Love and the Superb Owl

**Discussion starts at 14:08**

This week we are all about America's two favorite things: Football and Romance.  Join us we discuss conspiracy theories surrounding the NFL.  Then we will delve into whether or not Valentine's Day is a manufactured holiday created by Hallmark. 

Source Material and Additional Content

Transcript

Welcome back. Thanks for joining.  What’s going on, guys?

Oh, you know, we're getting ready for the Super Bowl here.

Yeah. Big day.

Boom, boom, boom. Are you ready for it? I sure am.

Before we get into it, let's give a couple shout outs.

Oh, I love a shout out. Shout out.

So shout out to Jeff and Bridget for donating. 

Jeff and Bridget! 

They bought us a cup of coffee. 

Thank you. 

Thank you.

Wait, can we get some eggs? 

Yeah. How about them? Eggs from the chickens. J

eff and Bridget have chickens. 

I actually want to meet the chickens too. Can I meet the girls? Isn't one named chicken?

Oh, no. Let's see. I think…

Woman? Child!

Child.

But one of them got renamed.

I hope it wasn’t a child.

So anyway, yeah, Jeff says he's been enjoying his commute, listening to the podcast. Keep it up. Speaking of people listening to the podcast on their commute. I also want to give a shout out to our boy, Ryan. 

Hi Ry Guy!

Ryan listens every Tuesday morning on his way into work, and we've got a handful of people who text us every Tuesday. And he's one who's always like “I loved the episode! or I can't wait to hear it!”

I love getting his feedback because he’s just so encouraging.

Yeah. So thanks, Ryan. 

Thanks Ry guy. 

We did get to meet Colleen's parents this week. 

My mom was star struck when she could sit in a room and listen to Kait and Megan talk. She was like, it's like I'm hearing my favorite people.

They were great. Your mom made a lovely dinner. 

Yes, Mama!

But as we were having the conversation about our historical misinformation, she mentioned something. I told her when I said that Nixon was impeached, my mom texted me that she was cringing for me. And then Colleen's mom said, ‘oh, yeah, I was cringing when you guys talked about the Nazi gold.’

Oh, she said that?

So then I looked at Kait and I said, Kait, sometimes my sarcasm maybe doesn't come across very clearly. Kait, did you think I was serious about the Nazi gold? And she said, yeah, yeah. 

Wait, wait.

Yeah, we've been saving this. Colleen, we wanted to ask you live on the air. 

I'm so confused. I don't remember this part at dinner, but I thought the Nazi gold was a real thing.

Okay. When Kait said,; how did we afford to land on the moon?’ And I said, ‘oh, the Nazi gold.’ And you guys said, oh, you really believed!

I'm’ so confused. I thought we talked about the train with the Nazi.

Yes. 

So just maybe we might have to do a deeper dive into this later. 

We believed that

I believed that thoroughly. 

Me too. 

I didn't question it at all!

I’m like, oh yeah, we got gold from the Nazis. It just makes sense. But I did think to myself, the worth of gold fluctuates dramatically. So was gold worth that much to pay for the moon? That's what I questioned. Not the existence of the gold, the cost of the gold. 

For any listeners out there who did not pick up on my sarcasm, I do not truly believe that we paid afford for the moon landing with Nazi gold.

Then how did we pay for it?  Taxes? &%*$@&! Hell.

My understanding is that the Nazis for sure stole from all these victims, right? Anyone who was going to the camps or whatever, they were taking things from them. And we know that they had a lot of offshore accounts. We know the Swiss have the equivalent of…  what they had then would be like billions now. And there are conspiracy theories that the Nazis hid some of this gold. And there's a theory that maybe they loaded up a train with gold and that train never arrived where it was supposed to arrive. So people think that the train is out there somewhere and people are looking for it. 

Like the Goonies? 

Oh, I just thoroughly believed, well, this is why I'm a conspiracy theory

Cause you're gullible?

I just thoroughly believed that there was a train.

But the point is, as far as I know, the United States did not find Nazi gold, bring it back to the United States and use that to fund their space race. 

Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad we got that out

I really believed that. I was so confused.

I know, actually, when I was talking to Kait, I was like, ‘should we ask Colleen what she thinks?’ And I was like, ‘no, we're just going to put her on the spot’.

Yeah. I was like, truly. When Megan asked me, she was like, ‘did you know that I was joking?’ And I was like, ‘no’. And then she's like, ‘do you think Colleen knew?’ And I was like, ‘no’, there's no way. She also

Speaker 1 (00:05:51):

Believes in the Nazi gold. 

I just thought it was real. I'm so confused. I was like, you would've thought I was in AP US history. I was like, you would've thought there would've been a DBQ on this.

A what?

DBQ? Documented base something, a documented base question, which was on the AP exam.

I don't remember that. 

It was, I would've assumed there would've been a DB Q on the train or something. But you know, whatever. Megan knows more than I do.

Clearly not. I also thought Nixon was impeached.  He was not impeached. He resigned

Right before they impeached him. Right? 

Yeah.

Okay. So before we get started, don't forget to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages. That's three scheme Queens, the number three scheme, queens, all one word. If you want to check out our website at 3schemequeens.com, you can find links to our social media accounts, our buzzsprout page, all of our episodes, additional content and our contact page. Let us know how we're doing or what you want to hear next. There are also opportunities to financially support us. There are links to buy a cup of coffee, links to our merch store, and Amazon affiliate links for additional content related to the topics that we've covered. And as always, even if you choose not to financially support us, we appreciate the follows, the downloads, the listens.

And if you guys don't mind, after this podcast is done, just go ahead and scroll down to the bottom. Leave us a five star review, please. It just helps us get our name out there and sort of boost our listenership. Yeah. Or if you feel so led, give us a comment.

Yeah, little love letter.

We love a love letter. 

I Do.

Alright guys. Is it time? It's time.  

Drink Check! 

