The Show Episode 560

UFC 329, World Cup, Zack Wheeler, NFC North Packers, Lions

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:45

This is episode five hundred and sixty. And here we are again back for another exciting episode. Well, maybe not exciting to some people as they listen to this, but sure it's exciting to me every time I get behind this uh microphone here and uh you know talk to you guys. I can't remember a summer where there's just so much stuff going on. Uh just so much to talk about. I I wish I could get on here more than once or twice a week to talk about things going on. Uh again, I got so much stuff here. I got I got a page, I got a page, I got pages from other shows, I got more division breakdowns that we're doing, uh predictions of over and under wins for teams. Uh we're gonna keep that going as usual on this show. But man, you know, World Cup, uh the UFC last night, uh baseball coming near the end of its uh first half uh this week with the uh all-star break. Uh, you know, I got a little something about that. And uh, you know, here we go. As usual, as the sports world turns. Well, UFC 329 was last night here in our very own city of Las Vegas. There was a packed crowd with the anticipation of the return five-year absence of Connor McGregor. Now, not only did they have Connor McGregor on the card uh fighting uh Max Holloway, they had this other guy on there, this patty pimble guy. You know, he he comes out with his hands and he does this hands thing and he gets the crowd going, and it's supposed to be one of the most electrifying entrances in all of sports. Okay. I mean, I guess so. I I don't know. I'm just not a I'm just not a UFC person to uh understand and and get it. Uh what is so great about it. But I I get it, you know, he gets the people pumped up. Uh a lot of people go see him, sold out, of course, down there at the T-Mobile on the strip. So, but allegedly, like I said, two big matches last night. Well, Connor McGregor. He's fighting Max Holloway, hasn't fought Max Holloway in 13 years. So this is McGregor Holloway 2. This is like an old bad horror sequel that uh was filmed in the in the 80s, and somebody said, Well, how about we do a sequel to that? You think we could come up with something better? And years later, uh, they come up with a sequel to like a very bad horror movie. Well, you talk about a sequel to a bad horror movie. This was it last night. One minute and nine seconds into the match, the match was over. Connor McGregor hurt his leg, his knee, ankle, whatever you want to call it, and could not continue. Therefore, Max Holloway won by TKO. Now he didn't really knock him out, and the ref didn't really stop the fight because he was because Connor McGregor was getting beat up really bad. No, he had to stop the fight because Connor McGregor hurt his leg. And he hurt it on the first move he did in the match. He went with this crazy jump kick kind of move, and he kind of landed awkwardly on the uh canvas of the UFC octagon, and that was it. He couldn't put any weight on it. Uh, he immediately fell down, went into like this uh position of like kicking his feet, holding his legs up, as uh Hallaway got a few throws in on him. He got back up, immediately went back down, and uh he just couldn't do it, and he stood up for the third time, and that's where the referee stepped in and called the fight. Five years we waited for that. Five years of you know, the return of Conor McGregor, and it was a big nothing to see. Just imagine all the people that were down there that paid who knows what to go to see this UFC flight. I I gotta be in the hundreds. And you get that performance, you get sold on Conor McGregor is coming back, and that's the performance you get. Now, this isn't this isn't unusual for the UFC. They've had lots of duds like this in the past. This this goes on top of the many disappointments and fights uh that has occurred uh, you know, under the UFC brand. I mean, this isn't just the first time this has happened. This happens quite frequently, where there's uh a lot of anticipation for a fight, uh, two guys go at it, and the results, it's it's over in a minute. It's over in the first round. And you have people, fans leaving unsatisfied, unhappy, maybe a little fighting themselves amongst them and angry, but I'm sure at UFC 30, wherever it may be, stadium's gonna be packed, arena will be packed, sold out, and everybody will be watching on Paramount Plus. Now, the best part about this is the UFC is no longer on pay-per-view. So you don't have to worry about, oh man, whose house am I gonna go over and and mooch off of and watch the big UFC fight? You don't have to worry about that anymore. Because all the UFC fights are on Paramount Plus. If you have Paramount Plus, which is only what? You know, what's the what's another what $7.99 a month with ads if you if you have the uh you know the cheapest program on there? What's another $70.99 a month if you get all the UFC fights? So you can watch every UFC fight for free. So of course the host was gonna turn in. I saw all the hype on ESPN all week. I saw all the hype on the Paramount Plus. If you open Paramount Plus, the big poster comes up right away. Don't miss Saturday, the return of Connor McGregor. You get it all over the Twitter X. Of course you're gonna tune in and watch. And what do you get? A big whopping one minute and nine seconds. Nine seconds. I mean, Connor McGregor's what? 37? I mean, even if he did some really critical damage, and we don't know yet. Taurus ACL, is meniscus, MCL, UCL, whatever it is in his need. I mean, that's gotta this has gotta be it for him. I mean, remember, two years ago he was gonna fight and he hurt his little big toe, but he couldn't fight.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

