TDT Wild Card Weekend 2024

What's up, good people. I promise I'll get our sounds back next week. But Touchdowns and Tangents not live anymore. But here from Hawthorne, California, Thursday, nice spot for NFL takes Topical Tangents pushed today's episode to Friday due to the College Football Playoff today, but Kenny was supposed to be there, but unfortunately city's kind of burning, And yeah, the whole Midwest is under snow, so I'm blaming.

The city of I'm just blaming Houston and Dallas Airports for not properly holding people's flights together and then giving people joint getting people flights out of connective flights and then canceling their connective flights and leaving them stranded in multiple cities. So yeah, and it wasn't really worth seven hundred dollars to be stranded in Houston in a storm, three hours away from where I needed to be, and then if I got there, I'd still be like four hours late and missed like the game.

But yeah, so we y'all want to talk about as far as the College Football Playoff National Championship game is now determined, gonna be nore Dame in Ohio, State. They also got Wildcar Weekend going down this weekend, the Rams had to move there Monday night matchup with the Vikings to Phoenix.

Glendale technically, but yeah, there's on.

The Cardinal Stadium, which is ironically State Farm Arena, which is pretty evil if you think about it, because State Farm disavowed a lot of people's fire insurance and then the whole city burned down, or at least the outer

So you know, you and your family are somewhere to lay or be.

And it's at State Farm Arena, and ironically the Rams they could very well beat the Vikings ironically. So yeah, it's interesting, very interesting times.

Yeah.

So outside of that, I mean, just to wrap up the NFL season, I mean, we talked about it last week with the Seahawks missed the playoffs with ten wins, even beating the Rams in the final game meaningless game. The Bengals needed the Chiefs to beat the Broncos to have a chance to get in. And well, the Chiefs got molliwop because they basically rested most of their starters. And yeah, the Bengals didn't get in and they felt talty about it, but that's the way goes.

What else happened last week? The All Pro team came out.

Yeah, Leanna Williams didn't make the All Pro Team or the Pro Bowl.

Well do you have like what eight dexame sacks or something? Yeah, and he had like two defensive touchdowns. I mean, don't go to read off the list. I mean you can if you want. People could just look it up.

Rock Powers made All Pro as a rookie.

I mean he broke dead cuz eighty year record and the catch record.

Finally, I'm in Ron Sak Brown's gets stepped that All Pro Jamar Chase, justin Jefferson, I'm in Ron Saint Brown. It's kind of hard to disagree with that.

We also got.

Tristan Wurbs, We got Lamar Saquan Patrick recrd Joe Thuney for the Chiefs, Creed Humphrey, Quinn Minnards for the Denver Broncos. Penaisawell got First team All Pro over Lane Johnson. Ed rushers were Miles Garrett, Cam Hayward got it at d tackle Chris Jones. Those two got it over the Williams. Miles Garrett Trey Hendrickson were the two ed rushers. A linebackers Zach Bond, Fred Warner, Rokwan Smith corners, Patrick Satan the second, Derek Stingley Junior. Finally, they have a slot position.

Returning. MARKT.

Madhams Junior was the pump returner. Brandon Brendan's schooler was an All Pro special teamer for New England. And Andrew Depaola is a long snapper. Second team offense, we got Josh Allen, Derrick, Henry Cole, Juice Chick, George Kittle, Ty McClaren, Ceedee, lamb aj Brown, Jordan Mylotta at left tackle, Quentin Nelson mister Notre Dame, Frank Ragnall for Detroit. If you didn't know, Quentin Nelson plays for the Colts. Chris Lindstrom for Atlanta

I think it's a tie. I guess, I don't know. That's weird. T J Watt, Nick Benito. T J. Watt out of.

Pittsburgh, Nick Benito for diver. He had a career year, Raiders passed on him. Andrew Rankinkle had another crew year in Minnesota.

Material alignment. So Zach Allen for the.

Denver Broncos was the second team All Pro. That's very interesting, so I guess that answer. Jerymner Williams question.

Bobby Wagner.

And Zaire Franklin where the second team All Pro linebackers, Which is wild because Bobby Wagner is an All Pro in like year fifteen.

Yeah, crazy, especially because the last three years he had a ways just kind of bounced around.

Yeah, but he was still productive. That's the crazy thing. All right.

So here's what might pish you off for trigger you. So second team corner All Pro, Trip McDuffie, Kansas City Chiefs. Yes, the Raiders passed on him. Christian Gonzales, New England Patriots, second team All Pro. The guy who went. He fell to seventeenth overall. He was considered one of the best corners in that draft. He went at seventeen. You want to know who the Raiders took that year, Tyree Wilson

Raider Nation.

Also, Uh, slot cornerback Derwin James. That's interesting because I'm pretty sure he's the safety, but they got him at slot corner, second team All Pro. The safety's at All Pro, Kyle Hamilton and Buddha Baker. Uh, this is all the This is interesting because placekicker Brandon Aubrey from the Cowboys second team Logan Cook, Jacksonville Jaguars punter. I don't know how the hell this happened, but Austin Eckler is an All Pro this year. Guess at what position? No kick returner.

J T.

Gray for the Saints special teamer, which is ironic because he was on the Chargers too when he went to Baylor long snapper was rossmatistic for the Jaguars. That's your All Pro team, right there? Any real objections?

Yeah? I mean, so that's coming out.

Snoop is gonna also be at the NFL, gonna be hosting the NFL Honors, So it's gonna be very interesting this playoff season.

It's funny because at this press event that they had at the CS conference, I was at one of these companies hired like an actor that looked like Snoop and like one of my covers was like, is that stupid?

Is that? I was like, are you sure that's not Snoop?

And they're like ah, nods, like bh bah he had the whole aesthetic, and I was like, I don't know. I mean, his jewelry is nice, but his shoes are kind of whatever did he say color? And I was like, and honestly, I don't think Snoop would be here this earlier, at this kind of an event, and honestly, if it was Snoop, you would smell him. And honestly, that dude was like barely want to start than me. He's not six four years so yeah, I don't know, so is

Like et cetera.

And then my boss is like it wasn't Snoop, Like he's like, what do you mean. He's like I talked to the guy who hired him, like he's my friend.

