Massenomics Podcast - Ep. 402: Ethan Evans The NFLs Strongest Punter

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

Big Ethan Evans is the 4th down QB for the LA Rams AND he's way stronger than you might imagine.  He's deadlifting 770 x 2 and can squat over 600 pounds.  This one was a lot of fun! Build Fast Formula Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10% on your first order! BearFoot Shoes Use code MASS for a free pair of AWEsome wraps! Juggernaut AI Use code MASSENOMICS to save 10%! The Strength Co Get some Go-To Plates! Swiss Link Use code MASS to save 15%! Texas Power Bars Get the Barbell that changed the game!

You know, thanks for what you do with your podcasts and all the rest. You're doing a great job. Hope everybody keeps tuning in. You get a lot of good info, a lot of insights, understandings on how to get strong, how to stay strong, how to use your strength. You do a great job, dude. You make things better than they are in real life, I think.

If you don't follow Massanomics, y'all do it. Social media, website, everything. Massanomics. Let's do this. This is episode 402 of the Massanomics podcast, the lifting podcast about nothing, coming to you from South Dakota. My name is Tanner. And my name is Tommy. We've got a banger of an episode this week.

We're going to wrap up our Crew Falls December to Remember meetup event. We're going to recap some of the highlights there. We've got a can segment. We've got a whole bunch of members to support this week. We're going to talk with the L.A. Rams fourth down QB here later this episode. And who knows what else we'll get get into probably a couple wild card items but first i want to tell you all about uh one of our good friends big grant over at the strength co i want to tell you about grant and the strength co but today i'll just choose to mostly make it about the strength co christmas season is almost upon us and

it's not too late is this episode sponsored by personally by Grant or by the Strength Co.? I just wasn't sure if you switched it to just being him sponsoring. He's like, I just want you to start talking about me more. Like not so much the company. I just want like the publicity. The Strength Co. has had enough time. I want people to know more about me. Yes.

Check out the Strength Co. I think you could still order and get stuff in time for Christmas. I'm going to just, I'm going to, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and promise it for them. You order today, they'll get it to you by Christmas. If not, they'll do their damnedest to make sure it happens. So check out their Made in America Olympic iron plates and barbells. They're Made in America.

Like I said, the plates are black e-coated machined edges they're smooth yet easy to grip all the things that uh we've come to know and love about the strength co plates you could love about them too so check them out at the strength.co get them ordered before christmas and they'll probably get them to you and that's a guarantee you can count on it's what's uh tommy boy it's the tommy boy guarantee speech what is a what is a fancy guarantee get you And that's a guarantee you can count on. What's Tommy Boy? It's the Tommy Boy guarantee speech. What does a fancy guarantee get you? Today's episode is also brought to you by Texas Power Bars.

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including the brand spanking new 29mm Texas Power Bar. It's strong as a house with the best knurling, and it's maintenance-free. Hundreds of state, national, international, and world powerlifting records have been and continue to be set and broken on the Texas Power Bar. To learn more about Texas Power Bars and buy one of their legendary bars, visit TexasPowerBars.com. Now we do want to cover, we're both coming off of the Crew Falls weekend down in Sioux Falls where our extravaganza, we will get into some details there.

But before we even do, I just wanted to specifically shout out some of the crew that was able to make the trip and be in attendance and participate because it wouldn't have been much fun without all of you. So thank you. Big Bryce, big Colton, big Alec, big Abby, big Nathan, big Tron, big Matthew, big Paul, big Jake, big Grayson, big Hannah, big Derek, big Mo, big Travis, big Stuart, big Mason, Amix, big Keith, big Professor Shanz was there also, both of us. I don't know. I think I got most of the people, but I could have missed someone. If so, I will amend that in a future episode. So thank you to everyone that was able to make the trip yes two crew falls this last weekend thank you thank you everyone so much we're going to talk way more about it but it we we talked on the phone was that yesterday tanner and we both said that like exceeded the

highest expectations we had for this entire thing it went so good it did really go good and it was a lot of fun i think most of the people if you talk to any of them, and some have been talking about it in our Discord online community too about how much fun they had. You know, we had Travis and Stuart had flown out from West Virginia. Big Keith had flown in from New York. And then we had a lot of people all over the state of South Dakota, kind of all corners of South Dakota, Nebraska, a couple in there that

drove to make the trip and god we had a good time we had a really good time we really did it was uh I mean is that is that we're doing right now is that our are we gonna just recap it yeah I think we could just give a little recap just kind of brag about how fun it was really yeah should we start at the beginning actually I I got a little extra day more fun than you because, you know, being a local, the crew falls. Yep. When Big Keith, Travis, and Stuart landed, I got to go out for lunch with them all on Friday. On Friday. So we got to have.

