Rice on the Mics

Santa's Sunday Ticket

• Ian • Season 1 • Episode 45

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:04:01

Send a text

The holidays didn’t just bring wall-to-wall games—they brought judgment day. We break out a ruthless naughty and nice list across the NFL, NBA, and MLB, spotlighting who grew up under pressure and who handed out coal. On the bright side, Caleb Williams erased ghosts with a walk-off moon ball, Drake May steadied New England with road-hardened poise, Jacksonville punched through Denver’s streak, Houston set a defensive standard, and San Francisco resumed feeling inevitable with Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey in sync. On the other end, the Ravens coughed up another late lead, the Lions spun out of their feel-good arc, and the Raiders leaned into a quiet tank while players kept fighting.

Christmas hoops reminded us the NBA still owns a stage. The Knicks roared back from 17 down at the Garden behind bench chaos, Tyler Kolek’s chase-down momentum swing, and Jalen Brunson’s closer gene—all the ingredients of a playoff identity. Then Nikola Jokic delivered a 56-16-15 clinic and an overtime scoring record, calmly reminding Minnesota that Denver’s trump card is unmatched. We also dig into the league’s anti-tanking and injury-report tightening—gambling-era guardrails designed to keep the product honest without suffocating real rebuilds.

On the diamond, the Mets traded sentiment for structure, moving Jeff McNeil and reshaping the infield to prioritize defense, flexibility, and reps for the kids. Over on the South Side, the White Sox made a bold bet on Munetaka Murakami’s left-handed thunder, accepting the strikeout risk for a short-term upside swing that warps the corner-infield market. We cap it with a Week 17 betting card that’s a game over .500, built on situational edges and roster realities, not wishful thinking.

If you’re new here, hit follow so you never miss a drop, and if you enjoyed the ride, leave a quick five-star rating and share this with a friend who lives for fourth-quarter comebacks and Christmas Day chaos.

SPEAKER_00:

Eli siis mun fine. Holiday hangover crew, it is I, your host, Ian Rice, and welcome back to another episode of Rice on the Micks. Christmas Week episode coming in a little late because Shocker, the NFL, and the NBA decided to play about a hundred games in four days. My brain has pretty much been living off red zone league pass and leftover cookies. The tree is still up though, the lights are half working, and we're doing a full-on naughty and nice list check of the sports world this week. Santa's Sunday ticket was busy. On the nice list, I got Caleb Williams ripping Green Bay's heart out of an overtime. Trevor Lawrence walking into Denver and snapping that big Broncos win streak. Not to mention Drake May turning the Patriots back to a stable, consistent, well-oiled machine. While the rest of us are just trying to figure out our rent and what size shirt Uncle Eddie wears. On the naughty side though, the Ravens fumble in yet another season that was supposed to be a Super Bowl run. The Lions going from future of the NFC to gift wrapping a playoff spot for Green Bay. DK Metcalf catching a two-game suspension and basically lighting$45 million on fire. And oh yeah, the tank bull from hell. Giants Raiders for the rights to the number one overall pick, with both franchises doing everything they can just short of forfeiting the game to lose. Then we get an early start to week 17 with three games on Christmas Day because, you know, the NFL just can't let any other sport have their own day. So we'll go over Dak playing for pride against the Commanders, the Vikings sending Detroit home for the holidays, and a little Broncos Chiefs and Arrowhead action. Maybe the last time we see Travis Kelsey in the Chiefs jersey at home before he hangs him up and goes full time into being Taylor Swift's plus one. Then we'll slide over to the NBA side of Christmas, the real side of Christmas. And Nick's Cavs at the garden was no slouch. Brunson drops 34, Clarkson cooks off the bench, and Tyler Kolick turns into the feisty white point guard that every championship team somehow has. Oh, by the way, in the nightcap, the Joker casually throws up a 56-point triple-double, but he's in a rec league with his little brother's friends. We'll touch all the AFC North drama, the state of the Jets and Giants, why the NBA is suddenly talking anti-tanking again. And he'll even throw a little dash of the MOB in there. The Mets reshuffling the infield again, and the White Sox buying lottery tickets on a big power bat. Naughty lists, nice lists, tank jobs, comebacks, stars rising, dynasties wobbling. We got a lot of presence under the tree to unwrap. So let's just get right into it. So if the theme tonight is naughty and nice, the NFL basically turned into Santa's Sunday ticket this week. You had teams leaving big, shiny statements underneath the tree, and a couple franchises that deserve nothing but coal in the stockings for the way that this season has gone. Let's start with the nice side before we go full Grinch mode here. And I want to kick it off with the Bears. The Bears, man, Caleb Williams has turned into the dude Chicago has been waiting on since I don't know, Sid Luckman, maybe what Jay Cutler was supposed to be. Lambeau ghosts all over the place, and this kid erases it in what two minutes? Onside kick, touchdown, and then walks it off in overtime with a 46-yard moon ball to DJ Moore. Like he knew it was good when it left his hand. This is what Ben Johnson was talking about. Sometimes he misses the layups, but the half-court shot, he makes it look easy. And that's the part that jumps out with him. It's not clean, the completion percentage is whatever. But he leads the league in fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives. Which was partly his MO in college anyway. That's grown-up quarterbacking in year two. And it's very obvious that him and Ben Johnson are in that we live in the film room together phase of their early relationship. I mean, they literally put that deep shot in on Thursday, repped it out on Friday walkthrough, and then ran it to win the game. Those are the building blocks between coach and player that are needed to grow in this league and be successful in this league. And then you got the Patriots, who just casually, casually went from, hey, remember when we were sad and we were trying to find life after Belichick and Brady? And now they're back to, oh, cool, we're a problem again. Good luck, everybody. Drake May goes right into Baltimore on Sunday night, down 11 in the fourth. Lamar on the other sideline, hostile crowd, the whole deal. And just calmly, casually puts up 380, two touchdowns on the road, like it's a UNC pit game on a Friday. Two fourth quarter touchdown drives. Hits Kyle Williams deep, Ramondre finishes it off, and suddenly the Patriots are 12-3, clinch the playoff spot, and our one bills slip up away from winning division, going 8-0 on the road. You know how disgusting that is if you're a Jets fan? You finally get the Brady's gone, Belichick's gone, we didn't finish last in a division. The big bad Wolf is so scary anymore window, and it's gone right away. Here comes Mike Vrabel and rookie Brady 2.0 running the exact same. Yeah, we don't beat ourselves formula. We just beat you. God, it's so frustrating. Jacksonville also finds himself on the nice list this year. Trevor Lawrence is playing probably the best ball of his career right now. Goes right into Denver, the mile high crowd, snaps an 11-game Broncos winning streak, drops three passing touchdowns and a rushing score on what's supposed to be the