he was in
1:11:13
the fucking NFL. At the end of the day, those are just a bunch of
1:11:17
douchebros. He is like, again, like, I— there is a thing
1:11:20
that he— there's an authenticity to his excitement about things, or at
1:11:24
least something that he can portray as authenticity that I do think
1:11:28
people crave. Now let's get to the point that you're talking about, which I totally
1:11:31
agree with. That comes with a responsibility now.
1:11:35
And now when you're doing your YouTube show, when you're doing your podcast, you do
1:11:39
whatever the fuck you want. I mean, it just is what it is. But now,
1:11:41
like, you're on national TV and you're being put out by a massive corporation.
1:11:44
And now you're feeding a lot of fucking masters.
1:11:47
And I don't know if it— if like him doing the fucking Hunger
1:11:51
Games was Trump, was entirely him. I— it probably was. But here's the thing,
1:11:55
I don't care at this point because all I know is that no matter how
1:11:58
much money I'm making and what my profile is and who's— who, who my work—
1:12:02
who my employer is, I'm not going to the Hunger Games with Donald.
1:12:05
It ain't happening. But here's, here's the deal, like Most
1:12:12
of the fucking athletes, even the ones that you're fans of, even the ones that
1:12:16
are the fucking charming ones, most of them are the fucking dumb fuck MAGA dudes.
1:12:20
Like, whether we like it or not, I don't know if it's most of them,
1:12:22
but it's a lot. It's a lot of them. A lot of them.
1:12:25
And like, how about this? People that were more left-leaning that I played
1:12:29
with in baseball— now granted, I agree before,
1:12:32
right off the gate, baseball way more fucking right-leaning all throughout,
1:12:36
which is funny Because all the, all the front offices, all very well-educated,
1:12:40
they're all left-leaning. So this is really fascinating because I just did a full,
1:12:44
like, nearly 10-minute Substack piece about the fact that, like, football in the United
1:12:48
States is a conservative pipeline. They start like,
1:12:51
they start conservative, like, propaganda and grooming
1:12:55
when you start playing football as a kid because, like, it's a conservative— whereas
1:13:00
baseball, to your point, it's a bunch of conservative players
1:13:03
entering in a, like, less conservative space. Yeah. And it is really weird.
1:13:07
People don't fully understand it. And a part of that is because it's not a
1:13:10
majority Black workforce anymore, so they don't feel the need to fucking grind
1:13:15
down. But it's so funny that push down the Black players. But isn't it weird
1:13:18
that they also have the most powerful union? All of these fucking— they have the
1:13:22
most powerful union because they don't have to deal with, with manipulating
1:13:26
Black Americans into accepting less power in
1:13:30
the way they make their money. I'm just— it's just, it's fascinating though, the whole
1:13:33
concept of it and the entire It's just— I don't know what to say other
1:13:36
than it is a smokescreen, period,
1:13:39
stop. I do think sometimes Pat is very much used as that
1:13:43
smokescreen without him even understanding that he's being used as that smokescreen,
1:13:47
because at the end of the day, as charming as Pat is, as bright as
1:13:51
I think Pat is, I don't think his brightness also really totally
1:13:55
equates to the exact same intelligence to understanding when one's
1:13:59
being manipulated by a massive corporation. Or by a lot of other things. And I
1:14:02
do hate how he doesn't put pushback on anything that's controversial.
1:14:07
And by the way, the only thing he's ever pushed back on is the stuff
1:14:10
you would expect, which is like, like he'll be misogynist. Yes. And I don't like
1:14:15
that. And it's like, that's fine, what else is fucking new? But Bomani,
1:14:18
that's not a fucking revelation. No, it's lazy shit. And I— and,
1:14:21
and Bomani is one of the smartest people that's ever covered sports.
1:14:25
Like, no, bar none. He's literally one
1:14:28
of the most intelligent people to ever cover sports.
1:14:32
So this is not questioning his intelligence. This is a— this is a question of
1:14:35
like, of like us perceiving some very different things.
1:14:40
And I do think that because you and I spend a lot of time doing
1:14:43
media critique, we're thinking about this specific part of it
1:14:46
a lot more than other people in sports media. Probably because other people in sports
1:14:49
media aren't always doing sports media critique. By and large, they aren't because they can't
1:14:53
get away with it because they have corporate overlords. We do not. So we have
1:14:56
these conversations a little bit more and are looking at these things a little bit
1:15:00
more often than the average person. But using the smokescreen— and it pisses
1:15:04
me off because somebody like Bomani could not, could never do— he can't be the
1:15:07
vibes guy. He's not allowed to be the vibes guy. He has to be the
1:15:10
fucking smartest person in the room. Like, come on.
