 We got a show for you today, that's for sure. The one and only Carmen Vitelli joining us in studio. Excited for that, Marissa, do we have cold champagne? Okay, we have warm champagne somewhere because we keep losing parlays, so we've had it since September. Great, our guy, Shoms, on later today. I understand the NBA came out with new awards. They named them, but I dug up some of my own that Shoms didn't know about, so we'll talk about that. And what am I underreacting to this week? Let's go. Two week 14. I'm gonna be sad on the season ends. I don't know what's gonna happen, and I don't know how I'm gonna pick up Marissa off the floor if the Niners win the NFC. How are you feeling, Marissa? Are you feeling good about the Eagles? I would, too. Why wouldn't you? Hey, we're going to our very first football game as a team here. Now, Marissa and I have gone to a football game together before at SoFi. It took us about 90 years to get home, but we are going. Derek, do we have the shot? Can we show our little section? Probably not. It's not very cute right now. We can show it, can't we? I don't think so. Derek! This is one of Derek's last days directing our show. There she is. Hey, she sits down. She's so upset. That's Marissa. Carmen Vitale will be here, so we've got a lot of furniture to move around. But we are going for our holiday party to the Chargers Titans game. And I'm very excited, but I do want you to know you will not be able to see anything in the game because all the offensive linemen stand there in those cabana suites. The ambiance, I don't know what to order. It's very funny, like, I need your help after the show. There's, you know, what do you want? What do you want as your drinks and stuff? And I have no idea. Tequila for Richard Issacau. I knew that. What else? Well, do we need beers? What's Owen? What does Owen drink? He drinks beers. Conrad, what do you drink? Water out of a bowl, he said. On that note, Ann, such a treat. Matthew Hamilton is flying from New York for our holiday festivities over the weekend. So I say that all of that to say this. Let's have a hell of a show on Monday next week. That'll be a really fun one for an hour here on FanDuelTV. All right, let's talk about some things for us. That's okay, you can stand down now. Some things that we're underreacting to. To put a bow on week 14. I have teased this much throughout the week and I will talk about it now. God, I'm super annoyed today. I really am. I got something, something's up with me today. We are underreacting to how much J.K. Dobbins means to the Baltimore Ravens, let me explain. We have been wondering for weeks, starting way before Lamar and that injury. What's wrong with the Ravens offense? They do not look quite the same. And I think a big part of that answer and one that I haven't heard that much is how much they in fact missed J.K. Dobbins, which is sort of shocking to me too. It was his first action almost two months after missing all of 2021 with the knee injury. Look at him right now. This is him racking up 15 carries, 120 yards, a touchdown and he helped Baltimore get that win in Pittsburgh despite being down to third string quarterback, Anthony Brown, who's out there for this team. And I do believe that I am guilty as many of us are of believing that the running backs with the Ravens are a part of a system. You can sort of interchange them. We do the same thing with the Niners backfield as well. It's all about Lamar and Lamar. And if he does his thing and he opens up lanes, everybody back there is gonna have success. And this is not to disrespect Lamar or anyone else, but I do think J.K. Dobbins proved a little in something to keep our eye on here that he is a big difference maker in this offense. And he had a message that should be frightening for the opposition when he was asked about how he felt and how it felt to have such a monster game in his return. Take a look. Feels good. It feels good. Still not me all the way yet. You know, and I'm gonna continue to get better and hopefully those 100 yard games will start turning into 200 yard games. You know, maybe, you know, cause I'm just gonna keep getting healthier. And like I said, I'm just gonna keep getting better. And I got the 100 yard game and I'm just gonna keep stacking on that. He's confident. And if he says what he means and he can do that and he can in fact keep stacking 100 yard games, maybe the Ravens can get through this stretch with these injuries. Maybe they can stay afloat until Lamar gets back and the Browns, they're gonna have the work cut out for them. And this game, of course, is Saturday afternoon. Keep an eye on that. You know, Bengals, one game behind them. They look good. They've won five straight. Ravens dealing with more injuries than the Bengals who got their receiving core banged up. But we'll see. I have a sneaky feeling. It just felt different with J.K. Dobbins on the field and he looked special. And if he can carry this team over, it's a guy to keep an eye on down the stretch here. Okay. The other thing that we are underreacting to and I just never thought that I would say this. I literally never thought that I would say this. We're underreacting, I think, a little bit to Patrick Mahomes and what he's doing. I do. I think we have officially normalized what is a superhuman out there doing completely insane things and providing us with completely insane highlights. Let's start with the no-look flip. Oh my gosh. And here he is and he's off doing Patrick Mahomes thing. So no one's real, oh yeah. Like that's not a big deal. That is a no-look flip to J.R.K. McKinnon. He escapes the pocket. Steve Farham's the defender. And then, I mean, what if he Steve Nash with this? We have Shams on. It's an apt, adequate comparison there. It was unbelievable. It's underhand, 56-yard touchdown score for him. Now, to even attempt this people in a game is sort of borderline unhinged, right? Like this is insane. We're five years now. Five years into the Mahomes experience and the fact that he's still doing things that we've never seen done on a football field is a bit mind-blowing. And that was not by the way all that he gave us on Sunday after the Broncos made this thing uncomfortably close. Again, he marched KC right back down the field and he did this. That was okay. No big deal. Full spin. Crash is into three defenders. No big deal. How does he possibly find Juju through