nastiest pass rush in the league. I mean, the kid took five sacks, but he didn't even blink. Parker Washington goes off, ETN scores, and that's six straight now for the Jags. You look up and suddenly it's, oh, Jacksonville's 11-4 and kind of bullying people. When did this happen? We spent all summer asking who in the AFC was ready to, if the Chiefs slipped a little bit. Like who was going to dethrone Chiefs Kingdom, right? And it it might be Jacksonville and Denver, not so much Buffalo and Baltimore. Speaking of this AFC South mini civil war that's going on, that division isn't wrapped up. Houston just keeps stacking wins. The Texans beat the Raiders, which isn't the hardest task nowadays, but that's also now seven straight. And CJ Stroud doesn't have some monster stat line every game, but you can tell that they've hit that part of the year where the offense is just like, okay, we'll do enough, and the defense has a standard. They'll take care of the rest. Will Anderson was literally upset at the podium after a win because they didn't play up to their standard. Meanwhile, Derek Stingley took a pick six back to the house. So Fairban bangs in three field goals and they isolate. That's grown-up playoff style December football. Do just enough, let the defense take it over. On the other side of that game, even in a loss, I gotta say, Ash and Janty makes the nice list. Through all the struggles he's had all year with this abysmal Raiders offensive line, he's starting to look like the real deal. I mean, 188 yards from scrimmage, had the long touchdown run, long touchdown catch, has compiled a couple good games the last couple weeks. I mean, look, the Raiders are a tire fire, right? But that kid for sure belongs in this league. I remember earlier in the year, people were comparing him to Trent Richardson, and he was a bust. Have you if you watch any film, the Raiders' offensive line might as well be traffic cones? Trust me, give the kid one decent offensive lineman, and he'll be having games like this regularly. Niners, the Niners make the list too. And they make it now and they make it forever, in my book. Brock Purdy threw five touchdowns on Monday night, and between him and CMC, single-handedly saved my fantasy season to push me into the finals when I was down 60 going into Monday night football. They didn't punt the ball for the second straight week. They're getting healthier at the right time, and now, same thing, they've now won five straight. Purdy was surgical too against the Colts. Not that their secondary is uh, you know, world beating. They I mean they do have Sauce Gardner, but 25 for 34, 295 yards, five touchdowns, and they're doing that thing again where the Niners' offense just feels inevitable. And Shanahan flexes his muscles and shows, yeah, I'm the best offensive mind in the game right now. You can't stop me. I mean, literally McCaffrey is scoring from everywhere. Behind the line, spread out wide, I mean, anywhere. He could probably score from the bathroom if he wanted to at this point. And then Kittle was going crazy too before he tweaked his ankle. And don't look now, the one seed is very much in play if they can win out, handle business against Chicago and Seattle. And you can tell that Purdy has shaken off that Monday night PTSD from the Ravens game a couple Christmases ago, too. He said, quote, I got caught chasing the MVP talk. I stopped going through my reads, and I learned from it and I got better. End quote. This version of Purdy feels way more mature. That's the guy you want quarterback in this late in the season. Couple other quick nice list shout outs before we flip over to the uh naughty side. Bryce Young and the Panthers sneak past Tampa. They get to eight and seven, and suddenly they're in first place in the NFC South. I mean, that division is always terrible, but somebody's got to win it, and apparently eight and seven will do it for you. That's the kind of late season mini run you want from a second-year quarterback, though. Doesn't have to be perfect, but winning some real games in December does wonders for a young quarterback's confidence, who in his first year or so they thought he was a giant bust. And also, shout out to Joe Burrow. Last week, all the talks of football isn't fun anymore, and you know, do is he gonna retire? They get shut out on offense. Well, he goes out and drops 300 yards and four touchdowns on Miami in what is basically a meaningless game. I mean, you know, it still has draft implication, but he still treats it like a playoff start. Meanwhile, on the other side, Quinn Ewers gets his first start, and he looked he looked good early. Not great, but he, you know, for a young kid, whatever. And then the wheels just completely fell off in the third quarter against a defense that's absolutely terrible. So that's the league, man. It's cute, and you think you have everything all good until someone disguises a coverage on you coming out of halftime. So, yeah, there are competent, fun ascending teams out there, believe it or not, and they are making the right choices, and they earned themselves a spot on the nice list this year. But, but, but, but, but then there's the naughty list. And we're starting in Baltimore right away because whatever the opposite of Ravens flock or whatever their chant is, that's where the Ravens are at right now. This was supposed to be the year coming off an MVP season for Omar, a loaded roster, the entire offense returning. We were talking about them as the team most likely to jump the Chiefs if Kansas City finally blinked. Instead, they're 7-8. Lamar is held together with KT tape, and they just blew a 24-13 lead in the fourth quarter at home. Lamar's back is cooked. I mean, he's on his fifth different lower body injury of the year, and he literally took a tortural shot and still couldn't get back in the game on Sunday. So it is what it is. But fine, that's why you have Derrick Henry, and he was at 128 yards and two touchdowns with 12 minutes left in the game, and somehow he doesn't touch the ball for the rest of the game. And then what happens? You know what happens. Zay Flowers coughs it up. The defense can't get a stop. And now their playoff life is literally hanging by Malik Willis versus Tyler Huntley type scenarios. And you gotta hope that the Steelers lose to the Browns this week. The defense went from elite to middle of the pack after the staff got poached. Fine. But the sack numbers fell off a cliff. They haven't been good at home, shockingly, and it's it's been it's been the exact same movie again and again. Late collapses and then weird game management decisions. At some point, the heat isn't just on Lamar's injuries either, by the way. Some of it's gotta fall on Harbaugh, too. He he's earned all the respect in the world. But the seat is at least a little bit warm. No? I mean, every every dog has his day, as I say. That's not really what the expression means, but you know, eventually every train has its stop. There we go. Let's do that. Now, from one uh disaster to another. Detroit? What are we doing, guys? You were the cute story. You were the you were the lovable underdogs. You were the the future of the NFC North. You were Dan Campbell bites kneecaps, and we, you know, don't take shit from anybody. And now you're eight and eight, eliminated on Christmas, and you just handed the Packers a playoff spot like a last-minute Amazon gift card. You lost to a Vikings team that had three net passing yards, not three yards on a drive, three yards total. Max Brosmer basically played a high school wing D game, and Minnesota still beat you by two scores because Jared Goff coughed it up six times. Then you got the center of spiking shotgun