Mediocrity is the Standard For Mike Tomlin

Marc:
in a desert.

null: Wow.

Chris: oh yes it's a big night here on the sports porch yes this is the sports porch the black and gold edition coming to you live all over the world live on facebook live on youtube live on x and live on the gram on instagram as soon as i click these buttons there we go and we are as we are a podcast i'm going to drop that podcast right after the show that's right dropping the podcast right after the show on the iheart radio app apple podcast spotify

SPEAKER_02: or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts.

Chris: And of course, grab our YouTube channel. Our subscribers are starting to go up there where we're getting a few just about every other day at the sports sports podcast. We are live on YouTube right there. And you can always listen to us live on radio PGH. That is our internet radio station, radiopgh.com, and I'm going to drop the Radio PGH stream in the comments right now. So if you can't watch this because you're in the car, You can always listen to us right here. So what are we going to do? Yeah. Well, you know what we're going to do? We're going to break it down because, um, yeah, I, I, I, I have, I I'm lost for words. We're, we're obviously, we're going to talk Steelers. I have H J in the studio to my left over here. Uh, hockey, Jesus, the grant while being, he's sitting across from me in front of Jerome Bettis holding what is, I believe the last super bowl trophy that we won.

Steve: Uh, no, that was 40.

Chris: Oh, that was 40. Nevermind. We're at that game. Anyway, one of the last ones that we won, uh, and we're going to talk about that. There's a lot of, there's a lot of rumors being thrown around. We're going to grade the Steelers tonight. We're going to talk about, uh, what to expect. We're going to have our NFL playoff predictions. I do have a snack. So we are going to have Trader Joe's snack time. Maybe we should just go right to the snack. The snack will be coming down when the snack has been properly prepared.

Steve: TD, I have to ask you a question. Yeah. Are you going away from the other format for a specific reason? Do you like the big background? Are you showing folks the big television at home?

Chris: I don't know.

Steve: I just want to make sure you got the right format.

Chris: Is that better? Let's do that. Let's try that again. All right.

Steve: You can actually see the television better. I'll just duck out a little bit.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. Should I turn it off? I have the Monday night game back there, but oh well, no big deal.

Steve: Don't worry, it's football.

Chris: It should be on. And as always, we're going to titillate your senses with some What Are We Watching? I like titillating. You're titillating. You're titillating. I like titillating. We like to titillate. So let's get right to it. Let's get right the hell to it. Right now, we are reeling from yet another early playoff exit. Let's just go right to the game. game itself. Let's do the good, the bad, the ugly. Okay. And then we can, then we, of course, Mike Tomlin, everything else who's coming back, who's not coming back. What's the reasons for it. So, uh, H H actually, I want to start with the grand Schwab beanie tonight, the grand Schwab beanie.

Steve: Uh, it's hard to have the only one that picked the game, right?

Chris: It's yeah. And it's hard to have good, bad and ugly. because they lost and that's it. It's over. Right. So did you find a good? Yeah. Did you see any good out of that?

Marc: I didn't find a good. Yeah. The good is the number seven. Uh, okay.

Steve: Hey, I like sevens.

Marc: Yeah. Seven, uh, is the number of teams along with the Steelers forming eight teams that have not won a playoff game in the last eight years. Okay. So what that means is with the commanders having won a playoff game last night, there are now 24 out of 32 teams that have won a playoff game in the last eight years. So the good news is at least they're not alone.

Chris: Right. All right. That's your good. All right. H.J., anything good from this game at all?

Steve: We did outscore the Ravens in the second half. I mean, it was 14, seven that we did outscore them in the second half and we did outpass them. We outpassed them 251 yards to 165 yards.

SPEAKER_02: Right.

Steve: So, I mean, those are good things. We didn't turn the ball over. Right. That's another good thing. But the reality is everything else was bad or ugly.

Marc: OK, so in a serious note, I will say a Landon Roberts played a good game. He did wrong. Well, you don't think so?

Steve: No.

Marc: OK. Pete Moore says.

Steve: Did you see him tackle the King Henry at all? No.

Marc: Maybe once. We did have some tackles for a loss and he did lead the team in tackles with double-digit tackles. Okay.

Chris: Somebody had to. There is just no good from this game, I think. Pete Moore on Facebook chimes in, Fire Tomlin, he sucks and should have been gone years ago. Look, we're going to get into that, Pete, so thanks for being here. My good from that game, is that another mediocre season is over. Other than that, there's not a whole lot. Now, we do have a comment here, OC on Instagram says, greetings from scorched SoCal. Fires wouldn't stop me from catching the porch. He must be near a Starlink terminal. So, well, we hope you and yours are safe out there. We hope everything's okay out there. We hope everything's all right, buddy. We were talking about this before the show. Right before the show. Absolutely. So, yeah, stay safe. I mean, look, if it's a choice between staying safe or watching the porch, I mean, I know it's a hard decision to make, but I would say stay safe. I respect the guy for making the porch a priority. Yeah, seriously. Amidst all the devastation. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thanks for being here, OC. Anyway, yeah, my good is that the season was over. Schwaber, the bad. Okay, the bad.

Marc: It's not really a justice game bad. It's a four playoff game bad. TJ what one sack in four games Minka Fitzpatrick no turnovers in four games yep, so Look those guys are superstars. They're it TJ. What is a future Hall of Famer and Whether be because of injuries or not They have not come up big in the big games. I All right. H J bad.

Steve: The bad is that the Pittsburgh Steelers not only lost the game, which is the ultimate bad, it's how they lost the game. That really was just absolutely just, it was sad to watch. It was really sad to watch because when you get outrushed 299 to 11 yards, crazy. I mean, that by itself is a statistic that should never, ever be in a Pittsburgh Steelers game. I don't care if it's a playoff game, a regular season game where you have all your backups in, even a preseason game where you have sat everybody at the end of the season game. Any of those games are unacceptable, but for it to happen in a playoff game against a rival team, And the way the Steelers played, like I was saying this throughout the game, where's Cam? Why is he not in it? All these guys were taking breaks in early in the game when they needed to be stopping Lamar Jackson and, and King Henry, and they were on the sidelines. And it just, it just, it really infuriates me that everybody might be, some people might be saying like you're wasting cam and you're wasting TJ. Those guys are part of the problem. I hate to tell you this, but they are part of the problem. And if the Steelers don't realize that they can't play a run smash mouth game, they are never going to fix their problems. And that's why I say it's it's it's all bad.

Chris: OK, my bad. But I don't I don't know where to start. pick one. They were never in this game to begin with.

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. I mean, it, it, it once again, it looked now, now I will, I will say that, um, we're going to get into a, I'm sure a lot of, uh, Russell Wilson bashing, uh, going back and forth and who the quarterback is going to be. He did actually end up not having a horrible game 20 to 29. That's almost 70% of his passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns. Hey, that's a line that if your defense plays well, you would think you won the game. Now, there was no rushing game. None. So my bad is going to be real close to my ugly. They're actually the same thing. No game plan. No game plan at all.

Marc: I'm also going to say, though, that those statistics that Russ accumulated were all essentially when the game had already been decided for the most part.

Steve: I mean, not all of them.

Marc: Yeah. And the Ravens are basically, you know, trying not to give up a big play and they're, they're kind of playing their half ass defense, right?

Chris: Maybe, maybe not. But that being said, my, my bad and my ugly, and then we'll get to your ugly Schwaber. I'm just going to lump them all together. It was a lack of a game plan. Um, I'm, I'm not sold on Arthur Smith anymore, but we'll talk about that later. Schwaber, you're ugly.

