January 21, 2021 • 55 mins
Clay Travis dives into the Championship games and tells you which player has the most to lose on the AFC side. Hint: he leads the Bills down the field. Clay brings in the crew to weigh-in on his NFL topic surrounding Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers. Geoff Schwartz is in the house to discuss Clay's Twitter poll about the Championship QB's and helps breakdown both games on Sunday, including the game his brother is playing in. Clay reminds you of his and the crew's preseason Super Bowl picks and everyone on the show picks the Super Bowl and winner. Plus, Danny G. reads this week's winning 5-Star podcast reviews.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the i Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio. We are inching closer to the a f
C and the NFC Championship games. It's going to be
one of the final weekends of the year for you
to be able to watch football. I don't know about you,
but this time of year is always a little bit
(00:45):
bitter sweet because I'm excited to see who's gonna be
in the Super Bowl. But then I know we have
two weeks to look forward to the Super Bowl, and
after that two weeks there's a long day desert of
no football, and uh, I know there are other sports
going on, and hopefully we're gonna have the n C
(01:06):
Double A Tournament. We've got a shortened NBA season and
we've got a shortened n HL season, which both have
a little bit more drama than they ordinarily would, and
all of that rolling together can be very positive. But
to me, there is football season and then there is
non football season. And this has always been and always
(01:26):
will be a football first show. And so we're all
in on football from August all the way through the
Super Bowl, and then we go back to the drawing
board afterwards. And so I'm sitting around thinking a lot
about these a f C and NFC Championship games, and
of course the number one story in the a f
C Championship game is what's going on with Patrick Mahomes's health.
(01:49):
And we're gonna talk to Dr David Child tomorrow at
Pro Football Doc, but I gotta give him a tremendous
amount of credit right off the top here, because he
has absolutely nailed his coverage of Patrick Mahomes's health. And
we'll find out a little bit more today, but it
seems a near certainty at this point that Patrick Mahomes
(02:11):
is going to play on Sunday, and the odds markets
are reflecting uh that as well, and so you are
going to get in the a f C. It's interesting
how this is broken up. Right on the a f
C side, you have got a battle of young gunners
with two young quarterbacks in Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Now,
(02:36):
Josh Allen has not really proven himself in any way
in terms of being a legitimate storyline as a Super
Bowl contending quarterback. He's been the most impressive, most impressive
player this year relative to expectations. And I actually think
(02:56):
we have underrated Josh Allen a little bit. Here's a
data point from NFL research. Josh Allen has joined Patrick
Mahomes and Ben Roethlisberger as the only two quarterbacks under
the age of with multiple wins and a hundred plus
passer rating in a single post season. Mahomes and Roethlisberger
(03:18):
went on to win the Super Bowl in those seasons
last year for Patrick Mahomes and for Big Ben back
in two thousand five. And as if that were not enough,
the last time I love this stat The last time
the Bills played in the a f C Championship was
three when Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the Buffalo
(03:40):
Bills defeated the Chiefs and Hall of famer Joe Montana
thirty thirteen, and a lot of you who are longtime
NFL fans, I can't believe it's been all the way
since that was Joe Montana, remember, left the San Francisco
forty Niners and finished his career with the with Kansas
(04:01):
City Chiefs. So little couple of interesting nuggets there. But
as you think about this game going forward, to me,
Josh Allen has so much more at stake on the
A f C side of the game than Patrick Mahomes does.
Because if Josh Allen wins this game, he's already been
(04:25):
a revelation this year, and it appears he's going to
be able to keep his offensive coordinator, Brian day Ball
for another year. But if you talk about players who
have most impressed us this year relative to what our
expectations would have been, Josh Allen's the third best quarterback
in the NFL this year. Best quarterback in the NFL
(04:46):
arguably this year. Aaron Rodgers second best Patrick Mahomes. Maybe
Aaron Rodgers is a bit of a surprise, just because
I'm not sure that after the last several years, anybody
expect did for Aaron Rodgers, particularly after Jordan's Love got
drafted and the expectation was that Aaron Rodgers replacement had
(05:07):
been brought in. I'm not sure that anybody expected for
Aaron Rodgers to dominate like he did this year. But
we all knew he was capable of domination. First ballot
NFL Hall of Famer, has been for multiple years of
his career, maybe even the past decade, as good of
a quarterback or better of a quarterback than anybody else
(05:29):
in the NFL. The kind of guy, and we'll get
to this in a moment that Tom Brady could say
he watches and just shakes his head because he makes
throws that nobody else can. That is an incredible endorsement.
But it's not a it's maybe a little bit of
a surprise that Aaron Rodgers was this good. It's not
a surprise that he is this good. Does that make sense?
(05:52):
We already know Patrick Mahomes third straight year in the
a f C Championship Game. I have made the argument
for you that if I had to pick anybody in
all of pro sports right now to be a dynasty
for the next decade, I would go with the Kansas
City Chiefs because I believe that Patrick Mahomes is going
to be his generations Tom Brady. But here's the key.
(06:14):
Unlike with Brady, who very early in his career was
set up with a rival in Peyton Manning. Right now,
Patrick Mahomes is the best in the a f C
and there is no rival. There's no Nadal to his Federer,
there's no Manning to his Brady, there's no Phil Mickelson
(06:37):
to his Tiger. Right now, he stands alone. There are
people who are attempting to come after him, Lamar Jackson,
Deshaun Watson, now Josh Allen that are around his age,
but none of those guys have yet demonstrated that they're
capable of winning a big game against him. And so
(07:00):
in the a f C, even though Patrick Mahomes is
coming off of this concussion and I believe he's going
to play, Mahomes has really nothing to prove. Yes, you
would like to see Patrick Mahomes, if you are a
Chiefs fan go out and win a second Super Bowl
(07:21):
at this young of an age. It would definitely further
solidify the argument that he is going to be his
generations Tom Brady and working towards the idea of being
in a ton of Super Bowls. Because if he goes
to back to back Super Bowls at roughly the age
of my goodness, given how many years pocket passing quarterbacks
(07:44):
can last in this league and how high of a
level of play they can have. We're talking about if
you're a Chiefs fan, the next tent or fifteen years
of your fandom, probably what five more Super Bowls at
least four Patrick Mahomes if he can stay healthy. But
that also demonstrates that there isn't that much at stake
(08:07):
for Patrick Mahomes in terms of giving us an idea
of how good he is. But my goodness, for Josh Allen.
If he takes this Bill's team on the road and
they win at Kansas City to go to the Super Bowl,
(08:29):
everything we think about Josh Allen changes overnight, and it
may have changed already because, as I was saying, Josh
Allen is the third best quarterback in the NFL this year,
and his performance came out of nowhere. He's suddenly ten
points better in his overall completion percentage. The Bills in
the space of a year went from a team with
(08:52):
a quarterback they won in spite of sometimes two a
quarterback they won because of It's a big leap for
a quarterback. Remember as recently as last year, we all
talked about Sean McDermott's Buffalo Bills off defense and how
dominant they were and whether or not Josh Allen was
(09:14):
going to be able to keep the car basically on
the road in order for the Bills to win, and
he wasn't last year in his playoff game against Deshaun
Watson when the Texans lost, and then boom, in the
space of a year, It's like a proverbial lightbulb has
gone on for Josh Allen and in this a f
(09:38):
C championship game, he has an opportunity to become the
rival of Patrick Mahomes. The youthful ascendant quarterback who can
challenge Patrick Mahomes is throne. And I understand there's still
Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady and Russell Wilson and other
young other older quarterbacks, quarterbacks over the age of thirty
(10:01):
that are going after Patrick Mahomes. But what I'm looking
for is somebody around his own age, around twenty five
years old, that you can hold up as a rival
that is worthy of contending alongside of Patrick Mahomes to
dominate the league in the years ahead. And my goodness,
(10:22):
can you imagine the reaction in Buffalo if Josh Allen
is able to take the Bills to the Super Bowl. Already,
that city is walking on air. First run in the
playoffs in a quarter century for the Buffalo Bills. The
(10:46):
only teams that have gone longer without winning a playoff
game than the Buffalo Bills in the NFL right now,
we already saw Cleveland in their long drought, But how
about the Detroit Lions, the poor Lions. This is the
category that the Buffalo Bills were in when this season started.
(11:10):
Was they were just hoping. Remember how long they went
without even being in the playoffs, and then they had
to watch that awful Tyrod Taylor versus Blake Bortles playoff game.
It's really remarkable to think about how long it has
been since a team was in this position. The Bills
had the third longest drout without a playoff win in
(11:33):
the NFL at twenty four years. The Lions have gone
twenty nine years without a playoff win. And my goodness,
this doesn't get as much attention. The Bengals have gone
thirty years without winning a playoff game. And now the
Bills aren't just winning, they are rolling. And so as
(11:56):
you look at this, a f C championship game. The
person that has the most at stake on Sunday when
this game kicks off, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
is Josh Allen, because if he gets to the Super
Bowl and he is able to beat Patrick Mahomes and
the Chiefs, all the expectations about his career change. Now.
(12:19):
He gets ratcheted up a great deal because we already know,
those of us who have been fans of the NFL
for a long time, that the Bills have been the
perpetual bridesmaids, and that would be a massive story in
the Super Bowl. Can they finally kick down the door
the Bills and validate once and for all. Jim Kelly,
Andre Reid, Thurman Thomas, all of those guys back in
(12:43):
the day who we used to watch for the Bills
that came so agonizingly close getting to the Super Bowl
year after year. Scott Norwood, don Beebe, remember when he
caught leon Let from behind in the Super Bowl when
the Bills were getting absolutely destroyed by the Cowboys. All
of that at stake. When the Bills go into Arrowhead
(13:08):
this weekend, I cannot wait for it. We come back,
I'll talk about the NFC. Who's got the most at stake,
but no doubt at all. In the a f C,
Josh Allen with the most at stake and the most
to gain. What about the NFC, I'll talk about that
next with you. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
(13:29):
Eastern three am Pacific. We are rolling through the Thursday
edition of the program. Talked about the a f C
and the NFC Championship games. Uh, news out there about
Pack twelve commissioner Larry Scott being on his way out. Uh,
my position pretty straightforward. Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers have
the most at stake respectively in the a f C.
(13:50):
In the NFC Championship game, we know what Mahomes has done.
We know what certainly Tom Brady has done. Not to
say that winning a Super Bowl isn't the goal of
every single season, but I don't know that necessarily our
expectation for Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady changes if those
guys are in the Super Bowl playing against each other.
Would be cool to me to see Patrick Mahomes, who
(14:14):
is his generations Tom Brady go up against Tom Brady,
although although who knows Brady may be playing against Patrick
Moomes for another five or seven years. The way he
looks right now, he looks ageless. But would you guys
in the crew agree with me that this is a
a f C and NFC championship game where Josh Allen
and UH and Aaron Rodgers respectively have by far the
(14:38):
most at stake. What say you, Danny G. Yeah, we
don't always agree on the NFL, but I think you
nailed it with a breakdown of the two players who
have the most to lose. A quick thought for me
on Josh Allen, he deserves a ton of credit for
the hard work he's put in during the offseason. I
know you'll probably agree with me that you heard a
lot of people immediately say that he was a bust
(15:00):
because of his inaccuracy with a football, And maybe that
comes natural to a guy like Patrick Mahomes, but Josh
Allen had to put in so many hours to get better,
and we see the fruits of his labor this season.
