Ep 2 - NFL Week 1 breakdown, survivor pool mayhem, and why dogs get more love than cats.

This type of crisp, clean audio. It sounds quite a bit better than the zoom. It does sound amazing. You guys look or ain't both rock and beards? Yes, I put my hair for the occasion, and and brought in fresh flowers to see that. You got some nice gerber daisies here, and we got and we've got Week one of NFL football to talk about. And uh, what a week it was, wrapping up with two games Monday night and uh and my Titans winning a close one. We'll talk about that a little later. Um, what did you

guys from a from a fans perspective? What what were your takeaways from from Week one? NFL did it. Did it feel different than a regular week one? It did, because it kind of just snuck up on us without the preseason, with without having a couple of weeks of college football, or at least two weeks in front of the first NFL game, that that kind of just kind of stuck up on us. But as far as football win, it was. It was amazing to see football being played

on Sundays again. I loved it. I thought Tom Brady was less than so taking a shot at Brady l right, I know. I just I wanted to see that game. I wanted to see him. Travis is going in on Brady, I just wanted to see I just wanted to see more on him. I think I think Bruce arians wanted to see more too. Nice every Boast game and on Monday, I didn't know that, Yeah, saying he needs to play better. He was surprised he didn't play better. He said, well, b he's going to call you out. That's not That's

not nothing new, I I thought. I actually was pleasantly surprised at the production and it wasn't as politically driven as I thought it was going to be. It seemed pretty normal with the exception of some of the masks that I thought it was done pretty well. Yeah. I think for me the takeaway and we'll get into the officiating part of it, I have no fans didn't really, it didn't. It wasn't a big impact, like like the the artificial noise and the background noise I didn't have.

It wasn't like, oh no, this feels so much different without the fans, without all the bells and whistles. Yeah, And to me it didn't. It didn't feel any different either. It's like we we pay a little closer attention than if you're you're at home watching a baseball game like we had been doing for the last few months, and you're kind of always on your phone or looking at your computer doing something while the game's on, and if you're not paying attention to it just seems like a

normal game with like the artificial fan noise. I think the question is if you were asleep, you were in a coma since and you woke up and it was football Sunday, would you have noticed the chief different? I think I think I think some of the when you looked and it was an empty stadium, I think that that definitely would I feel like they didn't. They did

a pretty good job of not really showing the stance. Yeah, I think sometimes it's hard if you're showing a certain angle, if you're showing a certain replay, you're gonna get that background with the the empty stadium. But they it's not like they were highlighting obviously empty stadiums. And that was a directive. I know from a Fox Sports perspective, we we weren't going to come out and say, keep beating you over the head. Well, there's no fans. There's no fans,

so it's it's about football. And I think from from a social justice standpoint, honestly, I think look after the anthems, UM, then it was pretty like it was interspersed and there were things that were obviously talked about, uh, commercials and things, but it wasn't um. You know, there's a whole bunch of people out there to say, oh, I'm not watching the NFL blah blah blah blah blah, and then don't

watch the NFL. Right, and you know what was what was the overnight travis for Saints Bucks, which is was the highest in four years per week, one per week, one um, and you made a comment about that over text that like we look, week one, we always knew Week one was gonna be was gonna be huge capital you and because it's week one after a pandemic when we didn't think we were gonna have football for from for a minute there what the true test is going

to because remember two thousands sixteen, you had you had, you had Colin Kaepernick, the whole kneeling thing, you had the election, and ratings were down right. This year we have certainly the Kaepernick thing um is still part of the conversation social justice the election. Are people going to you know, are people going to turn away from the

NFL um in October November remains to be seen. There certainly are people that are very vocal, Like we talked about, there's this vocal minority that says, I don't go to watch football for for political statements things like that. But I think the the majority of NFL fans are gonna watch and but it will be I'm I'm very intrigued about what the ratings are going to be in in October November. For sure from an officiating standpoint, and we'll get into the cause of the week. But here's here's

basically what happened in week one. When you look at the foul numbers and everybody says, okay, let him play great, not a lot of fouls, let them play you know, the game flows better, and and I think that's there's something to be said for that. But when you look at week one and we average twelve and a half penalties per game um in week one, compare that to nineteen point three per game in two thousand nineteen, and Travis is really just distracting me tremendously right now. We're

back in person. Now I gotta see everything he does. He's closing windows. So I'm gonna I'm gonna start over. But okay, penalties down twelve and a half per game in week one compared to nineteen point three last year. Nineteen point three is is a high number. Offensive was crazy. So but when you look at the average, the average has been right around sixteen per game, and when you're talking about twelve and a half, that is a significant drop.

It's only one week, it's a small sample size, but line of scrimmage in fractions of those twelve and a half pousd per game thirty two percent, we're line of scrimmage and frash, which is your false start, you're off sides, the formation stuff that you can't ignore. Thirty two percent is is where the number normally is, you know, somewhere

between thirty two percent historically. So if that number is the same, that means on the major fouls like holding, past interference, unnecessary roughness, those fouls were not called nowhere near the same rate. And I think that's twofold. I think the game officials were given the directive clear and obvious, don't make a lot of don't don't. Don't call a lot of fouls we didn't have preseason. But what concerns

me the most is offensive holding. When you look at two thousand nineteen week one, we had eighty two offensive holes in two thousand eighteen sixty four and two thousand seventeen fifty eight in two thousand, sixteen fifty five. How many holding calls do you think we had in week one? After I just rattled off those numbers forty about eighteen

eighteen twelve on offensive lineman. So when you're talking about you think offensive lineman got that better in in in the off season, Well they had all that time, YEA in a zoom. Off season, they got better at hand placement and feet and everything else. So what concerns me

about that? And it is one week, but when you start talking about eighteen offensive holds, twelve on offensive lineman, sixteen on on scrimmage plays, um, what that means is every team in the league is now going to have meetings with their offensive line and they say we're gonna hold the ship out of the defense, and that will the close line play will become an absolute war that will break down, Defenders will get will get frustrated. Then you get the risk of of of altercations other things.

