The Game - An NFL-Based Podcast by the Girls, for Everyone
The Game is an NFL-based podcast redefining how we look at and talk about sports. We champion female voices, challenge the status quo, and spark the kinds of conversations the sports media world has long overlooked—blending statistics with lifestyle, analysis with authenticity. With casual banter, bold perspectives, and meaningful dialogue, The Game is where every fan, long-time fans, and newcomers alike pull up a chair.
This is where play calls meet culture and community,
This is where women call the plays.
The Game - An NFL-Based Podcast by the Girls, for Everyone
Welcome to the Game! 2025 NFL Week One - Pop Culture x NFL Crossover, GQ Covers, CMC and Diggs Comeback Year, In Defense of the Lions and Living in a Fantasy
Football has always belonged to everyone, but not everyone has felt welcome at the table—until now. "The Game" is carving out a vibrant space where passionate NFL fans, especially women, can discuss the sport without the gatekeeping that often accompanies traditional football conversations.
We're thrilled to report that our fantasy football community has exploded to include over 1,300 women across 106 leagues, creating an unprecedented network of passionate, knowledgeable fans. Our Substack chat has become a haven where real-time game discussions blend insightful analysis with humor—like when someone quipped that Jalen Hurts "needs his PSL" after the now-infamous "Spitgate" incident during the Eagles-Cowboys opener.
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The NFL's cultural footprint continues to expand beyond the field, with players becoming legitimate pop culture icons. We dive into Travis Kelce's provocative GQ "America's Sweetheart" cover, Stefon Diggs' high-profile relationship with Cardi B, and how these crossovers are bringing new audiences to the sport. Meanwhile, on-field storylines like Rashee Rice's six-game suspension could dramatically impact the Chiefs' offensive strategy, potentially creating more opportunities for Kelce early in the season.
See Travis in GQ
Our season predictions spotlight the Detroit Lions as legitimate Super Bowl contenders, with their offensive arsenal featuring Jared Goff, David Montgomery, and Jahmyr Gibbs—nicknamed "Sonic and Knuckles" for their complementary running styles. We're pairing them against the Bills in our championship predictions, though we acknowledge strong cases for the Eagles, Bengals, and Ravens.
See Dan Campbell in the Chili's Commercial
THANK YOU TO ASHLEY FOR SUBMITTING OUR FIRST EVER LISTENER QUESTION. We are so grateful to you and LOVED your take!
Whether you're a fantasy football veteran, a casual viewer interested in the cultural aspects of the NFL, or someone looking for a welcoming community to explore your football passion, "The Game" offers a fresh perspective that's been missing from the conversation. Join us every Wednesday as we continue breaking barriers and building a more inclusive football community.
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Victoria Henderson
Giovonna Scroggins
The Game
The Game's On Every Wednesday!
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I'm Victoria, I'm Giovanna, the game's on hey team. Welcome to the first episode of 2025 of the Game, your new favorite NFL-based podcast by the girls for everyone. We are so excited to be here, be talking to you about the NFL in a way that feels fun, exciting, informative and community-based. I started the show because I couldn't find other people talking about the NFL in a way that I wanted to talk about it, so I decided to create it and make the show and I found Giovanna, and now we're so excited to be here and be building community and having a great time yapping about football.
Speaker 3:Yapping, just yapping, all day long a great time yapping about football, yapping, just yapping, all day long. So I'm Victoria, I'm from San Diego and I am a Detroit Lions fan.
Speaker 1:I'm Giovanna Scroggins. I grew up in Dallas so by default, yes, I am a Dallas Cowboys fan, but I'm a realistic Cowboys fan, so it's okay. Like, you can talk to me about how we suck and I'll respect you for a little bit. You can talk to me about it, I know sometimes, but it's fine, we'll get through it. Micah Parsons, that's okay. Later in the show. Later in the show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll get into that later in the show. We're going to be covering on the show today some pop culture. We will be covering the Eagles-Cowboys game. We have a listener question to tie it all in and some season predictions as we go. So a couple things off the top. We have the podcast, but we also have a substack community and a fantasy football league. I know that a lot of you guys are probably here from the fantasy league. 1,350 girls joined this year, so yeah, that's actually like so insane.
Speaker 1:We're telling you 1300 leagues just playing ball.
