MVP: Moderately Verbose Podcasters

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hey, everyone. I'm Brian and I'm Slippy. And this is snorkeling with narwhals. We are back, people. We? [00:00:22] Speaker B: Hell yeah, back. [00:00:24] Speaker A: It has been, what, three months since we released an episode? That's kind of ridiculous. But we're going to get into a little of why, where we've been and what's been going on. So, Slippy, first off, you probably have the best news and the best reason to not be podcasting. [00:00:43] Speaker B: It's true. Yeah. No major changes in my life recently. No reason to be distracted or not have time to podcast whatsoever. I don't have an excuse. Just had our first baby, so no big deal. Yeah. [00:00:59] Speaker A: So congratulations. That is awesome. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Thanks. [00:01:04] Speaker A: So mine, I'm trying to figure things out with life with OCD. I get confused and distracted pretty easily, but I'm trying to get the energy to do more stuff. So I actually had a day off today, so I was like, hey, slippy, do you want a podcast? And you're not supposed to say this as a podcaster, but it is tough for us to do this while working full time. And now you have a baby, or, like, for me, if I don't have my head on straight. But yeah, no, we are here. We are back. Snorkeling and popcorn also still exists. I know you've been wrapped with attention to its two episodes. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:41] Speaker A: But I am going to try to keep up on both of these. The idea that we are going to do every other week for both of the shows, that was a great goal. That was not sustainable at all. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Nobody called you up and said, hey, where's the episode? Right? Nobody. Where is the next movie review? [00:02:00] Speaker A: I want to even make, like, one of those deadlines. Maybe one. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Maybe one. Yeah, but even that one, we probably recorded two in one sitting. Yeah. [00:02:11] Speaker A: So I had one ready to go. [00:02:12] Speaker B: You added it? Yeah. Locked and loaded. Nobody gets to see behind the curtain, though. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Behind the curtain, it would just be like the episode of SpongeBob where it shows inside his brain and it's on fire and they're all like, throwing out files and stuff. That's what it would be like. [00:02:30] Speaker B: This is fine. [00:02:31] Speaker A: This is fine. So today is going to be kind of like a grab bag. Since we haven't done a lot recently, we're going to talk about some football, some know stuff like that. So, football slippy, give me the state of the Steelers as your favorite team. [00:02:48] Speaker B: Oh, man. Well, the good news is we did finally fire Matt Canada. I think everybody knows at this point something pretty remarkable in franchise history. I guess it hasn't happened. A midseason firing of this level hasn't happened since like the 40s, so basically never. And Mac Canada being the offensive coordinator. For those of you who don't know, there were like road signs that people had taken out ads for that said fire. Matt Canada around Pittsburgh he needed to was he wasn't making the right calls. It didn't seem like a good fit for the team and the numbers spoke for themselves. We had no games over 400 yards offensive yards in his entire tenure here. The game before he joined was won and the game immediately after he got fired was one. So sort of like bookended by what are you doing here, dude? Yeah, but even with him gone, that doesn't solve things right away. We have half a season here, over half a season with him on the team and his influence and his plays and all that stuff are still there. So we are seven and six now. We've had two straight losses. [00:04:12] Speaker A: Really bad losses, too bad losses. [00:04:16] Speaker B: And now we have Kenny Pickett, our quarterback, injured. Not that Pickett is. He's not exactly an elite quarterback. Maybe he has the raw material, but we haven't really seen too much of a glimmer. He doesn't throw too many interceptions, which is good, but he just doesn't throw very often. Which is probably why stuck with Trubisky. [00:04:40] Speaker A: I was going to say I would rather have Pickett than Trubisky because at least picket, there's some hope. You don't know everything about him. We've seen enough Trubisky. We know it's great. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we have all the tape on Trabisky and so do the other. So they know how to fluster him, which is know the easiest thing in the world to do. Get him out of the know. He runs pretty well, but he doesn't throw all that great and his decision making is just bad. So the Steelers, thankfully we already got, I would say, quite lucky to get to seven and know a lot of that does come down to the defense. And probably maybe this is controversial, but I would say to Tomlin's good coaching, I don't think Tomlin needs to go at contrary to what a lot of Pittsburghs are saying. [00:05:32] Speaker A: And that's the thing. I was like, I don't know that you're hearing a lot of national stuff about that, but I have seen a couple articles and I know one for sure was like, I think a Pittsburgh guy, but I don't remember what the other was. And it's like, really, are we talking about this. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:46] Speaker A: The man who's never had a losing season still doesn't. [00:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah, right. I just completely disagree with it. And somebody told me recently if he actually got fired or let go at the end of the season, whatever the case was, he would be the highest paid coach in the league within the week at another team. [00:06:10] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. [00:06:11] Speaker B: That's just how it would be. He's a terrific coach. It is what it is. And I get it. Sometimes even the great coaches need to get out of the systems that they're mean. Yeah, I was going to say so maybe that's the case. It doesn't really feel like that. I hope he can retire from Pittsburgh and I hope that we can get at least another Super bowl or two with him. Hopefully the rest of them until he retires. Really, we can't get enough. [00:06:42] Speaker A: I think part of it, though, part of the issue is when Roethlisberger got old, everyone was like, okay, yeah, he's old. Obviously the offense can't do as much as he used to be able to do, but now it's know, you got to figure out that if you try to draft another quarterback