So that is a number to just watch out for. I remember in the a F and the Alliance of American Football, we wanted to promote offense, so we said we weren't gonna call holding unless it was obvious. The takedowns, the bear hugs. By week three we said, no, we gotta call this is getting ridiculous. Defenders are getting tackled. We have to call um these holes because it leads

to other things. And that's my my biggest takeaway from week one in terms of the officiating is you can't when when historic numbers are fouls per game sixteen and you you dropped to twelve and a half. If we stayed twelve and a half, I guarantee teams around the league are going to to start to send in questions about no calls. And I lived this in ten when

I took over UM in officiating. The fouls were down the last couple of years, and the committee got together and said, hey, we're this game is getting out of control. We need to rein this back in. So we just I would be mindful of that. Other other numbers, points per game UM up forty nine. That's a very healthy number UM. The plays per game really good. A hundred and fifty eight plays per game. That's great. Margin of victory was less than ten oh, that's the spread UM

nine point five. Great, Passing yards per game was down compared to last year. Passing yards per game, rushing yards way up. UM two and thirty eight per game compared to two hundred sixteen replay. Remember we took away past an afferance, so replay was down twenty reviews compared to twenty seven last year. And overall game time was right around three three oh four forty five UM, which is down from last year. In the NFL, likes that number.

They want the game to be a little bit shorter. Um. So that's from a general perspective, from from a from a specific call perspective. The call of the week was was was Travis's Cowboys right? And and this was the Sunday night game. You guys texted me immediately, this is Michael Gallup third and ten, um, Cowboys down by three. Dac throws a deep pass that would have was caught by Gallup would have put the Cowboys in field goal range,

potential hop oportunity to take the lead. And and we had two flags on the play from the deep wing official and the back judge offensive past inferience push off. What did you guys think of the call? As soon as I saw it, I thought it was pasting inferenced by the by rule, like he extended the arm and

gained a step on on Ramsey. And so I got text instantly from like five different people that you know, whether it's a Cowboys fan, friends or or people who hate the Cowboys, which they're usually the ones that chime in more. But they were all saying, oh, the Cowboys got hose. I was like, well, actually I thought the call was was the right call. I don't like it because I'm a Cowboys fan, but I thought it was the right call. I thought it was a right call to and I'm a Rams fan, so I liked it.

You liked it double double double, like double, like you liked your own text, you liked your own life, which is illegal. Look, I get it. It's it's obviously a big call. Um, it's a critical juncture of the game. It's the Cowboys on Sunday night, right, so so it's gonna have that added element. Cowboy fan have been known, they are very gracious in defeat, and they definitely do

not bring up ship from the past ever. What what I didn't like about it is Collinsworth and al Michaels are usually against the Cowboys always when they're calling things. But they're like, oh, that was a bad call, that shouldn't have been. But I think if it wouldn't have gotten called, they would have been even worse, saying oh, I can't believe they missed that call. I think it would work, and I think people just react to what

they say on the air. There's no question if if Collinsworth and and Michael's and even Terry McAuley who's the rules analyst. If they had come out and said they agreed with the call, I think that's going to influence people without question. That's the power that that the broadcasters have um and we understand that. But if we look

at it, let's let's break it down. Gallop and Ramsey are running, They're running stride for stride, and people are saying, well, Ramsey hooked Gallop's arm right and and and so Gallop couldn't get his arm free. If you watch the play, a Gallop was perfectly fine where his hand was. Gallop was always the receivers taught at that list if you can if you can create a little bit of space, you want to do it legally. But if you can create a little bit of space, there's nothing wrong with

that hand fighting. Ramsey has has his arm inside of Gallop's arm, but Gallop it's not like Gallup is trying to pull his arm free. He's perfectly content with his arm in hand there. And then at the last second you can see it's It's interesting because it's not with the palm of the hand, it's almost the back of the hand that he pushes into Ramsey's body. And he clearly creates space. Ramsey embellishes without question, but he definitely feels the contact. It takes a step away from him,

it creates separation. And uh, you know, and I thought it was a foul. It was. It wasn't much different. You remember the Super Bowl kiddo got called for for near the end of the first half for an offensive past inference and the and the Niners were and would have put the Niners in field board range. Um that was somewhat similar. And uh and again Pool report, Tony Crenny, the referee, did talk to Edward or after the game.