Speaker 3:So 1300 teams, teams, yeah, 106 leagues yeah, like that is, we're building an army here and we're all gonna be we're all gonna be bad girls, just playing some fantasy football and I love that for us that's still insane like crazy it's wild and the whole point is to build community and to find other women who want to talk about sports in the way that we want to talk about sports, and I'm so happy to say that that's happening in the chat. So in the chats on the fantasy app, but also in the substack chat, it's going off of girls hanging out saying what they want to say, giving opinions, talking about players, talking about trades, and it's like just a really great community to be a part of. And just having the Substack chat last night I was cracking up, it was so fun to be a part of. If you're looking for people to chat about games with while they're going on, we are the place to go. Do you have anything to add on that?
Speaker 1:on the fantasy note, yeah on the fantasy note, like we're in this together girls, like make sure you say up to date on all that stuff, because we're going to do some hot waiver wire ads every single week, people to stash, people that are going to come up, we're going to talk about injuries and all that stuff. If you haven't saw CMC is questionable right now Christian McAfee running back for the 49ers, he's questionable. That is a huge impact. He is in one of my leagues, so we will see. And that's kind of been a little bit of an iffy thing this year with running backs because obviously CMC is coming off of a very, very down year but he's still really good. So hopefully we will see him play week one in that 49ers game. But I guess we'll have to see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess we'll have to see tomorrow morning what's going to happen with Christian McCaffrey over on the 49ers.
Speaker 1:But I hope he plays.
Speaker 3:We'll see. I hope he plays too and I hope for his sake that he has a really great year, because I know that people are upset. From the fantasy perspective from last year, I think it's you got to be careful with picking the hot guys. You know you have to be careful with like picking favorite players just because they're hot and cool. But I did hear I was talking to one of the girls in the community we were on the phone actually and she was saying that one of her friends has a theme for who she picks every year in fantasy. So she's done one where it's like people that have like names that would show up in a Taylor Swift song. She's done them like based on, I think, like astrology or something like that, or like she did a theme. So she's like horses and water animals only and she only picks players from those teams, and so I want to like chat with her about what her teams have looked like and has she won with this like chaotic uh, chaotic way of picking her her draft picks?
Speaker 1:no, I need to see her. I need to see what the theme is this year. I need to see all her players. The astrology side is interesting because, remember, I sent you on sleeper. If you use sleeper app, it literally will show you the players astrology, which I think is crazy. And you can't tell me that's not meant for the girlies because, like the men that are playing fantasy, they're looking at. No, there's no way.
Speaker 3:They're not so sleepers looking out for us and I'm here for it they don't pop up on mine, though, so I need to figure out how do I get them on there.
Speaker 1:Maybe I need to update my app there's a certain way you have to get to it, like it's, it's kind of hidden in there, but yeah it's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's hidden, but it's there it's're testing it out to see like are the girls here and we're, like the girls are here, yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'll drop an article about how you can find everyone's astrology side, and then we can all we can all munch off of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So let's get into some pop culture. We're talking a little bit about astrology players. Let's talk about what's going on in life. I'm happy to report that I saw today that Cardi B actually won her trial, and I know, I know.
Speaker 1:So if you didn't know as she should. As she should.
Speaker 3:As she should. So, if you didn't know, cardi B is dating Stefan Diggs and that's why we're talking about her on this show. So she's dating wide receiver for the Patriot, stefan Diggs, and she is on the stand right now. She's being sued by a security guard at a hospital who she claims was videoing her. So the security person was videoing her and they got into like a verbal altercation and this security guard decided to sue Cardi B for assault and Cardi B has made this entire thing an absolute fashion show. The voice bits from her are iconic, like, if you haven't, seen it the faces, the face it like she's just being exactly who she is.
Speaker 3:And I love it because you see people, most people, are buttoned up on the stand and she's like you're not taking my money. You're not taking my money because you're wrong. And they asked her at one point like a question and she said I was pregnant.
Speaker 1:No, I think what sent it for me is there is a part and I saw this on TikTok there's a part in the trial, I guess, where the lawyer was like weren't you wearing a different color hair? And she was like yeah, it's called a wig. And that just sent me like, as a very, very proud Black woman, it's just so iconic I think she came to court with like three different, like three different hairstyles and it was amazing.
Speaker 3:What do you mean? I love it that they pointed that out. She's like it's a what?
