[00:00:12] Speaker A: Network that is 91 n. Head on over to the YouTube channel, hit subscribe and obviously make sure you check out all the great content the 91 network provides. Of course, the Game sports podcast is on there. Now let's introduce the co host. Join us for this first segment of the show. Anyways, before I get into the agenda, et cetera, firstly, going to Alex Parr, who is no longer in St. Marie. He is in Ottawa, but he is joining us here today on this segment of the game sports podcast, the one only, Alex Parr. Alex, my friend, how's it going?
[00:00:44] Speaker B: I got lost today. I didn't know what was going on. You told me we were recording, so I assumed it was Monday. But look at me making my Wednesday debut for this refreshed, revamped look of the Game sports podcast.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: That is right. Thank you for the reminder.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: I should have said anybody.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Yes, this is the Wednesday recording of the Game sports podcast. The other individual that you probably see on the screen, but if you're not on video and you're on audio, you don't see him. Maybe you sense his presence, but nonetheless, the one and only Dane Hantero, who is in Sioux St. Marie, Ontario. Dane Hantrow, how's it going, pal?
[00:01:16] Speaker C: I am currently here. Life is good. Just counting down the week till we get some real junior hockey on Boxing Day because the NHL makes me want to pull my hair out.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: And happy belated birthday. I know we said it last episode, but happy belated birthday to you. Speaking of birthday announcements, of course, got to give a birthday shout out today to a friend of the show and Cole's friend of ours as well, Pat DeLuca. He also turning 32 years old. So a little clap. And of course, I want to give another celebratory birthday shout out that we don't do a lot on the show, but someone that I consider a second father and trained me in a lot of hockey. And as a look at the jersey behind me, that's a jersey I wore when he was training me at 06:00 a.m. For four years, the one and only Billy Conduro. I want to say again, happy birthday to Billy, but also pat, Billy, happy birthday. Now, tonight's agenda for the Game sports podcast. In this first segment, it is going to be a top shelf segment to most of its entirety, to likely the entirety of it. We're not going to throw any loopholes in there with myself, Alex and Dane. Then, of course, we'll take a quick breather. And then for the second segment, it will be EJ Russell and Justin Heichel joining yours truly for the usual Wednesday in the Pocket podcast, of course. Now, Alex Dane, I'm going to get into the what we're going to talk about in this first segment. It's a lot. Okay, we are going to talk about the world juniors. We are going to talk about some NHL news. We're going to get into some local love and it ties into the world juniors. There's a lot to get into in such a short period of time. Our time limit is 15 minutes on this segment, so let's see if we can meet that concern. Here we go. As we get the giggles out of the way, I want to go over to myself first as I say that in an OD formation. I want to go to discussing the world juniors, which is Dane's area. But I am going to talk about one player in particular and it's a local shutout as I mentioned, and someone named Owen Allard. If you would have tuned in to a recent edition of the Game Sports podcast, Dane was on there. Of course, if you've looked at any of the social media uploads with any of the short clips, you would have saw that Dane had an opinion about the world juniors. But we did talk about in there with Owen Allard being named to the world junior hockey team for Canada and he is a Sue St. Marie Greyhound forward and he is from Ottawa. Speaking of where Alex is currently, he's not a local boy in Sue St. Marie, Ontario, obviously Ottawa Boy as I just mentioned, but he does play for the Sue St. Marie Greyhounds and he is been with the Sue Greyhounds since the 2021 2022 season. And this season to date, Owen Allard has 29 games played. He has 30 points, just over a point a game and he is big boy, six foot 2200 pounds. I envy that. I wish when I was playing hockey I was that size. Definitely going to be a good addition and a welcome addition to the Canada roster. And he is slated to play on the fourth line per se of that Canada team. We know that's a deep team that Canada has. It doesn't matter what line that you play on, you're likely going to get some good ice time and going to be around a lot of good players. But I feel Owen Allard is going to give a good presence to that canadian fourth line just from his size, his physicality, but his ability to put the pucks in the net. And for those of you that are NHL fans, I'm talking NHL, EA Sports NHL 24. I would like to consider Owen Allard, yeah, he has the schnipe ability, I would say, but I would give him a lot of the close quarters type ability and somebody who can be kind of shrug off the opponent per se, down low in the corners, really fight off, grind down low, but get pucks to the net and score in those dirty areas. That's what he's really going to be able to excel at in this tournament. And with the players that he's playing with, that opportunity will provide with them. And when you are playing a third or fourth line role in a type of tournament such as this, a lot of the skill is up front and present and you don't want to go out of the way to make a hit. And that's what Owen Allard does very good as well. He plays that strong two way game, but he can score. He does it all, especially in the OHL with the hounds. But going to this level of hockey that has a lot of top prospects throughout multiple teams, Owen Allard is going to bring that physicality to the ice, but also give Canada a little bit of an edge for somebody that could really set the tone on a shift, but also score a goal in a shift and not be a liability on the ice. And you got to say, guys, what I will pass on over to you, Dane, is that it's good here in sous St. Marie for us to have somebody like a forward or defense doesn't matter even if it's a goaltender, even a coach representing, of course, and I speak in us, of course, as I say in the game sports podcast. Of course, being in St. Marie, Ontario with the Marie Greyhounds, to have somebody present in the tournament for the Hounds is obviously a big plus for the community and it's always a treat to see a Sue Greyhound that is on the roster of the world junior hockey championships, Canada or whatever team.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think we're pretty glued to the tv come world junior time, regardless if we have any guys from the Sioux or who play for the Greyhounds on the team. But yeah, it's always nice. And like I said, we've actually had, I think over the last few years, I mean last 1015 years, really some significant contributors to the success of Team Canada who have donned the Sue Greyhound jersey. So we can only hope our boy this year maybe moves up from that fourth line up to the third line, has a couple good games early on and becomes a key contributor to the success of Team Canada this year. And I think this is really a team know we're not looking at a very top heavy team.
I think the way Canada is going to have a chance to win this tournament is kind of grinding it out and getting contributions from all four lines. And I mean, you're not going to ask your four for third line to be scoring all the goals, but you definitely want them to be on the plus side of the plus minus there as most likely those guys won't be playing a lot of power play minutes and they're going to be killing penalties, too. Right. And come world junior time, special teams are important.
Very important. Right. And you know how the international hockey goes and as the tournaments in Sweden, things are a little bit different. Some of the rules are a little bit different and that sometimes costs some teams. So again, special teams in a short tournament, you know, if you're able to get your power play and your penalty kill buzzing through your warm up games, whoever you're playing and your practices and your camp and stuff like that, that goes a long way, especially early on before teams can kind of mold and build that chemistry together. So I'm going to be looking at that. For Team Canada. They really want to have success in this tournament and maybe show that they can beat the states again. Par wasn't on the last one and me and Dave kind know discussed that. We definitely think Team USA on paper for sure are the favorites for this tournament. This, you know, we've lost a couple key contributors on the team that are definitely eligible to play this year but are playing NHL hockey. So yeah, like I said, it's good. I always love when we get a little greyhound guy playing for our team this year and wish him the utmost success for Team Canada this year.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: So par, I'm going to put you kind of a two parter to you when it comes to Owen Allard, but also Team Canada had a big contribution, somebody that was added to their roster this week and I'll let you say who that is. I don't want to take all the Thunder with the news break, but the first part of the question is lastly with Owen Allard is he's undrafted, he is a 19 year old. He could still get drafted this year if the tournament goes well. And if he does get drafted, it'd likely be a bit in the later rounds. Of course, maybe not, maybe earlier. I'm not saying that in any kind of way to point out anything, but obviously with Owen Allard, is it fair to say that he is kind of playing with house money a little bit here in terms of he doesn't have pressure. He probably didn't feel that he had the expectation to make the team, but he's having a good season, right? And he's having a good year, but then you get the invite and then you're like, oh my goodness, I have a chance. That confidence builds. Confidence builds. He goes to camp, does well. So the point of the question is par is he going into the tournament with no pressure or is he still going in with pressure? And then, of course announce the big addition that Canada had to their tournament squad this week.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: I don't think Owen Allard has had pressure like this in his life, more so than right now. I know. House, money. This guy's not drafted, so he's going to be on the biggest stage that any agent could dream for their client to be on. Because if you perform and there's always a guy on the fourth line that will always sneak his way up to the third or second line, it's just like that exciting guy that they used to pump in a little bit more energy.
So I honestly can't say that Owen Allard, a kid that's going to be growing up, probably had attended World junior games in Ottawa as a kid.
This is it. This is what every kid dreamt of growing up. Yeah, I think most hockey players will say that once the game gets started, it just goes back to just being hockey and that pressure kind of falls off of them a little bit. So hopefully that's the case for him.
In the other regard, I was really hoping that I wasn't going to have to say his name because I don't know how to pronounce it.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: Matt Potram Portois Portrait.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: It sounds like portraits, but it's Portois for sure. Confident.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Okay.
But yeah, anytime that a Boston Bruins player has to leave when they're generally a pretty good player, big fan of that here. He's posted five goals and eight assists this season. It kind of caught me off guard. I don't know about you guys, the fact that Boston sent him back, he's been playing fine, but maybe they just feel like this is something good for his development. They probably know more than I do sitting here in the office, so it's great for Canada. I honestly think that, like Dane was saying, they were missing a little bit of that star power. They were missing that big, big name. And I think this might be as close as they get to it. But before I leave, let's give some love to r two carkey. 16 goals in 30 games with the Greyhounds. Unreal. 14 assists for 30 points. Point a game. Pace playing for team Finland.
I think that guy is as legit as they come and I think it's awesome that another sugreyhound is being represented on the national stage even though it's not team.
[00:11:57] Speaker C: I would imagine he'll be running their power playlist here.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: If I had to guess, when Dane.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: And I were at the game for the Joe Thornton ceremony here to St. Marie, which was a memorable story in itself as I followed Joe Thornton into the bathroom, quote unquote. Followed. I didn't follow quote unquote.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: You said it.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: But Dan and I were even looking at Carkey's statistics at that point. You're like, wow, obviously we've heard about him throughout the year and it was consistent. Like, oh, maybe it's someone who's going to have a hot start, right? And shred down. But nope, this kid is just going like this this entire time and he's a Vegas pick.