Yeah, that's an actor. They've done that before.

It was just funny, but it's just crazy, Like I was calling them Snoop Bee because it's like that's his backup Snoop. I was like, that's the AI Snoop. That's not actual, the real Snoop. But you can't say Snoop Bee because that's definitely a violation. It's she's a crip, yeah for sure. But it was a play on words. No, but you literally can't say that because he's a crip. Yeah, but you would get packed out if you said that in front of him anyway, you.

Don't understay gang culture. You can't say that even I know what's a joke. Anyway, it was.

It was a funny play on words that civilians can laugh At.

The point that I was trying to make is that snoobie everywhere? So yeah, that's all I was trying to say.

Didn't it feel kind of racist stuff a little bit? I mean kind of yeah, because I'm pretty sure that it's.

Hard to find that dude with his skin text, his skin complexion exactly like him like that. You probably find the light skin due that he put the makeup on or somebody got like a professional makeup artisan. Now I kind of want to know how how they how fully they committed to the role. It's kind of interesting though, it's fun like that would seem like a fun thing to do. Trick people, just trick people into thinking you're

I mean, I think that's better for everyone Mary because except him, I'm sure he's still going to get whatever get i mean, his contracts, guaranteed contract I'm sure he's still going to get a bulk of his money off of an injury settlement if anything. But yeah, it's better for him because, like I said, he's still gonna get his bread. And it's better for the Browns because they were probably gonna move on from him anyway, so now it just makes them that much easier to do it.

Yeah, now they have to take a quarterback.

You almost have to take a quarterback and just kind of trade Watson off. I don't know where he would go, but you you have to kind of take a quarterback or Cleveland because you're just wasting Miles Garrett and you have to extend Miles Garrett.

Are you gonna let Nick Chubb walk?

Like you have a receiver in Jerry Judy, you have the resemblance of an offense you don't have to, Like the Browns are the one team that shouldn't have to like throw their whole organization away.

Stefanski, I think is the right guy. They just had horrible luck.

I don't know, like they're all the players keep getting hurt. I don't know what's up with that uh with that health science department, but stuff keeps happening. So, I mean, it comes down to it, they're gonna have to decide if they're gonna want to cut him or trade him or give this one more year. But to rupture your Achelles twice, Like that's kind of wild to have that kind of setback, Like how intensely were you training.

Now? If he can come back.

And it's even moderately competent as a quarterback, because this fall from Grace is crazy, like his downfall and Trevor Lawrence's downfall, Like it's kind of gonna hurt King Club. It's draft stock because Clemson QB's well, it's not looking

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm kind of tired of talking about it. I feel like it's been an ongoing storyline online all year. I mean, Jerry's been pretty consistent that he's going to give McCarthy. It's hard to blame everything on him. Giving the injuries at quarterback. But also I don't know, he really hasn't done what he was sitting there to do either, So for me, I would have fired him, especially with some of the ways that they were losing the middle of the season.

But yeah, that's just me. Well he's not the only coaches his future.

But also we know somebody who's not going to be back, Tom Tolesco got fired by the Raiders, thoughts.

I mean, at this point, the Raiders are now paying three gms and three head coaches for well, I'm saying right now at this point, and so when they make new hires at those positions, they'll be paying for for exactly no playoff burst and pretty much no foundation of the franchise outside of maybe Max Crosby and brought and Brock Bauers. But yeah, it's a mess right now in Vegas.

This seems like a much more extensive process.

Already seems like the Raiders are being taken more seriously with Brady now officially in the fold. Yeah, I think there's some excitement. It would have been hard to keep ap and have any excitement given that the team went win.

Listening to division, you never got to pick his quarterback.

I mean you could say that that's fine, but at the end of the day, he wasn't gonna win a.

Super Bowl with this team. I know that. But it's like you didn't even want him last year.

So for you to be to say that now, it's crazy because you didn't want him to come back last year.

Letay out. But yeah, so, I.

Mean, in best case scenario, he probably would have just been you know, five hundred and we would have been stuck with him another year year.

So, no, he's not the guy.

If you know he's not bringing the kind of culture that you want, then you got to make the move. I just hope that they don't try to do some more patriot rehash bullshit and they actually just you know, hire the best person for the job, with the best vision for the organization and not just you know, the guy that everyone wants them to hire, or the guy that they like, you know, make the best hire for

Or what if Ben Johnson doesn't want a GM, he just wants to work directly with Tom Brady.

I don't think you. I don't think they would do that. You never know.

I don't think you would. I wouldn't be certify genius, wouldn't be smart. Mathematician doesn't have anything to do with being a genius being a general Being a genius has nothing to do with managing people.

Trust me.

Has nothing to do with managing people, managing different departments, managing all the different things that go into being a general manager. But it would be a great mistake to make a first time head coach a first time GM two. That would be really stupid. That would be Raider esque stupid.

That's why I had to break it up, because yeah, that would be really stupid. I don't think, I.

Don't I don't think champ Co is going to stay. He's been a cockroach there already too long at this point. If you're not gonna hire him, when you're gonna hire him, that's painful, you that of cockroach? Well, bro, he's been through four GM regimes, like do you have to go my cockrow? So I'm just saying like he hasn't died,

I don't like what the Patriots are doing though, just like you're not gonna hire Byron Left, which that's why Aaron Glenn declined an interview with him. So like somebody like some of these people are just like blatantly just bastardizing the Rooney rule.

And there's no punishment for it. That's the part that kind of sucks.

So like a lot of these black assistants and coordinators or even just they're talented and they deserve a shot, but they're not going to get it because I still think draw Mail getting fired was pretty was pretty whack.

I don't really see.

What I think Male getting fired was worse than AP because one far, he had been chosen to be the coach in waiting, and they kind of said that's why he got fired because he had that in his contract, so they had to let him be the head coach, but they were always going to kind of just give him that the kick out at some point, and also he got his quarterback, and also they were competitive despite having one of the worst rosters in the league and even trading away talent in the middle of having one

So I don't know.