Speaker 1:No, also, whoever that girl's lawyer is needs to be take his license. I don't even know how he passed the bar. That is the exam that they have to take, right? Anyways, it's wild. We need to talk about Stefan, though, because he's having a little bit. This is gonna be interesting season for him. Obviously he's been in the news with Cardi B and that kind of scene, and I remember the first time I saw them was actually, I think they went to a basketball game together and they sat courtside, and that was the first time. I was like, oh they're together. This is real. It's kind of spicy, I don't even know. Stefan was like Cardi B's type and like vice versa.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, I guess I don't know who Cardi B's dated in the past, but I do love the combination of a like famous musician woman and an NFL player guy because because I think it's just like I mean, any athlete is like hot and I love that. Like, I feel like NFL players are really having a moment in pop culture. We're seeing all of these brand deals, we're seeing them own their own businesses, like the players are so much more than players these days, more than ever before, just because the number of eyes that are on them, their social media presences and, yeah, I like love the combo. So I feel like I saw them and I was like, oh yeah, this makes sense because we all like the Travis and Taylor at all.
Speaker 3:We have the Josh Allen um quarterback for the Bills and Haley Steinfeld of it all. Yeah, but Stefano they really like.
Speaker 1:I really like Haley Steinfeld and Josh. Like that is a that probably can I say like my favorite, steinfeld and Josh Allen Like that is a probably can I say like my favorite. I think they're my favorite. I think you can say that Celebrity and quarterback duo. Obviously Josh Allen Maybe he'll win a Super Bowl this year We'll see but I think they're like my favorite duo right now. Yes, travis and Taylor are my favorite duo. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Please don't kill me, okay, so yeah, so Stefan's interesting because he was on the bills from 2020 to 2024. And he had a season-ending injury in week eight of last year and there's kind of some talk about, like, is he going to have a comeback year or is this going to be kind of flat, which I think is a similar storyline to what we were just talking about with Christian McCaffrey on the 49ers.
Speaker 1:He's now on the Patriots on a 69 million three-year contract.
Speaker 3:We're seven. Okay, continue. Okay, hold it together. But yeah, he's on that contract with the Patriots and I think it's interesting because Patriots were not good last year and I'm interested to see can he be a leader on the team? Because I think that sometimes when people step into a leadership moment, they often do better than in a non-leadership moment, and I think that he could be one of those people, because he does have like a poise and a presence and I think that when you are teaching other people on the field to have a poise and a presence, you can, you'll end up playing better because you're internalizing, being the example, and I'm hoping that's what's going to happen for him. I'm also curious to see if that's what happens for Joe Flacco on the Browns, the Bears.
Speaker 1:Browns. I get those mixed up too, but the Browns, yes, it's the colors. It's the colors.
Speaker 3:No, because why is every orange and blue team Browns, bears, bengals, broncos who made this up? Not a woman?
Speaker 1:They're all clearly and they're all Bs.
Speaker 3:And they're all Bs. What am I supposed to do with that? Okay so, the. Browns. Anyway, I think that Joe Flacco I was really kind of suspicious about him in the beginning, but I think that he might step into a similar role, especially having someone who's a little zesty, like Shador Sanders, underneath him, and so I'm really interested in seeing.
Speaker 3:Does he step into that role as well and does that role in turn improve play on the field? So I'm curious to see kind of what happens in that role. But I wondering if that, yeah, if Stefan.
Speaker 1:Diggs will see that as well. I actually really like the fact that you said like stepping up into a leadership role and I think for Stefan that is going to be the key walking into this Patriots offense, because from a fantasy perspective I have seen mixed like emotions on how he's going to perform this year as quarterback is still fairly new to the league and you know there's still a lot of woes that they have to uncover with the Patriots offense. But I'm a little bit hopeful and I think for the fantasy girlies I don't think Stephon is a bad pickup. Obviously, like I would err on the side of caution, like watch him week one, week two and see how much of he is stepping up as like the wide receiver one option and how much gets the ball. But I think he he could be a good fantasy house option. But we'll see because he needs he needs some. He needs some ump in his NFL career. In my opinion, when you got to get it, we got to get the spark back going it's time.
Speaker 3:speaking of getting the spark back, I think a lot of people are hoping that Travis Kelsey has a pretty I almost almost said breakout season, which is not right, but I think that people are hoping that he kind of picks it back up again because, like Travis Kelsey in his true prime and not playoff prime is so fun to watch. But in the last couple of seasons we haven't seen him play at his max capacity and so I'm really excited to see to see that happen. One of the girls today in the chat was like Travis got the girl. Now let's see the play. I was like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then he'll love everything you wish for, I think, from a Travis like he. I honestly really think this is his last year, and if it's his last year, I think he has to go with a bang Like he has to.
