In this week's P.O. Box:

Whenever I tell people “my job” or that I “work” in sports, it is normally followed up with a question about which NFL team I root for.

I have the canned response down perfectly…

Well, I grew up in Denver, so I was a big Broncos fan. The Elway Super Bowls were incredible, but then fantasy ruined me of traditional fandom and now I just root for whatever players on my fake football teams.

*blank stares*

I previously wrote about how I didn’t feel anything when the Nuggets won the NBA Championship despite growing up obsessing over the Dikembe Mutombo-era Nuggets.

The same thing happened when Elway’s recruitment of Peyton Manning yielded another Super Bowl in 2015. Friends texted me with congratulations…and I felt nothing.

There was no going back…

Until this past week.

Thursday on LOLZ, Bric asked me to assign 100 percent worth of fandom to three buckets— “Broncos” “Patriots” and “None.”

Patriots were an easy zero, but I cracked my tough guy fantasy façade and dumped 25% in the Broncos bucket, surprising myself.

“Goes to one playoff game and now cares about the Broncos” is what Lauren said.

Guilty as charged.

The combination of witnessing an electric atmosphere at Invesco Field at Empower Mile High for the overtime win vs. the Bills coupled with Lauren’s long-standing Patriots fandom has turned me into the slightest of laundry bros this week.

When the Bo Nix injury news hit and initial line was set, I made sure to let her know where I stood:

Things further escalated when we made a “mayoral” bet: whoever’s team lost would be responsible for plowing the driveway on Sunday evening after the game.

The stakes are pretty high for this wager considering we are bracing for 18+ inches of snow on Sunday.

On the surface, Lauren is clearly getting it in good considering the implied probability of the Broncos pulling off this upset at +205 is roughly 33%.

But the reality is that her overconfidence got the best of her and now she’s about to learn a valuable lesson regarding a “negative freeroll.”

You see…had there been no wager, I was always going to be the one snowblowing our driveway.

Better not choke, Drake Maye…

🎙 I’m under attack from the media for my drafting. Whoops.

⏰ OFF & ON THE CLOCK: Top Plays & Best Scrolls for the Conference Championship Slate. Ok, I lied last week. This is final ride in the NFL Battle Royale streets…

☣ LOLZ: How NerdyTenor Won $1M In 10 Minutes. NerdyTenor joins Pete and Bric to discuss his recent milly win, our beloved Denver Broncos, and his upcoming recital.

🤓 FANTASY LIFE: Newsletter Roundup. This week in the newsletter we marveled at the Bills dysfunction and embraced the chaos in Denver. We also wrote up a big DFS preview for the Underdog slate and drafted some teams on stream.

I regularly write the Fantasy Life Newsletter. Get it in your inbox free every morning:

💪 THE SWOLECAST: Conference Championship NFL DFS Picks. The one where I told a Bubby Brister story and also wrongly proclaimed that he had won an MVP.

No stream tonight, but I ran an After Dark last night. Drafted some teams, shared some stories from my Denver trip, and tabbed through some playoff best ball rosters.

Also, Davis and I are booked for the resolutions show next week and I’ll share mine in the newsletter in the next edition as well.

🧱 Book #1 for January (30%): The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami.

Fell behind during travel week, but back up and running now…

Got a question for me? Reply to this e-mail and I’ll get back to you…