FootClan Titles + Owl Hoots, Week 18 Waivers & Motivation - Fantasy Football Podcast for 12/31

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Was that an updated graphic? That was a stupid updated graphic that Andy missed on the YouTube. It didn't say with the producers like usual. What did it say? It said with the League of Records champions and it had the picture of the champs. Well, there's Al Borland.

There's Al Borland, the king. Give him the applause, Jason. Yeah, there you go. I'm so happy for you. The people love it. He's got all the graphics ready. It's not fair when you produce the show and you're the champ. You get to just do it. Oh! Get it out of there. I did expect some festivities here as he's in his- Good work. He's in the crown. He's in the robe. Oh, man. So good. He's still ravaged with illness after, you know- Less. Not sleeping and probably cardiovascular issues going on this week. But congratulations, Al. Thank you. I accept. This was year 18 in League of Records, which is shocking.

And that- I feel like we shouldn't say that out loud. Why? And- Feels like we're old as dirt. 18 years just to- People know how old we are. Yeah. I know, but- We're in our late- Exactly. Gross. We're late- We're in our late- Tuesday, December 31st. Congratulations to not just Al, but all the champions out there. Congratulations. But not Mike. Oh. No. I didn't win. I already gave you a 21-gun salute this morning. Yeah. Because when you walked in, when we dragged you in, well, first we saw you weeping in your car out front. Yeah. We had to go to the vehicle.

Pull you out of the vehicle and say- This is our 12 straight hours. I need an IV. I'm very dehydrated. Because you're the one person that is dehydrated from tears. But last night, with three minutes left on the clock- Yep. Dan High T. Campbell and his Lions offense- This guy. He wasn't lying. Nope. He was not. He rolled out Jameer Gibbs, who went around the right end and ended- Three minutes left. Mike's season. He lost by- You got so close. He lost by two points. He went into the second half, up 32 points. His opponent had Debo, Laporta, and Gibbs, none of whom had scored in the first half.

And all three in succession scored in the second half to just eviscerate Mike's soul. Debo, at least he had a fantastic game. He had a catch. He had a catch, guys. It was- Yeah. He had an end-around run on a drive. He had not been out there the entire drive. Only, I think, because- 100%. Because George Kittle came off the field injured after a big catch. Yes. And the personnel grouping had to change. But yes, Mike, for those of you out there that didn't win, you have a friend. I'm dead. You have Mike and I, who both won last year, both were back in the title games, and both

lost our repeat opportunities. It was- That was a bad one. That one felt- Like, it was- All I could think of was that you will forever have the answer- Yeah, I do. You'll have the answer to the question we get asked, which is, what is your worst championship game memory, or worst playoff defeat, or worst defeat? Any of those. You had to watch the whole thing with stress. Yeah. And worry. Yep. And it took the entire thing to make sure that you were- And you were bleeding out point by point, and you were right. I could feel it. What a brutal game we play.

Yes, but at the same time, had that not happened, that victory was going to feel so, so, so good. And unfortunately, we're down to three minutes, and the Lions are having just an incredible drive of melting out the clock. And it was- They're going to do it. Like, they didn't have to score. They just needed to eat the clock up, but then San Francisco is so inept on their rushing defense that Jameer Gibbs ripped off the 30. I mean, every time Jameer Gibbs touched the ball- Has this been up here the whole time? Yeah, he threw that up early, the score of the league of record.

Yep. All right. Every time Gibbs touched the ball last night, it was like- Terror. He could go. Yes. And he almost did several times. Yes. There are a lot of people that were on the other side of the Gibbs situation last night that won titles on the back of Jameer Gibbs. I have literally thousands of messages from Foot Clan title winners that just snuck by. I saw somebody that overcame starting Cooper Cup three consecutive weeks- Oh, wow. And won a championship with three weeks of Cooper Cup. And, you know, Mike, you came in, you were like, man, what if I had CeeDee Lamb?

