Hellone. Welcome to Waken Jake, Myself, Jake's Story, Ellie, Big Baby David. As we officially get into baseball season. We missed the Alonso signing last week, so we'll touch up on that. A couple smaller ones happened. Keek back to the Dodgers shocker, and a little Super Bowl recap. I was down in New Orleans, so I can walk you through some of the fun stuff that we were involved in, along with the dismantling of your Kansas City Chiefs. Congrats
to the Birds. Where I'll be giving myself some credit this episode, and then there will be moments where I give myself zero credit this episode. Stay tuned, time stamp it below. I guess let's let's check off some baseball quick. It's officially baseball season. The football season is done. Everyone gets their their tweets off. It's ready to go, pitchers and catchers reporting. It's also Valentine's Day this week. Get ready people, Thursday fourteenth?
What's today? Today? Is Monday?
So I think yes, Thursday, Friday, ten eleven twelve. I got I got myself too, so prepare for that as needed. Let's do pet Alonso's back to the Mets. This will be one of the examples of myself not giving myself credit. I thought Pete was going to get the contract, and it's a little bit of I don't want to say credit to new new age front offices because I still think Pete's really good. But I thought the Pee Alonzo
home runs were going to speak volumes. I thought the phrase I ended up saying here and on Talking Baseball a lot was that if you are a front office, it's very rare that a free agent hits the market and you can say that guy is going to give me thirty five homers. There's a good chance he could give me forty homers, depending if you had your first base spot open or a DH spot, which pretty much every team could get Pete Alonso in their lineup. I think part of the problem for Pete I think he
showed his hands a little bit. I think he wanted to be a New York Met. Pete likes being a Met. It's the most exciting time to ever be a Met. They added Won Soto, they made a nice postseason run last year. The Mets are sexy baby, and I'll give a partial assist to Trevor Ploof who stated he said he knew Pete was done when Pete. Early on in Pete's free agency, I think they were talking about those opt in, opt out contracts and he's like, the only
team I'd consider doing that for is the Mets. Well, that's a sign that you'd want to be a Met Man. That's kind of some negotiating leverage out out the door there. So that was tough for Pete. What the final numbers land at.
I believe the final is a two year, fifty four million dollar deal with an opt out in the in the years between, right, I think he's getting thirty mili thirty million for this season's salary. I don't know how much of like a you know, a buyout on the option there is. I don't know what's what he's literally, I mean he's it's a team, it's a player option to technically it's all guaranteed to him.
And I mean there were other goals here. They originally want to set the first base record that I think was thirty two million. They don't get there. And yeah, I mean at a certain point you have to decide, Okay, what are you really going for? You're going for the years or where do you want to play? He wanted to be in New York met He wanted to cash in on the biggest number possible. And Pete Alonso still believes in himself and I think he should. I think
Pete Alonso's power still played. I know he had a weird year last year. Is always funny checking in with Jolly Olive because you know, clutch is a weird thing in baseball, in any sport that okay?
Or are you clutch?
Is it opportunity driven in a sport like baseball, where you know, if Pete hit two forty last year, to have a clutch hit against a good reliever late, is that timing? Is it bad luck that Pete didn't? I think he didn't have a go ahead homer or RBI since April until the playoffs. So Pete had he played every game last year, matters to me. Thirty four homers, eighty eight rbi and like I said, offense being down
last year hurt the look of Pete's numbers. Pete in twenty twenty three had an eight to twenty one OPS five h four, slugging forty six home runs and three He had a He had the same OPS plus one twenty three, So I think those numbers were daunting. Pete's war has gone down the past three seasons, and yeah, I mean people were freaking out. And maybe they're right, and maybe this is where we are. I don't say Novice fans, that's rude to everyone. But they're saying Pete's
body isn't going to age. Well, I don't know. I don't know how we judge that. Sometimes that's that feels unfair to me. Maybe they're right, But Pete Alonso the last four years thirty seven homers, forty homers, forty six and thirty four. So I think Pete got hurt by the first base market. We saw Nathaniel Lowe traded for a lefty reliever in his thirties. Wasn't super familiar with him, didn't have like a bang up year last year either.
Let me get that because that one that one tends to I don't want to say it makes me mad. But Nathaniel, who had a one twenty oh ps plus last year similar war to Pete, making less money, got traded for Robert Garcia. You're lefty from the Nationals. He's twenty eight. Excuse me, I don't take my age off and he has a lot of control. Seventy two games. Last year he had a four to to two.
So hasn't taken the next step yet.
I'm sure it's coming. I believe Robert Wow, Robert Garcia, U C Davis guy Okay, didn't have that California boy. Sure that. Yeah, we saw the Christian Walker market come and go. You know, better player offense and defense is what the numbers would tell you are similar player offensively, better defensively, likes every first base charge.
He's the best defensive first baseman by any metric you're gonna find.
The numbers were obsessed with him. Paul Goldschmidt looking for a one year, low risk deal, you know, Carlos Santana, Carlos Santana.
There were options out there. Of course Pete's.
Better, but right, I mean, it's just it's a risk reward of teams are teams are more timid to give out the big contract unless you are a guy guy. And I guess that becomes a conversation where I think, almost I feel like Pete's persona almost might have hurt him a little bit in this where front officers were like, you know, that's not what we pay for. We pay for what's on the field. Pete now has two years to have a great season. I'm still on it. I think for these we saw Matt Chapman, we saw Snell
cashing on these opt out opportunity deals. I think Pete's got more in there. It should be a better, better team this year. He should have some motivation and there's some more help. There's a little more help. There should be some more ducks on the pond.
Seems like he'll get another opportunity to do stuff in the playoffs. Can help or hurt.
Yeah, I don't know. I think teams are so if.
You don't I feel like, if you don't get it done or early, it's not like in the offseason. People throw out the playoffs stuff the longer you wait. I've got some stats, okay.