these three dudes? Oh, it's car crash. What? Game clinching score. It is obscene what he's doing right now and the level of operation for this quarterback and that he's continuing to do it without guys like Kaderius Tony was a nice addition that obviously showed chemistry and a difference right away. McCall Hardman, he was in on the field. Derek McKinnon, Derek McKinnon was KC's leading receiver and he's still through for 352 and three scores. So we're looking at the Mahomes here. He's currently leading the league in passing yards and touchdowns on pace to eclipse 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns and it's happened with what like I said a revolving door of weapons. Eight different guys have at least 200 yards receiving on the year, no hill, no problem. Let's not normalize what this man is doing. And I believe that we talk about Mahomes more than anybody else and we talk about him too much and the whole thing, not too much actually, but like it's a lot. I usually don't say much about him because everyone else is talking about him nonstop. But given the numbers and the circumstances under which said MVP candidate is thriving, he can't not be your favorite approaching the final month of the season. Now finally, okay, here we go. I think, and I don't know what you guys are underreacting to so hit me up at Up An Atom Show. We are underreacting to Desmond Ritter replacing Marcus Mariota as the Falcons starting quarterback. You heard me, I talked about the Panthers. They're in the mix and how in the NFC South. I was talking about that yesterday. But let's separate and the Falcons aren't right there as well. Check out the NFC South standings. The Falcons also just a game back of Tampa right now and I think they sense that there's a little bit of blood in the water when it comes to those bucks. They division so much up for grabs. And I don't think that this move is saying, oh, you know, we're not that great this year. Let's get a look and see what the young guys got. And I think some people think that that's what's going on but listen to Arthur Smith on Monday talking about the switch. Got confidence in Desmond and then again, there's risk anytime you make a move but you got to be willing to take that if you want to break through and get out of this up and down inconsistency. And like I said, we've been a lot of close games. We've made a lot of progress but our objective is to get over at home. It sounds like a man who's going for it. Does it not? What do you think? I know the initial gut reaction is that you don't make a mid or late season switch to a rookie quarterback when you're trying to contend but look at how Lamar Jackson sparked the Ravens. What did he do? He vaulted them into a playoff spot in 2018 after Harbaugh decided to bench Flacco. I'm not saying Ritter is Lamar but if there's anyone who can create that type of spark for a team, is it not Desmond Ritter? He electrified Cincinnati's football program in college. I'm not a college gal but I've done my research. I know what I know. I asked Hamilton these things. 44 and six I believe in his career. He dazzled in the pre-draft process at every step with charisma. He was the mature one coming out of the draft that I talked about all season. He had the arm talent, all of that. And in the pre-season he looked good. He was making last second game winning throws and that we all watched because we were so curious. I'm excited to see what he can do out there and we'll see if he has enough to get those falcons over that aforementioned hump. And if he does, what does it mean for Ritter's future? It's just something that we're not talking about enough because we are all focused on the playoff picture and the top dogs and those stories and what they haven't done. But Ritter needs to be getting enough love. And I know there's other things that I'm not talking about. So let me know at Up and Atom Show. I believe Carmen Vitale is here. She's with Fox Sports. She's incredible and she's in LA. So we're gonna break down some tape. We're gonna talk trenches, baby. Mike, it says first guest. My favorite guest today. It's been to a little shade of Choms. Sorry. He's like here, isn't he? Isn't he gonna be? He's on the show, yeah. People think Choms and I are in love. It's very awkward. Have you seen this? Yeah, absolutely. There's like four million views on me jokingly, shooting my shot. I think everybody's shipping you. But I know, but why don't know why? And I don't, and I didn't think it was that funny and then all of a sudden four million views later, I said, NBA Twitter, wow. I was not ready for NBA Twitter. You spent six years covering the Buccaneers, including of course their 2020 Super Bowl championship season and now you're with the NFC North reporting for Fox Sports. How are you making light of the season? It's amazing in the NFC North. Yeah, well, it's a lot of fun in not a lot of winning ways though. I think, as somebody said on Twitter, that it's the most fun they've had watching bad football and I have to agree. Okay. But now- That's bright, that's the line. No, I know, I know. There's lines to the best story. This was pre-Lions and now the Lions and I'm like, what bad football? Yeah. The NFC North is just- No, we do on our show and I'm not having fun. I'm a crabby today. I think I, you know what I did? I took like a little night quill last night and then I woke up and I'm like, did the, have you ever done that? No. Okay, I couldn't sleep last night. Can we have some champagne? Got some. Champagne. That's what we do when we make, are we telling you a beer? What can I get you? No, absolutely. This is so fancy. Some shamps is great. Some shamps. Oh, it's cold. When you say fancy, I just want you to know, this is the CVS bottom shelf. I love that it's, what time is it? It's like, it's eight something in the morning. Fourteen. Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want me to like fake it and put a splash of orange juice in there? So it seems acceptable. No, I want a little dropper. The most is they're such a joke that are like, oh, we're going to put some juice in here. This is good. It's okay that you drink it in the morning. Okay, I want to talk about the Lions because they beat the Vikings. I cannot believe that they're four and one. They're four and one. They've only lost one in their last five. They're top five in total yards, points per game. I'm a huge Jared Goff supporter in Stan and I love him. I think he gets credit. What are you digging into when you're seeing the tape? So, I mean, yeah, Jared Goff has a more than sufficient quarterback at this point and now he's got weapons. More than sufficient. More than sufficient. No, I mean, because I think that he had a bad rock coming out of LA and everyone's like, oh, you know, the Stafford trade. Everyone was like, oh, the Rams made out on this and they won a Super Bowl for it. I think they'd redo it any day of the week. But now, Jared Goff is becoming something that is fantastic for the Lions. It's just what they need. He's got a ton of weapons now around him. Jameson Williams comes back and yeah, he hasn't gotten a lot of work quite yet but he got his first touchdown last game and what he's doing is making defenses account for yet another person. So you've got DJ Chart, you've got Amon Ross. And they're healthy. You've got, they're all healthy and you've got a great offensive line for Jared Goff to sit there behind, so. Are we looking at some tape here? Yeah, so this will happen on Sunday. It was a 48 yard pass to DJ Chart. The accuracy with which this ball is thrown by Jared Goff too is super impressive. He sees that he's got outside leverage. DJ Chart has outside leverage on his defender and then he puts it right over the top, right ahead of him, just a little bit. The ball placement is perfect, boom. Chart wasn't up and out of sleeper last week, by the way. Is he confident or is he pissed? Like when both? Probably both, yeah. I find him, I'm like, oh, scorched earth on everyone. I think every quarterback finds ways to have a chip on their shoulder regardless of if they have a reason to or not but I think that in Jared Goff's case he absolutely has a reason to. And now, yeah, and he's confident. His coaches are doing him a lot of favors. The penisual thing was, made me think of, oh, see? Yeah, so, can we see it? Let's just take a look up. Can we just show this beautiful man? Look at the athleticism. Look at the absolute. I mean, wow, he hit him. Okay, hold on. Look at that, he makes contact with the ball, he puts both hands up, he knows how to catch clearly, goes out into a route. I mean, this is the jumbo personnel that the Lions were running quite a bit. Penisual, huge, huge fan. We gotta get our jersey here. Now it looks like Aaron Rodgers just might have found his receiver. I was there for the first game, scoring touchdowns, you could see. Speaking of confidence and being pissed, like, he was ready to break out and then he never really looked back if you're thinking about it. So, Christian Watson looks incredible. Let's look at some video here. Did he do anything to prove that he could be the guy that Aaron Rodgers should stay and be the guy with him? I mean, he's consistent now. I mean, this guy, he's catapulted up the production charts. He's got the most touchdowns of any rookie in the league. It really was before the bye week. And I mean, like, narrow Aaron Rodgers, you can see just completely and implicitly trusts him because even if he drops a pass these days, it's not like it takes the entire game for Aaron Rodgers to go back to him like it was earlier in the season. He trusts him enough to keep going to him and Christian Watson is, I mean, he's validating every single thing that these guys thought about him and especially coming out of North Dakota State. I think it just took him a little while. Do you think that Aaron's now gonna think I should stay? So he actually kind of alluded to that a couple of weeks ago. He said, he talked about, he did this long-winded answer like Aaron Rodgers always does. And he talked about how when he was at Cal, he had the opportunity if he would have come back one more year to play with Marshall Lynch and Deshaun Jackson on the same team. And he says he doesn't necessarily regret it, but he would have liked to have done that. Interesting. Christian Watson is one of those type of players for him is what he said. So it sounds like he's a player worth coming back for Green Bay. Do you think he is? And he is, he absolutely is. He's a very exciting young player. Do you love the draft potentially? All right, we're gonna step out of the NFC North for a bit. You cover the Buccaneers. I know you play close attention to them, even though you're not there anymore. I'm such a fangirl for them now. Are you even right now? I mean, those are my guys. I have to be. Listen, they're making themselves one dimensional in offense. And that's the one thing that you can't have. You can't beat yourself that way, especially when your line is still, I think it all kind of catapulted from the offensive line and all of the restructuring there because of Jensen's injury. And they just didn't quite recover and they couldn't, they can't run this offense the same way they could run it last year. What's up with the play calling? Again, it's one dimensional. Like you're not running, I know that these runs aren't working, but that doesn't mean you should stop trying. You should try and maybe, you know, diversify the run scheme a little bit more. But I mean, it's not all on that either. I just, I don't know that Brady should be throwing 50, 55 times a game every game. Why did they keep, but he's never done that. So I don't even know what's going on. You can also like wire him and Mike Evans to be at one another. Mike is going through, honestly, last year was interesting too, because Mike had a lot of production, scoring production. And I feel like a lot, even before that, he didn't necessarily have the touchdown numbers, but he would have the yardage numbers. I mean, this guy started his career with 8,000 yard seasons. And I think that that's kind of flipped a little bit, but the chemistry is just, yeah, there's something that's just not there. And I don't know whether it's because Brady's, people are getting to Brady early, teams are getting to Brady early, and he's just kind of thrown off for the rest of the game. Because that can happen, again, not behind an offensive line. But they figured things out in the absence of Ryan Jensen, but then you've had injuries to both tackles. And I mean, Tristan Worf's being out, that cannot be an understatement. I think the Panthers are gonna win the division. Do you really? Yeah. You don't? I don't want to admit that that's a possibility. I think it's such a fun