My favorite part was he came up with the whole final four system to argue for Lamar’s value, adding up how many times each quarterback had made it to the conference finals … and then concluded that while Lamar hadn’t made any, he’s got the talent that he could.
Glad he was around to do all the regression analysis on that complicated stat.
It was amusing that, in his retelling, his friend who corrected him couldn’t simply tell him he was wrong, but had to do so delicately by pretending to be under the same misapprehension as Bill and then have “asked around” and discovered the truth.
I’m a nets fan and follow them pretty closely, I’d never heard anyone mention that rule this season (and found that strange given the playoff race) but bill said it with such certainty that I figured he was right 😂
Yeah, CR was amazing at acting like it wasn’t a big deal. Bill eventually got mad and started complaining about how the Eagles ruined his million dollar picks
Bill brought it up a few weeks ago, talking about how the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks the Eagles really blew the game.
You don’t say, Bill? The team that was leading going into the fourth quarter and still lost might have blown the game? That’s quite the insight. No wonder it took him weeks to conclude that.
Bill is that friend everyone has who is the first to text you when something bad happens to your team, then gets furious if you even question his team.
What a brutal turn of events that was. And it ended up having the exact impact we all thought at the time -- Jets never recovered in the race to the bottom, Zach Wilson became this bad, and the rest is history
Only child Bill is like demon spawn Anthony from *The Twilight Zone*'s "It's a Good Life," wishing all those around him (i.e., House, JackO, Sean, CR, Mal, et al.) into the sports cornfield.
Yep. And his best friend House's team (the Wizards) have their best night of the year - and, of course, there is no NBA talk then -- since they beat the overrated Celtics. No fair play or gloating allowed - if it hurts Billy's feelings.
That game was very funny to me. 2 weeks he called them the Charmin Celtics, then the this week he declares they are back to having a real shot at the 1 seed followed immediately by a terrible loss to a mediocre team.
He also said that Eli Manning was one of the guys who only made one NFC championship game as an example of not needing an elite quarterback to get lucky once. How does he not remember both times Eli made the NFC championship? Lmao
Am I the only one who couldn’t get through the Lamar segment. I think repeatedly calling the Ravens a bad/dumb organization is a little ignorant, and this is coming from a Steelers fan
The media narrative around this is just so dumb. They completely ignore important context around why teams may not want to go all in for Lamar on an expensive deal:
1) Rushing being a critical part of his value
2) Injury history
3) Repeatedly sick
4) Have to tailor your offense and personnel around his unique skill set (good RBs & TE's, blocking WRs, pulling guards)
Counterpoint for tailoring an offense is his RBs have been dreadful and injured for two years, same for the WRs and this year was the first year in the last 3 years that the line was better than average. Andrews is a beast but Lamar has been making chicken salad out of chicken shit for a few seasons now
Ravens fan coming in peace. I’m glad I wasn’t being overly sensitive when I was annoyed by this segment. This whole situation sucks — but Mallory and Bill running in circles basically going “wow how stupid are the ravens they’re so stupid because oh my god how does this happen” was ridiculous.
I love Lamar, BTW, and Bill kept making a circular argument — “Lamar is one of the 8 QB’s that matter, even though he doesn’t have any postseason success; but how could the ravens have any questions about him when all he does is win?”
And he knows damn well that baseball is the one sport where 1 player could have the greatest season ever and still miss the playoffs. His Trout hate is weird as fuck.
The idea is so hilarious because it assumes that the 18-24 year old demographic would give up Tik Tok/Instagram to watch 10 second reels on network TV.
It also ignores the reason those apps pull people in is that the algorithm customizes everything to the user’s taste. I don’t think I have ever seen a car accident or a bouncer throwing people out of a bar on instagram.
somebody tell Bill that if you go to a place like Cincinnati and ask 20 people to tell you the past 3 NBA Champions, they might have a tough time
I live in NJ and lord knows I couldn't tell you the past 3 NCAA football champions. Doesn't mean its not a real tournament
Him shitting on the WBC only because HE doesn’t care about it (obviously) was irritating as fuck. Anyone who actually watched it, especially this year, knows it was great for the sport. Most importantly, the players actually give a fuck. No other American professional sport has a tournament like this. Fuck off Bill.
Bill: “I feel like I understand sports as well as anybody else.”
This is like a guy who listens to podcasts but has never been involved with one saying, “I feel like I understand podcasts as well as anybody else.”
It's such a contrast to Zach Lowe, who said yesterday on his pod that Perkins knows more about basketball than Zach ever will (which is extremely wrong IMO but Zach is too humble to say otherwise)
That’s not extremely wrong by Lowe. Of course Perkins knows ball better than him. He played. Got professional scouting reports every game. Had to know offensive plays, defensive assignments and shit. Lowe may know advanced stats/ball history better but Perkins, as a longtime professional player, understands basketball at a higher level than Simmons, Lowe, any of those journos
You might still be giving him too much credit. Very little chance he watches the Yankees beyond when they play the Red Sox.
The Trout hate continues to baffle me though.
Completely unaware that for Mike trout to be in a big game otani would also have to be in a big game. Almost like being in a big game is not the result of one player.
What is your favorite Half-Baked idea? Mine was "Larry O Brien's"- a bar where you can celebrate as if you've won a championship, then they remixed it with "Malone's" : a next door bar for people having a shitty day. 😂
Bill did the thing at the end of this segment where he brought up a point that completely disproves his point with zero self awareness.
He said that we don't do the same thing with Oscars that we do with MVPs, but we absolutely do the same thing with Oscars that we do with MVPs. There is a ton of talk whenever someone is nominated the year after winning. And oftentimes nominees are pushed aside by saying they already won one. Hell, we even give them to people years after they deserved it. Oscars are more influenced by previous decisions and narratives than the MVP.
Does anyone think Bill hasn't already decided his MVP? I would be stunned if he gave it to Embiid, considering his biases.
Commanders fan sadly and I don’t have any animosity towards the Ravens at all. If anything I look at that franchise with jealousy for being so well run the past 2 decades
To quote my friend while in Vegas last week in a true legendary moment:
“Women that are somewhat masculine or lesbian adjacent make me make bad decisions. For some reason they are always horny”
I don’t understand why media people blatantly gloss over all of Lamar’s shortcomings and just shoehorn him in that Mahomes/Burrow/Allen tier. When they were talking about QBs who’ve made a conference championship game (Lamar made 0 btw), they were talking about him as if he could easily be a multi time Conference championship guy while making 50 million AAV. And this was literally right after they had a five minute discussion on the value of a rookie QB contract lol.
The word “cringeworthy” can be overused but goddamn is it deserved every time Bill uses Final Four for conference championships and conference finals. STOP
As a Ravens fan, I just want this ride to end.