And then also, Grayson and Colton made lunch as well. So there was six of us. and we had a nice little time got to it was my first time meeting Stu I hadn't met Stu before you'd met him at the gym he came down there once but so we got what I just got to tell all types of stories and do catching up at lunch and it was a lot of fun and then I know some I think I think the west virginia guys said they made an early night keith went out with some of the other guys they went got some food later on that night i i kept it chill because i knew we had a big day ahead of us the next day and saturday morning is when the party kicked off and you your day started with a little more adventure than most of us probably

oh yeah the weather a little weather. It had been so nice. I mean, it was like a day before was like highs in the 50s. And to make it there on time with normal weather, I would have had to leave at 5 a.m. But going to bed, I knew it was going to be sketchier, so I had woken up at 4. By the time I was on the road, it was just about be sketchier so I had woken up at 4 by the time I was on the road it was just about 4.30 and for the first

hour and a half it was white knuckled ice road trucking and it was a I mean it was very windy all weekend even in Crewe Falls it was just as windy it just wasn't like snowing there and it didn't really snow much it was barely even

snowing there was barely accumulation of snow snow much. It, it was barely even snowing. There was barely accumulation of snow. It was just enough to make it the, the temperature and the wind and the little bit of precipitation just made the road awful. Like it was, it was what seemed to be a sheet of ice. And also the crosswind when I was going East was like a 50 mile per hour wind. I got out at one point in time on the road on Highway 12, for anyone that knows specifically what I'm talking about, but from Aberdeen to Summit. I got out at one point in time and I was like, I have to feel what the road feels like because I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, it seems really icy. And I want to know if this literally is one giant sheet of ice or if some of it is kind of just like that's the way it looks and I opened the door and I swear to god it felt like

I was in like a very low grade tornado I was like and I'd like taken my jacket off at this point and I was like oh I'm like oh I'll just check it out quick like obviously I know it's windy but I've been in wind before you know it's like and i took like one step out and i was like f that like it was bad the wind was intense um and then after like a like i said like an hour and a half drive it was like the there was like it's like i went through a doorway magically, like, and it was just fine. I mean, it was still windy. But when you got to, was it when you got to the interstate? Did it all change?

No, it was even before that. It was at Wabae. Oh, it was. Actually, like, just, like, past Wabae. It took you that long to get to Wabae, though. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was going 40 to 45. It was a sheet of ice.

This is no joke. From Aberdeen to Watertown, I did not pass nor get passed by a single vehicle. So did you see another vehicle? So essentially going the same direction. Yeah, I met a few. I met some. Yeah, but going my same direction. Normally, if you made that trip from that distance to that distance, you would get passed or passed by like 50 vehicles over that.

And that is like over 100 miles, what you just described. Yes. So to go 100 plus miles. And I did not, going my same direction, I did not encounter a single vehicle. Yeah. The whole time. And it's, I mean, the reason being, because even if there's vehicles out there, like, nope. Like, even though I was going 45, it's not like someone could have been going 70.

You would like be in the ditch if you were going that fast. It was on. I was going faster than what I would have liked to recommend someone else to do to be safe. Actually, like in the first few miles, I'm like, oh, it's a good thing this is our own event because if it was anything else, I would not be continuing on like this. But then the weather did get much, much better by the time i got to the interstate and then especially watertown it was just super windy and that was also the weather in sioux falls was just really windy the uh it wasn't super cold temperature wise but it was just really i think even big keith was like

damn you guys aren't joking about this breeze here, this Dakota breeze. This is brutal, man. It was pretty exceptional, though. It was. It's not usually as windy as that. That does happen, though. Yeah, it does happen. You don't go a year without something like that happening. Oh, no, no.

Yeah. So that was how mine kicked off. But I made it to the original Pancake House because once I could make good time, I started making good time. And there was absolutely no special stops from that point on, whether it was bathroom breaks or nonetheless. Nonetheless, it was all straight on trucking, and I made it there at like 8, 10 a.m. So you were hardly even late.

We were still waiting for a table, and I got there that morning, and I went up to the hostess, and I said, yeah, we got a group of 20, And she gave me this instant look of pain. We can do two groups of 10 if that's easier. And she goes, okay, we can make that happen. And we didn't wait too long. They got us sat down. And that was several people's first experience at the Pancake House.

And the reviews seemed to be unanimous rave reviews, weren't they? Oh, the original Pancake House. They call it the original pancake house they call it the original for no for a good reason it was uh their omelet was very good all i would say the original pancake house was a lot nicer decor than i was picturing more of a uh with a name i don't think the inside fit fits the name of the original first time i even like i feel like there's something missing in the marketing of that uh it does the whole thing is not tied together quite cohesively the decor reminds you much more of like an upscale dinner place than a breakfast place right but the food was great uh

the omelet was awesome those five egg souffle omelets man they know what they're doing there don't they and my favorite part of the original pancake House was when we went to leave this group of 20 or so of us. And I will tell you, for the group this weekend, I think I was about middle of the pack size-wise. There was like 10 people that were 6'3 or taller. There was a lot, wasn't there? And Bryce is what, like 6'6 or 6'7? Yeah, something like that. And then there's Alec, Matthew, Mason, Colton.

There's a handful of them that are, like, 6'4 or 6'5 also. And several people, like, well over 300 pounds, too. And so when we went up, the 20 of us, we were in the very back of the original Pancake House, and we had to and uh so when we went up the 20 of us we were in the very back of the original pancake house and we had to walk by everyone when we left and it had gotten kind of busy at that point in time and we walked by every single person in that building turned like like they did turn it's like everyone dropped what they were doing it was like oh i had to look what was going on yes and they all did that and all stared and i

could only but wonder what they're uh i mean i i know what they're all thinking they're all thinking what is this group of people well and we we laughed i think the conversation we had was like everyone's looking and they're going hmm they're clearly too old to be on an actual sports team but why else would all these men be together like this what would be going on some of the people are like in their early 20s and some of the people are like in their early 40s and pretty much everything in between but there's definitely a common thread of like everyone being bigger than normal size you know like there's just a whole bunch of really big people in the group um yeah there's so there's definitely looking, uh, Colton actually mentioned he has, he had a good point.

