An 18-Inning Marathon & Are the Chiefs the Team to Beat...Again?

We're back. It's the height differential. That's the 6'6", Neil. I'm the 4'5", 10". Nick, we've recovered from the Bengals loss on Sunday a little bit. We just not recovered, we just tried to forget about it. But after missing last Wednesday because of my... It was my fault. I missed because of work. We are back on a Wednesday. I think we got a lot to talk about here.

Neil (00:16)
Let's go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick (00:42)
It's almost Halloween on Friday, so we'll close with some Halloween thoughts. But I guess we got to start with the World Series tied at two to two. The Blue Jays looking good in game five as they lead off the game with back to back home runs off Blake Snell. But I think Dayton, we got to go back and talk about game three, the 18th ending marathon. Did you stay up for that thing?

Neil (01:05)
No, can't say that I did. I stayed up for one of the games. I mean, they basically played two complete full games, 18 innings. So I watched the majority of it, but I mean, staying up till 2.50 in the morning just wasn't in my, wasn't on my agenda. So no, I did not stay up for it. Caught the highlights the next morning. ⁓ Will Smith almost ended it in the 14th inning when he pimped his long fly out to the warning track. And then Freddie Freeman, four innings later decides he's had enough and they went home with a win.

Nick (01:34)
I mean, he just keeps doing it, doesn't he? Yeah, and I mean, obviously he had some big ones back with the Braves as well, but there was no chance I was staying up. Like we had five straight days of just non-stock activity. And by the time we golfed on Monday in the cold rain, and then we had our Ryder Cup style little meeting after that, and we got home at 1130 and

Neil (01:36)
and they called them Mr. World Series on the broadcast.

Yeah.

Nick (02:03)
We had Bengals games on Sunday. We had the Louisville game on Saturday with the Halloween party on Friday. I was beat. So I turned the radio on my phone to listen to it to see how long it would last. And two minutes later I was gone. I woke up at 330 to see what happened and saw that Freddie hit the home run. But 18 innings and I don't know if people know this, but Brad Paisley sang the anthem for that game. And he sang the anthem four times.

Neil (02:28)
saw that. Yup.

Nick (02:32)
in World Series. All four of those games have gone to extra innings. And the 18-inning game in 2018, he also did the anthem, and that game went 18 innings. So, might wanna quit asking, ⁓ Brad Paisley to sing the anthem for World Series games.

Neil (02:50)
Yeah, if he's gonna sing a national anthem, you put him in a regular season game when you can start a runner on second base and you're not gonna go the full 18. But that's how wild is that though. Two 18 inning games, a World Series history, and he's the national anthem singer at both of them at Dodger Stadium.

Nick (03:04)
Well, he's got the song called We Who Needs Pictures. Well, you might need to do a new version of Who Needs Extras. See if we can get that into works for Brad Paisley. But, so here's the on the 18-18 game. The Dodgers leave 18 on base. The Blue Jays leave 19, a combined 37 runners left on base in that game.

Neil (03:18)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (03:29)
And it ended as we talked about with Fredrik Freedman's home run in the 18th. And this is just what baseball is now. There's no stringing together, base hit after base hit to school. Like it just doesn't, everybody just waits for that home run. You just wait for that big hit. And I mean, that's kind of what baseball is now. Like it's just totally different than what we grew up with, but they leave 37 on and just wait for that solo shot to end it.

Neil (03:54)
I mean, no, you're right. But the Dodgers do have, I mean, when you have a lineup like the Dodgers, I'm almost waiting for them to do that. They're all home run hitters. They all have the capacity to do it. So, especially with the Blue Jays too. I mean, they've got some guys that can match over there. I mean, you don't expect it to go 18. You expect it to go maybe one or two more for somebody to just hit that one bomb and, you know, we're going home. But to go another nine innings with no body scoring, like that's wild. Yeah.

Nick (04:21)
whole other game.

And you know, we talked about some dumb rules in sports, the trading two point, like two point tries in college football over time. The over the extra inning rule in the regular season in Major League Baseball, where they put a runner on second to me is equally as dumb as that or maybe even dumber. I just hate it. I know I get what they're trying to do. I just hate it. But

Neil (04:31)
overtime rules. Yeah. Yeah.

That is cool.

Nick (04:50)
It's good to see in the world's, in the playoffs that we're not doing that.

Neil (04:50)
I disagree with you.

think that they haven't figured out. Like we play 162 games. If we're going to extra innings, we don't need to have 14, 15, 16 innings games in June and July. Like we don't need that. baseball too is pure. Baseball too is pure as form as you don't do that. And so they don't do that in the playoffs as they should not. It should be a pure form of baseball. But when we, know, when you're in June and July and you're playing 162 games, let's just get this thing over with.

Nick (05:05)
still hate it. I still hate it. I just hate it.

Neil (05:22)
You start him on second base, force, I mean, you have to do something. It's not like in college football where you start inside the 30, you just kick the field goal when you fail. You can't just score the runner on second by not doing anything. You have to lay down that bunt. You got to get that base hit. You got to still do something.

Nick (05:33)
Play stuff, get it.

or... yeah. I

mean, you can score without a hit, you can bunnymover and hit a sack fly. You still have to execute.

Neil (05:42)
No, you can, but you still have to execute. You

have to execute. Like they're not starting them on third base where, you know, one fly ball scores them. Like you have to execute. So I'm fine with it during the regular season. I think they've got it figured out well. And then just going back to the pure form of baseball in the playoffs.

Nick (05:57)
Yeah,

but you know, they made all these changes a couple of years ago. I know we're getting off on a tangent a little bit, but they made all these changes with the DH, you know, the pitch clock, the bases being bigger. Like I've gotten used to all that and I'm still not really used to the the imaginary run around second, but I get I get the point. It's a long season. You don't want to get people hurt when playing 18 any games in May. ⁓ But still I do hate it. But show hey, Tony in that game, four for four, two doubles, two home.

Two home runs, three runs scored, three RBIs and five walks for each space, all nine times.

All nine times. I mean, they weren't pitching to him an extras.

Neil (06:33)
Like,

he comes off the performance where he hits three bombs and pitches six shutouts and 10 strikeouts and gets the win in the clinching game of the NLCS. And like, just don't like, like how can this guy get any better? And then he just goes and gets on base nine straight times. Nine for nine in a World Series game where he hits two bombs, a couple doubles. And then finally the Blue Jays were like, this guy's not beating us. We're gonna just walk him every single time as they should have.

But it's just insane what this guy continues to do.

Nick (07:05)
But that's not the end of story. As less than 24 hours later, here's your starting pitcher. After being on base nine times,

Neil (07:12)
He is your starting bitchy.

Nick (07:15)
He comes back less than 24 hours to start a game, didn't have his best stuff, but still went six plus. And he gave up four runs, Vlad's two run shot in the seventh, I believe, kind of put the game away. coming off of a performance where he reached the base nine times and that game finished less than 24 hours, he pitched into the seventh inning for the first time as a Dodger.

Neil (07:22)
You did not.

Nick (07:44)
He has never done it before. And this is when he does it. It's the first time he had pitched him to the seventh inning since August the 9th to 23, when he was still at the Angels. And he didn't get out in the seventh, but just the fact that he went that far after doing what he did the night before is, I mean, it's just another thing to talk about with Shohei. I mean, we've just never seen anything like this before.

Neil (08:08)
He's just an animal. He's just, he's not human. Like he's just not a human, he's a robot.

Nick (08:15)
He's a robot and as we said multiple times, he's two players. And I mean, that kind of sums it up when you do what you do offensively and then you come start the next game.

Neil (08:26)
I mean,

when it's all said and done, you're talking about him as probably, could be the best baseball player of all time.

Nick (08:34)
I mean, these have been talked about as being the best athlete of all time.

Neil (08:37)
Yeah, that's in the conversation.

Nick (08:38)
I mean,

he's doing things we've never seen before. In an earlier episode, we tried to compare it to things like his performance when he, I mean, in game four of the NLCS. It's just, it's remarkable. And on the other side, mean, Vlad Guerrero hit his eighth home run of the postseason earlier tonight to give the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead. mean, he's not being talked about enough what he's done in the postseason. I know we talked about him a little earlier, but he continues to write.

Yeah, so, but no game five going on right now. I think it's still two to nothing. Well, I guess by the time we get on here on Sunday, that thing will be all wrapped up. We'll see if the Dodgers can be the first team since the Yankees in the 90s to win back to back World Series or if the Blue Jays can win their first World Series since Joe Carter walked them off in 1993.

And we talked a lot of college football on Sunday, so we won't get a ton into it this week. looks like Ed Orgeron wants to come back the LSU.

Neil (09:38)
I mean, do you blame him? mean, coming off the national title that he had in, what was that, 2019 with that loaded NFL roster of players that he had down in Baton Rouge, then he follows it up with two just complete kind of duds of a season. mean, they were at 500, at 500 those two seasons. But I mean.

Nick (09:44)
2019.

I mean, they never were under 500. They were five and five and six and six.

I think there

are some other things going on that kind of led to his dismissal.

Neil (10:03)
I

think I think old edge has been sitting on the couch a little too long now. He's kind of bored. He's watched all the seasons of Breaking Bad and Friends and all the other TV shows. He's probably gone through the Rolodex on those and he's just like, you know what? I need to get out of the house. I need something to do. LSU is looking for a head coach. I want him a national title. Let's see we can make this work. And if I'm LSU, I'm gonna pass on that. But good for him for trying.