I just think because something came out about Aaron Glenn and I'm like, it's always something that comes out about a black assistant coach right when they're about to get a job or after they got fired, and it's like, hold on, like none of the beat writers mentioned this, nobody said anything until right now. To me, that's kind of susn't I never liked that, Like, don't wait to like throw dirt on somebody's name after they leave. The Raiders aren't even doing that about Telesco. And he wasn't

Adam Gase you got.

For Antonio Peers. I think the thing with him is he had that press conference on Monday where he was just like oh, where he was just like, well, as far as I know, I'm still the head coach, and to have her different like and just his whole tone and attitude just felt like, you know, he really thought

Player as an assistant to know that.

You know, things aren't final until their fine though, you know, regardless of whatever vibe you got one day, you know they could stab you in the back and with the same hand, like, that's not news for Antonio Peers. So the fact that he got up there and did that to me felt more of like him using his leverage and his platform to be like, well, what are you gonna do?

Fire me? And I don't think that was the best move in play.

I think he should have downplayed it a lot more and just been a lot more humble about it. But yeah, I mean I think he still deserves at least a shot out a coordinator role. I mean, regardless of what you want to say about the team, Like, linebackers.

Played a lot better than they did without.

Him, so you can't take that away from him for sure. And the defense, I mean, these past two years, this defense has been better than it hasn't, you know, two decades, So he's been a part of that as well.

Yeah, I would definitely agree that after everything he's been through, he proved like, well, you can coach linebackers, and you know who could use.

Some help coaching linebackers. The Rams.

I'm just saying Antonio Pierce should probably get under like the coaching tree of someone like a McVeigh to kind of revitalize I mean, Dan Quinn talked about all the stuff he did after he got fired from the Falcons to become a better coordinator and coach, and he became a better coordinator and coach as a Cowboys defensive coordinator. And look what he's doing with the Commanders. So I know, some people get taken chances and some people build a staff that's well rounded.

Because if you look at the if you look.

At all the people on the Commander's staff, like, okay, some of these guys are in the running to potentially become a head coach if Kingsbury could become a head coach again, so you kind of have to applaud that.

All Right, you gonna talk about college football. You wanna talk about fire, Let's talk about college football, and then we talk about these fires, all right.

So h.

So, yeah, I was supposed to be at the Conon Bowl. Travel players are pretty much screwed. They canceled all the flights that I would have needed to even be able to get out there, which is a bummer because it would have been my first It would have been my first college football playoff. Okay, and it's the semi final, so it's the game right before the national title, but

That that didn't hinder Texas and Ohio State.

They played a great game for the most part. Quen Ewers played like shit, there's no way he's going into the draft now because you can't play that bad, and then just declared for the NFL Draft. He's gonna take it back to some of the college because there's no way Arch Manning isn't starting next year. You can't look at what queen Ewers. Queen Ewers had an NFL offense, NFL left tackle, great running backs, Alfred Blue pretty much kept them in the game. Uh they literally ran a

It was bad. And now fast forward a year later that you.

Know the skin of the game, even though Notre Dame beat pinned State because Penn State pissed down their leg again like James Franklin always does in big games. But shit, he won a playoff game, so you kind of gotta get off his head. Uh, he was one game away from a national title, and I think people gotta really get off James Franklin's head about that did your team win a playoff game? Oh they didn't, All right, then

He had he had.

He got Bo Knicks, and then he got Dylan Gabriel, and then he got some elite South Carolina transfers. So it's like the fact that he couldn't do it. Ohio State is just a team with destiny at this point. Well, Howard just doesn't just has to make sure he doesn't screw it up, because honestly, he almost did.

He did a really bad pick.

Jeremiah Smith only had one catch for three yards the whole game. They made sure his ass didn't go off. They bracketed him with safeties and corners. But you know, everybody else on the team, Junkins had two rushing touchdowns. Ohio State's running backs scored all the touchdowns, and then Jack Sawyer put it away with the eighty three yard sacked from a recovery for a touchdown. Yeah, so it's gonna be Notre Dame versus Ohio State for the National

Like the same dude that quarterback for the past twenty years. Good but not good enough. Even though he's better than Hackenberg.

He's like the best Penn State quarterback of this era as far as like pro prospects goes. But that's why I'm glad he's coming back for another year because he's not ready. They he made some costing mistakes and Penn State should have put that game away in regulation. But Abdul Carter played great. He's definitely a top five pick. That man was playing. He was he's playing injured and was still whooping feet. But Notre Dame was a better team.

They were.

They kind of just disproved like they were tough than the Oregon So yeah, I think I think Ohio State wins by like seventeen against Notre Dame because they're gonna expose Ridley Linard. This is either gonna be a close game or Ohio State's gonna run away with it.

And I know Notre Dame has a great.

Defense, like an NFL defense, But it's crazy that a former Ohio State linebacker is the head coach at Notre Dame, a black man, and then they threw out, oh, yeah, he's black in Korean too. I was like, bro, I said, y'all love doing this shit. Were you talked about him being Korean at any time the whole time been a Notre Dame. Did you talk about him being black in Korean when he was at Ohio State and a captain? You didn't, right, Okay? I always want to throw in

And that's not even hate.

That's just like, yeah, there's not a history of Asian quarterbacks in the NFL, pure blooded Asian quarterbacks.

So like when people want to throw oh, he's black.

And he's Asian, I'm like, hold on, y'all, don't even culturally like claiming black people like that. Don't claim us. Don't claim it when it benefits you. And oh, yeah, he's in the National Title. He could be the first Asian. He don't. Don't Kamala Harris me with that shit. I don't like that. I really don't like that. It really, it really annoys me because it's like, if the cops pull him over, he can't say he's Asian and get out the ticket. It will yank his black ass out

Like, h.

That's not even how you broach the subject. This man has been at Penn State, what almost fifteen years.

It's been.

He's been at Penn State a very long time, highly successful. Like there's ways because like a reporter tried to catch, like, misquoted Marcus Freeman when he was talking about race, and Freeman had to check him, and then the you know, the.

Team came out and it's like, oh yeah, you did try to misquote this dude.