What was what was his his comment? What was his statement said, I can tell you it was clear and obvious on the field of the hand into the opposing player, a full arm extension that created separation. In all situations that would be called. We're not going to allow that at any time of the game. So and that now Tony Creny is the referee, it's not his call he's getting he's getting information from the covering officials, which would have been the the side judge, field judge or the

back and and the back judge. And uh, and so they felt it was clear and obvious. Remember that language clear and obvious, because that's what the officials are being taught right now, to to call clear and obvious foul. So if they don't feel it's clear and obvious, they're

not going to call it. They obviously felt it was it raised to that level, and uh, and obviously all the fallout and everybody's up in arms about because again, just like and I hate to bring it up, but just like the Deaz play, because we reverse the des play, the Cowboys didn't win the Super Bowl. It's that simple. Do you think this is going to be a Super Bowl?

So if the Cowboys, if the Cowboys the playoffs by a game, this call will be We ask a question, do you think, because Ramsey is now the highest paid cornerback in the league, do you think he gets any preferential treatment whatsoever? Absolutely not. The officials have no. They did for the officials. He's not come on in that moment. In that moment, the officials running full speed trying to get in position watching is it past inference? Is it on the offense? Is it on the defense? Is it

a catch? The last thing they're thinking about is Ramsey's hundred and whatever million dollar deal. No, I understand that. But when you think about that, Okay, if he's supposed to be allegedly the best cornerback in the league, he's making the most money. So do you think the best

cornerback in league gets a little bit more? Now? Now, it's like, that's the whole argument about Tom Brady gets gets to you know, gets the calls, and and the rookie, you know, Josh Allen isn't gonna get isn't gonna get the call. That's not the case. The officials are evaluated. There is no profession on the planet um that is that is scrutinized more than than professional officials. I don't

think there is one. From a from an internal perspective and obviously from external from media, from coaches, players, fans, it is. It is an unbelievable evaluation process that they go through, and and for them to think that they can get away with giving Jalen Ramsey the benefit of the doubt when they're gonna get great and that great is going to impact their postseason assignment and whether they

get kept on at the league. No way. I think the only job that's hated more for doing your job is the parking meter who writes the parking tickets because the rest do their job, they make the calls. People hate them when they go against their team. Yeah, the people ticket, Like just stop eight thousand people watching you, Like you could just skip skip the car, Like skip the blue range they've got, They've got to skip the red teslat Yeah, can you just move on skip them?

You're not supposed to be giving electric vehicles tickets anyway. We're saving the planet one car at a time. Yeah, And and it's a good back in person. We're talking about the Tesla. Then you compared you compared to A J. Green? Right? A J. Green had another big O p I call at the end of that game that took back what most likely would have been the game when he touched down the Chargers and Bengals game went down to the wire.

Joe Burrow is first real two minute um exposure in the NFL, and UH drives him down a parent touchdown called back on a on an offensive past appearance. And I think this one was more obvious, but I think from a just a setup it was different. We're Gallop and Ramsey are both running down field in the same direction.

This one Green, he's the defender, is facing him Green is facing trying to turn back for the ball, and he clearly pushes off create space and comes back and uh and makes the makes the catch, and that was called back. And I thought that was a good call too. And these are offensive past inferences. Is an interesting call because it may not look like a lot, but it

has a significant impact when you're running full speed. Um, it doesn't take much to kind of knock you off balance or to create that little space, that little separation when you're talking about the best athletes in the world. And uh, and so just that that one half step it took away from Jalen Ramsey is going to make

a whole lot of difference. Um. But look, the Cowboys were the benefit of of up until that O p I the BA. The Cowboys were the benefit of of the biggest call or non call in the game up until that point with Aldon Smith, who had a great game. UM, great story, come back, you know, after being out of the league, trained with our our our colleague and buddy

Jay Glazer at Unbreakable Jim, You're welcome. Jay named up and um the you know hit to the head of golf on an interception that led to three point a field goal for the Cowboys that was missed, and I thought that was one that uh, you know would have been the story of the game at the Cowboys come back to win. That that certainly was a big, big deal. Um. The other play that got people riled up is the

Jamie Collins ejection. And then this was stupid. It was just dumb Detroit head of rough my people, they're my people, they are Detroit is my people. And and did they call you about this one? They want to get you on the show? Yeah, the Lines podcast guys, UM did contact me and I want to reach out to my people,

my my my Verners people. UM in Detroit Motown had a rough day when Mitchell Trobiskie is basically Brett Farve in the fourth quarter, you have a big lead, You're going in for the victory, and then Robiskie turns into you know, Bart Star in the fourth quarter. And then you get the the Jamie Collins ejection earlier, where it's obvious that Collins is not contacting the official in a malicious way, but he was like he was trying to

show that that it was the running back. UM was that Andrews was was was lowering his head and uh, you know, dropping his helmet and he was trying to show that to the referee and he ended up making contact with the referee. It just didn't look great like it didn't. It looked like, I don't know, it looked like if you were trying to draw an offensive foul in basketball and trying to flop a little bit. It

looked a little like that. But the bottom line is, and the players know this, you can't contact the game official. And I don't think the referee in that situation had any option other than to eject him. As as as bad as if it may have looked, I think Jamie Collins just has to be a little bit smarter and and we're in twenty twenties for social distancing should be first and foremost. Don't drop your head that close to

the referee where you could potentially make contact. So I was okay with the ejection, although social media was not happy. But it looked like he caught the guy, like the referee, off off guard because he was kind of looking off to his left and then he put his head down. I don't think he would have expected that a player is gonna be coming at him with his head, so then he kind of at the last second season out of the corner's eye and kind of flinch his back

a little bit. So it looks a little bit worse than it probably was. Had he been engaging and actually listening to what Jamie Collins was telling him, not that it would have made a difference. He probably would have been able to move himself. And maybe there's no contract. I think it did make that. I think it did catch him by surprise because you could just see the

way he reacted because he didn't. I think if had he had and he been, you know, cognizant of what was coming, I think I think it would have been a much different result. But it was just alliance. How do you blow that lead? Oh God, they've they've made a habit of it. Well, how about the guy dropping the past in the end zone for the game winner?

