NFL Week 15 - Coin Toss Controversy

lot to get to. Let's go. Let's let's start with NFL and something that we haven't had in a little while, but it's it's nice to to always have a little coin toss controversy, right, let's why, why wait till the till the game actually starts and we're playing football, Let's get a little coin toss. And it was our biggest game, right, Fox's biggest game. This this this Sunday or this past Sunday with Dallas and the Rams ended up being kind of a a clunker of a game with Dallas just

one side of affair blowing out the Rams. You are, So, what's happening on? On the SWG podcast track, We're gonna talk about tvas this week saying how often and next on the next episode, how often you should you should buy a new pair of should never get a new pair? And tell one of the straps breaks have you ever played like pick up basketball and tevas? I've never owned you? Have you totally? So yeah, Dallas rams coin toss and

so what happened? And this it's interesting because once this happened, it literally I was trying to explain the coin to us rules, to Joe Travis, everybody else in the studio and and never people don't realize until there's an issue how it's not really complicated, but it felt complicated trying to explain it to you guys. So here's what happened. Cowboys win the toss. Dak is the cap DN. The referee goes to Doc Dax says, okay, we want to kick, and the refereesc Walt Anderson you want to kick, and

he says, yeah, we want to kick. And then at some point he says, you know we're going to defer to the second half. We want to kick, and and Walt went with choice is we're gonna kick. And so what happened is, Okay, Dallas has chosen to kick, went to the Rams. The Rams are going to get the football. The Rams actually then get to decide which goal they want to defend, because they haven't chosen the football. It's been chosen for them, and the Rams are gonna get

the choice to start the second half. So there was a lot of confusion. Obviously Dac was confused miscommunication. The bottom line is the Cowboys were trying to defer, and as a referee, you're you you really shouldn't let a player make a mistake like that. Whether you think it's miscommunication, do you think you always are going to ask because of the time, the team is that wins the toss is either going to defer or take the ball right

that and that's that's most of the time. So if he says we're gonna kick, as a referee, you asked, do you want to defer or do you want the ball? Right? And then he says, okay, we're gonna defer, and then you go to the Rams. The Rams is now your choice. You want the ball? Yes, you go back to the Cowboys, what goal do you want to defend? That's how it

works nine out of times. So we started talking through it and I just want to explain the coin toss options because Joe, I thought you you said something that was really interesting. What did you think the rule was on the coin toss, because I don't think you're alone. I thought that whatever you pick the opposite is for the second half, so, which is kind of like what we played in the schoolyard and when we played football

in the street or whatever it was. So Joe and I think a lot of people agree or or have thought that that if Dallas wins the toss and they want the ball in the first half, then the Rams are automatically getting the ball in the second half. Well, it doesn't work like that. There are options. You win the coin toss, and your options are you can elect to either kick or receive, okay, and then your other

option is you can elect a goal to defend. So the direction right, Those are your options on a coin toss, unless if you win and you defer to the second half. So if you defer to the second half, then it's like the team that actually lost the coin toss, they now get the choice for the first half and they can choose whatever they want, and the team that defers is deferring their choice. To the second half. So what again,

What happens is I defer, Joe takes the ball. I then get to defend a goal and in the second half, since I deferred, I get the first choice of those same options. Okay, So that's how it works. And when did the defer come into play? Because I feel like I remember that in high school football, like we could prefer then. But NFL, yeah, college college had defer. High

school had defer long before the NFL. The NFL only added the defer option in two thousand and eight, and it was really just it was to add another element, another layer of strategy, because you do get you know, there could be whether there could be you know, you like, you know teams there are teams that really liked that option of going in at the end of the half with the football score. We know we're gonna get it to start the second half, so windy cities and stuff,

and you pick a goal to defend. And I used to love that back when I used to play Madden. I used to love to score and then I'm getting the ball. But you didn't know the defer rule that that was the big that that's a big thing. But in two thousand and eight, the defer went in um it was obviously there prior to in college. But so what ends up happening is and there was a lot, I mean, we we must have touched on it and showed the coin. I've never seen a pregame coin to

us shown more. And I was seven times and Pereira went on and we're explaining it and they found they found the audio and it was and Doc did say he did in that sequence, he did use the word defer and as the referee again and look, it's it's easy to to to to kind of be the armchair quarterback after the fact, but you don't ever want to

let that player make the mistake. In an indoor stadium, there's no reason for a team to elect to kick, I mean, and then I would say in when the last time a team decided to kick, because even if you're concerned about direction, then you elect the goal. That's your choice. You say we want to defend this goal, and then they're gonna take the football. But so what how did god resolved at halftime by the league office stepping in and correcting it, which is kind of it's

