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Episode notes & curated moments 9 recordsmoment
Christmas wraps the desk and masks one Deucer
The transcript says it is almost Christmas and later jokes about camera work. Direct-video checks add the viewer-only layer: all three regular hosts sit at a desk wrapped with a large red bow and lit garland, while Deucer's Alley contains three human producers and its rightmost seat wears a Santa hat pulled low with a white face covering. No lower thirds identify the seats, so the costume remains anonymous.
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Papa Josh and the Falcon fall as Mike chases the title record
Josh's opponent posts an earlier 'already in the championship' show clip to the Sleeper chat, then Josh confirms he lost with Puka to Mike's next opponent. The hosts identify Falcon as Josh's co-manager, joke that they are happier Matt lost, and turn Josh's 'I quit' into a job-and-camera fakeout. Mike reaches both main-league finals and, in the explicitly named League of Record, bids for the title record against former Justin Jefferson and hated Rhamondre Stevenson. He also enters the final after a 209-point Sleeper-era record despite 35 Jalen Warren points on his bench.
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Jason guards an undefeated Listener League streak
The Listener League finalist has beaten one host in round one and Mike in round two before facing Jason. A listener sweep would be unusually comprehensive, while Jason winning would open another FootClan place under the host-champion rule. Jason says he has never lost any title game in his life. His prior Listener League underdog comparison recalls the Biggest Loser's signed self-photo and white-chocolate-dipped Oreos; that opponent lost and became a present-day friend, with the hosts insisting a win would have prevented the relationship.
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The annual Week 17 championship PSA returns
The hosts explicitly call it an annual PSA: fantasy championships belong in Week 17 rather than Week 18, because the final NFL week can be defined by benched and unmotivated players. They promise to help Week-18 leagues next week, but only begrudgingly, because normal people are already done.
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Kyle kills the self-pass with a live rule lookup
The hosts imagine Taysom Hill throwing a forward pass high enough to catch it himself, like a backyard trick. Kyle reports that a quarterback cannot catch his own forward pass without a tip. The desk calls that boring and asks the league to let players try. A direct-video check shows the three-host split throughout, so Kyle's contribution is an off-camera rules lookup rather than a visible graphic or crew cut.
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The whole league crowns one Fantasy King to jinx him
A superstitious championship manager reports that most of his league renamed themselves 'your fantasy king' and changed their logos to different pictures of him. The hosts advise joining and accepting the jinx, then recall a prior tactic in which an unidentified host used shiny animated logos of Mike's best player until the strategy failed against Mike. Direct-video checks show the MAILBAG studio sign but not the reported fantasy-team logos.
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A 7 p.m. reseed earns the commissioner a number two
A listener says his commissioner reseeded the playoffs at 7 p.m. Sunday, after games had begun, and changed his matchup into a loss. The hosts establish that in-season changes need a league-wide vote and basic unanimity, demand the reseed be undone, trigger the 'number two' cue, call a foul, advise leaving, and label the commissioner a turd of a human. Checked video stays on the hosts and MAILBAG set; the altered bracket is dialogue-reported, not displayed.
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Christmas Eve compresses the week into the last mega
The hosts announce that Christmas Eve will absorb Wednesday and Thursday material, Christmas Day will be off, and Friday will deliver Sunday championship coverage with Fantasy Faceoff and a glorious Wheel of Shame. The following Wednesday is called the true mega, the last Megalodon of 2025, before Thursday and Friday go dark. 'Week 18ers' then sounds like nurses, nerds, and weaners. The schedule is dialogue-reported; no dedicated schedule graphic appears in checked frames.