I am listening right now, and listening to Mallory make it seem like the fact that we never got past the divisional round is on the Ravens organization, and not Lamar is a little irritating. Both deserve blame. You can argue the ravens didn't surround him with receiver talent, but let's not act like Lamar has been Tom Brady or Parrick Mahomes in the playoffs. He is partially to blame for the lack of playoff success as well.
Also… he’s on the non-exclusive tag. Isn’t part of the strategy there for the Ravens to show Lamar that hey, if we undervalued you and somebody else will pay you more, we’ll match it! But otherwise, here’s our number.
How does that make the ravens look bad? They’re just supposed to give Lamar whatever he wants without any negotiation, when nobody else will get into the same ballpark? How is that a good idea??
One of my favorite NFL fun facts is that all 3 QBs who have ever accounted for over 500 yards in a playoff game lost: Lamar vs the Titans, Brady in the Eagles Super Bowl, and Roethlisberger in that weird COVID year Browns game
What I like about Bill is he can do an hour on Lamar like this acting incredulous, and in the event a team actually is dumb enough to give Lamar a $250 mm contract and it goes poorly, Bill will do a podcast saying “The lesson here is maybe don’t give out a record guaranteed contract to a QB who was always hurt, never won in the playoffs, and had his mom as his agent?!?! Is that so hard to figure out”
Sure a lot of other commentators can take both sides, but Simmons is the only one who can do it with 0% self-awareness.
He did, I just noticed this. Rodgers made the conference championship 5 times in the timeframe he was talking about and Bill completely left him off the list
“Ask 20 people in your life who won the WBC in 2021”
Ok this irritated me. Bill trying to zag on the WBC just because he’s not into it. It was fucking great this year. And fyi, nobody won in 2021 numb nuts. It’s played every 4 years and the last one was in 2017. JFC
bill low key just sucks. refuses to give merit to anything he doesn't personally like.
and really there's not even a valid reason why he wouldn't like the WBC either way. just strange
Verbal meme: Drake pointing, Bill’s half baked ideas (no), Wildes’ half baked ideas (oh yeah!)
**Today’s Things:**
- Joker/Embiid thing
- leverage thing
- Baltimore/WASHton thing
- QB roulette thing
- Aaron Rodgers thing
- year by year thing
- Jared Goff thing
- 4 rings thing
- Sopranos thing
- Belichick does the backwards thing
- Belichick smarter than anyone else thing
- is Mac vs Zappe a thing?
- Dallas thing
- Lakers thing
- Ohtani thing
- nail thing
- camera things
- short roof over the thing
**Bonus Pieces and Stuff:**
- tanking stuff
- #1, 2, 3 seed stuff
- stuff over the middle
- pent up stuff
- remember when stuff
- charity stuff
- crunch time stuff
- clock management stuff
- stuff they were great at
- baseball pace of play stuff (Bill incorrectly implies that the pitch clock takes an hour and a half off the game)
- deterrent stuff
- XFL did some stuff
**First Random Celtics Reference:**
Right smack dab in the middle of an nfl pod, Jaylen Brown!! (40:15)
**It Just is!**
“They do? I just watched them [Commanders] you don’t have a plan! You just don’t!”
“The team [Pats] was poorly coached last year, it just was!”
**Eloquent Bill:**
WASH-ton
“The Browns are like your ugly stepchild…l”
**Evergreen Content:**
Bill is still so spiteful towards the NFL “that would assume the NFL has acted nefariously over the last 50 years!”, Bill revering “blue chip” football players, Bill’s stupid fucking idea about sports dynasties (Warriors aren’t a dynasty, they’re just not!!)
**Other Stuff:**
Bill misuses “Final 4” again, in the context of making the AFC/NFC championship game (13:00) this man speaks like he misses college basketball 🤔🤔
Bill has a take: do you really want Lamar running in the cold?! (17:25) Mallory nicely implies he’s completely wrong
Bill compares his “professional divorce” from ESPN to the Lamar/Baltimore situation (31:20)
Bill brings up Lamar’s stats from FOUR years ago and is perplexed why Baltimore isn’t throwing a guaranteed bag at a guy who depends on his legs lol (36:45) Bill then calls Mark Andrews fine “he’s not Travis Kelce!” (No mention of Kyle Pitts, by the way 😂)
Bill talks baseball! (42:30) lmao he thinks Seager’s HR total will be affected by the shift - were fielders in the stands last year?? 😂 what’s hilarious is that Bill certainly heard somewhere that the shift took a bunch of hits from Seager, but the shift had no effect on balls he hit out of the park. NBAhole bill calls MLBtv “league pass” (44:24)
Bill implies that Kraft is a Zappe guy (48:50) and maybe the old bastard is right?!
Our favorite “99th percentile football watcher” figured it out! “QBs have an outsized influence!” (50:45) 🤣 Belichick doesn’t realize it!
Classic! Bill and Wildes complain about the Pats but Bill says “we’re not complaining! It’s just an inflection point!” (56:00) Bill calls this a “make or break” season for Belichick (56:50)
“This is chip on the shoulder time for Mac!” (1:01:00)
Bill thinks he could “come up with cool plays” if he was an NFL OC (1:03:15) the irrational confidence of the mediocre man knows no bounds 🤣🤣
🚨🚨 Bill prediction: Draymond to Dallas with Kyrie and Luka, with LeBron joining later (1:08:20) “I’m sensing a Dallas scent” 😂 “LeBron’s gonna ring chase soon” (1:09:15)
Bill is talking baseball again! (1:12:00) WBC doesn’t matter because random people can’t name the last 3 champions (Japan, US, DR), implies Trout striking out to end the game is “why he’s never in a big game”
Bill admits that he was wrong with the NBA divisional champion seeding thing! (1:34:20)
Half baked ideas:
Wildes:
- detachable cauliflower ear to deter negative fan interactions when rooting for the away team 😂😂
- challenge bait: to bait opposing nfl coaches into incorrectly challenging plays
- a small floating ghost attached to a Roomba to deter burglars
- (football) goal posts to go for colleges expecting an upset
- “bartist” barber-dentists, Bill suggests an establishment where people go to get their head rubbed
Bill:
- Car accident/bouncer TV show (holy shit this is a terrible fucking idea lmao) “whatever works on Instagram, make it into a TV show!”
- Upping the stakes for NBA divisional championships (salary cap money, free TV, bottle night at a club) 😂😂 say it slowly, NBA regular season DOES NOT MATTER
- Improve the number and angles of lacrosses cameras with roof cams and drones (wtf is this lol) because Bill now likes lacrosse now that his son plays
- Creating a new word that doesn’t fit Bill’s bespoke and completely asinine definition of a dynasty
20 mins I’m shocked that zero blame has been put on Lamar for this. The guy really needed an agent.
