Patriots Dynasty Podcast - 2001 AFC Championship: Patriots at Steelers

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

Our plucky underdogs travel to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA to take on the 10-point favorite Steelers team. This game was many things, but nothing exemplified it more than the renaissance of Drew Bledsoe. Join the wine-addled brothers as they discuss the 2001 AFC Championship game.Since this is a long one, we're gonna try some chapters. Hopefully they work like they're supposed to:(1:00) Interview with Good Steve the Steeler fan.(31:06) The Brown brothers review their wine(39:59) Finally get to the game reviewHere's Greg kissing the clown picture, as promised: https://patriotsdynasty.info/sites/default/files/2020-06/greg-kissing-clown.jpegThe Belichick Breakdown of Troy Brown's PR TD: https://www.patriots.com/video/belichick-breakdown-top-plays-from-week-5-vs-tampa-bay-310211Enjoying the podcast? Can't stand it? Let us know: https://ratethispodcast.com/patspodSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/patriots-dynasty-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Christine Brown and while I have to listen to this podcast as my motherly duty, you have the choice not to. My sons, and of course Michael, sometimes say some naughty things when they're trying to be funny, but really they're just being stupid. You still want to listen? Go right ahead. I am not your mother. All right, welcome back to yet another playoff podcast, playoff, special playoff episode, I guess you could say, the Page's Dianasy podcast. This week is the 2001 AFC Championship game, which we are subtitling the Drew Bledsoe renaissance. I don't know if we are. I made that up literally right now. So nice. Yeah, glad you like it. With us today, we have the brothers again, Steve and Greg. And we also have another special guest

who I guess for this podcast, we're calling good Steve, we've decided. Well, better Steve. Bald Steve. Whoa. Yeah, either one works. Bless you, Steve. Wow. Off to a rousing start. And so, yes, less shitty Steve is a Steelers fan. So we'll let you call him what you will as listeners. So Steve, thanks for joining us. Ah, no problem. And you are, as we said, a Steelers fan. That is correct, right? You haven't been lying to everybody. 100%. No, he's like this too. And his dog is named Hines.

Indeed, Pastor Hines Ward, not after the stadium. Dude, that was what I was wondering, actually. Not after the catch up. Yes, the catch up. It's not the catch up. The dog does love food, Steve. He does love food. That's just true. But what dog doesn't? So he's named after Ben Rothesberger. No, that's the next dog. Oh, Jesus. You're going to name your next dog Big Ben or something like that? I mean, if I'm my way, yeah, but probably not going to happen. God, you got a few. It carries a negative connotation these days. Yeah, stop pumping my big Ben.

It makes it even worse because I'm an FSU fan, so I had to deal with Big Ben and James Winston. How did you get that combination? So where are you from the Pittsburgh area? My family's from Pittsburgh, so I was born there, and then we moved to Jacksonville, Florida when I was like two years old or something like that. So I just grew up watching all Pittsburgh sports with my grandpa. None of them were college fans, and I just kind of adopted Florida State growing up in Florida. Wow. That's a tough look at the draw. For like a semester, too.

Yeah, I did go there for a semester. Yeah. I know how that goes. I went to Penn State for a semester. That didn't last long. All right, so that's, I say that's reasonable. We've had some other fans on here. Last week, we had a Raiders fan on who became a Raiders fan because of hip hop. Yeah. Whoa, okay. We don't fan-based judge around here, okay? No, that's what I'm saying. It was just, I'm always curious to know how people got into this, like got into following a certain team, especially if they're not living in that area.

So it's kind of cool. All right, so we're talking about the 2001 Steelers, and before this, before we started recording, not should Steve was saying that you were what, like nine years old at the time? Yeah, I mean, I was probably, I think I was like 11 or 12. I was, I was still pretty young. You know, and I, that was like only my second or third year really following football. I remember like a couple years before that, we weren't very good. And that was the first year in Heinz's field, actually. Oh, that's right. It was.

Was that 2001 season? Yeah. Yeah, because everybody had trouble kicking in that one end zone, kicking field goals. Yeah, the open end that opens to the river there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Including Chris Brown this, this season. Our cousin. Yeah. He's here every time a Brown is mentioned. Yeah, all Browns are cousins.

That's weird, but all right. We're not cousins, Steve. You and me. That's true. I wish. A loophole. Brutal. Yeah, because I actually get up in Chris Brown. I was wondering what was going on because he made 68% of his field goals this season, which was not great. Yeah. Nope. It's like box kicker level. Yeah, it's definitely on the elbow, but he still played the whole season.

And this, I mean, I think this is his only season. Not for the Steelers. He didn't know. Okay. I think he went out to play for the Texans for a few years. It did okay because he was in a tournament. Yeah, it was short. I don't remember if there was a kicker between him and Jeff Reed, but I want to say Jeff Reed years were shortly after.

That could be him. Yeah. Yeah, he did not last long. So do you remember watching this game live, Steve? Yeah, I do, actually. I remember watching it with that whole playoff live. It was like a week before we had beaten the Ravens. They were the only loss we had had in Heinz Field that year. And that was actually Tony Sera-Guth of last game for the Ravens.

And it was actually a period he retired after that season. And then so we were the number one seed. And I remember thinking for sure we were going to go to the Super Bowl, and obviously that did not happen. Yeah. I don't think you're alone in that. Everybody thought the page was going to get stomped in this game. And the Ravens the week before, they were the defending Super Bowl champions, too.

Yep. But that was a big deal. We crushed, I think, like 27 to 10 the week before. Yeah, yeah, absolutely annihilated them. And I still remember because this was the one game I didn't watch of the playoffs because I was working at the time. Cold, brutal. Yeah, I was saying you are.

I was working at that retirement home, like in the kitchen cleaning dishes. So I had a little like portable FM radio with me and would only pick up the game in one spot in the kitchen. So I would like run to that spot in the kitchen and stand there in a certain position to make sure I got the reception and then run back and clean some dishes and keep going back and forth. So I listen to the radio sports. Yeah, it is.

So I would clean dishes between like in current commercial breaks. So this is actually the first time I watched this full game. Really? Yeah, I didn't realize, but I'm like, I don't remember any of this. Like I've seen the highlights since I've obviously a bunch of times. I don't remember like half of these plays. Yeah, because that was a thing, too. You couldn't really look up games after the fact there.

Like now we can just, you know, they'll show it on NFL replay, find it online back then. You missed the game. You fucked. You can watch Primetime on Sunday night, but it'll give you like a four minute clip. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's just highlights.

Yeah, this game is on YouTube. The beginning of the game, Gil and Gino, the radio announcers said something along the lines of, I'm happy to report that despite all the prognostications of doom, the Patriots have shown up here today and will take the field against the Steelers. And that was like how he led into this because of how heavily favored the Steelers were.

Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty, that's a pretty good Steelers team though. Like you look at that roster. Oh my God. There's a shitload of names that jump out. Do you have any favorites, Steve? Yeah. I remember, well, he didn't turn out to be my favorites,

but it was actually the first jersey I ever bought. And that was Kendra O'Dell linebacker for the Steelers. I think, yeah, I think it was rookie year. I think it was defensive rookie of the year. Yeah, I think I heard them mention that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So he's like the defensive rookie of the year that year. And I was like a huge fan. And then he had that great season kind of fizzled out and ended up in Kansas City and didn't really pan out there. I think it only played like four or five years in a week actually. What other players on that team do you have jerseys of? I had a Cordell Stewart jersey. Had a Heinz Ward jersey, which I still have actually.

I've seen that. I think that's it from that, from those years actually. All right. Oh, and Jerome Bettis actually. Oh, really? Yeah. I was, yeah. I was looking at the roster.

I'm like, oh, good. He didn't have a Bettis. And then you said that. Yeah, I had a Bettis. I don't anymore. Like that was when I was way smaller. But yeah, he's had a Bettis jersey. What is your like general like memories of Jerome Bettis?

Because he's a vintage type player, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I actually got to meet him once at a Steelers Jaguars game. I think it might have been this year, that year actually. It was like, so the Steelers were in Jacksonville. And we hung out near the buses after the game

and got to shake his hand and got his autograph on a football. But I remember I was pretty young at the time, but I just remember how massive he fricking looked. Like his legs just look like tree trunks and just like, I mean, he definitely wasn't like the prettiest running back, but he was good to get you, you know, three and a half to four yards of carry. Just straight up the gut.

And one of my favorite memories. I remember when he just absolutely trucked Brian Urlacher. Really? In a game in Chicago. So, yeah, I was a huge baddest man. Stat. Check that, Greg. Stat.

Check. Check what? I don't know. Steve's memory. Did he average 3.9 yards of carry over his career? Yeah. Okay, Steve. I think he's the only Hall of Fame running back

that average less than four yards of carry. Oh, I remember his stats were always like four carries, three yards, two touchdowns sort of thing. Yeah. Like that. He definitely had a few games like that towards the end of his career. Yeah, yeah.

What do you want to say, Greg? Oh, you want me to give you a play-by-play of the stat check? Sure. Sure. We're in the snow here from the five-yard line. Rothesburg hands it off to Bettis. Urlacher fills the gap and he just gets trucked. But it's just like stood him up and then just kept churning

until he like, it looked like a meat grinder. You just got caught underneath the bus. That's what happens. Yeah, what a great nickname. One of the all-time great football nicknames. Do one of my memories of this game actually was like, I was like 10 years old and the bus was the big nickname

going around and I remember thinking like, oh, the school bus doesn't run on Sundays. And thinking I was like the cleverest little shit ever. I was like, dad, I'm going to make a poster board. Did you? I know. I don't think I ever did it. But that's all I really would do.

Yeah. I mean, he was wearing yellow. And it was going to be like a picture of like a broken down bus. I had a whole thing that I was going to do. So, Steve. Honestly enough, he's not even the feeler's all-time leading rusher. Who is the all-time leading rusher? Wait.

All right. Let's trivia this. Let's trivia this. We can get this, guys. Franco Harris? Franco Harris would be my guess. Yeah. Yeah, it's Franco Harris.

Oh, it is. Okay. Because, yeah, the bus played his first three seasons with the Rams. Oh, that's right. He did. I forgot about those years. I had no idea about that. The LA Rams.

Yeah. That's when he was called the battering Ram. He said the bus. Oh, wow. What also a great name. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, he was a round mound of rushing herds.

Hey, it didn't rhyme. Yeah, round mound of touchdown. Jeez, Andy. That doesn't rhyme either, you fucking idiot. Is it does? It doesn't rhyme. It doesn't end with a D. Oh, okay, Andy.

That's how rhyming works. It is, you fucking goddammit. Godly. I'm not even going to look up the wire, but fuck it. Do you want me to stat check? This is stat check. This is mounding down rhyme. All right.

Uh, good, Steve. That is less shitty, Steve. He was until you guys are shitting on me. That was good, Steve. I like him better the more I talk to you. As a Steel's fan, what's your view of the Patriots? We've got a bunch of answers when we ask this question. Yeah, I mean, like, I think it's obvious I have a lot of respect for them

and what they've been able to do. Just kind of ridiculous with the success they've had. But also, like, I'd be lying if I wouldn't say it's a little bitter towards them as well, because I just think of all the Super Bowl the students would have who wasn't for fella check and Brady. So yeah, I feel the Steelers in particular have been whipping boys. Yeah, I was going to say, he's stymied more than anybody else in the playoffs. But yeah.

Yeah, for sure. We have had a great record against Pittsburgh. Yeah, especially the big ones. Oh, yeah. And in the playoffs, especially, yeah. But yeah, I mean, you even look at the two years that the Steelers won the Super Bowl with Roppersberger, we didn't play the Patriots because they got knocked out, I think, one year by the Ravens.

I'm not sure of the other year. Absolutely. But yeah, yeah. Yeah. How has knowing me changed your opinion of the Patriots? Not for the better. Oh, it made it worse. That's 100 percent true.

Wow, the Patriots have only ever played the Steelers like since like the Belichick Brady era in the AFC conference game in the AFC championship game. No, that can't be right. You've even been to two games in Pittsburgh. Yeah. And they're both those 2001, 2004 and 2016. Hey, Samuel, you were talking about the playoffs.