a little by rule. Not so sure they used. They used a section the rule book and rule fifteen UM Section three, Article nine, I believe where you can get involved the administration of the game from a replay perspective, and they did it at halftime. UM, Look, the right thing ultimately happened. The Cowboys got the ball to start the second half because they were supposed to get the choice. But I think it's it's a little bit, you know, can you really do that at halftime? I think you'd

like to do that when it happens. You'd like to to correct it when it happens, and you certainly like the referee UM to be aware of that. And certainly if New York then is aware of what happened, then correct it, you know, before the game starts. But the coin toss, there's not a lot of time between the

coin toss and the kickoff. So what by rule? When I ask you guys, you guys are gonna get a little rules quick since we're talking about coin tosses, UM, what is the maximum amount of time that the coin toss can take place prior to kickoff? The kickoff? The coin toss can take place no more than how many minutes prior to kick off twelve minutes, twelve minutes, Joe

eight eight minutes. Okay, so Joe is closer, all right, But if I were, If I were, if this were the prices right and I were on the show, I would have went one. I would have went one minute, because I think you're both over. Okay, I think you which, by the way, prices that's fine. If you're on the prices right and you do that, that's fine. If you're on the prices right and somebody bids five hundred and you bid five oh one, you that no, no, you

should fight that. I would fight that guy if prices right, If if I bid four seventy five and you bid four seventy six illegal, I would just look right at you and got four seventy six. Really, let's go get on the show. Really for seventy six believable yours line up and get on this show. And I would do it every round. Oh my god, just oh. I would be so annoyed. Three minutes, three minutes is the kick is the coin? Three minutes used to be thirty minutes.

But again, those options, so you want to be as close to kickoff as possible, especially in outdoor stadium, because whether all of those things are a factor. Um, so we've talked about the kickoff longer than it would take to actually kick the ball off. This is really is the state of where the NFL efficially we're talking about. Sorry, it's it's it's a fifty, it's a really it's a coin toss. It's it's about as simple position, but it's more complicated. We we have had we have had other

controversies with coin tosses. Right going back, Steelers Lions over time, Phil luck At, Jerome Bettis, Jerome Bettis said he called tails, it was the heads and and the Lions won the toss kicked the field goal to win the game. Jerome Bettis said that he called tails. Feel like it said he called heads and the audio was enhanced. And I think the ultimate finding was that Jerome Bettis tried to change his his decision mid toss and it was headtails.

It kept change. They changed the procedure after that because you used to call it in the air. Then it was you had to look the guy in the face and go, what's your what's your choice? You know, what's your heads or tails before you actually flipped it. Because it was too much to do the flip and do it in air. So that was in in In in two thousand fifteen. It was a Packers Cardinals playoff game, going overtime clip. Blakeman tosses the coin and it doesn't

turn over. It doesn't turn over and it hits the ground. Rogers green Bays the visiting team. They think they win the toss and Cleet says, no, it didn't flip. Now there was no rule to back him up, but he used good common sense and he said we're gonna do it over, and he didn't let Rogers change his original choice. And then they end up losing the toss and uh, and they think that, yeah, they end up losing the game.

But so we put in a rule after that to say the coin must actually flip, and if the coin doesn't flip or or the toss is compromised in any way, then it's to do over and the captain cannot change his original toss if it only one time? Is that okay? One time? Can you know what happened? You know what Kleek did in that? So the coin, it was a playoff game and it was a commemorative coin. Normally regular season they all have referees will have a coin that

they use. Some a lot of them like to use a silver dollar whatever, because it's got a little more weight and a little more hef to it, you know, than a quarter. I mean, anybody, like any any referee that he uses like a penny or dime, Like I W I would want to be that guy that the dime. Here you go. If this is heads, is his tails. But so he didn't take the coin out of the casing, the plastic case, and so when he he didn't get the right arrow dynamics, and when he threw it up

in the air, it didn't turn over. So that's that's questionable techniquesson to all you aspiring referees, take the coin out of the plastic case. Super Bowl forty eight Joe Namath referee Terry McAuley gave the coin to Joe Namath. He was going to toss the coin, but he didn't ask. McCauley didn't ask Seattle the visiting team what they wanted to choose before he gave the coin to Joe. So Broadway, Joe's wearing a fur coat, looked like a mink coat.

