The Year In Review Show

what a strange year it has been. At that we're all going to take a look back at the action, the good bets, the bad beats, and everything in between. I'm just really glad that really is behind us. COVID is officially over. You know, I'm eight hours ahead of New York and I can report that COVID is officially over. It's incredible. Just start writing the history books right now about the abrupt and sudden end to the COVID nineteen

pandemic on December one. It's amazing. Just kidding, I guess we're all still on this crazy train of sticking swabs up our noses and never being able to smile at strangers again. But truly, what would we do without sports? This past year especially, it has been incredible. It gave us something to discuss, something to come together, something to watch. Really a welcome distraction. Your honest, papas you are my co host, You've been with me throughout all of this.

I can't wait to pick your brain a little bit about the highs in the sports world for you this year. First off, what comes to mind? Well, at the beginning, let me just say my favorite moment was starting this podcast with you. Let's just get that out of the way. That's the number one sports moment. Then second, my lobbying effort,

my lob my lobbying efforts. Sorry, I had a half a cup of coffee, so I just called it an effort, my lobbying effort to get bet MGM to change it from the King of sports books to the Queen of sports book. I think we need to be inclusive of all genders what we consider the hierarchy and the feudal system that is this organization. So we are the queen of sports books on this podcast. Heymn, yes, yes, can we stop assuming genders? Please be honest? YEA, oh oh,

who's that? You might wonder? Well, that is our third co host, Peter Andrew. He's become a regular. It was kind of accidental. Again, I told him, he has not been in this broadcasting business long enough. He has not negotiated his contract to get some dividend of this podcast appearance. The poor guy does this for free. You guys for free. So Peter Andrew, welcome back. Yeah, we've been through a

lot this year. I think nothing better than the extensive interview process we went to get Jest on board, but we are able to do it. And look where we're at now, number one podcast in the world. It's crazy. It is crazy, And I mean, how do you think he's done so far? I think I think he can't hear you. Your audio has been so sketchy all year, so you probably can't hear you. Anyways, how do you think he's done effort? I give him an A plus. I think he's getting there. He's taking the steps to

be an excellent podcast host. He started off swinging, bringing stay Mos on, So I mean, right then and there, you knew he was gonna come in hot guns blazing. But we're getting there. We're We're almost there where he's a a perennial powerhouse, kind of like Olivia and the rest of the Harlan n Decker family. Wow, high praise. You know who we really can ask is the guy who hired all of us. He's on with us as well. Me Hall Nago, Me Hall, this is your first appearance

on the show. What do you think? He O'm really happy to be here, really happy. Pete's here as well. He was probably fifth in line up an MGM, but people like Colvin stick and couldn't make it, so even actually got to in the list and you're unark to the jam. I think, so really happy with how things are going, really happy with with our Tree co hosts. A year it's been. I'm looking forward to next year

as well well. If anyone is wondering what they're hearing in his voice right there, that is an Irish accent, ladies and gentlemen, and it's kind of become a joke within our bet MGM social team to do me haul impersonations and I think my best one is and then we can talk at Tree on Thursday, and I think

that's my favorite line to work about. Let me I'll tell us a little bit about where you are in Ireland and how even got involved with bet MGM and where you were before because your path to this point is pretty interesting. Yeah, so I'm actually a Corkman living in Dublin. Um, that's an important point to make that car people are very very proud of where we come from and where we're from the South of Ireland and we're a strong sporting county despite me living in Dublin.

I need to make it clear that from Cork. But yeah, a long story short. I work in the gamblet industry for a long time. Worked for a company called Patty Power over here in Europe for for ten years. Did lots of stuff there and got to know a few people working at MGM, but starting about the work on the side with them, and then was brought in to head up their content efforts and been here over a year and it's been a really fun time. Got to be lots of fun people like Pete and New Olivia

and bringing Adison board as well. So building a dream team over by MGM and really excited about where things are going now. I've got to ask when you were at Patty Power, I know you guys were able to pull off some pretty big stunts. What's the craziest thing you all did for marketing social media while at Patty Power, but some fun stuff sending Dennis Rodmands. North Korea played basketball with pretty good. Yeah. It was called the Big

Bang in pyeong Yang. It was going pretty well until he perhaps killed off his own cale and we kind of had to pull the book on that. But yeah, that was good. But we also did a nice one with Stephen Hawking before he passed away for our World Cup, a social content called Hawking Talking. He came up with a former to take the perfect penalty durning the soccer team. There's a lot of funs, little stuff like that. It

was a pretty pretty impormen, right. I think I think those two uh people you just mentioned represent the opposite spectrums of human intelligence. Oh gosh, well, this is our crew for today to wrap up what's been in incredible years. Now you know who everyone is. We're all getting settled in. I've got to ask everyone just to go around their

top moment in sports this year. Jana's kind of skirted the question, but maybe now something's come to your mind, something that from a betting perspective or just watching absolute magic happened in front of you. What stands out as you start, I'm gonna have to go with uh combat sports. I think it was It's been an incredible year. I think the Fury Deontay Wilder fight the trilogy was incredible.