Third round get richer with prospects and that's what people don't understand.
[00:12:41] Speaker C: That might be a steal. I'm sure they're very happy about how he's performing this year.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Look, you look at the first round picks and you think, oh, wow, these players supposed to work out. They don't always do. Of course, a large chunk of them most of the time don't. But that's why people, when they make trades in ash hockey, those third, those fourth, those fifths, when they throw them in trades, those just fill in pick, fill those in. It doesn't matter. It does. Those late round picks, you can find those diamonds in the rough. So there's been a lot. I don't even want to sit here. I'd be taking weeks to go through a list, but ones that come to name right now, car key is one. Nemula on the Toronto Maple leaf system is another one. And if you want to go into the past, you can look at Zetterberg Datsuk, late draft picks, right?
When you have such a strong scouting staff and you pick these players, they deserve to get a little tap on their back in the good way saying good job because Carkey was a very good pick and he is looking good. And the Sue Greyhounds, who are a top team in the Ontario Hockey League and a top rated team in all of major junior in Canada, got Carkey. You got allerg. You also got McCarra Barker on there, who's a ranger pick who hasn't done as good as people thought he would this year to this point. But nonetheless, it's still a very good team. And that's why here on the game sports podcast we talk all sports, all teams and more. So love in the National Hockey League. But we see the Sioux Greyhounds doing well or not doing well. There's been a lot of good players that have been coming through this system for many years. Heck, Wayne Gretzky played here, if you don't remember that. Listeners, for those of you outside of the Sioux, and the list goes on. Allard representing Canada, hopefully it's a good push for him, but Carkey is definitely one for the Greyhounds roster that, as danger said, will likely be running the power play in Finland. But switching gears, we've talked about the world juniors a little bit. We got a couple of points we want to get to before we take a breather and then we're going to be talking football with EJ and Justin and myself.
Ottawa Senators I'm going to go to Alex for this because you know why Alex is in Ottawa. Alex gets to go to work in Ottawa, drive around, hear maybe the sportscasters that are in Ottawa and there's been some change with the senator, the Senators. DJ Smith, who was formerly with the Leafs in the assistant role, may I remind you, is gone. Jacques Martin is back in, and Daniel Alfredson, who was very good behind the bench when Ottawa was in Sweden, if you want to remember, when he was behind the bench, Ottawa did quite well. That is kind of almost going to seem like Jacques Martin is grooming Alfredson to be the next coach. It almost feels like a little bit, almost seems like a kind of mentor kind of thing going there. But Smith out. Fans seem excited. Ottawa, this has been a team par. If you want to touch on the coaching stuff, you can. It's obviously been pretty hot news in Ottawa, but it's not even just the coaching news. The team has not been living up to expectations. This year was supposed to be a stepping stone for them, maybe being a wild card and this team's not on, can't. It's not showing or performing the way it should.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: I don't know about your expectations, but they're living up to my expectations. I have no idea why Ottawa fans thought they were going to be as good as they exclaimed, oh, we'll see the Leafs in the standings. Come talk to us in. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Honestly, I feel like the wind kind of came out of their sails when all that stuff with management and ownership and losing those draft picks in the offseason kind of happened. It kind of felt like everybody was a little bit deflated from that. I don't think they were ever able to kind of pick up the traction again.
I don't know how DJ Smith was employed for as long as he.
I mean, maybe he had some dirt on someone in the organization and he was just using it to stay employed. But this was a move long time coming and if you're not planning on being a lottery pick team, then this guy should not have been there to begin the season.
I don't know what they're going to try to do here for the rest of the year. They're obviously going to tell the media that they're here to win games. But you have not put yourself in a position where making a playoff spot is going to be easy. You're in a tough division. It's already running away on you.
I'm very curious to see what the direction is going to be going forward because if I'm in that spot, having to decide that I'm not feeling like the luckiest man in the world.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: That's for sure. This is a team that truly DJ Smith out, who's a below 500 win percentage in his tenure in Ottawa. And Alex de Prinkett wants out in the offseason, right? Wants to go to Detroit to divisional rival, which you don't see too often. Divisional rival trades sometimes. But Ottawa had to make that trade because the Brinkett kind of forced their hand to a degree, right? Kind of chose where he wanted to go to an extent. And it seems know this is a team with Brady Kachuk. Tim Stutzla. I'm a Stutzla fan. I think Stutzler is a great hockey player.
Kind of his Persona on the ice feel like he'd be somebody I would be pissed at if I was playing against a little bit. But hey, that doesn't matter.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Biggest diver in the league, man. It's so hard to watch.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: It's part of his culture.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: But the team that I want to highlight, Danny, maybe you agree or not, the goaltending, right? You spend so much money on bringing in someone like Jonas Carpasalo and I don't think there's a guy that's going to win you a cup. You have certain contracts on that team that aren't a fit. The system is just not working. Maybe a coaching change helps, but does leadership as Parr touched on Brady Kachuk, is that a factor, Dane? Is goaltending a factor or is Ottawa just kind of maybe think they have the team together, but maybe it's not the right team meshing together and they kind of have to reevaluate what they.
[00:18:30] Speaker C: Have in place, I think they have the pieces to be a lot better than they are. Do I think they're a playoff team yet? I think they're on the fringe. I mean, they're definitely not playing like it right now. But yeah, the east is competitive right now. You have teams in the metropolitan that are playing out of their minds right now. Philadelphia being one of those, you know, the Detroit's, the Buffaloes and the Ottawas were know one of those teams we expected know take that next step in the Atlantic.
Boston basically gave the fuck you to everybody in the league. We're not done. And Tampa, Kucherov is putting that team on his back right now. They're not good.
Edmonton lost a seven four game against Tampa. We outshot them by like 40 shots. And that just speaks to having a world class goaltender compared to a not world class goaltender goes a long way. But back to the Ottawa Senators. Yeah, I think DJ Smith kept his job. I think he should have been let go at the end of the season.
They gave him that one more shot. Obviously, they're not where they expected themselves to be at this point of the year.
Their schedule has also been really weird this year. They've had a lot of long gaps between games, which is kind of hard to build that momentum. And now in December, they're playing back to backs every week now. Right. So you can't always blame it on the scheduling. I mean, the Detroit Red Wings, when they were in the Western Conference, had the worst travel schedule known to sports and still dominated the NHL. Right? So can't exactly use that as an excuse, but you got chicker in, you got Sanderson. I know Shabbat's been out of the lineup most of the year. You got Martin Zub. Like on paper, they have a great top four for defensemen, and they have a great top two lines. I mean, is it a depth thing like Edmonton, where they're really struggling to get that secondary scoring? And then, yeah, corporate Salo hasn't been terrible, but again, his state percentage is just under 900 right now. And in close games, you need your goalie to kind of steal you a couple. And I think Ottawa is suffering a lot from what Edmonton is suffering. Right? We don't have a goaltender right now, or we don't have a goaltender that's playing well enough to steal a game or two. And I think when your goalie stands on his head and wins you a game that you guys can, you come off the ice and you go in the dressing room, you're like that guy right there won us that game. Nobody else on the team want us that game. Our goaltender won us that game. And I think that does a lot for confidence. I think that does a lot for your ability to move the puck up the ice and maybe take smart risks with the puck. That may lead to some offensive rushes that may turn into goals. But maybe when your goaltender is not making that save and you're having defensive breakdowns, you get nervous, right? And maybe you're not making the plays that you would normally play with the confidence. So I think the coaching move is smart.
I don't know if our former head coach from the early 2000s is the key to turn around the Ottawa senator season. Mind you, they did have some success until they ran into Toronto in the playoffs. It's the last team Toronto owned in the.
It's. It's. I just. I still just think that division's a little too top heavy and I just don't think that Tampa and Boston are ready to kind of pass the torches down to these up and coming young teams. And look, Detroit, excellent start. They've been dog shit the last seven games. Buffalo is moderately better than the Ottawa Senators and a lot of so called experts, including us, would assume that one of those teams were going to kind of sneak into a playoff and maybe see Boston drop out.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Maybe.
[00:22:36] Speaker C: See, I never saw really Toronto, Florida dropping out. And honestly coming down to it, if I'm a betting man, I was never going to bet against Tampa or Boston just because they're a little bit older and they've had some success.
You don't go from having the most points in the NHL in a season and then you lose your 38 year old top centerman and then you're just not going to make the playoffs. That's just not how life works and that's not how they.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Well, they lost their third line center, too. Don't forget they lost David Craig.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: They're still the best team in the fucking NHL, right?
[00:23:12] Speaker B: No. Are they number one or is it LA?
[00:23:15] Speaker C: No, it's New York right now. I think for the top of the sandings. Even Colorado's kind of falling off a little bit lately. Jonathan Deja shit on his team in an interview, which was quite interesting.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Rangers first in the east, Vegas first in the west, Boston's third.
[00:23:33] Speaker C: But yeah, regardless, there's a lot of season to go. But know those three teams and I mean, you can throw Montreal in the mix. They're, they're know that far, know they're a goalie away. Other two teams that aren't named.
It's the Atlantic's a very interesting division. There's four really good teams and there's four up and coming teams that look like they're just maybe not there. I think. I think Ottawa on paper has the best team, but they're just not putting it together. And I have a dear friend who loves the Ottawa Senators and I'll message them and I'm like, what the fuck is going on with our teams? Right? Like we're bad. And I don't get it.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: And the thing is that I'll mention, too, and this is not an excuse anymore, because if you are a playoff team, it's next man up mentality. If you have an injury or you have something happen, you need to prepare as the GM that, okay, I have two goalies that are my go to. I need to have that third option that I can not really rely to be that star stud, but maybe to steal games when an injury happens. Ottawa has had know they've had injuries occur, and that does deflate momentum, that does deflate a team. But teams have all faced injuries this year. A lot of teams have. And I'll use Toronto as an example. They've actually played better when players gotten hurt. The Lagos thing going in, you have Max Lazawa, former senator, going in, like who you have these guys next met. But again, my point is next man up mentality when you're a playoff team, doesn't matter if you're supposed to be top team, whatever, you're a playoff team. It's that next man up mentality and find ways to win. If you're a good team. And I'm not saying that Toronto is the only team that does that. There's so many other teams in the league that's had to face injuries, had to face that adversity. It seems like Ottawa couldn't get it going. Then they got the injuries. It just got worse and it just kind of tumbled, tumbled and they couldn't rebound. And now they're in a tough spot to rebound month. But we'll see. Crazier things have happened after Christmas going to the new year's, look what happened with St. Louis. I'm not saying Ottawa is going to be St. Louis. They're not going to come from a bottom team and win the Stanley cup by any means. Maybe they can really try to really salvage this year. But I'm a fan of if you're not in a playoff spot by deadline, move out pieces, keep core young pieces and try to get a high that's.
