001: NFL 101 - Playoffs, Underrated Sports Movies, and Snoop Dogg’s rap album for kids

Join us for our first episode! You can expect lots of laughs, plus we’ll dive into the basics of the NFL including the leadup to the Super Bowl. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or just need some tidbits for small talk, we’ve got you covered. We’ll also discuss the most underrated sports movies (hello, LOVE & BASKETBALL), and we shine the spotlight on Sarah Thomas, the first woman to officiate a Super Bowl. Tune in for football facts, details about Snoop Dogg’s rap album for kids, and tips to impress your sports-loving friends!

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Chapters

• 00:00 Welcome to Almost Fans
• 02:31 Starting Five: Underrated Sports Movies
• 07:58 NFL Basics and Team Rivalries
• 17:40 Playoffs and The Road to the Super Bowl
• 18:53 The Grand Finale: Super Bowl Spectacle
• 28:04 Spotlight on Sarah Thomas: Breaking Barriers in Sports

Transcript

Almost Fans (00:00.298)
I would argue maybe the best romantic comedy slash sports movie that also highlights women loving basketball. OMG. number four. I cannot believe I did not have that on my list. One of my favorites of all time in the dorm room with the sports bra. my gosh. She is the reason why I bought any basketball shorts and sports bras in college. 

Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams?

Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn. And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Hey everyone, welcome to Almost Fans. I'm Teryn and this is our first episode. I wanted to start off with a huge welcome to everyone who's joining us. It's definitely not lost on us how valuable everyone's time is. And we're just super grateful that you're spending it with us. And I'm Ambre. We're here to break down the world of sports in a way that is really fun and easy to understand. Think of it like a juicy gossip session, but instead of celebrity breakups,

We're talking touchdowns and rivalries, and we're going to be learning at the same time as you all. Yeah. Ambre and I are huge sports fans, but sometimes it's hard to just stay invested and watch all the shows and see all the interviews. It's a whole heck of a lot easier to just let someone else digest it and put it into bite-sized pieces for us. Which is why we're here. To give you just enough information to be able to hold a conversation with those sports fans in your life. Exactly.

Plus, Ambre and I are pretty competitive by nature, so we want to start our episodes with something fun. We're calling it the Starting Five. One of us picks a topic to pick just our top five of, and we come on and compare lists. So if you're tuning in, follow us on Instagram at Almost Fans Podcast and let us know what your Starting Five is for each week's topic. So Ambre, what is our topic for today? I am so excited to kick off episode one with our Starting Five.

And Teryn knew about this topic ahead of time, so she prepared her five, I prepared mine, but neither of us has compared notes or hopefully not snooped in chat GPT to see what the other person. Okay, so the topic is the five most underrated sports movies. Do you want to go first? Sure. I'm going to end with like my wham bam. Okay, great. okay, so I'll start with number five.

Number five is, you know, your classic high school basketball coach just coming in, taking over. We're talking Coach Carter. Such a good movie. Jackson. Yes. so good. And you'll see a trend here in my movies that there's a special guest that has made it into two of my movies. Okay. Number four, one of the best, I would argue maybe the best romantic comedy slash sports movie that also highlights women loving basketball. OMG. number four. I cannot believe I did not have that on my list. One of my favorites of all time, In the Dorm Room with the Sports Bra. my gosh. She is the reason why I bought any basketball shorts and sports bras in college. Yes. And it's a great movie, but still underrated for sure. Yeah, for sure. Okay. All right. This one might be, I don't know if you got this one on your list.

So my number three, she's the man. So good. good. And that hits my people that are in two of these movies, Channing Tatum. was he? He was in Coach Carter? He's in Coach Carter and there's nothing better than seeing some Channing Tatum sweating shirt off. Sweatpants. Sweatpants. Yeah, all of the above. Yeah, so, so good. So that's number three.