He flips it. McCauley catches it realizes that they didn't ask Seattle what they wanted and and obviously Seattle Seattle I believe lost that to that toss. The Broncos got the ball, and if you remember that game, that first drive, it was like the second play did not go very well for for Denver, snap over Peyton's head into the end of and the route was on. So that was in your city. I was in New York. It was unbelievable weather until the morning after the game and they

had a snowstorm. Does that referee get to say he's picked off Joe Namath? Wow, another interception. You hit the wrong button. You hit the wrong button, Joe, you wanted, you wanted to, you wanted and you hit the wrong button. Nice, nice job, all right. So one more trivia question, one more rules question. On coin tosses. There are captains that go out for each team. How many what's the maximum number of captains that can go out for coin toss? Five? Five?

Travis max? You can have last, But what's the max? Uh? I think I think three? I go three? Decision, geez see, I would have I would have went you said five, six, I would have went six. I would have done the prices right, and I would have won because five point one, it's six. That would be the ultimate if somebody did that on prices right for s and cents. You're waiting outside in the park there, remember no unbelievable alright, So let's go to the end of Atlanta San Francisco. What

a game? What an unbelievable game. An unbelievable game. I was, you know, it was a hypothetical bed of the day, Atlanta, but I was. Look, I'm not I don't like to toot my own horn, but I was on fire. Was in the zone on on Atlanta San Francisco. I mean left and right, I said, seeing I was seeing plays like three or four plays ahead. It was unbelieved. I don't know if I'll ever get back into that zone. You were like Tony Romo calling a game. It was unbelievable.

You know what, you actually earned your money today. Congratulate, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that Twitter wasn't quite as harsh today as they normally are. But look, two plays at the end of that game, and and and definitely things we want to clarify. So um Austin Hooper catches what appeared to be the game winning or the go ahead touchdown with very little time on the clock ruled a touchdown, goes to review, reversed, and we went

on the air. We talked about the ball touching the around and then coming loose and that's why it was ruled in complete. It was actually a pool report. I know our riveran talked about, Um, you know why they overturned that. Travis, just give us some highlights from the pool report. I closed my closed it out, so okay, So we were gonna talk about the pool report. We

went through what we and you closed down. Okay. Anyway, So they basically said that the receiver was going to the ground to make the catch and so there was no football move, there was no reach, there was no additional steps, so he still had to survive the ground. The ball touched the ground. I know there was some people on on social media thought the ball touched his foot. Um to me, the ball hit the ground without question, and then after it hit the ground, the ball clearly

came loose and that's why it was ruled incomplete. I thought it was the right call. They overturned it, and uh, and it was interesting because it reminded me, oh yeah, right, That's what I asked you right after. It was like, this was a very reminiscent play of the Desk catch because he didn't control it through the ground. Was was the thing that everyone always heard you repeat on that

it was similar. It was similar. The control aspect was very similar, but it was different because it was in the end zone versus well, no, they were both the Well, the Hooper play was in the end zone, but but the des play was. It was similar from a control aspect because the ball hit the ground and then it came loose, which was the same as the play in San Francisco. The difference in the des play then the Hooper play was that Hooper didn't perform in that common

to the game. What they've since they've changed the rule. They've said a third step or a reach would supersede him holding onto the ball when he hit the ground. That's why the des play would be a catch today because of the rule change. But from a control aspect, it was very similar to the ball touched the ground and then came loose, and uh, you know, I thought that was the right call and complete. So then we got next play. Atlanta is out of time outs and

this was really interesting. The ruling on the field was that Julio Jones catches a pass right at the goal line, gets hit immediately tackled. The official is coming in with his arm up in the field of play rules the ball short. The clock operator stops the clock with one second on the clock, which is a mistake because there's no reason to stop the clock. Time should have expired.

It went to review. Now, I want to start with what what was interesting to me is there were a lot of people that were tweeting at me and ask me questions, how can they review that because they didn't rule a score, And I think they lost sight of the fact that we were inside two minutes, and inside two minutes everything everything automatically reviewed, right, So anything that's a reviewable aspect, regardless of whether that play was ruled a touchdown or not, it's going to get looked at

because we're inside of two minutes. And I think people were confused because we had the play last week Nikkila Harry in New England that was outside two minutes. It was not rule to score. New England was out of challenges. They couldn't review it. Had the Harry play happened inside two minutes, it certainly would have been fixed. Um So again ball broke the plane of the goal line. As soon as it breaks that plane, it is a touchdown.