[00:25:44] Speaker C: But again, but if you're, what, what do you do at the trade deadline? Who are you moving?
I guess Terra Sanko?
[00:25:53] Speaker A: Teresanko. I don't know about Sharu.
[00:25:54] Speaker C: Yeah, but what are you going to get for? Because, like, trade deadline is weird. Is he a guy that you're going to get a first for, like, fucking Ben Sharat when he went to whatever.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: The fucking robbery, that trade robbery.
[00:26:09] Speaker C: Generally, you would think terracycle would bring in more, but aging guy, he's slowed down a lot. Does he have that much? Like, is there better options? I think a lot of teams that are going to the playoffs are generally pretty top heavy on your top two lines. So if there's not a slot and you don't want to take a younger guy out of the lineup, does that really make sense? Right? Again, the market is set kind of around this time of the year. That first big trade kind of happens around December, January leading up to the deadline. So we'll kind of see what the price is, but I just don't know if there's a lot of value in moving guys. I think Claude Jerou is a guy that they want to keep around, and I think he's a guy that wants to be there to kind of mold some of these young guys and show them the way, how to be a leader and stuff. Like, I just, I think beyond Teresanko and maybe Dominic Kubalik, who's having a fucking awful season for them right now, might be something you might be able to get a little bit for. But I think it's kind of an awkward spot for the centers. And you got to look at a team that spent a fair bit of things on Jacob Chickerin last year, too, right? You go from that buyer and then you're in this spot where you guys think you're kind of going to make a run for the playoffs, and then now you're not that team. And are you hit with reality, right.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: But the Ottawa Senators, tough spot overall. And if you're a sense fan, I know a few sense fans as well, and you had such optimism going into this year, but there was one sense fan that mentioned to me. Remember him telling me, he's like, no, we're still not as good as people think we are. You know what? I didn't think he was right so far. He is right now. Fellas, there were a couple of points we wanted to get to, and I'm going to get to two of them. There's one that I want to tease to listeners, and it's one where Dane, Alex and I are going to talk about goal songs, but I'm not going to get to that right now because we don't want to get into the time. I know it's going to get into some back and forth bickering. So for time constraints we're going to get into two things. Alex, par has a topic he's going to address about Jordan Tutu. And then, pardon me, we're going to get into passing out our Christmas presents and also our Christmas lump of coal to a team of each is going to get a present and a lump of coal from the game sports podcast Santa Claus, if you will. To wrap up this segment, par, I'm going to give you the floor for the time that you need to talk about Jordan Tutu's book. That's one that we discussed. You wanted to talk about?
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I wanted to talk about this a few weeks ago. This tweet came out on December 10. It's a little snippet from Jordan Tutu's book. If you actually are watching this on YouTube, you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. Just very quickly, I'm going to read through this. When I wasn't claimed by anyone, I went to talk to Stan. Hey, look, I said I did you guys a favor by signing because you were stuck as far as signing another veteran guy. Now it's your turn to return the favor. I'm not going down to Rockford. My wife's pregnant. She's due in February. I'm not moving back and forth with my daughter and my wife. Put me on long term injured reserve and do whatever you have to do in order so it looks right because I'm not going to play in Rockford. End of story. My shoulder really had been bugging me quite a bit. Stan said, get me an MRI on the shoulder and we'll use that as our out. And so that's what happened. I packed my bags and went down to Rockford for one pregame skate just to say that I was there and that I wasn't able to play health wise.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: Then I went on long term IR.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: And never heard from the organization again.
Clearly we are lying about the LTIr and it has now been proven by a player. So I just think, especially as a Leafs fan, there is so much lying going on in this league. So much. And then I think back to Tampa's cup where they were making the shirts about being like $27 million over the cap and laughing about it. And Kucharov gets activated day one of the playoffs. Here's the proof, folks. Here it is. There's literally a player now saying the ltir is a scam. It is a lie. They made it up for him because he just didn't want to go. He had a little hissy fit, didn't want to go for very valid reasons, mind you, but that you're a player. You got to do what you got to do. How is this not a bigger story? How is this the thing that's just getting tossed to the wayside? I don't understand. As soon as I read this, my mind blew up.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: And honestly, that's a perfect clip. Spoiler. That will be a clip on our socials. So if you see it on social, you probably may have clicked because of that. And thank you, par, because increasing the views, if you will. But that should be a bigger story. We've been talking about a lot of topics on this podcast for years, shootouts, overtime. And those topics will be brought up again because me and Alex revisited that. But back to point, the LTIR has been a topic. There's been a lot of topics addressed on this. And that is one. Teams that are scamming the system per se, to be able to get ahead and to cheat. But it's not that they're cheating. It is. But at the same time, they're finding a way. They're finding a loophole so they can have the advantage to get the ultimate prize, which is actually a definition of cheating a little bit. Now that I say it out loud, it is. Let me refrain and say it is a way of cheating. I lied to myself right there, speaking of that. And then teams will find ways. The Leafs are Robot island, baby. Robot island. Right. That's what the big thing is. Oh, you're not good anymore.
See you later. Here, you're gone. You're going to know. Not in Vegas. There's that as well. When it came to last year, but when it came to the playoffs, it's a little bit different. I know the activated player, but less. Not like Tampa Bay, but Tampa Bay, same thing. And for Jordan Tutu to have that posted and written, that tells you right then and there. And I'm surprised a lot of people are not talking about this part.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: You roped in Stan Bowman, one of the most revered general managers of all time, saying, oh, yeah, Stan made it work for me because I told him I didn't want to go.
I mean, okay, sure. In this scenario, I don't think Detroit was very good when Tutu was around. He's not a lot of money. It's not really that big of a deal. So we won't say anything.
[00:32:38] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: But then that snowballs into these playoff teams, winning cups, directly involved with LTIr that we don't really know how legitimate it is anymore because now we have proof. Jordan Tuchu said it. He has quoted Stan Bowman in it and there hasn't been a peep about nothing. If I didn't bring this up to you right now, would either one of you guys have heard about it?
[00:33:02] Speaker C: I heard about it.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: Oh, you did?
[00:33:04] Speaker C: Okay.
I don't know where. I've just been watching, like Sportsnet before the hockey game.
[00:33:12] Speaker B: You might have saw it because I sent it in the group chat.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: Maybe that's what I read.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Talking about it. I don't think we would have talked about it. And I know I'm saying a media company out loud, but I don't think it was on TSN or Sportsnet or ESPN.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: No, it definitely wasn't. This never hit mainstream media. And that's the thing. If it wasn't for me stumbling across a tweet, you guys wouldn't have heard about it. I would love to know if the people that are watching this have heard about it and if they have or haven't, please let us know because it just blows my mind. This didn't blow up. And I just wanted to shout this from the rooftop as loud as I can to try to push this out to as many people that can hear it, that care.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: I like, I think that's a great story and I think fans, listeners, viewers, whatever, get involved in it. Let us know if you have heard it.
Know Jordan Tutu is somebody openly that I'll say, I've been trying to get on this podcast that's convenient enough. That would be quite a good guest to have and maybe something that we would of course bring up because it is obviously in the open. But the LtIR seems to be something that the NHL needs to look into. And I thought they would have going into this year. And I'm even saying that as a leaf fan. But you know what? What does that tell you that needs to happen? Does it need to happen that when people have surgery that they have to do the Aaron Rogers, where they take a picture in their operational, in the operating room and they got their thumbs up or what needs or show proof of surgery? Are we getting to that point now? You have to actually determine and prove your injury to be on ltIr. Okay.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's exactly what you need to do is to prove you are injured to go on LTIR. Yes.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: They say medical examiners do the test and pass it. But is that all true? There's so many conspiracies.
[00:34:57] Speaker C: Oh, I imagine it.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: I'm a medical examiner. Yes.
[00:35:01] Speaker D: Oh, no, Jordan, no.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: I don't think you can play.
[00:35:06] Speaker C: I mean, like, who's checking it out? A fucking doctor in Detroit or there?
[00:35:11] Speaker D: Not.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Yeah, a doctor getting paid by the team to say what they want him to say? That's crazy.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: All right, we'll table that and revisit that. But that's a great topic. Please give your interactions below. And if you've heard it or seen it on any of our socials, don't hesitate to comment on there as well. Our social media team. That is not fully me. If people want to criticize, it's not par will test. That's not just me uploading our socials. There's someone else involved in that. So there will be interaction if you would like it. The last topic, boys, because we're 18 minutes above God, we are doing the usual game. Sports notes.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: You said 15 minutes. We're at 35 minutes. Just throwing that out there.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: That's why it's great content. You never want to cut that off. But the last thing that we'll do, and we'll try to do little segments at the end of a show. I know with football we have pick them and we also have the two minute warning. We got segments within the segments. And we're going to start trying to intertwine that with the top shelf segment or into our shows a little bit more just to create some more interaction. And why not? In the joy of. While I sit here in my very nice dress shirt. This is a dress shirt, mind you, but it's kind of festive, right? It's got green, it's got flowers. It's more of a fallish color, in my opinion. But it's green. It's the holiday season. I don't have a Santa suit to put on for you. I do got a red suit right in front of me that I wore to my work Christmas party. But I am not putting that on right now. I should have thought about that before doing this. But we're going to be Santa Claus's right now. That is me. Par and Dan are going to be Santa Claus's. And what that means is that we are going to provide and as we have.
All right, that's speaking of goal hordes. We never really have. Someone wants to give.
We're going to give a present to a team and a lump of coal. And this is the implications. A team that has done well, a team that deserves a present, done well to this point, and again, a lump of coal, pretty obvious team that has not lived up to expectations. So I'll set the tone. Then I'm going to go to Alex, then Dane last. I'm curious.