In the playoffs. Yeah, in the playoffs. Oh, what they meant. The only playoff games the pages of played against Steelers have been in the AFC championships. Which is probably why, for Steve, it hurts that much more because it's that last game to get into the Super Bowl. Yeah, can't get up.

Yep. And I think two of those games were in Pittsburgh, maybe. They were. I know the first two were, yeah. Yeah, four was as well, because that was that cold game when you guys had is Rothesburgers rookie year, I think. Rookie year. Yeah, they went 15 and one.

Yeah. Yep. 15 and one. And I mean, I'm not going to complain too much because they came back and won at the next year. But yeah, that's right. It would have been nice to get that one. Because that year we beat the Patriots and the Eagles.

And I think it was like within three weeks of each other. That week, the Steelers, Victor, or the Patriots was the one that broke their 21-game win streak. Oh, yeah. I remember that game. On Halloween. Yes. Yep.

How much candy did you eat, Greg, to get over that? I don't know. I remember that it was Halloween. But I don't either. But you said that more than once, I think. Oh, boy. All right. So I got a question for Good Steve.

I thought he was less shitty, Steve. He was. He's growing on us. So Bill Cower or Mike Tomlin? Who are you taking? Oh, that's tough. Honestly, I'm a big Mike Tomlin fan. I mean, I loved Cower.

But I think especially after everything that came out with Antonio Brown this year, I have a lot of respect for Mike Tomlin. And I'm just keeping that under wraps for as long as he did. That's fair. I still think he's pretty young. I think he's got more Super Bowls ahead of him. Yeah, I mean, as far as keeping a culture together,

outside of the Pats, you talk about spanning more than 10 years with having consistently winning seasons. Yeah. I mean, Patriot Steelers. Colts. Tomlin or Chuck? Yeah, I mean, obviously. What's that?

Tomlin or Chuck Noll? Well, I wasn't alive during the 70s. So I mean, obviously, Noll had a lot more success than Tomlin's had. But I can't even. Yeah, I can't even really comment on that. I don't really claim that. I'm trying to order Lance Allworth.

Well, I'm going to name my dog after Heinz Ward. I'm going to go with Heinz Ward. Like best blocking wide receiver in NFL history. Yeah, I have to say, after watching this game, I remember the fury that he would instill in me. He was one of those guys that I think kind of like the Rodney Harrison of the team, where you fucking love him if he's on your team. He's playing against me like that fucking dirty fuck.

I hope he stays in bounds. Oh, yeah, he was one of the people all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, oh, yeah. I mean, I think he broke Keith Rivers' jaw. Like you're talking a linebacker for the Bengals. Right. Yeah.

I mean, he was just he was vicious. Didn't that kind of start the whole like Steelers-Bengals feud, too? I mean, not really the Bengals still sucks for a few more years. Yeah, but the game's raw is like super chippy after that, though. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I mean, they actually the NFL changed the rules because of Heinz Ward with a lot of those blocks. So you couldn't get away today with like what he used to do.

So I mean, Juju Smith, Schuster's still doing it to what the fuck? Yeah, and he got a suspension for it. But I'm OK with that because Blanc has a perfect piece of shit. That was yes. And then he stood over him. I think that's what got him the suspension. Perfect. Probably had that coming.

Oh, yeah. I was watching that game with you, Steve, that playoff game against the Bengals. And perfect. Oh, yeah. We were in it and we mago whatever it was. Yeah. You know what the super hot that too.

You know what the pop culture, the equivalent of that is, is of the the Vontes perfect thing is Weinstein getting coronavirus. Where you're like, yeah, I don't want to see it happen to anybody, but it's always going to happen to someone. That's the guy. That asshole. That's a good one, Greg. I like that.

That's a great. It's a deep cut, but you got there. I was worried. That's why I had to interrupt. Whoever interrupted. Appreciate it. All right, let's see. All right, so here's a question for you.

Uh, we haven't had great luck. Well, I haven't had great luck asking this question to other people because we've been asking Panthers and Raiders fans. There weren't any. But do you have a favorite Patriots stealer game? Oh, yeah, I mean, actually, I mean, unfortunately it didn't turn out that great for us for the season. But the game two years ago on the Heinz field,

where the Steelers wanted it with an interception by Joe Hayden at the end of the game. Because I was actually at that game. So it was a blast. It's a good game to be at. Yeah, me and shitty Steve were there. So Steve, you might have a new name. We were also at the year before when Rottisberger fakes picked it.

And that is probably my like, other than the AFC championship game, that is definitely like my least favorite. I was red hot. I came with crazy. Which AFC championship game? But this was, no, that wasn't the AFC championship game. I said, other than the AFC championship games,

you have a which one? Because there's three where we beat you. Yeah, three times. Shit, probably, yeah. They were a game away. So this was like number four. I didn't watch it. What's that?

Is this like that was that fake spike one, the fourth one, or? Your fourth least favorite. Like my fourth least favorite. Right, right. Or does one of the AC championships really stick out as like? Oh, I mean, definitely 2004 really sticks out. Like, yeah, I mean, we're 15. And when I thought we were going all the way.

Yeah. I mean, even even in 2001, these this stealer team was a fucking wagon. Yeah. Yeah, defense is a jet. Yeah, I had it here. They were first in rushing yards and like rushing defense in both yards and touchdowns.

Like they were fucking unstoppable on the ground. And yet in this game, it felt like they just didn't even run it for whatever reason. Like they came out slinging the ball. Yeah, I don't. Yeah. I didn't get in court. I'll see it through three intercepts if I think of that game.

Yeah, we'll get there. He was like, whoa. You want to know my favorite Patriots stealers game? Yes. 1996 fog bowl. Oh, remember that? No. Barely.

I do not know. It was the Patriots first ever home playoff game. Drew Bledsoe and Tyrone Glenn. Yes. Versus Neil O'Donnell and the Steelers. Holy shit, Neil O'Donnell. The guys didn't have enough of a lift. Yeah, Greg Lloyd.

Remember Greg Lloyd, the linebacker for the Steelers? Linebacker. Yeah. Dude, Steelers linebackers. They're a different breed, I feel like, because they always have that like cool, like predator face mask. They all do for some reason.

The black helmets. Yeah. And they're just like fucking terrifying looking people. Just wait till we get J.J. Watt next year on the other side. It's E.J. Watt. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, I saw that article, but I didn't read it because it looked shitty.

What is the rumor going around, though? I don't think there's real any legs to it, but there is. I mean, we got his brother. We got two of the brothers now. And I think J.J. would love to play for the Steelers. Just kind of what you hear, you know, a message board or whatever, but I just don't really think it'll happen.

I don't know. I don't think we did that. Trade him for a bag of practice balls or something like that. That's just kidding. This is true. I mean, you are dealing with Bill O'Brien here. So like, maybe we could just offer them like, you know, shoot. I don't even know.

Yeah. He gives like a six round ticket. You know, Brown's expiring contract. Yeah. Speaking of which, like, thank God for the Raiders. Like, we absolutely hooked into town with both Brown and frickin' Martavis Bryant the last three years. Oh, shit.

That's right. I forgot about the Martavis Bryant thing. Man. So basically the Raiders are where wide receivers go to die, basically, right? Yep. Yeah, rainy moss. You have rainy moss as well, yeah.

And Jerry Rice, to a certain extent. Yeah, he was good. Yeah, I think he was. Yeah, he had like still a thousand yard season while there. I'm pretty sure. He did, yeah. This is 2001 season, actually, yeah. Yeah.

So. All right. You boys have any more questions for Good Steve? No, I'm just going to make Steve relive that moment when we were at that fake spike game together. Did I? Ah, that was horrible. I talked to you after that game, Steve, and you were shit-faced.

What did you get? What's Steve? Ah, shitty Steve. Shit-faced Steve. Yeah. Dude, like, I'm a trooper. Like, I love going to games and away games and chirping at them. I didn't say anything after that game,

because everyone there was just like, they were so shell-shocked, angry. And I was like, yeah, you know, the rest fucked you, but Rothesberger fucked you harder. And they're like, yeah. So Good Steve, is this story true? Oh, yeah, that's definitely true. That's the one time that shitty Steve has not talked shit after a game when the Steelers or another Pittsburgh team lost.

Greg, you owe me five bucks. He can read a room. Yeah, right. Dude, that was a tough one. Yeah, it was. Yeah, because it was like the rest. Yeah, the rest really, I mean, I think they got that call wrong. And then it was compounded by just like a dreadful decision by Big Dad.

You know, all of it. Yeah, just the fact that there's so much time to like just anything else, literally anything else would have worked. Yeah, like that game was like the Patriots try before that, where he just goes to Gronk over and over again, just storms down the field, just sling it to Gronk for the touchdown and then drag down like ran everybody. But that Gronk was all within like two minutes. It was crazy.

The Gronk touchdown spike where he like he caught the touchdown, pointed at the guy who was covering, who was laying on the ground, laughed at him and then spiked it is seared in my memory. Like that to me is Rob Gronkowski. Yeah, that was our end of the stadium to where Gronk was spiking that. Fuck the hell. I thought you would trip up to, you know, Boston next time the Steelers are up there. Yeah, we're going to do it this past year, but it was opening, you know, super.

Yeah, I'm not, yeah, I'm not paying one drop in a grand to go to that. Yeah, probably a good decision, especially after the result of that too. That would not have been worth it for you. No. Oh yeah, that would have been, that would have been shitty. Yeah, that was a shit show. That was a bad game. Well, for you.

So many for me. Yeah, well, I don't know. Maybe that I got nothing. You know, maybe the table. I got the penguin the last five years. So it's cool. That's true. An FSU, I guess, maybe.

Yeah, they've been pretty bad the last few years. Yeah, they have pretty bad. You sure know how to pick them. They had their 41 straight seasons of a bowl game snapped or winning record snaps a couple years ago. Yeah. Willie Taggart was awful. Don't even get excited on college football. You were so high on them too.

Oh my God, that was hilarious. Yeah, yeah. All right, Steve. Well, I guess if nobody else has any questions, I think we will mercifully let you go. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me guys. I appreciate you being a good sport about this and listening to you.

Yeah, no problem. Enjoy the reliving that glorious game for y'all and going on to win it. Thanks for coming on, Steve. Good, Steve. Have a good one, guys. All right. See you guys later. I gotta say, it doesn't sound like a Steelers fan, does he?

He's a hardcore Steelers fan, for sure. Yeah, he just doesn't sound like it. He doesn't talk like a Steelers fan. Yeah, I don't know. He didn't say Jins once. I like Pittsburgh. Like, I like the people there. I've liked them in a couple of games there.

They're just like, yeah, that's very, it's like a hilly boss and people are very way into their sports. You know, you drive around New England, you see the Patriots stickers and Bruins stickers and sock stickers everywhere. Everyone's wearing stuff. It's like that in Pittsburgh too. Yeah, yeah. Or is this their sports everywhere?

Yeah, because Pittsburgh isn't really a huge college sports town, is it? No, there's no basketball there either. But yeah, it's not, it's not a huge. But they're like a big sports town. It's all kind of blue-collar-y. People are like, they'll be like assholes, but like, they're not going to beat you up either, right? You can talk shit to people.

Holy shit, now that you say that, I actually just had a memory because this was, I don't know why, but oh, I think, I think we had to go back and get all my shit from Penn State. So we drove down there, packed up the van, and we're driving back. We stopped at like the fucking Steakhouse or something like that on the way. And it must have been, I don't even think it was in the Pittsburgh area because Pittsburgh's west, western Pittsburgh, all right? Because yeah, Philly's east and Pittsburgh's west.

It's only 45 minutes from Ohio. Yeah. So we were in the Steakhouse and I was wearing my Troy Brown jersey and I was in the bathroom at the urinal and some guy walks in and sees it and starts like giving me shit while I'm taking a piss. I'm like, oh, oh, the pages don't even have a chance. Huh? I can't believe you're wearing that here.

Like going on and on. All I can say is like, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Because, you know, I was fucking 18 years old and this dude was like 40 and twice my size. And yet you're digging your hand. Yeah. I was really a little exposed. So my first thought was to go back to that guy and be like, oh yeah, I bet you feel like a

shithead talking shit to a college kid in a urinal. I bet he doesn't. I bet he doesn't even remember it. Yeah. But I felt vindicated, which is all. The first game that we went to, we met these guys stayed in line behind us. One was a Steelers fan. One was a Patriots fan.