summary
Episode notes
The Christmas-week episode is visually richer than the transcript alone indicates. Direct-video checks show all three regular hosts at a desk wrapped like a present with a large red bow and lit garland, then show three human producers in Deucer's Alley; the rightmost producer wears a Santa hat pulled low with a white face covering. The video does not label the producer seats, so the costume is not assigned to a named person. The opening's main story is a League-of-Record collapse. An opponent clips Josh's earlier claim that he was already in the championship and posts it in the Sleeper chat; Papa Josh admits losing with Puka to the team that will face Mike. The hosts later clarify that the Falcon co-manages Josh's team, say they are happier about Matt losing, and turn Josh's 'I quit' into a joke about quitting his job and improving the camera work. Mike advances in both main leagues with a double-championship dream. In the League of Record he is explicitly going for the record in titles against a roster shaped by his own deadline trades, including Justin Jefferson and hated Rhamondre Stevenson. During the commissioner mailbag, the show reports that Mike also scored 209, the Sleeper-era League-of-Record record, despite leaving Jalen Warren's 35 points on the bench and taking another host's crown. Jason's Listener League final has its own canon: the listener opponent beat one host in round one, Mike in round two, and now faces Jason; a Jason victory opens another FootClan entry, while Jason says he has never lost any title game in his life. His prior Listener League underdog story invokes the Biggest Loser, who mailed a signed self-portrait and white-chocolate-dipped Oreos as trash talk, lost, and became a friend who is now around the show. Elsewhere, the annual Week-17-not-18 championship PSA returns. A Taysom Hill self-pass fantasy sends Kyle to the rulebook; Kyle reports off camera that a quarterback needs a tip before catching his own forward pass, and the hosts demand the rule be removed. The mailbag brings a league-wide jinx in which everyone renames teams 'your fantasy king' and uses photos of one superstitious manager; the hosts advise him to join the jinx and recall an older shiny animated-player-logo tactic. A second listener reports a commissioner reseeding playoffs at 7 p.m. Sunday after games had begun. The hosts demand an undo, invoke the 'number two' drop, call a foul and a turd, and state that in-season changes require essentially unanimous consent. The close lays out a dialogue-only holiday schedule: Christmas Eve absorbs Wednesday and Thursday content, Christmas Day is off, Friday carries Sunday championship coverage plus Fantasy Faceoff and a glorious Wheel of Shame, and the following Wednesday becomes the last true Megalodon of 2025 before Thursday and Friday off. No dedicated mailbag-question or schedule graphic is shown in the checked frames.
relying on a Jets quarterback at this point in the season. It doesn't feel good, but you know they're going to have to keep throwing the ball against New England, and he's their number one wide receiver. Yeah, and then other names that you care about this week if you were in a pinch. I mean, Josh Downs performed admirably, nine targets, five for 65. They were running on far more 11 personnel this past week, so he was getting on the field. Is Alec Pierce not on here because of roster percentage? Uh, yes. I was, I wondered if I'll go, I'll go double check there. I wonder if people had dropped him because of the Phillip Rivers acquisition. It's very possible. Because I think I would take Pierce over down just for those bigger plays. Pierce is 60% on rostered on sleepers. That's right around that range. So, but he might be there. You can double check. Yeah. Um, it's going to be, it's going to be a wild week if you need to fill in a spot due to injury. Um,
Jaden Higgins didn't really get much done. I don't think I'd be taking my shot on him or Adinae Mitchell because of Brady Cook, who they confirmed is the starter for a new one for the final week. So that's going to be a heyday for the New England defense. The New England defense is out there. Yeah. So what the Saints just did. It saw what Britain Strange just did. Sure. Five for 39 and a touchdown. He ran more routes than. Parker Washington did. So that's a big play at the tight-in position. I think my number one tight-in pickup is gross as it sounds is Tayson Hill. Is it? I mean, Taysam Hill, you know, assuming that Camara is still out. He is always out. Devin Neal is on IR. Taysam Hill can throw a touchdown. He can rush a touchdown. I mean, I know.