[00:37:11] Speaker C: This should all be the same answer.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: I have two answers that are very easy for me.
[00:37:17] Speaker C: Right.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Well, to be honest, I had to think about it a little bit. A team that I want to give a present to because I think they've overachieved. It might be a little OD, but the Philadelphia Flyers, that's one of my.
That's one that I want to give. Merry Christmas to Philadelphia Flyers. You've definitely overachieved this point in the season.
Now, the team that I want to give a lump of coal, really, I was going around if it was going to be, believe it or not, if it was going to be the Oilers, if it was going to be the sharks, but I didn't want to go the Sharks because they'rebuilding. That's just not there. If it was going to be Ottawa. But again, I just feel like the expectation to maybe make the playoffs there wasn't like you're supposed to. So the lump of coal I'm giving to is to Kyle Dubis's Pittsburgh penguins. That is where I'm giving lump of coal to. They're a game above 500, but they aren't living up to expectations. They don't look like they're going to be a playoff team, and it's just not looking good for Pittsburgh. So that's my lump of coal flyers present. Penguins coal par.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: I want to give two gifts because it's the season of giving.
I'm feeling festive. The Philadelphia Flyers, obviously, was the easiest one to tee up. And another easy one, the LA Kings. I did not expect them to be this good. They are absolutely stellar.
I'm glad you did, Dane. Well, I didn't, and I want to reward them for that with a big old gift of good luck. Guys, keep it up because I have Cam Talbot and fantasy God.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Speaking of fantasy, kegger is coming in hot. Kind of on a heater, eh? Heater Kegger is back. He had to pay that $50. He realized he's got to set his.
[00:39:05] Speaker C: Sometimes you forget and it costs you.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Dane, what are you passing out? St. Nick, what are you giving?
[00:39:13] Speaker C: Oh, I mean, it's absolutely the Philadelphia Flyers. I think Johnny. Johnny has that team playing team hockey right now. Four lines, banging Carter Hart.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: That's what I would think.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: Guy that I said is the second coming of Kerry Price the last five years is finally somewhat living up to those expectations a little bit. High fantasy goalie, 919, say percentage. Playing great hockey right now. Love to see it. He's going to lead us to the promised land if we ever get back to international fucking hockey one of these days.
Yeah, I think if Philadelphia squeaks it even to a wild card spot, I mean, I really have a hard time seeing this team being able to sustain what they're playing at right now for the rest of the season. But I still think they can squeak it to a wild card spot. And if they do, there's only one guy that should win the Jack Adams this year, and that's our boy torts. I think you got to give the guy credit where credits do. I think he's been able to kind of change his mentality of coaching. There's just a lot of old time coaches that have know this Mike Keenan esque mentality, and players nowadays don't respond well to that.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:22] Speaker C: So I think he's been able to really change his approach to coaching, which I know that's. I think, you know, you're kind of set in your ways for a long time. And John Tortorellis had success in Tampa. I mean, he never won a cup in New York, but they had a hell of a hockey team for a lot of years in New York. Right? So great coach. They make the playoffs. Jack Adams, no doubt in my mind. And yeah, I think fucking Edmondson. Edmonds.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: Come on, give it to him. Give it to him.
[00:40:55] Speaker C: Connor and Leon have no fucking presents under their tree.
And you know who really should have nothing for Christmas is Ken fucking Holland.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: Jack Campbell was a risk, and it was a forced move because we needed a goaltender. The guy might get devoted to the East coast league. This is how bad he's playing.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: He's four and six with like an 880 in the a.
[00:41:24] Speaker C: Our Bakersfield team prides themselves on dominating the NHL or the HL rather, and they can't win games with Jack and a good.
I just, I think you got to give a lot of call to Edmonton. They're for sure the team that is underachieving the most. I remember Sportsnet came out with all their so called analysts and who's going to win the cup. And yeah, the majority had Edmonton this year. And my God, they're going to be lucky if they even squeak in the playoffs this year.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: What a kiss of death that is.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: A great way to end the top shelf segment. It was top shelf in its entire already. We don't have time to get into the one topic, as I mentioned about goal songs and a variety topic because I've learned now on this show officially that I will never say when we do a recording that it's only going to be 15 minutes. I'll not say that going forward. The rest of every segment as we're doing pre recording that is live is a little bit different if we ever get back to that. But I will never say the time limit again on a segment, just so listeners know, so they can refrain from maybe chirping me about it, which hasn't happened yet. But it might happen because there's some fire content in this first segment that Alex, Dane and has have has given you either way. Nonetheless, this has been the game sports podcast. I am going to take a breather. Alex and Dane are going to take off for the rest of the night. Alex, I want to say thank you for coming on taking the time. You're welcome. Feeling better. I hope your holiday seasons enjoy. It is our last show. I didn't say this at the beginning. It is our last show until after the new year and we'll be back on January the third. Just remind want you, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: You as well, Dave. Merry Christmas, buddy.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Happy belated birthday. Show that picture.
[00:43:09] Speaker C: I only have one thing to say.
[00:43:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:43:11] Speaker C: Go blue, baby. Go blue.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: That is a great segue.
[00:43:16] Speaker C: The only thing that matters right now, football, America in Europe, everything else, I don't care except the world juniors.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Great segue into the next segment. Love that. This is the game sports podcast powered by 91 Network. Listen, if you've got a podcast, you want to air your podcast, start a podcast. 91 network
[email protected] just reach out and it can be aired on there with all the other great podcasts, including ours, as well as bitter rivals, average jocks, strong minds, the Paxack project. There's content on there for you to enjoy and be a part of. But again, thank you to 91 n. This again, the game Sports podcast. We take a breather. When we come back, we got little in the pocket action and just remind listeners, yes, I'm going to be talking about how I'm in the finals for fantasy football for the first time in seven years of doing fantasy football. Yeah, only seven years I've been doing it. Chirp, mate, go ahead. Nonetheless, I'm in the finals for the first time against the birthday boy, not Dane Pat DeLuca is who I'm against in fantasy football. So I might do a little bragging about that. But EJ and Justin will always give us some great content.
[00:44:22] Speaker C: The fantasy league that nobody cared about this year.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: Shut up. We'll be right back with the game.
With the game sports podcast. Don't go anywhere. And welcome back to the Game Sports podcast. Is your host, David McCaig Jr. Continuing to host you this evening on the second episode of the week, the Wednesday segment of the Game sports podcast. Whatever way you look at it, we are in the second segment. And what does the second segment mean on Wednesdays? You're wondering? Well, if you're new to the show, well, I'll tell you in just a minute. If you aren't new to the show, well, you already know what's coming. Okay, we got EJ, we got Justin, you got yours truly. It is the in the pocket segment, which is our longest running segment, may I add, on the Game sports podcast, formerly the game sports show, powered by 91 n. That's 91 network. And in this segment, we're going to be talking in its entirety about the world of football that goes from local, regional and national. And yes, I took that from our original and first slogan of the game. Fun fact, if you know, you know. Nonetheless, I am with EJ Russell. I am with Justin Heichel, the original ogs of the game sports podcast. I'm going to go over first to Justin Heichel with his usual fantastic background. And look at this. First, though, we got a dog jumping in. We love dogs here on the game. And I'm sure you love dogs. We all know me and Heiko love dogs. He adopted one from local organization here.
[00:45:51] Speaker D: Oh, the world famous sweet Dixie is here.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Dixie, look at that. So beautiful. Cute Dixie. Look, animal lovers here on the game. But Justin, let's introduce you. Justin, my friend. Another week, another episode, another segment. How's it going, my friend?
[00:46:06] Speaker E: Good to be here. Good to be back. We got some more good stuff to talk about.
We're coming down to crunch time here. Getting into the playoff race, heating up and also the holiday race to keep your work ethic going. Also heating up right now.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: If you say so. Keep your work ethic going. Now, secondly, all the way in Michigan, if you will. That's not too far from us, actually. We are Bordertown with Sue Michigan. But he is a bit away from Sue Michigan still. But he is a Cleveland's Browns fan. He came on the game sports podcast just by yelling in the background in a bar about shootouts to myself and another original co founder of ours, late Scott Nason. And it's a great story if you ever want to hear that story. We've told a lot on the show. We will tell you. But it's something that I always smile about to this day. One of the original OG still that I call him one only. EJ Russell. EJ. Another episode, another week. How's it going, my friend?
[00:46:59] Speaker D: Yo, sorry if there was a big old beep right before I muted my mic. My wife is making some dinner right now and the smoke alarm went off.
Everything's fine. Everything's fine. Dinner is not burnt.
Just maybe a little bit of toast or something, or a little garlic bread, but we're good. Everybody likes a few burn edges. Nothing burnt about what's about to happen today. Except for the fact that the Steelers suck at football.
There's a burn, first burn in the show.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: The frauds have really came out. But I've been saying it since the beginning of the season. Even when they were up, I said that this is not the true Steeler team. They are overachieving.
[00:47:42] Speaker D: There goes my wife.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: Nonetheless, this week, getting the fire extinguisher in the pocket segment. We are going to be talking about the world of football in its entirety. Last week, we gave a great shout out to the Sioux Steelers on the local front. And Jordan Hoover. And actually, Jordan Hoover reached out to yours truly on Instagram through the game sports podcast Instagram page. And I want to say thank you to Jordan for reaching out for the kind words. And we are hopeful to have him on as a guest sometime in the near future. And congratulations to, again to the Sioux Steelers signing Jordan Hoover, who's a former CFL player. But I wanted to make sure I gave him a little shout out because he took the time to listen to the episode and to reach out. It was very kind of Jordan Hoover to do that. And of course, the two steelers, they appreciated the shout out as well. Nonetheless, EJ, this week we're going to hopefully have the two minute warning where I hope EJ can dive into some NCAA action. People crave that on the show. We will try to allow the time for that. But to start off, we will get into some NFL news that may resort into last week, going into this week, or just overall news. Then we will have, of course, the pickham, which is our known segment for when you pick the winners of this upcoming week. And we know it's a hot week in fantasy. Yours truly is in the finals in his fantasy football league. And if you're speaking about the Pickham league. For us, the race is real tight right now. If you. Very, very tight. We're very excited to share that with you. It's an exciting year. Now in speaking of NFL News, what I want to go into first is obviously more news has surfaces in the world of coaches. We've talked about this last week a little bit more with Bill Belichick. Great clip on our social media pages. You could check that out. EJ was the forefront of that. But Bill Belichick moving on from New England. But also the Chargers look like they might have found their guy. EJ, I want you to tell the listeners, if they do, if the rumors are true, who is the guy that they might be signing?