Speaker 3:He did say at the press conference the other day, though, I think, while he's already getting ready for the game which is going tonight, while we're recording, that he's feeling young and fresh. So I'm interested. They asked him like is this your last dance? Like, is this your last season?
Speaker 1:And he alluded to like feeling really young and fresh. I mean, I would feel young and fresh too if I was engaged to Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3:I mean like what can I say? I mean I love the Kelsey brothers for their entertainment. Obviously, we can't skip over the fact that Travis and Taylor are engaged now, which is so exciting. He was on GQ, which I love. The photos. The cover was very shocking to me. If you guys haven't seen the cover. It's almost like lion-esque with the. He has like a fur around his head and I was a little shocked when I saw it. I was traveling in the Houston airport and when I saw it I kind of was like whoa, and then I was like oh my gosh that's Travis Kelsey and it says America's sweetheart, but it's him like looking like I is America's sweetheart, but it's him like looking like.
Speaker 3:I think it's like neck up so you can't see any clothes, and then like this lion situation going on.
Speaker 1:What's funny about that to me is like when you first shared it with me like Victoria texts me ASAP and she was, like you have to see this G, like you have to see this. And I look at it and even realize it said America's sweetheart. That like made it so much funnier to me because I'm like okay now what are?
Speaker 1:we talking about here, and he's just like literally like his hair, like I don't even know what it is hair or like some type of mask or something, but it's like over his face and he's like smoldering into the camera.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like the America's sweetheart line didn't quite match with like the with, honestly, the photo shoot in general general, like he's like picking up exotic animals he's got furs on. Like it's very like sexy, cool guy pop culture breaking the norm, but not quite like America's sweetheart like guy makes girl dinner. So I thought that was interesting but honestly, like I, I really like seeing all of the like like extras. He was also just in an American Eagle campaign. He's really going for it, which I think is cool, regardless of my personal opinion of the actual cover that they chose. And I'm wondering who was it him who chose the cover?
Speaker 1:What did we say earlier? Like, did Taylor approve this message?
Speaker 3:Did Taylor approve this?
Speaker 1:message. I was like not going to lie, I think I would get the ick, but it's also Travis Kelsey, so I'm not sure, but like, imagine like you're walking through the airport and you see your man on you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Like that's kind of I don't know, I wouldn't have chosen the photo, but I don't know if I quite got the ick from it. I was just, it was a little jump scare. So, as I mentioned, I'm from Southern California and that means I love and appreciate a healthy meal. So I want to pause and take a moment to thank our sponsor of today's episode, cuso Cuts. They are a seasoning brand that is made with all natural ingredients. They prioritize great, bold, happy, fun flavors and they make literally any meal better.
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Speaker 1:The Chiefs offense this year and I know we're going to get into some Rasheed Rice talk because that's also kind of what might make Travis Kelsey's year Like. Rasheed Rice is the wide receiver on the Chiefs now. He came off of an injury last season, kind of similar to Stephon Season-ending injury, did not play and then now he's facing a six-game I think it was six right, six-game suspension, yep, six-game suspension, yeah. And so he will not play, which honestly worked out better for him, because I think originally they wanted to suspend him, like during the season, so he would have played the first couple of games, then got suspended, but now he's just sitting out those first six games.
Speaker 1:But the role where she rice is going to play on the Chiefs offense might make or break how Travis Kelsey performs and I think we're seeing the league shift a little bit because a lot of these tight ends now they're blocking more than they're receiving. So if you can kind of like, get on the line and be a blocker and you know you have two really good receivers and the Chiefs have two really good receivers in the one and two, travis Kelsey might be out there blocking more than he's catching and getting touchdowns. So we'll see yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 3:if you didn't know the Rashi Rice situation, I'll just give you like a quick update on it. In 2024, Rashi Rice got into like a race on the Dallas highway, ended up in a crash and there was bodily injury to some people in the crash. So he's been sentenced to 30 days in jail over his somewhere in his five year probation and then the six game suspension. I don't think, if that happens, you ever like truly 100% move on from it, but I do like that. He's like I want to take my time, serve my punishment and then come back in with, like you know, without it hanging over his head, which I think will cause him to play a lot better. But I do think that in the first couple games is Travis Kelsey going to have way more opportunities that he maybe would have had if Rashi was in? Like yes, and that's only going to bode well for Travis and Taylor agreed.