snaps like dodgeballs. I mean, what Campbell said it himself. He said, We're he's gonna be looking at a lot of different things. You know what? Fine. Both coordinators got poached, the defense has regressed, the offensive line is all banged up. And all that we change the culture momentum just evaporates in one year. Now everybody looks at the Lions, goes, Oh, that was fun, but I guess, you know, back to the same old, same old. I wouldn't say that Campbell's job is in danger, but you know, they see what he did with the franchise and the depths of hell that he pulled them out of. But that's the league, man. It does not, it the league does not care about your feel-good documentary, about your feel-good story. You want to win, you gotta take it from someone else. Then uh then there's the Raiders. There's Vegas. The Raiders have basically just leaned into the tank now. Whether they'll say it out loud or not, listen, you shut down Max Crosby, one of the biggest psychos in the sport, with a knee that he was still trying to play on. He's furious about, by the way. He has to leave the facility for a while. You put Bowers on IR, uh, Jeremy Chin's done, and now you're rolling into a please lose bowl game with the Giants at 2-13 versus 3-12, where the loser basically gets the inside track on Fernando Mendoza. Crosby said it perfectly. I don't give a shit about this about the pick. Players don't tank, front offices do. So here he is over here trying to be the best defensive end in the game, one of the best defensive ends in the game, while upstairs they're pretty much bubble wrapping anybody with value and Googling top five quarterback prospects. Just win, baby. Yeah, they're that saying is long gone. At least for this week. I mean, Brady is probably even going to be keeping an eye on the score in the booth in between commercial breaks. Next is Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh isn't exactly on the naughty list, but they kind of are. They're in this weird split screen spot. Like on the field, they're tough as ever, right? They're three straight wins, they're nine and six, back on top of the AFC North after that skid that looked like they were gonna cough up the division to the Ravens. They grind out that Lions game on the road. Jalen Warren breaks off two huge touchdowns, and Rodgers is making just enough throws to get it done. But the reason they do find themselves on the naughty list is DK Metcalf. I'm sorry, man, you can't go up to the stands and put your hands on a fan. Full stop. You can't. And look, I I know. If that guy ran into him on the street, I'm sure he never even would have said a word. But a little liquid courage and a guardrail gives the wrong people the right words to say to get someone to crash out. He baited him, and Metcalf took it. And now he's suspended for the final two games of the season, and because of it, he loses basically a half a million dollars in salary, and it could void out forty-five million in future guarantees. Talk about an expensive punch all over a blue wig dude in Detroit who might have thrown some slurs out, might not have, depending on whose lawyer you're believing. Tomlin comes out and he says, I don't condone it, but I support him, which is the most Mike Tomlin sentence I've ever heard ever. But from a football perspective, your wide receiver one is now gone with the division on the line, and you're hoping that Roman Wilson and Adam Thielen can carry you. Meanwhile, you got Miles Garrett on the other side hunting Rogers for the sack record. That's not ideal. That's not what you want. And I gotta mention Dallas here, too. Not really because they did anything particularly horrific. I mean, they beat Washington. Dak threw for 300 yards, two scores, they converted every fourth down. You know, that's good. That's stuff that would land you on the nice list, right? But the man just really wants to play week 18 in a totally meaningless game against the Giants just to avoid a losing record. He said, I've never had a season under 500 in my life, and I'm not starting now. I respect the pride. I get it. I respect the fire of the competitiveness. But if I'm the front office, I'm gonna have a conversation with him about the future of this franchise and how him getting injured just isn't worth it at all. You're paying him 40 million next year, and he's already taken six sacks against the Commander's JV team on Christmas. And now you're gonna risk what, a foot or an ankle to go eight, eight, and one instead of seven, nine, and one? That's where pride and business don't exactly line up. You gotta let that one go, Jack. Now. To the stuff that it hurts. That I feel in the fiber of my being. Jets Pats this week. Should be a rivalry game. It should be angry. It should be for some jet pride. It should maybe even the ability to play spoiler for seeding. It should mean something, anything. Instead, you got Brady Cook making his third start for a 3-12 Jets team, Justin Fields on IR, and the Patriots rolling in with a chance to clinch the AFC East and finish undefeated on the road in your own house. If you're if you're a Jets fan like myself, you watch them finally snap the losing streak to New England last year and thought, hey, maybe we maybe we turned the corner a bit. They aren't, you know, they aren't as unkillable as we might have we might have thought. And now here we are. Same move. Different cast a year later. Rabel walks in, fixes the culture in one season, just like that. Drake May plays like a grown man, and suddenly the Patriots are back, is a sentence that I have to say out loud, and I want to throw up. And the field sting is exactly why teams talk themselves into first-round quarterbacks forever. Chicago whiffs move on. Steelers take a shot. We can fix him. They didn't even offer him a contract at the end of the year. So then he comes here, two-year,$40 million deal, nine games in. You're right back to. He's 28th in the league in QBR. He can't push the ball down the field. And we need a roster spot. So let's put him on IR. But I can almost guarantee you that if the Jets cut ties with him, some team next year will convince themselves that it was the system. The system just wasn't right for him. And we can fix him and yada yada yada yada. A player that goes in the first round, especially a quarterback, always just gets another kick or two at the can. Meanwhile, your undrafted rookie is out here getting sacked 17 times in three games, trying to learn on the fly, and he's saying all the right things about being critical on himself and using the reps, but you can see how far away it is. You can see he's just not there. As for the other home team that shares that air conditioner we call MetLife Stadium, the Giants. The Giants are in a purgatory where the most important game they're playing might be the one that they're better off losing. This week is basically the tank ball, right? Sponsored by Fritos or Doritos or whatever. The Raiders are 2-13, the Giants are three and twelve. Both have absolutely brutal rosters, and whoever walks out that building with a loss is sitting in the top seat for the number one pick. And the Raiders don't aren't even subtle about it. Again, Crosby is shut down. Bauer's on IR. They have shelved key guys. They won't say it's about draft positioning, but everyone can do the math and read between the lines. The Giants at least have the we found something in Jackson Dart angle. The Denver game a couple weeks ago, back where they blew that 19-0 lead, still stings, right? But if you squint, you can kind of see an offense with a little bit of an identity. You can see what they kind of want to do. And you have holes all over this roster. Losing this