What if CeeDee Lamb hadn't got benched in this final week? Yeah, that would have been cool, man. I mean, you talk about week 18- Or Ken Bone Walker? Or Ken Bone Walker. Yeah, that would have been cool, too. Yeah, I mean- You lost both of them right before the championship? Oh, yeah. Or Ford mid-game. Yeah. Yeah, just a full game of Jerome Ford I would have won. And also, I mean, like a shout-out to Sam Laporta, who- Like, if people stuck with Sam Laporta- That was an amazing end to the season. He had a massive run. The three playoff weeks, tight end won.

I mean, 14.6, 12.3, 15.4. Yeah, he was very good. Laporta came through in the clutch when he was- I mean, halfway through the season, he was like, every single week is, do I drop Sam Laporta? Do I drop Sam Laporta? And he- Really, I feel like- If you held on, you were rewarded. If you had any player of relevance in this game, you were happy, other than maybe Isaac Garendo, but even then, I feel like most people weren't relying on him since he was injured last week, and it was the last game of the week. Most- I didn't see a lot of lineups that were like, oh, I need a big game from Garendo, but if

you needed Goff, if you needed Purdy, Gibbs, Almond-Raw, Laporta, Jameson Williams, like everybody came through. Garendo is still the- He's scored almost 12 points. The- I'm going to have to stare at that the whole dang show. Yeah. I mean, the producer's got a lot of power here. The last five weeks of the season, Laporta was the tight end. Oh, no. Spontaneous congratulations. Yeah. Hey, this is Bree, Andy's wife. Oh! I want to give my biggest congratulations to Al Borland for winning the League of Record titles. Yes! It was a close call, but you came out victorious in the end. Like a true champion.

Congrats. Oh, baby. Oh, thank you. Absolutely wrecked. Get in body. That was so sweet. Oh, that was so sweet of her. And after I beat her in the family league to take her championship, she still came through. Andy, I would ask how you're feeling, but your face is down on the table, very far from the microphone. Does that feel like Gibbs ran a 30-yard touchdown with three minutes left? Oh. Ha ha! Oh. That was very sweet of her. That was so kind. There's really no... We didn't need to come to work today. I mean, I've been... It's New Year's Eve.

You know, I hope it hurts a little bit, because I've been kind and gracious, and you're still having to do this. You have been a very kind loser. That was my wife congratulating you on our podcast. That's great. That was awesome. Um... Ex-wife. But, um... Yeah. I mean, that's... You can file that, right? Oh, the papers. The papers are drawn up now, yeah. Like, this is just cause. I think even in the Bible, they do say... Yeah, that's right. That is grounds for divorce. Very few reasons, but calling in to a massive show to congratulate your opponent. Fantasy football adultery of some sort.

100%. Well, cool. I think I was saying something about Sam Laporta when I was destroyed publicly. Oh, man. Congratulations, Al, once again. That was my sixth... That was my sixth League of Record Championship game loss. Oh, man. An impressive feat. Six losses, three wins, which means in 18 years, 50% of the time, I'm there, and yet... You are... Impressive. So, you are, like, officially the best loser in the league. Like, the number one. And the most wins, too. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Speaking of best losers, Brian Ketron is my co-manager and now co-champion. He's done a full rebrand from biggest loser to biggest winner.

Oh. Well, he was almost the biggest... I don't feel like this is my podcast anymore. He was also the co-manager of the losing team for the... He was in two championships. You know what? And he won one of them. I know. The important one. I know that Al Borland and company, ShopBallers.com, we got the Foot Clan title shirts. They've been flowing, the people. You got to swag out. You got to swag. You got to make life insufferable. You got to do what Al's doing right now. He didn't have the courage to do it yesterday. Up 60. But once Gibbs didn't score an all-time record...