All right. What are we drinking guys? 

We've got a theme today.

Oh, we love a theme. What's our theme?

Yeah. Well, it's a big week. It was a big week last week for our girl, Taylor

Taytay.

Congratulations on setting Grammy records. She's in Tokyo now. It's a big week for Mr. And Ms. Swift. Yes. Because she put it on the map. She put him on the map. Yeah. So in celebration of the romance, Valentine's Day next week, Super Bowl... So by the time you guys are listening to this, it'll be somewhere between Super Bowl and Valentine's Day. We're going to have kind of a joint episode for you. 

Yes.

And so

In honor of Taylor Swift,

What are we drinking guys?

A classic.

Her favorite drink. 

Diet Coke. Diet Coke with vodka.

Guys, can I just say, Megan made us these drinks and in the process of making this drink, she put one ice cube, a singular cube in each of our drinks and thought that that was satisfactory. Now, if you know me, I am the daughter of Michael who is quoted to have bent an ice fanatic. So to have seen only one cube in my drink was outrageous. 

I mean, I usually like a little crushed ice situation.

Absolutely outrageous.

And all you had were a full size ice cube, but that seemed like a lot of ice to me.

Wow. Megan made the drink and then I proceeded to add 10 more cubes

To be fair, we proceeded to roast her immediately for the one ice cube.

So when we went to see Taylor at the, eras tour. Yeah.

Remember that guys?

Oh myGod.

These girls did try one in the hotel before we left. And you know what? And they said it was pretty good. I was nervous. I like vodka, but I like vodka with…

Some cranberry?

Or a vodka with seltzer. 

Yeah. 

Fruity or something. So this was my first try. I got to say, it's not going to be my go-to drink, but it's definitely better than I expected.

It's better than you think it would be. The sweetness of the Diet Coke really compliments the starkness of the vodka

Of, yeah. Well, to me it just kind of tastes like almost what you would drink at the beach. It feels a little bit summery.

As I give it a smell test and a taste test. It's giving a rich trophy wife and a sun hat.

Oh, it's giving, I just wrote my 11th album and I'm dropping it in April, but

She didn't JUST did she? 

Two years ago. I just want to say that while Taylor Swift has claimed that a Diet Coke and vodka is her favorite drink, Deux Moi says that she's bringing the Cosmo back.

I'm bringing Cosmo back. Yeah.

And we also just want to say we are very much team Travis and Taylor.

Travis who doesn't make her hide at home. He's proud to be with her and we're here for that. 

He a bought her a $4.4 million house just for her privacy.

I just think that Taylor Swift always dates these artsy fartsy boys who are threatened by her success. And now she's got this six foot two dude who makes her look tiny. She's got herself a man who is Team Taylor and has no shame in talking about how much he loves her and can laugh when people say she put him on the map and I'm just here for this and I can't wait to see them both celebrating after the Super Bowl with the confetti coming down. And speaking of, shall we get into it?

I just would like to say, that's why I know we talk about dating nerds, but I would like to say that's why you date an athlete because you know who can make fun of themselves? Athletes. 

Well, that's why you date a combo athlete nerd, because they have the humbleness and educatedness of being a nerd, but also have the endurance, the resiliency

The resilience and the strength.

Yeah. Much like Bourbon Boy who loves the Lord of the Rings and will rock out to the Last of the Mohicans Epic soundtrack, but also played soccer.

And is currently growing a beard. Yes.

I am sure that Colleen has probably seen this. I saw it on Instagram, which we know just means it was on TikTok two weeks before. 

Right. 

The comedian who's like, I don't care about football. But what I love about the story is that all the people that Taylor has dated before, these whiny, artsy guys picked up a guitar in high school because they were bullied by an athlete like Travis. And now her story has come full circle. And I love that. I mean, I am not for bullying or anything, I just am glad that…

Maybe a little bullying... 

I think I say bring bullying back a little bit. Some kids need to be bullied, not so much bullying…

Kids are too soft these days.

We should filter ourselves to the public a little bit more. Yeah. 

Kids with the tail

Kids shouldn't be wearing a tail.

This is going off the rails.

Okay guys, so this week we are all about America's two favorite things. Football and romance.

America's two favorite things?

That's what Colleen told me to say.

Right

What would you say America's two favorite things are?

Guns and freedom, baby. Haha.

No!!

Obviously it's freedom

‘Merica

It's free and dumb. Free and dumb. That's America.

I dunno. 

We have overseas listeners now guys… They’re probably like, don't you guys like your big, big macs?

And your Twinkies?

Beyonce?

 We don't like Beyonce enough, apparently, according to Jay-Z.

Yeah, that cheater.

Yeah. The man who cheats on his wife is trying to lecture us on respecting her more. Thanks. So the first thing we're going to do is kind of be like a short two part episode. First thing we're going to talk about are the conspiracy theories surrounding the Super Bowl. And then we're going to get into the conspiracy theory that Valentine's Day is a manufactured holiday. So as far as the Super Bowl goes, we reached out to our friends on Reddit for some discussion. And my brother did warn me, he said, Megan, I don't know if you're ready for Reddit. Those people can be mean. But I did quite enjoy the banter on Reddit. So

I would like to say that I put the Super Bowl conspiracy on the map for you.

Yeah, I actually do want to talk about where that came from, because one of the Redditors, I was like, what do you want to hear about? And someone commented about, yeah, the fact that the whole thing is scripted kind. A lot of these go around whether or not the Super Bowl is scripted, but particularly because this was really on TikTok and then Kait brought to my attention, I think, what's the theory, Kait?

So the past three years, I actually heard a different theory too that I will also share. So the past three years, the logo for the Super Bowl has had the colors of, well, it's actually the past two years. This is the third year. So the past two years, the logo of the Super Bowl's name had the two colors of the people that were playing in the Super Bowl. 

The logo gets made a year in advance, right?

