“6 Mllion Data Points”

And it's Tony. On today's show, we will talk to Jason Lockinforo about what we learned from Seattle's comeback win against the Rams and also about the officiating in that game, the two point conversion. We'll also talk to James Carville and Jeff Ma, get their weekly football picks. But first, let's do some commerce boys and girls. Previously on the Tony Kornheiser show. And then I stopped answering because my answer was finished. But he did that move where he just went silent because what ordinary citizens do because we're you know, we're needy people and we want to please the person across from us is you keep talking. Yes, you do. Yes. And you get when you get in trouble because you're trying to please your interlocutor. And he looked at me and I looked at him and finally I said, Marshall, I do this too. The Tony Kornheiser show is on now. Remnick was wonderful. The best, right? I got a lot of personal notes saying how good Remnick was. So I'm really glad about that. So hoping the two of you would start talking capybara's or about the new meaning of aesthetic for kids today. No, I didn't do that. You're very New Yorker of you. Yeah, I didn't do that. I'm not the one in the family that subscribes to the New Yorker. I believe you are, you know, and New Yorkers, it's they gotta get my tote bag. Yeah, it's the best magazine. Oh, it is. It's the best magazine and it's in good hands with David. And he's been there for a long time. You know, he's not by nature an editor. He's by nature a writer. Between us, we have one Pulitzer Prize. He's got it. He's a great writer and a great thinker. And to edit is a different set of muscles. It's really different. But he was great on the show. I'm glad for that. I don't believe I'm the only one who's noticed this. Traffic has thinned out. Yeah, and it always thins out on a Friday because people take advantage of leaving if they want three day weekends. But I think this has to do with Christmas next week. The fact that Christmas is not at the end of a week. You know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is the middle of the week. Sunday. The fact that it's... Appalonia. The fact that it's Thursday, I think people are leaving now. Oh, sure. I think they're taking the whole week. Oh, yeah. Don't you get that sense? There are guides online as to how to maximize your paid time off. If you can flex certain days into an already established long weekend or week off. So that's what's going on now? Yeah. And I would guess probably two weeks because you get the same thing with New Year's. New Year's. And you get a late Thanksgiving. So, yeah, it's been a month. I'll see you in 2026. Didn't you used to say to me that when you were teaching, you were only teaching up to Thanksgiving? Could you explain that to people? No, it's just there's for a school year and for even a show like ours where we follow a similar pattern of Labor Day through the end of the summer. It's such a uphill climb to create a sense of community to get into the rhythm of any school year. And then once you get that established, you all of a sudden are doing real school work. That's sort of your October and then you get to Thanksgiving. And everything should be on cruise control, even if you have, you know, exams, finals, big projects. It's just the class has been set. It's why those first weeks are so important. And that goes, that stands true all the way to June. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So most of the learning is done early and then I wouldn't. It's just it's a different kind of learning. Oh, OK. And for us, you think you think about what happens once you get into the start of the football season and then when that cranks up and then you get sort of quarter by quarter, you get to playoffs. Begets talking about the start of the football season. Last night's game was a wonderful game. I'm not going to lie and say I stayed up for all of it. I watched the first half and then this morning watched all the highlights. These two teams, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks have played twice this year. They're division opponents. Each time the home team has won by a very small margin, the first time the Rams won by two and Seattle had a chance with a 61 yard field goal attempt to win at the buzzer. Last night, Seattle was home. They won by one on two successive two point conversions. The first of which now we're certainly going to talk to Jason Lock and four about this. But the first of which, Michael and I have have a disagreement of sorts. My feeling is that that as weird as that play was, it was indeed a backwards pass, which made it a live ball when it went off. Was it the helmet of the of the Rams player and drifted into the end zone? Nobody went after it vigorously. Once the ball, the Rams tried to intercept it on the rebound. But once it fell to the ground, the Rams didn't seem to care. Thinking it was an incomplete pass. When the Seattle player picked it up, he picked it up. It seemed to me with the intent of handing it to the ref because he didn't. They all thought it was dead. My feeling was it wasn't dead. So I'm sorry. That's the right call and that's the way it ought to be. And you're feeling this. It's just the paradox of it. It is the it's the right call. But what is the sense of whether it's correct or not? And when you see the player picks it up casually, very casually, everyone assumes that it's dead. And it feels like a point after or a two point conversion there has a different rhythm and sense of timing than just a normal down. I give credit, a lot of credit to Seattle. Sam Donald intercepted twice last time, four times, six picks in two games with the Rams, and he hung in there and he completed passes. And they were down 16 points with nine minutes to go in the game and ultimately won the game in overtime. I think the Rams are a better team. Me personally, I don't know what's going to happen now because there are two games left and Seattle has a very difficult two games. They're at Carolina, Carolina, not a push over at home. And then they're at San Francisco. San Francisco has something to play for San Francisco's in this same division as Seattle and the Rams. The Rams are at Atlanta, Atlanta stinks and then home against Arizona. Arizona stinks worse than Atlanta. So I think the Rams will win those two. Seattle needs to win. They need to win two or one. They need to win one. I don't know the tiebreaker, though. I don't know if they finish, if they both finish, say, 13 and four. I don't know what their tiebreaker is. They have played twice. The Rams have won by two. Seattle has won by one. Is that the tiebreaker? Total points. I don't think it's aggregate. That would be really chintzy, you know, really would be. So I don't I don't know how it's going to work. Both teams will get in the playoffs. Obviously, but you want, boy, you want to be the one because you get the home field all the way through. And if you're the if you're Seattle, you know, you're in an outdoor stadium that often gets cold, you can go to Green Bay. You can live with it. If you're the Rams, hard, hard to go to Green Bay, hard to go to Chicago, hard to do that. So speaking of Chicago, Wobbun was