He was his big toe.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Tough guy Connor McGregor hurt his toe and couldn't fight. We had to wait two years from that. And who knows how much he pocketed off of this UFC fight Saturday night. Oh, it had to be a couple million, right? You know, Dana White in the UFC was gonna was gonna you know pony up and pay him. Oh, we gotta pay Connor McGregor, oh, ticket sales, oh uh downloads, uh, you know, streaming viewers. We we we could pay him this much. Dana White, after the fight, said he was expecting a one-round war. He didn't know how long Connor McGregor was gonna last due to him not fighting in five years. He didn't know how good his cardio was gonna be. Well, let me tell you, Dana, his cardio was good for one minute and nine seconds. He called Max Holloway in an interview prior to the fight, his boy, his son. You heard Max Holloway's real son and his family yelling, who's your daddy now? after Max Holloway won by TKO. He really didn't do anything, but he still won, still gets credit for the win. But man, what a major disappointment. That is gotta be if you bought into all that hype and you had maybe you had a big party over your house for this. Maybe you invited all kinds of people over to watch it. Maybe you invited people over to don't have Paramount Plus. You invite all these people over, and that's the result that happens. A one-minute, nine-second fight? Somebody probably threw some popcorn across some people's living rooms Saturday night. There had to be some chips and salsa flying. Man. And then how about the match prior to that? I mentioned the Patty, uh, the Patty Pimblet guy. I had I, you know, in the beginning I started talking this. He took care of his opponent with a submission in less than a minute. He submitted his opponent in less than one minute. So the two biggest UFC matches on the card that everyone was all excited about, both matches combined, lasted under two minutes. Two minutes! You're lucky, UFC and Dana White. You're lucky that UFC's on Paramount Plus now. Because just imagine if this was on regular pay-per-view and people paid what? Well, what was the UFC prices on pay-per-view? $59.99, $69.99, $79.99? I don't know what they were. You imagine if you got a bunch of households and people were paying $60, $70, $80 a home, and that's their two biggest fights, and that's a result you had. Look, I get it. I get it. Now I'm not a big UFC guy. I mentioned that at the beginning of this. But I I it it could it be entertaining if the fight was entertaining? Sure! Of course. You know, nothing better than a uh, you know, WWE guy getting a thrown through the announcers table every week. I mean I can see why people like it. I can see. I just don't know if I would I I've never bought a pay-per-view UFC fight ever. I just don't see the attraction of buying one of those, knowing that the those this could happen with the results. Now, again, paying the $79.90, or I'm sorry, paying the $7.99 a month to watch Paramount Plus with all the shows they include, plus this, hey, that's a bargain. That's a steal. Great. No problem. No problem tuning in to watch it when I got it on there. But if I was paying something separate to watch this, Dana Light be getting a wet letter from the host, from the show, from the listeners, boycotting UFC. But man, your two biggest matches that you hyped up. You hyped up UFC. You hyped up Paramount. Both lasted under two minutes. And other excitement out there going on. The World Cup! Yes! The World Cup is still going on, folks. And oh boy, we haven't been on since we talked about Team USA, since the host went off about uh the uh Bulgan guy uh getting Bulgon, Bolgin, whatever his name is, getting able to play in that game against Belgium last Monday, uh getting the red card rescinded. But we're down to the Final Four. France versus Spain, Argentina versus England. Oh, look it! It's the four best ranked teams anyway. All chalk in the World Cup. And nobody's mad about it. Nobody's hurt, everybody's excited for it. It's the four teams everyone wanted to see in the semifinals. Four teams everyone wants to see. Maybe not the two matchups everyone wanted to see in the semis, but it is the four teams everyone wanted to see. Now, I don't I don't know, and I'm not saying FIFA FIFA is pulling for a certain matchup, but something tells me they want France and Argentina in that final next Sunday. They want France and Argentina in that in that final next Sunday because they want to hype up the Mwapi guy for France, the big goal scorer on their team, and they want to hype up Messi, of course, which everyone else, even the host knows Messi before World Cup. And you know that's what the World Cup and FIFA FIFA wants to promote for three or four days prior to that match on Sunday. They want to promote that like this is uh, you know, Brady versus Mahomes, or uh Payne Manning, I'll even say it. Payne Manning versus Brady, or Josh Allen versus Mahomes, or Matthew Stafford versus