Number two, I'm certain you don't have this on your list because this was a Teryn Disney Channel classic favorite movie, Double Team'd. I've never seen that. my goodness. a 30 second. Okay, it's based off a true story. Twin girls who are trying to make it big in women's basketball. One of them's kind of like the fun girly girl. The other one's just more hard.

core, but they're both really good and it's actually probably so, so bad, but you know what? Little Teryn growing up loved double teamed. So 2002 is when it came out. So anyways, that leads to my number one, most underrated, but also probably one of my most favorite movies of all times. Stick it. The gymnastics movie. Ooh, does she have brown hair? Yes.

Oh, I love that movie. She's like kind of a rebel girl and she does gymnastics. He has a run in with the law. She's confronting her past and her strained relationship with sport. Oh, it's so good. So good. So yes, number one most underrated movie, Stick It. Would you believe we did not have any overlaps? I'm shocked. Also possibly because

A lot of mine are from before you were born. You're not that old, okay? I'm even old enough that the really good ones I was watching. Okay, so anyway, I'll go in the same order ending with the penultimate. Yeah, okay. So my first most underrated sports movie is Eddie the Eagle. Hugh Jackman is the trainer. Eddie is the ski jumper. Yes. Okay, let's just be real and name it right now. I love people with accents and Eddie is British. So Eddie the Eagle is my number five. My number four is cutting edge with like the snobby ice skater and the hockey player. Her partner, she's a doubles figure skater, partner gets injured, blah, blah, blah. Hockey player comes in, he's like a man's man and they don't like each other, but then they end up doing really well and falling for each other. Okay. know I've heard of that movie, but I don't think I've ever seen it. So good. Okay.

Number three is Cool Runnings. Also, I don't think I've ever seen that. What? Jamaican bobsled team. You have the weirdest sports shows. I love, love, love Cool Runnings. It's so good. My husband and I still watch this every once in a while. It's just super, like a good underdog story. Okay. Great. Next is Little Giants. Also, don't think I've ever seen it.

I told you. They're all from the 90s. makes sense. Everything is 90s here. Okay, so my last one and this is a very highly rated movie, but I don't believe it is possible to rate it high enough. Okay. It is The Sandlot. Oh. you've seen that. Surely, yes. Yes, of course. Yes. You want some more? high enough. mean, all of

of the quotes, Wendy Peffercorn, I mean, squints, like also the reason why I never tried chewing tobacco. So thanks for that Sandlot. Yeah, you seem like a prime candidate for trying chewing tobacco, Ambre. if I'd ever thought about it, I just pictured that tilt-a-whirl scene in my mind and all desires were gone. That makes sense. Those are my top five. Can't believe we didn't overlap.

It's kind of proud. It shows our like five year age generational gap. You were all Disney Channel. I was all like 90s underdogs. All of mine were in the early 2000s. I did have a like the sixth man just in case. My alternate was Hustle. Have you ever seen that? It's a new one. That one was 2022. So maybe, maybe hasn't been out long enough to be underrated or overrated.

But it's with Adam Sandler. He's a basketball agent. He finds this like phenom in Spain. Yes. Takes him under his wing. really good. It's like a serious movie for Adam Sandler. Yes, yes. Very serious, dramatic performance by Adam Sandler. Yeah, that is a good one. The only one that was like not in the early 2000s that I was like, that's my alternate right there. So. Yeah, that's fair. And lots of good basketball players in there. Really actual good basketball play. Yeah, that's awesome.

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Since Super Bowl is right around the corner, we wanted to keep this topic today really relevant and talk about some basics of the NFL. For me, I feel like I know a lot of this stuff, but every year when the NFL season rolls around, I kind of have to re-remember a lot of it. So this episode is one you can come back to at any time when you just need to remember the basics and the structure of the season. So before I get started, really, I thought I'd let you... decide if you are going to be our friend or our enemy right away. So Ambre is a Packers fan. She was born and raised- right to the throat. Right to it. We're going to find out who our friends are, who our enemies are. Ambre was born and raised in Wisconsin. She's a cheesehead through and through. I, however, am a Patriots fan. It's a long story, but I was raised in Michigan. I'm not a lion.