They put two seconds back on the clock, which was important because the Falcons then had to kick off and uh in San Francisco tried a bunch of laterals and the Falcons end up getting a cheap score at the end of which I'm sure someone somewhere, somewhere someone was very upset with that. Scores Allah. The Washington Eagles game very similar to today, very very very if you're into that kind of thing. Um, very bad beats on touchdowns

and hypothetic on that one. And I remember for all tympathetical to hypothetical boogie dot com where you will not lose any real money, but you'll you'll lose your can hic. You could win hypothetical, you can lose the hypothetical house. You can hypothetical. I lost the hypothetical house again. So before we go to a break, I do want to touch on because again past inference. It was a quiet

week for past inference review. You know, there were a couple of challenges for calls that were not made on the field, and and I think they all stood and um, but one that stood out, and again going back, not because I was on fire, but going back to that game Atlanta San Francisco, the it was. It was Julio Jones. There was a grab of the jersey during the route, no call in the field, the Falcons challenge, they lost the challenge. And it was interesting because the jersey grab

before the passes in the air is defensive holding. And I thought that that grab was enough to call defensive holding. But once the ball is in the air, now that grab, now it transitions to past inference and it's not just a grab, it's a did that grab? And the language again, and we've heard it over and over and over. Did it significantly hinder the receiver or the player's ability to make a play on the ball, And that's where it

comes into play. And to me, it was close, but I didn't think it was obvious that that took either a step away or prevented Julio from getting his arms up to make the catch. And I know that's one of the things, that's one of the things they look for when they're reviewing these types of play. So I thought that stands was the proper ruling, and and again, had it been called on the field, I don't think it gets changed. But it wasn't called on the field,

it doesn't get changed. And so there is that little gray area where depending on what they call in the field, is that's ultimately going to determine what happens in replay. And that was one of those plays. Um, So I don't know if you have any other thoughts on that player that game, if you want to give me any more props or anymore kudos. So let's go to a break, and and when we come back, we're gonna talk about penalties and how committing fouls can impact your playoff chances.

Next on good calls. All right, we're back on good calls. So Travis did a little research and these are these are the lead keeps official numbers, and sometimes penalty numbers change, but these are unofficial numbers. But I thought it was a really interesting topic that he brought up. And we had talked about, okay, penalties and and is having more penalties than your opponent, um, is that a significant factor

in the outcome of the game. And we ran some numbers, uh, probably maybe four or five weeks ago, and and and these numbers are pretty consistent with where the league has been that having more penalties than your opponent, it really doesn't impact the percentage, the winning percentage. It's pretty much around um in terms of having more or less. There's really no significant difference. When you talk about one factor in a game that that really drives wins and losses

its turnovers. Right, if you have more turnovers than your opponent, I mean you're losing. It's it's it's in the seventy seventy percentile um in terms of losing games when you have more turnovers than your than your opponent. But we did look at the teams at the bottom of the list in terms of most penalties called all right, and when you look at that list and where they are in terms of playoff possibilities, it's really it's eye opening.

And you look at you look at the list of so the most penalized team Jacksonville, they've already been eliminated, and then you've got you've got Tampa, Okay eliminated. Oakland less than one perchance one percent chance to make the playoffs, Cleveland less than one one percent chance both at six and eight. Jets eliminated, Arizona eliminated, Detroit eliminated. You have to get down to the eighth most penalized team before you have a team in Houston that is most likely

going to make the playoffs. So it's just interesting that the teams, the teams, the more disciplined teams overall are going to be the teams that are in the playoff hunt and that are making you make less mistakes. So it's it's just again, it's really interesting to look at those numbers, um, where Houston is the one team when you get down to number eight that is, uh, that

is gonna make make the playoffs. So um. The other thing that we were talking about is is the NFC East or is Travis Travis like not the only call at the NFC least? I mean that's lazy, I mean it is, but it's kind of it's usually NFC Beast though, because those teams are usually right in the hunt. Go like that. So, and we talked about and this brought up a good conversation. We were talking about the playoff seeding because now you have you have the Cowboys and

the Eagles and they're both seven and seven. Um, you've got you've got teams that are in the wild card right now, Travis, Right, so you've got you've got teams like New Orleans, which I don't know what San Francisco's lost. New Orleans do they jump in but either Um, I'm sorry, I wouldn't be San Francisco. But Travis, go through it.

Seattle's right now in the one seed Green Bays and the two seed, and and then down at five in San Francisco at eleven and three with the same record but behind Seattle and the tiebreaker, and they would be going to Dallas or so at eleven and three right now more than likely. It's it's it's highly likely that you're gonna have a team with a better record going to either Philadelphia or Dallas for a wild card game.