You know, we got, he was... He can catch a touchdown. Sure, he can. He can throw it to himself. You know, the opportunities this last year. Yeah. Like without it touching anybody? Could you just throw it way up in the air and then go down and catch it? Oh, that's interesting. Would it count as a pass attempt and a reception or just like, because if you bobble the ball, you know, what are the rules about that? If you throw it and you catch it with... Because I mean, I used to do that in the backyard all the time. You throw it up really high and then you go catch it like...
I feel I'm going to be honest. I feel like NFL defenders, they would get there. I don't think you could throw it. Kyle says a quarterback cannot throw a forward pass to themselves without a tip. Okay. Well, that's boring. Yeah, that is. I mean, who cares? So that's probably not going to happen. Take that rule out. Let them try. But last week, I mean, you had, you had 12 rushing attempts for 12 rushing attempts is like, that's a decent number for a running back. Goal line attempts, it's probably going to be, you know, we thought it was going to be estimated because.
Tayson Hill had been deleted from this offense, but with the injuries at running back, they brought Tayson Hill back in. This is a matchup against Tennessee. I mean, he had four catches and 12 rush attempts. So at the tight end position, it feels like cheating. It's, man, it makes so much sense, but that would be terrifying. I mean, they've had running back injuries all year. If I didn't have strange. I think I'm with Jason on that chance in a championship week because it was effective. They won the game handedly. They're playing Tennessee. You've got, I don't know, I think I'd do that over like the dependency I would have on Waller with Quinn Ewers, right? Or Tongis getting worked into the game flow. Tongis would be a good pickup to me only for the George Kittle manager. What he represents without George Kittle?
is not worth like taking the shot, not know. Like if I'm needing a tight end in general, I'm not going after Tonjus hoping that Kittle is out. I think that's kind of, I mean, AJ Barner was 449 in a touchdown. He's always a touchdown opportunity. But I think that's kind of it for tight ends, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it really is. We said it defensively, the Patriots. There's so many good defenses. Brady Cook got sacked eight times. Yes, he did. The Lions get to play against Mac Brosmer. That's really fun. The Saints defense has been very good. They're going on the road against Tennessee. The Cam Ward has looked, you know, better and better, but he still takes a lot of sacks from all except the San Francisco 49ers. Because you played them. Correct. Yeah, it just hasn't been an amazing start to play teams against Tennessee lately.
That's the third time. Yeah. That's the third time that they look like a perfect start for people to play. And they scored enough points. Cleveland. Cleveland was not a good start against them. So, yeah, New England, Detroit, the Saints, the Broncos obviously are heavily rostered, Jacksonville against Indy. It's felt a little bit better about that before this performance by Philip Rivers. So that, did you like... Because it's in Indianapolis. So it's like, that's lower on the list now. Yeah, the Jags are just... The Jags are a Super Bowl defense to me. And then how do you feel about Tampa against Quinn? Oh, yeah. Like the Tampa Bay defense is kind of whatever. But they love playing against. Seventh round rookies? Yes, exactly. There's a difference between, okay, Cam Ward has started all year. He's a rookie, but he was the number one pick in the draft. We're at the end of his rookie season where he's playing the best that he's played so far versus the seventh round, six round type of rookies, the perennial.
veteran backups that are thrust into positions with injuries or benching ahead of them. Those are the guys this time of year. I really want defense is playing against these hot trash quarterbacks. That's the recipe for success. I can tell you right now, I think my almost ups is going to be Indianapolis winning that game at home against Jacksonville. Wow. Divisional games are always, especially between those two teams. if you remember long ago you know indy was the perennial every year winner of that division jacksville would be at the basement and those games would be two point games i i think out of home might be pretty interesting for philip rivers last night's game they they were in it and they really would have been in it more if their special teams with that fumble didn't set them behind the eight ball to start the game i mean it was i could just i don't know after beating denver
Things are a little letdown. Things are really going good for Jacksonville. That's my initial thought there. But you can see all of the Waverwire rankings, other names as well in all of these positions. If you go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com, we want to get you ready for title time. And we'll talk some quarterbacks as well because the need might be out there. It's real. Full stream ahead. Well, I'll kick us off because Andy was just talking about this as his almost upset because maybe Philip Rivers can move the ball and score enough on the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. But Trevor Lawrence, who has somehow blew my mind. Available. Yeah, he was 51% rostered. Well, I was like, well, what? He's the quarterback four on the season. Since the by, he's the quarterback two. He's been on fire. But I understand it in the sense that he was on the road against the Broncos. People were like, well, if I'm not going to play him.