possibility. I really do. I really do, and then I think Tom will go somewhere else next year. What a hot take. You don't? I mean, it's not a hot take. It is a hot take. Really? I don't know. Does he want to start all the way over, though? That's my thing. He's certainly hit the reset button in different ways all this year. Well, that's a great point. Apparently we are gonna go back to the NFC North. I was going in the order of the cards, which we're out of order, but so is our show. So it's, all right. Let's go back to the Vikings. They're 10 at three right now, right? They lose to the Lions, which he just talked about. It's their defense that's been tragic. And I talked to Chris Carter, a legend about this when he was on my show, and he sort of suggested that it's a personnel issue, I believe, and said, people want to fire the defense coordinator. I asked him, and he said, don't fire him, he's a good guy. What do you think of his defense? He is a good guy. And I think when you talk about defenses and the story of defense in the league, Adon and Tell, his name is gonna come up every single time because he's been in the league forever. But I think one of the things that, A, they were really unhealthy for a while. They finally got their starters back in the secondary. That secondary was very beat up for a long time. But there aren't as many adjustments as you'd like to see. And I think that even players have started to kind of voice those displeasures. What do you mean, who's talking? When they lost to the Cowboys, there were some comments floating around from both offensive and defensive players about the lack of adjustments that were made in that game, especially. And then, I mean, you see, they run a lot of this cover too, the too high shell. And what that gives you is these underneath opportunities. And so teams can kind of dink and dunk. And this is stuff like, if you see in the Lions game, this is something that, I mean, you got these guys back at third and 12, and you do a short pass right over the middle, right into that underneath zone, and you let the Lions convert. And so it's these third downs, these like little plays, like, they're very good or they're not good about having all this stuff kind of open under the middle. And you can kind of beat them as you go down the field. It's gonna take you a little bit. I mean, for Justin Jefferson to have a career high day, and then he's like the toast of the town. Right. And then... 223 yards, and you're gonna let that go. And you're gonna lose. Yeah. That has to... Kirk threw for 425 yards. So that, I mean, wouldn't you be upset? Yeah, and I mean... And then you have that sort of drama to work through when you have a first year head coach. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of what happened with the Lions earlier in the year, where their offense was scoring a ton of points. They were averaging 35 points a game. Defense was giving up 35.1. Should we talk about my bears? Yeah, we can talk about them. It's a good thing. Honestly, I'm encouraged what she's just gonna... Okay, well, toast to that. Encourage is a good word. No, listen, they've got everything out of it. They'll tell you. Brian and Marshall, all I said was all season, all we're looking for is bright spots from Justin Fields to show he's the future and he was gonna give me something to hang on to. Give me something to hang on to. And granted, they're eliminated, but Justin Fields, I mean, 905 yards rushing, eight touchdowns, he takes over the game in certain points. He's obviously hopefully gaining confidence, which I think is the thing that really needs to happen these young quarterbacks. What does he have to improve and size him up after almost a whole season of action? Yeah, I mean, what I wanted to see out of him, we know he can run, he's a dynamic runner, he's fantastic, but what I wanted to see out of him was more reps in the passing game and to have him see the whole field, to get through his progressions and to choose to throw the ball. And this is a really good example against the Packers, where he kind of scrambles out, he had just run on second and 11, got nowhere, third and 10, he knows he has to make up some ground. So he scrambles, stops himself before the line of scrimmage and then throws the ball because he sees Colcomette open and I love getting Colcomette more involved in that receiving game because I think he's a really reliable guy or can be a big body target, someone that Justin could really lean on in those situations. So seeing that was the most encouraging thing that I could have seen from Justin Fields was because he actively chose not to run the ball. And again, he's coming off the injury, so I think they're being a little bit, they're being a little ginger with him, but I think that having him see the field like that, even when he's on the run, even when he scrambles and he doesn't just take off. So this is like a three-year project because now the Lions look great, like what is the, and the Lions are always like, we want to find our quarterback, they might have him already. With the amount of cap space they have, with the amount of draft capital they're going to have this off season, this is a rebuild like that's going into warp speed. I really think that by next season, you're going to look at a wildcard spot or they're going to be very firmly in the hunt. You can call, yeah. Are they going to be, you know, like, old takes exposed can get me out of there later. I'll take Brad and I'll take, we love you. Eagles this week. Could this be one of those? I don't think so. No, why? So here's why, because I think it could. The Eagles don't really have anything left to prove, right? So that's kind of where you fall into these traps. But if you're talking Jalen Hertz and you're talking the MVP race, Jalen Hertz still has everything to prove and you want him to go out and dominate and you want him to. And so I think that he has everything to play for and he has every reason to just put a herding on a team that he's supposed to hurt on. Because his name is Jalen Hertz. The Chicago Bears could upset the Eagles if what? The what? The Chicago Bears could upset the Eagles if what? If Jalen Hertz gets hurt. Oh no! No, let's take a break and we'll be back. You and I are going to do some mystery stuff. No. We're going to be detectives. Listen, when you get two girls together, we can solve