[00:49:37] Speaker D: Well, the rumors, honestly, on this week, I'm going to be honest with you, Dave. The rumors are yours to break. I actually don't know this one. And this is one of the very few. Heikel, give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. This is agreeing with me. This is one of the very few weeks where I don't have the scoop.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: And I'm going to be honest, I wanted to do it because you actually chirp me about the name, scoop it.
[00:50:00] Speaker D: Give it, and then I'll react. I don't know this.
[00:50:03] Speaker A: I said his last name wrong last week. Jim Harbaugh.
[00:50:08] Speaker D: Oh, Jim Harbaugh is going to the Chargers. Is that confirmed?
[00:50:12] Speaker A: No, the rumors have been that the Chargers are bringing in Jim as their next head coach.
[00:50:18] Speaker D: Oh, I'll react to this right day. I'll cut you off right now. I'll react to this immediately. I think that these rumors are false because the rumor that I've heard is that Michigan is working on a four to five year extension with him. That puts him just behind Nick Saban as far as dollars go in terms of football paid on the state level. Right. A lot of people don't realize Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, urban Meyer, all these guys that are some of the biggest coaches of their times, they're some of the highest paid state employees by the state.
I do anticipate that Jim Harbaugh, after this run, depending on how things go against the Alabama, I think you can anticipate a big five year after the Shohei Otani deal. I don't want to even anticipate what dollars could look like because I didn't think we'd see a 700 million dollar deal for quite a while. I thought we were still looking at like 556, 50 max for like a ten, 1112 year deal. I didn't think we were going to sniff seven. So I think that this could be interesting to see how things go, but only time will tell.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: Now, speaking of Jim Harbaugh, I like saying his last name. It's so fun.
Jim and Michigan were charged by the NCAA for withholding info in the 2020 probe as well. That was reported by Bleacher report as well.
[00:51:49] Speaker D: I'm so surprised by this unique fact.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: But Jim staying in Michigan. Yes, that's right. Listen, the posts that I've seen on social media and the rumors about the Chargers and they're going to spend money bringing a coach the way they want. Look, you're going to have to look elsewhere, okay? You might have a better chance of getting Bill Belichick to go to you in the offseason than you would with Jim going over to the San Diego Chargers. Justin, I don't know if you have any reaction with the Jim rumors now. Obviously, it seems like to be a financial thing with Michigan locked up, but.
[00:52:25] Speaker E: You did the San Diego Charters thing this week.
[00:52:28] Speaker D: It wasn't me.
[00:52:28] Speaker A: I did. Oh, my goodness.
[00:52:30] Speaker E: Really happy about that. I'm happy about that. This week.
[00:52:32] Speaker D: It wasn't me.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: Well, you know what? I like to say it. I can't believe I messed up with it. Let's rewind. The Los Angeles Chargers.
[00:52:43] Speaker D: Hold on. I have the perfect sound effect for. No, we're going to wait for this because I have the perfect sound effect for this. All right, ready? This is. This is Dave's messing up.
Where would it go? Hold on. All right, somebody fill this in. Hold on. Here it is. Here it is. This is Dave messing up.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: And the soundboard courtesy platform. It is courtesy of the iPhone of EJ Russell. But I can't believe I said San Diego. My goodness. I guess I'm allowed to make mistakes. Los Angeles Chargers.
[00:53:16] Speaker E: But I mean, back on, I mean, talking about the Chargers coaching search, honestly, I think they got to find a capable GM first.
And let's start there.
See what mean if we want to play. On last week's conversation with the Bill Belichick thing, I mean, he has a capable GM and coach, but I honestly don't think that that's in the realm of possibilities.
That's tossing a low hanging fruit out there, much like the Harbaugh thing.
[00:53:43] Speaker D: EJ, is it possible? And I'm going to throw this out there, and when I throw this out there, this is a noodle against the wall.
Bring Anthony Lin back. Why not? He wasn't bad for the initial development of Justin Fields. He brought upon the defense that they've built upon now, why not consider bringing him back either in an OCDC or head coaching position?
[00:54:10] Speaker E: Defensive coordinator, I have zero issue with that.
They need, like, a Dan Campbell kind of guy to lead the troops, and then you need capable coordinators and capable passing game people. And Justin Herbert, I don't think, is a bad pull as a quarterback.
I'm not writing him off.
I don't think that he's.
I don't know.
[00:54:35] Speaker D: Herbert's good. Herbert's good.
[00:54:37] Speaker E: Yeah. He's not a throwaway. Like, people are. Like, Mac Jones is looking like he's a throwaway. Justin Herbert is not a throwaway. You don't throw up 40 points a game, and you're a bum somehow. It's just that you've had seven different fucking coaches. And honestly, I don't think.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: Honestly, hiking, you may not agree with this, but because he's such an Indianapolis Colts legend, I think you probably know where I'm going with who I think might be an option. Why isn't Jeff Saturday's name being thrown around?
[00:55:10] Speaker D: He was a joke when he was at the Indianapolis Colts. Let's not pretend that Jeff Saturday didn't get the opportunity with the Indianapolis Colts because he was an Indianapolis Colt. Like, he was a big name that they could put in there, and people went, oh, we trust this guy because he was a good player. He was good on tv. He wasn't a good coach. I think that the name that you should be throwing around or trying to get people consider Philip Rivers, or even, why not consider throwing Peyton Manning's name around? See if he's interested. Put it out there and make him consider that he might be head coach, because all of us on this podcast can admit that he's one of the greatest minds in NFL history.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: Wow. He is on the television already. He's already done breakdown of games, him and his brother.
[00:56:01] Speaker D: And with Jeff Saturday, he broke down games. They gave him a job. Now, we all know that nobody can call a game like Peyton Manning, for example. Chocolate, chocolate envelope, envelope, jet sweep. Jet sweep. He has these things that he does and things that he sees in the way that he calls plays. Imagine being at the line as an offensive commander, right? You are the play caller for your team, and all of a sudden, you hear, you go z right, post. You look left, you see it play x left, zag, boom. Like, he can give you everything in ears from left to right as you're watching.
Why would he not be? Exactly. Why would he not consider being a head coach? I think he'd be a better GM than a head coach. But I think that if the Indianapolis Colts realistically want to consider bringing somebody back to the organization to coach, Peyton Manning should be at the top of the list. He may not be willing to coach, he may not want to coach, but the question should be asked.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: They should be very active in their search. Right. But I think Justin hit the nail on the head. You got to hit the GM. Right. I think unless you're bringing a GM and coach situation, that's fine and dandy. But if you're doing separate, you got to make sure. I think you got to bring the GM in first. It's very important. And I think it's the same case for all sports, bringing in a GM first to choose his coach.
[00:57:24] Speaker D: LeBron James has been the GM, captain, head coach and superstar. And Peyton Manning is one of those type of players, too. Tom Brady is one of those type of players. There are those drew Brees is one of those type of players. There are players that command that respect. Let's not pretend like that's not uncommon, but those type of players we don't typically see fitting in the head coaching roles. I just don't see how tapping into Peyton Manning's brain is a bad thing here.
[00:57:53] Speaker A: Not a bad. Let's leave at that. I like that. Let's see the listeners think. If you want to comment below, who you think the next Chargers coach will be? Ngm, comment below. Before we get into pickham, guys, I wanted to make sure we do a topic each year. Of course. I'm sure we got a lot in our minds. So, ej, I'm going to go to you first. Is there a point to the table? Do you want to bring that something from last week, latest news or something in the world of football that caught your eye?
[00:58:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I do have a fair question. I think when you look at some of the top quarterbacks in week 15 or whatever it was last week, you see guys in passing yards like Joe Flacco, Nick Mullins, some of these fluky names out of these quarterbacks that led week 15 in passing yards. And I'm talking about the Nick Mullins, the Joe Flaccos, these no name guys who has the best chance of taking their team to the playoffs and being successful.
[00:58:48] Speaker A: Hike. You can go first.
[00:58:51] Speaker E: Well, because I'm riding this train now. I've hitched my wagon to the flak attack, and I honestly think Cleveland has a very similar formula to the old Cleveland Browns. The previous Cleveland Browns before they became the Baltimore Ravens and having, like, that rock solid defense and anyone quarterback could do it. Well, it's true. I mean, that's just how I feel about that.
Similar feelings toward the Titans using the Houston Oilers uniforms. I mean, screw them. That should be.
[00:59:33] Speaker D: Speaking of that, can we not admit the Texans beat the Titans? They get the unis back. JJ Watts, right? Give them the unis back.
[00:59:39] Speaker E: That should be like a yearly thing. Whoever wins the season series gets the unis for the next year. That's fun. Is that not fun?
[00:59:46] Speaker D: Time the Browns beat the Ravens, we get your Super bowl titles.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Honestly, I think, truly, Justin, that the teams, when I saw them wear the jerseys, it's like I wasn't even really a fan of the jerseys overall. Let me be straight with you.
[01:00:03] Speaker E: They're nice. That baby blue is pretty solid.
[01:00:06] Speaker D: You don't like the Oilers unis? That's the most canadian stuff you've ever seen.
[01:00:12] Speaker E: They were okay coming from the guy whose team has had the same jerseys for 182 years. Jesus had the same Steelers jersey, and my team doesn't have anything fancy.
[01:00:25] Speaker D: Hold on. No, I can prove you that's not true because there's at least one game this year where Dave, show your jersey behind you. See how that 43, see how the top of the three is rounded? There's at least one game this year where they wore a block uniform. So, no, they don't wear the same thing every time. So Jesus didn't pick these uniforms because Jesus is perfect, and perfection doesn't need change. Here's what I will say, though. Out of all of these quarterbacks that are on this lower tier, can we not give Brock Purdy his flowers? He's leading the league in passing yards while being at the bottom in passing attempts. He leads the league in QBR. Brock Purdy deserves his flowers. I'm not saying that the 49 ers offense isn't stacked, but out of all these second tier quarterbacks right now, I think Brock Purdy is questioning us. Is the elite.