Pete Alonso sixteen postseason games twenty twenty two for three, and then they had thirteen games last year two seventy eight four twenty nine A one dot ops well out of pistol Pete Alonso. So I think, I don't know. It's it's interesting that postseason I don't think teams super value because it's still the whole body of work and all the numbers they're putting into their system. Pete played
one hundred and sixty two games. They're gonna value that over the thirteen games I said he played last year. I do think it's funny if you if you put in those thirteen games and Pete played one hundred and seventy five games last year, his numbers on the whole look pretty damn good. And it's probably like a close to a one thirty opis plus, Like it's if we did.
His twenty twenty four stats all right, might have to that's probably a bump up.
It might have to get. Yeah, the analytics department going on that adult Pete Alonso just turned thirty. He goes back to the Mets, and I it's it's gonna be a funny relationship to see the Yankee fans got to see when Judge was in the final year of his contract and he went on to break the Ale home run record.
That was pretty wild.
We also got to see Soto just have an amazing contract year and then enter the bidding table the right way. Pete's got two years to be good. And I think the bigger thing for me is, like Pete last year was bad for Pete, and again it was a one twenty three oh ps plus that I think if no team ever gives him the five year deal, I think he'll be able to string this thing along. And maybe what Pete need to come to grips with is how much do you want to be a Met if they're
going to treat you like this? And our guy, Joe's McFly already thinks Flattie is going to be a Met next year.
I don't know if that's true.
Could be.
Seems like the way the Mets structured this contract, my guess would be they want to be able to make a push.
Could be, and maybe that's why they didn't have full interest in Pete. I think Pete Alonso is going to do his thing, because that's all that his baseball card would tell you that. I think he's going to get a payday. I don't know if it's from the Mets or someone else. And maybe this is you know, when you enter free agency a you don't know how it's really going to go. And like I said, Pete, I think he kind of blew his negotiating leverage just a
little bit. That maybe he always wanted the Mets and he knew Cohen has the wallet, so he thought he'd go shopping around and he'd come back and hey, match this and we're good. Doesn't seem like that happen, Uncle Stevie In the Mets front office, they won this game of chicken that I think for Pete it's go out there, do your thing again, and then you probably have to be actually at grips with leaving the Mets. And if you have a great season, you do have the owner
that has the deepest pockets. Now that if Pete goes out there and puts up a forty spot, tough for me to picture the Mets just letting him walk. I mean, Laddie would be a great Mets fans would be able to figure that out. But it's just a it's a weird mindset. I know Yankee fans and I probably had some very defensive rants when DJ Lemayhew was bawling out and hit free agency. It was like, we can't let this guy go. He's an essential part of the team.
We're the Yankees, right, your guys, you have someone playing good for the Yankees, you keep that guy.
That's what we do.
It's ended up in a not so great spot, and maybe that's what the Mets are trying to be smarter than. But it will be very interesting to see where Pete lands the ship this year. If he has a really strong year, it's gonna be an interesting one for the Mets fan base. I had it wrong. I thought Pete was gonna get paid paid. Maybe he needed one or two more teams involved. I feel like we haven't had a lot of aftermath, like, oh, the Angels offered one hundred and ten, or we haven't.
There hasn't been the like what was the other offer out?
Yeah, not a lot of good gossip there. And I don't know it's one of those should should the Seattle Mariners have been involved?
Absolutely?
But yeah, I think Pete's Pete's value ended up in just a slightly odd spot that you know, the the Texas Rangers added Jake Berger where they're like, hey, we can get thirty homers from that spot. We don't have to pay him as much money. They allowed them to move Nathanielo who was trained for a lefty reliever. So who's apparently from California we just found out. So, uh,
maybe the market wasn't there. Maybe Pete is declining maybe maybe all the nerds and geeks have this right, and we're going to look up and it'll be Pete Alonzo twenty five home run season. And it feels like the wheels are falling off at age thirty and Pete is literally built to hit homers.
Feels like there's a verge version of him that even with an overall step back skill set or something, that still produces homers for a long time.
Yeah, and hey, he's happened quick. He's just got a couple of his couple of his buzzwords were just a little off when you look at the page, the war going down. Strikeouts were slightly up this year that it scared people away a little bit. But I guess I I think Pete still has twenty twenty two, I mean even twenty twenty three pet which that was a weird year, but he hit more homers to a lower batting average.
But we're coming off. You know, he was MVP eight, MVP seventeen, which isn't really anything, and then last year he was still an All Star. I think Pete's gonna still do his thing, get the contract, and it's gonna be funny to look at all the opt in opt outs in a couple of years because Cody Bellinger's got a massive year coming up that if he has a good Yankee season, I mean wat shout that he will hit free agency the right way. And whenever I see that,
the people also always bring up Korea. Which when does his really get funky in twenty twenty nine.
I think he has four more straight up years and then it comes highly Funkyrea got a contract, yeah.
Or I guess his original signing with the Twins.
Yeah, that was one of these that was so yeah nine column right, got it, got paid paid after people were tween at me Korea like in a bad way. Yeah, that was a good Okay, I'm gonna start adding him to the list like Canada. Among the mega deals, he signed one of the more team friendly ones, but he is guaranteed whatever MONEI dollar where.
A couple of teams told them you can't play with us. So that leaves Bregman. We've done Pete n. Bregman for a while. There's some Cubs rumors rolling around Bregman which seemed to have some realness to him. This contract seemed like a bad sign for Bregman, and I just you wonder where he's really at, Where does he want to be? Is he willing to go anywhere? And what's still on the table? Because teams are.
Cancer starting this week, the.
Trucks are going. If you're If you follow whoever you follow on your team's Instagram or Twitter, they probably posted the picture like team trucks leaving.
To like today's some pictures and catchers officially reported today, Yankees report days tomorrow. Pretty wild. We are here.