the rules. Anything. Got a dub. Five in a row. Whoa! You're playing for me, man. It's like great. What's up? I'm more proud of this group of men right here in this locker room. Great job, man. This week's finish will pay dividends. Enjoy it. I know we've got a bigger thing coming forward. It feels different. The work and the results speak to that. Keep doing it. We'll stack another one this week. Family on three. One, two, three. Man, the jacks look good to you. How happy was Jalen Hertz before you called the first interview? Shut up! No, it's not. I didn't mean to put that in the universe. I just meant to say. I mean, his name kind of puts it into the universe. Put it in the wall. OK, yeah, that's fair. I don't feel that way anymore. As long as Marissa forgives you. And she does. And she does. We love locker rooms celebrations. We also love having Carmen Vitali here. She covers the NFC North. For Fox Sports, we are very lucky to have you. Now, Carmen, it is my personal belief that no one, no one can sleuth out info. And investigate faster than two women working together in tandem. Ask any guy who's been caught cheating, cheating or acting up. The FBI should be made up entirely of women. We are assault, yes. And so this is me playing the role of Charlie Day. Oh, my God. And we're about to break down. We play off picture conspiracy style. Are you ready to join me? Absolutely. I love conspiracy. Let's do it. I don't even think we're doing conspiracy. Oh, OK. Instead of we're doing like villains. I don't know. This is the mess we're working on. Well, is this SVU? Are we law and order? I don't know. Are we Olivia and Benson? Oh, my God. We're Olivia and Benson. Adam Zatali on the case. I think we need our own theme song. Can I hear what we got? What is this? What's the theme music? All right. It's very like Pink Panther-y. All right. Let's crack the case here. Cracking the playoff case and the playoff picture right now. All right. Let's do it. Here are the main suspects. I'm talking you know that they're bad. The jokers, the Thanos, the Darth Baters, the guy you're dating that has two cell phones. You know they're guilty. They are the top dogs. You've got the Eagles, the Vikings, the Niners, and the Buccaneers. They all lead their divisions. OK. And that's where we have it. The Eagles, by the way, they can clinch the one seed as soon as this week. And if they beat the Bears and the Vikings and Niners, both lose. Important to know. OK. Then you've got the NFC East. These are the tortured antagonists. Are they good or the bad? Do you love them? You're Walter Weitz. You're Captain Jack Sparrow. Tony Sopreno. Yes. You kill people for a living. But we like you. We like you. You love Carmen. Carmella. Carmella. Omar, a little. Are you good or are you bad? Yeah, these are the cowboys. You've gotten them to make the club, or you've gotten them to be scary. The commanders, the Giants, they're all in wild card spots. And that tie, by the way, is working for the Giants and commanders. It's the reason both NFC E-squads are seven to five and won the Seahawks on the outside at seven and six. So that game ended in anything, Carmen. Other than a tie, Seattle would be in the wild card spot. Yeah, we shouldn't condone ties. We shouldn't condone ties. This is a woman after my own heart. Now there's a couple. You know, like, the guy that has two cell phones in the sketch. And then he does this with it. I hate this guy. I hate dating this guy. Oh, hey. Oh, put it down. Put it all your face down. We know what you're doing. Like, we know what you're doing, what are you doing? I can't see your mom's beautiful emojis, flowers and hearts. Yeah, we know what you're doing. Any guy who does this. Or the guy with the do not disturb. Yes, I don't even know that guy. My boyfriend does this, though. And I don't like it. And I don't want to turn that thing on. I want to see it. Now there's the co- I'm kidding, baby. I love you. Now there's a couple of eyewitnesses that are giving us some info, and they want to see if they can get a spot in the playoffs. And so one of those teams, you cover for Fox Sports, and it is the Detroit Lions. Do you think that they have a solid enough alibi to keep them out of trouble and into the playoffs? I mean, I think so. This is a team that is averaging a ton of points per game. And now this defense has come on. And in the last few games, I think they're giving up. They're down to, like, a league bottom. No, no, bottom half of the league still. But they were, like, dead last as far as points given up. So now they're, like, 24 points a game or 20 points a game, something like that. But that being said, have you seen their schedule? No, can we see it? Yeah. This is what they like to call it. These are receipts. They're schedule coming up. The remaining schedule, they've got the Jets. They've got the Panthers. They've got the Bears. And they've got the Packers. These are all winnable games for the way that the Detroit Lions are playing right now. They're playing playoff football right now. OK. So, I mean, we'll see what I guess the Jets. That would be so fun. I'd be very into that. I would, too, because I think that it would validate everything that this coaching staff and everybody has said. And Dan Campbell has said this entire season. Nobody gave them a chance when they started one. I think we should investigate literally every playoff picture this way. But ask me a question about a suspect. Well, the plot thickens a little bit here, because not only do the Lions have a chance, Kay, you already mentioned it, the Carolina Panthers. Now there is. Tell me about that. Well, I like the Panthers, but there's also a prime suspect, if you will. Down in Tampa, the team that you covered. Like Tom Brady, that's what it's. Can you ever rule him out? He's in every lineup. He just stays there. He lives at the season station. He is inevitable. He just, he is inevitable. It's so true. He just stays there and he's always, like, right under your thumb. But I will say that there is a case that is mounting for the Panthers. And it's on offense and defense. I love a complete team, Carmen. I just, I do. And here's what's going on. They're a game back of the Bucks in the NFC South. But they have some momentum. They've won three or four. Their run game is working. Christian McCaffrey leaves and you think, oh, the sky is going to fall. And no, they're the