Since to be I like, I don't even remember when they weren't doing this, since the Calvin Johnson call, right like ever since then, it's like I kind of been watching a little closer, and he just seemed to find ways to lose games in the world, that's possible. The Lions joke this guy being around officials, especially when I first started, and I was around old officials and they

would tell these corny jokes. And the Lions joke was that, you know, they had this season ticket the year they went oh in sixteen, and it was like week twelve in the season ticket holder was like, you know, I'm not going to the game. So he just left the two tickets on the windshield of his car with a note, Hey, anybody wants to go to the game, And when he came back, there were six tickets than by thank you. Because but on that note, let's let's take a break.

We come back. Well, we'll talk a little college football, We'll talk survivor pool and uh in a little baseball playoff announcement. Next on good Calls. M M all right, We're back on good Calls and UM survivor pool living on the edge. UM. We have we have two survivor pools. We have a survivor pool in the studio with all of us, and we have monitors that would come in normally, but obviously with health and safety protocols, UM, we we need to restrict UM people in the room. So shout

out to all of our monitors. I know you're all listening, especially you, Nelson. Nelson never sells. Good luck Nelson. How did your pick through this week? Nelson? Indianapolis great pick. So now, speaking in Indianapolis, there's two pools survivor pools. There's the studio pool and then Joe has a separate pool, but they're both managed on the same website. So I had to put in my pick for the studio pool. And I logged into the website to put in my pick for the studio pool, and I put in the

Indianapolis Colts. I felt like the Jaguars. Everybody, you know, the kind of the firesale, the Colts, you know, with Philip Rivers, blah blah blah. That was gonna be the pick, right, So what happens to Colts lose? I think I'm out of the studio pool. We think that a lot less. I put the pick in for the other pool, Joe's other pools. So I lived to make another pick in the studio pool, and I picked the Titans on Monday night.

Who Stephen Guskowski wanted to single hand, single footedly keep me out of the pool after week one, but thankfully he made that kick at the end, so I live another day in the pool. That was the intent though that what do you think You can't officiate intent? Yeah, you can't. You can't officiate intent. And my intent was to pick the colts in the studio pool. But I picked the colts in the other pool. So I'm out

of the other pool, but I'm still in this. I love it because the other pools five times the price of the studio pool. But you're so excited that you're still in our pool at the studio because because yeah, the end backstory. There's been a little bit of controversies because once I lose, I basically basically try to buy

other people's picks. And Nelson, who I referenced earlier, is like, oh, you know, he's some reason, he's the moral compass, and he won't he can't be bought to the point where his name is now Nelson never sells Now he's out, so good luck now. But everybody everybody has a price. Okay, I've got a price, call me. Everybody has a price. So when I do go out, I will buy. I will buy somebody's back, so that if you never go out, you could win. That's great. If I win, then that's great. Um.

So that's that's the pool college football. You know, it was interesting because it was our first week in the studio for college football. But it's just college football just feels weird right now, Like it feels weird because it's just like normally we'd have everybody would be playing. They would have SEC and and and Big ten and Pac

twelve and A C C and everybody. But now it's like kind of like piecemeal where we had we had Big twelve playing some A C C and a lot of just my favorite conference with you all know sun Belt, which we talked about months ago that this was gonna be the sun Belt coming out party, was gonna be the sun Belt on My party. And what happened three and oh against the Big twelve concluding with our coastal Carolina Shante Clears, Okay, what is this, Shante clear It's

a proud rooster. It's a fierce Roosters rooster. Travis a fierce rooster. And they went into Kansas and in front of that big crowd and they put the put the smack down. Which is crazy because there were so many people at the k State game. There were so many students. I don't understand. It seemed like there are also a lot of people. I thought there was a lot of people at the Chiefs game. Yeah, they had seventeen thousand.

And it's so, But Kansas City Chiefs are in Missouri, so that's that, and Kansas is in Kansas, so two different states. But k State is also in Kansas Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan, and so I don't understand why case they can have fans and Kansas can't, Like, I don't get that. What seems like it's nobody get anything right now, an say you can do stuff, and then then maybe the school can chime in and say we're not going to have people. I guess. So there's just there's no rules

that are justly across the board on this. So that's where that's where we stand. With speaking of you know, this week, I think we could have some some clarity on the Big Ten. I mean the Big Ten met on Sunday, UM. I think they were meeting again during the week to UH to talk about a return to play, which could take place UH as early as October. And and then I read another article that the PAC twelve

is thinking about coming back. So imagine a Pact twelve, Big Ten coming back playing a conference only schedule finishing with the championship game and then having the Pack twelve Big Ten champions playing the Rose Bowl. That would be pretty cool. So are they not going to be in the playoffs that? I don't know. I don't know how that works, Like, I don't know if if if they would,

I would imagine they would have to start soon. I don't think you could start playing in in late October and be eligible for the CFP if you're gonna play on time. But who knows. I think we're just making making it up. Right now. Everything is day to day, every everywhere you go, it's just making stuff up. You're not allowed to get COVID if you're sitting down unless there's seven people with you, then you can get it. Then you can get it. If you have six, you're good. Yeah,

well you know, I agree, it's both. Speaking of that masks, NFL sent out a memo to the coaches after Sunday to all clubs that there will be discipline if you do not wear your masks. Obviously, UM kind of pointed more at the head coaches because those are the coaches that are going to be on camera more. But it was interesting to see the variation who who are your who are your favorite masked characters of the weekend? I know obviously Andy reads, Andy got We love Andy in in.