And that's why I like when white reporters ask questions about race. It just kind of pisses me off because it's like, bro, you don't even probably talk to all the black reporters in this press box, and there's probably only like four of us in here. Like I don't like hearing white journalists ask questions about race to black people to where black people have to explain and define their blackness and humanity.

It's like, maybe you should.

Flip that and ask yourself, as a white person who's a journalist, why do I feel the need to like other a head coach and like make up a qualification, Like can't you just say he's a great head coach. Yes, he's a black man. He could potentially be the first black man to make a won a national title. But to like, when you do it, then there's two black coaches. It's like when it was Tony Dungee and Lovey Smith

So some of that came out this week.

But yeah, uh Ryan Day, Marcus Freeman ironic because you know, Marcus Freeman was a captain of Ohio State. And now even though mind you all those tiktoks that all those notre dame players are doing, yes, they're corny as shit, because it's like, wait, y'all finally got black people at Notre Dame from a different socio economic class and status, and they acting like everybody else, and they did the get the Gat dance all wrong. I was like, you

That's the problem. But nah, all juxu aside, that was actually a real thing. It's all over that.

Like some of them dudes were just doing horrible dances in the locker room postgame, and I'm like, see, this is why we hate you, Notre Dame. This is why we hate you. Some people are like, we remember Catholics versus convicts. So like a lot of people are gonna be rooting for Ohio State.

They just are.

But I think Hog State has the edge in this national title game coming up next week, and I think they're gonna win it. I guess I'm gonna say like thirty one to seventeen. But uh, the quarterback for Georgia Beck he decided to undeclare himself for the NFL draft, hopping a transfer portal, and now he's enrolled at the University of Miami so he can spend time with his girlfriend.

One of the Cavender Twins. I don't remember which one.

Because I don't really give a shit because I know more about them from social media than I do their actual hooping skills, even though like one of them can actually hoop, and they were hooping at Fresno State. But ever since then, they've just been social media starlet's. You know, well, people like Kaitlyn Clark are actually out there getting fucking buckets, and Hayley van Lyz, even though she has athletic limitations, even she's out here getting buckets. But yeah, USC lost

Crazy. He went for Wyoming the USC, and like I think.

He probably got like a second or third maybe somewhere between the second and fourth thrond grade. But if you're an agent, his agent's a LEGITFL agent probably told him, you know, you can probably get like three million if you stick around for warmer year in college.

You can get guaranteed money to play.

It's funny how like Nil's pretty much made it where you're in ty roster just all free agents, so that's going to be very interesting going forward. US she's still looking for a general manager. Juju's the only thing keeping the lights on over there. Let's just keep it a being. USC's having problems with donors, and yeah, it's not looking too great, but they did get a center from Syracuse and an offensive lineman who played at Purdue and he also transferred from He was at el Comedo College, so

Dudes, what has been on fire this week? That's about it.

Yeah, Yeah, it's definitely been an interesting.

Week, but.

Came Yeah, so uh take or tangent. Let's just start with the whole Fox Sports lawsuit and team.

I don't know how much I can even talk about because I know people who work there, So I'm gonna just put the mic down and let you cook.

This is your thing? Did I I wrote that? No? But this is what you've been talking about all week? Yeah, off the record to you, you know, you don't.

Talk about anything like that's low key or that's not out there. I just say this, man, you're just trying to make it sound like you got more tee than you do. Bro, like nobody's really.

Checking for like that. Yeah, but I'm not gonna put You're not You're not the fucking per sports media.

I'm glad I'm not getting like, trust me, come down your pedestal.

No, it's not a pedestal. It's just I don't even want to jump in those waters. You dig sometimes you don't jump those waters. But I will say this, because you've been.

Bitching about it all week. What do you mean you don't want to get in those waters? You know, I've been laughing at it all week. Here's my thing.

People fuck and screw around and do destructive ship anywhere they're at, but especially the workplace. It's like seventy percent of people who are married, like a lot, like seventy places of workplace affairs. Seventy percent of affairs apparently happen at work or some shit like that. It's some crazy

Is he really out here?

He was standing so far away from Joy and then he like swings up like he mimics swinging a baseball bat, and I'm like, dog, it's not even baseball season. Like it was just so funny, like you get. And then Acho fucked up on TV this week, so everybody was like, damn, he's cracking under pressure. They deleted a video that he was talking about Joy Taylor picking her up, and it's just like it's just look a real messy.

And that lawsuit, which is a class actual lawsuit.

I feel bad for everybody who pays for like Fox or Fox Sports and their in their cable package because you know, those lawsuits are gonna cause, uh, the prices that channel to go up if you're paying for it. But yeah, lawsuit comes out, Skip Bayless is in it. Colin coward ironically was totally professional. Skip was doing nasty shit harassment this makeup artist who have been there like over ten years. But again it's nothing that we haven't

Is he gonna happen to him?

Because if something happens to Dick Charlie Dixon, then that's when you're gonna see everything else move or implode and go to shit.

I just think it's funny to me because this is probably the most we've talked about Fox Sports, and god knows how long since I.

Talked about the one time I got an internship there. Boy wasn't allowed to do it. Shout out to see something.

I'm not even just talking about we, I'm talking about in general the culture. Yeah, the mass is like nobody's checking for Fox Sports like that.

Like Shannon had beef with Skip, Skip had beef with everybody. It's just crazy because you still got a beef with stephen A.

It's crazy to me because it sucks because like.

This just reiterates the stereotypes that a lot of people already think, just as far as some of these personalities, some of these people on TV, how they got to their status, it's just just reaffirms that for a lot of people.

And you know, me being.

Around sports media for such a long time and having a lot of friends that still you know, do it full time. I feel for them because I know how hard they work and I know how bad they want to ability and these people that have it, you know, can't get out of their own way.

No, they're purposely fucking around and abusing the rules. Yeah.

And also it's just it's a product of these places environment. Like it's not exclusive to just Fox Sports. You know, NFL Network had their own thing before, ESPN has had their own things before. Like this has been kind of commonplace in the sports network world, sadly. And it sucks because, like the job is already hard enough, the benefits already suck enough. You're really just doing it out of passion and perks and just to do it for all for that and then just see someone else get leaf frogged

Yeah, oh, and then they cancel their podcast with Taylor.