So last year it was red and green for people said Eagles and Chiefs, which go birds. But also this year it's purple and red, which people were theorizing. Well, duh, it's going to be the 49ers versus the Ravens this year. But they were wrong. The naysayers were wrong. However, however, now the conspiracy theorists are saying, and I would just like to put out here that I don't believe this because I am an avid football lover and I don't like to think of things as scripted. So let me have this people, but also people are saying that they switched, it was supposed to be the Ravens in the Super Bowl, however, they flip the switch because the idea, and Megan said it earlier of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce kissing under a confetti of gold and red.

Money! Yes!

And the Chiefs winning is what's driving the NFL right now. Just think about Travis Kelce being the MVP with his rockstar girlfriend, who literally was the theme of 2023. So that's what the naysayers are saying. This year, I think the 49ers are the best team in football, and I think it's going to be very hard to beat them. However, I am cheering for the Chiefs because Jason Kelce, that's my boy.

Yeah. I hope we see him shirtless running around with the crowd and drinking his also

I got to say, of the two, Jason…

Jason… 

So much better, he can get it. 

Yes.

Who's the quarterback of the 49ers? Brock Purdy.

Okay, so I'm going to, again, I don't have strong opinions about a lot of these, but I'm going to tell you what I learned about the logo conspiracy. Okay, so you are correct. Two years ago it was the LA Rams and the Bengals and the logo was orange and yellow. Last year it was green and red for the Eagles and Chiefs. And this year it was purple and red for everyone thought the Ravens and the 49ers. But if you look at these logos,

They all depict like a sunset. Are you pulling up the pictures to look at 'em? 

The Super Bowl logos?

Yes. The color choices are done in a way that's supposed to give you a sunset theme with the skyline in front, sort of. And so the argument is that if you're going to make a sunset, there's only four colors you can really choose from. If you look at those sunset color families, there's how many teams in the NFL? 32? Fact, check me on that. 29 of these teams

Share those colors

Correct. Fit into this. So you could really interpret that. 

I did have a conversation about this conspiracy with my roommate. Unbeknownst to me, I just found out, doesn't actually believe in conspiracy theories.

Oh, she was so sweet though. She just fessed up that she's been listening to us on mute. I love that. Love the support. Yeah.

So she said that the team, there's very specific color. NFL teams are crazy about their colors. It's not yellow, it's gold, it's not bread, but it's burgundy. And so the logo really did truly look like the 49 ERs and the Ravens, because it's not purple, it's plum. You know what I mean? They're very anal about their colors.

Also, Ravens have the worst uniforms in the football teams.

I dunno, I'm going to say when you actually look at the, I'm not saying that it's not all scripted, but this whole logo thing, it's weird. When you look at the table though, I think you can see how you could pretty much make that work for almost every team in the NFL. If you use two out of five colors, I mean five colors could represent every team pretty much. And you're using two of those five colors.

Well, the only team that's purple in the league is…

I don't know if you can say that. 

Is there any purple? What about Seattle? 

There's no purple in Seattle.

It's dark blue. I have dark blue bills, bears Cowboys, Broncos, Texans, chargers, Patriots, Giants, Seahawks, Titans. Oh, you know what? Yes, you're right. So they must be one of the three teams that don't fall into this color family. 

Girl, girl, don't fact check me for the NFL.  

Don't you dare fact check me on football. I know Football

Freedom and football, baby

Football is my, you remember the Titans? 

Yes. Hold on to that ball, Petey. Hold on. 

I'd like to go back to the, so there's another conspiracy theory out there that this is going to blow your mind. In 2020, the two teams that played in the Super Bowl, guess who they were, the 49ers versus the Chiefs?

Oh, and it was a leap year.

It was a leap year, and it was Biden vs Trump

So the Chiefs won in 2020, which I don't remember, 2020 at all.

We've all blacked it out.

2020 Super Bowl era. I was so sick. And this was right before the pandemic, I was tremendously sick.

Did you think you had covid?

I think I had Covid. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I had. I went to Florida, came back and was debilitatingly ill, and then one month later, the whole world shut down.

So the theory is that if the Chiefs win because they won in 2020, then Biden will win the presidential election. And if the 49ers win, then Trump will win the election.

What does Trump have to do with the 49ers?

Just because the Chiefs won in 2020.

But now you're making a correlation that somehow…

That's what people are saying. 

Well, that seems silly. I don't understand the association between the election and the Super Bowl. Also, we don't talk politics when we started this podcast. We're not getting out of politics. But I will say, I have also seen the conspiracy theories that Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift only got together so that she could be more famous and come out for Biden. And this is all just a publicity for that…

Hate. I hate that conspiracy theory with a passion. HATE

So anyone who thinks that either Travis Kelce with the number one podcast and coming off a Super Bowl win, and Taylor Swift, who's the first female billionaire singer… anyone who thinks either one of them needed a little bit more PR. That makes zero sense to me.

Also, people forget that last year on TikTok, Kelce blew up during when that song was popular, the cuffing song, it's Cuffing season Kelce and also Jason and who's the quarterback for the Bengals?

Joe Burrows.

Yeah, Joe Burrows. They all went viral on TikTok because everyone was like, oh, I don't watch the sports. And then they were like, oh, me watching sports, right?

Yeah.

So yeah, he was on the map before Taylor, so he did not need any more publicity.

But I do love to tell everyone, it does really get the men going when you're like ‘she put him on the map’ Although I will say I saw, 

He’s a really good tight end

He’s got a really good tight end. 

I will say. I went to see my friends Rachel and Andrew, Rachel did go to see Reputation with me…

Big reputation...

And she was like, ‘well, you're a Swiftie, Megan’. I was like, ‘you're a Swiftie, girl.’ But she was going off about ‘why is the NFL showing so much Taylor Swift?’ And Andrew was like, ‘why do you care?’ And I was like, ‘Yes. I love this… This is how men should be responding. Okay, 55 seconds of screen time, whatever.’

