January 4, 2024 • 44 mins
Welcome to Episode 35 of The VikingsTailgate presented by Continental Diamond. He's baaaaaaack... Everyone's favorite Lions die-hard, Zach Martina, is back again and this time he's clinching a divisional title in his hand. Cy Amundson and Zach talk through the unfamiliar success happening in Detroit, the controversial 2-point play in the Cowboys game, break down the NFL playoff scenarios, and the feeling that the NFC North is flipped on its head... for now. It's Week 18, it's do-or-die, so get your popcorn ready and enjoy Episode 35 of the VikingsTailgate presented by Continental Diamond. Also, be sure to check out Zach Martina live at Acme Comedy Co. May 15th-18th.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
An award winning family owned business with exceptional diamonds, engagement rings, jewelry,
and time pieces. Continental Diamond is the jeweler Minnesota Adores
in Saint Louis Park or online at Continentaldiamond dot com.
Hey everybody, it's the final regular season episode of the Tailgate.
(00:22):
Does that mean we're going to do a playoff edition?
I guess we will have to see Zach Martinez back.
He celebrates the Lions Division title. We talk about all
of the Lions' potential scenarios, the Vikings, potential playoff scenarios,
their potential draft pick scenarios. We get into the whole thing.
It's a really, really fun episode. I think you guys
(00:43):
are gonna love it. And if you do love it,
leave us a comment say hey we loved it. You know, rate, subscribe,
do all the things you do that make podcast work.
On a personal note, here, guys, thank you so much
for being a part of this show. This is our
second year. I am so grateful for how many of
(01:03):
you have tuned in and stayed tuned in. When we
thought of this idea, we never dreamed that this many
of you would like it and keep liking it. And
I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys
tune in every week, and we're gonna keep trying to
give you great shows in order to pay back that fanship.
(01:23):
Enjoy this episode and enjoy the final week of the season.
I don't know what, Tom, Dad.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Here, we gotta go there, we gotta go there, go
So Tom.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Hey, everybody, welcome into the regular season finale edition of
The Tailgate. And it is a celebratory edition for our guests,
not for us. But we're we're gonna let the man
have it. We're gonna let him. We're gonna let him
take his laps. He deserves it. We care about him
despite the disappointment and anger we feel inside of us.
(02:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, joining me friend of the Program, Returning
two weeks later with a division title in hand. Detroit
Lions fans, Zach Martinez.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yes, I'm back, and I would just like to say,
up Top, I love how you gave me that give
the Lions the nod while also expressing your your dismay
for the Viking situation. I gotta say, no one in
Green Bay would do that, and that's just that's just
Minnesota class right there. That's just what you guys are
all about.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, when you're raised indoors and you go to school
with people who aren't every other grade at the same
time in a barn, you learn all these nuances of
human interaction that the adults in our society believed to
be appropriate. And so that's what I try to do.
I try to, you know, in Wisconsin like football mad rage,
(02:54):
like that's that's the path. I'm more football mad rage,
respond and appropriate and then I you know, so it's
a little different. They're just two different paths, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
For me, it's always been a football mad rage followed
by we'll get them next year. And this is it
just still doesn't it still doesn't feel real.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
When as soon as we took that game, my wife
and my kids are like, can you believe this? I go,
I mean, I can believe it, but it just it
doesn't feel I feel like I'm gonna wake up. It
felt like I was living in anything but reality.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I don't want to ping any of your football trauma here.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But it's it's very deep down, buddy.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So was it ninety one that you guys won the division?
Won eleven games or was it twelve.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Ninety one, we won our last playoff game. Ninety three
is last time we won the division.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Ninety three is the last time you win the divisional.
So ninety one was the playoff game, you get a
first round by you win a playoff game, you get
smoked by the Washington football team in the NFC Championship yep,
and and then you win the division in ninety three,
and then it just goes away like there was, everything
was trending. You have Herman Moore, you know, Fontse is beloved.
(04:06):
There for a little bit, you have the berry and
then it all like is there any do you have
any of that football trauma? Whereas you look around and
join this moment that you worry that you've kind of
just like that year been building up to this year
and who knows, Like, are you now do you now
believe you're entering into the golden era of Lions football?
(04:31):
Or do you still feel like at any given point
in time Lucy could pull the football out when you
go to kick.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, you saw as you were asking that question, I
had a blank stare come over my face. And that
is because I never once considered that it could it
could go away. I was just so happy at the
idea that we just had the one, and I was like,
we're gonna have it. We're gonna do it for a
little bit. We're gonna be here for a little while.
And then you're like, oh, there's the League of the
NFL is there's no more parody. So it could be
(04:59):
first to it could be worse to first, and I
never thought about that, and uh, happy New Year to
you too.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
There's that's the difference in our fan bases, where you
have had no access to any joy, and Viking fans
have lived through a long pattern of near access to
joy with it only to be yanked out in a
disgusting and horrible way at the last moment.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I mean, you guys have overcome so much this year though, too,
Like I well, I just.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Mean historically, I mean, like you guys went through those
thirty years of like it's never gonna happen, and every
seven or eight or twelve years we're like, it's time. Yeah,
and then in the like the Gary Anderson miss, the
Brett fav interception, but Blair wash miss, you know, and
you get the after the Minneapolis miracle, you're like, here
(05:48):
we go, and then you know, you have what happened
in Philadelphia, So it's there's a That's that's why I
looked at it the way I looked at it because
I was like, joy is fleeting and it can be
a prack.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Joke, but we just I mean, in my lifetime, we've
never had joy, so it is always been just out
of reach. And to finally get your hands around it,
I feel like we're gonna strangle the bird. You know,
we're just so happy to have We're gonna have mice
and men this bird. Man, we're so happy to have this.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You're gonna lenny the bird. You got the bird in hand,
and you're gonna lenny it. I don't want to send
you into a rage here, but I'd like to talk
about because I want to talk about playoff scenarios. I
want to talk about the Vikings crazy path in. I
want to talk about their path to a draft pick.
But I think this whole conversation starts with what happened
(06:36):
last Saturday night and take a deep breath. But I'd
like you to after winning the division, there's this opportunity
to elevate yourself in the seating to such an advantageous
place against a very good football team, and to have
Jared Goff drive down the field the way he did,
(06:59):
to have them go for two in quintessential big Dan
Campbell fashion, to throw it to a lineman on the
most important play of the year, like when you when
you start the beginning of the season and you're like,
all right, boys, at some point this season, we're gonna
have one play that means everything, like it's a Disney movie.
(07:22):
But you guys actually had that and you threw it
to an offensive lineman. And then to have that evaporate
due to the penalty, and then afterwards to have this
huge controversy unfold and the video come out of Decker
leaving the hut, like what was the emotional journey of
(07:42):
last Saturday?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Like for you, well, I will point back like as
far as us throwing to an offensive lineman, it didn't
surprise me terribly because if you recall last year, we
played the vikings that said Dan Campbell's hyping this up
as the super Bowl, and we had that as a
third or a fourth, but we threw to Pine Seul
and everybody lost their mind. So I honestly, when they
threw it, all I saw was the second eight and
(08:05):
I thought we threw it to Sewell again, until all
of a sudden the flag came in. I was like, wait,
what happened? Sixty eight seventy none of them were even
involved to get the replay. Okay, Taylor Decker's got the ball.
I as here are my emotions. That last drive was incredible.
It should not have taken us the entire game to
get the offense going like that. That's the only time
(08:27):
that we got the ball.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Movie I had you won that game. And in that
moment when he catches the touchdown before the flag is thrown,
where does that drive rank all time? I mean, that's
got to be one of the ten five most important
drives in Detroit Lions modern football history.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I mean when just off the top of my head,
it comes down to that Matthew Stafford Cleveland Browns drive
where he had broken his collarbone and still drove us down.
Then there was the fake spike, which was also I
believe against Dallas. Both of those drives immediately come to mind,
but I think it's I think that drive alone and
it hasn't, but it should have silenced the haters on
(09:05):
what Jared Goff is capable of doing. I mean, when
we traded for him, everyone's like he's a game manager
who can throw a little bit further. But the dude's
just been tough. He's come in and one games for us.
I mean, that's, as far as I'm concerned, his best
drive as a lion and up there probably in his
career from the Rams, oh for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Okay, So you first you're wondering what's going on, and then.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And then I realize I don't care whose number blank
dash eight caught the ball. We oh my god, we
got it. We got I'm freaking out. My dog thinks
it's the fourth of July and fireworks are going off.
He can't handle it. I'm so happy. My wife and
I are hugging like she just said yes and I
got engaged. We are both ecstatic, right, and then all
(09:52):
of a sudden, over my shoulder, she's looking over my
shoulder at the screen as I'm holding her in a
brace I haven't held and since before we were married,
which was ten years ago, nine years ago, and she goes,
there's a flag, and I go, stop it, this isn't funny.
Don't play with me like that, because I will, we will,
we will go to we will go to counseling like
this is what's gonna end up. I'm too, I can't.
(10:12):
I can't. And then I look around and she's just
pointing and like I see flag, and I go, well,
what could it be? I don't understand what it could be.
And then they said illegal touching, which was so reminiscent
of that Kansas City offensive offsite. It's just a penalty
you don't hear very often. So I'm like, I don't.
I know football, I know the penalties. I don't understand this.