or what you do well. [00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's an interesting point of discussion. I guess you could say originally at the start of the season I had anticipated this team to go twelve and five. Pretty well documented on those numbers. Already we've had six losses. So the five number of that is wrong. I think there's a reasonably good chance that we get like, I don't know, nine and eight with like a wild card spot. And then we just bomb out of playoffs, which has been our mo the last few seasons, is just like the Steelers are on the edge of playoffs and then usually lose a playoff. Do think. I still believe that the team has a lot of good players on it, but we don't have the killer Bees as they used to call Big Ben Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, which is. [00:08:05] Speaker A: Sort of pre that long ago, right? [00:08:09] Speaker B: It's not that long ago. Yeah, and that's the problem is we have longer memories than that in Pittsburgh. And so we remember that time when the offense was electric and it's like, this is the expectation you need to achieve that and then also have an excellent defense and then you at least are putting yourself in contention. As it stands, though, there's like kind of no hope. We've talked about the running game before on the podcast. It's basically not changed since we talked about it before. They continue to use Naji. Okay. And Warren is basically the better. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Mean. [00:08:52] Speaker B: It's a strange team to don't. I have to say, most of the games aren't that entertaining, unfortunately, and that's the worst feeling. [00:09:01] Speaker A: I'll get into that a little more on the Rams side later, but I pulled up your schedule for the rest of the season, so you got the Colts next week. I would say that's probably a loss. [00:09:13] Speaker B: There's a good chance. So the thing is, the Colts are also on the bubble. [00:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:17] Speaker B: And so both of us are going to want to win that game. I think the Colts are beatable. [00:09:23] Speaker A: They're definitely beatable. [00:09:25] Speaker B: It could be just one of those weird close games to the end is what I'm hoping. [00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it definitely could be. Depends. [00:09:35] Speaker B: I mean, if they're the Jake Browning Bengals. Yeah. [00:09:37] Speaker A: I don't know if Jake Browning is actually that good or if just no one has seen him play before. That's another one that could go either way. At this very moment. I could see it going either mean, I don't know what it'll be like, know pregame, but right now I could see either team winning that well. [00:09:57] Speaker B: We beat them before, earlier in the season, so there's that. And then the other thing is, Tomlin has know. Obviously he has a good record, period, but he has a very good record against rookie. You know, I don't know if it's him specifically, but I have to think that is a game that we circle those divisional games and say, yeah, that's where we'll choose to die on that hill. [00:10:25] Speaker A: Week 17, you've got the Seahawks again. That's doable. Seattle started out pretty strong, and they've just, like, completely fallen apart. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah, they're a frisky team, though. I think, obviously, Pete Carroll is pretty good as head coach, and I did see that Gino is out right now. I didn't look into what that injury was. I just saw it come up on one of my fantasy football teams. [00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I know it was a groin injury, but I don't know how bad it was because I know they talked about, like, he might have played. I mean, obviously he ended up not playing, but I don't know how long term it is. And then week 18, you got the Ravens, which could go a couple either ways, depending on what the Ravens have clinched for a playoff seed at that. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Mean they're definitely in contention for the first. They don't. They could probably. At that point, it's very possible they could have the one seed locked up before they play us. [00:11:38] Speaker A: A lot of those teams are really close right now, but, yeah, that's the only thing. If they do have it locked up, then they're still not going to want to lose to you, right? [00:11:50] Speaker B: Well, yeah, they never want to. Those games are always pretty tough, pretty physical with Baltimore, and I think they've been playing really well. They're unarguably the better team this year and, yeah, I think you really don't want to have to try and win that game to get into playoffs. I think those games always come down to the wire, though, even if the Ravens are terrific. It's just there's something about that. [00:12:22] Speaker A: It's a, it's a great rivalry and it's always like, you get the best out of your. Yeah, Ravens have it right now. They have the one, actually, they're up a game on the Dolphins because the Dolphins lost on Monday night and they're up two games on the Chiefs and Jaguars. So, yeah, I mean, they still have a know. They still don't have it, but they've got a nice, they're starting to break away a little. [00:12:49] Speaker B: Who would have predicted that, that it would be the Ravens at this point and that the Chiefs and the Jaguars would be where they're at? I mean, the Chiefs. [00:12:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:58] Speaker B: Like, don't look like they're in it. [00:13:00] Speaker A: They don't. I remember before the season I was like, I would take the Chiefs against the field, which. It really wasn't a dumb, no, it's. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Not a bad take at, I mean. [00:13:09] Speaker A: The Chiefs, the past few years have been incredible, but they look bad. Yeah. They have no receivers other than Travis, Kelsey, and it's like, I don't know, they thought they would be fine like they were last year. [00:13:26] Speaker B: Well, and they kind of are. They're playing badly and they still have not just a winning record, but I would say a pretty obvious playoff spot. So it's working regardless. But do I believe in them the way that they're playing for the long term? Not really. [00:13:47] Speaker A: Right. And that's the thing, too, is they've lost two straight and they looked so bad when they were whining about that penalty. [00:13:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you want to talk about that? [00:14:01] Speaker A: We can go into it a little. It just looked, obviously, you know, everyone hates a penalty that wipes out a cool play, especially because in the Rams game, the Rams lost to the Ravens on a punt return touchdown. There was a block in the back on that touchdown. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Right. There's always missed calls, I mean, calls all over pretty much every play. Some, something small here and there that just doesn't get called. I think the big controversy was like, well, he should have checked with the ref. He didn't check with the ref. And it's Cadarius, Tony. And he's got this whole history of sort of spoiling things, which is so. [00:14:44] Speaker A: Not fair, really, because he's young, he's only been in the league a couple of years. And then I saw, I don't know. Now they're saying that maybe he did check with the ref, but it was very clearly off sides. It wasn't close. [00:15:00] Speaker B: I have multiple issues with all of this. I would say one, I don't really like the whole complaining thing, mahomes in particular. I just see it as whining and. [00:15:10] Speaker A: It'S especially irritating from them because they. [00:15:13] Speaker B: Get so many favorable calls. [00:15:15] Speaker A: Exactly. So no one's going to feel bad for you. [00:15:18] Speaker B: No. But on the same, or maybe on the opposite side of the coin there, I am tired of the refs in the last two minutes of the game making so many calls. And if there's like a flag per capita, per quarter or something like that, it is way, way higher in the last two minutes of the game. And the refs are just like, hey, we're part of the show. We're here. I'm talking to America. Please get off of the screen. Just fewer flags, especially during this moment. And I get that they have to decide games that way sometimes. And I wouldn't even say it was a bad call. I mean, he was over the line. It is what it is. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Yeah. You can't like, oh, well, they didn't tell us that he was over the line or he didn't check. It's like, yeah, but you still were. And the one thing I thought that I don't like is this, because I think that is a pretty common thing that refs will, sometimes players will check with the refs to see where they are lined up to make sure that they're not off sides or that they're on the line or off the line, depending on where they're supposed to be. But it's like that sets a bad precedent because the ref shouldn't be telling you at all. [00:16:45] Speaker B: I saw on Twitter this past week after this call that somebody said we should have anticipated this after the refs started getting jacked. [00:16:55] Speaker A: They clearly have an ego. Ed hocule is somewhere like just leading this brigade of renegade refs. [00:17:05] Speaker B: No, but one of the problems I have with the whole thing, though, so some of the fallout is now people are posting pictures of like, this guy's over the line, and this guy's over the line and they don't call it. And it's not that common of a. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Call, but it really isn't. I offsides on the offense. [00:17:22] Speaker B: That's pretty unusual. Yeah. In the neutral zone there. But my beef with the pictures that I see usually is it's like the zoomed in thing that somebody took on their cell phone of their tv screen. And they're like, look, see the line? And the lines on the tv are projected on the tv and they're not exact. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but sometimes the lines are literally bouncing around on the screen because the way that works is they're attempting to line it up with the posts that they're seeing on the camera and it's just a projection, so they're not actually accurate. What matters is where the post is. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:04] Speaker B: So you can't just say, well, the line is covering this person while their whole entire body is ahead of it. It's like, no, the line isn't the, like, you need to see the post. But even then, the spotting of the ball is this whole other can of worms that we don't have to open. But, yeah, that's a problem in and of itself. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So we will move on now to the state of the Rams from me as a Rams fan. So this team is very interesting. They're six and seven, but they're feisty. They're not like, they're the best thing about this team as compared to last year is it's watchable for the most. Like, last year, some of those games were just brutal to try to sit through and the Rams just took the Ravens to overtime. And like I said, that touchdown that they lost on should have been called back. But I'm not like, I don't. [00:19:03] Speaker B: That game was incredible. [00:19:04] Speaker A: It was. [00:19:05] Speaker B: Regardless, it was so fun to watch. That was the most I've watched of the Rams. All. I mean, Stafford was great, Puka, Kieran Williams, and it looks like cup is back. I mean, what the. Yeah. [00:19:20] Speaker A: When the offense is mean. I know that sounds like a very specific what. Like, if the offense is, everyone's healthy, it's so good, and they're only a game out of the, like right now. They're tied well, not even a game out. They're tied with the packers for the seven seed. But we lost the packers. [00:19:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:45] Speaker A: So there's hope. [00:19:48] Speaker B: I don't know what your schedule looks like the rest of the year, but I have to say it looks like at least the way you played on Sunday, this team should be a playoff team this year. And I see in the notes you said high hopes for next year. I think you have high hopes for this year. [00:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's one of those, you just never know. Like, if they make it into the playoffs, they could be a tough team to beat. I don't expect them to win the Super bowl again. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Because you can't say otherwise. Are you getting a Puka jersey for Christmas? [00:20:26] Speaker A: And I really do like Puka, so, yeah, they've got puka. Nakua was a fifth rounder this year and Kyron Williams was a fifth rounder last year. And it's like, wow, those are some great picks. Kyron was like a know because last year no one knew who he was. He didn't really do anything, but Buka was. Yeah. And I remember reading that the Rams were kind of high on him, like in the preseason, and they sat him out of the last game or whatever, which you normally do with a starter, but no, he just took off. Like the first game was insane. He had over 100 yards receiving and he calmed down after a couple of games, but especially when cup came back and we had a couple of losses in there. [00:21:11] Speaker B: But now look at it. Used to be the cup show, and now there is definitely a target share that has moved away from him and the offense in general is just better as a result of it. [00:21:23] Speaker A: And even, like, Tutu Atwell finally has shown up. [00:21:27] Speaker B: Would you say so? [00:21:28] Speaker A: I don't know more than he, like, remember when Van Jefferson was the third receiver? Exactly. He was like the definition of never. He never did anything really when he had a shot. At least two. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Two. [00:21:46] Speaker A: Like, you're good for at least a couple of long shots. So let's pull up the Rams schedule for the rest of the season. They've got the commanders, the commies, if you will, this coming week. That's very winnable. I mean, that's like a dead team walking. [00:22:03] Speaker B: It is. [00:22:04] Speaker A: And I don't, I'm not just saying that as a Rams fan, but what's their record? I'm not sure offhand, but I would say that Ron Rivera is probably going to get fired at the end of the. I mean, he's a good coach, too, but it's time for him to go. He hasn't done anything, really move on. Yeah, I mean, maybe he can go find another job or he could be a coordinator again because he's a really good defensive coordinator. I don't know. He might just retire, too, but he deserves respect, and I'm glad that they're letting him, it seems, finish out the season, but I do think it's time for him to go. So that's week 15, week 16 is the Saints. That's also very winnable, although they're frisky, too. They are. They're feisty. They're really boring. [00:22:57] Speaker B: But. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Have you watched a Saints game? [00:23:02] Speaker B: This they keep. It's weird. It's like you're seeing the same cast of characters. Like, I don't know how long Taysom Hill has been in the league. I'm so bored with the, like, okay, we snap him the ball and then let's fight in. Yeah. And the announcers love it. And it's just like we are kicking the dead horse. [00:23:25] Speaker A: We really are. I mean, he's a useful player and. [00:23:29] Speaker B: Apparently Camara is still their rb one, so I don't know. This team is just like five years old news. [00:23:41] Speaker A: That's another one. I think Dennis Allen might get fired because I think part of why they kept him was to keep the Sean Payton continuity kind of going. But it's like you don't have drew Brees, so it doesn't really matter. [00:23:56] Speaker B: It's not the same. [00:23:57] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's whatever. Week 17, we have the Giants, which is very winnable, but they've won three straight. [00:24:06] Speaker B: I think they have, but to what end? I don't know. What's the purpose of that. [00:24:11] Speaker A: I know, but I was reading, you read him to the draw play from Dave Rapocio and he was talking about he cannot get behind because he's a Giants fan. He cannot get behind the idea of being mad that your team won. Yeah, you're hurting your draft position, but. [00:24:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't actually believe in that, though. I really don't. The whole tanking philosophy, at the end of the day, there's some tension, possibly, where you have coaches who want to tank to get the picks so that they have good players, but none of the players want to do that. The players, they got to boost their own stats. They're playing for their careers and so everybody's playing really well and like, games just go the way they go and the fans want to see a good show and frankly, even the coaches, I think it matters to them to get the wins even whenever they're in the worst season of their lives. [00:25:18] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I was going to say that matter. I wouldn't even say the coaches. I mean, like maybe gms. [00:25:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd say it's literally just the GM. I think the draft picks are just not worth what people think they like. We saw last year, what was it? The Bears, whoever it was, who basically lost the first overall pick for a nothing win. [00:25:46] Speaker A: It was Houston. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Houston, yeah. [00:25:49] Speaker A: And then they still drafted CJ Strauss. [00:25:51] Speaker B: Yeah. They ended up. I mean, the Panthers were just, uh. That was my right call of the year was that Bryce Young was just not going to be. [00:26:01] Speaker A: I mean, the. [00:26:03] Speaker B: Be the guy for the. Yeah, he's playing like a typical rookie. Perhaps he's not been. Think to me, it was obvious that Anthony Richardson and CJ Stroud had what it took to be in the NFL. CJ, maybe I thought less so just because of the cast of characters around him at Ohio State. But the tragedy of the first overall pick and any of the top picks is these great players from college go into terrible teams in the NFL and then they are expected to fix them. And some of those teams are good at doing that and other teams are not. Like you were talking about the Steelers drafting somebody. I don't think the Steelers should do think, you know, if you do that, you still give Pickett another year of starting because you want to give whoever that is a year to acclimate at least. And I think the Steelers need somebody. Even though Ben Roethlisberger at the end was statue and had a noodle arm, he knew how to run the offense at the end. Big Ben did. And so you need somebody who can do at least that. But it helps if you can move and throw the ball, right? Yeah. That's like what our team needs. So I just think that certain teams, that high draft capital really does matter. It fits with certain philosophies and then for others it's just like this will always be negligible. Look at what the Patriots did for what felt like half a century of low draft picks and yet continued to perform at a very high level and win multiple Super Bowls. [00:27:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Week 18, the Rams have the 49 Ers, which we are notoriously bad at playing the 49 ers, and it's up in the air, same as the AFC. Whether or not they're going to be playing for the top seed, you'll be. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Playing against the MVP. [00:28:14] Speaker A: No good segue because no, maybe two mvps. [00:28:20] Speaker B: MVP candidates. On that. [00:28:24] Speaker A: Slippy suggested we talk about who we think will win MVP. And I put this note before I saw your answer, but let me tell you who. I don't think it. I don't think it's Brock Purdy, the quarterback for the 49 ers. Now he's playing great, but my issue is those couple of games where he didn't have Debo Samuel or Christian McCaffrey or Trent Williams and I don't know what combo, how long each of them was out, but they lost three in a row and he didn't look very good and now they're all back and he looks great again. So I just feel like he and he is a better quarterback than because we've seen the Shanahan offense with, you know, lesser quarterbacks. Garoppolo was pretty good in that system, but I don't know. I feel like Brock Purdy just benefits from being in that offense. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Well, there's no doubt that that's mean. There's no doubt that he has a terrific cast of characters around him, but all the same, he is getting it. Think, you know, to your point earlier, some of those other guys really don't. I mean, everybody thought Trey Lance was the second coming and he just was not good. [00:29:42] Speaker A: Man, I forgot about him. Yeah, I thought I was missing someone. [00:29:46] Speaker B: No. So I've been a Mr. Irrelevant fanboy here for a little while and I'm not necessarily going to say at this stage he should be the MVP. I think his stats don't necessarily support an MVP performance as of yet and I haven't taken a look. This would require too much analysis. But, like, how many game winning drives each of these quarterbacks have led that are in the hunt here? To my knowledge, the 49 ers typically have just won by a mountain of points and not had too many close games. Maybe that's inaccurate, but I think he at least deserves to be in the conversation. The reason he realistically won't get it is exactly what you said. He's maybe a system quarterback and because he wasn't an exciting college prospect and then was a low draft pick, it just sort of hurts his overall, I guess you could say. Think he's. I think he's really like, I'd love to have him on the Steelers for would. [00:31:05] Speaker A: I would, too. [00:31:06] Speaker B: He's a stud. [00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, because the Rams need to start thinking past Matthew Stafford, who's playing great, who is. [00:31:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:15] Speaker A: But I do agree he is perfect for Shanahan and saying he's a system quarterback is not a bad thing. I was thinking about, even while you're talking about that, when Kurt Warner won MVP for the 99 Rams, it's a similar story. I mean, he was undrafted, but he had Marshall Falk and Isaac Bruce and Tori Holt, who people didn't know at the time was going to be amazing. He was a rookie but he had a lot of people around him that were incredible, and he won. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Know, maybe. [00:31:49] Speaker A: Maybe Purdy could. I would not vote for him. I would vote for Prescott. Yeah. Which is so funny because he's got such a reputation that people, they think he's bad. [00:32:02] Speaker B: Well, he's like Kirk Cousins in some ways. He's always been a part of a pretty electric offense, and yet he seems to choke. And also, Dak gets hurt, whereas Kirk, he's currently hurt, but he just got hit a. Yeah. I don't know. I think Dak is by the numbers. He makes a lot of sense. Do I think Dac is the reason the Cowboys are amazing? I think the whole system thing that you just argued about with the 49 ers sort of applies to him as well. But most people are talking about him and not the other quarterback who is in his same division. That probably deserves a little bit of the conversation, but he hasn't been playing great. [00:32:56] Speaker A: Oh, Tommy DeVito. [00:32:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Did you see his agent? [00:33:01] Speaker A: I did. Oh, my gosh. He looks like if I dressed up as a gangster. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Actually, I think it was a bit. I do. [00:33:09] Speaker A: It was a bit much. No, but Jalen hurts. Yeah. I mean, he'll always be. [00:33:14] Speaker B: He's so good. Yeah. I mean, even when he's not playing great, like, the Eagles still look good. I think you can't deny he's at least 50% of the whole brotherly shove combination there with Kelsey. [00:33:30] Speaker A: What I was going to say, though, is, and obviously stats, whatever, but DaC has 28 touchdowns and six picks this year, about a 69% completion percentage. And the one knock against them was that they hadn't really beaten anyone, but they just beat the Eagles, which, again, the Eagles are kind of falling right now, but that's still impressive. Like, you took the division lead it from them, at least for the moment. [00:34:07] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:34:08] Speaker A: It would be cool. I think he does deserve to win MVP. You mentioned Tyree kill. [00:34:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm a little torn on this one. So everybody likes to talk about quarterbacks in the MVP race and anything outside of quarterback. I think the last player to do it was Adrian Peterson, if that's right, was a running back. [00:34:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Which was 2012. [00:34:34] Speaker B: 2012. And McCaffrey is really the only person in that conversation from that position, and he's not on track. I mean, McCaffrey is having a terrific year. The same system argument could be argued for him, but there's no doubting his performance. It's just not the same. And then the other thing we forget is there's always a caveat of there are 17 games in the season now and so all of these stats, while exciting were like, oh, they're breaking records. It's like, well, whenever you go back to the per game stats, they're not as impressive in a lot of cases. I do think because of the quarterback performances we just talked about, I think Tyreek actually deserves it more than either of them. If he was to get to 2000 yards, that's an obvious benchmark. And I don't think any of the quarterbacks are on pace to get to what I would say is right around the territory for MVP, which is 5000 yards even DaC. And then there's the health thing. I mean, we didn't talk about Stroud who definitely elevated his team more than any other player this loved. But now he's so like, his stats aren't going to back it up. And that's a big part of it is just some of the luck of the draw with injuries. So yeah, we'll have to see. But I think as of right now, Tyreek has a pretty reasonably good shot at it. He is the best wide receiver in the league. I've been sort of saying this for years because when you have that kind of. I beat everybody in the race, speed, you should be used every single play. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Well, my thing, I want them to get 2000 yards in. I guess you said like the per game stat, which is probably the fairest to measure it. But yeah, I want him to get 2000 yards in 16 games because. [00:36:39] Speaker B: Who has it? [00:36:40] Speaker A: Calvin Johnson has the record. [00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:43] Speaker A: And it's not quite 2000, but it was in a 16 game season. So yeah, I'm kind of with you on that. It's like, well, the extra game kind of throws things off. And next I see in our notes, literally in the next topic there's a note that says, I see you slippy to which you responded, okay, Sauron. Because we have a Google Doc with an outline script, if you. [00:37:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:37:11] Speaker A: But that's in the fantasy football section which we won't spend a lot of time there. But I've made the playoffs in two out of my three leagues and in the fourth one I'm waiting to see because I'm in fifth right now. But it's only a 14 playoff, so there's another week of play. [00:37:27] Speaker B: So did you miss in the dynasty league that we're in? I did. [00:37:31] Speaker A: The vagrant lesser Flamingos did not live to fly. [00:37:35] Speaker B: It's a shame somebody knocked you out there. [00:37:38] Speaker A: Yeah, someone named Slippy. [00:37:42] Speaker B: No one messes with the 501st. [00:37:45] Speaker A: No, I mean, I'm happy with that team, though. I think I've got a good core for next year. Remember, you have a bunch of picks. [00:37:53] Speaker B: I mean, you have some of my picks even. [00:37:55] Speaker A: Well, I made some stupid trades and some good trades. I traded my brother, I think, Travis ETn in a first for Daniel Jones. That was desperate. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah, that was desperate. [00:38:08] Speaker A: Even as I was making that trade, I was like, this doesn't seem like a good trade, but I needed, it's a superflex league, so I wanted another quarterback. And then this was also a desperation trade. I traded a 2025 1st round pick for Jordan Love because I just needed a body. I needed someone because my quarterback was on a buy. [00:38:26] Speaker B: I think that's great. I think that's a good trade. [00:38:29] Speaker A: It has actually turned out to be a pretty good cause. That was when I did it. It was when he was not playing well, but he's kind of turned it on as of late. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Well, it's December now and I mean, the packers are the, you know, when it gets cold, they just start winning games. [00:38:45] Speaker A: Except they lost. [00:38:46] Speaker B: I know, but love is looking. He Aaron Jones hasn't even really been healthy. This, like, just imagine them with a pass catching back. Know anybody who could run the ball more than AJ? Dylan, who is fine, but he's more of like a goal line back, I would say. [00:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And then you said you're in six. [00:39:11] Speaker B: In. I'm in four. [00:39:13] Speaker A: Oh, and you're waiting to see. [00:39:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So I will probably get into playoffs in all four, which would be maybe a first for me. I am the number one seed after beating you in the dynasty league. So I get a by week, which is really nice. It's also a little weird because I don't really know what to do. I'm like, should I set my lineup and just pad my stats? [00:39:39] Speaker A: Well, I don't think it counts. [00:39:43] Speaker B: Just for bragging. Right? [00:39:45] Speaker A: Like, well, I scored this many points. Like, well, you didn't play anyone this week. [00:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's true. But yeah, I'm excited about that. This is my first year doing dynasty, and it's rewarding because I was going with the strategy, which some of my trades made this obvious, but I was going with the win now and it's paying off. [00:40:05] Speaker A: Although you were the 2021 Rams, I'm. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Not entirely sure why. Well, actually, I'll credit Mike Evans. I would say everybody bet against Mike Evans for some reason this year, and I was, hmm, nine years with a thousand yards in a row. Will he do it? [00:40:23] Speaker A: Again, seems like, like, why do we do this? So we were talking about that with Tyler Lockett, which as of now, he's not something. [00:40:31] Speaker B: Sure. [00:40:31] Speaker A: He's not what he was last year at his prime. Every year it was like the fantasy experts are like, oh, well, Tyler Lockett's not going to be great. He was great. I'm trying to think of when this. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Was like, I don't know, always projected from DK Metcalf in particular when he joined the team. It's like, okay, fantasy experts. It's like, well, we'll put Lockett 20 or 30 places below. And then they always like, the first two or three seasons, they finish like neck and neck in fantasy points. And it's like, you can't deny the slot receiver production. [00:41:05] Speaker A: Why are we picking against Mike Evans? So this episode wasn't supposed to be. It was supposed to be more of a grab bag. It turned into mostly football, but it actually kind of works out because I don't think we have enough movie talk, really, to fill an episode. [00:41:19] Speaker B: No, not really. Not since having a kid. [00:41:23] Speaker A: Yeah. But we'll get a little into what are we watching, which is, I think, stealing from beyond the screenplay. But I am super excited as we seamlessly transition from football to movies. So I don't know if you know these movies, but true lies and the abyss, they are both James cameron movies. James Cameron is really good. He's really pretentious, but he's a really good director. And neither of them have been available on anything higher than dvd. So I love to collect things on voodoo and they have pages on there for them, but you're not able to buy them. And he finally remastered them in four k and they just came out today. So I'm so excited because as a collector, there's nothing better than when something that you've been like you couldn't get is available. [00:42:21] Speaker B: I guess he needed the money. [00:42:23] Speaker A: I mean, I can't think. So he's just. The last Avatar came out. [00:42:26] Speaker B: I know. No, he's made. [00:42:28] Speaker A: So. [00:42:30] Speaker B: He'S made like, what, three of the three highest grossing movies or something like that? [00:42:35] Speaker A: I mean, there's the last two Avengers up there, too. [00:42:39] Speaker B: Oh, right. That's right. Well, I have seen the abyss and I don't know. Have you seen it before? [00:42:44] Speaker A: I haven't, but I know the cast, I know the story. And I think part of it is like, it is something I would buy, but part of it is just that I couldn't get it. [00:42:56] Speaker B: I haven't seen the movie in over ten years. At this point, I have to say I think I enjoyed it. I was just reading earlier this week, and it must have been because he released it that I can't remember the lead actor's name now. [00:43:12] Speaker A: Ed Harris. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Ed Harris almost drowned while making movie. So that's interesting. But, yeah, I think you'll enjoy it. It is probably the right combination of 90s ish movie vibe with some good old cast that we haven't seen on the silver screen in a little while. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Michael Bean. [00:43:36] Speaker B: Yes. [00:43:37] Speaker A: Michael Bean. [00:43:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:39] Speaker A: And then, actually, I'm going to see Godzilla minus one today. [00:43:47] Speaker B: You never miss a Godzilla movie. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I didn't get to see Godzilla versus Kong in theaters, but that was also during COVID times. But no, what's different, though, is that this is a japanese Godzilla movie, which we don't usually get them. If we do, it's usually like. I don't know, you'd think it'd be like a one night event. And because it's not really fair, but you think of a japanese Godzilla movie, you think of the rubber suits and the really cheesy. But this movie looks incredible. Like, it's set in post World War II Japan. And so it is a soldier dealing with PTSD. And also Godzilla attacks Japan. So it actually, I guess, is supposed to focus a lot more on the story, which is usually the weak point in monster movies is like the human story. Like, you don't care what's going on. [00:44:42] Speaker B: No, you're there to see Godzilla walk through a city and fight monsters. [00:44:48] Speaker A: And the acts look really good. And it looks like the budget was, like, $10 million. So, yeah, I'm pumped to see it. I've actually said I'm off today. I'm off tomorrow. I might go see Napoleon tomorrow because why not? [00:45:03] Speaker B: I want to see Napoleon pretty badly. I thought it looked good from the trailer, but I don't know what reviews are saying about it at this stage, but that mix is right in my wheelhouse. [00:45:16] Speaker A: Ridley Scott, Joaquin Phoenix, Napoleon. I see you finally watched Venom. I was looking at that note. I was like, who wrote about Venom? Forgetting that this was like a communal. [00:45:30] Speaker B: Yes, yes. I put some notes down. Yeah, I did finally watch Venom. I'm guessing, and we'll get into this, but I'm guessing you rated it higher than I did. [00:45:40] Speaker A: I haven't actually rated it. [00:45:42] Speaker B: Okay. I would say it was a very average, if a little below average superhero movie. I thought it was fine. [00:45:51] Speaker A: It's fun. [00:45:52] Speaker B: I'm very late to the game on it, and I like Tom Hardy. I thought he was good as usual. I didn't really find it that exciting or the plot that interesting. It might have been when it came. [00:46:07] Speaker A: Out contextually, but I remember seeing it in theaters. [00:46:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it didn't do that well. [00:46:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it did well with fans, critics. It did not. Yeah, the plot is fine. The villains. The one thing I didn't like is that he becomes friends with the Venom symbiote pretty quickly. It just decides all of a sudden it's like, yeah, I'm a loser on my planet, so I'm going to stay with you. [00:46:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:37] Speaker A: Just like really quickly, if I recall. [00:46:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:41] Speaker A: And you watched a long shot, which I have not seen. [00:46:44] Speaker B: Yeah, apparently it's an old movie. It came up on Netflix. [00:46:49] Speaker A: It's not that old. [00:46:50] Speaker B: No, it's not that old. I think it may have been, what, 2019 or something like that. [00:46:55] Speaker A: That sounds right. [00:46:56] Speaker B: Yeah. But it came up on Netflix. And so I was like, oh, a new movie. And so Becky and I watched it and it's pretty much other than it might actually be the only movie we've watched since Emma was born. Yeah, we were able to finish it over the course of two nights. And, yeah, we enjoyed of, I would say considering how long it's been out and not remembering it when it came out, I think it's an underrated movie. I thought it was enjoyable. Nice, probably for couples to watch. Has some funny moments and it has, I would say, like a pretty reasonable and somewhat unique love story. So that's fun. But yeah, mostly we're watching Seinfeld. These only time for tv. [00:47:44] Speaker A: The best sitcom in history, I would say. [00:47:47] Speaker B: I had never seen the whole show. And Becky had really, I think she'd only ever seen maybe one episode. It is so good. We are really enjoying it. [00:48:00] Speaker A: All the catchphrases and all the cultural things that came from Seinfeld. [00:48:06] Speaker B: It has shaped our culture. [00:48:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it did. And it's one of those things where, like, Jerry Seinfeld is funny. But what's funnier on there is just the supporting actors, like Elaine and George and Kramer. I mean, obviously they have actors, but. [00:48:23] Speaker B: No, but I mean, Kramer is. Yeah, Kramer is probably the funniest and maybe best physical actor that I've seen. He was so. He's so good. I mean, he steals the screen when he's, he makes. This is the other thing is I think they may have done it in front of a live audience. I'm not sure about the laugh track, but. [00:48:44] Speaker A: No, it was like a studio audience. [00:48:46] Speaker B: A studio audience, yeah. But you can see the real takes that they end up with in the show. Some of the characters are actively breaking and it's usually because of Kramer. Yeah. And it makes it funnier. [00:49:03] Speaker A: So I'm really enjoying know because his character is annoying. You don't think about him as much. But George. [00:49:11] Speaker B: George. Yeah. [00:49:12] Speaker A: George may be the best character on the show. [00:49:15] Speaker