Bill Simmons
Appearances
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Coming up, talking NBA Cup and the state of the NBA, boxing, land man, Timothy Chalamet. This is a great podcast. That's all next. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Wherever you like to watch the game, at the arena, the bar, home, wherever. Enjoy every moment of the NBA season with an ice cold Michelob Ultra. Ultra. And, you know, we've done some stuff with them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We had Bird and Magic in the league for a while. They don't play against each other in the finals, even though they have this great rivalry dating back to 79 when college basketball was way bigger than the NBA. Bird and Magic play each other during the same year CBS is like, you know what? We're showing all of these finals games live now. We're going to show them in primetime.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We're going to really try to get behind the league. And they get Bird and Magic. They get a seven-game series. They get one of the great series in the history of the league. That happens. They have Michael Jordan on the Olympic team that summer coming into the league on the Chicago Bulls, the third biggest market they have. MJ happens. And then we're off. We get David Stern. We get Cable.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We have USA and ESPN by that point. So as a little kid on the East Coast, all of a sudden I'm able, I couldn't see George Gervin and David Thompson or whoever in the 70s unless I went to the Boston Garden to see them. Now in the 80s, I can just pop on Cable. I can see Dominique Wilkins. I can see Isaiah Thomas. I can see Adrian Danley. Whoever I want, I can see.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I can see Magic Johnson on the other coast. So that's happening. They're figuring out how to brand stuff better. Once MJ really gets going with the bulls, the NBA takes off. We get the NBA fantastic commercials and we have this incredible unicorn 15 year run bird versus magic Jordan, six titles.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So you can watch that on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We have the Riley Knicks and Hakeem and Barkley and Isaiah's Pistons, the Blazers, Sean Kemp and GP Stockton and Malone. I didn't really like watching them that much, but I'm going to throw them in anyway. Uh, On and on and on it went. And it was the watershed time to ever be a basketball fan. It was the most talent concentrated into one area. Everyone's playing super hard.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The league was the most fun, I would say, in the late 80s, early 90s. And it just keeps, Jordan retires. They're fine because the Knicks make it that year. Jordan comes back. It becomes the biggest story, really, of anything other than maybe the decision with LeBron. Jordan wins three straight titles in a row in the Bulls, including the 72-win Bulls.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
as well next week on the rewatchables i think from next week is the first week we're going to be video pod on spotify for the rewatchables so you can watch it on our youtube channel ringer movies but more importantly you could watch it on spotify as you're listening to it you can just see our beautiful faces so stay tuned for that on this podcast
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And the NBA just goes, it's just arrow pointing up. All of it's captured in the last dance. Well, what happens? We hit the danger zone again. MJ retires. Right after he retires, Lockout. No basketball for six, seven months. People are pissed because these guys are making so much money. The young guys are able to switch teams three, four years. Everyone starts getting mad.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
All the ugly, casual racism stuff starts like percolating a little bit again. It's like as hip hop culture infected the NBA, Stern puts in a dress code. Wasn't great. Not great times. Well, what happens? We don't have an MJ successor. Grant Hill, KG, Tim Duncan, C-Web, Iverson, Shaq. We're an MJ successors. And then 2000, Kobe and Shaq. So we have Shaq and Kobe together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We kind of know something's happening with Kobe. And in the 2000 season, that's unicorn number four. Shaq and Kobe. Shaq fouls out of game four of the finals. Kobe comes in, puts on the Superman cape, wins the game. They end up winning the title. This is after they escaped against Portland the previous round. And now we have this crazy Kobe and Shaq run. That was like real drama, real theater.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They were great. The 2001 Laker team is probably one of the two best teams of the century. As of that's happening, a phenom named LeBron James is in high school. He's going to be in the 2003 draft with Carmelo and some others. And the league looks great from 2000 to 2003. That is our unicorn number four moment. Shaq and Kobe ending up on the same team in Los Angeles, California on the Lakers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Couldn't have worked out better. Well, we immediately hit the danger zone again in 2003. We have the Kobe incident and the trial. Not great. We have the 2003 and 2004 finals, which were rock fights, and ESPN Classic and NBA TV Hardware Classics, I think, are banned from showing any of those games. Defense got too good. The game got too physical. We had Kobe and Shaq falling apart.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The game slowed down. The pace slowed down to the point that after the 2004 season, they had to add all these rule changes and these other legal defense stuff just to try to quicken stuff up again. And you had a league that was built around Tim Duncan. I think he's one of the seven best players of all time. Didn't really resonate with people like he should have. Dirk Nowitzki, German.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
KG, mostly stuck on bad teams except for 0-4. C-Web. Dwayne Wade. Angry Kobe. Young LeBron on crappy Cavs teams. it was grim. And I, if you remember, like when I was writing for page two, back when my fingers worked, I used to have a joke about how I was one of the last 20 NBA fans. And the joke was that the NBA kind of sucks now, but I still love it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And I, this was a gimmick that I would do because we were in real danger with the league culminating in the Oh six finals where we had the referee controversy with Dallas and Miami. And, uh, We've all agreed not to talk about the 2006 finals. Then the 2007 finals where the East was like in such bad shape. LeBron ends up making the finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I'm going to start at the top with some thoughts about the NBA Cup, the final game, and also the state of the NBA because it's been a big topic lately. And I have some big picture thoughts about that. Chris Mannix joined us to talk about just the Jimmy Butler trade buzz in Vegas and some other NBA topics. And then really, I had him on to talk about boxing because we have a big card this weekend.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He's a heroic performance by him with just an awful Cavs team that I think would be a 14 seed if we had them in the season now. So things are grim. Things are bad. There's a lot of what's wrong. You can go back and search for my column archives, multiple what's wrong with the NBA column. What happens? Well, unicorn number five situation happens, 2008 to 2018.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
In short order, we get the probably illegal Pau Gasol trade where the Lakers just steal Pau Gasol. And nobody even else knows he's available. Thanks again to Chris Wallace for creating the second mini Kobe dynasty. Gasol and the Lakers. Now the Lakers are a contender. KG's already been traded to Boston. Now Boston's a contender. All of a sudden, we have Celtics-Lakers in 2008. And we're off, baby.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We're back. Kobe loses in 08, but wins the next two finals. Celtics are in there in 2010 against them. After 2010, LeBron, who can't get it done with Cleveland, the decision. Probably the single biggest off the court NBA moment that we've had other than MJ retiring. The decision. He changes teams. People lose their fucking minds. Goes to Miami. All of a sudden we have Miami LeBron.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We have aging but still fun Kobe on a contender Lakers. Aging but still fun Celtics. A bunch of great young players coming up like KD and Russ on the Thunder. It's just going and going and going. And then what happens? Curry and the Warriors show up. Curry reinvents basketball. He's hitting threes from all over the place with Klay Thompson. They have their little run.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This goes all the way through 2019. 2019 finals is the tipping point. Durant gets hurt. Klay gets hurt. That Warriors dynasty ends. Durant, we lose a year of his prime. We lose a whole year of Curry's prime with the Warriors. Really, two years. But that was our last unicorn stretch, 2008 to 2019. And then what happens? We're in danger again, starting in 2020. The bubble.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The bubble ends this really fun NBA season we're having where LeBron and the Lakers, Kawhi and the Clippers, Giannis is on his way up, Jokic is on his way up, Embiid's on his way up, Tatum and Brown are on Boston, and it just feels like And then boom, the bubble, weird. The player movement becomes out of control. It just feels like every year guys are switching teams.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It starts to feel a little more like NBA 2K. Load management becomes a bigger story. The schedule's too long. We all hate it. They won't do anything about it. The three-point stuff. just gets worse and worse and worse. Now we have the Celtics shooting over 53s. So there's a sameness to a lot of the games that I think a lot of people are down on.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I would encourage people to go back and watch some of the terrible post-ups in the 80s and 90s and see if you still don't like threes. But there's definitely a Curry effect with how the game is being played. The foreign stars are now all the best under 30 guys. And this is a league that dating back to Hakeem, who is just one of the best players I've ever seen in my life, but he wasn't from here.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And he never resonated like an American guy. Now we have Jokic and Giannis and Luka and Embiid and Wemby and maybe even SGA if he can bounce back from a terrible NBA cup. and become, you know, a real guy this year, maybe take, okay, see the finals. Those are six guys that aren't from here And we're talking about when is the next star?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
My guy Usyk is fighting Fury, the rematch. So we're going to talk about that and some of the big heavyweight fights coming up. And then last but not least, CR, Chris Ryan. We did a couple things in studio yesterday that I taped for this podcast. One is about Landman, which is my favorite TV show of the decade, just hands down. Succession really started last decade.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This is a league that's so beholden to the LeBron, Curry, Durant era and seems so afraid to pass the torch to the under 30 guys. You can see it with the TV schedule. OKC is on TV this year less than the Lakers, less than the Warriors because they keep feeding us LeBron and Curry. You watch ESPN, all the content they're doing on First Take and on the NBA Today, it's always Lakers, Lakers, Lakers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They're playing the hits. And it's coming at the expense of trying to build up these new stars, which we even saw in the Olympics. I love the Olympics. I thought LeBron and Curry and Durant, watching those guys fend off Serbia and France, that was amazing stuff. but it did come at the expense of the next generation of guys who kind of needed a moment like that, you know?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And I think this league is, if there, if there's a criticism that I think is valid, it's, it's pushing these guys that have kind of already had their moment that were already great and trying to extract more great moments from them when there's probably not a lot of greatness left versus rolling the dice with some of the new guys, which is
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
you know, I see why they do it, but at the same time, like they gotta be pushing the younger guys more. And at the same time, like you have somebody like Edwards who is such a unique and original guy. And then he shows up for this season, he's shooting 12 threes a game and he's starting to look like everybody else I'm watching. So there's a sameness to the new guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And then you have somebody like Jokic, who is really bird and magic trapped in a Serbian seven-foot doughy body. But he's not from here. And for whatever reason, he doesn't cook with fans. I don't think the way he should. So my point, big picture, is that we've had five unicorn moments. And now we're due for a sixth. And this league has been around for eight decades.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And every time a unicorn moment, we're not even in the middle of one or we don't have one coming. Everybody thinks the NBA is in trouble. They're in danger. It's over. This is just the DNA of the league. And here's what's going to happen. There's going to be some new player that comes in, some new team, some new event. It's going to shift this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And all of a sudden we'll be like, oh, you know, it's like when we did the Vince McMahon documentary, Triple H had this great quote about when he was talking about when Stone Cold and Vince and that whole era. And he was like, I felt it's like an earthquake. It's like, did I feel that? Did something move? And you just kind of know from a narrative standpoint, something has moved.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And that's what the NBA needs right now. I don't know what that's going to be, but I'm going to bet on the 80-year history of the league and the fact that internationally, it's fine. This is an American problem. People are losing interest in America because they can watch fourth quarters of games on the NBA app. They can follow it like what Derek Thompson said on my podcast.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
You can follow the league without really watching it. So the ratings are down, but I'm not sure the interest is down. What they're missing, ironically, is what women's college basketball with the WNBA had, where Kaitlyn became somebody that people just wanted to watch. They just wanted to watch her games. They didn't care who she was playing. They didn't care what the stakes were.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They wanted to watch her. And that's why I think you could really make the case. She's more valuable than anyone the NBA has because she's the only must-watch basketball player right now other than the old guys in the NBA. So they have to figure out what is their unicorn moment. But my prediction is that it's the NBA. It's been 80 years. It's looked bleak before. They always bounce back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So I can say my favorite new show of this decade. And then we talked about Timothee Chalamet and the Bob Dylan movie and Chalamet's chances to win an Oscar? What should he do next? And more importantly, why hasn't he come on my fucking podcast yet? So we're gonna hit all that. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, I am taping this after the NBA Cup Final in Vegas.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This is the league we have chosen. We're gonna take a break and we are going to come back with Chris Maddox. FanDuel wants you to win even bigger this NFL Thursday night. Right now, all customers can get a 30% catch-a-pass profit boost on the Thursday night football game. That means you can boost your NFL catch-a-pass bet by 30% and take home even more winnings during the game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It's December. It's the season of giving, but let's be honest, you deserve a gift too. And what better gift than NFL Sunday Ticket? All the bye weeks are done. You need multi-view. You need the four games at once, especially with the early games. You got all these playoff implications.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
fantasy playoffs whatever else you're doing to make the season more exciting uh i always have the four games on the giant tv and then i try i'm lucky enough to have a couple other tvs because i do this for a living i try to have six games going at once so i could see everything but as we get later in the year and the games become even more meaningful sometimes i'll get wacky i'll just put one giant game on and then two smaller games on the tvs everyone's got their own thing
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
You can skip the candles and the ugly sweaters this year. Gift yourself NFL Sunday ticket. Get the rest of the NFL regular season for only $49. What a deal. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS. You can get the Ringer Gambling Show as well, the Sunday Ringer pregame. Device and content restrictions apply to multi-view local and national games on YouTube TV.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. All right. Chris Mannix is here. You can read him on Sports Illustrated. You can listen to his excellent boxing pod. He's got a basketball pod too. He's in Vegas. We're taping this before the NBA Cup tonight. So we're going to avoid that. You really came on to talk boxing. I'm going to save that. I'm going to put that over.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Just quickly, some basketball stuff because you've been in Vegas for a couple of days. What's the big buzz? What are all the kids talking about?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So I watched the fourth quarter in OT of the game last night against Detroit that they ended up losing in OT. He was incredible in that game. I think he had like a 35, 19, and 12, something like that. But it looked like playoff Jimmy was really trying hard. That team has a weird identity issue with Hero, who's been excellent.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And it seems like over and over again at the end of games, it's just these Hero 27-footers or Butler. Bam's not involved really at all. And, uh, it's just, it's just a weird team to watch. It's not a team that's going to win four straight playoff rounds, but it seems like to me, we've seen this go a couple of different ways with the guy who maybe doesn't want to be there anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He's got, you know, he's going to be a phrase at the end of the year. Maybe he's not, he's not happy. The team didn't give him an extension. He seems like he's moved toward the, I'm actually mad. I didn't get the extension and now I'm leaving after the year. I'm going to show everybody how awesome I am. And to me, I said this on the pod the other day, Houston's the team. You watch Houston.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Were you there for the NBA Cup semifinals?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, and the other big part is an end-of-the-game guy, which they don't have. they, you really feel it. Like they have no chance in an OKC playoff series. They're just not going to be able to get shots they want. OKC just strangled them. You know, it's like, we're going to talk boxing later. It was like watching the boxer who just doesn't let the other guy breathe.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And the guy just is trapped in the corner against the ropes, just trying to hang on. That's how I felt watching them offensively. Shangoon's probably the safest bet. I don't trust any of their perimeter guys. And they don't have that one guy who's like, all right, one point game, three minutes left, like kind of take us home. They go to Fred VanVleet. I don't trust Jalen Green at all.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Like he gone down the line, but I like a lot of their players and I do think they have an identity. And what's interesting is he fits in with the identity so perfectly. So I was saying a couple of days ago about Butler with Rozier. And then VanVleet's expiring's in there. And you load it with, you know, guys to make that, they have a bunch of expirings to make it work. And then they have picks.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And for Miami, it's just a reboot. They get cap space this summer. Nobody has cap space this summer. It's one of the crazy things. Yeah, and one other team, right? It's like Washington or, I think there's only two teams with 30 million and up. Miami could rig this. So all of a sudden they could have the most cap space and be, to me, it's a reboot destination thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The Milwaukee Bucks, they destroyed the Oklahoma City Thunder, who could not hit a shot. It happens. They looked young. They looked a little nervous. They looked like a team of young guys from Oklahoma City who had just spent the last five days in Las Vegas.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
All of a sudden next year, they're a different team and a little more dangerous. And we've seen them do this multiple times in the last 20 years, right? Where it seems bleak, then all of a sudden they're back. So I'm working under the assumption they're trading them. You don't think they would possibly think that they could beat the Celtics and the Cavaliers and OKC?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I just can't believe they would think that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I saw you had that last week. As a Jokic guy, I loved it. And I was trying to talk myself into it. But that can't be the centerpiece. I mean, you don't think that, do you? Is Porter the centerpiece of a Butler trade?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
But now I don't have cap space next year. I do that. You don't. I'm committed to those three guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They looked like a team that didn't realize they were at the adult table where Giannis was sitting, who proceeded to unleash holy hell on them, which he's been doing basically for over a month now. I think the last 16 games, he's something like 34, 15, and 7. He doesn't shoot threes anymore. which I think, you know, not like he was jacking up 10 a game, but he was always shooting three.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
After this year, yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
you know who would root for that trade is the Celtics. Cause they'd be like, Oh wait, you're going to have Porter and hero and the same team in crunch time. This is great. It's like an all you can eat for who we're going to attack.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Um, I I'm with you in the sense that I do like Porter as an asset a little more than I think other people, the contract, the back issues, like there's, there's real things to be scared about. Like the defense, the fact that he's been replaced during games and crunch time for Russell Westbrook for defensive purposes. Like there's red flags.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I love that he's played with Jokic for this long because that's like getting your fucking masters for how to play basketball. Right. There does seem like there's more there offensively. But to me, that's a guy I like. I'm looking at a team like Brooklyn or some of the other like Eastern Conference also rants. And if you're looking at Porter thinking like, you know what?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So they'll send me the Michelob Ultra. I'll put it in the fridge. It's really interesting what happens. People come over, they want a beer. They go, oh, Michelob Ultra. Or, I've never tried one of these. I've heard you talk about it. 100% approval rating every single time. Keep it nice and cold. It's delicious.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
this is a guy who might be a 25 point game, point of game score on a different team. You know, right now he's in the corner a lot, or he's like just trying to play. Jokic and Murray are running everything. So what might that look like on a crappier team?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
What could that look like on like the Pistons with what we watched, you know, with Tim Hardaway and Beasley are doing and Tobias Harris are doing that kind of shooting forward spot. What if you put Porter in there? So, yeah, listen, I would love to see Denver somehow improve this. I just don't know. I don't think Porter is enough to get somebody like Butler.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And then Golden State feels like they shot their wad with the Melton thing. Now they can't put the salaries together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He's certainly the most fun for the playoff run. I can't believe you said Jokic's defense was terrible. That really hurt my feelings as a number one Jokic lover. Because it's conditionally terrible because he's got great hands. He's he's jumping passing lanes. He gets steals like he's very active. He's good at breaking two on ones. There's things he does well.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