Marc: My ugly is Mike Tomlin, and there's just too many ways to go about it. He's supposed to be the ultimate motivator. Did the Steelers look motivated the last five games of the season? Not at all. Not at all. No. You know, the other thing is, look, you know, the Steelers have tried to change things up. They brought in new offensive coordinators, new defensive coordinators. They broke up the quarterback room. Right. They've tried to make changes. And look, it's got to all at some point come back down to one common denominator, and that's Mike Tomlin. You know, look, boy, I mean, you have a gift in that the guy has coached the team for 18 years. There's nothing wrong with saying goodbye to him at this point. You know, to say eight years without a playoff win is too much. I mean, does anybody else on any other coach on any other team survive no playoff wins in eight years? No. No, but let's get the HGAs ugly, because this is going to be part of our next conversation.

Chris: OK, go ahead.

Marc: My last comment on Tomlin is he's found a way somehow in a performance based profession to convince dealers, upper management, that performance is not important.

Chris: And I would say you're probably right about that. H J ugly.

Steve: Well, I just have to address that just briefly because I know we're going to get into it more in depth after this, but I'll have one word for that. It's called tradition and I'll explain later. Okay. My ugly is, um, It's it has to be the defense. It has to be either the scheming on the defense, the tackling on the defense, how they went about thinking they could stop both Lamar Jackson and King Henry. Just it was it was flawed from the very beginning. I mean, the offense actually did drive the ball and they did. By the way, they took the ball. They won the toss and they said, we'll take the ball. We want the ball because we think our offense can do something. And it kind of did something. I mean, it got to almost midfield and then they pinned them deep. So now all the defense, if they have the right defensive scheme, they make a big splash play or they get them out three and out and they're in business. They're off to a really good start, but what did they do? They let them drive 90 yards on like 16 plays and just drove it down their throats, both passing and running, mostly running by Lamar. And you could see it from the very beginning. The way they schemed it was, no matter what happens, tackle Lamar. When he doesn't have the ball, tackle Lamar.

Marc: Except for TJ Watt, when Lamar has the ball, tackle Derrick Henry.

Steve: Right. When it looks like they're going to give it to Henry, tackle Henry. Then Lamar keeps it. I mean, he's brilliant at this. And the Steelers didn't think that they would let Lamar Jackson run as much as they did. And Baltimore had it right. They must have known what we were doing. So, um, good for Baltimore to have the right scheme. And, and, and it was just ugly to watch that defense, uh, have no clue on how to stop those guys from the very beginning, the whole way through the end. And my last ugly is watching Minka Fitzpatrick get that face plant right into the ground. I mean, the guy's getting paid $20 million to tackle people and he looked like a fool. Yeah. Look like a damn fool.

Chris: How much, how much do you want to, there's, there's a part of me that feels like maybe he's been injured in some way and, and they, they're going to disclose it after the season or maybe that becomes the excuse.

Steve: Although they would have already said, yeah, they already said, you know, Minka was playing with a torn labrum. Did they? No, they didn't say anything.

Chris: That's my point. Right. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So he wasn't injured.

Chris: All right. So remember to subscribe to our channel on YouTube at the Sports Sports Podcast. Click the notifications button after clicking subscribe. You'll know when we go live. We go live every single week. at 730 p.m. Eastern Time. I have a couple comments coming in here. Mike Lawrence says the Steelers have too many problems to fix in the offseason. The O-line, the O-coordinator, the defensive secondary, the D-coordinator, the running game. Pretty much the whole team he's talking about. OC, I put his comment up here from Instagram, says something you've talked about, H.J., in the past a lot. Didn't Chuck Knowles sort of enter this type of winning limbo? I remember as a kid, Knowles' last few years were extremely painful to watch. Yeah, but the difference is he knew it was time to retire, so he did.

Steve: Well, there are three things with that. Right. One is it's true from 1979, 1991, he never made it back to a Super Bowl. Well, he made it in 79, 80, but after that, he didn't make it back to the Super Bowl, but he still won playoff games between then and there. He never had more than three years between a playoff win. Right. And not only do you make the playoffs, but he won and he actually played against Miami, I think, in a championship game. That was later. But that's when he figured it out. He's like, I don't know how to beat Dan Marino. I can't coach anymore. And he retired.

Chris: Right. Turned it over to Bill Cowher. OK, so let's let's talk here about all over sports radio, and we knew that if they didn't come out and make a statement and win this game, that the big question was going to be Mike Tomlin. Now, here's an interesting thing. It seems to me like most of Steelers Nation is now, there are many more, many less apologists for Mike Tomlin. Right. than there are people who support him anymore. And I mean, I don't even know that we're going to be able to turn this into a debate between the three of us.

Marc: Well, and part of the reason for that is because, you know, I guess things can change, but the reports have come out from multiple sources that the Steelers intend to maintain the course with Mike Tomlin.

Steve: Yeah, Rooney already linked that this afternoon.

Marc: Right.

Steve: So they're not planning on making any changes in the head coach position. Unless Tomlin comes to him and says, you know what, I think it's really time for me to step back.

Chris: So let me throw this out there. Four or five years ago, when talk of this really started to kind of pick up. And it looked like Ben was on the outs. His relationship with Tomlin was on the outs. One of the things that you heard here first was I said, look, at the time I supported Mike Tomlin because I said, look, he has been able to take Teams and it's hard to win in the NFL consistently It's hard to win playoff games harder than that to win a Super Bowl He didn't win a Super Bowl to start now. Everybody wants to say. Oh, we had Bill cowers team Yeah, he did for the most part, but he still had to coach that team They had to buy into Mike Tomlin is still have to win it. You still have to win it He's safer But here's what I said about Mike Tomlin four or five years ago. I don't remember the exact number of years, but it was about two years before Ben retired. I said, you got to hold off on this guy because he has had a hall of fame quarterback his entire coaching career at the time. So including this year. Well now, but that's on the back end. I'm just saying, right? Yeah, you're right. You're right. So he has never once had to go into a meeting other than when Ben was injured. He's never once had to go into a meeting and say, who is going to be my quarterback? He's never had to look at an offensive coordinator and say, how are we going to work this out? Then you move on to when Ben got hurt. You had some exciting wins with duck Hodges over the Ravens. You had some exciting games with Mason Rudolph. And even after that, he drafts Kenny picket and they do make the playoffs. Okay. And what picket second year, right? Last year. Yep. Now really, um, Is it that bad? You know, I'm not trying to take the other side of this argument. But what I'm saying is now that Roethlisberger is gone and the ghost of Roethlisberger is gone after three years without him. Now you're seeing the real head coach Mike Tomlin and how he can evaluate talent on the offensive side of the ball. Because what did they do? He fell in love with Kenny Pickett. I don't care what anybody says. Omar Khan, the Roonies. Listen, that's his pick. If you think that Mike Tomlin doesn't have pretty much the final say on who they draft in on any side of the ball. You're kidding yourself. He's the head coach. If he doesn't want a guy, if they come to him and say, we're drafting this guy, we love him. And he says, I hate that guy. You know, it's, it's hyperbole, but I hate that guy. No way. They're not going to draft him. So Tomlin drafted picket. Tomlin drafted Najee Harris. I also said Najee Harris was not the answer and he's not. I said George Pickens is not the answer and he's not. Now we're seeing what Mike Tomlin really is as a talent evaluator in this league. We're long enough into that process. I think it's time for him to go. I don't see how they turn this around to be honest with you. And I agree with you. He is somehow, Somehow he is convinced Steelers upper level management that mediocrity is OK.

Steve: He doesn't have to.

Chris: Yeah. Well, OK, H.J., let's hear your thoughts on that, because we're in agreement.

