Mina Kimes Talks Playoffs and News Around the NFL

I mean, get your head out of the gut or Olivia, I know, Wait, you starting twenty two off with a bang? Literally, well there you go with another pun. I mean, look at you. I mean there was no bang and we didn't do it. I'm talking about we were on the couch with a blanket watching Netflix. I mean, we're so tired. We're parents. My daughter. I just spent New Year's chasing my daughter around and telling her not to pull things down.

That's all she's doing now. She's at that stage and she just runs around and pulls things off of shelves and bangs her head of the stuff. So my job right now is to keep this child alive. Yeah, he's just like a human bumper car. At this point, that sounds exhausting. No wonder you're tired by eight pm, kind of depressing. You know, you can get a sitter. I know, I know, but you know, I don't know if they got COVID or what, you know what it is. So at this point, it's just she's gonna have to deal

with me and me and the wife. I'm sure she's sick of us. I bet you babies get sick of seeing their parents during quarantine. They're like, we get you know, can I see somebody new? I've had enough of your face. Next time I see a baby, I'm gonna ask him that is That is interesting. No one asked what the babies wanted. No one knew. Nobody takes their their perspective

into consideration. Okay, here's the question. Because you've talked on the podcast about how much you love Christmas, how you think Christmas should be at least eight days, like Hanka all this stuff. How long do you leave your Christmas decorations up? What kind of level of white trashness are you? I keep them up. I mean, you could come into my house in May and those puppies are still up. I am lit up. I mean it is Christmas till

May and my house. I'm not gonna say that's whether that's because I have Christmas spirit or whether I'm just purely lazy, but let's just say it's a little bit above. How about yours? When are you taking your rama? Don taking it down soon? No, I'm I'm going back to the States this week and I will see at our house all the Christmas decorations we put up before we knew we were moving here. And that's like the single saddest thing to do all years, takedown those holiday decorations.

You know, it's still freezing cold outside and just without the festivity. So I just it's a sad day. Hey, it's a really sad day taking all that down. Did you get a chance to watch the college football semifinals. I watched a little bit of the Alabama game, That's all I did. I checked in. I saw they were winning. I saw Nick Saban he you know, his expression doesn't change, and I was like, you know, I know they're gonna win. And that was all I really caught. How about you.

How much do you even get them in? In Turkey? They were too late, so it's obviously New Year's Eve. We went out to a really funding Year's Eve party here in istanbuls Blast and we get home. You know, I'm sober and pregnant. My husband was not. He is not either one of those adjectives. And we got to try to catch the first part of the Alabama Cincinnati game. But you know, that was such a blowout as we knew it would. We talked about it on this show.

That game was pointless and stupid. And I get why there's fatigue of college football because so many people are like, why do we play this whole season and we end up with the two best SEC teams playing each other or in a normal year Ohio State. I get it. It's the blue bloods are too strong, and here we are. I'm thrilled my alma maters in it, Georgia, but I worry about them facing Alabama again. We saw what happened

in the SEC championship and I don't know. I guess this year, since I'm out of college football, we'd talk so much NFL on the show. I get the fatigue now that I'm on the other side. Yeah, what do we do? How do we change it? Do we need to do like a French revolution type of thing. I mean, what are you proposing, your your chay, your your Chegovaris? It tell us how we how do we overthrow the blue bloods? Do we cut their heads off? I mean, what are you talking, Olivia? I'm ready. I guess extended

playoff helps because you have more chaos. That's what so great about the NFL playoffs is anything can happen. You know, it's single elimination. It's so great. And I can't wait to talk to our guest who's coming up after this about kind of looking ahead at the NFL playoff picture as we go into the final week of the regular season, because anything can happen, even this last week, anything can happen. This has been a really fun NFL season. So I

guess I'm on team extend the playoff. It's a very short season, especially now that the NFL seasons one week longer. College football seems so short now. But I don't know, do you agree, yeah something either that or I know it. You can't really do a March madness type of thing, right, I've been explained by that's not possible. But the same applies for basketball. You know, it's like you never know who's gonna win. It's one game elimination and it just makes it much more fun to watch. And so they

got to do something. I think we don't have to have a revolution, but we definitely need to have a meeting and talk starting. No, that's the problem with college football. There are too many meetings, there's too much money, there are too many people with job titles. No one knows what they do. Then C double A is a very confusing web once you peel back that curtain. So no, no more meetings for action, you honest. And speaking of action, I mentioned we have a great guest coming up in

this show. I'm so excited. No one better to talk NFL with than Mina Kimes, ESPN NFL analyst. Plus we'll talk about the final week of the NFL regular season and get some betting advice from Peter Andrew. I can't wait he is back. We're starting twenty two with a clean slate, if you will, with our punishment picks because Joannice just killed me in so I'm really looking forward for my redemption tour. It starts today in the playoffs are almost here. It's gonna be a lot of fun, Yannese.

You know our bad beat of the Week winner? You know who it is for the first week of Is it Craig Jones Brad Beat all the Week? Yep, it is Craig Jones. And again, like every week, Jannis, take this as a lesson. It's one leg of a major parlay. This was a ten leg parlay that my man Craig lost, and it should serve as a warning sign. But also it just makes me want to do it more because that's how you win the big money. And I believe I'm going to Vegas with bet MGM in February for