But then you watch a game like the Kings last night where they're just getting basically whatever they want. And, you know, his lack of rim protection becomes more of a problem.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He, you know, would always kind of test it out. But now he's just like, I'm going to be early 2000 Shaq crossed with Spider-Man. And I think he's, as I'm recording this, he's plus 600 for MVP on FanDuel. And, you know, he's closed the gap with him and Jokic, as great as Jokic has been. Milwaukee seems like a real contender. OKC still seems like a contender. This is the league now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, and I think the too many minutes thing is a big problem, too. Is there any other Butler team? Because you threw out Denver the other day. Golden State and Houston were the two I was focusing on in the content I did. Is there... Is there anybody else we're not thinking of?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I don't know why Miami... And he would have to waive a no trade clause and he's not Bradley Beal anymore. If it was three years ago, Bradley Beal... I guess we could talk about it, but not the guy now. It doesn't seem like he can play for three straight weeks.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I thought I was going to... Thursday, I had the Cam Johnson, Dennis Schroeder, Golden State. I did a whole thing about it. And I really thought that was going to be how it played out. And then they got Schroeder two days later. They didn't get Cam Johnson. And then the reporting people were saying they didn't want to put Kaminga on the table in a Cam Johnson trade.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I was really surprised by that because the contract that Cam Johnson's on versus what Kaminga is probably going to get for agency next year, 30 million, I'm guessing Johnson's like at 22. I'd just rather have Cam Johnson. I think he's a better asset.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And I thought if they, and that's why I don't feel like that's dead yet because I think the more you stare at that, the more you think, ah, Cam Johnson at 22 is... just a good asset. That's like, if I was doing like top 30 best contracts in the league for non-rookie contract guys, Kim Johnson's in like the top 12, making 22 a year. So I don't think that's dead yet.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I think they're holding on. The problem, though, you mentioned Schroeder before. I don't know if they can trade him in a trade where he's with other players because the trade deadline's early this year. It's like February 6th. So I think the trade they did for Schroeder, it's not in that two-month window where then you can repackage the guy for multiple guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
If you don't make threes, you know, you're probably not going to win if you're shooting 35 to 53s a game. If they're not going in, you don't have a chance, which ties into a bigger theme with what's going on with basketball right now. The last couple of weeks have been peak people asking me what's going on with the NBA. And, you know, part of it is the ratings.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, that's great then. So they could do Kaminga... Wiggins, Schroeder, and they'd have to find a fourth guy somewhere like Podzemski, who I think they overvalued over the summer. I think it was one of the lessons of the summer. They're making him basically an untouchable, and he's just been really bad this year. Not totally his fault he's playing out of position, but he has been good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Why do you think it didn't work for him in Boston? Because this version of Schroeder now I really like, but in Boston, it just didn't work.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I really like him too, because competitive... a good defensive player, like, just feisty. The feistiness now, you have him and you have Draymond and Kamiga gets a little feisty sometimes. Curry talks shit. Like, there's a little more of an identity with the team. The only other Butler I was looking at and trying to figure out anyway was the Cavs. Just... Does that even make sense?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Do they have the contracts? I just couldn't figure it out. And I'm not confident that they would do anything major anyway because they have great chemistry right now, and I don't think you'd want to fuck with that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Let me ask you, if salaries, if you could throw out salaries when you made trades, do you think the Celtics would trade Peyton Pritchard straight up for Giannis?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
How about Peyton Pritchard for Jimmy Butler?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This is an unbelievable season that he's having. I mean, this is beyond six man of the year. Like his per 36 stats now are nuts. Incredible. Shooting stats are nuts. He's in the running for one of the best six man seasons anyone's had since like John Havlicek for the Celtics. I can't believe what I'm watching.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So you can't even, you can barely put him in any trade. I would say if you're doing best contracts in the league, he's got to be in like the top three. He might even be number one. He's six million of the year. It's 7 million bucks. And also gives them the luxury of like, oh, Derek White's a little banged up tonight. We'll just play Pritchard. He'll score 29 in the starting spot.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
because everyone loves to talk about ratings, even though the NBA just signed a $76 billion deal and the ratings don't ultimately really matter. It's an American thing more than a worldwide thing because the league's doing well globally. But when you look at big picture, what's going on with the league, you know, LeBron and Curry, they're old. They're making desperate changes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It's really great. I mean, the ceiling of this regular season Celtics team when everybody's back, I do feel like they have like a 16, 18 game winning streak in there somewhere before the season ends.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, if you're talking $7 million for Peyton Pritchard or $48 for Jimmy Butler, I think for the way this Celtics team's constructed, it is It really feels like you see this happen sometimes in basketball, in football, in baseball, in boxing. It seems like the game slowed down for him a little bit. He'll have these moments where all of a sudden he's doing old man post-up plays on shorter guards.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He's around the rim. He's like, oh, I'm going to do old man pickup basketball and just shoot a jump hook over this guy. It's been really impressive to watch. Speaking of boxing, big fight this weekend. My guy who I bet on every time he fights, I just parlay him with football teams. Usyk is the rematch against Fury. Usyk's never lost. Everybody's been looking forward to this fight. Is this to you?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Will he finally get the credit he deserves as a main draw fight? Or what does Tyson Fury have left fight?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
My guy who no matter where I bet, I lose. Four against. I'm like 0 for my last six.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Or I can't believe I didn't bet on him or whatever. Yeah. Every time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They just changed the all-star game again. They just did the NBA cup in Vegas. Too many foreign stars. That's another thing you keep hearing. The schedule is too long. I've been saying that for 20 years. We can't find any under 30 American superstars to carry the torch from LeBron and Curry. That's a valid thing. Too many threes. Too much sameness in the game. Can't really counter that. Too woke.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, the interesting thing about the first fight is the scorecards had it closer than I think I had it in my head when I was watching. I mean, Fury almost got knocked out. It seemed like it was a wrap. And he really got the shit kicked out of him. I think it was the ninth round. And then he definitely won the 12th round. The 11th round, I remember two of the judges gave it to him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
One judge didn't, which was super suspicious. But I don't know. It was a split decision, but it really wasn't. I don't think anybody watching that fight thought, oh, I wonder who won. Fury's face looked worse. Everything looked worse. I just think Usyk reminds me so much of Pereira in the UFC where you just watch him and you're like, I don't know what the answer is to try to beat this guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
At least in UFC, you could try to take the guy down and get him on the ground. With Usyk, I almost feel like it's got to be somebody like Bacoli just overpowering him and using a huge size. You know I'd bring Bacoli up. Just a huge size disadvantage because he is like a blown up cruiserweight. And maybe that's how to beat him. I just don't see Fury doing it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
How dare you disparage Bacoli?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Nobody wants to fight Bacoli. He couldn't even get on the February 22nd card. They had to like push him to the next card, but he was supposed to. I mean, it seemed like Dubois was going to be the natural whatever. He didn't want to fight him. Dubois does not want to fight Bacoli.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Usyk has a lot of pieces of things that I've loved from guys in the past. Like he, as the fight goes on, it just seems like he shrinks the ring and figures out the exact distance, how to hit the guy with the little tiny punches that don't seem like a big deal. And then they kind of add up, but there's like pieces of Hopkins in there. There's pieces of Cesar Chavez in there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The league's too woke. It's driven off a lot of possible fans. I'm not touching that one. It's an American problem and it's not a worldwide problem because again, worldwide, internationally, the league is doing really well, but it's an American problem. And yet the franchise values are the highest it's ever been. They just got the highest meteorites deal they've ever gotten.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Like they're just those guys that just, there's one fight, the first four rounds, and then the fight starts to shift and you can kind of feel it. And I don't really know what the answer is to beating him, but I just know I'm going to be betting on him every time he fights. He's 37. I don't know how many more of these he has left, but I mean, he, if you look back at his, he's 22 and oh,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He beat Joshua twice, beat Dubois, beat Fury already, could be beating him again. He was dominant as a cruiserweight. Go back to the 2012 gold medal in that whole era. Like, he was beating all those guys. And I don't... Like, if he wins this, like... What's next? Because you could fight... Dubois and Parker are fighting February 22nd. So is Zhang and Cabell. So maybe it's one of those two?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Who's the next fight?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Which is one of the things that made Fury special was at his size. He was like kind of a sneaky good boxer, but not compared to this kid. I'm glad you brought up Chisora. I think he's lost to everybody in the division at this point, right? He's still going. So it's not over yet. So is there a cruiserweight that could move up?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They have, I would say 35 to 40 completely recognizable stars, whereas football might have 10. So it's not like this is a disaster, but this is what we do with the NBA. We love to panic. We love to talk about how things are bad. And it's a little like what SNL is like, where everybody's like, SNL's dead, SNL's done. And then guess what? SNL's gonna have its 50th year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, I remember that happened with Holyfield. It took him a couple to feel like he was a heavyweight, and then it happened. Well, on FanDuel right now, he's minus 166, Usyk, which I just think is nuts. I don't understand... at this point in his career from everything we've seen, how he's not minus 250 against everyone else in that division. Just blind.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
There's not one person that he shouldn't be minus 250 against.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, probably the maddest people get at you is is either something you wrote about LeBron or they didn't like how you scored round four in the third to last fight on the zone thing, right? People just go nuts about the scoring. I had to go nuts watching it. I get so mad.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, the other thing, when you're sitting close, you might miss, like, the biggest punch of the round because the ref blocked you or, you know, it's not an exact science. Before we go, we got to talk about the supercard on February 26th, or February 22nd. I don't know if there's been a card like this like the third, fourth best fight on this card would be the best fight on a Saturday night.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
We've talked in the past about how the Saudis and all this overseas money and they're just like, we want everybody good to fight each other and that's what we want. This seems like the full culmination of that. This is one of the best boxing cards of all time. When you saw it all laid out, were you shocked? Like they didn't even have room for Bacoli.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This is an American problem, and this is eight decades of a recurring theme that I would call the NBA is in danger, that we're now living through again in December 2024. I want to go backwards. I want to go through eight decades of NBA history to show that for the most part, this is a league that's kind of always a little bit in danger.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They were like, now we're moving you over, moving your fight later. This is one of the, we have super middleweight, lightweight, welterweight, better BF against B-ball, Dubois against Parker, Zhang's fighting Cabell. Like it's a fucking crazy card.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So you get these guys, this is UFC though. Like UFC has changed the thinking on this. Cause there'll be some UFC cards that you could watch for five straight hours. And they, they kind of want that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This is like Thanksgiving. It's like, should we have sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and stuffing? And like, fuck it. Let's just go for it. To me, this is like a once in a decade kind of card. I don't know if they'll be able to replicate this many fights in a row. I've never seen anything like this where you literally can't miss the first of seven fights.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And the best thing is Stevenson, who I think is my least favorite good guy to watch. And now he's buried on this card with six other fights. So I don't have to... you know, be like, how do I get it? I don't really like watching this guy. And now it's like he's just one of the many, but somehow they left out my guy Bacoli. So I have to get, do I have to get Bacoli on a podcast?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Like football, dating back to the John Unitas beating the Giants in the late 50s, the greatest game ever played to that point. Football has always been solid. 50s, 60s, 70s, Super Bowl, the merger. It's just been going and going.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Try to try to pump them up. What do I need to do?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
There's only one way to watch your favorite teams drop buckets, and that's with a bucket of Michelob Ultra. Stock up on Michelob Ultra for the NBA season. Michelob Ultra. a superior light beer. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2024, Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra, registered light beer, St. Louis, Missouri. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I wonder like this card so good. I wonder if you almost need to play by play guys, uh, Is it too much to ask? It's almost like you have to go WWF or they have the two different play-by-play guys for the five-hour card. I don't even know if Gus Johnson would be able to go for seven straight hours with boxing like that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
February 22nd. February turning into a surprisingly good sports month. It used to be like the dead month, but now all these different places have figured out like the trade. They moved the trade deadline up somehow against the Super Bowl and then a whole bunch of stuff happening. Chris Mannix, great to see you. Have fun at the NBA Cup tonight. I hope all's well with you. You got it, man. Thanks.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The only time I ever remember people even wondering what the future of football was going to be like, and I was one of the ones wondering, was the early 2010s with concussions, Goodell. We had to add a bunch of stuff with Gates after it. It seemed like they had to change the way that football was being played because it was too violent.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This episode is brought to you by Uber Reserve. You know what's a game changer for travel? Booking my ride in advance to the airport with Uber Reserve. Uber Reserve makes it easy to plan my whole trip. I just did this. Booking rides up to 90 days in advance to help squeeze the most out of traveling, especially if you're doing odd hours, rush hours, like early in the morning. You got to do it.
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The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Plus, with Uber Reserve, you'll get an assigned driver You get upfront pricing and you get extra wait time included. So go ahead, plan like a pro. Reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. See app for details. All right, coming up, you're going to hear two things I taped with Chris Ryan on Monday. The first is about Timothee Chalamet in the Bob Dylan movie.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Tried not to have any spoilers in this, so we're going to play that. And then after that, we're going to move right to Landman. my favorite new show of the 2020s. So me and Chris Ryan right now. All right, I'm here with Chris Ryan. It is less than 10 days until the Bob Dylan movie comes out with Chalamet. A complete unknown. You've seen it. I have.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I saw it over the weekend on the Producers Guild app. Must be nice. Low expectations. I don't want to step on your pod with Sean because I know you have a big pod coming out at Christmas. The thing that jumped out to me was how good Chalamet was. Yeah. And I intentionally tried not to read anything.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I wasn't that excited about the movie because I've never loved Bob Dylan just because my entire life, everyone's just talked about what kind of a moody dick he is.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
A lot of reading, a lot of philosophizing. I liked the music, respected it. My parents really liked him. He means a lot to my mom, but we kind of know him, the older version of Bob Dylan, where it's just like kind of, Kind of mutters. Anyway, Chalamet was great. Yes. As you know, I love when people sing in movies. Val Kilmer in The Doors was one of those.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I always thought he never got enough credit.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. He does a really good job. And I don't understand why he's not a prohibitive singer. Best actor.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And there was a moment there where it was like, where's football? Are you gonna let your sons play football? Are we gonna be watching this in 20 years? And guess what? COVID happened and everybody was like, you know what? I love football. And now football feels like it's the biggest it's ever been. If you're talking about basketball, It's always been on the line of being in danger.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Chalamet, this is great for the Oscars. He'll definitely get nominated. And it will feel like a younger hit for Oscars. But I got to be honest, I wasn't positive he had a performance like this in him. I didn't see a musical side of Chalamet.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. You shed your Grantland teen idol stuff.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I hate that. But yeah, no. So now this opens up. He has this. I think he's going to win the Oscar. Yeah. I'd be surprised if he didn't. I think he'll get a lot of momentum because it's so surprising how good he is in this. Yes. In a movie, that probably shouldn't work. In a movie, I'm not even positive. I don't want to step on your take because you have the whole pot, but...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I'm not positive I love the movie that much, but I love the performances in it. I thought he was great. I thought, what's the Top Gun lady's name?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Norton.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Like, Walk the Line was the same thing. People were like, I love Phoenix. I loved Reese. The movie was solid.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It has something in common with The Star is Born when we heard word about this. And then there was like the initial clips and you think, oh no. No, brother. Oh boy. Here we go. You know, we've seen people make, go this way and make the mistake. But anyway, you mentioned the press tour with Chalamet.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Okay. I've wanted to have him on for years. I know he's a big Knicks fan. He seems like a genuine sports fan. He seems like a nut. And we put the stuff out. I don't know how his team decides. So this is the Chalamet, the challenge. Chalamet, come on the pod. Let's find out once and for all how much sports you know. I saw you on college game day. It was convincing. But I also know he's an actor.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So you go back to the 40s and 50s, the first 15 years of the league. The league, by the time we got to 1954, the league was in complete chaos. The pace was too slow. There was no shot clock. People were just fouling each other, trying to dribble out the clock. George Mikan was dominating everything, and the league kind of sucked. And then they came up with a shot clock. That fixed some of it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. And he could memorize, what, four or five pages of script of dialogue in one day. He couldn't have remembered like six picks that his buddy gave him. And I want to like really dive in with the Chalamet sports experience.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Let's have the deep dive mix combo that you've never really had on a podcast.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, let's talk real college hoops. Do you gamble? Where do you gamble? What sites do you use? Are you a friend of FanDuel? How'd you do last week on NFL picks? How deep does this go? Do you play fantasy football?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
No, I'm doing well this year. I just had a bad last week because of your team, the Eagles. Yeah, come on. Let's really see it once and for all. Do you have takes on the Super Bowl? Lions defense is banged up. What do you think, Chalamet? Let's go. Why is NBA ratings down? NBA ratings down, why? What are your reasons?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Come on the pod.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And I want to pitch him, which I've done in the past, I did with Michael B. Jordan to much success,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
a couple roles that I think he should play now if he wins the best actor what's next heist movie really well done rom-com and then what would be the third one just stuff for us so I pitched heist movie is he bad it's a sports movie sports movie coach for Greenwald I pitched him Timothy Chalamet as a iconoclastic offensive coordinator like the Ben Johnson story
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. He just kind of unravels because he was his quarterback. He only runs so many slants.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Starring Chalamet as the offensive coordinator of the Dolphins who's falling behind with gamblers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Another one's down. So sports movie, heist movie. Yeah. Does he need to be in a there's something wrong with the house movie?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Or like if we're... I'm having fun with this, but if we're... If he's going to do the Leo playbook, just... checkmark, best director, one after the other. You work with all the greats. That's what Leo did.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Chalamet, just the trailers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
If he wants to cash in though, you've come up with some spy franchise.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. You come up with your own or Mission Impossible. You come up with your own version of that. But maybe you mix it with sports.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He's Rich Paul crossed with a spy. It's like, clutch as a front for all the espionage work he's doing. Now it's just like the young Scott Boris story. That's true.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It was still really violent. It was a lot like hockey back then. There wasn't nearly enough scoring. They had a big betting scandal. That was a big thing. There were barely any black players, kind of a problem. All the best black players were playing for the Harlem Globetrotters, other places, because they wouldn't let them in the league.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, out of all these ideas, the best idea is Mike McDaniel crossing pain and gain.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, whatever the case, shall we? Come on the podcast. Let's do this once and for all. Let's talk about future roles. You can run, but you can't hide, Tim. Let's talk Amar Stoudemire. Yeah. Let's talk Carmelo. Does he have thoughts on the Carmelo marrow pod? Like, I want to know all this stuff. Just come on the pod. Come open a six pack with Bill. Come on. You're going to win best actor.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Come on the pod. This episode is brought to you by Bank of America. Money decisions don't have to be either or. With Bank of America, they can be yes and, as in yes to grabbing the latest merch and building up your budget for next season's tickets. Our digital tools help you create the future you want and help you keep enjoying today too. Do more with the bank that asks.