Marc: I think that now it's time for Tom and I. Are you saying that you feel like because Marvin's in the house? Good evening. Are you saying Marvin, are you saying you feel like because the Steelers tradition is to have only three coaches in all these years, that that's just, you know, Art Rooney Jr. 's way of, of this is the way it's supposed to be run. And so I'm sticking with him no matter what.

Steve: Yeah. Well, it's tradition for the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1970 to have a head coach for life. And it's worked out okay to this point. I mean, even Coach Knoll, who, who won four Super Bowls, and then had a crappy ending, at least knew when to step down. Cowher came in and turned it around because, you know, he finally got his Terry Bradshaw in Ben Roethlisberger. Then he stepped down.

Chris: And he had a pretty damn good defense as well.

Steve: Yeah. Oh yeah. Blitzberg was one of the best, most funnest defenses I think I've ever watched.

Chris: Most funnest.

Steve: Remember that. Most funnest.

Chris: Yeah. I think that's a Pittsburgh. No, no, no.

Steve: That's a, that's a, that's a high superlative.

Chris: Most funnest. Okay.

Steve: You don't get higher than most funnest.

Chris: Apparently that's true. That is true.

Steve: And then once again, his ending is kind of, you know, it's clouded in kind of some mystique, but he left, let's just say he left and he never coached for another team after he left. That's the way that the Roonies want to run the head coach position. Here's the problem. When you hire a young coach who, you know, looks like he, and at first I was, I was suspect. I did not want to go here because everybody was saying it. Well, he just won Super Bowls. He just won Super Bowls with Cowher's team. And he did, but then he got this great group of guys together. He still had Ben in his prime. He had AB, he had Lev Bell. He had a pretty good defense still, some guys left over. any couldn't win a damn thing he did make it to the fc championship one game but he couldn't win anything and now he doesn't have been anymore and he can't figure it out and then we you know we blame people like okay it's canada so we got rid of canada has does anybody think that by getting rid of canada things have gotten better Not now this year towards the end of last year. The only thing that you can say about Tomlin is he has a winning record. He's never, he's never had a losing record, but when that becomes the standard and I, I talked about this last week and if you want to see the dad on it, go back to last week's podcast. And I talked about how it's absolutely true that the Steelers do play for Mike Tomlin when they don't want him to have a losing record. It's kind of like that Mike Evans deal, where everybody wanted Mike Evans to perpetuate the thousand-yard receiving so he could tie Jerry Rice. Well, that's fun and all, but if your standard is a Super Bowl, then Tomlin has absolutely failed. This year is 16 years from a Super Bowl. Coach Noel only had 13 of the last 16 years we didn't make a Super Bowl. Does anybody think we're making a Super Bowl next year? Because I don't. That will be a new record for futility in making the standard, which is at least making it to a damn Super Bowl, where we're 6-2, by the way, the best in the NFL. Does anybody think that Tomlin can get us there? And this is what the Roonies have to say. It doesn't matter us as fans. As fans, we have no say in this whole thing. But the Roonies have to look in the mirror and say, what's more important, the tradition of having a Steeler head coach for life or making it to Super Bowls and looking at the important things in life? That's what they have to decide. What's more important, Super Bowls or head coaches for life? Which one is it? Which one is it, Art Rooney? Tell us, because that's what we want to know. If you're saying you're keeping Tomlin, then we know the answer, and Steeler fans should act accordingly.

Marc: I also, that's a great point, and I also would add something on to that. They also have to make a decision on this winning record nonsense. You know, it's probably the dumbest statistic that I've ever heard in my life. You know, that he's had a winning record all these years. Well, guess what? in the last eight years where they haven't won a playoff game, you do realize three of those years they weren't in the playoffs.

Steve: Yep.

Marc: Right.

Steve: That's exactly.

Marc: So is that a good year? Well, think about it this way. Before before they move to seven playoff teams, then there's if it were the way it was in the olden days, there'd be another two years where they weren't in the playoffs. Yep. So, you know, it's got to be the most asinine stat that's out there.

Steve: Mark, in the last 16 years, they missed a playoff six times. In the 10 years that they made it, they were out seven times in the first round. The Steelers haven't won a playoff game since 2016. And so you do the math. That's eight years. We used to laugh at the Cincinnati Bengals when they had Marvin Lewis and he went 0-7 in the playoffs. We're worse right now. We're absolutely worse than the Bengals were when they had the Andy Dalton and the Carson Palmers of the world. We're worse than that right now. And not only are we worse now, who thinks that we're going to be competitive against Lamar Jackson and the bum Joe Burrow? I mean, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody does. Nobody thinks we're going to be competitive against those guys. And those guys are going to be in the league for about eight, 10 more years. Yeah. They've got their best years ahead of them yet. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, I'm, I'm curious, Marvin, uh, tell, uh, put it in the comments. You said, uh, who did the Steelers miss on? I'm curious what you mean by that statement.

Marc: Who did the Steelers miss on? I think he might mean, he might mean that they, they passed on Lamar Jackson. Yeah, they did.

Steve: They passed on Lamar Jackson.

Chris: He's not the only, he's not the only one, but he's the big one. About 20 teams did, right? Yeah.

Steve: Yeah, almost all the teams in the world did.

Chris: Well, and that's because Lamar didn't play, he played for a smaller school. Louisville, it's not that small. Well, I mean, what I mean is not traditionally a contender for a national title.

Steve: Well, Marvin, they had to draft Terrell Edmonds that year.

Chris: Yeah. That's that's a bad one. Yeah, that is That is the bad one. John edberg on youtube joins us. Thanks. John the pope supreme court steeler's head coach the best three gigs on the planet Actually, there have been more popes than steeler's head coach.

Steve: Look it up.

Chris: Yeah, you're right Uh, if he was any on any other team, he would be fired Uh, yeah, marvin was saying draft wise. Yeah, I Look, man, it's really a bad situation when, and once again, it goes to ownership. Are they becoming the pirates? No, they're not that bad. But at the same time, it's kind of like they're just set in their ways. Like all Nutty wants to do is line his pocketbook. If you think about it, mediocrity is making the Roonies a lot of money.

Steve: So what do they, what do they really care? Chris, I hate to tell you this, but anybody who owns an NFL franchise is making a lot.

Chris: Well, I know, but what I'm saying is here's the thing. I know that.

Steve: And they spend up to the cap every year. I think they did have a, they had a stigma about them that they didn't spend. They spend to the cap every year in fairness. Yeah. Now the way they do it, I think is off and they pay their coaches. Well, I mean, Tomlin makes $10 million.

Chris: I think he makes 16.

Steve: Yeah, well, he gets paid handsomely.

Chris: Yes.

Steve: So, I mean, they're not cheap when it comes to doling out contracts. I think.

Chris: Hold on, Amy May, I think they picked Claypool instead of Jalen Hurts. They probably did. Yeah.

Steve: Well, right. I don't know. Was Jalen Hurts a first round pick? Second round. Second round. Yeah, it's possible. Yeah, it's absolutely possible.

Marc: Now, here's kind of where I come in with my whole, you know, the winning record is nonsense business. I think that they operate kind of in a somewhat fear-based approach, that they want to be relevant and they feel like having a winning record, making the playoffs most years, allows them to be in the dance, and if you're in the dance, then anything can happen. However, if you look at the opposite approach to that, where you embrace the rebuild, okay? Let's think about Who made big strides this year by embracing the rebuild? The Washington commanders. Why? Because they went four and 13 and got to draft the franchise quarterback. And you know what? You're not always going to get it right. Right. And if you don't get it right, then you set yourself back another five years. Right. But when you do get it right, You're set up for 15. Yeah.

Chris: And, and to that point, uh, the ownership group that came in was the ownership group last year, the last year under Ron Rivera. So they kind of just let him go. They said, we're going to let Rivera coach out the final year of his contract. And they got rid of some of their best defensive players.