[01:01:25] Speaker E: I don't think Trey Lance was pulling that off with that.
There's good offense, though, right?
[01:01:32] Speaker A: When you got Samuel McCaffrey, what makes.
[01:01:36] Speaker D: That team so deadly is that on any given snap, the ball can go anywhere, whether it be run, pass or motion, and you don't know where it's coming from. A winning. I mean, George Kittle can line up in the backfield, Brandon Ayuk comes back there, McCaffrey goes out to the right, Samuel goes out. They can put anyone anywhere, and everyone can contribute. It's a deadly nobody. And I think the thing that most people forget and hike. I'm sorry. I'll finish with this.
[01:02:09] Speaker E: You're good.
[01:02:10] Speaker D: No one on that team is afraid to block. Everyone is ready to lay the wood.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: Love that reference. I'll say, though, to answer your question, Flacco, that's a pretty cliche. It's wild. You sign Flacco out, right? And he comes in and he doesn't sign him out. Right.
[01:02:30] Speaker D: He was on the practice squad first. Thank you.
[01:02:33] Speaker A: Either way, you bring him in after and look at what he's doing right now. That's impressive.
[01:02:38] Speaker E: I was kind of hoping that another team was going to sign him when they sent him back to the practice squad. The last.
[01:02:46] Speaker D: Uh. Do you understand how weird it is for me against the Chicago Bears to be like, come on, Joe Flacco. Like, Dave, do we have a bleep button or no for this?
[01:02:59] Speaker A: No. You can swear, but just keep it.
[01:03:04] Speaker D: I hate Joe Flacco, and I think you all know what word I really wanted to say. Like, I hate him, but go, Joe, go.
[01:03:14] Speaker A: Heichel. Anything you want to bring to the table for this week before we dive into our pickups?
[01:03:19] Speaker E: Well, I have to say it because the hit on, like, I am disgusted with how this went down, and I'm not disgusted with it in the way I think everyone thinks I'm going with this, not the hit, just how everything's been handled. Why does he deserve to get suspended for the year? I don't think some of these.
Sometimes there's shitty plays and players make bad, dumb decisions. I think in this case, and maybe just that, I haven't seen the other hits. I'm not well educated on what he's done previously to this, but two guys jumped like, pittman's making a catch, he's making a tackle, and you have as much time as it takes to sneeze to try to make a decision on what you're going to do. They didn't make a conscious decision on I'm going to hurt. Shit happens. That's what that is. That's a shit happens kind of thing.
I don't think he deserves to get the year for it. I don't make an example of him, but I don't know, I think that's kind of a bullshit suspension there.
[01:04:33] Speaker D: I don't think that they're making an example of him by giving him a two end of your suspension. I think that to call it to end of season suspension sounds good. It's three games. Yeah, four games max. Right.
I think it sounds good for the way that the hit looked. And let's not admit that Anthony, that Pittman wasn't a dog and handled this and walked away.
This wasn't one of those injuries. Like what happened to Hamlin. Like, I will say this, I thought that in that game, and I'm going to say something that may sound a little controversial here, and I'm sorry if you don't like it, but if you don't like it, I really don't care.
I thought everybody was a little quick to take a knee. Like, yeah, it was a nasty hit, but have all three of us not played sports? Dave, you got a hockey jersey hanging above your head. I know you've seen a kid go head first into the boards before. Hike. I know you've seen a football play that didn't look good. Like, we've all seen hits that were definitely worse than that. Now, that wasn't a good one.
I'm not going to defend that by any way, shape or form, but I can accept the fact that it's an end of season suspension only because it's this point in the year and it sounds good for the NFL. I don't think that the act itself was as nasty because I do agree with hike. At what point can you tell somebody you're playing one of the world's most dangerous games, don't launch this guy like you've been trained to do 99 times out of 100. No, this one time, don't. And you need to know that you don't. That's a ridiculous thing to ask.
I think that the hit itself looked bad. I think it was a bad hit. I do not believe there was any intent behind that hit. I think that it is a hit that the NFL wants to eliminate from the game. So they're going to call it a end of season suspension because it sounds good. But let's keep in mind this is, what, two, three games? It's no big deal.
[01:06:42] Speaker E: Well, and it's not like the Steelers are going anywhere. That's not a slight, Dave.
[01:06:47] Speaker D: Hear that? Can you say that again? Can you say that the Steelers are, what?
[01:06:51] Speaker E: It's not like the Steelers are going anywhere in the standings upwards anyways.
But honestly, I guess my issue with it is that ten years ago we all would have been watching that on the sports center top ten, and everyone would have been like, yeah, you know what I mean? That's how that would have went.
[01:07:12] Speaker D: I think ten years ago we all went, but in a way that we accepted that it was entertaining and now it's become an issue of health.
I think the perspective has changed.
[01:07:25] Speaker E: I understand you want to get that out of the game, but I guess my long winded where I want to.
[01:07:33] Speaker D: Watch NASCAR for 500 laps to not see the crashes.
[01:07:41] Speaker E: If you're going to be trying to get shit out of the game and stop people with the head injuries.
How many garbage horse collar tackles do you see every week where a guy's just getting ripped down on the sidelines and you have no way to defend when you're getting ripped down by the back of your neck to stop getting cranked on the back of the head? And these are all out of bounds. They're getting pulled down. And the horse collar tackle number one is supposed to be a penalty that they never call or they call it conveniently. It's a convenient penalty and then they hit out of bounds. That should be, let's work on clearance. Like the little stuff up like that. Those big hits are going to happen and nine times out of ten they're not.
[01:08:19] Speaker D: So would you rather have robotic refs or human referees? Because I think that there is an element of the game that needs to be human, Dave. Go Dave.
[01:08:27] Speaker A: Okay, before you answer that, we know this is a couple of weeks ago, hike, you and I talked, hike and I discussed last week, and this is actually one of our social media clips a few weeks ago where we talked about, oh my goodness, the Mahomes packers game. It was the Chiefs packers game is where Heichel and I talked about the atrocity. The worst referee I've seen in a long time in a referee game. When they missed that pass interference at the end, Mahomes at the end getting hit out of getting that called. It's like referees is something that we've complained about. And it's actually a thumbnail from a few weeks ago. It says officiating is really ruining the game.
[01:09:06] Speaker D: Hot take. I disagree with you guys on this.
[01:09:08] Speaker A: One, but I actually could have used a more inappropriate title. I'm not going to say it just to keep it 14 a. To me it just seems it's in every sport, though.
[01:09:19] Speaker E: We wouldn't be talking about the games.
[01:09:22] Speaker D: Even 25 years ago. We even have never even seen the angles that we have today.
[01:09:28] Speaker E: Exactly.
Thank you. It gives us something to talk about. And shitty refereeing. No press is bad press.
[01:09:37] Speaker D: You don't watch anything on tv to not be entertained. It's entertaining.
[01:09:41] Speaker A: The refs suck.
[01:09:42] Speaker D: People still watch WWF and it's predetermined, to be honest.
[01:09:47] Speaker E: I'm back into it full time. I've been watching it every week.
[01:09:50] Speaker A: CM Punk is back.
[01:09:51] Speaker E: Yeah, that's straight edge.
[01:09:53] Speaker D: Superstar is a loser.
The referee hike he went to did and he did.
[01:10:02] Speaker E: I bought in on them. I currently have it going in the background, to be honest.
[01:10:07] Speaker D: I will say this. I was really anti Cody Rhodes, but I'm on team Cody Rhodes, right?
[01:10:11] Speaker E: Yeah, that's.
[01:10:12] Speaker D: It's on my american dream, the american nightmare.
[01:10:15] Speaker E: It was on my Spotify rap this year that his intro music so I outed myself.
[01:10:21] Speaker D: Speaking of wrestling, I'm still waiting for my two championship belts.
[01:10:25] Speaker A: The rock is still the best wrestler.
[01:10:26] Speaker E: It could get you.
[01:10:28] Speaker D: I am the rock of this podcast. Give me my flowers. Where are my belts?
[01:10:33] Speaker A: Here's the thing. I have said this to the referees.
I'm a supporter of.
Listen, there's been people that support refs. Why do we criticize refs? Whatever. I'm not here to try to attack them too much. But I am going to say referee has sucked in the NFL. I think it sucked. I think refereeing has in and because it sucks, I mean, it's because it's been inconsistent.
[01:10:59] Speaker D: I disagree.
[01:11:02] Speaker A: There's hits that are missed. It's too inconsistent.
[01:11:08] Speaker D: I'm going to give you the most obvious comparison as to how I can prove this true. Are the replay officials getting it wrong many times? I do agree with you there, Dave. I think that the replay officials are significantly screwing this up. No consistently, but they're inconsistent in the way that they interpret roles. But let's look at our officials and I want to look at the last game that Sarah Thomas, the NFL's first female official, officiated. Her line judging in that game was fantastic. I would like to give credit to the officials that are there. They are calling it to the best of their ability and Sarah Thomas is a good egg if they're ever and I was huge when she got that job and I will continue to support her because she's a good official. It has nothing to do with the fact that she's a female, but if we ever see a female wearing the white hat, Sarah Thompson is going to be the first one to do it. Fantastic official. Watch her gameplay. She is.
[01:12:07] Speaker E: I mean, I've said it previously and I'll toss my refing conspiracy out here.
I mean, across all the leagues and all these suspensions we've seen since the gambling has gone pretty heavy. Mean, you can find out that an NHL player's sister's dog was betting on north korean marble racing through russian VPNs, but we haven't had one single official anywhere on the planet, on any sport, have even a sniff around? There hasn't been anything.
Or do we just not. Is that just those ones get swept under the rug and the athletes get the examples made out of them?
[01:12:48] Speaker D: I am willing to believe that these organizations have done a good enough job to make sure that referees don't gamble on their own sport.
And I think that it can be policed. Well, right. Like we go back to those ESPN e 60s, whatever of the guys gambling on NBA games or whatever. I think that it is far less likely for that to happen these days because it's so much more trackable.