Maybe cut him. Look for your waiver wire in Indianapolis. I don't know if you watched the game last night, but Brock Purdy was okay. Papa Josh, would you say Brock Purdy was pretty good against the Colts last night? Yeah, he did. He did okay. Yeah, he did to you. So I would take Trevor Lawrence in that same matchup. I think it goes Jason's, mics, and mine in the streaming. Quarterbacks. Oh, really? You'd go, so I'm bringing up Shuck, baby. What's the song, Andy? Gonna get Shuck tonight. Look, I think he's good. This is who I believe I'm playing against. I think he might be good. And he's playing Tennessee's the QB8 over the last month with a floor of 18 points. So even when he wasn't in the top 12, he's still giving you 18. Should you be one of these teams, you're like, I have no quarterback to play. And Tennessee.
Over the last five weeks, 27th and scheduled adjusted points to the quarterback position. Even though Cam Ward is playing better, that might be even better for Tyler Shuck. Let's get a competitive game going. You can go back to the well with Jacoby Brissette this week. Yes, you want. Yes, you can. Over under of the week. Yes, you can. I have noticed the Cardinals are finally starting to not play hard for this loser of a head coach. Oh, what a number two. You saw it on some of the routes, even by Michael Wilson. who gave up on one of the routes that an interception happened. You have Marvin Harrison disinterested in everything. Cardinals also just lost, like, tremendous defenders to long-term injuries, including starting cornerback, Garrett Williams to torn Achilles, Walter Nolan, IRR. Achilles? Knee injury. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that got updated? That's, it should be knee injury. Oh, man. I thought I saw Achilles. I definitely saw that. Hoof. I hope.
Well, I saw knee. I've seen both, but I'll look at it up for sure. They're different parts of the body. They are very different. It says knee injury according to what I'm looking at right now. Okay. Carted off with knee injury. Non-contact knee injury. Yeah. Which is better. Long-term it is. Long-term it is, yeah. So highest over under the week, Jacobi can get it going again. You know the pass attempts will be crazy. This game in and of itself is going to be wild. Arizona is averaging 38 pass attempts per game. Cincinnati 37. 53 and a half point over under. Did you fist pump Mike? No, that was me. I thought that was you fist pump. No, no. That was me clearing my throat. Burrow. I mean, I will. I will fist pump playing all of the Cincinnati Bengals. Yeah. Yeah. The, um, yeah, guess, guess who I, uh, guess who I have to play against in the championship and listener league, Mike. Who's that? Chase Brown. Oh, you remember that guy? Who just, who just murdered my soul in League of record.
He will do it again. Yeah, he definitely will. I'm just going to say this. I hate Chase Brown. Nothing personal. Hmm. Talking about my guy. Yeah. Yeah. Winning leagues. Yeah, that's funny. You've got, Mike's got triple Cincinnati dependency, and it should work out really, really well against Arizona. Where's that game at? It's in Arizona. No, I thought it was in Arizona. That would be even better. I mean, of the options we gave vote. Oh, no, it's in Cincinnati. I apologize. Jason was right. All right. I always apologize. I'm Jason's Rice. What's the weather? I knew it. I knew it was coming in your mind. Weather's going to be a story too, potentially. Slight chance of rain. 11 mile an hour winds, 50 degrees. We're okay. We'll take that. Yeah, because the weather guy's always right on Tuesday. That's what they're known for. A week ahead. They can be. Oh, my goodness. We'll take a break. We'll do some mailbag. All right.