And and and and there are a lot of people that think that's not fair, and you go back to right that The one that kind of jumps out is the two thousand and ten postseason when you had a seven and nine Seattle Division winner hosting an eleven and five Saints team and Saints had to go to Seattle, which is which is a tough place to play and long

trip to Seattle. End up winning that game. That was the Beast Quake game with Marshawn and that and that uh and that amazing run, and it kind of begs the question of should the NFL look at playoff seating and and should they look at the division champions differently? And there were you know, during that time, there were proposals two thousand and eight, two thousand nine, there were teams clubs that were proposing a change and it's it's

it's a by law proposal. So the playoffs seating, it's not a rule that that is in the rule book. It's in the by laws. And so if you want to propose a change to a by law, that's how you do it. And the proposal, one of the proposals was to have the division winners with the best records, the top two division winners that seed one and that seed to Okay, and then everybody else is by record.

So so the third best division winner and the fourth best division winner is grouped in with the wild cards and you go by record, and so you wouldn't have you'd have to be one of those two top division winners to not get lumped into that wild card group, and you would potentially prevent a team with a with a losing record hosting a team with a with a much better record. Why is this important to what what

the owners doing? Why they've kind of shot it down. Yeah, it's and and the argument obviously there there's this, there's an argument for it. There's a couple of arguments for it. Obviously, just just the optics of a seven and nine team hosting an eleven and five team. Right. The other thing

is when you have a team. One of the things the issues is with the with the division winner getting those those top seeds is sometimes a team can get locked into a seed and the games at the end of the year aren't as competitive they We've seen teams rest started. You've seen rest starters. You've seen that, Hey, you know New England's locked into the two seed or or or the Falcons are locked into the three seed. And if you open that up, then you would have

more meaningful games at the end of the year. So that's one of the arguments for it. The argument against it, and this is the one where a lot of clubs were saying, is that the division means something. You are playing those teams in your division twice a year, okay, every any any other opponent you're playing once. You don't see every team every year. You're playing those teams twice

a year. And and one of the things, and this is this may not seem like a on field thing, but the way clubs sells season tickets, one of the biggest selling points is if we win our division, we will host a playoff game. And that playoff game is is you think about one of the reasons you want to buy season tickets is we get to the playoffs. I want an opportunity to go to those games. And so that is a big selling point. Again, we win our division, we're gonna host at least one game, and

that is very important to clubs. And that was the biggest reason that I heard. Again, division matchups are important. You have those rivalries, you're playing them twice a year, and uh, and it's something and it's a way that the clubs can can pitch those season tickets. And again, I don't know how you guys, like, how do you guys feel about it? Um? You know, if you had a choice, what what makes sense? Um? You know as

a fan, like, what do you think? Go ahead? I mean, I like NBA where it's receded every every round to the best team is always playing the worst team. The best record is always playing the worst record. That's that's good, very fair, you reward that team for having the best record. But I actually like it with the way it is now with a division winner hosting that game because you you build your roster, team can build the roster to beat the teams in your division so you can get

that home playoff game. Yeah. No, it's interesting because like the NFL doesn't received right, and that's one of the things, like you said, the NBA and um they do. But again it comes down to the clubs really feel like that division is so so important and it's gonna be Look, it's gonna come up again because again you're gonna have I mean, who will right it? Could I don't know, could that Could Philly win next week? And if Philly wins next week and then loses week seventeen and Dallas

wins week seventeen, who wins the division? Well, Dallas would be five and one in the division and they both be eight and I don't know what the head to head is, well, they had to have would be one one, so the division would be the common in Dallas would would get it. So it's it's interesting, it's a lot of but I don't think that honestly, I don't think there's gonna be a change. I I don't. It would have to take something significant. You don't see very rarely.

If you look at division winners over the last however many years, it's it's very rare where a team is going to have a record that's and even even eight and eight. I was rooting for the Chaos of six and ten NFC six when I proposed this topic that that was that was a chance that Dallas or Philly could win at six and ten, And then I was like, okay, this this may be a huge Well yeah, well if they both lost on Sunday, but still somebody's gonna somebody

has to win. Or what would have been amazing if that they both lose on Sunday they tie, So so there's six eight and one and they both lose six nine and one, Yeah, would have been interesting. It just looks ugly. You like the k you like the Joker, and you just some men just want to see the world burn. No that's not true. Just you went from standard white guy that like now like some kind of crazy anarchist. Well that's not true. Kind of well, with the d M you got, I have to kind of

change how I how I am. You know what, Let's take a quick break and when we come back, we'll go to d M from the Cube and we're gonna call my brother. Yeah, I'm gonna call my brother, all right, next on good Calls. All right, we're back from good Calls. And you know, a couple of weeks ago, we called my brother Dave, and he gave us his thoughts on NFL and life. And he's very opinionated. He texted me during the games all the time. He's not real high

on officiating. He's not real high on officials at any level of any sport. But um, so we're gonna call him. What's gonna see if he's home, and we're just gonna talk to him. See, you know, we want to check in see how how the last month has been for him in NFL and if he's got any if he's got any pearls for us. So, Joe, let's up, let's call him. Let's do it. Hello, what's up? What's going on? Nothing? You're on with Travis and Joe and so we're good.