impossible yesterday on the show. So it was no fun. It was honestly no fun because he was yelling and screaming about how the Bears are never going to Indiana. But it seems to me at the very least, the Bears are in talks about going to Indiana. Now, if they want to use that as leverage to get the state of Illinois or the city of Chicago to make concessions to them, fine, that's that's the way the game is played. But if you're in talks with Indiana, then you are conceding the possibility that you could go to Indiana. Maybe a long shot, but you're conceding the possibility. Ted Leonsis in an act of villainy attempted to move the Washington notice, I say the Washington capitals and the Washington wizards into Virginia. He attempted to do that while he was talking with DC. He's announced he was going to Virginia now blew up in his face because he didn't understand the politics of Virginia, where a one term governor doesn't have as much power as the leaders in the state assembly who said, no, this is not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And in fact, didn't happen. He got a lot of concessions from DC, though. But you have to concede the possibility. You know, 50 years ago, I was living in New York, the New York Giants and the New York Jets moved to New Jersey. It's 50 years now, still stinks. OK, everyone has accepted it, you know, but nobody in New York was happy about it, nor are they happy about it now. And it's 50 years out. And these things happen and people would have said at the time, moved to New Jersey. No way. Now, but they did. They actually did move to New Jersey and will bond was just screaming about how this would never happen. I don't know. I mean, don't you think this is a board game? How many moves do you think were into it? Is this just an opening move or deeper into the play? No, I don't think we're that deep into. No, I don't think so. It's the first time anybody's mentioned Indiana. The governor came out, the governor's aide said, were you kidding me? What? What? I mean, it's bit volunteer. You know, at that point, what the what the state of Illinois would do, it seems to me is they would, you know, agree to put a stadium somewhere in Illinois. I mean, because look, if you're in Indiana, I'm pretty good at geography. That's another state. That's not Illinois. It's not Chicago. Chicago, when you when you address mail to Chicago, go Chicago, Illinois. Scruff, McGruff. Yes, it doesn't go Chicago, Indiana. Doesn't do that. That's another state. And all of the funding, you know, all of all the money that flows in, that's not going to Illinois. That's going to Indiana. Indiana is giggling. Indiana's thinking, we got a shot. I think we got a shot at this. You know, well, Wilbarn was just right. Oh, yes. Yes. Screaming, yelling. There's no point in me being on the show. It was difficult. There's no point. What? So how quickly are you able to reset? Is does it take you a full night and like by today you're fine and you're going to have a great show or does this linger for another day or two? No, it's not going to linger. I'm in the show weeks. No, the show, every show is new. And in every show, there's possibility of it being great. But you'll try and need a limit every opportunity about it. Absolutely. About the Indiana Bears. How many Indiana Bears do we? Can we please get some custom jerseys for? Yeah, Indiana Bears. Yes, I will certainly try to do that. But that, you know, it started out, you know, we have. Eric likes to write those jokes about a Florida man or a Colorado man or a California man and some weird thing that happened. And Mike denies these things have happened. Mike says, no, it didn't happen. I don't believe it. No, it actually does happen. This is not fake news. These things happen, arrests are made. You can look it up. And so it starts with him in denial. And then as soon as you do a story and he, you know, any story about the Bears or the Bulls or the Cubs, you know, he's going to be that's right on the edge all the time. So I'm just wondering if they do move to Indiana, would that mean that Larry Bird would be on the text chain with him at that point? I guess. I guess. But Larry Bird, because of Indiana State, yeah, I think all the people on the Pacers will be on it. Exactly. And Tyrese Halliburton would take over for Richard Dent. I think that's how it worked. All right, we'll take a break. Jason Lockenfoy joins us. That's what we want to hear. We want to hear from Jason Lockenfoy about this particular play and about the standard question I have. What if anything changed with last night's game? And maybe something did this time. I'm Tony Cornhiser. You're listening to the Tony Cornhiser show. This is a song called Good Enough by a group named Pollyanna. Daniel McCool sends us this long time, first time Gen Z listener here. I wanted to forward the music of one of my favorite bands and dear friends, Pollyanna, four piece Power Pop alternative punk band from New Jersey, known for their genre bending discography. I first connected with their drummer, Dan McCool, by chance on Instagram because they share the same name. What started off as an inside joke with myself has turned into a great friendship. It's been awesome to watch the band grow over the past few years. I'm excited to promote their newly released sophomore full length studio record, Weirdo, which the band describes as an ode to the feeling of letting go of the discomfort in not belonging. I've attached the track Good Enough. Pollyanna currently gearing up for a 2026 tour recently launched to GoFundMe to repair their beloved Van Barbara. They call their Van Barbara? Babs. Little's can find more details, including where to donate on their Instagram at this is Pollyanna. Wow, this is good. And he says shout out to my dad, Matt McCool, the only person I've ever recommended the show to. He hated it. He's definitely not listening. Good to know. Plays in Jason Lockenfor, we have this from Alex Bacchai. Online sports betting finally became legal on December 1st in the state of Missouri, and I was able to download an app to get all the free bonus money. I decided to watch Wannabette a week before and started betting when it opened December 1st. I love the show. Got my brother watching Wannabette as well. Jason and Ben do a great job on what to bet and most of the times they hit. Buccaneers and Falcons game made me the most money so far, putting a bet on a parlay for their bets of Bijan Robinson receiving yards and over 20 plus reception on top of three other receiver yards netted a good amount of winnings. I also like how they make bets in Bundesliga Premier League, NCAA, basketball, NFL, and all sports. It's like having Carville betting on the show when he tells you to take the first half total of a basketball game or bet over 89.5 for Tulsa in their Arkansas Pine Bluff basketball game. You should do the bet. I'll be eating lobster this weekend from Jason's show. We'll continue to watch it, do most of their picks. Jason, isn't that nice? Alex Bacchai in St. Louis, he loves you. That's awesome. That's awesome to hear. We greatly appreciate that. Tulsa hung 117 on Arkansas Pine Bluff, and that one, by the way. You remember some of those when the team total hits