It was amazing that, you know, he had the shield and it just felt like he was like the defrost buttons not working, like give or not when you're in the car and it's like the defrost button just won't work and you just wait till it gets cold. And he's wearing and so and so. That was hilarious. There were a couple of I think Sunday Night Mike McCarthy wore at the entire game. Like McCarthy didn't take it off. Sean McVeigh has been even on even on Hard knock.

Sean is not a big mask guy. Like he's he's out there. You know it's it's because he's good looking. You don't want to for personal experience. You don't want to put a mask on when you're when you're a handsome dude. It ruins everything. It does. You can't the mask certainly does. It does kind of give you, you know, less of a chance to to kind of peacock Um the Steeler's offensive coordinator. Um, who was that Randy Fitchner? He was amazing Monday night. He had the full like

he looked. He was like a babushka. He had like my my, my old Italian like great aunts and grandmother and every like when they would wear like didn't car didn't cam Newton wear that same thing in a postgame press conference. But I was like my grandma used to wear My nona used to wear the kerchief like around like completely covered up. He like all you saw was like the slits of his eyes, which was which I

thought was hilarious. What's interesting about the mask though, is remember now these play callers, they don't have to put the call sheet over their mouth to cover to cover their their lips, so they're not getting read. My brother, my brother always used to get frustrated because he didn't know and it was it was what's his face? Macadoo Ben macadoo when he was with the Giants, and he always used to yell. He be like, why is McAdoo with his f and kids menu? That's all he's doing.

He's not coaching. He's just looking at his kids menu because they're laminated and he has in front of his face. Um, but now you don't need to do that because you have in the mask. I think it was McAdoo, who out of habit was covering his face and he had his mask ondo still coaching someone. Which game were we on, or maybe it was I'm thinking it was Shermer. I remember one of the games that we were on on Sunday in the studio. The it was either offensive, offensive

or defensive coordinator. He had the mask on, but he just had it. People like that whole time, Like they they're walking out and about and they've got the mask around their neck, like, don't even don't even pretend, don't pretend. Just go just that I'm not wearing the mask. Don't worry about your neck. Like it's not COVID doesn't it doesn't go through Radham's apple, like stop like putting on.

McAdoo is the quarterbacks coach with the Jaguars. But I was thinking he really, yeah, I was thinking of I was thinking of Pat Shermer. He had the mask on and he was still covering his face. He's still just the muscle memory he's just used to um So Baseball made an announcement bull format Travis, where are we gonna

where are we gonna be watching postseason baseball? But Al is going to be playing in San Diego in l A. Which is cool, and then yeah, cool because we can go because we can't go, but at least, at least when my twins are playing, I'll be I'll be closer to them when there he goes into the Eggies, you know, it'll be proximity loss. And you know what's speaking of there, I have a bone to pick with you. I feel like we could have You could have pulled some strings

that got us into that Rounds game. Yeah, Joe, Like, so I had a friend post something on Instagram. He was there at the game. I'm like, this guy's like, I don't know, he was laying out watching the game. No, he had to be there in a working capacity. They're not just letting Joe Schmo like hang out and yeah, I know what I wanna say. So, like two hours before kickoff, he's like, Hey, why can't we just go over to the new stadium because there's no because it's

the pandemic and they're not gonna let us in. You gotta throw around your weight a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah, you get the credential, Like I get all the emails from the teams, the credentials go out. It's like a complete you only that you can only let in so many people, Like you don't think they're gonna let this guy in. Don't let him in, but not the bodyguard. Yeah,

I don't think that's gonna continue, Travis World. So then the the NL is gonna play in Houston, so your Dodgers could go working on getting back to the series and win those games in Houston, and then then the other than the other games for the NL will be in Arlington at the New Globe Life and that's where the World Series will be and for the first time since all the games, the entire World Series will be

in one one look so interesting. And obviously the team with the better record will have the home field, which they'll bell bat last. But other than that, it's like it's like a neutral site game, Like it's like the Super Bowl, right, you go into a stage and no fans though, So yeah, I think, um, Baseball I think has after that initial scare when we thought like the world was to see the sky was falling with the Marlins, I think baseball has pretty much figured it out. Knock

on wood. Um with with COVID football, I haven't heard anything, right, we've played a full week. We were traveling about Kansas City and these guys are getting tested every day. So knock on wood. People are doing the right thing. And uh and we're gonna, you know, we're gonna see another week of football at least, and we'll be we'll be in the studio for we got big new kickoff Saturday. Baby. You said, Houston O U, S T O N and Baylor. Have you ever been a Waco? No, I haven't. I've

been a Waco. I was at I was at the game Baylor versus Texas when R G three Texas A and M Baylor Texas A and M r G three through like five touchdowns and it was like his coming out party. You have the weirdest flexes and you also have the most Like your memory is amazing, and we'll give you that. I remember because the game into the game was insane and it was like sixty two and I missed my flight and I had to spend the night at the the Houston Airport Marriott. How was it?

