Back to the Future: How Rich Would Use Time Travel to Find Out about the NFL’s Top Storylines

November 5th is a red-letter day in science. As the show reminded everyone, it's the date Doc Brown came up with time travel in 1955. So the crew fired up the football DeLorean.

The game had two parts. First, travel back to Labor Day carrying one piece of football information from the eve of Week 9 that would blow everyone's mind. Then, head to the future and report back.

First up, a trip back to the NFC West. "Gardner Minshew versus Drew Lock in Week 9, and the winner of this game is second place in the NFC West." The reaction on set was unanimous. "That is crazy."

Another Labor Day bombshell, aimed squarely at TJ, was about the Rams. Everybody thought Los Angeles was going to go undefeated after getting Myles Garrett and seeing Aaron Donald come out of retirement. The shocking news from the future: Garrett and Donald haven't even played one game together yet.

Then came a trip back for the Jets. The Jets currently hold three of the top 10 picks in the draft. The Colts' pick that New York owns is better than the Jets' own pick, and the Cowboys are in the top 10 too. Nobody would have seen that coming on Labor Day.

What wouldn't have surprised anyone, the thinking went, was New York putting all its first-round eggs in the basket of what was supposed to be the can't-miss quarterback draft of quarterback drafts.

Then the DeLorean went the other direction, to where we don't need roads. The destination: January 31, 2027, the date of the conference championship games.

The first report from the future was a doozy. All four teams playing that day would be first-time Super Bowl winners. In the AFC, Jacksonville and Buffalo. In the NFC, names like the Lions, Vikings and Panthers came up, with one voice noting the Lions and Vikings would be "wild" and adding "0 and 4." Someone wondered if that meant Bryce Young would be there.

TJ came back from the future next. "It was awesome," he said. What did he glean? "I'm a little shocked to admit that Trevor Lawrence turned out to be the guy everyone thought he'd be coming out of Clemson." Meaning, TJ said, the Jaguars might go to the Super Bowl.

He was immediately corrected. Not might. He's back from the future. He found out.

The final traveler brought back the wildest vision of all. "I saw the NFC Championship game set up," came the report. "And I saw on one of the sidelines the New York Giants with J.J. McCarthy quarterbacking them, one game shy of the Super Bowl."

"Wow," came the reaction.

"That's what I saw."

Great Scott, indeed. Between the Jaguars, the Bills and McCarthy in a Giants uniform, the crew's version of the future already looks nothing like what anyone pictured on Labor Day. Which, of course, was the whole point.