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If scandalous photos of Matt Leinart partying never surfaced on Deadspin, would he have remained Arizona's starting quarterback?

John Walters

JW: Your successor at Deadspin, A.J. Daulerio, is a Philly native. That led to a rather unusual “Deadspin Civil War Mayor’s Bet” for the NFC title game that Daulerio, to his everlasting credit, paid off.

Will: He got a tattoo. That’s pretty crazy. We made the wager (a tattoo, a sushi dinner for two, and a cookie sheet across the face a la “The Wrestler”) and before the game I gave him every possible out. “You don’t have to do this,” I’d say. And he’d go, “Sounds like someone doesn’t believe in their team.” So, from there it was on.

JW: And now he has a tattoo of a Cardinal buzzsaw on his behind.

Will: Yup. I went with him to the tattoo parlor. I felt like Vince Vaughn in “Return to Paradise.” Joaquin Phoenix is stranded in a Malaysian prison and it’s up to Vince, or this case me, to go back and save him.

JW: You also cookie-sheeted his face, as in “The Wrestler.” Was there ever any discussion of a “Ram Jam?”

Will: I did whack him in the face with a cookie sheet. I’m 33 years old. A.J.’s going to be 35. One of our friends told his wife about it and she asked, “Is that guy married?” Obviously not. It’s the best — and worst — part of living in New York City. You can be 29 forever.

JW: Years from now, all anyone will remember is that A.J. lost the bet and had to take Linda Cohn out on a date.

Will: Seriously. What won’t Linda Cohn do for book publishing? You have to wonder how many books that “publicity” helped sell. Five copies? Ten? I mean, A.J. pooped his pants on the date.

JW: Nerves. So I’m noticing that Bill Simmons goes from being anonymous to the biggest sports name on the web and in the process his long-suffering Red Sox win the World Series (the Pats and Celtics also win championships). You echo that success and the Buzzsaw just as improbably advance to the Super Bowl. Even A.J.’s Philliies won the World Series. So my question is, should the Cubs be working on developing the next great sports blogger moreso than a pitching staff?

Will: Never! I will firebomb the internet if the Cubs do that. And for the record, the Buzzsaw has done nothing yet. I think they’re gonna get killed in the Super Bowl.

JW: Really?

Special feature Super Bowl matchups Compare the starting lineups of the Cardinals and Steelers, then vote on which team will win. NBCSports.com

Will: People are going to try talking themselves into the Cardinals for the next week and a half. Remember when the Falcons played the Broncos in the Super Bowl? And it was so obvious that Denver was going to kill them, but in the days leading up to the game you saw more and more articles trying to persuade you that Atlanta had a chance. Well, they didn’t.

JW: You’re OK with that?

Will: Omigosh, I’m going to be sitting on the couch saying, “Look, there’s our uniforms! On the TV! At the Super Bowl!” There will be actual evidence that the Buzzsaw played in the Super Bowl. That’s more than most of us could ever have hoped for.

JW: You went to two Buzzsaw playoff games last month but you’re not going to Tampa?

Will: I don’t think I’m gonna go. I got to go last year and it was frankly about everything other than football. The Super Bowl is about money and anything the NFL Network can put a placard on.

JW: But Springsteen—

Will: Yeah. Do you realize, by the way, that Springsteen’s song for “The Wrestler” wasn’t nominated for an Oscar? They can nominate five songs, they only nominated three, and that wasn’t one of them.