Also, who cares if we want to see Taylor, see her living her best life cheering on her man? Because guess what? All the other men that she's dated have done nothing besides Harry Styles. We love you, Harry. But also that's… 

Do we still love Harry? 

Yeah, yeah. 
Even after…

Yeah, he was a frat boy at that time. 

Okay, but can I just say anybody who's famous and goes to a professional sports team gets featured on the big screen. You know what I mean? If you go to a Lakers game, there's always some A-lister star and the camera's always on them. And so of course they're going to put the camera on her every single time. Who else is wicked famous like that?

I also am loving that.... We'll have to see if Joie and Bourbon Boy now bond over this. I love the guys who are like… ‘Oh my God. Now I get to watch Bowl with my daughter because she just wants to see the 55 seconds of Taylor and I get to watch my game’.

Now girls are having NFL parties just for the girls. 

Yeah, love it.

I love football. I just have to say, I always get really sad at the Super Bowl time because my favorite season is football season anyhow.

I like hockey, but yeah.

Okay, so I went onto the Low Stakes Conspiracy Reddit page, which I love. It's as it's described, low stakes conspiracy theories. And I asked people if they had any good theories we should talk about. We got a couple. So someone was commenting on the Super Bowl just being like an artificially propped up event by the NFL to sell stadium tickets and airtime. Maybe it was a money laundering situation, but I did find some statistics for you guys. So over a hundred million people watch the Super Bowl each year with attendees paying thousands of dollars for tickets and companies paying millions for 30 second commercial spots. So it makes anywhere from… the numbers are really hard to find, but they think 300 million to 1.3 billion dollars each year. And most of that gets netted to the NFL because generally when you buy your football tickets, you have to go through Ticketmaster or something, right?

They take your fees. 

The Super Bowl is the one game that NFL sells directly to the customers. So they're just netting all that money. And then for the locals, it's not really much of an economy boost, an economic boost because you have to provide security and resources and you're displacing your normal tourism. So like Glendale, Arizona hosted in 2015, and they may have lost as much as 1.2 million by hosting. So it's like not making money for anybody but the NFL. So again, Taylor ticket page out of the NFL notebook, stop using Ticketmaster sell to us directly. I feel like Taylor Nation could probably make that happen

And she could make it happen. 

I bet she's working on it...

Yeah, she probably is. Yeah.

Overall the NFL made 12 billion in 2022, but NFL does not disclose its finances to the public, so we don't really know that's an estimate. Green Bay is the only team that is a nonprofit. The rest are privately owned, so the finances are all very hush hush. 

Interesting.

We do know that the Bengals are the least valuable team. They really are only worth 3.5 billion. 

Even after Burrows blew up?

Yeah.

Yeah. That's not surprising.

And the Cowboys are the most valuable team worth 9.2 billion. 

Also not urprising. 

So really is a lot of money tied up in this Super Bowl game

As people that are cowboy fans, as they would say the Cowboys are America's team.  In my opinion, Jerry Jones who owns the Cowboys is Voldemort. 

Can I just say I don't trust the government the same way? I don't trust billionaires. You can't trust the NFL.

Okay.

Respectfully disagree.

We got another comment. ‘If the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Super Bowl 58, the USA will be forced to roll back it’s Manifest Destiny progress a hundred miles east of the Mississippi River’. 

What does that mean? 

Well, it was taking me a minute to get the joke, and then I realized he's talking about the Chiefs playing the 49ers, like the gold. Obviously that was just another lovely Reddit comment. But it did get me thinking as I'm sitting here looking, I was like, what? Oh my gosh. The 49ers and the Chiefs?! which got me researching a little bit about how these teams got their names and I thought that was interesting. So can I share that with you?

I just have to say, I can't believe the Chiefs have not been made to change their name because again,

Yeah, The Chiefs, there's a whole group of Native Americans who are upset and suing the Commanders because they want them to be called the Redskins

Because no one asked the Native Americans what they thought about the Redskins being the Redskins and all of that.

They felt represented.

And what does assuming do?  Makes an ass out of you and me.

That's right girl. 

And the Chiefs have handled this very differently. So let me tell you about it. Yeah,

Let's hear it.

The Kansas City Chiefs are actually not named for Native Americans. 

Really? 

They were named for the Kansas City mayor. I wrote his name H. Rowe Bartle Bartel Bartle. I don’t know. He was the Kansas City mayor in 1963 and he brought the Kansas City Chiefs to Kansas City. So he's responsible for the football team and his nickname was Chief, so they actually named the team the Chiefs for him. But they have really leaned into it. They did use the Native Americans for imagery and publicity, but in 2014 the team met with the American Indian Community working group and they were like, we just want to make sure we're not doing anything offensive. We're not appropriate in anything and that we're educated

Appropriate response.

I'm like, this is what I wish… now I'm always like the Redskins, the Washington football team, the Commanders. I always am getting corrected. I'm always using the wrong term, but I'm like, why couldn't you do something like this and somehow still embrace the culture without being offensive and appropriating the Commanders

Is just an awful name.

I feel like it kind of goes with the Nationals, the Capitals. It's kind of goes with the theme of DC So I sort of understand. 

I thought it was going to be like the Presidents or something.

So part of this relationship they developed as a result, they have made sure that they continue to honor tribes and they have a historic presence or connection. Perfect. That they celebrate American Indian heritage at Arrowhead Stadium. They do a ceremonial blessing of the drum at all home games and the blessing of the four directions. They regularly feature American Indian representatives as part of game day elements, including national anthem singers and color guards. And they've been really trying hard, they banned headdresses and face paint within the stadium and they're trying to prevent cultural appropriation. 

I'm obviously not a Native American, so I can't really speak for that group, but as an outsider, this just sounds like very respectful. 

