We’re back to preview this long football weekend’s playoff action and discuss the sports news of the week. We’ve also got a brand new recurring feature: it’s CIB’s 2025 National Title Game Battle of the Bands, where we determine the winner of the upcoming national title game based on music from the teams’ cities. Be sure to head to the Substack to cast your vote. Listen, if you must! Has something we said, or failed to say, made you FEEL something? You can tell us all about it by joining the conversation on our Substack or you can send us an email here. Enjoy!
Show Rundown
Open — Abe Live-Bets the Games!
4:35 — WGAS NewsBag, Sports Edition!
29:19 — 2025 National Title Battle of the Bands: South Bend vs Columbus
1:01:37 — CIB Pick ‘em Game and games preview!
1:17:43 — Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Lock of the Week
1:27:23 — Wrap-up! Eagles fan goes full Eagles fan
Relevant Linkage
WaPo: The U.S. government runs on Celsius. Just ask anyone on Capitol Hill.
The Athletic: How Bob Uecker, ‘Mr. Baseball,’ always personified the fun of the game
MLB: Uecker's most memorable pop culture moments
The Athletic: Anthony Richardson will be a Top 10 fantasy football QB in 2025 and other divisive early opinions
ESPN: Texas QB Quinn Ewers declares for 2025 NFL draft
The Athletic: Like the Patriots, Chiefs dynasty has left shattered legacies, fractured franchises in its wake
WSJ: The Curse of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs
CIB’s 2025 National Title Battle of the Bands
Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Lock of the Week
Hello to my dear friends at Cast Iron Balls, and also to Abe.
I’d like to start by saying what an absolute delight it has been to chat so amiably with your fine little podcast these past few months—and what an eventful few months it has been for me, personally, as you may have read about in the paper! But really, any chance I get these days to check in with someone besides that camera-hungry grandson Jason of mine is a thrill, and to be able to talk college pigskin with such knowledgeable friends, and also Abe, is the whipped cream on top of a perfect peach cobbler. So thanks for that—and eat all the shit, Abe!
But any which way, though I was skeptical about the expanded college football playoff, there’s certainly no denying that the semi-finals produced a couple of classic games. There have been precious few good and competitive national title games in the playoff era, but maybe the expanded format will allow the two best teams to prove out and we’ll get a decent game here and there. One can hope! On the other hand, Rosalynn used to tell me to hope in one hand and pray with the other, and then to get my ass outside and get to work because neither hopes nor prayers ever put food on the table without a little help.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day sure acts like he wants to get into a fistfight with Lou Holtz, who may even be more dead than I am. This is a spiteful man with very intense short-guy energy—the kind of guy who might show you his Ron Johnson and then dare you to say something less than wholly complimentary about it. Not a pleasant fellow!
But that team! I’d love to pick the Irish, all that Catholicism aside, but I just don’t think they have what it takes to keep this one close till the fourth quarter. My final lock of the season is therefore the Ohio State Buckeyes over Our Lady, and lay the eight and a half points.
As always, enjoy the games with good food and drink, and most importantly, good company. May god bless this great nation, and this great podcast. Until next season, this is Jimmy from Plains for Cast Iron Balls.
The opening and closing themes of Cast Iron Balls were composed by Marc Gillig. For more from Marc, go to tetramermusic.com.
The background music for Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Lock of the Week is "Bama Country" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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