We were waiting for a Permanente brothers, like the sandwich place. Like a quicker, we all sat together at eight lunch and then like we ended up like tailgating with them and drinking a bunch of beers throughout the whole weekend. And then next year we got the Airbnb with them as well. So like everyone's like super chill there. Yeah. And then they all fucked each other. Just one big Georgie.

He loves it in Pittsburgh. I can imagine why. You're so friendly. Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is probably the perfect time to explain why this is the Drew Bledsoe. What did I call it? Renaissance game?

So for those that maybe don't remember, we concocted this plan weeks ago. And actually at this point is probably like months ago. Yeah. About we found out that Drew Bledsoe owns a winery and we tried to get his wine. And we're going to do this episode as a tribute to Drew Bledsoe. Because this was his renaissance. So as Drew Brown plans tend to go, I am the only one that actually found Drew Bledsoe wine because it is very prevalent in New Hampshire liquor stores.

You can find it in almost all of them actually, believe it or not. And for anybody who doesn't live in New Hampshire, the liquor stores are directly off the highway. So they're very easy to get to and to leave. And we say we don't. Yeah, exactly. We say we don't promote drunk driving yet. We put all liquor stores directly off of highways. So live free or fucking die.

Yeah. So I was able to find it. And this is quite literally the most money I've ever spent on a bottle of wine. It is flying B, not V, but B for Bledsoe, the Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. And for those of you, it's it is delicious. And I know nothing about wine, but I decided to prime my palate over the past week with a bottle of wine that my boss gave me that was supposed to be super fancy. And I drank it and it was pretty good.

This one's better. So Drew Bledsoe. That's not you just gasping out blood. So that's that's a legitimate take. Yeah. No, Drew Bledsoe, not great on third and long. Great at the squish and grapes and making them ferment. How dare you?

Oh, we'll get to it. Don't you worry. Oh, we'll get to it. So I found Drew Bledsoe wine. And so I have been drinking that steadily throughout this. How about you, boys? I have a it doesn't have a year on it. Good start.

Good sign. It doesn't that pregnant women shouldn't drink it, though. OK. A 25th anniversary California Cabernet Savignon with a massive Panthers logo on it from the Durham, North Carolina Harris Teeter. That I ran to this afternoon with a backpack on. Ran two miles there, stuffed it in my backpack and ran home. So it's well shaken.

Yes. And which is what you're supposed to do with all wine, I believe. That's how you aerate it. Yeah. I'm I'm wafting the aromas into the microphone right now. So take a deep. Oh, yep. Yes.

That's that's a nice nose it has. It's delightful. Is that is that elderberry? No, that's black currant. Oh, OK. That you're smelling. Yep. It's a nice earthy aroma.

You know, it's a little yeah. Is that mocha? I think I think there's a layer of mocha in there now that I'm yep. Yep. So for reference, I took Greg Brown to a beer festival once. And only once. I'll never do it again because he spent the entire time every time I got a beer. I'm like, yep, nope.

Yeah, those. Oh, there's malt in this one. Oh, the hops. Oh, this one tastes like beer. Literally every single time he drank something. Guys, guys. Mine tastes like beer. Awesome.

Fucking beer nerds. So that only leaves Steve. Steve, what did you end up finding in fucking Virginia of all places? I have a bottle of Jan Stevenson's Merlot from 2010. I hear the older the wine, the better it is. Oh, definitely. This has been sitting in my liquor cabinet for many, many moons. Probably good six years.

So how did you obtain it? Well, that's what you're supposed to do with wine. You're supposed to let it sit for a long time, right? Yeah. So for those idiots, I don't know who Jan Stevenson is. How dare you? She's an Australian LPGA golfer who's in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Dummies.

A hub. I work at a golf company and like there was like some stupid team building event and one of the prizes was wine. And I answered a question, got a bottle of wine. And here we are. Yeah, it was a question. Give us the juice. How many Super Bowls does Tom Brady have?

So of course I knew it. It was three. Gregory getting three back then. Well, Gregory getting booed at his Christmas party for wearing a Pat's Santa hat. I got booed by the entire company. How many people in that company? There was like 160 people booing me. I'm sure you handled it well.

Oh yeah, of course. Yeah. I feed off the hate, you know. I agree. I didn't say mine. The the hate nourishes me. I think it's a brown family thing. I drink it up like wine.

Like Drew Bledsoe wine. So to Drew Bledsoe everybody for those drinking at home, hopefully not in the car, in their commute. See if we can hold, can you hear that? Yeah. Yes. Can you tell that I'm spinning the bottle as I pour it? Yes.

That's solid enough. That is, uh, slightly presumptuous. Ooh. Andimately palatable though. Did you fucking smell it first? Overall an amusing firewater. Ooh. Ooh, this is quite fragrant.

Have you actually tried it yet, Greg? No. Dude, come on. Are you an amateur? You're going to smell that shit for like 10 minutes before you do anything. I've already had like two glasses though. Yeah, me too. You got to look at the color, you know.

Yeah, you got to see how like the legs of it. What are the legs like? I'm in my car. I can't see the color. It just looks dark. And then you got to like spin your glass to see how it ripples off shit. You know? It's called legs.

I was just saying that. Jesus Christ. Legs? I don't know. Well, I'm sorry, Steve. All right. So I got some ripple. I have to say this actually is really good wine.

Steve probably couldn't even tell the difference between a Malbec and a Cabernet. It's pronounced Cabernet. Do you guys remember that tie we were in that French restaurant in Brooklyn with Ellie when she first moved there? I do. Hey, Greg was ordering all the wine. I've never seen her that embarrassed. And like Ellie doesn't get embarrassed, but she was embarrassed that one night.

And Greg was just taking it all the way to the mess. He ordered a peanut griggy out. I remember. Yes. You're fine as peanut griggy out. And the chicken parmigana. The waiter was like one of those Brooklyn hipsters who was taking his job super serious. And he hated you.

Well, they're the worst. He hated all of us. There's that picture of the clown in the booth that you were like making out with. Oh, yeah. I have that photo still. You do? Yes. Oh, yes.

So can you post that online so we can put it in the show notes? Yep. Oh, yeah. All right. Thanks to you now. Love it. Thank you. So speaking of clowns, how about we talk about this football game?

How about Cordell Stewart? I have more to talk about my wine. You haven't even tried it yet. Shut up. Yeah. Well, of course not, Andy. It's letting it air create. So let it breathe.

We'll do it. We'll do a halftime wine review of Greg Brown's Panther wine. Okay. That's it. All right. Of course. Because let's get into this game. 2001 AFC Championship game.

Even Gil and Gino are joking about how the Patriots actually finally showed up, even though nobody expected them to. And it starts off as expected, I would say. I don't know. What was he expecting? Playing awesome D. You know, actually, yeah. No, I take that back.

I think what was expected was that the Steelers would run down the Patriots' throat, because that's if there's one criticism of this Patriots' defense that we've seen is that fucking no names are running down there. What was the Panthers guy's name? Either of you remember? Oh, let me think for like two seconds. Quiz time. Huntly.

Yeah, Hunt. I'll take your word for it, because I don't remember it either. Yeah, I think it was Huntly. But just some random ass dude. And then last week was Charlie Garner, who, mediocre. He was good after this year, but not this year. I remember drawing Venice's throat, though, right? He would miss like the previous six or seven games.

So yeah, that was my question, too, is that the commenters kept talking about they made this comment. They made this comment. I wrote it down because it freaked me out a little bit. This is his first game back in seven weeks. And they mentioned something about a botched painkiller injection. Oh, I missed that. And Jerome Bennett was like, oh, is the best thing that's happened to me, because I was able to take all this time off and go back and rewatch every single one of my runs

to see what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong and all this shit. Yeah, that's that's what someone on painkillers does. Yeah, I'm going to sit on this couch and watch it. I'm going to smoke this bowl of meth and then I can watch every single goddamn, every single run. I don't think that's necessarily prescribed painkillers, Steve. Unless you're going to a doctor I don't know about. Good, this is 2001. Yeah, you're going to combine drugs.

Is that right, Greg? You know, you're not just doing one. I mean, that's fair, yeah. I mean, HGH, I'm sure, right? Oh, that shit will fuck you up. This has Peyton Manning's forehead. I do remember, though, that the first couple of like the first dealers' possession, we bottled up the bus and I was like, yeah, I knew that stopping the run was huge for the pass then.

Yeah, yeah, busing running on Sundays. That's right, school bus is not running on Sundays. And he wasn't, he was awful in this game. They kept trying to do that like pitch kind of sweep forum. And whoever the defensive end was on that side almost always, Willie McGinnis, I felt like, was almost behind him by the time he caught the ball. Like they just couldn't block the sweep for whatever reason. Well, you got to set an edge.

Well, you got to check one on one. That is good. Exactly, yeah. But Willie McGinnis like, we're going to do a paycheck in this game. Yeah, Willie was everywhere. He, it's so like odd to watch Betis play, though, because it's just like, you don't see players of that shape. It's true.

He almost looks playing running back anymore. Too top heavy. He's so, he's so round. Like he is. There's players that are like heavy, right? Like the Derrick Henrys of the world. Even the Mike Alstotz, we like that guy. He's a big boy.

But yeah, it's kind of like fat, you know? But yeah, like that was the guy I was trying to compare him to was Mike Alstotz. Because Alstotz, you kind of had this similar running style where he's going to run through people and even if he breaks it past the line of screen, means you're going to look for somebody to hit sort of thing. But also it just looked like a tree trunk. Like he's just a thick boy. Yeah.

But Jerome, that is, he was kind of like round. He had like legs and then it was, it was like a slim down Vince will for. Oh, that's not bad. Yeah. They have the very same kind of body shape where Vince was, he was also very round. Yeah. But move quicker than you expect him to. Exactly.

Like Jerome Bettis is making people miss. Yeah. Yeah. He's actually shaking people. Yeah. Yeah. When they throw him a screen at one point, yeah, I was like, oh my goodness. Throw it to the line.

And they started running. I was like, I never mind. It's just Bettis. So, but I, and I mentioned it before when we were talking to Good Steve, but the stat lines for Jerome Bettis are fantastic. And this one was no exception. He had, anybody want to guess this stat line? Like 15 carries, 40 yards in the touchdown.

Oh, it's so much better than that. Nine carries, eight yards, one touchdown. Wow. Longest run, four yards. Oh, yeah. Not great. Plus don't run on Sundays. Put it on the poster board.

Really does it. I think, I think we should. Well, let's not gloss over like the lightening of that thunder and lightening backfield. Amos Zeraway. Famous Amos Zeraway. He's got to be up there in the football name hall of fame, right? It's a great name. Zeraway.

Zeraway itself. I mean, it's, it's basically 90% vowels, which is fantastic. But his first name is Amos is amazing. There's five vowels and two non vowels. And one of those non vowels is Z, which is like almost a vowel in itself because you've never seen it used. And one of the vowels has one of those little accent marks. Those are really.

Yeah. And the last E has that A, you know, that Enye. Oh, God, it was calm. I don't like it. That's why it's not Zeraway. It's Zeraway. Oh, all right. I'll take your word for it.

It's from the, I reference can't handle those. So, yeah, it's from the Ivory Coast. Oh, no kidding. That's pretty cool. Like, who's a soccer player? Is it Draugba? Didier Draugba. That's one dark Chilean.

Have I ever told you that story? No. We were. Heard the quote. This is from college. We had a buddy that was like a surfer guy and he was just like, he was like your typical stoner, like always zoned out. Like, didn't really know what was going on.

Like, yo, man, like, what's going on, dude? The surf was lazy. Yeah. And we were playing FIFA and it was like someone was playing with Chelsea. So in the scoreboard, it had CHL and it zoomed in and had like, Draugba scoring a goal and he just goes, that's one dark Chilean. We were like, what the fuck? So then from then on, that's been a part of our vernacular.