Nick (10:28)
But I don't know, I don't remember the governor of LSU's name, but did you see this?

Neil (10:32)
I heard his accent today when he was talking about.

Nick (10:34)
Yeah,

just clearly from the Bayou. But there he's like, our AD is not making this hire. We'll put together a committee. I'll let Donald Trump do it before I let him do it.

Neil (10:44)
Do you blame them after the the two contracts and the buyouts that that this ad is hired? I mean the Jimbo Fisher contract and now this less miles contract like These are two probably the two biggest buyouts of all time and you're paying these guys combined over a hundred million dollars to do nothing

Nick (11:04)
You have $54 million for Brian Kelly and they broke it out per month. Have you seen this number?

Neil (11:11)
I did, I've forgotten what it was, but yes.

Nick (11:14)
$800,000.

Neil (11:15)
Yeah,

that's right.

Nick (11:17)
800,000

Neil (11:20)
So get out of bed, pour yourself a pot of coffee and sit on your porch.

Nick (11:23)
And you don't even have to have a fake accent anymore. You can be yourself. You can be yourself.

Neil (11:26)
You don't even have to leave the house. You even have to leave the house.

You can just sit in your house all day for 800,000.

Nick (11:33)
So I don't know how serious Eddie O is gonna be a candidate for that job. But if he really wants to be in consideration, I guess he has to hit the oval office as DJ T is gonna be making the decision on who's the next coach at LSU.

Neil (11:50)
Ha ha!

I mean, good for all that for trying.

Nick (11:53)
I everybody in all these openings, everybody just keeps talking about Lane Kiffin. He is just, he's the hot commodity right now. I don't know, like.

Neil (12:04)
Which is wild, because he had failed stints at USC. He left Tennessee. Tennessee, USC, like he's got Ole Miss in a good spot, but they're not like dominating. Like they're good, but they're not great. Yeah. Yeah. They haven't been to a playoff though.

Nick (12:08)
He Feldstein's almost everywhere.

They're consistently top 10, top 15. They consistently are winning eight, nine games.

Which no, but consistently top 10, 15, consistently eight, nine wins at Ole Miss is great. That's great. But at a place like LSU or a place like Florida, a place like Ole Miss, it may be great to stretch. It's good, it's really good. But that's not gonna fly at places like that. And I mean, it's not like he's a young up and coming guy. He's had chances at many places.

Neil (12:51)
No.

Nick (12:58)
And he also is a guy that he's not going to stay there. What's the longest he stayed at one job?

Neil (13:05)
Not very long.

Nick (13:06)
I just, don't understand the affection towards Lane Kiffin right now.

Neil (13:11)
He's a good coach. Don't be wrong. He's a good coach. Great offensive mind. I guess that he's he's good. He's just hasn't hasn't been to a playoff yet. Hasn't won a national title. You he just doesn't have to me the credentials that I think LSU would want or a Florida would want or a team that is, you know, expects to win 1011 games and be in the playoff and win national titles like he just hasn't done that yet. Not to say he can't do it.

Well, he just hasn't done it yet.

Nick (13:42)
Or really win a big game. mean, they Oklahoma last week. They beat Georgia last year. But I mean, I Georgia, but that was at home. They blew. They blew the game late against Georgia this year. I mean, maybe that just shows you that the cupboard is that bear for head coaches that are available. But I mean, his name's everywhere and it's on like his the odds are all including Lane Kiffin as the top five. I think to be the coach at Florida.

Neil (14:11)
Yeah.

Nick (14:12)
So we'll see. And also if I'm him, we've talked about this before, I don't know if I'll leave anyways because the pressure is going to be a little less at Ole Miss. You're already having success. They're happy with what you're doing there. And what you're doing is you're consistently top 10, top 15 and winning eight, nine games. That's not going to fly at those other places.

So the schedule not as good as it's been the last couple of weeks. We get Penn State at Ohio State, which at the beginning of the season was regarded as one of the best games of the year, not so much. Now as Ohio State is a 20 and a half point favorite in that game. I don't think anybody would expected that at the beginning of the season. Vanderbilt goes to Texas. Texas is a two and a half point favorite at home against the doors.

Neil (14:42)
Nah, not some.

Oof. No.

That's a, that's a, it's almost a must win if you're Vanderbilt. If you're trying to get to that playoff, you gotta find a way to win this game.

Nick (15:03)
Yeah, and I mean, it's see if Texas can just keep doing what they're doing, not playing well and figuring out ways to win late. ⁓ Indiana goes to Maryland and they're only 21 and a half point favorites. I think that sounds like a pretty good number for the way the Hoosiers have been playing. And then the big one where game day is going is Scott Satterfield gets his moment as they go.

Salt Lake City to face the Utes.

Neil (15:34)
mean, Utah's a 10 and a half point favorite. think that's a high number. The way Cincinnati's been playing, Utah, I mean, Utah coming off.

Nick (15:43)
mean, had him in the top,

you had him at 12. You had him at the 12th best team in the country on on Sunday.

Neil (15:47)
Yeah, like,

and then Utah coming off, they just lost the BYE, right?

Yeah, come on. Well, they beat the House Colorado. They did just House Colorado. Yes, correct. So they just House Colorado. But coming off two weeks ago losing to BYU, Cincinnati I think is just as good as BYU is. I mean, I know it's at Utah. You said I.

Nick (15:52)
Utah? No, they just put it on Colorado. They lost to BYU the week before.

I don't

know about that. I know you didn't put BYU in the top 12. You put Cinti over them, I'd favor BYU if they faced it.

Neil (16:15)
mean, they play each other here in a couple

of weeks, so we'll find out soon. But people, think a lot of people are sleeping on Cincinnati, and I think that's a bad choice. So I mean, I don't know if Cincinnati wins this game, but I think it's a close one.

Nick (16:27)
I

don't know if they're sleeping, they're all the way up to 17 in the league and they weren't anywhere in the conversation at the beginning of the year after losing 20 to 17 to Nebraska.

Neil (16:35)
No, but they,

I mean, they were ranked, they were ranked after like the fourth week of the season. They've been sitting there at like 23, 24 for the last couple of weeks. They finally now have started making their way up. Cause I think maybe more people are taking notice. But they've been ranked for the last couple of weeks and just nobody's talking about.

Nick (16:52)
But I mean to me that's the most enticing game of the year. Gotta wait till 10-15 to watch that one on Saturday night. But. ⁓

Neil (16:58)
Don't sleep on the Oklahoma-Tennessee game.

Nick (17:02)
I forgot that one. That's your job. Make me not... You can't let me forget games.

Neil (17:06)
You're

falling asleep over there, my guy. Come on now.

Nick (17:08)
Yeah, Aguilar against Mateer, we kind of talked about Mateer's game on Saturday where he wasn't always making great decisions and wasn't making great throws. Since he's got hurt, he hasn't been the same guy. I they got the ugly short uniforms in football, but Joey Aguilar, that kid's fun to watch.

Neil (17:28)
Yeah, Instead of C, favorite three and a half at home. I think, you know, this is one of those games of whoever the home team is, I think that's probably who wins. I think they're probably both evenly matched a little bit. ⁓ Both good teams, but since it's at Neyland and it's a night game at Neyland, think you go with the balls.

Nick (17:48)
Yeah, I think they're trending in a better direction. I mean, they just absolutely put it on Kentucky on Saturday. Kentucky's had moved the ball a little bit the last two games with the defense on Saturday and they just couldn't figure out a way to score against Texas two weeks ago.

I guess we'll move on to the NFL. We were doing the show on Sunday night as the Packers in the second half just pulled away from a Steelers team who was struggling to stop anybody. The defense, I pulled this number. wish, let's see how fast I can pull it up. But the defenses in the AFC North is, it's like the worst defense, here it is. In the AFC North, defenses are allowing,

an average combined 27.5 points per game.

And in the history of the AFC North, they have never combined average more than 23.3 points per game. That was 2018. I mean, you look at the AFC North, you've got Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cleveland who are always known for their defenses. Cincinnati obviously has never been known for their defense. They are the team that stands out from that pack. I mean, Baltimore's defense, Pittsburgh's defense, they're just not very good. And that's why

The North still even with, I mean, the Ravens starting at one and five are still in it. The Bengals despite losing to the Jets, mean, heck, they just don't blow that game. They're a half game out of first. It's a different North than we're used to seeing.

Neil (19:19)
Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you talk, we stick with the North for a second. Like Pittsburgh now coming, like they lose to the Bengals, they lose to the Packers. Like they're coming back down. The Ravens finally figured it out against the Bears without Lamar Jackson. And now that Lamar's coming back, they went Snoop, Snoop, Snoop-a-Loop, Snoop Huntley. Yeah, Snoop Huntley, the old reliable came in, got the win. But look at this, like,

Nick (19:24)
And then.

Well, they went back to Snoop. They went old school with Snoop. Like, like, quit throwing Cooper Rush out there.

Neil (19:52)
The Ravens are two and five, but they're scheduled. It's the Dolphins, the Vikings, the Browns, then the Jets, the Bengals, the Steelers, and then the Bengals again. They're about to run off seven in a row. Like if you want to place a futures bet on the Baltimore Ravens to win the Super Bowl, now's your time to it.

Nick (20:07)
No, they aren't.

Well, I

don't know if you know this, but Vegas knows what their schedule is too. It's not something that you're going to...