with eight minutes to go? Wow. It's a pretty good, it doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, you tend to remember. Yeah, no, it's awesome. Look, we had a great night last night. Bellwood Ben was all over at Ferguson Touchdown, plus 500 a night before that. Josh Giddy, triple double, plus 425. I slept in the NBA last night. Was profitable in Thursday night football. We're working it, man. Good. We're working the markets morning, noon, and night. Let me get to Thursday night football and ask you the question that I always ask you. What, if anything, did we learn from last night's game? Well, we learned NFL officiating remains, and an enigma wrapped in a quandary. That two-point play, I mean, I don't know, man. Like, I didn't look to me that Charbonneau thought he was picking up a... No, very casual. He was giving that ball to the referee. Yeah, a winning two-point conversion. Yeah, he was just being a good Samaritan. Like, nobody thought that was a live ball, including the officials. And then they get a call from Big Brother, and Big Brother's like, oh, we're stepping in on this one. And so, yeah, you get an arcane sort of ruling on what common sense wise. Everybody thought that was a dead ball. It was a ball knocked down by a Rams defender. Was it fractionally traveling backwards? I suppose. You know that fumbles can't be advanced for a touchdown since the Holy Roller play. I think that was 78th. So, yeah, I don't know, man. It's just, again, it remains a scourge and a scandal to me. They're so cute. Like, so they've cleaned up their act to make sure they... Now they make sure they get the referee, the former league pay employee, on board with them during the break. Like, they're smart enough now to know we got to sell our BS to them under the cloak of zero transparency. Because we don't know who's on the phone with whom. We don't know who's on the direct line. We still don't know who's even in the room that night in NFL officiating, or who could be coming in and out of the central command room in New York. But we get situations like this where they'll wait in on that, and then there's other, you know, blatant situations where something's been missed, and they don't wait in. What would you have done? It blows my mind. What would you have done last night? Well, I... There needs to be a camera in the NFL officiating room. And when they're on... When they're making these decisions, we need to know who made them. And they need to speak to them. And if now they're going to just make sure we get whoever is the official, you know, the blandino or the staretor or whatever. Like, if now the game is, well, we're going to tell them some stuff to make sure that they know where we're coming from, then why aren't we privy to that conversation? Why don't you put that person on air like they're doing some other sports, and have them explain it? It's just, it's... What call would you have made? That's what I'm asking. What call would you have made on that? It's clear to me that the officials thought that thing was dead. Yes. And the players did. Everybody thought that was dead. Players did, yes. If that's one where Big Brother thinks otherwise, then at the very least, Big Brother better come out and like, the person who's on the phone with those officials, iPhone is the wrong way, but the technology that exists now, where they can get right into the truck with whoever's doing the game, and they can get right into the year with whoever's calling the game, who is that person? How about we start there? But what I'm saying is, so you would not... I understand everything you're saying about accountability and a lack of... You can't hide. You have to come out and you say, here I'm the person who did this. I understand all that, but the call itself, would you have allowed the two-point conversion or would you have said no? No. I mean, I guess what I'm asking for is clarity as to when they're going to jump in and adjudicate these things from New York and when they're not. Right. But what would you have done with the call? I mean, I would have let the call stand. Here's what I think would have happened if that happened in a one-o-clock window with eight other games. I think it goes. I think it goes. That's called on the field. We're not talking about it the next day, I think, because it's a standalone game and the playoffs are on the line. And I don't know. They jumped in. Why did they jump in? Did they jump in because a closer game means better ratings? I don't know the answer to that. I don't even know who's on the phone with them. And I don't know that because they don't want you to know that. And the fact that they don't want you to know that, to me, is in and of itself more troubling than how any, is it a backwards pass? Is it a lateral? Isn't it a lateral? Is adjudicated by whomever at Park Avenue? I think their process is inherent. So you want someone from the NFL office to stand up and say, I am ex, I made that call. Yeah, I think we know who the officials are on the field. Well, they don't make the call. Why can't they announce who's in the room tonight? Tonight we're going to have Troy Vincent in the building. He's going to be coming in and out of the room. We also have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, our head of officials, their central command tonight. And when they get on the truck to tell them what they want, we're going to share that with America. Well, I mean, I understand what you're saying, but in real time last night, it happened pretty quickly. It was weird. It's just a weird thing. And did it decide the game? In effect, it did because it tied the game. It had a huge outcome in the game. Yeah. Yeah. It had a huge outcome in the game. And I think just moving forward, that seems like a loophole that should probably be closed. Is there any... Your eye is not written that way. Is there any percentage in what you're saying that has to do with betting? Well, I mean, there's a lot that have to do with betting. Yes, change is everything. I mean, there's a lot that has... There's over under where is who won the game, yardage, and their partners with all these people. Yeah. They create the effect. Like, there's people who didn't even know how that was going to be scored. You know what I mean? Is Sharpernay going to get credit in some way? For two points. Which is what he did there. Yeah. Like, all of this is entangled into their product. They're selling still more ads for that stuff during their product, which is an entertainment product, than anything else. And so by cosigning that and filling your broadcast with that, you're basically endorsing that. So if you're endorsing that, Yes. But I think there needs to be transparency as to why in a primetime game, Christian McCaffrey can be pulled, not pushed from behind, can be pulled by a cablecative offensive lineman into an end zone. The officiating person on that broadcast says, it's blatantly illegal. Not only is it not a touchdown, he needs to lose 10 yards. And that slides. But this sort of in the weeds hyper esoteric, like, boy, we're really going way beyond what anybody on the field saw to make this point that this is where the lead thinks those two points need to be scored this way. I just, I find that frankly bizarre. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a fair word for it because everyone on the field and everyone watching had accepted the fact that that was an incomplete pass, right? Everybody says. We're walking for a special teams play. Everybody's walking for a kickoff. Yeah. Yeah, once the ball, I mentioned this before you got on, once the pass hits the ground, you can see the Rams guy diving for it to try to make an interception. Once it hits the ground, everyone sort of says, OK, that's a dead ball now. So, yeah, I mean, to reverse it after the fact like that. But I think what the NFL would say is, look, these are the rules. The rules say that on a backward pass, X is live, right? Wouldn't they say that? And I would say, well, the rules say you can't pull someone into an end zone. And you saw that. Everybody saw that. Tony, we also had a prime time game where Jared golf catches a touchdown pass. Everybody on the field thinks it's a touchdown. Yes. The officials think it's a touchdown. Yes, I remember that. They tell Dan Campbell it's a touchdown. That's changed during a commercial break. And the next day, Dan comes out and nobody has challenged us. And he says, yeah, by the way, they told me, everybody in the league thought it was a good play, but big brother said no. OK. Does this go as high? So we're doing it all the time. We're doing it some of the time. Does this... We're doing it like, what are we doing? Do you want... Big brother wants to finish the whole thing. I'm here for that. Just go higher, more good people. Actually invest some of the billions that you're raking in. Invest it in your product. Invest it in the adjudication of your product. And be transparent about it. That's all. I don't think that's too high of a bar to ask for it. But in this league, it probably is. Do you expect today, probably not as high as the commissioner, but the head of the competition committee or the head of refereeing or something like that, do you expect today someone to come out with a statement about this? No. OK. Do you think they'll just duck? We did it. We thought it right, so we got it right. OK. OK. Stand on business. Yeah. I don't have... I don't have... I have a thousand other things, but I'm interested in this. By the way, the Rams have two easy games coming up, at Atlanta and home Arizona. And Seahawks have relatively hard games at Carolina and at San Francisco is a hard game. That's a division game. Yeah. Do you expect... Who do you expect to be the number one seed? There's a part of me that still says the Rams, but I mean the games, the Rams have lost. It's been brutal. So bizarre. The Philadelphia games. Brutal. It's also flickered. And even the Carolina game where there's a fourth and two and a fourth and three and they both turn into 40 plus yard touchdowns. Yeah. Yeah. And the Stafford, the interception in the end zone, Alphadute's helmet, and they're kicking games, still gives me pause. I know that that guy had been pretty good, but he also, he's getting into uncharted territory. And they just have a way of being in these scenarios where they've got a 95 plus percent chance of winning. And they don't win. They win. It does certainly give me pause, but I mean, it took a lot of weird-ish to get us where we got. You know? I mean, it took a Shaheed return. It took a Shaheed 30 yard run. Yeah. It took a bizarre two point conversion. It took the Rams kicker missing, you know, one that most NFL kickers make. It, it, even the San Francisco primes I'm lost. I mean, there's no way they should have lost that game to San Francisco and Mack Jones that night. And they, and they did, right? We had the fumble going across the goal line. We had a fumble in the high red zone. I think they're the best team. But that doesn't mean I think they'll win. But I think- But they do find a way to just leave the door open enough. Yes. Obviously the Eagles returned the block, forgetting for touchdown. Yeah. I do think that the best team, and I do prefer their schedule. I'm right there with you, but that, that's a wild scenario out there in the NSC West. It is. 49ers may have something to say about it. They got people. I think people do slip up. All right. Plug one a bet. You can check me and Bultway, Ben out pretty much at noon, definitely seven days a week, usually at noon. And the emailer said it, you know, better than we can. Any markets that we're interested in that we're gambling in, we try to tell you why we've made the plays we feel strongest about. We tell you when we're doing well. We tell you when we're not doing well. We keep score. We track every bet. And we let you know how you can profit with us. You can check us out at wantabettwithus.com. And I know you've got a lot of immediate industry people who listen to your tone. Anybody looking to amplify or buttress their NFL coverage across any platform for 2026. Here's Jason. Can you email me? Who's Jason? Have wantabettwithus at gmail.com. I will not be back with our friends at the Washington Post. So I am the agent. Really? Are you announcing that now? No, I mean, I didn't know. I didn't know. I love your stuff. I just found out a couple of weeks ago. Well, look, your times are tough. The industry is in a rough way. And a lot of entities don't have the freelance and stringer and contributor budgets that they used to. So yeah, I am definitely looking to contribute written, video, audio, whatever. If you cover the NFL, I could probably do something for you. Good. Thank you, Jason. We'll talk next week. Happy holidays. Thank you. Jason Lackinfora, boys and girls. We will take a break when we come back. We hope to have James Carville. We know we have Jeff Ma. I'm Tony Kornhiser. You're listening to the Tony Kornhiser show. When we go back to James Carville's walk in music, the right walk in music, he responds. He was four and O last week. You're right near Mount 500, 40, 42 and two. And this week's picks with James Carville and Jeff Ma brought you by Fandall's Sportsbook. Make every moment more. Great week last week, right? You feel good, don't you? Yeah, but we're able to set the ACL Sports, we're able to hook into one of these new data centers that have 6 million computation points. Really? So we were able to run six. Wow, that's insane. Wow. Yeah. You got these data centers and you got all kinds of things, man. We factor in there and so we can write a role this week. It was a great week. Tell us what you have this week because we got college games back. We got the Great Memphis Tigers and North Carolina State Memphis who's getting 3.5. Let's go with the River City. Taking Memphis, okay. This one I hate to do, but this is what the algorithm says I got to do at Ole Miss, minus 17 at home against Tulane. That's your hometown school, you betting against them? The data centers that come with the verdict. So I'm not going to put it against myself. I got to take Ole Miss because she got 6 million data points. You know what I mean? Yeah, but did they figure in a new coach who's never? Oh, yeah, they're figure in everything. Okay. They're figure in everything. Oh, yeah, the coach have a code. Okay, so you got Ole Miss. Okay, what else? JMU goes out to Oregon. Yes. That's not going to end well. Yeah, take Oregon. Late 20.5. Okay. And I love JMU. By the way, they're out there by my fault. Yeah. But this is too much. Okay. You got Southern Miss, Weston, Kentucky. I don't know if I was waiting on that game. I don't know if I can stand this tension before I kick off. I'll try. I can, you know, you can cut it with a knife, right? Yeah. Southern Miss, which I got plus 3.6. I mean, 3.5. 