Let's see what else the baseball world has for us. There's there's a bunch of little ones, the Padres, Connor, Joe, Jason Hayward, Key k is back to the Dodgers. Uh. Just a note on the Dodgers they currently and again I went on a little High Song Kim thing last week. High Song Kim is the only player on the Dodgers' offense currently that has options now that KEYK has signed. So I don't know. I'm just so interested to see
who he is as a ballplayer. The fact that Dodgers are in on him feels like a really good sign. And it's just hey man, there's a cool factor to the Dodgers that it's like, Okay, you're turning on Dodgers Baseball. How long have we seen Max Muntcy the only place we've seen Will Smith, Niggy Roe still riding it out, Chris Taylor and Key k are still there. Obviously, that's ignoring the cool stuff of having Mookie Betts, Sho Heo Tani and Freddie Freeman, Tay Oscar coming back that. I
don't know, it's just it's very interesting. You Ually, there's flexible parts of team's roster. The only guy in their bullpen currently with an option is Vesia it Deserves, who was amazing for them last year. Injuries are going to happen. This all changes very quickly, but it will be an interesting part of the dynamic. If everyone stays healthy and guys are playing bad, there's not a lot of there's not a lot of go down to Triple A for a week.
And last year that they had Paxton, who was pitching reasonably well from all things considered, dfade midway through the season. So they've they've had the difficult thoughts with some proven guys before.
And maybe it doesn't even matter because it didn't matter last year.
They could do whatever they want.
I want to talk super Bowl because I was down in New Orleans myself justin Pennock Kyle on socials. I guess, let's we can do some game quick, because the game kind of was quick. And then for the for the True and Jakers were subscribed to the YouTube, like maybe you just are I can walk into some of the behind the scenes and some of the some of the fun highlights and all that. If you haven't heard, Eagles won pretty handily. It was there was a possibility of this.
And this is where I didn't give myself credit before for Pete Alonso not signing what I assumed would be the bigger contract that a team would would convince themselves about. I flipped. I want to say it was week nine to ten something like that of the NFL season. I was on the Ravens train. I just loved the way that they were dominating games.
I flipped.
I went to the other Birds, go Birds, and the Eagles got it done. A crazy season going back to you know, were they two and two? And they lost the game in Brazil and then the whole thing just felt weird. They were supposed to lose to the Saints. Excuse me, they won in Brazil. They lost to the Falcons.
They were about to lose to the Saints. They got bailed out in that game, and then they lost to the Buccaneers, and I guess before I do the zoom out, let's let's get the game done quick, because that's kind of kind of how it happened. Although that first drive the Eagles look like they're starting to home and play Eagles football, and then the offensive pass interference on fourth down kind of crazy. The broadcast was doing. They didn't love the call Tom Brady. Interesting day for Tom. Maybe
we'll end up there as well. But you know, he Tom Brady calling the Super Bowl. This was a big one for him, and he came out and he very aggressively was like, oh, you know, you gotta let the players decide it.
I don't like that call.
They checked with Pereira. It was like a hand to the face, which, again, football happens fast, and when you're watching it on replay, the replay tends to make it look worse. With all the Chiefs referee storylines. To have that happen first drive, it was a little tough. It was a little tough. There was a decent little makeup call early on as the Chiefs were about to have the Eagles stopped again and they called a was it unsportsmanlike?
We got necessary roughness on that?
Like jump ball, unnecessary unnecessary roughness on McDuffie. Yeah, he's going for the ball and their helmets hit.
It just not happened. It happened late again, like a replay slow mo, it looks too late. But I think in everybody watching real time was like, I don't think that was anything. Everyone was shocked. That was.
I think that one was more shocking. When you saw the flag come out against aj Brown, it was kind of a ooh, like I don't know.
And he saw the reaping like oh that is that is like the rule of the two.
Hey, this is the Super Bowl. Let's not go down like this. That that didn't have to be called. That was the more nervous part there. That one was like, wait, that's that's a penalty.
Hey.
The fact that balanced things out in the game at that point was still it was still zero zero was like okay, just kind of I knowe Shelfy replied to my tweet and he was like, yeah, I I obviously hated the first one. Now that it's done, like, let's let's not play that game all night. And luckily that storyline went away. But part of that was because the Eagles took flight. John Dotson, big night for Penn State. Uh, mark this down. If you're just a random jake says some stuff.
And you like that.
Uh, Penn State, I think is gonna have a full rise. Like I know they were in the College Football Playoff. Like I think Penn State is going to be back in a big way. Big Ten is back, Saquon is king of the world. John Dotson get a little love in that one of the top three picks in the draft is going to be out of Penn State Abdul Carter. Uh So, Penn State's been like.
Dormant for a little bit.
And I don't I don't want to say a laughing stock they because they haven't been a laughing stock. They've just been They've been in the mix while being out of the mix. No one has confused Penn State with Bama, Ohio State, the big boys of football. I think Penn State's going to be back. James Franklin, love him or hate him, he uh, I mean he made Vanderbilt an exciting football program for a little bit. It's been doing solid things at Penn State. I just I think the
Penn State wave is coming. You got Saquon representing on the pro level. You're about to have a top pick college football playoff. They would have been basically in every college football playoff it was twelve teams. I think Penn State, we are is back anyways, John Dotson Penn State with the catch down to the one tush push. Eagles are in and there's something about the tush push that sets a tone, and I think the the Chiefs talked about it that it was, yeah, it's just like a bad time.
I think Chris Jones said, it's like it just kind of sucks. And then he comes out of the first tush push and his neck is clearly all jacked up. From there, Eagles are driving in that the Chiefs are doing nothing. They got a first down on the first pass the first play of them have the football, and then they did it the rest of the second half. I mean, they had nothing, nothing. The O line was getting crushed. I mean, you've you've heard by this point
the Eagles didn't blitz at all. It was Mahomes career high in sacks that this game came down to the big uglies. The Eagles defense was awesome. Trying to think what else is out there? There was a moment of like the Eagles were driving again to go up two scores. Hurtz throws an interception that he didn't have to throw, and it was kind of like the Mahomes Reid factor that I want to circle to in a minute on the Jake wrong and right meter that I don't know.