Pro Bowl and NHL All Stars. So that's when I really rolled up my sleeves and get to betting at our bet MGM kiosks because I just like to do it in person, and I think I'm just gonna build parlays all weekend. What do you think sounds good to me? Go girl, Okay, I may need your help because you have a weird lucky streak when it comes to this. Although I have no idea how, I really have no idea how. I'm telling you I'm on the right side

of history. Well, my man Craig, he got to win a hundred dollars of bet MGM site credit, as does our winner every week. So keep submitting your bad beat of the week. It could be you. I hope it's not me in a couple of weekends. But if you have a really bad beat, let us know. We'll help you out. Okay, this is the part of the show. It's I'm ready for it this week. I am ready for it this week. I knew right away what I wanted to talk about for our Unleashed segment. Ye honest,

it's time. No one let's on. It's okay, So everyone knows what happened with Antonio Brown and the Buccaneers this past weekend. Right. He was welcome back to the team two weeks ago by Bruce Arians after faking a vaccine card or obtaining a fake vaccine card. That's still kind of under investigation, which by the way, is a federal offense, so that's pretty major looming over him. But he was

in a jersey, he was playing. He was dealing with an ankle injury, but cleared by every doctor the whole team. Everyone said he was healthy. Ready to play. Middle of the third quarter. He makes a big show after questionably being benched, but Bruce Arians was asking him to go back in the game and he didn't want to. He said his ankle was injured. All this stuff, so we still don't know all of the rigamaro there, but what

we do know is what happened next. He makes a big show, his teammates telling him calm down, sit down, nothing. He walks off the field, kind of dances off the field. He takes off his paths, he takes off his helmet, he takes off his undershirt, stripping on his way to the locker room, waving fans again, loving the attention. Bruce Arians has since said he has done. Here's my thing with Antonio Brown, and this is like chapter five hundred

of his story of mishaps. Very few people in life, in any profession, get as many second, third, fourth, the six chances as he does. And a lot of people are dealing with a lot of issues, a lot of mistakes made with one one dred of the talent, of the money, of the friends and high places as Antonio Brown.

He was kicked out of Florida International. He questionably robbed a delivery truck with some assault charges involved sexual assault allegations from a personal trainer, something about a helmet, smuggling a helmet from the raiders. I believe doing something wrong there. He's stiffed people for money before, and then this fake vaccine card, which again, if it's all true, as a federal offense. His own friend and chef ratted him out on that, which tells you a lot. I cannot find

a good thing to say about Antonio Brown. There's no redeeming quality, no sign of character or remorse for any of these things or moral compass that were aware of. He was even laughing about it on the car ride home from the game, his driver put on social media. This driver has also gone on some podcasts since that, so making a whole mockery about that. And now let's talk about how he's letting his teammates down and really

greatly affecting the Buccaneers playoffs scenario. They lost Chris Godwin for the season, Mike Evans has been a bit banged up, and most recently with the hamstring injury. Gronk has kind of been the same story, injury prone, having some issues. Tom Brady does not have many playmakers on the outside. He needs Antonio Brown, their offense will have to adjust. His absence greatly impacts their next few weeks, which are very important weeks, and maybe most of all, look how

he's let Tom Brady down. First of all, have you seen the video of Tom Brady looking up saying what happened? You know, he didn't know, he's he's they were down, they were in a hole. He was trying to win the game, and his top receiver, his friend, the guy he has stuck his neck out gone to bat four, is running off, prancing around, taking off his shirt, blowing

kisses to the crowd. It just makes me sick. Now, none of us know his mental illness, If he has CTE all these things, or if he's just a narcissistic asshole, we don't know. That's way above all of our pay grade. If he does have clinical issues, I really hope he can be helped. But boy, are we given him the benefit of the doubt time and time again. I can't

figure out why. As a human being, I certainly have empathy for someone who's greatly struggling, and I really find it gracious and honorable that Tom Brady at the end of all that keep saying, have him have compassion. He's such a class act. But as a football fan, I do not have empathy for Antonio Brown as he's running off the field laughing, proceeding to make a mockery of the people who have protected him and helped him, the fans who have supported him in the game that's given

him so much. So with that I dropped the mic. Yeah, I mean, who knows what's going on there? All I have to say is kids got great abs. I did notice that. That's a redeeming quality, right, And also a little empathy because they were losing to the Jets. So if someone's going to do something that is really inexplicable and a distraction and lose it, I would think it would be during losing to the Jets. But yeah, I

agree with you. It's unfortunate. You know, sometimes when people are born with so much talent, they take it for granted and they're used to getting away with things because the people look the other way because of their talent. I would assume some of that plays into this. You know, when you look at such a long history of problems and such a high level of talent, you gotta say at some point he just probably thought he could continuously

get away with things because of his talent. So it's sad, and yeah, I mean the bucks are in a pickle, now, Buckster in a pickle. Do you think he's done? I think he's done. I think he's absolutely done. I mean, you know, you go on a team with veterans like Tom Brady won the Super Bowl last year, and you don't make it work there. You're it doesn't work out there. There's no other team that's gonna give him a you know, Fresno State that you know is Fresno State and basketball

used to be that team. When I was a kid, it was like, no matter what you did in college football, Jerry would take you. And they're just that's that's not how it works when there's money on the line. And so the NFL is such a team game that you know, Antonio Brown is going to learn the hard way now that you know nobody's bigger than the team of the game. And so that's it. I mean, his his luck has

run out. No one's too talented to overcome all of this, I think, and keep in mind Tom Brady leaving New England. There are a bunch of reasons, but Antonio Brown was a part of that. He wanted to bring Antonio Brown back and Bill Belichick wasn't having it. And Bill Belichick was right as he is a lot of times so and he let a b stay in his house. They celebrated holidays together. I mean, Tom Brady has has been a saint to this man who from the outside looking in,

we don't know everything. I don't know what he's done to deserve that, but I don't think he deserves a second chance after this on the football field. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you, and you know, with football who knows. Let's hope it's not something like ct like you mentioned, and I I hope he's a narcissistic GasHole because you just don't want anyone struggling with anything physical that affects their their mental well being or you know, their mental

well being. So hopefully he's just a narcissistic GasHole. Otherwise he obviously needs help, as every on saying, and it's just an unfortunate story. And boy would it be great if Tom Brady wins another one. Having gone through with he's gone through with Antonio Brown and with the Bucks have gone through there's so many great stories. Like we mentioned the Raiders. I mean, you know, it could be uh, the Bengals have a great story. There's so many great stories.