Speaker 1:They kind of had no choice, like if, if he sat out in the middle of the season and played, like that would make sense, especially for the organization too, like it wouldn't make sense and it wouldn't be good for anyone in that situation. But he learned his lesson. Because I really do like him and I have a personal connection to him because he played at SMU Southern Methodist University in Dallas, so I think he's going to be a really good talent.
Speaker 1:Yes, graduated Pony up go Mustangs. So I hope he learned his lesson and I hope that he has a really good year this year, because I think he does deserve it and he's definitely one of the most talented receivers in the league right now.
Speaker 3:I'd love to see him, like, pull it together, have a really good season, have learned a lot from the experience, from the press experience, of it all, and kind of see, you know, a turnaround on Stay out of trouble.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I do think that like there is a redemption arc here and I think that if he can kind of train himself in the press and in his conduct, I think he just has a lot of potential and also could be a good mentor in the future to new players coming in and being like don't do what I did, like don't be that guy, like let me show you how to do it better, because that always works better, coming from someone who's been through something rough, than someone who kind of came out like Justin Fields is just kind of like a classy guy, like Justin Fields telling a 22-year-old when Justin Fields turns 30, him telling a 22-year-old not to race is going to look a lot different than Rashi Rice. So I think there's a lot of opportunity here which could be a silver lining to like a really bad, really sad situation. So that's interesting. Yeah, I really like that you brought up blocking of the offense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I really like that you brought up blocking of the offense and I think that we should go right into the game the Cowboys-Eagles game because there was a lot of blocking from the offenses that allowed a lot of run game and a lot of yardage on the field in a way that I don't know that I've ever clocked like I did last night, but I feel like guys are just pushing people out of the way and running backs and wide receivers. It was like watching bodyguards no panic, no stress. They got their bodyguard pushing people out of the way in front of them. I was so impressed with honestly. Both sides saw a little bit of that and I thought that was super interesting. That's definitely not the main thing that we need to talk about last night. Where should we start?
Speaker 1:Spitgate. Can I call it Spitgate? Like, yes, that is insane. But the fact that we were blessed with a Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys game on the season opener of the NFL is amazing in itself and I'm proud of my Cowboys. I know we lost, but it wasn't by much. Four points, that was the day. Four points. I'm proud of my Cowboys. I know we lost, but it wasn't by much. Four points, that was the day. Four points. I'm proud of us. See, we should have caught the ball. I think like it was like third and five or something. Yeah, third and five and like fourth quarter. And if he would have caught the ball, we would have been in the red zone and we might have scored and that might have changed the game a little bit. But I'm proud of the. I'll take it. I will take it. I am so ecstatic that we've played that one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was the craziest thing I've ever seen, I think Spitgate. So I do have some info on kind of like the discord after. So apparently Prescott spit first but spit on the ground. Apparently, prescott spit first but spit on the ground. So Dak Prescott said I just spit ahead, which then Carter asked Prescott if Dak was trying to spit on him, which he said why the hell Like, why, why would I do that? And then Carter knows that he didn't try and spit on him but spit back. And Carter's really interesting because he's young. He's young. Jalen Carter is a defensive tackle and they pretty heavily rely on them. The announcers last night actually compared him to Micah Parsons, and so him being out is a huge hindrance. They call him a disruptor as well in the media. He was drafted ninth overall in 2023. 2023.
Speaker 3:Okay so ninth overall he's 2023. Okay, yeah, so ninth overall, he's 24 years old. He, yeah, got kicked out of the game right away. Also, let's mention first six seconds there was no snaps, no snaps. And also, and then the lightning delay, and then the lightning delay and the injury in the first six seconds as well. So, while Jalen Carter is spitting on Dak Prescott, which also like, pick a better player, pick a pick any of anybody else, like pick a better player is wild.
Speaker 3:I know you're not that I know. I know that you're smarter than that, if you're that good in your first two seasons. You got a brain on you so I'm not sure what happened. He did apologize after the game. He called it a mistake, said it wouldn't happen again and Dak Prescott called it unfortunate circumstances that he got ejected and we know he was nice about it. He was nice about it. I think he's kicking himself for it, but that was crazy. And thank you for the entertainment.
Speaker 1:I agree, that's what I mean Like something had to happen, like like conscious.