There's there's something about seeing those guys and knowing today's NFL and twenty eight to three Tom Brady's in the booth that there was a little bit for a while that it was like, I don't I don't know what can we rule out because this looks like an ass kicking And it was the Cooper dejen picked six that felt like icing on the cake to make it seventeen
nothing when Kansas City hadn't done anything. You know, that can feel dramatic too, because if the Chiefs came down and they scored the next driver they were getting the ball out of halftime that it was like, I don't know if they can make it seventeen to seven, and then if they can score coming out of half and now it's seventeen fourteen, and now the Eagles are playing
tight Super Bowl, et cetera. No Mahomes throws another interception, back to back interceptions on back to back passes from Mahomes. They had another drive in between, but it was three three rushes in a sack or two rushes in a sack that Yeah, it's seventeen nothing and you just gave the Eagles the ball in the fourteen yard line. Aj Brown wide open, twenty four to nothing. Just appear ass kicking. Same with Kendrick Lamar at halftime.
Man, uh it was good.
I man, the internet slash Twitter is in such a rough space that I understood what everyone was saying. Kendrick's. Kendrick's halftime show was good. I think the whole thing for a halftime show is it's it's supposed to be this otherworldly thing. And who have some of the recent ones been people?
I think people liked Rihanna a couple of years ago.
Rihanna crushed uh Lady Gaga a few years before that was like really good thing. Performers by Weekend was twenty twenty one, but that was a weird COVID one. Yeah, Weekend, Like I didn't hate I mean every hey, we set a certain standard that it's like, well, super Bowl halftime show, Kendrick was great. I thought a obviously, the build up, the build up to the final song HM Not Like
Us was pretty incredible. The Serena Williams drop it's like Wow, Sam Jackson, Yeah, Uncle Sam is the opener that was pretty crazy. So let's see, it was Usher last year with Usher, you're getting the dancing, you're gonna you're getting more bops.
Like Kendrick, he has songs he could have gone to that were more of that, like some some especially older stuff Like there were some people like, well he doesn't have hits, he does right, and he showed he skewed more recent with his selection, like I think.
For half as as far as halftime shows go. So the one that I jumped to Shakira and j Lo, Yes, I mean that was that was the super Bowl halftime show for me. Like those electric, we're dancing hit songs
like putting on a show for me. That's that's what I think of when I think of super Bowl halftime show, seeing if any other ones jump out, Beyonce, God Stirking, Old Quick, the Who in twenty ten that I thought Kendrick was good I understand the people being like on the Super Bowl concert performance level slightly different it was.
It was like incredible art.
Yeah, not just a different it was a different approach. And I mean the way he built up and went into Not Like Us was just that's uh, that's all time. That's all time.
But unfortunately the people who like don't like it, like the built like the issue with the genre like rap. If you're not into it, I don't think lends itself as well to like enjoying it in a live setting as much as like more pop and Yeah, and.
It's just like I've tweeted something about it that I I was laughing that Tom Brady and Snoop Dogg kept doing the stop hate commercials and then the halftime show is built around not Like Us, which, yes, for everyone commenting on the tweet, hating a pedophiles different than racism.
I agree.
It was. I will say there was a couple of people I was talking talking with our social guy Kyle on the trip and he's like, dude, you gotta get back into Twitter more and I was like, dude, I.
I'd like to, but it's also brutal like it.
Go check out the replies on that because there's a lot of people that understand the joke that I'm making, and even there was a couple of comments that they were like and it kind of brought a smile to my face. I was like, Jay, these are the tweets from Jake. I like, like, we're being silly, We're having fun. It's just crazy how how people roll with it, Like the the arguments that are now going on in there. Okay,
here's no I'm not even gonna read them. You can go read them if you want, like fun back and forth Sunday this tweet and dead this tweet starts. Then go back to suit Anne Pal like what are that has no business here? We're trying to have fun watching the super Bowl, and yeah, there's a lot of people and the world's kind of fueled by hate, which made me made me a little unhappy with not.
Like us, because I was like, why do people love this?
And I think a chunk of it is is because Drake is just getting rotted.
It's a guy everybody knows, getting absolutely on the most national stage.
Drake is just getting destroyed. And so it's a great song. I mean, when that for a reason, that's worth while when that little right, yeah, everyone's I don't know. So that was good and it actually was good Internet for a little bit. Like I saw the tweets that was like there's like a stock image of a of like a white family on a couch and they're all saying like a minor like, so, I don't know. The the
Internet was doing some some good stuff there. Serena my god, one of my first crushes out there killing it, crip walking literally on Drake's grave. So uh well yeah, Compton represented so and then yeah, second half, people, you're trying to talk yourself into twenty four nothing, twenty seven nothing, reading mahomes it was nothing.
I kept finding myself saying like, well, twenty eight to three to come back started with like two minutes left in the third.
Right, Yeah, no, I mean the the phrase I kept using this week and with the Eagles was it felt like they could hand the ball off every time. Impressively they could not. The Chiefs run defense came to play Saquon twenty five for fifty seven. Wow, And again a lot of that comes with the Chiefs clearly made a commitment to that. That opened up stuff in the passing game. Seventeen of twenty two from Hertz DeVante Smith with the big highlight one kind of the game sealer, the slim
reaper in the back of the end zone. Aj Brown getting his touchdown after kind of getting furious on the sideline while they were still dominating. His book comes back out. Eagles defense really good. They made the Chiefs one dimensional, eleven carries for forty nine yards. They're just like, wasn't time to even run the ball, barely time to pass the ball save you're Worthy ends up having a massive
game and Mahomes had a couple. Mahomes had a couple Mahomes throws that first touchdown actually both touchdowns so Worthy were kind of insane. I mean that second one, the deep ball worthyes, flying, He's one of the fastest players in the league. And this is my I think I've busted this out before and it's not rocket science, but there's a Super Bowl theory that guys are just performing at their maximum level. There's there's no next week to
play for. It's not you know, even in even in the AFC NFC championship games, like you're putting it all out there, but you're you're kind of not you don't you want to play in the super Bowl the next game.