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what would you like the power to do? Explore tips and more at bankofamerica.com slash yes end. This episode is brought to you by the all new re-imagined Nissan Kicks. From the bold new exterior to the performance and tech features like intelligent all-wheel drive and a Bose personal plus sound system. Cars, where I live, I live in the Los Angeles area and cars
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or one of the most important things you can have because you're in them a lot because you got to drive around all over the place. You know what's fun? To have a nice car for an everyday commute, to have music and the ability to do hands-free stuff and just to feel safe. You can do it. Drive the all new reimagined Nissan Kicks today. Head over to Nissan USA.
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The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
To learn more, Bose Personal Plus Sound System is an available feature. Bose is a registered trademark of the Bose Corporation. Intelligent all-wheel drive cannot prevent collisions or provide enhanced traction in all conditions. Always monitor traffic and weather conditions. All right, we're taping this after the sixth episode of Landman Ran. So there's spoilers in this. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
See, I was making my all-time TV rankings. All-time, like, anything ever broadcast on television or streaming. I think Landman's, like, third. This is the greatest show of this decade. I can't believe how much I love it. It's the first show in a while that... When we're getting toward there's five minutes left, seven minutes left, I'm like, oh, man, there's only seven minutes left.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Please, no. I can't wait a week. This sixth episode was the best episode of the season. It was incredible. It's everything we want from a dumb TV show like this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And when you think back to where the NBA was, even in the mid-50s when Russell showed up, it was regional. Everything was in the East Coast or like the Pennsylvania area, the fringes of the Midwest. There were no West Coast teams. And the NFL was bigger. College football and college basketball were bigger. Baseball was bigger. Boxing, horse racing. Name a sport.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Think of the three things you just mentioned. And it's like a hybrid of all of those things. One of the things, because we were talking to Fantasy about it. He'd only watched the first three and he's in like movies right now. And I feel like he hasn't paid 100% attention. Because if he did, he would understand. But I do feel like the second three episodes, the show really fell into place.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It was almost like shared and needed a... get a feel for the actors that he had. And once he realized, like, I just got to let Billy Bob and Ali Larder cook in every scene possible. This is the most I've liked Billy Bob literally in 20 plus years.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Right. It was like she hadn't finished her previous job yet. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, all right, so let's unwind this. So Billy Bob, this is basically the same theme as what he struck away with with Koster and Yellowstone. Yeah. A really good, likable, charismatic actor who hadn't been really great in a role in a while and then Sheridan just unlocks it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This is all of the things I love about Billy Bob Thornton. And even like there's a little of the Friday Night Lights coach in here.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Right. Yeah. And this guy's been around forever. And when he's in the right role, he's perfect. But in this, he's like super perfect. Then Allie Larder, who I think all of us who had the Varsity Blues run. Then she had the Heroes run. And I think everybody likes her, but I hadn't seen her in anything. And this is...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I was saying to you earlier, there's that story about Starship Troopers that Casper Van Diem He thought he was in a serious drama, like a Spielberg movie and everybody else knew what it was actually was.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It was probably dead even with hockey. Get to the 60s. Russell's in there. We start finally getting some black stars. We get Elgin Baylor. We get Oscar. We get Will Chamberlain. And the 60s becomes, you know, Wilt versus Russell. Celtics dominance. It's still not going awesome. We still don't have like a definitive. The league is fine.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
She's Dion Waiters multiplied by 700. And her and Billy Bob are great together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Allie Larder's part is a hundred times bigger than that. Demi Moore has had eight lines and they filmed her from like 30 yards away in every scene. Yeah. And I don't know why she's in the show other than maybe they...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And he's wiry, and I don't know how tall he is, but yet still believable when he stands up for himself. And I was attached to him within two episodes. He starts hanging out. First of all, we didn't mention Michael Pena, who's in the credits in the first episode. Yes. And my shit detector's going off the whole time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Oh, yeah. But they basically did the same thing they did with Kyle Chandler. On Kingstown. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. So he dies. And then that sets off like his widow, all of a sudden, and you just know, it's like, oh man, this is going to go up. His friends, the dead guy's friends didn't like, they don't like where they, and you just kind of know, but I still love it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It's a great point.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And I feel like he has complete handle on who his character is. what like his baggage is as a human being, who he has to answer to, that he can get mean. That's why episode six was so big because it was like, I know there's a dark side with this guy and we haven't really seen it 100% in the show. And then in episode six, you see it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And the whole show's leading up to him confronting these guys who beat up his son. And the moment he locks in, You're just like, honestly, it's like watching like a Michael Mann movie or something.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
moment and at the same time this is one of the most tumultuous decades in american history there's a whole civil rights battle happening there's assassinations all over the place and you know a league that's becoming a mostly black league had had a pretty strange fit among all that especially as russell is becoming one of the dominant athletes we've ever had and a huge spokesman along with ollie and jim brown and some others
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
This show checks so many boxes that just work for a TV show. Like, what is this world? This weird oil world. I don't really know this. Oh, now you're bringing me into it. Now I kind of feel like, what's it like for the crews that work, you know, on these oil rigs or like they're like, oh, this is like this whole little community with these little mini houses. Then it's like the ham part.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
What's it like if you own this thing? Who do you deal with? The ham part's interesting because I don't feel like that's fully baked yet. And I'm not sure how much time Ham had to film the show.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Who was getting a little flirty with Billy Bob and then Allie Larder's character squashed it. But she's just an assassin. Yeah. And so in episode six, she goes to see the widow and they're like, here's the check. And then they're doing a little back and forth and the widow smartly asks, well, wait a second, what do you guys get out of this? And she's like... just lays it out as cold as possible.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Then the daughter is the other one. There's five or six really good characters that I want to know more about that I'm willing to go on a couple journeys with. But the most important thing to me, this is the best show Jon Hamm's ever done. You know, people say Mad Men. It's going to get aggregated. No, no.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
That's going on Hoopsite. People say Mad Men. I say watch Landman for a couple episodes. No, I'm psyched for him. I can't even tell. Maybe he only had five shooting days in a month. Billy Bob seems to be the only one who was fully committed for the six episodes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Well, and the thing with Sheridan and he figured out, he laid the groundwork for her with the first couple years of Yellowstone. He's made a bunch of shows, obviously, but to me, this is his apex. This is just like, he's taken all the lessons he's done on all these different shows.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And he's like, how can I make the most entertaining show possible about the oral world in Texas with, and just let some actors cook.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. Yeah. And the ex-wife stuff, you know, that's not going to last. How that's going to go bad. But there's so many good touches. Like she goes back to get divorced, right? In episode six. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And he's like, well, bring your toothbrush. Yes. And she goes, there's a whole party in the back, but they... The other thing is I like the houses. Like it's just these weird, crazy mansions you would never see in any other walk of life. They've done a good job with that. For Sheridan though, I just feel like he's figured it out once and for all.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
So the league is gaining steam from an impact standpoint, but it still hasn't hit the popular piece yet. And then we have our first unicorn situation. There's five unicorn situations total. And I want you to remember this because we're going to tie it back in at the end. So this first unicorn situation, the 1969 finals, which turned out to be Russell's last NBA finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I think this is going to be the biggest show he's ever had. And I know Yellowstone was the biggest show of the last 10 years.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
That's the next iteration of this is some big-ass stars coming in because that's somewhat what happened with Yellowstone. But I think Yellowstone was a big show that we're all like, wait, is that a big show? And people were kind of stealth watching it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, and then COVID, it felt like everybody caught up and then all of a sudden that became the biggest TV show. Yeah. you know, it definitely went a little sideways once the Costner thing got weird.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. So this is like, there's the Prestige TV stuff that we talk about that we have the podcast named after it. And there's a certain like just elite scripted. Yeah, White Lotus kind of thing. And then there's like the Yellowstone side of stuff. There's this middle ground between those two worlds that's the hardest thing to like straddle both lines.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And I feel like this is one of the only shows that has done that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
You know, where it's like, This show is not far away from being a real prestige show, but it doesn't want to be. Yeah, it wants to be funny and crazy and have music.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, the rest of the season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
one of the big lessons I've learned that if my son ever watches this is maybe don't get involved with the widow as a kid. Just, just, just point blank.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Who has the friends that are threatening you with guns? The moment you like spend, you're just raking your front yard. There's multiple, maybe like fine. There's lots of fish in the sea, buddy. Yeah. Um, no, I like, I think all the actors in this are really good too. That's the other thing. Yeah. Like she's good. The, the actress who plays the widow, um,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Oh, is that true?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what's the competition all time for a show like this? All time? I'm saying like that middle ground between prestige and like just going for it. I'm trying to think of other shows that were like this. Because like White Lotus was way more on the prestige side. You know, was goofy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
He's going for his 11th title. They're underdogs against the Lakers. We finally have a California team. We have Jerry West and Will Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor and the Lakers are favored to win game seven in LA. Russell beats them. And it turns out to be like the first great modern NBA finals game that we had.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just, this is the hardest competition.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
But this show's literally for everybody. I know. There's not one person in my life who wouldn't like Landman. And if they didn't like Landman, I don't, I'd have to reevaluate my relationship with them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
like a part of this you'll like the oil stuff you'll like the the Cooper stuff you'll like the love affair between Allie Larder and Billy Bob Thornton there's something in here that you will like I couldn't get my dad to watch it and cause he's like ah Yellowstone I got sports I got a lot to I'm like dad if you don't fucking watch Landman I'm gonna like fly to Boston and I'm gonna just tie you up in front of the sofa and make you watch the episode so he started watching of course he's on My Paramount cause he doesn't know how to pay for any streamer
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And so he's like, yeah, I watched the first two. It's good. And then he watched the third one. He's like, third one was good. And then the fourth one is like texting me. Did you see Landman? So I went to watch the one last night after I did my pod on Sunday night. It had already been watched. I had to like start it over. My dad was just like, right. Yeah. So I was like, oh, he's all in.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
There's no other explanation.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I don't understand how he does it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Nobody, is there other people? Does he have like five people under him?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It's football season and Uber Eats is dropping undefeated deals on all your game day favorites. This week's score, buy one, get one free six-piece boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings now on Uber Eats. And if you're craving even more, we've got you covered with game day deals on pizza, burgers, tacos, and more. All season long. Uber Eats, official on-demand food delivery partner of the NFL.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
That's a good comparison. Yeah. And West Wing was close to the prestige side too, but it was just a really well done, well acted fun show.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I just picture Sheridan in the writer's room and he's like, man.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah, he's just by himself with a dog and he's just like, man, I haven't had anyone blow up or had some terrible thing happen in an episode and a half. Yeah. I'm just going to have this guy step on a bunch of pipes and then fall under and get crushed by them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The next year, the Knicks, everyone in New York is like so delighted the Knicks are finally good at basketball. Like the Celtics are gone. They have a chance to win the title. 1970 finals, Willis gets hurt, comes back game seven, becomes one of the most famous games in NBA history. Also, Will kind of chokes. Uh, so we have that Kareem enters the league that same year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Unbelievable.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
It'd be funny if we had like the first take type of infrastructure for TV showrunners. And it was just like, it's Sheridan the goat.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
That would be great. Yeah. Just an entire first take. Wind power.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
What's Allie Larder's character's name?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
I think her name is Allie Larder on the show. Angela. Angela.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
What a win for her. I'm so happy for her. I'm happy for Billy Bob. I'm happy for everyone on the show. I'm happy for us. Yeah. So it's 10 episodes? I think so. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Yeah. This is a beloved piece of art. Watch Landman. It's really good. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Chris Mannix. Thanks to Chris Ryan. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti. As always, thanks to Jack Sanders for helping out last night with Craig Horlbeck as we taped some stuff with CR. And I will be back on Thursday with another podcast. See you then.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And then in 1971, he wins the title. He's the most Ballyhoo Ballyhoo college player. Um, to that point to somebody that's considered to be a successor to Russell and Wilt. So he's in the league. And then the next year, 71, 72, the Lakers went 33 straight. Jerry West finally wins the title. So you have this four year unicorn run, all these crazy events, and it propels the league up. A level.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And all of a sudden now the NBA is looking really good. Well, we have to go back to the danger zone again. From 1973 to 1976, they overexpand. They make the classic mistake of they just add too many teams. The ABA has formed and is stealing a lot of the young players. So all of a sudden the quality of the play is starting to go down. The quality of officiating is starting to go down.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
ABC loses the NBA to CBS because CBS kind of double crosses Rune Arledge, who's the most important sports executive probably of all time. And Rune Arledge is pissed and decides to counter Bergeron and the living shit out of the NBA. College football, college basketball, wide world of sports, the superstars competition. And he just makes it his life's mission to set the NBA backwards.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
There's a salary boom that happens where all of a sudden you have, Um, some guys that aren't doing that well, who are making a lot of money and everyone's really aware of it. Sidney Wicks, Pete Maravich, Spencer Haywood. So there's animosity toward basketball players for the first time. The Nixon Lakers are, are, are done at that point by the time we get to the mid seventies.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
And they have the future of the league, or so we would have thought on paper, Dr. J, Julius Erving, he's in the ABA. He's not even on television. So the NBA not only is getting older with some of their older stars, like Havlicek, Jerry West, all the guys from the previous generation, Oscar.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
But Doc, the guy who's supposed to come in and carry the league with Kareem, is in the wrong league and not on TV. And I'm a young kid in Boston. I would have loved watching Dr. J. Not on TV. So, again, we're in danger. And then what happens? We have a second unicorn situation. The 1976 finals. Havlicek and Callens on Boston, two of the most famous guys in the league. They're playing Phoenix.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Triple overtime game. I was lucky enough to be at the game with my dad. I was six years old. I might have slept through the fourth quarter in the first two overtimes. But it turns out to be the greatest game in the history of the league. Celtics win the title. The NBA is back. The ABA merges into the NBA that summer.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
All of a sudden we have Dr. J, David Thompson, George Girvin, George McGinnis, Moses Malone. All these guys are now in the NBA and the NBA has 22 teams and stacked and it's awesome. And that leads to Kareem jumping to, Kareem's already in LA. Walton's on the Blazers. The Blazers take off that year. And it's a late run. Second half of the year into the playoffs, they beat Kareem.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
They end up beating Dr. J and Philly in the finals. Bill Walton, turns out maybe he's the next Bill Russell. Everybody's in love with the guy. He's got the beard. He takes the jersey off after they win. So this is unicorn number two situation. 76 finals, 77 finals. Basketball seems like it's in the best shape that it's been in maybe ever. What happens?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
You go back to the danger zone, the late 70s into the early 80s. Wong gets hurt the next year, never really recovers. And it would be like when Binyama won the title this year and then just got hurt and we didn't see him for six years. The cocaine era happens. And the cocaine, that's hitting all the sports, that's hitting Hollywood, that's hitting the comedy circles. Cocaine starts to wipe out
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Order now for game day. Terms, taxes, and fees apply. See app for details. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I put up a new Rewatchables last night. Chris Ryan and I did The Gambler, a movie that came out 10 years ago with Mark Wahlberg. One of our favorite gambling movies. A really kind of deep, fun movie to talk about and make fun of and also appreciate.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Pretty much everybody starting in 1978, and it does some real damage to the NBA and cut short some careers, changes the course of some careers. Some young stars that they're counting on go sideways. So you have that. You have the Kermit Washington punch.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
in late 1977 in that 77 78 season where he punches rudy tom janovich a white guy and all this ugly stuff surfaces up all the casual racism that people felt toward you know a mostly black league being being catered and sold to mostly white fans that all pops up and this crazy two-year run of of you can go back and read some of the old sports illustrated things about the league's too black
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
that it's never going to work. And it's just, it fucking goes crazy in a bad, bad, bad way. In a way that even as a little kid, I was kind of noticing the way they were talking about it. It was not great. We had the dumb owner apex back then. This is when basically anybody could buy an NBA team and you just had these dumb owners. Like the Celtics for a year had John White Brown. He was terrible.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
Um, just dumb owners making dumb trades, not trying to build anything. So the teams that are just in constant chaos, you have the dumb commissioner apex to Larry O'Brien, who's awful. David Stern comes in and looks a hundred times better compared to him. A few years later, you have CBS fucking up.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
The playoffs either do tape delaying the primetime games or making the NBA schedule weekend playoff games so that you're playing game three and game four of a series back-to-back days. So they could care less about the health of the players. They really didn't want to show the NBA because it wasn't doing that well. So you had that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
You had college hoops, the NFL, baseball, NHL, boxing, college football, and horse racing are all more popular in the NBA by the end of the 70s because they have the Washington-Seattle finals twice a row, which are great basketball finals, but not exactly a marquee finals. And all of it is eventually captured in Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam, the best sports book of all time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
The NBA’s Danger Cycle, Plus Usyk Is Invincible, ‘Landman’ Can’t Lose, and Chalamet Will Win the Oscar With Chris Mannix and Chris Ryan
That comes out, I think, in 82. But the NBA, like the Lakers play the Sixers, I think, in 82 and 83. And... Some of those games weren't even on live television. They weren't on until 1130 on the East Coast. That's how bad it was for the NBA. So I'm going to say a little more dangerous than right now. Leading to our third unicorn situation, the 1984 finals.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Coming up, NBA Cup, NBA, and a lot of NFL next. This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Wherever you like to watch the game, at the arena, the bar, home, wherever. Enjoy every moment of the NBA season with an ice cold Michelob Ultra. And, you know, we've done some stuff with them. So they'll send me the Michelob Ultra. I'll put it in the fridge. It's really interesting what happens.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
If I'm Dallas Kirk, who's my guy that's going to be guarding SGA if I'm seeing them in round two or round three? Who's my stopper for SGA?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He made a lot of threes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Last year, they were too small, and they almost won the series anyway, OKC. And it came down to that play in the corner when SGA, the foul, when he played perfect defense, and they lucked out with that one. But they also didn't have Hartenstein last year, and Chet got overpowered in that series. Or Caruso. And Caruso was great tonight. He was great tonight.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
A different team, and yet they almost beat them last year. So I'm feeling great if I'm OKC. The other thing... And who knows? Shams wrote this piece today about... You know, could Jimmy Butler get traded? Zach Levine? I know Jacoby has some thoughts on it. I'm like, OKC to me is the perfect type of team that could make trades because they have all these movable contracts, cheap contracts.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They can add stuff together. They're not getting crushed by the apron. They have a million picks they could trade. I'm so confused by the trade rules. And I've read everything. And as you guys know, I'm the trade machine Picasso. Like, I take this seriously. I am just absolutely flummoxed by these rules. And even that thing today I read where it's like, yeah, Jimmy Butler.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's like, I'm not sure anybody can add Jimmy Butler. From what I understand about these rules, it feels like they made him too hard, Jacoby. And I'm going to be useless at the trade deadline. I don't like it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And a lot of the archives we have from the TV episodes we've done. So go check that out and subscribe. We're gonna be experimenting a lot more with video podcasts on all the Spotify feeds too for Prestige and for The Watch and for my podcast and for The Rewatchable. So stay tuned.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, you're not doing that. Golden State's the team. I think it would be Golden State.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, I think Shams put in, he had the Texas teams. San Antonio would be super interesting for that, but I think they would have to resign them. And I don't know if that's on their timetable, but Golden State, I think has real urgency with, uh, You know, I'm not just a body language guy, but I'm also the trade detective. And I did notice this weekend, all of a sudden they're pushing Kaminga.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They're putting him in the starting lineup. Draymond Green's like, you can have my spot. When has Draymond Green ever been this magnanimous? Just there was a lot of red flags where I was like, huh, what are you guys doing? Almost feels like you're trying to showcase Kaminga for somebody. No, no, take my spot. Draymond Green, the guy who punched Jordan Poole, now he's Mr. Magnanimous, take my spot.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I don't know, something that feels like the team because they're on a specific window with Curry, right? If you feel like you can contend for a title with Curry at age 36, he's already wearing down over the first five, six weeks. Butler makes sense for them. Kirk, you're nodding.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
