SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to the F3 Podcast, Football, Food, and Fantasy Football with Aaron Hallishuk and Chef Jonathan Frazier. F3 Spotlights football teams, matchups, and fantasy football picks, and the tailgate recipes that make watching even better. From locker room talk to kitchen talk, F3 has you covered. Now here are your hosts, Aaron and Jonathan.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Welcome back to another episode of the F3 Football Food and Fantasy Podcast. I'm Chef Jonathan Fraser and I'm here with Aaron Holishuk. And today we are getting into what is happening around the world of the NFL in football fantasy and what food makes each city we go to exploring so exciting.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yes, and we are actually at a very exciting moment in the podcast because we are entering our final city and final team in this part of the series. So we've hit all 32 cities where there is an NFL team in the USA.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

That's right, that's exciting. And this week we're heading to Atlanta to talk about the Falcons, a team that's had a frustrating start to the season and a city which has a food scene that goes well beyond peaches. Let's go. All right, let's get into it. So, Aaron, another exciting week of football for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yes, I would say it has been, you know, I know last week we talked about how the week five was just a really weird week. There were lots of overtime gains, there were lots of ties, weird penalties, ejections, kind of that weird mix happened in week five. And there's a little bit of carryover, I would say, in week six. Some weird things happening to overall a good week of football for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Good week. Well, let's get into it first before we break into anything. What is happening around the league? What are the big stories here in the NFL this week?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah, it's been a really interesting week of football. It started off, of course, on Thursday night where my beloved Seahawks lost.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Sorry, love.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Game they should not have lost. And let's just say Sam Darnold is looking like hot garbage. Did I say that? Yeah. I don't know. It's it was a big struggle. The defense, if there's any shining light in any of it, is looking quite good. But the offense and Sam Darnold, that's a whole other story. So I don't know if last year or you know the year before, obviously he was in Minneapolis and he started off really strong and then faded a bit. And then of course last year he was absolutely spectacular. And this year he got injured in like the second series or the first series of the first game, and then you know he's come back since his injury, which wasn't, from the sounds of it, a major injury, but he has not been playing fantastic or spectacularly, or any other wonderful adjective you want to throw his way. He is not that, he is certainly the opposite. So there's a lot of questions swirling in Seattle, and I don't want to make this a Seattle Seahawks podcast, but uh that's how the week started.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Well, you know, sometimes you just have to get your team off your chest, and then we'll break into some of the other teams. Yeah. What about our our great game that we had in London?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Oh, yeah, that was an interesting. That was a really, really close game between Texans and the Jaguars, and it was really funny because it, of course, being it in London, it starts really early in the morning. And I turned on the TV quite what I thought was quite early this morning, and they had an aerial shot on the stadium, and I'm looking at this stadium, and it's an open-air stadium, going, Where in the world is that? I looked, thought, like quickly ran through the list of all of the stadiums that I fairly, you know, could recognize in the US. And I'm like, Where is that? And then the guy's like, Welcome back to London. I'm like, there it is. That that explains it all. That explains it all there. It was already in the fourth quarter. So uh yeah, of course, that was the one of the many international games. So the Texans squeaked out a last second field goal victory over the Jaguars 34-31.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Well, and I sort of had that feeling that there was a lot of close games this season.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, I mean the past two weeks, it's been really, really close. Like coming down to the wire, Seahawks went into overtime. It's been it's been some good football, I have to say for sure. The Browns just beat out the Ravens, although the Ravens, of course, aren't playing with Lamar Jackson. So 13-10 for the Browns, 26-20, the Titans over the Colts, and even the 34-27, the Saints over the Giants. So then, and yeah, 18-16 Cardinals over the Rams. That was an interesting game watching the Rams play. Oh my gosh. They are sitting at the bottom of that's there's a team to watch for maybe all the wrong reasons, sitting at the bottom of the NFC at 2-3, I believe. It's amazing how they were at the beginning of the season before the season started. They were being touted as being potential Super Bowl champions. They just dumped tons and tons and tons of money in, and there were questions around Matthew Stafford, whether he was gonna retire. No, he was gonna come back one more season, perhaps, and play with a spectacular team with this amazing genius of a head coach.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Nothing's happened out of that one. Yeah, they're kind of just fizzled out.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Met expectations, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

It's sort of like you want that hometown team to be there for you, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

It's amazing. And I mean for the Super Bowl, yeah, they're hosting the Super Bowl in in February. So I don't know what their Super Bowl chances are right now. Looking at them, I'd say it's not looking great, but uh, we're still pretty early in the season.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

And of course, we're talking about the Falcons today. Of course, they lost to the Bears.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