Stafford going to the Rams, like, I hope it's a good story that wins the Super Bowl, you know, yeah, yeah, I agree. All right, So now it's time for me to unleash here. And I am gonna unleash. There's no way. If you've been listening to the show and you know me and Olivia, there's no way anyone guess she was gonna unleash on anything else. You know, that type of behavior gets her goat. Okay, she likes people behaving. You

like people behaving. And Antonio Brown there's other examples. I'm not gonna bring up his name because we talked about him too much, but you like people behaving. And as you know, if you know me, you're such a square, your bb um. You know. I love the Giants, okay, and what we're going through is the tragedy. It's a national tragedy. COVID is bad, but I think the Giants are worse. So I'm going to be unleashing on my hometown Gigantes. Okay, why are we still seeing actual guys

on the roster on the field. At this point, I mean, let's at least make it an event. If they're gonna lose, let's make it a spectacle. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they're losing because at this point, winds means less than nothing but negative ten passing yards. If we're gonna do negative ten passing yards, let's keep going. Let's make it worse. I want say Kwon Barkley coaching. I want Joe Judges the water Boy. I want giant fans playing in the game in uniform. Okay, if we're gonna

play bad, let's make it a spectacle. Let's have some celebrities play quarterback one down at a time. Who wouldn't love to see Tiktoker's getting tackled. That would be fun, you know, just having them out for the season so they can't make TikTok videos anymore because they got absolutely hammered the offensive line. How about they just start live streaming every down so we can hear what the what

the defensive line is saying to them. Why not, they'll probably do a better job of protecting the quarterback if they're filming at the same time, and the defense should be allowed to take naps in between times they're on the field. I mean, because the Giants defense was exhausted. I want to send them all of my pillow. I'm ordering a whole bunch of my pillows, and I'm sending them to the Giants defense. They were, they were on

the gridiron like what seemed like the whole game. Now I want them to keep losing because it means draft opportunities. I just wish it was worse, is what I'm saying. Okay, that's all I'm saying. How about we make the mascot of the Giants French World War two soldier. You know, just let them know that we're getting rolled over and we're gonna get beat and beat easy. Have some fun with it. We suck. It stinks and I'm hurt. That

was great. That was a great unleashed I really hope you don't ask our guests coming up about the Giants. You you usually find a way to work in one Giants question, and it just seems very irrelevant now more than ever. So just promise me you won't ask mena kids about the Giants. I can't promise you that I'm going to okay without further ado. Let's bring in Mina Kimes. Let's bring in our guest. I'm very excited to talk with her. She's the sharp witted NFL analyst on ESPN,

an amazing Twitter follow. If you haven't followed her, you should. She has a very sarcastic, dry sense of humor. It cracks me up with every tweet. And apparently she's a crossword whiz. Mina Kimes is here. Mina thinks so much. Thanks for having me, guys, now, crossword whizz walk me through that. Have you always been good at it? Where do you find the time to even do them? I've

always been passionate about them. I wouldn't say good at them, but you know, once I got the New York Times at which is what I use, I had more time to do it every day. Well not every day. I really only do Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but uh yeah, I travel a lot now, so I have time on the road to do them, and I do them at night, and it is incredibly nerdy habit. You know, you have a kind of an unusual career path to where you are now. Can you just tell people a little bit

about that. Sure. Yeah, so after ten years of playing in the NFL, I felt like it was time for a new now. Um I was a business journalist for actually eight years about so it was a bit of a career pivot for me. I worked for Fortune News and then a Bloomberg Business Week, and then ESPN hired me as a writer, which I was a writer. Then I joined ESPN the magazine as a writer doing football profile not just football but profiles and cover stories and

that kind of thing. So, um, I went from being a writer to an analyst and then a full time NFL analysts this past year. Can you stay non biased about the Seahawks considering the bond that you had with your dad over them? Or is that something that when you're talking about the Seahawks, your your co workers know, all right, she's not going to be so accurate on

this one. Her heart's too too much in it. I think they know that I'm angrier than people who don't root for them, because I'm probably more critical and more upset when things don't go right. But you know, fortunately for me, we haven't had to talk about them for a few weeks because they've been irrelevant, which is a godsend. But yeah, they you know, they were really obviously relevant for a very long time, so I did talk about them for quite some time, and I always tried my

best to be critical. Well. A couple of teams that are relevant, and I think was the best game of the Sunday Slate was Chiefs Bengals. It's so exciting to watch all these young players and we're going to see him for years to come. What's your take on the Bengals season. They have the two thousand yard receivers who are under twenty three years old. Joe Cool is smoking cigars in the locker room looking like Len Dawson. They're so easy to get behind, and they they're just extremely

fun to watch right now. And you're right, that was definitely the best game in the most exciting game of the weekend. You know, for me, I think watching that offense in particular, it's fun. They're almost like a basketball team live. I know you're big basketball fan because all the wide receivers play different roles, like there's you know, the power forward in jamaar Chase and Higgins does his thing boyd underneath the zama and it presents such a

matchup nightmare for every defense that plays him. As you saw yesterday, you can't play man covered, you can't play you know, I sew up Jamar Chase really using the basketball wards here. But by the same token, if you bracket in, you're gonna leave Tee Higgins opportunities. And Joe Burrow is just so good against pressure and delivering the

ball to them. So I'm excited to watch them in the playoffs because they I think really showed yesterday that playing that caliber of competition in Kansas City, who had been on a bit of a heater, they can keep pace and that's really exciting. I mean, I love watching you on television. I've heard you speak about the Giants a few times, but I'm a huge Giants fan. You know every year it's like we talked about always that

the offensive line is it Daniel Jones. At what point can we start blaming the organization and say this is a semi problem. Yesterday you see Joe Judges press conference. That's one of the wildest I feel like it's almost flown under the radar, maybe just because of everything going on with Antonio Brown and the Chiefs, the Bengals or whatever, but that Joe, Joe, judge, pardon me that press conference he gave where we went on like a teen a rant like was while then by all accounts he's staying

with the organization. My favorite part was when he told the story about former Giants. I wish they were with the Giants, you know, big my girlfriend in Canada, kind of energy. But I think this is a team where Daniel Jones is not high on the list of people I would blame. Obviously has not been played because of injury, just because the roster and the team are so broken. You mentioned Antonio Brown. We talked about it earlier in

the show. What's your read on what we saw Sunday? Yeah, it's really hard to know exactly what happened in that moment, right there's conflicting reports coming out about what was said between him and coaches. Bruce Arians head coach, said, you know, they had a conversation, didn't reveal what was said, did say he didn't know or hear that he was injured.