So you're saying they're like the farmer's market? Yeah. Come on over. We got pistachios. We got Kyle Anderson. The flowers over here. Organic. There's some chicken. Got chicken over here. Free sample. It's a full chicken. Some fruit.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I think it's going to like really, really harm it. But so selfishly, I'm mad because I love making up fake trades and they're just going to be super unrealistic. But Jacob's, there's this flip side to it where I kind of like it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Where guys who are in situations they might not love, like to me, it's like if we're driving, you know, like say Jacoby, you have your three kids in the car and you're like, we're driving all the way to Washington, D.C. and we're not stopping. But your kids are like, Dad, can we stop? Can we get something? Can we stop, stop? And they just wear you down and you eventually stop.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
If you like listening to podcasts on Spotify, you'll be able to watch the videos as well as we keep going, heading to the end of 2024 into 2025. Coming up. We waited for these two NBA Cup games to end on Tuesday night because, especially OKC Dallas had to see what was going on there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
This, all these apron rules are basically like the kids are trapped in the car for the entire ride now. Like if you're Brandon Ingram, it's like, I want to get off. Can we stop it? You're like, can't, sorry, can't trade.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But everyone's trapped in the car and you kind of have to make the best of it. And this is what the NBA used to be like. You're like, hey, you're stuck on your team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But look at Zach Levine's situation. He's playing well for Zach Levine. He's 22-5-5. I've watched a couple games where in the fourth quarter, he's as good as he's ever looked. And he could have checked out or been like, well, I'm going to nurse an injury until you guys trade me. But he's not going to get traded. So he might as well make the best of it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's a little reminds me of what happened in football. Or in football, there's like never trades, right? Nobody's like, we traded our left tackle today for somebody starting outside linebacker. It's just everybody's kind of stuck on their team until the end of the year. And maybe that's what basketball is becoming, which is bad for podcast content, but it may be better for basketball, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It might be Jamal Murray. Like his extension hasn't even kicked in yet. Well, if he's going to look like he's looked, I mean, there's some other ones like Nurkic. I'm sure Phoenix would be dying to trade him in five seconds, right? But yeah, if you look at the best three teams, the Celtics, OKC, and Cleveland, none of them really have like the, oh man, I wish we didn't have this contract guy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
All the contracts are pretty good. But I also feel like, it seems like people knew this era was coming. and the smarter teams were very careful. Even that OKC deal for Hartenstein, they overpaid him for three years based on what his market was, but it's actually a smart deal.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Wanted to break it down, so I reserved, almost like you could reserve an Uber black car or something, I reserved Dave Jacoby and Kirk Goldsberry to be on call after the NBA Cup, so they're gonna join me, and then, Craig Horoback and Kyle Branton and I, Kyle and I did a rewatchables that we recorded for later this month.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That's how they got him, and it's not gonna kill them down the road, unlike how Juan Soto's gonna kill the Yankees in the last five years of his deal when he's just destroying them for 60 million a year. Or the Mets, I meant the Mets. Let's take a break. I have some NBA Cup questions for you, big picture, whether we actually like this or not. That's next.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The NBA season is flying and FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, wants to catch all the action. Right now, FanDuel giving everyone three months of NBA League Pass. All you have to do to catch every tip-off from Buzzer Beater is place any $5 bet on the NBA. You can trail me on Fridays. I've been pretty hot with these 30-on-30s we're doing on Fridays with NBA 30-point scores. So stay tuned.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I tweet those out on Fridays. Next time you get a hunch on who's going to win or how many points a player will score, You can watch your picks come to life live. You can even bet the NBA Cup games on Wednesday. Just visit FanDuel.com slash BS to get three months of NBA League Pass courtesy of FanDuel. Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Sports fans, I know going to the big games can get expensive, so let's talk strategy. Let's talk how PayPal has changed the playbook. Now you can pay everywhere, online, in-store. either or both with the PayPal debit card. That's right, earn a 5% cash back up to $1,000 every month in the category you choose, like apparel and groceries. Think about it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Don't just pay, PayPal. Terms and cash back, limits apply. See PayPal app. The PayPal debit card is issued by the Bancorp Bank. NA pursuant to a license by MasterCard International Incorporated and may be used everywhere. MasterCard is accepted. NBA Cup, does this work? Jacobs, it's year two. Here's my case for maybe it doesn't work.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I didn't want the Celtics to make the quarterfinals or semifinals and have to play the two extra games. I wanted the rest for them. So that tells me fundamentally, maybe this doesn't 100% work, that I wanted my team not to make it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And then I made him stick around yesterday and me and Craig and Kyle just talked about NFL. And it went a whole bunch of directions. I had a great time. So this is a three-man podcast all the way through with two different three-man teams. It's all next. First, our friends from Pro Gym. All right, we're taping this. It is almost 9 o'clock Pacific time. Dave Jacoby stayed up late on the East Coast.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, Luka was like, 100,000 we didn't get? Eh?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
What do you think, Kirk?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I know Embiid's disappointed. He wanted to get those two extra games in. I like the NBA Cup But I think that's the criticism. I was thinking, should there be a couple other things that you win if you win beyond just the money? What if you could get un-aproned for the rest of the season? I don't know why the players would care about that, but the fans, I think, would be...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Like the Phoenix Suns all of a sudden be like, wait, we're out of the lock separate apron for three months. It's like a get out of jail free card for the apron. What if you guaranteed the six playoff spot?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, you could think about the season a little differently. It's an advantage, right? You know you don't have to be in the playing game. You know you're going no lower than six. You can rest guys a little differently. It's a real advantage for the season, I think would be the appeal. But then if you're a team like Atlanta... Or even Houston, who's probably going to be a top six team anyway.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But I think that would be pretty... Or Orlando, who's losing their entire team to torn obliques. You kind of want the sixth seed. I like that. The other one... That's really it. You could do a draft pick thing, but I don't know why the players on the team would care. It's like, oh, we've locked down the 15th pick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
With Jacobs, we both have the reality background. You once upon a time were the czar of reality TV. Is there a reality thing we could steal for this? Like you win and you get to use that power to fuck over another team in some way? Like you could say... Oh, I haven't thought about it in that way. You get your cross and it's like the Celtics now...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
So say the NBA Cup quarterfinals, semis, and finals are all Elam ending. We just hit a certain score and the game's over? Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Jacoby, would SGA be fun to play with? Absolutely. Be fun to play pickup with? Okay. He leads the league in unassisted baskets, so it's kind of one of those situations where you don't feel needed.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, when we played, we had that one guy who was the stay on the court guy. where we knew we would basically just have to rebound and play defense, and he was going to score nine of the 11 points. I can't remember what his name was. Jalen Rose. I think it was Jalen Rose. Jalen was unfair. He was unfair to play it. Let's talk about the other game and whether we believe in Milwaukee Bucks yet.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I thought they played really well against the Celtics on Friday in a game that was about as intense as you get in December. There's no love lost between those two teams, Kirk Goldsberry. There's some Giannis Jalen stuff. There's some Giannis Al Horford stuff, I felt like. Tatum has a little bird in his saddle against them. I don't feel like anybody really likes playing against Dame that much.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Kurt Goldsberry, sloppy seconds we're getting you today because you were doing some alt-casting. Hopefully you have enough energy momentum back. Guys, I'm going to start here. OKC beats Dallas. Jacoby, is OKC like a borderline lock for you in the West, or is there somebody else you're afraid of? Because the more I watch them, the more I just wonder who beats them in the West.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I always feel like people get annoyed by him. But that was a really intense game on Friday. But the Celts won. But what struck me was I thought the Bucs hung with them and could have won the game. And... Now that Green and Prince have been getting them three-point shooting, now that Portis, who looked like he was going to be out of the league first month of the season, now he's back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Now they have Middleton back. Giannis is averaging a 32, 12, and 6. I still don't feel like they're at that top echelon and maybe not even in the second echelon. But they're at least lingering because of Giannis now, right? I don't think they're lurking, but I would go lingering for them. Is that fair?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I'm a little worried about the Lopez piece of it. He looked really old in the Celtic game and I thought he was the biggest reason they lost. And it feels like there's a Giannis, Portis, Shooters, and Dame. And whether Middleton's in that or not, we'll find out. But that seems to be probably their most successful lineup, which is weird because Lopez was so essential to what they did.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I don't know, Jacobs. I still don't feel like the Giannis-Dame thing is perfect. And maybe it will never be, but it almost feels like Dame, it's like, hey, Giannis isn't going to play tonight, Dame. You're going to have to take a lot of shots. I don't feel like he's shedding tears. You know what I mean?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I don't feel like they've totally figured it out yet, but they're kind of scotch taping it and duct taping it together now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
For Tatum, it's a dream. Tatum against the Bucs, he's like, this is awesome. Sorry, Kirk, I interrupted you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Are you a believer? Ime said this like three weeks ago about. He's like, if you look at all the teams that have won a title or made the finals, they're all like top five defense. Yeah, I think he's right. I actually think it's that simple.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Right. Well, and then when Dame wasn't on him, he was getting the switch button. They were asking a lot from Suggs in that game. In fact, this is a good time to bring in Steve Cerruti for two seconds because we have a very important Orlando Magic question. So at halftime, were you on Expedia or wherever looking for Hartford to Vegas tickets? Were you thinking about it? You were, weren't you?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
People come over, they want a beer. They go, oh, Michelob Ultra. Or, I've never tried one of these. I've heard you talk about it. 100% approval rating every single time. Keep it nice and cold. It's delicious. There's only one way to watch your favorite teams drop buckets, and that's with a bucket of Michelob Ultra. Stock up on Michelob Ultra for the NBA season. Michelob Ultra.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
My friend, Sean Grandy, who is the radio guy for the Celtics, who's, I think, a good basketball kind of thinker with this stuff. Orlando is the team he's afraid of for the Celtics when they get everybody back because he thinks they're defensive upside. And they didn't have Isaac tonight either.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He thinks their defensive ceiling is the high... Some people would say it's Tibbs and Nix, but I just think it's going to be too easy to get...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
point the Knicks are in a weird position where their offense is probably going to be more dangerous than their defense in the playoffs but I think Orlando so the case for them would be the defense giving Franz all those reps without Paolo and now Suggs turning into like Russell Westbrook 2017 light like just doing everything on the magic Jacoby are you buying Suggs stock yet?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, the other piece with the Orlando that's been interesting with these guys going out is... I don't know. They took the... They took the training wheels off Anthony Black a little bit.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He got, what's the hairdo he's rocking these days? He moved some hair stuff around. Yeah, and he's got, there's like a little bun in the back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Seems like a new guy. Like, I didn't know who it was.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But there's a lot of stuff to like with him. And I don't really know what his ceiling is. And I'm sure when we get to like game four of a playoff series and he's in the corner, teams are going to be like, go ahead, take that. But the fact that he's not a bust feels like a win, Cerruti.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
What do you think, Goldsberry?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Kirk, what do you see from the Magic?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And two games you didn't have to play. It's not like the NBA Cup was going to do anything for you. It's two more games where nobody's getting hurt. Oh, Cody's got time out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's tough. They're 30th in three-point shooting, 31%. They're 28th in corner threes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Like, okay, the worst shooting team in the league.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They're all fine. Why don't you have to do that to Cerruti? He's got, like, the best two guys have torn a bleach.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Oh, I like how you used the alpha and beta. So Rudy, did you know where your oblique was five weeks ago?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Where did you think it was on your body?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I wonder if they even knew how to diagnose this in like the 80s. Like Bob McAdoo had a torn oblique for an entire year and had no idea because he's like, oh, my side hurts. They're like, Bob, take some aspirin.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But how did two guys, I know everyone's asking this, but it is fucking weird. How did two guys get the same injury? It's like a haunted house.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They were showing him different plays and he couldn't even know what the play was.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Really weird. Rank your three, your three teams you're afraid of in the East. Boston, obviously one. Who's two?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Die Easy Knicks fan Dave Jacoby is upset. No. Number one offense in the league.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Kirk, were you seeing 25 and 13 with 46% three-point shooting from Towns this year? Was that in your bingo card?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I thought it was going to go the other way. I thought it was going to be like, oh, they got to figure out how to get in the ball more because there haven't been enough. Instead, it's like this him and Brunson as a combo have been crazy. And then it seems like the Knicks fans really like him, too. That's the other thing that I think was up in the air.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, I think I'd go slight edge to the Bucs because of just how crazy Giannis is this year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It just seems like any time he wants to go downhill, he turns, so my daughter went to the game on Friday, because my dad got a COVID shot, and I don't know, first of all, why did he get a COVID shot? Great question. Second.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I was like, nobody, dad, it's 2024. What are you doing? So he got a COVID shot and then go figure, him and my stepmom both felt like crap the next day. So my daughter got to go with her boyfriend and she hadn't seen Giannis in person. And it was, so she called me after and she was like, dad, is he like the best player of all time? Like, where does he, what's going on with that?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
FanDuel agrees with you, but the odds for the OKC Thunder in the West, I thought they'd be a minus, but they're plus 190 in the West. And they just seem too athletic and too fast for maybe any team except the Celtics. Because I think at least the Celtics, it's the perimeter guys. You watch Dallas, and Dallas was on a good run. They'd won 11 and 12.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It just seems like every time he wants, he could just bulldoze over everybody and get a layup or a dunk. And I'm like, yeah, it's kind of.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
This fat guy is going to have 104 points this weekend, two games. But I think we've been watching the honest thing for so long, we forget just fundamentally how insane it is that he could just basically get to wherever he wants, no matter what the defense is. Middleton is the thing with them. To me, it's a 3A, 3B thing. And I want to know where we are with Middleton in March.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And then Orlando's kind of lurking as the... Who knows, team? Miami, it's interesting. And I don't think they have any chance to move up into this ladder, but they do seem like they've figured out something over the last two weeks with their team. Like, Hero carries the offense for three quarters. Butler kind of takes over late. Bam's having a really weird season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Like, all his field goal stuff and stuff around the rim is terrible. It's really, like, uncharacteristic. But for some reason, I could see them... maybe upsetting somebody in one round, but not more than that. And that's really it. I don't even know who else we would have in the East. Sruti, you seem like serenely confident, just focused on March and April.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, it took away the supermax, though, which is good for you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That could have been like a salary cap nightmare to have two supermax guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Who criticized that? People did. Yeah, who's that?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I think he's a third guy on a championship team And maybe even potentially has the ceiling of being a second guy if he was with somebody incredible, right? Like being the Jamal Murray, Drew Holiday spot if you get to play next to a Giannis or Jokic. All right, thanks for stopping in, Saruti.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Congrats on your heroic effort tonight.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Before we go, Jacoby, you want to talk about Embiid?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
What do you got?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
to me, remember we said that joke about Twitter, like when Twitter was really like a place a lot of people went to that you just wish you could have certain stories and just not even see them, that you could meet the story. If the story was happening, you just wouldn't even know about it. That's how I feel about it. Embiid might play tonight. Embiid's not gonna play tonight.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Embiid's gonna rest tonight. Embiid has some swelling again. Embiid's feeling better. I just, I'm just out. I'm tapping out. I can't do it. The chronic swelling was the most disturbing part of that story I thought this weekend. It's not even like he re-injured or anything. It was like, yeah, it's maintenance because he has chronic swelling. What does chronic swelling mean? None of it sounds good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They really felt like they were starting to turn into something. And they just look slow tonight compared to OKC. You put Luka, you put Kyrie, you put Klay Thompson. Najee Marshall, who was really good in the first half. Those are good players. Those are guys, this is the top five team in the league. And OKC just seemed faster overall. and younger and more athletic.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Goldsberry, you were at San Antonio when this was going on with Kawhi. It was a little different. There was more mystery. And Kawhi was younger. He wasn't 7'3", carrying a bunch of weight. But this just has a stranglehold over your franchise after a certain point, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, this happened to the Celtics in 09 with KG. I don't know if you remember. KG got hurt. They were like 31 and five. They had some crazy record. And it was like, KG's coming back. And then it was just, is he coming back? And then it was like, team not sure. Still feeling pain. Nobody's saying anything. And it just turns into this
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Like you said, a black cloud where you don't know game to game we tweak. What's weird is that I guess he looked pretty good in that Bulls game. I didn't watch it. I just saw the highlights.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And Luka, I don't know, what was going on with Luka, Jacoby? What was your take?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, it's like when you see... like in a sports movie, there's like the, the fat old washed up guy who wanders on the court and just starts hitting like 20 footers. It just seems like a bead. He's so skilled from 18, 19 feet. It doesn't matter. They hadn't played for a month. All of a sudden he could just hit nine straight 20 footers. But,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
you know, not to be a party pooper, but, you know, they're in this stretch. They were calling it, Hollinger called it the NBA bye week, basically, where everybody has like one or two games over the course of eight days. And they're playing Chicago, then they have all this rest. So he can have a game. He's playing Vucevic. He's playing the Bulls who are a bottom five defensive team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And he can go out there, get a good run, get his points, not have to worry about playing the next day. It's hard to feel optimistic after that is my point. Like I want to see what their schedule starts to get harder. I think at the end of the year, they've got, did they have a road trip? Is he going to be on the road trip? Is he going to play?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Then there's the part that you mentioned about the teammates being asked about it. What do you think about Joel? How much do you guys miss Joel? It's just day after day. And You know, it's not awesome, especially when you're competing against teams like OKC, where it's like everybody's young and hungry, and they're all doing the post-game press conferences together.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And they're hanging out, and they're ready to go. So I don't know how it plays out. I'll tell you this, though. The extension... Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Jacoby, who's your favorite rookie?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I wish he made threes. He's like 28% from three, but everything else is there. He's fluid. I know. I like him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Good point. For what he's going to do, I think, this year, I think they're going to have real trouble keeping him out of the lineup. And there's a chance he's their second best player by the end of the year. I just like him. I like how hard he plays. He seems like the kind of guy OKC would have. Just like a really, really, really gives a shit two-way guy. He can't really shoot yet.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But I thought he was my favorite guy heading into the draft. I thought he's the guy I would have taken number one if I was Atlanta. And everything I've seen from him I would not waver on that one. I want to see more. Reed Shepard is the one I think I'm the most interested by because I don't think Van Vliet's had a good season and the shooting stats back it up. Like they're not good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And I wonder, you know, I know they have like a, I forget if it's a player option or a team option next year, but Reed Shepard within two years will probably be running that team. But I almost, that's one of those where you want like, Van Blee to have some very minor injury for three days or three games just to kind of see Reed Shepard get to drive the car out of the garage a couple times.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's weird. I like this draft more than I thought, Kirk. There's a lot of guys. They're not superstars, but there's a lot of guys where I'm like, I kind of like that guy. Even Klingon on Portland. I like Zach Eady. There's a bunch of them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, I think Memphis is so deep that I thought he would actually be this important, weird, just kind of throw a cannonball in the pool just to shake it up kind of thing, but they don't need it. They just have too many good bench guys. Their bench is crazy. And the fact that Aldama is actually good now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, true. Yeah, Sar... That's probably the worst possible situation for a guy like that. It's like your team's going to just be awful and you're just going to learn some bad habits. But too early to say what we talk about him. I mean, one other thing with Memphis, like another reason that Edie's probably not even going to play that much is that Brandon Clark...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