Lamar Jackson. They want to hype this up to be a big, big match, and I think that's what they want. Now, I'm not necessarily those two teams are gonna win. Argentina's skated by really closely the last two matches. They're even they're so lucky to be in the semifinal match. In the quarterfinal match, or in the uh match to get to the quarterfinals, Argentina was down 2-0 with 12 minutes left, and Subhouse scored three goals in regular time and won 3-2. I don't know how they did it, but they did. But man, you want to talk about four powerhouse soccer countries? Well, you got them in the semifinals in the World Cup. And I'm sure soccer enthusiasts, soccer hooligans are all excited about it. Now, let's get to something that the host talked about right here on this very show. Did I not, did the host not bring up on this very show about the people, the players in these matches, the way they flop, the way they get hit and go down, the way they grab their leg or their ankle, their knee, or and they act like, oh my god, my life is over. I'm never gonna be able to walk again. Didn't I not just describe all that a few shows ago, or maybe I was on the last show? Didn't I not just go through all this? And what happens in the Argentina Switzerland game? We got an Argentina player going after the ball against a Swiss player. Swiss player acts like he gets hit by the Argentina player, falls down, grabs his leg, dying, rolling around. Oh my gosh, he may never ever play soccer again. Referee comes over, throws out a yellow card to the Argentinian player. Argentina player says, I didn't touch him! I didn't touch him, gets in a heated argument with the referee. Probably more than he probably should have. He probably should have got thrown out of the game by the way he reacted to it. Because he really was in the referee's face, and the ref, hats off to him, got right back in his face. But the ref listened to him and went back and reviewed the play under their VAR system as I do air quotes, which you can't see because no video. And what do the hosts tell you about these guys? Do these guys not know once again? Do these guys not know that it's 2026? We have HD television, 1080p. We have cameras that are so clear, can video multiple frames per second. We have so many angles, and we're gonna see the replay of what happened. Sure enough, we go to the replay, the Swiss player tripped himself. He tripped him, his own self, and acted like the Argentina player did it. The guy reacted so bad when he fell down that one of the other Swiss players went after the Argentinian player for doing it. He wanted to fight him because he thought he'd hurt him that bad. You watch the replay, Argentina player didn't even touch him. So what was the call gonna be? Referee comes back on, points at the Swiss player, gives him the red card for faking an injury and flopping in the game. In a match to get to the semifinals in the World Cup. You got a player doing that, and rightfully so, he deserved a red card, and he got thrown out of the game, and Swiss had to play the rest of the game with 10 players. That's exactly what I was talking about on the show here. And what happens? It happens in one of the biggest games in one of the stages of the World Cup in the knockout round. I told you this has happened, and this is good for the sport. This is what you people want to see. Now, it's good for the sport that it went under review with the VAR and they were able to determine that this guy was faking it. Now that's great for the sport. Hopefully, hopefully, this continues in soccer, and the the amount of flopping and the amount of these guys getting injured and acting like they're dead on the soccer field, hopefully that deters it, and we see less and less of that. Now, I don't know. I'd have to ask my soccer hooligan friends out there. Does this happen in the Champions League? Does this happen in the Premier League? Is it an MLS? I don't even know. I'm asking the question out there to my soccer hooligan friends out there. But I'm finally glad that this was finally out there and shown to the the viewers what is actually going on on the soccer field. Now, if only the NBA could implement this system. If only we could catch LeBron James faking, uh getting flopped and getting hit on the on the court. Or, you know, Jalen Bronson, you know, again, NVP was awesome in the NBA Finals, was awesome all NBA playoffs. He does that little move where he kind of fakes getting hit. You know? Maybe maybe the NBA should go to uh adopt this rule. Maybe it could fix a lot of issues in the NBA doing that. Now back to uh team USA. I had it here for a week. Leading up to the world, during the world. USA soccer is back. Look out! This is the team. But they're not ranked, they're they're only ranked what 17, 18? They're not in the top ten. They're not ranked in the top ten. Did you notice all the teams that are in the quarterfinals were in the top 10? USA wasn't. Belgium's ranked number. 