And then meanwhile, we know obviously the 49ers are named for the voyagers who came west during the Gold Rush in 1849 and settled. This team has only resided in San Francisco, and so they've had the name the San Francisco 49ers since 1946. And so yeah…

I do have to say I don't like the 49ers and I am not really a fan of the AFC as far as finding a team to support in the AFC, but I might support the Chiefs because of all of those nice things that you shared, Megan

And then London, dude 123, which I liked, like London Boy,

I love a London boy

He said his conspiracy theory again, the Chiefs are winning. He's proposing to Taylor afterward because remember, it is legal to rig NFL games for entertainment. I think you've already talked about the whole Taylor Swift aspect of this, but this is kind of the whole debate. Is it legal to rig an NFL game? 

Yes. Wait, is it legal or illegal? 

That's the question. 

It should be illegal. That is the question. 

Well, here's the deal.

I don't pay attention to details 

London dude, I think you might be right - now we think of sports entertainment, sports, entertainment businesses being the WWE in roller derby. And so that's why we all know that WE is scripted. 

Roller derby is scripted? Well, roller derby is considered “sports entertainment” in quotes. 

I love roller derby. 

The referees are not employed by the NFL, which is interesting. So there's no accountability.

No, that's like me yelling at the tv like homers, you homers, what kind of call is that? 

The refs? Yes. They are not employed by the NFL, so there's no accountability. I also read that the NFL has a constitution that prohibits fixing games. So technically they could be sued… A team could sue the NFL for scripting it because they're going against their own constitution was the initial YouTube video I saw on this and then I looked it up. So there are 3,600 NFL employees, 1,696 players. And then if we think there's 12 coaches per team, that's 384 coaches. So even if not all 3,600 people are in on it, even if just the coaches are in on it. How have 400 people kept this a secret? 

Kind of like the moon landing.

So then the other reference that came up is that there is this Sports Bribery Act of 1964, which the goal is to protect against conspiracies, to bribe people or referees in order to fix a game. And so one of the arguments online is like, oh, well no, it's illegal to bribe referees. It would be a violation of the Sports Bribery Act, but that's not necessarily true. You can kind of get around that just telling an employee that the game should go a certain way doesn't necessarily meet the criteria of that law. Again, having an individual ref or player just shave a few points off to adjust the spread or whatever doesn't necessarily qualify as an illegal act under that Sports Bribery Act of 1964. In fact, nobody has ever been arrested in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL under this act.

Really? I knew it. I would like to say I believe in sports and people playing games and winning.

You do not believe any of this is scripted?

No, I don't. I can't.

Well, here's something you're not going to like that, Colleen, you might be more familiar with. So as a reminder, in 2007, the New England Patriots were videotaping their opponent's formations and coaching signals. So after this came out, Carl Mayer, who was a Jets season ticket holder, he filed a lawsuit against the Patriots seeking compensation for himself and his fellow jet supporters. And he did not win the case because the NFL claimed and the court agreed that fans who pay for a ticket to an NFL game are only entitled to a seat and two teams playing like they met their commitment. 

Yeah, agree. 

So that implies that NFL would be in the clear, legally speaking if any of these games were manipulated. So I don't know if we're, let me just give you this last piece. So pretty much, I think at this point, Kaite seems to be the only person who has a firm opinion. She really wants to believe that sports are just sports. I mean, when we're talking billions of dollars on the line, I do find it hard to believe that there's anything that they won't do. But I don't really have a strong opinion either way. 

You have to, if you watch these people aren't paid actors. If you watch the sidelines and their faces and the reactions to winning and all of those things, those can't be faked.

Well, there are a lot of people who have come out, a lot of former players who have come out after the fact and said that they were rigged. There was the one that in the fourth quarter, the coach said, let the other team win. And it's hard to say, are they just bitter because they didn't win their Super Bowl?

I do know from TikTok and just what I've heard from people I know in my life that there's a lot more cheating that goes on in the baseball league than any other sport I thought. But football or hockey, you really don't think there's ever been a time where a coach looks at a player and says, take that guy out. Oh, for sure. That's cheating.

Yeah, it's cheating. But that's not rigging. 
No, and I think there's, there have been some athlete like RGIII when he took out both knees in the same year and he's like, ‘yeah, that was scripted? That sounds like a really shitty script’. 

Right. Also, why would you sign for that script?

Yeah. But then you also do have these players who've come out, multiple former players who have come out and claimed that it's rigged.

There's something, but is it a game rigged? I dunno if you can say that. 

Well, let me give you a couple of…

I mean, I think you could say that the refs could be rigged.

Well, here's just a couple of, I mean there's so many videos online where people are like, you look at these different Super bowls and don't tell me they weren't rigged. But a couple of the highlights for you. So Super Bowl 36, which was the first Super Bowl post 9/11, what team do you think is the most patriotic team? 

Patriots?

What team do you think would just be a good feel, good story to win after 9/11?

Well, I would assume a New York team, but yeah.

Or the America's team. The Cowboys.

Yeah. I would assume a New York team,

Well, so the theory was the Patriots had to win because their Patriots, and we have this patriotism.

I have to say, people who make up these theories don't watch sports.

Actually, The Patriots are not

Well, they're not a good team

Now, they're also not a liked team. Oh yeah.

Well no, because it’s full of criminals.

Yeah, but also again, if you want murderers.

Yeah

Murderers? 

Yeah.

Hernandez? 

Aaron Hernandez?

Oh, I thought you were talking about Bill Belichick for a second.

Boston teams in general are pretty severely hated. The Bruins is not a well liked team.

Because they're good.

Well, they're good, but they also lick people's faces. 

Here is what's interesting. 

Okay, did this just become a sportscast?  Growing up, my dream job was being an anchor on SportsCenter, on ESPN. 

Before there were so many female broadcasters. I want to be before…

Erin?

Erin Andrews.

Erin Andrews is like was the first one I can remember thinking, yeah,

I wanted to be her before she was a her.