game will all but secure you of having a high value commodity that teams will most certainly overpay for and allow you to restock and reload through the draft, which is what you're supposed to do. The question is, how much losing can the players tolerate before they start to learn that losing is okay here? I mean, no player wants to lose. And it's also really hard to look grown men in the face in a league where from season to season they could be cut at the drop of a hat, they could be, you know, no longer needed, they could just never get a job again. Tell them in their face that it's for the greater good we lose this game. So whether they're bad enough to stay in that pick of the litter, we can take whoever we want, range, or whether they're about to do the classic Giants thing where they win just enough in December and fall to the fifth pick, missing out on their guy, the locals are very much on the naughty side this year. No cold jokes, just straight facts. Both of the New York teams stink like reindeer shit. Just quickly on the Christmas games, because of course the NFL had to look at the NBA's one sacred day and say, nah, you know, I think we're gonna dive in on that one too. Uh Broncos Chiefs was the headliner, and it was the weirdest good game of the day. No Mahomes, no Minshew. Chris Oladoken and Travis Kelsey trying to duct tape an offense together. And Denver still has to pull it out in the final two minutes. Sean Payton was literally sending the field goal unit on, planning to take a delay of game. And Chris Jones jumps off sides on fourth down. Free first. A couple plays later, Bo Nicks hits RJ Harvey for the go-head touchdown. Denver's 13-3 with a chance to clinch the division if Houston can just handle the Chargers. And the crazy part is, even in the game where the box score is ugly and nothing was going right, watching the game, watching Bo Nicks, Bo Nicks looked composed. Didn't feel like he the moment was too big for him. You know, it didn't he didn't panic. He was just do the job and then let the defense close it. Vikings, Lions, we already hit on it before, but it's worth saying again, you cannot lose your season on a night where the other team throws for three yards the entire game. Harrison Smith turns into 2015 Harrison Smith again. The Vikings for six turnovers. Jordan Addison scores on a 65-yard jet sweep because that's pretty much all he has is a repertoire. And Detroit's walking off the field eliminated. That's about as naughty list as it gets. It's terrible. It's embarrassing, honestly. And then Cowboys Commanders was, I guess, aesthetically fun, even if it meant nothing. Dak hits 300 yards again, two touchdowns. Ja Cory Cross get married. Bill, Bill, Bill. Rips off a 72-yard run to keep things interesting, but that whole second half was all I could think was this dude is just taking unnecessary hits in a game that does not mean anything whatsoever. And it's admirable from him. But if he tweaks an angle on that MetLife turf next week, man, Cowboys' front office is going to be sick to their stomach. And one more note on the Broncos Chiefs game. That might be the last time we see Travis Kelsey at Arrowhead. I mean, he was talking about it last year a little bit. He came this year. He's talking about making the retirement call with his family and the team after the end of the year. Look, he's already caught one foot in the media celebrity world. He's beat up. And honestly, he doesn't have to, he doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. That kind of felt like a soft goodbye. And if it is, it's that's one of the best tight end careers we've seen. He'll go down as a top five tight end of all time. But that's the NFL chunk for the naughty and nice list this week. We got the Bears and Pats climbing up on the nice side, the Ravens and Lions dragging everybody down into the misery. And our locals firmly cemented in Cole territory, looking for their diamond in the rough that they cannot find. Next up, we'll uh we'll hit the NBA Christmas games. There was a couple really nice ones. Uh we'll talk about Joker doing Wilt numbers. And the Knicks building a title blueprint with Tyler Cole. Every contender's favorite feisty white point guard. Keep it right here for some hardwood. Alright, let's let's get into the hard wood here. Pause. So Christmas is supposed to be the NBA's day, right? The league wakes up, looks at the schedule, like, cool, five games, wall to wall. This is our holiday. This is when most people think the season starts anyway. And the NFL said that's cute. And they parked three games right in the middle of it. And somehow the Knicks still stole the show anyway. Because that Cavs game at the Garden was a movie, man. You're down 17 in the fourth, and Cleveland's front running, right? They've been up the whole game. Donovan Mitchell's cooking, Garland's throwing lobs from half court, and it's feeling like, alright, well, that was fun. I guess we're just going to jog through this one. Let me start getting ready to go to my mom's for Christmas. And then Mike Brown looks down the bench and says, fix it. And the subs go absolutely nuts. Mitchell Robinson turned into Dennis Rodman in a Christmas sweater. Just living on the glass. Eight offensive boards, keeping every possession alive, tipping the ball out. And then Jordan Clarkson goes full heat check mode, knocking down threes like he's still in Utah. And Tyler Kolick. Man, Tyler Koick, this kid has gone from end of the bench to the garden is chanting your government name on Christmas. He gives you 16-9, spraying the ball around. He's hitting big fourth quarter threes, but the play that changes everything is that chase down by Donovan Mitchell. If you missed it, it basically Brunson loses the ball and Garland pushes it ahead, and it looks like a free two for Donovan, right? Kolick is a couple steps behind and he just keeps sprinting. And Mitchell does that little slowdown, gather the ball, like he's going to go up and like Tom Hawk at home, show off for the home crowd for MSG. He's from New York. And Tyler pins it. All ball. They call a foul. He's talking trash while Donovan's on the floor. They review it, overturn it, and the garden loses its mind. Tyler even made a point to say something about it at his locker in the postgame, too, talking about, yeah, he was trying to do some dunk shit or something. That's when you knew the vibes flipped. So next trip down, he grabs a long rebound, pushes it, finds Mikhail for that little mid-range lethal shot, gives the Knicks the lead, and suddenly you've got 20,000 people in the world's most famous arena chanting Tyler Koelick. And then, like he always does, Jalen Brunson walks it home and shows why he's the man. 34 points again, six threes, not to mention that go-ahead bomb with about a minute left, and just continues to show you day in and day out why he is that dude. When your best player can treat a 17-point fourth quarter deficit like, okay, cool, man, we just need a couple stops and a few threes. You're a real basketball team. That's big boy leadership. And what I love with Koch is this little like subplot that's forming with Mike Brown. That Minnesota game a couple nights ago, on uh a couple nights before Christmas, the one where, you know, the one where Kat drops 40 and Ant has 38, and Julius Randle takes over the fourth quarter, and the Wolves celebrate, beating us while we have three starters out, like they just won the championship. Yeah, the Knicks being shorthanded, the kid gets his number called and he gets his first start. And then Brown laid into him at halftime in front of everybody. The quote was something like, uh, you know, you're three for ten. You take that