The guys react to the Colts deciding to bench Anthony Richardson for Joe Flacco and the Ravens trading for wide receiver Diontae Johnson (1:41). Next, POWER HOUR! They hand out midseason awards, including the fantasy MVP (so far), the biggest bust, sleeper of the year, the Bonus Jonas, and much more (19:03). Later, they are joined by a very special guest, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, to talk about playing fantasy football in the pre-internet era, handing down Fantasy Court rulings, his decades-long Lakers fandom, and much more (51:55).
- Fantasy MVP (19:41)
- Waiver wire MVP (22:06)
- Biggest bust (26:07)
- Chaos agent (29:57)
- Sleeper of the year (complimentary) (32:07)
- Sleeper of the year (derogatory) (34:29)
- Most embarrassing pick who delivered (36:59)
- The post-hype sleeper MVP (39:29)
- The Glansberg (41:43)
- Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened (44:45)
- Bonus Jonas (46:58)
- I won’t let the injury get this guy off the hook (49:42)
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In the following excerpt, the guys talk to second gentleman Doug Emhoff about his long-running fantasy football league, what fantasy football was like before the internet, and how one can watch football at the White House.
Danny Heifetz: The second gentleman of the United States of America, vying to become the first gentleman of the United States, Mr. Doug Emhoff. Doug, thank you for coming on the show today. Now, your wife, Kamala Harris, is running for president of the United States of America, but we wanted to get into the real issues that matter here today. We heard you have a longtime league with your college friends, and you’re 6-2. I wanted to start with, do you think you’re going to win your fantasy football league this year?
Doug Emhoff: This is probably the best team we’ve had in a long time. We made it to the finals last year and we lost in the finals, and I literally was begging the other team, “Just tank, and then we will host next year’s draft in the White House.” And the draft was not in the White House, because it was that game where I think Dak [Prescott] and [CeeDee] Lamb had 100,000 points on it that Saturday, and the other team had both. We were smoked heading into Sunday. It was a bummer.
The league has been around since 1989, believe it or not, and it’s essentially the same group of guys. And now it’s been going on so long, most of us have our now-adult children as partners in the league. So it’s a generational thing, and it’s great. Cole, my son, and I, it’s the thing that keeps us in touch, even now during the craziness of this election season. Of course, last night I’m like, “Did [George] Kittle score yet? We need that touchdown to win our game.” And this is in the midst of “Wait, I have a big speech in Pittsburgh today. I need to focus on that. Wait, did he score?” That’s the absurdity and the love of fantasy that we all love so much and brings our friends together, families together. And we love it.
Craig Horlbeck: You’re 6-2 during the busiest time of your life, probably. Is that a problem? Should you be a little worse? Should I be concerned? Would I feel better if you were 2-6?
Emhoff: I was worried about that question. Cole, my son, who’s now 30, he’s been my partner almost a decade. He has stepped up. Every year he’s gotten better and better at this and more engaged with the rhythms of the league. And he knows the other owners. ... He’s known them his whole life. As a little baby, I would bring him around with these guys or whatever. And now that he’s going toe to toe with them and he understands their psyche on trades and drafting, I told him at the beginning of this season, “You need to take the reins and figure this out.” I flew back to L.A., we did the draft together, and I was being that guy like, “Hey, pick so-and-so.” He’s like, “Shut up, you don’t know anything, please.” But I got him. Marvin Harrison Jr. was mine because I said, “Look, I met him at the draft.”
I was able to go, and he just looked so good in person, and so did Jayden Daniels. I’m like, “I’m not shocked at all how good this guy is after seeing him.” Caleb [Williams], too. I just said, “Pick Marvin Harrison Jr.” And he did. And now he’s had a couple of phenomenal games. But Ladd McConkey was [Cole’s pick]. We lost [Chris] Godwin, unfortunately, horrific injury. And [Cole] got that guy from Buffalo we didn’t even play. He is all over it. But of course I’m micromanaging from the road, so I’m on a plane all the time. And I get off the plane, the first thing I do is text him like, “What’s up?” He’s like, “I got it, don’t worry.”
Horlbeck: Good. So next Tuesday, you’ll be checking a lot of things that night. You won’t be checking the waiver wire, is what you’re saying. You won’t be sneaking away to the bathroom.