has, uh, I, I was so impressed with him in the Boston game, but just, it feels like he's got his explosiveness back and he's a really unique player, like that crazy undersized energy guy that always seems to be on good teams. So yeah, I like the draft. Um, we'll see with Dillingham.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You know what, though? I still think they're the number two team in the West for me if I had to say who can actually make the finals. I still have Dallas second. I don't think this is a great matchup for them. And I was trying to think of the rock, paper, scissors thing with the West. I don't know if you guys saw the OKC Houston game. Maybe it was 10 days ago.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That was the other one that I was super duper intrigued by, but it feels like they phased them out a little bit because they're trying to get their defense going. Um, so we'll see what happens with that. Who's your most disappointing team? Jacoby, Indiana.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Oh, you're going to zag on me? That's fine.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's probably Tommy Alter's fault. Who's your most disappointed team, Kirk?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Those are two great choices. Congratulations to both of you. But the answer is the Phoenix Suns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They don't have KD. Make excuses for big shot Bob Sarver. They're 13 and 11. They're like one in nine without KD. Okay. But guess what? They traded all their first round picks. They traded Mikael Bridges. They traded Cam Johnson. They traded DeAndre Ayton. They traded all their second round picks. They traded everything to have basically a three guy team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And one of the three guys has been in the league since 2007 and has a bunch of injuries and has gotten hurt twice. And I don't know why I fell for it. It made me mad. They were one of my favorite overs. I picked them to win the division. I thought they were going to be a 50-plus win team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Houston, I think, is the team in the West that can go toe-to-toe on this crazy, young, hungry pit bull, just speed, athleticism all over the place. I think that's the only way in the West... Nobody's going to overpower them. There's not going to be like, obviously not the Lakers, but the LeBron AD type situation where it's just, oh my God, they just got bully balled.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And I forgot the fact that they're built around this guy who's been in the league for 18 years, asking him to be the rim protector, their crunch time scorer, to do 30 a game, nine rebounds a game, make 50% of your shots and 45% of your threes, do everything. And it's like, oh, guess what? He lasted a month before he got hurt twice. And I'm just mad at myself more than anything.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But you have to be disappointing when you trade players literally a decade of stuff for the team you have in your 13 and 11. So that's my answer.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah. Especially now with all the apron stuff that happened, that trade looks even a hundred times worse. Like you would much rather have the flexibility now, but when you just consider all the assets they sent out for the team that they have now, and it's all hinging on, well, when Durant's healthy, Might not happen. You know?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He's 7'1", and he's had a lot of lower, below-the-hip injuries at this point, and they put a huge burden on him in playing big minutes. And I would just be nervous if I was the Suns.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But counter, doesn't everybody have two good guys at this point?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I guess for me, Kirk, with Phoenix, there's always going to be, now that Nurkic is pretty much unplayable, so leaning on Plumlee now as their center, and Tyus Jones, these are like bench guys. These are guys that would be like 10th or 11th players on the Celtics or the Thunder, and these are two of their crunch time guys.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
70 plus million for Bradley Beal and Nurkic and Bol Bol. Is Bol Bol still on the team?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Guys, thanks for staying up with me. It's a pleasure seeing you. Great seeing you in your weird, undisclosed New York City location at one in the morning. We don't know where you are. Be careful walking home, Jacobs. Kirk, great to see you. Even though we were your sloppy seconds tonight, I had a great time talking to you guys. I will see you soon, I'm sure. Thanks for coming on.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They got out rebounded by 10 rebounds. I don't see that happening this year. I almost feel like you have to beat them with what they do. Is there anybody else you see, Kirk?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
All right, we're taping this part on a Monday. I did a Rewatchables taping with Kyle Brandt, who we haven't been together in a long time, really since Super Bowl with the Giants and the Pats that I never like to talk about. Craig Horlbeck is here too. Let's talk football. There's no reason for this. We just turned the mics on. Come on. Sal brought up last night on the podcast...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
about whether if you were... Granted, it's like a generic talk show segment, but it really got my brain turning about Josh Allen versus Mahomes. Mahomes, the resume, versus what we're actually watching week to week, game to game, like the shit that he's doing, the shit when they're down 35 to 13 against the Rams. And you're just like... not turning this off. I feel like Josh can bring this back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You've been on the bills thing forever. Yeah. So is anything different this year or is, is, are the, are the toys better for him? Is it just the experience? What is it? What's different between the years?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I can't count out Lamar yet for some reason, but I think it's like, FanDuel would say it's done. It's like, he's like a minus 500 favorite.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And so it's like, I just... I'm out. I did this last week. I'm out on the Saquon. I just think like... I want it to. It would be cool, but I don't think they can do it. This is the dumbest way to think about it, but I also think it's the best way to think about it. When somebody gets hurt, what happens to the line? Like if Josh Allen got hurt, the Bills line moves by nine points.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
If Barkley gets hurt, the Eagles line moves by like two and a half points.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah. So that's what, I hate that it has to be a quarterback pretty much every year unless the guy's having the most amazing season ever or there's no like awesome quarterback. But for the most part, this is the most, it's like saying like, no, the pilot's not the MVP of this airplane. It's actually the third flight attendant. Got those peanuts. She's killing it. It's like, you know who's the MVP?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The fucking pilot. Because we're crashing if the pilot doesn't make out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Right, and they have the dopey play with the QB sneak where they waste the time out. Is that this era?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I am. I am stunned that the Steelers have not gotten more credit this year. I don't get it. I don't know what else they have to do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They're playing Christmas night, too.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The Josh thing, the way you laid it out, really makes me think of Peyton Manning, first half of the 2000s, where he had reached this point where he was the best regular season quarterback ever. He was the guy you would take first in fantasy, all that stuff. But you never felt like he was actually going to win.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And then they end up winning in 06, partly because the Pats choked away a 21-3 halftime lead. In the dome.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The problem for the Chiefs is sometimes you can pass the point of no return with weapons. Because, and I said this last time on the pod, like, This did happen to Brady a couple of times where like 06, he was awesome. And we just had nobody. We had Lawrence Moroney and starting running back and Rashay Caldwell and Jabbar Gaffney and Ben Watson. It was like, we just didn't have enough weapons.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
When we needed third downs, there was that one guy to get open. There was that awesome running back. I don't think the Chiefs weapons are that bad, but there's been some Brady seasons where he was better than the team. And I wonder with Mahomes' shot, I thought he took a lot of hits on Sunday night.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
a superior light beer. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2024, Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra, registered light beer, St. Louis, Missouri. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. It's football season and Uber Eats is dropping undefeated deals on all your game day favorites. This week's score, buy one, get one free six-piece boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings now on Uber Eats.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Or should they have lost? And Allen missed that one throw to Diggs. There was one other play. Like, if you really watch that game closely, it was kind of amazing the Bills didn't win that game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
No, there were some weird Patriot years wondering like how we were doing it week after week. But this is different because they're almost adding this degree of difficulty to the wins. And I'm not a lucky person with football. I never really bought into that because clearly they're good. Clearly, like the plays that he was making yesterday, especially in the last drive, that third and 15 was crazy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And then actually, I don't know who I put in third or just to beat OKC. Would you just have Houston third in general?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Right. The third and seven, you know, he's going to get it. So that's its own skill. I thought what concerned me if I was them was the Chargers, I thought, were really physical with them in the second half in a way that I don't remember seeing with the Chiefs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But you always felt like the Chiefs were going to lose. It was because they dropped the key third down pass or something. I thought the Chargers were pushing them back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And without their best receiver.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I like them. So they'll be a six seed, right? Depends, yeah. They'll be whatever behind Baltimore and Pittsburgh. So a six seed would put them probably against either Buffalo or Pittsburgh.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That's why they go in. That's why I'm so cautious with the Chiefs because of the Kelsey keeping him in the garage with the tarpon thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Like they're just clearly doing that. Yeah. We didn't see him for two hours in the game yesterday. You know, in fantasy, like people are still paying for him in fantasy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But then you watch Bowers, although Tampa was able to take him out a little yesterday. Bowers is just like Gronk crossed with Kelsey, crossed with like a sports movie tight end. He's open all the time. He's just crushing everybody. And Kelsey could probably do that in January in round two, but I don't think they're using that skill now. So I don't know if I had to rank them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I honestly think Pittsburgh's the safest bet out of the three because of the defense. More than Buffalo. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I think they could beat Buffalo in Buffalo because they can get some explosive plays. But I think Buffalo has a better chance of beating KC. Because the thing with KC that I can't wrap, I feel like if you can get 24 and up on them points-wise, you're probably beating them. Right? Buffalo beat them 30-21. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But Pittsburgh is more likely to play the 18-16, 19-16 type Kansas City game, which is better for KC. So I do feel like there's some rock, paper, scissors.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I 100% agree.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They knew they could beat Jameis.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, but Kyle knows the way to beat the Bills is what the Rams did yesterday. You're just five yard run, four yard run, seven yard run, seven yard pass, three yard run, five yard. You're just chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. Like a punt.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But what did they run for? The running game, I thought, was the most interesting part of that. Because Buffalo, I wouldn't say they're like a giant defense. No, not really. It feels like you can push them backwards.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Okay. Just for me. But I like that pick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I just think that Detroit-Philly talent pedigree... That's good. Especially if you have to go into Detroit round two, round three, and try to take those guys. Whereas the AFC, I don't really love any team. I feel the best about Pittsburgh. I certainly wouldn't feel awesome about Russell Wilson winning three straight playoff games. Yeah, and if this is the year to go against KC.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
My holy shit playoff team would actually be the Chargers. I'm with you on that. They can block... And they can chase the passer. And once we get into January, if you can just do those two things, make a couple plays, not turn the ball over and win a couple ugly games. That's what the Chiefs did last year. You know, I was really impressed by that mystery. I think they're the Chargers in a loss.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I thought they, I thought they really handled the Chiefs defensive line. I was surprised. And like Herbert misses wide open touchdown, right? He missed another guy like 35 yards down the field. Their running backs are among the worst in the league without Dobbins.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Gus Edwards and Vidal. Like, come on.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And we always look for these angles on what makes the team special, who's going to be the sleeper. This was the first year where I was like, all I care about are coaches and QBs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I did all my over-unders and I was like, If you have a coach or a QB, I'm not even worried that the Chargers don't have receivers. I'm going over. I'm picking them to make the playoffs. They have Harbaugh and Herbert. Doesn't matter. That should be enough. Yes. Whereas like flip side, I don't know, Vegas, I don't understand their quarterback situation at all. I don't know what we're getting into.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I'm out. And I wonder sometimes is football just that simple? Is it all about the QB and the coach and the rest of it is like periphery?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That was my big mistake. I had the Jets over Buffalo in the division. That was my biggest regret. But Rodgers is washed. Like, he's, you know, if you knew he was going to be the 41-year-old washed Rodgers, I wouldn't have picked that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I got so deceived by all the Buffalo dead cap space stuff and transition year. I just, they snookered me. I think they snookered themselves.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The other thing, well, you're forgetting Memphis. And we have to mention that because Jacoby does a podcast twice a week on the mismatch. With somebody who's like, how the fuck could Kurt Goldsberry not mention Memphis for eight minutes there? What the fuck is he doing?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But like six days ago, everybody was thinking Detroit's defense is so banged up. Philly, the season parted for Philly. That's how I was feeling.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah. They're exactly frisky. They had a 98-yard drive almost to win a game with three minutes left.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And I think also- And they don't really believe in Sirianni either, right? Definitely not.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
This is a theory I heard about the Nuggets. you made me think of about like AJ Brown being pissed. Yeah. Like, that it was like, why isn't Jamal Murray playing better? It's like, cause Jokic does everything. This person I know was saying how NBA, it was just a theory. It's like, those guys are tired of just being like Jokic's towel boys and everything's Jokic, Jokic, Jokic. Oh, what a miracle.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It must be to play with Jokic. Oh, he gets all the stats and like Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. Where's mine? I want you too. Cause they already won a title.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I mean, counter, is there a wide receiver who's gruntled?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
We have a lot of disgruntled receivers. Do we have gruntled receivers?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Do you buy Minnesota yet? I know that's been a, we, we, for three months, all of us who do podcasts and content, we're all just assuming this was your classic biking season where the stats say they should have been nine and eight and they went 14 to three, but every week, but yeah, the same Donald conversation.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Is that true? He does the 15 second fast forward. Memphis right now is fifth offensive rating, seventh defensive rating. The per 36 stats are crazy for them too. Like Ja, who's really only playing like 28 minutes a game, but he would be 28 and 11 if he played 36. Brandon Clark looks great. So from a speed standpoint, Maybe, but I'd kind of like to see those guys play for 20 games, Jacoby.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I say to Sal. During the NFC Championship, what happens now? I say to Sal on Sunday's pod, I don't know how they let him go at this point. Like when you have a quarterback that you're built, your team's built around these two awesome receivers that you have, right? You have a quarterback who's clearly clicking with them in a real way, who's made big plays over and over again down the stretch.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Why do I have to start JJ McCarthy next year? Why can't I just trade JJ McCarthy? He's the eighth. It was seventh or eighth pick. What was he? Seventh? Seventh pick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I know he's coming off a torn ACL.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But you think like I'm trading him for a high second and I get to pay Sam Darnold. I think Sal and I went through all the teams that need quarterbacks. There's probably four legitimate plus maybe Seattle if they don't pay Gino. Maybe Purdy. Sure. Six total. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, we did Million Dollar Picks Thursday and the house was like imploring me to put the Vikings in a parlay. And I was just like, it looks too easy. Something's wrong. I don't know. It makes me nervous. Nobody likes cousins. And we ended up doing it. And Falcon scored 7-0, and I'm texting House like, motherfucker, why did I listen to you, you fucking dick?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, but here's the difference with Darnold. If you're just talking about what... If I have a franchise quarterback, what do I want? Do I want size? Well, he has that escapability. He has that cannon arm. Has that... Is he pretty good down the stretch or when you need him to make some plays? He's done that all year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Teammates like him. I don't know what he's missing. I watch quarterbacks for... 10 to 11 hours every Sunday. And most of them are bad. And he's actually pretty good.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
We said this about Baker last year and then they signed him and he's been good this year. That's true. The best thing with Darnold is how young he is. What is he like? He's very young. 27, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
If I were them, I would try to sign him for like, hundred for four years, something like that. Try to get him like 25 a year and then try to trade JJ McCarthy. But supposedly he heard his ACL again. So maybe he doesn't even have the same. I just, that to me, that feels like the disaster is like, we had this guy, uh, Now we let him go because JJ's ready. And then what if JJ's not good?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And those receivers are like, what the fuck?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And I'll tell you this, they're dining a lot off that Celtics game on Saturday where the Celtics had played five and seven. They'd played Milwaukee the night before and it's like heated. My dad was saying it was like a third round playoff game kind of intensity. And then the next day the Celts have to run it back and they had no legs, they were dead. And Memphis kind of steamrolled them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You know, as a fan, I was in a situation once with a guy by the name of Tom Brady in 2001. Bledsoe gets hurt. Brady keeps his job, and we're kind of like... Is he going to be the starter? And we'll be like, I don't see what happens. And all of a sudden he won the Super Bowl.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I just, you never know. I like it. The thing is Detroit, Detroit's defense mess. And I don't see how it really gets better. Right. So at least there's a little bit of a hole there. Philly has all the chemistry stuff. Green Bay. I'm not sure I trust Jordan Love. And just in general, I wouldn't pencil them in. Like Minnesota can play with all of these teams.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They might be the three best teams of the week.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I would at gunpoint pick them as well, but I don't feel great about it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
No, I would still, life depends on it. I'm still doing Lions, KC. But I just think right now, mid-December. Is it mid-December? It is.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I think Pittsburgh is the most complete all-around team right now. I don't know what that's going to mean.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Every fucking week, Russ makes three 40-yard plays or gets a pass interference. There's a play that moves the ball 35 to 50 yards, three times a game with him. And it happens every single week. And at some point, that's what they do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Where it's like the Chiefs get none of those plays. The Chiefs had one 30-yard play to Hopkins and he dropped it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He does a lot of like running over to the sideline and barking at the OC and shit like that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I would go Lady Gaga.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Really strong start. Um, considered a diva pretty early on, did some good stuff, faded a little bit, and then A Star is Born was her Pittsburgh.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But, I mean, you root for Russ every week. Yeah. He's surprisingly good. There's just no other way to say it. He's been doing this now for two and a half months.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But I don't think they should take too much out of that, Jacobes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, he likes weird. Tomlin likes weird. I mean, he works with Pickens, who's ready to start a giant fight at the end of every game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The other thing with Pittsburgh, their kicker. Is there another kicker you feel better about during any playoff game in bad weather than Boswell? He's like the new Tucker. He lined up like a 54-yarder yesterday.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Tomlin, Boswell. I can't find the holes. It's really like, who's going to be that second receiver on third and nine? I know. But Mike Williams had a couple good plays yesterday.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Louis. Right, with Arizona.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It especially happens with quarterbacks because it feels like the wrong offensive line... the wrong coach, the wrong team, and they could just get the shit kicked out of them for two years and just completely lose their confidence. Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
No question. They just don't want to pay more than 10 to 12. I'm guessing they have a whole thing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You talked about the comeback though with him and how unusual that is. The other thing that's unusual for me, I always feel like quarterbacks hit that point of no return. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like they want to get hit anymore, which Rodgers was clearly the last seven, eight weeks. It's like, that guy doesn't want to get hit anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Rodgers, Wilson last year to me, just seemed like he didn't want to get hit anymore. That's why when he's a free agent this summer, I was just like, well, who cares? The guy doesn't, you know, he's made enough money. He won a Super Bowl. He doesn't want it anymore. I know. but it seems like he's okay with getting hit again.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
So I don't know whether Tomlin, I just think Tomlin, Tomlin and Reed to me levitate over everybody else.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That was another guy with the futures. I just did over on the Rams. I get that they only have seven players. Doesn't matter. Just pick them. As long as they have the QB and two receivers, they can move the ball.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Who's your holy shit team? I have the Chargers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Everyone's going to pick whoever the other team is. It's probably going to be the Chargers. She's going to be like that Browns game last year.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The Ringer fantasy show hates Stroud big brothering. Doesn't understand it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The Caleb moment.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He's weighing in with his big picture thoughts on everyone he plays against. And it's like, dude, you're in your second year. Settle down.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They're 8-5. Baltimore's 8-5. Denver's 8-5 for the 5-6-7. So the key for the Chargers would have to be to somehow get that 5 seed and try to play Houston. But I don't know how realistic that is with their schedule. But if they can somehow get... What do they have left?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Tampa, Denver home.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Tampa, Denver at home for the chargers. Then at Pat's home Vegas, like they could sweep that definitely in Baltimore. I think he's going to have a lot of trouble sweeping. Cause they had that weird Christmas situation.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's funny that people get mad about the January Lamar thing. It's like... okay, when is it not going to happen? It's just until he doesn't do the January Lamar thing, that's the way it is. The Raven fans are very touchy about it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
He looks like a UFC fighter. He's like this UFC middleweight hanging out outside the octagon waiting to see who's going to fight in the next UFC card. But it's Chad Holmgren. He's 7'1".