So I don't really know, But we also know this is a player Antonio Brown, who was quit on multiple teams, been accused of things that are much worse than putting in a football game. So I think at a certain point you have to kind of just blame the organization candidly for giving him. It's not even a second chance, like a fifth, sixth chance, Like this is a gamble.

And yeah, I mean this is a gamble that they made bringing him back, even after the fake vax scar thing, bring him up again and it blew up in their face. I really don't know what else to say. Now. They're in a tough spot because he was the with Chris Godwin injured, he was the number two wide receiver, and I think it's going to really affect their chances down the stretch. What do you think? I hate to say it this way, but do you think there's some CTE

going on here? I I really don't know. You know, with Antonio in terms like his physical and mental health, all I can say is history of very bad decisions and accusations of worse actions. You know, something we've seen in the NFL time and time again is if you're talented enough, and he has a really really special talent,

people overlooked at for a long time. Well, the Buccaneers included, there are a lot of teams kind of been to the finish line completely depleted, certain position groups also taking a bigger toll than others with this extra wear and tear of the eighteenth game, the eighteenth week. What are the pros and cons to you about extending this season? Is it worth it? Well? I mean the pros for the league and the players are money is why they did.

But um, from a football perspective, you're right, you know, losing players two injuries. We obviously the more football you play, the more likely it is that you're gonna lose meaningful players, you know, important players. And then you've got a team like the Green of Packers who are actually getting players back as the season goes along, and that's just kind

of how things shook out for them. I think the league did look out in a way because heading into this week eight team there's still a lot in the air. There was a lot of parody this year and as a result, this long season, it isn't one where I think we're looking at the eight teen nobody really wants to watch and it feels like everything settled. There's still so much to be determined. The charges in the Raiders

likely playing for a playoffs spot. The Niner is you know, going up against the Rams, and just a lot of meaningful football in this final week, and I'm excited to watch. Speaking of the Niners, real quick, we saw Trey Lance get his second start of the season for San Francisco. He's the only rookie quarterback who hasn't really gotten this extended playing time. They get the win. He threw for two fifty and two touchdowns. Has your opinion of Lance

changed at all after seeing that performance? You know, this is an interesting one because he looked really uncomfortable at the beginning, inaccurate and struggles with decision making. But as the game went along, you saw him settling in and then ultimately making some of the throws, both with his

legs and his feet. That explained why they drafted him right, And I think watching him admittently against Houston, you can't help but wonder, well, what if he had played the entire season, where might he be now as a quarterback?

You know, when you look at the Jets where they've had so many struggles on offense, But finally it feels like Zach Wilson is starting to cut down on the mistakes and improve his decision making, and you see the benefits of a young quarterback, saying that's something San Francisco didn't want to do because they viewed themselves as contender as this year and didn't want it to be a

developmental year for Lance. And I understand that, but I do think watching him play, you can't help but leave with some questions about whether or not it would be better for him to play more. What about the Cardinals, you know, big impressive victory shorthanded last week. What are their chances and do you think Murray should get like an extra five yards just when he completes the past, just for being able to see over the line. I like that idea, like a like a bumper bowling kind

of situation. But then you know, defenses would say you've got to take it away because he's so fast, and he is an unfair and advantage in that way. I mean, he's got he looks really hard to tackle, right like I feel like the harder than any player. I think that they want they beat the Cowboys because Cala Murray took over that game with his legs able to connect on some of those go routes that I think he

wasn't hitting for a few weeks. Uh, not having Deander Hopkins had offense is huge amplifid I think because of

the nature of the offense. But um, if you're a Cardinals fan, you know, okay, we get DeAndre Hopkins back, and the fact that they were able to have this kind of offensive performance, and Murray in particular was able to perform this well against the Blitz using his legs, knowing that you have to be optimistic with the realization that Hopkins is probably we're hearing coming through that door at some point. Now. You mentioned their win over the Cowboys.

They also did it with defense. The Cowboys offense was so stymied. Who are the Cowboys? We saw him dip in November, come back in December, they crushed Washington, But who are they now? You know, they're pretty flawed team. I think. Incredible pass rush and when the offense is clicking, they look really versatile and Dacrescott, you know, the decision making, accuracy,

it's all there. But then you have games like this last one against Arizona where they can't really run the ball well, there's no downfield passing attack and the offense is sort of predictable in a way, which is how you end with all those bad passes and the defense knows you're not your it's going to be a a

screen or a short pass. So I think they're gonna have to really rediscover their identity on offense and that Prescott's gonna have to make more plays and take more risks down the stretch because what we saw versus Arizona is not going to cut in the postseason. This is one of the most interesting m v P races this year. We ask every guest we have on who is their favorite? What do they think? Who do you think it's gonna be? Is it Aaron Rodgers, Jonathan Taylor, Cooper cop I mean

nobody talks about Davante. I feel like he makes Aaron Rodgers life very easy. What is your call? So I think it's Rodgers right now. I think it's pretty close. And it's certainly not one of those years like last year, for example, where he really was an unequivocal m v P. I think out there Tom Brady into the mix, you know, pulling his team back from the brink yesterday after that

Antonio Brown incident with some really really remarkable throws. But Rogers just in terms of like the consistency while at a wall with that offense. Yes, he has helped by Davante Adams, but they are down multiple offensive lineman. His floor has been so high. You know, he still continues to play quarterback at such a high level. I can see the case for going Taylor and even Cup you know, in non quarterback. But the value he brings to that team is Rogers rather is apparent, and it was really

apparent when he did play. You did such a good profile, Aaron Rodgers for ESPN magazine a couple of years ago. He's gotten so much criticism this past year, some fair, some probably not fair. What do you think fans don't understand about him? As you got to dig a little bit deeper. I think people have gotten to know him a lot better since then. Yeah, he does all these appearances now, so yeah, I don't know if there's much that people don't know. I mean, I think probably this year.