They did, yes. That's a whole interesting team to look at. I mean, yeah, it's uh they're a team that I think it's it's we were funny enough talking about this is a bit of a side note, talking about the Ottawa Red Blacks in the CFL just the other day and how they have not won a single game all season. And I said it on Friday night and they ended up winning their very first game of the season. So that uh maybe that is the curse that they have to break is me just saying it out loud. Speaking of sounds horrible, speaking of losing teams, but it's kind of an interesting fact because the Atlanta Falcons, they have never won a Super Bowl. They've made it to the Super Bowl twice, but they are actually the oldest major professional sports team in America with zero championship. Well, maybe now that we're talking about them, they might move up a little bit. This is apparently if I speak it out into existence, it is now it is now a thing.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

It could happen. Yes. Well, then let's spin around and think about things that you have been talking about and things that are going on in your world. But let's look at what is happening with every inch counts and your fantasy team this week.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Well, I'm glad to say that outside of B. John Robertson, the uh Falcons running back, I don't have very many Falcons players on my team, which is maybe a good thing. But you know, if you have Michael Penix as your quarterback, yeah, it's a it's an okay choice, I would say. I used to be a huge Penix fan because he played for one year in the university or for the Huskies in the University of Washington. I really, really liked him quite a bit. I thought he had a lot of potential as a college quarterback. And like I we said many times, he's not great, he's not terrible, he's just very average. So, but they do have Kevin Stefansky as their head coach, and I think he's he is a very, very good head coach. So we'll see what he does with this team. But getting back to fantasy, if you have uh Robinson on your on your roster as a fantasy manager, you're probably doing pretty well. I would say at least with him as a player, but I don't.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

So let's that let's go in just looking at fantasy this week. Who would you say? What were the big surprises for you?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Oh man. Um, you know, it's funny because a couple of actually players who I was playing against, person who I was playing against, they had a really good day today. I mean, of course, unfortunately, I did not pick him, although I one of my many regrets was Kenneth Walker. He's a such a solid choice uh in terms of getting you some major fantasy points, and he had quite the day today. I think he got close to about 27 fantasy points with Kansas City today, so that was uh pretty spectacular. And depending on who you have as uh your quarterbacks, of course, I know there was some good uh good points being had. Depending on who you have on your roster, there's always some solid choices. I mean, some running backs. I will say that I was questioning even my choice in running back earlier in the season with Chewa Hubbard because I wasn't sure if that was gonna be a good choice or not. But uh he got some good points. Drake May, the surprise out of New England. Again, some question marks early on in the season. He got some major fantasy points this week. And again, around 27. If you have him on your roster as well, he would be a surprisingly good choice. So that was a good one. Yeah, some good solid quarterback numbers, I would say, this week. Yeah, it was uh it was a pretty interesting week. Not over quite yet, because we record this on Sunday. We still have the Monday night game to go, but we'll see what happens. But perfect.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Well, I was gonna ask you of your players and on your team, who let you down this?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Oh, yeah, many. It was a little bit of a week of disappointment. Okay, everybody, like I said, I think I said this last week, uh, you always have to have an excuse when you go into fantasy football. And for me, it was because I had uh Jared Goff on the bench this week because there was no he had they had a bye week. So although I my backup quarterback was Bryce Young, and he did pretty good. So he got me about 21 points, so that was not bad. But in terms of disappointment, Jalen Waddle, I'm I'm surprised that he's being completely underused this year. I really thought that he would be much more of a solid wide receiver choice and and getting some I I honestly thought he'd be a bigger target this year, but he's really underperformed, I think, a lot this year. So that's been a bit of a dis a disappointment, I'd have to say. One of the surprising ones is McMillan with the Panthers. He's been pretty solid the past couple of weeks and gotten some pretty good points. So I have to say I'm really uh surprised, but in a good way for that.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

I guess take it where you can. I'll take it where I can. Absolutely. And it's always it's always a struggle to try and figure out. And you know what? Who knows what's gonna happen on the field?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

And yeah, and Mike Evans really was quite good a couple of weeks ago, got some good fantasy points, but you know, there's potential he's questionable for uh the Monday night game in San Francisco or for San Francisco, so we'll see what happens. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

All right, it's our time to start talking about the Atlanta Falcons. And now this has been a long road to get here. This is team 32.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

Isn't it amazing that we've gone down this road this far? Yeah. That we've been able to break into these teams and and sort of talk about the the history, a little history, a little bit about the players, the team, and this is gonna be kind of a sad. I don't know where we're gonna go from this.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, no, exactly. And it's been really nice being able to cover all of the teams, looking at them a little bit more in depth, finding some fun facts about them, looking at where they are now, maybe where they were in the past and where they're potentially going to go as a team, depending on uh some of their players.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Exactly. And it's just interesting to look at these areas, especially for me. It always gets me with food. But what do we what can we talk about the Atlanta Falcons right now to really talk about the team? Where is the stadium?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