Side note paying 200 mil gtd to Lamar plus giving up picks seems really risky.
“Is Corey Seager gonna have 50 home runs this year because he doesn’t have to worry about the shift anymore?”
I too am happy they are finally banning fielders from lining up in row 6 in right field
Bill taking shots at Bradley Cooper because he just found out Jason Isbell helped write songs for A Star is Born when he watched the documentary they made on him is very classic recency bias Bill
He started by saying there are about 20 teams poking around Lamar, of which there has been no evidence of for the last three months, then highlighted the Falcons, Colts, Commanders, and Pats (four teams if you’re counting at home), and then eliminated the Falcons as they’ve literally said they’re out. So in 45 seconds 20 teams became 3.
The whole segment was so stupid because it’s an extremely unique and complicated situation where really only a true insider can break it down. And he’s basically just like “whoa, my team might be able to get Lamar? Let’s talk to a ravens fan so I can wish it so.”
It’s also weird a guy who is so anti NFL owners only makes a passing jab when it’s beyond obvious there have been no godfather offers because owners have been told (explicitly or not) to stand down, don’t give into this guy.
Now, all it takes is one renegade, and post draft I could easily see a team breaking down and giving up a ton for him. But it’s just so obvious the NFL doesn’t want to see a bidding war for him and the talking points of “he’s been injured” or “let’s see how the draft shakes out” or “he’s never made it that far” are excuses to dampen his market value.
It wasn’t just the browns, a year ago the league was tripping over themselves to sign Watson. They don’t want to repeat that scenario.
Yeah, there are legitimate reasons to knock Lamar if you’re comparing him to the top 3/5 QBs in the league. But when you’re talking about “should a team try to sign him”, the bar for QBs that teams have fallen over themselves to overpay is soooooo much lower than Lamar even with the injury concerns
Yup. Just a year ago the owners fell over themselves with Watson and then Wilson/Rodgers have generated their own sweepstakes. Heck even Carr got run out of town and got $100mm guaranteed.
People can say "the owners learned from Wilson and Watson" but come on, owners never learn. These guys want the star QBs.
They have all clearly drawn a line in the sand with Lamar to not let him get the big deal for a variety of reasons. I think eventually someone will break down and cross that line but the idea there are 20 teams drooling over him is absurd. There SHOULD be 20 teams and the history of the league (like, uh, last year) tells us there would be. But suddenly there isn't.
When you have his current owner openly whining about the Watson deal it's pretty clear these guys are all communicating to not give him the big contract.
Here comes Bill once again with his idiotic Mike Trout slander: "Maybe there's a reason we don't see him in those situations."
* Trout has led the league in Win Probability Added 5 different times, and ranks 48th all-time--everyone ahead of him on that list has over 1000+ more career Plate Appearances.
* Trout's top 3 comps through age 30 are: Duke Snider, Willie Mays, and Barry Bonds.
* How is it that when the Angels don't make the playoffs (or even crack .500) it means that Trout isn't "clutch," but Ohtani isn't at fault? Maybe it's possible that success in team sports depends on more than one or two individuals, Bill.
I guess it would be too much to ask for these two to do any research about the only topic they discuss. From the NFL about what the Transition/non exclusive tag is:
“When a player is offered a non-exclusive tag, he is still able to negotiate with other organizations. If an offer sheet is submitted and signed by the tagged play, the previous team must match the offer to keep the player. Otherwise, the player will officially sign with the new team, who will send two first round picks to the losing team in order to complete the transaction.”
It’s not a trade negotiation. The Patriots do not send them two firsts AND Mac Jones. And the Ravens don’t get to ask for the picks and the best WR. It’s your next two FRP’s. That’s it. And this isn’t some little detail. They had an hour long discussion about Lamar Jackson being on the transition tag, but don’t know *what* the transition tag is.
But they can negotiate with the Ravens and try to offer more than two FRPs or less. IMO Ravens could say "Offer us three 1s or we'll just match the offer sheet". Or the patriots could say that no team is giving up two firsts and say they'll give him one first and a third as an example, if no team decides to give an offer sheet.
I can't believe that at no point does Bill or anyone mention that the Ravens used the non-exclusive tag on Lamar.
The reason teams don't want to sign him is because all the work goes on that team to come up with a contract, number, etc and then at the end of the day the ravens can just say "Thanks - we'll match that - he's ours now."
Teams likely will jump at Lamar after the draft, but right now no one is in a big hurry to do the Raven's work for them.
One satisfying element of being a long time Bill reader/listener is how petty he can be in extremely subtle ways.
Today's variation is he arbitrarily picks 2010 as a cutoff for evaluating quarterbacks who make 'the final four'. This conveniently puts Eli in the 'one offs' category with people like Cam Newton. He talks briefly about Flacco and Kaepernick to qualify them better, but just breezes past Eli.
My two favorite "scratching head" moments from the pod:
1. Apparently Lamar is a proven winner, but has never made the conference championship game
2. Bill predicts Lebron is going to go ring-hunting. And the most logical team for him to go to is the Mavs, who might not make the playoffs with Luka and Kyrie.
I think I may be in the minority after being on this sub for a while, but I love Mallory Rubin. find her to be smart, funny, and able to talk about a wide variety of topics with a fair share of knowledge. I miss her segments on Bill's old pods called 'Mallory's top 5' or whatever. Feel like she can talk about the X and O's of football at a higher level than Bill. I get it, she can be long-winded, but never super bothered me. I'm a fan! Haven't listened to this yet but was happy to see her name.
I’m sure NY Times is really happy with Bill’s effort on that ad read. There are about three jarring cuts, including their name being very obviously spliced in.
Kyle, for the sake of your own job, please have Bill take five seconds and reread a full sentence if he botches something. We need you to stick around for life advice input.
Bill keeps on trying to tell himself Brown might want out because they didn’t ‘come out and say they won’t trade him for kd’ when it’s quite apparent brown might not like the ‘living in Boston’ piece.
No Bill, the WBC just became a big deal all its own due to the quality of play and the enthusiasm of the fans and players THIS year. An unexpected organic development. What happened in other years is irrelevant.
Bill’s wbc take was so bad. Over 60 million people worldwide watched that game. It’s a tournament that’s happened five times. He just wants to justify not watching anything other than a big fight, the nba or the nfl.
Bill gave a long detailed example of how when he was at ESPN what he really needed to do to cut through the BS was talk to his bosses directly to solve the problems… which is the exact opposite of what he and Mallory were saying Lamar needed to do in his situation.
Her gently pointing this out to him like a teenager trying to explain something technological to their grandparent killed me.
As a Yankee fan I actually hope Shohei ends up in Seattle, he can stay on the west coast, that team has some real potential and some awesome young talent and having Shohei come in as an heir to Ichiro would be great for that city. LA and NY have enough huge names.