It was great for boxing. I think the big upset with my Greek patriati from Australia, George Combustas was just an incredible fight. I think Amanda nunia Is getting upset finally getting beat in the UFC was you know, unexpected. Then you had the McGregor fight and his ankle falling off, losing to Dustin Pourrier again, just the way the UFC kind of adapted to COVID protocols and had fights every

weekend on Fight Island and Dubai. I think it was a big year for mm A for the UFC, and it really gave people a lot of joy that every weekend they could tune in and see someone get their face torn off, which is always fun during a pan. So a lot of fun moments in combat sports. That's what I'm going with. My highlight has been just fist the cups, Baby. I like it because you've educated me

a lot on the whole world of fighting. I I didn't know anything, and I've got to say that's one of my highlights of the year was going to Vegas with our bed MGM family. We purposely we all got together actually and decided who and who would not be invited. I'm sorry the three of you made the naughty list. Really, you all didn't get invited. A fury of you, Wilder. We had a blast, We got a joke. We're the under thirty crew. We had like five of us, and

it was a ton of fun. Really regretting being pregnant during that trip, we gotta say, because that trip was a lot of fun and just really cool to see my first fight in person and it being that one the trilogy and you know, Fury one, so it's a good day for the sports book. He was the favorite from a betting perspective. Can you guys weigh in at all on what that looked like and I mean how it ended up playing out for the sports book, Yeah,

I mean, especially in McGregor fight. When we talk combat sports as a whole, that was one of our bigger events for the year for we know how much people are all over McGregor and Poor was actually favorite, but a lot of dog money there, so that ended up being really good for us as a whole combat sports is always pretty positive. The Newness fight was another example.

I think the Wilder Fury fight was pretty even. So that's one of the ones where I think there was a lot of money coming on both sides and you saw the line start to shift as the fight got a bit closer. But UFC, I mean, you never know what's going to happen, and obviously what happened to Connor Le basically chopped in half. That was that was a good result for the book. I love it and me Hall, what about you, what's coming to mind as a top sporting moment in one now in your new role, especially

maybe paying a little bit more attention to American sports. Yeah. I was quite a fan of McGregor ga beat to be honest as an irishman. That does not alone for any over here in the last year too, based off some of his outside the octagon adom ticks. But I would say looking back at the year the whole, probably the two things that stand out to me was first up, the Euros Final, England losing to Italy on penalties and

soccer was huge, especially as an Irish guy. He was nice to see England do so well, get so far

and lose beautifully and penalties was was pretty sweet. But yeah, from a U S sports point of view, I would say the Super Bowl going back to February and Brady winning Super Bowl with the Buccaneers after moving for from from the Patriots and a lot of people saying is this all about Bill Belichick or Brady and Brady going they're improving that he didn't need Belichick too to win a super Bowl, winning Super Bowl MVP for the fifth time.

That's pretty incredible performance, I would say, So that definitely stands out at the top moment. I would say it's for me, it's coming out of COVID or coming out of the start of the first wave of COVID and NBA playoffs. He started with Lakers losing Round one, that Hawks series versus Knicks, kind of the rise of Trade. You saw a lot of opsets. Oh my god, it

was awesome, and he became the heel. And now people are doing crazy because he might not be able to play on Christmas in in New York because of COVID protocol. So it's built a rivalry that will probably be there for the next five ten years. And then you go as you get later into the playoffs kind of the evolution of what the Sons became in the box where you don't have these two powerhouse super teams three four bona fide superstars. You actually have a lot of core guys.

You know, you've got studs like Devin Booker or the Honest, but but you're building these teams that are actually winning without three max deals or or guys taken less money to be able to just join their buddies. And again, favorable results of the book, because who the hell thought the Bucks and Sons would be there? You know, Nets losing in the second round and then Clippers losing as well, Jamal Murray losing in or going out for the season

during the playoffs, so the Nuggets. So a lot of wackiness, but it was really fun and nice to see that we're getting away from those super teams just slightly and actually some other guys have a shot and I think at one point they were both plus I'm sorry, the Sons were plus win it all. I think Bucks were around that thousands of fifteen hundred, So if you cashed in at the right time, you made a pretty penny either getting into the finals of the the Bucks obviously win

in the NBA Championship. Yeah, And I'll just say right now, I just last night I did it. I ordered the NBA League Pass, So last time I did that, I really don't remember doing anything else during the day. So now I have access to every single basketball game that will be happening every single night. So I'll just say last night I watched the Utah local broadcast and it is boring, all right, they're hard people. They had a bear who was playing on pipes, and he was playing

jingle bells on pipes. That was the halftime show in Salt Lake City. They need some acrobats or some fired throwers. I mean, I was bored out of my mind, but I am excited to watch hoops. Yeah, because when you have lead past, you have to watch like the commercial break right, like you're watching what's actually happening in the arena. Yeah, And the funniest part is watching like the local commercials. So like some Salt Lake City used car dealer would