Emhoff: Look, man, I can multitask. I can try to save our country and make sure that our team gets to the finals again, because I’ve only won once. It’s so sad. It’s the 35th or so year of this league. I won one time. It was the year 2000. And I picked up this guy Mike Anderson off the waiver wires, played that one amazing season for Denver. I think he was a military vet, and it was a great story. Had this one great year, and I rode that right to my only title. There’s a trophy like the Stanley Cup, where it just keeps getting bigger and bigger with all the wins. My name is on the trophy, but that was 24 years ago. Can you imagine we win this election and we win the league? That would just be a good year. Great for the country and great for me and Cole.
Danny Kelly: So our boss, Bill Simmons, he’s the only one that we know who’s been playing fantasy football since the 1980s. Sounds like you’re the second one now.
Emhoff: I think when I met him, we talked about this. He’s probably around my age. And it was pretty funny, the OG pre-internet, how do you do a team without internet, days.
Kelly: We actually just want to know. You’re picking up the USA Today or mailing people things? How did it run in 1989? How did you run a fantasy league?
Emhoff: There were actually fantasy services that did exist back then, but it was so retro. It was a bunch of faxing and waiting.
Kelly: Faxing?
Emhoff: Faxing and waiting for stats. And then you’d have to track everything in USA Today, watch ESPN, and you had to cobble together information. And there was one or two people in the league. The commissioner’s job was very labor-intensive back then, because the commissioner had to make sure everyone got the stats and standings and faxed everyone because there was really no early email and you couldn’t—it was very retro, very labor-intensive. And there was a lot of discussion amongst the owners for information and trading.
It was probably a lot like the old days in the leagues, where GMs were on the phone all the time and talking. There was a lot more communication between us in person or on the phone. But the smack talk is 1,000-x more because there’s a league chat, but then we have our own group chat offline and then our emails and then I know them all personally. And since I’m in this position now, I just get basically abused completely at all times.
Heifetz: Are those texts in the group chat being run by the Secret Service? How does that work now?
Emhoff: That’s a good point. It’s like, “Are they? I don’t know.” They might be. No wonder it’s a little tamer these days. It’s funny, though. All these times they see me out there, then it heats up. But whenever I bring up our fantasy league—I brought it up in our DNC speech and I told these guys, “Look, I’m going to talk about you.” And then I think I went on Jimmy Kimmel, and there’s one team, it’s a 60-year-old man whose team is named Buttheads, and I said, “I’m going to talk about Buttheads on national TV, dude.” And I did. It was pretty funny.
Horlbeck: You’re really doing the work for the fantasy community.
Emhoff: That’s right.
Horlbeck: You are. We appreciate it. If your wife wins the election, can you host a draft in the White House? Has a draft ever been hosted in the White House? How does that work?
Emhoff: There is a White House league I’m in. It’s my secondary league. There already is a White House league.
Heifetz: It’s your secondary league?
Emhoff: I forgot about it until you brought it up. And even though it’s the White House fantasy league, you get that one special league that you’ve been in. I’m sure you guys are in multiple leagues, but this league I’m in for 35 years—that’s my league. And then, oh yeah, I’m in the White House league, too. The draft, it’s in the EEOB, which is that big building next to the White House. And it’s—
Heifetz: The one at the beginning of Veep?
Emhoff: It’s the one from Veep, and there’s staffers from all over the West Wing and whatnot, and Office of the Vice President. And I just roll in as, “Oh yeah, the Second Gentleman’s in this league.” And one of my people that works on my team is my partner because I told him, “I have no bandwidth. I can barely deal with my real team. You gotta deal with this other team.” We’ll continue the tradition when she wins, and the offer to my old-time fantasy league, again, if we can get the W, I will be hosting that draft next year in the White House when we win.
Horlbeck: What’s the White House TV setup? Now we have the technology, we can watch four games, five games, six games at once. Is there a room where you can really consume it all?
Kelly: Situation Room, maybe?
Emhoff: Yeah, I go into the ... no, just kidding everyone. Sarcasm. There are lots of TVs everywhere in the White House and the campus. And even the TVs have split screens, so oftentimes you’ll have a big screen and then you’ll have four or six or eight channels at once. So you can see every single bit of news at any given time. Of course, after hours or Sunday, I’m assuming it’s eight games on.
Heifetz: There must be a lot of TVs in the Situation Room.
Emhoff: I’ve never been in there, for the record.
Kelly: He’s like, “To be clear.”
Emhoff: But there are lots of TVs everywhere else.
This excerpt has been edited for clarity.
Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck
Guest: Doug Emhoff
Social: Kiera Givens
Producers: Kai Grady and Carlos Chiriboga
Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / YouTube
