Stay Or Go

We trace a week defined by choices: the Giants leaning into stability, the Jets avoiding a rushed quarterback swing, wildcard games rewarding conviction, and a league bracing for ripple effects as Tomlin steps down. We add our betting card, vent about Knicks depth and health, and dig into MLB’s balance problem.

• Giants prioritizing structure and identity
• Jets’ timeline discipline and draft leverage
• Wildcard weekend defined by poise over panic
• Divisional previews with key injuries and matchups
• Tomlin’s exit and coaching market consequences
• Knicks’ thin margins without Brunson and Mitch
• MLB hot stove, Dodgers’ star stack, market tilt
• Betting recap and new picks with line reads

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Chapters

• 0:00 Fork In The Road Opening
• 0:49 Giants Choose Stability
• 7:18 Jets And The Quarterback Trap
• 11:32 Wildcard Weekend Themes
• 21:18 Divisional Matchups Preview
• 23:59 Tomlin Steps Down, League Ripple
• 29:20 Rolling The Dice With Rice Picks
• 38:21 NBA Check-In And Knicks Frustration
• 48:59 MLB Hot Stove Heats Up
• 58:58 Closing Recap And Life Takeaway

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Se on we fine. Hello, hello everybody, and welcome back to Rice on the Mics. It's mid-January, and this week has a very specific vibe to it. Everybody's standing at that fork in the road, whether you're either to stay the course or you want to go. Stick to your resolutions or abandon ship. You change the plan, you change the voice, you change the direction. Because what you're doing isn't either working or you're just not sure it's gonna hold up when the pressure hits. And that is exactly where New York football is and why it's the perfect place to start this week. Because the Giants, well, congrats, Giant fans. Finally feels like they made a good move, a good hire. Like the kind of move that actually stabilizes the whole operation. Not a sell hope hire, not a hot coordinator hire. A this is a real structure. This is what real structure looks like. Hire. Giant fans have been watching the same movie on repeat for years now. And this feels like the first time in a while where you can actually picture what the next chapter is supposed to look like. Now, on the Jets side, along with every other mess that they have, well, Dante Moore decides to stay at Oregon. And I'm gonna be the first one to tell you why that's a good thing for the Jets. Everyone's always in a rush to force the next move, force the next quarterback conversation, force the next big swing. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is the football gods basically tapping you on the shoulder and going, Relax. You don't have to force it this second. Let the board breathe. Keep the options open. And for this team, especially, forcing it is usually exactly where the pain starts. And that same stay or go energy was actually all over the wildcard weekend, too. Teams either tightened up and tried not to lose, or they stepped on the gas and took it from them. I mean, Stafford doing Stafford things, Caleb getting hit up early and still dragging the Bears back into it, Buffalo turning short yardage into a whole identity, Houston's defense walking in like they own the place. And just when you thought you had your fill of football for the weekend, you get the news that really shifts the league. Mike Tomlins stepping down. And that's not just another headline, that's a franchise cornerstone moving on. When that happens, the entire NFL starts acting different. I mean, front offices either stay patient or they start panicking, right? So today we're gonna start where we should. Giants and Jets. Then we're running through the wild card results and a quick look ahead to what's next. Then we've also got a roll in the dice with rice segment. And if you're new here, that's our pick segment where I try to make you guys some money. So far, the playoff card has been cooking. So we'll recap last week's record, then we'll swing through the NBA, touch on the Knicks a bit, and we close it out with a real MLB hot stove segment because baseball decided to wake up and choose violence this week. So grab a drink, settle in. It's gonna be a long one today. Rice on the mics, episode 48. Let's do it to it. So let's let's stay right here in New York and get the local stuff out in front where it belongs. The Giants thing, yes, that big thing. Well, it feels different. And not in the we won the press conference kind of way, in the we might finally stop tripping over our own damn feet kind of way. Because when you hire a coach like Harbaugh, and yes, I know nothing is official until it's official, but if this thing is really headed where it looks to be heading, this is the first time in a long time where it feels like the Giants are choosing stability on purpose, right? Not desperation, not let's try a new vibe. Like an actual grown-up organizational direction. And that means a lot because the Giants, the Giants have been living in a cycle just like the Jets, I might add, where every season turns into a referendum. Every month is a crisis, and by December, hell by Thanksgiving. You're staring at the same question again and again. Is this the right coach? Is this the right system? Are we ever gonna be back to good again? This is why fans are reacting the way that they are. It's it's not even we're guaranteed to be good. It's just thank you. We might finally have someone who can run the building, who who can keep things in order, who doesn't have the players feeling like it's a country club, which was an actual quote from an unnamed player, by the way. And I get it, I'm a Jets fan. When Aaron Rodgers came here, I I understood that, I felt that. I thought we finally had somebody to turn the ship around, you know, to change the tide. Look, it it fits into our theme this week. And the theme this week is stay or go, right? This was a stay or go moment for this franchise. You either stay in that loop of half measures and quick fixes, or you go get the guy that resets the temperature of the whole place and reminds the rest of the league that you are the New York Giants, a cornerstone and respected franchise in this league. Now, here's the thing, here's the part that people need to understand. Right? If if the Giants land him, which again, nothing official just yet, but if we shake our magic eight ball here, it's coming up all signs point to yes. It's not just the head coach you're getting, right? It's the ripple. The staff, the identity, the accountability, the way you draft, the way you develop, all the little things that got lost in the sauce. They start to add up to the big things. The way you handle free agency, the way teams look at you on the schedule, the way you carry yourself on Sundays when things go sideways, all of it. And if you're a Giants fan, your biggest prayer isn't winner Super Bowl next year, it's a failure. It's stop being dead by Halloween. Stop being chaotic. Stop being a team that looks like it's making decisions with a blindfold on. That is a giant step, no pun intended, towards normalcy in a once