Merry Christmas, Loyal Listeners! As promised, here are the bowl picks for the rest of the Christmas week to get you to the weekend. Enjoy the football holiday cheer from Eddie and I!

With the weirdness that is the early signing day, we at HLS are proud to bring you an exclusive interview to cover both the early signing period, as well as the recent shoplifting suspensions as only we can.

Eddie and I are clearly out of practice because the Saturday bowl slate did not end well for us. As we approach Christmas, it's time for us to get back on track after putting our first postseason ball in the water. After all, this is the season of giving and we simply decided to give everyone else in the pick 'em a head start on us.

With the Extra Life stream in the books, it's time to get back to football. Eddie and I officially open the bowl pick 'em (herloyalsons.com/pickem) by picking the small slate of five games this Saturday. Yes, it's probably bad football, but it's football and there's spreads and an Amazon gift card is on the line! Come join in the fun and prepare yourself for the joyous bowl season with us.

Chris, aka, Rakes of the Rakes Report, joins Tex once again, but this time for a live interview on the stream. Talk centers around (of course) Notre Dame Football, but also this crazy thing called Notre Dame Basketball!

Kaleb Schweiss, one of the hosts of the Ultima Final Fantasy podcast, joins a sleep deprived Tex to talk...well, Final Fantasy (surprise!). Also a hearty hat tip to UFF for their generous donation to the cause. I enjoyed the grind.

Find UFF at: http://www.ultimafinalfantasy.geekdomentertainment.com/

Ty Hildenbrant from The Solid Verbal joins the Extra Life effort to talk college football, Notre Dame football, 90's retro sports gaming, and we engage in a fun coach-speak bit. I also want to thank Dan & Ty for their generous donation to the Extra Life effort as well. Stay solid, y'all.

As we mentioned on the last football-related HLS podcast episode, THE ELITE would do a post-show. The topic 100% devolved into stupid drunk jokes and pro wrestling. We apologize in advance, but you knew this was going to happen, right?

We kick off the Extra Life interview series with the podcast that inspired me to take this crazy journey: Limit Break Radio. Nate, Robbie, and Nika joined me to discuss Extra Life, their shows (yes, plural, they also do Final Encounter Cast and a nationally syndicated gaming and eSports show, Checkpoint Radio), Final Fantasy, and gaming.

Be sure to check them out!

LimitBreakRadio.com

CheckpointRadio.com

FinalEncouterCast.com

Loyal listeners, the podcast feed is going to take a short five episode detour (not including this one). As you've heard throughout the past few shows, I have participated in an event called Extra Life to benefit the Children's Miracle Network in memory of a young man named Aven. I did multiple interviews for my 24-plus hour marathon and wanted to share them with you in case you missed them.

Donations are still open via herloyalsons.com/extralife and you can check out the entire archived event at twitch.tv/ndtex.