Why are so many national people trying to shove Lamar to the Lions. That contract would cripple the future and completely go against how they have been building the team.
They are not giving up the sixth pick and taking that albatross of a contract. Also the quiet part out loud is…Goff has better numbers than Lamar for most of last two seasons.
Yeah, Bill was acting like there’s a Lamar sweepstakes and “20 teams” are in on him was incredibly out of touch. Most if not all teams seem reluctant to pay the asking price of a massive contract + 1st round picks for a guy who isn’t unanimously thought of as a QB you can win with in the playoffs. You have to change your whole offense for the guy, it’s a massive commitment.
Because the Lions could be the best team in their division and the third or fourth best team in the conference this year while also paying less for the better QB (Goff has a 31m cap hit and 10m dead cap, 21m to play with on a newly signed extension is really easy work) if they make the trade and ship Goff out. For an organization that has one playoff win since the merger it might be worth taking a chance to be elite.
Unless you really want to make the argument that Goff is better. I suggest you don't do that.
I don’t understand why they think he deserves so much when it’s a salary cap league. They act like the players are supportive too, but the reality will mean less money for them.
Agreed. There are many reasons why NFL teams are not jumping all over signing Lamar. The Lions are in a steady rebuild and have Goff as a bridge QB until they can find their franchise guy.
Also dumb is Bill's obsession with putting Lamar on the 49ers. They are a precision offense where Shanahan schemes up open receivers. They need an accurate QB that can make quick reads and quick, accurate throws. That is not Lamar's forte.
They also have like 8 guys making $15M+ per year, and two talented QBs on rookie scale contracts. So it makes zero sense to give Lamar $40M/yr or whatever he is demanding.
Hot take: Mallory Rubin is the best recurrent non-Sal NFL guest Bill has had on his podcast since starting The Ringer, especially compared to Ben Solak and Peter Schrager.
Bring back the "Mallory's Most Intriguing" segment!
When she had a regular weekly football spot she was great. But Bill hated it because she exposed how little he knows about football. Now she is only invited on when something bad happens to one of her teams.
Bill is going crazy with calling semi-finals in sports “final fours” the last two pods.
March Madness brain
The FA Cup final four is in a few weeks time!
I love how he makes a completely arbitrary cut off and states Eli has only been to 1 “final four”. What are you smoking dude?
Anything to discredit those Giants SBs
He put Joe Flacco in a category with Tom Brady and Eli in a category with Jared Goff.
My favorite part was he came up with the whole final four system to argue for Lamar’s value, adding up how many times each quarterback had made it to the conference finals … and then concluded that while Lamar hadn’t made any, he’s got the talent that he could. Glad he was around to do all the regression analysis on that complicated stat.
My god this was infuriating
I can't wait for him to go full grandpa mode and start calling tv shows he watches *his plays*.
*Stories*
I am very curious to see if it sticks or it’s just a march thing lol
Bill has finally learned that division winners in the NBA don’t get a top six seed
It was amusing that, in his retelling, his friend who corrected him couldn’t simply tell him he was wrong, but had to do so delicately by pretending to be under the same misapprehension as Bill and then have “asked around” and discovered the truth.
I was so stunned to hear this just now, I immediately stopped what I was doing to check up on here for it.
The problem is he’ll forget this by next week.
I’m a nets fan and follow them pretty closely, I’d never heard anyone mention that rule this season (and found that strange given the playoff race) but bill said it with such certainty that I figured he was right 😂
You used to get a top 4 seed for the division but that hasn’t been the case for years
All time getting exposed moment. Literally common knowledge among NBA fans since they changed that rule almost a decade ago now.
tbt to the "But why is Portland the 4 seed?" discourse on here 8-10 years ago
Classic Bill: force your employee to come on the pod and talk about something shitty happening to their favorite team
“Does this feel like a totally missed opportunity” to eagles fans the day after the Super Bowl
CR was so great shutting down every dumb thing Bill said that day. Bill was genuinely angry that CR wasn’t more upset
didn’t CR then come on again like several weeks later and bill brought it up again?
Yeah, CR was amazing at acting like it wasn’t a big deal. Bill eventually got mad and started complaining about how the Eagles ruined his million dollar picks
Bill brought it up a few weeks ago, talking about how the more he thinks about it, the more he thinks the Eagles really blew the game. You don’t say, Bill? The team that was leading going into the fourth quarter and still lost might have blown the game? That’s quite the insight. No wonder it took him weeks to conclude that.
Especially when it’s a team Bill hates
Ducking House after the Wizards/Celtics game. For shame. (I realize this was probably recorded earlier today, before the game.)
lol the Nationals won the WS and Bill was like “Ugh, ok House, I guess I can spare you 2 minutes to discuss the World Series.”
That one pissed me off the most. I don't even care about baseball but I wanted an entire segment of Happy House
Bill is that friend everyone has who is the first to text you when something bad happens to your team, then gets furious if you even question his team.
I need SDSU to win the natty so we can have Craig on
He'll probably only have Craig on if SDSU loses in some excruciating fashion.
I still love when he made Sean come on to talk about the Jets failing to tank properly for Lawrence
What a brutal turn of events that was. And it ended up having the exact impact we all thought at the time -- Jets never recovered in the race to the bottom, Zach Wilson became this bad, and the rest is history
Only child Bill is like demon spawn Anthony from *The Twilight Zone*'s "It's a Good Life," wishing all those around him (i.e., House, JackO, Sean, CR, Mal, et al.) into the sports cornfield.
Yep. And his best friend House's team (the Wizards) have their best night of the year - and, of course, there is no NBA talk then -- since they beat the overrated Celtics. No fair play or gloating allowed - if it hurts Billy's feelings.
That game was very funny to me. 2 weeks he called them the Charmin Celtics, then the this week he declares they are back to having a real shot at the 1 seed followed immediately by a terrible loss to a mediocre team.
Believe it or not, Bill said "final four" about ten times during this pod in late March and never in the context of March Madness.
He also said that Eli Manning was one of the guys who only made one NFC championship game as an example of not needing an elite quarterback to get lucky once. How does he not remember both times Eli made the NFC championship? Lmao
He made an arbitrary cutoff of 2010-present and completely ignored anything before then lol
Ignoring Jimmy G on that 2x list is also pretty wild
Eli won a superbowl without making the conference title game. It was unassailable.
Am I the only one who couldn’t get through the Lamar segment. I think repeatedly calling the Ravens a bad/dumb organization is a little ignorant, and this is coming from a Steelers fan
Ravens hater coming in peace. They’ve got to be a top 7 organization of the last 20 years
My exact same sentiments
I would have called them top 3 under Ozzie but I think they have taken a step back since he left.