You know something I've gotten master about with the m v P s. You don't agree with his common terry about vaccination and the importance of it, but you are he's your pick as m v P and I and I've said it's the most valuable player I think, And that's sort of how I look at the award and I think, what, perhaps I don't think it's getting lost in it as well all but I do think he is having a remarkable season and the fact that he's still playing at this level, I think despite not only

his age, but some of the issues that they have had on offense, so the absences, rather and coming off of a few years before this, these last two seasons where things weren't so easy on the field, has been a little bit lost. You know, these last two seasons have been so remarkable that people kind of forget, oh this, you know, Roger's Aaron Rodgers was not playing his best football from two thousand seventeen through nineteen maybe or twenty.

I think that's right, and so to I think have that sort of turnaround this year is something that I think is really interesting and I'm always interested in hearing more about why and what went into that. Do you think he stays I think so, honestly, in large part because the language we're hearing coming out of Green Bay, but also, um, I'm not sure there's a better situation.

I mean, I alluded to some of the absences they've had on that offense, but this is a very good defense with a lot of stars and as you mentioned, you honest I think the best wide receiver in football. What about if he shows up in Seattle though you won't be mad. No, I don't know what's going on in Seattle though, so I don't think if I ran Rodgers, I probably wouldn't go to Seattle. Yeah, hopefully Russell's coming

to the Giants. But speaking of quarterbacks, Big Ben appears to be wrapping up his career at the end of the season. Is there any chance you see him leaving the door open to come back to a different team? And what do the Steelers do next year? I don't see him continuing to play just I don't really think he should frankly, I just purely football perspective. Not playing at a very high level feels like a natural ending point for his career. As far as about the year

should do. It's a tough spot because they will have some cap space with Ben gone, not like a ton, but you know you're going into a draft you're not picking high. But there's also not a lot of quarterbacks, and there aren't a lot of free agents aside from the Rogers and Wilson's and that kind of speculation, it's kind of the usual cast of suspects and free agency.

So it might be a year to take a flyer on someone in the draft, take a beat, focus on rebuilding some other parts of the roster, and then take another swing next year in the draft, maybe if you want to take a quarterback higher. Serious question, Mina, because you're you're obviously an analyst. You sit and analyze plays, game scheme, but you also know a lot about personnel in front office. Does any part of working in an NFL front office appeal to you? Uh? No, I I

don't know that much. So by the way, I'll throw this other thought out there with Green Bay, that is a front office that deserves a ton of credit. And we came under a lot of got a lot of fire. I guess this last offseason because of all the Rogers stuff. But when you watched this team and you look at this roster and see all the contributions they've gotten, not just from players they drafted, but guys they've picked up. It for agency, the deounded Cannibals sold douglasses is of

the world. That is a front office that's doing a very very good job. That's all said. Can you walk us through what your normal NFL Sunday looks like, because your your responsibilities are large. But I also know you have basically everyone's dream of sitting in that big screening room and watching with some amazing former players and coaches. Yeah, it's over there, we called the war Room. Yeah, so for me, a lot of it is you know, obviously you can't watch every game, and even you know you

don't learn anything by watching Gradzone. You can't watch the games. So I always want to go into is a Sunday with an eye towards the games I know we're going to talk about. You're obviously open to if something crazy happens or unexpected as an upset, you might have to rewatch it later, But always have a sense of maybe you know which two game aimes simultaneously in the morning, In the afternoon I want to dial in on and

take notes on. And then later on in the day once you have the condensed film, I can kind of catch up on some of the things I didn't get to see. Which show is the most fun for you to do over at ESPN? Oh gosh, they're all I mean, they're all fun in different ways. I really love the Tuesday episode of NFL Live when we have Ryan Clark in studio watching him and Daniel Lavsky do tape stuff.

It's very fun, just like to for me as a fan and student of the game to learn watching them and seeing kind of them bounce ideas off of each other. And then of course Laura Relige Marcus Spears probably two most fun people to be around on television. We had Dan on the show and he did his dog impersonation, and then he did his Peyton Manning impersonation, which we felt like was not up to par. What's your views

on his Peyton man Is it shit? I actually haven't heard that, but I'd like to take some ownership for the dog thing because he was He just did that one day in the green room and I looked at him and I was like, did that come from your body? And he was like, yeah, it's just a weird skill I have. And so I taped it and put it out on the internet because I was like, people need to see this. This is uncanny, and I don't know how he does it. He says it's something to do

with throwing his voice or but it is. Honestly, Anne is very smart, very talented, but that is by far the best thing he does as a person. I think he was on our show like that week, so we got him at the perfect time. Yeah. No, he's uh, he's Look, he's great to listen to. He's so smart. But he probably had a lot of times on the sidelines to work on that when he was a player. You know, that's entirely possible. You you can developed him. I'd be on the sideline doing cross words, he'd be

on the sideline and practicing his dog impression. I totally agree with you to Laura Rutledge is one of the rare people in this business. I've I've gotten to know her well at my time at ESPN. She's just incredible. Your crew is incredible. You guys do a great job. I also really love you on the podcast ESPN Daily. I was wondering if that kind of brings out something in you that you love because it's a bit more investigative. Yeah,

I really enjoyed hosting that before the football season. Now, Pablo Torre posted does a terrific job, but you know it's that is a little bit more, or was for me, a little bit more like being a reporter because you're kind of looking into a story interviewing someone. I don't really do interviews that much anymore. Occasionally, you know, for a Countdown feature. I just story and justin Herbert this summer, but I rarely do reporting the way that I used to,

and it's definitely something I miss. Okay, So, what moment this season in the war Room, like you've discussed, made people's jaws drop the most? What shook people the most in a good or bad way? Gosh, I don't know that, you know, at the end of the season looking back and trying to identify would have been some of the biggest games. I mean, there's been so many involving the Chiefs.

