Mahomes, Bo Nix, and Homer’s Odyssey?! (Feat. SI's Matt Verderame)

Dave and the guys kick off the football season with Sports Illustrated's Matt Verderame, diving into the biggest storylines, player rankings, and the ongoing conversation around player safety in the NFL.

The NFL and Homer's Odyssey: A Surprising Parallel

Dave kicks off the show with a rather unconventional comparison: the NFL and Homer's Odyssey. He highlights several surprising parallels between the ancient Greek epic and modern-day professional football. Both narratives, he notes, revolve around the central theme of "wanting to get home" or "home field." The Odyssey features giants and Titans, much like the NFL's team names. There are also characters like the Cyclops and Raiders, both one-eyed bad guys, mirroring the Raiders' logo. Dave humorously points out that "only Odysseus can string the bow" is the ancient version of "that's a throw only five quarterbacks on Earth can make." The Trojan Horse, he adds, is the "ultimate gadget play." Circe the witch turning sailors into pigs is likened to the NFL turning "fat guys into hogs." Even Tom Brady, Dave quips, is looking "more and more like a cat," though he suggests that might have more to do with Botox than voodoo. He also draws a parallel between Robert Pattinson's Antinous, a backup QB who thinks the starting gig belongs to him, and Tony Romo, both charismatic would-be heroes who turned out to be "ineffectual guys with substance abuse issues." The Odyssey and NFL both feature "sad dogs hoping for something good," with the decrepit Argos in Ithaca and the "dog pound in the dystopian hellhole of Cleveland." Fernando Mendoza is compared to Telemachus, both "dorky heroes," or perhaps Arch Manning, who inherited his name and big expectations without proving himself capable of ruling. Odysseus's journey into the underworld to talk to people from his past to make sense of the present is mirrored by NFL broadcasts featuring retired coaches and players in the booth. Dave even suggests Aaron Rodgers would "dig eating that lotus with Calypso," tripping out and staying too long. Odysseus's love for play-action, his entire strategic philosophy distilled into one football play, is also highlighted. The segment concludes with a search for the NFL's Odysseus, with Dave suggesting Malik Willis, who had a "crappy crew around him," or Geno Smith, who "wandered around from bum team to bum team" before finding his way back to the Jets.