I think that he deserves a lot of credit for
what he's putting on the field right now. And as
far as Aaron Rodgers, this dude is almost forty and
(15:20):
I forget that sometimes watching him play, because it still
seems like he's playing at half speed sometimes easy with
everyone else around him, kind of running out of gas,
kind of like a really good home run hitter who
swings the bat seamlessly. Um, you're right. A second super
Bowl win would solidify his place in NFL history. It
was when he won his ring. I remember, I was
(15:42):
still working at an FM radio station DJ and this
big Super Bowl party and all the girls at that
party we're asking for Rihanna. Rude boy. It's been a
long time. Uh, you know, it doesn't seem like it
was that long ago, but it it was. And so
for him to start his career with a Super Bowl win,
and maybe towards the end of his career with a
(16:03):
Super Bowl win, Man, that would be such an accomplishment
for him. And uh, he's had a lot of haters
that have said he's overrated. What about you, uh, dub,
But would you agree with me that Josh Allen and
Aaron Rodgers in the a f C in the NFC
Championship Game have by far the most at stake. Yeah,
I would agree. And if you made me pick just
one of those guys, I would pick Aaron Rodgers because
(16:25):
you're there too, Because I mean, having two super Bowls,
especially at his age, it just takes you to a
whole another level in terms of the history of the NFL.
And Josh Allen, Let's be honest, he's so he's so
far exceeded expectations this year already, Like I feel like,
whatever happened in this game, Josh Allen is you know,
he's announced himself that he's here, and he's one of
(16:46):
the best quarterbacks in the league and he's so young. Um,
I feel like his this season for him has already
been such a wild success. I should put up a
whole question which quarter and see whether or not the
audience out there agrees with me quarterback has the most
at stake? It agrees with you, because I do think
it's Josh Allen in the a f C, and I
think it's Aaron Rodgers in the NFC. But of the four,
(17:10):
I think it's Aaron Rodgers, I really do. I mean, look,
first of all, three of the guys have already won
Super Bowls Mahomes, Rogers and certainly Brady, So you could
argue Josh Allen has the most at stake because winning
your first Super Bowl is by far the most important.
But to your point, I mean, Josh Allen is so
young and he's shown such growth this year that I
(17:31):
feel as if he is going to be in the
a f C Championship Game again. Now you can always
come back and say, well, look at Dan Marino. Guy
got into the Super Bowl. I think it was in
the year two. Never got there again, never got an
opportunity to win another one. It's hard to get to
the a f C Championship Game. It's hard to get
to the NFC Championship Game for most people not named
(17:51):
Tom Brady and uh and or Patrick Mahomes who's now
in his third in a row. Brady's in his fourteenth
conference championship game. Mahomes is in his third conference championship
game in a row, and I think he's gonna be
there a lot. So maybe you could make an argument
Josh Allen, who knows how often he's gonna be there again?
He's won two playoff games. Uh, that's hard to do.
Got some good breaks. They were fortunate to win against
(18:13):
the Colts, fortunate arguably to win against the Ravens. Uh
in in terms of it's not like they came out
and just absolutely dominated in those games were never close.
It's just hard to win the playoffs, period, no matter
who you are, So I think you could make that
argument on Josh Allen's behalf, but I'm with you the
stakes for Aaron Rodgers, given his age. How many opportunities
(18:34):
are you gonna have to get to the super Bowl
in a home playoff game where you are favored against
the team that is talented in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
but that you should beat more times than not. I think, uh,
if you if you play this game a hundred times,
I think probably that that the Packers would win between
sixty and sixty five of them. I don't think that's
(18:57):
a crazy perspective. So they should win this game. Eddie.
Who has the most at stake? I would go Josh
Allen number one. I think him getting a win over
Patrick Mahomes, regardless of what the situation is if Holmes,
if Mahomes plays, puts him at that next level, whereas
everyone else so far, even Mahomes at his young age,
is already kind of NFL royalty. And I think Tom
(19:19):
Brady is actually close to Aaron Rodgers. I get the
argument for Aaron Rodgers. But Tom Brady going to another
conference with another team, with another head coach, with another
group of teammates, and getting back to the Super Bowl
with that team. We already know the storyline of you
know who was going to get back in the Super
Bowl first, Brady or Belichick. Obviously Brady's right there and
he's already the goat. I get that. But it's almost like,
(19:41):
maybe analogy is Lebron James going back to Cleveland and
winning a title. I mean, he you know, he did
win a championship in Miami, and he's won in l A.
But kind of going back and and putting another mark
on his resume with a different team. I don't know.
It's that the fils the way it is for Brady
a little bit. Yeah, And I do think that Brady
winning a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick would be an
(20:05):
incredible sort of notation on his career. Going to a
Super Bowl without Bill Belichick would as well. But for
most of us out there, I think seeing Brady in
the NFC Championship Game and with the wins over Washington
and over the Saints, to me, it's really hard to
argue that Belichick was the driving force of the Patriot dynasty. Now,
(20:30):
the benefit that Belichick we thought had was we were like, well,
Brady's probably only got a couple of years to play
in Belichick might coach another five or six years, so
Belichick has time on his side. I'm not even sure
that's true anymore, because somebody look up Belichick's age. I
think Belichick is seventy now, and maybe Belichick is gonna
coach till he's seventy five or eighty. He might well
(20:52):
do it. But to me, I feel like Brady. If
I were setting the over under on Brady right now,
how many more were years he'll play from now, I
would go two and a half, meaning I think you
would have to argue pretty strongly that he's definitely playing
next year, and I feel like even the year after
that is also feeling pretty likely. Sixty eight alright, so
(21:16):
Belichick is sixty eight years old. I mean, that's getting
up there in age in terms of how old you are,
and so is Belichick. I think maybe sabing seventy. Uh
is Belichick going to coach until he's seventy five? Maybe
he will, But coming into this season, my thought was, well,
Brady's probably only got two years left after how well
(21:37):
he played this year with the Bucks. I'm bumping up
two more years to Brady after this one, and it
wouldn't shock me if he played three more years. So
I'm not sure that Belichick has a year advantage in
terms of coaching like I thought he did. And given
the fact that the Patriots are presumably moving on from
(21:57):
Cam Newton in this offseason, you're gonna have to either go.
Maybe Belichick can put together some extraordinary trade. Maybe he
wants Carson Wentz, Maybe he wants to Shaun Watson. Uh,
maybe there's somebody out there that he thinks he can
win at a high level with if he puts together
a trade. Otherwise, he's gonna go get a rookie quarterback
at best, maybe in the first round. Takes you usually
(22:18):
a couple of years to get a guy back, and
you know, comfortable as a rookie quarterback by and large,
I'm just not sure. To say nothing of going to
the Super Bowl, I'm not sure that Bill Belichick is
ever in a conference championship game for the rest of
his career. In fact, right now, I would bet against it,
and Brady's already there in year one. We'll talk about
(22:40):
this a little bit tomorrow, because I do think it's
a massive storyline as we get ready for the NFC
Championship Game. But to me, Brady has risen up and
dunked all over Belichick. In the argument of who's the
most responsible for the dynasty, Belichick or Brady, it's Brady
and frankly, it doesn't even feel that close to me.
(23:01):
What about you, Roberto, who's got the most at stake? Yeah?
I agree with you with about Aaron, Aaron Rodgers, and Josh.
And if Aaron Rodgers wins under those two bowls, he
still has a legit chance to pass Bred far for
more Super Bowls there with Green Bay and then Josh.
You like Danny say, there's a lot of credit for
his improvement, you know. And with Mahomes in his same conference,
it would be good to see him get over that
(23:22):
hill early, getting past my Homes because Mahomes is definitely
gonna be in his way for for many years to come. Man. Yeah.
By the way, Belichick will be sixty nine years old
in April, so he's close. You know, you know where
he was born, Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah, Um, I think his
dad was in the Navy, if I'm not mistaken. Something
like that was serving when Belichick was born here, and
(23:43):
in fact Belichick's fiancee. They have a place here in
Nashville and spend a lot of the off season here. Uh.
So he is, Uh, he's regularly seen about around here. Uh,
he's close to actually doesn't live very far away. I
was actually funny. One of my buddies was like, he
was at the gym working out. Uh, this is I
think last year, and he looked over next to him
(24:04):
on the uh I think it was the StairMaster. He
was on the StairMaster, and Bill Belichick was on the
stair StairMaster next to him at the gym here in Nashville,
which is I mean, of all the people I know,
you don't really expect to see a famous person probably
on the StairMaster next to you anyway, but I would
definitely do. Like I think it was a sleepless hoodie. Yeah,
(24:24):
he was just right there. You know, like you're sitting
there watching uh you know, probably Sports Center or whatever
it is on your StairMaster screen. Uh, and then you
like you know, do a double or triple take when
you suddenly look next to you and there's a Bill
Belichick working out uh. And and and by the way, it
was the hy uh the the y uh m c
A here in UH in Nashville their popular gyms and
(24:46):
uh and there's boom Bill Belichick in a public gym.
Just you know, to go into town on the StairMaster
next to you. When we come back. By the way,
we are scheduled to be joined by Jeff Schwartz. I'm
gonna put up that pole question you guys way in
who has the most at stake among the quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers,
Josh Allen, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes As we get
(25:09):
ready for the a f C in the NFC Championship
Games and get set for setting the Super Bowl. I
guess it'll be down in Tampa. All that headed your way.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
(25:29):
search f s R to listen live. Jeff Shorts with us. Now, Jeff,
I just put up a poll question, uh, and I'll
ask you the same question that I just asked everybody.
You can go vote yourself in this at Clay Travis
on Twitter. Which quarterback has the most at stake in
the a f C and the NFC championship games on Sunday.
(25:50):
Obviously Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady in the NFC, Mahomes and
Alan in the a f C. What how would you
answer that? Probably Aaron Rodgers. I mean it's just what
his third championship game now, and since he made the
Super Bowl last and um, they haven't done it very well.
I think I'm blown out in a bunch of them.
(26:10):
So I think it's easily him. He's at home. Uh,
they're the best team in my opinion in the NFL
right now, and it's clearly him, like I only it's
even close. I mean, you know, he's he's the oldest,
not the oldest, I guess Tom Brady. But Tom Brady
is still has basically his roster coming back next year.
Right no one and no one expected him to be
in the spot this season, So it's easily Aaron Rodgers. Uh,
(26:32):
that is what the poll question answers are showing so far.
Several thousand of you have already weighed in. Uh, let's see,
and in fact, you're completely coming down in the direction
that I would go with Aaron Rodgers nearly sixty percent
of the vote. Josh Allen's second place with eighteen percent,
Brady third place with six percent, Patrick Mahomes bringing up
(26:56):
the rear with seven percent. I know you're not a doctor, uh, Jeff,
but it seems like all signs are pointing towards Patrick
Mahomes playing at this point. Would you be shocked if
he's not out there Sunday. I mean, the Chiefs listen
to him as a full participant yesterday before realized and
that they broke the rules they made him him a
(27:16):
limited participants. Um, so I think he's very much playing
that yesterday. Obviously, I don't just sign the pictures some practice.
I mean they were they were in a walk through
helmets on her pads on or nothing. But yeah, he's playing. Um,
you know the one you know, the one issue I'd
say with MAHOMESO is maybe not his neck and head,
but his toe. Right if you remember he injured his
toe of that game and he was limping around, he
(27:38):
wasn't the same quarterback, So I wonder how that will
affect him, um Tomes Sunday. But he's playing, I mean
in the line reflects it and and we know he's playing,
come on like it was not even you know, and
you know I know that there. You know, there are
a lot of people are you know, saying it wasn't
concussion either. So that kind of makes it easier to
come back. You know, you're in the protocol, but it
(28:00):
makes it easier to go through the steps. Uh if
you didn't actually get any cushions, are you near death?
You sound like you're sick. No, my voice is just
like it's just like scratches this morn. I don't know, man,
I'm sorry, Yeah, no, I just want to make sure
you're not gonna die. Um, so I feel I feel wonderful.
I just my voice seems like as soon as I
death this morning. I agree. Yeah, we're talking to Jeff Schwartz. Um,
(28:23):
all right, so so let's break down these games a
little bit. Um, we you agree. I think that the
Chiefs have not looked very good if you're a gambler
there one and eight. I think in their last nine
against the number A little bit different though in that
game against the Browns, because if Patrick Mahomes doesn't get hurt,
(28:43):
they looked like they were kind of pulling away. Did
you see things from the Chiefs. That made you more optimistic.