3.5. Just a line, you see it. 3.5. Southern Miss plus 3.5. Okay. Okay. 3.5. Okay. What else? That's what I got. Jags and the Broncos, probably Sean Payton ain't coached it yet. There's no coach in the NFL. Oh, over Mike Vrable? Over Mike Vrable in your mind? I guess it's going to be close. Yeah, yeah. He's done a hell of a job out there, hasn't he? Yes, he has. Over under 46 and a half, go over. Okay. So I got to talk you out of this. You lose all the over bets. You always lose the over bets. You sure you want to do this? You don't argue with a 6 million data points. Okay. Okay. Computated at 100th of a microsecond. Okay. All right. Okay. This thing, this data form. Okay. Yeah, I got to go with the data. Okay. And then we got the Titans and the Chiefs. Titans are getting three and a half. Take the Titans, the Chiefs. They haven't won at the most. And I love Andy Reed, but they just had a disappointing Chiefs. Well, it's not my home. Obviously, we know it's not my home. It's Minshew, right? It's Gardner, Minshew. Is this at Kansas City? No, it's camping. I think it's at Tennessee. Is it? At Tennessee. Yeah, I think so. At Tennessee. Tennessee stinks. You know, well, you know that. Well, I understand. Getting three and a half points at home. Yeah. It's a pretty good sign that you stink. It gets a team that's quarterbacked now. That's right. That's right. I think it got a little bit to me, dude. You know, again, that nanosecond computer, man, it can digest all that. You know, I hope you don't. I hope that at the end of the weekend, I hope you don't take the nanoseconds and throw them into the river. That's all I'm saying. So we'll see. All right. Good to talk with you. Best of luck. Yeah, after Christmas. Yes. Happy holidays. No, we're going to. Yeah, we'll be on next week. Next Wednesday. We'll be on. We'll do a show next Wednesday. Christmasy. We'll be up and ready to go. Yes. And we'll have them. We'll be probably, I don't know, four and two, five and one. I'm guessing. I hope so. Okay. Talk to you. Good deal. James Carville, boys and girls. That's all, man. We got it now. It's just, I hope this works. Carville's laugh, the early Christmas present. Love it. Yeah, it's just wonderful. So we will move from James Carville to Jeff Ma. And here is Jeff Ma. We've got Jeff Ma with us. Jeff didn't have a great week last week, two and three, but he's 44, 32 and one, which is the best record of anyone, including Simians, who picks for us on a regular basis, by far the best. Before we get to your picks, you took a golf trip to Las Vegas last week. Tell me about it. Yeah, I went to go visit some friends. Go see the NBA cup and go try this new restaurant called Jim Khanna, which is a Michelin star Indian restaurant out of London. Got to play the Summit Club with my friend Shane Sigsby, who's about a plus five handicap. Had the pleasure of playing golf with Dexter Fowler and Johnny West. And I don't know if you know who Johnny West is. Johnny West is Jerry West's youngest child who married Michelle Wee, right? Exactly. Right. Exactly. Right. So I got to tell Johnny the story, because I don't know if you know this, but one of the first companies I started, we had at that time a baseball face of the company who was Billy Bean. We had a football face, the company who was Bill Walsh. And so we needed a basketball person. And mind you that this company was started all on the concepts of money ball and analytics and statistics. So he was with Memphis at the time, and I flew there to talk to him and recruit him to be part of this new company called ProTrade. And I sat down across the desk from him. His first words were, boy, I got one thing to tell you. I hate statistics. So we had to sit there for two hours. And now what was interesting is what it turned out was that Jeremy hated the way that the world used statistics at that time. And so this was probably 2004. He thought that it was annoying that people thought Allen Ivernson was a good basketball player, even though he needed 30 shots to score 30 points. And by the end of the two hours that I was with him, he was calling his scouts and whatnot, asking them to start tracking the number of deflections that their defensive players got. So what he meant was that he hated the way that the world used statistics. He didn't actually hate statistics themselves. And he ended up becoming an advisor to the company. I flew down once to go visit with them. He would call me every once in a while. And he actually, when I went to go visit him in LA, he picked me up in a Maybach. And what was funny is like, these are cars that, you know, like that, typically someone else drives, but Jerry was driving the Maybach himself. So he had the greatest career in the history of basketball. From the time he started playing to everything else he did when he stopped playing the single greatest career. I've never met anyone that doesn't like Jerry West. And I was personally offended at that HBO series a couple of years ago that was so mean to him and unfair to him. Do you remember that thing? I don't think I've watched that. But I would very much agree with you that he was an incredible, like again, like he set the tone with me to say like, I hate this, but then when the reality was, he was incredibly thoughtful and, you know, would gave me the time and made me feel like I was important to ask me questions about what I did. And so like to be able to share that with his son over, you know, over the course of a golf round was pretty special. Oh, is the kid any good? Is he a good player? Is Johnny any good? I mean, he was like a one handicap. Yeah, he was pretty good. Okay. Yeah, I didn't have the hard to ask him whether his wife beats him or not. But you know, that was. She's plus. Oh, she's definitely plus, you know, that depends on how long the course is at this point. Uh, did you say you went to the NBA Cup, that phony baloney tournament? Why did you do that? Well, my friend Evan Wash, he's the he's the runs basketball strategy for the NBA. It's his brainchild. So I, you know, I went out there and watched the final game. It's fun to see it out there. I mean, the teams play hard. They really want to win. So I don't, I don't, I mean, why do you think it's phony? Because just because it doesn't mean anything really? Yeah, it is utterly meaningless. It has no meaning in the standings whatsoever. It's an attempt to cash in on soccer because the soccer is the, the most important global sport and the NBA wants to try and get out of the shadow and do what soccer does. I just think that it comes at a time in the season where it's forgotten within a week. And by the way, they're moving it out of Las Vegas. And they're apparently talking about Cameron to put it in Cameron. They think it's a failure in Las Vegas. Yeah. Well, we'll see. I mean, they, I