I've heard you say it multiple times. I didn't actually know the backstory to it. That's fantastic. Oh, good Lord. I'm pretty sure Chelsea would kick the shit out of Chile, by the way. That's true. Like easily. So yeah, so speaking of Chileans, the first quarter of this football game,

was pretty chilly for both offenses. Yeah, we're going to do a best and worst, reach quarter again. Oh, Jesus Christ. I was wondering if you had given that up, but apparently not. All right. Nope. All right. Sure, Steve, you go first, you son of a bitch.

Oh, well, I mean, I think the overall worst is watching Cordell Stewart play quarterback, especially when he had Heinz Ward and Boxclub Burris as his receivers. He's not throwing it short or he's throwing it into coverage and they're making a play. The dude can bounce the football into somebody, into a wide receiver like no other. He looked nervous. He did look nervous. And, but you say that, but both of those wide receivers were over a thousand yards. And I'll get into the best, which I think is pretty obvious.

All right. I shouldn't let you go first, you son of a bitch. All right. The Troy Brown punt return. Yes. But I mean, I think everyone has seen that and there's actually a Belichick breakdown on it. If you haven't watched that, you definitely should. Oh, that's right.

I forgot about that. The effort that they do on the gunner. Remember they blocked the gun to the end zone, but which you don't really get unless you rewatch this game in full is the punt before that. Had a penalty on it. So they punted it and Troy Brown kind of messed it up. Yeah. We probably should have fear caught it and stepped out of bounds or something like that.

And you just let it go and it bounced and it kept going down the sideline. And it was on the Patriots 25. It was a 60 something yard punt. Yeah. Yeah. There was a boom and punt with a flip field position. But yeah. Because he got punted from the end zone.

The end zone ran out of bounds, didn't try and get back in. So they threw a flag and made him repunt it. Yep. Troy took it right out of the gut to the house. Yeah. And then on the next play he got, he actually didn't get off the line. And when you watch the replay, the guy that's being blocked by two guys and falling over in his own end zone, that's the same guy.

Yeah. I didn't remember his name. Troy Edwards is his name. But this whole game made me start hating him. Like I just, I just, I have no way in the fourth quarter, like I love seeing Troy Edwards fail. Why? I don't know.

And he did it a lot because he was a kicker turner too. Yeah. I just like, I just like seeing him fail. We'll get to that. That's harsh, dude. I felt bad for him. Yeah, he's a human being. He's, he's got a feeling.

A human being, he made a tough play. He probably regrets that play every day of his life. Think of how his mother feels. Yeah. Right now. Maybe we should start calling him shitty Troy Edwards. Why is there nothing Troy Edwards? You tell me.

The Troy Edwards? All right. Who am I thinking of? The receiver from Browns. Braille and Edwards? Braille and Edwards. He was shitty. I was thinking the same thing too.

Didn't he play for the Steelers too at one point? I don't know. Oh, fuck. I know. Stat check. Now I'm already looking up Troy Edwards. Yeah, fuck it. All right.

Um, all right, then I'll do my best and worst. Oh, um, what? All right. He finished his career at the Graham Rapids rampage of the arena football league. Oh, right. The arena football league was the dude's. I Troy Edwards, uh, Rapids arena football jersey would be sick.

Oh, yeah. It's got to be on an eBay. Actually, there's definitely not one on eBay. No. But let me tell you though, if, if I saw somebody wearing that, I mean, you'd have to buy him a drink, right? You wouldn't even know who it is.

Like, who the hell's Edwards and what is this jersey? Well, we would know the three of us. So if any, if any of us see that or any of our listeners see that, send us a picture and we will buy that man a drink. We're woman. Yeah. So it's just us. Who knows?

Because no one's listened to this. Let's be honest. Hey, we get some listens. Nobody from our family though, apparently we found out recently. Literally none of our, our family members listened to this podcast. They're smart enough on like you idiots. That'll keep them around. Great.

I think your best is worth it, Andy. Yeah. Well, fucking shut up and I will. My best was actually Troy Brown's first punt return. Time for the original, Andy. Dude, that did you, it was better than the second one. I mean, yes, I wanted for a touchdown, but his first punt return, he was making guys look fucking foolish.

25 yards. He broke some dude's ankles. And he caught the ball. I don't even know what he did. It didn't look like he did a move, but the guy just kind of like fell over in front of him and Troy Brown just kind of like skipped around him. It was fantastic.

So I'm going to have to find that highlight and put it on the website because that was great. And the worst was kind of every other Patriots offensive player in this first quarter because the only the only person that had any, I think, positive offensive yards was Troy Brown. Like the Patriots had a bunch of like false starts and shit. And like the first drive, they had the false start.

And then second play Brady got sacked. And so that was like 3rd, 18. Yeah, that was 3rd and 18. Yeah. And it throws wide as he was screened to Troy Brown. He picks up like 15 or 16 yards on the way. Yeah. Yeah.

But it's still three and out. So he was like the only good thing in this first half. So that was my. I mean, this game is Pete Troy Brown. Well, yeah. And actually you, you boys were talking about and you were patting yourselves on the back for having the same thought, which good for you.

But you were talking about how last week in the snowball was like a perfect example of Bill Belichick's all three phases of the game. And I will argue this game tops that in those three phases. I don't know. The offense was meh. But you write that. But the thing is, but you're right.

I was set up by a great hunt. Yeah. And also we'll get to the other. Yeah. I mean, the defense was phenomenal. I thought for stopping the run on the best running team in the league. And I think the offense was the perfect example

of next man up with the Drew Bloodstone situation. Sure. And there was some executing in crunch time, if you will. Like executing when exactly they needed it to happen. Like it wasn't a huge offensive production day, but when they needed to have a play, they got it. And so this was, to me, the perfect execution of the Belichick system.

All right. What was your worst? Every other player besides Troy Brown. Yeah. My worst was the offense. Having said all that. Yeah. I guess why I guess you short term amnesia.

I guess. All right, Greg, what about you? Best of what? Is there anything left? My best was Troy Brown's screen pass. Which was better than both of his kick return. So it was great. Now, my best is the.

That was erotic. Samir Samarra again. Back to that. My best is the Chris Fumatou Ma follow site. Sighting. Yeah. Yeah. One of the game.

Sorry. I love that you nailed that first time, too. Dude, I love him. He's an all time name. And then my worst on names is Matt Stevens. Like brutal name. And for some reason I don't like I've seen him show up a lot this year. And yeah, I don't even think I remembered him at all.

Me. I thought the same thing. I remember like he started week one and I had a note there. I was like, who the fuck is Matt Stevens? No, I think my favorite player name is Steven Gregory on the Patriots. Oh, yeah. Both my brothers. Mine is Chris Brown because I love my mom.

Oh, hey. Nicely done. Mine's Vincent Brizby just because that's an awesome name. Vincent Brizby was the man. He was he was my first favorite Patriot. Because his name rhymed with Frisbee. And I was like seven. Mine was Mosey to Tupu.

No, yeah, that's that's everything. Yeah, it is. You suck up. All right. So what's your worst thing, Greg? I just said Matt Stevens. Oh, that's your worst is just the name. I'm making these up on the fly.

You know that we are. I'm literally looking at the rosters and making up my best and worst. Okay. All right. Well, let's get into the second quarter. Best and worst thing that Stevens even play in this game. I don't think you do. Yeah.

He made a tackle with 954 in the first quarter. All right. With William McGinnis on Jerome Bettis 12 year game. Oof. Was that the screenplay? I think the low key worst was right at the end of the first quarter. Cordell Stewart ripped off that super long run. 40 plus yard run.

Yeah. Dude, they hadn't done anything up to that point. Yeah. And now they're inside the the Pats 10 to start the second quarter. There's like no Pats in game. They can't run the ball, but somehow they're inside the 10. Yeah. Which and he escaped a sack on that play.

It was one of those. It reminded me of when the Patriots would play Cam Newton and they'd have him like dead to rights for like a 20 yard sack. Or even this most recent season. Oh, what's the name for the Texans? God damn it. Watson. Wine.

Wine does give you amnesia. Yeah. So, yeah, to show on Watson where they had him for that sack. Yeah. He broke her for a big run and that kept the drive alive. And they, you know, so it was it was that sort of play where they couldn't quite contain the mobile quarterback. He runs for like 40 fucking yards.

But on the plus side. So they're they're inside the Pats 10, the quarter ends. And so to start the second quarter. Yeah. Seven other Patriots on Troy Brown's punt return. Second quarter starts and the steals basically go three and out. And they show this stat. Which I kind of want to get into a little bit because it's it's baffling to me.

Oh, and it's basically this is the number one rushing offense in the league. Right. With 2000 yard receivers as well on top of it all. And the stat was they showed the Patriots defense in the red zone was third in the NFL in like touchdowns allowed. The seals offense, the best running offense in the league was 29th in the NFL. Yeah, I saw that too. I didn't really put that all the way.

Fuck, does that work? I think a lot of their Russian yards came from Stuart though. Maybe. I mean, he wasn't he had like, yeah, like that is only at 1000 yards in the year. Stuart had like almost 600. So I think it was like a combination running game more so than like a ground and pound running game to try a bunch of design quarterback runs in this game. And they did not work.

No, that one worked. The early one works, but nothing else after that did. Richard Seymour sniff that out almost every time it seemed like. Like he's drinking a fine wine, right? He just getting those aromas up in there. So yeah, the play went, Jerome better run for no gain, like right up the middle. And then it was, it wasn't a design run. It was actually a pass play that Cornell Stewart took a sack and they threw an incomplete pass

when he tried to like scramble again. And there was like an offense holding on the play and it was a shitty mess. So they kicked his field goal. Now it's seven three. And then not much happens in the second quarter, other than the Pats actually started to get into a bit of a rhythm. They had a completion overturned on third and long to Troy Brown where Phil Sims almost guaranteed that it was a completion.

Dude, fuck Phil Sims and his replay. Like guesses in this goddamn game. Well, it was a fucking time. Every time. Well, he was. And he was like Greg Gumbel's like, oh, remind me not to take you to Vegas next time I go because he was wrong. But he was so adamant about his stance, too.

To the point where at the end of the at the end of the game, whenever there was a challenge, he'd be like, I'm not even going to say anything because I'm going to be wrong. There were so many challenges to like no one knew what the fucking catch was. It's great to see that no one even 2001 what a freaking catch is. The referees in this game were. I'm going to say they were hot garbage and not just like against the pages, but just in general.

Like they made some shitty calls. You want to hear a hot take? Everybody complains about the catch thing. I think it's legitimately a hard thing to put a rule around. I agree. There's so many nuances to catches that it's, you know, they're doing their best. But also like people complain all they want. But there's no, if there was an easy answer is to like, this is a catch and this isn't,

we would have figured it out by now. But there's no easy answer. There's I agree with that. But I don't know. You can choose and say seven of them say that's a catch, right? Yeah. Or showed in real time sort of thing. Yeah.

But then there's actually other three people that raise hell and say it wasn't, you know. Yeah. There's a majority of people like if you look at it in real time on a bigger sample, then yeah, it's a catch. It's not a catch. So I have two answers to this, two solutions. One is simplify a catch to the most basic thing you can possibly be. And like, you know, like baubles don't matter, whatever, as long as the guy

makes a catch at some point and has two hands on the football, it's a catch. And that's it. Or we go back to, we had to talk about this back, I think in the saints game, it was ages ago. Whenever there was a challenge this year, early on, some of the the stations would, would you were allowed to vote? So you could, I don't know if you like text in almost like voting for, what's that singer show? American Idol.

Yeah. It's almost like American Idol. So you can actually vote. And as they were reviewing the play, they would show the voting of America and like, oh, those 7000 votes and 62% say this call should stand. And I think it was, I think it may have been Greg who said that they should just use that and whatever the population votes is what the call. Well, I want them to do that, but not with fans.

I want them to have like a room full of refs. Careful. So we ended up with Donald Trump. See, it doesn't matter. Solutions don't matter because someone will always complain. That's true. Even if they got voted in by a, by a, you know, a democracy, we go, well, it was a popular vote. It's never been a popular vote.

So if I can talk. Yeah, there were a lot of replays in this, a lot of overturn calls. Yeah, it was slow. Because there was that, there was that Troy Brown call that got overturned, which probably legit. It was borderline, but Troy Brown was still like, he hit the ground. It kind of moved a little bit, whatever. Great. So page punt.

