WARNING: This is an NFL heavy House of Strauss podcast.

DOUBLE WARNING: You should really join the free of charge HoS Sports Predict NFL Playoffs Contest. You can win $1000 in prizes based on making NFL predictions with no money risked.

So, Dieter and I believe the overachieving 49ers have finally arrived at an impasse. We discuss this, my fraught parasocial relationship with Kyle Shanahan, whether Robert Saleh is a FRAUD, plus sports uniforms aesthetics. Oh, and of course I defend Brock Purdy in advance of a game where he might not produce great results. Enjoy!

The NFL Playoffs, With a Scoreboard That Actually Matters

In this pod, I discuss an exciting reveal: The official NFL Playoffs House of Strauss contest! Beyond the contest, Sports Predict co-founder Steve Kuhn and I also get into our nerdy NFL strategy obsessions and whether the league is starting to mirror the “mixed strategy” approach that took the poker world by storm.

But, once again, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve an NFL Playoffs SportsPredict.com contest for all of you. It’s all upside, no downside. We are doing sports prediction, not gambling addiction. Okay, it’s a little addictive. But I digress. The point is you just have to make picks, with no capital risked. Come one, come all, see if you can predict your way to some generous prizes.

From Sports Predict:

The NFL postseason strips things down. Fewer games, tighter decisions, less margin for error. If you want to know how good your reads actually are, this is the moment.

HoS is running a dedicated NFL postseason prediction challenge. Each playoff game comes with ten prediction markets. You can answer as many or as few as you want. There’s no penalty for skipping, and scoring is based purely on accuracy.

There are two ways to compete.

Predictions across all rounds count toward an overall postseason leaderboard, while each playoff round also has its own standalone competition. You can jump in late and still win a round.

The prize structure follows that format: a $1,000 prize for the overall postseason champion, plus additional prizes for Wild Card weekend, the Divisional round, the Conference Championships, and the Super Bowl.

It’s a straightforward way to engage the playoffs without betting mechanics, just decision-making under pressure.

Link to the Event: https://play.sportspredict.com/LobbyDetails?id=f067dad7-cff5-46c4-8680-92faea924561&eventId=95c1be3f-7927-4a9f-8f0b-2bdc6259caf2

Thanks to everyone who joined in on the Sports Predict contests this season and look forward to playing you over these next few weeks. It salves my negativity over the hyper injured 49ers attempt at a playoff run.

Congrats to ZigZag for again winning a SportsPredict NFL Week. The prize is a 30 minute phone conversation with yours truly, and I’m happy to re-up on that. In the spirit of NFL content, this week’s pod is with the ever granular Dieter Kurtenbach of the Dieter and Hutch YouTube channel. The overarching topic is an exploration of a) Why the 49ers went from analyzed to ignored by national media and b) How NFL national media arrives at its collective takes.

Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* National NFL games dictate a TON of NFL media takery

* Football games should only be played in domes?

* Jon Gruden’s big secret on what makes plays work

* A smidge of Wemby slander

* An insane aspect of a Brock Purdy interception the Monday Night Football TV broadcast didn’t show you

* The suddenly surging 49ers are being ignored?

* The Rams are the top team. One guy insists they have a fatal flaw?

* Dieter tries and fails to sell me on getting into the San Jose Sharks

* Interceptions are overrated

* Is Jalen Hurts protecting his rep by avoiding INTs?

I was touched by your responses to this article and apologize if I’ve yet to get back to you. Here is the audio, in the meantime.

Our guy Spike has been at ground zero of the Great Jalen Hurts Debate, which might be coming to a head following an astounding Eagles collapse in Dallas. We discuss this, plus many other subjects. Topics include…

* Dumb NFL narratives

* Jalen Hurts’ teammates don’t like him

* Remember when Rush Limbaugh got fired by ESPN for race-ing the Donovan McNabb debate?

* Film geeks too often blame coaches

* Jalen Hurts’ golden moment that immediately went away

* Am I correct that Draymond Green has annoyed people into underrating him?

* Twitter shows what country you’re in now. An aspect of this saddened Spike

* Did Tom Brady really come close to dropping the n-bomb?

* Spike reacts to my pod reacting to Pablo Torre’s pod

The Peach Fish is back, for a very special episode. The great Mike Pesca and I have a bunch of thoughts regarding a Pablo Torre podcast about the activist Riley Gaines that kicked up much dust online. We also discuss how Sally Jenkins might save college sports. Enjoy!

Here’s the audio for the YouTube show with Wos on, primarily, what we glean from Steph Curry’s DIVORCE…from Under Armour. Like, subscribe, listen…

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

First of all, congrats to Tom P for winning our NFL picks contest for Week 10. His reward is what many would regard as a punishment: A 30 minute phone conversation with me. Hit me up at houseofstrauss@substack.com if you wish to collect.

My conversational shortcomings aside, it’s been great speaking with subscribers who’ve won so far. Getting to know you through these weekly NFL competitions has been edifying.

Starting this week, we’re making prizes more tangible by adding $100 Ticketmaster gift cards for weekly winners, and the prizes will grow as the crowd does. So if you’ve enjoyed playing, invite your friends to join the HoS NFL and NBA lobbies and let’s make this community even bigger.

Perhaps Tom P and I will discuss this latest podcast with top level NBA reporter Yaron Weitzman, author of A Hollywood Ending. Yaron’s new book on the awkward/sordid LeBron Laker Era has my total recommendation. For a sense of how hot the material is, the Lakers preemptively threatened to sue over the contents, alleging that the author’s description of now former owner Jeanie Buss was “misogynistic.” My contention is that Magic Johnson comes off far worse in the book than Jeanie, a topic we get into in this episode. Enjoy…

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.