Like there's at least a party that's like, well, I don't want to get hurt.
This is it, this is the super Bowl. Like that, I think the highlights are the highlights are the highlights that guys are playing at a faster level, like everything is more to the extreme. Watchad Xavier Worthy touchdown again and maybe I'll do the video on this. You hear him hit the ground and it sounds like he got hit by another player because he is full tilt, a guy that runs a four to two, one of the
fastest guys in the league, full till till. The way he hits the ground is hard just because it is it is maximum. Almost none of this matters. The Eagles dominated Hurts was great on the ground and through the air. It was a blowout and I think it was funny this week the Chiefs were the favorites in Vegas minus one and a half points, so not by a lot, essentially a pick them. And I mentioned I'm giving myself credit, not giving myself credit. I hadn't bet on the game
because I was down in New Orleans. Well, I had a a which something I could have googled very easily. I didn't know if sports gambling was legal in New Orleans yet it is.
So.
But before that, which again I did not google, I was like, oh, shoot, do I have to get my Super Bowl bets off before the Super Bowl? Like before I fly down there on Friday morning? And then I was like, I land at four thirty, which is more than enough time to get your bets in for the six thirty Super Bowl. So I'd been debating, and I was in New Orleans, and I tweeted out before the game, and there was just something to it that it Mahomes
and the chiefs Andy Reid really started convincing me. The two weeks off made me think Kelsey was going to have something special up his sleeve, because we'd seen him, and we've seen older tight ends do this in recent years where it's like, Okay, you know we're running out of gas in the tank. That's let's save it for later in the years. I even think Mark Andrews did
it this year. I think that's why he got off to a slow start, and then as he got in more game shape and ready to go, he started bawling out. The Eagles almost lost to the Rams. The Eagles were a Jalen Carter. You know, Jalen Carter got that sack. It was a missed assignment by the Rams front, Like the Rams kind of had him dead to rights. That would have ended the Eagles season. And what would we be saying about, Sirianni.
They didn't.
They rolled on the Commanders fifty five to twenty three. They rolled on the Chiefs forty to twenty two, which is not as close as this game was that leading up, I thought everyone thought it was going to be a close game. I you know, even the Chiefs. The Chiefs had one loss when they were playing their guys this year, and it feels like the Chiefs play a close brand of football between both these teams, just moving.
The ball the right way.
The Eagles are nasty on the D line and the O line. The no Blitz stat that we already talked about their offensive line and just how big those boys are and how they can dominate a game. Some of Hurt's dropbacks were comical. There was no rush because a they were scared of Jalen Hurts breaking out and running, but b also just those big bodies that clearly the D line on the Chiefs was like, we need to
contain Jalen Hurts is running that. Jalen Hurts was back there just chilling, which allowed them to open up the passing game and dominate on every front. But yes, right before the game, I did talk myself and the Chiefs because I was doing Spagnolo and he's gonna be one of the first, the first coordinator in the Hall of Fame. Andy Reid legend could have an argument for one of the best coaches ever, has an argument for one of the best coaches ever.
If they got the three peat, we'd have.
An argument for the best coach ever. Mahomes still Patrick Mahomes, he's twenty eight years old, that if he was gonna get it done, he was gonna be on pace ahead of Brady right Kelsey for one game, Chris Jones for one game. And even like you saw that early Hurts interception and Hurts had another pass that was just like ugly early on that, You're like, Okay, if the Chiefs can make more of this happen.
They could not.
And I think I've I've talked about on here a little bit. Sirianni wasn't the biggest Sirianni guy. It's abrasive, it's aggressive as a paison. He's got the Italian flag on his hat, kind of in your face. He's got his own guy, Big Dom. That that whole storyline is crazy. And in the back of every Sirianni interview there's Big Dom. Seems like he knows where the camera is. They made him like an actual assistant coach this year so he could wear the headset when he's like not a coach.
And I think even that that gentle BBD giggle you might have just heard, maybe it's just getting old and soft. With the Eagles getting it done and winning, it made every storyline kind of awesome to me, Like, Sirianni, we've done that whole thing before. And going back to there's there's the guy he was, you know, I flip over to NFL Network after the game because Chris Rose obviously and yeah, uh like their interview in Sirianni and Big Dom is just right behind him in the camera shot
they did. He was the same thing with the post Super Bowl on the field interview, right behind him his Big don I realize he's his guy, but it's almost it's a weird sometimes when you haven't seen something before you just say weird.
I don't like that.
No coach has had their personal bodyguard just guy. But he's literally the definition of guy m And every time you hear someone talk about Big Dom, they say is a cool dude, and they say he does a ton of stuff. Like they say, if they need a bus to go somewhere, it's like a Big Dom, we need a bus.
To go somewhere.
I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but winning cures everything. And now, Sirianni.
For what's that to a quick google? What does Big Dom do right? And senior advisor to the general manager, chief security officer and game day operations expert.
It's all made up. I'll tell you. Big Dom does a lot of stuff that all those titles are made up the guy. He's the guy. And that's it that when you're winning, it all gets covered up. That's Sirianni for is quirks or intensity or whatever it is? You know. Going back to the two and two Eagles that were almost one in three, Sirianni was viewed as the two the week spot. The two week spots were Sirianni and Hurts.
The Jalen Hurts story has become I mean, if you really zoom out or zoom in, it's one of the cooler sports stories. He he was benched in college for Tua. He again, it's new age college football, so like Jalen Hurts transferred to Oklahoma and balled out there, so it's yeah, benching is something. But he sat behind to it for actually a season before that, and then Tua got hurt in the SEC championship game and Hurts came in and helped lead Bam on that drive. So he's got like
all the boxes you want. Never mind the fact he's hot, that's fine, but he's got everything. He's he's call calm, cool and composed. He's seen the highs and lows at every level. People coming out didn't know if he'd be able to be a quarterback at the NFL level. You know, he squats so much. Uh that yeah, I was. It was funny and I Jalen Milroe the quarterback out of Bama.