be like, hey, how you guys doing. My name is Mormon, Mormon in I got fifteen kids, my wife, I got sixteen wives, and come down and buy yourself a good old American Buick here in Salt Lake City. Man. Sixteen wives, fifteen kids. That's not good math. One of them is superfluous. That's not right. I told you a long time ago, Olivia, I'm a picture guy. I'm not a math guy. I'm

a picture guy. You know, I'm really glad we're doing this because some of the moments you all brought up I had forgotten about, Like England, Italy, that seems so long ago. The Super Bowl, Tom Brady went name. You know, it feels like it is almost a year ago. It feels so long ago. Let's talk about super Bowl this year. While we're all on here. We all have our different teams or fans of Maybe one of my highlights, sorry to rub this one in, especially to Peter who's a

forty Niners fan. I think one of my highlights is it's been a great year in Wisconsin, sports Bucks winning it all. Packers are looking so dangerous. I just I think they're a lock to make the Super Bowl. And then Aaron Rodgers, and this is one of the more

interesting stories of the I'm immunized, vaccinated, not vaccinated. The scandal around that, all the press and media that got and I wondered at the time would this hurt his m VP odds, And there was real discussion about that since it is a voted award and it's voted on by sports writers, and I even was talking with my dad on it, who's not an m v P voter, and he said, honestly, I feel like people have a short memory in his play is so good. I think

that that storyline will get buried. So this is kind of a twofold thing that's bringing up what's an incredible storyline of one that gave us a lot to talk about. And two, now that we're looking forward at m v P at Super Bowl, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, all the awards, what are some of the updated odds, And do you feel like Aaron Rodgers, who's still a plus money, is a good spot to put some money on. I think it's a great bet.

And to your first point about do people care, I think you're starting to realize or see athletes now speaking against the policies, whether it's vaccination or not, but the testing. So it's actually going the opposite way where players are getting visibly upset and even stop. Steve Iman, the GM president, of the Red Wings the other day freaking out about

it and saying this is ridiculous. So not only do people have a short memory, I think they're actually probably favoring the side that Rogers has been on for the last year. So it's gonna be really interesting to see how many people actually kind of switch gears a little bit and are kind of in agreement with him and the way he's routed this. The handle part in the fake facts or not admitting it or whatever, that's one thing. But you're right, people have fake vax. We'll get to

fake vacs later. That's a whole because now that that's actually impossibility. Yeah, you know, listen, his play is what matters. It doesn't matter what his immunization is or what he speaks on or against. It's he's the guy going to make it to there, and and he's got a shot. He's going to lose to the Niners in the NFC Championship. But but but he's gonna be right there again. He's gonna be close like he always is until the Niners come in and and stomp on him, stomp on the

local calliboys. So it'll be interesting. I've got an opinion there, Olivia. I can agree with Peace. I think that might come back to hold Rogers. In terms of the m v P race, I think because it's voters, I think people will think about that. But but on top of that, more importantly, maybe he won the last year. It's pretty rare to get back to back and the f L m v ps. For me, he is the best player in the league this year. He does so like he

makes that team take. But as guys in my team, though, I've become kind of obsessed with the NFL VP raised this year. I follow the markets actively. I've had lots of beds on us, a Battle Lamar earlier on this season, and back to Mark a couple of games like running on Stafford as well. So I've a okay book. But at the moment, I'm starting to think it might be Jonathan Taylor is here, to be honest, for m VP. It depends on what people now consider the m v

P of a team. I think in the league's eyes, it's the it ends up being the person who has the best record or gets them to the playoffs and gets them to whatever stage. But if you're talking about an actual guy that if you moved him from that team, that team would be absolutely garbage. It's probably Jonathan Taylor because that guy attributes for what seventy percent of their offense. Carson Wentz with his kind of costing mistakes, they don't

really have a solidified number one ride receiver. That guy does it all and he's he's proven it. I think he's got fifteen plus touchdowns this year well, leading the league and rushing our So it depends. It's I don't know that that's the route the NFL takes, but that's why I say, you know, if if they continue on the path of gone the last five ten years with the voting, I think it is Rogers. But if me Nagels on the board and making that vote, I think

it's the opposite. It's shat Rogers is a plus two fifty. When I'm placing a Benn m VP market, I want to find a little bit of value for me. Rogers a plus two fifty at the same price as Brady is plus to fifty is not good value. I would order back Taylor of a privacy plus nine plus one thousand around US. I would order back the year at the odds right now, at the time of recording obviously bat Stafford plays nice again, that's the Seahawks prime time

