Mike McCarthy. Here is a man. A man who has not simply persevered, not merely endured, but who has continued to push himself further, faster, harder in his pursuit of a very distinctive type of mediocrity, even as the naysaying multitudes cried out, in a superficially polite Wisconsin-accented way, “my dude what the fuck are you even doing right now.” McCarthy’s quarterback is one of the best players of his generation, which means that even in what increasingly feels like the last year of his astonishingly long tenure in Green Bay his team isn’t quite bad. They’re losing, though, and Aaron Rodgers is increasingly bringing what are apparently some longstanding issues with his team’s big stubborn baby-in-chief into the light and it just kind of feels like this might be it. It’s a testament to McCarthy and all he has accomplished during his years in pursuit of his strange vision that you don’t even need to care about the Packers—I mostly don’t, and Drew actively dislikes them—to have feelings on this. And so it was that we dedicated what wound up being a football-heavy Deadcast to The Last Days Of Beav.
You have to listen to a lot of Deadcast to get to the appallingly bad Mike Tyson imitation that’s in my answer to a Funbag question about Donald Trump and pets, but there is by our standards a lot of actual substance to this week’s episode. Yes, there is the usual fanfare about Young Dirtbag Decisions and a few specific shitty New York bars and also a personal invitation to the Deadspin Awards, which are being held on Wednesday, December 5, and which you should definitely attend if you can. But after those few minutes of gnawing on the gristle it’s pure protein—an unsparing assessment of Blake Bortles’ future prospects that features dueling Gruden voices and a proposed tagline for Blake’s first year with the Las Vegas Raiders, the operatic scummery of the Washington Football Team and the depressing conundrum that is Adrian Peterson, and a consideration of Jim Harbaugh’s willfully weird and mostly unsatisfying stint at Michigan. Yeah there’s some bullshit in it, but if you like sports this might be a podcast you like. We’ll get back to normal soon, promise.
You can also listen at iHeart Radio, Stitcher, Spotify, NPR One, Apple Podcasts, or GooglePlay. And don’t forget to email us tips and/or general complaints at [email protected]. Have fun out there.