We want to talk about. Just give us your take on the last couple of weeks of NFL and anything specific. Where where are you with the rules and officiating right now? Awful? I mean, what do you think something's changed? I don't know has gotten. It's gotten worse. It's gotten every week, it gets worse. I mean, I don't even know why you're asking that question. Um, are you watching tonight's game? We have it on, well, we have it on in the background. Yeah, okay, So did you see the face mask?

Call it at the end of Okay, you didn't see it because it wasn't there. That's why you didn't see it. And they showed them to replay, and everyone's saying there's no face. But I don't understand why you have replay. Why can't they review that? I mean, it gives Pittsburgh the ball on like the first and tent on like the twelve yard line. It just changes the game. You know. It's just you can't watch it. You can't. I told you that you can't watch this game, and and it's

either to watch. I watched because it's getting comicals. That's why I watched. Okay, So if the sport is not fixed, then the refs are just that bad. It could be that this is a very difficult sport to officiate. It's very fast, and we get to look at it in slow motion replay four different times. Put back the Bill's game and watch the face mask call with two minutes left in the half. You can see that a two year old can see that there was nothing was close

to this guy's face. When when the guy called personal foul, I thought they were calling it for that, you know, that tackling hard too too much that they've been calling. I thought they were call I thought they were throwing the flag because because the guy who made the hit at the end, maybe hit him a little too hard, maybe you hurt something. But then they turned around and say face masks, and I'm like, well, I didn't see any they showed the replay. I mean, it's not even close.

There is no hand even near the guy's helmet or face. So they just missed it. Now they missed it. I mean, what's the name of your show? Good calls? How about bad calls or missed calls? There's no such thing as a good call anymore. I don't get it. I really don't get it. Thanks for the show plug though, what what other what other calls like have whether it was Sunday or one other calls? Just I texted you. I

texted you earlier the what was it the Texans Titans game? Yeah, you said there was a call in the Texans the guy made the guy made a clean hit, unnecessary roughness. It's just I told you this is a contact sport, but the rest are taking the contact out of contact sport. Make the damn leak too and touch. You know, at least we know what we're getting the things. I don't think anybody to watch the two hand touch football game. It's comical. I'm telling you. People are watching it just

it's just for the fun part of this. I mean, listen, Fantasy football is now with with the playoffs, so people are watching. They want to see their players and stuff like that. Hey, Dave, do you do you watch your brother and when he comes on TV? Yeah, that's comical to wait, you know, Dean got watch. Dean got a lot of praise today for his for his performance. Did you did you happen to see him during the Atlantic game moments? All he does now was given opinion. That's

all he does. Anyone can give it opinion. I'm not impressed with any of that. When anyone could give anyone can give an opinion, dude, say the real call. Who are you agreeing with? You know has no clue what they're doing, so it's not hard to say that call is gonna stand. You know, You've got a lot of prop today for his for his on air, I'm trying to explain the rule and and walk the viewer through

what's happening and how they're looking at this. The reason why the only thing I give you credit for is when when you were in charge of this garbage, you at least used to come on and say you know, you tried to say it in a nice way, but you used to come on and say, yeah, the reps missed that one. The rest this this one. No one's coming in now and saying it. At least we feel better that that they're saying that the reps are screwing up all the time. No one's saying it, but we

just see screwing up all the time. Because there's a hundred and fifty players in the game, and and how many how many in the game, you really think our mistakes there's going to be a mistake half half. Come on, they missed calls constantly. We just don't see it because we're not you know that they're missing calls. You don't have to see every play Listen these tonight's game that the head the head ref is how old? I don't know? Who's not? Another another another fumble? See Pittsburgh got the

ball back? Watch the refs are just gonna make win this game. The refs caused the fumble. It sounds trusty something you don't know. You don't know's I don't with the page. It's it's just it's they just give him more opportunities that that's what it is. The guy just got hit with an arm and the ball popped out. Yeah, that's not all right. Well, what do you want? Okay, give us okay, before we let you go, what's your prediction for the rest of the season, Like, who's gonna

win the Super Bowl? What's how's it gonna play out? Prediction? I mean, obviously the top teams are the Ravens, the forty nine is the Saints, the Seahawks. Um, you think any of those teams the Chiefs maybe? Uh? I mean in popping in there, I mean the Cowboys look good today, But they're a joke. I don't know what I had to throw that in there? Um what else? I even put some notes in my thing. He had to say something. I listened a few weeks back when you had what's

his name, Kyle Long? You had him on Kyle Long someone, you had him a few weeks back. He was talking about a violent sport. Jim, Yeah, whoever was you agree with him that it was a violent sport. If it's If it's a violent sport, then then why are we babing them? You know what I mean? Like, what's the point of a helmet? Isn't it to protect your head?