Right. We only hear of. Think of this. Are there more officials or more players in the NFL? More players. Right. Let's be reasonable. We only hear of one or two guys every year getting suspended for gambling. I can reasonably believe that the referees are not. However, I do agree with hike. There's definitely at least one out there that's doing it.
[01:13:33] Speaker E: That's it. I'm not saying they're all doing it. I'm saying you just can't tell me.
[01:13:36] Speaker D: That's math.
[01:13:37] Speaker E: One someone factor on a game.
[01:13:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:13:42] Speaker D: And he's supporting the Steelers. That bastard.
[01:13:46] Speaker A: If you're on video, you see me moving to the side. Yes. That's a 91 n hat as well. They'll shut out there.
[01:13:52] Speaker D: As if to dodge the question.
[01:13:56] Speaker E: If I had to bet on what sport the ref is, who bets on games? It's basketball. 100%.
That's my baseball being a close second.
[01:14:07] Speaker D: No comment.
[01:14:09] Speaker A: Baseball base, hot take.
[01:14:12] Speaker D: I think an NHL referee could control the game more than anybody else.
[01:14:16] Speaker A: If you're Wes McCauley.
[01:14:18] Speaker D: No, but think about it though. In all the fishing, right? Baseball, I'm a big Wes McCauley guy.
[01:14:25] Speaker E: We're supposed to do the hockey thing. There aren't.
[01:14:34] Speaker A: I don't think I brought up hockey.
[01:14:36] Speaker D: Versus the entire segment here. Was it me? Am I the guilty party?
[01:14:41] Speaker E: I don't know. I caught it there.
[01:14:43] Speaker D: I'm the guilty party. If I'm the guilty party, that's even worse because this is my idea. This is my idea to shame the hockey guy. No, this is bad. No, but my point here is in NFL there's 20 something players on the field at any time. 22.
Five to six officials. In baseball you have nine and nine.
Realistically, it's like nine and four.
[01:15:07] Speaker A: So you're saying 29 players on the field then?
[01:15:11] Speaker D: No, what I'm getting at is in hockey there's ten players on the ice. You only have three officials. It's the lowest number of officials in the NBA. Ten players, three officials. But they're much closer to the action. And let's be honest, it is slower.
[01:15:27] Speaker A: Yes, it is.
[01:15:30] Speaker D: NHL officials are some of the most skilled officiating professionals in the world, and they are imperfect.
They're not perfect. Every time everyone makes a mistake, it.
[01:15:41] Speaker A: Is called the human element. And that's what we have in the game, is human element. Or are we going to switch it to robotics and depend on AI and technology, which is also speaking of robotics, it might not work. And speaking of robotics, you said I could say this. I did.
[01:15:57] Speaker D: My stepdaughter Kylie behind me in the photograph. Kylie, do you want to come in?
This is live. Come give me a deuces. Put your hands in the camera. She and her team in 6th grade, 7th and eigth qualified for. No, it's a larger range than six. Seven.
[01:16:21] Speaker A: All right, we'll forgive you.
[01:16:22] Speaker D: She's in 6th grade. They finished qualifying in robotics for first place. They qualified first place, unfortunately, had a not perfect alliance and did not achieve the overall result they wanted. But they found a way to dig and fight their way there. And hey, congratulations to the Gladstone brave bots, boys.
Thank you so much.
[01:16:46] Speaker A: Great.
[01:16:47] Speaker D: Kylie.
[01:16:49] Speaker A: Kylie.
[01:16:50] Speaker D: Brittany is my wife. She's the one that yells at us.
[01:16:53] Speaker A: She's your wife?
[01:16:55] Speaker D: She's my wife. How much?
[01:16:58] Speaker A: Okay, we'll stop there before we get out of that.
[01:17:01] Speaker D: Did not go well.
[01:17:04] Speaker A: Hikel. Take it. Pick them before we.
[01:17:06] Speaker E: All right, so moving along into the pickham standings this week. So wrapping up week 15, little shake up again.
So my chub is miles long back in first place with 139 points, hikes, picks moved down to second.
[01:17:26] Speaker D: It's not solo first.
[01:17:28] Speaker E: No.
I don't know.
[01:17:30] Speaker D: There's a tiebreaker, but for right now, it's not solo first tiebreaker at the end of the season, but right now it's a tie.
[01:17:39] Speaker E: So we're tied for first with 139 points, and Dave is in last place with 138 points. So a solid one point spread across the board.
[01:17:50] Speaker D: May I point out, too, right before we started the podcast. I'm sorry. I know I like to hijack shit. Sorry, boys.
Before we went on the air, Dave was like, oh, how cool is it that we're all within one point? Was literally the exact conversation I had with my wife right before we went on the air.
I'm very disappointed myself, but I'm very proud of you.
[01:18:15] Speaker E: I'll take that as a compliment.
[01:18:17] Speaker A: I think as an insult a little bit.
[01:18:19] Speaker E: No, it's a compliment. Take it as a compliment.
We all got eleven last week.
[01:18:25] Speaker A: We got eleven, right last week. That is true. Eleven.
[01:18:29] Speaker D: I literally had so many wrong the week before that I decided to gamble on sports because anytime I gamble I'm wrong. I was like, oh, maybe I'll gamble and I win.
[01:18:37] Speaker A: No, I didn't win any of my.
[01:18:38] Speaker D: Picks and I lost all my money too.
[01:18:43] Speaker A: I'm in last, right?
[01:18:44] Speaker E: So I guess, yeah, you got to go first.
[01:18:47] Speaker A: I love that. I love that system. We have joke. You know what's funny? We all have 62%. It says that makes no sense. If I'm a game behind you guys.
[01:18:56] Speaker D: Shouldn'T I be like 61.8% statistically long period of time? It does not decimal yet.
[01:19:02] Speaker A: Round up non.
[01:19:03] Speaker D: Read a book, Dave. Go to college.
[01:19:05] Speaker A: No.
[01:19:09] Speaker D: All right, sorry.
[01:19:11] Speaker A: The Thursday nighter, I'm not a fan of it. To be straight with you coming how to hot out the gate. Not a fan of this Thursday nighter. Easy pick though. The Rams are going to ram the Saints. Sorry, Bengals and Steelers. Look, I'm going to go in two directions in this. I haven't been biased all year. Haven't. True fact. Fact of everything. I need a game that needs to be an upset game and a trap game. And this will also help me in the standings. I am picking the Steelers over the Bengals. I am picking the Steelers over the Bengals because also when I pick the Steelers to win, to win, they end up either losing or winning. But the ods this year have been when I pick them to lose, they actually lose. The odds have been this year when I pick them to win, they've actually win. So I'm going to pick them to win. A is because I'm a fan and because I need a trap game to get me up in the standings. Bills over the yike, yike, yike. Colts over the Falcons. Make Heichel happy here. Seahawks over the Titans. Lions over the Vikings. It was actually a tough choice for me this game. A little bit of a tough choice. I actually was debating between the two. Jets over the commanders. Packers over the Panthers. Texans over the Browns. Sorry, EJ.
Jaguars over the Bucks. Bears over the Cardinals. Another tough one here. Very good game. Very excited about this game as well. Dolphins over the Cowboys. It was so close. I really think the Cowboys going to bounce back from last week, but the Dolphins will prevail. Broncos over the Pats. Chiefs over the Raiders. And not a laffer because the last time they played the Raiders, it wasn't a laugher. Eagles over the Giants and the Niners over the Ravens 28 21 niners over the Ravens 30 414 Eagles over the Dominoville Giants. Most points this week.
You're going to be a little bit shocked. I think the Eagles with 34 points is going to be the biggest spread this week out of all the games. Yikes. Bad take, but I need a trap tiebreaker. That's another tiebreaker I'm taking and the least points this week, Bill Belichick's Patriots.
Heikel, you're next.
[01:21:17] Speaker E: All right.
[01:21:18] Speaker D: Is it hike before me or me before? Can I go here? Because I want to very counter a few things. Dave said hike. Do you mind?
[01:21:26] Speaker E: All right. No, you can go.
[01:21:27] Speaker D: I'm interested again, not hijacking it or also have. I do have Rams against Saints. However, in the second game, I do also have Pittsburgh against Cincinnati, but I have that game picked that way for two reasons.
Cincinnati has won three games in a row and Pittsburgh is at home. Mike Tomlin is their coach. I believe in the consistency of the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. So I did pick Steelers in that game, Dave, I picked that before you said it. I promise. You know me, I always put my picks in ahead of time. I got bills over Chargers, Colts over Falcons, Seahawks over Titans. I actually do have in the next game, the Minnesota Vikings taking down the Detroit Lions at home.
Here's the thing. The Lions have given up a lot of points in the last five weeks. They have not been the defense that they have been as of late. And last week, Nick's Mullins did have a good game. This is not just a team that, oh, Nick Mullins just had a good game. Josh Dobbs has had good games. Other quarterbacks on this team, including Kirk Cousins, Josh Jobs, Nick Mullins, three different quarterbacks have had great games for this team. That tells me that the offense has something special going and they're at home. I'm going to take the Vikings here in a trap game for the Lions because they're looking to clinch that playoff spot. Give me the Vikings at home. I like the jets over the commanders. I like the packers over the Panthers.
Sorry, I got to go with my Cleveland Browns over the Houston Texans. However, I feel like this is a very winnable game for the Houston Texans. Give me the Bears over the Cardinals, the Buccaneers over the Jaguars. Dave, I agree with you that I think that the Dolphins at home over the Cowboys.
[01:23:17] Speaker A: Yikes. I want to get.
[01:23:18] Speaker D: Is appropriate.
Is appropriate. But I got the Cowboys here. Nice. Okay, good. I got the Broncos over the Patriots, the Chiefs over the Raiders, the Eagles over the Giants, Niners over the Ravens. Ravens 21 49 ers 24. I think that's a tight game. Giants ten, Eagles 36. Most points this week Miami least points New England. Dave, I'm with you there, all right?
[01:23:43] Speaker A: Hike's original picks.
[01:23:45] Speaker E: I mean my picks.