Who was it? Him? Or no, it key. That was Keith. He said the omelet was legit. The pancakes were decent. Uh, and I would, I would agree. The pancakes were just decent.

Like I would give the pancakes a decent grade, like they're fine, but I wouldn't like write home about the pancakes. The omelet was like a nine out of 10 though. The omelet was like a nine out of ten though the omelet was great i would also say that on the same time like if you said where can you get the where can you get amazing pancakes could you actually make a recommendation to somewhere like i've never like pancakes to me are always decent even when i think they're better than normal i'm like these ones are like really thin they were like they were very thin see that is my like the thinnest pancakes. They're borderline crepes, you could say.

Yeah, yeah. They're thin pancakes. So you like crepes. But yeah, it was, I mean, Ricky Bobby, you know. Ricky, yeah. They were almost like crepes. Although I like all, at the same time, I don't like, mine were a little well done probably,

but that's just like a rent you know i mean that could happen randomly anywhere but it doesn't matter because the omelet was so good i wouldn't give a shit i would go because of the like i would choose to go because the omelet and like the pancakes are kind of like well yeah they're all it's almost hard to eat the pancakes after you put that omelet down because it's so yeah so beefy yeah it was good it was delicious but the thing i noticed most was the looks from the people uh when we were when we were leaving there that was definitely noticeable so then we pretty much from there we went to liberty barbell gym right yes we went yeah i mean we sat around

and shot the shit for a while i guess and then we were kind of got moving yeah yeah so we we went over to big jonah's liberty barbell and i just right off the bat i didn't even have my shit like in there and guys were already on the squat rack benching like four plates on it like i think you and me were the last two because we were kind of talking to jonah getting some stuff situated and there's guys it looks like it's already in mid-workout. And we're like, whoa, these guys are not wasting any time over here. They're getting right after it. And that was basically the theme the entire time we were there is people getting after it. And there were some big lifts that went down.

Yeah, there was still probably a wide variety of people doing, you know, like I'm doing a heavy single, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Like some people doing more intensity and less intensity but overall just so many big lifts of people going for heavy lifts for them and pr attempts and prs and um just like i probably underestimated just how serious the lifting was like i mean very very fun i don't mean serious in a negative way. I just mean serious in the sense that like people were there training, like absolutely training. People weren't even there training.

People were borderline. They're competing. I mean, there was 700 pound deadlift attempts. There was lots of guys that were over 600 pounds. I think Bryce pulled like 715. And then because I was adding up wrong, thought he was going for 725 after that was it was 715. And then because I was adding up wrong, thought he was going for 725 after that was, it was 735. And he got, it got really shaky on his Texas deadlift bar.

So he probably had 725 in him, but it was actually 735. That worked out to my advantage because I thought I was deadlifting like 628 and it was actually 6 635 so at the end of the day i'm like oh nice that was just uh like a seven pound better uh for my sets of five i'm like that's like a seven pound bonus six or 635 30 sorry 535 no no still no no no no no i've never done 635 for a set of five before like wait a minute yeah i'm not trying to i'm not trying, I'm not the guy in the gym exaggerate making up the lift. No, I thought I was doing 528. I was actually doing 535 for my sets of five. So that was a hit.

That was a bonus. Yeah. At the end of the day, I'm like, ooh, nice. That was even better than what I thought. But I did have that feeling that I get at a meet where I don't know how to put it in words exactly like when you're in the gym in the comfort of your gym the weight is very specific so you know like and everything's so calculated you know and everything feels a certain way and like I get the same feeling in the warm-up room of meet where I'm like, I have 405

on the deadlift bar to warm up. And I'm like, like in the gym, I know exactly what 405 feels like. And I know exactly what it's going to feel like. And if anything's different, I'm like, something's different. Yeah. And here or like in the warmup room, I'm like, I don't know, it could be 300 or 500. It's all kind of feeling, it all feels weird. And like, i'm not even

saying it feels great like because in the warm-up room a lot of times i'm like i'm not saying it feels like a lot of times it doesn't feel great even when i have a really good day on the platform it just feels weird it just feels different it doesn't feel great but as you go it doesn't start to feel worse either right right it's just kind like, it's just is noticeably different than like on just a regular training session. And that's what this training session felt like. It was just noticeably different, a very elevated, uh, state for a lot of people. I think I totally agree. It's that feeling where the equipment's all a little different. A lot of people were using kilos. So the weight's a little different. And I was benching, the benches are a little different and just everything you do, you just

can't quite tell, like, you almost just have to take someone's word for what it is. Cause you're like, I don't, I don't even know what's going on right now, but yeah, it was, it did. I totally agree. It had that same element of, or that feeling of you being out of your element and the weights, everything feeling different.ah had a great setup liberty barbell worked awesome this is part of the whole weekend going so good as liberty barbell i think honestly worked perfect like you couldn't have uh had a gym set up more specifically for this event to work work better for this and there was probably yeah you know he has multiple squat racks he has multiple deadlift platforms he has multiple benches combo racks and it just like broke out that like the bench i was on there was probably

eight of us that were all cycling through on the bench yeah one of the squat racks there was about four guys cycling through the squat rack you guys on the deadlift platform what was there about there was about five of us at the time like after that a couple that rotated after you know so there was a lot of fun like training you know and i think uh colton and matt both did like testing testing days and they did theirs together so that worked really well for them and um then jake busted out the log and a bunch of people got in on yeah that was the first time i touched the log since the strongman showdown in what 2019 2018 right right and uh it was fun like i hadn't done that in so long i had a good time doing that even i wonder if we should bust into a do a can segment here

take a little uh i'm kind of thirsty it kind of feels like it's been a while. It's been a little while. So can this compliments of big Jake? Yeah. Big Jake. What he gave us a what's in the can from the crew falls event and it is wrapped up. So neither of us know what it is. So I guess we need to try it while it's wrapped up. Right.