I would say so many involving the raven is coming down to the final play making the you know, going for it and succeeding going for it and failing on two point conversions absolutely remarkable. I wasn't in the war room this last Sunday, but this Jamaar Chase game from the Banga is the best single game from a wide receiver in recent memory. So that's wild as well. Speaking of rookies, Micah Parsons is just completely taken over the game. Pologies to your Giants, but on on defense that have

really made my jaw drop. So um, you know, it's an exciting time to be a football fan. A lot of young talent. What do you think about the Ramps big comeback win over the Ravens, who seemed to be going south even though it looks so strong at the beginning of the year. And what do you think about Stafford as a ram what are their chances this year

to go all the way? Well, you know, they're not my favorite to go all the way, but like I said, there is a fair amount of parody and a lot of teams are pretty flawed, and I don't really think anyone, including the Packers, is totally dominant. So they certainly got a shot at it. Because when the offense is click. You saw that in the second half of Stafford is

playing really well. They look unstoppable, you know, But you also have seen some of the inconsistency that I think you did see during his career in Detroit, not just in this last game versus Baltimore, but in the last few games, multi turnover games that make you give you a little bit of pause. So ultimately, I think they go as far as Matthew Stafford takes them and we're about to see how far that is. Who would you like to see in the Super Bowl? Most you know,

anything can happen in the playoffs. But right now, as we go into the last week of the regular season, who do you think are the two best teams? Oh? Gosh, well, who do I like? And who I think? I think the two best things? I still think even though they lost that it's the Chiefs and the Packers. I think if I had to pick a Super Bowl, we get Rogers Mahons, which is amazing. What a match that would be, you know, fantastic, Yes, yes, totally. Yeah, so just a

great throwback game. But what I would like to see is I'm always reading for new team's new representation, you know, like the Bengals would be amazing for that fan base. Is a team like the Cardinals, you know, where you know, you just have these kind of young quarterbacks and that that to me is always exciting and fun. But do I think the most likely outcome? No? Not not really. Do you bet you put any juice on games? Do you want us to open account for you at at MGM?

I don't. I don't bet, but I do give advice a lot. Sometimes it goes better than others. I actually have been pretty good against the spread this year though, and my family has a straight up pick um that I am about to win. So not to you know, to my own horn too much, but beat beat but yeah, you know a little bit, a little bit. I also speaking of the war Room, I am about to win the war Room Fantasy League. So what yeah, take that lowis ridd it be to you in the first round? Yeah,

I'm pretty good about that. That's incredible. Yeah, thank you. I mean, you've reached such peaks in your career. There's so much still ahead of you. It's so obvious every time watching you, are listening to you, how well respected you are. Everyone just loves working with you, has such a good things to say about you. What would ten year old men think if she saw you right now? Uh should be really confused. I think that, uh that I'm on television. Forget the sports thing. That's the more

surprising aspect of it. Yeah, I mean tennel me and I wanted to be a writer. I was a writer for quite some time. Maybe I'll go back to being a writer at some point, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying doing what I think every football fan, not everything a lot of football fans dream of doing, which is getting to talk about the sport that I like for a living. That's awesome. What is it about football that

drew you so much to it? Was it just the Seahawks and your dad or was there like, is there something about the game that you just really, you know, connect to on a visceral level, unlike the complexity of it. You know, every week, every day I learned something new about, you know, gameplay, play calling, statistics, personnel, all of it. I think you could spend your whole life studying it

and still learn new things every day. And I think that's what makes it so fun to me, because I guess I'm just a nerd and I like studying, and uh, I like learning, and I now the other thing that's really cool is just getting to be around people who teach me a lot. Is such a privilege. That's awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining us. You've taught us a lot. Our listeners will love to hear your great insight. There's still one more week of the regular season, long season,

but it's been so much fun. Mina. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, guys. Patris Chief spoken. Ye all right, he is back, ladies and gentlemen to start off two strong Peter Andrew, Happy new year, Happy to your guys, back at it and ready for hopefully some more winners for the year. Joannest, what do you think are we doing a fresh slate this year? Jannest, I can't keep up with you from last year. You just whooped my ask. Now we're doing a fresh slate.

Pete's got a fresh, new strong immune system, just back from battling COVID. He's got San Francisco pride on his head, just from one week a good football, you know. So his hopes are up, but they're gonna get let down. It's good to see you healthy, brother. It's good to see you back. Yeah. I missed you guys, not being there last week. It hurt my soul so which was worse than than COVID. But good to be back here. That, Yannas, we're worse than COVID. That's that should be our byeline

for the podcast. Oh no, you're not. You're better than COVID because I felt worse than COVID, right right, we're better than COVID what uh you know? I see you got your San Francisco hat on, buddy? What is it? Are you? Trey Lance? All the way? Now? What should they do? Should Jimmy Jimmy Garoffalo says somebody Tanya harding his knee? I mean, what's the solution over there in San Francisco? How do you get rid of that handsome fucker?