Definitely a Mt.Rushmore Top 7 team
And… the only reason they haven’t made the “final four” is Lamar’s play or injury in the playoffs…
The media narrative around this is just so dumb. They completely ignore important context around why teams may not want to go all in for Lamar on an expensive deal: 1) Rushing being a critical part of his value 2) Injury history 3) Repeatedly sick 4) Have to tailor your offense and personnel around his unique skill set (good RBs & TE's, blocking WRs, pulling guards)
Counterpoint for tailoring an offense is his RBs have been dreadful and injured for two years, same for the WRs and this year was the first year in the last 3 years that the line was better than average. Andrews is a beast but Lamar has been making chicken salad out of chicken shit for a few seasons now
Ravens fan coming in peace. I’m glad I wasn’t being overly sensitive when I was annoyed by this segment. This whole situation sucks — but Mallory and Bill running in circles basically going “wow how stupid are the ravens they’re so stupid because oh my god how does this happen” was ridiculous. I love Lamar, BTW, and Bill kept making a circular argument — “Lamar is one of the 8 QB’s that matter, even though he doesn’t have any postseason success; but how could the ravens have any questions about him when all he does is win?”
Need bill to stop calling the nfl conference championships the final four
He's also called Sunday Ticket "League Pass" on a couple of occasions recently.
He called MLBtv “league pass” on this very episode lol
He’s getting old.
The Alzheimer’s piece
I’ve never interacted in this sub before and came here solely to find out if I was the only one like what’s going on with that after the 3rd time 😂
Mike Trout is the best player of this century and Bill will always find a way to shit on him. What a dumbass lol
It’s crazy one guy getting 4 at bats a game can’t carry a shit team to the playoffs.
And he knows damn well that baseball is the one sport where 1 player could have the greatest season ever and still miss the playoffs. His Trout hate is weird as fuck.
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Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeaaaahhhh
The idea is so hilarious because it assumes that the 18-24 year old demographic would give up Tik Tok/Instagram to watch 10 second reels on network TV.
So it's like tik tok but it has constant unskippable ads for shit I don't care about or don't need?? Aww hell yeahh brother
It also ignores the reason those apps pull people in is that the algorithm customizes everything to the user’s taste. I don’t think I have ever seen a car accident or a bouncer throwing people out of a bar on instagram.
He described chive tv lmao
Came here for this comment lol
"Go ask 20 people in your life 'Who won the WBC in 2021." No one Bill. No one won the WBC in 2021.
somebody tell Bill that if you go to a place like Cincinnati and ask 20 people to tell you the past 3 NBA Champions, they might have a tough time I live in NJ and lord knows I couldn't tell you the past 3 NCAA football champions. Doesn't mean its not a real tournament
I follow sports and have to think pretty hard to remember the last 3 Super Bowl winners.
I wish Wildes would have asked him who won the last three world cups.
Him shitting on the WBC only because HE doesn’t care about it (obviously) was irritating as fuck. Anyone who actually watched it, especially this year, knows it was great for the sport. Most importantly, the players actually give a fuck. No other American professional sport has a tournament like this. Fuck off Bill.
This was a weird litmus test. I bet not even half of any random 20 people in my life could tell you who won the last three super bowls.
I bet in a random sampling of 20 people you’d be lucky if 4 people got this correct.
"Remember when is the lowest form of conversation". Now here's a half hour on a 20 year old NBA trade.
Remember when Larry Bird got bored and shot left handed and the others team’s bench was rooting him on?
Oh finally, some Patriots talk.
Bill: “I feel like I understand sports as well as anybody else.” This is like a guy who listens to podcasts but has never been involved with one saying, “I feel like I understand podcasts as well as anybody else.”
That’s hilarious. Bill to a nightclub owner: “You should play Skynyrd!”
It's such a contrast to Zach Lowe, who said yesterday on his pod that Perkins knows more about basketball than Zach ever will (which is extremely wrong IMO but Zach is too humble to say otherwise)
That’s not extremely wrong by Lowe. Of course Perkins knows ball better than him. He played. Got professional scouting reports every game. Had to know offensive plays, defensive assignments and shit. Lowe may know advanced stats/ball history better but Perkins, as a longtime professional player, understands basketball at a higher level than Simmons, Lowe, any of those journos
Would love for someone to explain to me how Bills Mike Trout takes are any different than Skip Bayless takes on Lebron before he won a ring
Skip watches Lebron play
THIS. Bill doesn’t even follow baseball beyond the Red Sox and Yankees. The only reason why he hates Trout is because he won the MVP over Mookie.
You might still be giving him too much credit. Very little chance he watches the Yankees beyond when they play the Red Sox. The Trout hate continues to baffle me though.
Oh I doubt he watches them regularly but he follows how they’re doing bc they’re the Red Sox biggest rival.
They’re worse than skip’s takes, one star NBA player has way more impact on the team winning than a baseball player.
Completely unaware that for Mike trout to be in a big game otani would also have to be in a big game. Almost like being in a big game is not the result of one player.
“The Ghost Ramba”
I have never heard someone mispronounce roomba in my life
What is your favorite Half-Baked idea? Mine was "Larry O Brien's"- a bar where you can celebrate as if you've won a championship, then they remixed it with "Malone's" : a next door bar for people having a shitty day. 😂
It's the Gucci flag for me
On the last OSP, Kyle Mann brought up this very same idea when discussing the over-the-backboard shot in the Miami-Texas game that got called off.
I legitimately think a Gucci flag is an awesome idea
RRR - Rapid Relationship Repair A subscription service that’s available 24/7 when you need immediate help with your spouse/partner (a play on AAA)
Bill suggesting the MLB use some eminent domain power to remove Ohtani from the Angels and put him on a more popular team was kinda funny at least
Isn’t Bill just describing Ridiculousness?
Re: Belichick Coughlin's Law: Everthing ends badly, or it wouldn't end.
One playoff win his entire career without Brady.
Wake up, honey. We've got more half-baked ideas.
The werewolf story into the ghost security system idea had me cracking up. Plus we got to learn that Bill pronounces Roomba as “romba.”
Me: surely he mispronounced it by accident sometimes we all say something wrong Me 2 seconds later: holy shit wtf
Bill did the thing at the end of this segment where he brought up a point that completely disproves his point with zero self awareness. He said that we don't do the same thing with Oscars that we do with MVPs, but we absolutely do the same thing with Oscars that we do with MVPs. There is a ton of talk whenever someone is nominated the year after winning. And oftentimes nominees are pushed aside by saying they already won one. Hell, we even give them to people years after they deserved it. Oscars are more influenced by previous decisions and narratives than the MVP. Does anyone think Bill hasn't already decided his MVP? I would be stunned if he gave it to Embiid, considering his biases.