I'm looking at the replay. I'm like, well, there are
(10:33):
no he's he's not being covered, he's on the line
of scrimmage. And then they go into this whole thing
about he didn't call himself eligible, so I was like, okay,
maybe he didn't whatever. And then I look over and
I mean, he's You can hear Golf in the uh
in the huddle saying hey, Deck, go go report. You
(10:53):
see him over there. I understand Pane Sewol where it
was over there. I understand Dan Skipper was over there.
But I also if you look at it, it's it's
a bummer. And it was hard. As soon as I
realized what the call was. Yeah, I hit my knees
and I cried like like someone who saw the Virgin
Mary in a year in staying on their bathroom wall. Yeah,
(11:14):
I wept, I openly, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, Okay,
because I thought we were gonna get the one seed.
We could, I mean, Philadelphia lost last week, we had
a shot at the one seed. But what it comes
down to is, yeah, we've been We've been burned before
in situations like that, and this one hurt very very much.
But like I said, the fourth und drive, that's how
long it took for us to get the offense going.
(11:35):
The entire game, we could not move the ball, and
I mean, you gotta take you can. You can point fingers,
but you got to take your blame on it. And
I guess I.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Didn't even realize until afterwards that you know, I knew
what you guys were playing for. I knew you were
playing for seeding. I knew you know where Dallas figured in,
but I didn't realize. If you know, everything plays out
the same. But you guys get that call, you beat Dallas,
you have the head to head there. Philadelphia loses against
the Cardinals, it's very reasonable to think that San Francisco
(12:07):
and Dallas are both playing for the money, and you
beat the Vikings and you are the number one seed
in the playoffs, you are one game away from an
MFC championship. You have. I mean, the change from two
bye weeks to one bye week has made that bye
week for the one seed so paramount to potential Super
Bowl success. So I didn't even realize that it was
(12:30):
that crucial potentially. And yeah, I Jay and I Producer
Jay and I were texting and we wept a little
bit for you. We thought that would be hard thing.
Let me shift it this direction then, because let's live
in reality. It looks like and we'll get into the
Vikings scenarios, but it looks as though Los Angeles Rams,
(12:55):
Green Bay Packers. Those appear to be your two potential
playoff suitors.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And then the third it would be Seattle.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, the least likely Seattle. So yeah, I think if
you want to pick a team, you pick Seattle. That's
who you want to play out of those three. I
know you've had a tough time with them over the years, man,
but the way the Rams are playing right now, I know,
and the way Jordan love is playing and how that
game went on Thanksgiving. If you have to pick between
(13:26):
those two teams, who are you who are you leaning towards?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean, it's hard to beat anyone three times in
a season, and we've only beaten the Packers once. I
would both storylines are incredible and I would be thrilled
to watch either one of those games. I would love
to beat. You know, last last year, the last game
of the season for us was the Packers. We knocked
them out of the playoffs. Then all of a sudden,
(13:48):
the last game against the Packers this year would be
a playoff game. They're trying to do what we did
to them last year. We're trying to reign supreme in
the North, if you will, and like show that we're here,
we're here to say that would that that line's great.
I love that line. But I mean the romanticism of
the Rams coming to Detroit with Matthew Stafford at the helm,
(14:09):
I mean, Detroit fans, Detroit fans will never have rooted
that hard against Matthew Stafford. I mean, he's still, for
lack of a better phrase, Detroit's favorite son. I mean,
he is the he's the one of the Goats as
far as quarterback play goes. So to have him come
here and just to be able to hope, I mean,
you want to win. I think we're more suited to
(14:31):
to cover. Don't get me wrong, Pooka, Nakua, Cooper Cup.
They're incredible receivers, but they're not the Justin Jefferson, Christian Watson,
Watson like deep threat guys that are gonna get behind
you necessarily. Sure, so I would, I mean, ultimately, I
think I would, in my heart, I would rather see
the Rams because that is just it's just a fairy tale.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It's interesting to listen to how you approach that because
I think so many Viking fans, so many of us,
we approach h lines with such fear, like what happens
if we have to play the Packers? And I like
that mentality of no, that's what I want. I mean,
there was nothing better aside from probably winning a super Bowl,
(15:13):
but the year we win into Lambeau as like a
you know, a barely snuck and wild card team put
a bunch of touchdowns on Brett Favre and the Packers
moss mooned the crowd and we danced out of that stadium,
Like I here's the thing. You can't win a title
unless you're good enough to beat most teams. Sure, now,
(15:36):
matchups are important, you know, getting the right team on
the right day is important, and wins are all that mess.
So however, you get the win, you get the win,
and the easiest path is the best. That's why you
care about the one seed. That's why you want to
play the lowest seed. But I think if you're a
team like the Lions, you know, if you're a team
like the Vikings have been at times like you're not
(15:58):
looked at as the San France, just go forty nine Ers,
the Baltimore Ravens, these teams, you're gonna have to get
them eventually, You're gonna have to. So I'm not gonna
shy away from teams in that people believe are in
my range. I want to play the Packers, sure, I
want to put them down. I want to put Matthew
Stafford down in front of the home crowd. So I
I really, really really like that mentality.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
You know, when you were raised in the Midwest and
you go to school with people in you know, all
all different grades and a barn and everything. This is
just what adults teach you that you wanna that you
wanna think like so and then and and then in
Green Bay they're like football bad, we already go over this.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah yeah, football football winter go and so where's my cheese?
Look at my hat? Aren't I clever? So? Uh, it
was hard for as a Viking fan last week, like,
you can only do so much. This is one of
those seasons we see teams have these seasons all the time.
(17:00):
You're on your fourth quarterback. Yeah, you know, your best
player was injured most of the season. Now TJ. Hockinson's hurt,
DJ Wanham's hurt. You can only do so much?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Sure, right, and you're not even talking about your running game.
I mean everybody coming in. I thought I thought Alexander
Madison was going to be the guy. I believed in
him after the Dalvin Cook because for fantasy purposes, he
bailed me out of a couple of jams last year
when Dalvin Cook went down. But then when you got
cam Akers and all of a sudden, Kevin O'Connell figured
out seemed to how to unlock him. He was gonna
(17:33):
be the guy. And I was like, Okay, this is fine,
then Chandler's been and then Chandler's been doing like you
guys have had to. And what's crazy to me about
the Viking seasons this year and last year is the
number of one possession games that you guys, I mean
you hang with everybody. Yeah, you're very rarely getting blown out.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, it's really cool for the stress level in our state.
I think to that point though, like there's only so
much you can do. Sure, you just get to this
point point where you it's almost unreasonable. And I'm super competitive,
but it's almost unreasonable to expect this team to go
(18:11):
out and achieve at the highest level with so much adversity. Now,
the good thing about the team, and you know professional athletes,
is that's not their mindset. But that game against the
Packers was tough. Yeah, you know, it's New Year's Eve. Yeah,
that's a fun night and you get it put on you.
(18:31):
Not just in a way that sucks, but you've got
Jordan Legs scissor kicking fifty yard touchdowns. Ye down the
field for a moment, the Lions are surging. The Bears
have the number one pick and another crazy pick and
are somehow winning games down the stretch. Jordan Love is
dance passing balls all over the field and looking like
(18:54):
they have Like, dude, I saw some number. I don't
know that this is exactly right, but something like twenty
nine touchdowns by first and second year players.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So yeah, their receiving core is so young.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And like talented, and so I just need you to
smack them. I think we're about to enter a world
that you're very familiar with, because I don't think we're
trailing behind all these other teams with potential and ability
and stuff. I just think we lead the league. We
lead the division in mystery right now? Sure we You
know this is gonna be the third year of the
O'Connell and Quacy thing. Normally things start to crystallize around
(19:29):
that point, and I think some things will. But you've
dealt with so many issues, like injury wise, you've dealt
with such a weird couple years. The close game like
it's hot with cousins not knowing what's gonna happen here,
it's We're about to have what I believe to be
and incredibly if you like the drama of offseason football,
(19:52):
if you like rumors.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
That's the Lion's home fields right here.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That's right. And there's some old dads out there's like,
I don't need any of this off season rumor shit
to snap the ball and hand it to a raft.
And those of us youngins were like, no, no, no, no, no, daddy,
give me all the rumors.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Give me any kind of hope you can.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I want to know the seven quarterbacks that might wind
up on my team, knowing full well that all seven
of them have no change. Like, so it's gonna be
We're kind of freaky Friday right now, Zachah. You're rolling
into the playoffs, you know, with a whole bunch of
maybe hope, and we're rolling into the offseason about to
(20:34):
be like, this is our time of year, let's do it.
Hold on, I'm gonna get in so much trouble if
I don't, because we will go over this. The Vikings
can still make the playoffs, Yes they can't. And and
somebody will yell at me, and we are going to
talk about the scenario. But regardless of whether or not
they win, regardless of they make in this this mysterious
(20:54):
offseason scenario, it's a common and.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I gotta say, I you can't change your past. I
guess I'm thrilled that I've come up the way that
I had because I love the offseason. I get so
amped from the draft. I remember a couple of years
ago we were talking. I was on stage when we
drafted Penney Sool, and I think I was at Go Banana. No, no,
I was at a Funny Bone or Go Bananas, and like,
(21:18):
I had my phone on stage with me. The draft
pick came in and I just ranted about that for
five minutes. It was a tough hole to dig out of,
but I was excited and it was all that mattered
as far as the rumors go. I love the idea
that the old and the old timers are like, oh,
I don't care about this shit. And it's like reading
these rumor articles just to look to see if your
your team's name is on there as a destination, and
(21:41):
uh yeah, it's It's just it's just full of full
of hope, and I hope, uh I hope it. I
hope it yields optimism for you, because it always has
for me, to a fault.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I really really enjoy it. I'd like to win, have
good years and also be a part of that. Yeah,
but I really really enjoyed it. So the Vikings playoffs
and it looks alike of this. If the Vikings win,
the Packers need to lose, the Seahawks need to lose,
and either either the Bucks or the Saints need to lose.