I think he had the plans for what we are experiencing now. And he couldn't possibly do all of this yesterday. Yeah. So, all right. It all makes sense. So, ShopBallers.com for title shirts. FantasyChamps.com for trophies. Use the code FREERING for a free ring. And that's why the code is FREERING. You have to add one of the $60 rings to the cart. Just add that and the trophy or belt that you want. And then put the code FREERING in and the ring price will disappear. Congratulations to our Megalobowl official winner, the first member of the Listener League next year, Daryl Montgomery.

And, you know, thanks to everybody that participated in the Megalobowl this year. The largest fantasy football tournament in the known universe. And I just want to say, the record... I thought this would be interesting, right? Because, you know, you had a lot of really spectacular records. The record for the winner was 22-10. Wow. So, got to the playoffs. The playoffs. 240 points. A team with just perfection up and down. Burrow, Irving, Kyron, Neighbors, Higgins, Laporta, McConkie, B-Rob. Sheesh. And the Tampa defense, who put up 17. So, congratulations. I mean, they're tied as the first person in next year's Listener League.

Right. Because the Listener League winner. Yes. Team name, Boomin Newman. Yeah. Jarrett. Yeah. Username, Jarrett Actor, which we have not got to the bottom of. Is it Jarrett Actor? I'm not sure if he's an actor or if this is a dinosaur thing. Yeah. Is this a pterodactyl reference? But Jarrett... Probably a dinosaur reference. Jarrett Actor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had Burrow Dobbins, Cook, Chase, Bowers, Higgins, Superstacks. So, congratulations. A lot of winners out there. Some hard luck losers like Mike. And, you know, a lot of people that are going to have a lot of fun with their titles. And some that are going to want to quit the game.

And I just say give it a couple weeks to calm down. Yeah. And then you have everybody who is... Unfortunately, Mike is quitting the show. I was going to say, give yourself a couple weeks or wake up to an alarm and come into work and talk about how awesome it was that everybody won a bunch of championships. Oh, man. One of those things you could choose to do. There weren't many words for Mike from that moment. No. Oh, I shut it down, man. Once Gibbs ran it in, it was like... It was over. Because once you get... There was a fumble by Debo, which I was like...

After the Gibbs touchdown. Guys. Mike's final words were dead. He said dead and disappeared. I, of course, finished watching the game just in case they didn't end the round with Debo and he fumbled it. Because it would have... It would have been minus... It would have been enough to win. I know. I knew it. Of course, I'm going to watch through. Yes. But, yeah. I got a really bad feeling there's more spontaneous congratulations coming. I would be really disappointed if there weren't. I'd be shocked if there weren't. I don't think there is. All right. We'll talk news. News and notes from around the league.

Presented by USAA Insurance. All the drops. I don't know if you just saw that. Oh, did that one get changed too? All the drops have been changed. Play it again. Wait. I want to see it. I didn't notice. Is it going to work? Al, you got to fire that one off back there. Yeah. Al has... News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. I don't think... Well... I don't know if our sponsors approved... When your co-manager... Two ugly guys on that drop. Your co-manager is the graphic guy, so... Oh, that's a good point. The producer with the guy who does the graphics.

That's a pretty good combo for some celebration. All right. I'm going to blitz the news. We have other segments on today's show? Unfortunately. We have waivers and stuff. I can't wait. Gross. Brock Purdy left with a elbow injury. Dude. It's not great heading into contract time. No. He's had this issue twice now. Well, he had the... UCL, right? I thought it was. It was the UCL. I thought he had the Tommy John surgery. He had UCL, and then I guess the UCL's okay. But it's a nerve issue. His face on the sideline... He was almost crying. ...was like... Because I'm sure inside his brain he went,

it happened again. Yeah. It happened again. Yeah. I'm trying to sign a contract to be the franchise quarterback for the 49ers, and it freaking happened again. And he's a good quarterback. So... And deserves a contract. We really hope that he's okay. We... Let me see here. Chase Brown, Bengals offensive coordinator, hopeful he can play, but they've said they have trust in Khalil Herbert. Um... They... It's a must-win game against the Steelers. I don't know how the... Do we know how the timing works out? The NFL usually adjusts the schedules on week 18 to make sure that they... They do. There is some weirdness, though,