Whatever. I'm not a fan. not, I mean, I'm a Lions fan, but I'm also not a Lions hater. I actually do root for the Lions. I want them to do well. Even when they were just like atrociously bad, I still was hopeful that they'd get better. but now it's actually, it's a terrible time to not be a hometown fan. I should really just go back to the Lions, drop my Patriots and switch back over. But

I won't do that and I digress. Either way, we can get into our fandom another time. So I just wanted to start with that. So anyways, for the NFL, there are 32 teams total in the NFL. There are two divisions, the AFC and the NFC. Ambre, I know you've been thinking about this topic, so I'm wondering how much you studied up. What conference, AFC or NFC, are the Patriots in?

I know the Packers are an NFC. I know. I knew you knew that. Cause you told me that two weeks ago. And I feel like we don't play the Patriots that much. So I'm going to go with Patriots and AFC. Yes. Yeah. That's correct. You had a 50-50 shot. first quiz. Yes, nailed it. Good job. So each conference then has four divisions. Pretty easy to remember. North, South, East, West. However, do not try and look at a map of teams and guess who's in what division based on their location. You will hurt your brain. It makes no sense. That could be a topic for another day. I don't know. Maybe I'll get into it how I feel about the way the divisions are divided out, pun intended. But yeah, so they're just kind of all over the place in a sense. So how do these divisions impact the games? That's a great question, Ambre. Thanks for asking. There's 18 weeks in the season and every team gets a bye week at some point in the season. Like a snack break. It is. It's like a snack break and you're getting ready for the second half of the season, your rest, all that stuff. Fun fact for you, Ambre, the origin of bye week does not come from the word bye, like B-Y-E. Instead, it's actually B-Y, as in the team is standing by while the other teams play.

And they get bypassed BY that week. I did not know that. I didn't know if you cared to know that, I thought I'd care to share it with you. Excellent. Okay. So we've got our North, South, East, West for the AFC and the NFC, right? So four teams in each division, and they're going to play each of the other three teams two times per season, once at home and once away. So if you have your

Rivalries, you're going to be certain you will see them at home at least once. But these are the most important games because it's like playing your siblings at holiday parties. You want to beat everyone. Of course you want to beat everyone in the holiday games, right? But it's like playing your little brother or your big brother in my case. You want to beat everybody, but you really want to beat your brother. And you'll get that because you have a brother. I also have a brother.

Is your brother older or younger? Younger. Younger. Okay. So I have an older brother and I want to beat him all the time because he's very competitive like me. What? You're not competitive? no, no. Not at all. Okay. So then you obviously have to play other teams and other divisions too. It's kind of a rotating thing every season. You kind of rotate divisions who you play. Okay. Quick test of your knowledge. Ambre, how many weeks are in the season?

think you said 18. Yes. Good job. How many teams are in each division? Four. Yes. Which means how many teams are in each conference? 16. I got that because you said 32. Yep. Good job. Good job. Okay. And how many times do you play each team in your division? Twice. Once away, once at home. Nailed it. Good job. Now let's talk high level playoffs. All right. This is the thing that confuses me the most. Yes.

And I'm going to get into high level. might go into a little bit more in depth. After the regular season has wrapped up the top seven teams from each conference, AFC, NFC get to go to the playoffs. So that's easy math. got 14 teams. but you know, what's really spicy about this is seven teams from AFC, seven teams from the NFC. There might be a team in the NFC that has a worse record than a team.

in the AFC, but it doesn't matter. It's just the top of your side. So if all of your brothers and sisters are really slacking, but you're slacking less than they are, you still have a chance to make it to the next level. Exactly. Once the playoffs start, NFC teams don't play any AFC teams until the Super Bowl, but we'll get to that.