This is a Merry Christmas. Here we go. Wrapped up. Big Jake, the snake. Oh, I'm catching a beer smell right away. Oh.

Oh. It's definitely a beer. Hmm, boy. It's got to be some type of i don't know if it's a light beer but it's got to be some type of lager or something like that uh that's a beer for sure hmm hmm now there's a little extra something going on there there's some type of flavor but i can't i don't know if i like it so far uh not should we take a look i honestly can't tell what it is yeah i don't know either yeah i have no good guess on this

oh there it is oh yeah i knew there was a little something so it is. Oh, yeah. I knew there was a little something. So it is the local Sioux Falls Brewery Fernson Brewing Co. It is the Ears Up Premium Beer, which is the SDSU, South Dakota State University Jackrabbits beverage. Not South Dakota's premier business school. Not one of the top business schools but one of the top schools nonetheless yeah ears up there it is and that uh they celebrated the big win this weekend they're gonna be playoff win they're probably gonna go back to back natty champs the way it's looking they're they're making all the cards fall right What do you think of the beer, then? What do you rate the beer? You know, to be honest, I'm kind of still not really in the beer mode

after this past weekend. Right. I know that's kind of my hurdle. This is kind of a three-and-a-half beer to me. It's fine. I mean, I could drink a bunch of these, or I could pick something else, too. It's fine. I'm just trying to decide how low to rate it since it's the jack

rabbits yeah it kind of goes against your yeah your everything uh to be fair i probably i would if that was not the if that wasn't a factor i'd give it a three so i'll give it a three okay i'll give a three not bad not my favorite brewski, but not bad. Okay. Yeah, we were at the gym. Everyone had lots of big lifts. There were several guys. Maybe, I think, did Colton have like a 40-pound deadlift PR?

Yeah. He had a PR in almost like every lift, I think, because he did all three he was testing. And Big Nate did a 58-pound deadlift PR. He deadlifted like 660 or something like that. Yeah, this is a guy that went from 315 to 4-something. Yeah, he went from 6-something to 6-higher. I think Bryce did have a deadlift PR.

Big Keith had bench prs yep for touching grace and touch and go pr yeah he benched 375 uh it was the most i've deadlifted for sets in months many many months yeah like no they look good too yeah and that and i've been doing it beltless oh yeah i didn't even think about that uh man doesn't really like i say that but it's not like i like it's like oh yeah throw on a belt i'd have like 40 more pounds no if i throw on a belt i'll be like oh this feels weird for a while and it's gonna take me a while for to get anything out of it you know because i i can deadlift all right without a belt i do think that in the long run i can deadlift a little more with the belt yeah

which makes sense it's not magic. It's not like, ooh, yeah. Like in squat, it kind of is. Like if I did a top set of five in squat without a belt and then put it on, it's going to be higher. Yeah. But yeah, a lot of good lifts. And then we shot a gym tour video with Jonah of the gym.

So stay on the lookout for that on YouTube. I think that'll be really fun. He has. So besides just having a lot of so besides just having really unique equipment he has a few things that are really interesting and unique that you yes probably won't find in most gyms in the country no i think people will like uh like checking that out you know and then we also did a video a youtube video with uh the two of us and big keith on on basically a barbell review video. That one should be pretty fun.

That will be coming out on YouTube soon, too. I'm excited to actually do the edit and watch that one because I remember at the time thinking, while I'm filming this, I feel very entertained at the moment. I'm really learning something here. These guys are bringing up some good points. So it will be interesting to see if I still feel that. I think I will still feel that way, but I hope I do when I go back and watch it. So it was kind of an unpaid, underrated,

slash Massonomics mashup video, a collab. And then also just the vlog video, the vlog of the whole weekend. That'll be coming out eventually, too, of the partying and the lifting. So then we kind of finish up the lifting, right? Yeah, and we're not totally sure what order those videos will come out in we're still right that's still up in the air so i guess it'll probably be the next three weeks so it's yeah what yep and so we got done with the lifting finally and then we made our way to costco and

we stormed the food court yeah it was uh actually it was really funny i gotta tell you this the next day my cousin uh my cousin who lives in Watertown called me and he goes, I got a question for you. I go, yeah. He goes, were you at Costco yesterday? I said, yes. Yes, I was actually. And he said, well, I have a coworker.