well-respected franchise. And honestly, normal is underrated when you've been living in nonsense how they have been living. Now, speaking of normalcy and living in nonsense, we move on to a team that has no idea what that feels like at all. And that would be the Jets. And well, as luck would have it, it seems there's only one surefire quarterback worth a first round pick this year. Someone I've been calling for all year for the Jets, Fernando Mendoza. And wouldn't you know it, he and his team went out and embarrassed the Oregon Ducks last Friday. Oh, and the quarterback for the Oregon Ducks, you guessed it, the number two quarterback prospect in this year's draft, Dante Moore. Only fitting the Jets should have the number two overall pick, right? I mean, he'd fit right in with the team. Fumbles, interceptions. Well, Dante Moore, instead of coming out and more than likely being the number two overall pick because the Jets would, or someone would, and earning close to fifty million a year, or not fifty million a year, excuse me, fifty million on his rookie contract and achieving one percent of one percent of what players do, which would be reaching the pros. Well, no, he has decided he's going to forego the draft and he's gonna stay at Oregon for another year. And you know what? For once, for once, the Jets have caught a break. The fan base is always screaming, do something, fix it now, get the answer now, get the guy. The Jets are the poser child for that, right? Forcing the timeline, forcing the splash, forcing the solution, taking Zach Wilson, cutting Sam Darnold, hoping Geno Smith would be the answer, trading up for Mark Sanchez, trading for Aaron Rodgers. None of it worked. It was all wrong. It was all the wrong answer. And this year's draft presented itself yet again with the exact same scenario all over again. Forcing yourself into a quarterback who might be a project while you don't really have the infrastructure around him to succeed. Dante Moore's staying is the universe tapping you on the shoulder going, Relax. You don't have to force it this second. Let the board breathe, keep your options open. And it lines up with what people actually voted on in the mic check poll, too. Everybody wants to scream 20 quarterback 24-7, right? But when the real question gets asked, what's the biggest fix non-quarterback, and everybody's split down the middle between offensive line or weapons, which is the truth, by the way, it also shows that this team isn't ready for a quarterback yet. I mean, do we trust Aaron Glenn? I don't know. I'm willing to give him another year. Even though this is the most fruitful coaching free agency class since God knows how long. Do we trust Darren Muji to make the right moves? Come free agency and draft? I don't know. He moved two of our best players away. Defense got terrible, but we did get some good picks. Do we trust Woody to not meddle with everything and mess it up like anyway? That one I do know. That's a yes. Yes, we don't trust him. I don't know. What I do know is Mendoza was probably the only option in this draft. And with more staying out, it does us a favor. Look, if you can trade down, go for it. Work the phones. Honestly, you know what I would be doing right now? If I was the Jets, if I was Darren Muji, I would be hyping up Ty Simpson like no one has ever been hyped up before. Every agent, every Mel kyper, wannabe, I would be telling them we love this kid. He's got a great arm, he's got a great head on his shoulders, he reads coverage, etc., etc. And as soon as someone calls you about him, sell the pick. The Jets need a quarterback like a fish needs water, right? But as we have learned for years and years and years, taking the wrong one is not only costly as far as setting the franchise back, but it buries your reputation even deeper and deeper. So between the Giants maybe finding their stabilizer and the Jets getting another little nudge from the football gods to stop rushing things, it sets the tone for the whole NFL conversation this week. And we got to the wildcard weekend where you saw this theme play out in real time. Teams either tightened up and played scared or they stepped on the gas and went for it. So let's run through some of these games quickly because there was a lot of moment of truth stuff jam-packed into this one weekend. I'll break them down as quick as possible in case you missed anything. First one on the list, Rams versus Panthers. Rams, Panthers was a perfect example of a team just trying to give a game away and still having that dude at quarterback who just can just decide, nah, you know, I've been here before. We're not doing that today. The Rams made enough mistakes where you're sitting in the middle of the third, like, shit, the Panthers, Panthers might really do this thing. Panthers are down early, they were hanging around. Then they take the lead after that block punt, sets up a little bit of a short field, all good. Nope, Stafford hits you with that late game, hold my beer drive. Go ahead, touchdown with 38 seconds left. And it's one of those endings where if you're Carolina, it doesn't even feel like you kind of lost it of Rams. It just feels like more that you lost to that specific version of Stafford that loves to show up when the room gets quiet and everybody knows the game on the line. That's go mode for him. That's not playing for overtime. That's playing not to lose. That's we're taking this, and you can't stop us. That's Stafford. That's the quarterback, the Hall of Fame kind of quarterback that you're dying to get. Next game on the list was the Bears Packers. And boy oh boy, was this a game and a half. Listen, Caleb, Caleb had a debut that was exactly what playoff football is supposed to feel like, right? It was stressful, messy, and then a moment where you either crumble or you rise. And early on, it looked like it was one of those welcome to the playoffs, kid, games, right? And then they come running out of the tunnel for the second half. And they were a completely different team. I mean, they made the adjustments, they stopped playing like they're just trying to survive, and you know, we haven't been here before. And Caleb, oh, Caleb, everybody owes Caleb an apology. Okay. The painted nails, all the garbage, whatever. Everybody owes Caleb an apology. This kid was a stud at USC. He makes all the throws that matters. The go-ahead touchdown to DJ Moore with under two minutes, that dime in the back of the end zone. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm talking about with the stay or go. It's not always some big roster move. Sometimes it's just do you stay calm and keep running the plan or do you panic? Caleb didn't panic. Chicago didn't panic. Green Bay did. Green Bay did what Green Bay has been doing as of late, right? And now on top of it, you got the LaFleur temperature check conversation happening. The players are backing him. They want him back as coach, but there's front office meetings, the defensive staff is interested elsewhere, all that noise. Throw in a little bit of sprinkle of Ben Johnson leaning into the rivalry saying, fuck the Packers. You know, it's good to see football back in football. Some people hate it, some people love it. I don't know. It doesn't matter. You can't tell me it doesn't match exactly what Chicago's been acting like all year. They're not trying to be polite. They're trying to take your lunch money. And it's hard not to root for a team like that. Next game from the wildcard weekend, Bills Jags. And this might have been the most identity game of the weekend because Buffalo finally gets that road playoff win off their back. But to be fair though, Josh Allen's playoff road losses are at Houston the year that they went to the AFC Championship, and then it's three straight times at Kansas City. So I might give him a little bit of a pass for that. Regardless, though, they get the monkey off their back, and they did it by leading into exactly what they are. Josh Allen doing Josh Allen things with a little bit of James Cook mixed in. I mean, Josh Allen puts the Superman cape on. But the part that sticks me the most is the short yardage stuff. The fourth and one attitude, the grit, the tush-push sequences, which we all hate, but they work. It wasn't creative. That was, you know, we're doing this and you're not stopping it. I dare you to stop me. And that's the difference between a team that's built for January and a team that's still trying to figure out who they are. Buffalo said, here's our fist, here's your face, take it or leave it. Not to say that Jacksonville didn't have its moments either, but to end the season on that tip pass interception, it's a terrible. It's terrible for the record. You have to you have a chance to tie it with a field goal with a decent amount of time left on the game. You cannot throw a pick on the first play there. I don't care what you do. I don't care, you can't let that happen. But that was kind of what Jacksonville season has been in one play. They're close, but they're not quite there. It's cute, it's fun, it's a bad division. I don't know. Now the Jacksonville offseason is it's a whole conversation, right? They got roster needs, they got key decisions to make. How do you build something that doesn't just flirt with being good? How do you build something that is really good, right? Anyway, next game on the list, 49ers Eagles, and San Fran takes down the champs. San Fran survives, but it costs them. Kittle, our local favorite long-haired tight end crazy guy. Yeah, he tore his Achilles. And it's uh pretty massive for somebody who was hurt earlier in the year and then figured it out, and the offense really popped late. And it's also not just a guy like a guy is hurt. That's like a structural hit to how they play offense in big games. And also a big locker room guy. They end up still getting through it. They throw a trick play with Juwan Jennings throwing a touchdown to CMC, Philly special on Philly. You love to see it. Purdy's day, not great, not bad. I mean, good, a little risky, a little chaotic, you know, whatever. It is what it is. But on the Eagles side, well, uh, the vibes are messy, I guess. Just like they've been all year, to be honest with you. You had crucial drops from big name players. You had more sideline stuff. After the game, you had Siriani defending AJ Brown, even though AJ can't stand him. Hurts not exactly giving the yeah, that's my guy endorsement to the OC. If you're an Eagles fan, that that's the scary part. Not even the loss. It's the feeling that the building is tense and ready to crumble and the plan might change, and where are we going from here? Not great in Philly. Next game, Chargers Pats. That was ugly. I mean, no way to put it. Herbert straight up said that he wasn't good enough, and that's the right quote out of him. But that's also look, even if that's the kind of accountability that you want, unfortunately for him, it's a yet another season of what-ifs for the what-if quarterback. You know, what if I was healthy? What if my offensive line was healthy? What if this happened? What if that? That's been his MO, his whole career so far. And he's a hell of a quarterback. I mean, it would take him on the Jets in a heartbeat, but he has been uh he has been the what-if guy. The bigger question is the Chargers' identity at this point, too, because if you're Harbaugh, you're not coming out there to just be fine, right? You're coming out there to try and win. You're coming out there to have an actual football personality, whether it be we throw the ball deep or we run the ball on you or we play great defense. But you know, you hear uncertainties about the OC situation. It's like, okay, what's the direction we're planning on going in? What are we trying to build here? Are we staying with what we got or are we going to reshape it? What what's the plan? What are what are we doing? Last but not least, for the wild card weekend, we had Texan Steelers and Well. Just like we kind of all predicted, Houston's defense basically walked into Pittsburgh and said, uh, yeah, we'll take it from here. We're good. That was cute. That was fun. But uh Rodgers, it's been a good career. Two defensive touchdowns. Rodgers looks stuck. I mean, I said last week the defense is too fast and he's too old. Steelers' offense was just not moving. And well, now it's not just Steelers lost, it's Steelers lost the season's over, and the coach of 19 years steps down. That's a whole earthquake. And as for Houston, I mean, they're playing with that confidence where they're not shy about it. They're saying the quiet part out loud. We're here for it all. We're here to take it. We want all the smoke. That's the right energy when your defense is playing like it is. And make no mistake, this defense is mean and nasty. So, those were the wild card games. Great slate. Awesome. Great football. Oh, the Chiefs aren't in it. You're going to miss Kansas City. You're going to miss the Blue Bloods. I don't know about that, man. Wildcard Weekend was pretty damn good. So from here, we look forward. Seattle was on a bye, and Denver was on a bye. So we got a nice slate of games this week, too. And I want to break those down quickly before we dive into a little more chaos going on around the league. So first up, 49ers Seahawks. Nice little division game in the divisional round. And wouldn't you know it? Sam, our man, Darnold, who we're rooting for, well, he's got an oblique. He's got a little bit of an oblique tightness or something floating out there. His words were there is almost a 0% chance that I don't play. But you know how that goes, man. And the real question is, can Seattle hang in that physical middle of the field kind of game now that San Francisco has to adjust without Kittle? Right? Can they keep CMC in check? And can Sam, with being injured, put the team on his back if they need him to and win a big game finally. You know, he's proven the last couple years that he's a regular season hero. Back-to-back 14 season, 14 game wins in a season. That's awesome. Don't be Pete Manning. Go win the big one. Go win a big playoff game at home. Anyway, Rams Bears, next game. And this is a this is a clean moment game. This is