There's no there's no way you can get that reputation back.

And you already is like, oh, yeah, you're only here because of your brother's name. Yeah, you kind of kind of set yourself back here. And then when you say, oh, if I got caught, I would have just said he raped me.

Women like that.

Give other women and other victims a very bad name, like and she's there's like evidence out there for like Acho and her made for each other clearly because everybody knows Acho's a snake.

Marcella's Wiley's talked about it, like and.

Then when he does some stupid ass conversations with white people, like he solving racism, but he wants to talk about black people.

Here from Nigeria.

If I woke up in Nigeria tomorrow, I probably fucking killed myself, like not even respectfully, like for real, for real, Like, let's just keep that of being like you can't come, you can't come to America, get all the benefits, and then ship on the people who built the descendants of the people who built the fucking country and act like you're better than everybody when literally I could drop sixty thousand on your village and make everybody rich, like like

But hey, you know it.

Just shows you, like a lot of these TVs a fake place. Trust me, I know. I write I write copy for TV.

I see this.

That's why it's like when you see stories like this and you see why people got pushed out. And I've even just this past this Bowl season just seeing people at like holiday parties and and like Shin Diggs for college football or whatever, and seeing people like everybody there's

It's all nasty work, all right.

Some other news that developed this week, the Chargers signed Ezekiel Elliott to their pack squad.

Take your Tangent? Can he?

I feel like I want you to go first because I want to see how you feel about that.

Did you cry? Did you cry your pillow?

Did you cry too and one, I'm pretty sure I called it last week when we were talking about it after he got released.

Two, I think it's a perfect fit for him want to do.

And yeah, it doesn't hurt that it's a high state Michigan roster. But I'm not gonna get too excited until he actually make sure the fifty three roster and is actually active, which they say there's a good chance what happened because Dobbins might not.

Play and Edwards hurt too.

Edwards was practicing though, so it looks like Edwards is gonna start mm hmmm, say Flowers isn't playing in his game. But yeah, I mean, I'm happy for Zeke. He got to go to a playoff contender. Like I said, it's a scheme that fits fits him. It'll be a good, good addition both as a pass blocker and and a runner. So you saw what they did with Dobbins and see what they can do with Zeke. Yeah, I mean, I think why not he deserves one playoff push.

I think he's like, I think he's like, uh, pretty close.

He's high up there in the all time touchdown list for the Cowboys. He's pretty high up there. If he's not first, he's pretty close.

Say what you just said again, it could it's still still cutting out. How about now you're good.

He's had like an historic career with the Cowboys, and like he's technically top five and all time touchdowns pretty close, and to think like, yeah, I'm glad Jerry cut him. So he's like, hey man, you go try to get a ring. That's cool. And then hardballs like shit will take you.

I still got from playing him. I remember what you did, Tobama. Somebody does.

We got an elite offensive line. So I feel like Harball just wakes up. He just he probably doesn't listen to Draco the Ruler, but there's probably like if you had to just look at his coaching style and how he attacks teams, it's like if I could pick a sentence, if I could pick a bar describing him, it would just be like something about violence just makes me excited.

That's Jim Harbaugh's coaching style. All right, Moving on, So m.

Jordan Love from Bakersfield, Josh Allen from Bakersfield, Sam Donald's from southern California, Jayden Daniels is from a E.

Bernardino.

So between technically I'm asking, is it technically part of the IE.

Yeah for sure. Really yeah, I just thought it was proper. No, that's how you proper. I thought it was its own world. I mean it is.

There's parts of Sambordino that aren't part of the IE, but Sambardino proper is definitely part of the I keep forgetting that Samoro is like the biggest country county in the United States by like space.

Which is weird because ship there. And C. J.

Stroud is also from you know, California. And then Bryce I forget, where's Herbert from?

Bryce Young? Herberts from Oregon. Herbert's from Oregon, purebred Oregon. And uh, Bryce youngs from Russell Wilson. We're not talking about Bryce Young.

He was trying to set up a fucking I'm trying to set up a fucking Take Her Dangers.

Can I give some love to all the ie?

Corter, No, you can't, damn the one time I want to know you can't. It's crazy anyways. So yeah, six of the twelve teams playing on World Card Weekend have a quarterback from California. Take Her tangent on California QBS.

Unlike Joey Badass, the West is up by the way, if Mike Shanoda has to throw a dits Wow, if Mike Shanoda has to throw a dish track at you and it's better than your dis track, you should probably never rap again.

But yeah, Cali's where the quarterbacks are.

It's funny because it's funny like you, like you said, it's great to see California get some shine in that that way. It's also crazy because I saw another graphic that basically showed the western part of the United States hasn't won a national championship since basically USC.

In two thousand and four. But here you are with six homegrown NFL level quarterbacks and then you have another two in Bo Nicks and Justin Herbert who played at Oregon.

I mean even Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield played at the West Coast at at one point in their careers.

Nix is from auburnon.

So yeah, man, it's just crazy, like crazy. The West Coast is really just better for qbs.

I don't know, like you almost you almost have.

To go through the West Coast to be a successful quarterback at this point because even if you're not from there and you're not playing college is there. You're probably training with one of QB, one of these QB gurus, or one of these QB programs NA seasons. All right, So just to make this a little interesting for touchdown and turnover. We all know Kenny U does not bet but and cannot legally bet.

I just want to know who you like. What are your picks? You got?

The Chargers this week favored by three on the road in Houston.

Touchdown and turnover Chargers being favored on the road.

This game is messy because most of these teams have tendencies to play like shit. This could be another Bears Texans game. Could be slow and really pick up in the second half. That's what I'm thinking.

But say Stroud hasn't really had a good game all year.

I mean at least in the powers like six or seven weeks, like definitely not the second half of.

The So it's like it's hard to even judge this game because like, okay, I mean I would give the Chargers y edge.

I think they have the.

Better offensive line on Tunsul's the best left tackle. I just I think the Chargers should win it. But the last time they were in the playoffs, they blew a thirty point lead, so at home, at home, and the coach that beat them is fired.

So yeah, Trevor Lawrence a coach killing.