many damn shots, you better make some of them. So Cola comes out, goes six for twelve, grabs 11 boards for somebody who's 6'1, dishes eight assists, and then walks by Brown after the game, like, yeah, I made my shots, what's up? And then Brown reiterated, that's the nastiness that I need to feel every play from you. And that's exactly why every contender ends up having that annoying, feisty, pain in the ass backup point guard who doesn't believe he's ever going to be outmatched by anybody. On Twitter, they were calling him Steve Nash and Tim's, which is absolutely perfect, by the way. Look, he's not Nash, obviously, but it's that same annoying confidence. I'll shoot it, I'll talk it, I'll pick you up at 94 feet, and I'm not scared of any of these names on the back of the jersey. So you put that next to Brunson as your star, Towns as your stretch big, McCall and OG as your switch up, switch everything, take away anything wings, Mitch as your cleanup guy, Clarkson as your shooter off the bench, and Hart as your just a flat out energy guy, you can see a real playoff identity forming with this Knicks team in this Mike's Brown Mike Brown era. That that Christmas game, man, that just felt like a little proof of concept, you know? Starters got punched. So the bench drags you back in it, and the stars close it out. That's championship math, man. That's how you win big games. Meanwhile, out west, Jokic spent Christmas doing a Wilt Chamberman cosplay again. The man goes 56, 16, and 15. That's 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 15 assists. And on top of it, if it wasn't enough, he sets the NBA record for 18 points in overtime. He broke Steph Curry's record, and he does it against a legit Timberwolves defense, and did it with three starters out. Didn't matter. Jokic is calmly walking into step back threes, bullying people on the block, diming up Murray for 35, and ruining Anthony Edwards' entire Christmas Day night. And actually did his part too. He drops 44, which on any other night, that's great. He hit a ridiculous twisting three to even get them into overtime. And then overtime starts, he comes out and he's like, Yeah, this is my moment. I could do this. And then frustration boils over, two techs, you're tossed, see ya, adios. It's like the league just keeps giving him these, like, are you ready to fully be that guy? moments, tests for him. And Joker just shows up as the final boss every time and put shuts him down. The crazy part too with Joker is he still gives off the vibe of a dude who would just rather be somewhere in Serbia feeding his horses. Like he literally will drop a 50-point triple-double, break an NBA record, and then in the postgame, he's like, yeah, it was fine. We won. I can go home now. I mean, he's doing generational Wilt Chamberlain level stuff against real switchy modern defenses, not plumbers. And he like barely seems impressed with himself at all. Denver's now 3-0 against Minnesota this year, by the way. So, you know, as much as we've all kind of penciled in the Wolves as like a strong contender in the West and can make some noise, the Nuggets have had their number quietly for a while now. And they're just circling them. Like when you're done with your cute little regular season run, we'll be here waiting for you. You got to come through us. The uh the rest of the Christmas slate had its moments too. Uh Knicks come back and the Joker, Joker, Jokic, masterpiece aside. You had a couple of fun finishes, and it was a nice little reminder that yes, the NBA can still own the day, even while the uh the NFL is trying to bigfoot the holiday, trying to take it over from them. I mean, you had the Spurs bullying the defending champs for the third time in two weeks. They walk right into OKC, hand them their first home loss of the year, which is crazy to think about. Uh Wemby and De'Aaron Fox looking like they don't care at all about this Thunder Dynasty script that's going around. Wemby's trying to say, I'm here now. Uh the Warriors handled business in the clay reunion game. Steph and Jimmy just pretty much steered the ship. But gotta say, Cooper Flag quietly looks way too comfortable for an 18-year-old rookie on Christmas Day. Just did whatever he wanted. That kid's gonna be good. And then the Rockets Lakers game turned into just KD Thompson and Sangoon dragging LeBron and Luca up and down on the floor. Sengoon, I mean, Houston beat them so bad on the glass that Sangoon basically matched a whole Lakers starting five and rebounds by himself. And JJ Redick was so pissed too. He was came out, he's like, we gotta start looking at stuff over. JJ's kind of douchey to me. He was a hell of a player, but he's he's kind of a douche. But the silver lining to all the chaos this year is it is actually it's forcing the league to actually look in the mirror on some stuff and do some self-evaluations. So you have DeRozier and Damon Jones gambling mess. That's a disaster. You got Chauncey Billups' name getting dragged into indictments. Chauncey Billps isn't, you know, some scrub player. And now the league is finally taking some serious internal looks at anti-tanking and like information protocol control. They did roll out the new uh injury report rules, and it's got to be updates every 15 minutes instead of just whenever you feel like it. Plus, now they're also workshopping some lottery tweaks. So a couple ideas that they floated around is like only allowing protections for top four picks or lottery-only picks, so you don't get these like top 10 protected or one through 17 protected kind of games, and no more drafting top four two years in a row. So they might even they were talking to maybe even freezing lottery positions after March 1st, so you can't spend that last month of the season just actively trying to just lose as many games as you possible. I I mean you look at look at a recent history, look at the recent history of it. The Mavs shamelessly sat Luca and Kyrie to protect their pick from the Knicks last year, and the Jazz, they shut down Laurie, and they were able to do that, turning 21 of their last 23 games into losses. That's what the league's trying to get rid of. Not the genuine rebuilds, not the we're bad because we're young or you know, we're we're trying to figure it out, or it's a new coach, but like the nights where you look at the starting roster and you go, oh, you you guys are just trying to be terrible tonight. You guys are really doing everything you can to lose. And as fans, man, we feel that. I mean, Knicks fans still have PTSD from every lottery night where the math got weird or we got boned out of something. So I'm not mad at the league, at least brainstorming ways to make tanking less of a cheat code. Make it more of a you better be sure if you're gonna bottom out that it's gonna, you know, it's gonna be rough. Look, some of the ideas will probably die in a boardroom somewhere, or some owner will shut it down, or they'll get watered down, or whatever. It doesn't matter. The fact that it's even on the agenda tells you how much of a mark gambling and the inside info stuff has changed the way that they now need to police the product. And it's important to keep that, it's important for the integrity of the game to you know dispel those rumors as fast as possible. So the big picture for the NBA right now is uh that Christmas gave us a little sneak peek of what May and June might actually look like. Denver still has the best, our star is better than your star trump card in the sport. And Minnesota's got Ant trying to be the face of the league, not really fulfilling that. Wemby's wagging his finger at SGA and the Thunder, and in the East, man, the Knicks are just Knicks are