Stafford in late game mode versus Caleb. I'm not scared of this stage mode. It is literally a test of poise versus poise. Somebody's about to blink. Really looking forward to watching this game. Buffalo at Broncos, Buffalo is telling you exactly who they are. If Denver can't hold up in those, we're running the ball and you can't stop it anyway moments, then this might turn into Buffalo controlling the whole game flow. And Texas Patriots, Texans Patriots, excuse me. Houston's defense can travel, man. It's as simple as that. That's the big thing. Stroud pretty much did everything he could to give that game away to the Steelers, and the defense still kept him in it. Mike Vrabel is not messing around, but Houston against a rookie, well, rookie-ish quarterback, I don't care how good Drake May is. I mean, they're going to present some problems to him. It's going to be interesting. It also doesn't help that Nico Collins is on concussion protocol, and it wasn't like a, oh, he dinged his head a little bit. It was more of like a, yeah, that he's he might be out a week or two. So we'll see where it goes. Lots of good games this week. Can't wait for it. But now we got to get into the part of the league where one decision turns into ten other decisions. Mike Tomlin stepping down is one of those moves that changes the league's mood entirely. Look, whether you love him or you've been screaming it's time for years, right? When a coach like that leaves a place like Pittsburgh, it hits different. It's completely different. The Steelers don't do chaos, right? They don't do consistent resets. That franchise is built on stability. So when Rooney comes out and basically says, oh no, no, no, we're not rebuilding, no rebuild. Uh it's championship standard. We're not tearing it down. That's the Steelers telling you exactly what they're gonna do next. They're gonna try and reload fast and act like the standard never moved. But the reality is the quarterback part is tied into everything. I mean, Rogers out here defending Tomlin. He's defending LaFleur, he's still non-committal on what his own future is. He's gonna go into some dark black hole and figure it out. And it's like, yeah, welcome to the NFL offseason, man. Welcome to rebuild mode. One guy's decision makes five teams sweat. It's not fun over here. I know Tomlin is never great, but I mean, every team would love to have him right now. And then you got Harbaugh. We touched on it before. Uh Falcons interview him, but other teams are sniffing. He's reportedly keeping the list short. Three or four teams, not a whole tour. Yeah, that didn't go as planned at all. He comes to the Giants, and I give the Giants credit. The Giants did their due diligence early. They quote unquote checked their boxes. They got their Rooney Rule interviews out of the way earlier. Technically, the Giants were the only team that was able to offer him a contract on the day of his interview. Whether he went to Tennessee or the Falcons or whoever, they couldn't offer him a contract right away. So the Giants played this right. They got their stuff out of the way, knowing that they wanted to hire Harbaugh and were able to throw a contract at him, which apparently they're finalizing the details, right? That's why the Giants' angle matters so much. If the Giants close it, it's not just a hire, it's a statement. We're done playing games. We want grown-up football operations. Good for them, man. I'm happy for them. I really am. I'm not a Giants hater like I am a Yankee hater. You know, I want some good football in this city. I wish it would come from the Jets side, but that's a different story. As for Philly, Philly's not uh Philly's not out of the water either here. I mean, they got bounced first round, and the coordinator conversation is the real story here. Hurts not exactly endorsing Patulo. Barkley is defending him. That's more breakup in the locker room. Siriani's been playing protector. This is what it looks like when a team is just deciding whether to stay together or start ripping out the parts again. And you can only really do the new offensive coordinator every year thing for so long before it starts showing up on the field in the worst moments, which we saw a lot of this year. And Green Bay is another interesting one, too. The stay or go question. I mean, the pack, the players are packed, the players are backing LaFleur. There we go. I got there. So it tells you the room isn't dead, right? They they like their guy, but you got meetings happening, you got coaches that are interested elsewhere, and you got a painful, terrible playoff loss like that under your belt to a division rival that you've owned for years. It makes people start wondering if the franchise is about to make a move or not. And unfortunately, that's the trap, right? Some teams stay patient when they shouldn't, maybe the Jets. And some teams go and hit the eject button, but then spend the next three, four, five years paying for it. Maybe the Steelers. It's gonna be interesting to see how it all plays out, but that is gonna be the NFL this week. New York finally gets some stability on one side, and on the other side, well, the other side's still getting a reminder not to force the timeline and just be patient, hopefully. Wildcard Weekend gave us a whole bunch of who's built for this moment moments. And then the league flipping into offseason chess mode in real time, right in front of us, with Tomlin stepping down, Harbaugh moving on, maybe LaFleur, I don't know. Mike McDaniels maybe throwing his name in the ring. Stefanski's still out there. Lot of chaos going on in the NFL right now. But next up, we're keeping it right in football mode. We're gonna go with rolling the dice with rice. And uh, we're gonna recap the wild card cover. The playoff record has been cooking. Let's see if we can continue this uh this hot streak into next week. Picks up next. Another week down, another betting card in, another winning week cashed. It is now time to roll the dice with Uncle Rice here. And first things first, just a quick, quick little victory lap because you're allowed to enjoy the heater while it's hot. You know, there's plenty of times you're cold. While you're hot, you gotta enjoy the success, right? Last week's wild card card, five and one. Overall in the season, we are now sitting at 49 and 39, and in the playoffs, we're five and one. And look, that's not me. That's not me spiking the football, right? That's not me being that guy. But it is, though. That's me respectfully placing it on the table, staring at it for a second, and just saying, just look at it. Look at it. See what it's like. Anyway, last week we had uh we had Panthers plus 10.5, we had the Bears plus one and a half, we had the Niners plus five and a half, Patriots minus three and a half, and Texans minus three. All of them easy winners. Bears went outright, Niners went outright, Patriots kicked the hell out of them, Texans kicked the hell out of them, Panthers were close. The one that got us caught was Jacksonville on the spread, but we still cashed the over in that game, which I said I loved more