It is, yes, it's but but I think you want to protect the players from unnecessary risk, not not There is going to be contact, but you don't have to go if you go head hunting or no one's head hunting. If if a quarterback is running with the ball to get that first down and less a second he slides. The defensive player is about to make the tackles, so he's squaring up and he's gonna go with his shoulder right at the quarterbacks waist. Last second that quarterback slides.

Now his helmet gets lowered to where his waist is. How do you expect the defensive player to pull back? That's a very difficult. It's a very difficult thing for the defender. It's not difficult. It's impossible, Okay, it is. It's it's very difficult because you can't. You have to. You have to get contact, headneck area out of the game when possible, when possible, it's not possible at that moment. When when and that's why, when the quarterback slides, he

gives himself up and when he's down, he's down. And you don't have to. But how do you always sliding? How do you always sliding? And and Cala Murray today? They just Cala Murray today, just kept going for those extra yards. There should be a penalty, like for if they started fake sliding things like that. I think, yeah, they're gonna put It's not that. If they run the ball, they're a runner. That's it. That is the rule though that no more rules. All right, listen, listen, we all know.

The problem is the rules. The problem is the rules that messed up. The problem is the refs are a hundred years old, and the problem is everyone, the Steelers and Patriots get every call there is, so and it's just like I said, unwatchable. All right, all right, well we'll we'll, we'll check in with you again. But I want to want to make sure you still got fantasy football going, right, so you're gonna be watching. Yeah, you know,

I I watched. You know, I fell asleep during the four o'clock games though, but I I continue to watch. But rewind. Make sure you rewind to the second half, two minutes left in the second half and watch the first half and then and you know what, they should be penalties for the refs too. I told you this is the ref sport. Like that ref you should be suspended or something like that. They need to get they get graded, big deal. They don't lose their job though

they do, Yes, they do. If they don't perform. They do just recently get fired. Last year they fired them in the middle of the season. But ref skite let go every year. Now, well, Pittsburgh just fumbled that they got it back. Must have been the referee you're watching. There'll be there'll be another two calls in this game. There should be an over under on referee screw ups every week on the bedding line, all right, and on that note, that's my brother. We'll talk to you later,

all right, I'll talk to you. Wow. So that's that's a lot. He's fired up, he is. That is the that's Johnny on the street right now. That's the guy that he's he's he's your customer right there. He's fired up. He doesn't it doesn't like deficiating. You would think, you know, he'd have a soft spot because his brother. His brother helped you at anyway, all right, so you know a couple of things. Joe, did you did you? Did you go to Harvard? I've been to Harvard before. Did you

go to Harvard? Did? I can't tell the stories? Did you go to school? And hard? Joe was wearing a Harvard T shirt and we were out at a bar and this guy, I mean, you can start to Yeah. So we're at a bar one night and wearing a Harvard shirt. It was on sale six bucks. Is a nice soft cotton gray look good on me. I like to wear it. Yeah, good coloring. Guy walked up to me just charges at me. You didn't go to Harvard. I went to Harvard. And I said, well, you're not

Calvin Klein because he's wearing a Calvin Klein shirt. But I love the fact this guy went right to just be like as soon as Joe walked in and I was going, I'm like, you're very observant. He did not go to Harvard. Does he look like a Harvard? Does he look like me? I don't know. I think it's profiling a little less hair product problems Jersey Shore and maybe your Harvard material. I feel like if I was four inches taller, Harvard is definitely, of course what I

do like that he did. He did come back and say, you're not you don't know Calvin Klein. But that was that was the line, Um I do I do. The d M of the week for me was, you know, we we talked about Travis. We've given Travis a hard time on the on the podcast and he's okay, it's not it's not like a thing. But somebody did send me a d M on how to handle Travis when when he's when he's acting up. So this is this is okay, this is I'm reading verbatim Dean love the pod.