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Let's do it. Mailbag. All right, if you got a question, we got answers. You can find us over on Twitter at the FF Ballers. You can click the submit a question button on the website, the fantasy footballers.com. You can leave us a voicemail 302464 TFFB. First question from Jake in Texas. This is great. I made, did you read it? Yeah. No, I haven't read it. I made it to the championship in one of my leagues. And since everyone knows I'm extremely superstitious, most of the league has changed their team names to your fantasy king and updated their logos to different pictures of me. Any ideas on how to break the league-wide jeans? You got to join them. Yeah, I think that's the answer. You change your name to your fantasy king and you put your favorite picture yourself up there and you accept it. You, you accept this. You're a superstitious man.
turn it from a jinx into, you know, a blessing. I remember a long time ago, Mike and I had faced each other in three consecutive championships. Those were the dark days. The dark ages for Jason. For everyone else. And I remember I, every week I would change my team's logo to like a really nice picture of Mike's best player. Yes. And you would like do an animated GIF and it'd be all shiny. Yeah, I did that like for every team I faced and it worked until I faced Mike. Yeah. And then it didn't work anymore. but yeah you got to leave in i like that idea ray in boston writing in my commissioner made a change to our playoff structure at seven p m on sunday the 21st of december to reseeding causing me to lose this week's matchup should this be allowed is this an all-time commissioner afoul or am i overreacting depends on love the show hate this league now depends on the league what this league is established as a dictatorship
And this was, because this was before the match. I don't agree with that at all. I'm just saying sometimes leagues are like, hey, I am saying this is what our rule is for the playoffs. We're going to recede. If that's how the league has always run, then whatever, don't be in that league if you don't want to play in one of those. Outside of that one very specific and very rare world, this is an all-time, no, no, you cannot, you cannot do anything in season without a league-wide vote and everyone basically agreeing, yeah, we should recede. I, if the commissioner just said, I am the king, I'm doing this, but you did it before the playoffs started, I can live with that decision over here. It's like, okay, everyone knows. No one has played a playoff game yet, but we're going to recede to do it. Yeah. Two days ago in the middle of the playoffs. To do it in the middle of the playoffs.
is incredibly suspicious and it seems like a commissioner saw an opportunity to get a better matchup. Did you say 7 p.m. Sunday? Wait, you can't do that. Wait. That's after games have played. I mean, wait. I mean, it would be one. Oh my gosh. No, this is. It would be. Hold on. It would be even one degree less bad if it happened on Tuesday last week before the semi-final matchups. Yeah, it's whatever. They're already competing. That's why, see, what he said, causing me to lose this week's matchup. That's, that's, that's, so you were in a matchup. You got to undo it. I got a drop for you, Commissioner. Number two. Ray in Boston. Fowl. I leave that league. Hey man. Disgusting. I am so sorry that you invested the entire year. You were excited for this league. You have received.
You got to go glass half full here. This person has revealed themselves. Yeah. This is a turd. Yeah. This is a turd of a human. Don't drink that glass. Can you imagine? And just get out of there. Let's just play this out. You guys are, you're in the middle of, remember 7 p.m. Sunday. So this is after Sunday night games or during them. This is after the. Imagine your matchup this week. The Packers game. The Packers Bears. I mean, I would have loved this to happen in our listener league because I would have been in the championship game. Just. Just that's what I'm going to do as a commissioner. If it's not working out, I'm going to flip the matchups. I mean, you could have done this in league of record. I would have won regardless. I, well, you scored 209 points. You set the all time record, right? Is that correct? Of, of, uh, since we've moved to the sleeper platform. That is insane. Did you look that up? Uh, no. Actually, yeah, there was, it was being discussed. Matt, Matt pulled up our league history.