(22:16):
And you know, the way people are talking about this,
they're speaking about it as though it is, you know,
needle in a haystack win the lottery type of situation.
And I mean, the Saints play the Falcons. The Falcons,
they're gonna come to play. The Bucks are gonna beat
(22:37):
the Panthers. Otherwise they should get kicked out of the league,
you know, with their spot in the playoffs on the line.
I would say last week I would have said the
Seahawks are a no brainer to run past the Cardinals.
I don't know, man, I mean, was that what's going
on in Philadelphia? Plus a former coordinator coming in there?
(22:57):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I think a lot of it has to do that
famous coordinator thing or of the previous coordinator. I think
there's something to be said for playing against your old team,
and like, if your team respects you, they will rally
around you. I mean, one of the few wins Matt
Patricia got was over the New England Patriots. Dan Campbell
(23:19):
put his stamp on the the Sean Payton game in Denver.
I think that has a lot to do with Phillies
lost to Arizona, and I think Seattle. I mean, this
is the position they're always in and it didn't work
out for them last year. Those are all pretty even matchups,
that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And with the Packers except the Bucks, the Packers are
nearly a century deep of shit talking Bears fans, and
you know, that's fun to watch from the outside. It's
like when you're a kid and you're in the van
with your siblings and they're going at each other and
you know they're both gonna get in trouble, and it's
fun because what they're saying to each other, you're like, yeah,
(23:57):
that was a good one, but you're not You don't
have to deal with any of the interactions. You just
get to watch. So I love as much as I
don't like the Packers, I love watching them hold court
over the Bears. But I think they've done it so long,
and I think the Bears just quietly. I think there's
a lot of last year's Lions approach in this year's
(24:17):
Bears team where they're like, hey, man, keep talking shit.
You think you and your young quarterback are gonna go
to the playoffs? We're about to ruin some stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Think about what's on the line too, for not only
the Bears, but for Justin Fields. Like Justin Fields is
playing for his job this week.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Or auditioning for a position anywhere in the league. This
is everything.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, So I don't think I don't know, I don't
think that the I think I think the Bears could
definitely beat the Packers.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And think about how, you know, normally a team in
the Bears situation, you know, do you rest guys? Are
you incentivized to move up the draft board? What does
it look like? But you already have secured, guaranteed the
number one pick in the draft? Yeah, and so this
other like you have this just almost free pass to
go out there and give it everything you have to
ruin a season and not think about anything offseason related.
(25:04):
I really do think there's a chance. I think it's
not unreasonable that all these teams come together the way
they do. I think the cog in the wheel for
the Vikings is they haven't been necessarily playing great football,
and that means we have to beat your lions and
old boy Danny C from what I've seen most recently
(25:24):
in Zach, like you know how if you have a
pit bull yep, and you're like, I love this pit
bull man. He's amazing and he does a lot of
amazing things. Every once in a while, you're like out
at a park and there's other people in dogs era
and you're like, oh shit, is he gonna do some
pit bull stuff? That's Dan Campbell. Ye, He's gonna play
(25:47):
the starters in week seventeen. It's an interesting call, man,
It's a very very interesting call. Now is he might
just be posturing. I think he's going to treat this
like a preseason game. I think he's going to get
the starters some reps early the game, see how it's going.
I mean, because we don't stand. All we stand to
do is move up to the two seed if Dallas loses.
So it doesn't, I don't. I think Dan Campbell is
(26:09):
very very aggressive, But I don't. I don't think he's
willing to be aggressive to sacrifice the future, which is
the first playoff win that we would have had in
since ninety one. Like I when he when he came here,
He's like, this is the job I want. This city
needs it. Like he seems to be plugged into what
the Lions fan base and organization are so desperately in
(26:30):
need of. So my forecast is he the starters are
gonna play, and the starters are especially on offense hot,
but I don't I don't know that they play the
whole game. That's I mean, I'm hoping for your sake,
not just for the fact that I want the Vikings
to win. Is that you know, you guys get in,
you get out, you get clean. You know, maybe maybe
(26:52):
maybe we get a win and uh and you get
into the playoffs. Just fine. The other thing that's really
interesting for the Viking is the opposite, and that's what
people are having to decide right now. There's different types
of fans. There's the win at all costs. Like I remember,
I have a we have a mutual friend, Mike Brody, Yes,
(27:13):
very talented stand up comedian, lover of the NBA. I
die hard Minnesota Timberwolves fans remember that. And the year
that we drafted Carl Anthony Towns with the number one pick.
Going down the stretch, he and myself and some of
our friends were having this argument about not winning basketball
(27:37):
because the NBA is a different beast, sure, and he
was like, you gotta win. I want to be happy.
I was like, Mike, as much as I care about
your personal happiness connected to been eliminated from the playoffs
thirty games ago NBA season like they could have wound
up without Carl Anthony town. So I think fan bases
(27:58):
find themselves strewn about the spectrum of how they feel
in these last moments because the other side of this
is what we need to do to get into the playoffs,
is if the Bears beat the Packers, if Vegas wins,
if the Jets wins, like the Vikings could move all
the way up, They're not gonna get any worse. I
don't think than about the twelve seed. You know, actually
(28:19):
they could move to the thirteen because of the New
Orleans typebreaker, but they could go all the way up
to the eighth seed, which would be the highest they've
drafted since they took Anthony Barr at number nine. And
the difference between eight nine and twelve thirteen is a lot.
So I think you're gonna see a lot of fans
split all over about how they feel about what happens
(28:42):
in this Vikings Lions game.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I I'll tell you what, as a as a fan
of a team that parentally drafts in the top twelve,
you're gonna get a good player. And it gets to
the point where you're almost spoiled because you feel so
strongly that you need such a position, and then the
(29:05):
team goes another way and you have to convince yourself, okay,
this is this is it's gonna work. Like To draft
that high is a different kind of stress because there
is so much on the table, especially when you're talking
about what's gonna happen with Kirk Cousins. Is one of
the top receivers gonna fall to us because the offensive
lineman is. It's a deep class and they're gonna go early.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Can you imagine if we took another wide receiver and
paired him with Jordan Addison and.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Jake h It would be insane. I mean, think about it,
it would be insane. You'd have to I mean the slot,
you'd have to. I think it would be more of
a across the middle kind of guy, because Jordan Edison
and Justin Jeffer can both stretch the field so well.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
But you said something earlier in the show that I
think is pretty relevant to this conversation. It's that the
you know, the NFL. You know you're coasting right now,
you're in this great moment, but two years from now,
like that's what the league is. Two years from now,
you could be first to worst, worse to first. That's
what we're talking about here. And part of the reason
for that is if you can have a successful draft,
(30:05):
if you have a couple bad drafts, it puts you
in a really bad situation. I think, you know, the Vikings,
the Vikings. The NFL draft is such a crapshoot, and
the way that we talk about people being experts or
being good at it, it's it's pretty silly in my opinion.
I just think it's a very hard job and very
hat Like. I don't envy anyone who makes those decisions. Sure,
(30:27):
but you look at the Dallas Cowboys hitting Micah Parsons,
Ceedee Lamb and Trayvon Diggs having all those guys on
rookie deals while you're paying out other big off So
that's the thing. So, like everybody's talking about, that's what
I mean about mystery with this Vikings team. You know,
do you tear it down? Do you rebuild? Is it
a competitive rebuild? All these terms that get thrown around, I've.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Never heard competitive rebuilds. Oh, the Pistons's right. The Pistons
call it a restoration. They call it a restore, which
they're come on, stop it.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
First of all, I want to say something mean again,
but it's your moment. It's your moment. I think in
order to have heard the term competitive rebuild, you would
have need to have been at a level of competition
and had a desire to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I can handle the truth. I just policy.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I just want you to have your moment. I just
want I don't I don't want to come in and
go Sana is not real. And so but I think
you know, to do something like that, which has been
a term that we've heard a lot around here from people.
You know in the media uses that term and fans
use that term. If all of a sudden, you go
(31:37):
in let's say you draft nine or twelve, If you
hit a Micah Parsons and then you hit another guy
in the second or third round, you hit two dudes
on rookie deals, and you have Addison, who I believe
Addison is about to be. I don't think anybody. I
don't think they know what's coming. This guy's gonna be
top twenty, maybe top ten in this league. You got
those three guys on rookie deals for three years, the
(32:00):
option like ooh.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
So one thing, the thing you're not even considering too,
is like in the draft when it starts, like Micah
Parsons or Penny Stool when they fell to us because
the draft board just happened to shake out the way
that nobody thought it would. The excitement that you feel
with each passing pick, where it's like Penny is still there,
Mike is still there, like I can't, Oh my gosh,
oh my gosh, oh my god, we got him. I can't.
(32:24):
The anticipation that builds at a position, particularly like in
the eight to ten range, and then you get someone
that you just didn't think is gonna be there. Oh
that's sweet. It's real, real sweet.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
It's and I think it's that's what makes this whole
mystery of the offseason so much more interesting because we
can pretend and guess, but that that's what's gonna dictate it.