How much are they missing Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, what do
you attribute to their malaise? So the Chiefs would actually
be even the team who has the worst against the
spread records who win a Super Bowl in quite a
(29:05):
long time, Like they don't know most teams that were
the Super Bowl cover most of their games, and they've actually,
like you mentioned that the number you get either one
eight or oh eight and one in their last nine
games against the spread, Like they just haven't finished games
very well. You can excuse that obviously this week against
the Browns. But one moment, that one sequence in the
game that's still kind of worried me a little bit
(29:26):
about the Chiefs and their ability to kind of stop
with someone's throat right like end the game when they
have the chance to do so. So they're up nineteen
three in the in the early second half, and we know,
look they got pretty lucky, right the ball phone was
out the end zone. They come back down and score
three points so easily could have been nineteen three instead
the interset Baker Mayfield and instead of you they get
(29:47):
up on the red zone instead of just going in
scoring a touchdown and ending the game right there, right,
it would have been up twenty six to three, game
virtually over. They those three and out amous the field goal,
And like those little moments. I still wore about them.
When they play Buffalo this weekend, and Buffalo is a
relentless team and they're not going to stop. And so
if they have these moments where they don't kind of
(30:08):
finish a drive in a poor situation, they have an
opportunity to be upset. So I do I do still
worry about that. But when they play their best game,
the Bills are not beating. I mean, that's that's the
thing about it is the Chiefs always have that gear.
So I'm curious, you played eight years in the NFL.
Brady looks like he's Benjamin Button right now. I mean,
(30:31):
I he looks like he's aging in reverse. I I
coming into this season, I thought, Okay, he'll probably play
this year and maybe next year. After this season, I'm
regardless of how it ends. I'm looking at it and
I'm like, man, I think you got to make the
over under two and a half more seasons for Tom
Brady going forward. How remarkable is his longevity and what
(30:52):
would you set the over under at for how many
more seasons he plays, because he doesn't seem close right
now to the end. End. In fact, I mean he's
playing unbelievably. When you dedicate every second of your life
to football, which he does, even every second of the
off season, the regular, every second of his life his
(31:13):
dedicated to maintaining his body. This is what can happen, right.
A lot of guys don't have the mental capacity to
do that. A lot of guys, you know, they spend
nine of their time on their body, right. He spends
one of his time worried about his sport, even in
the off season. So that's if you get when you
eat clean, when you work out, when you kind of
(31:35):
just set your schedule around football. Um, we we all
agree that he's had a little work done on his face, right,
he has to have. I don't understand how he looks
so young like the celebrities and people have money do
that so more part tom Um, you know, so you
know just when you when you dedicate your life to
that and you have the money to do so, this
(31:57):
can happen. Right. We're seeing players play much later into
their careers now. And you know, Drew Brees obviously is retiring.
And Drew Brees got hurt this year and it seems
like he was hurt more than uh the Saints le
at all right, his wife said yes to instagram me
a torn rotator cuff and ribs obviously, and another injury
as well. And you know, Tom Brad's been Fortunately he
(32:19):
gets the ball out cooly. I think it hit very
very often and it just takes one hit to get
him out of the game, right, But he just he
does a good job avoiding contact, of knowing where he
got he has to go with the balls she doesn't
get hit, and of taking Grey's body and dedicating his
wife to football seven and luckily, look, it's it takes
an understanding family to do that, right and his his
(32:40):
wife and his kids, you know, making sure that that
you know, Dad stays unschedule what he has to do
in the offseason stuff. So it's it's a big family
commitment and they've obviously all bought in. I think he
does play at least through the end of his contract,
but just next year and then you know, we'll see
where he goes down because I don't know how many
people are gonna want to forty five year old quarterback.
But we'll I mean, I think the Bucks may want him.
(33:02):
I mean, I don't know how you let him walk
if he's having one year, right, yeah, right, But I'm
saying I I came in thinking he's only got two
years left. If I were setting the over under right now,
not counting this year, I still think the over under
would be two and a half years going forward, like,
and I'd probably take the over because I think he's
probably gonna want to do this year. In fact, they
(33:23):
may go back to the drawing board and at another
year to his to his contract after this year. Who
knows exactly? Uh, when you look at at at what
he has been able to accomplish. One of the great
debates in the world of sports for twenty years has
basically been, Okay, Patriots dynasty, who's more responsible? Belichick or Brady?
(33:47):
Have we ended it in one year with what happened
with the Patriots and what happened with Tom Brady and
the Bucks and and what happened with the Patriots overall,
the Patriots was seven and nine this year with that
bum roster like day, like, that's a pretty good coaching job,
you know, if you want to blame Belichick for the
roster construction, sure, but um, I mean he coached a
heck of a team this year. Again, Cam Newton through
(34:09):
like four touchdown packs season and he went seven and
nine And it wasn't like they were they were two
and two and fourteen. He went seven and nine this
year with that roster. You know, the big win against
Buffalo is a Buffalo believe or ravens On in the rain. Uh,
they's almost see Buffalo and Buffalo. They only they took
Shattle down to the wire earlier in the season. Cam Newton,
(34:29):
you know, had COVID and came back a different quarterback.
I mean like they so, I think it's it's really
hard to say who was the main catalyst of that success.
I think they both were. They both were the perfect
match for each other, right, Belichick and Brady challenged each other,
Uh mentally, they pushed each other. They knew, you know
(34:50):
how they had a win in since you in touch situations.
They just were a perfect pair. I don't think you
can say, hey it was Tom Brady or hey it
was if you get Belichick the Bucks roster. They got
win eleven of twelve games too. I mean, so I
think that it's I know people want to dump on
Belichick now, but he went seven a night with that roster.
I mean, I mean him, we coach in the NFL
are gonna win seven games with the roster he had. Again,
(35:11):
that's probably his fault for the roster. He's the general
manager sort of really. But you know, if you want
to blame him for roster construction, sure, but I think
he'll still coach. Mahomes, Brady and Rogers all have Super Bowls.
Josh Allen is the lone guy who is playing this
coming weekend that does not How much of a revelation
(35:31):
has Josh Allen's performance been this year, and in your mind,
how sustainable is it going forward? Yeah? I was a
guy who never thought Josh how get here? And I
think I had a history of my side. Uh, people
talked about it and nauseam and I was just reading
again he has the best improvement NFL history. There's no
quarterback who's improved more. So if you said, hey, I
(35:54):
always thought this would be Josh Allen, You're just lying
because you hoped you you would. There's just thoughts of
prayers that point where we we've never seen this before
and no one's improved this much in one season in
NFL history, so or even through his first three years.
From this, we're one of the starter two year three.
So you can't say you saw this coming because you did.
You did. We've never seen this core so sustainable. Um,
(36:15):
will he be this good? Probably not? But will he
be bad again? Probably not either. Right, He's probably gonna
settle somewhere in the middle. His his OC coming back
next year, Brian Daviles huge for them. He was up
for some jobs and we'll be able to get any
of them. So that's a huge plus for Allen. So
I don't think he'll be this good next year, but
(36:36):
he won't be bad ever again. I think. Would you
so a couple of stories, let's move out of the
a f C NFC Championship game. Would you trade Deshaun
Watson if you were if you were the owner of
the Houston Texans, or would you be like, dude, we're
going to figure this out. I refuse to move on.
I mean, I would keep him if I was Houston
because I think he's an excellent player. Um, it might
(36:58):
come the situation where or he just makes it so difficult,
yes for him, But you know, people see James Harden
right and obviously training from Houston to Brooklyn, and NBA
players can force trade month easier. A James Harden could
just not play well, which he didn't. He just kind
of like goroofed off right very well, he's a little
out of shape. Deshaun Watson, if he shows up, he's
(37:20):
gonna play well. That's he's not gonna sabotage the team
he saw this year. He's definitely not gonna do that.
So he's not able to really force his way out
of there like James Harden was able to do. Obviously,
the media pressure DeShawn not showing up for training camp
things like that could force him out. But also a
package of three first round picks and two second round
picks and two players like that. There are scenarios where
(37:43):
the Jets have the ambo to get Deshaun Watson. Houston
have to think hard, especially in their situation right now
with no draft picks next couple of years, whether or
not it's worth you know, taking Sam Donald and three
first round picks and rolling with that squads a couple
years um Pack twelve. I know you cover and have
(38:04):
talked a lot about the PAC twelve late. I don't
know how late it was, but I was getting ready
for bed when I saw the news come out about
about Larry Scott being let go. What does that mean
for the PAC twelve? Right move? Wrong move? Uh? And
how optimistic are you about the conference going forward? Now
they're going to be having a new leader? How about
the PAC twelve dump? It is really funny. It is
(38:27):
really funny. The only thing they could have done better
is if they had dropped it like in the morning,
literally while the inauguration ceremony was going on. Look a
look at Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like literally right
as he's like walking up to take his oath and
give his speech. I mean, that's the only way they
could have done it more. But it is very very
funny that that they dropped it on inauguration day, right
(38:50):
in the middle of all the festivities. Uh. Look, I
think Larry Scott did some good things when he was
first commissionary. I mean, we were pretty much behind it
a lot of aspects of it. He got us a
good TV deal and he guys move in the right direction.
But the last couple of years we've just been a
stagnant conference, right we really haven't secure TV rights moving forward.
(39:11):
Our network is very even functioning right now with the
skeleton crew and the ball that has to do with COVID.
We just we waste a lot of money. There's there's
a way to spend our money better in our conference.
And I just hope we hire someone who understands um
that our bread winners are football and basketball. I get
where the conference champions. Olympic sports are great and those
(39:33):
should be celebrated, right, we talked about those on the
radio show. Uh, you know, our Olympic sports are fabulous,
and again we should celebrate those. But we want to
make money and play with the big dogs. We got
to focus our energy more in football basketball playing simple Uh,
And we don't. And so I hope that hires someone.
And you know they talked about Greg Byrne and Alabama
that used to be the Arizona as being Um, you know,
(39:54):
maybe I had seen the list of potential candidates. I
know him a little bit obviously, he's been very successful
in Alabama and previously was a Pack twelve a D. Yeah,
so that they mentioned him as a as a possibility, Um, uh,
you know it would be interesting higher, right, someone who's
been the South, who has who has your connections to
Pack twelve? Who has been a successful conference? Um? You
(40:16):
know Oliver Luck. I talked about Oliver Lucky and who lucks?
Uh father obviously has been an XFL but executive all over. Um,
So I hope they hire the right person for this
job and our First, we need a TV deal. We
need something. Um, it's not you. They're running out of room.
Like everyone else has a TV deal except our conference.
We've gotta figure our TV deal out. And then again
(40:37):
we gotta focus on trimming some sat around how much
we spent as a conference and we were supporting football basketball. Better,
let's go back to the a f C NFC Championship game.
What do you expect to see who's going to be
in the super Bowl when we get to Sunday evening.
In both games have been completed, I think the Packers
cover against the Bucks. Uh. The game I think might
(41:00):
not have to be fairly close at certain points. UM
and the Bills. The Chiefs game is really competitive. I
think if you're looking for an upset, it would be
that game. But I'm not going to pick the Bills
UM in that game. So I didn't a chief to win.
I I don't know if there might be a game
when they went by Spree barely cover. I think they
just haven't covered very well. So the Packers game is
(41:20):
more of a blowout that Chiefs have a close win
of home and we get Chiefs and Packers, I mean
Packers win the Super Bowl. I think they're the best
team right now. Jeff Shorts, I hope you get your
voice back. Enjoy the games, and we'll talk to you
next week. All right, thank you. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays
at six am Eastern three am Pacific. This is the
last weekend where we will have football multiple games until
(41:45):
August regular season. I should go, We'll should say we'll
probably have preseason football as well, but I mean regular
season football games until late August when college football officially
gets underway. I know we'll have some preseason games, but
that is a long time. So uh so we're trying
to enjoy it and squeeze as much fun out of
(42:07):
them as we possibly can. And I thought we would
start here with the third hour of the program, getting
everybody's picks in what the Super Bowl is gonna be
and then we'll also get some of your podcast reviews
out there. By the way, Joe Kinzie, who does fantastic
work for us at OutKick, one of my writers, will
be with us in the next segment to break down
(42:27):
this game. Also, we'll see how he's recovering as an
Ohio State fan as he continues to nurse his wounds
after the Alabama beat down last week. But Danny g
we all make predictions to begin the year, UH, in
the preseason, our expectations for what the Super Bowl is
going to be. You have I believe in front of
you right now all of those predictions. Let's see what
(42:50):
those are, and then we will allow everybody to make
their picks as we get ready for the Super Bowl,
which will be in a couple of weeks from now.