So some people are saying, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like the Chargers in this game. I think they should win it. The way they play. They control the ball with the running game, they got a good pass rush. You talked about their own line. The receivers have stepped up in many plays, although they've also had games where they've had letdowns.

So I kind of want to pay Houston because they have.

But they're also going on the road, so I think that's that's the edge for me playing in a different time zone, playing on I think they're playing on Saturday or Sunday Saturday, so.

Yeah, playing on a Saturday. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard.

It's hard for me to just, you know, feel comfortable taking three points, which is really six when you're on the road.

So I kind of want to take the Chargers for the sheer fact of like Demigo's, Ryan's team just keeps letting him down.

Yeah, that's the other side of it. Like they do some ship where it's like, why did you do that? You didn't have to do that all right.

The Bills are favored by I've seen anywhere from eight and a half to ten points over the course of the week over the Broncos at home touchdown or turnover.

He honestly, I think the Broncos can pull off an upset and I think it's a it's a turnover that their favorite because all it takes one bad game.

And Sean Payton is like, I've been waiting for this fucking moment.

I saw a super graphic that was like Sean Payton's like the goat versus bald quarterbacks. He's only lost like four bald quarterbacks ever, and he's beat like I mean bald coaches. I'm sorry, yeah, bald coaches. He only lost like four bad coaches.

Stanfield, that's a bat.

He's only lost like four bald coaches in his career and he's beat like all the other ones, like multiple times.

So yeah, I don't know.

I think the weathers will be less of an impact since both these teams can play in cold weather. Both teams have capable receivers but also have receivers.

That are cable letting them down.

They both have quarterbacks that can run and make plays on the ground defenses have both been and pretty good in spite of maybe what people thought they were going to be at the beginning of the season. I mean the Broncos especially, we're kind of in a transition reset year, but they've just had guys stepped up and really developed.

I mean the Bills.

I think a lot of people were surprised by how stout and solid their secondary has been despite all the turnover they had over the last year. But ultimately, for me, like the Bills just have so much expectations, Like the Broncos at this point are playing with the houses of money.

No one expected them to be here.

But to Kenny's point, that could also work in their favorite because they really have nothing to lose and.

They have one of the best defenses in the league.

And if they're able to you know, control the clock with the run game and Bonix is able to make a couple plays here and there, this could easily be a six to nine game and it's anyone's game going.

To the fourth quarter.

Hey hey, hey, that's why that nine points is kind of a big scary number, especially if it's you know, really cold and the weathers really impacts the passing game.

And they had three and like I read off the all Pro list earlier, the Broncos have three guys who are all pros on defense.

But yeah, it's just hard for me to bet against Allen and Cook. So for me, I'm gonna take the Bills. But I don't like the nine points.

The Bills should win. But I think Sean Payton is no better coach than Sean McDermott. And that's no shade.

But only one of you has a Super Bowl ring and to get rid of Russell Wilson and bow Knicks is playing better and looking better than Russell Wilson. Like it justifies everything Sean Payton did, even though it was kind of foul, but it's like, what else are you gonna do?

I just I think they got the better defense.

I think the Bills have a tendency to lose themselves in games.

They play down sometimes. Yeah, that's for sure. They don't finish people. The Chiefs will finish you.

The last game in the AFC, at least the Ravens Steelers. Right now, I believe the Ravens are favored anywhere from like also like nine to ten points. Again, that's a lot for me, especially in a third matchup between divisional rivals. The Steelers upset the Ravens in November and then the Ravens just came out and blew them out in the second matchup. So for me, I think this game will go either way just off the strength of the rivalry. But Baltimore is just much much like Buffalo. Baltimore has

I'm actually comfortable taking Baltimore because especially they got tired of losing.

Yeah, but they we have a Derrick Henry and we have a Hulk.

I mean I think they've only beat the Steelers like three times in like five years.

Yeah, it's been like a like a fucking it was like a ten game losing streak on one point almost or something like that. So but I think Lamar's literally had forty one touchdowns and four picks in almost a thousand yards rushing, like literally the MVP candidate me personally a runaway MVP season because like their offensive line is playing at a different level. And yeah, the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Oakland to the Las Vegas Raiders. But where are the Las Vegas Raiders right now? Not in

Just don't think the Steelers have enough to get over.

I think Tomlin is such a great coach if he ever gets a great quarterback, or if he just builds something out with fields and George Pickins can keep his head on straight for longer than fifteen straight plays. So where the curse of the Steelers receiver is real? Like they just have a head case at receiver every three to four years.

It's wild.

But yeah, I got the Ravens. I think the defense of the Steelers been playing great all year. The offense has been letting them down. And when the Steelers offense gets stagnant, Arthur Smith is our offensive coordinator. When the Ravens get stagnant, it's because Lamars trying to be too much of a team player instead of just saying fuck it, I'll do it myself. His mom cussed him out, and

The Rams Vikings Monday night, That's that's the headliner. The Rams right now are favored by two and a half in the neutral sight game, which is almost like a pick them. So yeah, touchdown and turnover Rams favor.

It's a touchdown because Sam Darnold plays like shit in the worst moments. You play like shit against the Lions, So whether they're not the one seed, and Justin Jeffers, he had wide receivers who were wide open and couldn't get them the ball in this rate, man, I'm sorry. The Vikings are favored. The Vikings are favored by three, by two and a half either way, I still pick Vikings. The Rams had a great season. They're gonna kill them in the draft again. They're probably gonna take Tyler Warren

The best defenses in the league.

I don't think Sam Donald's gonna shit the bed that hard twice. You have Justin Jefferson, there's no reason why you should not be able to get him the ball. There's no way you should lose. It's kind of unacceptable. But that's why JJ McCarthy, who grew his hair out and looks like looks like the original dudes who played Gambit in those old X Man movies. That dude also was Tim Riggans and Friday Night Lights. His name is Taylor or something. I forget his last name, but yeah.

So I don't know why you're picking the Vikings.

If you're saying that Sam Donalds always plays bad in Big Woman's.