Neil (20:18)
Sure. But place it

now before they win the seven in a row. Place it now.

Nick (20:24)
Yeah, them winning last week without Lamar was huge. Was absolutely huge. And get a little momentum and like you said, they've got kind of a weak schedule. The Bengals were supposed to have a weak schedule but didn't take advantage of it. I don't know.

Neil (20:41)
But if I had

to pick an AFC North winner right now, it's the Baltimore Ravens. And I think they probably end up winning this division by two, three games.

Nick (20:48)
Well, there's your number. I'm curious to see what that would be on one of the betting apps, them to win the North. Because I mean, the Steelers were a clear favorite a couple weeks ago, but I think that number's dropped pretty drastically here over the last couple weeks. And then on Monday night, the Chiefs, after they were tied at half, I believe, Washington, just pulled away in the second half. And the Chiefs are getting healthy and

I think despite the 0-1-2 start, they're now at 5-3. It could be argued that maybe they're the best team in football.

Neil (21:25)
I hate say it, but yeah, they probably are. You just can't kill them. You thought that they might have taken a step back after the first three weeks of the season, after that Jacksonville game, and then all of a sudden, they just look like the normal Chiefs. They got Rasheed Rice back, they've gotten a little bit healthier, and then they just look good again, unfortunately.

Nick (21:39)
Well, I mean, I-

I mean, I was

never gonna bury them after an over to the start. They're just too dang good. The way they won the majority of their games last year where they all were close and they figured out ways to win, that was all gonna balance out, you figure. And then they start off slow. So maybe, you think they've lost a step or two, but they just look like the same old cheese right now.

Neil (21:54)
⁓

I sure do.

Nick (22:08)
So what do you want to do? You want to do trick or treat? You want to do rankings? I'll let you call it. We can do both.

Neil (22:13)
I mean, it's the spirit of Halloween. I'll tell you a few teams. You tell me if it's a trick, meaning that their record is it's a little bit of a trick. That means they're not as good as what, you know, the perception might be. Or if they're for real, are they a treat? So let's see. We'll start in the AFC East with the division leading New England Patriots at six and two. Is this a playoff team? Is this like a contender? Is this a trick or is this a treat?

Nick (22:20)
Okay.

Well, I mean, and they're making trades too. They're getting rid of some of their guys and they're six and two. It's just, it's kind of confusing. I think they're a little early. mean, you had Drake May as Tom Brady on Sunday, which I he had a few too many Coors lights there. But I mean, you look at their schedule moving forward and they've got the Falcons this week and you just do not know what you're ever going to get with the Falcons week to week. And then they go at Tampa Bay.

And then they get the Jets and the Bengals and the Giants. I'm gonna go, I mean, if you're saying trick, that means them winning the East, then I'm definitely going treat because I think the Bills are still the team to beat in that division.

Neil (23:26)
Okay, all right, all right. Let's go with the Indianapolis Colts, seven and one. The best record in the NFL. Are the Colts, you trick or treat, the Colts are the best team in the NFL.

Nick (23:42)
So trick only means best team in the NFL?

Neil (23:45)
for this one, they're 7-1. I mean, they're clearly the best team in their division. They're going to make the playoffs. There's no trick there. But trick or treat, are they the trick or treat best team in the NFL? Yeah.

Nick (23:54)
All right, so Indianapolis Coats.

I give credit to teams that just take care of teams that are not as good as them and put them away early. They beat the Raiders by 30 plus, they beat the Titans by 20 plus. They've won four straight, I think three of those wins have been by two scores or more. You know who has the biggest point differential in all of the NFL?

Neil (24:20)
I'm guessing the Colts. Yeah.

Nick (24:20)
The Colts

at plus 116.

But despite that, do I think they're the best team in the NFL? I can't, I can't, if we were doing our rankings, I'm not putting the Colts first. So if that's the requirement to be the trick, then I'm gonna have to go treat.

Neil (24:36)
All right, all right. Let's go down to the West then with the, we'll go with the Denver Broncos sitting there at six and two have had some crazy wins and some crazy, well, one crazy loss. ⁓ But the crazy wins where they came back again to put 33 up on the, in the fourth quarter on the Giants, came back and scored, you know, all those points in the fourth quarter to win at Philly. Six and two leading the AFC West. it a trick or a treat that the Denver Broncos will win the AFC West?

Nick (25:06)
No, I mean, we just talked about how good the Chiefs are. their defense is really good. But Patrick Mahomes, Bo Nix.

Neil (25:08)
I don't talk about the chief side, but are they better than the Broncos?

Nick (25:17)
I mean, is this really serious?

Neil (25:20)
mean,

they lost, didn't the Broncos beat the Chiefs last year with those two quarterbacks?

Nick (25:27)
⁓ I mean they did they beat them in the last game of the season when they didn't play anybody to keep the Bengals out of the playoffs

Neil (25:33)
Think they beat him twice last year, did they not?

Nick (25:35)
I'm not sure I've topped my head, the Chiefs didn't lose to me at games last year, so.

But yeah, I'm not a bone-dick believer. I think their defense is really good. But I mean, to be honest with you, they should be the seven and one team and the Colts should be six and two with that field goal debacle that happened in Indianapolis. But.

Neil (25:56)
Yeah, no, like you're right. Like they are that

one debacle away from having the best record in the NFL, but you're going Chiefs will end up winning the division. So you're going Okay Let's go to let's go the NFC II let's go the NFC here. I mean the NFC East is wrapped up ⁓ Let's go. Let's go out West competitive division. We got the Seattle Seahawks at five and two

Nick (26:04)
Yes, I'm going to treat. Am I going to go trick on any of these?

I

got a clear favorite team on this division.

Neil (26:23)
I know it's the Seahawks, we all know, you love them. all right, well we have the Seahawks at five and two, we have the L-

Nick (26:25)
It is not.

You are the Seahawks

guy. You're the one that put him in the top 10 two weeks ago.

Neil (26:32)
You also have to win your, you had them in the playoff or something at beginning of the year winning the division. But anyways, five and two Seattle Seahawks, five and two LA Rams, and the five and three San Francisco 49ers. Trick or treat that the Seattle Seahawks will win the NFC West.

Nick (26:50)
No, because I like the Rams in this division. I like their defense. know, McVeigh's been around the block. Matt Stafford is still slinging it down there. I they're winning without Puka. They'll get him back. I just, I think the Rams are clearly the best team in the NFC West. The Niners have just had so many injuries.

Neil (27:13)
how you say clearly. Clearly is a strong statement.

Nick (27:15)
Clearly might be a little too strong, I mean, if I was gonna bet on a winner to win at ASUS, I would definitely go with the Rams.

Neil (27:23)
⁓ We'll do one more here. We'll do the Green Bay Packers sitting at 5-1-1, the only one lost team in the NFC currently, ahead of the Detroit Lions who they beat week one, actually put it just absolutely housed them, but they also have the clunker of a game where they lost to the Browns. With the best record in the NFC currently, trick or treat that the Green Bay Packers win the NFC championship and go to Super Bowl.

Are they the best team in the NFC? We'll say that. Are they the best team in the NFC? Trick or treat.

Nick (27:54)
No, I've

got, they're in the top four. But, I mean, I would have the Lions ahead of them. I would have the Eagles ahead of them.

Neil (28:02)
even though the Packers smashed to the lines. Alright.

Nick (28:04)
Yes,

yes. I think, I mean, they were dealing with two coordinators being switched out. I mean, it's week one, you can kind of throw it aside. I know the Lions lost to the Chiefs, but we're talking about how good the Chiefs have been playing here lately. I yeah, I would have the Lions, the Eagles, and honestly, would maybe, I don't know. I think a couple weeks ago, I had the Bucks above the Packers, but I think the Packers have kind of passed them.

to be in the three spot.

Neil (28:35)
So you're just full of treats and no tricks on this one, huh?

Nick (28:38)
No tricks, bro.

Neil (28:40)
I could give you an easy trip just so you could say All tricks, no treats. I mean, we could give you an easy one and just say the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the best team in the NFS South. NFC South.

Nick (28:42)
Or no treats, all tricks.

Well,

I mean, you can do that every year, even when the bucks are terrible.

And the, I mean...

Neil (28:55)
I just don't

understand what the Falcons are. Like, I can't figure that out.

Nick (28:59)
Nobody can. Nobody can. mean, a lot of it's the NFL, but the Falcons are playing a big role in that just because they beat the Bills.

Neil (29:07)
Yeah, on Monday night, Beat the commanders, beat the Bills, they lose by 30 to the Panthers. Like, I don't know. I don't get it.

Nick (29:07)
Thank you. ⁓ Yeah.

Do you want to run through a top 10 real quick?

Neil (29:20)
If you want to.

Nick (29:20)
I mean, we kind of already talked about it, but I think we can run through it really fast.

Neil (29:23)
Alright, who gets first pick? Did you get first pick last time? I got first pick last time. You can go for it.

Nick (29:28)
All right, you know I talked about the Colts having the biggest point differential? Do you know that's the second most point differential?

Neil (29:33)
Yup.

Uhhhh

do it is the Kansas City Chiefs with plus 83.

Nick (29:41)
Yep.

Yep.

I'm moving them. They were five last time we did this. I'm moving them up to one.