So the Patriots won in Super Bowl 36, which is the argument, it was like post 9/11, you guys make a valid point. It have been great to have a New York team win. 

Before 9/11 - It just seems like they were all runaway games. The average spread was 16.7 points. And very few games were decided by, within a touchdown since that game where the Patriots won 20 to 17.  Super Bowl 36, the first game after 9/11, 3 quarters of the games have been decided within a touchdown. And the average spread has gone from 16.7 points to 8.7 points. So the argument is that even if you're not scripting the game, you want to make it more interesting TV because

You'll lose your viewers halfway through. 

Now, you don't want to turn the game off one quarter in because you're like, it's a runaway. 

I could totally believe it’s a conspiracy.

Hold on a second. 

Why do people watch the Super Bowl?

The halftime show

And?

The ads

The commercials. So no, I disagree. Okay. They're not trying to make it a better game. No, I think actually the teams are well matched.

But that's a good point. I am not a die hard fan. But if I was a die hard fan and the Patriots are clearly losing by 20 points halfway through the game, I'm often going to stop watching. I will leave. 

I would like to say that I also leave, but then turn on the game again. I just, I'm a masochist. Yeah.

Well, I always feel like if that baseball, I mean basketball I could care less about, but I feel like that a baseball too, that I'm like, if I leave this game in the last quarter, am I going to miss history? Yeah.

I don't know if you guys know this, but in Eagle History, they played the Giants one time and beat them in their stadium. It was called The Miracle in the Meadowlands. The first year I was dating Bourbon Boy, they were getting blown out by the Giants. So my dad and I, we get in the car, we go down to South Charlotte to pick up this Patagonia that I was getting Bourbon Boy for Christmas. And what do you know during that commute, we turn on sports radio. On the way back, the Eagles have come back in the fourth quarter from a 31- 7 deficit to win the game. Can you believe that?

And then Super Bowl 44 after Hurricane Katrina, who do you think won that Super Bowl?

Louisiana?

The New Orleans Saints. Fishy?

Or you could say the sports team was just so motivated…

Right? I think you really are negating the fact that sports teams have… They've got heart.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and then the last one I will reference here is Ravens/49erss Super Bowl 47. They're playing in the Superdome. The Ravens are winning 28-6 right after halftime. And then what do you know, all the power in the Superdome cuts off.

Oh, I do remember this. 

And the game got suspended for 33 minutes. So was this to halt the momentum the Ravens had going? So the 49 ERs did come back and rally, they still lost the game 34 to 31. But it goes back to our theory that maybe it's not scripted, but they still just want good tv.

I would say that, again, I'm rebutting all of these. I think it's a catastrophe. If the most televised event of the year has a power outage, they're probably like, oh my gosh, embarrassed. Gosh, we're going to lose all of this money. 

If you truly have the motivation and heart and belief…

Okay, that sounds like some hippie dippy shit. If you just believe you can do anything…

Okay, I'm going to end our NFL portion of this episode with the Superb Owl. So one of the redditors just wrote that Superb Owl. I was like, what is that? So apparently I had to look this up. It's not really conspiracy theory, it's just really interesting. So I'm going to share it with you. So apparently it's like a commonly used term superb owl, because Super Bowl is licensed. And so when you watch TV coverage, they always call it the big game or whatever. And so the first documented time that the ‘Superb Owl’ was used, it was someone tweeted it. I'm having a superb owl party in 2008, and it had three likes on it, super Bowl. And so it was probably just a typo. The space went in the wrong spot, but then it kind of got embraced. And Colbert in 2014 did this whole bit where he just referred to it as a superb owl.

He was like, we're not going to call it the big game, but we're going to get around these licensing issues and we're going to call it the Superb Owl. 

That's funny. 

But now a lot of people have embraced, it's like Sierra Club National Parks, and they use this as like, let's raise awareness and everything. Oh, that's funny. So I like that. And what I liked is that I saw USA today, I think every year hicks an owl to represent the teams. So I'm going to show you guys a picture they picked for the Chiefs, the Eastern Screech Owl, because this species literally eat smaller birds for breakfast. Much like the Chiefs Eastern Screech owls are also known to be fierce fighters, Eagle eye nature enthusiasts may be able to catch a glimpse of them in trees around Kansas City, Missouri. Look at this owl, my friends, if I was going to be an owl, I think that's the kind of owl I would want to be.

She kind of looks like a cat. 

Oh, ew. Okay. And here's the 49 ERs. It's just a boring old owl. 

Oh, I kind of like that one. T

he burrowing owl. Oh, these owls are found year round in the Bay Area. They have signature bright yellow eyes, which the USA today is arguing. Brings to mind, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan's keen eye for offensive strategy. So I love this. There's the owls, 

Knock, knock 

Who’s there?

Who, who

There's an owl in here. 

And then let's just wrap this up with the conspiracy that, where do you guys think Valentine's Day came from? 

Hallmark? 

So the conspiracy theory is that Valentine's Day is a manufactured holiday. Hallmark created it just to sell cards. Let me tell you the truth. 

Okay, tell me. F

rom February 13th to 15th, the Romans used to celebrate the Feast of Luca. I don't even know if I'm saying that right.

Oh, I like the wolves. 

Right. It is about wolves. So apparently, of course, you've probably read some wolf books, right? 

Yeah. Well, yeah. 

Apparently the story is that Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were orphans raised by a she wolf or a lupa in this sacred cave. And so from February 13th t the 15th, they would celebrate this feast by going to sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification. And then they would take strips of their hide, dip them in blood and walk around town whipping the women and crop fields to improve fertility. But apparently the women wanted to be whipped because this is what they told themselves, right? Women want to be whipped, it'll improve their fertility. So as part of the celebration, they would then have a lottery where men would pick names of women from a jar to hang out, if you know what I mean.

Netflix and chill. 

Netflix and chill. 