I think it's a turnover that their favored. But I still think they're gonna win because they're just a better team than the Rams are running on feames yesterday, defensive school, but like a better team will pay, like the Eagles. The Rams don't want to see the Eagles. Yeah, that's a dog walking because their interior defensive line, the de tackles of the Eagles is just gonna They're gonna walk through the guards and the center for the Rams, it won't even be funny.

Yes, So for me, I think it's.

I think this is a turnover that they're favored, because I honestly think the Rams will win.

I think the Rams will win outright.

I wouldn't be surprised just because one you mentioned Sam darn On.

But that Rams defense, especially the defensive line, is.

Fast, athletic. They all have high motors, and that's enough. That's enough to at least get you one playoff win. But can they run the ball manufactor in what they have on offense between the two receivers, Cup Hookah Higbee's back and healthy, hopefully that can keep them out of, you know, unmanageable third down situations as long as they can keep Stafford healthy and up right.

And also they have Kyron who's had a good year.

He's kind of lost the momentum towards the end of the year, but overall, I think he's still a more consistent runner than Aaron Jones at this point in their careers. And so that's why I would give them the edge with the running game as well. But I mean, you're not wrong to question the Rams offensive line. I mean, they've been pretty makeshift pretty much all year. They've been just kind of moving guys around. Guys have been in

But yeah, I honestly like the Rams.

I mean, yeah, I agree, but it's like if the Vikings are who they say they are.

But yeah, I don't think are a super Bowl team either. You know, I think they agree with but I think they can beat this team.

But I think the Vikings if they I think this was a bad matchup for the Vikings. Yeah, because the Vikings, I think they didn't want to see.

Yeah, the way they played against the Lions' is like, bro, you.

Should dog walk the Rams because the Lions dog walk. They walked down the Rams, they ran the ball down their throat. Still they did the same thing to the Vikings. No, Like, bro, how many people have the have the Lions lost? Alex fucking Alzoni ever say his last name? The dude's playing with a fucking broken arm and a cat like he just got his he got his ship stitched up. He's playing with a plate in his arm. Was playing with a metal plate in his arm?

All right?

Uh?

Eagles Packers the basket and Saturday's Action. The Eagles are favored by five and a half points, so.

Five to six points. It's a rematch. It's a rematch of the Brazil game.

But Honestly, I think the Eagles run away with this because it's the playoffs.

Run the ball.

Let Jalen make a couple of throws. Let him play from the front, let him play from the back, like you, Saquan, use your elite receivers, lean on your offensive line, which is arguably the best in the league, and you already have the best defense in the league, was the number one defense in the league.

Like, don't funk around. If you're Philly, Sirianni, don't funck this up. You didn't play Saquan. He didn't get the record when he probably could have wanted. That was his choice. That was his choice. That was literally Squan's choice. That was literally his choice, and his coach could have said, no, you're gonna play nah, even though it didn't blame him.

Well, yeah, I don't blame him either because it would have been a meaningless game.

I need to win. They need to win. They need to win. That's why he's there to win.

Yeah, But my point is the Packers just always find to win to just be competitive. But I really don't think it's gonna be the same results as the first time they played, which was.

The season one by fast I mean I wrote the headline for that point. We know what the Packers need to do.

They need to spread the ball around because he keep that defense on its on its.

Heels and hope and hope for the best. But yeah, they have a great defense too, which is crazy when you think about it.

Yeah, Rashaan Garry had a great year, multiple Xavier McKinney had a great year as well.

You got Kwan Kuan Kway Walker when he's not fucking acting like a headcase Walker and like, uh, these Georgia players like are just head crashouts. It's like you got Kuai Walker, you got George Pickins, just two crashouts on different sides of the ball where when he pushed that trainer.

Yeah but yeah for me, I mean, as you mentioned the Eagles, they should just be the over powered juggernaut in this matchup. So I mean, I'll take them for this for the six points, seven points, but I could

And I'm calling Ben Johnson immediately.

All right, And then final matchup Bud the NFC, at least as far as what we've talked about, Buccaneers Commanders Sunday Night Football. Right now, the Buccaneers are favored by three. This is a rematch game and they will also be at home, so touchdown their turnover. Buccaneers favored by three.

The legacy of Jade Daniels continues. I'm taking him. Baker's a gunslinger. They got too many injuries. They're starting safety got into a fucking car accident this week. Bro like the Buccaneers like bless their hearts. It's just they're like the Cleveland Browns, but like more successful, like in terms of just injuries the past couple of years. And Marsha Lattimore and Mike Evans are gonna cancel each other out. They hate each other. It's a snake in the Mongoos.

Yeah, I think this is a tough game for me for some of the reasons you mentioned. I think it's crazy to like, if you would have asked survey the field at the beginning of the season, like you would have said Tampa would be the best team out of Florida, I don't think a lot of people would have believed you. But I was one standard just because the Ravens. I mean, the Dolphins had a lot of injuries and Jacksonville was

So, like, I mean, I even think.

Back to that game where Lamar and Justin Herbert faced off in their first year and and Herbert got the best of Lamar despite you know.

Lamar basically being in an MVP season.

So it's tough to win in the playoffs, especially when you're the focal point of an offense. So yeah, I don't know. To me, I could see it either way. I think that's that's that's honestly the hardest game for me to pick. But yeah, so I mean, I guess if I'm betting for real, for real, I'll probably just go with the Bucks because they're at home, they have more experience. But off fulfilling, it's hard to root against Jaydon. It's hard to root against. Like you mentioned all the

Uh, not really much to say. Talk about the fires.

Talk about a lot of shit's happened in the last three days. I don't know where to start, but one quick thing I'm gonna get off my chest. I'm totally okay with the Raiders training to get Tyreek Hill since he wants out of Miami. Totally on board for that. Give me Tyreek Hill and Brock Bowers and Jacoby Myers and draft two running backs and a QB and then then I might then I might have some respect for you as a paradise I said what I said? All right, yeah, man,

Caught on fire.

What the fuck, bro, He's like one hundred mile an hour winds that people have reported, like and they're running out of water, Like I feel bad for these firefighters.

Like the city, Like.

I said, La politicians are officially worse than Oakland politicians. And you see what Oakland looks like. And if you haven't seen what Oakland looks like.

Just go for a visit. I'm gonna tell you what hood.