It was fine, It was fine. Mariots are fine. Um, all right, let's go to break, we come back. Um, we're gonna talk about my birthday and how I almost spend my birthday in jail. Next on good calls. M all right, we're back on good calls. And um, it was it was call it kiss met and call it luck, call it whatever you want to call it. But my birthday happened to fall on opening Sunday of the NFL. Uh season. Serendipity, serendipity. It was very serendipitous. Um, and

so I've got a lot of birthday wishes. It's funny because Twitter, it was, was a place full of love and wonder on Sunday for a little bit there when people found out it was my birthday because Kevin Burkhard mentioned it on the air and uh, and people were there was some love and then and then Sunday night the OPI against Dallas, and then there was a lot of heat and uh but how many year and refs

cost us? This always my refs. Then I got blamed some guys, some guy, not all, not all, some guy blame me, called me an all around douche bag for the Calvin Johnson play in two thousand ten. Well, news flash, I wasn't with the NFL. I was actually at a bar with Joe's brother during that game. It was my first it was my first football season outside the NFL. I left and I was living out here in California,

and it was my first experience with breakfast. NFL Like the game starting at ten am, and we went and had like breakfast, you know, buffet, and we're watching and Jared's Jars a Lions fan. Yeah, Jared's Allions fans were watching that game in the bar and everybody's looking at me, like, what's the call? What's the call? And I was like, you're not gonna like you like you said, it's gonna

hit the fans, Gonna hit the fans those days. And I mean, that's actually one thing about working in the Cube I really do miss is those those bottomless mimosa brunch mornings at the pier. Fifteen years in California, I've never had one of those, but how much fun even last year, and I think we can you know, obviously it's it's the pandemic, so hopefully we'll be able to experience this in future years. But last year, and we had a couple of saturdays off, going down and watch

the college football was so much fun. And then we watched the CFP because we don't have those games. Obviously, we watched the two CFP semifinal games out and it was a blast. We had such a good time. It was funny. But every call the whole bar was giving in and IM PROMPTU rouse review in the bar. Hilarious. But my birthday almost started off. UM. Maybe I wouldn't have went to jail, but maybe it would have been

it would have been interesting. I went to UM right aid before the studio and I went to pick up penut Eminem's for everybody, thank you, welcome, and I went to pick up UM magic tape. I grabbed some peanut Eminem's and magic tape Scotch tape, and for some reason, I wasn't even thinking about it, but I was carrying the Eminem's. I grabbed the tape and put the tape in my back pocket. Go to the counter, go to the checkout, give the girl the Eminem's and she's checking

me out. I'm going where the hell's scotch tape? Like where is it looking? And I'm like, oh, oh yeah, and this and I pulled it out of my pocket in her hand. She's like looking at me like what, like what are you doing? So and Joe just you know, Joe, being the the career shoplifter that he is, said that if I had walked out, that wouldn't have beat right, that the Scotch tape wouldn't have been don't think they have a sensor on the They don't have a sensor on the Scotch tape, so I can so there could

have been surveillance watching you exactly. So that would have been Ian Blendino. Why this mug shot like you'd have the mug shot would be all over right, the Scotch tape mug shot. We would have scotch taped that mug shot up in we could use the actual I would have asked, can I keep that evidence for you know, once we're done with the trial of the century. But that was on my birthday. Started problem was exactly, but

it actually started the night before. We were in the studio Saturday night, and I got a really thoughtful and amazing birthday gift from you guys. It was a cameo from my guy Weston Bouche, who is my who's my man consultant? Um and who else? Grooming tips and other things. And I got a call about we've talked about his Yeah, and I got a cameo from Weston, and then Weston

hit me up on Instagram and followed me. Um, I did accept the follow up requests, and I'll probably shoot him a d M and thank him for the cameo, and um, you know I have M Have you have you? Because he when I sent the cameo request, I told him and we've talked about you on the podcast, so he sent me. Um, he sent me like, hey, I'd love to listen, you know, send me the episode. So I sent him the episode yesterday. Actually, oh nice. Maybe we can get him to come on. And I can't.

I can't imagine that at some point in time, we don't like grab a beer with the dude because I'm gonna shoot you. I'll send him a d M and uh like, hey, thanks for the cameo. You know, blah blah blah. If you ever, you know, if you're a near Cineamonica, let's go get a drink or South Bay and we'll definitely hang out. You should give him some pointers on his cameo. So here's what we Western does,

which is amazing. He's a he's been a he's a model, and he's been in the modeling industry, and he does you know a lot of grooming tips and and and skincare and just workout tips and in all these things. And what I would like to do is I'd like to start my own cameo consulting business because because I'm like, I take my cameos very seriously as as you guys know. And if anybody checks me out on cameo, um, I just finished my busy season like an accountant during tax time.