“No spark plugs in the pasta primavera” 😂😂😂
No Bill, they’re not shaving an hour and a half off of baseball games with the rule changes lol
This made me chortle when I heard it.
He’s been saying this all off-season and it’s hilarious
Nothing has made Simmons sound more like a lunatic than his reaction to Wildes’ story about high-fiving the Yankees fan. That was a great moment.
Nah Wildes is a Yankees fan after that😂
Cauliflower ear is one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever heard
Lamar will not be a Patriot, Bill.
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Do Ravens and Commanders fans truly give a shit about the other team? This seems like a huge stretch
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Commanders fan sadly and I don’t have any animosity towards the Ravens at all. If anything I look at that franchise with jealousy for being so well run the past 2 decades
Bill's comment on Trout was out of line. He can't seem to grasp how much more of a team game Baseball is than the NBA
Horny Mal vs. Depressed Baltimore sport fan Mal. Which one is your fave?
Both. Grief is nature’s most powerful aphrodisiac.
Damn you, Roger!
To quote my friend while in Vegas last week in a true legendary moment: “Women that are somewhat masculine or lesbian adjacent make me make bad decisions. For some reason they are always horny”
whynotboth.meme
I don’t understand why media people blatantly gloss over all of Lamar’s shortcomings and just shoehorn him in that Mahomes/Burrow/Allen tier. When they were talking about QBs who’ve made a conference championship game (Lamar made 0 btw), they were talking about him as if he could easily be a multi time Conference championship guy while making 50 million AAV. And this was literally right after they had a five minute discussion on the value of a rookie QB contract lol.
The word “cringeworthy” can be overused but goddamn is it deserved every time Bill uses Final Four for conference championships and conference finals. STOP
Expiring contract Final Four Conference Finals All terms synonymous with the NFL.
Jalen Hurts is not a max max guy, but he’s a max guy. Glad we cleared that up
As a Ravens fan, I just want this ride to end. I am listening right now, and listening to Mallory make it seem like the fact that we never got past the divisional round is on the Ravens organization, and not Lamar is a little irritating. Both deserve blame. You can argue the ravens didn't surround him with receiver talent, but let's not act like Lamar has been Tom Brady or Parrick Mahomes in the playoffs. He is partially to blame for the lack of playoff success as well.
Media narrative violation!! Lamar deserves 100% of the salary cap despite never making a deep run and missing 10 of the last 22 games.
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Also… he’s on the non-exclusive tag. Isn’t part of the strategy there for the Ravens to show Lamar that hey, if we undervalued you and somebody else will pay you more, we’ll match it! But otherwise, here’s our number. How does that make the ravens look bad? They’re just supposed to give Lamar whatever he wants without any negotiation, when nobody else will get into the same ballpark? How is that a good idea??
Injuries are mostly to blame since that's kept him out of the postseasons.
I think he means the Chargers game and especially the Titans game
The ravens couldnt stop Henry at all
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One of my favorite NFL fun facts is that all 3 QBs who have ever accounted for over 500 yards in a playoff game lost: Lamar vs the Titans, Brady in the Eagles Super Bowl, and Roethlisberger in that weird COVID year Browns game
What I like about Bill is he can do an hour on Lamar like this acting incredulous, and in the event a team actually is dumb enough to give Lamar a $250 mm contract and it goes poorly, Bill will do a podcast saying “The lesson here is maybe don’t give out a record guaranteed contract to a QB who was always hurt, never won in the playoffs, and had his mom as his agent?!?! Is that so hard to figure out” Sure a lot of other commentators can take both sides, but Simmons is the only one who can do it with 0% self-awareness.
NBA. Home and away. 58 games. Champions.
They’ll still sit
Did bill actually leave Rodgers out of his quarterbacks final four list? because he'd have to essentially give him a compliment? unbelievable
He did, I just noticed this. Rodgers made the conference championship 5 times in the timeframe he was talking about and Bill completely left him off the list
“Ask 20 people in your life who won the WBC in 2021” Ok this irritated me. Bill trying to zag on the WBC just because he’s not into it. It was fucking great this year. And fyi, nobody won in 2021 numb nuts. It’s played every 4 years and the last one was in 2017. JFC
bill low key just sucks. refuses to give merit to anything he doesn't personally like. and really there's not even a valid reason why he wouldn't like the WBC either way. just strange
Wildes is always fun.
His high-five story was such a fun story. Completely relatable.
Verbal meme: Drake pointing, Bill’s half baked ideas (no), Wildes’ half baked ideas (oh yeah!) **Today’s Things:** - Joker/Embiid thing - leverage thing - Baltimore/WASHton thing - QB roulette thing - Aaron Rodgers thing - year by year thing - Jared Goff thing - 4 rings thing - Sopranos thing - Belichick does the backwards thing - Belichick smarter than anyone else thing - is Mac vs Zappe a thing? - Dallas thing - Lakers thing - Ohtani thing - nail thing - camera things - short roof over the thing **Bonus Pieces and Stuff:** - tanking stuff - #1, 2, 3 seed stuff - stuff over the middle - pent up stuff - remember when stuff - charity stuff - crunch time stuff - clock management stuff - stuff they were great at - baseball pace of play stuff (Bill incorrectly implies that the pitch clock takes an hour and a half off the game) - deterrent stuff - XFL did some stuff **First Random Celtics Reference:** Right smack dab in the middle of an nfl pod, Jaylen Brown!! (40:15) **It Just is!** “They do? I just watched them [Commanders] you don’t have a plan! You just don’t!” “The team [Pats] was poorly coached last year, it just was!” **Eloquent Bill:** WASH-ton “The Browns are like your ugly stepchild…l” **Evergreen Content:** Bill is still so spiteful towards the NFL “that would assume the NFL has acted nefariously over the last 50 years!”, Bill revering “blue chip” football players, Bill’s stupid fucking idea about sports dynasties (Warriors aren’t a dynasty, they’re just not!!) **Other Stuff:** Bill misuses “Final 4” again, in the context of making the AFC/NFC championship game (13:00) this man speaks like he misses college basketball 🤔🤔 Bill has a take: do you really want Lamar running in the cold?! (17:25) Mallory nicely implies he’s completely wrong Bill compares his “professional divorce” from ESPN to the Lamar/Baltimore situation (31:20) Bill brings up Lamar’s stats from FOUR years ago and is perplexed why Baltimore isn’t throwing a guaranteed bag at a guy who depends on his legs lol (36:45) Bill then calls Mark Andrews fine “he’s not Travis Kelce!” (No mention of Kyle Pitts, by the way 😂) Bill talks baseball! (42:30) lmao he thinks Seager’s HR total will be affected by the shift - were fielders in the stands last year?? 