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Tua media is the worst, though. The Tua fan base. The Tua people who think he was good yesterday. He was 23 for 37, no picks. It's like, all right, I watched the game. He had 10 terrible throws. Like, stop. I don't trust Tua.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Now it's going to go the other way. Everyone's going to overvalue it in next year's draft.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I'm in the camp of, and I have three teams, two that did badly and one that's doing well. But I just... I just want to have a good QB. That's all I care about. I feel like I can patch together everything else, but like anyone who has Lamar or Josh Allen or Burrow in any of these leagues, you're just like, fuck, that guy's probably going to win.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Mahomes has turned into that too for different reasons.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Before we go, New York, because you're in New York, Giants versus Jets. Which team is more down? Which franchise fan base is more down in the dumps right now between those two?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They've hit that point where they're apologizing? It's been a while.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
What about the Danny Dimes playoff win in Minnesota?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
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Yeah, but they were like 9-8 that year or whatever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
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Yeah, it's tough because the Red Sox fans used to be like this too before we won the World Series where it's this rare combination of fatalism and thinking things aren't going to go wrong, but then before the season, like this crazy optimism. It's like, how are these two things the same? Where it's like March spring training in 2000, like, this is it. Here we go.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The Vegas, the odds for the Boston team, they could always put them down because they knew all these dumbasses would come from Massachusetts and bet it. Yeah. And the Jets have those fans, too, that they actually think it's going to work out. And then there's people like Fennessey who's like, this is going to be a beautiful disaster. Sean had the best tweet ever.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, we haven't seen their... I mean, what we did get to see tonight, especially was the Hartenstein piece, the whole, the kind of rebounding center rim protection guy that they just haven't had. Like we were talking about some of the matchups with them. One of the things that's interesting with Houston is Houston's first in the league in rebounding. They're almost averaging 50 rebounds a game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Like, it is an F. They basically had, what, seven one-score games that they had the ball in the last three minutes, but somehow didn't win any of them. I don't know how they fixed it either.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The funny thing, I watched that whole Jets-Miami game because they had Miami in a parlay. Miami was terrible the whole game. They looked like they didn't want to be there. They looked like they were the team that was 3-10. And the Jets were into it. They were trying to win.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Their offense was better. And somehow Miami still won the game, and it was basically because the Jets, as usual, just fucked up completely with three minutes left. F. Pretty brutal. Yes. So what would you rate this season from A-plus to F-minus? What's the grade for the season so far through 14 weeks?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, just as a whole. For content, storylines, excitement, everything.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I mean, we did lose Aiden O'Connell.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Okay, good. Maybe he'll be back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
What do you have for a grade?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Also, they're the rare public team that's actually really fun to watch every week. I genuinely enjoy watching their offense.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You feel like you do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I would be at an A-, but the Drake May thing puts me at a solid A. I'm just out of my mind about how fun this Drake May thing is. I can't believe he's this good already. I just can't believe it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's crazy that he's this far along and... You know, I've had terrible quarterbacks and I've had the greatest quarterback ever. Like, and you just, I don't know if he's going to be even in the ballpark of somebody like Brady, but he's clearly a franchise guy. Like worst case scenario, I feel like he could at least be like Herbert.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, I thought that new coach, I thought you guys bumped back Oh, no, that was the opposite.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I think that was the only pick I lost, and it was over five minutes into the game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You know what? Sometimes I like the counting stats. I know the fancy kids. They love the advanced stats. And Kirk's got his efficiency map. And I love all that stuff too. But sometimes I like to know who gets the most rebounds every game. And Houston's getting 50 a game. So to Jacoby's point, Kirk, like... I do feel like they need Chet and Hartenstein in a Houston series.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I did. I was like, new coach bump. Definitely. They figured out Caleb just getting rid of the ball fast.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Well, that was like when Antonio Pierce got the job and they were smoking cigars after the first win. And then within nine months, Devante Adams is like, give me the fuck out of here.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Put up with the cigars.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The only interim coach who actually should have been hired was Pit Boss Rich, the Raiders guy. Oh, Tom Cable? Rich Persuccia, whatever. Oh, Versace. Yeah, Versace. Special teams coach. Pit Boss Rich. Rich Persuccia. He'd come in with like, all right, guys, I'll be back in 20.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
They were in the playoffs that time.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
My dream is Drake May, year two.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Vrabel. Brian Dayball, offensive coordinator. Let's go.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's not a head coach opening though, Bill. What are you talking about? Well, there might be if we lose these last four games. The problem is we're going to go to Arizona and he's probably going to throw for like 360 and beat Arizona and then Mayo will keep his job.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Thanks for asking. Because I've obviously studied a lot. My dad is now wading into the draft waters as well. Just finding out about this TMAC character, this wide receiver. It doesn't feel like they're going to be a top five team, but there's no top five left tackle.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Which sets us up for the trade down, which I'd feel great about if we had an owner that wasn't 83 years old and we had an actual GM and not an interim GM. But it feels like they have to trade back. I'm in the camp of, I would take Hunter if we had the third pick. Really? If he's there. He just seems like he's going to be a superstar. I'm going to change my mind on this a hundred times, but like,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It just seems like sometimes these guys get in the draft and everybody's just like, that guy's special. And he just seems like that guy's special guy. You could have said this about Marvin Harrison last year, though. And he hasn't turned into that special. But there's no left tackle. This is the one draft where there's like no, even like a Joe Alt.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
No. Who's the defensive line guy? There's like an awesome defensive tackle. That's another one. Like, what is it goes wrong to have like an awesome defensive tackle? It's like,
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
The father-son Vegas thing feels like a Raider.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But the flip side with Houston is I still don't really know who their go-to guy is. I watch them game to game and it's like, because they're my favorite league pass team. And it's like, really? We're doing the Fred VanVleet step back? That's our shot with 50 seconds left? I don't think they know. They'll go to Shangoon sometimes, depending on the matchup.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah. It is the most fun destination for those guys. Yeah. It's amazing. Because the team's a disaster every year anyway, so we might as well have the same.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I had somebody who knows stuff tell me about the Pats. Like, if that job did become available, they said, you know, it's actually like a destination job now. Yeah. Because of Drake May. I was like, I need a cigarette. Six to midnight, Bill. Just give me a lighter. I just need a cigarette. I just want to reflect this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
And if you're craving even more, we've got you covered with game day deals on pizza, burgers, tacos, and more. All season long. Uber Eats, official on-demand food delivery partner of the NFL. Order now for game day. Terms, taxes, and fees apply. See app for details. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I put up a new Rewatchables on Monday night.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But I think with Vegas, the fun part would just be having some sort of personality with that franchise.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
I like your theory. Thank you. All right. I'm going A, A minus, B plus. Kyle Brandt. Yes. Great to see you as always. Craig. Thanks, Craig. Pleasure. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Jacoby and Goldsberry. Thanks to Kyle and Craig. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti and Jesse Lopez. Thanks to Gahow and Jack.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Thanks to you guys for making it through our second podcast of the week. I'm going to have another one on Thursday. I'm going to have an NBA six-pack. I'm going to have million-dollar picks. I'm going to have a guest. Stay tuned. Get ready to buckle up. I'll see you on Thursday.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But it's kind of like a last shot by a committee team, which makes me nervous in the playoffs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Five for nine from three. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Houston does have Dylan Brooks doing Dylan Brooks stuff. I think SGA would be the best guy in the West if Jokic wasn't averaging a 56.1 a game points, rebounds, and assists. He's in the 56 club right now. It's like him and Will Chamberlain. It's just the two of them. They're hanging out.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Jokic is having the greatest statistical season of our adult lifetime.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It's early, right? I mean, Denver hasn't won two straight games for a month. I don't know what's going on with Jamal Murray. Jokic, I promise you, isn't like, oh, cool, I scored 104 points this weekend. That's not what he's about. But I don't know if he has a choice. I want to see if it's 47, 48 wins is kind of the cutoff for me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
But if you're a six seed or a seven seed, I think it gets tough if there's some real candidates. I think Tatum's a candidate. SGA is absolutely a candidate. Jacobs, I think the thing that would... really clinch it for SGA having an argument, maybe even becoming a favorite as if OKC just becomes like a 65 win team, which I think is in play as hard as the West is.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
It seems like an accident when they lose. I'm always surprised when they lose, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You were like that, Jacobs. When you were taking a lot of shots, you were never happy. I know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
You want to do no looks and you wanted to do good entry passes and just play team basketball. That's like Jokic. Exactly.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
We did Disclosure, which is now one of the strangest movies of the 1990s. It's now kind of a comedy, as weird as that sounds. Me, Van Latham, Big Waz, we broke it all down. And you can watch it as well on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel. Speaking of YouTube channels, we launched our Ringer TV channel that has the Prestige TV podcast to watch. We're gonna do some fun, shorter videos on there.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
Yeah, because Murray is kind of like Jokic's basketball wife. And with Westbrook now, he's kind of flirting with the office assistant who just kind of moved into the office. And it's like, whoa, Jokic just went to get coffee with Westbrook. Does Murray know about this?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
OKC’s Revenge, NBA Cup Nitpicks, and NFL Season Fun Grades with David Jacoby, Kirk Goldsberry, Kyle Brandt, and Craig Horlbeck
That second game. The SGA thing, I always say this every year. It's just crazy to me after going to some of those games when he was a rookie that this is the guy he is now. That he's in a game with Luka where he just completely obliterates Luka and Luka's team. They have no answer for him.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then the other thing I don't miss is either he throws the pick or a terrible pass. and the defense is celebrating, and then you just know you're going to get the cut to Mac Jones just kind of stomping off.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I do think some quarterbacks, like Wentz was... really good for Philly and now and then all of a sudden wasn't good right like Jameis was always up and down he never had a moment where he seemed awesome but our guy Josh Freeman was awesome for like a year oh yeah Mack was never awesome but it seemed like he was going to have at least a 10 year career and be Andy Dalton
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
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The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, I had Mack. Mack was on my board. But my next guy is Richardson on the Colts. Who... Cannot complete 50% of his passes, which in the NFL in 2024, when you're not allowed to hit the quarterback, you're not allowed to hit receivers over the middle. You just have all of these advantages all over the place to not even be able to complete half your passes. It's a real obstacle for them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And sometimes they can overcome it, especially in close games. Like they came back and beat the Pats, but against the, the Broncos, it was so bad that it led to the worst play of the year. Yeah. If there was a worst play every year, like the ESPYs, the worst play, what was that year when Jacoby Myers lateraled backwards and it got intercepted by the Raiders and scored?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
We were like, oh my God, I can't believe it. There was a pick six on a double pass that swung the Colts-Broncos game. And this is a game where Jonathan Taylor dropped the ball before he ran into the end zone to celebrate. And somehow that wasn't the worst play of the game because this was worse. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Have you ever seen that play before?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No, I've never seen that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And it made me sad because Lombardi, who took this UNC job for Belichick, And this is the kind of shit that he used to love. And it definitely would have been a big podcast thing for him. But now we're going to have to carry the slate that Shane Steichen has to call a double pass that gets picked off for a pick six because this quarterback can't complete an eight yard pass.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't know what you do.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I had this coming up later, but I'm happy to discuss this now, because... Do people black out when they're about to score? It's the only thing I can think of. Is it like having an orgasm where you just kind of lose perspective? You just like lose the ball. What other explanation could there be? Do you literally like black out?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Wherever you like to watch the game, at the arena, the bar, home, wherever. Enjoy every moment of the NBA season with an ice cold, Michelob Ultra. And, you know, we've done some stuff with them. So they'll send me the Michelob Ultra. I'll put it in the fridge. It's really interesting what happens. People come over, they want a beer. They go, oh, Michelob Ultra. Or I've never tried one of these.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Oh, that'd be nice.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, just cross the goal line with a ball. Come on. But the thing is, it's not like this happens once every seven years. This happens like four times a year in college and pro football. It feels like it happens once a month, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Because the other thing that always drives us crazy is when the guy reaches to try to score near the goal line and the ball gets batted out or he fumbles it through the end zone. That's more understandable because it's like, all right, the guy's doing everything he can to try to score. This is just, it's a full-fledged blackout. Yeah. All right, so I had Richardson, so you're up.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
There's some good ones left still.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It's been really bad for two weeks now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, Jameis is like, he's like s'mores. It's amazing to have s'mores once in a while. They're the greatest thing ever. But if you ate it every night, you would just get diabetes and eventually die. Jameis is super fun. Toast Jameis and marshmallows. Let's get a fire. Oh, put it in the...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't know. I guarantee Chang's having a great time listening to this. Jameis has 13 touchdowns and 12 picks this season, which I mentioned because he didn't play for the first half of the season. He's a 30-30 guy. Six games? Right. He's got a lot of work to do to get to 30-30. Well, there's still some good guys left. I...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I'm going to go Rattler just because the fact that his coach decided at some point this week, let's try Hainer. To me, that's got to be on Rattler's resume. He was actually pretty good in the comeback today against Washington, but I'll go Rattler. All right, you take in... We have three left.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
We have Bryce Young's left.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I actually forgot how Sam Howell's unique trait of just standing in the pocket slowly collapsed on him like a building. Right. He did it four times in the game. He never veers out. He's like, ah, ah, ah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
for like, I don't know, one pass. And I wrote down, cause Stroud was already like kind of struggling in the Houston game. And I wrote down, we got to talk about, could Stroud versus Bryce be an argument again? And then Bryce proceeded at four picks. I might've said that on a podcast.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I've heard you talked about it. 100% approval rating every single time. Keep it nice and cold. It's delicious. There's only one way to watch your favorite teams drop buckets, and that's with a bucket of Michelob Ultra. Stock up on Michelob Ultra for the NBA season. Michelob Ultra, a superior light beer. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2024, Anheuser-Busch, Michelob Ultra, registered light beer, St.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
All right, so I guess I have to take Cooper Rush, and then you could have the last pick and take Wash Rogers if you want.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That Jets-Jaguars game. I thought was an absolute delight between some of the quarterback moments, some of the game management, and then the Jets, who really all they had to do was kneel, do something, and they just could have kicked a field goal and the Jaguars would have the ball back with 10 seconds left. Instead, the Jets charge it and score. What's that coach's name? Ulbrich?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
The guy who's going to get fired when the season ends. They can't interview Bill Belichick or Mike Vrabel, apparently, even though the season's not over. Um, so they just let, and then all of a sudden it seems like Jacksonville can come back down And it was just one of the dumber things. It kind of got under the radar because it was two terrible teams. Who cares? They're both 3-10.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But it was just kind of stunning. Nobody does shit like that anymore.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You hate that there's even a 3% chance that that's true. There's three scenarios. One is the Jets are full of shit and leaking this and it's not true because they hate Belichick and want to make him look bad. Right. The second scenario is that he kicked the tires with them. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Not because he wanted to work with them, but because he wanted to gauge interest just in general, what the league interest was in him. And then the third door is that he actually wanted to work for them, which I will never believe for the rest of my life, that Bill Belichick, the guy who hated the Jets...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
hated them every time the Patriots played them would try to pour it on and embarrass them in games like despise them then got his 12 media gigs this year and lob shots at the Jets the entire season and Woody Johnson like can't stand them and now he wants to work for them I'm just my shit detector is going off left and right he clearly they they all these different people reported it including our guy Schrager so I something happened but I don't I don't
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't know what it was. It almost feels like when the Turk and the Godfather is like, hey, let's meet Luca Brasi. We'll try to bring him over. And then all of a sudden, Luca's getting like the fork stabbed in his hand on the table and they're like strangling him. I wonder, like, is Belichick trying to pull a move on the Jets? Interesting. I don't know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I just don't think he would ever work for them. I just don't believe it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Would you take a call from Aaron Rodgers' media company? Hey, we want to hire you, Sal. Yeah, would you work for Aaron Rodgers?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Aaron, you know, he's misunderstood. I just don't believe it. I honestly think Bill Belichick would rather retire than work for the Jets. I don't believe it. And also, they don't have a quarterback. If he was going to be in the NFL, it would be to try to break the Shula record. He's like, good luck on that team. I just don't believe it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So I don't know why they had communications, but I don't think he was like, man, I hope I get this awesome Jets job. They haven't made the playoffs since 2012. Yeah. Well, they should just ask him. He'll tell the truth. I think this worked out great for him. This North Carolina thing. I know I did a pod on it the other day. The more I read and listen here, everybody like this is amazing.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Louis, Missouri. This podcast is presented by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I have a new Rewatchables coming for you on Monday night. We did a Mark Wahlberg movie. It's now 10 years old. It's time to do it. The Gambler, a movie that has sucked Chris Ryan and I in, and we had to talk about it. And it's an interesting week to do that since I did not do well on my picks this week.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He has this. He was already the greatest NFL coach ever. Now he could have this last act in North Carolina and like kick ass for them. It's cool. Everybody loves him there already.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah. Well, it's also not like Jim Harbaugh going to Michigan and having to like build the whole thing and recruit people. And like college football now, you're just basically buying a team. Right. And you're just trying to outmaneuver people and steal people.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