than anything. So we didn't exactly walk out empty-handed either. Now, we keep it moving. Divisional weekend. And I'm not gonna lie to you, these games are tough this week. The lines are weird, it's weird spots. Every pick feels like uh it kind of feels like you're picking which hand you want to get smacked by, right? The lines that I'm using right now are what I'm seeing on Thursday night. So if you're listening later and it moved, don't yell at me. Yell at your sports book. Let's get right into it. Game one. We got Buffalo at Denver. Denver is currently minus one and a half. And this is a doozy. Right? It's like who do you who do you trust more right now? Do you do you trust Josh Allen when the weapons aren't exactly screaming track meat? You know, the receivers are not the best. Do you trust Bo Nick's first playoff game coming off a bye to just shake the rust off immediately? Look comfortable, look like it's no problem. Can Sean McDermott outcoach Sean Payton? Does Buffalo get the Josh Allen Superman cape game again? And also Denver, Denver is just annoying to play in. It's cold, it's loud, the thin air makes everybody feel like they ran the stadium stairs for fun. It's a mess. So that being said, I'm not gonna get cute. I'm not betting against the best player on the field when I'm getting points with him. Okay, give me the bills, give me the plus one and a half. If you're building a parlay, do yourself a favor, buy it up to three and a half. Just give yourself that little bit of wiggle room for the juice in case it turns into a field goal game, which it looks like it absolutely can. Anyway, pick is Bills plus one and a half. Game two. Niners at Seahawks. And the total is 44.5. This one feels like it was written in Sharpie. The Niners can score, Seattle can score, and yet when these two play each other, suddenly everybody forgets where the end zone is. They've seen each other twice already, division, and both games went under 40. One of them was only 16 points. Now, you got Sam dealing with an oblique thing, so it's gonna be hard for him to throw the ball hard. And the Niners are also without George Kittle. And George Kittle's not just a, oh, he's a good player or whatever. He's he's a whole chunk of offense that they're gonna be missing. This game has underwritten all over it. It feels like one of those games where every drive just takes six minutes, and it's the boring late night game. You're at the bar, you're kind of not paying attention. All of a sudden you look up, it's the fourth quarter, and you're like, wait, there's only 10 points scored. So pick, official pick, under 44 and a half. Game three, Texans at Patriots. Pats are minus three right now. And let me tell you something. This line smells fishy. The Patriots have been pretty much unstoppable as of late, right? Vrabel is getting coach of the year love. Drake May is either the MVP or the runner-up. They're at home. And you're you're gonna look me in the face and tell me it's a standard minus three. I'm not even saying I don't believe in New England. I mean, I kind of do. I love May. I've been on him since UNC. But this is the part where you have to listen to the line. You gotta listen to what the line is actually asking you to do. The books are basically standing in front of you saying, please, please take Pat's minus three. Please. Don't worry, it'll win. No, we go the other way. Gimme Houston plus three, and for good measure, buy the hook to three and a half. If the Patriots win, I'm not shocked at all. But this one feels like one of those close games, weird ending, missed an extra point kind of deal. So Texans plus three, but really I'm gonna take it at plus three and a half. Game four, Rams at Bears, and it's Rams minus three and a half right now. That's the line. Well, well, well, would you look at that? Bears at home coming off a huge comeback win against a division rival, and they're catching more than a field goal. The Rams are no joke. 100% agreed. Stafford can still slice you up. He's seen every defensive coverage ever. Puka is a little banged up, but he's the kind of guy you could just he's injured, but then he has 10 catches all of a sudden. And the wind in Chicago is supposed to be rough, but Stafford has always thrown a ball like it's a hot knife through butter. Okay, the guy just has zip to it. Honestly, I'm not even saying that the Bears win, but this team, I don't know, man. This team has just been the comeback kids all year. There's one team every year that's that, and it's the Bears this year. They don't panic, they fight, they go after you. So, I don't know. If you're giving me three and a half at home in a game that smells like it's gonna be tight late, and the Bears are not afraid to come back, I'm taking it. Give me the Bears plus three and a half. And I got a little bonus game for you, too. National championship, Indiana, Miami. And the line is currently Indiana minus eight and a half. That's gonna wrap up the college season. And since there's only four games and we usually pick five or at least six, I'm giving you the bonus game. I'm not gonna lie to you, Indiana minus eight and a half. That's a big number. I mean, Miami can score and their defense can make you sweat. I mean, that's what got them here. But you know what? Sometimes, sometimes a team just feels like the team of destiny, you know? And right now, and actually all year, Indiana has been that team. They've been that we're not asking for permission team. They've been that, oh, you think you're better than us? Watch this team. And Signetti brings that on to him. I mean, he said it earlier in the year. We don't just beat top five teams, we kick the shit out of them. Well, guess what? Now you're on the national stage, standalone Monday night game. Everybody's gonna be watching. And I think they do it again. Not pretty, not polite, just a straight up business trip. We're here to kick some ass. Give me Indiana minus eight and a half. That's the card. Nice and simple, nice and easy. Bills plus one and a half, under 44 in the Niner Seahawks, Texans plus three, but I'm going plus three and a half. Bears plus three and a half, and Indiana minus eight and a half. Let's see if we can continue this hot streak going. As always, don't be a hero. Don't be an idiot. Bet within your means, okay? We're trying to stack wins here, not stack regrets. We're trying to have a little extra scratch in our pocket. Take the wife out to dinner, you know? Anyway, let's keep the show moving. We're gonna swing into some NBA stuff. And then we got some baseball to go over because the hot stove is actually hot stoving this week. But keep it right here. We got hardcore up next. After all our football talk here, I want to switch gears over to the NBA for a hot minute before I get into the MOB because the league is in that part of the season where everybody's either like restless or impatient or quietly trying to plot their next move. It's the stay or go part of the calendar, the theme that we're on. It's just nobody wants to say it out loud. Teams are either trying to convince themselves that they're fine, or