I just finished my busy season, which is fantasy draft. And now that's over. We're in. Now we're into like I'll get a steady flow. But but August and September crushing it early September. And uh, but I put a lot into my cameos. You're gonna get, You're gonna get you. I feel like you should probably nominate me for cameo because I was recognized in New Orleans at one time as the as Joe with a tesla. Oh yeah, you charge, and you could you could just do cameos about your

first altant client. I can work with you on how to how to do cameos. Um, but it's cameos are a lot of fun. I love doing them, So hit me up, you will, Like I said, it goes to charity UM school lunch ferry dot com giving kids that can't afford school lunches UM access to obviously school lunches and uh yeah me up you you won't. You won't regret it, trust me. Um So talk speaking of flexes, Joe, what's what's happening with the peloton? Where? What's Joe? Got

a peloton? Do you want to used one? Secondhand? I bought it used because there was like a six week but it wasn't. It wasn't it was like one of those like like it was it was. It was pretty much brand new. It's like the car you get. It was like the car they use on the lot. For a friend, a friend of mine, he ordered it um uh peloton and then it was like a six week wait.

So he went and found one on Craigsist. So he bought it second hand, and then when his came in six weeks later, it's like, you want to buy mine from me? You don't have a guy to get a pelotons? My wife. I actually do have a guy, but like you can't get it, you can't get him rushed. I actually got in touch with the CEO of Peloton and was like, look, I need this now, and he's like, there's nothing of the fulfillment in Pelton. Think about the workouts. I like, I don't know how a lot of people

just aren't going to go back to Jim. It's like they're doing all the home workouts. I know I've been working out from home and um, but yeah, the Pelotons, it's a good workout. Yeah. So I don't know what this flex is all about. The flex is Joe. He said his his PR, which for those of you that don't know, the PR is your personal record. So what was your personal record? Joe? I don't. I don't the number. I don't even remember. It's like it's measured in like

output er. I just don't always say that. And then and then's why I was just like, I wanted to engage with you. What's your what's your national ranking? Now? He's always always a national ranking presenting, of which I don't think you are. If there's twenty thousand, that ten percent or you're still it's close, You're you're no lance Man, that's for sure. I mean here, I'm two thousand people. That's that's It's okay. Top ten percent sounds a lot

better than two thousand. I'm ranked two thousand. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Ten percentile. I never knew what whenever they would say, like when I go and they say, oh, you're your height is in the percentile? Is it? Is it? The lower the number, the taller you are. Yeah, So if you're in the third, if you're in the third percentile, only three, you're only three percent. There's only three percent

that are taller than correct. That's what it means. That's how it works, because I thought it when I'm measuring my kids now I see, like my son's one pounds of six months, he was in the ninetent. Yeah, I think it's opposite when you're I don't know. Yeah, now that I think about, I'm not sure. If you're in percentile, does that mean you're like percent think you're the one percent in that in that the way that the doctors

say when you have a baby. I know for a fact, I can tell you right now that the fifti percentile, you're right in the middle. I know that. And how tall is that for a guy? Is it what? I believe? It's five eight one sixty five is like the average man one sixty five seems whoa I just I just did average five for man, it's just five six and females five to five six seems six seems it's because you live in southern California where everyone's a giant. Well, and all of us are are six one? What are

you talking about? Five? If you're six one, then we're both six to fine, we both have these nice average Wait it is and he's always saying I'm the I'm the complete average dude, And he's right, it's tiny. One sixty five. I would have thought like least one eight. Yeah, but you're six one and you five or one? Says how much does the average American man waste? Says twenty years old, hundred nineties seven pounds. What that's not right? It probably not right then if well, maybe, okay, I

don't I don't think I looked up American. I think I just looked at average. Well European, no question has gotta be is gonna be smaller? Wait? Wait, everything is small. I can't even go shopping out now. If you go like the European cut, I think it's it's definitely a slimmer slim so American men. It's it's five nine, so that must have been global. So that yeah, I think it's five s five is like the average dude. No, it can't be. It's got to be at least one sevent.

Can you do your job? I'm trying. I just I'm not very good at typing. Nothing's changed in a year. How upset did he get Sunday? The reason for me to be here's the thing, Pereira. Mike Prayer is in the studio with us now on Sunday, and Mike normally travels with with our a crew Joe Brock I didn't

put Terry Andrews and and that whole crew. So they're trying to set up this point to point conversation, trying to make this like so they can see Mike, so Troy and Joe if they're talking about something officiating related, rather than have Mike in their ear because normally they're in the booth together they can do hand signals. So they're trying to shoot this camera on Mike and communicate

with Mike, and it just wasn't happening. It was not happening on Sunday, and Travis was getting so worked up, like frustrated, and I certainly was not helping because I was lucky because all I called you was a jerk and the timely like during halftime, and Travis coul because you were making it so much worse and didn't see how we took it out of me get the shot back fire because you didn't realize like spitting seats in

your I don't care what the situation is. I will never pass up an opportunity to bust shops, like literally, like I'm the guy that like the world could be ending, and I'm gonna be like, Travis, dude, that's like, what are you doing? And this is what was happening? Like it was so like the president of Fox Sports came in to like check on what was happening, and Travis was so worked up trying to make sure it was gonna work. And I'm sitting there going, oh, well, you

know not, don't mind us over here. We're just you know, we're chopped liver over here. It was, it was, it was fantastic, and then he just he ripped into me week you find the weekly the shot, so then every time you went on, I would back I don't know if you noticed this or not trap. I would back back into the other room. I was like going to fall down the steps. Actually just created a funny performance. It was perfect. It was perfect. Um. All right, let's

let's do a brain of Blandino. Wait, I want to talk about what I want to talk about the pick point? Yes, so let's talk about castle point. So we we started the contest, me versus the genius kids from New Jersey. What school? What do you remember the school they went to? They're going to UM, They're at some tech school. Like smart kids. They have algorithms, they have ways to pick games. And I'm just, you know, an idiot who doesn't even really watch all that much football except for when I'm

with Dean because he makes me um. And we are going to pick different games against one another. So this week I had and it is against the spread, so I had the Rams plus two and a half. I won that one at the Saints thanks to the OPI I call thank your reths. I appreciate that. I had the Saints, uh, and I had Miami plus six and a half. So I lost. Miami won the Saints one. The Rams. They had Buffalo minus six and a half