10. They beat Team USA. Now, of course, you know, we had to have the great president get involved in letting uh you know one of USA's top players back into the game. To me, I think that hurt him. Because they were already practicing. They were already expecting to play the match without him. And then, whoa, 180, he's playing again. Now I think that threw their whole preparation and their home game plan off, where they were practic already practicing, already knowing what to do without him, and then they had to go back and switch it all knowing that this guy was gonna play. So I think that was a problem. Two, the match was bigger than that. They weren't ready for it. Team USA was not ready for the big time. And Belgium was. Team USA had deer and deer and headlights. Belgium did not. They knew what to do. They came out firing. They came out fired up. They came ready to play. Team USA didn't. Now I don't know if that truly falls all under the manager, uh, the uh Pucciano guy, whatever his name is. I don't know if that all falls under him. Getting those guys ready to play. But Team USA bought into their own hype. They bought into the they were listening to the outside noise. They thought they were a great team. Team USA has no problem beating teams ranked 20th and lower. They got no problem beating those teams. They easily can beat those teams. They play anybody that's equal or higher ranked to them. They don't have a chance. They don't have the skill, they don't have the players that can do it. And we had to hear all through the World Cup. Oh, Christian Pusla. He's the man. Look out for this guy. This guy's gonna lead Team USA to the next level. Well, he didn't show up for the game at all. The bigger the game got, the bigger, the more farther they went in the rounds, the less of a factor was this guy. And who does that remind you of? Right? For giving you guys an example of the performance Christian Puslack had, he didn't play in the Gold Cup because he wanted to rest for Team USA for the World Cup. He wanted to be fully ready, 100%. The first game he gets injured, he misses half the game. The second game he sits out. The third game he subs in, restricted to the number of minutes. The fourth game he he plays but doesn't do anything. And then the fifth game, he didn't do anything, and then gets hurt and gets taken out of the game. That's USA's big star. He couldn't live up to the moment. And who does that remind you of? Oh, I got some names written down. Guys who can't perform in big games either. Justin Rose. Crumbles under pressure when he's leading at the end of tournaments. Aaron Judge. No show in the playoffs all the time. Nothing. Does nothing. Didn't show up in the World Series. Didn't show up in last year's playoffs. Oh yeah. Josh Allen crumbles in the big games for the Bills. Costly turnovers when a team doesn't need them. Can't get his team to the next game. Oh yeah. Lamar Jackson. Another one. Crumbles under the pressure. Can't get his team to the next level. Crumbles in big games. Well, that's the same performance as Christian Poosla. Couldn't get it done. Couldn't lead Team USA to the next level. Here's this guy who makes millions of dollars playing overseas. But when it was time to put up and shut all the everybody, all the noise around him, he couldn't do nothing. A frail child out there on the soccer field. Just disgusting. A disgusting performance by your big time star. This is the United States. You boo for performances like that. You would boo that guy. If that match was in New York City, that crowd would have been booing him. If this was that match was up in New England, up there in Foxboro, this crowd would have been booing him. He rightfully so should be booed. And then after USA got killed by Belgium in the game, four to one, the balls on the announcer after the game. The balls on this guy to say, well, USA's USA men's national soccer team, they're heading in the right direction. Are they? They just got blown out four to one. They didn't show up in the biggest game of the tournament. They're heading in the right direction. What kind of a statement is that? Every time I see, every time I tune in to see US men's soccer, and every time I watch this team play, and then they lose, I hear the same statement. USA is heading in the right direction. What? What direction is that? Down. There's no going up. There's no going forward. Just, I don't get it. You know, the United States is not a soccer country. Do lots of kids play it? Absolutely. Do lots of little kids go out there and play? Do kids get be able to play and make club teams and make travel teams and make high school teams and kids get scholarships and go off to college playing soccer? Absolutely they do. Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's great that kids are able in the United States to take that skill that they learn and be able to do accomplishment and get some kind of scholarship or something out of it to go to college and get a degree so they can have a better life. There's nothing wrong with that. But don't tell me USA is great at soccer, because we're not. We're not. We have this is the United States. We have at our disposal the best athletes available to us in the world. And we can't put 11 guys on a soccer field. We got a 37-year-old guy playing in the backfield on our soccer team. 37. You could have put Connor McGregor out there. He probably would have did better on one bad leg. But we got a USA team in a quarter final trying to get to a quarterfinal match. Playing in one of the best soccer countries, Belgium, ranked number 10. You got your 11 best guys, and one of them's a 37-year-old backfield player. And I'm not going to talk about the goalie's performance. Again, a goalie's useless. In soccer, a goalie's useless. Goalie doesn't do anything