they start like side-eyeing the deadline like it's a lifeboat, like it's gonna save their franchise. Golden State is like the perfect example of that right now, and it's because you got Kaminga, he's demanding a trade, he wants to talk about his role, his future with the team, and then you blink, they turn around and they drop 126 points on the Knicks like nothing's wrong. That's what makes the NBA so exhausting sometimes. One day it's the house is on fire, get me out of here, and then next day it's uh three different guys showing up together to give you 20 plus and acting like everything's normal. Memphis is on the other side of it, too. John Morant is just being John Morant, basically saying trade rumors, yeah, live with it. And that's kind of where we're at right now, too. Nobody's allowed to just hoop anymore. Every every star has to answer to the internet every three days and this week's Twitter troll, and da da da da da da. But Once that smoke is in the air, it's never just random. Like there's stuff that's happening. It's stuff that they want. Somebody wants something. Somebody's testing the temperature. And before that, before I even get on the Knicks, I got to touch on this Giannis stuff here, too. I can't let it slide. If you didn't see it, the Bucks, the Bucs were down 30 and I'll game at home, right? Giannis goes at the rim, drives hard, makes the bucket, gets the N1 call, and while he's on his ass, look directly right into the home crowd. The home crowd, the crowd that he just said he would never ask to be traded from, not a week ago, and gives the big old two thumbs down and boos them back as they had been booing the team the whole game because they're down 30 at home. Yeah. The Garden would fucking lose their mind. I mean, come on, man. I I get that fans boo, all right? I'm sure it's annoying. I've never been in the position where 20,000 people have booed me for my work. I get that emotions run high. Whatever. You're the face of the franchise. You're a superstar. You're their superstar who they all see that the writing is on the wall that you don't want to be there anymore. You're not supposed to do the you boo me, I boo you thing. Like it's middle school lunchroom. Man, like it looks childish. You gotta understand where these people are. You got them a championship, that's great, and they're grateful for it. But the guy that they fell in love with from a 19-year-old kid that grew into this massive monster star now says, I don't want to be here anymore. I don't like you guys. Then you turn around and you hit him with the thumbs down. Yeah, the fans are gonna lose their mind. And selfishly for Knicks fans, it's also why I'm saying the quiet part out loud here, right? And that would be that the window for the Knicks trading for him feels kind of closed now, at least in season, maybe off season next year, who knows? But it's not because he's not great. I mean, he's he's a monster. He's great. Him and Brunson running the pick and roll together. God, I would die to see that. They could win a championship like that. But it's because the price, it's because the politics, it's it's the drama around it. The Knicks don't need another soap opera again, right? They already have enough theater going on in the garden with Kat acting how he is and guys getting hurt and this, that, and the other. The goal is a title, not a reality show. Giannis, I want you here. I do. But what it's gonna cost and how we're gonna do it, it's too much of a headache right now. There would just be too many moving pieces and blowing up the core. I also do want to add, funny enough, on this Giannis trade, uh, ever since Dolan did his interview with WFAN, uh, in so many words, he was like, Yeah, we like the team how it is, you know, we're not looking to move any guys or make a trade or whatever. It almost feels like that let some pressure off the team a little bit, and it allowed them to take their foot off the gas of like, oh, no one's getting traded. I guess I don't have to play as hard. That was definitely not the intended outcome for Dolan doing that. I definit I think Dolan wanted to be like, yeah, you guys are good. Like, we like everybody, but I think unfortunately it had an inverse effect of letting the guys relax too much. Because this has been a miserable road stretch for them. I gotta get to the point that actually ruined my mood. The Knicks, that Warriors game was basically a perfect summary of it. I mean, no Brunson, he's hurt. No Mitchell Robinson, he's always hurt, but it's a back-to-back, day two of a back-to-back, so he's not gonna play. You're already in a bad spot because of that. And then Golden State hits you with a full-on welcome to our building package. Jimmy Butler drops 32 like he's playing in an empty gym, doing whatever he wants. Curry started cold, then warms up in the second half like he always does, finishes with 27 and seven assists, and Moses Moody. Moses Moody. He had one of those nights where you just want to throw the remote against the wall. 21 points with seven threes. Seven. That's the kind of thing that like it turns the game from like, oh, this is kind of close. Let me stick around to like just what else is on TV. They're not they're not coming back. It sucks too, because the Knicks actually got scoring. That's what's annoying. Deuce drops 25, OG had 25, Bridges has 21, throwing a little cat with 17 and 20 boards. It still didn't matter. The game was just never, it just never felt like you had a chance. It's not even like he got punked effort-wise either. I mean, Hart is out there doing hard things like he does, gives you 10 assists, he's flying around. The problem is the scoring. The scoring just isn't there. He had five points on the night. Unfortunately, when Brunson's out, you need a little extra juice from somewhere. And for a team that looked like you had a lot of depth going into the season, it seems like on nights when it matters the most, you just aren't getting the spark off the bench. I don't get it. Like, what's wrong with the Knicks? Gold State ends up winning 126, 113, and it sucks because 113 points usually means you did enough to compete. Usually means you did alright to win the game. But I mean, when the other team is hitting 23s and you're watching just Butler get to his spots uncontested, and Curry just does Curry math, and it's like trying to outrun a car on foot. It's it's not gonna happen. So that's now seven losses in nine games. And this is turn now turned from like, oh, it's just a bad night into like an ongoing trend. That's a stretch where you start learning things about yourself, whether you like it or not. Here's what I'll say without panicking, right? The Knicks right now they feel like a team that can play with anybody when the main pieces are there. But the margin is thin. When Brunson sits, when Mitch sits, when the shooting turns ugly, everything becomes harder than it needs to be. The offense gets more labory and clunky, which then makes the defense have to be perfect. And you you can't live like that for long. Also, this two-day Mike Brown reunion tour in Sacramento