How you if you hit a couple home runs, that's
what changes absolutely everything. I mean, you guys are dealing
with it right now. We love TJ. Hockinson, but you
(32:55):
moved off of TJ. Hockinson, got Sam Laporta and now
have him the next four years on a a not
even a first round deal, second round deal. You guy,
that that is something where you go, oh, man, we
just gave ourselves such a team building advantage. And that'll
(33:15):
be what's what's really interesting when it.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Don't even just I mean in that moment for the
Lions too, like we have speaking of the first round
deals and hitting on things. We have Jamier Gibbs on
a first round deal along with Jack Campbell, who you know,
we have the fifth year option on both of those,
and then you have Brian Branch and uh and uh
Sam Sam Laporta in in the second round. Like we
(33:38):
hit on those first four picks. It's bananas, man.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
And that's why I try to remind people when they're
talking to me about how this year went, or what's
the plan or stuff like that, I go, it all comes.
You hit, have a good year in the draft, and
all of a sudden, everything you hated you love. Yeah,
you have a bad year in the draft. Everything you
love now you hate you know you you The Cowboys
are that great example. You can pay Dak what you
(34:04):
need to pay Dak when you got three killers. Aren't
like crushing on low deals. So everything you do is
going to be influenced by whether or not you can
put together a couple good drafts. And I think that'll
be the fun thing. But let's let's get out of here.
Let's focus on this week.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Okay, it's not.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
The everything on the line game that I wanted it
to be. The NFL is always growing, and I think
they're really really bright. How they're approaching the the you know,
NFL Europe this time around is like incredibly bright. Sure,
you know, expanding games, you know the Thursdays, the Saturdays,
like the Nickelodeon. Yeah, dude, love the Nickelodeon. Do you
(34:42):
know how much when I was a kid I would
have been all in on the Nickelodeon games.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
As an adult, them playing in Andy's bedroom still got
me excited. I was like, I'm I'm gonna tune in
for a second. I gotta see what's going on here.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Touchdowns and ghak, let's go. So I have this pitch.
The n waits to release their schedule for the final
day until you know, it all gets changed, right, like
last week we find out who's going to play on
Sunday night football. You guys were victims of that last year.
I think we should deviate away from the traditional you know,
(35:20):
Central time noon three seven, and we should have staggered
starts all day long, based purely on competitive scenarios. And
you know, first game starts at ten am. It's like
an AAU tournament. We got another one starting at It's
March madness, March madness. I want to track, like stagger
(35:40):
all these games to create the most drama throughout the
day and create March madness on a Sunday so as
things are falling apart, like every team that's alive feels alive.
And yeah, I'm not smart enough to know exactly how
to pull that schedule off, but you've got to create
a sweepstakes madness insanity down the stretch. That's what I want,
(36:03):
Like knowing what's on the line for everybody. I would
love to see it built. And every year somebody's gonna
get the screw job because you're like, well you built
it for them and I. But that's end the NFL.
Your bye week is at a different time or whatever. Whatever. Yeah,
but I want to see the staggered starts. No game
starts at the same time on the last Sunday of
the year.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
I like, Yeah, I think that's a gonna except for
the games where there are no playoff implications, you know,
because you've got you've got teams like Carolina that could play.
You know, this year would have been New Orleans like,
neither of them are gonna make it. Let's put them No.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
No, no, Carolina has got the Bucks. Carolina's got the Bucks.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
No, No, I know, I know. I'm just saying, hypothetically,
with the same the same division, it could end with
them playing each other. I love that. I love that.
I don't not even just for the last week. I
love it for December.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Oh yeah, what if you just adopted that? Now, see
that's what I'm talking about. What if you just adopted
that all the way down the field. Let me, let's
see how many games, because you've got seeding, you've got everything,
how many games would you guess, let's close on this,
how many games would you guess this week have some
sort of playoff scenario or playoff implication.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
The only people that would know that answer. I feel
like are are political analysts on CNN calling for projected
wins in the blue and red states that math. I
can't even understand that math.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So, Steelers Ravens on Saturday, playoff implications for the Steelers
Texans Colts both nine and seven.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Do you think the Ravens will play all their players?
Speaker 1 (37:32):
I don't know. That's a tough one day. I mean,
it's a long break.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
I get that it's a long break it but yeah,
that's a game.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Texans Colts both nine and seven. That's huge playoff implications,
pending what happens with the Jags and Titans. Also playoff implications.
Browns at eleven and five, so that's the one. Nothing
really going on there. The Browns are locked into their seed.
The Bengals are eight and eight, so so far, Vikings,
Lions technically playoff implication. So you're talking so far, we
(38:02):
have four of five, You got Jets and Patriots, who cares?
Four of six? Nothing, Falcons and Saints. You get that one.
Playoff implications five of seven, Bucks and Pats, six of eight,
Bears and Packers, seven of nine, Broncos and Raiders. I
think that one's dead. Seven of ten, Giants and Eagles.
I think you know the Eagles are playing for something.
(38:25):
Eight and eleven Seahawks they have it, Chiefs, Chargers. I
don't think there's much there Rams, Niners, Cowboys, Commanders playing
for it, and Bill's Dolphins. I mean it's virtually every
single game, some of them less than others, and you
could but I mean these like the AFC South with
those three teams, the NFC South, with those teams, you
(38:49):
could really build some drama throughout the day by starting
them at like NCAA March Madness start times.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
I do. I mean, I do love that. I don't
think for his talents it is as he is at
his job. I don't think Scott Hansen can handle it
on NFL Red Zone. I mean that's just too much.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
You just tune in every Sunday and he's just passed
out on his desk.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
He's just mumbling random numbers with dead eyes.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Zach. We love you, buddy, Thank you very We're very
begrudgingly happy for you. And I gotta tell you we'll
talk about this next year. I've started watching the Barry
Sanders documentary. Yeah, I didn't realize how unwilling he spent
his entire like how unwilling he was to discuss his
retirement and tell them that documentary.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Oh that's a Jimmy Hoffa level mystery in Detroit. It was,
and still I think kinda is.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I would have loved to speak about that. We will
speak about that at some time. But watching that, the
first half of that documentary and seeing so when you
guys made the playoffs that first year and had that
home playoff game of Wayne Fonse and just like seeing
your team. Maybe my favorite part of the documentary is
(40:05):
when Barry Sanders signed his deal I think the last
like right before the season started, and so he wasn't
really entrenched in the offense. He didn't know anything, and
so Fonse wasn't gonna play him in the first game
of his career. And he goes out there and like
everybody's chanting his name the whole game. That's how bad
the Lions had been there, like put the guy in
(40:27):
who doesn't know the plays, they're chanting his name, Like
Fonse in a press conference was like, everything's gonna be
all right. We got Barry. And so for those of
you haven't seen it, it gets to the fourth quarter
and fonce is like, ah it, let's Barry. He literally
asked him, do you want to go in? And Barry's
(40:49):
like I do, And so they showed him a couple
of plays on the sideline. He comes in and his
first run I think nineteen yards. Yeah, best play of
the game. And then he scores a touchdown. And the
way that stadium it was like forty thousand people, like
thirty thousand open seats, but the way that stadium erupted.
I had this. It's like when you see a dog
(41:11):
at a dog shelter who's getting adopted. Yeah, I had
it allowed me to connect to you and your fan
base where I'm all in on the Browns in the AFC. Sure,
I think that's the most fun story in the NFL.
I'm all in on the Lions. Brown's Lions super Bowl
is the dream for me. Give that to me, Give
it to me all day long.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah, I'm taking just on the Barry Sanders aspect before
we go, just I encourage anyone who has or has
not seen his highlights, just go watch his highlights. They
are so friggin exciting. I mean, he lost more yards
than most running backs get in their career. Like he
was so good. And then as far as fairy tale
(41:54):
Super Bowl matchups, yes, would love to see Cleveland and Detroit.
And then in the NFC Championship, I would love for
us to take down the forty nine ers. Before that,
I would love to take down the Cowboys, and before that,
you know, the Rams are the Packers, those are all
those are all such romantic stories. And if this is
if there was ever a fairy tale season, that's how
(42:14):
it would shake out.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
That's the way you do it. You beat the teams that,
like I've always said for the Vikings to have, like
if they could beat the you beat the Packers in
round one. I mean the Vikings have a few to
choose from, but you exercise the Hail Mary Bs and
you beat the Cowboys in round two, and then you
(42:36):
maybe beat the Saints or the Eagles in round three,
and then you go to the Super Bowl and you
get to knock off the Chiefs or the Raiders. You know,
you know somebody from your Super Bowl lost history. Yeah,
I think your mindset is right. What's what do you
got for a score? This weekend?
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Twenty eight twenty lions.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Even with Dan Campbell resting twenty eight twenty lions. I
think I don't know.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Let me, guys, drest for you. I can I feel
I can see it in your eyes. Seven hundred and
fifty two to three.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Don't, Zach, this is a I take this show very seriously,
so I know that you're riding high on your division title.
But if you could keep your nonsense, bullshit bits off
my program, that'd be great. I think if Dan Campbell
is gonna rest people, you know, I think it's gonna
(43:33):
be hard to put points on the board. I think
it's about lions thirteen vikings, one hundred and thirty eight. Zach,
I love you too, but here about your deep me
and I hope you enjoy whatever happens in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Oh yes, me too. Thank you and happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Thanks again to our good friend Zach Martinez for joining
the show tonight, and thank you to our sponsor Continental Diamond.