Marc: Right. You got it. Right. And, you know, and, and they just said, all right, you know, we're, We're kind of tanking, and that's, look, that's what you gotta do at times.

Chris: That's new ownership. Listen, I have to get this comment in here because I want some reaction to this. John Edberg on YouTube, and first of all, thank you for being a subscriber. I want to remind you that it is free. Guys, I dig your show, but must admit that as a subscriber, it gets harder to give time to endless discussions that can't affect change. All Steelers podcasts are stuck with a Yugo for a product. So, first of all, you're dating yourself because we all know what Yugo is. I know what a Yugo is. How dare you bring up a Yugo?

Steve: I think of myself as a Le Carre, personally.

Chris: Are you a Le Carre? Yes. I love Renault Le Carre. Yes. I think of you as a rabbit, a diesel rabbit. No, but those are still relevant. Yeah. That would make John's point. Well, I want to know, how do you guys feel about that comment? He's kind of throwing some shade on us. No, he's right.

Steve: Like, everybody talks about, you know, this, that, we got to change this, we got to change that. He's right. that you have to go straight to the source. And that's why I was calling out the Roonies in my little rant there, John, and I hope you appreciated it, because I think that the Roonies are complicit in this. And Mark's point about they live in the land of fear. No, they just they're risk averse. What's the point in going down to being a 2-15 team and not necessarily being able to make that pick and then you're down there for a while because once you're down that low, let's face it, the Browns live in that world, the Jets live in that world. How many quarterbacks have they drafted? So I think it's, I think it's a dangerous thing, but here's the problem that the Steelers have now they had the quarterback. So now that you don't, you've got to figure out what, what are you going to do? Are you going to go for the quarterback or are you just going to keep recycling old quarterbacks like cousins available for next year?

Chris: Yeah. Can't wait.

Steve: You know, like, like that. And then what do you do? Do you go out and get a number one cornerback and beef up your defense again and you make your defense, try and make your defense elite. And then you play instead of this four man rush, maybe you start blitzing a little bit more. So you got six, you got six people rushing the quarterback and you play, you gamble a little bit on the defensive side with two good cornerbacks and you roll them up and you say, we're going to get to the cornerback before you can beat our cornerbacks. So that's the kind of philosophy, John, that the Steelers have to deploy, because you're absolutely right. They're not changing the head coach. Maybe they'll get rid of the defensive coordinator, but the next guy in is going to be the same. And if you go to the offensive side of things, they're not going to get a quarterback that's going to be of the caliber of the two bums that I talked about, minus Lamar Jackson, who's not a bum. And I think that… Who was the other bum? Joe Burrow is the bum. I know, but who was the other bum? Well, Lamar Jackson is the other guy, but he's not a bum.

Chris: Okay. Anyway. All right. All right.

Steve: All right. And so that's, that's, that's what the Steelers have to address and that's how you make the change. So I'm hoping that by giving things that maybe other people aren't talking about, you can't just say, fire the coach. You can't just say, change the coordinator. You can't just say, sell the team. You can't just say, don't go to games because people are still going to go to the games. They love the Steelers. OK, they're going to go dollars. So you have to just just hope that they make these changes and that changes happen for the better. They did make changes last year. They did. They got Patrick Queen and everybody was excited about it. And he turned out to also be a bum. It's a conundrum, but we're here to walk you through it and give you solutions.

Chris: So, John, I want to apologize if I mistook your comment. I think I understand now. He's tired of the Roonies using their media stooges, who we've talked about. To tell Steelers nation to basically shut up and color was the last straw for me And he says no he was not he was not throwing shade our way. By the way John's older than us. Yeah, he is. I feel good about that. Just a few years older. About six years older. But look, John, here's the thing. That's why we do what we do, because we're not insiders. We're three guys. We grew up together in college. Basically, we just through as fate. I call it a blessing. These guys might call it fate. It might not be a blessing to them that they still know me. I haven't figured that out yet. I don't think they figured it out yet. It's debatable. Yeah. But the point is. The point is that we're not insiders. We don't have keys to the locker room. We're three guys who grew up watching sports together. We have three different favorite teams, but we've come together in Pittsburgh as Steelers fans collectively and Pirates fans, you know, save the comments for springtime and Penguins fans. And we tell it like we see it. you know, we, we, we, I actually, I, I've, I have a conspiracy theory that the media is listening to us because for the last two years, I've been saying that George Pickens is a bum. Like Steve talks about Joe Burrow. George Pickens is a bum. They should have never drafted him. He was a headache. He fell in the draft because he had personality issues and that's what's happened. Najee Harris, Not the answer. No burst can't find the hole. So, you know, we can digress into all of that, but that's what we try to do, John. And if you're enjoying that, then, you know, God, please keep coming back and telling people, you know, that what we are talking about is what we really feel is the truth. you know, if we, if we thought that there, if I thought there was anything good to talk about with, uh, with, uh, about the Steelers going into next year, I would tell you, but I don't think there's a goddamn good thing about it. I really don't.

Marc: I have a plan.

Chris: Okay. Let's hear your plan Schwaber. I have a plan. By the way, Amy May says it's a blessing. Yes. Come on down to TJ's Amy May. I got a special, I'll give you my plan.

Steve: Amy used the word. Great. I'm not so sure.

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: Great. I'll give you my plan. I'll give you my plan. And I know rating friends. Now, one one's true. One hundred percent. I realize that there is zero percent chance that this plan will be followed. Yeah, that's that's that's a problem.

Chris: Let's hear it. That's the problem. The plan is this.

Marc: Trade T.J. Watt. He's got one year left on his deal. Okay, you'd have to extend him to big money. He's on the other side of 30.

Steve: Actually, he's gonna take less money, but I digress.

Marc: Whatever. But you can still get a first round pick for him.

Steve: Oh yeah, for sure.

Marc: Okay? Trade Minka Fitzpatrick. You might get a two or a three. Okay? Right. That's 50 million, by the way. Okay, right. And let Russell Wilson go. Okay?

Steve: That's one million pay pay a media.

Marc: He's going to want to get paid.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: No no I get it.

Marc: Yeah. Pay you know. I don't know what it's going to take. Twelve million a year for Justin Fields. See if he can make some.

Steve: They're saying 50 between 15 and 20.

Marc: See if he can make something out of him. And you know maybe the team stays somewhat competitive. OK. And then what you do is you take that first round pick from another team. OK. And you take your first round pick. And if there's a quarterback that you like in this year's draft, then you move up to get him. And if, and then the other part of this is, if you're looking at the draft and you're looking at next year's draft, and you decide that next year's draft has a much better crop of quarterbacks, which I think it does, then you take that first round pick for what? And you make it for the next year, okay? And then you do that next year. You bring Tomlin in, and you basically say to Tomlin, you know, we love you, but we're essentially gonna strip you of all your power. You know, the offense quarter's gonna call all the offense, your defense quarter's gonna, you know, call the entire defense. You're a CEO coach, and you have no say in the draft. That will make him want to leave. Yeah. OK. Then he then he will say, you know, let's, you know, part on mutual ways. And then you bring in a new young offensive minded coach. And you know what? Look, if if Justin Fields happens to do well next year and you go 10 and 7 and make the playoffs, fine. But maybe he won't. And if he doesn't, it's not the end of the world. Because that's going to help you get your quarterback. That seems to be a reasonable plan to get the Steelers back in the ballgame. Yeah, a plan that that that unfortunately, I'm sure H.J.