This year, it's been funny to hear people debate about him in this year's NFL draft because some of his some of his games were ugly in college, but he does ooze talent and I Jalen Hurts put in the work, and I think that's the that's the going away message for whatever you're about Jalen Hurts. If he came out of college and he did the same amount of work as everyone else, he wouldned to have won a Super Bowl. He wanted to have the keys to the Chiefs right now.
I mean, the the other thing that I had forgotten was he got drafted when they had Carson Wentz and they thought Carson Wentz was good. Like people were critical of the Eagles drafting Hurts because they're like, what are you doing. You have Carson Wentz, You're invested in Carson Wentz, why would you go and do this? Well, whatever the Eagles are doing front office wise, your team needs to
look into that. Because Zach Bond being one of the best players in the sport this year, a one year, three million dollar free agent from the Saints who was like playing the wrong position. The Jalen Hurts story is now like all time cool. You gotta respect it and love it. Sirianni, it all felt bad when you're not winning. They won. Now, what Sirianni does seems pretty badass, right.
The Saquon man it was it was really cool his postgame interview because I think they I think he said it on the post game, but he was like to grow, who you think about this, Saquon, Who's you know, top of the sports millions of dollars? You know, borderline Hall of famoush trajectory, Like, you know, some more work to be done, but an argument for best running back in the game. Like that's that's pretty nuts. That's what That's all you can really dream about. He was leaving the
New York market. You know, Michael Strahan has been on TV forever now and he continues to be on TV.
Looks great.
By the way, if Michael Strahan had been a Tampa Bay Buck or even at Denver Bronco, he wouldn't be on Good Morning America. You want to be everywhere. Like there's sometimes when the New York effect can be real. And if you're Saquon Barkley, like you're leaving the New York Giants, you're the star of that team. I know they stunk, but no one blamed you for it. He left to go to the Eagles, So he left New York to go to their second most hated team.
Depends on the year it depends on the year.
I think Cowboys all in are more all encompassing.
Hate, all else equal, whichever one if they're equally good teams in this moment the Cowboys.
The Cowboys haven't been as as good as the Eagles that I think if the Cowboys were, I think that hate would be fine. That he left to the Eagles knowing that you're gonna ostracize a chunk of your fan base. Now everything's landed great, like real Giants fans are like, no, the Giants are idiots, Saquon good Giants idiots. And they said something about he didn't say like his brand ors or or anything like that, but he almost said like it would be better for his career to leave the Giants.
And in a way, that's scary because the only way to do that really is to go to or win the Super Bowl. And he did that in the first year. Like super Bowls are forever forever, and he did that, and he's kind of I won't say he's changed football, but I'll tell you a lot of teams are going to be looking at the running back position. They're going
to be looking at their O line. You know, football football went way into passing like there's I remember even like I've seen some appenic in Dalton's clips and like football had this whole thing like teams don't pass on first down enough and all that, like a play to your team's weapons. Your team's good at X, do X win the game? And how do we get there? And what pieces do you have to get there? So hopefully it's huge for the running back position, although Saquan is
a different animal. I mean seeing the way he again he didn't have a great game, but the couple runs he did have and finish off, we're pretty cool. And for Jalen Hurts, like you know he ran.
For seventy four.
He's in the middle of all those tush pushes that Chris Jones, one of the baddest dudes in the league, doesn't like being in and he's just he's so accurate when he needs it that yes he's not. I think that's the thing that's thrown off football and the NFL at chunk is that it was you need the pocket quarterback to throw thirty times and that's how you win
the big games and all of that. This team doesn't do that, and yet they win and they're dominant, they're nasty, and all of that being said, the defense was gross, and I think that was the final thing that tipped me over the edge. Last second, Vic Vangio, former Broncos head coach, legendary coordinator, I think Greedha Mahomes were eight and zero against him. That again, when when you're in the sports betting lane, it's kind of like, okay, what
what am I gonna wake up and regret? The least It's like, Okay, if Mahomes and Reid eat the same defensive coordinator nine straight times, or if I bet against that and the Chiefs win, I'm gonna feel like a fool. A couple other notes, The town was Philly. New Orleans was ninety percent Philly. It's kind of crazy in hindsight. And maybe did they know? Did they just travel better? Did Chiefs fans know? Because we knew there was a chance this was a blowout for Philly, like we did.
You did the way they can dominate. But everyone assumed because it's a Super Bowl, and you gave Read two weeks to prepare that this was going to be close, and if it was going to be close, late herts and Sirianni versus Read and mahomes up until yesterday, wasn't a discussion. They did it. They did it. They dominated in on Hurts, trying to get in on Sirianni and Big Dom. I mean, I could end up hating them by before next year because Big Dom knew where the
camera was last night. That's all I'll say.
I have Big Doms Wikipedia up, and I didn't notice this before. And as I glanced back over, Wikipedia doesn't have a birth date for Big Dom. It says born nineteen seventy eight or nineteen seventy nine. Yes, some like you just gotta go. You gotta go back some time for individuals feature on Wikipedia that we don't have exactly what you're there for. That's that. That's that.
Let me I'll walk you guys through our trip A little bit went down. Flew down to New Orleans on Friday, Friday morning, early seven am. Flight, so you know you're leaving for the airport five fi point fifteen ish, goes I'll say it goes okay, sneaky bad flight. Flight took an extra half hour just because like airport traffic and stuff, no Wi Fi, no TV.
Oh, we're raw up there.
So that was tough, you know, I had a couple of podcasts, was going through Simmons, NBA Trade Deadline and that stuff. So whatever, played some online chess for the computer. But you also end up in that crazy cycle where you feel like a mental patient because you're like, well, maybe the Wi fi works now, So every ten minutes we try to log into the Wi fi.