Be sure to like, subscribe, I've and download the podcast
anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. We will see
you all again next week. Join Pa at the Egan
Buffalo Wild Wings this Friday from nine to noon for
Friday Football Feast presented by Coors Light. Enjoy food and
(44:16):
drink specials and a chance to win Viking tickets and more.
Visit vikings dot com slash bww for full schedule and details.
An award winning family owned business with exceptional diamonds, engagement rings, jewelry,
and time pieces. Continental Diamond is the jeweler Minnesota Adores
in Saint Louis Park or online at Continentaldiamond dot com.
Hey everybody, it's the final regular season episode of the Tailgate.
(00:22):
Does that mean we're going to do a playoff edition?
I guess we will have to see Zach Martinez back.
He celebrates the Lions Division title. We talk about all
of the Lions' potential scenarios, the Vikings, potential playoff scenarios,
their potential draft pick scenarios. We get into the whole thing.
It's a really, really fun episode. I think you guys
(00:43):
are gonna love it. And if you do love it,
leave us a comment say hey we loved it. You know, rate, subscribe,
do all the things you do that make podcast work.
On a personal note, here, guys, thank you so much
for being a part of this show. This is our
second year. I am so grateful for how many of
(01:03):
you have tuned in and stayed tuned in. When we
thought of this idea, we never dreamed that this many
of you would like it and keep liking it. And
I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys
tune in every week, and we're gonna keep trying to
give you great shows in order to pay back that fanship.
(01:23):
Enjoy this episode and enjoy the final week of the season.
I don't know what, Tom, Dad.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Here, we gotta go there, we gotta go there, go
So Tom.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Hey, everybody, welcome into the regular season finale edition of
The Tailgate. And it is a celebratory edition for our guests,
not for us. But we're we're gonna let the man
have it. We're gonna let him. We're gonna let him
take his laps. He deserves it. We care about him
despite the disappointment and anger we feel inside of us.
(02:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, joining me friend of the Program, Returning
two weeks later with a division title in hand. Detroit
Lions fans, Zach Martinez.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yes, I'm back, and I would just like to say,
up Top, I love how you gave me that give
the Lions the nod while also expressing your your dismay
for the Viking situation. I gotta say, no one in
Green Bay would do that, and that's just that's just
Minnesota class right there. That's just what you guys are
all about.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, when you're raised indoors and you go to school
with people who aren't every other grade at the same
time in a barn, you learn all these nuances of
human interaction that the adults in our society believed to
be appropriate. And so that's what I try to do.
I try to, you know, in Wisconsin like football mad rage,
(02:54):
like that's that's the path. I'm more football mad rage,
respond and appropriate and then I you know, so it's
a little different. They're just two different paths, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
For me, it's always been a football mad rage followed
by we'll get them next year. And this is it
just still doesn't it still doesn't feel real.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
When as soon as we took that game, my wife
and my kids are like, can you believe this? I go,
I mean, I can believe it, but it just it
doesn't feel I feel like I'm gonna wake up. It
felt like I was living in anything but reality.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I don't want to ping any of your football trauma here.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But it's it's very deep down, buddy.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So was it ninety one that you guys won the division?
Won eleven games or was it twelve.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Ninety one, we won our last playoff game. Ninety three
is last time we won the division.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Ninety three is the last time you win the divisional.
So ninety one was the playoff game, you get a
first round by you win a playoff game, you get
smoked by the Washington football team in the NFC Championship yep,
and and then you win the division in ninety three,
and then it just goes away like there was, everything
was trending. You have Herman Moore, you know, Fontse is beloved.
(04:06):
There for a little bit, you have the berry and
then it all like is there any do you have
any of that football trauma? Whereas you look around and
join this moment that you worry that you've kind of
just like that year been building up to this year
and who knows, Like, are you now do you now
believe you're entering into the golden era of Lions football?
(04:31):
Or do you still feel like at any given point
in time Lucy could pull the football out when you
go to kick.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, you saw as you were asking that question, I
had a blank stare come over my face. And that
is because I never once considered that it could it
could go away. I was just so happy at the
idea that we just had the one, and I was like,
we're gonna have it. We're gonna do it for a
little bit. We're gonna be here for a little while.
And then you're like, oh, there's the League of the
NFL is there's no more parody. So it could be
(04:59):
first to it could be worse to first, and I
never thought about that, and uh, happy New Year to
you too.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
There's that's the difference in our fan bases, where you
have had no access to any joy, and Viking fans
have lived through a long pattern of near access to
joy with it only to be yanked out in a
disgusting and horrible way at the last moment.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I mean, you guys have overcome so much this year though, too,
Like I well, I just.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Mean historically, I mean, like you guys went through those
thirty years of like it's never gonna happen, and every
seven or eight or twelve years we're like, it's time. Yeah,
and then in the like the Gary Anderson miss, the
Brett fav interception, but Blair wash miss, you know, and
you get the after the Minneapolis miracle, you're like, here
(05:48):
we go, and then you know, you have what happened
in Philadelphia, So it's there's a That's that's why I
looked at it the way I looked at it because
I was like, joy is fleeting and it can be
a prack.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Joke, but we just I mean, in my lifetime, we've
never had joy, so it is always been just out
of reach. And to finally get your hands around it,
I feel like we're gonna strangle the bird. You know,
we're just so happy to have We're gonna have mice
and men this bird. Man, we're so happy to have this.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
You're gonna lenny the bird. You got the bird in hand,
and you're gonna lenny it. I don't want to send
you into a rage here, but I'd like to talk
about because I want to talk about playoff scenarios. I
want to talk about the Vikings crazy path in. I
want to talk about their path to a draft pick.
But I think this whole conversation starts with what happened
(06:36):
last Saturday night and take a deep breath. But I'd
like you to after winning the division, there's this opportunity
to elevate yourself in the seating to such an advantageous
place against a very good football team, and to have
Jared Goff drive down the field the way he did,
(06:59):
to have them go for two in quintessential big Dan
Campbell fashion, to throw it to a lineman on the
most important play of the year, like when you when
you start the beginning of the season and you're like,
all right, boys, at some point this season, we're gonna
have one play that means everything, like it's a Disney movie.
(07:22):
But you guys actually had that and you threw it
to an offensive lineman. And then to have that evaporate
due to the penalty, and then afterwards to have this
huge controversy unfold and the video come out of Decker
leaving the hut, like what was the emotional journey of
(07:42):
last Saturday?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Like for you, well, I will point back like as
far as us throwing to an offensive lineman, it didn't
surprise me terribly because if you recall last year, we
played the vikings that said Dan Campbell's hyping this up
as the super Bowl, and we had that as a
third or a fourth, but we threw to Pine Seul
and everybody lost their mind. So I honestly, when they
threw it, all I saw was the second eight and
(08:05):
I thought we threw it to Sewell again, until all
of a sudden the flag came in. I was like, wait,
what happened? Sixty eight seventy none of them were even
involved to get the replay. Okay, Taylor Decker's got the ball.
I as here are my emotions. That last drive was incredible.
It should not have taken us the entire game to
get the offense going like that. That's the only time
(08:27):
that we got the ball.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Movie I had you won that game. And in that
moment when he catches the touchdown before the flag is thrown,
where does that drive rank all time? I mean, that's
got to be one of the ten five most important
drives in Detroit Lions modern football history.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I mean when just off the top of my head,
it comes down to that Matthew Stafford Cleveland Browns drive
where he had broken his collarbone and still drove us down.
Then there was the fake spike, which was also I
believe against Dallas. Both of those drives immediately come to mind,
but I think it's I think that drive alone and
it hasn't, but it should have silenced the haters on
(09:05):
what Jared Goff is capable of doing. I mean, when
we traded for him, everyone's like he's a game manager
who can throw a little bit further. But the dude's
just been tough. He's come in and one games for us.
I mean, that's, as far as I'm concerned, his best
drive as a lion and up there probably in his
career from the Rams, oh for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Okay, So you first you're wondering what's going on, and then.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And then I realize I don't care whose number blank
dash eight caught the ball. We oh my god, we
got it. We got I'm freaking out. My dog thinks
it's the fourth of July and fireworks are going off.
He can't handle it. I'm so happy. My wife and
I are hugging like she just said yes and I
got engaged. We are both ecstatic, right, and then all
(09:52):
of a sudden, over my shoulder, she's looking over my
shoulder at the screen as I'm holding her in a
brace I haven't held and since before we were married,
which was ten years ago, nine years ago, and she goes,
there's a flag, and I go, stop it, this isn't funny.
Don't play with me like that, because I will, we will,
we will go to we will go to counseling like
this is what's gonna end up. I'm too, I can't.
(10:12):
I can't. And then I look around and she's just
pointing and like I see flag, and I go, well,
what could it be? I don't understand what it could be.
And then they said illegal touching, which was so reminiscent
of that Kansas City offensive offsite. It's just a penalty
you don't hear very often. So I'm like, I don't.
I know football, I know the penalties. I don't understand this.
I'm looking at the replay. I'm like, well, there are
(10:33):
no he's he's not being covered, he's on the line
of scrimmage. And then they go into this whole thing
about he didn't call himself eligible, so I was like, okay,
maybe he didn't whatever. And then I look over and
I mean, he's You can hear Golf in the uh
in the huddle saying hey, Deck, go go report. You
(10:53):
see him over there. I understand Pane Sewol where it
was over there. I understand Dan Skipper was over there.