Speaker 1:But then there was another flight between oh, I think it was like uh, his name starts with an L, he's like Samoa and I always know him on the Cowboys because he has really long, gorgeous hair and I do believe if you have long, gorgeous hair and you play in the NFL, you are special and you have magic in your soul. But he got into a really big tussle with one of the Eagles players and like they both were like taking off their helmets. That game was just all over electric, no pun intended because of the lightning delay, but I think it made for a great opener for this season and it was really good to see how the Cowboys stack up against competition, especially the former Super Bowl champions. If you don't know, the Eagles did win a Super Bowl last year. So the fact that the Cowboys, who didn't even make the playoffs, didn't even make the playoffs last season, the fact that we only lost by four points again, it's a W in my book, jr Swenson. I'm going to eat a W, I'm glad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and to get that close without with CD being a little like CD's Butterfingers, I think is also a big win, because if C when CD is on his game and like a little bit cleaner, which he usually is, you know, that could have also been a different, a different matchup. Jalen Hurts also two rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 1:Man's a dog, he's certified bro, he's like if there's probably like top actually I can't say that because I have so many that I like right now but he's really up there and I think talk about a leader. When we talk about earlier man, that offense is ran by Jalen Hurts and he's just a good guy all around. But yeah, running with the ball, we're going to get it done one way or another. And obviously a good old tush. Can we talk about Love Island real quick?
Speaker 3:If you haven't seen it, you guys have to go watch Huda's Tush Bush commercial. It is iconic. She looks stunning in it.
Speaker 1:No, she's gorgeous.
Speaker 3:I loved it. I loved it. I think it's chaotic. I think players are going into pop culture. I think it was a crazy move and I liked it and I liked the commercial and I liked the way Huda looked in it and I liked that the tush push is staying, like I don't know I was. I watched it and I was like you know what hell yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the Chargers.
Speaker 1:Have you seen the Chargers like TikTok videos with the Love Island folk? They do a lot, I think, like Hannah from Love Island, like all on social media. Yeah, they do like funny videos, like dances, and they'll ask players questions. So I think the Eagles took a page out of the Chargers book and was like, oh well, we can get a Love Island too. But I don't really know what's her tie to Phillip Like. Why the like? What was? What was the connecting point of like Huda and I mean Olandria has a good butt too.
Speaker 3:Olandria yeah, what a queen If we ever talk college football we should have. Olandria on, but I'm pretty sure that that's. I can't think of another reason.
Speaker 1:And I just she said it's her butt. I'm like uh. I don't want to objectify her, but like I don't want to objectify her.
Speaker 3:I don't want to objectify it. I don't objectify women on this show, okay. Well, now that that's cleared up in the sub stack chat the girls went off and were like one girl says Jalen hurts the Cowboys with those legs and someone says Jalen hurts my feelings not throwing the ball to Brown. Jalen hurts my feelings that he couldn't play this good at Alabama. Jalen hurts my feelings that he's single-handedly kicking my fantasy team's ass.
Speaker 1:So that's probably that's like the probably the worst thing. If you're playing somebody this week and they had Jalen Hurts on their team, good luck next week. Don't even look at the big L and then on the girls in the chat note.
Speaker 3:So somebody in the chat says did I hear Dak say iced coffee? And then he says he's a Starbies man through and through. And then somebody says did I hear Dak say iced coffee? And then he says he's a Starbys man through and through. And then somebody says we love a man who could appreciate a false Starbys. And then later on, after after Spitgate and the fight, girls were like and they say women are emotional. And someone says and I will never forget this for the rest of my life, because this is exactly what I was hoping was going to go on in these chats Someone says guess he didn't get his PSL before the game. The girls, yeah, the girls.
Speaker 1:The girls are eating, and this it's again. If you haven't joined the community, you need to go right now, because that's just like. That's amazing, that the fact that that's going on during the games yeah, during the games.
Speaker 3:Okay, speaking of games, should we get into the game that we're looking forward to the most this week season predictions and then take a little listener question and go home?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do it Honestly. The game I was looking forward to has already concluded. I mean, like that was just. That was my game of the week for sure. There are some other really good matchups, and I know we're going to talk about the Lions too, but that was my game of the week for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my game of the week for sure. Yeah, my game of the week, obviously. So I'm a Lions fan. I'm obviously very excited to watch Lions Packers. I think it's gonna be a good game, but it's always a good game.
Speaker 3:But a game that I'm really interested in watching is Steelers Jets, because Aaron Rodgers is going back to the stadium where he tore his Achilles last season and that's kind of like a little bit. I mean, some people love a comeback story and some people love revenge in the place that they got hurt. Me personally, I'm like I don't think I need it. I don't think I need to go back. So I think that that's really interesting. But Aaron Rodgers going back to that stadium and Justin Fields working under Aaron Glenn is super interesting to me.