Did you just both say that? 

Yeah. 

For the festival duration. And I guess that they liked each other, they'd get married, but usually it was just a little weekend love fest. So in the fifth century, this pope put a ban on this festival because he wanted to expel the pagan rituals, and he wanted to make it more of a Christian celebration. So he was like, let's celebrate Valentine's Day instead. And so he alleged that Valentine's Day was supposed to celebrate the martyrdom of this Catholic named Valentine who was executed on February 14th. Now, there are allegedly two St. Valentine's that were both executed on February 14th of different years in the third century. We know one of them was executed in 270 AD by Roman Emperor Claudius II, but he was like, we're going to celebrate this guy or these guys.

It remains unclear how many St. Valentine's there were. And we're going to make this a Christian celebration instead of a pagan ritual. And so the festival became Valentine's Day, and it was still celebrated February 14th, but it was still just a big rowdy drunken party. The people had to be dressed at this festival as opposed to the Feast of Luca. But it was still all about love and fertility, if you know what I mean. There was still a lot of that happening. So who is St. Valentine? It sounds like they've kind of narrowed it down to three, but none of them really have romantic stories. And it's really unclear when you read these stories of these three saints, they don't even know if it was all the same person or if these are different people. The stories might just be getting mixed up and it might just be one Saint Valentine. So one of them was a priest in a position in Rome who's buried in 270 AD. There was one who suffered martyrdom in Africa with some other people. And there was one in Tirney which is a small town near Rome. So some of these, again, could be the same person mixed up stories. But Valentine, there was a priest during the third century and Emperor Claudius ii outlawed marriage of young men. Because if you were married and you joined the military, that was fine. But if you joined the military, you were not allowed to get married until you got out. You were supposed to just be a soldier. But Valentine continued to perform secret marriages and he was put to death by Claudius. 

Wait a second. I feel like that's kind of romantic. 

Yeah, but I think, I don't know how true it is. 

Yeah, we don't know the accuracy.

This might be the version of events if they're like, they want Valentine's to be romantic. Okay. I dunno. There was also a valentine again. Could have been the same. One could be a different one. 

Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were tortured. There's a legend that he fell in love with his jailer's daughter again. Are we just trying to instill some romance into this? I don't know. There's a legend. He fell in love with his jailer's daughter who had come visit him during his incarceration and before his death, he wrote her a letter and he signed it from your Valentine.

Oh, I like that. I would also

I, hold on. I would like to read a book about that. That would be a good book.

Good luck finding it. Oh, you want to write a fictionalized version?

No, I don't want to write it. I want to read it. 

That's what I meant. 

I want someone to write it and I'll read it.

Oh, it's be like fictionalized because there's nothing out there about these people. 

Well yeah, that's what I mean. There's a story romance between the jailer and the prisoner.

Well, and in some versions, the daughter of the jailer was blind and Valentine cured her of her blindness and then they fell in love.

I just keep hearing in my head my little valentine. 

Oh no, you could be my jailer.

So here, I'm sorry. So it is difficult. Again, Valentine was a popular Roman name. There were at least 15 Saint Valentine's. He is the patron saint of bees.

I love bees.

Thank you. That's the response I wanted. Epilepsy, the plague, fainting, traveling, engaged couples and happy marriages.

These have nothing to do with each other.

I know epilepsy and there are the

I'm so confused.

Patron saint of epilepsy.

I think you pray to him if you have epilepsy and it will cure your epilepsy. 

As a Catholic, you don't pray to the saints. You ask them, you ask them to intercede for you. So I would like to put a kaputz on the, because people think that you pray to the saints. It's not true.

Okay, thank you for that. Thank you for that education.

I didn't know that. 

Anyway, regardless of which St. Valentine, we are celebrating, there is a St. Valentine whose relics are in Rome. There's a basilica of Valentine to St. Valentine, whatever. They've moved the relics a couple of times. So there is a St. Valentine, but who he is and what he did, no one really knows. Anyway, when you go online, there's a lot of stories about who St. Valentine was. What we do know is that in all of these stories, there's a child who gets healed. The saints end up in the same burial place. They're both executed on February 14th of different years. So again, we don't know if it's one saint or a couple that stories are just getting interchanged. And then if we fast forward almost a thousand years, Jeffrey Chaucer wrote poetry describing the romance of Valentine's Day. And we think he got this because mid-February was like the mating season for birds in England and France. So he

Don't trust the birds. 

I can't… mating season for birds?

That's when they would mate. And so he somehow made this parallel. And this is the first reference to romance and Valentine's Day in a literature. And so that's in the 1500s. 

That is so weird.

Another theory is that the letters V and G were kind of like this actually, because we love a good gallantines celebration. So gallatine, the term Gallatine meant gallant or lover of women, and V and G used to be interchangeable in old Latin language. So one of the theories is that someone wrote gallatine and it got misread as Valentine, and that's where it all came from. Oh. And these ladies in England would write names of prospective lovers on pieces of paper and roll them up and put them in water. And whatever name floated to the top was their Valentine. 

That's so cute.

And in Scotland names were picked from a hat three times. If you got the same name three times, then you were destined to marry that person. And then you would wear the name of your valentine on your sleep for the rest of the day. 

It's like mash 

To improve their chances of finding true love. Single girls could run around a church 12 times without stopping, lay bay leaves, sprinkled in rose water on their pillow, or even eat a hard boiled egg at midnight shell and all.  A lady approaching old maid status was advised to try all of the above. Because I always think about ‘I'm 27, I have no prospects.’ 

Is that what we're doing this year? 

‘I'm a burden on my family’

Catch me at midnight eating a shell.