1:15:13
Listen, listen, I agree with everything here because the smokescreen aspect of Pat
1:15:16
McAfee is my problem with Pat McAfee. I don't have a problem with Pat McAfee.
1:15:20
I have kind of a problem with the TV character of Pat McAfee because how
1:15:24
Pat McAfee McAfee's character on television gets used. And I think a decent amount
1:15:28
of this has also kind of been kind of warped a little bit by the
1:15:30
WWE aspect of it all, because everybody that goes to work for the WWE,
1:15:33
it fucks up your head and fucks up your life, dude. I mean, I thought
1:15:36
he was great with Michael Cole. Like, I do think he did a great job,
1:15:38
but there he did come back to TV a little bit different. And I,
1:15:42
I do, you know, I think part of this is also like, it is really
1:15:45
difficult in my— like, I could never— I've spent my
1:15:48
entire career almost like obsessively
1:15:52
making sure that everything that I say is backed up by like 7 different like
1:15:56
iterations of proof. I don't get to be the vibes guy.
1:16:01
Like, I've never gotten to be the vibes guy, even when I'm fucking dead right,
1:16:04
balls-on accurate, as our girl fucking says.
1:16:07
There, there's no room for me
1:16:10
to be vibes guy who maybe fucking says something a little bit rogue.
1:16:14
I have— there Everybody on the internet knows me as the receipts girl.
1:16:18
I fucking— I put screenshots in the back of everything I fucking say. I quote
1:16:22
everything I say. I make sure everything's fucking backed up. If I'm telling you a
1:16:24
stat, it's behind me. I'm telling you exactly what the fuck I know and
1:16:28
how I know it and whatever, because I'm so fucking constantly terrified
1:16:32
of like not— that when people do get me like kind of loose and
1:16:37
I do get to be fun, and so I'll make my videos where I'm just—
1:16:40
even then I have to be like Disclaimer, I'm being a fan right now,
1:16:43
right? Like, I don't— I don't get to just fucking fuck around.
1:16:47
I've never been able to just fuck around. Yeah, I get it. And so I
1:16:50
was like, you know, fucking thanks, Bomani. Yeah, we know white
1:16:55
guys get to fuck around. Like, thanks for the fucking heads up. We— I kind
1:16:59
of already knew that. Yes, you are right. And I— trust
1:17:03
me, you actually saying this actually makes me understand your frustration a little bit more.
1:17:06
But I have to say, you You, you're dead right. Like, the issue I have
1:17:09
with Pat McAfee is the smokescreen that he has become. Because you be the
1:17:13
vibes guy all you want, you know what's not really giving me all the vibes?
1:17:15
Fucking great vibes around all the fascism. Fucking, fucking love
1:17:20
all, love all the fucking sweet vibes around the fucking
1:17:24
ICE arrests and fucking murders in the streets. Fucking vibes,
1:17:28
bro. Like, yeah, like, that's where you fucking kind of
1:17:32
lose me a little bit. And I, and I know that Bomani was more talking
1:17:35
about the fact that like he speaks— he was talking about the fact that he
1:17:38
actually speaks positively about athletes, which is something we've— which is actually kind of
1:17:42
refreshing. And I do love that about— that does not negate all of the like
1:17:46
not good vibes he puts out a bunch of other— dude, he was at the
1:17:48
Hunger Games. Yeah, like he was at the fucking Hunger Games. It's what happened.
1:17:52
Um, I saw it. We were there. Can't take it back. Well, we weren't there,
1:17:56
but we were there watching that. My eyes will never unsee them.
1:17:59
Yeah. Um, I— it's so funny because I I keep remembering that fucking shit show,
1:18:03
the UFC, um, octagon fight in the White House. Like, oh God, I'm gonna try
1:18:07
to block it. Remember they were building it when I was in Washington, DC and
1:18:09
I could see them building it and I was like, man, I totally forgot.
1:18:12
That was like such a disaster. And any other president would have like— it would
1:18:15
have been like a talking point for like 7 months. But because he's such a
1:18:17
disaster, we like just moved past it, breezed past it. Like it was like no
1:18:20
big deal. Dana White was like, never doing that shit again. That sucked. And everybody
1:18:23
was like, cool, fine, no big deal. Like, I hate it here. And part of
1:18:27
the Part of this normalization of that is people like Pat McAfee.