All right. The big game today was Detroit Buffalo. who are basically the same team, I realized as I was watching. I know Buffalo won, but need the lead, explosive offense, unstoppable, and can't get stops. So it's kind of like whoever is up 10-0, the game's over. And in this game, for whatever reason, Buffalo took the early lead, and then Detroit's playing catch-up after that.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But it's a recipe that usually does not work to actually win the title. is my point. Like even, I read this stat. Here's a good stat for you. So Buffalo scored 30 plus in eight games in a row. Right? Pretty hard to do. The other teams who have done that, the 2000 Rams, 2007 Pats, 2010 Pats, and the 2013 Broncos. Zero Super Bowls with those teams. Wow.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So they'd be, you know, they always have a chance to break the trim, but I just feel like we've seen teams like this that are awesome offensively with an awesome player. But if you can't get stops at some point, that's killing you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Because it was terrible. Let's do it. It's a terrible decision. It's terrible because if it was a sneak onside kick with the old rules, I'm all for it. I get it. You have to announce it's an onside kick. So it's basically... Yeah, but you say it low.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
What is it? Like 6%, 7%, something like that? I know. So that's one out of every 12 converts. So they're basically saying their defense...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But you can check that out on Monday night on Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel. You can follow all the videos and clips from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. And you can catch up with us live when we do these Sunday night ones on which we also put on Spotify as video. Yeah, a lot of video stuff going on for us right now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
can't stop buffalo's offense 11 out of 12 times and that an outside kick is better option than that there's no way you could tip a pass there's all different ways to stop an offense 11 out of 12 eight yards of play it's kind of the same thing right you probably look up and down nobody gets onside kicks we've seen like one recovered the whole year it's like you might as well freaking buy a lottery ticket i mean like the
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
If you're just doing percentages, it's no contest. Your defense, they could fumble a shotgun snap. They could drop a pass. All kinds of things could happen. Onside kick, it's basically a miracle. Um, so Detroit, the reason I picked them and lost was I thought they were going to run the ball down Buffalo's throat. And I don't know why I wouldn't have thought that because Buffalo can't stop the run.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Detroit's great at it. Detroit 15 carries for 48 yards. Yeah. Golf ends up throwing 59 times for four 94 and five TVs. But the team that ran the ball down somebody's throat was Buffalo. and they ran for almost 200 yards, including Allen. They ran for four TDs, 28 first downs, 559 yards. And this is what, you know, I get it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
If you're picking Buffalo in this game, you're saying Detroit's defense cannot handle Josh Allen, and that turned out to be the correct answer.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But lost this one. It's so stupid. The season's kind of screwy. It really is. Well, how about this? Buffalo, in the last two weeks, has given up 86 points, over 1,000 yards, and 53 first downs. In the last two weeks. I know the Josh Allen thing is super fun, but this is not how you win Super Bowls. And somebody's going to get them at some point.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Unless he would have to be superhuman in a way very few guys in the history of the league have just thrown a team in their back, I think, to win with the defense he has. But Detroit's defense is worse. And they lost three more guys today. They lost McNeil. McNeil might be out for the year. So it's never been a better spot, I don't think, for...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
for this Eagles team that everyone gave up on, including me, three months ago.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Because they got Detroit last week of the season.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And a game that we had thought for weeks and weeks, that would be the game where Detroit rested everybody and Minnesota is going to be favored by 11 and a half. That's not happening. Yeah. Here's the bad news for Detroit. This is another stat I read. No team has ever allowed 45 points in a home game and then won the Super Bowl. Wow. So they did that today.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No, apparently not.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But Cousin Sal is going to join in a second. We're going to talk about a rollicking Sunday. Just a bizarre set of early games. Then some late games that seem promising and then were disappointing, but weirdly, weirdly interesting for the season. And a whole bunch of other stuff, including parent corner. It's all next. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, we are live.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That's true. Well, on the positives for Buffalo. There's a mini, he's not good enough to be a Ewing Theory guy, but there's a little mini Ewing Theory case for Stefan Diggs now. They lose him and they're more exciting, more fun. Josh is having the best year ever. They beat Casey and they beat Detroit. That's good. That's good news.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I think the big thing for me, though, is I would have said eight weeks ago, Who is going to finish the season as the most exciting guy in the league? And Lamar would have been like a minus 1,000 favorite. Like Lamar, we talked about on this pod, like Lamar almost had to be on a multi-view screen because he's so exciting. And Josh kind of leapfrogged him, it feels like, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He's the most exciting guy in the league now. I don't think Lamar even got less exciting, but the shit Josh is doing... It's like watching a senior in high school playing like the freshman team. Yeah. And he's just like, I'm going to fuck around. I'm trying to impress this girl in the stands. I'm just going to do some stuff. Yeah. And just like demolishing them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, the thing with Josh, I was thinking about like the great quarterback seasons. So since we were in college, 1989, only six quarterbacks have won MVP in Super Bowl in the same season unless I miss somebody. Mahomes was the last one in 22. Manning did it in 06. Oh, Manning didn't do it in 06 because Tomlinson won, so he's out. Kurt Warner, Favre, Steve Young in 94, and Montana in 89.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Brady never did it? My guy never had the MVP, but then also won. He won it in 07 and 17, but they didn't win the title those years. But then there's this different title. when somebody has a season like the one he's having that it's just like a memorable season. Like Rogers had that awesome 2011 season, but then the giants beat him in the playoffs. But that whole regular season is incredible.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Cam had that awesome 2015 season. You know, Brady had that awesome Oh seven season that was like iconic. And then they lost anyway. And I wonder which camp is Alan going to be. And if I had to bet, I would probably bet. he's going to be in that Brady 07 side. Like, incredible, memorable, unbelievable season, but it wasn't good enough to win the Super Bowl.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I think it's a team that outscores them and gets the lead on them first and makes them play from behind, basically. It's not easy. I think that's how it would have to do. That's how it would have to happen. But the best teams are in the NFC. But yeah, you're right. This could be a year. It would be great. Did you pick them to win or you picked them to make? I picked them to win.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I picked them to beat the Lions. That'd be amazing for you. Certainly a tone for a lot of sins of predictions you made in August.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That wasn't your fault. But yeah, I mean, the fun thing about Buffalo is that it's just super fun. But, you know, the Jim Kelly teams are also super fun. So at some point, we'll see if this can translate. But the thing that's been so cool about it is just...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It was like this thing, I remember I talked about it after Bill Walton died when I went to see him and he was talking about Larry Bird and he was talking about this last level when it's like not just the performance but the artistry of the performance and how you resonate with the crowd. It feels like Alan's gone to another level with some of this stuff.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Like he's just so great to watch on some of these plays. Like my wife was sitting down with me for like a quarter and she's just like, that guy's amazing. Is he the best guy in the league? I'm like, yeah, he actually is. Yeah, good call. But he's just like, he just jumps out of the TV now.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, and, and for anybody who would say, no, he's been like this for a few years. He hasn't because he made turnover. He had a shitload of turnovers last year. He doesn't turn the ball over anymore. His decision-making is just way better this year. Yeah. Haley Steinfeld. Maybe that was it. He's got it all.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Next game was Philly-Pittsburgh, which I stayed at the craps table one hand too long or one shoot too long with Pittsburgh. They were great to me this year. Pickens not playing. I like the under. The case for them was low scoring game. you know, rock fight 16, 14, 20. But what I didn't surprise was Philly moved the ball on them. Like they had some long ass drives and walk gets hurt at the end.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That was a bad boss for Pittsburgh.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Did the ball for 40 minutes. Yeah. Did 26 first downs. They were 10 for 17 on third down. And the case for Pittsburgh in this game was their defense is going to be able to stand up to Philly, and they just didn't. With that said, the rookie fumbles the punt for Philly. Pittsburgh gets the ball. All of a sudden, they're on the three-yard line.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It is almost 8.30 Pacific time. Sal, this is the first time I've ever done a live podcast right after losing a 13-point tease. Oh, yeah. Because the Packers decided to just throw it late for a touchdown, and then the Seahawks just decided to hand the ball off the last three minutes. This is why you don't do 13-point teases, Sal. This is what I learned today. They're super dumb.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then this goofy penalty happens where the guy keeps blocking after the whistle. Right. There's no more devastating penalty than the we're about to score. Oh, 15 yards. Now we're on the 18. It's it's a fucking gut punch. Yeah. So they they squander that. And then Najee fumbles when they're driving again. They have this great drive going and he just fumbles a pitch.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And it really came down to to those two plays. I didn't feel like they were that far away from them. But Philly played better, obviously.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I in the back, back, back of my head, I was a little worried about the games today just because of how weird this stretches. We talked about in the ringer Sunday pregame where these teams play today, then Saturday, then Wednesday. There's four times. Right. And it's just I don't neither of us are going to understand just what the mentality is to be ready.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But no, you also have to be ready two more times over the next week and a half, basically. So I don't know. They didn't seem like Pittsburgh today. No, for sure.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
How would you, what would you call it? He's like the secret MVP. It's like when they don't have George Pickens, they just don't get three explosive plays a game. Right. I do think, I made a mental note watching the games today, like, just for the Super Bowl. you need to be able to run the ball and you need like three explosive plays a game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And if you can't do that, I think you're like an automatic cross off. Yeah. I mean, it's like they're only, yeah. Eagles, the Eagles can do it. That's, you know, and obviously Buffalo can too. Tampa chargers, which I wisely stayed away from Tampa drops 40 on the chargers.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Mike Evans had a two-touchdown game, which is a fantasy playoff, so of course he was going to do that. Right. And then Cardinals-Pats, that was another West Lake gamer. Mm-hmm. There might be a mutiny with the Pats fans soon. The coaching is so bad. It's indescribable. I just can't believe it. And then the coach comes after the game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
We have Drake May, third and one, fourth and one, like the key sequence of the game. And they don't sneak with him either time. And another time they had him in the shotgun on fourth and one. It's like this guy's almost 6'6". Like pretty sure we could QB sneak them. I know we can't block, but maybe take them. So they don't, they get stuffed and that flips the game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't know how I kept winning them.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And someone asked Mayo about it after. And he's basically like, yeah, I don't know what we were doing. Like it was literally like he just threw the OC under the bus. Then they asked Drake May about it, who seems to be the only person on the team who's devastated after every loss. He's just like crestfallen on the sidelines.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And they talked to him after and somebody asked him like, why don't they ever sneak you? And he's like, honestly, I don't know. I'm almost, I'm six, five. Like it's a play that's worked my whole career. I don't know why we don't.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Jesus. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He's unbelievable. For three quarters, they just hand off and have him throw bubble screens and do nothing that he's really great at. And then they'll fall behind by 20. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, you should throw him down, wing it downfield. And then he's like, perfect 40-yard pass. You should roll out. It's like, oh, he does that. It's like, you just did that the whole game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't understand why they don't play with tempo. It's super frustrating. We have two good players because Gonzalez completely shut down Harrison.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Shut him down. They went to him multiple times. Shut him down. I didn't think it was a great win for the Cardinals because it actually felt like the game was a little closer. It's weird. I think they're the only team with seven wins, right? Or does Seattle have? I think they're the only ones. Seattle is eight. Oh, yeah, you're right. Arizona is the only seven win team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But we should talk about that because Seattle loses. And now we have the Rams losing. are in the three spot and Seattle's now out of the playoffs, which we were talking this morning. I have Seattle division, Seattle to make the playoffs, Seattle over like all that's, all that's a mess. Don't play. Um, I thought Seattle was going to be green Bay and was very bullish on Seattle.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And I've liked green Bay the whole year, but I just, I just thought this was a Seattle week and green Bay finally played the game that I've felt like they could play the whole year. And that of course I had the other side. They were great.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
The first two drives today, he looked like Terrell Davis.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
They kind of wrote me in thinking their defense was good. And then Jacobs really big boyed them, I thought. And they gave up some big plays. They had a couple of bad pass interferences. They just played like shit. It's a Sunday night game at home. You're underdogs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You need the game because the Rams miraculously beat Buffalo and beat the Niners in a five-day span, which the odds of that were probably 7-1. So then they have the Rams sitting there at 8-6, and they can't believe it probably. They're like, A, how are we 8-6? B, how are we leading a division?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, so the Rams, they lost to Miami by eight. They barely beat the Pats. And they lost to Philly by 23. They lost to Philly 37-14 in Week 12. And at that point, they were five and six. With Buffalo and San Francisco looming and Seattle in week 18, Arizona week 17, they beat New Orleans, which was a little closer than it was 21-14. That game was actually kind of close.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Beat Buffalo, beat San Francisco. Now they're playing Wash Rogers at the Jets next week.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And have a legitimate chance now for like 11 wins. It's fucking crazy.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Arizona is not good. And it wasn't just the couple of ways the Pats screwed up today. Kyler had his terrible Kyler pass that he does once a game. And he throws it right after we got stuffed on third and one and fourth and one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Kyler throws this jump pass and gets drilled as he's throwing it. We intercept it. We're on like their 15th. And they call a roughing the passer. Right. The guy's jumping up in the air to block the pass and then kind of just hits Kyler because he's trying to block it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, this was my first semi-ass-kicking in a long time. It's not bad, then. Four games I really liked, and I was just dead wrong on three of them. I disagree, though, because I thought the early games were so... Incompetent and awful and poorly played. And there were so many bad QBs and so much weird shit. I actually kind of enjoyed it.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It was ridiculous.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So the cards are seven and seven. And yet they barely... I know they didn't barely beat the Pats by the score, but I swear the Pats were weirdly in that game. They lose to Seattle twice in three weeks, and then we see Seattle just get the tar kicked out of them tonight. So I'm going to be selling on Arizona.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No, I don't.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Buffalo home for the Chargers. Kind of fun. I don't know in a million years how the Chargers could keep up with Buffalo points. They could probably play out like the Tampa game today. Yeah. Pittsburgh home for Denver. We didn't talk about that Denver game enough because Denver was super lucky. I'm sure like Knicks was terrible.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Knicks had three picks, you know, and we talked about all the Colts stuff. Yeah. But Denver is going to be probably a six seed against Pittsburgh. Yeah. Or Baltimore, hopefully, but maybe Pittsburgh. Right, a Baltimore could pass him. And then Houston, Baltimore would be the 4-5 unless Pittsburgh and Baltimore flip. So Pittsburgh-Denver looks incredibly shaky to me.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then so what's the maybe you put Lamar on the Sunday, this early Sunday game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So the NFC is would be right now Philly versus Washington. Solid Rams versus Green Bay. Excellent. And then Tampa, Minnesota, which I think is a good game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That can't be the shakiest game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then the interesting one is I think Amazon's getting the Saturday night game, which is usually like the best game. I don't know what that is with those six matchups. It's probably Rams-Green Bay, I would think, in L.A.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
The Rams have Jets on the road, Arizona and Seattle at home. Seattle is Minnesota at home, Chicago and the Rams on the road.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I think I hit everything. We didn't talk about Dan Quinn screwing up that Washington game and screwing up everybody's teases. I guess that was the last thing we didn't hit.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I guess we should have known. Every TV something stupid was happening. And there were some of the worst quarterback play. I mean, who did we have in the early ones? We had Mack Jones. Mm-hmm. Levis. He got benched. Yep. Jameis, he got benched. Hainer got benched. Rattler, DeVito, Boyle. Bryce Young should have been benched. Cooper Rush, and Zombie Rogers. We're all playing on different TVs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So you don't think they could have spiked it in time? Because I actually think they could have spiked it with like a second left. Maybe. He could tackle like nine seconds left. But yeah, it was incredible that the clock, there's literally no reason for the clock to stop. Yeah. But then Quinn, they're up seven with the ball and it looks like they're running out the clock.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
McLaurin drops the touchdown or it sailed. I forget whose fault that was. I guess Daniel sailed it on him a little. Yeah. And it looked like that was going to be, and now all of a sudden they kick a field goal. God misses it. Now, freaking Spencer Rattler, he's coming back down. And all of a sudden, House is his last sentence.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
They haven't played a game that's impressed me in like two months. Right. You know, I mean, and you think like they had a couple wins there that they shouldn't have won. They could probably be three wins lighter, right? What's their record now? They're nine and five. They could easily be six and eight. Well, the Hail Mary game. There was that other stupid game. Yeah. And then this game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Let's do Guess the Lions.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Oh, let's do that quick.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I just feel like the holiday season hasn't officially started until Mahomes has some sort of injury. Is that right? Yeah, he's got to start limping around. That's how he gets ready for the playoffs. It's like how a bear needs to sleep during the winter. Same thing. He needs some sort of limp, and then he's fine.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You don't think Netflix throws him in a plane and gets him to Germany for all kinds of stuff to pump into his ankles?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No question. Well, I agree with you because I guessed my Texans game assuming he wasn't going to play.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Because... I think if it's a choice, you want to just wait. You can't play him in both if he's got a bad wheel.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
We have to play the Chargers who can barely get to 20 points. Guess the lines. We have games Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then Wednesday. This is an official don't get divorced stretch.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Especially with the holidays. Yeah, they're really, really trying to fuck with our marriages now. They don't make it easy. Yep.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Chargers home for the Denver Broncos. And I made the line Chargers by three.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You know, speaking of Tampa, that NFC South bet, which is one of the only futures I really truly care about because we made such a big deal about it. Yeah. NFC under 30 wins.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, I'll tell you that Tampa win, I didn't love it, but we are right now at 22 wins with three weeks left. And teams play each other, so I feel like I've clinched it. NFC East is at 29 wins. They're seven wins higher. This was one of our big bets before the year. We made FanDuel create this prop. NFC East, more wins than the NFC South, and it was minus 175.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That was big.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yep. Chiefs-Texans in KC. And neither of us think Mahomes is playing. And I'm going to make Houston the favorite. I'm going to say Houston by one and a half.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I said two. It is two and a half.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I wonder how many times the Chiefs have been home dogs. Week 18.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He can't play. No way. Andy Reid moved one win closer to Belichick, by the way. Where is he now? He is at... Hold on, let me get it. He is...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Do you want to do that? Now, I had this for later. Let's do the bad QB draft now. The Week 15 bad QB draft. Of everyone we saw today, and I have a 12-person list. Wow, okay. Who is your worst one today?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