I tend to agree with you on Travis. He gets out of line a lot. So I figured to give you a training idea. I used to train horses growing up, and what worked well was spurs. Now, you don't kick the horse really hard with spurs like you see in the movies. You apply slight pressure and if they respond, you release. If they don't listen, you apply more pressure until the horse listens to you. So maybe you can get a metal rod. And when Travis speaks out of turn,

gives unwanted opinions, you apply pressure. If he continues, you increase the pressure, and when he stops or complies, you release food for thought, Travis. Haters are gonna hate, you know, I'm just giving my opinion, just getting involved. I did, like, I'm just thinking about that all Week's gonna ask me about that. I got to use that. I gotta use no. But it's great though, I got I got people talking about me, and this is great. I like it because no presses and the way you said it. Haters are

gonna hate. Haters are going to hate. I wanna I want you I do. It's great. I don't you want to feel old? Okay, actually not, I'm serious. I don't like. I consider myself pretty active. I love to work out and like whether to work out, whether it's you know, we we train like m M a cardio, all of that. It doesn't bother me. I climbed a fence on Saturday, like a fence. We're playing basketball with my boys. The

ball went over where at the school. The ball went over the fence because we were trying half court trick shots and the ball went over the fence and I had to climb over the fence to get it and then climb back. I've never I have never been more tired in the last ten years than climbing that fancy confences all the time as a kid. Do you want to feel old climbing fence? I've never I literally had to take a five minute break because it was climbing

the fence old man. It's kind of like those rope and I was like yeah, and like people were there and I was trying to be cool and like hop it real, like very graceful, not at all. I did a gate a few weeks ago in flip flops and it wasn't terrible. It hurts your It kind of hurts a little bit, but since it's not chain link, it doesn't you're not It's not as much core. I don't know.

I've learned what jumping over fences, are jumping over things now like when you come down landing, it's not as easy as it used definitely not like, Oh the landing is the worst part. I literally, like seriously, like I was standing on top of the fence and I was like, I don't know what to do here. You don't you don't jump like we didn't wear your kids. You have to come. You have to scale down. That roll doesn't work when you're pushing forward. Yeah, like climbing down like

you never as a kid. You never like climbed down the fence and then jumped and if it was real high. You came to a role at the Yeah, it'll tuck and roll. It used to jump off the garage that this this falls in the You know when you're old, you're definitely old. I haven't felt that old in a while. But anyway, well, you look great. Thanks, Thanks man, that's all you look. You look you're doing good So's hair product. Thanks.

But before we get into the brain of Blandino and wrap up the show, have any of you you guys done twenty three and me? I have not. So my sister did it, and they were asking. She asked, she wants me to do it, and I think that. So Scott, who works in the studio with us, he had a great line. He's like, why would you do it? He's like, you're gonna You're gonna get the package and you're gonna open up. It's gonna be a meat ball. So but I don't know, Like, I don't know how one day.

So does that mean if if there will be a world one day where Italian Americans are not discriminated against, if Travis does when they're just gonna send him a Sperry Topsider, Yeah exactly basically, or I p a some ludafisc Yeah yeah. So but yeah, I'm like mainly I'm like nine percent Italian. You know, my mom was born in Italy. Um Italian, a little bit of Greek and a little bit Turkish. I didn't know. I guess this is my sister who knows um, but I didn't know

the Turkish angle. But hey, there you come, it's goody three, let's go, Brandon Blandino, all right, let's do it. Twitter getting rid of like button devastated. How will I know myself? Worth? Well? Yeah, that was Twitter talked about that. This was I read something. This is a while back that they were discussing getting rid of the like button, and I think Instagram is doing this. Instagrams talked about the same thing, like how did what People will lose their minds? Like, how do

you know? Yeah, like they're gonna lose their minds without a like button? How are you know if you're making a difference in the world. How will you know if people like your picture? Yeah, what are they gonna do? You gotta comment and retweet you want, you want to encourage people to comment on Twitter? Crazy. I think it's just gonna yeah, everybody's going to comment like a thumbs up or some stupid emoji. I think the light button

keep it. It's easy. It's interesting that YouTube still has the thumbs down, right, you can still you can still not like something on YouTube and make it known. I think, yeah, right, I'm interested in that. That why they they've kept that because they feel like that's very negative. And Twitter it's good for like when you're listening to music and stuff too, because they have it on you know, Pandora. Not not everything that works all the time, Dean. It's not always

just about happy. You know, sometimes your video sucks and we need to let you know what I'm I'm believe me like anybody thinks what things that. I have a problem with people being negative on social media. I just think again, I think people would lose their minds if they would get over it about that. Travis. You you get a little worked up when we don't like stuff that you do. Yeah, because I do great work. There you go looking good in the hair. Bro All right,

it's another show. Thanks for joining us. This has been Good Calls with Dean Blandino. Please follow me on Twitter at Dean Blandino and Instagram at Dean dopp Blandino. All the show on Instagram and Twitter, app grouts podcast, and be sure to Radar podcast on the I Heart Radio app apples. Good Calls with Dean Blandino is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.