I would suggest you've talked to somebody who actually is from there or been there, so you know what place is not to go to, because if you're not really from.

That neighborhood, why are you there?

But yeah, parts of Oakland look like fucking third world countries after a bomb went off, And the same thing you could say for Pacific Palisades, Altadida, some of some parts of Pasadena. Like somebody got this dude on Twitter was like, my neighbor four hundred four point five million dollar condo burnt to the ground. Developers are offering him

Personally, this is some bullshit.

Like ten people have died because of this, Like the city has failed epically, and I think there needs to be people who are should who be thrown in prison for the gross negligence of the city. All right, there's shit old. There's like old landmarks that burnt down. Like the dude who created the fucking Nickerson gardens died in his house eighty two years old. Didn't get to die of natural causes. One dude, they found the hose in his hand. He was so burnt, badly burnt that his

When have we seen that in our lifetimes? This is some new shit twenty seventeen.

I'm not talking about the Porter Ranch ghast Lee.

That's different.

I'm talking about all the fires that we had in twenty seventeen. You literally had like seven fires in twenty seven then so many fires I lost count. But I'm saying this is, this feels different.

Doesn't feel different than me.

It feels different knowing that Pacific Palisades is fucking gone. That doesn't That's not a normal occurrence. Shutting down Santa Monica, peer evacuating Santa Monica, evacuating Culver City Like that's wild, bro. Like I used to work off Lincoln at that Chick fil A, the only one in La County that stays open till midnight.

Like, and I'm seeing I've been.

Like there's parts of La especially downtown, like she's just covered in smoke, like this is this is gross negligence on the part of La City officials. And the fact that Karen Bass decided let me go out of fucking out of the countries to Nigeria right now or Kenya or whichever African country she was in. It's just a bad look. It's a bad look for Newsome who didn't sign the fucking bill. When the firefighters only get twelve percent of their budgets, I think we should just start sitting.

Go shoot these fires.

Homie, We're gonna teach you how to able host. Go go, go make yourself useful. Since the cops get the whole fucking budget. It's like, bro, y'all want law and order. No, you just mostly all are just racists and stupid. But also, it's not lost on me how some of these people who are rich as fuck lost their homes, but you look down on everybody below crinch y'all. That ain't lost on me either. So it's unfortunate that this shit's going on.

All these places are fucked up.

That have never been this fucked up in our lifetime, and the city don't have a plan.

It's kind of scary you walk outside. I have to wear a mask.

Just because like it was, it was fucking shit flying around in the air. The past couple of days, I've just been staying in the house. And if it wasn't for the fires and the storm in Texas, I would have been in Texas for the Cotton Bowl.

But I'm like.

Even then that was a risk because people are scared right now, people are spassing the fuck out. But anytime I see like, oh well, this company is like what's it called party buses are like helping get people to safety, I'm like, I'm retweeting shit like that anytime I see it.

So what was like, I says, if you know where there's.

Help being given, just retweet it, share it because you never know who might need it. I have coworkers whose house is burned to the ground, and as someone who survived my childhood home burning to the ground, I empathized with all these people because I noticed, like, but my family got lucky because my grandfather woke up in the nick of time before all the water.

He just exploded.

One of them exploded in our house and part of the house was on fire. But thankfully him and my grandma got everybody out the house. The firefighters are like, yeah, twenty more minutes, y'all would have all been dead. And this was like when I was like two.

Or three in Eastokeland.

So so my heart goes out to all the victims, people who lost their homes savings. There's a special place in hell for all you people who work in insurance. And I'm not talking like the baseline. I'm talking about you upper management people.

I'm gonna talk to some people.

Who lost their homes and their insurance agents and like their house is fully insured.

I'm like, so you can. You didn't think the hell ab out your neighbors. Like the fact.

That that decision was made from the top, that they're just gonna yank everybody's insurance, fire insurance, national disasters and shit like that, it's sickening to me. It's very inhumane, and it's just it's just sad. It looks like she's gonna get worse before it gets better. But if you woke up today, it's it's getting better. So keep your head up out there.

Yeah.

So for me, I mean, I just got back into town, obviously from Las Vegas. Spent the week out there for CS conferences I usually do. Didn't get to spend a lot of time checking out a lot of products like I normally do. It was mostly doing a lot of stuff, you know, for work and clients, which was good. It was great to you know, connect with some of my clients a little bit of a deeper level, and it was also great to you know, catch up with some

And then.

I talked to you know, people that were here, and they just didn't really seem like they were that bothered by it, at least in my side of the woods.

But yeah, things just continue to progress.

I got a press release from FEMA, got all these updates on my phone as soon as we landed, like the whole plane was just going off.

Everyone was getting emergency alerts.

Then when I sat outside, like it didn't seem as smoky as I thought it would be, Like I remember twenty seventeen, like literally there was ash in there. Like I was literally remember wearing black clothes and there being ash on my clothes, like I literally remember seeing flames on the four or five. Now, granted, if I lived in the valley and like I do like I did, then you know, it might have been like that and

But I think at the very least, it's.

Put California on a national scene, and I think a lot of people are kind of scared based off what they've been seeing. But to the other five million of us that live here that aren't in those you know, highly exclusive areas, like most of us.

Are business as usual. Now.

I'm not trying to overlook people like I know in passing her in Altadina, who like legitimately had to evacuate their homes and legitimately didn't know what was going to happen. You know, I don't want to overlook that because I know some of those people had the worst days of their lives. But for I think for most of us, we're still we still are facing the same problems we were facing before. Just now we have to inhale shit tourn of shitty air when we walk out the door.

They still expect the win to pick back up.

So just prayers for everyone who's out there fighting the fires, everyone out there, you know, providing support, emergency services.

It's good to see all these sports teams step up.

Vikings donated a million, Chargers donated like two hundred k. The staffers are taking buses to take Ramley to the game in Arizona, Like, all these teams are up and I've been doing something, so at the very least, that's good. And yeah, I don't know, Just prayers for everyone, all right. So this Touchdowns and Tangents TD's underscoring tangents on Twitter and Instagram.

Touchdowns and Tangents dot com. We are out. Peace. Peace,