And he said he thought he saw a bunch of Masonomics guys and he thought he saw you, but he doesn't really know you. So he didn't know if it was you for sure or not. But I said, yep, that was us. We all stormed the food court court so word was getting out that we were there but uh all 20 of us amazingly the food court had seating for all of us we all got to sit by each other and tanner you went up and put in the order for 20 of them and chicken bakes yeah 20 chicken bakes and they got to work on we didn't hear screw we thought we would hear

screaming from the kitchen or something but they they got to work on them they all came out i was curious how they're going to hand them to us because normally you just get it in a little paper sleeve yeah they just loaded it up in pizza boxes it took three full pizza boxes and they were hefty they gave you the warning yes yes and uh passed them all eight passed them all out ate them up costco was just insanely packed in there. That was one of my— Like, Big Tron said, wow, this place is really busy for a chicken bake restaurant. Exactly, yeah.

That was one of my favorite parts of it was you actually getting to take in the insaneness of Costco on a Saturday afternoon. You were like— Oh, and I did have my first chicken bake then, I guess. Yes, so you got to have your first chicken bake. Second-time buyer. Actually, at this point, you've bought 21 chicken bakes and you've been able to consume one of them. So that's probably a ratio most people don't get to have

when it comes to that. Yes. But yeah, you got to take in just the craziness of everything going on. And then I also like that there was a fair number of people that were also, before their chicken bakes arrived, were either eating pizza or ice cream. Ice cream the appetizer before i did have a slice of cheese pizza afterward too just to experience it and it just it seemed after eating the chicken bake also

the pizza seemed really doughy like when i got to the crust of it i'm like i can't chew this my top my my jaws tired of chewing um was my take on the pizza, but I was also just kind of full. Tanner, our guest has arrived, so I don't know how we want to. Let's just call intermission on that recap, and we'll get our guest on and then continue that after, right? Yeah. Should I start with all kinds of stories?

Yeah. I'll read one ad while you boot people off, and then we'll get Big Ethan on. Okay. All right. This week's episode is also brought to you by our good friends over at Build Fast Formula. Big Nathan and Big Abby, the owners of the company,

they were there this weekend. We all got to a bunch of us sample drink hack for the first time. We took their drink hack supplement before we started drinking for the evening. And I don't know what I guess I haven't gotten a recap of results from everyone, but we're also taking full blitz before the workout. There was a lot of full blitz going on. We pushed everything to the limit. So I don't know if that was.

Yes. I don't know if that's what it's designed to really really help at that point absolute stress test oh you've been up for 20 hours haven't been sleeping and now you drink 13 beers there's a pill you know i don't think there's a pill to help that uh but uh check out uh vaso blitz full blitz drink hack their full line of supplements 80 20. Check it all out at buildfastformula.com. You can use discount code MASSENOMICS. That'll get you 10% off. It used to be for your first time purchase. Now I think it's just every time you go, you can use discount code MASSENOMICS and save yourself 10%. And then you can also sign up for a subscription through them

to get you an additional 10% off. Stack it on with our 10%. It gets you 20% off. BuildFastFormula.com. Thank you. Alright, should I let him in? Let's let him in. How we doing? There he is. Big Ethan. How we doing? Good. How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's a soft day today, it's a nice nice day to relax just kick back yeah all right well we're we're excited to get you on the podcast we're gonna if you're ready to go it sounds good we can see over there we'll just jump right into it

yeah for sure all right we've got big ethan evans uh best known as the fourth down QB for the LA Rams, right? Yes, sir. I do like that position description. That's pretty good. Yeah, it's better than just the punter. Like your conversion rate on fourth down isn't awesome, though. No, no, it's not. It's not, but it is what it is. Yeah, so you are the punter for the Rams this year.

Were you drafted this year in this rookie season? Yes, sir. Yeah. And where did you go to college? Remind us again, we were talking about it in North Carolina. Is it Wingate? Yeah, Wingate University. It's a little Division II school. Okay. Division II. So we're actually drinking SDSU Jackrabbits beer.

Oh, there you go. We're South Dakota guys here, but I guess that's not Division II. Our hometown team is the Northern State Wolves. They would be in, actually, Division II. What is, like, the Jackrabbits, what's that called? Is that bowl subdivision, or is that called something different now? Yeah, yeah. FCS?

FCS, yeah. Okay. Okay. So you were drafted, though, this year, right? Yes, sir. Okay, so going into the draft, were you expecting to be drafted, or was it, like, up in the air? What were you thinking was going to play out?

I knew I had the abilities to get drafted, but, I mean, going to such a small school, I kind of knew there was a chance I wouldn't. But I had a Chase Blackburn or my coach for the social teams coach for the Rams. He came and took me out to dinner on pro day back for pro day and kind of like ran me through the situation at LA. So I knew like if I did didn't get drafted,

but I had an undrafted free agent opportunity to the Rams so I was more likely going to be the starter and it just so happened that they wanted to draft me so kind of knew I had the ability to but I did not expect to get drafted no I did not so did you call ESPN ahead of time and said did you guys want to send a camera crew to my house in case I get drafted you know they do the whole thing where they can they can watch you no no I just had I just, I just had some family and friends there, and they recorded it. Yeah. That's cool. You know, you say because you went to a smaller school,

but it's interesting, like the position of punter seems different. Maybe that, like the size of the school matters more if you're a quarterback or, you know, whatever else position, but position of punter. I mean, really like what, what, I mean, it comes down to your stats, right? Like what does the, I mean, if you're punting the distance, you're punting it or, you know, your, your number of punts and distance and whatever your measurables are as a punter, like it's kind of punts and distance and whatever your measurables are as a punter,