Neil (29:47)
Wow, okay. Okay. I mean, I'm gonna put my number one pick last week. I guess I'll have to put him at number two. Even though they had a bye week, going with the Detroit Lions. ⁓ It probably makes sense that they're behind the Chiefs, because they did lose to the Chiefs. So we'll put Detroit at number two.

Nick (29:49)
at five and three.

All right, well, I mean, I'll keep with the point differential because I think that's ⁓ a stat that really matters. And I mean, they deserve it. They're seven and one. I'll put the coats at three.

Neil (30:18)
All right, top 10 team or top three team for you. I like that. like that. Fourth choice for me, Green Bay Packers. think they're probably right there. ⁓ You know, they had a nice win over the Steelers on Monday night or on Sunday night. And then, you like I said, they beat the crap out of the Lions to start the year, which I don't think can go overlooked. But their offense is just fantastic. And I'm just going to go.

Detroit Lions, number four.

Nick (30:50)
Alright, I'll go Eagles. I mean, they're made the playoffs because they're in such a bad division. So, I'll go them next.

Neil (30:59)
Number six, I mean this team, like I said, just finds keeps on finding ways to win and without a fluke, not a fluke, but without that bad penalty to give the Colts that field goal at the end of the game, they would be 71. So Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos. I mean, I don't know. I don't understand how you just don't believe in Bo Nix.

Nick (31:11)
Wow.

Well, the bills still

haven't been said, clearly the Broncos are not above the bills.

Neil (31:24)
When the

Buffalo when Buffalo goes to Atlanta and loses, it's hard to put them in the top five.

Nick (31:29)
Well, Bill's at seven.

I mean, it's one game. They're still better than the Broncos. If they played each other right now, you're not picking the Broncos. All right, who you got to...

Neil (31:36)
I would pick the Broncos.

I mean, New England Patriots went and beat Buffalo in Buffalo. And you're going to tell me the Broncos can't beat Buffalo? Unfortunately, at eight, I'm probably going to go with the division leading New England Patriots. I mean, they, they, they're just playing good football. They've, they've won at Buffalo. You know, they just continue to win. I mean, they're putting it on some teams. Like they beat the Titans 31-13, beat the Browns 32-13, beat the Panthers 42-13.

Nick (31:41)
FUGARE!

Me out.

Neil (32:04)
So like not only are they winning, they're winning some of these games big, just like you said, like with the Colts, the Patriots and that same boat.

Nick (32:09)
Yeah.

And then I'll go, I'll go bucks for a nice.

Neil (32:14)
Okay.

Nick (32:15)
I mean,

they're gonna win the UFC now. We had them at what? Two, the last time we did this two weeks ago, so.

Neil (32:21)
Where's your LA Rams? Where are your LA Rams? You're talking to the LA Rams?

Nick (32:24)
I didn't have room to pick them.

I didn't have room to pick them. If you didn't pick the Broncos already, I would have picked the Rams. Picking all these AFC ⁓ teams when... Yeah.

Neil (32:31)
See you soon.

Seattle Seahawks, am I the last pick here at team? We're gonna go with the NFC West tied for the lead there. The Seattle Seahawks, who I think are the best team in the NFC West. We're going Seahawks at number.

Nick (32:50)
So I'm looking at the, so I think the Rams are the only team that fell out. And who's the team that we put in that we didn't have in last time, the Broncos. So.

See?

Well, in addition to college football and the NFL this weekend, we get some horse racing.

Neil (33:11)
I love horse racing.

Nick (33:13)
Breeders' Cup Classic and some bad news today as your your derby winner Sovereignty, you're also your Belmont winner and won four straight since winning the derby, is out with a fever so we scratched from the derby so that or from the from the Classic which does kind of it but you look at that field and it's still stacked.

Neil (33:43)
Very stacked.

Nick (33:43)
I mean,

you still have journalism, you still have fierceness, you still have mind frame, you still have Sierra Leone, you still have forever young. It's a loaded field. We are not handicappers. On my Twitter profile, I say I'm trying to be an handicapper, but this was about three years ago and I have felt miserably.

Neil (34:02)
mean,

you do, don't you have a degree in some kind of horse candy-capping from the university, you not?

Nick (34:08)
I got my business certificate at the University of Louisville in the horse racing industry. It does not help you win bets. I've learned that. I've learned that. But I think we got to make our picks.

Neil (34:13)
So there you go, you know a little bit.

Yeah.

Nick (34:25)
So Sierra Leone won the race last year, is back to defend the crown.

Neil (34:27)
Yup.

Nick (34:29)
Who do you got?

Neil (34:30)
Like I said, it's a loaded field. I mean, there's no doubt about it. And I think it very unfortunate that sovereignty got scratched because I think sovereignty was probably one of the best horses I've seen in my lifetime. I mean, you go back to the triple crown winners and American Pharaoh and,

Nick (34:45)
Justify

Neil (34:45)
Justify, yeah, sorry, justify. I mean, I think he was that good of a horse. He would have won the Triple Crown hands down. If he had just run he did choose not to run.

Nick (34:51)
He would have didn't run, wasn't hurt, didn't run, just chose not to run. Like

you, you're not in the conversation. You're not, don't want to hear you being discussed with American Pharaoh and justify. You chose not to run.

Neil (35:04)
He's that good though.

He will never be mentioned in that conversation because he didn't run ⁓

Nick (35:09)
Like journalism

ran all three races, won the Preakness and came in second in the Derby and the Belmont. He's closer to winning the Triple Crown than sovereignty.

Neil (35:19)
I don't know about that, so I'm gonna see.

Nick (35:20)
How's he not?

He ran all three. You can't win if you don't run.

Neil (35:23)
Sovereignty won two of the three. Journalism won one and then was the one sovereignty didn't run it. I mean he won two of the three so he's not close. Winning one of the three does not make you closer than winning two of them.

Nick (35:33)
If this was a point system, who gets more points?

Neil (35:36)
Sovereignty, you won two times. I mean.

Nick (35:38)
No,

no, you get points for finishing second.

Neil (35:42)
for God sakes. Like, we're not handing out participation trophies to second place horses. Stop. Just stop with that.

Nick (35:49)
Would

you rather participate or not participate when you have a chance to win the Triple Crown?

Neil (35:54)
⁓ if I was if I was his owners, I would have participated, but he didn't and he will not be talking about his one. He won't be talked about as one of the great horses because he didn't run, but he legitimately is talented enough to be in that conversation because he was that good. He is that good, but.

Nick (35:58)
But now you're defending it.

Great.

Well, like,

look, this is the problem with not running when you're healthy, because now you're not healthy. So now you didn't get a chance to run in the Preakness because you chose not to. And now you don't get to chance to run in the Classic because you've got a fever. And I get, you got to take care of the horse. I get that. But he had an opportunity to run in the Preakness to put himself on a way to winning a triple crown. And they chose not to and forever.

I that will be held against them. And I know that's the way that the industry is going. It just, I don't know. felt like, ⁓ broken record. I'm talking about all these, the way baseball's played now, I'm complaining. I sound like an old guy, but I don't know. Like the Triple Crown is such a prestigious name.

Neil (36:55)
mean, you do sound like the owner of,

remember that owner from I'll Have Another that he won the first two and horses came back and they beat them in the Belmont, the horses that didn't run in the Derby and Pregnancy and he got all picked out of shape about it. So you do sound like the old guy from the I'll Have Another ⁓ ownership group. Yeah, yeah. But anyways, he's not running so we can't talk about him anymore. But unfortunately,

Nick (37:16)
I do like having another.

Neil (37:24)
I think he was the best horse, but it's hard to go against who I think is probably the second best horse in the field or now who I would put as the best horse. He is the four to one favorite. I've got to go with with fierceness and fierceness would have been the Derby favorite last year. had he not scratched, he was there at the end. He led. He should have won this, classic last year, but he didn't. He got run down by Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone came from like 15 lengths out to beat him

and Fiercenes came in second. I think he's the best horse. just like we talked about journalism as being one of those other contenders and Fiercenes just beat journalism back on August 30th. So he's coming off a good race where he won with some other quality horses in the field, like I said, including journalism. But you know, he does every once in a while throw in that clunker. He came in fifth two starts ago. You know, he's got 13 career starts, only finishing the money 10 of those 13 times.

So when he's on, he's by far the best horse, but there is the possibility where he does throw in a clunker and that's something that could happen. But when he's on, he's the best horse. gotta go, I'm hoping he's on on Saturday and he wins that race.

Nick (38:34)
Yeah.

I, if he runs his best race, he's going to win, but just too often we don't see that. And it's almost, it's not a complete like bad race, good race, bad race, good race, but it's kind of been his mantra. So I'm going against fierceness. You talked about Sierra Leone, how he won last, last year, you know, coming from the clouds and

They're going to try to do that again this year. ⁓ Chad Brown is training both Sierra Leone and Contrary Thinking, and they are also are owned by the same ownership group. So they're going to use Contrary Thinking as a rabbit to try to build up the pace in this race, to build up, you know, just the perfect scenario for Sierra Leone to run back, to win back to back. But, you know, and also forever young, mean, the, it's a horse that

Neil (39:18)
Yeah.

Nick (39:31)
Probably the best horse maybe in Japanese history ⁓ was competitive last year in both the Derby and the Classic. But one horse that I think is not really getting talked about, where I think you could potentially get some good odds, is Mindframe. He's going off at six to one. His speed figures are honestly better than the rest of the field. He's finished first or second in every race that his jockey.