1:18:30
Like, people like Pat McAfee are the reason that we just
1:18:34
like breeze by the craziest shit that's ever fucking happened every
1:18:38
fucking day in the White House.
1:18:41
Listen, bro, all I know is the vibes are real high out here,
1:18:44
man. The vibes are great. You know, abortion's like illegal everywhere
1:18:49
and, you know, everybody has— doesn't have rights anymore. Fucking— but the vibes are high,
1:18:52
dude. Oh,
1:18:55
fucking— let's get on, let's get— let's talk about fucking measles
1:18:59
outbreaks. Vibes. All right, speaking of vibes, yeah,
1:19:03
we're gonna do a little catch-up corner. Let's do it. It's really just gonna be
1:19:06
about me reflecting for my birthday. This is for the people, this is for our—
1:19:10
this is for our viewers that stick around to the end. For you, yeah,
1:19:12
this is for whatever. Let's see Tanya have a moment of reflection. I have
1:19:16
in this last year experienced a lot of change, so I was— I was Uh,
1:19:20
laid off in July of 2025. So that last year was
1:19:24
my first birthday of like, holy fuck, I'm unemployed and
1:19:27
building this brand on my own. In that time,
1:19:31
in the last year, I have built a level
1:19:35
of following that I did not know was possible in a single year. Like,
1:19:37
it's actually insane. I'm like closing in on 300,000 followers
1:19:41
across platforms. Incredible. That is nuts. And the biggest thing
1:19:45
is is that I, at the time,
1:19:49
right before my birthday last year, I was trying to put together
1:19:53
a podcast with my friend. And I flew to Houston and
1:19:57
we did this whole thing, and we had this crazy falling out. And it was
1:20:00
one of those things where I was like, I don't know what just happened,
1:20:03
but like, I, I literally had whiplash. Like, I, I went
1:20:07
home and I woke up the next morning from— or I went to my hotel,
1:20:10
I woke up the next morning, he had blocked me on everything that we'd ever
1:20:14
spoken on. We'd been friends for like— we'd been planning this, whatever, and I was
1:20:17
in his city visiting him and he'd blocked me
1:20:20
on everything. And I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like,
1:20:24
this is crazy. I flew home a day early. I was— it was nuts.
1:20:27
And then like a month and a half later I hear from you,
1:20:30
or 2 and a half months later I hear from you that you just,
1:20:33
you know, wanted to reach out and try to like figure things out. And across
1:20:36
the course of that whole thing and us building The Regulars, it's been very
1:20:40
obvious that this was what I was
1:20:44
meant to do. Like, this was like the person I was meant to do it
1:20:47
with. This is the show I was meant to do. This is exactly what I
1:20:50
was supposed to be doing while I was building my own brand. And now this
1:20:53
is the only— like, this is like the thing that brings me the
1:20:56
most joy every single fucking week. And like, I think
1:21:00
we've built something so fucking sick. I think we've built something so sick. And you're
1:21:05
one of my favorite people. In the world. Like, I don't
1:21:08
think people understand how much I love you.
1:21:11
Like, you know I love you right back. You're literally one of— and like,
1:21:14
you've put so much— like, just giving me this studio,
1:21:18
it's— it means so much. And like, just the people
1:21:23
in this chat, like, you guys will never know like
1:21:26
how much it means to me. It's been
1:21:30
so much. Like, I've been through so much and this is so fucking hard.
1:21:34
It's so hard all the time. But like,
1:21:39
I think I'm— I think that like, this is the best work
1:21:43
I've ever done, both my— on my own and
1:21:47
with you. And I think part of the reason I can do such good work
1:21:49
on my own is because I'm doing the work I'm doing with you. And so
1:21:53
I'm just really grateful. I'm grateful for the people that support me
1:21:57
when it's not you know, thrown in their faces. They have to like look for
1:22:01
it and they have to try and they have to like give their
1:22:05
hard-earned money to a fucking subscription on Substack, or they have
1:22:08
to like comment on my stuff so that it gets boosted.
1:22:12
Like, it's— they really care and,
1:22:16
uh, it just means a lot to me. So,
1:22:20
and I don't care about crying because I cry all the time anyway. So,
1:22:23
and I brought my makeup up so I can fix it before we go out.
1:22:26
You'll fix it because you look terrible. Um,
1:22:30
love you right back. Um, doing this with you has been— um,
1:22:35
I'm like so proud of what we're doing here, and I'm really proud
1:22:39
of working with you. And, uh, literally over the last year, you've literally,
1:22:43
not jokingly, have become literally my best friend. Like, and it's been fucking great.