Sorry. So I'm sorry we're wrapping this up, but the popular act of handing red roses to your lover was made famous by Robert Burns poem - My Love is a Red Rose.  But he was not referring to Valentine's Day. The point is that all of these things happened hundreds and thousands of years ago. Handmade paper cards did not become a thing until around the 1400s. And the oldest known Valentine in existence today was written in 1415 by Charles Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was in prison in the Tower of London several years later. And then several years later, Henry the V hired a writer to compose a valentine for Catherine.  In the Victorian era people would exchange notes and cards on February 14th and the postal system improved so it became more affordable. And so it was very easy to mail cards. So they created factory manufactured cards in the mid 1800s.  And it would be a tradition to send romantic notes anonymously because they were kind of rigid and you couldn't just go flirt with the man. But it was okay to anonymously send love notes in the mail.

Like Lady Whistledown.

Yes. Well, lady Whistles doesnt write romantic letters, right?

Yeah. But she's like the Gossip queen. But it's also, women weren't supposed to be doing that,

So they could kind of more freely participate in risque flirtation.

Check yes or no.

In 1868, Cadbury capitalized by selling chocolates in a heart shaped box. And then we're going to just take this full circle back to the Super Bowl guys. Hallmark cards of Kansas City, Missouri began mass producing Valentine's Day cards in 1913. 

Wow.

Interesting.

So I guess my big takeaway here in general, we know Valentine's Day is the, I missed this question at trivia one time. It said, what holiday has the most cards?

Valentine's Day. 

Valentine's is number two. Christmas is number one. Everyone does their photo Christmas cards. 

Right. 

I would have guessed Christmas.

Oh, okay. It is a very expensive holiday. An average. I think that people spend like $160 per person on Valentine's Day buying Valentine's for not only their loved ones, but also their friends, coworkers and pets.

Where's my Valentine's Day Gift? 

Yeah.

Coming in from temu

Dollar gift for everybody. Last year, Valentine's Day cost 26 billion. So I think for sure it's like a money maker. But if you go back, I mean, hallmark didn't start making cards until 1913, Valentine's Day cards until 1913. And this was a holiday that was being celebrated in like the 3rd century.

That. Do you guys have any final thoughts?

That truly was love and football. You know what I mean? Love the game. Hate the player.

Yeah. That was love and football for the love of the game.

 I love Valentine's Day unashamedly. I love pink, I love purple. I love love letters. I think it is just so cutesy. Yeah.

I love that for you, Colleen. 

So you don't care whether it's a Hallmark holiday or a catholic celebration?

No, I don't care at all.

I really do think love language is important and words of affection,

Words of affirmation. 

Word of affirmation and acts of kindness is an important value to have in any relationship. And I think it's just we should never be ashamed to have an excuse to tell the people in our lives we love them. 

That's nice.

And for football, I do think there's a little bit of control of the game, but is it a huge scandal? I don’t know.

We know where Kait stands on the NFL. 

Can I just say that it’s not scripted. Yeah. It's definitely not rigged and it's not scripted. But I will say that I bet that the refs have been paid off before. Yeah, I do believe that. I think the refs can be shady, but I don't think you can. Anyway, my thoughts also, I just want to believe that something is pure. Please can something not be tainted.

Mean yeah, you're right. You're like NFL, this is my checkout. Relax, forget my stresses for a minute and is that not sacred.?

And as far as Valentine's Day goes, I feel like such an anti from Colleen. I think Bourbon Boy and I don't really do anything for Valentine's Day. My dad used to get me roses, so it was more important to me that Bourbon Boy gets Joie Roses on Valentine's Day because I want her to know her worth. And I think a lot of daughters, their first version of worth comes from their father as far -not worth, but you know what I mean? I think it's important that fathers are their daughters…

Teaching their daughters how to be treated right.

So that was important to me. But as far as anything for Bourbon Boy and I, we don't really celebrate it together. I just want him to, and he does. He gets Joie Roses. Yeah, it's sweet. So yeah, so Valentine's Day, sure. Celebrate it if you want. If you don't, no problem.

Yeah, I think I'm with you. I'm with Colleen… I think I'm going to say maybe not fully scripted, but I can see them trying to make it interesting. And then as far as Valentine's Day, I kind of don't really care. It's like, yeah, I think I still get a card from my parents. I dunno if I ever got flowers. But yeah, I mean I think what's wrong with having an excuse to tell the people you love, you love them. I don't really care either way. It sounds like it's been going on for a long time, but no one really knows what they're celebrating. But they just enjoy the celebration. So you guys do you, I think these people who I read some stat, 20% of people would break up with their significant another if they didn't like how they celebrated Valentine's Day, if they didn't spend enough money on them or something. I'm like, that just goes to show what's wrong with our society. I don't think Valentine's Day should be an excuse to make or break a relationship.

The first year Bourbon Boy and I were married, we both totally forgot Valentine's Day. It's so stressful. And then, or half the way through the day, we were like, oh my gosh, it's Valentine's Day Urban Boy. Kind of figured it out before I did. And he didn't want to say anything. He was nervous. I would be upset. Yeah, but I mean we didn't even really celebrate it when we were dating. So anyway.

Well guys, if you follow football, if you like football, I hope you liked the outcome of the game. It'll have been on before this airs 

And Eagles fans, there's always next year. Also, I would like to say next year I won't be in school and I will be able to fully enjoy the Eagles games and I cannot wait for those moments.

And otherwise you might be listening to this the day before Valentine's Day. So celebrate if you celebrate, don't if you don't… live your life.

Happy Valentine's Day. 

Happy Valentine's Day. We love all our listeners. Let's take this opportunity to tell them we love them. What can they do, Kait?

If you love us and if you want to give us a Valentine's Day gift in which I would support, you can scroll on down at the bottom of your podcast feed, give us a five star review, leave us a little comment, help us boost our listenership. And if you really enjoyed this pod, share it with somebody. Yeah, send us some love mail. Yeah,

Love letter. 

If you send us a love letter, we will read it.

I think too, if you leave a good review, we might have to share it on the air. So alright, we'll see you guys next week. Thanks for joining. 

Bye

Bye.