Neil (39:48)
Value? Yeah.

Nick (40:00)
has finished aboard him. They had that incident in the last race where luckily he wasn't injured, but he didn't finish the race as I-Rad fell off. But I think he's six to one a morning line. I think that line will actually go up even a little more. It could potentially go up to eight to one. I think there's value with mind frame. And I have a hard time going against, you know, I-Rad who I think is the best jockey in all of horse racing and

Todd Pletcher is one of the best trainers in all horse racing. if I can get mind frame eight to one, I'm definitely gonna pounce on that.

Neil (40:36)
Yeah.

Nick (40:38)
But just two straight days of just all these horses that you've seen race before and all these filters just so stacked and they are impossible to bet.

Neil (40:44)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we got the juvenile. So you'll see some of two year olds in there that, you know, you'll see some of these Derby horses for next year running on Friday and some of the Oaks horses running on Friday. And then Saturday, $7 million purse in that classic race. So a lot of money.

Nick (41:07)
But it's sad to see sovereignty not running. I hope we see sovereignty run again. I think the chances of that are probably pretty slim as sovereignty to run as a four year old. I think he's about to go in the barn.

Neil (41:20)
think he's, I think you retire him and you

just put him out the stud there, you know? It's time to make some real money. Yeah.

Nick (41:25)
Yep, he about to have some fun.

Well, no, excited about the Breeders' I you got college football on NFL already and you just throw a race every 25 minutes to throw some money on it, it makes for a good weekend.

Neil (41:42)
Yeah, can't wait.

Nick (41:44)
You know, one thing we didn't talk about Sunday because there was so much football and so much rage because the Bengals are just can't stop me and you. ⁓ We didn't really get into the NBA's betting scandal with Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier. Just with all the gambling that's happening now, like all this stuff is bound to happen because there's so much money involved in it.

Neil (41:54)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (42:11)
Chauncey Billups has made over $106 million in his career as a player and made more than that now as a coach. Terry Rose-Dierd made more than $160 million as a player. Like why do these guys need even more money?

Neil (42:16)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean, it's just being greedy, I guess, but like it's just what are you doing? Like it's you're just it's just stupid. Like they monitor there's so much monitoring that goes on on these betting sites. Like it's easy to flag something that's irregular. So when Terry Rozier in a random regular season game and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of nowhere just come in on his unders, it's a red flag. And when you take yourself out of the game early,

Nick (42:50)
RamFly.

Neil (42:54)
For when you weren't listed as being hurt at all, like going into it, you're not on the injury report and all of a sudden you've got something that comes up. So you've got all this money coming in on your unders, out of nowhere on a random game. And then you take yourself out early, you're going to get investigated my guy. Like it's just, what are you doing?

Nick (42:54)
another.

I don't know. And you're also flying your buddy out to the game and yeah, yeah, it's just, and he gets traded to the heat and they don't even disclose the fact that he's under investigation. The whole thing is just a mess. to me, just, just, he had a bunch of money that he owed. He had a bunch of taxes that he had owed and I don't know where all that came from, but

Neil (43:16)
Counting money in your own house. Yeah, counting money in the house. Yeah.

Nick (43:41)
I'm sure that played a role in the reason why he was trying to generate more money. But there's other ways to do that, especially when you got the platform that he does. And I don't know, like the whole thing is just a mess. And then you look at Chauncey Billups. I mean, it's a hall of fame basketball player. ⁓ I mean, he hasn't had a ton of success for Portland, but from all the articles I've read, like so well respected by his players.

Neil (43:46)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (44:09)
by the front office staff, by the beat reporters, like everybody just thought he was just such a stand up guy. And you get reports of these poker games to where, I mean, they've got manipulating shuffling machines and X-ray tables. Yes. And like he's the guy that's kind of leading the way to get people to play these games because he's Chauncey Billups.

Neil (44:28)
table, the glasses, like some kind of special glasses.

Right,

like the celebrity factor draws people in. Yeah.

Nick (44:40)
Yeah, in 2019 there's reports that he's winning all these poker games and they're like, dude, like chill out a little bit. You gotta lose sometimes to make it not look like we're cheating. And what, we're six years later after those texts were originally sent and he finally, I guess he got arrested, but what are we doing?

Neil (44:51)
Yeah. Right.

Yeah, I mean, he's got he's caught up in the poker, the poker thing. And I guess there was also the report when the Blazers, he he mentioned in a text or a conversation that the Blazers were basically tanking. They set out their top four scores ⁓ in one of those games. And, you know, everybody bet bet against the spread for them to lose. And they got housed by 30. So he's under investigation for for the gambling for the poker. But he's also, you know, he's also given some insider information from from NBA side as well. So he's

He's kind of double dipped into this whole fiasco.

Nick (45:40)
And both these guys are going to jail. I mean, they got to make a statement of this or it's going to continue to happen. And I know we talk about all these rich and famous people can figure out ways to get out of stuff and they probably won't spend a lot of time in jail and they'll probably be at some nice facility, but they will spend time in jail because you've got to rein this in.

Neil (46:01)
Yeah. I mean, they're wrapped up. got the Gambino crime families and the Genovese crime families and you got these mob bosses or these mobsters that are involved in all this. Like, why are you wrapping yourself up in with all the, you have a nice life already. Like you don't need to do this.

Nick (46:20)
Well, I mean, I think you said in the beginning, it's you mentioned both the words, greed and stupidity. mean, those are the only way to explain getting involved with something like this. And 30 people across 11 states were arrested, including Rosario and Phillips. But like, I don't know how you be that greedy. I don't know how you be that stupid.

Neil (46:41)
No, but like you said, they will do prison time. They're gonna set an example. They're gonna make an example out of these two, try to put an end to it before it gets worse.

Nick (46:52)
Yeah, so I don't know. I don't have many more thoughts on that except just great stupidity. Like, quit being an idiot. Be happy with the multiple hundreds of million dollars you have.

Neil (47:00)
That's it. Words of the day.

Nick (47:06)
and just go coach your team or and just go play basketball.

Neil (47:09)
I mean, if you want to make a lot of money, Chauncey Billups, just go be a college football coach and suck.

Nick (47:15)
Well, we just gonna kept tanking and got fired by the Blazers and would have got some kind of layout. It's not as big, it's not as big.

Neil (47:18)
I don't know if the buyout is, I don't think the buyout is as big in Portland as it is in college

football. Just go be a college football coach and suck. Sit on your couch and rack up $50 million. What? He might be. Now that his kids are gone, he might be.

Nick (47:28)
Is that what Deion's doing right now? Is that what Deion's doing right now?

mean, after that performance last week against Utah.

Yeah. So, but you, like we've said this multiple times, like the best job is a fired college football coach and you can make $800,000 a month. Like there's no amount of times that I can say that number to where it'll be like, yeah, that makes sense.

Neil (47:57)
to not even leave your house. 800.

Nick (48:00)
Yeah, and

like I said, you finally get to act like yourself. You don't have to speak in that fake accent anymore.

⁓ We got a couple more stories before we wrap or we'll talk a little bit about Halloween to end but the Dolphins owner, Steven Ross, we'll see him being a upset after their win on Sunday.

Neil (48:22)
He got caught. He got caught. went viral. He's on his private jet. I mean, what do we say he's worth?

Nick (48:29)
He is worth $17 billion with a B.

Neil (48:34)
Billion with

a B. yeah. Video of him leaving, lands in the private jet, stairs come down, know, walks off the stairs. He looks around. His vehicle is not there. There's no car. And all of a sudden he gets angry. He gets furious. He's yelling at whoever's standing there. I guess it's his assistant or somebody. Where's my car? You know where his car was? What?

Nick (49:02)
Where was this car,

Neil?

Neil (49:03)
He walked about five more steps and got in the car. Five steps. It was about five steps. Do what?

Nick (49:05)
more steps. If he would have had breadsticks, you think would have been throwing them at people?

If he would have had breadsticks, would he have been throwing them at people?

Neil (49:12)
He probably would have chucked

a couple of Olive Garden breadsticks. Yep, there's no doubt about that. But the man was angry that he had to walk five steps to get into the car instead of just coming to the bottom of the stairs and just getting in and just berated whoever that person was. He's an old man.

Nick (49:25)
He's 85 years old.

He's not a young pup. ⁓ But I mean, I guess you get a little spoiled when you're 17, Billy.

Neil (49:39)
He looks like a lunatic. But your team sucks. So you shouldn't know what, they should probably have parked his car in the pay lot at the airport and made him take an Uber or something because his team is garbage. The coaching staff there is garbage. The players are garbage. His team and his organization are a fiasco, probably second to the Bengals. Maybe he needs a little humbling.

Nick (49:59)
Well, your boy, Frank.

Neil (50:02)
Call them an a-hole.

Nick (50:03)
Frank Fleming,

Frank the Tank, who is a Dolphins fan, had a little something to say for his team owner on Twitter as he called him what?

Neil (50:13)
Cut him in a lot. Give him the A-hole treatment.

Nick (50:16)
Asshole treatment Yeah, but dude Frank's been walking every day for what the last three years that he lost a lot of weight so good for him

Neil (50:19)
Yeah.

That's what they said. Yeah, they said

that the owner, he should join Frank the Tank on a Frank walks. Maybe Frank will give him lesson, not only in how to walk, but also how to run a franchise.

Nick (50:36)
Yeah. And then you've got some squirrels in Texas who aren't trying to lose weight.