TV game. These odds could shorten up again, But yeah, I wouldn't back Rogers based off of what happened early this year and based off the fat with the last year plus two fifties too short for me. That's interesting. There's one interesting one that comes into play. It's the local boy for Olivia. It's Mahomes when they're there's some recency bias when they've played as well as they have

over the last couple of weeks. I mean, you always have to throw his name where he started, and you know they had a tough let's call it, first six weeks in the season, but he's been roaring. And what you saw on the fourth quarter the other day in that that Thursday night came against the Chargers plus twelve, it's worth a flyer on it, I think, and picked umping into that. Like you said, the rough plus six first six weeks. He actually played quite well the first

three or four games. So in first September, the Chiefs played well. They may be a bad spot of October and they played badly in two or three games and he had like one touchdown and two touchdown games. But for me, he should I agree with you. I think he should be shorter than what it is. Like Josh Allen was favorite in depending until two or three weeks ago, Like I couldn't understand that. I don't my Homes has had a much better season with Josh Allen, but the

narrative and went against the Holmes for some reason. And if you think about the next couple of weeks, it's gonna be really hard for Brady as short priced favorite or co favorite without Godwin now out the year in Heavan's game to game decision for NET. Banged up Gronk has not been the entire year. So without the targets, Ken Brady plus two fifty favorite exactly can he actually solidify it and put up forty points with with no

targets essentially, So it's gonna be really intriguing. And as a quarterback, can you get m v P voting if you pitched a shut out? You know, I don't know if that's such an ugly mark on your record. At least Patrick Mahomes, they put up a whop in three points on the Titans, so they at least have that he didn't get shut out. Big time. Yeah, I'm sticking with the real sleeper, Davante Adams. I think they may

give it. They may want to give it to Rogers because he's clearly the m v P. But it looks like now defenses are putting two guys on Davante Adams for the whole game. He's the best wide receiver. I'm saying it's gonna be a huge upset. Put your money on Davante Adams. That's my call. And you know how right I've been this year. I throw haymakers and I'm

often right, So I go with my heart. I love watching the guy play, and I think he's making Aaron Rodgers is life so easy right now and opens up so much because he gets so much attention that I think he's the most valuable player in the NFL. Now, I want to ask me haul of question related to his real expertise. This is why we wanted to bring you on because you are the absolute expert for the answer to this question. What is the over under the

plus minus? On the podcast Unleashed being Resigned, It's it's a very good question, like we'll have to put all the stops in the run to the Super Bowl the is to see what we can do. But yeah, I'm pretty happy, hieriting things are going so far. I would say it's a pretty sharpe favorite to be resigned. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. Yeah, we do have Super Bowl coming up, and that's kind of our next big event in person that we're getting together with our bed MGM family is going to be It's

going to be exciting. Everyone needs to make sure they're following all but MGM social channels because we're going to have so much content that week. So just keep that in mind. And obviously we're gonna do so much NFL content through the ment of January trying to get everyone ready, and I'm hoping to bring on some local people. Again, I just have in my head the packers are making it, so I just have like little favors I need to ask of local reporters, former players, all the stuff I

need to do. But it kind of triggered my memory here as we're talking about Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, because something I wanted to ask you guys was favorite sports storyline off the field, off the court this season, and I think one of my favorites and we do have an update. This has been a story we keep up with on the show. Is Jackson Mahomes. We followed this one from the beginning when he poured water on a Raiders fan dancing on Sean Taylor's memorial site at

a Washington game. Overall just being really cringe e on social media. I think we can all agree on that he's just too damn easy to hate. Plus local stuff I hear in my hometown of Kansas City about the whole family that I just think is kind of disturbing. Well, one Kansas City business finally had enough. It's called s OT in downtown Kansas City. They you know, he allegedly came there. He was rude, unkind, caused a scene, made

unreasonable requests. The restaurant took to Instagram just absolutely roasting him. And I guess this is my off the field sports story that I have just had a little bit too much fun following this season. So now you guys go around, what's your off the field sports story? Mine? I think would be the It's Twofold, It's Tiger Woods and his kind of return these last couple of weeks at the p n C after everything that happened but it's also what we're gonna get with Charlie Woods for probably the

next ten years, twenty years. So Tiger obviously one of the Master's two years ago, looked like he was back in top form. Obviously had that terrible accident, you know, I think it was probably eight months ago now at this point. So seeing him come back recover looked really good all things considered. And then Charlie Wood's his twelve year old son, I think coming in plane and looking like he is going to be one of, if not the next big thing in golf. Golf has kind of

taken in elevation, especially with COVID everybody's playing. I think it's become kind of one of the more major sports. Now. Yeah, I had a quick fun one. So over here we have a sport called snooker. I'm I'm sure if you guys know what. Snooker is quite a popular sport in Europe. There was quite a fun story earlier this year, during the summer of the British Open, there was a snooker player called Mark Allen and in the first round of

the tournament he was playing. He's divorced wife Rhan Evans, and the marriage I think ended in kind of acrimonious circumstances and before the game started, there'sn't traditionally like a shake of hands before they they hit the cue ball and Mark Allen went to shake he's divorced wife's hand and she snubbed him, and it was really, really really awkwards. Um, So I would look that moment up on YouTube. It's