So you have 14 teams battling out, okay? 14 teams, we got the two different sides of the bracket, kind of like you picture for March Madness. So you have seven teams on each side. The number one seed is gonna get a buy, which is really important, right? You wanna have one week off to be able to get ready for the playoffs. So number one seed, super important. Also, then you're gonna play two plays.

seven, et cetera. It's going to go down like that. Single elimination. So if you lose, you're out. No second chances. It's just like that friend who never calls the Tinder guy back after the bad date. You Okay, wait, time out. That makes me want to ask you for an update about your love life, specifically that first date that you had a couple of weeks ago. I've been waiting to ask you until live on the air. Tell me!

It was good. Great time with that was pretty much it. Yeah. Okay. So did you do this single elimination thing? Did you eliminate him or is he still in your playoffs? He may have been eliminated. no. Single elimination. Sorry. Okay. Also a quick like context here. So I've been married for a decade. Teryn is newly

in the love market. So read my lips or listen to my words on the market, looking for love, single eligible loves sports. if anyone out there knows of any eligible man also looking for love, follow us on Instagram. What's the thing the young people say? into my DMs? Slip into my DMs? Do that. Whichever, or slip. It could be slippery in there.

Whatever, whatever works for you, I'm hot. You really are turning red. Hot in here? Great. I'm going to get a fan. Anyways, bringing it back. Thanks for that. Yes. Super nice guy. Very, very nice guy. It just wasn't right. Anyways. How do we come back from that?

Okay, so the top seed in each division. Yes, they get a buy. So first round, they get that extra week to rest. You get to watch the rest of the people battle it out while you're icing your knees, drinking your cocktail. I don't know, they're probably not drinking cocktails. Protein shakes. That's probably better. Yeah.

So then, yeah, you might hear people talk about the AFC and the NFC championship game. And that sounds really big. It's like a big deal. It's not the Superbowl. It is the winner of each side of the division, right? So that is the team that's going to go to the Superbowl. So Superbowl always consists of someone from the AFC and someone from the NFC. So the grand finale of the season, picture like the biggest event of the season. I mean, I think if you're listening to this, you know what the Superbowl is.

It's like the most watched event in the world with the halftime show, which I believe is Kendrick Lamar this year. got those outrageous commercials that everyone talks about for weeks and yes, all the snacks. All the chips and dip. All the chips, all the dips, the chicken fingers, chicken wings. Wings, yeah. Chicken fingers. have kids like us.

Probably some chicken fingers in there. But yeah, so full spectacle. Okay, one more quiz for you. Okay, and then I have quizzes for you. okay. All right, Ambre, how many teams? Seven. Nope. That's not the right answer because I was going to say how many teams total go to the playoffs? Fourteen. Nice. Good job. Good job. Okay, here's my quizzes for you. I'm ready. You know that...

for the last few years, I've been a vegetarian 70 % of the weekdays, 20 % of the weekends and not for dinner. Okay. Anyway, so tell me of the following- Time out before you finish. That is a perfect example of your like neurosis right there for people to just have a really good understanding of Ambre as a human. 70 % of the time.

during the week, but not the weekends. It's important for you to understand that, okay. I very specific rules except for when I don't. Exactly. Yes. Okay. Of the following four quarterbacks who maybe are playing currently or maybe are not, which of these are? So two out of the four are, because we know how much you love Mr. Brady and I have full respect for his nutrition habits as well.

Which two of these four raise like a vegan? Yeah. Well, he's, yeah, he's nuts. All the things. Okay. Which two of the four quarterbacks are vegetarians or vegans? And here they are. Two of them are. Two out of four. Okay. Two out of four. The first one is Kirk Cousins. The second is Cam Newton, Scam Newton. If you have any ties to a current quarterback, not a current quarterback. Carolina Panthers was Justin Fields, Pittsburgh Steelers.

And Kyler Murray. OK, I don't think Kirk Cousins, although he's kind of like a structured boy. He's like a, he just reminds me of like a Midwestern homegrown kind of guy. collared plaid short sleeve shirts. That's all you need to know right there. That's it. Yeah. But he also drives like a minivan. This man could have all the cars in the world and he drives like a minivan. Yeah.

