Joe, a massive soccer fan heartbroken by his USMNT's failure to qualify for the World Cup, sets out to find a replacement team to root for in 2018.
Will any or all of these sandwiches make it on the menu?
The contents of the sandwich wheel are debated.
Jeff can add another honorific to his already long list: Guest Podcaster. He has given you a bonus episode, scouring past episodes of Joe Picks to pick out the highlights. For part 1, here are the best clips from the non-mailbag portions of Joe Picks An NFL Team.
Will this listener wheel suggestion, a sweet australian sandwich, make it on the menu?
Will this sandwich made of Egg, Sausage and Cheese on your choice of bread make it on the menu?
Which regional hot dog is the best and can it make the menu?
Will this Vietnamese sandwich, courtesy of the listener wheel, make it onto the menu?
A special Passover episode for this Passover sandwich.
Will this deli salad have what it takes to put the Chicken Salad Sandwich on the menu?
This sandwich made from Peanut Butter, Bananas and Bacon was known to be a favorite of the King.
This Dutch sandwich comes from the listener wheel. Come for the pronunciation, stay for the sandwich.
Our first sandwich assignment from the listener wheel is also our most specific to date.
We take the Peanut Butter & Jelly into the sandwich lab to help make our final call.
Straight from the mediterranean to our plates: the falafel sandwich
We tackle the Italian-American classic, and our first sub: the meatball sub.
We get a little adventurous in week 2 with this hot and open-faced diner classic.
Dan and Joe are back to kick off the third season of the Joe Picks series with... Joe Picks A Sandwich. For the first episode we'll review a true classic sandwich, the Ham and Cheese.
It all comes down to this. Just hours from the opening match of the 2018 World Cup, Joe works his way through the 4 remaining teams and fulfills the promise of the podcast by making his choice.
The second night of our three night finale focuses on the final 8 teams. If you want to get to the part where we talk about the 8 teams, skip ahead about an hour.
After months and months of exploring these various teams and countries, we're making it through the group stage in 2 hours. Finally the teams will be pitted against one another and Joe will be forced into making some of his toughest decisions yet.
The naysayers said we'd never finish all 32 teams, and they were only partially right! In our last regular season episode we finally give the defending champs their due, but undoubtedly this football powerhouse is going to have a much tougher path to Joe's knockout round than in the real tournament.
Our second to last episode also comes in as our longest ever! But we have so much to cover both going through the email bag and spending time with a special guest with some great inside info about Colombia.
We finally get to the land of Joe's father, and his father's father, but apparently not his father's father's father. Will this intimately close relationship help or hurt Egypt's chances of making it into Joe's knockout round.
We finish out the Asian Football Confederation with with some special guests and we finally learn the answer to a long running podcast mystery. And also we do the thing where Joe rates Japan in many different categories.
We're finally doing the second half of our "doubleheader", the up and coming Belgium team. After our usual deep analysis, is Joe going to move them on into the knockout round or will he waffle and perhaps leave them on the outside looking in.
We are back on track doing full country episodes, and what better place to visit than the birthplace of modern football. England should have so much going for it in Joe's ratings, but given that it's England, better not take anything for granted.
Some important business gets taken care of, live in San Francisco.
When you think of Saudi Arabia, you might think of oil reserves or sandy deserts, but how about the sport of football? This country has a surprising history of football success, at least within the middle east. But as they embarck on the World Cup they first have perhaps an even tougher test... Joe's rankings.
For the second half of our doubleheader we venture to Europe and look at another elite team, Spain. After our own Spanish inquisition, Spain's fate will be entirely in Joe's hands. Will they move on to the round of 16 or will Joe expell them from the competition?
Our neighbor to the south is also our biggest rival. But with the US out of the World Cup, what does that mean for the rivalry? Should Joe root for Mexico as the best hope from CONCACAF or root for our rival to fail? The Joe Picks system will be put to the test during this one-of-a-kind podcast.
No time to waste in this description for our first speed episode: Panama. We would have loved to spend more time analyzing this team that is playing in the US's spot, but unfortunately their long odds and our lack of time didn't allow for it.
This South American underdog is in the World Cup for the first time in a generation. But with this accomplishment comes the added scrutity of Joe's analysis. Will there be another Hollywood ending for Peru or will Joe's qualifying be harder than the brutal South American confederation?
After the long wait for the Soju shipment from South Korea, Dan and Joe break down this team live in Seattle. Having just hosted such a successful Olympic games, we'll see if South Korea can maintain their momentum and reach Joe's Round of 16.
Trying to predict how France will do in the World Cup is just as much of a fool's errand as trying to predict when this podcast would be released. But will Joe's rating of this top tier team will be a little more predictable, or are there some surprises in store for Les Bleus?
Back to Africa for the 2nd of the 5 African teams. As the only African team to qualify for both the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, Nigeria has some momentum coming into the tournament. Will that carry over into Joe's ranking though?
For the second time we travel to Scandinavia, which depending on your definition of that term will either be our final or penultimate trip to the region. Not known as a footballing powerhouse, Denmark will need to hope for good scores in some of the other categories if they want to get into Joe's knockout round.
When you think of football brilliance, you think of Brazil. And for good reason, they've achieved more World Cup success than any other nation. In the real World Cup, it's been over 50 years since they finished in the bottom half of the tournament. But in this podcast series, they'll need a good showing to make Joe's knockout round.
In the first ever World Cup, this country competed as part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Eighty-eight years later, they'll compete for the 2nd time as the independent country of Serbia. Perhaps this year will be the first time Serbia qualifies for the Round of 16 in the actual World Cup, but we won't have to wait that long to see if they qualify for Joe's Round of 16.
Coming off a runner-up finish in 2014, and with their sights set even higher in 2018, Argentina are our first truly elite team of the podcast series. But perhaps for a nation this good at football, making the knockout stage in Joe's rankings will prove more challenging than doing it in the actual World Cup.
Other than the host nation, Poland has the longest odds to win the cup among the pot 1 teams. But they have one thing the other top teams don't have... an ancestral connection to Joe. Will this be enough to get them into knockout stage or will the odds catch up to them and leave them on the outside looking in.
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