But I also if you look at it, it's it's
a bummer. And it was hard. As soon as I
realized what the call was. Yeah, I hit my knees
and I cried like like someone who saw the Virgin
Mary in a year in staying on their bathroom wall. Yeah,
(11:14):
I wept, I openly, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, Okay,
because I thought we were gonna get the one seed.
We could, I mean, Philadelphia lost last week, we had
a shot at the one seed. But what it comes
down to is, yeah, we've been We've been burned before
in situations like that, and this one hurt very very much.
But like I said, the fourth und drive, that's how
long it took for us to get the offense going.
(11:35):
The entire game, we could not move the ball, and
I mean, you gotta take you can. You can point fingers,
but you got to take your blame on it. And
I guess I.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Didn't even realize until afterwards that you know, I knew
what you guys were playing for. I knew you were
playing for seeding. I knew you know where Dallas figured in,
but I didn't realize. If you know, everything plays out
the same. But you guys get that call, you beat Dallas,
you have the head to head there. Philadelphia loses against
the Cardinals, it's very reasonable to think that San Francisco
(12:07):
and Dallas are both playing for the money, and you
beat the Vikings and you are the number one seed
in the playoffs, you are one game away from an
MFC championship. You have. I mean, the change from two
bye weeks to one bye week has made that bye
week for the one seed so paramount to potential Super
Bowl success. So I didn't even realize that it was
(12:30):
that crucial potentially. And yeah, I Jay and I Producer
Jay and I were texting and we wept a little
bit for you. We thought that would be hard thing.
Let me shift it this direction then, because let's live
in reality. It looks like and we'll get into the
Vikings scenarios, but it looks as though Los Angeles Rams,
(12:55):
Green Bay Packers. Those appear to be your two potential
playoff suitors.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And then the third it would be Seattle.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, the least likely Seattle. So yeah, I think if
you want to pick a team, you pick Seattle. That's
who you want to play out of those three. I
know you've had a tough time with them over the years, man,
but the way the Rams are playing right now, I know,
and the way Jordan love is playing and how that
game went on Thanksgiving. If you have to pick between
(13:26):
those two teams, who are you who are you leaning towards?
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean, it's hard to beat anyone three times in
a season, and we've only beaten the Packers once. I
would both storylines are incredible and I would be thrilled
to watch either one of those games. I would love
to beat. You know, last last year, the last game
of the season for us was the Packers. We knocked
them out of the playoffs. Then all of a sudden,
(13:48):
the last game against the Packers this year would be
a playoff game. They're trying to do what we did
to them last year. We're trying to reign supreme in
the North, if you will, and like show that we're here,
we're here to say that would that that line's great.
I love that line. But I mean the romanticism of
the Rams coming to Detroit with Matthew Stafford at the helm,
(14:09):
I mean, Detroit fans, Detroit fans will never have rooted
that hard against Matthew Stafford. I mean, he's still, for
lack of a better phrase, Detroit's favorite son. I mean,
he is the he's the one of the Goats as
far as quarterback play goes. So to have him come
here and just to be able to hope, I mean,
you want to win. I think we're more suited to
(14:31):
to cover. Don't get me wrong, Pooka, Nakua, Cooper Cup.
They're incredible receivers, but they're not the Justin Jefferson, Christian Watson,
Watson like deep threat guys that are gonna get behind
you necessarily. Sure, so I would, I mean, ultimately, I
think I would, in my heart, I would rather see
the Rams because that is just it's just a fairy tale.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It's interesting to listen to how you approach that because
I think so many Viking fans, so many of us,
we approach h lines with such fear, like what happens
if we have to play the Packers? And I like
that mentality of no, that's what I want. I mean,
there was nothing better aside from probably winning a super Bowl,
(15:13):
but the year we win into Lambeau as like a
you know, a barely snuck and wild card team put
a bunch of touchdowns on Brett Favre and the Packers
moss mooned the crowd and we danced out of that stadium,
Like I here's the thing. You can't win a title
unless you're good enough to beat most teams. Sure, now,
(15:36):
matchups are important, you know, getting the right team on
the right day is important, and wins are all that mess.
So however, you get the win, you get the win,
and the easiest path is the best. That's why you
care about the one seed. That's why you want to
play the lowest seed. But I think if you're a
team like the Lions, you know, if you're a team
like the Vikings have been at times like you're not
(15:58):
looked at as the San France, just go forty nine Ers,
the Baltimore Ravens, these teams, you're gonna have to get
them eventually, You're gonna have to. So I'm not gonna
shy away from teams in that people believe are in
my range. I want to play the Packers, sure, I
want to put them down. I want to put Matthew
Stafford down in front of the home crowd. So I
I really, really really like that mentality.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
You know, when you were raised in the Midwest and
you go to school with people in you know, all
all different grades and a barn and everything. This is
just what adults teach you that you wanna that you
wanna think like so and then and and then in
Green Bay they're like football bad, we already go over this.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah yeah, football football winter go and so where's my cheese?
Look at my hat? Aren't I clever? So? Uh, it
was hard for as a Viking fan last week, like,
you can only do so much. This is one of
those seasons we see teams have these seasons all the time.
(17:00):
You're on your fourth quarterback. Yeah, you know, your best
player was injured most of the season. Now TJ. Hockinson's hurt,
DJ Wanham's hurt. You can only do so much?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Sure, right, and you're not even talking about your running game.
I mean everybody coming in. I thought I thought Alexander
Madison was going to be the guy. I believed in
him after the Dalvin Cook because for fantasy purposes, he
bailed me out of a couple of jams last year
when Dalvin Cook went down. But then when you got
cam Akers and all of a sudden, Kevin O'Connell figured
out seemed to how to unlock him. He was gonna
(17:33):
be the guy. And I was like, Okay, this is fine,
then Chandler's been and then Chandler's been doing like you
guys have had to. And what's crazy to me about
the Viking seasons this year and last year is the
number of one possession games that you guys, I mean
you hang with everybody. Yeah, you're very rarely getting blown out.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, it's really cool for the stress level in our state.
I think to that point though, like there's only so
much you can do. Sure, you just get to this
point point where you it's almost unreasonable. And I'm super competitive,
but it's almost unreasonable to expect this team to go
(18:11):
out and achieve at the highest level with so much adversity. Now,
the good thing about the team, and you know professional athletes,
is that's not their mindset. But that game against the
Packers was tough. Yeah, you know, it's New Year's Eve. Yeah,
that's a fun night and you get it put on you.
(18:31):
Not just in a way that sucks, but you've got
Jordan Legs scissor kicking fifty yard touchdowns. Ye down the
field for a moment, the Lions are surging. The Bears
have the number one pick and another crazy pick and
are somehow winning games down the stretch. Jordan Love is
dance passing balls all over the field and looking like
(18:54):
they have Like, dude, I saw some number. I don't
know that this is exactly right, but something like twenty
nine touchdowns by first and second year players.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So yeah, their receiving core is so young.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
And like talented, and so I just need you to
smack them. I think we're about to enter a world
that you're very familiar with, because I don't think we're
trailing behind all these other teams with potential and ability
and stuff. I just think we lead the league. We
lead the division in mystery right now? Sure we You
know this is gonna be the third year of the
O'Connell and Quacy thing. Normally things start to crystallize around
(19:29):
that point, and I think some things will. But you've
dealt with so many issues, like injury wise, you've dealt
with such a weird couple years. The close game like
it's hot with cousins not knowing what's gonna happen here,
it's We're about to have what I believe to be
and incredibly if you like the drama of offseason football,
(19:52):
if you like rumors.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
That's the Lion's home fields right here.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
That's right. And there's some old dads out there's like,
I don't need any of this off season rumor shit
to snap the ball and hand it to a raft.
And those of us youngins were like, no, no, no, no, no, daddy,
give me all the rumors.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Give me any kind of hope you can.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I want to know the seven quarterbacks that might wind
up on my team, knowing full well that all seven
of them have no change. Like, so it's gonna be
We're kind of freaky Friday right now, Zachah. You're rolling
into the playoffs, you know, with a whole bunch of
maybe hope, and we're rolling into the offseason about to
(20:34):
be like, this is our time of year, let's do it.
Hold on, I'm gonna get in so much trouble if
I don't, because we will go over this. The Vikings
can still make the playoffs, Yes they can't. And and
somebody will yell at me, and we are going to
talk about the scenario. But regardless of whether or not
they win, regardless of they make in this this mysterious
(20:54):
offseason scenario, it's a common and.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
I gotta say, I you can't change your past. I
guess I'm thrilled that I've come up the way that
I had because I love the offseason. I get so
amped from the draft. I remember a couple of years
ago we were talking. I was on stage when we
drafted Penney Sool, and I think I was at Go Banana. No, no,
I was at a Funny Bone or Go Bananas, and like,
(21:18):
I had my phone on stage with me. The draft
pick came in and I just ranted about that for
five minutes. It was a tough hole to dig out of,
but I was excited and it was all that mattered
as far as the rumors go. I love the idea
that the old and the old timers are like, oh,
I don't care about this shit. And it's like reading
these rumor articles just to look to see if your
your team's name is on there as a destination, and
(21:41):
uh yeah, it's It's just it's just full of full
of hope, and I hope, uh I hope it. I
hope it yields optimism for you, because it always has
for me, to a fault.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I really really enjoy it. I'd like to win, have
good years and also be a part of that. Yeah,
but I really really enjoyed it. So the Vikings playoffs
and it looks alike of this. If the Vikings win,
the Packers need to lose, the Seahawks need to lose,
and either either the Bucks or the Saints need to lose.