like it's kind of the same across the board, right. Regardless of your division or is that the wrong way to look at it? No, that's the right way to look at it because no matter where you are, 50 yard punts, a 50 yard punt. Right. Um, the only, the only thing they worried about was, you know, my stadium at my school held 1500 people. And then so far I hold 73,000. So it's kind of a big, it's kind of a big difference. Um, so they just, it was just pressure wise, you know, it was kind of like up in the air, if I would be able to perform under, uh, that type of pressure. And I told them I was ready and they took a chance and here we are. That's awesome. Yeah. Awesome. And what led you to us,

you probably know you went kind of you went viral here like a week or two ago um squatting five six plates for a double 585 for a double and on our podcast we've got a lot of lifters on every week you know i've had a whole bunch of power lifters strong men bodybuilders that sort of thing and uh was it i think espn or sports center someone shared that video and um like within the powerlifting community, especially everyone was talking about that. Like everyone's like, oh, did you see the punter for the Rams that was squatting six plates for a double?

So that's how we got it on our radar. You know, being a punter in the NFL is cool, but squatting six plates for a double and making it look easy, now that's really cool. Yeah, I've always been a huge fan of lifting heavy ever since i was a little kid i mean my dad's a big lifter so that's how i got into it yeah that was one of our questions so is that just i mean that's how you got into it your dad is into it so you got into it as your dad like uh your dad squat benches and deadlifts like he's into actual big lifting also i assume then because the reason i ask like what you do is not normal like if you

look at your instagram page you you don't see it looks like a power lifters instagram yeah you look like a power it looks like a power lifters sprinkled in lately right right but you are squatting benching and deadlifting heavy like you're training the big compound lifts and you're moving big weights doing it yeah uh so yeah my dad's a big lifter uh i mean now he's he's a little older so he's kind of back down from the heavy lifting but i mean back in the day, like my dad's bench was just absolutely insane. I remember when I was 13 and I would watch him bench. I was just like, holy shit, that's really cool. I want to do that. Fortunately for me, unfortunately for me, I have orangutan arms.

So my bench is kind of lacking compared to my squat and deadlift. But when I first started playing football, I wasn't a punter at first. I was a safety. I kind of told my dad, I was like, Hey dad, like I want to be big and strong. And he's like, are you sure? I was like, yeah. And he was like, well, I'm not going to take it easy on you. And I was like, oh, okay, whatever. I was like, he ain't going to do that. He ain't going to push me that hard, dude. Then we had this just crappy gym set up in my grandparents basement and

that man absolutely tortured me in there um just training heavy lifts you know learn how to lift proper technique just everything but i love them for it because now i mean that's like my passion besides football is you know lifting and you know that's what I want to do after football is become a strength and conditioning coach and hopefully on my own gym one day. Um, so yeah. So some of your, um, biggest lifts, we saw that squat double, but your deadlift is your best lift. Like you, you pulled a one of them. I saw was six 605 for a set of eight. Is this right? Was it 770 for a double? Yeah.

And is that the heaviest pull you've ever tried before? I've attempted eight. I think it was 825. And I got it to my knees and then hip shifted forward and just kind of fell in position with it. And that was really close to me coming out here for otas and i was like yeah i don't need to attempt something that heavy again but this offseason i got some i got some big numbers playing hopefully we'll hit them uh i've upgraded the home gym so i got kilos high power

bars kabuki bars kale machines rack, rope combo rack. So you really upgraded the home gym. Yeah, I really did. Yeah, yeah. That's the nice thing about the NFL. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it allows you to get more cool lifting stuff. It does, it does.

So, like, when you're saying you're going for these numbers, you know, obviously there's a whole team built around strength and conditioning and everything like do your coaches around that do they say like hey chill a little bit or do they just let you do your own thing like what are they saying about it when i first got here they were kind of skeptical uh just because you know they've never seen a punter that lifts like i do did they act like was there a like the first conversation were they like uh like i don't know if they sit you down they ask like what your background in strength training is like and like, was there a, like, the first conversation, were they, like, like, I don't know if they sit you down, they ask, like, what your background in strength training is, like, and, like, was there ever a time when you told them some of your numbers and they were, like, thought you were mistaken or, like, you know, like, there was some confusion there? No, they knew I was pretty strong when I first came in.

I don't think they realized how strong I was um until i started lifting in front of them and they were like holy shit like this kid knows what he's doing um it took a little while for me to like you know for them to eventually give me the green light to lift somewhat heavy um and you know that's when we did the 585 for a double um i actually had another set planned after that 585 squat and i was just i was so gassed from practice and meetings all day. The way it moved, it looked like you had like five more sets planned. It looked easy. I mean, that looked like a pretty, that was, that was not an RPE 10 lift.

You know, that was like, that was not a super intense, like difficult struggle for you by any means. was not a super intense like difficult struggle for you by any means no we uh we had a i think we were going to go for like 625 635 for the neck for the last set um and we had to move it at a certain speed i don't know if y'all saw the speed tracker on there but we were moving at 0.45 meters a second i was hitting 55 with 585 so 635 was probably definitely there but like i said i was just so gassed and i was just i kind of cut myself off because you know football is my first priority and i don't want to right you know compromise you know being sore for the game or anything like that well i do think you for a lot of players is probably not the case, but you do walk a fine line. Like your strength is at a certain level where, you know,

does getting stronger now help you for football or not? Like, you know, if you can deadlift eight 25 instead of 800, does that make you better or not? Like, I'm not sure what the answer is because it's just such a, it's getting to be very,

you know, high elite number range yeah i mean uh for me i i like heavy training just because it's explosive movement and what i do is be explosive for literally a second i'm not trained to run a 40 yard dash i'm not trained to tackle your eyes all the time, not route running or anything like that. So I don't need to train for that specifically. I just have, I take it a little too far maybe, but I'm still going to do it just because I enjoy it. It's bad-ass too.