So initial before the season started, what was my prediction?
Your prediction was the Chiefs and Saints in the Big Game,
with the Saints winning at all. Well, so much for that.
So the Saints, uh gave up a seven point lead,
(43:13):
Jared Cook fumbles with five minutes or so to go
in the third quarter, and the Saints are officially eliminated
from contention. I still think the Chiefs are going to
get there. We'll get to that in a moment. What
was your prediction? My prediction? I took the Bills for
the a f C and I went Niners in memory
of radio legend Dave Holmes in the NFC. So the
(43:34):
Bills is a is a bold pick and you may
actually be able to get that one right. That would
be solid. What about Dub what did he have? Dub
had Chiefs Cowboys with the Cowboys winning at all. Yeah,
that's a big swinging a miss there from Dub, but
the Chiefs obviously still alive. How about Eddie? Eddie had
the same Chiefs Cowboys, Cowboys winning at all. It's unbelievable
(43:54):
to me that you guys had the exact same pick,
and then Roberto had the same as me. Roberto did
have the same as you chief Saints with the Saints
winning it all. Right, So what are our predictions now?
I will start. I think that the Packers are a
lot better than the Bucks, and I think the Packers
are playing the best football in the entirety of the
NFL right now. Uh. Therefore, I believe the Packers will
(44:17):
win the NFC. I think they'll cover uh that's a
little bit of a tease. We'll talk about our gambling
picks tomorrow, but I think the Packers will win with
the ease. I think the Packers will be into the
Super Bowl for the NFC. On the A f C
side of the equation, I'm not gonna pick against Patrick
Mahomes maybe forever, even coming off of the concussion maybe
(44:37):
concussion quotation mark concussion and with the toe injury. So
I think that the Chiefs will find a way to
win this game. But as this line is in danger
of ticking out above a field goal, I think the
value is on the Bills from a gambling perspective. Again,
we'll talk about that a little bit more in earnest tomorrow. Oh,
(45:00):
but my prediction is Chiefs Packers in the Super Bowl.
What say you? I'm also gonna go Packers to represent
the NFC, and I'm gonna stay with my A f
C pick of the Bills winning at all. All right, So, Dub,
how would you break this down? What do you think
is going to happen in the A f C in
the NFC championship games? I too like the Packers, and
(45:21):
I think I like the Bills. I really do. You
look at the Chiefs, and we've talked about this before.
They haven't covered a spread since I believe Week eight
against the New York Jets. Pretty crazy. That's a long time.
So they keep underperforming according to the spread. This is
a tight line. It's gonna be less than three. I'm
not sure Patrick Mahomes what his health is. That he's
(45:41):
gonna play, obviously, but is he gonna be Patrick Mahomes,
I'm not sure. I like the way the Bills are playing.
I think it's gonna be Packers Bills in the super Bowl.
Packers Bills. What about you, Eddie? Yeah, you know, Dub
and I picked the same super Bowl at the beginning
of the year. Uh, and we're picking the same super
Bowl now at the Yeah, it's good for you. Guys said,
(46:01):
we're going going down with the ship together. Dob and
I love it. Of course, if Dac would have stayed healthy,
we we would have been right, of course, But I
don't know Cowboys would have made the playoffs. Of course
they would, they would have rolled. What are you talking about? No,
I'm gonna take the Packers at home. Uh, it's it's
their year. Aaron Rodgers is going to be the m
v P of the league, and uh you know, the
(46:22):
question marker on Patrick Mahomes obviously has to be concerned. Uh.
You know, as Dubb said, the Chiefs have kept it
close all year long, and I wonder if they finally
run out of attempts at dodging the bullets in this one.
I'm gonna take Buffalo in a close one. All right,
So Roberto, do you make it unanimous on the Packers? Yeah,
I'm going to packers. Packers gonna went by the way
(46:43):
nerve racking for any gamblers out there, for all five
of us to be on the Packers, Packer's gonna win
at all. And then who wins the A f c U.
I think with my pick the Chiefs. All right, So
there are your predictions as updated from the OutKick crew.
All right, Dan G I believe, by the way, I
appreciate all of you who are giving us reviews. Danny
(47:04):
g reads them all. Are we still getting a lot
or do we need to encourage people to go write
some more reviews? They've been rolling in. I had a
hundred new ones to read yesterday. Wow. Um, so well, everybody,
we appreciate you who are going to give us five
star reviews or the one stars. But you know, obviously
the five star people are the actual smart ones because
they have good taste. Uh and uh, what have we
(47:26):
got in terms of the goal? By the way out
there for everybody listening, be smart, be funny, get Danny
G's attention, and you get a prize pack from out kick.
Yeah you heard the one star review to end last hour,
Let's start this hour with our first T shirt winner,
Keith Connolly fifty six. His title is surfed over on
a wave of LeBatard tears. I was a long time
(47:48):
listener of the pre woke LeBatard show. On the day
is executive friend at ESPN checked himself into rehab. LeBatard
wept openly on air for his friend's health, which I
found admirable. In Out of Nowhere, though, he goes in
on some guy named Clay Travis on Fox Sports. I
had never heard of this Clay guy, but irritating someone
(48:08):
to that level is a special skill, so I checked
Clay out. Been listening ever since. Reminds me of when
Mankind won the w w E title and everyone switched
over from w c W. That's funny, but you know
what's interesting is. This is one reason that I do
appreciate the haters, because haters think that when they're like,
oh this guy sucks, you're gonna hate him. Uh, you
(48:31):
know this is absolutely pathetic. Like I just I I
hate everything about him. That's the best free advertising I
can get, because there are a ton of you out
there listening right now who initially started listening because somebody
said that I sucked or I was awful, or they
hated me. And then you started listening, and maybe initially
you hated me, but over time, I've become Americas sweetheart.
(48:53):
Everybody falls in love with me. All right, Who's up next?
I think you're taking it a little too far with
that last statement. This title from b in the Boro
Local Boy makes good. I don't mean to brag or
draw attention to myself, but my review is probably the
smartest on all of iTunes. This podcast is a daily
must listen. I do prefer plays takes on politics more
(49:14):
than his betting advice, but I enjoy the entire show.
Betting Advice has been on fire for the NFL. I'm
forty four and I grew up in good Litzville. It's
nice to watch Clay's Rise been a loyal listener for years.
Love Danny g dubbed Roberto and Eddie p S. I
(49:35):
also have as many titles as George Carl. Yeah, George
Carl is really obsessed with me on Twitter For people
who don't know. Sometimes I do think it's funny because
I think about being a kid and watching let's say
the Sonics play against the Jordinara Bulls, and if you
had told me one day that George Carl in the
future was just going to be obsessed with every opinion
I had and tweeting about me kind of maniacally, I'd
(49:58):
be like, what in the world, Like how was what
kind of what am I gonna do when I grow
up that that guy who I'm watching on television on
NBC is going to be obsessed with me. Same thing,
by the way, with Keith Oldman. You know, when I
was a kid eating my serial watching Dan Patrick and
Keith Olberman, if you had told me when I was,
you know, twelve years old, Hey, that guy who's on
Sports Center is going to be obsessed with your opinions,
(50:18):
you know, in twenty five years, I would have been like, what,
why is he gonna care about me? At all but
welcome to my life. George Carl Keith Olderman obsessively tweeting
me all the time. Alright, our next exclusive five star
T shirt winner. His title is Listener in Africa. His
name is a handle on iTunes, the Wooten Sea. He says,
I live and work in Nairobi, Kenya. I enjoy the
(50:41):
show so much. It's the only sports show I can
listen to and not have to fast forward through the show.
I listened to the entire thing every day and every
episode are Wootton in Africa. I will say this um
as somebody who has lived, uh you know out so
I lived in the Caribbean for a couple of years
after I graduated from law school. And I do think
(51:04):
that there are a lot of international listeners who are
sports fans and if you're a little bit removed from
maybe your favorite sports teams. And I think about this
even when I went to college in Washington, d C.
In sort of the early days of the internet, it
can be a real connection to home. I know we
have a huge number because I hear from you guys,
(51:25):
a huge number of soldiers overseas and just American ex
pats in general who don't get the opportunity to have
as much access to American sports as maybe you would
certainly if you were living in the United States. And
so I appreciate the number of you who reach out
and say, hey, you help me feel like I'm not
that far away from home. If I'm a soldier serving overseas.
(51:47):
If I'm I'm betting that that guy in Kenya is
not just some random African dude who suddenly has ended
up being interested in American sports and listening to our show,
I bet it's somebody from America who has had a
connection to sports prior and were his connection back home. Uh. So,
I do appreciate that, and uh and I'm glad that
we can be sort of your conduit to your sports
(52:11):
fandom back in the United States if you have to
be overseas, all right. In our final five star winner
for this week his handled guitar Mike title most honest
sports Personality. I've been a daily listener since I discovered
Clay on YouTube because of Clay's honest opinion of the
truth about the virus and the pandemic and not worrying
(52:32):
about being politically correct. I love to listen to the
program and not have to believe he is towing the
media line. I may not agree with all of his
sports takes, but I can at least respect where he
comes from because of his perspective on the corrupt media. Uh.
This is interesting. Uh thanks for that that review. It's
made me wonder how did you find our show? You know,
(52:54):
I've been telling you that I want to use the
hashtag OutKick more in one so you guys and interact
with each other during the course of the show. So
I'm gonna check it out during this commercial break. How
did you find this show? How did you come to
make us a part of your morning? It's interesting that
guy says on YouTube, our YouTube videos have gotten really popular. Uh,
(53:16):
and I don't. I don't know what the algorithm is
or how YouTube videos end up with audiences or how
that works. In fact, I found out that we were
popular on YouTube from my sons, who are probably if
you have young kids, they don't really watch television. They
spend all their time on YouTube all day. It's crazy.
Um and uh and so and and they have. They
(53:39):
were like my my ten year old and my twelve
year older, Like dad, I'm you know, every now and
then I see one of your videos cycle through and
you're getting a ton of comments and people love the
videos that you're putting out. And so I imagine some
of you out there listening right now have found us
through YouTube. But right now, let let us know, Uh,
hashtag out kick. How did you find the show? Did
(53:59):
somebody tell you a friend, family member that they loved
or hated me? Was it YouTube? Was it you're just
happened to be flipping on the local radio dial. Was
it through our website at OutKick? Was it through something
that you saw on television? Maybe on Fox News when
I've done some of those hits. I'm genuinely curious, how
(54:19):
did you come to be listening to this show? How
did it happen? Hashtag OutKick and let me know. I'll
scroll through during the commercial break. I'm curious to see
from you guys how you found us and how you
ended up a part of the OutKick crew. Uh do
I have As we go to break here, I want
to tell you Joe Kenzie's gonna be up next. He's
one of our writers at OutKick. Gonna dive into a
(54:41):
lot of stories with him NFL college football. Uh. And
also we'll find out. What is you guys are clicking
on that is shocking him? One of the answers, By
the way, and maybe you guys are not surprised by this.
I'm kind of surprised by it. I know Paulina Gretzky
is good looking. Every time we put up a Pauline
a Gretzky store, a million people read it. It's uncanny.
(55:03):
It's like people break their fingers clicking on the latest
news about Pauline Nagretzky. She is, uh, the girlfriend of
Dustin Johnson, the p GA player, and obviously the daughter
of Wayne Gretzky, the hockey uh, the greatest hockey player
of all time in the mind of many hockey fans.