quietly building this very annoying, very playoff team where any given night it can be Brunson, it could be Towns, it could be some bench guy like Tyler Koelick or Clarkson flipping the game on its head. They're gritty, and you're gonna have to put them away. You're gonna have to kill them to put them away. And as a Knicks fan, man, it's it's been a long, long time since 12 o'clock Christmas Day. I can watch the game and not expect to get blown out by the Celtics or something like that. Go, yeah, man, this is what a real team looks like. I'm excited for this. But yeah, that's uh that's kind of all I got for hoops, man. That's the hoops portion of the naughty and nice list this week. After the break, we uh we're gonna flip over to some baseball real quick. The Mets are shaking up the infield again. The White Sox are importing uh big boy power from Japan, surprisingly, out of nowhere. And then uh after that, we're gonna start lining up this week's rolling the dice with rice card. So keep it right here. We'll be right back, we now slide over to the diamond for a bit. And this is a This is a weird Christmas for New York baseball, man. Here, listen, listen. Do you hear that? That's the sound of the Yankees doing absolutely nothing so far this offseason. They're basically that one cousin who just shows up late to Christmas dinner, eats, and then leaves without even saying a word, not even a thank you for any of the gifts or anything like that. And then meanwhile, right across town, right take the subway, you got the Mets tearing down the family photo in the hallway. They're drawing mustaches on the pictures here. They're erasing the wedding videos. Jeff McNeil is now gone and traded out of Queens. And that's another one of uh, quote, our guys shipped out. Alonzo, Namo, Edwin Diaz. And now the squirrel. The squirrel gets mailed to Sacramento with a check attached and a pat on the ass for Luis Severino. They trade him to the A's, they eat almost$8 million of the 17 plus that he still owed. And in return, what do you get? You get a 17-year-old lotto ticket arm, Jordan Rodriguez. He's a DSL kid, 2-9-3 RA. He's got 20 strikeouts and 15 innings, which is cool. It's cool. But it's also the Dominican Summer League. I mean, half of those lineups are still trying to figure out which side of the plate they want to hit from. That's a maybe we'll see you in 2030 type of move. And that's the part that stings as a Mets fan. I mean, McNeil is one of those dudes that you you got attached to in this little window they had. And, you know, you figured if you were going to trade him, you might be able to get him in a package for something a little bit, a little bit more than that. But I mean, McNeil was a 12th-round pick himself. He didn't debut until he was 26. But he won a batting title in 2022. He made two all-star teams, plays literally every position except catcher and pitcher. And then, you know, one bad defensive season here and there and a 243 average later. David Stearns, thanks for your service. Here's a playing ticket to the A's. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. Now, to be fair, there is logic to it. I get it. They decided this winter that we're going to stop punting on defense. So they go out, they get Marcus Simeon to lock down second. They sign Jorge Polanco and basically tell him, Congratulations, you're a first baseman now. And they want Beatty, they want Vientos, they want Mauricio, they want Akuna, they're all the cheap kids. They want them to actually play and see who's got what. And, you know, at that point, McNeil's 34. He's coming off a thoracic outlet surgery, which is like killer for your arm. He's making real money, and he doesn't really have a clean, everyday spot to play. So, yeah, it makes total sense. But from just a pure like vibes standpoint, this is a full-on identity change. David Peterson is now the longest tenured bat. That's insane to think of. And for Oakland, you know, look, it's kind of smart for Oakland. If you're if you're gonna go from 76 wins to now we're slightly more annoying, McNeil's the play. You got Nick Kurtz, you got Shea Langaliers, you got Sodersham, you got Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler, all these young bats. And now you can drop a veteran like McNeil in there. And he can hit near the top of the order, he can play second, left, third, you know, whatever. Wherever you're playing him, it doesn't matter. And you're paying him 8 million, 9 million after the Mets subsidy. So that's nothing for a guy with that kind of resume, especially if his bat bounces back. The A's might be okay here, you know. The Polanco part is fascinating, though. This is the part that's kind of insane to me. This man has played exactly one pitch of first base in his life. Not one game, not one inning, one pitch. Wilmore Flores hit a liner towards right, Polanco's at first, and he was like, oh, here we go, ball's coming to me. And then it's 10 feet over him, walk-off, game's over, and that's his entire first base experience. So the Mets, yep, that's our Alonzo replacement. That guy right there. I mean, look, I actually kind of respect how Honesty was talking about it. He basically Polanco said, Look, I was literally pitching myself to teams this winter as I'll play first, I'll play second, I'll play third, whatever you need, yada, yada, yada. Which kind of makes it seem like he's a little desperate to stay on a team, but whatever. Seattle had already started cross-trading him, too. There was a lot of reports that he was like, you know, maybe subbing in it short, or he played a little second. He DHs all the time. So he he said he's like the only real adjustment is the pickoff footwork, and after that, I'll just be an athlete and figure it out. And to be fair, like I play first base. I'm 6'5, 250, right, 260. I'm a big dude. There's not a lot of movement at first. Get to the left, get to the right, make sure you don't toss the ball over the pitcher's head when you're covering. That's pretty much it. So as long as you can scoop the ball, you'll be alright. And offensively, you know what you're getting with him. He's a switch hitter, 260-ish lifetime, about 25-30 home runs a year when he's right. Coming off some pop in Seattle. Uh, it'll play at City. It's just it's just a very Mets to solve a years-long we're bad defensively problem by taking an infielder who's never played first and handing him a brand new mitt saying, break this in, good luck. So big picture to me is Mets are on the nice list. They're finally acting like a front office with a plan instead of just impulse buying every name and retread here and there, and then when it's too little, too late. They added Devin Williams to the back of the bullpen. They got Simeon up the middle for defense, they got Polanco in the corner, Luke Weaver as a setup guy in the eighth, or whatever they're planning on doing with him. And you know how relievers are. One year they're shit, the other year they're, you know, lights out. They're trying to just they're trying to build the real team. But on the naughty side of the list, I mean, they ripped out almost all of the emotional core of the last five years in one winter, in two months. Pete, Nimo, Diaz, McNeil, all gone in one offseason. You can sell long-term flexibility all you want, but the fan base is literally looking around and going, yo, who am I exactly supposed to be attached to here besides Lindor? Soto just got here. And while the Mets are doing their control demolition, I gotta say, I gotta commend the White Sox basically took a giant mystery box off the top shelf and said, Yep, we're gonna roll the dice on that and we're gonna go for it. Well, here we go. Ready? Munataka Murakami. There we go. I got it. Murakami. Coming over from Japan on a two-year,$34 million deal. And it's a fun swing for them, right? You look at the MPB numbers, uh, they're video game stuff. They're really, they're creative player mode on rookie. 