think the final may still be in Vegas, but the semi-finals, they're saying, well, yeah, you're right. They're going to move them likely. Yeah. So, all right. That's interesting. That's interesting that you went to that and you liked it. Good for you. I would. I watched, well, I watched half. I watched half. And then I just said, that's enough of this. You know, I don't need this. I'm like my dream. I said this on. Good for you. PTI the other day, Jeff, I said, I wanted to see Adam Silver at half court with a green eye shade and an Emirates shirt handing out 20s to Jalen Brunson. That's what I wanted to see. So, I mean, he could do it like they do in rap videos where he's just breaking them off and throwing them up in the air. Yeah. Vegas like that would be great. All right. Let's get to your bets because you got college and pro. You got a million different things. What do you want? I'm going to take three calls games. Okay. So on Friday night, what do you guys have? Do you guys have Oklahoma plus one and a half or are they favored now? It's Oklahoma minus. He flipped. He flipped. It's minus one and a half now. Oh, well, minus one and a half. Okay. I'm going to take Oklahoma minus one and a half. Just to, you know, Alabama is not quite right. It seems like Tyson is not quite right. Right. And you have Matiers, finally healthy, Oklahoma at home. I think, you know, we'll win this game. They beat him at Tuscaloosa. They should be able to beat him in Norman. Well, that Tuscaloosa game, everyone talks about how, you know, Alabama just over. How played them with the exception of the turnovers. And that's really why Alabama lost that game. And so a lot of people, when they look at something like that, say, well, as long as they don't turn the ball over, they should win this game. But again, it's, you know, Oklahoma to me is we'll win this game. And so, you know, I like them on a short line. I'm going to take James Madison plus the 21, 21 and a half. What do you guys have? 21. 21. Yeah. They got a really good defense. I think they're going to be able to keep this game close than people think. It's obviously a huge step up in talent for them. I really like their coach. I think they will make this game more competitive than people think. Okay. I'll just tell you that Booger McFarland on PTI with us said that Oregon could name the score of that game. Just so you're, I just telling you, it's all right. Well, you know, that's why it's 21, right? That's why. And again, I think it's a little, you know, this is one of those cases where no one, no, you got to give a lot of points to get someone to bet on James Madison. Yep. Yep. And the question is, did they give too many points? And in my mind, they did. Okay. What else? I'm going to take Miami plus the three and a half over A&M. You know, Miami obviously very talented. This is a, this is a game where probably to me close should be closer even. So getting three and a half points with the Miami team that, you know, has a lot of talent. I like that. I like that line. I want to refer to this as the Notre Dame Bowl because these are the two teams that beat Notre Dame in August. And now Notre Dame is not in this tournament where they actually should be. So this is the Notre Dame Bowl for me. By the way, I read today that the coach at Texas A&M is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He played football there on his grad there and was, and was said by the coach at that time. He's the smartest kid I've ever had. So anyway, all right, what else? Is that still an Ivy League school or is it? Yeah, it's a four year school at an Ivy League school. Words hurt, Jeff. Yeah, and my son went there. So, you know, come on. It's a four year accredited university. That's great. Panthers plus the three over Tampa Bay. Just Tampa's, their defense is really not great. And, you know, Baker, I'm not sure if he's completely healthy. Obviously getting all their weapons back, offensively makes them stronger. But, you know, again, like three points for a home dog, a team, two teams that I think are pretty close to even at this point. And I think, I think Bryce Young will be able to put up some points on them. So I like them plus the three. Okay. And then I'm going to take the Lions minus the six over Pittsburgh. Whiffed on the Lions last week when the Rams took over that game and covered. Still not a big believer in Pittsburgh, despite what they did on Monday night and despite what they did against the Ravens. So I think that the Lions can win this game by margin. Okay, that's good. You're going to take any more? Just five. Just five. Okay. Who's on bet the process? It's just Rufus and I this week. We do what we do call the mailbag where we get people to make questions. And so we cover a lot of things. Actually, someone asked me to retell the Tony Kornheiser meeting Korn, Tony Kornheiser having a park my car story. There's my keys, kid. I had to retell that again. That's great. That's great. That's great. All right. Good luck with this. Talk soon. Thanks. Thanks, Tony. This week's picks with James Carville and Jeff Ma have been brought to you by Fanduil Sportsbook. Make every moment more and we will come back with email and jingle. I am Tony Kornheiser. This is the Tony Kornheiser show. Tony Kornheiser show. Hey, Alan. Did you know it's time for Tony's mailbag? Really, Glenn? Is Tony going to read some emails, faxes and notes? He sure is, Alan. He's going to read them for all the folks. Gee, Glenn. That's swell. Norwegian soft candy with a bit of irony. You want to do the Bethesda Bagels ad for us, please? Yes, Bethesda Bagels. We love them. You will as well. Just go to BethesdaBagels.com for the location in the DC area nearest you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled. And before we get to the mailbag, let me just say in the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. And everybody sings, oh, we move away, oh, we move away. Those are the tokens. That's at least 65 years old. Yeah, 1961, I think. 65 years old. Long Island Group, by the way. Thanks to our guests today, Jason Lockenfor, James Carville, Jeff Ma. Thanks as well to today's sponsors. Remember, you can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Odyssey. You can get showed through Apple. Please leave us a review. Okay, here are Glenn and Alan, Norwegian soft kitten. While speaking with David Remnick on Wednesday's show, you said you don't play bands on the show who are a known commodity. We'll have you know that if you go to a rural grade school in China and say to the students, Norwegian soft kitten, the students' faces will light up as a raucous chant of NSK. NSK erupts from the children. If you go to the commons and at university in Armenia and call out NSK an impromptu dance party will ensue, with students roaring out the name of the band and singing lyrics to our songs. If you go to any brothel in Bangkok and say to the first employees, you see Norwegian soft kitten, her face will brighten as she replies. Ah, Glenn and Alan, we all love them here. As you can clearly see, Norwegian soft kitten is a known commodity. But since you'll forever be our hot bagel, you can play us royalty free from here to eternity. Very nice. From Casey