You guys can't get enough of Paulin Nagretzky. What else
can you not get enough of? This is outkicked the
(55:26):
coverage with Clay Travis
Thanks for listening to the best of out Kick the
Coverage podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
morning from six to nine am Eastern three to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for OutKick the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every morning on the i Heart
Radio app by searching f s R. This is the
best of OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox
(00:22):
Sports Radio. We are inching closer to the a f
C and the NFC Championship games. It's going to be
one of the final weekends of the year for you
to be able to watch football. I don't know about you,
but this time of year is always a little bit
(00:45):
bitter sweet because I'm excited to see who's gonna be
in the Super Bowl. But then I know we have
two weeks to look forward to the Super Bowl, and
after that two weeks there's a long day desert of
no football, and uh, I know there are other sports
going on, and hopefully we're gonna have the n C
(01:06):
Double A Tournament. We've got a shortened NBA season and
we've got a shortened n HL season, which both have
a little bit more drama than they ordinarily would, and
all of that rolling together can be very positive. But
to me, there is football season and then there is
non football season. And this has always been and always
(01:26):
will be a football first show. And so we're all
in on football from August all the way through the
Super Bowl, and then we go back to the drawing
board afterwards. And so I'm sitting around thinking a lot
about these a f C and NFC Championship games, and
of course the number one story in the a f
C Championship game is what's going on with Patrick Mahomes's health.
(01:49):
And we're gonna talk to Dr David Child tomorrow at
Pro Football Doc, but I gotta give him a tremendous
amount of credit right off the top here, because he
has absolutely nailed his coverage of Patrick Mahomes's health. And
we'll find out a little bit more today, but it
seems a near certainty at this point that Patrick Mahomes
(02:11):
is going to play on Sunday, and the odds markets
are reflecting uh that as well, and so you are
going to get in the a f C. It's interesting
how this is broken up. Right on the a f
C side, you have got a battle of young gunners
with two young quarterbacks in Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. Now,
(02:36):
Josh Allen has not really proven himself in any way
in terms of being a legitimate storyline as a Super
Bowl contending quarterback. He's been the most impressive, most impressive
player this year relative to expectations. And I actually think
(02:56):
we have underrated Josh Allen a little bit. Here's a
data point from NFL research. Josh Allen has joined Patrick
Mahomes and Ben Roethlisberger as the only two quarterbacks under
the age of with multiple wins and a hundred plus
passer rating in a single post season. Mahomes and Roethlisberger
(03:18):
went on to win the Super Bowl in those seasons
last year for Patrick Mahomes and for Big Ben back
in two thousand five. And as if that were not enough,
the last time I love this stat The last time
the Bills played in the a f C Championship was
three when Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the Buffalo
(03:40):
Bills defeated the Chiefs and Hall of famer Joe Montana
thirty thirteen, and a lot of you who are longtime
NFL fans, I can't believe it's been all the way
since that was Joe Montana, remember, left the San Francisco
forty Niners and finished his career with the with Kansas
(04:01):
City Chiefs. So little couple of interesting nuggets there. But
as you think about this game going forward, to me,
Josh Allen has so much more at stake on the
A f C side of the game than Patrick Mahomes does.
Because if Josh Allen wins this game, he's already been
(04:25):
a revelation this year, and it appears he's going to
be able to keep his offensive coordinator, Brian day Ball
for another year. But if you talk about players who
have most impressed us this year relative to what our
expectations would have been, Josh Allen's the third best quarterback
in the NFL this year. Best quarterback in the NFL
(04:46):
arguably this year. Aaron Rodgers second best Patrick Mahomes. Maybe
Aaron Rodgers is a bit of a surprise, just because
I'm not sure that after the last several years, anybody
expect did for Aaron Rodgers, particularly after Jordan's Love got
drafted and the expectation was that Aaron Rodgers replacement had
(05:07):
been brought in. I'm not sure that anybody expected for
Aaron Rodgers to dominate like he did this year. But
we all knew he was capable of domination. First ballot
NFL Hall of Famer, has been for multiple years of
his career, maybe even the past decade, as good of
a quarterback or better of a quarterback than anybody else
(05:29):
in the NFL. The kind of guy, and we'll get
to this in a moment that Tom Brady could say
he watches and just shakes his head because he makes
throws that nobody else can. That is an incredible endorsement.
But it's not a it's maybe a little bit of
a surprise that Aaron Rodgers was this good. It's not
a surprise that he is this good. Does that make sense?
(05:52):
We already know Patrick Mahomes third straight year in the
a f C Championship Game. I have made the argument
for you that if I had to pick anybody in
all of pro sports right now to be a dynasty
for the next decade, I would go with the Kansas
City Chiefs because I believe that Patrick Mahomes is going
to be his generations Tom Brady. But here's the key.
(06:14):
Unlike with Brady, who very early in his career was
set up with a rival in Peyton Manning. Right now,
Patrick Mahomes is the best in the a f C
and there is no rival. There's no Nadal to his Federer,
there's no Manning to his Brady, there's no Phil Mickelson
(06:37):
to his Tiger. Right now, he stands alone. There are
people who are attempting to come after him, Lamar Jackson,
Deshaun Watson, now Josh Allen that are around his age,
but none of those guys have yet demonstrated that they're
capable of winning a big game against him. And so
(07:00):
in the a f C, even though Patrick Mahomes is
coming off of this concussion and I believe he's going
to play, Mahomes has really nothing to prove. Yes, you
would like to see Patrick Mahomes, if you are a
Chiefs fan go out and win a second Super Bowl
(07:21):
at this young of an age. It would definitely further
solidify the argument that he is going to be his
generations Tom Brady and working towards the idea of being
in a ton of Super Bowls. Because if he goes
to back to back Super Bowls at roughly the age
of my goodness, given how many years pocket passing quarterbacks
(07:44):
can last in this league and how high of a
level of play they can have. We're talking about if
you're a Chiefs fan, the next tent or fifteen years
of your fandom, probably what five more Super Bowls at
least four Patrick Mahomes if he can stay healthy. But
that also demonstrates that there isn't that much at stake
(08:07):
for Patrick Mahomes in terms of giving us an idea
of how good he is. But my goodness, for Josh Allen.
If he takes this Bill's team on the road and
they win at Kansas City to go to the Super Bowl,
(08:29):
everything we think about Josh Allen changes overnight, and it
may have changed already because, as I was saying, Josh
Allen is the third best quarterback in the NFL this year,
and his performance came out of nowhere. He's suddenly ten
points better in his overall completion percentage. The Bills in
the space of a year went from a team with
(08:52):
a quarterback they won in spite of sometimes two a
quarterback they won because of It's a big leap for
a quarterback. Remember as recently as last year, we all
talked about Sean McDermott's Buffalo Bills off defense and how
dominant they were and whether or not Josh Allen was
(09:14):
going to be able to keep the car basically on
the road in order for the Bills to win, and
he wasn't last year in his playoff game against Deshaun
Watson when the Texans lost, and then boom, in the
space of a year, It's like a proverbial lightbulb has
gone on for Josh Allen and in this a f
(09:38):
C championship game, he has an opportunity to become the
rival of Patrick Mahomes. The youthful ascendant quarterback who can
challenge Patrick Mahomes is throne. And I understand there's still
Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady and Russell Wilson and other
young other older quarterbacks, quarterbacks over the age of thirty
(10:01):
that are going after Patrick Mahomes. But what I'm looking
for is somebody around his own age, around twenty five
years old, that you can hold up as a rival
that is worthy of contending alongside of Patrick Mahomes to
dominate the league in the years ahead. And my goodness,
(10:22):
can you imagine the reaction in Buffalo if Josh Allen
is able to take the Bills to the Super Bowl. Already,
that city is walking on air. First run in the
playoffs in a quarter century for the Buffalo Bills. The
(10:46):
only teams that have gone longer without winning a playoff
game than the Buffalo Bills in the NFL right now,
we already saw Cleveland in their long drought, But how
about the Detroit Lions, the poor Lions. This is the
category that the Buffalo Bills were in when this season started.
(11:10):
Was they were just hoping. Remember how long they went
without even being in the playoffs, and then they had
to watch that awful Tyrod Taylor versus Blake Bortles playoff game.
It's really remarkable to think about how long it has
been since a team was in this position. The Bills
had the third longest drout without a playoff win in
(11:33):
the NFL at twenty four years. The Lions have gone
twenty nine years without a playoff win. And my goodness,
this doesn't get as much attention. The Bengals have gone
thirty years without winning a playoff game. And now the
Bills aren't just winning, they are rolling. And so as
(11:56):
you look at this, a f C championship game. The
person that has the most at stake on Sunday when
this game kicks off, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
is Josh Allen, because if he gets to the Super
Bowl and he is able to beat Patrick Mahomes and
the Chiefs, all the expectations about his career change. Now.
(12:19):
He gets ratcheted up a great deal because we already know,
those of us who have been fans of the NFL
for a long time, that the Bills have been the
perpetual bridesmaids, and that would be a massive story in
the Super Bowl. Can they finally kick down the door
the Bills and validate once and for all. Jim Kelly,
Andre Reid, Thurman Thomas, all of those guys back in
(12:43):
the day who we used to watch for the Bills
that came so agonizingly close getting to the Super Bowl
year after year. Scott Norwood, don Beebe, remember when he
caught leon Let from behind in the Super Bowl when
the Bills were getting absolutely destroyed by the Cowboys. All
of that at stake. When the Bills go into Arrowhead
(13:08):
this weekend, I cannot wait for it. We come back,
I'll talk about the NFC. Who's got the most at stake,
but no doubt at all. In the a f C,
Josh Allen with the most at stake and the most
to gain. What about the NFC, I'll talk about that
next with you. Be sure to catch live editions about
Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at six am
(13:29):
Eastern three am Pacific. We are rolling through the Thursday
edition of the program. Talked about the a f C
and the NFC Championship games. Uh, news out there about
Pack twelve commissioner Larry Scott being on his way out. Uh,
my position pretty straightforward. Josh Allen and Aaron Rodgers have
the most at stake respectively in the a f C.
(13:50):
In the NFC Championship game, we know what Mahomes has done.
We know what certainly Tom Brady has done. Not to
say that winning a Super Bowl isn't the goal of
every single season, but I don't know that necessarily our
expectation for Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady changes if those
guys are in the Super Bowl playing against each other.
Would be cool to me to see Patrick Mahomes, who
(14:14):
is his generations Tom Brady go up against Tom Brady,
although although who knows Brady may be playing against Patrick
Moomes for another five or seven years. The way he
looks right now, he looks ageless. But would you guys
in the crew agree with me that this is a
a f C and NFC championship game where Josh Allen
and UH and Aaron Rodgers respectively have by far the
(14:38):
most at stake. What say you, Danny G. Yeah, we
don't always agree on the NFL, but I think you
nailed it with a breakdown of the two players who
have the most to lose. A quick thought for me
on Josh Allen, he deserves a ton of credit for
the hard work he's put in during the offseason. I
know you'll probably agree with me that you heard a
lot of people immediately say that he was a bust
(15:00):
because of his inaccuracy with a football, And maybe that
comes natural to a guy like Patrick Mahomes, but Josh
Allen had to put in so many hours to get better,
and we see the fruits of his labor this season.
I think that he deserves a lot of credit for
what he's putting on the field right now. And as
far as Aaron Rodgers, this dude is almost forty and
(15:20):
I forget that sometimes watching him play, because it still
seems like he's playing at half speed sometimes easy with
everyone else around him, kind of running out of gas,
kind of like a really good home run hitter who
swings the bat seamlessly. Um, you're right. A second super
Bowl win would solidify his place in NFL history. It
was when he won his ring. I remember, I was
(15:42):
still working at an FM radio station DJ and this
big Super Bowl party and all the girls at that
party we're asking for Rihanna. Rude boy. It's been a
long time. Uh, you know, it doesn't seem like it
was that long ago, but it it was. And so
for him to start his career with a Super Bowl win,
and maybe towards the end of his career with a
(16:03):
Super Bowl win, Man, that would be such an accomplishment
for him. And uh, he's had a lot of haters
that have said he's overrated. What about you, uh, dub,
But would you agree with me that Josh Allen and
Aaron Rodgers in the a f C in the NFC
Championship Game have by far the most at stake. Yeah,
I would agree. And if you made me pick just
one of those guys, I would pick Aaron Rodgers because
(16:25):
you're there too, Because I mean, having two super Bowls,
especially at his age, it just takes you to a
whole another level in terms of the history of the NFL.