quite funny to look at. But in terms of US sports, the Urban Meyer story for me has been it just has been great fun to follow up. Like he must be like university the most head figure in all the football right now, Like from day one, he's sunned like a racist offensive line coach. Um. He drafted Travis Ai and despite having James Robinson, a really good running back, he said there was a quarterback contest being Trevor Lawrence

and Garner Minshew. And despite lawrensing number one taking the draft, whatever happened when he's locked at Singing, he's where you know oo, he's he's like really weird handshake and Mike Vrabel, he's former coach, is just old Josh Lambo. Kicking Josh Lambo was absolutely hilarious. And you know the funniest thing was I actually had the best and started to see night the best on urban Meyer, but to be the first NFL coach sacked. And after the lap dancing instant,

I was like, picturing, wasn't spend my money on? I was, I had to think some bet and that was like, I gonna think my wife, I for a nice dinner and bring her somewhere lovely and just really treat her because this is going to be easy money. And then of course, um, John Green and John Cruden happened. Yeah, whatever happened there. Herban Mayer definitely was a fun story to find up for me, It really was fun because like no one got hurt. He just kept making an

ass of himself. I mean, that was that was such a good story. Ye honest, you had some fun with that urban Meyer story too. That your favorite. It's definitely one of my favorite and me Hall just covered it. So I'll just switch gears and say I think it

was pretty amazing. Let's not forget the Olympics happened this past year, and uh, you know, I was, I'm I'm into the Olympics because I just want the United States to be number one and we ended up being number one in gold medals by one, so we don't we beat China by one? I think it was thirty nine thirty eight. Overall medal count was like one thirteen to eighty eight. But the Simone Bile story was pretty cool because we lost one of our favorite, you know, gold

medal accumulators, and we still edged out China. So that just lets the CCP now that we're still a force to be reckoned with. Don't mess with the USA. These colors don't run baby covid CCP. You want to smoke, we got this smoke. Can I jump into the Olympics one as well, because I'm a big Olympics guy. And that the women's form Ireland do okay? Were we were in competing with communist countries? Are the US to be honest?

But that the women's form the meters hurdles final, Oh yeah, Sydney McLaughlin and I'm not sure if you watched that, but Sitney in the Glaukins in a new wor on record and beating a park and Patrick de Laila Muhammad. I thought that was an amazing race. And Simmy McLaughlin was a big story coming in the Olympics. That was a fantastic moment. Yeah, and the small bile story was cool.

It's just like it brought a lot of attention to how difficult gymnastics is and how mentally if you're off, how dangerous it is to play that sport if you get the twisties. I didn't know what the twisties was before this, and so that was kind of a cool story to to really focus on what those gals and boys do, you know, And it was nice to remember that there was males gymnastics. I didn't even know that,

you know, I forgot that they existed. So because she was out, I paid attention to the men a little bit, and uh, a couple of those guys got some pretty sweet packages in those tight shorts. Okay, are you up at like three am watching that when your wife's gone in bed? Yeah? I mean I was into it. I'm into the Olympics just because you know, I want to. I want, like I said, I want the United States to come out on top. And we did. We still got the goods, so that was nice. I love that

great recap everyone. I I especially like me Hall's recap of Urban Meyer almost like monthly, like you were a lawyer presenting this in a court case. I really like that. Okay, I've got one final question. I want everyone to answer it. I'm really looking forward everyone's answer. I hope everyone's answer is different. How about favorite podcast guest this year? We have had so many. We've had I think up to five NFL Hall of Famers, Pro Football Hall of Famers.

We've had Olympians, we've had MLB, We've had fighters. I mean, it's been a lot of fun comedians, very handsome actors. I guess that's where I had to start. John Stamos, That's just a really tough act to follow. And I'll never forget when we did that episode. I came out and my husband had opened a bottle of wine and cooked in and I was like, WHOA, I wish I have stay mos on more often. This is that wonderful reaction.

He was a little jealous. I think, what about you, guys, y honest you start, You've been front and center for all of them. Yeah. I gotta say they were so many amazing guests. Your dad was a highlight. Getting Kevin Harlan on Suggs was amazing. But I gotta say I think the funnest one we had was maybe Dwayne Bow.

I mean, he was really funny, especially with that Urban Meyer story, the way he was so willing to joke about how he thought it wasn't a big deal and how you know, guys need to blow off steam and uh, Dan Orlovski was great with his dog impersonation and then you tried to you tried to get him to do his uh what was his impersonation? That was horrible and then you just called him on it. Remember that you were like, yeah, he did a Peyton manning that just

absolutely sucked. That was really funny. Yeah, I think those are those are my favorite. I think I Stephen Jackson in in Vegas was probably overall the funnest me and you had. He was so well, you were buzzed. I was buzzed. I was definitely buzzed. You were kind of licking you up a little bit before you didn't know I was pregnant. I was like one week pregnant, trying

to hide it. Yeah, but you know how how we got him to say him and Marshall Falk, you know, to talk about that sort of rivalry was a fun moment. There's so many fun moments. I mean, we've really had some great guests and some great interviews, and uh so it's hard to pick one. Yeah, guys, what sticks out for me? It's too that you guys touched on as a listener who's stay most. I think he was fucking amazing.