Speaker 3:I love Aaron Glenn, I love Justin Fields. I think that Justin Fields is young, but he's one of the most mature young players in the league. He's on his third or fourth team now as a quarterback and if you can be moved that often and hold composure with coaches and new coaches, you are something so special and I would really love to see him become a Jets franchise quarterback. And I think it starts with this game, especially going against someone so seasoned like the Steelers team. So I'm really excited to watch that matchup and just see how everything unfolds and how everyone kind of manages under the movement of both of those organizations, especially like TJ Watts on his brand new contract. So he's going to be coming out hot. There's just a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting storylines there.
Speaker 1:For sure, and I also think from another I'm always going to plug some fantasy talk y'all. If Justin Fields is sitting in your waivers right now which in most league, I actually am going to go look and see how many leagues he's rostered in and how many, what's the percentage of him starting and what's the percentage of him starting. But if Justin Fields is sitting in your waivers, you might want to give him a double take and look at him, because if he is this dual threat quarterback that we've seen him be when you talked about Jalen Hurts earlier and him doing rushing touchdown, justin Fields, he will run. He's not afraid to tuck that ball and go after the first down or even get in the end zone. So Justin Fields in your waivers. I would watch him this week, see how he plays and maybe stash him.
Speaker 3:For sure, for sure. That's a great fantasy tip. Okay, let's do season predictions. Super Bowl who do you have going and or want?
Speaker 1:going Really awesome because I really think that we're on the same page with this. I do think the Lions are going to be the Lions are going to be in the Super Bowl, and I really want them to be in the Super Bowl. I love Eden Hutchinson. I love Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell's easily one of my favorite coaches in the league right now. I also love Aaron Glenn a lot, but Dan Campbell he's just funny and like his Chili's commercials too, so good. If y'all haven't seen it, please go watch it and like he's, I'm going to chill If y'all haven't seen it.
Speaker 1:Please go watch it. You've got to watch it. He's, like all the options, so funny. So I think the Lions will be there, and the other team I'm looking for is the Bills. I think it's Josh Allen's time to win a Super Bowl. I think that's the Bills franchise. They need a Super Bowl badly, but I would not be surprised if the Ravens got there, and I think there's going to be a couple other teams that we're not expecting to have a deep playoff push.
Speaker 3:I think so too. I think anything could happen. I think that the competition is so tough Like I don't think that the Lions are going to have a walk in the park getting there, but I do think that they have the depth. The media is like all putting the Lions pretty low on the list, which is crazy to me because it just seems unfounded, especially with the return of Aiden Hutchinson. We have I mean, our wide receivers are insane.
Speaker 3:Jameer Gibbs has been catching in practice like in a wide receiver slash RB role, and I don't know if you've seen that guy's legs, but he can move. He got up to like 22 miles an hour last year. David Montgomery on his socials he's been mentioning that it's like his time to shine. He's so underrated. Yeah, because people just think about Gibbs and a lot of times people think of them as a duo but then talk about Gibbs. But David Montgomery is an absolute animal and like deserves his flowers and I would really love to see him get those this season. And then anyone who likes to say that Jared Goff isn't good, just like check your stats before you start talking shit.
Speaker 1:No, that's honestly the most craziest fan chain. Like is he one of the best when we compare him to Mojito? Maybe not, but that doesn't mean he's terrible.
Speaker 3:I mean, I would say that he is Like, if you look at all of the numbers, like he had a perfect game last year. A perfect game. He did not have one throw that missed. Is he not one of the best? Or is that what the media is telling us and we're jumping on it because we don't actually want to look at the numbers?
Speaker 1:Here's my thing about the Lions. I just feel like when you have Jared Goff, you have Amon, and then you have David Montgomery and Jameer Gibbs, you have Williams. That team is a very stacked team and there's not a lot of teams in the NFL that can say that they have that depth. And I think the running back game is what's clear, because, like we look at Derrick Henry he's awesome. We look at Saquon he's awesome.
Speaker 3:We look at some of the other really good, clear, starting running backs on all these other teams but the Lions have two like they're not called Sonic and Knuckles for nothing, like that didn't come out of nowhere, exactly. Yeah, I agree, but I do think there's like there are so many other good teams. Like nobody's really talking about the Eagles that much right now, obviously after the game last night, but like in the off season, like it was kind of quiet. But I think it's just because they're so, they're so there's nothing to talk about.