and then Golden State, not exactly the West Coast trip that you wanted, the welcome home package. It's two straight nights of hey, remember these uh teams that you splayed for? Remember these buildings that you did great in? Yeah, how are you looking now? That Sacramento loss, I don't even want to bring it up, I don't even want to mention it. Sacramento's terrible, and you got ran out the gym, you got smoked. It's not even worth bringing up, but God, it was ugly. Whatever. The Knicks come home and it's the Suns on Saturday, which is great, because the Suns always seem to give us a problem. Devin Booker just seems to be able to do whatever he wants. But the big thing, the big thing now turns to health of the team. If Brunson's ankle, if Brunson's ankle is day-to-day, that's one thing, sure. But if it turns out to be a week-to-week thing, you can't pretend that that uh that doesn't change everything. That it doesn't hamper the team tremendously. The Tyler Coleck story is great, and we're pulling for the kid, but he is no Jalen Brunson. Do not get it twisted. Well, that anyway, that's where the NBA is at for me right now. The league is full of just like restless energy. The teams are flirting with big moves, but guys are hurt. There's stars just talking trash to every and any headline. And the Knicks, the Knicks are in that annoying space where you can see what they are when they're right, but they just keep giving you these games where it feels like you're grinding your teeth for two and a half hours. Like they need to make some big giant move when they really don't. Anyway, keep that thought. Baseball has had some actual serious movement this week, and I've got some things to say about it. The hot stove is hot stoving. Water is boiling, and it is now time to get into it. Keep it right here. Diamond Talk Baseball. Next Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers. Four years, two hundred and forty million. And I I'm not even gonna pretend I'm calm about it. I sound calm, but I trust me, I'm boiling inside. It's not just, oh, the Mets didn't get him. That's not even the point. This is bigger than any one fan base being salty. This is the part where you look at Major League Baseball and go, what are we doing? What are we doing here? Tucker gets 240 million, he got opt-outs, he got a massive signing bonus, and of course there's money deferred. Of course there is. There's always money deferred. It's the it's it's the Dodgers found a cheat code, and the league just shrugged and said, Yeah, okay, that's fine. The competitive balance part is what drives me nuts here. You got teams that won't even spend 30 million on their whole roster. Like they're running a bake sale. And then you got one team that can just defer money into the next decade, stack a literal all-star team, and make it feel like free agency is just them shopping in a different store than everybody else. And then it becomes a self-fulfilling thing. The more stars that go there, the more stars want to go there. Because now it's ring chasing. Now it's not building something, it's oh, just join the machine. Screw it, who cares? And don't get me wrong, all right? The Dodgers are doing their job. They're playing the game that's in front of them, and I can't fault them for it. But my problem is the league. At some point, MOB has to step in. Because if we keep doing this, the sport just turns into the same five teams mattering every year, and everybody else is just there to fill out the regular season. People wonder why the 2027 lockout is sitting there like a dark cloud. They wonder why labor talks always get ugly because it's not just money. It's the feeling that the system is tilted and everybody can see it. Oh, God. All right, let's let's keep it moving because the Tucker thing is the headline, but it's not the only thing that is going on right now in the MLB. The hot stove is actually moving along here a little bit. And we kick it off with the Cubs. The Cubs got Alex Bregman. That's a real move, man. Five years, 175, no opt-outs, full no trade, though. Basically saying you're here until you don't want to be here. And that's a we're serious contract, too. That's security for the player and control for the team. And you can kind of feel what Chicago's trying to do. They're trying to stabilize, they got to bring in a leader, make sure the infield makes sense. Stop living season to season of this was fun, but can we do it again? Boston, on the other hand, well, they had two generational third basemen in their own house and decide to move on from them and told you that Bregman was going to be the guy moving forward. That he was the answer. He was the one that fit the clubhouse. And what do they do? They miss on Bregman. They sold their fans a bill of goods to just turn around and not do a bill of goods. Boston fans have watched Mookie, Bogart, uh Devers. They've watched all Chris Sale, all these players just up and vanish for nothing. To give them a little bit of credit, they do pivot right to pitching and they signed Ranger Suarez five years, 130 million. That was kind of a nast shit. All right, let's let's just get more arms move. And honestly, it's kind of the smart lane for them. I mean, the AL East is making moves all around them, and it is not forgiving. You don't get to show up with questions on the mound and just expect mercy. In that division, you can get eight runs dropped on your head early, sent home, and packed up. Another little uh under-the-radar trade that happened was uh Nolan Arenado getting moved from the Cardinals. You know, he left the Rockies because he wanted to play with the Cardinals to get more playoff time and this, that, and the other. And yeah, that hasn't really worked out. So now he's jumping on the Diamondbacks. And I don't know, I I kind of get the move. But I'm also, if I was a Diamondbacks fan, I'd be nervous about it. You're betting on the name, you're betting on the experience, the moment, the postseason value, all that. But you're also betting on that the decline doesn't hit you square in the face. But Arizona is clearly in go mode, right? They're they're not trending Marte. They're trying to win now, not eventually. They're trying to get after it. Give them credit. It's a tough division with the Dodgers, but in baseball, all you gotta do is make the wild card. Also, just a quick note, too, Kershaw coming out of retirement pretty much, and committing to Team USA for the World Baseball Classic. I actually kind of love that. That's the part of baseball that you want more of. Guys treating it like a sport that's still a sport, not just like a business spreadsheet. I Mets fans, I I know, I know the mood right now because you hear the reporting all week that the Mets they were in the neighborhood with the offer, you hear 50 million a year range. They basically put it on the table. They said, Yeah, how's 50 million a year? You don't say no to 50 million a year. And then he still picks the Dodgers. That's why I'm telling you, this isn't a we lost out thing. It's that New York put the number on the table, and the player still