(22:16):
And you know, the way people are talking about this,
they're speaking about it as though it is, you know,
needle in a haystack win the lottery type of situation.
And I mean, the Saints play the Falcons. The Falcons,
they're gonna come to play. The Bucks are gonna beat
(22:37):
the Panthers. Otherwise they should get kicked out of the league,
you know, with their spot in the playoffs on the line.
I would say last week I would have said the
Seahawks are a no brainer to run past the Cardinals.
I don't know, man, I mean, was that what's going
on in Philadelphia? Plus a former coordinator coming in there?
(22:57):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I think a lot of it has to do that
famous coordinator thing or of the previous coordinator. I think
there's something to be said for playing against your old team,
and like, if your team respects you, they will rally
around you. I mean, one of the few wins Matt
Patricia got was over the New England Patriots. Dan Campbell
(23:19):
put his stamp on the the Sean Payton game in Denver.
I think that has a lot to do with Phillies
lost to Arizona, and I think Seattle. I mean, this
is the position they're always in and it didn't work
out for them last year. Those are all pretty even matchups,
that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
And with the Packers except the Bucks, the Packers are
nearly a century deep of shit talking Bears fans, and
you know, that's fun to watch from the outside. It's
like when you're a kid and you're in the van
with your siblings and they're going at each other and
you know they're both gonna get in trouble, and it's
fun because what they're saying to each other, you're like, yeah,
(23:57):
that was a good one, but you're not You don't
have to deal with any of the interactions. You just
get to watch. So I love as much as I
don't like the Packers, I love watching them hold court
over the Bears. But I think they've done it so long,
and I think the Bears just quietly. I think there's
a lot of last year's Lions approach in this year's
(24:17):
Bears team where they're like, hey, man, keep talking shit.
You think you and your young quarterback are gonna go
to the playoffs? We're about to ruin some stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Think about what's on the line too, for not only
the Bears, but for Justin Fields. Like Justin Fields is
playing for his job this week.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Or auditioning for a position anywhere in the league. This
is everything.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, So I don't think I don't know, I don't
think that the I think I think the Bears could
definitely beat the Packers.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And think about how, you know, normally a team in
the Bears situation, you know, do you rest guys? Are
you incentivized to move up the draft board? What does
it look like? But you already have secured, guaranteed the
number one pick in the draft? Yeah, and so this
other like you have this just almost free pass to
go out there and give it everything you have to
ruin a season and not think about anything offseason related.
(25:04):
I really do think there's a chance. I think it's
not unreasonable that all these teams come together the way
they do. I think the cog in the wheel for
the Vikings is they haven't been necessarily playing great football,
and that means we have to beat your lions and
old boy Danny C from what I've seen most recently
(25:24):
in Zach, like you know how if you have a
pit bull yep, and you're like, I love this pit
bull man. He's amazing and he does a lot of
amazing things. Every once in a while, you're like out
at a park and there's other people in dogs era
and you're like, oh shit, is he gonna do some
pit bull stuff? That's Dan Campbell. Ye, He's gonna play
(25:47):
the starters in week seventeen. It's an interesting call, man,
It's a very very interesting call. Now is he might
just be posturing. I think he's going to treat this
like a preseason game. I think he's going to get
the starters some reps early the game, see how it's going.
I mean, because we don't stand. All we stand to
do is move up to the two seed if Dallas loses.
So it doesn't, I don't. I think Dan Campbell is
(26:09):
very very aggressive, But I don't. I don't think he's
willing to be aggressive to sacrifice the future, which is
the first playoff win that we would have had in
since ninety one. Like I when he when he came here,
He's like, this is the job I want. This city
needs it. Like he seems to be plugged into what
the Lions fan base and organization are so desperately in
(26:30):
need of. So my forecast is he the starters are
gonna play, and the starters are especially on offense hot,
but I don't I don't know that they play the
whole game. That's I mean, I'm hoping for your sake,
not just for the fact that I want the Vikings
to win. Is that you know, you guys get in,
you get out, you get clean. You know, maybe maybe
(26:52):
maybe we get a win and uh and you get
into the playoffs. Just fine. The other thing that's really
interesting for the Viking is the opposite, and that's what
people are having to decide right now. There's different types
of fans. There's the win at all costs. Like I remember,
I have a we have a mutual friend, Mike Brody, Yes,
(27:13):
very talented stand up comedian, lover of the NBA. I
die hard Minnesota Timberwolves fans remember that. And the year
that we drafted Carl Anthony Towns with the number one pick.
Going down the stretch, he and myself and some of
our friends were having this argument about not winning basketball
(27:37):
because the NBA is a different beast, sure, and he
was like, you gotta win. I want to be happy.
I was like, Mike, as much as I care about
your personal happiness connected to been eliminated from the playoffs
thirty games ago NBA season like they could have wound
up without Carl Anthony town. So I think fan bases
(27:58):
find themselves strewn about the spectrum of how they feel
in these last moments because the other side of this
is what we need to do to get into the playoffs,
is if the Bears beat the Packers, if Vegas wins,
if the Jets wins, like the Vikings could move all
the way up, They're not gonna get any worse. I
don't think than about the twelve seed. You know, actually
(28:19):
they could move to the thirteen because of the New
Orleans typebreaker, but they could go all the way up
to the eighth seed, which would be the highest they've
drafted since they took Anthony Barr at number nine. And
the difference between eight nine and twelve thirteen is a lot.
So I think you're gonna see a lot of fans
split all over about how they feel about what happens
(28:42):
in this Vikings Lions game.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I I'll tell you what, as a as a fan
of a team that parentally drafts in the top twelve,
you're gonna get a good player. And it gets to
the point where you're almost spoiled because you feel so
strongly that you need such a position, and then the
(29:05):
team goes another way and you have to convince yourself, okay,
this is this is it's gonna work. Like To draft
that high is a different kind of stress because there
is so much on the table, especially when you're talking
about what's gonna happen with Kirk Cousins. Is one of
the top receivers gonna fall to us because the offensive
lineman is. It's a deep class and they're gonna go early.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Can you imagine if we took another wide receiver and
paired him with Jordan Addison and.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Jake h It would be insane. I mean, think about it,
it would be insane. You'd have to I mean the slot,
you'd have to. I think it would be more of
a across the middle kind of guy, because Jordan Edison
and Justin Jeffer can both stretch the field so well.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
But you said something earlier in the show that I
think is pretty relevant to this conversation. It's that the
you know, the NFL. You know you're coasting right now,
you're in this great moment, but two years from now,
like that's what the league is. Two years from now,
you could be first to worst, worse to first. That's
what we're talking about here. And part of the reason
for that is if you can have a successful draft,
(30:05):
if you have a couple bad drafts, it puts you
in a really bad situation. I think, you know, the Vikings,
the Vikings. The NFL draft is such a crapshoot, and
the way that we talk about people being experts or
being good at it, it's it's pretty silly in my opinion.
I just think it's a very hard job and very
hat Like. I don't envy anyone who makes those decisions. Sure,
(30:27):
but you look at the Dallas Cowboys hitting Micah Parsons,
Ceedee Lamb and Trayvon Diggs having all those guys on
rookie deals while you're paying out other big off So
that's the thing. So, like everybody's talking about, that's what
I mean about mystery with this Vikings team. You know,
do you tear it down? Do you rebuild? Is it
a competitive rebuild? All these terms that get thrown around, I've.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Never heard competitive rebuilds. Oh, the Pistons's right. The Pistons
call it a restoration. They call it a restore, which
they're come on, stop it.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
First of all, I want to say something mean again,
but it's your moment. It's your moment. I think in
order to have heard the term competitive rebuild, you would
have need to have been at a level of competition
and had a desire to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I can handle the truth. I just policy.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I just want you to have your moment. I just
want I don't I don't want to come in and
go Sana is not real. And so but I think
you know, to do something like that, which has been
a term that we've heard a lot around here from people.
You know in the media uses that term and fans
use that term. If all of a sudden, you go
(31:37):
in let's say you draft nine or twelve, If you
hit a Micah Parsons and then you hit another guy
in the second or third round, you hit two dudes
on rookie deals, and you have Addison, who I believe
Addison is about to be. I don't think anybody. I
don't think they know what's coming. This guy's gonna be
top twenty, maybe top ten in this league. You got
those three guys on rookie deals for three years, the
(32:00):
option like ooh.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
So one thing, the thing you're not even considering too,
is like in the draft when it starts, like Micah
Parsons or Penny Stool when they fell to us because
the draft board just happened to shake out the way
that nobody thought it would. The excitement that you feel
with each passing pick, where it's like Penny is still there,
Mike is still there, like I can't, Oh my gosh,
oh my gosh, oh my god, we got him. I can't.
(32:24):
The anticipation that builds at a position, particularly like in
the eight to ten range, and then you get someone
that you just didn't think is gonna be there. Oh
that's sweet. It's real, real sweet.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
It's and I think it's that's what makes this whole
mystery of the offseason so much more interesting because we
can pretend and guess, but that that's what's gonna dictate it.