And then the pass to Heinz Ward, where he caught it just over the fingertips of Troy Brown, Ty Law. And it was a snag. It was a sick catch. But as he caught the ball, like his back hit the ground and it bobbled. And by the time he grabbed it again, he would slid out of bounds already. So, you know, so they're basically even at this point. There was the Heinz word fumble, which they ruled a fumble on the field.

He came to see the ball come out at all and then reversed it. Because his helmet hit the ground first, which I didn't realize. I have no idea when the ball is coming out at all. It's true. But I didn't realize that the helmet was, was considered like a part of you that was down. Like I knew the knee and the elbow and like whatever. But I didn't know the helmet was part of that. Who knows.

That's very fucking terrible. I mean, it was at Hockilly. He had some fucking, he was making all about himself too. I wrote down a quote. Let me see if I can find it. I reviewed the play and I can't tell whether the tip hit the ground. Football or not football. So it's an incomplete pass.

Appreciate it. Also, every time the refs would get on the stadium mic, there was that feedback loop, which made it like awful to listen to. Oh, it's even that that hits even closer to home now that like I'm zooming or Skyping every work where it's all like, dude, just figure out your microphone situation fucking mute. Everybody mute right now. Yeah.

And there's like the one guy who's not paying attention is the one guy who's got the feedback. Yeah. Dude, today, this morning, there was this guy in Ireland that was like having a fight with his siblings on. Mike was on. Oh, yeah, like Trash and his sister. It was so funny. He's like, I don't know what she's doing.

I don't know why she keeps doing this or that. So funny. So yeah, so the really the only speaking of hurtful things, the only real news of the second quarter of this game was Brady taking some low hits, which I'm going to come out and say it. They were fucking cheap shots. That's that's bad news. That's the only news of the quarter.

Yeah. Like you're glossing over it. Well, hang on. We're getting there. Jesus fucking Christ. Is it the old news or is there more news later? Yeah. Listen, you got to you got to let it breathe.

You're all drinking wine. You're letting that breathe be not let me breathe. Yeah. When you either it's only fucking sentence. Oh my God. So Brady takes a couple of cheap shots. I'm going to say, well, actually one of them wasn't, but he got his ankle rolled up on. Second one was definitely a cheap shot by I wrote his name down because I wanted to call

his ass out. Lee Flowers crawled into Brady's legs, rolled over him. And maybe like, but very similar hit. Yeah. Very similar to the the hit again against him from Pollard that tore his ACL, but he like got him from behind. So rolled up his legs from the back and Brady came up limping hard. And on the play, he had actually completed a fucking laser to Troy Brown.

Yeah. They were moving the ball. They were starting to get no rhythm. Like all of a sudden the pages offense was actually moving and it was great. They're like, oh, fuck it. Here we go. And then Brady gets hurt and incomes. Our savior drew blood.

So who I am to the rescue in my car to the rescue, literally to the rescue. Thank you very much. Yes, that's exactly. I was like, I was looking for somebody to cheers me. Thanks. And blood to comes in. And here it happens so fast too. I've like did it felt.

It feels like, you know, looking back, I was like, oh man, I must have been like such a dramatic thing, but they were just like, oh, Brady's down and blood. So is in. Yep. And then they were like, all right, second and six. I was like, yeah. And so this is where I wrote a what a minute 40 left in the half. So we'll get to this later.

I found this article, some guy who was a huge blood. So Stan and hated Brady and wrote a bunch of ESPN articles about him. And like this was his vindication, apparently. But so it comes with a minute 40 left in the half. And the play was a laser completion to David Patton on the first play. Like split him five wide and just started chucking the balls. Great. He's zipping it.

Yeah. Yeah. The second play was he got flush out of the pocket and ran towards the sideline and got lit the fuck up almost exactly the same as he did against the Jets and Malouis. That was weird. How a late shot out of bounds, which I think it was a flag thrown, but they picked it up like the video that we watched kind of like skipped that part. So I don't know what happened because I saw them like throw a flag and they were

conferring and then all of a sudden it's still second and six. And I was I was bullshit. Again, like this happened fucking with 20 years ago. I was bullshit for him. And then the next play came back. He popped the fuck up too. He was blood. So I was excited to get it.

And Brady was walking by there on the sidelines on his way to the locker room. My best hit. And like my best of the of the of the game. Yeah, he starts John. He's limping towards the fucking go. No, he's strong at the referee because he wasn't throwing a flag and he was fucking living. He was literally bouncing on his one good leg.

It was amazing. That's what you want from like your two quarterbacks, right? Yeah. Like these two couldn't have handled this whole situation any better. They had each other's backs. It was amazing. And like think about blood. So like he's literally like holding the holding the play sheet.

And then like 35 seconds later, he's in there zipping it. Yeah. Like I imagine like that you're just a mental preparation standpoint, right? You just stand there like, yeah, I'm not gonna play in this game. And then 35 seconds later, you're in a huddle leading up. Like they haven't played since week two against the best defense in the league. And you're stepping into the AFC championship game. Yeah, two minutes ago.

It's just kind of it's just like a weird like movie moment. You know, yeah. Yeah. If you had written this as like part of remember the Titans, I would be like, nah, that's that's too far fetched. You got to kind of tone that down a bit. They would have taken a time out. Yeah.

But no, it's like you're a little or something. Yeah. Yeah. Trucked him in. No big deal. The true blood. So it's fine. I mean, that's coaching philosophy, right?

Yeah. Next man up. This is what I'm saying. This is this is the bell check game. This is the game of the bell check philosophy. So game. It's that too. It's everything.

But I think the the the best recipient for this happening was David Patton because he hadn't caught a pass yet this game. And all of a sudden this is the David Patton drive because he caught all three passes, including the touchdown with 58 seconds left, which would vaguely familiar to a play we'll see next week in the Super Bowl. In that back corner of the end zone. Yeah. So so blood so comes in with a minute 40 left and it's zip 15 yards, cranked out of bounds,

zip 10 yards, zip touchdown, four plays, seven points. Like what the fuck just happened? No, it wasn't his he had a 35 seconds. It was a third down where he had that nice touch pass before. No, that comes later. I know what you're talking about. But that comes later. Yeah.

Yeah. This is four plays, 35 seconds and a touchdown. And then they're showing him on the sideline. And there's some guy that has like a towel up to his chin because I think it was the first pass of the first completion that he had to Patton. He got clocked right in the chin. Yeah. He split his chin open.

Now he's got like a bandaid on his chin and he's just like fucking bad ass. And his his reaction to throwing the touchdown was sick, too. He just stares at the sidelines and he gives it up. Who me? It was just like I was like climbing around him. Yeah. It was so that was the fucking cool hand lotion. Like what else did you expect?

Yeah. Of course, I'm going to throw a touchdown. What are you like? It's just so cool. So then let's do a while back. Well, do you remember mom's reaction to that? No. Because mom was I was working remember.

Yeah. She had a hard blood. She was a huge blood. So fan. So like this whole season, she was like kind of like torn. Like, yeah, I don't know. My dude blood. So but as soon as Brady got hurt, she was like immediately panicked and was like,

but you know, she like hides in the background. She was hiding behind the couch, like peering over and watching the game. So funny. How does she feel about that blood? So touchdown. Oh, exactly what you'd expect. She was hiding. Oh, yeah.

She was whooping up a storm, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. So I thought the end of the half was actually pretty interesting because I had forgotten about the end of half as well. Yeah. The Steelers actually, you know, they had what 58 seconds left, I think something like that. So under a minute and they actually moved, they had all three timeouts. So they moved the ball down almost within field goal range.

And then they took a shot in the end zone. And your boys go Boris like they had an OPI that pulled them back on Boris. That's exactly what I was about to say. And now it was on the shot that they took to Boris. And Otis Smith played it perfectly. Otis Smith in this game, I thought, had one of the best games on defense. Because I mean, if you look at Plexiglas Boris, that dude is a fucking. He's a he's a beast.

He's my quarter. I hate just hearing that name. And yeah, I hate him too. Yeah. I mean, I don't hate him, but that name just brings back memories. I'd rather not remember. Yeah.

But he was like it almost looked like he was a foot taller than Otis Smith. Or a foot taller than anybody else out there, but could run past him. It almost had like a he had that same kind of gate as Randy Moss did. Or didn't look like he was trying much, but he was still just running past people. But he just didn't have the awareness, I think that Randy Moss had. And Otis Smith played him like a goddamn fiddle in this game. And they took a deep shot. And Otis Smith was just in the perfect position.

So Plexiglas Boris had to just kind of grab and pull him. So it wasn't an interception. So that was an offense pass for him to push them outside of field goal range. And so they had to settle for a Hail Mary, which got intercepted instead of an actual field goal. Dude, Cordell Stewart didn't even make the end zone on his Hail Mary from the 45 yard line. This is true quarterback controversy. He couldn't even hook it. With who? Jerome Bettis on the back of quarterback.

You know, the positive side of the field is like he made like the fight through 40 yards in the air. Yes, that's not great. He was under pressure, though, right? I don't remember. I don't think so. Still the Hail Mary be like the one thing you got to do is throw in the fucking end zone. Probably not. I remember hating Cordell Stewart. And rewatching this game really maybe realized why I hate him because he's so bad in this game.

I never hated him. I was so bad for him for some reason. It's like the quarterback you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, right? Like, oh, they're due. Yeah. I guess. Are we doing best and worse? My best was the offensive pass interference that Otis Smith managed to pull.

And my worst was the dirty hit on Drew on Tom Brady that caused him to get injured. Fuck you guys. My worst was Jason Gildian Gilden. Gilden, yeah. He was he was a wrecking ball in this game. He was a monster. Yeah. He like killed the drive of the sack.

He almost had a pick six, like especially in that first half in actually the whole game. He was in the backfield. We had no answer. Constantly. Yeah. And then my best is out here. I think like when Brady came in and you see like all the players around him that were like excited, right?

Like they're ready to go. They're amped up. I think if you'd been in the diva situation the whole year and had been trying to create a divide and not taking the path he would, I don't think it would have been successful in that drive. I agree. Yeah. Just to go back to Jason Gilden thing. He was the first team all pro to the only one on the team.

The 12 sacks on the season. Two in this game like Lydia picks six in his hand. He was a fucking monster. Yeah. Greg, what about you? I mean, obviously my best is the entire blood. So situation. Oh, God.

Yeah. Very tail. You know, my worst is I think this is in the second quarter when they were showing Brady going back to the locker room and he was kind of limping. And one of the commentators is like, he actually looks like he's walking better than he was before. And they starts hopping on his good life. Yeah. They were like, oh, never mind.

He's got a good sign. Hey, look at that. Phil Sims being wrong again. What a surprise. Yeah. And like, Brady's such a fucking goofball too. Yeah. Like he just looked like a child that's been hurt but doesn't want to admit it.

Yep. You know, I'll walk on this and then like, oh, no, this ain't working. They're trying to walk on it again because he saw the cameras on him. And it's like, why do you need to hop like just walk slowly? Yeah, exactly. He's like speed walking to the locker room. Yeah. All right.

So we're at halftime, Greg. Do you want to do your wine review? I sure do. Give it to me. All right. How is the Carolina Panthers wine? Well, it's got a nice syrupy texture. It's got a great nose.

Definitely some earthy oak, nutty tones. Does it hurt to drink? No. Okay. That's a good sign. It slides down the throat very smoothly. That's what she said. Oh, we're going to isolate that.

That's going to be the quote from this game. It's certainly less underwhelming than the Carolina Panthers. I'll say that. I'd praise. How would Cam Newton rate this? Is Cam Newton? I bet he is a wine guy, right? Because that's like a LeBron, like, you know.

By the way, that's the worst. If we can, like, if we can talk about how she LeBron is. Oh, and it's always done to that. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Boston podcast. Sorry. Apparently, Greg has finally drank the wine.

He does his wine out of the throat so smoothly. There's so much pollen here. It's ridiculous. I feel like I'm eating pollen every day. Oh, my God. Spring came early. It must suck. It happens like three times a day where I get this fucking great radio.

Yeah. But LeBron fucked LeBron and is like thinking he's cool. You know what? The thing that LeBron did that I hate the most? What's that? There was like, I don't know if you've ever seen how he like, pretends to be a reader. And he's like always reading The Godfather, the book.