sixth best rushing team since trading Christian McCaffrey away. And, I mean, Sam Donald hasn't turned the ball over. Two-star hasn't, what did you say? Sufficiently good? It's sufficiently okay? It was the fishing quarterback. Listen, mid-quarterbacking is so hot right now. Like if we, give me the six out of ten. Who would have thought addition by subtraction by getting rid of Christian McCaffrey? Isn't that strange? It's so strange. That's like one conundrum that I don't know if we can even figure out. I can figure it out. It's Wilkes. It's Wilkes. It's not about McCaffrey, it's Wilkes coming in and doing his thing. And then you look at the defense side of things. I wanted to show you guys my evidence here. See, I do work too. Over this four-game run, the Panthers have the third best total in scoring defense in the league. Brian Burns has four and a half sacks in that time. J.C. Horn is the mayor of shutdown city according to our very own Darius Butler. Jeremy Chin is healthy and balling. And just everything is working right now. And I want to show you the schedule. I see your Detroit Lions schedule. And take a look at this. So this is the fifth easiest, strong possibility that New Year's Day. But they have to play Detroit. That's true. And the New Year's Day game in Tampa could decide this whole thing. But like, is Brady single now and like going to Miami for a new year? I mean, the traffic alone in Miami on New Year's, I've been there, done that. We'll not get him to Tampa Bay in time for the New Year's Day game. Yeah, I think he's the type that now like he has all the time to himself and he holds up like in his little office, his little like football layer. And he just like sits there. Not what TikTok says. I'm kidding, I don't know. I just made that up. I literally just made that up. I just, and by the way, like I'm not, I've even think I just like hate men. It's not true, but it's very, like if you look at TikTok, all it is, or like any crime show and any like actual thing going on in the world on court TV, like you put a group of girlfriends together Oh yeah. with a glass of champagne. And we've got it for you. I'm on receipt talk. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm on receipt talk. I don't know what that is, but we'll tell me after this, you can catch her on Fox Sports covering all things NFC, North Carmen Battaglia were the absolute best. You look gorgeous. And you cover the game incredibly. And I always learned some things. Oh, you're so sweet. And now you've got me here. Oh, I'm a bubbly before Shams. I was gonna say. That's all I needed. I'm a bubbly before Shams. What a show. Shams to K. I'm back says Ovo Brando. Listen, I was introduced to a thing called NBA Twitter recently and it is a wild ride. And I quite enjoyed it. And I enjoy it. And so it continues. Let's bring in our NBA King, senior NBA insider for the Athletic Stadium co-host and stadium. And you're the co-host for running back on Fandal TV Shams. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm wondering if this show will do the same numbers it did last time. I mean, you're just blowing it up right now. Me? The numbers this show is doing. I mean, gotta give it up to you and the producers, Richard, all the other people. Richard. I didn't do anything. Shams, last time you and I were together. I had a little fun with you and we set the internet on fire, like four million views, something like that. Why did that happen? Explain this to me. I don't know. But you know what? I'll say it happened organically. So I'll give the internet credit for that. I was just, you know, enjoying my Thanksgiving week. I'm sure you are too. You know, I was in cold, cold Chicago, which you know very, very well. Yes. So yeah, I mean, you know, I guess shout out to organic play online. Organic play online. It's interesting that you say that because we're going to dig into this a little bit. Basically, I made a joke about you and I like starting a family together. Is that what I said? Whatever I said, it looked like I was shooting my shot at you, which maybe I was, maybe I wasn't, but the internet went crazy with it. And I just want you to explain to me, what is a Riz, God? I honestly don't know. I still don't know. I've been reading tweets about it. I've tried, you know, my brother's 20. Let's look at that. You know, I asked him about it. I don't know. Okay. No, no, no, no. Oh, I know. Let's look up Riz, God. I don't know if we can pull up Urban Dictionary. Oh, I am. Here it is. To be one with the ability to spit immense game with ease towards a female and make them fall into a charm over you. Because all I got was Riz, God, Riz, God, Riz, God, Trump's is the man, Riz, God. So now you know what it is. I mean, maybe I'll take it. I don't know. I don't know. At least they're not hating on me, you know. I'll take that. Do you know what's the funniest thing about it is that, because it really did for anybody who didn't see millions and millions of views, which I was shocked by. But a lot of people said, man, shams, cause I think you're just, you know, you do your job so well, you give out the news, you do all these things, Insider scoops, all of that. And there were a lot, too many people said, I didn't know shams had game like that. So what would you like to say to all those people tweeting that they don't think you have game like that? I mean, listen, I just focus on work. So I'm not here to speak on my game. I'm gonna let them say what they want to say, you know. That the game speaks for itself. I love it. I saw you on McAfee talking about the whole hoop central thing. So hoop central isn't, I mean, this is our trust tree. This is you and me. Like, did you tweet out that video of you and me? That was, I can't remember which account that was on. It might have been on, I think the one that got like four million viewers was on, NBA central. So that's not the one that you run. I mean, I run my account, I'm doing my work at the athletic and fan duel and stadium. And then I also run all these other accounts with millions of viewers. I got that time. I got that juice. I'll take it. I'll take all the copies. Have you ever heard of an intern? Have you ever heard of the idea of outsourcing shams? It's not a very good answer. Kay, I'm a one man show. This is, I don't trust many people. So I'm just going to stick to being a one man operation. Shams, do you have two