Neil (50:41)
Like squirrels

the animal or squirrels? Okay. Not the squirrels, but the squirrels.

Nick (50:45)
Squirrels the animals, squirrels the animals, we can talk about squirrels

later. Squirrels the animal that are doing quite the opposite. They're trying to gain that weight. They're trying to put on that muscle mass. They're trying to get big. Fat squirrels. And there was a bunch of them that participated in the first annual Fat Squirrel Week competition.

Neil (50:55)
no, what did do?

We fat squirrels? Fat squirrels?

Nick (51:14)
That was presented by Dinosaur Valley State Park and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Neil (51:21)
So we have a fat squirrel competition. It said how many squirrels participated? Do we know?

Nick (51:27)
Don't know how many squirrels participated, don't know what the competition entailed. I don't know if they would run 100 meters sprint and then see who ran the least. I don't know if they...

Neil (51:39)
I'm guessing

they weighed the squirrels to see who's the fat, but a fat squirrel competition sounds awesome.

Nick (51:42)
See,

who could eat a bag of planners the fastest. I don't know what the competition entailed.

Neil (51:47)
So

did we have a winner?

Nick (51:51)
See who can climb the tree and not get high. Maybe these are maybe all who cannot jump from one limb to the other. All possible things for the competition, but we did have a winner.

Neil (51:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

Nick (52:05)
And the winner beat out Chunk Norris. Chunk Norris came in second place. Chunk, not Chunk. Which the creativity of these names is a little lacking because the winner also went by, started his name with Chunk. And that is Chunkasaurus Rex has been crowned champion of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's inaugural Fat Squirrel Week competition.

Neil (52:11)
Chunk Norris, what a name.

Chugged a sword, well.

Nick (52:35)
So congrats to Chonkasaurus Rex.

Neil (52:38)
so proud of that little squirrel. Good for him. What's he get? You get like a bag of acorns to take back to the tree for him? a lifetime supply of acorns you can snack on?

Nick (52:42)
Well, I think it's a lifetime supply. Lifetime supply.

I think he gets to move into the house. He gets him a little mattress just full of acorns and never has to jump on the tree again.

Neil (52:57)
sorry.

Nick (52:59)
Just make sure he just stays away from the ozempic shot. If he wants to go back to back, if he wants to go back to back.

Neil (52:59)
for him.

Yeah, yeah. You can't have a name like, can't have a name like Chunkusaurus

Rex and be on an Ozympic shot. No.

Nick (53:13)
But could we not have been a little more creative with our names here, both starting with chunk?

Neil (53:16)
I think it's pretty good.

We have to see what the other names were, but I think they're both pretty quality.

Nick (53:22)
I didn't

see any other names, but I put a lot of thought into this. I was trying to come up

Neil (53:27)
Chuck Norris is pretty,

you guys already met Chuck Norris is pretty good.

Nick (53:31)
It is, but he didn't even win the dang thing. So, I mean, I was trying to come up with like a Zuperstar's name for a fat squirrel athlete.

And I mean, there's some great ones on the Zupastar, right?

Neil (53:45)
yeah, Harry Canary, King Giraffee Jr. Yeah.

Nick (53:49)
Yeah.

But you have more flexibility because there's a lot of animals in the world. With just the fat squirrel, you're limited in your options. So I've typed it in a chat, chatgbt, and they were all just terrible. And I told chatgbt straight up, you need to stay out of the comedy because yeah, I need to hire another full-time comedy writer. But the one that I came up with,

Neil (54:11)
Yeah.

Nick (54:19)
It's so bad. And this is me. The round mound of acorn. Is that better than Chuck Norris or Chunkusaurus Rex?

Neil (54:26)
No, No, it's...

No, it's terrible. It's absolutely terrible, like, no! No!

Nick (54:33)
Like that.

It's better than those two! It's not just throwing chunk into the front of a name. Like, at least it's got some creativity.

Neil (54:44)
You

could have just said chunk Barkley and been better than the-

Nick (54:47)
But

I'm not going back with Chunk after everybody's Chunk. I mean, how creative would it be if I just cussed out Chunk Norris and Chunkasaurus Rex? I'm like, I came up with a really good name, Chunk Barkley.

Neil (54:50)
Good!

Yours is terrible.

Nick (55:01)
round mound of acorns.

Neil (55:04)
No. No, it's not. It's absolutely, it might be one of the worst things I've ever heard, to be honest with you. Like you told Chad GPT to stay out of the comedy? that's not, that's awful.

Nick (55:04)
It's tight.

So my goal.

they were so bad. This was 10 times better. ⁓ hold on.

Let me see if I can pull these up, what they tried to come up with. Like I was laughing at chat GBT, like just for how awful it was. Where, how do I find it? I don't remember what they said, but it was terrible. here it is.

⁓ Chunk Jordan. So first off right away all they did was go chunk.

LeBron Chonks Tom Brady Belly. It doesn't even make sense. Serita Serena Chubbums. And I'm only going to give you one more because these are just awful. This actually might be the best one of theirs. Shaquille O'Nutt.

But you're telling me round mound of acorn isn't better than those. So you're going to kill a nut as the best one? Because it ain't the other ones. Somebody's got to win this competition.

Neil (55:55)
No, it's pretty bad.

they all suck. I mean, was thinking like maybe like, is there any famous

like Shirley athletes?

Nick (56:07)
Well, I thought about this like there's Earl Boykins so it could be squirrel boykins but squirrel boykins isn't fat. So how does that make sense? He's five foot five skinny NBA player.

Neil (56:18)
That's stupid. Well,

it's gotta be like a...

Nick (56:21)
But I was trying to think of Earl's that you could.

Neil (56:22)
That

Earls?

Nick (56:23)
You're gonna love research fat Earl's.

Neil (56:25)
Yeah,

I'll see.

Squirrel Campbell?

Nick (56:28)
I mean, he wasn't fat.

Look, my goal next year is for the round mound of acorn to win the second annual.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Fat Squirrel Week.

Neil (56:39)
I mean, CC

Sabathia's actual first name is Earl.

Nick (56:42)
Nobody knows that. We're just gonna say Squirrels-a-Bathia? That doesn't make any sense.

Neil (56:44)
You

It's

better than acorn- round acorn or whatever the nonsense you're throwing out there.

Nick (56:52)
Well, when round mound to acorn wins, the competition next year?

Neil (56:57)
Are you gonna start, all right, here's

what I want you to do then. I want you to go outside tomorrow in the daylight, find you a squirrel that's just sitting by a tree, capture him, and then you're just gonna train. You're just gonna start feeding this little guy for a full year, and you're gonna take him to Texas and let's see if he can win.

Nick (57:13)
That's the goal. That's the goal. That might be my primary objective for 2026.

Neil (57:19)
This round mound of acorn wins the 2026 Texas Fat Squirrel Competition.

Nick (57:26)
Yes.

Take a quick note.

Neil (57:28)
No, no. I wanna see you try though. I do wanna see you try.

Nick (57:31)
All right, so that's my guy. That's my little homie, round mound of acorn.

Neil (57:34)
Good luck.

Good luck.

Nick (57:38)
⁓ Before we get into Halloween, you want to talk about these Chinese bathrooms? Just tell me what's going on here, because you sent it to me.

Neil (57:46)
I don't know. I just read an article today. Apparently China. If you go to... No, it seems to be real. can't... I can't promise, but it seems to be real. In China, in the public restrooms, I don't know if it's every public restroom, if you need toilet paper, you have to scan a QR code with your phone and watch an advertisement of some sort.

Nick (57:50)
Is this is real? This is that we're not being duped on this? You promise we're not being duped because that's happened before.

Neil (58:13)
and then you get your free sheet of toilet paper. Now, one sheet, it did say a small sheet. So yes, I think it's one sheet. So if you need more, you watch another ad. If you need another one after that, you watch another ad. And if you need another one after that, then you're in some trouble. ⁓

Nick (58:16)
One sheet.

one sheet.

You gotta

watch a movie to wipe your ass.

Neil (58:35)
But if you don't want to watch an ad, you just refuse to watch the ad, you can pay the US equivalent of seven cents to skip the ad and get your sheet of toilet paper.

Nick (58:46)
Well,

I mean, we all know that toilet paper is not cheap, but we all buy it for our houses. It's not cheap.

Neil (58:52)
Yeah.

And you don't want the cheap toilet paper either.

Nick (58:56)
No, it's one thing that you absolutely cannot skimp on.

You might make that mistake one time and that's not a mistake you ever make again. Because you can't wait to get rid of that package of TP and go back to the OG Charmin.

Neil (59:10)
So what happens, so like let's say Nick Evans takes a little vacation, takes a little trip. He's over in Beijing, China, checking out the sights, know, checking out the culture. You stop in, you get a little Chinese food, right? You little Chinese food, get some fried rice, maybe get some orange chicken, maybe some lo mein.

Nick (59:27)
I think that's American Chinese food. Probably not gonna get that actually in China, but okay. Okay.

Neil (59:32)
I would, because I think it's delicious, but whatever. I don't know, whatever. You've been to China?

You've probably never been to China, so you don't know. Maybe you.

Nick (59:38)
Probably,

yes, you are correct. We were supposed to go, but we did not go.