Chris: is going to say will probably never happen. It'll never happen. But what do you but honestly, what do you think of that plan? Yeah, well, hold on, John. John comes back and says, I was a backup server at the last supper. Guys, I'm here for support. If not, I wouldn't be here. I trimmed down many and you guys made my high standards cut. God bless you, John. Thank you. OK, thanks. I'm just happy that I went and that I was able to correct my because at first I was like, hey, whoa, wait, but now I'm a good guy. He knows where we're coming. Yeah, he's been here a long time. Drew says on Facebook, says being a Steelers fan at this time is heartbreaking, broken franchise and fan base. What a mess. And Tomlin is the answer by keeping him. What a disaster. Schwab makes sense. Will Art do it?

Steve: Well, if Schwab makes sense, then I think we should just end it there.

Marc: One thing I will tell you is that watching an extremely successful general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, Howie Roseman, I have seen these types of moves. work out.

Steve: Well, the other thing, the other thing that Steelers do, I think was to my point about beefing up the defense, but they would still have to go out and get a Barkley, uh, King Henry type runner to be able to still be able to run the ball because they don't have it right now. And they're about to lose their thousand yard runner who's average at best.

Marc: Right. But one thing about the draft, though, you can get a good running back in the second round.

Chris: You can. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. So I heard it on the radio today. Right.

Steve: But you got to hit it right. You do. And the Steelers only hit the mediocrity button when it comes to drafting running.

Chris: Yeah. Well, when they should have been out thinking about drafting maybe a quarterback, drafting somebody who's going to replace Cam Hayward on the defensive line. I mean, you got some issues there. Well, they resigned him for three more years. I know. We're good there. Yeah, of course. Of course because it because this Pro Bowl is not gonna be his last, you know I mean and they only playing flag football, so he'll he won't get injured. Of course, of course not yeah, I mean I I hate I hate the feeling that I get at the end of every football season here now because I Love it.

Steve: You know why why because then that means hockey is the only game in town.

Chris: Well, I'm talking from from Look at how many into your point? I Uh, you know, you watch, you know, a GM is going to come in, you know, they're going to burn it down. You know, they're going to, they're going to make some moves and you get excited about that. Even if your team is like, like when the commanders were, were really bad last year. And I'm, I'm a, I'm a recovering Redskins fan. Um, when that, when, when they were really bad last year, but it was a new ownership group. And then it looked like we were going to get the second pick and it was like Caleb Williams versus J Jaden Daniels. And now then you had hope. And well, it wasn't, it was less about hope and more about there's a new coach. There's something exciting to look forward to. And even this year, if they had, if they had gone six and 11, it would have been an improvement over last year with a new coach and a new everything. I think we have some snacks coming our way. You might want to pass those over here. Thank you.

Steve: I'm going to go out on a limb here. Okay. I'm sticking my neck out on this one. Thanks, Lauren, for the snacks, by the way. You want to stop? You want to see me stick my neck out live?

SPEAKER_03: I thought you were going to stick your neck out about the timing of the service.

Steve: Oh no, the timing of the service is perfect.

Chris: I have to give my lovely wife, the Pittsburgh property diva, Lauren Klein, props for supporting us and bringing down the Trader Joe's snack time snack. You're welcome. Thank you very much.

Marc: You can find her at how many how many houses sold due to the sports sports? Uh sponsorship.

Steve: Oh my god, like dozen 15 I can't keep or we have to keep track.

Chris: I think we're up to 20 now. Yeah, we sell houses All over all over the country. Thank you. My love. Okay.

Steve: Here's what i'm sticking my neck out on I'm going out and saying that in the next three to five years, the Steelers will have a new head coach. Now, if you can wait that long, it's right around the corner and Steelers language. It's basically tomorrow. So it's coming, guys. Yeah, there's I would be very surprised if he stays past 20 years. I think 20 years is the mark where he's either going to be put into a GM position or he's going to he's going to retire. But he is going to not be the head coach for more than three more years. You heard it here first.

Marc: OK, the crazy thing is, is that, you know, in saying that, and I think you're right, but in saying that it basically like basically what it means is like it's going to take 10 years of not making the playoffs.

Steve: It's not winning in the playoffs. It's going to take them 20 years of not making the Super Bowl, and that'll be it.

Chris: Right.

Steve: That'll be the straw.

Chris: So my buddy Jeff is in the house playing those three games against those three opponents in 11 days. Didn't help their cause. Yeah, we know those three teams had an overall record of 40 and 11. Ouch.

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: I don't think it changes anything.

Steve: Two other teams made it. They're still in the playoffs.

Chris: The Ravens GM is shit hot as well, says John on YouTube also, or a very young defensive coordinator is doing well too. I noticed a team difference. Yes. Saturday follows up with KC as the number one GM, number one head coach, blah, blah, blah. Well, I mean, the Steelers' ownership is selling hot dogs while Kansas City has a chef menu. I like a good hot dog. Right. I do too. I had some hot dogs this afternoon.

Steve: You're absolutely right, Jon.

Chris: Yeah, I do too. And that being said, I think it's time that we think about maybe a snack. Okay. Let's see.

Marc: We gotta transition.

Chris: Yeah, usually we need to transition into some more stuff. So what do we got going on here? This is Taste the Blissness of the Biscuit with that Honey Sauce.

SPEAKER_03: All right. Get that honey sauce on me. I don't like the way it tastes with my chicken wings.

Chris: All right, guys. So what is this right now? This is Trader Joe's Snack Time. It smells really good, by the way. Everybody who watches this show knows that I work at Trader Joe's in East Liberty here in Pittsburgh. They're not paying us for this sponsorship, so it's not a paid sponsorship, but they did give me permission to do it. So what I do is every week I bring home a snack or something to eat. We try it, we give our honest opinion, and that's the way it goes. This week I brought home, this is a new product that I'm pretty sure you guys haven't tried. It just hit the shelves. last week, crispy potato and poblano pepper tacos. Is poblano spicy? Uh, not really. I'm going to give you that one. I think, I think she, the air fryer might've left them a little on the cool side. I'm trying to find the really hot ones. Yeah. So let's see.

Steve: They look nice and crispy. Oh, by the way, that's what we're eating.

Marc: Is there a dipping sauce that's supposed to come with it?

Steve: No. I'm not very good at holding it up in front of the camera with these small pictures.

SPEAKER_00: I think it needs sour cream. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. They're good, but there's a little kick to it.

Marc: Yeah, it does got a little kick to it.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Marc: No, I think it needs some salsa.

SPEAKER_00: Maybe some salsa.

Marc: That's what I'd put on it.

Marc: It's good though. It needs an accompaniment.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it needs an accompaniment.

Marc: By themselves is not good enough.

Marc: Be good with a good dill dip.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll be pretty.

Marc: Actually, it's pretty hot.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Yeah. Got a little kick to it.

Steve: Wow. Down that big time, T.D. Well, you were like all in on that. I'm hungry. I mean, we we had a half a bag of potato chips before you got started.

SPEAKER_00: I know, but I'm still hungry.

Steve: Well, you know, there are two more left there and we got a song to play. So, you know.

SPEAKER_00: What is this, John Edbergstein, I got Terry Bongshaw out, I'm ready for… I'm not exactly sure what that means.

Chris: You know exactly what that means. I gotta be honest, I mean, I don't think it's good enough that I would get it. No? Even if you had like a little sour cream on the side, some guac? I mean, it would be okay, but it's not phenomenal.

Steve: Okay.

Marc: And I find it to be a bit spicy.

Steve: You know what I would do? I would get a soft, taco shell fill it with like um the same stuff no like either salsa or maybe sour cream and wrap it around it oh that's not a bad idea now you got some creamy you got the soft and you got the crunchy yeah it keeps all that there's a lot of there's a lot of um oil associated with it. It would just suck all that in.