How you if you hit a couple home runs, that's
what changes absolutely everything. I mean, you guys are dealing
with it right now. We love TJ. Hockinson, but you
(32:55):
moved off of TJ. Hockinson, got Sam Laporta and now
have him the next four years on a a not
even a first round deal, second round deal. You guy,
that that is something where you go, oh, man, we
just gave ourselves such a team building advantage. And that'll
(33:15):
be what's what's really interesting when it.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Don't even just I mean in that moment for the
Lions too, like we have speaking of the first round
deals and hitting on things. We have Jamier Gibbs on
a first round deal along with Jack Campbell, who you know,
we have the fifth year option on both of those,
and then you have Brian Branch and uh and uh
Sam Sam Laporta in in the second round. Like we
(33:38):
hit on those first four picks. It's bananas, man.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
And that's why I try to remind people when they're
talking to me about how this year went, or what's
the plan or stuff like that, I go, it all comes.
You hit, have a good year in the draft, and
all of a sudden, everything you hated you love. Yeah,
you have a bad year in the draft. Everything you
love now you hate you know you you The Cowboys
are that great example. You can pay Dak what you
(34:04):
need to pay Dak when you got three killers. Aren't
like crushing on low deals. So everything you do is
going to be influenced by whether or not you can
put together a couple good drafts. And I think that'll
be the fun thing. But let's let's get out of here.
Let's focus on this week.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Okay, it's not.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
The everything on the line game that I wanted it
to be. The NFL is always growing, and I think
they're really really bright. How they're approaching the the you know,
NFL Europe this time around is like incredibly bright. Sure,
you know, expanding games, you know the Thursdays, the Saturdays,
like the Nickelodeon. Yeah, dude, love the Nickelodeon. Do you
(34:42):
know how much when I was a kid I would
have been all in on the Nickelodeon games.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
As an adult, them playing in Andy's bedroom still got
me excited. I was like, I'm I'm gonna tune in
for a second. I gotta see what's going on here.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Touchdowns and ghak, let's go. So I have this pitch.
The n waits to release their schedule for the final
day until you know, it all gets changed, right, like
last week we find out who's going to play on
Sunday night football. You guys were victims of that last year.
I think we should deviate away from the traditional you know,
(35:20):
Central time noon three seven, and we should have staggered
starts all day long, based purely on competitive scenarios. And
you know, first game starts at ten am. It's like
an AAU tournament. We got another one starting at It's
March madness, March madness. I want to track, like stagger
(35:40):
all these games to create the most drama throughout the
day and create March madness on a Sunday so as
things are falling apart, like every team that's alive feels alive.
And yeah, I'm not smart enough to know exactly how
to pull that schedule off, but you've got to create
a sweepstakes madness insanity down the stretch. That's what I want,
(36:03):
Like knowing what's on the line for everybody. I would
love to see it built. And every year somebody's gonna
get the screw job because you're like, well you built
it for them and I. But that's end the NFL.
Your bye week is at a different time or whatever. Whatever. Yeah,
but I want to see the staggered starts. No game
starts at the same time on the last Sunday of
the year.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
I like, Yeah, I think that's a gonna except for
the games where there are no playoff implications, you know,
because you've got you've got teams like Carolina that could play.
You know, this year would have been New Orleans like,
neither of them are gonna make it. Let's put them No.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
No, no, Carolina has got the Bucks. Carolina's got the Bucks.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
No, No, I know, I know. I'm just saying, hypothetically,
with the same the same division, it could end with
them playing each other. I love that. I love that.
I don't not even just for the last week. I
love it for December.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Oh yeah, what if you just adopted that? Now, see
that's what I'm talking about. What if you just adopted
that all the way down the field. Let me, let's
see how many games, because you've got seeding, you've got everything,
how many games would you guess, let's close on this,
how many games would you guess this week have some
sort of playoff scenario or playoff implication.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
The only people that would know that answer. I feel
like are are political analysts on CNN calling for projected
wins in the blue and red states that math. I
can't even understand that math.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So, Steelers Ravens on Saturday, playoff implications for the Steelers
Texans Colts both nine and seven.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Do you think the Ravens will play all their players?
Speaker 1 (37:32):
I don't know. That's a tough one day. I mean,
it's a long break.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
I get that it's a long break it but yeah,
that's a game.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Texans Colts both nine and seven. That's huge playoff implications,
pending what happens with the Jags and Titans. Also playoff implications.
Browns at eleven and five, so that's the one. Nothing
really going on there. The Browns are locked into their seed.
The Bengals are eight and eight, so so far, Vikings,
Lions technically playoff implication. So you're talking so far, we
(38:02):
have four of five, You got Jets and Patriots, who cares?
Four of six? Nothing, Falcons and Saints. You get that one.
Playoff implications five of seven, Bucks and Pats, six of eight,
Bears and Packers, seven of nine, Broncos and Raiders. I
think that one's dead. Seven of ten, Giants and Eagles.
I think you know the Eagles are playing for something.
(38:25):
Eight and eleven Seahawks they have it, Chiefs, Chargers. I
don't think there's much there Rams, Niners, Cowboys, Commanders playing
for it, and Bill's Dolphins. I mean it's virtually every
single game, some of them less than others, and you
could but I mean these like the AFC South with
those three teams, the NFC South, with those teams, you
(38:49):
could really build some drama throughout the day by starting
them at like NCAA March Madness start times.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
I do. I mean, I do love that. I don't
think for his talents it is as he is at
his job. I don't think Scott Hansen can handle it
on NFL Red Zone. I mean that's just too much.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
You just tune in every Sunday and he's just passed
out on his desk.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
He's just mumbling random numbers with dead eyes.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Zach. We love you, buddy, Thank you very We're very
begrudgingly happy for you. And I gotta tell you we'll
talk about this next year. I've started watching the Barry
Sanders documentary. Yeah, I didn't realize how unwilling he spent
his entire like how unwilling he was to discuss his
retirement and tell them that documentary.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Oh that's a Jimmy Hoffa level mystery in Detroit. It was,
and still I think kinda is.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I would have loved to speak about that. We will
speak about that at some time. But watching that, the
first half of that documentary and seeing so when you
guys made the playoffs that first year and had that
home playoff game of Wayne Fonse and just like seeing
your team. Maybe my favorite part of the documentary is
(40:05):
when Barry Sanders signed his deal I think the last
like right before the season started, and so he wasn't
really entrenched in the offense. He didn't know anything, and
so Fonse wasn't gonna play him in the first game
of his career. And he goes out there and like
everybody's chanting his name the whole game. That's how bad
the Lions had been there, like put the guy in
(40:27):
who doesn't know the plays, they're chanting his name, Like
Fonse in a press conference was like, everything's gonna be
all right. We got Barry. And so for those of
you haven't seen it, it gets to the fourth quarter
and fonce is like, ah it, let's Barry. He literally
asked him, do you want to go in? And Barry's
(40:49):
like I do, And so they showed him a couple
of plays on the sideline. He comes in and his
first run I think nineteen yards. Yeah, best play of
the game. And then he scores a touchdown. And the
way that stadium it was like forty thousand people, like
thirty thousand open seats, but the way that stadium erupted.
I had this. It's like when you see a dog
(41:11):
at a dog shelter who's getting adopted. Yeah, I had
it allowed me to connect to you and your fan
base where I'm all in on the Browns in the AFC. Sure,
I think that's the most fun story in the NFL.
I'm all in on the Lions. Brown's Lions super Bowl
is the dream for me. Give that to me, Give
it to me all day long.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah, I'm taking just on the Barry Sanders aspect before
we go, just I encourage anyone who has or has
not seen his highlights, just go watch his highlights. They
are so friggin exciting. I mean, he lost more yards
than most running backs get in their career. Like he
was so good. And then as far as fairy tale
(41:54):
Super Bowl matchups, yes, would love to see Cleveland and Detroit.
And then in the NFC Championship, I would love for
us to take down the forty nine ers. Before that,
I would love to take down the Cowboys, and before that,
you know, the Rams are the Packers, those are all
those are all such romantic stories. And if this is
if there was ever a fairy tale season, that's how
(42:14):
it would shake out.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
That's the way you do it. You beat the teams that,
like I've always said for the Vikings to have, like
if they could beat the you beat the Packers in
round one. I mean the Vikings have a few to
choose from, but you exercise the Hail Mary Bs and
you beat the Cowboys in round two, and then you
(42:36):
maybe beat the Saints or the Eagles in round three,
and then you go to the Super Bowl and you
get to knock off the Chiefs or the Raiders. You know,
you know somebody from your Super Bowl lost history. Yeah,
I think your mindset is right. What's what do you
got for a score? This weekend?
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Twenty eight twenty lions.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Even with Dan Campbell resting twenty eight twenty lions. I
think I don't know.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Let me, guys, drest for you. I can I feel
I can see it in your eyes. Seven hundred and
fifty two to three.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Don't, Zach, this is a I take this show very seriously,
so I know that you're riding high on your division title.
But if you could keep your nonsense, bullshit bits off
my program, that'd be great. I think if Dan Campbell
is gonna rest people, you know, I think it's gonna
(43:33):
be hard to put points on the board. I think
it's about lions thirteen vikings, one hundred and thirty eight. Zach,
I love you too, but here about your deep me
and I hope you enjoy whatever happens in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Oh yes, me too. Thank you and happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Thanks again to our good friend Zach Martinez for joining
the show tonight, and thank you to our sponsor Continental Diamond.
Be sure to like, subscribe, I've and download the podcast
anywhere you listen to your favorite shows. We will see
you all again next week. Join Pa at the Egan
Buffalo Wild Wings this Friday from nine to noon for
Friday Football Feast presented by Coors Light. Enjoy food and
(44:16):
drink specials and a chance to win Viking tickets and more.
Visit vikings dot com slash bww for full schedule and details.
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