because the... Um... I think they're the... Are they a Saturday game? I know the Steelers play before the Ravens. Kyle, is that... Is that correct? Because, like, there's some weirdness of... No, the Ravens and Browns play Saturday. Oh, is that... Oh, I had it flip-flopped. Okay, so, like... Yeah, they play early. The Steelers will know if they have a chance to win the division or not. Right. Um... And they won't. No, because the Ravens are... I mean, the Ravens are... 18-point favorites. Yeah. Right. And they could win, literally, with their hands tied behind their back against the Browns. Um... Maybe Jalen Wada will come back.

I don't know why they do that, but they are right on the cusp, so I guess they'll try. Um... Status in question. Aaron Jones. Able to participate in the team's walkthrough. They need Aaron Jones. James Conner. TBD. Took a shot to the same knee. I think, uh... For him, what he's looking for is to start the game and then get out, so that the game log says, I played a full season. Sutter Tillman on IR. He will not play. He hasn't played since week 12. Goodness, dude. Uh... With the concussion. There is an article on our site. We're going to go through

some of the team motivation, uh... situations, but there's a great article by Matthew Betts himself. Week 18 playoff motivation player incentives on thefantasyfootballers.com if you want to go through in detail. Um... Otherwise, uh... Oh, there we go. There we go. Hey! Spontaneous congratulations. Hey, guys. This is Caleb, Andy's son. Oh, my goodness! I just wanted to congratulate Al Borland on the amazing win and for beating my dad for a rightful victory. Yes. A win for you is a win for all of us. Oh, yes! Oh! One of the best episodes of all time here on New Year's Eve. Oh! Andy has to be so happy

that tonight at the stroke of midnight we turn to a new year because you are getting straight bodied. You know, it's wild because I was like... We were talking Mike was super tilted going to the week for his repeat. I really wasn't. I was like, you know what? Whatever happens, happens. I now really wish I had won. Oh, man. It would have been much... Oh, man. You're raising a good kid there, Caleb. Thank you very much, buddy. You know, the problem is I got more kids. Oh! I have... I have too many family members. Brock Bowers needs nine receptions to break the single season

all-time record for tight end. This week, Anthony Richardson, if he's healthy, he'll start in a meaningless game for the... It's not meaningless for Anthony Richardson. No, it isn't. Tajay Spears status up in the air. Tony Pollard bonuses on the line, but I don't know. With... I don't know if he'll be out there. With the injury to Spears, I mean, if Pollard, he's 83 rushing yards away from 1,100 to get a quarter of a million dollars, two rushing touchdowns from another quarter of a million dollars, you know, I mean, TBD if he plays, but if he's active, I think they'll try

to get him those numbers. You know what I'm supposed to do right after work today? You are supposed to get your son his driver's license. Yeah, the son... I think plans have changed. I don't think he's going to be driving anytime soon. Yeah. Whoops. Whoopsies. Hey, there's consequences. Bad timing. Consequences for your actions. Free speech. You say what you want. Yeah. You know, I'm one of those drive at 18 guys now. There you go. A couple years. Did you say the part, Andy, that the Titans have said both Mason Rudolph and Will Levis will play for the Titans? When you got two quarterbacks,

how many quarterbacks you got? You got zero. But when you got Will Levis, you have zero. You also have zero. You have one. Just no matter what. Callahan. Brother, you know. You've seen enough. You know. You saw it week one. You're like, that's all I need to know. Because then it happened again in week two. This is not the answer. We'll take a break. Collect ourselves and be back in a second. The Titans have... I'm so tempted to shut the show down. Just hit the outro button right now. Well, the problem is the outro graphic. I don't think you're going to want to see it.