Crouetz, I listened to Wednesday's show on Thursday. And on that day, dictionary.com's word of the day was philuminist, which is a collector of match books and match boxes. So can you please now declare yourself as the official philuminist of the Tony Kornheiser show? I had no idea there was such a word. Yeah, there's not philuminist. PHILUMINIST. Well, Jeff Simpson, Arlington, Virginia. I listened to your segment about match boxes on Wednesday's podcast with great enthusiasm. I'm pleased to inform you that match boxes are making a comeback. Lots of restaurants have revised the practice of giving them out. My wife and I collect match boxes at restaurants and bars when we travel. And even when we eat out here in DC, we display them in a bowl in our living room coffee table. They serve as a reminder of the places we've traveled and experiences we've had. They're also great storytelling material for cocktail hour with guests. People inevitably ask about them. And we get to tell stories about our favorite places. I've included photos below of a few of our favorites. Dante and Missy in New York City, Asteria Mosa in Georgetown and Raw 167 in Charleston, South Carolina. Michael was spot on about framing them. We framed one from the Dabney, the place downtown where we had our first date in March, 2023. We had this done at Frambridge, the place Nigel suggested. By far our favorite match box is the one we had designed as table favors for guests at our wedding reception. An artist from Etsy sketched various pictures that tell the story of our relationship, including one of the Capitol building. Of course, my brilliant wife was the mastermind behind all of this. We still have a few extras. So I'll be glad to send one of these to your office. Also, I feel sort of bad. I forgot to invite you to my wedding. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. God, don't worry about it. Yeah, these are lovely. I think this is what I'm going to have to do, but I have hundreds. We have to create categories for you. I've worked and traveled, personal traveled. Yeah, I got to go through them. Mark Corrier, Ellicott City, Maryland, a collage of your match boxes would be great for the elevator in Rehoboth, but I think they would be better appreciated as prizes for the littles for the march madness. I'm not sure I can send those. No. Yeah, safety concerns. Brian Moller, Chuck and Roxy 167, Table Rock Lake, Missouri. You definitely hit a nostalgic spot with a matchbook discussion. I can distinctly remember restaurants and hotels having them readily available for visitors growing up. I hadn't thought much about it in recent years until my wife came home from a day of visiting garage sales with a giant fishbowl full of old matchbooks picture attached for those watching on this channel. We had a blast looking through the collection and featured locations all over the country. The bull has been a favorite for visitors to our home ever since. It even made enough of the impression that my son and his wife had the idea of making personalized matchbooks as the guests keep sake for their Vegas wedding. Yeah, well, a lot of people do that. You know, a lot of people do that, but yeah, I mean, I've never, mine are out, but they're not displayed and I don't really come to my house or anything like that. No, the problem is you can only see the top layer. Yeah. So there's, there are hundreds there really are hundreds. Yeah, that's a big project. Jose Podesta, I'm sorry. Mr. Tony say he keeps his matchbook collection in urns like urns for the dead, like urns with the remnants of Egyptian farrows, like urns with cremated remains. Please don't say he emptied Uncle Benny's urn from matchbook store. No, they're just there. They're big glass bowls, but they look sort of like urns. And I believe they're not called urns in an Egyptian tomb. I think they're called Canopic Jars. Is that what they're called? I believe so, yes. From Lisa G in New York City, I've never been a smoker, but I also love collecting match boxes and can happily report their very existent and omnipresent across the New York City restaurant scene. I have small vases full of them everywhere in my home and it's the first thing I look for anytime I walk into a restaurant. I try not to throw them away because like Michael said, I think it would be nice to make a shadow box of all my favorite New York spots at some point. Keep your hopes alive. Also, my David Aldridge moment happened a while ago, but I haven't had a chance to write in because you haven't spoiled it, spoiled us with any savings or couponing stories of late. Come on, man. Anyway, I know Paul Toboni. He went to a rival high school in the Bay Area and was part of my ex's friends group. He's a really great guy, super smart, earning an MBA from Notre Dame. He married his high school sweetheart. Anyway, I look forward to hearing you follow him more during his trials and tribulations with the nationals. He has the man to whom I'm soon to be related by marriage. He's a lifelong Nix fan. And after they won the NBA Cup, he sat there and said, I realized I've never seen the Nix presented with any trophy in my lifetime. For some of us, that memory won't fade by Friday. Happy holidays to you and the whole crew. Tony Russell, are you mentioning match books today? Really tugged at my heartstrings. My late father, like you, used to do a lot of travel, would bring back matches from all over the world so I could see the places he'd been. I then would do the same whenever I was able to pick some up. My daughters used to love ending the containers looking for all the different places. So that's what they, yeah. My main worry presently is what insurance, my insurance company would say if they found out I was storing a huge incendiary device in the house. If it's not already taken, might be the official match book correspondent from Australia. So Tony Russell is in Australia. Yeah, and he sends pictures of the match books and they're much like mine. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. James Algood, save the match books and write a story. A screenplay following the death of his iconic sports writer father, a drifting young man on covers and archive of match books from decades on the road. He sets out to visit each place chasing a man he never knew and finding himself instead. Matt Mellusa, Quaker Town, Pennsylvania, about the big mouse. We're going to need a bigger toilet. That's funny. Matt's from Jaws. From Jim in Lutherville. Usually you hear from me with updates to the latest edition of the classic cornhizer comments t-shirt line. Today I'm pleased to announce a new line of products, mouse ramps. The best way to move your mice to their peanut butter death trap. If the volume requires, we suggest the two lane mouse ramp. If things are really out of control, consider the mouse overpass. But please call before coming by the warehouse. Use the code Jim in Lutherville. Watch out for the mouse zipper merge. Yeah. Yes. From Steven Arlington. Thought you'd get a kick out of this. That's it. Oh, so it's, it's, oh my God, a lifetime original movie. A pickleball Christmas with James Lafferty and Zibi Allen. Zibi? It's like, just Zibi, I guess. Zibi? It's lifetimes. So they're moving