Yeah. Yeah. It makes it go viral on Instagram. Dude, I did not expect that to go viral. Like it did. Cause I, like you said, i have videos of me

doing some crazier stuff right i was like okay this is probably gonna get like a thousand likes maybe and then woke up the next morning i was just like holy shit what what was it like did you have like thousands of notifications and dms from people and stuff all of a sudden oh dude my dms were i mean it was either like, dude, this is insane, or it was like, this isn't after grass, this isn't a squad, it's just all sorts of stuff. That's the other thing. That is the funniest one, though, the people that are concerned about your depth, you know, like, you're in the middle of an NFL season as a punter, and they're concerned about your

depth in the weight room, those are great. season as a punter and they're concerned about your depth in the weight room that that those are great yeah also like it was not uh super high they were not super high squats also like if you look at it in my opinion and tommy what you're saying is absolutely right like what's um it does does that really matter but the biggest thing to me is like my takeaway when i watch that video is i've seen a lot of people squat like that much weight, give or take. And there's varying levels like some people when they do it, you can tell it's taking everything they've got. Like you did that set. And regardless of if your depth was one inch deeper or one inch higher or wherever it was, you can just tell by the way someone moves the weight um that they're strong or not and like the way you move that you can just watch it and be like

okay yeah this dude is obviously very strong the way he's moving it like regardless of the depth of if it would have been this much deeper like i don't think that that matters that much no i mean that and that's what we talked about too i mean my strength coach at la he was like you know we don't really care about you know trying to touch your ass to the floor we're trained to be explosive we're doing speed squats i mean depth right now is not really our main priority off season that's when we that's when we're like okay we have to get below 90 when we do our heavy stuff and all that but in season dude we're just trying to remain as explosive as we possibly can. And that's what I do on squat.

That's what I do on bench. And then I haven't done a straight bar deadlift in season. I don't really deadlift that much in season. So I just do a bunch of trap bar pulls and stuff like that. So what is the programming like in season or out of season? I mean, I guess you haven't gone through the full year like uh in season or out of season i mean i guess you haven't gone through the the full year of the after season out out of season but how much uh input do you get in what you're doing versus how much input uh what the strength coaches are

telling you that they want you to do so um being that i'm a punter my program is different from the entire teams um when we do our lifts they allow me to go heavier than what they would normally allow a normal punter to go, which is, which is good. Um, but we also focus on, you know, jumping flexibility, you know, just trying to stay as loose as possible. We don't want to get tight or sore or anything. So we don't lift that long. I mean, our lifts are probably an hour

hour 15 minutes at most and a majority of it is mobility work or just core work or rotational movements you know just stuff that would help me with football and off season that's kind of like when you can overdose on pre-workout and just go in and lose your mind the weight room yeah are you the strongest punter ever ever uh i would i would say no but at the same time i don't know of any punter that's done the same list i'm definitely not the most shredded that's steve weatherford for sure yeah steve is pretty ripped but not near as strong as you like not even in the same list. I'm definitely not the most shredded. That's Steve Weatherford for sure. Yeah, Steve Weatherford is pretty ripped,

but not near as strong as you, like not even in the same ballpark whatsoever. I think he's benched 400. I think he has bench pressed 400 before, but I think his squat is like 450. So, you know. Well, Steve Weatherford played for a decent long time too, and that's what I'm trying to do as well.

So maybe I should take a few notes from him. Well, Steve Weatherford played for a decent long time, too, and that's what I'm trying to do as well. Right. Maybe I should take a few notes from him. Definitely need to take a few notes on how to get a six-pack like he does. Who knows? Yeah, he's jacked. So when it comes to the skill of punting, does being as strong as you are, being as strong of a squad or strong as a deadlifter, do strong of a squad or strong squad strong as a deadlifter like do you see carry over than that then directly like to your absolutely football

yeah absolutely yeah because it you know i don't know if i know much about punting but what gets you in the nfl is almost nothing yes yes next to nothing yes yeah so um and punting, what gets you in the NFL is how good is your miss hit. And the miss hit is like when you don't hit a ball like you normally do. And for me, when I was growing up, I didn't have enough money to go see like private coaches or get all the right techniques. So what me and my dad came up with was if I'm not going to be as technically sound as everybody, I'm just going to kick harder than everybody.

So that way, even if I do miss hit a ball, it's still just going to go as high and as far as everybody's. And I definitely see carry over with that because if I don't hit it right, but I still just swing away and, you know, I let my strength take over. I'm still going, I'm still able to kick the crap out of the ball and make it go just as high and just as far. I'm still able to kick the crap out of the ball and make it go just as high and just as far. When I do hit a really good ball, it's one of the biggest in the world. That was kind of our goal. Once I finally got coaching, that's kind of when it took off. My strength and my technique finally shook hands. Here we are now, just letting the pigs fly.