Neil (59:41)
Alright, so you're in China, you get yourself a nice little Chinese meal and all of sudden you get a full and the tummy starts rumbling. Uh oh, you gotta go to the bathroom. When you are in the bathroom, are you scanning the QR code and watching the ads or are you paying the 7 cents and just saying, get me the heck out

Nick (1:00:01)
Well, first off, I don't play road games when it comes to that. ⁓ And when you're on vacation, I guess your new home base is your hotel. So I would be taking care of that at the hotel. ⁓ It would have to be an absolute and utter emergency for me to have to use the restaurant bathroom. And at that point, I might not have time to watch the advertisements.

Neil (1:00:23)
Yeah. Well, I I mean, I think that's for everybody. don't think everybody

just chooses to use the restaurant bathroom. Like, nobody just was like, ⁓

Nick (1:00:33)
people are way more relaxed with it than I would ever be.

Neil (1:00:36)
I don't know about

that. I'm more on your side of these kind of things, but what do you do?

Nick (1:00:42)
there's, there's

people that are just like, gotta go. I'm going, no, I'll, I'll leave the restaurant. Like I'll just, all right. I'm not hungry. I'm out.

Neil (1:00:49)
We do,

I will say we do have one friend that is not afraid to use the... I can name one of our friends, but I'm not going to name names. ⁓ That can definitely use the restaurant bathroom.

Nick (1:00:54)
Like, let's just say me, Like, I do not play-

No, we don't need to do that. But

Yeah,

yeah, I do not go on the road. I strictly strictly play home games. That's it. All home games. And then, like I said, if you're on vacation where going home is not the option, the hotel or wherever you're staying is is now your new home. And that's where you take care of your business.

Neil (1:01:09)
Thank

Uh-huh.

But what are your thoughts on what the Chinese are doing here? Is this fair or foul?

Nick (1:01:27)
No,

absolutely not. No, in no world should this be a thing. Like people are paying to eat there. Like if you want to have a public restroom or say that people don't pay to eat there and they want to use it, then maybe make them watch a commercial. But these are paying customers. Like what are we doing? And I bet that the companies don't even get the money. It probably goes to the government. Yeah.

Neil (1:01:52)
They gotta pay the tariffs, Nick. They gotta pay the tariffs.

Nick (1:01:54)
This is not the show for all that, I guarantee you. We don't need to go into all that. But no, no, it sounds awful. And like, I just can't imagine a world where it's an emergency and they're like, yeah, but first you gotta watch the buffalo wild wings buffalo. Just be so happy that he's eating wings for 30 seconds.

Neil (1:02:05)
I would just play the 7th sense.

I think I would just pay the 7 cents and skip the ads.

Nick (1:02:20)
I mean, but does that for one sheet?

Neil (1:02:23)
We gotta find out.

Nick (1:02:24)
I mean, to

be honest, like if it's emergency, I'm plopping down two bucks and I'm like, just give me what I need.

Neil (1:02:27)
I mean, obviously,

if they're not just giving you unlimited toilet paper for seven cents, it's gotta be for one sheet. So you gotta either make the most of that sheet or you're watching another ad or paying another seven cents.

Nick (1:02:32)
No.

Yeah, I don't know. But if I'm in that situation, I am not in a good mind space to begin with because that is not where I want to be. And then when I see the Buffalo Wild Wings ad come on before I can take care of finish my business, I'm not going to be a happy camp. I just tell you that.

Neil (1:02:58)
Man man.

Nick (1:02:59)
Let's not initiate that in the States, for when the emergencies do happen.

Neil (1:03:05)
Or you could just be like a Nick Evans and just get up a day.

Nick (1:03:09)
Dude, underrated, underrated.

and they're not expensive, like everybody should have a bidet.

I mean, I don't think we need to get into details on it, but everybody should just have a good day.

Neil (1:03:16)
No, we don't need to that.

Nick (1:03:18)
Hey, two days to Halloween. What are the kiddos dressing up as?

Neil (1:03:20)
Yeah.

Got one, ⁓ let's go in as a black cat. And the other one will be the witch. So we have a witch and her black cat. Harper will be the witch.

Nick (1:03:32)
Okay, I was gonna try to guess

who is who, but that game's over. That game's over. Do you remember as a kid, like some Halloween costumes or you're like, that was tight. That was really cool.

Neil (1:03:37)
Sorry. Yeah.

I some good ones. I had some good ones. One of my favorites I dressed up as the yellow peanut M &M. Because I love peanut M &M's and I was like, well, this is funny. So I went as a yellow peanut M &M, painted my face yellow, had the whole costume on, the gloves, the big feet. So yeah, I was peanut M &M. I was a firefighter one year. I dressed up as Chris Redmond, the Louisville quarterback one year. Put a bandage under my chin like he had just gotten drilled on a sack. But that was one of them.

Nick (1:04:01)
You know, this is funny.

Were you always a Halloween

guy? Like, did you look forward to it?

Neil (1:04:20)
Yeah, I mean, are there kids that don't look forward to Halloween?

Nick (1:04:24)
Well, I mean, I'm kind of under impressed by your costumes, the creativity a little bit. Fireman, like.

Neil (1:04:31)
I I was dressed up every year, I'm just kidding.

I was like four when I was a fireman. Like I was four years old. I gotta remember, I'm trying to think what else I was.

Nick (1:04:43)
To me, I look back as a kid and there's absolutely costumes that stand out to me as being the best. I was the Joker as one of my buddies was Batman when Jack Nicholson was Joker. Yeah, I'm old. But I was a really good Joker. Batman's not hard, but I've been Joker twice. But the Heath Ledger Joker was when I was an adult, so that doesn't count.

⁓ I was a mad scientist where I had like crazy hair and cool glasses and like blood all over myself and like a lab coat. That was cool. And then like one of the last ones I was wacko from Animaniacs.

Did you you know anamaniacs so I was like wacko and the hat backwards he was the coolest of the three So I dressed up as wacko for Halloween.

Neil (1:05:25)
Yeah. The blue guys.

I remember

I was a Power Ranger one year. I do remember being a Power Ranger. ⁓ No, a, I mean, she was hot back then, but no. I was the blue one. I was the blue Power Ranger.

Nick (1:05:35)
Which one? pink one? You with the pink one?

I don't know much about Power Rangers. mean, where's six? Yeah. I mean, I remember we're six years apart.

Neil (1:05:49)
Is that pasture time? ⁓ my god.

I think you're older than that.

Nick (1:05:56)
You're 87, right? Yeah, we're six years apart. We're six years apart. Yeah, I was born at like this Christmas Eve of 80, which is basically 81. It still counts, but yeah, six years apart. No, ⁓ I remember seeing it on, but no, was not a Power Rangers. It was after my time.

Neil (1:05:58)
Yeah, seven years. But you're more than 80, no?

Still counts. ⁓ Man, I keep thinking Power Rangers or Pastor Tom is good You missed out. you missed out. Power Rangers were

great.

Nick (1:06:16)
So, favorite candy to get as a kid.

Neil (1:06:18)
I was always more of the fruit kind of candy, like the sour stuff. I used to love Warheads back in the day, but give me the Skittles. I was always a big Skittles kid, love Skittles. But if we're going on the chocolate side of things, 100 Grand was probably my favorite. I love 100 Grand.

Nick (1:06:36)
That's an underrated candy bar. I

wouldn't go top of the order, but it's an underrated candy bar. ⁓ I am more of a fruit candy guy also as well. I don't know what that says for both of us. ⁓ Skittles would be at the top of my list. Starburst, Sour Patch Kids, ⁓ all of those. And then on the chocolate side, Twix, man.

Neil (1:06:52)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Sour Patch Kids for sure.

Twigs. Very good quality cane.

Nick (1:07:05)
the caramel and the cookie crunch.

Neil (1:07:07)
Yeah, grand in Milky Way would be a close second for me. I was a Milky, love Milky.

Nick (1:07:11)
Alright, what are you getting in your trick-or-treat bag that you're like, mom, dad, like you can have this because you're on one.

Neil (1:07:19)
like when somebody dumped this in or put this in your candy bucket and you saw it as you were walking away, you just wanted to turn around and just kind of throw it back at them. Anything with coconut, anything. Almond joys. What? No, not a lot, but like it was in there. It was in there. That means those people just hated kids. So almond joys, like that stuff, mounds, get that crap out of here. Coconut, anything coconut.

Nick (1:07:31)
Did you get that a lot? Did you get coconut candy a lot?

Neil (1:07:47)
Like it makes you want to go back and just kind of TP their house.

Nick (1:07:51)
And you probably did. ⁓ The little orange and black candies, whatever, I don't even know what they are. They're just like, get out of here. Like that's just, you're not even trying as a trick or treat house. ⁓ Dots are yeah, dots. I mean, and we both talked about, we love fruit candy, but I mean, dots will just pull your whole tooth out and they don't taste as good as the other fruit candies. ⁓ mean, candy corn,

Neil (1:07:57)
the licorice like the licorice stuff and dots

Dots were always kinda disappointing.

No they don't. That's true.

Nick (1:08:20)
A lot of people are listening to that their favorite Halloween candy. I'll eat candy corn if you've got it with some salted peanuts and some &M's where it's all together, but I'm not just gonna sit there and eat straight candy corn.

Neil (1:08:23)
I do like cane corn.

I will.

One of my favorite Halloween candies, not trick-or-treat candy, the Halloween candies, are those Mellow Cream Pumpkins. Give me the Mellow Cream Pumpkins. I love those. No, they're like the candy corn, like Mellow Cream, like candy corn, the pumpkins. No, no face. They got the little green stem on them. Mellow Cream Pumpkin. Yeah, I'm pumped to the full.