And Josh Allen, Let's be honest, he's so he's so
far exceeded expectations this year already, Like I feel like,
whatever happened in this game, Josh Allen is you know,
he's announced himself that he's here, and he's one of
(16:46):
the best quarterbacks in the league and he's so young. Um,
I feel like his this season for him has already
been such a wild success. I should put up a
whole question which quarter and see whether or not the
audience out there agrees with me quarterback has the most
at stake? It agrees with you, because I do think
it's Josh Allen in the a f C, and I
think it's Aaron Rodgers in the NFC. But of the four,
(17:10):
I think it's Aaron Rodgers, I really do. I mean, look,
first of all, three of the guys have already won
Super Bowls Mahomes, Rogers and certainly Brady, So you could
argue Josh Allen has the most at stake because winning
your first Super Bowl is by far the most important.
But to your point, I mean, Josh Allen is so
young and he's shown such growth this year that I
(17:31):
feel as if he is going to be in the
a f C Championship Game again. Now you can always
come back and say, well, look at Dan Marino. Guy
got into the Super Bowl. I think it was in
the year two. Never got there again, never got an
opportunity to win another one. It's hard to get to
the a f C Championship Game. It's hard to get
to the NFC Championship Game for most people not named
(17:51):
Tom Brady and uh and or Patrick Mahomes who's now
in his third in a row. Brady's in his fourteenth
conference championship game. Mahomes is in his third conference championship
game in a row, and I think he's gonna be
there a lot. So maybe you could make an argument
Josh Allen, who knows how often he's gonna be there again?
He's won two playoff games. Uh, that's hard to do.
Got some good breaks. They were fortunate to win against
(18:13):
the Colts, fortunate arguably to win against the Ravens. Uh
in in terms of it's not like they came out
and just absolutely dominated in those games were never close.
It's just hard to win the playoffs, period, no matter
who you are, So I think you could make that
argument on Josh Allen's behalf, but I'm with you the
stakes for Aaron Rodgers, given his age. How many opportunities
(18:34):
are you gonna have to get to the super Bowl
in a home playoff game where you are favored against
the team that is talented in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
but that you should beat more times than not. I think, uh,
if you if you play this game a hundred times,
I think probably that that the Packers would win between
sixty and sixty five of them. I don't think that's
(18:57):
a crazy perspective. So they should win this game. Eddie.
Who has the most at stake? I would go Josh
Allen number one. I think him getting a win over
Patrick Mahomes, regardless of what the situation is if Holmes,
if Mahomes plays, puts him at that next level, whereas
everyone else so far, even Mahomes at his young age,
is already kind of NFL royalty. And I think Tom
(19:19):
Brady is actually close to Aaron Rodgers. I get the
argument for Aaron Rodgers. But Tom Brady going to another
conference with another team, with another head coach, with another
group of teammates, and getting back to the Super Bowl
with that team. We already know the storyline of you
know who was going to get back in the Super
Bowl first, Brady or Belichick. Obviously Brady's right there and
he's already the goat. I get that. But it's almost like,
(19:41):
maybe analogy is Lebron James going back to Cleveland and
winning a title. I mean, he you know, he did
win a championship in Miami, and he's won in l A.
But kind of going back and and putting another mark
on his resume with a different team. I don't know.
It's that the fils the way it is for Brady
a little bit. Yeah, And I do think that Brady
winning a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick would be an
(20:05):
incredible sort of notation on his career. Going to a
Super Bowl without Bill Belichick would as well. But for
most of us out there, I think seeing Brady in
the NFC Championship Game and with the wins over Washington
and over the Saints, to me, it's really hard to
argue that Belichick was the driving force of the Patriot dynasty. Now,
(20:30):
the benefit that Belichick we thought had was we were like, well,
Brady's probably only got a couple of years to play
in Belichick might coach another five or six years, so
Belichick has time on his side. I'm not even sure
that's true anymore, because somebody look up Belichick's age. I
think Belichick is seventy now, and maybe Belichick is gonna
coach till he's seventy five or eighty. He might well
(20:52):
do it. But to me, I feel like Brady. If
I were setting the over under on Brady right now,
how many more were years he'll play from now, I
would go two and a half, meaning I think you
would have to argue pretty strongly that he's definitely playing
next year, and I feel like even the year after
that is also feeling pretty likely. Sixty eight alright, so
(21:16):
Belichick is sixty eight years old. I mean, that's getting
up there in age in terms of how old you are,
and so is Belichick. I think maybe sabing seventy. Uh
is Belichick going to coach until he's seventy five? Maybe
he will, But coming into this season, my thought was, well,
Brady's probably only got two years left after how well
(21:37):
he played this year with the Bucks. I'm bumping up
two more years to Brady after this one, and it
wouldn't shock me if he played three more years. So
I'm not sure that Belichick has a year advantage in
terms of coaching like I thought he did. And given
the fact that the Patriots are presumably moving on from
(21:57):
Cam Newton in this offseason, you're gonna have to either go.
Maybe Belichick can put together some extraordinary trade. Maybe he
wants Carson Wentz, Maybe he wants to Shaun Watson. Uh,
maybe there's somebody out there that he thinks he can
win at a high level with if he puts together
a trade. Otherwise, he's gonna go get a rookie quarterback
at best, maybe in the first round. Takes you usually
(22:18):
a couple of years to get a guy back, and
you know, comfortable as a rookie quarterback by and large,
I'm just not sure. To say nothing of going to
the Super Bowl, I'm not sure that Bill Belichick is
ever in a conference championship game for the rest of
his career. In fact, right now, I would bet against it,
and Brady's already there in year one. We'll talk about
(22:40):
this a little bit tomorrow, because I do think it's
a massive storyline as we get ready for the NFC
Championship Game. But to me, Brady has risen up and
dunked all over Belichick. In the argument of who's the
most responsible for the dynasty, Belichick or Brady, it's Brady
and frankly, it doesn't even feel that close to me.
(23:01):
What about you, Roberto, who's got the most at stake? Yeah?
I agree with you with about Aaron, Aaron Rodgers, and Josh.
And if Aaron Rodgers wins under those two bowls, he
still has a legit chance to pass Bred far for
more Super Bowls there with Green Bay and then Josh.
You like Danny say, there's a lot of credit for
his improvement, you know. And with Mahomes in his same conference,
it would be good to see him get over that
(23:22):
hill early, getting past my Homes because Mahomes is definitely
gonna be in his way for for many years to come. Man. Yeah.
By the way, Belichick will be sixty nine years old
in April, so he's close. You know, you know where
he was born, Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah, Um, I think his
dad was in the Navy, if I'm not mistaken. Something
like that was serving when Belichick was born here, and
(23:43):
in fact Belichick's fiancee. They have a place here in
Nashville and spend a lot of the off season here. Uh.
So he is, Uh, he's regularly seen about around here. Uh,
he's close to actually doesn't live very far away. I
was actually funny. One of my buddies was like, he
was at the gym working out. Uh, this is I
think last year, and he looked over next to him
(24:04):
on the uh I think it was the StairMaster. He
was on the StairMaster, and Bill Belichick was on the
stair StairMaster next to him at the gym here in Nashville,
which is I mean, of all the people I know,
you don't really expect to see a famous person probably
on the StairMaster next to you anyway, but I would
definitely do. Like I think it was a sleepless hoodie. Yeah,
(24:24):
he was just right there. You know, like you're sitting
there watching uh you know, probably Sports Center or whatever
it is on your StairMaster screen. Uh, and then you
like you know, do a double or triple take when
you suddenly look next to you and there's a Bill
Belichick working out uh. And and and by the way, it
was the hy uh the the y uh m c
A here in UH in Nashville their popular gyms and
(24:46):
uh and there's boom Bill Belichick in a public gym.
Just you know, to go into town on the StairMaster
next to you. When we come back. By the way,
we are scheduled to be joined by Jeff Schwartz. I'm
gonna put up that pole question you guys way in
who has the most at stake among the quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers,
Josh Allen, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes As we get
(25:09):
ready for the a f C in the NFC Championship
Games and get set for setting the Super Bowl. I
guess it'll be down in Tampa. All that headed your way.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app
(25:29):
search f s R to listen live. Jeff Shorts with us. Now, Jeff,
I just put up a poll question, uh, and I'll
ask you the same question that I just asked everybody.
You can go vote yourself in this at Clay Travis
on Twitter. Which quarterback has the most at stake in
the a f C and the NFC championship games on Sunday.
(25:50):
Obviously Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady in the NFC, Mahomes and
Alan in the a f C. What how would you
answer that? Probably Aaron Rodgers. I mean it's just what
his third championship game now, and since he made the
Super Bowl last and um, they haven't done it very well.
I think I'm blown out in a bunch of them.
(26:10):
So I think it's easily him. He's at home. Uh,
they're the best team in my opinion in the NFL
right now, and it's clearly him, like I only it's
even close. I mean, you know, he's he's the oldest,
not the oldest, I guess Tom Brady. But Tom Brady
is still has basically his roster coming back next year.
Right no one and no one expected him to be
in the spot this season, So it's easily Aaron Rodgers. Uh,
(26:32):
that is what the poll question answers are showing so far.
Several thousand of you have already weighed in. Uh, let's see,
and in fact, you're completely coming down in the direction
that I would go with Aaron Rodgers nearly sixty percent
of the vote. Josh Allen's second place with eighteen percent,
Brady third place with six percent, Patrick Mahomes bringing up
(26:56):
the rear with seven percent. I know you're not a doctor, uh, Jeff,
but it seems like all signs are pointing towards Patrick
Mahomes playing at this point. Would you be shocked if
he's not out there Sunday. I mean, the Chiefs listen
to him as a full participant yesterday before realized and
that they broke the rules they made him him a
(27:16):
limited participants. Um, so I think he's very much playing
that yesterday. Obviously, I don't just sign the pictures some practice.
I mean they were they were in a walk through
helmets on her pads on or nothing. But yeah, he's playing. Um,
you know the one you know, the one issue I'd
say with MAHOMESO is maybe not his neck and head,
but his toe. Right if you remember he injured his
toe of that game and he was limping around, he
(27:38):
wasn't the same quarterback, So I wonder how that will
affect him, um Tomes Sunday. But he's playing, I mean
in the line reflects it and and we know he's playing,
come on like it was not even you know, and
you know I know that there. You know, there are
a lot of people are you know, saying it wasn't
concussion either. So that kind of makes it easier to
come back. You know, you're in the protocol, but it
(28:00):
makes it easier to go through the steps. Uh if
you didn't actually get any cushions, are you near death?
You sound like you're sick. No, my voice is just
like it's just like scratches this morn. I don't know, man,
I'm sorry, Yeah, no, I just want to make sure
you're not gonna die. Um, so I feel I feel wonderful.
I just my voice seems like as soon as I
death this morning. I agree. Yeah, we're talking to Jeff Schwartz. Um,
(28:23):
all right, so so let's break down these games a
little bit. Um, we you agree. I think that the
Chiefs have not looked very good if you're a gambler
there one and eight. I think in their last nine
against the number A little bit different though in that
game against the Browns, because if Patrick Mahomes doesn't get hurt,
(28:43):
they looked like they were kind of pulling away. Did
you see things from the Chiefs. That made you more optimistic.