but stand there. He wears these stupid ass big gloves like he's cooking marshmallows out on a campfire, and he acts like the ball's coming at him, you know, 10,000 miles per hour, and he acts like it's a fireball, like when they try to catch him. Stop. The goalie's useless. Goalie doesn't do anything. There's some stupid rules. He's not allowed to touch it. He kicks it. He can all of a sudden he can touch it. He rolls it. He throws it. I don't know what the rules are for the dumb goalie. But the goalie's useless in soccer. And you can see how useless our goalie is. What's a good goalie in soccer? The one that can flop backwards the best when the ball's already passed them in the net? And they act surprised that they couldn't stop it? Stop telling me U.S. soccer is heading in the right direction. It's 2026. We are the United States of America. As I said, we have the best athletes at our disposal. And you can't find 11 of them. You can't find 11 athletes. There's 32 football teams with 22 athletes, 11 on each side of the football. Think about that. 32 NFL teams with 11 guys on each side of the football. Okay? And you're telling me the US men's national soccer team can't find 11 great athletes, players that can go out and go after these other countries and kick some butt. Just gonna leave it at that. I'm not gonna say anything else. It's over for Team USA. And the next time we probably do a show, we'll have a World Cup champion. Just a little uh baseball news before we uh head into the all-star break. Uh the baseball is moving into their all-star break. This could be, by the way, if you're a big baseball fan and haven't been paying attention, this could be the last all-star game for a while. Uh, because you know, of the pending labor strike and the lockout with the owners, we might have an all-star game next year. And, you know, the all-star game, I'm not gonna go into this rant on this show. Maybe I'll do another show. It used to mean a lot more than it does now. And um, you know, back when I was a kid, a lot of players that got chosen played in the all-star game and they they loved it. They always felt that they needed to be there, and they respected the game. Well, this year, Zach Wheeler, starter for the Philadelphia Phillies, highest paid pitcher in Major League Baseball, by the way, at $42 million a year. By the way, Philadelphia, yeah, they're the home team for the All-Star Game. The All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Zach Wheeler plays for the Phillies. Well, he was not asked to be on the All-Star game, an all-star team at first. They had other players selected ahead of them. Notables, uh Shohan Otani and Jacob Mizarowski. Both are not gonna play due to injury. Uh Otani's not gonna pitch due to injury, his knees bothered. Zach Wheeler is 9-1 this season in his last 14 starts with a 2.28 ERA and was not originally selected to be on the team. Well, with guys dropping out and guys needed to replace uh Major League Baseball, the National League asked Zach Wheeler to be on the team. You know what he said? No, thank you. I've been disrespected. And what he means by that, he's disrespected because he wasn't selected the original first time to be on the team. So he doesn't want to participate in the All-Star game. And it's in Philadelphia, his whole team. And Zach Wheeler says, nope, I'm out. Disrespected. That's what he felt like. You know what? I don't blame him. If you're not originally picked to be one of the players in the All-Star game, then don't go. I'm with Zach Wheeler on this. If the host was going to be selected for the All-Star team after three or four, five, six guys bought out and they said, Hey, host, you want to come play that? No. I didn't make the team. I wasn't good enough to make the team on the first goal around, then I'm not good enough to be an all-star when asked five or six players later. That's how I would feel. If I'm Zach Wheeler, that's how that's how I does feel. But he says he's disrespected. I don't know if I'd call it disrespect. I wouldn't go that far. If somebody asked a host to be on the all-star team when five or six guys ahead of them dropped out, I wouldn't go as far as being disrespected. I just wouldn't do it because I would want to be selected, you know, be one of the guys truly selected to be on the all-star team. Now, if I wasn't one of the original guys, and they're right, I don't want to be on the team either. But I wouldn't go out and say, disrespected. Zach Wheeler. Now, speaking of being disrespected, now I gave you Zach Wheeler's stats, right? He's 9-1. His last 14 starts, point 2.280RA. Now, you know some of these guys, these pitchers these days, they can they can only pitch five, six innings. They can only throw a hundred pitches. They can't even, they can't even, you know, some of these guys can't even throw 80 pitches before they get taken out of the game. Oh, my arm, I don't want to overuse it. The Jacob Mizarowski guy on Milwaukee, he this guy's throws like over 100 miles per hour, right? He said he's got a dead arm he can't participate. He didn't pitch today in the regular in the uh uh first half season final against Pittsburgh. He would have gone up against Paul Skeens in a matchup. He didn't want to pitch today, so Milwaukee had to go with someone else because his arm is fatigued. His arm is tired. That's a lot of these pitchers today. But these pitchers are the biggest babies. Oh my god, you want me to go, you want me to throw more than 80 pitches? Oh, oh, oh, stop the presses. Well, that leads me to this. Did you know in the 1879 baseball season? Will White of the Cincinnati Reds? He was 24 years old. Will White, a pitcher, he's a pitcher for Cincinnati Reds in 1879. He started 75 games that season. 