Which is just so part for the Garofo. We'll get your guys thoughts in a second, because that'll be part of you know, teaser, one of your picks that I'll ask you to make, and we'll do a little bit different this week. But I think Niners five and oh in their last five starts against the Rams, I think you gotta go back to Jimmy because he was started for all five of those. So hot take loved Lance. I think he settled in nicely yesterday. I guess a pretty crappy team. M but you gotta go back to

Jimmy if he's healthy. I want it. Before we dig into this weekend slate for the final weekend of the regular season, Updated futures, m v P Offensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Offensive Rookie of the Year. Everything it seems like this is Aaron Rodgers v. Peter Win And after that what really trickles down because there's so many names still in the conversation and it kind of seems like Brady's out of it, although he did

have an incredible, uh save the day performance on Sunday. Yeah, you know, we talked about this in a couple of weeks ago. Hard to see Aaron Rodgers probably two three weeks ago, back to back m vps. But now, I mean the way he's playing. I mean again, we're recording this on Monday, playing yesterday against the half of the Vikings, I guess is what you can say. Obviously no Kirk Cousins,

but absolutely dominant. I mean everything went their away from essentially a first drive, even the couple of field goals to start, but they looked so good, and all that trickles down from Aaron Rodgers down to Davante and the running game. You're right, I think it's you know, it's weird. It's mine's two fifty. I think right now that is the biggest lock of the century. I was talking about it with something today. I need to put a bet

down on it before it changes to five thousand. I don't think there's anyway he doesn't win M v P. I think we've seen you know, you mentioned Brady has dropped a little bit, you know, not in a crazy way, but has not kept up to the Aaron Rodgers kind of level. And even Jonathan Taylor too, where he had a couple of weeks where you know, he didn't rush for two hundred yards and four touchdowns, So he was probably that kind of guy that could have snuck in

and stole it. But it's Rogers all the way. The intriguing one now for me is we talked about offensive Rookie of the Year where it's kind of been back and forth Mac Jones because of how well they've done another community performance, but exactly Jamaar Chase just goes for two hundred plus yards and three touchdowns, was clearly the best best player on the field yesterday. How could it not be Jamar Chase. Mac Jones has done well, but that's been a you know, a kind of a team

victory where they've gotten a click playoffs spot. Where's t Mar Chase is? You know, um, I think we said it the other day, He's probably one of the top three wide receivers with Justin Jefferson Davante Adams, it's probably those three and then it's everyone else, so hard to say anything otherwise. Did you see where Joe Burrow after the game said, I just said effort and I knew Jamarro was gonna be There's like third and seven, Like that's so bad, ascid cool. I love this Bengals team.

I gotta admit everything about Joe Burrow is just awesome. I mean, coming back from the a c L injury, his name played falling off his jersey yesterday. He I mean, he just even the other day they were up. I think I forget what they're playing a couple of weeks ago, throw up twenty one points and he's still just slinging

the ball around, just completely dominant. And he gets to play with a guy in Jamaar Chase that he went to l s U with, So there's already that connection and they are just dominant and they're gonna be dominant for the next seven to ten years. And I think they put the NFL on notice a bit where they can actually still I think they can still clinch the number one seed in the a f C there's four teams I think Collinsworth said can do it, and they're

one of them. That's pretty impressive for a team that's on the up and a guy that just came in off a c L surgery and he's come back and looks How bad a week was it for the book? With the Giants game, I know a lot of people had them winning big, So you guys must have handed out a lot of money. Yeah we got you know, it's funny. We got lucky on a couple, so the bucks, the Bucks losing would have been amazing, but the Bucks

not covering was great. You had a couple, you know, the Cowboys are obviously always a favorite for people to bet on across the country, so that was a good result for us. But then he had games like that where the Bears, I mean they dismantled the Giants, and Giants I think had one receiver healthy who was on the roster last week. They had to bring up all practice squad guys. I mean that game was over before

it started. Between that and then the late game, what was it nine seven to three at one point in the Packers game according to ESPN, I saw that too, I mean, what was it. I mean it was thirty seven three whatever was. But that game, you know, the late game, when it doesn't go our away, it always changes what looks like a decent day, it turns intoto. Oh boy, we got shaken up a little bit because the favorite one, and you know, everybody's trying to bounce

back and put money on that last game. Rams didn't cover, but they were the highest bet team of the weekend. I believe that was a good result for us in one way, whereas obviously spread betting, but actually a lot of people have them within their money line bets too, and because they pull it out. Um, you know, people, you know when you start seeing all these favorites win and trickle into a late game and then Packers clinch it for basically everybody that had those kind of favorite parlays,

that's what does a dirty a lot of times. But it wasn't awful. It wasn't an awful week. It was pretty even down the down the road, and yeah, we'll get it back next week or our customers will get it back from us. Well let's start that right now. Jannie, what do you think do you think in two I make a soaring comeback. I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think two is going to be your year either. You know, right now, you've got a lot of chemicals going on. Your judgment is gonna be off. Um.

You know, you got your making a baby. It's a big baby. So and you think this is just not going to be my ear right, It's just not going to be horrible thing to say to an expecting mother. I just feel like, no, I mean, football wise, it's gonna be your year. You know, you canna have a beautiful baby. But I look at you, you're kind of like the Ravens. You know, you started out strong and then you just fell apart. That's gonna be my nickname for you, the raven Also something to not say to

an expecting mother. You've just kind of fallen apart. No, I don't mean physically. I mean, you know, I just mean your picks, just your picks. I mean, only had one dinner tonight, So I'm not in the mood you've only had one I'm gonna be very quiet during this conversation. Yeah, I mean only one dinner for a pregnant woman. I mean that's like anorexia. Yeah, it feels like it. Yeah, Olivia. You know she used to be kind of cute, but

just was not her year. You know, she started eating for two and I mean the size of that baby that you're gonna have inside, you better just start getting used to going to McDonald's at three in the morning. Okay, Well, if any listeners are still listening, let's get to this week. As I know you wanna start with New Orleans in Atlanta. It's in Atlanta. The Saints are eight, Nate Falcons seven and nine? What do you think in here, Pete? Give us a little preview and then we'll need to make

a pick. Yeah, So we're doing things a little bit different this week because all these games really matter for playoffs seating or to make the playoffs. We're gonna go money line only, so I'll give odds, but importantly, you know, Saints, if they win, they're in. So I'll go through the games really quickly and then we'll go one by one because they all kind of have an effect on each other. So Saints win and Niners lose. The Saints are in the playoffs, Saints lose no matter what Niners are in.