246 homers before the age of 26. He had a triple crown at 22. But here's the butt. Then you dig a little bit deeper and you see why the contract isn't as big as it should be. His strikeout rate is is real. It's it's damn near 25%, 26%, and over the last couple years it's been 28%. And apparently the defensive reviews at third are generous, to say the least. He's not uh excellent over there. He's a big guy, he's pretty thick. Most scouts are saying that he's he's either gonna end up at first base or DH pretty quick. So that means that his bat has to be tremendous and has to be powerful and thunderous. So what do the Sox do? Well, they say, all right, fuck it. Two years, mid-30s and the millions. We'll take the upside. If you figure out big league velocity and you're hitting 40 a year on the south side of Chicago, you can go back into free agency at 27, you get your nine-figure bag, go for Broke. And from Murakami's side, it kind of makes sense too because you know, there's all the pressure on uh Japanese players coming over, and he's very highly touted. But you walk into a lineup where you're not really bumping into any established big name stars every night. I mean, you know, Colson Montgomery shore Kyle Teal, who Luis Robert, he's probably getting traded. And they're gonna have the first round pick of the 2026 draft of White Sox, but baseball, you don't see those guys for you know three, four years. So they're not pretending that they're like all of a sudden a contender next year because they signed this guy. You get to breathe a little bit. You get uh you get to work through the adjustments on a team that probably nobody's gonna pay attention to. You're probably gonna win 50 games, if that. You either have an interpreter, you're uh the team's paying for your flights back to Japan, probably. And it's just a nice soft landing spot for you to either hit bombs or whiff. So if his power does translate, you got one of the scariest left-handed bats in the league on a short-term deal in a ballpark that can reward it. That's why this is such a fun gamble. But the range, the the ceiling and the floor are very far apart. I mean, he could crush Triple A, can't stop striking out, and then goes back to Japan, or he could be a top 10 hitter in a sport, and we're all sitting around going, How the how the hell did the White Sox steal him? Also, side note, his signing kind of quietly nukes the corner infield market now. So with Murakami off the board, Alonzo's got his money, Schwarber and Naylor are gone. Ogamoto's posting window is ticking, and if you need a legit third baseman, you're kind of down to Bregman, Suarez, and maybe Yamoto, right? And at first, you're really only looking at Cody Bellinger. That's if he even wants to play first. He can play first, doesn't mean he wants to play first. Otherwise, you're you're on the platoon and prey tier. So I don't know. Long of the short, baseball-wise, you got the Mets, uh, you got Mets reshuffling the infield and punting on another piece of the old core. The A's doing the classic smart, small market thing where you buy low on a guy with a batting title and hope he figures it out. And the White Sox are going full mystery mode. It's literally one of the most ridiculous power arms, or I guess power bats we've seen come over from the MPV, but nobody knows if he's going to be able to make the transition. And the Yankees, well, they're just sitting in the corner sipping eggnog at this point. They're quietly leaking to the media that they like their internal options. And they're giving me absolutely nothing to work with on a Christmas episode here where I'm dying for some baseball Yankee talk. I know everybody thinks I'm bashing the Yankees all the time. I promise you, if I had something to get on them about, I would, but there's just literally nothing. So, that might be the naughtyest thing this whole episode. Alright, that's uh that's the baseball piece for the naughty and nice tour. Let's take a quick breather. One last one. We'll come back. We're gonna set up the gambling card, rolling the dice with rice segment. We're gonna get trying to get your money right. We're gonna try and figure out who you're gonna be trusting this week, try and see if we can get our record even more over 500. Stay tuned. Well, here we are. We have made it. Rolling the dice with rice time. If you've been listening to the show, you know that we usually mash together a fantasy segment along with this uh gambling card. Some people's seasons were over last week for whatever reason, and some people are in the finals this week. I'm in the finals in two of my leagues, and I'm also playing for last place in another one. So hopefully you're chasing the title this year, but no need to hear my advice this late in the game. If you've made it this far, you know who to start and who to sit. Good luck, God bless. In the meantime, we're still grinding. We're still alive. We're hanging over 500 by a game at 36 and 35 on the season. Last week we went two for three. Bears covered for us, no problem. Bengals took care of business like I knew they would. Texans almost fell into a trap game. Jets got demolished, and the Giants decided to light the card on fire at the same time. That's how it goes, though, right? We're we've been doing this all year. No reason to tap out now. So let's build this week 17 card. All right. The way it works is three games, and then I'll give you the two locals. So, game one, Cardinals at Bangles, and we're gonna roll Bangles minus seven. Since he took care of us nicely last week, man, so we're gonna stay on the train. We're gonna keep riding with him. And you can kind of just see Burrow remember, like, oh yeah, football is actually fun. It's fun when I'm not getting murdered every single drop back and I can throw for 300 yards and do whatever I want. So drops four on Miami in a game that literally means nothing, but just because that's who he is, I have a feeling he's gonna go out and do the same thing against Arizona. Arizona is literally counting the minutes till that it can hit the offseason. Half the locker room probably has the flight to Cancun booked already. And you know that they had the team Christmas party over this week. Guys are probably still sweating out whatever was in that punch. You know what I mean? So you're gonna tell me that they're locked in for four quarters in Cincinnati? No, I don't, I don't buy it. Burrow, Chase, got two weeks left to pet the stats, remind everybody who they actually are. Give me the seven with the Bengals, no problem. Game two. Seattle at Carolina. And we're gonna take an over-under here. We're gonna go over 42. This one is kind of screaming out the weird trap game kind of deal. The West Coast team flying east, early-ish kickoff, both teams are scrapping for playoff positioning or pride. It's got it's got trap game fingerprints, right? So instead of guessing which version of Seattle shows up or Carolina going to be able to run the ball, let's just keep it simple, and we bet on points. Both offenses have been able to move the ball pretty well, both quarterbacks can still sling it. Carolina's quietly played a lot better at home. I don't fully trust the Seahawks defense to travel from the West Coast to East Coast, and I don't really trust Carolina to string enough stops together either in the fourth quarter. So give me the points, give me over 42 and a half. I think both sides can live in the