Didn't work, it's down today.
Whole flight.
How long is that flight? I don't have a good gauge, so again in my head, I would just sort of assume, like the same as when we go to Tampa. But so.
I think it's supposed to be a little over three, maybe close to three thirty, but I think it was closer to four because again we extra time to get in there, and I four hour flights like a totally different animal. Like two fifteen hour two fifteen flight compared to a four hour flight are completely different. No TV, no movie, don't I didn't bring a book, so just podcasting an intermittent chess. So that was kind of tough. I'm gonna be honest, that lasts like an hour of that.
It's just grind.
Hey, let me walk onto the way fin now.
Nope.
Ubers and lists were so crazy couldn't get one, had to taxi. Hate taxis, feel like they're normally scam this was not. They had a locked in price from the airport to Orleans, so.
That was massive.
Eate a meal, go down to Bourbon Street and it's organized chaos. We're doing some men on the Street stuff and yeah it's Eagle Green good and you know, it's a little crazy. It's the afternoon man on the street stuff. Not my strength. But we figured you walk Bourbon Street enough times, you're gonna get the characters. And you know, we were like, you know, we'll get the one or two baseball people to recognize us.
We could tap into them. But we didn't really have a.
Game because there is no game plan. That's the secret with man on the Street.
You just need to talk to people.
So we just walked up and down Bourbon like four times, which was exhausting. Got some of the stuff we needed, reset good seafood, dinner, went out on Bourbon Street. But we're all exhausted. This is now nine to thirty PM. Watch Yukon lose to Saint John's feeling that twenty two turnovers. Disgusting, disgusting, Go back out. Bourbon is packed We kind of don't know where to be year where we want to be, and like Yon Crew is coming out. It's a long travel day. Went into a country bar to try to
make Panic happy. Wasn't the place you wanted to be. We got out of there. Pados Patio's is one of the famous places down there. We went there. That was nice, good indoor outdoor vibes there. They have a piano bar there is two packed, but they have an absolute legend that plays on a serving tray.
You just have to see it to believe it. So that was good.
Panic was getting some some love from football people down there. That was pretty cool to see. And then you know, fight or Flight. It's a long day. We have to be at the parade at nine am the next morning, which means, you know, you're waking up seven thirty eight. We don't really know what the parade is. DraftKings didn't tell us too much about it, going to be part of the parade, ready to go at a p raid at nine am. So after a travel day, we're all
looking at each other like, hey, let's call this. We leave eleven thirty midnight something like that. In the uber home, get a call from Chris Rose, where are you guys out with? Out with my wife and my niece? Okay, Chris Rose probably wouldn't met up with any anyways, worked out that we were still in the uber.
So next day, wake up, head to parade. We're nervous.
We don't know how to check in. Nobody's ever really been in a parade, and we didn't know. Like DraftKings, we knew they had to they cause they were like, yeah, we'll get two of you on the float. We had three, and then that became a thing that it wasn't an easy ticket to get a hold of. So we didn't know if there was gonna be other DraftKings people there, influencers, famous people, or if it was just gonna be like DraftKings employees that.
Got like a cool perk at the job. Turn out it was a mix.
We walk on the float, Big Andrew Whitworth is on there, Chad O Cho Sinko is on there, and Rob Riggle is on there. So we're looking around like okay, okay, okay.
So what do we do? Do we say hi? Do you not say hi? You don't want to be weird? Whatever?
I just thought I'm gonna go for Whitworth because trev went to Vegas with like Whitworth and the Staffords like a year ago.
I was about to say, Whitworth's like at least tangentially part of that crew.
R yeah, and they like, you know, I think we had the picture up on Talking Baseball or or somewhere, and you know, it was a nice pick. It's trev Whitworth, the Staffords and like Trevin you know, trevn Stafford now or guy guys that I was like, you know, there's some Whitworth ripple effect here, right walk up to Whitworth's one of the biggest humans you've ever seen, you know, slim down, looks good, but just a big frame. It's like, oh, John Bay Media, we do baseball stuff. You're Trevor Plouff.
He's kind of boys asat for now. And he just gave me like okay, He's like all right, So that's that's not gonna lead to any follow ups.
That's bad.
Leaving the Whitworth conversation, Panis saw it as his window to go in panic bowls.
Me over on the way to Whitworth.
My foot got stuck under like something I basically go down is a tough scene. Panic apologized to me after, but it was like, Okay, we're probably out on Whitworth today. I don't think it's happening. We're on like the empty flow, not moving for a while. Parade's supposed to start at ten, it's like ten thirty.
We haven't moved.
Ocho's kind of in the front, you know, just casual. Hey, how are you is? We're back there with Rober Wriggle, kind of hanging out. He was cool, not a ton of not a ton of back and forth, but he was cool. And then the parade started and it was kind of nervous. You're like, okay, are we throwing beads? Are you's hitting people? Do you need to like? What are the rules of engagement here? Is this parade gonna be a mess? Is it gonna be fun? Like? What is it gonna be a shit show? Uh? It was
a blast. It was a blast. You throw it first couple of beads and I was like, okay, people signed up for this. And there's a couple turns where people were going crazy. It was crazy to see how excited people were for Rob Wriggle, and you know, got got some love myself loved the podcast. There was a my favorite moment. There was a Mets I mean once he got into a rhythm, like you had a game plan and if people were calling for him, you're kind of trying to shoot. I mean two hours, I was just
tossing beats NonStop, non I didn't. I took one break to post something on social media because I was like I should, But that was it. There was this his bro in like a Mets jersey that was like Rob Wriggles. He took out his phone, he was all excited. I was like, I'm gonna crack. This kid cracked it, dropped it right in the bucket. He turns, he looks at me, He's like jump by. So I was like, that was
That was a perfect situation. It was crazy. I mean, New Orleans knows how to do a parade, and yeah, we were kings for a little bit, just hucking beads, kind of no rules. You're making people's day, like just that feeling of being in the crowd and someone's like yeah and then you hit them with the beads. You're a great part of our society. So that was good. That was But again, that was just two hours locked in. We get off the float, get lunch at the closest place,
just because like our brains weren't working yet. Chris Rose was in the area, met up with him, walked around with him a little bit, and his wife Michelle. Great to see them, and then yeah, we had to go back to Bourbon Street to kind of finish off some of the shorts we were recording. Bourbon Street had multiplied and become pure chaos, just pure chaos, and we weren't there, like we we had come down from the parade like eight, lunch, come down that.