You know, he's obviously not the biggest sports scorers, So you guys got out of got out of the sports segment of the podcast a little bit, which was funny. You had like one line you gave him talking about how all your friends, you and your friends go googly for him, and I forget what his responsib was, but it was hysterical. So I was actually listening to that

as a fan. And then the one I got to keep of or or one of a few, is I think your dad, Kevin Harley, we have to do that cool little segment where I would give him a quote that of something he said before on TV and he had to guess the teams or the situation and he went I think I think it was like seven for seven. He knew everything, including baby Abigail, the halftime baby that was just crawling across the court, and he even knew the name of it, which was incredible. So that was like,

because it's my sister's name. He said he'll never forget that. So for for me to get to, like, you know, have fifteen ments with him was kind of cool, especially growing up listening to him on football, college basketball, NBA. So that was that was fun. That was a great one. Yeah for me, I think you had it's called and all the guys I like, aside from your dad Dwayne

bowl Like Dwayne Bowle was was surprisingly funny. I don't really know what he's going to be like, to be honest, I thought it was good full bok T stizzle For me,

he was number one. Yeah, he was really funny, neat to some great stories, but he also came across as really smart, like he's he's recalled for particular games I told was incredible, Like he kind of showed you what he must have been like as a player, Like you can recall particular plays from certain games, and you see T saves a lot TV having fun or in Ballers with the Rock and Entourage or whatever else he's been on.

These seems like this kind of really fun character. But he clearly he's a really smart guy as well, which which people kind of forget about. I think, yeah, yeah, it's funny here and you bring some of these up. I've I've almost forgotten about some of them. It's been amazing. Once a week doesn't sound like a lot, but once a week flies by to record and post a show, so they add up quick. But I mean, we're so lucky we get amazing guests on the show. And that's

that's why I keep coming back. I think that's why our listeners keep coming back. And then j honest, you've been an absolute pleasure to work with this year. You you truly you crack me up. We have a lot of fun. I have a lot of fun at your expense, and I will continue to do so. But this has just been such a blessing. I'm really grateful for all of you. So thank you so much for everything everyone does, because it's a whole team effort. Yeah, it's been fun.

It's looking forward too, and uh, looking forward to those contract renegotiations too, since I'm yeah, Peter, I'm going to hook you up with my agent. You've got to talk. Appreciate it. Yeah, and Maddie and Joel behind the scenes doing an unbelievable job and make us look good. So shout out to them for a great year. Maddie's incredible. Joel. Me and Joel have such a long history. It's good to be working with him again. Joel Solomon. So it's a really star studied team here, and I look forward

to how much we're gonna grow. It's gonna be great. And our resident Aaron Rodgers look like. Alex does such an amazing job. He makes us look good, sound good. Every time Yanna can't pronounce a word on half a cup of coffee or just drops a million f bombs, Alex cleans it up. We're really appreciative of that. Who can forget Alex just the job he has to do, just to get our sound right for twenty five minutesfore we forgo lives. Yeah that's right. Well let's do a

virtual cheers to an awesome yeah cheers. Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's the final two weeks of the NFL season. It's longer than it's ever been. It feels like a long sea season, doesn't he honest, it does. Well. They added a game. You know, a day feels like a year right now during this pandemic, So I don't even know what time is. I'm back inside, I'm in New York City. We're getting hit hard, but we're battling back. We're New Yorkers. We're gonna make it. We're gonna do Okay,

and this virus doesn't seem like it's killing anybody. But you know what, I'm not angry. It just means I'm inside watching more sports. Okay, Well, you're gonna have your hands full this weekend. It's kind of a war of attrition at this point. It's whoever is healthy. That's the whole debate about adding this extra game is really what

position groups take the most beating. We've been talking a lot about that in my household of does it make a big difference to quarterbacks, Maybe not, but to an offensive lignement, Yeah, that that extra game that can shorten careers, that's that's a big game changer. But it does make the playoff race very interesting now, especially in the a f C. It's very tight going into week seventeen. The playoff picture is finally kind of crystallizing. So it's gonna

be good. I picked out a couple of games. Peter cannot join us, but I think I can fill in just fine, and we're gonna do our normal punishment picks. So my first one, Yanni Poppy, is a very important one for the Kansas City Chiefs. They are at the Bengals and they have to win this game and then the game against the Broncos the next week to finish out to have the first place, the first seed in the a f C because they lost to the Titans earlier in the season, so they really have to finish

strong here. So Chiefs at Bengals. Let me give you the line here right now, Kansas City is a five point favorite. What do you think I'll take it? I think uh, I think they're gonna win by more. I think they're gonna win by more. I'm taking Kansas City. They're the team that looks to me like they're putting it together at the right time. And guess what I am now calling The Chiefs are gonna win the Super Bowl. Now,

Green Bay, I'm not impressed with Green based defense. I'm not impressed with their special teams that give up too much points. The offense is the best in the league. But Kansas City is gonna win the Super Bowl. You heard it here first on New Year's Whenever you're listening to this, well, I I guess I gotta agree with you, although I've gotten pretty enamored with all the Joe Burrow stuff this week. He's so fiery and fun to watch, and I love that he just kind of claps back.