So that's why I wanted to pick those two games, and then the last one, which we'll get into in a couple of minutes' charges Raiders where winning you're in, which is a cool scenario for those guys on Sunday night football. So first one, Saints minus two hundred at the Falcons, who are plus one sixty five. Um. So this is just to win outright, huge game. Falcons playing a little spoiler. They're not having that bad of a season, not as bad as everybody had anticipated. Kyle Pitts looks great.

I think he's breaking records for rookie tight ends. But the Saints obviously playing for something. So game at Atlanta. What do you guys like? Here? Go ahead, Olivia pregnant woman's first you know. I'm looking down the line though, at NFL stats and where the Falcons fall, because, like you said, they still find a way to win some games. I really am not sure how their bottom of the league and like almost every stat so, I I don't know this one. Being at home in the Dome, their

fan base is wild. I don't know if you guys have ever been to a Falcons game, but come you know, with a taser in your pocket. They're they're nasty fans in the best way. But gosh, I don't know. Maybe I'm gonna take Falcons here. Saints. Who's even starting a quarterback this week? Drew Brees. I think it's at this point. Who knows. It's just like, yeah, I'm gonna go Falcons here, kind of surprise you there. Yeah, I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna have to agree with Olivia Falcons. I'm just

going off momentum, how they look recently. I'm going with the Falcons. So we agree on that one. Cool. So, uh, that's great because that means the Niners are in the playoffs. So thank you guys for that I did for you. You deserve it after what you went through with COVID. Thank you. The good thing about this or bad thing, depending on how you look at it, all these games are at so these teams will not know if they're in or not unless they basically take care of their

own their own game. So that's why the league obviously does it. It's at the same time for Niners at the Rams. Like I mentioned earlier, Niners have won five street against l A, but the Rams a little bit different obviously l b J. This time around, they are playing for the division so if they win, they're in and they can actually get I think as high as the two seats. So they're playing for something Niners plus two hundred Rams Mine is two fifty. What do you

guys think? I like the Rams at home. I think what we saw last week from l A is the two editions that they made mid season, Oh b J and von Miller that kind of won this last game for him, which was really incredible. Von Miller kind of sealing the deal there at the end the final two plays I think on defense, and that just showed how adaptable this Rams team has been. And I'm not so sold on Matt Stafford, but he can get the job done. Some people say they want in spite of him last night.

He got a lot of flak last night. I'm gonna take the Rams here, sorry, Pete. I'm going with the hot Niners. They're hot, baby. It's a hot hand riding. I'm riding it. I'm riding a hot hand. I'm going with the Niners, and you're welcome, Pete. Here's another one for what you went through with COVID to know here honest uh pandering early in the year. Yeah, it would be an interesting one, like I said, hot hand, you know,

one five in a row. But who's that quarterback? And what he said, ram are playing for something, playing for home field advantage. They don't want to have to go to Arizona or I have to go somewhere else. So it's a big game. And then the last one here. So this is now flex to Sunday Night football. Awesome game justin Herbert and the Chargers against car at the Raiders in Las Vegas. So you know it'll be bumping,

probably the first real meaningful game in Las Vegas. Chargers minus one fifty and Raiders plus right now, what do you guys like here on Sunday n Football. I think the Raiders got pretty lucky last week. I mean props of them, really fun game to watch at the end, But I think the Chargers are the better team. I think they're so efficient on offense. Or boy, Austin Ekeler, everyone go back and listen to that episode preseason. He

was incredible talking everything outside of football on Unleash. That was incredible. It's hard to go away from the Chargers in this one. Never bet against Vegas. The house always wins. Baby, they're at home. The Raiders are gonna win. They're going in. It's gonna be an exciting game. I'm pumped. I'm sitting down, I'm popping a couple of relief and I'm going to

enjoy that one. The only thing I'll say about the Chargers is they have been very inconsistent where they have all these Keenan Allen Ekeler, Herbert Mike Williams, but somehow they've found a way to lose games. I think the Chiefs one was an example where they look really good for most of it and kind of threw it away in the fourth and obviously until overtime. But I think this is obviously the game of the week and there's

two teams that can win. Vegas has gone through a lot this year, so it could be great for them just as a as a franchise moving forward where they've gone through some tough stuff with Robinson and things of that nature. So it's gonna be a great one. And uh, I think it'd be a good week of football this week for Week eight team. I mean, it's amazing that the Raiders are still in the conversation in Week eighteen after what they've been through this year. I mean, the

Groot in the rugs. It's it's been quite a season. And Derek Carr. I don't think they could have gotten anywhere near this without Derek Carr. He's such an impressive individual, he's such a good leader. So that's it's been fun to watch. I'm I'm with them with their story and even their best player, Waller, Darren Waller out for the last I think it's five weeks or so. I mean, doing it without him as impressive. He's a top probably top three, top four tight end in the league. So

are you're asking to be a good one. God wants them to win. So I go with God. God's the Raiders from God lives in Vegas. God loves the story. He loves the story, what they've been through. He's pulling for them. You know, like you guys just said, all they've went through. They went through some tragedies, they went through some emails. Well they didn't go through you know, the NFL went through some emails. Okay, God's just he's with he He loves Vegas. Baby, God does not love Vegas.

I'm just gonna go ahead and make sure there are any children listening. They know that right now. Okay, that's a perfect place to wrap it up. Peter, thanks so much for joining us. We're glad to see you doing better, my friend. We can't wait to our wedding in fight should be coming in the mail pretty soon. You already said I can bring my baby and my whole family and that it's an open bar. So thank you very

much out my pleasure. It's gonna be fun. I'll let the listeners know what it is too if they want to crash. Okay, everyone, don't forget to follow us along all year. Boy do we have a lot of fun coming up before the super Bowl. We're gonna have a different NFL related guest every week, and so much to talk about as the regular season winds down this weekend in the playoff start. It is a beautiful time of year. You can follow at bet MGM on all social media platforms.

You can follow at Jana's pampas for pictures of him doing weird things around Connecticut, and we can't wait to see you guys throughout the year and see you next week. Thanks, and follow Olivia for a baby bump picks.