in on the. Sounds like it. On the Hallmark Channel. Yeah. Steven Sikafant. Well, by the way, I should answer him. I should say that I did see Jupiter, what I thought was Jupiter, in the eastern sky at about seven o'clock the other night on Wednesday night. Nice. The Hallmark Channel is rolling and now has added stories for people of the book. One is entitled, Oid to the World, in which high school rivals must put aside their differences. They work together on a fundraising event for a damaged temple. Moving to the regular side, there's holiday mismatch as new retiree Barb, Barb joins a holiday committee, but clashes with longstanding member, Kath, when they discovered their kids have started dating, they conspired to break up the happy couple. I bet they feel, oh, come on. This is just enough of these things. Brandon Borzelli, Lebanon, New Jersey, some 15 years ago, I received a frantic call while working for my dad, then about 65 years old, telling me his computer had gone crazy and everything was gone. After talking through what he was seeing, I was quickly getting nothing of importance, and my dad was just getting more and more upset and making less sense. Fearing he had clicked something on the internet, or worse, given some scam artist remote access to his computer, I left my office completely, headed to his house. Upon sitting down in front of his computer, I realized most of it seemed be normal. Nothing seemed out of sorts with his internet and anything I tried opening or closing did so without issue. His banking information was secure and untouched. My dad then opens Windows File Explorer to show me how everything was gone. I see a list of files starting with Z-Temp, then Windows Temp, and on and on. Big font and mostly folders. I said, dad, what is it that you are missing? There seems to be a lot of stuff in this folder. After a lot of questioning, we finally land on the issue being that his personal files are missing, in which he tracks his vacations, spending, and most importantly, his bird watching sightings. That file is entitled Birds. I then click the Sort button at the top of File Explorer to sort the files in this folder, A to Z, instead of Z to A. As it was currently said to my dad, he goes, you did it. You brought them back. I feel Michael's pain. Date modified. Matt and San Antonio. If I take a phone call on 18 and then immediately double bogey, resulting in a final score that is tired for my best score ever, I get to blame the person who called for that double, right? And before Michael tells me not to take calls on the course or to take a minute to refocus or some other reasonable, rational advice, I'm not really looking for personal accountability for this show. I want someone to blame. I want to complain and rant and rage. That's why I love this show. P.S., the call may have been from the woman to whom I'm related by marriage. Let's just keep this between ourselves. Justin Hibbet, Galena, Ohio. In an attempt to keep you informed as to the traffic patterns in Galena, Ohio, I just wanted to let you know a few days ago, Worthington Road between East Powell and Africa Road was closed for a significant gas line repair, causing hefty traffic issues in the Southern Delaware County area. Happy to report all lanes have since reopened and we await the next big roadway blockage worthy of your notification. With that said, would you allow me to be the official Galena, Ohio traffic reporter of the show? Yeah, sure. Joey from Medfield, Massachusetts. Find a spouse that talks about you like Mr. Tony talks about a three-hour round of golf. Yeah. Scott Forster, not the referee. Manchester, Maine. My son just changed jobs. After a decade of being an assistant golf pro and instructor, he has joined the world of sales. He is spending a lot more time in the car. So I was looking for podcasts to listen to. Over the years, I've sent him your podcast a few times to listen to interviews with the occasional Dan Burns song. A couple of weeks ago, he calls me and he says, can you believe Sansy missed the call? It took me a second and then I realized he was hooked. He came home this weekend for an early Christmas with his sister and her family. He walked through the door and handed me a gift bag. He said, open this now. I just want to see your face. I reach in the bag, pulled out of Bethesda Bagels t-shirt. I started laughing, gave him a hug. The woman to whom I'm related by mortgage was confused and then rolled her eyes when I explained it. Please tell Tyler Forster to eat it. And thank you for giving me another thing my son and I can bond over. Leslie Thomas, Hillsborough, North Carolina. I hope you and the family have the most wonderful holiday season. I'm including my Christmas card photo. I tried to get my sister, the dogs and the horses to cooperate for one great picture like all the beautiful ones I get. Here's what I got. There's three horses and then there's a person's foot at the bottom. A person's foot. Like the horses look lovely. The horses do look lovely. Please wish fellow Hillsborough resident Jeff Barcher a happy new year to eat it. Ryan Melick of Mice and Men's Jackets. Hey, Mr. Dr. Cornhays, do you ever think you got mice and rats because hello, you store winter jackets that are filled with dog treats? Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Joe Pearson in Indianapolis. Let me get this straight. The Lily Hammond Jacket still works. And here I'd have thought Aunt Bonnie would have thrown it out because it had passed the best used by date stand on the column. Seriously, though, clothes only wear out through actual wear and tear, much notably, most notably washing. And given the stories of the jacket, it's rarely worn much less laundered. Now maybe your moth friends will eventually get used to it, but they seem perfectly satisfied with your apparently very tasty sweaters. PSI have concert t-shirts older than Michael that still work. And Niccolatagliani from Eastern Pennsylvania. The story of your Lily Hammond Jacket makes me think of my childhood. I often would be sent out in the cold wearing mismatched gloves and a jacket two sizes too big. Whenever I asked my dad for some appropriately sized clothes, he would always reply, ain't no style points in the cold homes. So next time someone has a comment about your puke green Lily Hammond Jacket, you can just reply ain't no style points in cold homes. You're welcome. Jeff Hines, Carmel Indiana. I just finished listening to today's podcast. I really enjoyed the segment with David Remnick about the New Yorker magazine and the documentary. While asking him about what he wore, it occurred to me that you might potentially have to consider this wardrobe question yourself. Should there be a documentary about PTI? Allow me to suggest a few things based on previous discussions you've had on the pot. Moab jacket, Lily Hammercoat, sailor hat optional, pants optional. It would kill. And from Steve Gilmore in San Angelo, Texas, the most disappointing part of Rivers comeback is that he doesn't take the field in his house robe over his pants wearing crocs like a proper retiree. If you're out on your bike time, everyone has always to wear white. All right, that's it. Let's roll. Hey, let's be careful.