Chris: It's a little hard. So not a thumbs down, but not a thumbs up. Right.

SPEAKER_03: It's in the middle. All right.

Chris: There you go. Straighter Joe snack time.

SPEAKER_03: Taste that honey sauce. Taste the goodness of the biscuit with that honey sauce on ya. Don't get that honey sauce on me. I don't like the way it tastes with my chicken wings.

Steve: I like the chicken edition. Yeah, that is well, well done Schwab.

SPEAKER_00: That is beautiful. Okay. If you're watching us live, I want to remind you, you're watching us all over the world on Facebook, YouTube X and Instagram. This is the sports porch based right here in Pittsburgh.

Steve: Are we transitioning out of football yet?

Chris: Are we going to do our predictions? You can subscribe to us on YouTube at the sports porch podcast, please. If you're watching, hit that subscribe button and the notifications button. Listen, we have a tick tock page is starting to grow really fast. After the show, we put up a lot of clips on tick tock. It's the sports porch on tick tock. You'll see our logo there. We're trying to get that baby up to 10,000 followers as quickly as we can. because we do love tick tock and we hope it's not banned. And you will be. I hope not. And you can catch the sports sports podcast. I drop it every after every show. Subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify or anywhere you get your friggin podcast.

SPEAKER_02: That's right. Anywhere you get your friggin podcast.

Chris: All right. Our NFL playoff predictions. As of this week, Mark is 4-1, Chris is 3-2, Steve is 2-3. We have one game tonight, the Vikings at the Rams. I pick the Vikings, these two pick the Rams. I'll update it on TikTok when the game is over. Looks like regular season form holding true and no, I'm a little bit behind. Well, but it's only it's it's it's a half game. So alright, so Saturday at 430 we have the Texans at the Chiefs. We want to know what your picks are, so drop a comment. Grant Schwabini won again, so I am a snack voyeur. Never gets old, never gets old. Grant Schwabini, Texans at the Chiefs.

Marc: CJ Stroud's gonna fall back into his shell. He's gonna have some mental stress this week. He will do his best not to cry. They will go down to the Chiefs without issue.

Steve: I definitely have the chiefs. There's just no way around this. And if you want to know if the point spread is going to hit or not, we've got some new guys talking about betting. So if you, if you go to the sports porch and you look up, uh, our guys, we got two young guys that are now doing the betting line.

SPEAKER_00: We'll talk, we'll talk about that after doing predictions. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about that. I got the chiefs too. Um, okay. Next game up.

Chris: Good score, Mike. 24-10, I like that. Really? Did I miss that? Oh yeah, Mike saying Chiefs 24, Texans 10. Next game up for grabs here, Saturday, Commanders at the Lions. You're picking the comments, Schwabini.

Marc: Gotta go Lions here, but boy, Commanders, hell of a year. And I would love to see them take this to the last second. Sure you would. Yeah. Yeah. Go get them, Commanders.

Steve: But they won't. They'll lose. They'll be out of it just like the Sealers were out of it by the end of the first half. I got Detroit by 49.

Chris: Anywhere, any place. By what? 49. Somewhere, somewhere around there, anywhere, any place, anytime I'm going with the commanders and I'm riding J Daniels.

Steve: They are back. I mean, they're, they're definitely had a really good season.

Chris: Listen guys, I'm, I'm a, like I said, I'm a recovering Redskins fan. We can address the reasons why or why not in some other show, maybe an end of the year NFL show. So you can all catch up with that. So there's reasons.

Steve: It's good for the NFC East to be back.

Chris: Absolutely. Yeah, because the Cowboys aren't much of a issue. Not right now. They need a new head coach now too. You're picking the comments. We got to pick here. Mike Lawrence says Lions 31, Commanders 21. Too many points. 35 to 21. I'm sorry. Okay, next game. This game, man, I'm so happy I'm not working Sunday. I want to watch this game. Ravens at the Bills, boys. Why did they have to do it?

Steve: Oh, I know why they did it Sunday. Never mind. Nobody's working Monday, it's Martin Luther King Day.

Marc: Except me, I'm working.

Steve: Yeah, me too.

Marc: I will.

Steve: I'm not.

Marc: That's because you work at a woke place. No, it's because I don't work Mondays. Anyway, guys. I'm just kidding. At a woke place. He ain't wrong. I don't think anybody should work on Martin Luther King Day, honestly.

Steve: It should be. I'm sure Trump will turn it into a national holiday.

Marc: I am not working.

Steve: I don't know.

Marc: Maybe not.

Steve: I don't know.

Marc: We don't talk politics. Right, right. I'm gonna go Ravens. I think Josh Allen has been tremendous this year, but I really think They are about his elevation of those around him, and I just think that maybe in a game like this, the lack of talent is not going to be enough to beat the Ravens, who can slam it down your throat with Derek Henry. or Lamar Jackson. And you know what, even if Zay Flowers doesn't play, I still love their two tight ends. Yeah.

Chris: That's what I was saying last week.

Marc: And, uh, you know, I mean, look, they got some guys who can catch the ball. Bateman, Nelson Aguilar, super bowl champion.

Steve: Anything else, Mark? That's it. So, um, this is a tough pick for me because I took the Steelers last week kind of tongue in cheek because I really thought Baltimore was going to win, but I just, I really wanted to will it into existence of win over the Ravens at the beginning of the season. I actually took Baltimore to make the super bowl. So I'm going to go with Baltimore from here on out till the end, Baltimore Ravens over the bills. Sorry, Pat Donovan.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Where is Pat off track? Um, I'm going with the Ravens because I, I, I think first of all, Derek Henry finally has a real quarterback. And well, they finally have a real running back and they finally have a real running back. And I just, I just think he is, if there's anybody who's going to carry a team on their back, I mean, you could talk about Lamar. Uh, but I think, I think Henry really wants to carry this team on his back and take him to the super bowl.

Steve: The bills are like one in seven in this route.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, I love Josh Allen, but I think you guys are right. I think Mark's right. Josh Allen makes everybody around him better. He has also been known in these kinds of games to make some horrific mistakes. And so that's what I see. I see the Ravens winning. It should be a really good game, though. Mike Lawrence does have the Bills home field advantage, giving them a 28-24 win. I can see that. It's going to be a close one, I believe. Now, this is tonight. This game has already started. I don't know the score. I picked the Vikings. Mark and Steve picked the Rams. So what's going to happen is, Next Monday. Oh, we're gonna have to update our I will update our pics on tik-tok and on YouTube shorts Because no matter who went whoever wins this game will end up playing the Eagles So we'll we'll have a nothing Rams. All right. There you go. Really? Yeah, it's a zero zero my my thing Yeah, I got I got just happened. You have a Dell or an HP. I That's from our previous show.

Steve: No, I saw it just happened.

Chris: Okay.

Steve: So, uh, comment.

Chris: We got a new viewer here from, uh, on YouTube. Hello from Higgins Lake, Michigan.

Steve: Brian.

Chris: Thank you, Brian.

Steve: We love Detroit here, by the way.

Chris: Uh, the sports sports black and gold edition all over the world. Every Monday night at 7 30 PM on Facebook, YouTube X, and Instagram. And I dropped the podcast right after the show on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcast. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel at the sports sports podcast. And if you're a tick tocker, go over to tick tock, find the sports sports. We post some video clips every day, all day long.

Steve: Do you think like Michigan's in Michigan? Maybe it's in like Wisconsin.

Chris: Lake Michigan is, yes. It is. It's around Michigan, but other states as well. That's why it's called Lake Michigan. Oh boy. All right. Well, listen, we do have Hockey Jesus in the house to my left here in the studio.

Steve: Wait, we're not going to pick the last game?