It is in Atlanta. It is the uh yeah, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, I believe. They've been around for quite some time, I think, since the mid-60s.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

I have 1966.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Oh, there we go. Mid-60s it is. Yeah, they've like I said, they I mentioned how they are the longest, basically have the longest losing streak in terms of any professional championships of any professional sports teams in America, which is astounding. But it it's just again the the right time at the right place and the right people. And they've had some pretty impressive players come through that organization and that franchise throughout the years. I remember growing up and I remember watching Deion Sanders, and that was a huge deal for me because that was like the very first that to me was one of the very first players that I remember was a multi-sport athlete, and that was really cool to see, right? And so I always had that association, and that was really neat to see. So, but again, kind of going back to what I said earlier, is Michael Penix, there is definitely some potential there. He has very much had a hit-and-miss professional NFL season. He did really good in Washington, showed a ton of potential, and with Kevin Stefansky, I think you know he's quite the uh amazing coach. He's been coach of the year by the NFL, I think, twice already in his relatively young career. I think he's only in his mid-40s. I think there is a lot that can be developed. He just signed with the team earlier this year, so this is really his first full season with the Falcons. There's there's a lot of talent there, and there's a lot of development that can happen, and I think they do have the right steps and the right coach to uh to make it happen. And their owner is the uh co-founder of the Home Depot. So if anybody can fix anything, he can. I think it goes in the name, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Yeah, exactly. Well, no, it's and that's great. And their uh Falcons next week, they're up against San Francisco. So that's that's a tough game to go against.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

It's gonna be a true test. Oh man, yeah. Their Falcons are sitting in a not the best position right now, but uh that will be an interesting game to watch for sure. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Well, I think it's time now to slide over to my end. Yes. And let's get into a little bit of food.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

So I'm curious about this because my time in Atlanta has literally been an hour in the airport, uh, en route to New Orleans once, and we didn't really get a very good sample of the food of the region. And when you think of Atlanta, you think of Georgia, you think of South, and like you said, peaches.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

So I've of course I was looking at Atlanta, and yeah, as we said, we've never got the chance to actually experience, but this is a place. Maybe we need to find a sponsor who's gonna send us to all these places and then we can eat there because, like, I just look at Atlanta's got a lot of those southern traditions, a lot of those southern foods that we're sort of becoming accustomed to, definitely listening to this podcast, as well as like lots of African American heritage foods, there's a lot of barbecue, we can talk about soul food, and a lot of modern restaurants are sort of shaping the influence around right now for that area and the world. And so I kind of got into this one and I was like, I wasn't too sure where to go with this one, and I kind of bounced around, but I feel like I've fallen into a theme with the pick of the week over the last little while, and that I've gone to sandwiches for the last little while. Well, we'll we'll get to it pretty shortly. But the first thing that caught my eye that really got me thinking about it is southern fried chicken. It's definitely for that reason, you know, crispy chicken, seasoned really well. It's very central to southern cooking, right? To having that nice crispy chicken as well as having the moisture still in the meat with that really good flavor to it. So that's definitely an art form to have a really good crispy crust around the outside and then to have that nice juicy meat inside the middle. The other one we gotta talk about it, and this is what I was saying, but the Georgia peach cobbler.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

One of my favorites.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

It's a classic, right? Peach cobbler. Like it is, you know, to me it's warmed up, nice summer day. It just fits there. Maybe a little bit of ice cream and such, but I think like that's where this the region came from, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:50

And so I think it's even on their license plates. I you know, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

You know, the little biscuit style uh topping on top of it, and there's a lot of family recipes definitely down south that go with that one. So that was one that caught my eye. The other one was shrimp and grits.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

So that's interesting because I know that's a very like, of course, like southern US food. That was something that we had seen quite a bit when we were kind of in the region in New Orleans, and yeah, like I said, when we passed through Atlanta, but I didn't necessarily know it was uh a food of Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

But I guess that makes sense. I think it's kind of those southern coastal areas, it really is really signifies with that. That's where I kind of got that one. So the low countries of South Carolina and Georgia are sort of where you get a lot of that that style of foods, and like I know you fell in love with grits. Oh my gosh. Down south. You know, shrimp on top of grits, I it just works for some reason.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Brunswick stew, not New Brunswick stew.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

I well, this is Brunswick stew, like that just throws me off because I think about New Brunswick, and yeah, and that's a very Canadian thing. But no, Brunswick stew is a very southern stew traditionally associated with Georgia and and Virginia. Recipes vary, but it commonly includes tomatoes, beans, corn, meat, often chicken or pork. And some varieties have smoked meat and use up barbecue leftovers.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