1:22:47
I've never had a better best friend. Um, you know,
1:22:50
I, I can't thank you enough for joining me in this stupid-ass venture that
1:22:55
we're doing. And I think we're just gonna keep building this and growing this.
1:22:58
And, uh, may the next many, many birthdays that we will fucking
1:23:02
experience together doing this, uh, just be fucking killer.
1:23:06
Because look, look what we've grown in such a short amount of time as a
1:23:09
fucking pirate ship. Yeah. And it's only a matter of time before fucking somebody gives
1:23:14
us lots of money. They're gonna give us so much money and And I'm totally
1:23:17
gonna, and I'm totally gonna like give VIP status
1:23:20
to my people. As you should. No, Tanya, you're, you're the most talented person
1:23:24
I think in this industry and not enough people fucking know it and not enough
1:23:28
people acknowledge it. And man, doing this with you, literally, you have no
1:23:32
idea. This has been, this has been like the most fulfilling thing
1:23:37
that I've had in my life for like the last like 10 years. Like this
1:23:40
has just been the best. So meeting somebody
1:23:44
the quality of you and the talent of you and just the fact that I
1:23:47
feel like I'm not crazy anymore, it's fucking
1:23:51
so nice. The anti-gaslighting. Holy shit, we're just like
1:23:55
fucking deprogramming all the fucking gaslighting that this horrible fucking sports industry has
1:23:59
done to us and is still doing to the fucking rest of each other's therapy.
1:24:03
We're like, you're not crazy. Thank Christ. And Mocha,
1:24:06
fuck you. Oh God, I didn't mean that. You're lovely and
1:24:10
you're, you're a big part of this family. You want to put your hand back
1:24:12
in the shot? Uh, people loved your hand. Oh my
1:24:16
gosh, you guys are so cute. Thank you guys, everybody in the chat, by the
1:24:20
way. Thank you so much. Yeah, the chat has been awesome today, and the chat's
1:24:24
been awesome every fucking show, and, uh, it's been killer. But yeah,
1:24:28
happy birthday. Uh, we have a long night ahead of us.
1:24:31
We are— we're going out to dinner, a bunch of us, and then we're going
1:24:34
out to fucking do some karaoke. Yeah. Because yeah, fucking— we don't
1:24:38
fuck around. We're fucking awesome. Yeah, it's gonna be great. What songs are you planning
1:24:42
on? Oh, absolutely nobody gets that preview. They might if we
1:24:46
get videos of each other singing at the karaoke. Maybe we, you know
1:24:50
what, might be— stay tuned at the Regulars Pod. We are officially able to
1:24:54
get subscribers on YouTube. We aren't quite ready to monetize yet, but we're very,
1:24:58
very close. So close. But we can monetize through subscribers. So maybe that's our first
1:25:02
subscription. It's just like, do you want to see me go? Doing karaoke?
1:25:05
Yes, because we're fucking doing it tonight. Uh, Tanya, happy birthday.
1:25:09
I love you. Everyone in this chat loves you. Um, and,
1:25:12
uh, even, even Mocha loves you. And Mocha doesn't— Mocha loves the chat,
1:25:16
actually. That is true. He didn't say he loved me. He loves the chat.
1:25:18
That is factual. Um, I love you too, Tony. Thank you.
1:25:22
I love Mocha. I love you. I love the regulars.
1:25:25
And Chris. Love you, Chris. Live audience,
1:25:28
baby. I love every single person that's constantly
1:25:32
in our chat that supports us. And, um, I'm excited
1:25:35
to see where we go from here. And yeah, absolutely. Well guys,
1:25:40
first things first, happy birthday. Like, share, and fucking subscribe
1:25:44
to The Regulars on Apple Podcasts and of course Spotify. And don't
1:25:48
you ever forget to hit that like, share, and subscribe button right here on YouTube.
1:25:51
Also follow us on Instagram. We will be posting clips, and maybe,
1:25:55
maybe if you're fucking lucky some fucking jams
1:25:58
too. Well, also, at some point we are gonna give
1:26:02
you the 9— the probably, I don't know, 9 to 10 part breakdown of the
1:26:06
Bloody Sock, but that day is not today. So for now, we're actually working
1:26:09
on a documentary. For now, forever. Actually, the name of the documentary,
1:26:13
you know what it's gonna be? Fuck Kurt Schilling.
1:26:16
Fuck Kurt Schilling. It's a great
1:26:20
title.