There was a situation one time where he was, you know, they like, when they do like the pregame stuff, they show the players come in from the bus. Yeah. Well, there was one time he was walking and reading The Godfather, right? Which, first of all, on his face is just ridiculous. Yeah. That is nobody that reads and walks.

Nobody. He saw the camera up and he flipped the book open. Exactly. He knew he was getting filmed. So he flipped his book open to be cool book reading guy, which is a douchebag move. Because anybody that's tried to walk and read knows that it's like, damn, impossible.

Your head's shaking. You can't, you can't focus on words. Yeah, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. But then to make it worse, there was, there was video of him earlier in the day at a practice session. And after the practice session, he was reading the book on the sidelines and some internet sleuths look into it.

And when he was reading it on the sidelines, fake reading it, obviously, he was further along in the book than when he was reading it, getting off. Of course he was. It's because he just opened or ran a page. Fucking typical. Who the fuck brings a book to practice? Oh, my God.

Like, if that isn't a look at me move, then. Oh, 100% is. How do we get here again? I don't know who the fuck is. This is great. Well, fuck. Exactly. Speaking of people we hate, how about this page of Steelers game?

Should we get in the third? If we're getting the second half here? Yeah, this third quarter was tough to watch. It was a little bit. This, this was the this. Well, you know, just come back a little bit. So 14 three going. I will say the.

The first drive is yours was. Fun to watch the opening kickoff. Matt Shattom's tackle on that one. And you guys spotted that he. It is probably the best tackle I've seen of him so far. But he hit the guy at a full speed run and it hit him so hard to bounce him back three yards, but he still managed to hold on and dragged him down at the same time.

Like that. It was embarrassing. It was I think it was the same guy, Steve, that you were talking about. The gunner on the punch. Troy Edwards. I ate him again. Yeah. Every time he touched the ball, I rooted for him to fail.

And that was. And he failed again. That was great. Yeah. Yeah. He couldn't get past the point of the whole fucking game. He was not a great kick return. Well, maybe it was the Patriots special teams were much better than the.

That was definitely an advantage for us in this game. Without a doubt. It definitely was. Yeah. Um, but the CEO has also had a Heinz Ward fumble overturned. Yeah. But had touching one. Yeah.

Exactly. And then lose. Which Phil thinks as well. Of course he did. Absolutely. That's definitely a fumble. It has to be overturned. No way you could not overturn it.

And then it got. In his defense. They ruled it a fumble in the field. There's nothing to overturn it. I agree with him on that one, but still fuck Phil Sims and his shitty commentation. Do you like his son? Have you heard him at all?

I haven't heard him. No. Uh, what's his name? Chris Sims. I remember he played, he played quarterback for a little bit. He does like commentary stuff or, uh, PFT. Is that right?

Oh, really? Pro football talk. Yeah. With, uh, with Florio. He's one of my favorite football commentators going right now. Really? Okay. Yeah.

He's kind of like, uh, he's a bit of a prick, but. That's why you like him. I really like him a lot. You got, do I, do you identify with him, Greg? No. Well, like the good. He's got to go back and forth with Florio, who's like a lawyer. So he was always like shitting on him for being a nerd.

So I can, I can associate with that. Fair enough. Being a bit of a prick. Yeah. So nerds, I feel that. Yeah. Who's your favorite commentator going right now? Tony Romo.

Yeah. Well, I mean like an analysis guy, like post-game analysis guy. Um, Brian Ballinger. Yeah. Oh yeah. Baldy. I love Baldy. Freak down.

So good. He just loves him some good blocking and that's a major. He does. It just warms my heart. He's got an amazing like gravel voice too, which like makes it love even better. Yeah. He always sounds hyped up when he's like doing his breakdowns. Oh yeah.

He sounds like he's working himself up for like eight minutes being like, I got to show you guys this. He's been edging himself for a good half hour. You're like, I'm right on the edge here. I'm just, oh, this, this block. Wait till you see this block. Look at number 54. Look at how his hands are extended.

Oh, it's phenomenal. I love it. So yeah, Baldy's breakdown. If you, if you haven't seen him, definitely look him up. Yeah, worth it. Speaking of hands extended or lack thereof, after the fumble was overturned from Heinz Ward, the literal next play, Cordell Stewart fumbles a snap in perfect karma because the play shouldn't have been overturned.

Yeah, I haven't recovered. Karma bitch. Of course you did. Um, but, uh, third quarter was not blood. So his best, um, he struggles on his first drive because the page got the ball like deep inside Steel's territory. And, um, not deep inside. Can I close 50 30 45ish maybe?

Yeah, outside of field goal range. And, um, I'm pretty sure this is the, the drive where blood. So does his patented over the shoulder throw. Yes. Intentional started four or five for 39 yards and touchdown. And then he does that literally getting sacked and throws the ball over shoulder. And I thought, I mean, it's typical to blood. So, but I thought the intentional grounding call was bullshit.

It was, it was actually a guy that was running back in the vicinity. And like the only reason it was intentional grounded is because they hadn't seen him play for so many weeks. Like he'd been playing all year. But yeah, it's just, so he knew there was a guy there. Yeah. But it just, it didn't happen. So, um, so they go three and out and it's fourth and seven from like just outside field

goal range. So the patients had to go for it and blood. So I think maybe still hyped up or maybe it's just typical to blood. So try to throw a wide receiver screen and basically just guns it into Troy Brown's face mask. Yeah. Troy Brown can't catch the ball and drops it. And so that's, that's how fourth down goes. I remember mom being shook at this point too.

I was rewatching this game for the first time in 20 years. I was sure I'm like, oh, fuck. The commentator started talking about how, oh, you better remember this play because, you know, the steals have momentum and it's 40 from like a, like a purely blood so loving standpoint where she was like, oh, it couldn't have been better at the end of the first half. But now he's got to play the whole second at you. I think she's probably secretly hoping that like Brady would come back and start the second Not that hard.

No, he did his part. He had his time in the sun and now he can go back into this. I haven't heard your honest question. Honest question. If Brady says he wants to give it a go start of the third quarter near the coach, what do you do? You put it does my question here. Like, was the third quarterback even dressed? It was Damon Hewitt.

I saw him on the sideline. I don't know if he was active or not for the game. I believe. And like if once we got hurt where they've put Brady back in because he looked okay in that second half ish like warming up. He was throwing passes on the sideline. But with a bad ankle, you can do that. That's true.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, you can play on a bad ankle. You just can't do it. He could stay in there and throw it. Yeah. You know, scrambling or anything. You're just doing shotgun.

And it's got to limit your playbook, right? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But just from like riding the momentum of the end of the first half, even if he's like, yeah, I can give it a go. If I was a coach, I'd be like, you know what? Like, let's just see how this plays out. And I'd be like, Brady, we don't want to push you.

We're going to need you to be a Super Bowl. No, that's a great point. Because literally the next drive, the Steelers drive down to the field goal range. And the Patriots actually had an interception, but it was brought back by defensive offsides. Yeah. And the passing interference was a whole bunch of like defensive pennies on the drive.

They get into field goal range. And this is the field goal that gets blocked, where Troy Brown scoops it up, rattles it to Antoine Harris, and he returns it for a touchdown. I actually snapchatted this to Steve, while I was watching this game the other day, right before it, where Willie drops the pick.

Yeah. They try to like a little quick out route, and Willie McGinnis is right there. He hits him right in the hands, and he almost has a second chance at it. And that's even later in this game, though. No, no, this is right before the field goal. That was that third down.

Fuck you're right. Yeah. Because you just have to go back. And that same drive, we had the pick that was negated by the offsides. Yep. And then Willie McGinnis, like, had a sure pick in his hands. He said, I'm right in the hands that he drops.

Yeah. Hit some in the hands. He knocked it down to his knees, bounces up, and he still doesn't catch it. Yeah. Because I was saying one snapchat of him dropping the pick, and then the field goal block. Yeah.

And he still agreed to come on this podcast. What a guy. Poor bastard. But let's get into that blocked field goal, because it's it's an absolutely incredible play by Troy Brown. Is this the best Troy Brown play ever? He's on this game.

The punt return. The only thing we had going in the first quarter. And then obviously this play is just peak peak Troy Brown. And I encourage listeners to go back and look at the video again, because I like my memory wasn't what it was. Like he like that the kicker is like a yard away from him when he goes to school. He's like anything anything outside

of an absolutely perfect scoop. He's fucked. He's getting tackled. And I know just like scoops it doesn't even break stride. And then laterals it like without a thought in the next second, like a perfectly. I know how that's not like it only Troy Brown would have lateraled that because everybody else would be like,

I can break the tackle of a kicker and I'm going to keep going. And he gets dragged down. Yeah. Troy Brown's like, how do I make this work? I think that guy's attacking the tackle. He's just laterals. Well, yeah, people just jump on that ball, too. Yeah, I think that's what he does.

I'll just jump on it. But Troy probably has enough experience, like returning punts and catching him off the bounce and stuff. True. That he read it, grabbed it by the time he's like. So we also knew that it didn't matter because the ball was backwards, it didn't matter if you jumped on it or if he like muff that and he didn't pick it up.

He gets the ball there anyway. Drows down. Yeah. I had a question on this that I don't know the answer to. So he scoops it, right? If he then like he took a few steps and then lateraled it, he made like 10 yards. If he if he laterals it and that gets dropped and the Steelers recover,

are they first down from there? Is that considered like change of possession? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. If the Madden video game has taught me anything, then yes. Okay. But I think to Greg's point of like, I don't even know it would have been like that because it was so close between him picking it and lateraling it.

True. It wasn't like he ran 10 yards. It was like he took one or two steps if that. Yep. He's getting tackled on down and just trekked it to the guy and whitenized him. I don't even know how he saw him either. It was it was perfect. It was that bang bang.

This was like scoop it, take a step or two and then pitch it perfectly to the. Whenever somebody mentions the name Troy Brown, that's the first play that comes to my mind. Well, mine is the the interception against the charges where he stripped it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's number two. That one's better to me. Or the or the interception of Drew Bledsoe as a defensive back. Yeah.

I mean, that was cool for like posterity reasons. But the like in the meaning, meaningfulness of the game that's that's fumble against the charges was just. I don't know. Let's just play this game all of them. All of this game itself, though. He's got 14 points on the board here. Yeah. All by himself by himself and not an offense.

Yeah. You'll also shout out Antoine Harris. Local Raleigh, North Carolina legend. Yeah. Yeah. If we can find a way, I'd love to have him on the podcast because I think he's one of those. He's like the that that same kind of. Mold of that middle class of Patriots players that that's kind of the the foundation of that

Belichick system, you know? Yeah. He's got like a he's got like a semi following around here because. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because he's like he's a Raleigh born and bred and there's tons of New Englanders living in Raleigh. And there's like a Patriots bar downtown where they all watch the games. And he shows up all the time and like does autographs and pictures and shit like that.

Brad, you got to get you got to go talk to him when he does. And dude, I get weird about like that kind of stuff. So do I. And I'm still doing it. So fucking. Yeah. Well, why don't you come on? I'm on Mandy, huh?

If I get some of the podcasts, let's fucking do it. Because I don't know if I was famous, I'd be like, I'm sick of people trying to. You know, but that's the thing though. I feel like he's that classic guys who probably appreciates the attention because he doesn't get it a lot because he's not famous, famous, you know? Oh, he's famous, boy. He's I bet he's not like going out to the grocery store and be like, Oh my God, that's Antoine Harris.

That's true. Like he can still live his life. But when people recognize him, that's got to feel good when people recognize you. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I wish I was Antoine Harris. I want I wish I I want to be like like an investment banker rich where you're not famous at all, but you just have a fuckload of money. So here's my thing.

I've said this for a while. I want to be famous for something I've made, but I don't want people to recognize me. So I can go to a party and be like, Oh, so what do you do? I'm like, Oh, I made this thing that everybody uses. You're like, I made this podcast. Right. Yeah. Exactly.

Like I wrote a podcast that's super fucking famous. You may have heard of me. You're like the Banksy of podcast, Sandy. Exactly. Yeah. Nobody knows what I look like except way less talented. Hey, go fuck yourself. And significantly uglier.