75 games Will White started. You know how many complete games Will White had in 1879? He started 75. You know how many complete games he had? 75. His record was 43 and 31. He pitched 680 innings. He gave up 700, I'm sorry, he gave up 676 hits, 150 earned runs. He only gave up 10 home runs all season. He struck out 232 guys. He walked 68. He only gave up 10 home runs at 75 starts. Do you know how many home runs a guy would give up at 75 starts today? His record alone for the 1879 season was 43 and 31. There's pitchers in baseball today that have a 43 and 31 record after eight or nine seasons that want $30 million a year. If a guy went 43-31 in Major League Baseball today, he would want $100 million a year. Will White is gonna be rolling in his grave knowing that if he's looking down from the baseball heavens and looking down on baseball field today, watching these guys pitch, and a guy goes five innings and throws 80 pitches and signals to the manager that he's gonna come out. Meanwhile, Will White, his arm is is probably like a Gumby arm. 75 games start, 75 complete games. And today's pitchers. Oh my god. Unbelievable. Unbelievable about Will White. Crazy stats there, right? Isn't that unbelievable? And today's pitchers, they can't, they can't even you ask them to throw 80 pitches. It's like the world's coming to the end. They might as well just go on the soccer field. Get flopping around on there after that. Now, as we head and of course switch directions and we go into our NFL segment here of this very show, we are, of course, finishing up our two NFC North teams. On the last show, we did the Bears and the Vikings. On this show, of course, we're gonna do Green Bay and the Detroit Lions. We're gonna give our two predictions for those teams. And that will complete our NFC North, and we will have 16 teams completed. We'll be halfway through the over and unders, and we will have 16 more teams to do until the start of the 2026 season. But before we get into that Green Bay and uh Detroit predictions, most sacks in the NFL since 2023. Miles Garrett is, of course, number one in most sacks in the FL since 2023. This would be, of course, the 2023 season, the 24 season, and the 25 season. So this is three seasons worth of sacks. Miles Garrett has 51. Danielle Hunter, 43.5. Trey Hendrickson, who hardly played last season. He's at third with 39. Micah Parsons, who missed a quarter of the season last season after tearing his ACL. He's fourth at 38.5. TJ Watt is fifth at 37.5. Nick Bonito, 35.5. Josh Allen, 33.5. Aiden Hutchinson, 33.5. Brian Burns at 33. And coming in at number 10 of the most sacks since 2023 is Max Crosby with 32. Now, I'll be reading off those sacks, guys, because that leads into this team, the Green Bay Packers, because they're going to be counting on Micah Parsons to be coming back this season after tearing that ACL. Now, the rumor has it that Micah Parsons does not want to play until a full year of recovery on that ACL. So that puts him in the time frame at the end of October, early November, before we see Micah Parsons on the football field. And that's when probably Green Bay is going to need him the most. Now, the thing is, is Green Bay's season going to be already over by the time we get to that? Or are they going to need Micah Parsons down the stretch to get into the playoffs? While the 2025 Green Bay Packers were 9, 7, and 1. Their head coach is Matt LaFeur. Their leading QB was Jordan Love with 3,081 passing yards, 23 touchdowns, six interceptions. Their leading receiver was Romeo Dobbs, 724 receiving yards, six touchdowns. Their leading running back, Josh Jacobs, 929 rushing yards with 13 touchdowns. As I just talked about, Micah Parsons, he was their leading sacker with 12.5 sacks. Quay Walker, their leading tackler with 128. Their offensive rank was 15. Their defensive rank was 12. Now remember, their defensive coordinator left. He did a very good job there the last two seasons. He left to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, and he took backup Malik Willis with him. So there's that's a key thing there. Okay, key thing to remember with Green Bay, they had a really good backup when Jordan Love got hurt. Now they got Tyrod Taylor. Journeyman Tyrod Taylor. The odds to win the division plus 230. Odds to win the conference plus 1100. Odds to win the Super Bowl plus 2,000. Their 2026 over and under is 10.5. Plus 140 to the over. Minus 170 to the under. A big favorite to go under 10.5. Last year, over and under 2025 for the Green Bay Packers was 9.5. The host had 9 8. Green Bay finished 9 7 1. The host is a winner. For the host on that one. That proves our record to eight, six, and one snuck under the nine and a half. With that right there, folks. I predicted nine and a half. They finished nine and a half because of that tie with Dallas. So the hosts luck it out that that game uh didn't end up uh, you know, a win for Green Bay, that propelled the host to a victory there. Now, go back to what I was saying about Green Bay. Okay, think about this. Their over and under last year was nine and a half. They're over and under this year, with the loss of their defensive coordinator, with Micah Parsons not there for half the season, they lost Romeo Dobbs, they lost Rashawn Gary, they lost the Travian Wilkes, they lost Quay Walker, their leading tackler, they lost all this. Yet, the William Hill in Las Vegas has Green Bay Packers one game better than the year before. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Now they signed Javon Hargrave to a two-year $23 million deal. They uh signed Benjamin St. Justice two years 9.8. They got Tyrod Taylor. They re-signed Christian Watson to a big deal. Christian Watson! Now, they lost uh Romeo Dobbs to uh New England, signed as a free agent. They've re-signed Christian Watson. This guy's always hurt. So I don't know how that's gonna play out. They drafted Brandon Sees, Chris McClone, and Diony Dennis Sutton, Edge, uh quarterback, defensive tackle, and edge. Three defensive players as their top draft picks this year. Now let's look at the schedule. Now, compared to the other NFC North teams, where I mentioned that the Bears finish the season with three straight NFC North teams. The Vikings only have one NFC North team in their last three games. Green Bay has two NFC North teams in their last three games. So they open up at Minnesota. I got a loss. At the Jets, win. At home on Thursday night football, their home opener. Win. At Tampa Bay, lost. Chicago at home, win. At I'm sorry, home against Dallas on Sunday night football, lost. At Detroit, lost. Carolina at home, win. At New England, lost. Minnesota at home, win. They have a bye. At the Rams, Thanksgiving Eve, lost. At New Orleans, win. Buffalo at home, Sunday night football, win. Miami at home, win. At Chicago, Christmas Day, lost. Houston at home, Monday night football, lost. They wrap up the season at home against Detroit. I'm gonna give them a win. I got them at 9-8. I'm under 10.5. I'm gonna grisk the money at minus 170 that the Green Bay Packers are under 10.5. I keep here's my here's my thing with Green Bay. Keep getting told and told and told again. Jordan Love, Jordan Love, Jordan Love. Yes, there's games there where Jordan Love looks great. And then there's games where Jordan Love woo disappears. Now keep in mind, also their running back, Josh Jacobs, he's in a little trouble with the uh with the uh little law enforcement trouble. Now we don't know how that's gonna play out either. You know, 929 yards, 13 touchdowns last year. So we don't know how that's gonna play. Now they are getting their big tight end back, Taylor Kraft. Remember, he did hurt his ACL at the end of last year or at the middle of last year, didn't play, wasn't there for those games against the Bears. Remember, they're gonna get him back. Had that big game against Pittsburgh on Sunday night football. They're getting him back. To go along with Christian Watson if he can stay on the field. So there's gonna be there's gonna be some offense there. 15th last year, right? Almost in the middle of the pack. I don't think the defense will be as good. You know, they lost Rashawn Gary, lost Quay Walker. We don't know when Micah Parsons is officially come back, and when he comes back, is he gonna be 100%? So a lot of questions out there for Green Bay. I'm gonna say this is a down year for the Packers. I'm gonna go 9-8. I'm gonna take the under with that. Now, our last NFC North team. Of course, a lot of people will be wondering what the host is gonna say about this team. Oh, ah, oh me, tough team. That's right. The 2026 Detroit Lions. Their 2025 record was 9-8. Their head coach, we all know. Let's cross that off. Their head cheerleader is Dan Campbell. Their leading QB is Jared Goff, 4,564 yards, 34 touchdowns, eight interceptions. Amon St. Brown, their leading receiver, 1,401 receiving yards, 11 touchdowns. Jameer Gibbs, 1,223 rushing yards, 13 touchdowns, 616 receiving yards, five touchdowns. Aiden Hutchinson, 14.5 stacks. Jack Campbell, 176 tackles. Their offensive rank was fifth, was fifth. Defensive rank is 18. Odds to win the division plus 160. Odds to win their conference plus 860. Odds to win the Super Bowl plus 1600. Their 2026 over and under was 10.5. Minus 140 to the over, plus 120 to the under. So William Hill likes the Lions to go over the 10.5. Well, we're gonna find out what the host predicts in a minute here. Their 2025 over and under was 10.5. They finished 9-8. Host had a nine. So the host on a comeback after a rough start of one and five, the host on a comeback. 9-6-1 at the halfway point was over and unders in 2025. Now, they brought in uh Kate Mays at a three-year $25 million deal. They brought in Isaiah Pachenko from the Chiefs at a one-year deal. David Montgomery, gone to Houston. Taylor Decker, gone. Alex Avalone, gone. Amik Robertson, gone. DJ Reeder, gone. They're a big cornerback who was just in the news for uh, you know, going after some weapons. You know, we talked about Tallion Arnold, gone. So a lot of missing pieces here with this Detroit Lions team. They drafted Blake Miller, an offensive tackle. They drafted Derek Moore, Edge. They drafted Jimmy Roller, a linebacker. So three, I'm sorry, two defensive players and one. Blake Mills offensive tackle. Sorry about that. Offensive tackle, Blake Miller. So the other three big draft picks, two more defensive guys and a tackle. Now remember, they