Nick (1:08:42)
What is, is that like a little Debbie? Wait. Oh, I got you. I got you. They got the little face on them. There's no face on them. Okay. I know what you're talking about. They're just big candy corns. Yeah. They're just bigger

candy corns. Yeah, I'm out. I'm out on that. No interest at all.

Neil (1:09:00)
I'll sit there, I'll just eat handfuls of them, I love those things.

Also,

my wife hates that I call them mellow cream pumpkins. They're called candy corn pumpkins. I'm like, no, candy corn is candy corn. Like you can't have candy corn. That's what it's made of. Like that's what a candy corn is made of. It's mellow cream. It's like marshmallow cream. Marshmallow cream, it's mellow cream.

Nick (1:09:08)
What?

So what is Mellow Cream? What does that even mean? Is that the brand?

I have no idea.

For the first time in maybe our friendship, you're educating. You're educating me on some.

Neil (1:09:24)
It says it on the bag. It says it.

She's like, nobody calls it that. I'm like, it's literally what it says on the bag. Mellow cream pumpkins. So next time you're at the Kroger, check out the Halloween candy. It'll be on sale. Get you a bag of the Mellow cream pumpkins.

Nick (1:09:32)
Never heard of it.

I won't because I won't eat them, but I appreciate the information and the education. yeah, we should be addressed up today.

Neil (1:09:43)
Get off of me.

I mean, you already look like you dressed up.

Nick (1:09:54)
Yeah, I did. I saved it. I saved it. I plug in fresh.

Neil (1:09:57)
I'm I'm kidding. You're

already looking scary.

Nick (1:10:02)
Yeah, I don't want to look any scarier.

Neil (1:10:04)
Your face looks better today. I guess I said in the last pod that your face look, what did say? Face look rough.

Nick (1:10:10)
Well, to clarify, we froze in the middle of the show and the final edits, they don't get that part. Like I go in and I clean that up. So it's not saying, Hey, where'd you go? Like we can't hear that, but there are, that does still record. So sometimes I like to throw a little hidden gem there at the end of the, of the episode. And yeah, you said your face looks terrible. So I mean, I can't disagree. So I threw it in there.

Neil (1:10:15)
We differ.

Yeah.

You froze mid-face. It was kind of funny. I appreciate your edits.

Nick (1:10:44)
Yeah, I'll be doing that here tonight, so.

We got a jingle in the works.

We got a jingle in the works. No, we're not going to bust out now. I want to get music to it. But five.

Neil (1:10:50)
You gonna bust it out now or you gonna record it?

Are you just

gonna tell AI the lyrics and just have it come up with it for you?

Nick (1:11:00)
No, actually, I don't know. I've got the lyrics. The lyrics are done. I woke up at 5 a.m. last night and just all of sudden this just comes to my head. I don't know what's wrong with me. And then now I'm up for half an hour because I'm recording it on my phone because I don't want to lose it. But this is just the way my whole life has worked where I just get these jingles in my head and they all live on my phone. It might be something where we start showing some of these jingles.

during episodes and we can rate them on like a scale of one to 10 and kind of show people how big of a lunatic I really am and how my brain works.

Neil (1:11:40)
Some are appropriate, some are inappropriate.

Nick (1:11:43)
We'll probably leave the inappropriate ones alone leave them at home ⁓ Or we'll see we'll see but yes last night at five o'clock I wake up middle night all sudden this I'm that I've been wanting to write a jingle for us to start the show and Yeah, I think we I think we got we got the lyrics now we just need to beat

Which we're getting, we get that, we get that. We're pretty legitimate. We're on episode 16, dude.

Neil (1:12:05)
Can't for that finished product.

How about that? Have we beaten the over under yet? I don't know. Like a number of episodes that people thought we would actually stick through it with.

Nick (1:12:14)
We're sweet six dated. What's the overrunner?

Well, I I told you this off air, the majority of podcasts last three or less episodes.

Neil (1:12:28)
so then yeah.

Nick (1:12:30)
I it's hard to get traction in this business. It's an oversaturated market, there's no doubt about it. ⁓ But I told you give me two years.

Neil (1:12:42)
For two months, three months.

Nick (1:12:43)
We're at two

months. Bye.

Alright, well, I hope you get a lot of Mellow Cream Pumpkins on Friday. ⁓ I will be with my nieces and nephews, so unfortunately I won't be ⁓ seeing your kiddos dressed up.

Neil (1:12:51)
I'll take it.

Yeah.

I mean, the kids, got to pay the candy tax. Like that's number one. They got to learn about the candy tax. And as a parent, it's your responsibility to taste the candy to make sure that it's safe. So they got to understand that.

Nick (1:13:08)
1000 % and also if you're not trick-or-treating

with the pillowcase, then you don't know what you're doing

Neil (1:13:13)
Alright, we're not going that far. Our kids have bags with their names on it and stuff. they're set.

Nick (1:13:18)
You can't

get as much candy unless you have a pillowcase.

Neil (1:13:21)
That is true, we do have to come back to the house and dump it out. Yeah.

Nick (1:13:24)
Yes, you trick

or treat with a pillowcase.

Neil (1:13:26)
It's like old days. great weekend of sports, NFL, horse racing, college football, and the first, what we hope is the annual Rowdy Cup at the Lake House. Gotta talk about it real quick, just real quick.

Nick (1:13:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, we almost didn't talk about this.

Yeah, so

first ever Rowdy Cup, Ryder Cup, however you want to call it. Rowdy Cup works really good actually. ⁓ So two teams of four. We're playing Park Mammoth on Saturday morning and then Barron River Lake on Sunday. Playing 18 both days and then we'll have four nine-hole sessions. So the first nine-hole session on

Neil (1:13:52)
That's what we're calling it. It's the routing.

Yes.

Nick (1:14:14)
Saturday will be scramble and then we'll play alternate shot. And then we're gonna play four men or four ball, whatever it's called, four ball and then we're gonna close with singles. Me and you are on the same team, we're on the bad guys. We're playing the good guys.

Neil (1:14:21)
Foreball. Foreball.

bad guys, me, me, you,

Michael Vanover, Matt Thomas, playing the good guys, Joe Ziegler, Andrew Miller, Andrew Storm, and Garrett Moore.

Nick (1:14:38)
Well, the good

news is that it's net, so it's based off handicap because if it was straight up, we would be toast.

Neil (1:14:43)
Yeah.

And we talked

about this back during the actual Ryder Cup when you had all the thoughts and opinions on how to set up the matches and all that. You are a rowdy cup captain, so you got some decisions to make.

Nick (1:14:58)
I'm hoping maybe we can venture to hoop, venture to hoop tomorrow, make some decisions.

Neil (1:15:01)
Your pairings are due tomorrow night.

I mean, I hope that you wake up at five o'clock in the morning with your brain going smoking like it was last night and all these ideas are coming to your head, but I need you to focus that instead of jingles. I need you to put that in on the rowdy cup. Get us in position to win. So do I.

Nick (1:15:17)
I wanna win this thing. I wanna win this thing.

And I like being, I like the fact that I think we're We're dogs in this thing, there's no doubt. Our backs are against the wall. Everybody thinks the good guys are gonna win.

Neil (1:15:32)
Cause Andrew Miller threw the whole thing off cause he's so freaking good.

Nick (1:15:35)
Yeah, that's

one thing. If you've got seven double-digit handicaps and then you throw in a plus one, it does kind of screw everything up.

Neil (1:15:42)
I I like the way he constructed the team. We have a good, strong camaraderie, good, like, you know, like we all get along, we mesh well together. The other team, I feel like there could be some issues on the other team. So, very smart.

Nick (1:15:48)
Yeah.

I do too, I do too. And I had that

was in my thought process. And also like, I mean, if you've got a high handicap and you play better, you know it's gonna be advantage if you're a 10. I mean, you gotta play better than a guy who's a 17 or an 18. So it'll be fine, I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather's a little better than it was on Monday when it was cold and rainy the whole day. just you hit the ball pretty good on Monday.

Neil (1:16:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (1:16:24)
Just drive the ball well. Just drive the ball well. But we both need to get into the lab when it comes to putting.

Neil (1:16:25)
That's the goal.

Guys, yeah, Monday was not a... A team effort of putting on Monday was awful.

Nick (1:16:39)
I would say piss poor.

think there were some, like it was, that was pretty wide open. So we had chances to make putts and there was one time where all four of us, think we putted it at least six or seven times and still never made it. So got to get better on the putt stroke. But, and we're hoping to maybe do the pod live from Barrier River Lake on Sunday night.

Neil (1:16:51)
20 times. Yeah, it's bad.

Yeah, we'll get it. We'll get it together.

That would be an experience.

Nick (1:17:06)
Chances of that one happening.

Neil (1:17:08)
10%.

Nick (1:17:10)
10. Okay.

Neil (1:17:11)
We'll see. If

not, we'll be back early next week.

Nick (1:17:15)
Yeah, if we're not here on Sunday, we'll be back on Wednesday. subscribe on all of your podcast platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, so you know when a new podcast is released. we'll have, whether it's Wednesday or Sunday, we'll have plenty to talk about. And maybe we'll have a new jingle to open the show. But for now, I'm Nick. You've been listening to The Height Differential. We'll see you sometime next week.