How much are they missing Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, what do
you attribute to their malaise? So the Chiefs would actually
be even the team who has the worst against the
spread records who win a Super Bowl in quite a
(29:05):
long time, Like they don't know most teams that were
the Super Bowl cover most of their games, and they've actually,
like you mentioned that the number you get either one
eight or oh eight and one in their last nine
games against the spread, Like they just haven't finished games
very well. You can excuse that obviously this week against
the Browns. But one moment, that one sequence in the
game that's still kind of worried me a little bit
(29:26):
about the Chiefs and their ability to kind of stop
with someone's throat right like end the game when they
have the chance to do so. So they're up nineteen
three in the in the early second half, and we know,
look they got pretty lucky, right the ball phone was
out the end zone. They come back down and score
three points so easily could have been nineteen three instead
the interset Baker Mayfield and instead of you they get
(29:47):
up on the red zone instead of just going in
scoring a touchdown and ending the game right there, right,
it would have been up twenty six to three, game
virtually over. They those three and out amous the field goal,
And like those little moments. I still wore about them.
When they play Buffalo this weekend, and Buffalo is a
relentless team and they're not going to stop. And so
if they have these moments where they don't kind of
(30:08):
finish a drive in a poor situation, they have an
opportunity to be upset. So I do I do still
worry about that. But when they play their best game,
the Bills are not beating. I mean, that's that's the
thing about it is the Chiefs always have that gear.
So I'm curious, you played eight years in the NFL.
Brady looks like he's Benjamin Button right now. I mean,
(30:31):
I he looks like he's aging in reverse. I I
coming into this season, I thought, Okay, he'll probably play
this year and maybe next year. After this season, I'm
regardless of how it ends. I'm looking at it and
I'm like, man, I think you got to make the
over under two and a half more seasons for Tom
Brady going forward. How remarkable is his longevity and what
(30:52):
would you set the over under at for how many
more seasons he plays, because he doesn't seem close right
now to the end. End. In fact, I mean he's
playing unbelievably. When you dedicate every second of your life
to football, which he does, even every second of the
off season, the regular, every second of his life his
(31:13):
dedicated to maintaining his body. This is what can happen, right.
A lot of guys don't have the mental capacity to
do that. A lot of guys, you know, they spend
nine of their time on their body, right. He spends
one of his time worried about his sport, even in
the off season. So that's if you get when you
eat clean, when you work out, when you kind of
(31:35):
just set your schedule around football. Um, we we all
agree that he's had a little work done on his face, right,
he has to have. I don't understand how he looks
so young like the celebrities and people have money do
that so more part tom Um, you know, so you
know just when you when you dedicate your life to
that and you have the money to do so, this
(31:57):
can happen. Right. We're seeing players play much later into
their careers now. And you know, Drew Brees obviously is retiring.
And Drew Brees got hurt this year and it seems
like he was hurt more than uh the Saints le
at all right, his wife said yes to instagram me
a torn rotator cuff and ribs obviously, and another injury
as well. And you know, Tom Brad's been Fortunately he
(32:19):
gets the ball out cooly. I think it hit very
very often and it just takes one hit to get
him out of the game, right, But he just he
does a good job avoiding contact, of knowing where he
got he has to go with the balls she doesn't
get hit, and of taking Grey's body and dedicating his
wife to football seven and luckily, look, it's it takes
an understanding family to do that, right and his his
(32:40):
wife and his kids, you know, making sure that that
you know, Dad stays unschedule what he has to do
in the offseason stuff. So it's it's a big family
commitment and they've obviously all bought in. I think he
does play at least through the end of his contract,
but just next year and then you know, we'll see
where he goes down because I don't know how many
people are gonna want to forty five year old quarterback.
But we'll I mean, I think the Bucks may want him.
(33:02):
I mean, I don't know how you let him walk
if he's having one year, right, yeah, right, But I'm
saying I I came in thinking he's only got two
years left. If I were setting the over under right now,
not counting this year, I still think the over under
would be two and a half years going forward, like,
and I'd probably take the over because I think he's
probably gonna want to do this year. In fact, they
(33:23):
may go back to the drawing board and at another
year to his to his contract after this year. Who
knows exactly? Uh, when you look at at at what
he has been able to accomplish. One of the great
debates in the world of sports for twenty years has
basically been, Okay, Patriots dynasty, who's more responsible? Belichick or Brady?
(33:47):
Have we ended it in one year with what happened
with the Patriots and what happened with Tom Brady and
the Bucks and and what happened with the Patriots overall,
the Patriots was seven and nine this year with that
bum roster like day, like, that's a pretty good coaching job,
you know, if you want to blame Belichick for the
roster construction, sure, but um, I mean he coached a
heck of a team this year. Again, Cam Newton through
(34:09):
like four touchdown packs season and he went seven and
nine And it wasn't like they were they were two
and two and fourteen. He went seven and nine this
year with that roster. You know, the big win against
Buffalo is a Buffalo believe or ravens On in the rain. Uh,
they's almost see Buffalo and Buffalo. They only they took
Shattle down to the wire earlier in the season. Cam Newton,
(34:29):
you know, had COVID and came back a different quarterback.
I mean like they so, I think it's it's really
hard to say who was the main catalyst of that success.
I think they both were. They both were the perfect
match for each other, right, Belichick and Brady challenged each other,
Uh mentally, they pushed each other. They knew, you know
(34:50):
how they had a win in since you in touch situations.
They just were a perfect pair. I don't think you
can say, hey it was Tom Brady or hey it
was if you get Belichick the Bucks roster. They got
win eleven of twelve games too. I mean, so I
think that it's I know people want to dump on
Belichick now, but he went seven a night with that roster.
I mean, I mean him, we coach in the NFL
are gonna win seven games with the roster he had. Again,
(35:11):
that's probably his fault for the roster. He's the general
manager sort of really. But you know, if you want
to blame him for roster construction, sure, but I think
he'll still coach. Mahomes, Brady and Rogers all have Super Bowls.
Josh Allen is the lone guy who is playing this
coming weekend that does not How much of a revelation
(35:31):
has Josh Allen's performance been this year, and in your mind,
how sustainable is it going forward? Yeah? I was a
guy who never thought Josh how get here? And I
think I had a history of my side. Uh, people
talked about it and nauseam and I was just reading
again he has the best improvement NFL history. There's no
quarterback who's improved more. So if you said, hey, I
(35:54):
always thought this would be Josh Allen, You're just lying
because you hoped you you would. There's just thoughts of
prayers that point where we we've never seen this before
and no one's improved this much in one season in
NFL history, so or even through his first three years.
From this, we're one of the starter two year three.
So you can't say you saw this coming because you did.
You did. We've never seen this core so sustainable. Um,
(36:15):
will he be this good? Probably not? But will he
be bad again? Probably not either. Right, He's probably gonna
settle somewhere in the middle. His his OC coming back
next year, Brian Daviles huge for them. He was up
for some jobs and we'll be able to get any
of them. So that's a huge plus for Allen. So
I don't think he'll be this good next year, but
(36:36):
he won't be bad ever again. I think. Would you
so a couple of stories, let's move out of the
a f C NFC Championship game. Would you trade Deshaun
Watson if you were if you were the owner of
the Houston Texans, or would you be like, dude, we're
going to figure this out. I refuse to move on.
I mean, I would keep him if I was Houston
because I think he's an excellent player. Um, it might
(36:58):
come the situation where or he just makes it so difficult,
yes for him, But you know, people see James Harden
right and obviously training from Houston to Brooklyn, and NBA
players can force trade month easier. A James Harden could
just not play well, which he didn't. He just kind
of like goroofed off right very well, he's a little
out of shape. Deshaun Watson, if he shows up, he's
(37:20):
gonna play well. That's he's not gonna sabotage the team
he saw this year. He's definitely not gonna do that.
So he's not able to really force his way out
of there like James Harden was able to do. Obviously,
the media pressure DeShawn not showing up for training camp
things like that could force him out. But also a
package of three first round picks and two second round
picks and two players like that. There are scenarios where
(37:43):
the Jets have the ambo to get Deshaun Watson. Houston
have to think hard, especially in their situation right now
with no draft picks next couple of years, whether or
not it's worth you know, taking Sam Donald and three
first round picks and rolling with that squads a couple
years um Pack twelve. I know you cover and have
(38:04):
talked a lot about the PAC twelve late. I don't
know how late it was, but I was getting ready
for bed when I saw the news come out about
about Larry Scott being let go. What does that mean
for the PAC twelve? Right move? Wrong move? Uh? And
how optimistic are you about the conference going forward? Now
they're going to be having a new leader? How about
the PAC twelve dump? It is really funny. It is
(38:27):
really funny. The only thing they could have done better
is if they had dropped it like in the morning,
literally while the inauguration ceremony was going on. Look a
look at Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like literally right
as he's like walking up to take his oath and
give his speech. I mean, that's the only way they
could have done it more. But it is very very
funny that that they dropped it on inauguration day, right
(38:50):
in the middle of all the festivities. Uh. Look, I
think Larry Scott did some good things when he was
first commissionary. I mean, we were pretty much behind it
a lot of aspects of it. He got us a
good TV deal and he guys move in the right direction.
But the last couple of years we've just been a
stagnant conference, right we really haven't secure TV rights moving forward.
(39:11):
Our network is very even functioning right now with the
skeleton crew and the ball that has to do with COVID.
We just we waste a lot of money. There's there's
a way to spend our money better in our conference.
And I just hope we hire someone who understands um
that our bread winners are football and basketball. I get
where the conference champions. Olympic sports are great and those
(39:33):
should be celebrated, right, we talked about those on the
radio show. Uh, you know, our Olympic sports are fabulous,
and again we should celebrate those. But we want to
make money and play with the big dogs. We got
to focus our energy more in football basketball playing simple Uh,
And we don't. And so I hope that hires someone.
And you know they talked about Greg Byrne and Alabama
that used to be the Arizona as being Um, you know,
(39:54):
maybe I had seen the list of potential candidates. I
know him a little bit obviously, he's been very successful
in Alabama and previously was a Pack twelve a D. Yeah,
so that they mentioned him as a as a possibility, Um, uh,
you know it would be interesting higher, right, someone who's
been the South, who has who has your connections to
Pack twelve? Who has been a successful conference? Um? You
(40:16):
know Oliver Luck. I talked about Oliver Lucky and who lucks?
Uh father obviously has been an XFL but executive all over. Um,
So I hope they hire the right person for this
job and our First, we need a TV deal. We
need something. Um, it's not you. They're running out of room.
Like everyone else has a TV deal except our conference.
We've gotta figure our TV deal out. And then again
(40:37):
we gotta focus on trimming some sat around how much
we spent as a conference and we were supporting football basketball. Better,
let's go back to the a f C NFC Championship game.
What do you expect to see who's going to be
in the super Bowl when we get to Sunday evening.
In both games have been completed, I think the Packers
cover against the Bucks. Uh. The game I think might
(41:00):
not have to be fairly close at certain points. UM
and the Bills. The Chiefs game is really competitive. I
think if you're looking for an upset, it would be
that game. But I'm not going to pick the Bills
UM in that game. So I didn't a chief to win.
I I don't know if there might be a game
when they went by Spree barely cover. I think they
just haven't covered very well. So the Packers game is
(41:20):
more of a blowout that Chiefs have a close win
of home and we get Chiefs and Packers, I mean
Packers win the Super Bowl. I think they're the best
team right now. Jeff Shorts, I hope you get your
voice back. Enjoy the games, and we'll talk to you
next week. All right, thank you. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis weekdays
at six am Eastern three am Pacific. This is the
last weekend where we will have football multiple games until
(41:45):
August regular season. I should go, We'll should say we'll
probably have preseason football as well, but I mean regular
season football games until late August when college football officially
gets underway. I know we'll have some preseason games, but
that is a long time. So uh so we're trying
to enjoy it and squeeze as much fun out of
(42:07):
them as we possibly can. And I thought we would
start here with the third hour of the program, getting
everybody's picks in what the Super Bowl is gonna be
and then we'll also get some of your podcast reviews
out there. By the way, Joe Kinzie, who does fantastic
work for us at OutKick, one of my writers, will
be with us in the next segment to break down
(42:27):
this game. Also, we'll see how he's recovering as an
Ohio State fan as he continues to nurse his wounds
after the Alabama beat down last week. But Danny g
we all make predictions to begin the year, UH, in
the preseason, our expectations for what the Super Bowl is
going to be. You have I believe in front of
you right now all of those predictions. Let's see what
(42:50):
those are, and then we will allow everybody to make
their picks as we get ready for the Super Bowl,
which will be in a couple of weeks from now.
