The Bill Simmons Podcast
The Chiefs Are Done, Pittsburgh Hates Us, Lamar Is Missing, Guess the Lines, and Some NBA Stuff With Cousin Sal
08 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. We have a new episode of The Rewatchables coming on Monday. We did a movie called Shampoo, which is a pretty famous movie that had a few Oscar nominations. It came out 50 years ago. Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Jack Warden. And the reason we did it was because we had a special guest.
It was me and Sean Fennessey and special guest Cameron Crowe. One of my favorite directors. We still have not done Almost Famous on the rewatchables, but yet Cameron Crowe is on. But he brought an unbelievable gift. We went for over two hours. We tied it to a lot of his... If you like Cameron Crowe movies... Watch Shampoo and then listen to this Rewatchables because it's great.
So that's my first plug. Second plug, we're launching, we're recording it tomorrow afternoon, Pacific time, and then it's going to run on Monday night. Max Kellerman, Rich Paul. The podcast is called Game Over. It's going to be Monday, Wednesday, Fridays. I am really, really excited about this one. I might even go to the taping tomorrow. They're going to talk sports, culture, all kinds of things.
And I think this is going to be a really good podcast. We even got some free PR from Stephen A., That was great. Thank you for the 29 minutes. We didn't even have to like purchase it. It was awesome. One thing though, he did mention me a couple of times, as you know, I like Stephen A. But he wondered why I didn't ask him about what he said about Max when he was on my podcast.
And the reason I didn't ask him was because he was on my, I looked it up. He was on my podcast in July, 2023. And then all the stuff he said that I didn't really like was on Joe Budden's podcast two months later, where I just thought some of the stuff he said about Max, I just didn't like it. And I would have brought it up, but it was two months after we did the podcast.
I'm happy to talk about it next time, Stephen A. I'm sure we'll do a podcast at some point. We can go at it. We get along. And thank you for the PR. Anyway, game over. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Check it out. Listen to it on Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. Coming up on this podcast, I can't wait. It was an unbelievable football day. It was a very dramatic Sunday night.
Cousin Sal and I broke all of it down. We did it live on YouTube. And it's all coming up next after this. a break and after Pearl Jam. But before we do that, I have to mention that the Jeff Buckley documentary that we did for Music Box, that has been up all weekend. I really hope you had a chance to watch. We have three more coming. I'll tell you about the next one on Tuesday.
But break, Pearl Jam, and then Cousin Sal. This episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast is presented by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like expecting a linebacker on the football field, but getting a line cook. Sure, they both can handle the pressure when it starts heating up, but only one is stopping a touchdown.
You wouldn't settle for just anything for your team, so don't settle for just any insurance when it comes to getting help you need. State Farm is the real deal. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Cousin Sal is here after an incredible Chiefs-Texans game. Let's start here. Mike Schur texted, in a couple weeks, Mahomes may do something Brady never did, play a meaningless football game.
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Chapter 2: What was the significance of the Chiefs-Texans game?
They were minus 340. It was a tie game and they were minus. They had that... I wish... You talk about analytics and everything. There should be some nerd on the sideline. Coach, take a look at the FanDuel page. You're minus 340. If we boot this, we're still minus 340. If we don't get it on fourth and one, we're a plus all of a sudden.
Just disgusting. Honestly... It's arrogance that's well-earned because they've had an incredible amount of success the last seven years. And it was a fuck you move. We're the Chiefs. We'll get this. We've been getting it for two-thirds of a decade. And it'll be fine. And it was stupid. It was the wrong way to play it because your defense was better than your offense in this game.
So you ended that game. Mahomes had at one point 10 straight incompletions or interceptions.
Yeah.
This is in the fourth quarter as they're trying to save their season. It wasn't like this was a random Sunday night game. It's like when you go through the teams that are behind, they've lost to the Chargers, the Jaguars, now the Texans. Denver's gone. That ship sails. And they've lost to the Bills.
So these are all teams that I know that at the, before the game that did the political guy was on with Maria Taylor, like doing all the odds and trying to have like the stick with it. I don't really understand why they use him, but he did say if the chiefs lost, they had a 12% chance to make the playoffs.
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Chapter 3: How did the Chiefs' playoff chances change after the loss?
To me, it's like a 0% chance. What scenario are they making the playoffs?
No, so they have, I think they're plus 340 to make the playoffs, it says right now. But they have the Chargers at Tennessee, Denver, and at Las Vegas. It doesn't matter. They're a game behind Houston, who's not going to stop losing. They have Arizona and Las Vegas, Houston. So they're going to get two more wins, plus the win over them, plus the tiebreaker. They're not making it over Houston.
I feel like the AFC said a little. We could talk a little. One more thing about this game. Disgusting, and I know you suffered your bed aches and bad beats today. I went on the pregame show today and I said, I am betting Houston under eight and a half points in the second half. Blind betting it. Like a Phil Hellmuth blind bet. I'm checking off the flop. That's it. That's after the flop.