Speaker 1:They're kind of like silent killers.
Speaker 3:They are silent killers? I think yeah, with Jalen Hurts leading the charge, and just like the poise that he has in leading that team leads them to do just good, it's just facts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3:We'd love to see a Lions-Bills Super Bowl here. We know that that is not a hot take at all. So if you guys are saying everyone's saying that, it's because we genuinely believe that those two teams are A deserving. We like the organizations, we think that they both have so much potential and could very much be the people who go. So we know it's not a hot take, but we believe it for a reason.
Speaker 3:Don't sleep on the Bengals. We can't sleep on Joey B Stupid. Okay, let's go into our listener question and then, giovanna, I'm going to let you take it to answer the question.
Speaker 2:Hey, victoria, I am living for this podcast and I want to give you my hot take. So Netflix has like quarterback and receiver documentaries. I want them to do a docu-series on the NFL referees. Like, how do you get picked? What's the vetting process? I totally feel like if you re-watch the games and you missed calls or you made calls that were wrong, you like get bumped to games that are not as popular. I feel like there's all this talk of, like games being favored by rafts and calls going in favors of certain teams, and I feel like it should kind of be like a jury selection where, like, each coach gets to pick two or three like of the officials and they kind of have to agree. That way, these games are not going to be rigged, they're going to be fair and the better calls you make during a game, the more money you get paid and, like, the bigger games you get to ref. That's my hat take.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, this was something really interesting and I've, honestly, whenever I saw the video, I was asking myself I was like, dang, why didn't I think of that? Like that's a genius idea to have a show that follows around these referees. And I like looked into the process because I was like how could I become a referee if I really wanted to, but they don't make that much money. I mean, that's a decent gig. If you get, obviously, to the NFL like you're reffing some big games, you're going to get paid. The process of getting up the ladder is a little intense. Like you have to join a local club and like, do all that kind of stuff, be a high school referee, be consistent, then go to college and then make your way up to the NFL.
Speaker 1:But we were like chatting with us a little bit offline when we're talking about like the mental health and like the pressure of being a referee, because I will always, I will never forget like that call, like was it a catch when Des Bryant, in my opinion, fought the ball and that like I think it was like a 2014 division game between us and the. I forgot what team we played, but it was really the game. It took it out of the playoffs and it was intense. But the ref that was actually reffing that game.
Speaker 1:What was funny to me is because he kind of was obviously under a lot of controversy and slack for not making the call or reversing the call, I should say. And then he was on a podcast a couple of years ago and it was the podcast was like learning from your mistakes and he didn't explicitly say oh yeah, it was. The podcast was like learning from your mistakes. I didn't explicitly say oh yeah, it was a mistake. But like you're like looking at the podcast, it's like a five-minute clip. I've been talking about the pressures and all this kind of stuff and I'm like, yeah, you knew that was a catch, you know that was a catch.
Speaker 3:But it's okay.
Speaker 3:It's okay, yeah, and I think it'd be, yeah, like interesting, yeah, to see the psychological side of it, the I'm sure that there is some regret.
Speaker 3:I'm sure that they get really tough skin and they, you know, as they get older and get more seasoned in it, or like mistakes happen in the world and like how to manage them. But I would love to see behind the scenes. If you guys know any NFL refs currently or retired refs that would want to come on the show, we would love to interview them and just talk about their experience. That's a lot of what the show is about is talking about things in a way that people aren't talking about them. A little bit more of the behind the scenes wives and girlfriends, staff for the games, referees, or something that I know is highly, highly interesting to us and would probably be very interesting to you guys as well. So if you know any refs, please, who would be down to chat and hang out with us, please send them our way, or Netflix. If you want us to host a show, you just let us know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can do that, no problem, we can arrange that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we can set that up. I'll have my people talk to your people. All right, guys? Well, thank you so much for listening to the first episode of 2025 of the Game. We are so happy you're here. We're so happy that you're a part of the community. If you're not in the community yet, head to thegamethepodcastsubstackcom. Join the community there. Please like and follow the podcast. Leave us a review if you liked what you heard. You can follow Giovanna on social at Giovanna Scroggins. You can follow me on social at HeyVictoriaHunderson, and the game on social at the Game the podcast. We love you. The Game is on every Wednesday. From this point out. We have an interview coming up with a wife of a Saints player, allie Ridgeway, coming up next week that we can't wait to share with you and we'll see you next week. Thanks, yeah, see y'all next week Bye, bye, bye.