phones? One phone. One phone. I don't know if we ever talk about this on the show. Okay. I'm very loyal when it comes to like my phone. I've thought and tried about the two phone thing. I can't do two, you know? You can't. I'll always feel like one is being neglected and I just feel bad, you know, on the inside. So I just, I just stick with that. When you're with like a group of friends or a date, do you put your phone down at the table? No, I mean, my phone is always going to be out. Like I'll like, I think I said to you when I was in LA like I've left, you know, whether it's social settings, dates, 20, 25 minutes, 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes it goes well. Sometimes it doesn't. But usually people, people mostly are understanding but there are moments where, you know, people do get upset but. Yeah. And I was just curious like I was just, I hate when guys do this. I think it's sketchy when guys put their phone down at the table like this. Marissa knows what I'm talking about. Why is that sketchy though? What do you mean? What if they're just trying to like, what if they're just trying to focus on the conversation? Then put your phone in your pocket or something. I don't like it like when, because you can't turn it over as a, like you can't like, I don't know, like if you're having a sleepover to have the guy put the phone down on the bed stand or something like, I've just never enjoyed that and now I'm sweating. So now we're going to continue with this. Here's something, Riz, God. It might be like emotional for them where it's like they have it in front of them and it's like that sense of comfort and security, but then you also don't want to look at it. So I don't know. I'm just trying to come up with reasons right now. Shoms, there is God. That's why he is, that's why he's the Riz God. Okay, so you, one thing that did work out is that the first time you were ever on Up and Adams you picked a team for me to root for in the NBA because I don't pay attention and you picked the Pelicans and that's a great fit because I love the Saints and support them. And how I understand they're doing quite well. Yeah, they're 18 and nine. Last night was a tough loss for them, but Zion Williamson, who Pat loves, like will always like, Zion Williamson has to be a topic on the Pat McAfee show every time I go on. So shout out, Zion Williamson, shout out, Pelican. Like literally they will, yeah, like Pat will ask me about Zion every single show, every single time, even when he's not playing what's the update? So my job is to give the Zion Williamson update. So I'm always on top of that. But I think he's playing at a really, really high level. And the good thing about them is that they've been without different players in their lineup and they're still playing well. So, okay, I think we all, Christmas time's coming up. We just got to pray that they stay healthy, bringing them out right now, hopefully get them back on the floor. And Zion Williamson is healthy. This is like the healthiest stretch he's had in two seasons. So keep them on the floor. That's gonna be very, very important. But like last night, he is so good on the ball now and he's a six foot six physical specimen. The NBA has never seen before. I think him playing on the ball for this team, he's kind of like a point forward which makes him really, really dynamic. Well, he's averaging 25 points a game this year, I see. He's eighth in the league in player efficiency rating and he is all the way healthy. So I'm in on Zion and in the Pelicans. Because you've got that right and you're on a heater here, Riz God. Who's the biggest name swirling out there on the trade market that I need to keep my eye on? I think Boyan Bogdanovich. So he's a guy in Detroit. He's 33 years old. He signed an extension before the start of the season. And he's always been really, really productive, averaging 20 points a game, multiple seasons in the past. But I think right now for that, it's a Detroit team that's rebuilding, Kate Cunningham's out for the season. They probably got their eyes set on Victor Wemben-Yama. So to get potentially a first round pick in the marketplace for him, I think it's going to be very important to see if they do open up. But right now they're telling teams we have no interest in moving him. I've reported this week on Running Back and other shows. They've gotten a protected first round pick offer from the Lakers. So we'll see if they end up going that direction at some point this year. But the Lakers need shooting. Boyan Bogdanovich makes sense. I would definitely keep my eye on it. I love that. And I know Christmas is, I don't know anything about the NBA, but I do know Christmas is it, right? It's the biggest day in the NBA calendar. Let's take a look at these matchups. There's five huge ones. Which one pops out to you that I need to be looking at the most? Buck Celtics looks good. No shortage of drama there, yeah? I love the Buck Celtics game. I love all these games. I think they all have super fascinating storylines. But to me, the Bucks and Celtics, that's the matchup that I think last year we got. There was no Chris Middleton, Milwaukee, and everyone around that organization. They really believe they could have went back-to-back in championships if Chris Middleton was healthy last year. He did not play in the second round series because of a grade two MCL sprain. So he's gonna be back. That matchup is amazing. And I think the Grizzlies and Warriors, that Memphis team right now, John Morant, shout out John Morant. He's gonna get his own Nike signature shoe coming up. But that Memphis team is coming. And they're coming fast. And I think the Warriors, they're obviously that veteran team, tough loss for them last night. That's gonna be a very fun game as well. He's averaging, Morant's averaging like 27, I like numbers, 27.7 points a game this season. And with the Bucks and Celtics, Celtics is super interesting because they're doing it under an interim coach, right? Or maybe if not so interim because he might keep that job, yeah? They're number one. Yeah, Joe Mozullo is the interim coach by name, but that's the guy that Brad Stevens has put his confidence in. Like there's very, very, very low likelihood that they're gonna go another direction. They've gone all in on him. The players love him. The team loves him. I would expect Eme Yudoka to find a new home at