271 he's 31 away and he's five playoff wins behind him too somehow the NFL yeah NFL will give him the record this year but yeah you've done enough it's fine please catch Belichick please catch Belichick we've decided to tamper with your salary cap space so you have more money to spend okay the other Saturday game Ravens Steelers
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
which I think I would have had Ravens by two and a half as recently as like three weeks ago. But I got to say Ravens by four.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, tell the audience, what was our bet? It was division champs, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills? Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Texans.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It literally was stupid because we're losing. Yeah, it is. It's always stupid. Yeah, I think the Steelers are going to be, even if they have pickings, it's not going to be 100% pickings. but yeah, that's a lot of points to lay in a second time. They've played AFC North Raven Steelers game.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't know. I was texting with the fantasy guys because Craig's a big Steelers fan during that game. And it was like Steelers bingo. It was hitting all the check marks of dumb penalty to pull them out of a touchdown. And TJ Watts hurt. It hit like nine of the check marks. Nodging. Yeah. The stupid fumble. Sunday marquee game. I think it's Eagles-Washington, right?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Isn't that our best Sunday game? We need to go Vikings-Seahawks. You would have said Minnesota-Seattle probably before tonight.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Eagles going for 11 in a row. Second time they played. Their games are always weird. And it's in Washington. So I'm going to say Eagles by three and a half. Oh, man. Really? I said five. And you got it exactly. It's three and a half.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Because these two teams play weird games.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I think you should be. I think they had a little smoke and mirrors those first six weeks. Daniels has not been the same since he got hurt, whatever week that was. He was like lasers to everybody the first five weeks. Sure.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So I only have two watchable games and part of it is because we have two Saturday games that pulled two good ones out, but there's only two good games on, on, and these aren't even that good. One of them is Vikings at Seattle, which I, that's it for Seattle. I think if they lose and the Vikings are definitely going to be favored. I have the Vikings, uh, by three.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Sam Howell against the Vikings defense would not make me feel good. No. So then the other one I have for a watchable, you're going to laugh, but Jags Raiders in Vegas. Really? All kinds of draft pick ramifications in this. Not that, I mean, does anyone even care past Sanders? No. People aren't going to care where Hunter gets drafted. Sure.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Will people care where the Boise State running back gets drafted?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah. All right. Jags at Raiders. This is probably the Raiders' last chance. This is a huge game for the Patriots. Because the Patriots aren't going to win again. We need Mac Jones to somehow pull off a win. But I have the Jaguars favored by two in Vegas. So that's what I had. I swear I did. And it's Vegas by one and a half. Okay.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I do not know who their quarterback is. Is it the Riddler?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I might bet this game. Fairly watchables. Bill's Patriots, I think has to be 14. So I'm going to say 14. Yeah, I went 16 and a half. It's 14 and a half. You get that. Five to four, you're up. One thing with the Pats, they have cheap touchdown potential at the end because that's the only time they kind of let May do his thing. They had another interception that wasn't his fault today.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I don't know if you saw Boutte. Yeah. When he throws it to him. He did the receiver thing where he just flings it up in the air for the safety. That needs a name. That needs to be named after somebody. There had to be some receiver who did that better than anyone. Somebody's keeping track of these stats.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
That guy fucked up and cost you an interception. Lions, Bears, and Chicago... With this Lions defense, I think putting high lines on them at this point is pretty risky. I'm going to say Lions favored by six and a half in Detroit. I mean, in Chicago.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, here's another home dog for us. The Jets. Because they're going to be playing the Rams in Giants Stadium. Yeah. The Jets have been moving the ball a little more the last couple games. Now, granted, it's because of their opposition. But, you know, they're a little. I think Rodgers with the Enigma coming out soon. I think he just looks freer and happier.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I'm going to say the Rams by three and a half at the Jets. And this has all the makings of an everybody loses on the Rams bet. I see JJ picking them right now on the Sunday pregame show. Although I shouldn't talk shit because I got killed today.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Don't blow this. Don't blow this, Rams. Come on. This has all the makings. The Rams... The next couple games, who do they have after this? They have... This is all West, right? NFC West for them after this? Yeah, they're home for Arizona-Seattle. Say, all right, we'll take care of the Jets. And then we got Arizona-Seattle. And then all of a sudden, they're down 10-0.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Garrett Wilson had a 90-yard touchdown. And Puka's going in the blue tent. Hopefully he doesn't. I'm not going to win for that. 49ers-Dolphins in Miami. I stared at this one for three minutes. You want another three? 49ers by one was where I landed in Miami. Oh, wow.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
See, that's why I knew I was off in some direction. Man. So mad. So mad. I just want to point out the dolphins aren't good. Maybe shouldn't be favored by two and a half over any decent team.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Remember, we used to do that as a bit.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
What his career winning percentage was. I might have to bring that back. Not a bit anymore. Real shit. Yep. I was asking Lombardi because he came up with DJ Mikey Mack for McDonald's, like Shane Steichen. He reminded me we already came up with Thailand Shane for Shane Steichen. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's playing Madden on Twitch against somebody in Thailand.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He's like, I'm going to call a double pass reverse. Oh, no, I got picked off. Reset. Poopfecta, four games. There's some really bad games this week.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Because remember, we've already done Raiders-Jags, which is a Poopfecta, but I put it in the matchables. Falcons home for the Giants. I have Falcons by nine. What do you have?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He really is the worst. Well, he's the worst in the sense that he tantalizes you with the potential of something that seems pretty awesome. That too. And then just pulls the rug out from underneath you. Today he had three picks and threw a pass that led his teammate right into an oncoming train, basically. And the game got stopped for 20 minutes.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Colts-Titans. Another one I don't really want to watch any minutes of. It's in Indianapolis, and I had the Colts favored by five and a half. That's what I had. It's four and a half.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, that's a bad one.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Cardinals at the Panthers. It's another one. Just be careful with this one. My friends, I have Cardinals by three and a half. That's what I had to four. It's four and a half. Vegas on. Man, they're throwing Vegas on getting sacked.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Two Vegas sons in a row. I don't know if we could do a pre. By the way, Cleveland, Cincinnati is fairly watchable. Jameis is fairly watchable the rest of the way. Yeah, I'll move that up. I'll move that up to the fairly watchable. The Browns are really bad, though. Poor Nick Chubb broke his foot today.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You love the Bengals. I don't put bad teams in teases. Sunday night also stinks. Bucks at Dallas.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You would have been making yourself crazy. So good. McCarthy won his job back, though. Is that the Belichick shadow hanging over him now? Well, that's going to happen.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Sunday night, Tampa at Dallas. I have Tampa by four and a half. Hmm. I get this.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So we have seven home underdogs next week.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I might scale it back. Didn't have a great week this week after an unbelievable run. Monday night, Packers, Saints.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I have Packers by 11 and a half. I don't know if it's Saints.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I've been on this bandwagon the whole time and he's been a divisive guy since college and the Dolphins fans are really protective of him. But to me, everything has to be perfect. And every play and situation and the teammates and he's got to throw the ball within two seconds and it's got to be a quick slant. And every once in a while, a receiver is just going to get crushed over the middle.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I guess I should have just said that because it's never 11 and a half.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
All right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It just got way out of the Seahawks by 15 and a half plus 15 and a half. Come on. Couldn't hit that. Let's do parent corner. What do you got?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then every once in a while, he's just going to throw the ball to the other team and the weather has to be good. And in a dome, he's great. And it's all these excuses. It's like if you hired like a personal chef who is a pizza chef. Yeah. And you were like, but I, you know, I don't want to eat pizza seven days a week. And the guy's like, OK.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I'm telling you now, I'm putting him in seven parlays with NFL teams. Every team I like, I'm just putting Usyk in.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Him and Pereira are the two most reliable comeback guys on the planet. I'm just going to keep doing it until one of them loses.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Is there a good undercard too? There's a couple good... Is there on this? I thought there was at least one good fight before it. My guy Bacoli is not fighting until January, though. Yeah, what happened there? He's not even on that great card. I know. Yeah. I know. Anyway. So my daughter's come back from college actually late tonight. And my wife was...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
was ordering all this food to pick up because we need, my son's a weird eater, my daughter's the weirdest eater ever. She wanted to get food and she's like, you know, the maggots coming home. And we realized that we have nicknames for everyone in my family that happen organically based on eating habits.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So we call Zoe the maggot because she's that one that's like with the slice of pizza, you just look down and there's just like the cheese is gone. Or like there's a piece of sourdough toast and just all the stuff around the crust is just gone. You're like, oh, the maggot must've gotten it. My wife has always been the rat because it'll be like slice of pizza or a bagel on the counter.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And just like a very small, almost imperceptible part of it is missing. And you're like, I thought that was like a bigger pizza slice. And she's just carefully cut like one eighth of it off. So we always call her the rat. Like she rats it up. It's good. And then my son is the raccoon because he like never eats. And then he goes downstairs. Everyone's asleep at like 1130. And.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
just starts you know all of a sudden all this food's gone and you're like oh my god the fucking raccoon got in the kitchen again so then I was like so what's my nickname then and she's like you're just like a bear you just eat a lot and then you sleep And I was like, I feel like that's insulting. I'm just the bear? Yeah, hell yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And it's not like I'm like a... But I guess that's how it... Because I have like big... You know, I don't eat a lot and then I'll have a big dinner. So she said I'm the bear. You're the bear? I guess I'm the bear. Tell her you want a second opinion. I feel like... Can I be like a panda? Yeah, you have to be a specific bear or something. What's an animal that just kind of basically...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
that snacks during the day once or twice and then has like a big dinner. That's what every animal I am. I don't know who that is. And is the clogger taken? You can't tell you how it's taken. So our fridge is like, you know, my daughter comes home and there's like four different coffee-made creamers because she likes to make these homemade lattes that she drinks two sips of.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then like day five, it's like, hey, I made a pizza again. It's like, yeah. Like, what about chicken? Anything like could you eat? Can you make a soup? No, no. I actually whipped up this really good meatball pizza. And at some point he's just serving pizza. And that's to him. He's serving pizza day after day after day in these games. I just think he's a 500 or worse quarterback.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
So all of a sudden the fridge has like this thing. My son has all the weird food he eats and it's just like a free-for-all. So anyway, it's good to be back. The Simmons family is back.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Stuff's crammed in. There's coffee made on top of like, you know, my son's kelp noodles.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It's very possible. Did you see Evil Jason Bateman in Carry On yet?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, he was evil in Ozark, right? I said he wasn't on the poster. I didn't know he was in the movie. I started watching it and it was like, there's Jason Bateman. It's like, you didn't tell me Jason Bateman was in this. That feels like it's a big deal. It's definitely him, huh? Maybe he didn't want to know.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, I don't. Can't say when I was there for 30 for 30 that the Jet Sack Exchange was on any of the master list for ideas. Just leave it at that. All right, so what do you got to plug?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It worked out way better than that because with him at Lombardi as a combo and I don't have a college football team. So now like I actually have a college football team I would genuinely care about. Awesome. I'll bet on their over. I'll put bets in. So I carry even more. I'm going to be all in. I'll wear it. They're going to be good. I was looking at hats on fanatics.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I couldn't find the right hat. I got to find the right hat. Because it feels like it's got to be like the light blue with just the logo, but I couldn't find one that I liked.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, we've been going for 80 minutes and you didn't bring this up. So you had the Ravens just straight, straight.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I get so worried with those games where you cannot come up with a single incentive for the heavily favored team to even care in the game. Oh, I see. That's what I get worried. Off a bye.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah. I think him going to Vegas or the Giants, I just think is just for us, for people who want content. Right.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Isn't what makes him special that in college he can do both sides, but in the pros, that's completely unrealistic?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It would seem like the move would be to play him a cornerback and then bring him in for third down and eights. Gadget plays. Special gadget plays. Yeah. Almost using him like the old Percy Harvin kind of model.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Cuz, good job by you. Great to see you as always. Thanks to Kyle Creighton. Thanks to Steve Cerruti. And then we didn't have Gahow today, but Richter. John Richter. John Richter. Got rewatchables coming on Monday night. We did The Gambler, ironically, with Mark Wahlberg. Oh, you son of a bitch. That's a good one. And then we'll be back next week. Sal, good job by you. See you later.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Thanks, everybody.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Well, Chang would say one-day-old Krispy Kreme is one of the most delicious desserts. Oh, he puts it in a pan with the ice cream. He pans it, pan fries it. He's a magician. That's not fair. Yeah. Yeah, there's this place in LA I don't want to name, but it's a donut place. And you walk in and when you go in to buy donuts, you're like, oh, I'll just... Can I get a half dozen donuts? You think...
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Do you make the donuts individually? It's like a weird foofy LA thing. I know what you're talking about. Where it's like, no, no, tell us what donut you made and then we're going to make it right and it's going to be like fresh for you.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And then you're in the donut shop for 10 minutes and by the time the donut comes out, it's like I could have already put down like two sprinkled donuts by the time I was waiting for this donut. Maybe that's Tua. I don't know. It's called Tua's. It's Tua's of LA. I just want the Dolphin fans to admit deep down they know. Like stop defending this. Just stop.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Like I was big on Mac Jones for that first year when he was a rookie and he made the playoffs and he played in the Pro Bowl. And I was like, this guy's a game manager. He can do it. And he just got worse and worse. And eventually you just have to give up and say, you know what? I was wrong.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
The Bill Simmons. This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Sports fans, I know going to the big games can get expensive, so let's talk strategy. Let's talk how PayPal has changed the playbook. Now you can pay everywhere, online, in-store. either or both with the PayPal debit card. That's right, earn a 5% cash back up to $1,000 every month in the category you choose, like apparel and groceries.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Mac Jones is not a starting QB, which I then thought again today, as I watched him today, Mac Jones, not really a starting QB. Two is not somebody that's going to win three playoff games in a row ever at any point in his career. There's no situation where that's going to happen.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No, I like it. It's a passionate trap. My daughter's boyfriend, huge Dolphin fan, when we text all the time about Tua, and he vacillates between defending Tua, but then also... getting mad when he has games like he had today.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, I know. My number one is this Hayner person that played for the Saints today who lasted about, I don't know, a half. And then they were like, you know what? Maybe Spencer Rattler is better than you. Like, I don't know how bad Spencer Rattler is that he lost the competition to Hayner, but Hayner was in there for a brief period I don't know, what, an hour and a half against Washington?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Too long. Nothing was happening. And we knew a bunch of people that had Washington in teases, and it just seemed like you were in safe hands with Hainer. Then Rattler comes in and it's worse for Hayner because it's like, oh no, Rattler's in. Uh-oh. So I would have Hayner.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Oh my God. Well, it's so funny. Like the first year at Grantland, we did the bad QB draft. We created this whole scoring system. Jacoby wrote a piece about it every week. He did all the scoring. And the premise was like, there's just so many, this is the glory days of bad QBs.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
But you would think at some point it would get better and it just hasn't, you know, like three point shooting got better in basketball and in baseball, like pitchers throw faster and you know, there's more strikeouts, like things change. And for whatever reason, quarterback play has not changed in football.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Who's your next pick?
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
I'm just laughing because I knew who you were going to take.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
He's number two for me. Well, did you see Titans-Bengals today? It was the first game with 10 turnovers and 20 plus penalties since 2006. Wow. 18 years since we've had that kind of incompetence. And you could feel it. If you had multiple TVs and that was one of the games, you could feel the incompetence. So he had three interceptions and a pick six.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
as one of the three, which maybe we call the Levis from now on. He would have had more.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Yeah, they should have explained to Brian Callahan the full DeLome and how important that is. What was that? Five picks, including a pick six, was the full DeLome. Yeah, go for the record. He's bad, but that's one of those things where we knew he was bad last year. My fault.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Think about it. That's like getting cash back when you're picking up your game day snacks or grabbing a drink with the crew after the big game. I'm talking about real savings, like that energy drink keeps you hyped for the big game cash back. 17th, purchase a merch from your favorite team cash back. Post-game extra large pizza, you order like clockwork. You get the idea.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No, no. But I'm saying the Titans, they get rid of Rabel. They're bringing this new coach. The GM wins this power struggle because Will Levis is his guy, new coach, and now they need a QB. Congrats. Um, can I have Boyle and DeVito as a combo for my next pick? Sure. A dual entry. Sure. Yeah.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
You could have, I couldn't at one point they changed QBs and I just couldn't tell the difference on my, cause I had, they were on a TV that had no sound. I had no idea that DeVito even left to the concussion. Impossible to say. DeVito does this after every play.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
No, you understood how bad it was because he was rolling out and he was four yards behind the line of scrimmage. Right. And the guys were coming and he was going to do the Zach Wilson where he's just going to chuck it out of bounds. And instead he did like the stutter step out of bounds and then seemed like he talked shit to one of the defensive linemen.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
And it was just like, you lost four yards for literally no reason. There was no reason to lose four yards in that play that any of us could think of. But it's funny, like, having watched him as he... I swear he was really solid as a rookie.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
It's not even... It's like comparing a Ferrari to, like, a Cherokee.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
now sure it is now no why what was always like an awesome suv that you could go cross country with and the stereo was going to work and right you know we always knew what he was but it was like can you be this awesome game manager and um just kind of not make mistakes and be smart but the stuff that he was doing today it was all stuff he did the last two and a half years for the pats
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A Bad QB Draft, Josh Wins Multi-view MVP, Philly’s the NFC Shot Caller, and Guess the Lines with Cousin Sal
Just the inexplicable sailing it over somebody's head. The terrible red zone stuff. Just missing a wide open guy. The scramble out of bounds for no reason. It is who he is.