did lose their center last year. Hopefully, they got that resolved and brought in a better center this year. Before I get over the schedule, big thing here for me. I think letting David Montgomery walk is gonna be a bigger loss than you think. Now, they got Isaiah Pacheco, but he's not David Montgomery. They were able to sub in Montgomery when Jameer Gibbs was taking doing a lot of workload, getting a lot of yards, getting a lot of carries, carrying, catching a lot of balls off backfield. He was relieved from David Montgomery. David Montgomery was a solid, solid guy to come in. He could get the job done just as good as Jameer Gibbs could. He's just a little older, a little more, you know, meat on the bone over the years, but still can make plays, still can score touchdowns, still could get yards. Isaiah Pacheco, this guy's washed up. This guy ain't gonna be coming in for relief. This guy ain't gonna be able to take over. So I don't know what the Lions' plans are, but they better find somebody other than this guy to back up Jameer Gibbs. And again, you know how I feel about these guys when they have a big workload the following year. Sometimes there's a little drop-off. Take a look at Saquon Barkley last year. So let's go look at their schedule. At home, they open up against Saints, win. At Buffalo, Thursday night football, and Buffalo's brand new stadium, loss. Home against the Jets, win. At Carolina, Sunday night football. What a game that's gonna be on Sunday night. Win at Arizona win. By Green Bay at home, win. And Miami win. I got the Lions off to a hot start here. New England in Germany, loss. Tampa Bay at home, loss. Chicago at home on Thanksgiving, win. At Atlanta, loss. Tennessee at home, win. At Minnesota, Sunday night football, loss. At home against the Giants, Monday night football win. At Chicago loss, at Green Bay loss, they finished their last two games against two tough opponents, both on the road. So Detroit, which is an NFC team, they get nine home games. Unfortunately, one of those home games counts as playing New England over in Germany. So they end up with three of the last four games on the road, and those three games at the end of the year that are on the road are against division opponents. So they kind of got a little got screwed there. Kind of a little screw job by the NFL with the schedule there. Three division opponents all on the road at the end of the year. When your team could be worn down, when you could have some key players injured, and it's just not an ideal situation for the Lions. That's why I got them finishing 10-7. I'm going under the 10 and a half. And of course, the main cheerleader.

SPEAKER_00 54:51

How am I gonna do? I'm tough guy. Me, tough coach.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

I'm gonna count on him as losing a couple games just because of his stupidity. So I got them below the Bears, but I got them ahead of the Packers, and I got them ahead of Minnesota. Will 10-7 be good enough in the NFC for Detroit to get in as a wild card? I will just have to wait and find out. But I got them 10-7. I expect them to win a lot of games early because uh, you know, look at the early games they got. Look at Detroit's early games. New Orleans, the Jets, Carolina, Arizona, and Miami. You gotta win every one of those games. Those those five games, you gotta win. If you're gonna make the playoffs, if you're gonna, if you're gonna be in position to do something in the division, you gotta beat those five teams. You gotta beat them. You're better than those five teams. Uh you got a better quarterback, you got better skilled players, you gotta beat those five teams. And if you somehow beat Buffalo, you somehow beat New England in the first half of the season, you beat Tampa Bay, that's this bonus for you. You're just looking at that. But you you can't lose those five five games against those five crappy teams. You just can't. You just can't, not in the NFL, where you know W's mean everything. But that's my wrap-up of my NFC North. Now, as I look ahead here, what what division do I have next? Whoa boy, you just have to wait for the next show to see what division we'll be doing next. But as always, again, I thank all of you for listening. I didn't want to go this long. I went 56 minutes and I left out two stories I had for you. Two stories I had. I left out of this show. Um, but anyway, I just was rambling on too much about that damn soccer at uh UFC. Man, I just keep going on this microphone and I just can't stop. Anyway, you guys deserve an hour anyway, because I wasn't on during the week. Uh, you know, so there you go. You got a whole hour anyway with the host. Thank you as always for downloading the show. Thank you as always for listening. I appreciate everybody who does it, all new listeners all the time. Numbers are slowly going up, and that's why I'd like to see. Thank you, each and one of you. You know what I get the show by now. That's the host at Steel DF on his Twitter, X, Spotify, iHeartReadio, Google Podcasts, PodcastAck, and of course Amazon Music. And as always, nice to be important, but more important to be nice. Now I know this band has got a new album coming out here at the end of July. We've already played a couple new tracks off the off the buttons an older song from Five Figures. This is Las Vegas' own hometown band. This is off your American Capitalist album.