And I've been listening on a bunch of podcasts, two different scouts and and everyone who really analyzes quarterbacks, and they're like, there's glimpses of Tom Brady and Joe Burrow, which is pretty scary thing to say this early, which I love. I'm a Joe Burrow fan. I guess I still like the Chiefs if this were in Arrowhead, for sure, but I'll agree with you on this one. I'll take the Chiefs. I just want to say, it sounds like you've been watching Man in the Arena. I mean, have

you been watching Man in the sound? A little fired up on Tom Brady comparisons. No, it's on a very long list. It's amazing. There are still things we have not watched over here in Turkey because we watched a lot of shows. But now I've been dying to watch that. Okay, the next game is also a five point game. It's Cardinals at Cowboys. Just off the top of your head, who do you think is the five point favorite. I'm gonna go with the Cowboys. They didn't think you're right? Yeah, Cowboys,

they clinched, They're looking good. They're Super Bowl contender. Yeah, I agree. And this sounds super awkward to ever say about the Cowboys, but I feel like they've underratedly gotten to eleven wins. Like Cowboys are the least underrated team

in the world. I understand that, but they kind of had a slump and now here they are, they look good and they're kind of winning these games quietly, if that's possible, or maybe no one's talking about it here in Istanbul, I don't know, but hard is the Cowboys, Cowboys and five point favorite. I've gotta go with the Boys. Yeah, and you know, for two we've just invented a new word.

I intend on using it again. Oh, HD just came up with a new one, underratedly Yeah, so um yeah, I'm going with I'm going with the with the old Marlborough Boys, the Marlborough Men, the Cowboys. I like to wear their plan and uh, you know, I'm so angry at the Giants that why not, I'll just go with the Cowboys. And it's almost that I have less faith in the Cardinals. They've just looked horrible. I hate watching Cliff Kingsbury coach every week. DeAndre Hopkins is out until

the playoffs. They're saying the defense gives up big plays. The Cardinals have been a big, fat question mark. And I would love a show of hands to having people picked them to win the Super Bowl. How many people were so hot and Kyler Murray for m v P. I mean, Cardinals were a much talked about team and now here we are, so yeah, okay, we both picked the Boys. We have to disagree on this third one, you know, because still too much Kumbaya. We're still feeling

a little too warm and fuzzy from Christmas. Okay, this is the Monday night football game. It's kind of a stinker. But the reason I'm bringing it up one, it's prime time and these are two seven win teams with a heated rivalry, so it's always kind of fun to watch Browns at Steelers, and the Browns are three and a half point favorite. Okay, you go first. Oh you want to steal my idea or you want to take the opposite, Yeah, you go first. Okay, Okay, I guess I like the

Steelers to cover. So I'm gonna go at the underdog here. Browns have been so sussed as the kids say, And I hate to just completely lose faith in Baker Mayfield, but he looked horrible at lambau Field and I just can't put any trust in them. I'm going to take the underdog Steelers. Yeah, well the Steelers have looked pretty bad as well. They both they both look horrible. They're going in the wrong direction. Yeah, Baker Mayfield, he got his uniforms confused last week when you just throw it

to the wrong team. Looks like O. D B is just in a better relationship right now. He's getting his glow on. He's dancing again. He's a I'm sorry what I called Did I call him HD or did I call him LB J old dirty bastard? Oh? I called him O. D B. I'm sorry, Odell back up JR. He's got his glow up. He's in a new relationship.

It looks like it wasn't him. You know, we all believe it's like when you when you break up and you believe your friend and then you hear the other side and you're like, oh no, maybe it was the Browns. So um, I am going to go with the brown stole. I'm gonna go with the Browns, and I'll tell you why, because you went with Pittsburgh. Yeah. Well, actually that kind of ties a bow on that really nicely. So I'm excited. That's now the one game that we disagreed on. That's

the one we've got to watch next week. But this past week we actually tied Honas, which I think has only happened once or twice this season. We rarely tie, We rarely see eye to eye. There we go. So how about, in the spirit of New Year's Eve, instead of having to write the outro for the other or in this case would be Peter Andrew, how about we do our New Year's Eve sports betting resolution. Do you like that? A resolution? Guy? You're like, I mean, you