That's it. And I was like, Spagnola's done it. And like the last four home games, they've scored a total of one touchdown and three of them. This is it. I had that. I mean, there's no way I should have lost that bet. I'm so mad and broke right now. Andy Reid lost it for you. He really did. Disgusting. Disgusting.
This was also, the stats won't show it, but I really liked how CJ Stroud played in this game. This was a really good game for anyone. And we've all had the thoughts like, if Davis Mills was playing, is this much different? But Stroud took some big hits, moved around. He never, I don't think he had a turnover. I don't think so.
Had a couple big third downs to just kind of help them kind of survive a little bit. And it was really only at Collins. There was a lot about this game I didn't understand because the Chiefs lost their best cornerback early on. They lost yet another tackle at the beginning of the game. And it just felt like, wow, if you have the Texans or you're a Texans fan, this couldn't have gone better.
And they just...
you know it's the old Lombardi bad offensive lines don't travel but we've also seen the Texans in this type of game earlier in the season where they just really hard for them to get to like 17 points which goes back to the read decision this is a team that on the road in bad weather against a good defense is just not going to put up 20 points yeah and I'm with you with CJ Stroud like he really I don't want to say he showed me something I decided I'm annoyed by that yeah he really showed me something today it's really a way of saying almost nothing it's like a backhand and
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Chiefs' current performance?
showed me, showed me his coin collection. It was fine. But no, you're right. He was like rolling right on third and long. And we complete the, just when you thought it was like throwing out of bounds, he'd completed for a first down. And Collins, a lot of times is unguardable. I think he really is. So, and he comes back for balls. He does everything right as a receiver.
If this team had a decent running game or a good running bank, they'd be a lot of trouble for everyone in the AFC. They might already be.
Well, Decent chance to host a first-round game, right? They just have to catch Jacksonville because I think Indianapolis, we'll talk about them later, but it feels like Indianapolis is in a lot of trouble.
I don't think they catch them, though.
They're two off of Jacksonville. I thought they were one off. What's their record now? Oh, is Jacksonville 10-4 now? 9-4. Or 10-3? 9-4, right? Jacksonville's 9-4, so Houston's 8-3. Eight and five. Oh, they have eight.
Right. Sorry. Yeah.
And they play Arizona, Las Vegas. They're at the Chargers in Indianapolis.
Tennessee is just such an easy win for everyone. But I hear you. That's how they'd have to do it.
Well, Tennessee, I don't know if you watched Mike McCoy's postgame locker room speech.
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Chapter 5: What were the key moments affecting the Chiefs' playoff chances?
He had two picks. One wasn't his fault, but the first one was like a Max Brosmer pick.
Right, right, right.
It was awful. And it was at a huge part of the game, right? And it felt like... I don't know.
Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Bengals and Cowboys missing the playoffs?
I thought they were going to go down and score.
But then James Cook fumbling twice was in a huge part of the game, right? So you can't be happy for that guy. He does so much, but you can't be thrilled with him for more than 20 minutes at a time. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer for Cincy to be out of it, out of it.
If you had a choice, if you could have Bengals, just from a viewing perspective, Bengals, Cowboys in the Super Bowl, or whatever the Super Bowl is going to be, What would you pick? Just for viewing.
Chapter 7: How do the hosts feel about the current NFL season's unpredictability?
Why can't that be the like Pro Bowl? Yeah. Instead, it's just like the two best teams that didn't make the vote. Voted by the fans. Wouldn't that be great? Playing for $100 million. Paid for by Amazon.
It could be in the morning too, the Super Bowl. It just could be the early game. That'd be good.
Poor Borough. Yeah. I don't know what to make of, of this season.
We're not going to have burrow in the playoffs. We're not going to have Lamar. Right. We're not going to have my homes. We're not going to have Mandy Reed. We're not going to have John Harbaugh who might get fired. Yeah. Um, it's just weird. It's fit. It's one of the weirdest seasons we've had in a while.
We'll take one more break for Drake may.
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Chapter 8: What insights do they share about the upcoming NBA season?
And we're going to have who else? Um, Jaden Dana's his career is already somehow over two years.
Yeah. Good job. Bryce Young's in. Guess the lines. You've won a couple in a row.
Yeah.
It's eight to six now. Week 15. Your fan base has been fired up. I know. I know. I talked to a lot of people. I was with Dave Jacoby this weekend and it's all he can talk about. He loves it. He's like, do you think Sal can pull this off? He's asking me, the person who's in control of my own picks.
Right. What'd you tell him? You told him yes, right? I said I thought he could. Okay, good. Don't trash talk me now. Thursday night.
16 games the rest of the way.
Here we go. This is our last normal slate of the year. You getting sad yet that football's almost over?
Oh, after Thanksgiving, I'm a mess. And as my fantasy teams go away, this is right in it. And my regular team.
Oh, can we talk about that really quick? Damn it.
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