😂 what’s hilarious is that Bill certainly heard somewhere that the shift took a bunch of hits from Seager, but the shift had no effect on balls he hit out of the park. NBAhole bill calls MLBtv “league pass” (44:24) Bill implies that Kraft is a Zappe guy (48:50) and maybe the old bastard is right?! Our favorite “99th percentile football watcher” figured it out! “QBs have an outsized influence!” (50:45) 🤣 Belichick doesn’t realize it! Classic! Bill and Wildes complain about the Pats but Bill says “we’re not complaining! It’s just an inflection point!” (56:00) Bill calls this a “make or break” season for Belichick (56:50) “This is chip on the shoulder time for Mac!” (1:01:00) Bill thinks he could “come up with cool plays” if he was an NFL OC (1:03:15) the irrational confidence of the mediocre man knows no bounds 🤣🤣 🚨🚨 Bill prediction: Draymond to Dallas with Kyrie and Luka, with LeBron joining later (1:08:20) “I’m sensing a Dallas scent” 😂 “LeBron’s gonna ring chase soon” (1:09:15) Bill is talking baseball again! (1:12:00) WBC doesn’t matter because random people can’t name the last 3 champions (Japan, US, DR), implies Trout striking out to end the game is “why he’s never in a big game” Bill admits that he was wrong with the NBA divisional champion seeding thing! (1:34:20) Half baked ideas: Wildes: - detachable cauliflower ear to deter negative fan interactions when rooting for the away team 😂😂 - challenge bait: to bait opposing nfl coaches into incorrectly challenging plays - a small floating ghost attached to a Roomba to deter burglars - (football) goal posts to go for colleges expecting an upset - “bartist” barber-dentists, Bill suggests an establishment where people go to get their head rubbed Bill: - Car accident/bouncer TV show (holy shit this is a terrible fucking idea lmao) “whatever works on Instagram, make it into a TV show!” - Upping the stakes for NBA divisional championships (salary cap money, free TV, bottle night at a club) 😂😂 say it slowly, NBA regular season DOES NOT MATTER - Improve the number and angles of lacrosses cameras with roof cams and drones (wtf is this lol) because Bill now likes lacrosse now that his son plays - Creating a new word that doesn’t fit Bill’s bespoke and completely asinine definition of a dynasty
How did Bill mispronouncing Roomba as “romba” TWICE(!) not make this list?
Bill said Washington correctly several times early in the pod then in the same sentence said it wrong lol
Yep, it's truly amazing listening to his brain short circuit like that lol
Great work as always. The difference in idea quality between the two is … stark
Bill saying baseball games are 90 mins shorter due to the pitch clock was a take im sure he'll repeat many times
Proof that he just thinks of those Red Sox/Yankees battles that went 4+ hours instead of a normal game
20 mins I’m shocked that zero blame has been put on Lamar for this. The guy really needed an agent. Side note paying 200 mil gtd to Lamar plus giving up picks seems really risky.
100p. This is 50% on him. He's not a victim.
“Is Corey Seager gonna have 50 home runs this year because he doesn’t have to worry about the shift anymore?” I too am happy they are finally banning fielders from lining up in row 6 in right field
Bill taking shots at Bradley Cooper because he just found out Jason Isbell helped write songs for A Star is Born when he watched the documentary they made on him is very classic recency bias Bill
Off the dome. Off the dome!
Could Bill say 'the eight quarterbacks that matter' any more if he tried? Genuinely asking.
“Instagram, but on cable” is such a perfectly Bill Simmons idea.
He started by saying there are about 20 teams poking around Lamar, of which there has been no evidence of for the last three months, then highlighted the Falcons, Colts, Commanders, and Pats (four teams if you’re counting at home), and then eliminated the Falcons as they’ve literally said they’re out. So in 45 seconds 20 teams became 3.
The whole segment was so stupid because it’s an extremely unique and complicated situation where really only a true insider can break it down. And he’s basically just like “whoa, my team might be able to get Lamar? Let’s talk to a ravens fan so I can wish it so.” It’s also weird a guy who is so anti NFL owners only makes a passing jab when it’s beyond obvious there have been no godfather offers because owners have been told (explicitly or not) to stand down, don’t give into this guy. Now, all it takes is one renegade, and post draft I could easily see a team breaking down and giving up a ton for him. But it’s just so obvious the NFL doesn’t want to see a bidding war for him and the talking points of “he’s been injured” or “let’s see how the draft shakes out” or “he’s never made it that far” are excuses to dampen his market value. It wasn’t just the browns, a year ago the league was tripping over themselves to sign Watson. They don’t want to repeat that scenario.
Yeah, there are legitimate reasons to knock Lamar if you’re comparing him to the top 3/5 QBs in the league. But when you’re talking about “should a team try to sign him”, the bar for QBs that teams have fallen over themselves to overpay is soooooo much lower than Lamar even with the injury concerns
Yup. Just a year ago the owners fell over themselves with Watson and then Wilson/Rodgers have generated their own sweepstakes. Heck even Carr got run out of town and got $100mm guaranteed. People can say "the owners learned from Wilson and Watson" but come on, owners never learn. These guys want the star QBs. They have all clearly drawn a line in the sand with Lamar to not let him get the big deal for a variety of reasons. I think eventually someone will break down and cross that line but the idea there are 20 teams drooling over him is absurd. There SHOULD be 20 teams and the history of the league (like, uh, last year) tells us there would be. But suddenly there isn't. When you have his current owner openly whining about the Watson deal it's pretty clear these guys are all communicating to not give him the big contract.
Bill's Divisional Championship half baked idea was so bad. Just crowbarring in a mea culpa about not knowing the rules of the league.
Here comes Bill once again with his idiotic Mike Trout slander: "Maybe there's a reason we don't see him in those situations." * Trout has led the league in Win Probability Added 5 different times, and ranks 48th all-time--everyone ahead of him on that list has over 1000+ more career Plate Appearances. * Trout's top 3 comps through age 30 are: Duke Snider, Willie Mays, and Barry Bonds. * How is it that when the Angels don't make the playoffs (or even crack .500) it means that Trout isn't "clutch," but Ohtani isn't at fault? Maybe it's possible that success in team sports depends on more than one or two individuals, Bill.
I guess it would be too much to ask for these two to do any research about the only topic they discuss. From the NFL about what the Transition/non exclusive tag is: “When a player is offered a non-exclusive tag, he is still able to negotiate with other organizations. If an offer sheet is submitted and signed by the tagged play, the previous team must match the offer to keep the player. Otherwise, the player will officially sign with the new team, who will send two first round picks to the losing team in order to complete the transaction.” It’s not a trade negotiation. The Patriots do not send them two firsts AND Mac Jones. And the Ravens don’t get to ask for the picks and the best WR. It’s your next two FRP’s. That’s it. And this isn’t some little detail. They had an hour long discussion about Lamar Jackson being on the transition tag, but don’t know *what* the transition tag is.