And you benched Jalen Warren. And Mike took my crown. Binched Jalen Warren. Yeah, I did get 20 points. 35 on your bench. I just hope you saved some. He did. Yeah. I hope I did too. George. Ice up. Oh, kiddle. Yeah. I don't know. Every time you say George is pickings to me. Oh. Also him. Pro bowler, by the way. I don't know if you guys saw that. George Pickens. George Pickens. Very well-deserved pro bowler. Came out this morning. Drake May, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert at quarterback in the AFC. That's a good group. Sam Darnold, one of the three Pro Bowl are NFC quarterbacks. George Pickens. Matthew Stafford, Sam Darnold. George Pickens. Character Problems for Pittsburgh. Oh, I know. I know. That was the first thing I thought was like. Turns into a Pro Bowl wide receiver. Pickens could hit someone in the craft. And their guy that they picked just.
might have had as money voided. That is horrific irony. I've noticed watching Pittsburgh games, and one of the reasons I think we've had a hard time, and everyone listening, they always think we're against Pittsburgh because they beat us in the Super Bowl, which is right. But man, the combined grimaces of the Tomlin plus Rogers perma grimace, perma angry. I mean, these guys hate football. That's the way it feels. Tomlin loves football. Oh, you still defend Tomlin forever? He's a great. It's kind of hard not to. They're going to. I mean, some things went very favorably. Show me a smile between those two guys every week. Goodness gracious. Well, I mean, Bill Belichick didn't really ever smile. No, and he's a loser. Well, I guess he has revealed himself as well. Yeah. No, I mean, Andrew in New York City, Joe Burrow, or Jacoby Brissette for the title. Same game. I think you play Burrow there, guys. Yep. I'd go Burrow. Yeah. It's, um.
You just thought Brissette also has a good game because you want that game to be very, very fun. I would like a fourth quarter, please. No, you don't. You don't want a fourth quarter. If they say him, you know what? You don't want a fourth quarter. I'll take the 40 points without a fourth quarter. You are right. Logan and Greenville, South Carolina, in a double flex championship game, I have Kyron and Corum. Given the favorable matchup against Atlanta, would you start both? I'd be fine with it. I would be totally fine with it. I don't know what your other options are. Yeah, that's what makes the question impossible. But if you had to do this because you're just like, no, it's just do-do that I could start, then maybe. Maybe just claiming all the running back points. And nice that will be every time they're on the goal line. Yes. Oh. Yeah. I mean, right now it's stressful. If Devante Adams is out. Yeah. With Devante Adams there, you're like, oh, man, don't do it. Yeah, and he's not going to play. No, he's not. Yeah.
We have a big show tomorrow. Just so you guys know what the schedule is like the next couple of weeks with the holidays. Christmas is Thursday. We do have a show tomorrow on Christmas Eve. It will include all the content from Wednesday and Thursday. It'll be a little mini-Mex. Christmas Lodon. It'll have backup options starts of the week. All of our matchups for the Christmas Day games and the Saturday games. We'll take Thursday off for Christmas, and we will have a Friday show as championship week. So we do not want to let you down. We will have all the Sunday games on Friday. We'll have the fantasy face off and a glorious wheel of shame. Because it's not you. Because it's not me this week, which feels so great. And then next week for New Year's for Week 18, we'll be here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We'll get through all the normal content. That one's a real mega.
That's the true mega on Wednesday. Thank you, Mike. New Year, the last mega of 2025. And so that'll be, and then we'll Friday, Thursday, Friday won't have new shows. So it'll be a megaladone next Wednesday. So we'll be here for you, week 18, nurse. Yeah, that's right. That's right. No, no, I got there. At first I heard nerds. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, he didn't say that. And then I said, oh, he called them weaners. Yeah, it did sound more like that. Which, yeah, week 18. Take that. Take that week 18ers. All right. That is going to do it for today's episode. Thank you for joining us. Jointhefoot.com is the fantasy football community. We're here year round, become a foot clan member and hang out with us. Bonus episodes all off season. We'll catch you tomorrow. Goodbye. For listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast, join our fantasy football community on join the foot.com.