So you can think of that nice rich stew that's you know, using up some of those rich meats in there. Definitely a definitely a flavorful one. And you know what? Like a nice bowl of stew always goes so far, right? I believe that was our dinner tonight where we did a little vegetable stew. So it was delicious. Another one I want to think about from the south is definitely biscuits and gravy. And that is just southern breakfast staple, nice biscuits, gravy, you know, buttermilk biscuit topped with a creamy sausage gravy. I like that. Is definitely a nice heartwarming food for sure. And I but you know what? I went back and I I had to go back to how we started off this season, but with wings.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

That's interesting that you say that. That is like the not only is it like the classic football food, I just always remember that when we were in the south, there were a lot of kind of activations and stations when we were covering Super Bowl that involved handing out free wings.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Well, and to me, the the F3 food pick of the week is the Atlanta lemon pepper wet wings. Wet wings.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

I don't know how appetizing that sounds per se, but tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Okay, well, so of course we can do wet or dry, and mostly we do a dry, crispy so like a wet is like a saucy? Yeah, so what we'll do is we'll take this as a dry, crispy chicken would be seasoned with a little bit of lemon and black pepper, tossed all together, salt and pepper, all that's great. But if we want to go into the wet style, the wings are gonna have the lemon pepper seasoning with a buttery, saucy coating, right? That just brings everything together for you.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Nice and messy to yell at your team while you're sitting on the couch.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Exactly. And so this is sort of like a modern uh Atlanta food culture that's going on there is like bringing these wings in there, so spending the bit of time, cooking them so they're still nice and crispy, but then tossing them in all that buttery lemon flavor. So some fresh lemon, some zest on there. And you know what? It's a great, easy one to be eaten while you're watching a good game going on for sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

You can throw the remnants at the TV if your team is losing. I mean, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

And of course, you know, this one is like fresh lemon, fresh pepper. I don't think you can go wrong with this. Nice and simple. You can do it at home, roast it in the oven. Or the air fryer. Or the air fryer. Something you can deep fry. And definitely one thing I love with wings is like once you're getting them, letting them dry out a bit. Like actually, once you get them, spreading them out on the dish, letting them dry air dry a little bit. That's just helps get a little bit extra crispiness to them as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Good tip.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Good tip. So I think that takes us to the end of the F3 for this week. So we got a chance to play around and look at some different foods today.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

I like how we ended uh our series in in the deep south. In the deep south, with wings.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

With wings seems very appropriate. So we should do a quick recap. So, what is your biggest takeaway from this week in the NFL?

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Biggest takeaway, the Rams maybe overrated, she says with a question mark. Injuries starting to see a few, but that's kind of on par for this season and this year and this time of the year. And uh yeah, I think it's just gonna be one of those weird, wacky seasons. If we if last week was anything, this week is anything, who knows? Are we in for more ties, more overtimes, ejections? Who knows? We'll see what the week brings.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

We'll see what the week brings. Uh and of course, when we're talking about our Atlanta Falcons, what do we got to say about them?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Mm-hmm. Yeah, America's most uh non-championship team. Is that a thing? I don't know. But again, a team that has a lot of potential with a quarterback that has a lot of potential, with a coach that is very skilled and can bring out said potential. So we'll keep an eye on them. They're they haven't had the best start, but that doesn't mean they won't have the best end. So we will keep an eye on them because there is, like I said, a lot of potential. They could surprise us, and I will be eating my words if they end up in the Super Bowl this year because I will take full credit.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Well, you know, and that's the thing. Like sometimes starting off hot, oh, it doesn't always end up good at the end.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

You win in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Well, and I don't want to say, but like we're off to go see the BC Lions, and this is our rivalry.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

In the CFL. Yes, yes, they are playing their last game this coming week at home at BC Place. It will actually help determine to an extent who the Lions will be playing in the Western semifinal in the Canadian Football League. So they are playing in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, so we may have to sit in different aisles.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

There will be a little bit of rivalry there. But I was gonna say, the BC Lions were that team this season that they stunk.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

They didn't start very well, that's true. They they definitely rose to the occasion throughout the rest of the season, and uh and it'll be interesting to see what the game brings this week. Just a little CFL side note, because of course they'll probably be sitting a lot of their starters, and it will, if Winnipeg ends up winning, it will definitely play a factor into who gets into the um playoffs this year. So of course I'll be curious to see how much you know Nathan Rourke, their quarterback, will play and and some of their other starters. So we'll keep an eye out for that.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

We may be a little off on some of the NFL next week, but we're gonna have a whole new show for everyone with some interesting facts, and we'll be diving into more facts about fantasy, continuing on with Aaron's team and how it's going. Yes. Of course, looking at what's happening in the NFL, and of course, my favorite talking about food that has to do with football.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

I like it.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

It's gonna be fun. Well, thank you for listening to the F3 podcast. I'm Chef Jonathan Fraser, and I'm Aaron Hallisjeck. And that's another week of football, food, and fantasy.