are coming up with some great ideas. I don't know if it's that you're over there in Turkey and like there's not much to do, so you're just sitting around getting creative. I don't know what it is, but it's a great idea. Okay, Okay, yeah, I already know what mine is because it was one of the games I mentioned for this week's punishment pick. So this one's easy for me. Okay, So my New Year's fourth betting resolution

is gonna surprise you a little bit. I got really cold on my hometown Kansas City Chiefs halfway through the season. Listeners can go back and hear me, and it mostly had to do with Jack from the Homes. But they went through a slump. The defense looked horrible. They had the four losses early. But now, boy, they turned a page. They've won eight straight. They look so impressive. The offense has been on fire. They've scored at least thirty four

points in four of their last six games. And that defense that was so maligned have gotten their act together. So now actually it's the strength of their team. Seven of those last eight wins they've held opponents to under seventeen points. That is insane. So I mentioned they still play at Cincinnati this weekend and then Denver. They must win for the number one seed in the a f C because of that tiebreaker with Tennessee. Remember that's the game they only put up three points, So that game

could come back to haunt them. That that was just ugly and that was the peak of my um. Chiefs look down. We can call it another one I love it. Yeah. So they've lost four games. I mentioned, that's the same number when they won the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. So I am resolute, resolving, keep inventing words. This is your episode to do that. You're adding to the American lexicon right now. What's the verb of resolution? Make one up? We got the look down and we

got underestimatingly, so we got some good ones. Yeah. I like the resoluting, resolute, resolute, go for it. I am resoluting to just I've been have America too long. I've been speaking English, you've been You've been speaking Turkish for too long. I am resolving, You're resigned, You're you're resigning. Okay, let me just tie you bow on this and get out of here. So my New Year's fourth bedding resolution

is don't give up on your hometown team. That was cold of me, and I don't know what I was thinking. I am with the Chiefs here on out. I think they win out these last two games, and just like you said, Jannest, I think they're a strong super Bowl contender. And I think my two teams will meet in the Super Bowl. How do you like that? I like them Apples, I like them apples. You know, it's good to see a little loyalty back in you. You know, I could tell you why you did that. It's because you are cold.

We know, everyone knows that you You go with the numbers, you go with the with very good analysis, but you don't go with your heart. And that's why I often beat you at the end, because I go with my heart. I'm a Mediterranean kid and I'm all hard and I'm very little knowledge because I'm stupid. So that's a great one. Okay, I'm glad to hear that you're back on with the Chiefs. Yeah. You know what. My New Year's resolution this year is, I'm gonna watch more sports. I'm gonna watch more sports.

I'm talking about anything that's on. I'm talking you know, college volleyball, I'm talking if I see look cross on. I'm watching everything because I think sports, in this god forsaken cynical time that we're living in, sports is like the only pure thing left, you know. So I'm just gonna start watching more sports, and I'm gonna start putting more juice on games. That's my resolution for twenty two.

I'm gonna start believing in myself more when I bet, and I'm gonna start putting this a little more action on games. I've grown a lot of confidence because I've been able to beat Olivia almost every week in one So why not start putting my money where my mouth is and put some juice on games and win some money for my daughter's diapers. But you know what, I got the league past, so I'm gonna I'm just gonna start watching hoops hoops season. It is about to uh

to kick up. I'm excited to start talking hoops on this show. And we should even start covering the Turkish League because you know, we have one of our boys is playing over there, so you know, we gotta start covering what's going on over there and see if the shish Kababs are beating the donors. You know, we's going out with the Baba first, Humus, Hey, you should put some money on these games. They're undefeated. Since Sammy D's got in here, I've been following. I followed him on Instagram.

By the way, the kid puts together a nice outfit. The kid could dress, Yes, yes he does, he really does, and he takes pride in it. Yeah, I mean, the kid is stylish. Dude, you could never tell he was from kwan. He looks like he was born and bred in New York City or Italy. I mean the kid could walk around Milan and I think he would turn heads. He would turn heads in Milan. I mean he is kid is fashionable, he said, And you never know he's

from kwans You never know he was from Wisconsin. You know, you picture those kids being five hundred pounds, having a cheese head and wearing you know, wearing crocs to the game. But you know, or or at least those like, uh, those mountain climbing Merralds. But you know, the kid doesn't wear socks, got loafers on. He's got like a fitted I mean, the kid has just put together. He's put together. He dresses very well. Sam Decker, yeah, Hones, this show man,

you keep me laughing. I can't wait for many more episodes in two man, it's so weird to even say that. But grateful for you, my friend. As we've already discussed with our bosses on this show this week, this was a very interesting show. This was a good one, but really thankful and looking forward to more memories with our audience as well. So make sure You're always staying in touch with us on social media, especially Janice. His thought

bikini pictures are all on his Instagram. You're gonna want to see those, And just let us know who you want to see on the show next because it's going to be a stacked two. Thanks so much everyone. Happy New Year's everybody,