B: Yeah. He's phenomenal. [00:49:17] Speaker A: He's very relatable. I don't know. Struggles in life. He pretends the marine biologist, one I just watched recently. Have you gotten there yet? [00:49:32] Speaker B: We are in mid season four. Okay. [00:49:36] Speaker A: So I don't think you have yet. But there's one where he pretends to be a marine biologist. And it is so funny. You'll love it. But yeah, Seinfeld is so good. I'm glad you guys are watching it. It is like the best sitcom of all time. So last thing we have in the movie realm is talking a little bit. [00:49:54] Speaker B: About I was throwing some shade at you. You can call it what it is. [00:49:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So let's talk about the difference in our movie ratings. So we had a discussion a couple of weeks ago where we noted that you are much more likely to rate something lower or not like it. And I'm pretty generous with my ratings. Yeah. So you put it 42% of the things you rate on letterbox or above. Two and a half out of five, whereas it was 97% for me. So I like watching movies. I watch things to enjoy them, even if they're bad. I'm trying to find something good in them. I think the best example of that recently is I saw the fourth Expendables, which objectively, which I guess it's still not objective, but. [00:50:45] Speaker B: The expendable movies are almost written to be terrible, which is. [00:50:50] Speaker A: Sort of the realm. But there's an art. Yeah. Like, it was bad for an Expendables movie, somehow. The visual effects were horrible. There's the shot where Megan Fox is standing on a little boat and the perspective just looks so bad. The boat looks gigantic. I don't know. They're really fake. [00:51:14] Speaker B: There shouldn't be this many expendable movies, right? When you watch the first one, like, oh, this was actually an artful take on essentially making fun of action movies. [00:51:29] Speaker A: And the second one too. [00:51:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And the second one as well. And then the third one, you're like, okay, we are now phoning it in. [00:51:36] Speaker A: It's a typical third movie, generic action movie. It's fine. It's fun. You still like to see all the people in it. But this one didn't even have a big cast of old time stars to go with it. So this was just like a generic action movie, like having Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone. Obviously that helps because they're good action stars. But no, it wasn't good. But the point of this is saying even that it was really bad, but I enjoyed watching because it was so dumb. I don't know, there's just something, it was still fun for what it was. But that's also noting that it was not a good movie. [00:52:16] Speaker B: Right. What are you going to rate it. [00:52:18] Speaker A: Out of five, maybe three. [00:52:24] Speaker B: See, there you go. Yeah. For me, a big part of the test is how rewatchable is it objectively, if I'm not going to watch a movie again, it probably wasn't that good. Now there are some movies that are. [00:52:39] Speaker A: Really terrific and you really only want. [00:52:41] Speaker B: To see that once. [00:52:42] Speaker A: I was going to say there are huge exceptions, like Schindler's list. [00:52:46] Speaker B: Schindler's list was exactly what I was thinking of. Yeah. I will probably watch that again someday in my life. [00:52:51] Speaker A: Outstanding. [00:52:53] Speaker B: But. [00:52:55] Speaker A: You don't entertainment for different reasons. [00:52:59] Speaker B: Right. [00:52:59] Speaker A: It's deep and it's haunting and it will destroy your heart, but it is so good. [00:53:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:06] Speaker A: That's a different reason to not watch something because you need to be in the right headspace to watch that. Right. Yeah. As opposed to just an Expendables movie where you're like, I'm not watching that again because it wasn't good. Yeah. [00:53:22] Speaker B: You're a glass half full guy and I am the balance here on this. [00:53:27] Speaker A: Which is actually, I mean, it is interesting. Just the difference in perspectives. I don't know. I'm trying to think of the lowest rated thing I have on there and I do it differently. I only rate things when I have watched them. Right. I could go on there and rate a ton of stuff that I've seen before and I know you have done that. [00:53:46] Speaker B: I went my backlog. Yeah. So I think I have almost 1000 different movies on there that even I rated the land before time movies. Maybe that's numbers batting, but I don't want to miss anything. [00:54:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So I'm only doing it. My count starts in November of 2020. So anything since then that I watch? I haven't even rated everything that I've watched. But yeah, it's a lot smaller sample size for me. But no, it is cool that just different ways of reviewing a movie. Like you said, mine's more half full. So that is going to do it for today's episode of snorkeling with narwhals. That was a pretty long one. It was strange. I was, like, watching. I was like, this isn't long enough to go into two episodes, but it's a little long. But, hey, we haven't released anything for three months. [00:54:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And who knows? Maybe you'll end up editing it down and it's like, oh, well, that audio portion just, wow, that was such a bad take. [00:55:01] Speaker A: So coming up at some point, and again, every two weeks thing was never going to happen. I want to try to be more regular on this, but more regular for us is apparently more than once every three months. So I have planned a solo episode where I rank every flavor of Mountain Dew, which I think I have at least of the ones on my list. Like, I've finally gotten to try them all. Except there was one I wasn't able to get because I don't live in Morgantown or in eastern Pennsylvania. So it's like a lemonade flavor. Whatever I've had. I have another episode of snorkeling and Popcorn, hopefully coming soon, and then I'm going to start a fiver page, if you have no idea what that means. I am going to try to sell my production skills. So that's still in the early stages, but yeah, just keep an eye out for that. [00:56:10] Speaker B: I was impressed with the logo draft you sent me over. I thought that was pretty cool. [00:56:16] Speaker A: Raging narwhal Productions, which is what I produce. All of these under, has official logos. [00:56:21] Speaker B: Now, so let's go. [00:56:25] Speaker A: So I am Brian, and I'm slippy, and this is snorkeling with narwhals.