[01:23:46] Speaker D: I wasn't too far off from you, Dave. I agree with a lot of things that you said. The main thing that I want people to realize is that in that Eagles Steelers game, if you're going to go pick that, they've won three consecutive games, right. The Bengals have won three consecutive games and they haven't had their full squad in any of them. The Steelers are almost at full tilt and are still kind of barely hanging on. They just lost to a Coles team in which Trey Sermon had 88 total overall scrimmage yards. The Steelers are on the verge of kind of almost ruining Mike Tomlin's record, but I don't think they will.
[01:24:25] Speaker E: They're going to play it close right to the end of the year with his picks.
[01:24:32] Speaker D: This will succeed.
[01:24:35] Speaker E: Some of them may favor my hope for the Colts playoff standings, but here we are. Rams over the Saints, Bengals over the Steelers. Buffalo over the Chargers. Colts over the Falcons. Seattle over Tennessee, Detroit over Minnesota, jets over Washington. And that game was horrible to try to pick between those two teams, but garbage jets put it up on Houston. So I took Quinn.
[01:25:01] Speaker D: Flip game of the week.
[01:25:03] Speaker E: Yeah, a hundred percent.
Green Bay over Carolina. Cleveland over Houston. Because I need Houston to not win.
Tampa over Jacksonville. Same reason. Chicago over Arizona. Dallas over the Dolphins. New England over the Broncos. On a Christmas Eve stunner that we get when you're cracking your.
[01:25:29] Speaker D: Actually, I will say this.
It's going to be any call that hits. That's the call of the week. That's the call of the week right there.
[01:25:36] Speaker A: Clip that. I might clip that.
[01:25:39] Speaker E: Mary Bilmas. That's the though. If I. If anyone caught a bit of the Denver.
[01:25:47] Speaker D: I don't think that's crazy.
[01:25:49] Speaker E: Broncos.
[01:25:50] Speaker D: New England can come out in their team that again. Bill Belchick is still at the helm. They could find a way to pull that off. I think that's the call the week. I think if Heke gets that, he should get a Giant. I'm King Choder crown. Just for one week.
[01:26:07] Speaker E: Just Santa hat. I'll just wear a Santa hat.
[01:26:09] Speaker A: He might get the trophy if he gets that pick.
[01:26:11] Speaker E: But honestly, if you had to spend Christmas.
[01:26:13] Speaker D: My language.
[01:26:14] Speaker A: Fuck you.
[01:26:14] Speaker D: He doesn't get a trophy. I haven't gotten my two championship belts yet. I know this was supposed to be a clean podcast, but you better bleep that out, Dave. Fuck you.
[01:26:22] Speaker E: He's calling out bullshit when there's bullshit. Well, honestly, if you had to spend Christmas.
[01:26:27] Speaker D: He's crying. He knew exactly what he was doing. That sandbag instead of a bitch.
[01:26:32] Speaker A: All right.
[01:26:33] Speaker E: Chiefs over the Raiders, Eagles over the Giants.
San Fran, over Baltimore, 31. San Fran Baltimore, 28 24. Philly Giants, 17. Most points this week, Buffalo. Fewest points this week, Atlanta Falcons.
Did you watch any of that shit show last week with the 40 cent tickets?
[01:26:57] Speaker D: Not a bad call. Not a bad call.
[01:27:01] Speaker A: Hey, any other sport want to do 40 cent tickets? I'm your guy. I'm coming. I'll call travel.
[01:27:08] Speaker D: He was there at nickel beer night in Chicago.
[01:27:11] Speaker A: That's so cool. We're a man. Imagine.
[01:27:13] Speaker E: I remember when you demolition night.
[01:27:15] Speaker D: If you haven't heard disco demolition night, do yourself a favor and just remember.
[01:27:19] Speaker A: Dollar shooters at the back door, man.
[01:27:21] Speaker E: I remember Michigan.
[01:27:23] Speaker D: I remember dollar shooters at your back.
[01:27:28] Speaker A: Oh, Merry Christmas and happy New Year. Here we go. That's how we end up and not.
[01:27:36] Speaker D: Expect me to say it.
[01:27:37] Speaker A: We have to go now to the ending of the show.
[01:27:40] Speaker D: Is it a hate crime if we're citizens of different countries?
[01:27:43] Speaker E: No, there's different rules over there.
[01:27:45] Speaker A: There is one thing I'm not forgetting this week, EJ.
[01:27:48] Speaker D: I love you both.
[01:27:49] Speaker A: Spot for it. I'm putting you on the spot for it. We got two minute warning and then we're wrapping up. I want you to get geared up. NCAA feedback, if you got it, obviously the blue, you got Michigan.
Obviously you got some games. You got some games to talk about. Two minute warning is on you in three, two, one. Lift off.
[01:28:11] Speaker D: I think the biggest game that everyone is worried about is Alabama versus Michigan. Michigan is ranked the number one team in the country. Alabama is ranked at four, a very controversial four at twelve and one when Florida State was still undefeated. I think that the committee did get it right in putting Alabama or a different team other than Florida State. And if Florida State had their healthy quarterback, I think they are the number four team in the country. But the fact of the matter is they aren't. So that's the question that everyone's asking is what are the better two teams there? However, I think the better game is Texas versus Washington. Texas is a team that did take down Alabama early in the season, but they did lose a game. Washington went through what looked to be not the easiest PaC twelve division that we've seen in the last four years. I think that Michael Pinix Jr. A guy that's really earned a lot of his praise in that 2020 campaign in Indiana as a hoosier. I think that he earned a lot of praise in that campaign. Transfers to Washington. He becomes one of the most elite quarterbacks in college football. And I think he might translate to the NFL very well.
It's two big curveballs, guys. Is it Alabama and Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh in Michigan? I mean, these are two of the greatest minds in college football. It's a chess match. Excuse me. I think that in this game, based on the way that things have gone traditionally, I think to. I'm telling you when I say this, I take as much of my bias out of this as I can. I think Alabama does find a way to take down Michigan and get themselves into a position to win a championship. I think that Michigan is the better team. I'm going to be very clear here and say this. I think that Michigan is a better team. But I think that Nick Saban and the experience that they have coaching on that team matters. Texas versus Washington. Give me Washington. Alabama versus Washington. Give me Michael Pinix Jrs. Go Huskies. Pac twelve and CWA champions this year.
[01:30:14] Speaker A: Boom. Two minute warning for the Hail Mary and the dub for E. J. Russell. Thank you, EJ.
[01:30:19] Speaker D: Washington is a Hail Mary.
[01:30:22] Speaker A: Hey, big Hail Mary.
[01:30:23] Speaker D: I think Michigan is the best team. Michigan and Texas are the two best teams in those games. But whoever wins is whoever wins.
[01:30:29] Speaker A: You just took the breath away of a lot of fans.
[01:30:31] Speaker E: But Michigan, it hurt him to say that.
[01:30:33] Speaker A: It hurt him 100%. It did.
[01:30:35] Speaker D: I didn't enjoy it.
[01:30:38] Speaker A: Fellas, we are getting toward the end here. I want to say thank you again for another great week. And if you didn't realize, I learned in the last segment that I'm no longer going to be saying the time that we have on each segment for the next 15 or for the next 20 or the next 25. You know why? I will not be putting a time limit a. We're pre recorded. But you also know why?
[01:30:58] Speaker D: Because every time that we set one, we don't listen.
[01:31:02] Speaker E: Doesn't matter.
[01:31:02] Speaker D: This was supposed to be done. Hold on, I can see the timer in the top right. This was supposed to be done at least 20 minutes ago.
[01:31:10] Speaker E: It's like when you just put like two beers out of the fridge and you're like, all right, I'm just going to have those two tonight.
[01:31:15] Speaker D: I don't know what you're talking about.
[01:31:17] Speaker E: Until I have two more later.
[01:31:19] Speaker A: Love it.
[01:31:20] Speaker E: I'm just going to have those two right now.
[01:31:22] Speaker A: As always, my friend. Thank you. We're off until July. New January 3 is when we're back in the action for recordings, a little vacation. There's a lot of clips from the show. I'm not going to lie. I'm the one who's doing the clips. I'm not the one posting, I'm not the social media guy. But I actually have about twelve clips saved for this entire segment. So throughout the holidays, there'll be a lot of content for you to enjoy and that will plug you back right to this episode for the game sports podcast and any breaking news. Yes, we will have a podcast or a social clip upload at the very least if some breaking news happens. But other than that, Justin, we're taking a break till the third, my friend. And I hope you have a good Christmas, a good New Year's and everything, man.
[01:32:00] Speaker E: Yeah, no, it's kind of crazy. I mean, I guess I got this well rehearsed dad joke I've been saying all day because today was my last day at work.
[01:32:08] Speaker D: Joke. Tell a joke. We dropped an f bomb. You can tell the joke.
[01:32:11] Speaker E: No, it's just the CN.
[01:32:13] Speaker D: I'll tell you this.
[01:32:14] Speaker A: See you next year. That's it, EJ, thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year, my friend. We'll see you in 2024.
[01:32:21] Speaker D: Merry Christmas. Thanks for letting me tell the joke.
[01:32:24] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that. This has been the game sports podcast and this is a wrap for 2023. And I want to remind listeners we're back January the third. Secondly, we've been commercial free since September, since our reformat. That's going to change in the new year. Will it happen in January? It's remained to be seen, but we will be having commercial cut ins and ads coming back. But you'll like them. I promise not to be your usual ad and cut ins. You're actually going to want to watch them, I promise you. As I put a little fun face to that third thing, I want to make sure I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, which way you celebrate with your family, and a happy new year. And best wishes going into 2024. We appreciate everyone who's been a part of the gaining sports podcast from the slum, but also any newcomers this year, any newcomers to the show, make sure you hit like follow and subscribe on all the platforms, including who powers us. 91 n. That's 91 network on YouTube. A lot of great podcasts on there. And the game sports podcast, like I said, will be returning on January the third.
What a great episode. I want to say thank you again to Justin and EJ, but as well as Dane and Alex for their great work as well. And I want to say Merry Christmas, happy new year to Dixie as well. We love our animals here on the game sports podcast, and we also love you, the listeners and viewers until 2024. I'm here to remind you, keep your sticker on the ice, swing your bats, catch your touchdowns, drain your threes, and shoot your shots. Booyah.