Chris: What was the last game? We don't know who it is. We don't know who it is. We're not going to pick them both. What I'll do is I'll get your updates and I'll put it on TikTok and short. So we're all taken to Eagles anyways. Most likely. Um, we have hockey Jesus in the house to my right on the screen, to my left in the studio hockey, Jesus preaches on the podcast after every single Penguins game, uh, at the sports sports podcast, you can catch a little 10 minute blurb on how he feels about the latest Penguins game, Penguins trends. Uh, and, uh, your last one actually I thought was really good. H J.

Steve: Well, thank you. Um, I was, uh, not the, not the mid season, but the, uh, Tampa Bay one.

Chris: Uh, yeah. Well, I, I, I listened to them both, but yeah, the Tampa Bay one was good. One more comment by Joey on football on YouTube. I honestly thought Tomlin, uh, has been doing a good job. We just haven't had a QB. It's impossible to win without a QB. So thanks for that comment, Joey, uh, lions versus Buffalo, the city that gets it. Yeah. Gets the L goes to Chernobyl. That's very good. He's obviously been hitting the terry bradshaw bong.

Steve: Yeah Sounds like uh, it's between wisconsin and michigan is I wasn't really like michigan is yeah, so a little apology there tg

Chris: All right. So if you're a hockey fan, hockey, Jesus here knows all things hockey. Uh, and he has, uh, a sermon and catch us up on, on, uh, they're trending back down now, aren't they?

Steve: The penguins are trending back down after, uh, making a pretty good run from the, from, uh, trending to be, have 70 points on the season. They made their way up to 80 and they were trending like up to 84 points. That is, that is within striking distance of a playoff spot. But since then they've decided to lose against Detroit and lose against Florida not play a go against Carolina Lose against Columbus they beat Edmonton then they lost against Ottawa and most recently lost against Tampa Bay The problem is the damn loser point the loser point keeps a minute every time if you listen to my sermons like og does You know how I feel about the loser point. It's why I don't use it when I talk about the standings. That's keeping them in it. But this, uh, this home stand has been a disaster. I told, I thought they needed to, they needed to get 10 out of the 10. They needed, they could have gotten 10 points. I said eight minimum at this point, there'll be lucky to get, uh, five. So that's a, that's a terrible home stand against some teams that they shouldn't be. And now they're going to go on the road, seven game road trip, which includes Buffalo, Washington, and then the West Coast. I assume they're going to be able to play in LA, I guess.

Marc: Maybe they'll move it to Phoenix. I mean, they have an empty arena.

Steve: They don't have an arena. Oh, did they knock it down already? No, they never really had. That was the problem in Arizona. But yeah, the big problem is goaltending. Goaltending, goaltending, goaltending. They don't have a starting goaltender. Ned's a good backup. When he plays well, they think they can play him as a starting goaltender. And it just all falls apart after that. The first line's been incredible. The first line's been absolutely incredible. Sid, Raquel, and Russ.

Marc: Raquel has had an amazing year.

Steve: Yeah, he's got 22 goals already. It really leaves the Penguins in a very troubled spot because they probably could trade him now with the trade deadline. There are definitely teams that would take Raquel at this point. But do they want to fall apart that badly where they don't even have a first line? Gina has been hurt the last four games. That hasn't that hasn't helped. Thomas, you know, was hurt before that, but now he's back. God, I mean, they just have a lot of holes, but the biggest one is in gold.

Marc: I'm looking for a Bavaria update.

Steve: One second after I talked to Joey.

Marc: Okay.

Steve: Has has Jari earned the right to continue to be the starting goaltender? I feel like it is defenses. Let him down. Well, I agree. I would agree with you, Joey. I'm going to call you JF. I'm gonna I'm I'm I'm gonna agree with you in the sense that in the beginning of the year It was defense that was the problem and it caused problems with jari's confidence But now that the defense is kind of reeled it back in meaning they're not pinching as much They're not giving a lot of three on twos two on ones. They're they're not giving it up Jari is still giving up the soft goal. But guess what? He's our only starting goalie. So he has to be the guy, unless they cut him or send him down and bring up Bloomquist and decide they want to make a run with Bloomquist because he's, he's our best goalie. But I don't think it's time to bring him up because I don't think these penguins are making the playoffs. I would rather them play Jari more. And if he's the reason they lose, then we get a better draft pick.

Chris: All right, so the hockey Jesus will a update.

Steve: Oh, yeah, really a update. So Bavalia has been playing a lot because Gino's Gino's been out. So he's been playing on the second and the third line. He's been left wing and versatile, but he has had no goals.

Chris: All right, there's your Bavulier update. I can hope, though. Hockey Jesus preaches on the podcast after every single Penguins game. You can hear him follow Hockey Jesus on YouTube, at the Sports Sports Podcast, and of course, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcasts. Next game is tomorrow night?

Steve: Tomorrow night. They play Seattle at home. It's their last. The Kraken. Yeah, Seattle's not a good team. Release the Kraken. They have to get two points from the Kraken. Right. I'll probably do. I'll probably do an update on Wednesday because they don't play again until Friday. Going to try and get some video update in on Wednesday or Thursday.

Marc: I'm just going to jump in here, though, and give you my Beauvolier update. Oh, well, let's hear it. He is third on the Penguins and plus minus. At a zero.

Steve: Yeah, I was gonna say it's got to be a zero because they're at a minus 34 for the year It's a zero and that's with nine games played.

Marc: All right, so let's let's run me like no 44 games played There you go nine goals.

Steve: Yeah, he's uh, no, he hasn't played on all 44 games. I can't believe it

Marc: A bivoulier 44 games nine goals. Oh, yeah, that's true.

Steve: They're they're at game 45.

Marc: Yeah, only lazat's a plus five and pullen is a Plus one, but it's only with six games.

Steve: Yeah, I was gonna say he hasn't played since uh the beginning of the season Okay, so let knock bivouli.

Chris: I'm gonna try to i'm gonna try to wrangle this back in here. Um, we have an exciting new addition to the sports porch And we want to introduce them. They're not on the show right now, but you can follow them. You can watch them on TikTok. What do we got going on here, Steve? Oh, wait a minute. Arthur Treadwell on YouTube. Pay Justin Fields 12 million. What a joke. We agree. So we're calling it Porch Picks. And tell us about these two guys and what they're going to be doing.

Steve: So, one of them is my son and his best friend. They grew up together here in Pittsburgh in the Greenfield area. They happen to live in Philadelphia now, but that doesn't matter. Like most youngins today, they love to bet.

Chris: It's just, it's just what kids do now. I'm so happy it wasn't around when I was a kid.

Steve: I know it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a godsend for us. Yeah. But, uh, they do a really good job. They like prop bets. They like, uh, doing the line. They just like telling you who, who's going to win the game. Um, but. They're more about the line, the money line, and what's a good bet based off of what odds you're getting and things like that. And they're going to do it for all the playoffs, and I think they're going to continue into the postseason when it comes to hockey. And I know they love the NBA, so they'll probably do a lot of prop bets for the NBA.

Marc: I was very impressed watching their report the other night. They actually have a lot of really good detail and really have it researched. Like, it's legit.

Steve: Yeah, Max's buddy is a statistics major, so he's pretty good at crunching the numbers.

Chris: So, porch picks. All right. So stay tuned for the porch pick segment. You'll be seeing that on tick tock and YouTube shorts, uh, because he can get in. Okay. We'll talk about that.

Steve: One of the things that they did say, you know, my son actually said he listened to a porch and this is a trick for all you guys out there. I think we run too long. He said, just play us in two X speed. It's perfect.

Chris: Yeah, there you go. I haven't heard anybody say we run too long.

Steve: It's all about like, well, I mean for kids, right?