Also, allegedly, I don't know that for sure. In my mind, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to go with...

Justin Fields is one. Yep. All right. And then former Bears quarterback. I'm sure you knew that. not at all. Yeah. then between Cam Newton and who was the other one? Kyler Murray. I'm to go Cam Newton. You're right. Scam Newton and Justin Fields. Scam Newton. Do ever hear that?

So Teryn and I both, by the way, have roots at University of Florida, Florida Gators. Did you ever hear that? Yeah. All of that. the laptops. Yep. And then threw out the window. Yep. Yeah. So I can't, I can't like say his name out loud without pronouncing it Scam Newton. I just can't. Yeah. He transferred to like Auburn. Yeah. And then like did really well. Yeah. I'm sure he's a good quarterback. I could still, I remember cause so

I, Ambre and I both have a background in campus recreation and you could look people up in the system if they ever went, came into the rec center and he's, his picture was still in there. Crazy. Yeah. No laptops in the picture with him, but. Yeah. Shocking. Yeah. Okay. One more quiz for you. And when I was thinking through this, I failed. So maybe you will succeed. Well, I nailed that last one. You did well done. Can you hum the

theme song for Monday night football. Not Sunday night, because that would be Carrie. That's Carrie and Faith. And yep, that took me a long time to just, yep, no, Monday night football. I don't know that I could hum literally anything that you told me to, except for like one of those songs I sing to my son at night. Probably. Maybe some Taylor. I don't know, but like on the spot. Is it?

Is it have something to do with like a horn? Yeah, close. Can you do it? Now I can. I was practicing all day. Okay. Because I don't know that I can. Oh, yeah.

I know. was like, all day. You got like four bars worth. I really practiced. I played it over and over again. Also fun, fun fact. So there's like that, you know, that they play to kind of like get you queued up. it's like that sound you always remember about Monday Night Football. And like from childhood forward, like it just rings that bell. But also there have been different artists who have sung kind of like hype videos.

and that's where they fit in some footage of the two teams that are battling it out. And even if they're not rivals, they try to paint them like rivals, blah, blah. So shoot, what was his name? There's some guy who used to sing it for a really long time, Williams Jr., Hank Williams Jr. And all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight, that one. Okay. Yep. Okay. But that's no longer because from 2023 forward,

There's a new souped up rendition of In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins, but Chris Stapleton sings it and it's pretty epic. I can't lie. And then Snoop Dogg has like a little cameo and he did, did, did, did, did, did, know, and then they have like the rivalries and stuff. just like, I can't get enough of him. He's like the gem of our society right now. He is the light that we need in this world today. Yeah. That's not even a hot take. I think everybody realizes that now after the Olympics.

Yeah, that's where I really, where he got back on my top list. Also, if you didn't already know this, and if you have kids, he has a kids rap slash kids album. It's phenomenal. That's amazing. What does he rap about on his kids Everything that you would think. He does like head, shoulders, knees, and toes. He does the ABC song. He has this one. It's called, I'm gonna forget what it's called.

The Affirmation song. It is so cute. It's so cute. I cannot wait to get my son. He's listened to the album before, but he's just not into it yet. He's really into dinosaur songs. So I'm going to try and get him on Snoop Dogg's album. It's called Doggyland. Hey man, I know you love dinos and everything, but this is Snoop Dogg.

This is way superior. Let's just pivot here away from dinos and trucks and things. Okay. Yes. the baby shark song. So tired of that. It was good for like three years and now I'm just done. Yeah. It's just so poisonous. just, cause it just like gets in there and it sticks. It sticks and then it's with you for 48 hours and you can't think of anything else. Well, my other problem with it is that if it's on Spotify, like if you find it and you know, like click on it cause it's been requested.

It'll just keep replaying it over and over again. Like it doesn't go to any like new, at least that's not what I was on mine. So it just like starts playing again. I'm like, no, we're done. We're done moving on. I need a time out from this song. Yes, a hundred percent.