said, Nah, I'd rather go be a luxury piece on the Death Star. That's not a knock on Tucker as a player either. That's a knock on what free agency has turned into when one team is offering you the best of both worlds. They can give you money and the easiest ring path. Meanwhile, Stearns, Stearns is out here addressing backlash, trying to tell the fans to just trust the plan. And I get that too. I really do. I'm putting faith in you. Because you don't want to run the franchise like a teenager with a credit card, but at some point, you also have to meet the moment. Met fans aren't asking for recklessness, they're asking for relevance. So the question now becomes what's next? Like, what do you do? Where do you go from here? Because you can't spend the whole winter being almost had him and we just missed out. You need a pivot that feels like a decision, not a consolation prize. You've got to make a real move here, and there's guys coming off the board. This is where I bring up that mic check poll again from the earlier in the week because you know I think it's funny. Majority of the people said back up the truck for Tucker. And I get it. The fans aren't wrong to feel like that. Just do it. But now it's done. And now you have to shift into plan B with a purpose, a real plan B. And speaking of plan B, then there's the Yankees, too. This is where if I was a Yankee fan, I'd be again, I'd be losing my mind. Because the ALEs is getting stronger around them. Boston is adding pitching, Boston is adding lineups, Toronto just went to the World Series, Tampa is always Tampa. Other teams are active. The division is not sitting still, and the Yankees are just lingering. I mean, the Bellinger situation is a perfect example. And now the Mets are going to be super in on Bellinger, so now they're going to have to compete against the Mets. The Yankees put a bigger offer on the table, right? Boris wants longer and higher because he always does. And it's a stalemate. Fine, negotiate. That's part of it. You can't let a stalemate turn into a winter. The Yankees aren't supposed to be a franchise that watches an arms race from the sidewalk. And the Ryan Weathers trade, sure, okay. That's a move. That's a rotation insurance. That's we're aware that we need to eat some innings, cool. But it's not the kind of move that makes anybody in the ALEs lose sleep. That's the issue. The Yankees right now feel like they're waiting for the perfect moment instead of just creating it. And in this division, if you wait, you get passed by. Plain and simple. So you got the Mets trying to convince you that there is a plan. You got the Yankees looking like they're stuck in neutral. And you get the Dodgers collecting stars like it's a hobby, like they're putting trophies on the shelf. That's why I'm so loud about the Kyle Tucker thing. It's not one signing, it's the symbol, it's the direction. It's where the sport is headed if nobody does anything about it. Golly, man. What a frustrating hot stove. It's it's nothing, nothing, nothing. Oh, I'm just going to the Dodgers. Whatever. Anyway. That's going to be the MLB segment this week. I told you I had a lot to talk about. The hot stove is definitely hot stoving at the moment, but it's also reminding you of the bigger question. Are you staying with the way things have always worked? Or are you going to change the system before the system changes the sport for you? Alright. Let's uh let's wrap this up. Let's land this plane. Let's get you out of here. Uh send you off into the weekend right. Hopefully we get a nice good playoff weekend and uh good little Monday national championship, too. Well, here we are. That's episode 48 in the books. And if you made it all the way to the end here, I appreciate you. For real. There's a million things you could be doing with your time, and you chose to spend it hanging out with me. Talking ball, talking chaos, talking New York sports like it's therapy. And honestly, it kind of is. We kind of all need it. Quick recap before I let you go. We started where we had to start. Giants and Jets, because local teams always set the temperature around here. Giants finally feeling like they're lining up the real move. Jets getting a reminder from the local football universe that you don't have to force the timeline every single time it gets uncomfortable. We also touched on some coaching vacancies and some big names getting shuffled around. We kept it right in that football pocket with rolling the dice with Rice Pick segment. Gave out the card, even sprinkled in a little uh NCAA uh title game because it's a real standalone game. It's a national championship. You gotta. Gotta throw a couple couple bucks on it. We touch the NBA League drama, some Knicks frustration, and then we close it out with baseball because the hot stove is bubbling, boiling over. And you can feel the sport drifting into that. What are we even doing here? Kind of conversation. And that brings me back to the theme for this week's episode. Stay or go. Because it's not just sports. That's what makes this fun. And we watch these teams make decisions in real time, sometimes the right ones, sometimes the dumb ones, sometimes the panicked ones, and it it kinds of kinda holds up a mirror. How many times in life do we know we're at that fork in the road and we still just hover? We don't stay with conviction and we don't go with courage. We just sit there and we call it thinking. And really it's just fear or comfort. Or both, honestly. So if you take anything from this episode, besides the picks and the takes, of course, take this. If you're gonna stay, stay on purpose. Stay because you believe in what you're building. Stay because you're committed to the work. Stay because you got a plan. And if you're gonna go, go with courage. Go because it's time. Go because you've outgrown the situation. Go because you're choosing yourself. Because you're done being halfway in. Just don't live in the middle pretending that it's strategy. And listen, whatever you got going on right now, big or small, I hope you give yourself credit for even showing up. Showing up matters. Consistency matters. The people who win, teams, players, regular people, they aren't always the most talented. Honestly, usually they're just the ones who just keep showing up. Even when it's annoying, even when it's slow, even when it's hard, when it's not getting rewarded yet. So take a breath this week. Check in with your people, give somebody a call. Text somebody you've been meaning to text. Tell somebody you love them. You know, be a little kinder than you need to be. The world's loud enough already, you know? If you enjoyed the episode, do me a favor, share it with a friend, throw it on your story, send it to somebody who argues sports the way we argue sports. And if you got takes, send them to me. If you got picks, you got opinions, DM me at Rice on the Radio on Instagram. The show is way more fun when it feels like we're building it together anyway. Appreciate you listening, as always. Same time, same place next week. Until then, spread good energy. Stay or go. Just do it with purpose.