Chris: Right. If you're entertained, you're going to watch the whole show. You know, there's no commercials. Uh, you know, there's, there's, and we have a lot of fun. All right, let's get to what we're watching. Mark do have a lot of fun. Uh, do you, yeah, you guys have more fun than I do most nights, but uh, that's cause on and off camera.

Steve: Yeah, it doesn't matter.

Chris: All right, what we are watching, what is this, Mark? Explain this to the folks out there. Sure.

Marc: We know that it is hard to decide what to watch with so many options out there. There's Netflix, there's Amazon Prime, there's Apple TV Plus, there's Max, there's Hulu, there's Freebie, there's Tuvi, there's Boobie, there's Newbie, there's Ubi, Now, I made up the last few. They're stupid, but there's so many options. And look, you know, it's tough, man. Sometimes you're watching these trailers and then before you know it, 45 minutes goes away and it's time for bed. We solve that problem for you.

Steve: Yes, we do.

Marc: We will tell you if something is good and watch it. We will. If it's not good, Move on. Throw it away.

Chris: We help you, our listeners. We're here for you. Either way, we save your life or time, at least. And the qualifications are you must have, we must have finished the season we're in. So if it's a show like The Walking Dead that has, you know, eight or nine seasons, We can't be in the middle of season five. We have to finish season five, and then we can review it from that point back. Or if it's a movie or a documentary, you have to have completed it. Even if the movie's horrible, you can't walk out of it. You got to watch the whole thing in order to give a review. So this week, the first what we're watching is something that the Grand Schwab Beanie is watching. All right. Have you seen it, Steve? No, I have not seen this.

Marc: There it is. Black Doves on Netflix. I have to tell you, this was… Is that Keira Knightley? It is Keira Knightley. Oh, I love Keira. I am a big fan of Keira Knightley.

Steve: Me too.

Marc: And I will tell you, the only thing I didn't like about this was that it was only six episodes. Oh, six episodes.

Steve: One season.

Marc: One season, six episodes, there could very easily be multiple seasons, so I hope it goes in that direction. It's based out of London and Keira Knightley is essentially recruited to be a part of, uh, an assassin team that, uh, that basically only works for the highest bidder. And so there's a lot of entanglement with MI5, uh, CIA, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, I thought it was fantastic.

Chris: I loved it. All right. Sounds good. Black Doves on Netflix. Action adventure. Schwabers, what we're watching. I'm going to go right to H.J.

Steve: Mine is far from where yours is.

Chris: Well, and I'm really struggling with the title of this. Conk on Life. Yeah, that's right. Interesting. Now, who or dare I say what is Conk?

Steve: So that that is Conk right there. Her name is Philomena Conk.

Chris: Oh, good God.

Steve: But actually, it's it's a made up name.

Chris: Yes, of course. It's not her real name. Yes.

Steve: Diane Morgan plays Philomena Conk. And if you're British, you would know exactly who she is now i'm not british and i didn't know who she is but i guess she has the satire things that she does over in england and this is not the only one that she's done she's done it on the earth she's done it on life i think she's done it on like britain's just in general it's basically it's a irreverent way of looking at life. Like all the all the really difficult things in life like how was life formed you know how do we live like religion in life like you know really heady things but she makes it so freaking funny like in a month in a month in a comedy special it's a comedy. But she interviews serious people, like Borat would do. Only she does it, it's absolutely hilarious. It's kind of like Monty Python meets Borat.

Marc: How many episodes is it?

Steve: It's only like the episodes are like 30, 35 minutes.

Marc: Okay.

Steve: But you'll know right away if you like it or you hate it. So if you watch the first one, you love it. You'll love all of them cause they're all the same. And she does this thing where she loves, um, uh, pump up the jam. You know that song? Yeah. Pump up the jam.

Marc: Pump it up while your feet are stomping.

Steve: She always manages to sneak that video in her every episode. I do like that. And how she does it is just absolutely brilliant. If you like that kind of humor and you kind of, you know, think about the way things in life and you just need a kind of break from, you know, the battle that can be formed from that, this is your show.

Chris: That might be interesting. Kunk to me sounds like what you find on the bottom of your oven when you haven't cleaned it in 15 years. Like we got to get the easy off to get that kunk out of there.

Steve: She's very irreverent.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: So I mean, she, she, she, would she appreciate that I said that? Oh yeah. She, she, she would be like, that's the perfect definition of who I am.

Chris: Kunk on life on Netflix. Okay. I did some unselfish watching between last night at 1am and today at about 3pm.

Steve: Cause we know you're still watching The Walking

Chris: No, no, I finished Fear the Walking Dead.

Steve: Oh, you finally finished.

Chris: Yes.

Steve: Hallelujah.

Chris: Yes.

Steve: Congratulations.

Chris: And, um, hold on. And I'm getting this, I'm getting this, uh, this comment on Instagram. You guys all appreciate it. Grain of salt says, what is this trash? Some people just shouldn't have podcasts. I, uh, I say any press is good press. Yeah. Share the trash with your friends. Yeah. Maybe, maybe grain of salt. Maybe you should just take us with a little grain of salt.

Marc: Hey, grain of salt. Uh, thanks for spending time on us. Looks like you don't have much to do with yourself.

Chris: Alrighty.

Marc: Uh, did you finish lioness?

Chris: Is that what you did? No, I did not finish that. No, this is my unselfish watching.

Steve: Uh, gave us 10 seconds. We'll take it.

Chris: Kings of Tupelo.

Steve: Oh yeah. That's the one I told you to listen, man. Uh huh. What'd you think?

Chris: I think it's one of the greatest stories I knew of all time.

Steve: I knew it was you. And it's, it's going on still. That's great about it.

Chris: Yes. Um, The only thing I can say is if you like, like, it's a documentary based on real life events that are in the recent past, like within the last 20 years. And yes, there are still some things that are occurring. Elvis impersonators. body parts, body parts, ricin. Oh yeah, ricin. I forgot about Barack Obama. Yeah. Um, infidelity, uh, government conspiracy, good old boys. Um, Wayne Newton impressions. Um, and, uh, uh, Taekwondo expert Mensa members.

SPEAKER_02: I don't even know.

Chris: I don't even know.

Steve: That's exactly what it is.

Chris: Yeah. You nailed it. As well as multiple arrests, jail, jail time, and a little bit of time in, um, in, in a, in an institution. Uh, and he had a family and he, and he had a wife and kids and his brother, probably banged his wife. And the funny thing is, halfway through it, I was like, okay, yes, I believe most of what he's uncovering, but I also think that it's driving him crazy at the same time. You know, funeral homes. Look, listen, if you guys love a good story, that's completely crazy. Completely crazy. than, you know, Kings of Tupelo on Netflix. It's worth every single minute. One last question here. Joey Friel says, would you bring back Rudolph on a one-year prove-it deal? I think I would. The answer to that would be a resounding… Absolutely not. No. No. He's done as a stealer. No. He doesn't have anything else to prove. And grain of salt, you want to know what? We don't have anything else to prove either. Thanks. all right we did another one we did another one we survived you know people don't want us out there that's right survived another season of mediocrity you know what you know what the thing about trash is What's that? There's always more of it. It's everywhere. All right, guys. Thanks for being here. You've been watching the SportsPorts, the Black and Gold Edition, all over the world on Monday nights at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time on Facebook, YouTube, X, and Instagram. And yes, I am going to drop the podcast right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, the Apple Podcasts. Spotify, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcasts. And yes, you can subscribe to our channel at The Sports Porch Podcast on YouTube. First Grant Schwabini for Hockey Jesus. I am your technical director, and I am out. Jablonsk. Jablonsk. Jablonsk.