Now we're back in Bourbon Street.
It's hot, it's eighty, it's steamy out, people are drunk, it's all football fans from all over its Bourbon Street.
That that was a bad time.
I kind of had a dip where it's like, oh my god, like we gotta let's film a couple things and get out of here because we have to go to the Captain Morgan party in a couple hours.
So we did that. We go, we reset.
Me and Panic are panicking a little bit because we planned outfits with jackets and we just got cooked by the sun. Captain Morgan Party starts at seven, so the sun would be down, but it's Bourbon Street. Temperature came down enough that we were good, and then went to the Captain Morgan party. T Pains supposed to be playing makes sense now, but they only had Captain Morgan drinks, so you're like, okay, we're gonna gonna be having Captain Morgan.
We found a safe place to establish ourselves, a little second floor table vip ish area that was like, all right, let's get some space, let's get comfortable.
We did.
That place was when we got there, place was kind of empty, starts getting packed, packed, happy, we had our side table, but it's good to have a home base. And then yeah, it starts getting close to T Pain time and it's packed and he was playing on the first floor, so we could we could kind of poke our heads and get it get in there. But if you really want to see T Pain you had to you had a wrestle. We didn't do a ton of wrestling, but we were there. We had a good time. Towards
the end of T. Paine, there's four floors. The top two floors you couldn't see T. Pain. We went up there, there's just space. We had an area and then basically same thing that got that got packed and we were like, all right, we've been We've been at this Captain Morgan party for four and a half hours. Uh So we went back on Bourbon Street, walked around half crazy, half
not crazy. Everyone's on a different timeline, especially with Super Bowl, Like you know, some people are getting their nights started at midnight. Some people have been dead zombies for four hours, like full mix that. We walked around a little bit, nothing super calling our name and we we had to
fly out the next day. Pennic's not a drinker, so you know that's however many hours we were on Bourbon Street of him being sober, that's a tough that's a tough ass for anyone, not putting the blame on him because we were. We were coming up against it too. But yeah, the city was on one. It's a city that's normally on one. The super Bowl an absolute chaos multiplier, and uh yeah, I think the city, the city has some different dynamics between its waterfront and the French Quarter. That.
Uh again, the afternoon on Bourbon Street that was brutal. Everything else was okay, even that Saturday night, because I think there was enough different events spread out that. It's like, there's there's a reason that they were having their eleventh Super Bowl in New Orleans eleventh or twelfth. So yeah, it was cool to see. Kind of would have been fun to go to the game. I that was an interesting question Jess asked me when I got home. She was like, where a lot of people going to the games?
And I guess I was like, if they were. If I met someone who was a Phillies fan or an Eagles fan, they were going to the game. So yeah, I think it becomes an equation because there are all these like work companies and stuff that go that I think by the time tickets get sorted, it's like if you're a if you're a fan of that team, you figure it out. Like if you're an Eagles fan that works for DraftKings, I think you however, you probably however
you have to land. Well, if you work for DraftKings and you're not an Eagles fan, you're like, well, I don't have to go. It'd be sick if a ticket is offered, but if not. So that's kind of how that sorted out. Okay, flight home, I'm trying to think what other other goods love Greg Olsen was in the airport, didn't say Hi, had a little hip wiggle to his walk that it was like, wow, you probably got hit by the strongest men in the world for like a decade.
Good looking guy also thinned out trying to think what else. No, it was a it was a good trip.
It was.
It was kind of grindy, just because like we're on Bourbon Street having to do work. It's kind of the opposite for everyone else. It's a weird feeling. It's a man on the street just not my strength.
It's a little inherently draining and it's a different like for you personally, it's a different environment than the who you've done for travel for this job.
Yes, so yeah, it was a good trip. Well, uh, I think super Bowl maybe uh, semi regular thing maybe every year. I don't know, maybe depend on the city, Maybe depends on the teams. And yeah, Tom Brady on the broadcast, I said, I was gonna circle around Tom. It was okay. I think everyone everyone likes to land
in area that's not okay. There was a part of where he was bringing everything back to him and it was like easy Tom, Like they were talking about losing the Super Bowl and he's like, that's a feeling I feel. Three times. It's like, we know, man, so losing the Super Bowl seems bad. I agree. He Yeah, football is in the books and it will be. I mean, NFL always finds a way between draft, free agency, quarterback storylines. Sure, you get a lot of Rogers coming up for us,
a lot of baseball, a lot of baseball. Uh, we'll see where basketball rears. It's ugly head the next few weeks. Anthony Davis out our madness. Before you know it, that'll be fun. Golf's going. But yeah, we'll be locked in. We've got our tier lists that have been rolling out.
Do we have this week's is already scheduled? Yea, back on the grind of recording those this week.
People like those. I like doing those as well. Kind of lets us know and maybe, uh maybe we'll mix in a couple other ones. It's it's kind of like the off seasons over Alex Bregman. There's some Jose Kintana's out there and things like that. But it's and we've got teams are reporting, We've.
Got videos of Max Free pitching to Spencer Jones, So whoa, that's the good stuff.
Let's get ready to sink our teeth into baseball season. I hope you guys enjoyed the football season. Hope you guys enjoyed this. Make sure you're subscribed.
BBD will tell you about his uncle. We can Jake his production of Dan Patrick Productions, John Blue Media and Workhouse Media