So initial before the season started, what was my prediction?
Your prediction was the Chiefs and Saints in the Big Game,
with the Saints winning at all. Well, so much for that.
So the Saints, uh gave up a seven point lead,
(43:13):
Jared Cook fumbles with five minutes or so to go
in the third quarter, and the Saints are officially eliminated
from contention. I still think the Chiefs are going to
get there. We'll get to that in a moment. What
was your prediction? My prediction? I took the Bills for
the a f C and I went Niners in memory
of radio legend Dave Holmes in the NFC. So the
(43:34):
Bills is a is a bold pick and you may
actually be able to get that one right. That would
be solid. What about Dub what did he have? Dub
had Chiefs Cowboys with the Cowboys winning at all. Yeah,
that's a big swinging a miss there from Dub, but
the Chiefs obviously still alive. How about Eddie? Eddie had
the same Chiefs Cowboys, Cowboys winning at all. It's unbelievable
(43:54):
to me that you guys had the exact same pick,
and then Roberto had the same as me. Roberto did
have the same as you chief Saints with the Saints
winning it all. Right, So what are our predictions now?
I will start. I think that the Packers are a
lot better than the Bucks, and I think the Packers
are playing the best football in the entirety of the
NFL right now. Uh. Therefore, I believe the Packers will
(44:17):
win the NFC. I think they'll cover uh that's a
little bit of a tease. We'll talk about our gambling
picks tomorrow, but I think the Packers will win with
the ease. I think the Packers will be into the
Super Bowl for the NFC. On the A f C
side of the equation, I'm not gonna pick against Patrick
Mahomes maybe forever, even coming off of the concussion maybe
(44:37):
concussion quotation mark concussion and with the toe injury. So
I think that the Chiefs will find a way to
win this game. But as this line is in danger
of ticking out above a field goal, I think the
value is on the Bills from a gambling perspective. Again,
we'll talk about that a little bit more in earnest tomorrow. Oh,
(45:00):
but my prediction is Chiefs Packers in the Super Bowl.
What say you? I'm also gonna go Packers to represent
the NFC, and I'm gonna stay with my A f
C pick of the Bills winning at all. All right, So, Dub,
how would you break this down? What do you think
is going to happen in the A f C in
the NFC championship games? I too like the Packers, and
(45:21):
I think I like the Bills. I really do. You
look at the Chiefs, and we've talked about this before.
They haven't covered a spread since I believe Week eight
against the New York Jets. Pretty crazy. That's a long time.
So they keep underperforming according to the spread. This is
a tight line. It's gonna be less than three. I'm
not sure Patrick Mahomes what his health is. That he's
(45:41):
gonna play, obviously, but is he gonna be Patrick Mahomes,
I'm not sure. I like the way the Bills are playing.
I think it's gonna be Packers Bills in the super Bowl.
Packers Bills. What about you, Eddie? Yeah, you know, Dub
and I picked the same super Bowl at the beginning
of the year. Uh, and we're picking the same super
Bowl now at the Yeah, it's good for you. Guys said,
(46:01):
we're going going down with the ship together. Dob and
I love it. Of course, if Dac would have stayed healthy,
we we would have been right, of course, But I
don't know Cowboys would have made the playoffs. Of course
they would, they would have rolled. What are you talking about? No,
I'm gonna take the Packers at home. Uh, it's it's
their year. Aaron Rodgers is going to be the m
v P of the league, and uh you know, the
(46:22):
question marker on Patrick Mahomes obviously has to be concerned. Uh.
You know, as Dubb said, the Chiefs have kept it
close all year long, and I wonder if they finally
run out of attempts at dodging the bullets in this one.
I'm gonna take Buffalo in a close one. All right,
So Roberto, do you make it unanimous on the Packers? Yeah,
I'm going to packers. Packers gonna went by the way
(46:43):
nerve racking for any gamblers out there, for all five
of us to be on the Packers, Packer's gonna win
at all. And then who wins the A f c U.
I think with my pick the Chiefs. All right, So
there are your predictions as updated from the OutKick crew.
All right, Dan G I believe, by the way, I
appreciate all of you who are giving us reviews. Danny
(47:04):
g reads them all. Are we still getting a lot
or do we need to encourage people to go write
some more reviews? They've been rolling in. I had a
hundred new ones to read yesterday. Wow. Um, so well, everybody,
we appreciate you who are going to give us five
star reviews or the one stars. But you know, obviously
the five star people are the actual smart ones because
they have good taste. Uh and uh, what have we
(47:26):
got in terms of the goal? By the way out
there for everybody listening, be smart, be funny, get Danny
G's attention, and you get a prize pack from out kick.
Yeah you heard the one star review to end last hour,
Let's start this hour with our first T shirt winner,
Keith Connolly fifty six. His title is surfed over on
a wave of LeBatard tears. I was a long time
(47:48):
listener of the pre woke LeBatard show. On the day
is executive friend at ESPN checked himself into rehab. LeBatard
wept openly on air for his friend's health, which I
found admirable. In Out of Nowhere, though, he goes in
on some guy named Clay Travis on Fox Sports. I
had never heard of this Clay guy, but irritating someone
(48:08):
to that level is a special skill, so I checked
Clay out. Been listening ever since. Reminds me of when
Mankind won the w w E title and everyone switched
over from w c W. That's funny, but you know
what's interesting is. This is one reason that I do
appreciate the haters, because haters think that when they're like,
oh this guy sucks, you're gonna hate him. Uh, you
(48:31):
know this is absolutely pathetic. Like I just I I
hate everything about him. That's the best free advertising I
can get, because there are a ton of you out
there listening right now who initially started listening because somebody
said that I sucked or I was awful, or they
hated me. And then you started listening, and maybe initially
you hated me, but over time, I've become Americas sweetheart.
(48:53):
Everybody falls in love with me. All right, Who's up next?
I think you're taking it a little too far with
that last statement. This title from b in the Boro
Local Boy makes good. I don't mean to brag or
draw attention to myself, but my review is probably the
smartest on all of iTunes. This podcast is a daily
must listen. I do prefer plays takes on politics more
(49:14):
than his betting advice, but I enjoy the entire show.
Betting Advice has been on fire for the NFL. I'm
forty four and I grew up in good Litzville. It's
nice to watch Clay's Rise been a loyal listener for years.
Love Danny g dubbed Roberto and Eddie p S. I
(49:35):
also have as many titles as George Carl. Yeah, George
Carl is really obsessed with me on Twitter For people
who don't know. Sometimes I do think it's funny because
I think about being a kid and watching let's say
the Sonics play against the Jordinara Bulls, and if you
had told me one day that George Carl in the
future was just going to be obsessed with every opinion
I had and tweeting about me kind of maniacally, I'd
(49:58):
be like, what in the world, Like how was what
kind of what am I gonna do when I grow
up that that guy who I'm watching on television on
NBC is going to be obsessed with me. Same thing,
by the way, with Keith Oldman. You know, when I
was a kid eating my serial watching Dan Patrick and
Keith Olberman, if you had told me when I was,
you know, twelve years old, Hey, that guy who's on
Sports Center is going to be obsessed with your opinions,
(50:18):
you know, in twenty five years, I would have been like, what,
why is he gonna care about me? At all but
welcome to my life. George Carl Keith Olderman obsessively tweeting
me all the time. Alright, our next exclusive five star
T shirt winner. His title is Listener in Africa. His
name is a handle on iTunes, the Wooten Sea. He says,
I live and work in Nairobi, Kenya. I enjoy the
(50:41):
show so much. It's the only sports show I can
listen to and not have to fast forward through the show.
I listened to the entire thing every day and every
episode are Wootton in Africa. I will say this um
as somebody who has lived, uh you know out so
I lived in the Caribbean for a couple of years
after I graduated from law school. And I do think
(51:04):
that there are a lot of international listeners who are
sports fans and if you're a little bit removed from
maybe your favorite sports teams. And I think about this
even when I went to college in Washington, d C.
In sort of the early days of the internet, it
can be a real connection to home. I know we
have a huge number because I hear from you guys,
(51:25):
a huge number of soldiers overseas and just American ex
pats in general who don't get the opportunity to have
as much access to American sports as maybe you would
certainly if you were living in the United States. And
so I appreciate the number of you who reach out
and say, hey, you help me feel like I'm not
that far away from home. If I'm a soldier serving overseas.
(51:47):
If I'm I'm betting that that guy in Kenya is
not just some random African dude who suddenly has ended
up being interested in American sports and listening to our show,
I bet it's somebody from America who has had a
connection to sports prior and were his connection back home. Uh. So,
I do appreciate that, and uh and I'm glad that
we can be sort of your conduit to your sports
(52:11):
fandom back in the United States if you have to
be overseas, all right. In our final five star winner
for this week his handled guitar Mike title most honest
sports Personality. I've been a daily listener since I discovered
Clay on YouTube because of Clay's honest opinion of the
truth about the virus and the pandemic and not worrying
(52:32):
about being politically correct. I love to listen to the
program and not have to believe he is towing the
media line. I may not agree with all of his
sports takes, but I can at least respect where he
comes from because of his perspective on the corrupt media. Uh.
This is interesting. Uh thanks for that that review. It's
made me wonder how did you find our show? You know,
(52:54):
I've been telling you that I want to use the
hashtag OutKick more in one so you guys and interact
with each other during the course of the show. So
I'm gonna check it out during this commercial break. How
did you find this show? How did you come to
make us a part of your morning? It's interesting that
guy says on YouTube, our YouTube videos have gotten really popular. Uh,
(53:16):
and I don't. I don't know what the algorithm is
or how YouTube videos end up with audiences or how
that works. In fact, I found out that we were
popular on YouTube from my sons, who are probably if
you have young kids, they don't really watch television. They
spend all their time on YouTube all day. It's crazy.
Um and uh and so and and they have. They
(53:39):
were like my my ten year old and my twelve
year older, Like dad, I'm you know, every now and
then I see one of your videos cycle through and
you're getting a ton of comments and people love the
videos that you're putting out. And so I imagine some
of you out there listening right now have found us
through YouTube. But right now, let let us know, Uh,
hashtag out kick. How did you find the show? Did
(53:59):
somebody tell you a friend, family member that they loved
or hated me? Was it YouTube? Was it you're just
happened to be flipping on the local radio dial. Was
it through our website at OutKick? Was it through something
that you saw on television? Maybe on Fox News when
I've done some of those hits. I'm genuinely curious, how
(54:19):
did you come to be listening to this show? How
did it happen? Hashtag OutKick and let me know. I'll
scroll through during the commercial break. I'm curious to see
from you guys how you found us and how you
ended up a part of the OutKick crew. Uh do
I have As we go to break here, I want
to tell you Joe Kenzie's gonna be up next. He's
one of our writers at OutKick. Gonna dive into a
(54:41):
lot of stories with him NFL college football. Uh. And
also we'll find out. What is you guys are clicking
on that is shocking him? One of the answers, By
the way, and maybe you guys are not surprised by this.
I'm kind of surprised by it. I know Paulina Gretzky
is good looking. Every time we put up a Pauline
a Gretzky store, a million people read it. It's uncanny.
(55:03):
It's like people break their fingers clicking on the latest
news about Pauline Nagretzky. She is, uh, the girlfriend of
Dustin Johnson, the p GA player, and obviously the daughter
of Wayne Gretzky, the hockey uh, the greatest hockey player
of all time in the mind of many hockey fans.
You guys can't get enough of Paulin Nagretzky. What else
can you not get enough of? This is outkicked the
(55:26):
coverage with Clay Travis
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