How many times have we put a Greek from this podcast? Because one of these times is going to be fucking and we've never seen things, but we know Andy's uglier just by like the law. Listen, you prick. I have to put up with it. It's statistically almost guaranteed. Just because your mom says you look like Tom Brady doesn't mean you actually do. I love wine episode.

We should do more. So after the Antoine Harris touchdown, I've never heard Heinz Field so quiet, which is fucking phenomenal. I have after that blown touchdown by a Rothesberger when he faked it into a pick. It was sorry. But that was what, 14 years later, 13 years later. Yep. Yeah.

But it didn't last because the Steelers would score two touchdowns in this quarter. A Jerome Bettis touchdown, which actually should have been a, what the fuck was it? Zero way. Yeah. He had zero way. There it is. Easy. Yeah.

Yeah. Which was no talking about these referees were garbage. This is actually when I wrote down the referees. These referees are garbage was because it was clearly a touchdown. But like, oh, no, he stepped out at the two and it was blatantly obviously it didn't. Almost similar to the Nikila Harry touchdown against the Chiefs. It was more blatant than that that he didn't step out of bounds. Yeah.

It was close because of how many bad calls are been in this game or even close calls, if you will. The Steelers didn't have any more challenges. They couldn't challenge that to run a play, but they were at the two-year line anyway and the bus ran in for touchdown. So the bus's like actual legitimate step line was what minus one carry, minus two yards, minus one touchdown. Yeah.

This was notable. Yeah. He gained positive yards. Right. Yeah. And scored a touchdown on it. Yeah. How do you know if he got in either?

Like, look at you guys stood up. It was borderline. You probably could have challenged that, but at this point, everybody's so fucking bored of challenging it. They're like bell checks. Like, yeah, fuck it. Let's just let it run. Um, and then the ensuing Patriots drive was more of the same.

It was a false start penalty to start it. Blood. So sacked again, which, uh, brought back a whole flood of memories of blood. So it was one of those ones where you just held the ball too long. Yeah. Yeah. Bloody kick with it. Throw it.

Throw it. Throw it. Throw it. Fuck. You got sacked again. God damn it. Happy. So blood.

So blood. So bloody cake. Then shitty pun coverage because they were turned that pun to like the 35. That's when they got that second touchdown. Yep. So they returned the pun. And actually I will shout out, um, the punter. Lee.

No, not Lee Johnson. It was, um, Ken Walter. Yes. Thank you. Such a punter name. Ken. Yeah. I bet he's a single father just doing his best.

My friends call me Kenny in professional circumstances. I go by Ken. Yeah. I go by Kenneth. Yeah. It just feels more professional. Yeah. So Ken Walter, but he was fucking hustling.

He's the one that, that actually ran the partner turn out of bounds, but at the New England 32. So a few plays later, Amos, famous Amos scores a touchdown. This game is a get a little close. Cookies for everybody. That's a good, like Steve, you want to hear some marketing shit right now? Hmm. If, if Zaraway scores a touchdown, uh, free cookies for everybody.

Famous Amos cookies in the stands. Nicely done. You like that, Steve? What about maybe if they missed two extra points in the fourth quarter, free cookies for everybody? What? What the fuck are you talking about? You're in a basketball game with a, if you miss both free throws,

like everyone gets Chick-fil-A. Yeah. No. Yeah. They do that NC State. Yeah. But then you don't have the connection to Amos. Right.

This kid calls himself a marketer. All right. Let's do best and worst. Come on. Fucks. I'm, let's take your job. My best is that the, uh, at the last drive of the third quarter, the Patriots actually get finally get their first, first down in the second half.

Yeah. My worst is all the fucking touchdowns that the Steelers scored because it's now 21-17 instead of 21-3. All right. My best obviously Antoine Harris. What a legend. Yeah. As you know, my new best is, uh, that, that punt return by Troy Edwards.

Like that guy's a stud. Block twist. All right. It was a good punt return. I'll give him that. It was. Yeah. Steve, care to comment?

There's a block in the back that the rest miss. That's all I got. No words. Fuck words. My, your worst is the, uh, the Pittsburgh crowd going silent. Fuck them. Yeah. Battle for adversity.

Jesus Christ. You're fucking Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You've been there. I had a call. I actually have two bests and two worsts. How about that? God damn. My worst is, uh, my worst is Steve Brown.

The tie law hit out of bounds on Heinz Ward. Yo, this is bullshit. Was that your best or worst? That was the worst. Like I was kind of a dumb. High log. That was Heinz getting in his head. He definitely got max and like pants.

The board basically took his fucking helmet off with a fucking. I think. On the bench. I, I, I, I barely touched the bell and check was like, I don't give a fuck about that penalty. That was worth it. He barely touched him. It was a flop.

That was bullshit. I keep, I have, I have on here this note over and over again, and it keeps getting like in bigger and bigger caps of like so many home calls. There seem to be a, there's no, there weren't, there weren't home calls. There's bad calls on both sides of the ball. No, I don't believe in home calls. I do, but not in this game. In professional sports, dude, these guys,

they, no, they don't do home calls. I just agree. I had a worse, we're right after the turnover, the karma turnover. Let's take the shot to the end zone. The same one that they got the touchdown on. Oh yeah. And just sales it like a whole other dude over the guy's head. Just wait for your eyes out of bounds.

This was great. He's throwing away. There was a sneaky heads up play. On that third down before the failed fourth down conversion, where you got strip sacked. And it's that kind of like right on the edge strip sack, where it might have been completely, might have been strip sack. And you watch that Patriots player just like flying in from nowhere and jump on the ball.

I don't know who it was, but I wrote it down as Troy Brown because it felt. No, I looked at it. I had to like rewind it and pause it to get it crazy. Here's Charles Johnson. Yeah. Oh shit. All right. And I thought he was Bethel Johnson the whole game.

Charles Johnson who used to play for the Steelers, which I think is why he put so much fucking effort into this game. And he's on the list of touchdown catches from Brady with one. Yes. Yeah. We saw it. I think it was in the Saints game. Yeah.

And it was a fucking laser by Brady. Yeah. We should do a live sporkle for Brady like TD recipients. All right. You've already done it once. I've seen you. I've done it. Yeah.

Yeah. It's actually one point. Yeah. It's super hard because there's fucking 70 something of them. Yeah. And it's just interesting like going through 20 your whole sports fandom of players and being like, all right, how many receivers can you remember of your sports fandom? Yeah.

That's basically what it is. Is there so many obscure people too? And then you'd be like, Johnson, it'll bring up like three Johnson's like, oh, yeah. Oh, oh, those are great. All right. See you next year. Otherwise best is after Troy laterals for the field goal return. Yeah.

They had a shot. The great work by CVS of Tom Brady celebrating jumping on one leg. I didn't see you. Oh, yeah. No, that was my other best for the game. Screaming like a girl like in Seattle Super Bowl. Yeah, but literally but on one leg. Well, it was exactly the same like jumping up and down with his hands on his head,

but I want like this phenomenal. I love Brady. He was so pumped up for this game and so pumped up for like Drew Blanto. Everything that was happening. He was so pissed he wasn't in there, but he was like in a good way. It was amazing. I got a I got a worse that I missed from earlier in the game. The I think it was in the first quarter.

The the fourth and one situations where they bring the people out the offense out and do the hard count and call time out. I fucking cannot stand that. Why not? Because it never works. And it's a tease. You're like, all right, you're going for something. You get hyped up and then you're like, that was lame.

But as a defense, you're so relieved though, right? Like if it's the pages on defense and they do that, you're like, oh, fuck, no one's going to fall for that. Fuck off. I guess. Yeah. But I just like it. Have you ever seen it work?

I can't even think of an instance where I saw it work. It must have worked at some point. It just feels like one of those coach things where they're like, oh, yeah, it's worked before, but it probably worked like twice. And then ever since then, every coach in the world has been like, oh, fourth and one, they're coming out there and they do a motion or a shift to start the. Oh, they just did like four or five motions on this one. Yeah.

It's only so. Yeah. Because they're like up shift up motion. And you're like, there's no fucking they snap this walk. Well, what's has it ever been where like everyone in the stadium thinks that they're not going to go for it. And then all of a sudden with like two seconds left in the play clock, they snap it. That's a fucking good goal, Steve.

They should do that. They should do a shift, a motion and a hard count. And then and then the quarterback walks off the field and then direct snap it to the fucking running back. Yes. That's genius. Bella check. Now we should email.

What's his name? The pink stripes guy. Oh, yeah. Fuck says me. Ernie Ernie Adams. Yes. We should send him. If anybody who's listening knows Ernie Adams email.

Oh, Ernie Adams. Stop listening. Seeing if you can get like an advanced scouting. That's right. Ernie Adams. If you if you're listening, hit us up at Patriots Dynasty 2001. On Twitter. Yeah.

And let's just send them an email. It won't have any words. It'll just be like play sheets. Yeah. Oh, 100%. Oh, yeah. No, we've got plenty of plays that we can write up for you. Yeah.

All right. Fourth quarter. Fourth quarter, baby. This is crunch time. Patriots clinging to a lead 21-17. They have the ball. They're driving. They actually finally get a first down.

This is literally the first down in the first half is on the last driver third quarter. Sneaky big grab by Johnson. Yeah. And then they get another, which was Drew Bledsoe on third and short, getting lit the fuck up like he does like a jump pass. And it takes a shot. It would have been to the chest, but now it's to the groin. Yeah.

Because he jumped up, but completes it to the to Mark Edwards on. There are actually a couple of nice runs by Antoine. And they're right before that too, though. There was. Yeah. And so they got like a tiny little grip on the run game there, which I think set up that pass to the full back. It is.

It's that typical Patriots, you know, run a few times, get to third and short, and then convert it with with the pass. They did it a couple of times and got into field goal range enough that out of an Atari kicked a long field goal. It's like 45 ish yards give or take hit that. I'm going to pass her up 2417. And the Steelers get the ball back. Another Plexiglas Barus offensive pass interference is two in the game,

which I don't think has ever happened before that I can remember. Two offensive pass interference on the same wide receiver. But this was again going back to Otis Smith, just kind of owning shit. And he was he was lined up on Plexiglas Barus. And Tyler was lined up on Heinz Ward, just the entire game, wherever they went, there was just shadowing them. But neither of those watches, he was had a good game. No, especially Heinz.

I think Tyler did an amazing job on him. Yeah, I think so too. No. And there was a there's actually one play. I don't even remember what the play was. I think it was like a run play or maybe it was Cordell Stewart, like running for a couple yards. But you could it showed in the foreground,

Otis Smith just kind of punching Plexiglas Barus in the chest as he tried to get off the line. And Plexiglas Barus didn't know what to do with it. And the commoners actually called it out at one point. Yeah. And it was it was kind of how the whole game went. You just you just Otis Smith just kind of was too physical for Plexiglas Barus

in this entire game. And Plexiglas just didn't know what to do. He didn't have a gun in his sweatpants. So he couldn't he couldn't handle this shit. That reminds me one year on Halloween, I had a friend who had a Plexiglas Barus Giants jersey and I was him for Halloween. I got a pair of sweatpants, put a shitload of catch up ball in the dick area. Soft like a BB gun in my pants.

Oh, Steve Brown, you never failed this point. It's an all time. That's an all time bonehead move. Oh, it's not right. A gun without a safety in sweatpants. I don't even put my cell phone in my sweatpants. Yeah, right. I think the club that you falls out every fucking time you move.

Yeah, who goes to a club in sweatpants, by the way? Like I don't go to many clubs. And when I do it ain't in sweatpants because I don't fucking let you in. I signed like a deal to he just signed like a contract, I feel like. That feels right. Yeah, because everyone's like, what's going to happen with this contract? Because he's going to jail. I can't believe he did go to jail for that, right?

Yes. That's outrageous. He shot himself. But still, this is American. He discharged a firearm in a building. Yeah, but at himself. I mean, true. I'm like, yeah, Marvin Harrison has shot people.

I didn't go to jail. So I didn't go to jail, you know? And then this guy shoots himself and they're like jail time. Well, because New York, I bet if he did that in Indiana, like Marvin Harrison did, he wouldn't have got jail time. Oh, for sure not. But he's not speaking up ironic for New York to be able to get off. I mean, Terry kill broke his girlfriend's orbital bone.