Philly minus five and a half. See how minus two and a half, So they won Buffalo and three week So we're gonna put in we'll we'll put in you guys. You'll go up against the analytics guys and we'll see, we'll keep a record. So you're both too in one right now against the spread, and we'll and we'll go from that. Now. They've been doing a bunch of really cool things. UM. They just release their Fantasy football died UM. That's something that they've in terms of fantasy football. Trust me,

these guys are looking at everything. I think for next year for season, that's going to be the go to UM for fantasy football. They pick and they compare themselves when they look at the way they their rankings. UM. If you go on on check them out on Instagram and on Twitter, Castle Point Analytics UM. Compared to ESPN's experts, they far and away beating ESPN's experts and fantasy football. They also have an index to help UM. You know sport gamers with UFC and they are with twelve four

four teams. In the last three they were eleven eleven with two three big upsets like they I was pretty impressed with that. They did a great job so check them out on Instagram and Twitter, and uh yeah, this is so we'll keep a running tab see how Joe works, because that's the whole idea, Right, there's the old Joe's the old baseball scout that you know, you know, he's the guy that they I have a feeling about this kid.

I have a feeling about this kid. I don't care what is his his ops is and and I don't care what you know, the war and everything else. I got a feeling about this kid. And these castle Point Analytics, those are the the Ivy League tech guys that come in and got these these crazy algorithms and all this fancy tech and and we're gonna see the old grizzled scout versus the new school analytics and see who comes out on top about their season total. They predicted for

the books. They predicted six winds for the box yesterday, and oh man, they might be onto something. Well, I like my shots so far. I'm we're I'm right there with the smart kids. Vegas has the Bucks at nine and a half winds, And after watching that yesterday, I don't know the castle Point un man. Yeah, let's do it, all right, Let's go Brandon Blondino there are many ways to skin a cat? Okay, right, So that's a saying, right, you're not you're supposed to use that anymore. I think

Peter has put a put a stop to that. But that's that was has always been a saying there are there are many ways to skin a cat? How did that start? Like was a guy skinning a cat? And then another guy came by was like, hey, you know, there's there's another way to do that? Like what like who came up with that? But are there really more

than one way? That's my thing? Like apparently there is and somebody and it was, But this is the anything that doesn't become a saying if it's not widespread, Like that's not like one dude in Arkansas skinning a cat and and somebody's saying, you know, there's another way that this is. There was a lot of cats being skinned at some point, and I feel like a lot of these sayings like killing two birds with one stone, like between skinning cats and throwing rocks at two birds, Like

how are you? Like how like who? What? What kind of animal cruelty is happening when these sayings were made, Like I I just don't. I don't understand. I am fascinated, fascinated by how sayings come into like normal lexicon. I mean, I think the killing two birds and one stone at least makes sense. But when I really think about it, I don't know if there's more really more than one way to skinny cat. Not that I don't skin the cat, but there's one one way to do something. I understand that.

But when why were you using skinning cats as the example? Yeah? Why when? Why wouldn't we use like deer or things that actual? Why would we? Why would we? Why would we talk about cruelty? And I wouldn't we just say there's more than one way of changing the oil on your there's more like you know, you know what I'm gonna, I'm gonna, but there's nothing you know, you're wanting to change attire? Like, can we can we come up with a different way to say there's more than one way

to do things? Are you? Is this the placification of America? We can't talk about anything. I just don't like skinning a cat is really appropriate. It's just the same if it was skinning the dollar, people would be going crazy, Like you can't talk about dollars people that you know, that's interesting because there is an animal hierarchy and and there's no question. I feel like we're getting a second brand of there's an animal hierarchy, without question, and dogs

are completely at the top of it, without questions. Dogs are number one. Dogs are far and away number one without question. You cannot do anything to a dog, people will lose their ship. Cats are not on the same level as dogs. They're just not. They're just not. Forget about pigs who are supposed to be smarter. Octopus, octopus are like the smartest animal dolphins. Octopus is like have

you ever seen an octopus? If you're an octopus in the wild, the ship that that that thing can do changes colors and the way they can like change their size and shape. And what are we doing? And what we're doing is where every menu, every restaurant, it's octopus with its with and and then he gives a ship throw up, throw up a Pekinese on on a menu and people will lose it. So I'll have the duction right exactly anyway, you know. And that's not that you

went on a tangent or anything. And that note this has been good calls for Team Blondino. Please follow me on Twitter and team blend you Know and Instagram at team dop Blendino. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at Rules Podcasts, and be sure to rate our podcast on the I R Radio app and on Apple Podcasts. Good Calls Dean Blandino is a production of iHeart Radio.

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