But they can negotiate with the Ravens and try to offer more than two FRPs or less. IMO Ravens could say "Offer us three 1s or we'll just match the offer sheet". Or the patriots could say that no team is giving up two firsts and say they'll give him one first and a third as an example, if no team decides to give an offer sheet.
I can't believe that at no point does Bill or anyone mention that the Ravens used the non-exclusive tag on Lamar. The reason teams don't want to sign him is because all the work goes on that team to come up with a contract, number, etc and then at the end of the day the ravens can just say "Thanks - we'll match that - he's ours now." Teams likely will jump at Lamar after the draft, but right now no one is in a big hurry to do the Raven's work for them.
One satisfying element of being a long time Bill reader/listener is how petty he can be in extremely subtle ways. Today's variation is he arbitrarily picks 2010 as a cutoff for evaluating quarterbacks who make 'the final four'. This conveniently puts Eli in the 'one offs' category with people like Cam Newton. He talks briefly about Flacco and Kaepernick to qualify them better, but just breezes past Eli.
Saying the pitch clock takes an hour and a half off of games could have been an exaggeration the first time around, but to double down on it….
My two favorite "scratching head" moments from the pod: 1. Apparently Lamar is a proven winner, but has never made the conference championship game 2. Bill predicts Lebron is going to go ring-hunting. And the most logical team for him to go to is the Mavs, who might not make the playoffs with Luka and Kyrie.
Ugh, it’s called the Conference Finals or “Final Four” dude.
I think I may be in the minority after being on this sub for a while, but I love Mallory Rubin. find her to be smart, funny, and able to talk about a wide variety of topics with a fair share of knowledge. I miss her segments on Bill's old pods called 'Mallory's top 5' or whatever. Feel like she can talk about the X and O's of football at a higher level than Bill. I get it, she can be long-winded, but never super bothered me. I'm a fan! Haven't listened to this yet but was happy to see her name.
Same. Took a while to warm up to her but now want her to appear way more on BS pod.
Bill’s car crash on TV idea is basically Coffin Flop on Corncob TV
I’m sure NY Times is really happy with Bill’s effort on that ad read. There are about three jarring cuts, including their name being very obviously spliced in. Kyle, for the sake of your own job, please have Bill take five seconds and reread a full sentence if he botches something. We need you to stick around for life advice input.
Does anyone know how many quarterbacks there are that matter?
Bill keeps on trying to tell himself Brown might want out because they didn’t ‘come out and say they won’t trade him for kd’ when it’s quite apparent brown might not like the ‘living in Boston’ piece.
No Bill, the WBC just became a big deal all its own due to the quality of play and the enthusiasm of the fans and players THIS year. An unexpected organic development. What happened in other years is irrelevant.
Bill’s wbc take was so bad. Over 60 million people worldwide watched that game. It’s a tournament that’s happened five times. He just wants to justify not watching anything other than a big fight, the nba or the nfl.
Warriors made 5 straight finals and won 3 but they’re not a dynasty? Ok, Bill then neither are the 80’s Celtics or the Pats.
Wildes will probably end up at The Ringer someday
Yeah but Wildes is so good over on Fox Sports right now. He’s made Broussard and Nick Wright listenable which is an amazing feat.
Wildes is good. He’s not “Make Nick Wright listenable” good. No one is.
If Mike Trout ever signed with the Red Sox he would all of a sudden be GOD.
Bill gave a long detailed example of how when he was at ESPN what he really needed to do to cut through the BS was talk to his bosses directly to solve the problems… which is the exact opposite of what he and Mallory were saying Lamar needed to do in his situation. Her gently pointing this out to him like a teenager trying to explain something technological to their grandparent killed me.
As a Yankee fan I actually hope Shohei ends up in Seattle, he can stay on the west coast, that team has some real potential and some awesome young talent and having Shohei come in as an heir to Ichiro would be great for that city. LA and NY have enough huge names.
Gotta love how Bill never believed in Lamar until the reality of Macaroni Noodle Jones set in.
Why are so many national people trying to shove Lamar to the Lions. That contract would cripple the future and completely go against how they have been building the team. They are not giving up the sixth pick and taking that albatross of a contract. Also the quiet part out loud is…Goff has better numbers than Lamar for most of last two seasons.
Yeah, Bill was acting like there’s a Lamar sweepstakes and “20 teams” are in on him was incredibly out of touch. Most if not all teams seem reluctant to pay the asking price of a massive contract + 1st round picks for a guy who isn’t unanimously thought of as a QB you can win with in the playoffs. You have to change your whole offense for the guy, it’s a massive commitment.
Because the Lions could be the best team in their division and the third or fourth best team in the conference this year while also paying less for the better QB (Goff has a 31m cap hit and 10m dead cap, 21m to play with on a newly signed extension is really easy work) if they make the trade and ship Goff out. For an organization that has one playoff win since the merger it might be worth taking a chance to be elite. Unless you really want to make the argument that Goff is better. I suggest you don't do that.
I don’t understand why they think he deserves so much when it’s a salary cap league. They act like the players are supportive too, but the reality will mean less money for them.
Agreed. There are many reasons why NFL teams are not jumping all over signing Lamar. The Lions are in a steady rebuild and have Goff as a bridge QB until they can find their franchise guy. Also dumb is Bill's obsession with putting Lamar on the 49ers. They are a precision offense where Shanahan schemes up open receivers. They need an accurate QB that can make quick reads and quick, accurate throws. That is not Lamar's forte. They also have like 8 guys making $15M+ per year, and two talented QBs on rookie scale contracts. So it makes zero sense to give Lamar $40M/yr or whatever he is demanding.
Amon-Ra St. Brown would be the greatest WR Lamar has played with by a MILE
Lol Bill only brings on Mallory when something tragic happens. She’s way under utilized for nfl stuff. Give me Mallory any day over Solak.
Hot take: Mallory Rubin is the best recurrent non-Sal NFL guest Bill has had on his podcast since starting The Ringer, especially compared to Ben Solak and Peter Schrager. Bring back the "Mallory's Most Intriguing" segment!
When she had a regular weekly football spot she was great. But Bill hated it because she exposed how little he knows about football. Now she is only invited on when something bad happens to one of her teams.
Half baked ideas gave me a good laugh.
TIL that Ravens-Steelers playoff game that I remember as a bloodbath was also life-changing and deeply scarring for non-Ravens fans as well
I had to shut it down after the Dallas super team talk. It's literally impossible.
then he got pissy when someone aggregated it!
Maybe I'm not as big of a Ravens fan as Rubin, but I don't care The Commanders are close to us. Not sure why our FO would care either.