low 20s. Maybe someone pushes it up to the 30s, and we're we're good to go. Game three, Rams at Falcons. Little Monday night special here for you. And the line is Rams minus eight and a half. I'm gonna buy it down to six and a half, right? I'm not messing around with the hook on the back door. I'm I'm just gonna, you know, I'm asking LA to win by a touchdown. The Rams actually still have something to play for here. NFC seating is incredibly tight. One slip up, and you can go from hosting a game to sitting on the couch, honestly. So indoors, Monday night, fast track. McVay is gonna be locked in. This feels like a spot where they just they come out focused and ready to go. Atlanta, meanwhile, they're cooked. They don't even have their first round pick, and by beating Atlanta, it'll make the Rams pick better. So again, they're basically a zombie team, Atlanta. And Kirk Cousins, if you remember his primetime record has never been where you want to put your money. Uh, especially in games that don't exactly like light up his fire, and this is one of those games, like who cares? So I think the Rams control this. Maybe it's competitive for a little bit. Bijan is still a problem, but then you know, the better team finds a way to get it done. Rams, again, I'm buying it down to six and a half, but I would feel comfortable at eight and a half, too. Game four, we're doing the locals. Uh, first locals pick. Patriots at Jets. Uh, look, everything in my soul as a Jets fan wants to take the points. Rivalry game, chance to play spoiler, don't let them clinch a division and celebrate on your field, all that. And then I look at the rosters and I go, yeah, this could be 21-0 by the end of the first quarter, man. Drake May is absolutely still padding stats and trying to get that MVP resume, trying to get those votes, trying to get his guys as in their incentives. And you know Vrabel, man. Vrabel loves nothing more than beating this franchise. He loves beating up on the Jets. And you could say the same thing for Aaron Glenn beating up on the Patriots, but it happened way more for Vrabel than it did for Aaron Glenn. The Pats are playing for the AFC East and an undefeated road record. The Jets are running Brady Cook out there behind a beat-up offensive line. The best case scenario is that he survives the day with his spine intact, to be honest with you. It's not going to be good. I hate it, but I got to be honest about it for the sake of the card. This feels like a terrible mismatch. I'm going to lay the 13 and a half of New England and hope I'm wrong for my own sanity. And then last but not least, game five, second locals pick. Giants minus two and a half at the Raiders. Welcome to the tank bowl, sponsored by Capital One, Doritos, Sunkiss, whatever, whatever you want. Giants 3-12, Raiders 2-13. Loser gets pole position for the number one overall pick. Both fan bases are miserable. Both front offices are definitely peaking at Fernando Mendoza cut-ups on their iPads. Here's the difference. Brock Bowers out. Jeremy Chan out. That's an organization that understands the assignment, right? The Giants, on the other hand, well, they at least feel like they have something in Jackson Dart. They have something to test, right? Jackson Dart is out here trying to put his stamp on the job. Show the city and show the media, hey, I'm the guy you want to build around. Don't worry about the first overall pick. Players don't tank, front offices do, right? And I don't see Dart walking into the tank bowl thinking, yeah, I'd love to, you know, lose this one so that maybe they do have some questions about me and they can maybe draft a guy to replace me. So, yes, while the Giants absolutely in their best interests should lose to get the number one overall pick, the Giants could, like they always do in December, absolutely find a way to screw this up and win this game. Maybe Jackson Dark just goes out and balls out. And it watch, watch. It'll make the fan base not like him because he went out and won the game. What kind of backwards logic is that? Anyway, for the card, we're taking Giants minus two and a half. Uh they probably win it by a field goal, to be honest with you, and they throw their entire offseason into chaos. And I I love it because it's great for this business. It's great for this. Can't wait. That's the card. Week 17, lock it in. Bengals minus seven, Seahawks minus 7. Panthers over 42 and a half. Rams minus 6.5. We bought it down, but I'm cool with 8.5. Patriots minus 13.5, as much as that hurts to say. And the Giants causing chaos at minus 2.5. We are sitting at 36 and 35 on the season. We're trying to stack a couple winning weeks to close this thing out. If you ride with me, do it responsibly. Don't chase, don't bet the rent. And as always, feel free to tag me in your slips when you get the cash. So time to land this plane now. We'll uh we'll get the outro going with some send-off words and keep you informed on what else is going on with the show. Thanks for sticking around. Okay, friends, that is gonna do it for this one. We uh we hit the naughty and nice list this week. That was the theme. We yelled about the Ravens and Lions wasting everybody's time. Showed some love to Caleb and Drake May and the Jags where it was where it's deserved, and then we checked in on our sad little locals. Except for the Knicks, though. Knicks Christmas Magic, Joker, Joker, I keep saying yoker, Jokic doing wilt numbers, and the Spurs bullying the champs. Meanwhile, Mets are doing everything they can to ship out every player that we kind of like. Then we uh then we close the show with uh rolling the dice with rice card for week 17. We're a game over 500, maybe we can get a full sweep this week. Really put us uh in the green. If you made it all the way to the end of this episode, seriously, I appreciate you. The the best thing that you can do to help the show grow is number one, make sure you're subscribed or followed wherever you listen. Maybe even leave a review if you want. That'd be cool. Uh quick rating, literally just click the five stars and be on your way. Takes two seconds. And tell a friend, man, send a clip, throw it in the group chat. Word of mouth is everything right now. Also, don't be afraid to hit me on the socials. It's at Rice on the Radio on Instagram and TikTok and Twitter and everything. I'm always in the DMs. I see the tags, I see the stories, the Wednesday mic check polls. If you got any questions, you got any hot takes, you got gambling horror stories, you got fantasy paint, send it all. You guys help drive the show more than you know, you know, and I love getting the opinion of the people, the pulse of the people, as Craig Cart would once said. And look, uh, I know the holidays are weird, right? For some people, it's the best time of the year, the Christmas lights, everything. For some people, it's heavy. And for a lot of us, it's uh it's a little bit of both sometimes. So if you're listening to this on a late drive home, or you're hiding from your family in the guest room, or you're by yourself and you just needed some noise in the background. I'm grateful you chose to hang out with me for this hour. Do me a favor, when this episode ends, send a text, make a call, check in on somebody, tell your people you love them. You know, hold the door a little bit, tip a little bit extra. Try not to be an asshole in traffic. It's not that hard. I know it's hard, but it's not that hard. Just throw some good energy back into the world. It comes around. Trust me, I promise you. Anyway, I am Ian Rice. This has been episode 45 of Rice on the Mics. And I'll talk to you guys next week. Be good to each other. Tell someone you love them. It's that easy.