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So we're going to end every episode with a segment called She's Got Game where we bring you cool news about women doing awesome things in sports or in this case on sort of the periphery or the sidelines of sports because I want to tell you about Sarah Thomas. Yes, she's my favorite. I love her. Oh my gosh. Okay. So spoiler alert, I get to in a minute, but she's an NFL.

official, so referee. She's from Mississippi and you can hear all of that biscuit southern goodness in her voice when she's talks. So, so cute. This blonde ponytail. I adore her. She's got three kiddos. So a boy, two boys and a girl. So soft spot for that for sure. when she was a kid, she spent a lot of time playing with the boys in her neighborhood. Sometimes it was football, basketball, all sorts of different

sports and games and things with the boys. She went on to play basketball in high school and softball and then also played basketball when she was in college. Got a scholarship and everything. Here's one story that stuck out for me. After college, she was back home, I'm guessing, and playing in a men's church basketball league. Of course she was.

Yeah, of course, like naturally, right? Because there wasn't a women's, they just did not exist and homegirl wanted to play, you know? So she's playing in this men's league and had been doing so for three years. And one day, the preacher of this church basketball league approached her and said, I'm so sorry that you're not going to be able to play in the basketball league any longer. And she said, what? And he went on to tell her that at a meeting the prior night,

Some of the players had said that they wanted to create a rule to basically kick her out. Listen to this. Their reasoning was when they post up on her or she posts up on them, it feels weird. Mic drop, right? Okay. All right. Well, because you feel weird, like, yeah, let's just eliminate my opportunities. I'm shook right now. Right, right.

Okay. So she gets, she gets kicked out of this church basketball league. Some amount of time later, her brother is going to some sort of officials meeting, you know, gonna start to learn how to maybe side hustle, gonna officiate some high school football games in the area. And she said, can I come? that a thing that women can do? And he's like, whatever. Sure. Come on. So she gets into it and my husband officiated basketball, wheelchair basketball, football, you did officiating.

It's so competitive. It's a lot of, I mean, it's just, like an art form. It's a skill. takes a long time to build on and network and meet the right people and go to the right places anyway. So she works herself all the way up to officiating college football games. Big deal. One of the first women ever. Yeah. One of the first couple of rosters they put her out, there was men who had worked with her.

And as they were elevating her to the next level, they would put her on rosters and put her name as S period B period Thomas, because they didn't want their supervisors seeing that they were assigning a woman to officiate some of their games. That's bull crap by the way, but yes. Also kudos to those men who were advocating and not just doing the easy thing and eliminating her, but actually saying, you're really good at this. I see your talent. I'm going to figure out how to...

slide you in and slip you in and make this work. So, officiated her first college football game in 2009, her first NFL game in 2015, and then in 2019, the first woman to officiate an NFL playoff game, bam, bam, bam. 2021, the first woman to officiate in a Super Bowl game. It was her plus seven men as the crew.

Like really? Yeah. And super humble. At one point in an interview, somebody asked her, you know, what does it take to be good at this? And her answer was something along the lines of hard work, a willingness to sacrifice, dedication and surrounding yourself with good people. So speaking of good people, that's our spotlight on Sarah Thomas, the first ever NFL female official. Maybe she'll be back at.

this coming Super Bowl. really hope so. It's just a really, we should really try and get her on as a guest. Yeah. I was thinking that would be a dream. Yeah. All right. We're putting it out into the world. Yeah. Dear Sarah Thomas, please slide into our DMs and tell us stop. Okay. Yeah. We'll do, we'll do that first and then hopefully your game.

So thanks everyone for tuning in to our first episode ever of Almost Fans. We hope you learned a little, laughed a lot, and maybe found a few new reasons to love sports as much as we do. You can catch us every week for more fun. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please, please like and subscribe and then follow us on social media. Almost Fans podcast. See you next time, Almost Fans.