some point this summer. Are you gonna put Riz God in your Twitter bio? I mean, will ask the fans, do they want me to? I don't know. I think it needs to be. I get it so often I should put it in my bio. I might put Shams as the Riz God in my Twitter bio at this point. Here's, I was on your Twitter feed yesterday and I understand the NBA renamed some awards that have been around forever, including the MVP. That blew up. Yeah, after Michael Jordan. Well, here's what I still don't get. Why do this? Why switch the names and awards now? I don't get it. I think some level of consistency, they have the Bill Russell award for the finals MVP. They have the Kobe Bryant All Star award. They have the Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Conference Finals MVP award. So kind of that level of consistency. But I think honestly, for more people I talk to around the league, it's really marketability. Like being able to market these awards off of these legends names, like that's, I mean, that's definitely an avenue that I think you're seeing Adam Silver in the league go down. So we'll see from a marketing perspective how that helps them. We'll see. I mean, you put that news up. Of course Shams the insider as you are. I hate to inform you of this, but I'm a better insider than you. When I'm the Riz goddess, as I found K-Adams even more new NBA awards that Shams didn't know about. And those are ones that I'm gonna hit you with here. I need some answers. These are your- Are you breaking news to me now? I am. I really am. Is that what's happening? How does that feel? Okay, okay. Let me put my phone down. I mean, it doesn't happen more. It doesn't happen often. Yeah. But don't put your phone down. Just put your phone in your pocket, K, come on. Listen, anybody can go through my phone. The world knows my password on my phone. I'm an open book. Here's one that you didn't report on. It's the Charles Barkley Award. And that is the NBA player most likely to host Saturday Night Live more than once. Who's that? Well, I'm gonna go with Giannis. His personality is electric. He's got the accent. He's got everything. He's full of jokes. He's got dad jokes, like corny jokes. He's the man when it comes to that. Kevin Durant probably a close second to me, but Giannis is up there. And I will say, you can't just have a personality. You need the clout. Like you need something to back it up. And he has the ring, of course. He's also averaging a career high 31.1 points a game this season. That's right, Charles. I have numbers for you today. All right, how about what we're calling Pete? You love numbers, but Giannis also has the jokes. Like if you're gonna give a monologue for Saturday Night Live, like you need, I think, good context, good jokes, and I think he's got that. I love that. There might be dad jokes, but he's got it. I love that. Okay, 12th man award. This is the most underrated NBA fan base. I think Toronto. I went there in 2019 during the finals. That fan base is crazy. They've got a super fan. They call him Nav Batia. Like he's always courtside, dapping up the Raptors players and other opposing teams players. Drake is always courtside as well when you go to big Raptors games, but he's been there for 20, 30 years sitting in courtside ever since the Raptors came into form. So that's probably the guy I would go with. Drake still hanging out of there. Is that not cool anymore? I don't know. Where's Drake still going in those games? No? No. I think he's an ambassador for the team. They've got his logo on the Prax of Soty, so he's there. I like that you mentioned this guy instead. All right, 13 and 14, though. Slow start for those Raptors. They're ninth place in the Eastern Conference, so let's get this thing going. Pascal, Pascal? Pascal Siakam. Pascal Siakam, I don't know who. I've literally never heard that name. I feel like this is going to be a basketball show by the time the season's over and next year starts. This might turn into a basketball show. I need to come on and run it back. I don't think you could handle Beedle and I. You do need to do that. We've got to make that happen. Beedle and I would be a little too much for even the Rizkot to handle. OK, how about the White Lotus Award? I know you don't have time to watch any shows, but this is the team with the most drama. Well, I've seen you tweeting about it, so I think I've got to get on that show. Like, I've seen your tweets. You incessantly promote that show, so I've got to get on it. I've got to watch that show. I think that to me, though, the Hawks, they're the team. I reported on it last week. We spoke about it on Run It Back. Trey and Nate McMillan had a disagreement at Chuduram a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't show up to the game, given a couple of choices. He decides not to go to the game. And I think that is going to be a storyline and a topic for the remainder of the season. Kay, how many times in the NFL have you seen a guy, I guess, disagree with the coach and then literally not come to the game when given a choice either to show up and be on the bench? Well, we had Antonio Brown in early for a couple of years. So I would say paper covers rock. No, but that's his A-B's his own category, though. You got to, you know, give me someone else. I will say this. I will say, it's not just the Knicks that have beef with Trey Young, but apparently, because that's what you told me that, you know, do you tell me all about that when I was going to the Knicks game last month? Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, I think that this will blow over. I think that the Hawks are now trying to move on. They got to get guys back in the lineup. But definitely a storyline and keeping on as the year goes on. That's probably your white lotus award. I got to get on that show. Okay, so you and I will watch white lotus. It's a date. Riz got it up, send the gifts and the memes, get the whole thing going. It's all very fun. Sean, you're the best. And as you're perfectly plugging, run it back on Sanjul TV. Check it out with Beatle, Chandler Parsons. Shout out running back, Michelle Beatle, Chandler Parsons, Eddie Gonzalez. On tomorrow's show, Logan Wilson had to sit down with him. What word describes the team that will go to the Super Bowl? He'll tell you. Also, Eric Wettel stops by the show. And that's it. That's all we got. Thanks for coming over to Tally and Sean.