He didn't go to jail. Allegedly. Bringing that right the fuck down. Good job. So speaking of orbital bones, I guess, fourth quarter, I thought the the miss of the game was you bloods are going deep in his own territory to David Patton. And Patton was half a step short. That's a touchdown.

Yeah. Actually, it wasn't even short, but Bledsoe actually under through him. And whoever the defensive back was just barely got like a fingertip on it and made Patton bobble it. And if Patton caught that, he's walking in for a touchdown in this game. You should have caught it. That's it. Yeah.

You should have caught it. I agree. That's like that's the classic Bledsoe upside though, right? That was such a beautiful ball. Off his back foot. Yeah, Bledsoe chucked it like 60 yards off his back foot because that's all he knows how to do. You just spun it.

Yeah, he just hooked it. For every throw over his head on third and seventh, then he gets a touch of ground before he then uncorks a ball like that. Yeah, exactly. But they convert a couple of third downs and eventually punt the ball, just running off clock at this point. And now we get into the Cordell Stewart interception section of the podcast. Brigade.

I wrote a note right before this because again, like Andy, I'd watched a lot of the highlights and I had watched that Troy Brown kick return all that a bunch and the field goal block. I hadn't watched the whole game and my whole perception was like we kind of hung on at the end. Yeah. Which I don't know, Bledsoe made some plays, but I also remember like hating Cordell Stewart out of this and I have a note on here. Has Cordell thrown a pass more than 14 yards and then like immediately after it tries it, dot, dot, dot, throws a pick and then he has another one and both of the picks are just.

So yeah, both of them, he just overthrew his wide receiver. Neither of the wide receivers were open. No, the first one. This guy was so open. Well, the first one he was actually right. Yeah. Heinz Ward had like nobody within five yards of him. And he shut like five yards over his head and he threw it so far over the Heinz Ward's head

that the safety hit where it was to bucky right in the chest and he like bottled it. Like why is this ball in my chest right now? Yeah. There's a can of corn. Can of corn. Do you know that phrase comes from? I do. I don't remember.

There's some about knocking the corn off the off the top shelf. Yes. Old, old grocers used used to use a stick to get things off the corn and they'd knock it into their waistband pocket things. Yeah. And they just knock it off the shelf and catch it in their little hip pocket. And make it look so easy. Can of corn.

Yeah. Remember that video game we used to play? Oh, what was that? It was a computer game. Yeah. Yeah. Every single day that every fucking time. Like at least once a game.

Because no, because we're so bad at it. All we do is swing at every pitch. There's either a home run or a fly ball pop up. Yeah. Yeah. And every pop of corn. Can of corn. Hey, you know where that phrase came from?

Exactly. That's where I learned it from. This is a video game. MLB 2004 or something shit like that. Yeah. Yeah. I still, I still dish out that fact all the time. Oh, me too.

Yeah. So, yeah. So, Coral Stewart throws a new session. Tobaki Jones overthrows it. I can of corn. Yeah. Pasco three and out. Because, you know, true blood is at the home.

And that's what happens right now. And Adam and Terry misses his first field goal since Connor decided to tell us that he didn't miss a field goal the rest of the season. Well, well, well, this was the one. What do we have here? To be fair, it was a 50 yard field goal at Hinesfield. And a chance to make it a two score game with two and a half minutes left. This would have been a championship game.

Right. So, this would have been clutch. Yeah. Push it just left. Yeah. He missed by like, what a foot, if that. I didn't know. I didn't miss very much.

Horses and handguns Andy. On that third down touchdown, we just like got five yards or so. You probably would have made that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. Because Bledtoe took a shot in the end zone and like threw it like fucking.

Way over everybody's head. Yeah. Yeah. It's what I'm saying is these perceptions on kickers are just built on circumstances. Right. So it's true. The Steelers come back and get a touchdown here. People are talking about that miss kick.

Yeah. They're like, yeah, he made and that like invalidates the kick against the Steelers because they don't are the Raiders because they don't make the Super Bowl. True. Yeah. Right. And then this whole like lore of Adam Vinitieri being the best clutch kicker in the history of the game is like kind of thrown out the window.

It's very true. So it's just like entirely built on circumstances. So like that's the argument I was trying to make is not that Vinitieri sucks. It's just like, yeah, he's like an average kicker, but great in the circumstances he got and, you know, he made some big kicks. Yeah. And but give me one field goal that Steven Gostkowski has even had the opportunity to make to win a game.

The Ram Super Bowl. And that was the win the game. Now let's just go up a couple. Yeah. The Giants game. That's it. Like he hasn't had one where he's like a tough kick. Yeah.

I mean, he's got he's had a few but like you're talking about like a tough kick in like a really important game. Yeah. To win it like he just hasn't had that opportunity. So I agree. So they missed field goal. The Steelers get the ball back in pretty good position. And I think it was maybe one or two plays later.

Cordell Stewart does an over through again thanks to Otis Smith undercutting the route. And it's picked off by Lauren Malloy. And this game is just about over, but it's officially over when Antoine Smith, who has averaged maybe one less than two yards of carry so far, on second and like eight runs for 12 yards, gets the first down game over. Dude, do you see how hyped everyone was when he got that first down to it? Oh my God. Absolutely everybody.

Mark Edwards was there. They were just like, they knew it. It was awesome. The entire Patriots defense went and stood up on there on the bench and started waving white towels at the crowd. Yeah, I saw that. Which was my favorite moment of this entire game. Yeah, that's amazing.

Drew in that final huddle on the kneel down, looked like he was about to cry. He was like blinking like every second. Ah, it was so good. Yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, I mean, they were 10 point dogs in this game. They were, and they won it. I'm surprised it's that low.

I was too, actually. Like the Steelers were wagging playing at home. So 10 points is a lot of points for a playoff game. That's true. Yeah, for an AFC championship game. Absolutely. Especially in a low scoring league, like this voice. Yeah, that's true.

So give me your best and worst for this game now. Oh, we got a quarter. That was, no. No, let's go the whole, let's go the whole shebang, baby. Whole game, baby. Steve Brown. My best. I mean, there's absolutely no argument you can make against the best,

not being the Bledsoe story. Fair enough. Just the way he handled himself all year. And then to step in with like 30 seconds of notice and win the AFC championship game. But not only that, but the way he did it, the way he took that hit on the sideline and bounced back up and then went through touchdown, which was basically the game winning touchdown. Yeah, I had the replacements should be this.

I thought he was like terrible in second half, but like rewatching it. He had some clutch throws. He had like that awesome touch pass. What was it like in the fourth quarter round? Yeah, that was pretty sick. Like huge third down to keep that kind of drive churning and eating up the clock. Like he actually had some bigger plays than I remembered. Yeah.

Yeah, I remember just like kind of hanging on in spite of Bledsoe, but that's definitely not the case. Yeah, because of Bledsoe. All right. So my worst is this wine. What do you expect from the Kala? I was bullshitting at the beginning. I don't like red wine to begin with.

So how much, how much should it cost? Either do I. You know, I was, I was thinking, I didn't even look at the price. No big deal. I want to say it was like more expensive than I thought. I think it was like 35 bucks or something. Oh, yeah. I probably should have checked the price, but I was like,

big NFL logo, that thing's going to be like $12. Like this thing looks gaudy as shit. Oh man. You know what likes the Panthers. So that's going to lead into my best, which is Drew Bledsoe knows how to make a bottle of wine. He knows how to crush grapes. Let's say that this man has created a fantastic bottle of wine.

And you want to, you want to know something funny is like, I didn't, I didn't realize until very recently that raisins were just like dehydrated grapes. What? Yeah. Oh, come on, man. Dude, pickles. Oh no.

Called cucumber? Yes. You know what the thing is? I love, I love pickles. I don't like cucumbers. I've always thought that though, like why are pickles called pickles and like it's pickled onions, pickled radishes, pickled all of this. That's the point I brought up when we were having this discussion.

Why not call it cucumbers? Why not call it cucumber? And why not call a raisin, a dehydrated grape? Well, it's like dehydrated other stuff. You know, I mean, it's fine. I get that. But do they have new names? Raisins are called dehydrated cranberries.

For what? They're called cranberries. They're called craisins. Or that. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, you know, I feel like it's not my fault. It's society's fault. Not just for this, but for everything. And for all my flaws, you know.

My worst is Greg Brown's flaws and also the referees in this game. Yeah. I don't beat my wife because I'm an asshole. It's because society raised me this way. Yeah. Jesus Christ. It's why I got to you. Just kidding.

Cut that on that note. Steve Brown. What's your best one? The worst is that last comment. Fair. Best was definitely peak Troy Brown. Well, not definitely. I agree with Greg on the Drew Blunt.

So a redemption story and all that. If I had to put Browns up there, though, this is peak Troy Brown. I mean, there's other plays you can pull out, right? I've like Troy Brown being this. And he's always been my favorite patriot. But like this game. That's gay.

Yeah. Yeah. You want to run through his contributions real quick? Yeah. What was his step? I don't know. Okay. So he had eight catches for 120 yards.

Damn. He had the scoop and toss. Yeah. For the touchdown. Yep. And he had three. Returns 80 yards and a touchdown. Yeah.

For 26 and a half yards average. So a touchdown, a touchdown, 200 yards and a touchdown pass. Essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Touchdown lateral. Is that that's that's a fucking Troy Brown stat line. Yeah.

That is the prototypical Troy Brown stat line. And he didn't make the initial pro ball. Yeah. The average. And like they were talking about setting the Steelers single season record with like 90 something catches. And I was like, wait, didn't over 100. Yeah.

He had more than that. Yeah. So see if it was you worse than Troy Edwards. Got to be right. No. I think watching him try to play quarterback, man. Yeah. It's like he's struggled.

Yeah. Yeah. Is he what's the bills guy right now? Tyrone Taylor. No. He's for the Saints now. Chargers now. But Allen Josh Allen.

You know, we're like, you're just waiting for that other shoe to drop with him or even say I'm Donald, you know, like, you're just waiting for them or Sanchez. You can go through the list of quarterbacks where you're just like, yeah, he's going to fuck up. I think Cordell would be better than them. No. He's a ball baller ball. Dude.

Yeah. Throw the trigger ball, but he was he was dangerous in other ways. Like his passing wasn't his danger. And like he couldn't run. I mean, he could run the ball. We didn't against us. So Belichick took away what he did well and made him beat him with his arm and then just watching Cordell try to beat us with his arm.

Yeah. It was brutal to watch. I'll give you that. He was and that's why he threw two picks in the last minute because like the only thing they had is Cordell trying to throw it down the field. Yeah. I mean, ran for 41 yards and as long as with 34, he had two fumbles, one which he lost 24 for 42 for 255 passing with three interceptions, three sacks and longest of 24 yards.

His rating was 45.2. Yeah. As long as it's 24 yards and that's probably a screen pass. I'm actually pretty sure it was. Is there a way? Yeah, it was. It was to Charles Bettis. Famous.

Famous. So like the dude cannot drop the ball down the field. So when it came to that, he had to. Boom. Pick pick done. Yeah, it wasn't great. Oh, that's actually probably a best just because he sucks. Maybe the other words is a specific ref call where they had a huge block in the back

and they called it back because the receiver's war because he stepped out of bounds. Yeah, it was bullshit. It happened at the exact same time. Heartbeat before the block in the backs. I guess that doesn't count. But it didn't though. I don't think it did. I think if you reviewed that, you would have found out.

And fucking plexiglass burst high steps away from that whole situation like a fucking goon. Yeah, I did. Fucking dirty. Bad refs dirty. Plus call it idiot. The only thing could have been if like Troy had to come up and chest bump them or something. Steve, I love it. All right.

Well, I think we've done this game justice. And next week, we have what I'm doing. We're doing spirits. Jesus Christ. Imagine that would be awesome. Next week, I think I'm hoping we have a special guest. So we will see you for that one. And the Patriots have made the Super Bowl for their third time ever.

Going for the first ever Super Bowl win against the Great Show on turf. So we will see you next week for that. Gentlemen, have a good evening. Have fun at media day. Hell yeah.