When did you decide you wanted to get serious about punting actually at what age um i would say my junior year of high school okay so i mean that is that a later than a lot of guys go down the puncher route or do guys wait like that? No, I would say that's not normal. You know, a lot of guys, they go from playing soccer, you know, from middle school and everything. I played soccer when I was little. In middle school, I gave it up and I kind of just like did a couple different sports like wrestling and all that

and track and field um then when i got to high school all my buddies started playing it and i was like well if all my friends are playing it i gotta play it too i guess um started playing there and you know like i said i was a safety at first and i hated it it wasn't't athletic, wasn't fast. And then it was kind of the classic story like, oh, we need a kicker. Who played soccer? And I raised my hand and started kicking freshman year. And I was actually more of a field kicker and kickoff specialist and then started punting as well.

And then junior year, that's when I was like, damn, my punting could be really good. So that's when I started going to see coaches. And, you know, after my junior year, went on this road trip to a bunch of different colleges, big like Power 5 D1 schools, trying to get, you know, scholarship offers to play football. And I got a couple of preferred walk-on offers, but my parents couldn't afford college. I didn't want to go into debt like that. And I almost,

almost gave up. But then my dad suggested that I just try out Division II schools and tried out Wingate. Wingate was the only school that gave me a scholarship and committed. And freshman year, my head coach, Coach Reich, he was like, dude, like you could be like a legit punter. So after my freshman year, I started taking it like super serious. Like all my like free time started to revolve around the gym and punting kicking and just being a better football player and I just kept getting better and better each year and and here we are now so how much of with

a punter though you know through this learning process how much of it is technique refinement versus like for you in the case like just strength strength, like what was, what do you feel like took you farther? I would, I would say technique, but strength is really, really close. Because I was already a decent punter without having the correct technique just because of my strength. But I mean, technique is everything when it comes to punting, especially with your drop, your steps, your swing path. Like a lot of people don't know just how technical punting is, like in order to make the ball spiral off your foot and go as high and as far as you want, make it do different spins, just everything about it like it's so just

technically sound that technique will carry you a lot farther than strength will but strength is also very important right right okay so then when you're when you're practicing punting are you like a pitcher is there a certain number of of punts you have in you for the day or could you just hit unlimited oh there's there's there's a few like i can only do probably 30 full punts then have in you for the day or could you just hit unlimited oh there's there's there's a few like i can only do probably 30 full punts then i'm like okay that's enough because every time i punt the ball my leg hyperextends um so a mobile you know mobility and you know your tendons you know they become tired and tight and you can only do so much um you know i now i know guys that have just gone out and punted for hours and hours and hours and they can do it i'm not one of those guys um

i go out hit my set do what i need to do you know directional wise short punt wise everything and i'm like okay that's good because you're not going to hit 60 balls in a game. Like the most you'll get in a game is probably like – I think the most I've had in a game so far this year is like six, seven, something like that. So if you can make 30 balls good instead of going out and just swinging away for 100 and miss hitting a lot, but hitting a few good ones, it's not going to really help you out that much.

Just going out and just hitting good, clean balls for 45 minutes. That's about all you need to do. What are you, 6'3", 2", I don't know, what's your size? 6'4 1⁄2", 245 pounds. Is that big for a punter? How tall are punters usually? There's actually a few tall punters in the league now um tommy townsend he's he's decently tall jordan stout he's about as tall as me

bradley pinion for the falcons he's i think he's actually taller than me um now like weight wise yeah i'm a little I'm a little big for a putter. Okay. But that doesn't seem like a disadvantage. It feels like that could be your advantage at some time. Not that I know shit about punting, but that's just what I think about. The other thing I wanted to know, I could look up a picture, but what's your face mask look like that you wear oh it's so it's a kicker face mask that's not the single bar i wish could you can you get the single bar will they is that allowed like is there anything like that would be sick if you could get the single bar though it would be sick it would be sick

that's what i wondered if that's even an option anymore they're like no you can't wear the single bar no not at all can't get your ass gouged out yeah it's probably as minimal as you can get away with i suppose but uh yeah yeah okay uh kind of a shame on the single bar though pretty sweet look yeah it would be it would be Yes. Just one other thing on your lifts. We kind of talked about your deadlift and your squat. What's your, and you said your long wingspan, not as good at benching, but I still saw you benching like over three plates or something in one video, I think too, right? Yeah, so I've done 395.

Oh, yeah. So you could be hitting 400 probably in no time if it was a priority for you. Yeah, so this offseason I want to hit 425. That's like my goal on putt or on bench. Yeah. Yeah, so you'd be powerlifting totaling like over 1,800 here. I mean, obviously you're punting in the Nivelle. You don't care about this, but could you ever see a scenario in your life where you would do like, I don't even, would you, I mean, obviously you're punting in the Nivelle, you don't care about this,

but could you ever see a scenario in your life where you would do like a powerlifting meet? So I'm actually debating on doing one this off season. There's the gym, the gym I went to when I was in college, they're throwing, uh, just a small little meet in March. And I was thinking about probably going to that and just having fun and seeing what I can go out there and put up on the platform. Yeah.

That'd be really cool. I would like to see that. That would be cool. Uh, would you have to get, get it green lighted by the Rams first? Probably, but I don't see why they wouldn't.

Right. Why, why they would say no. uh because it is off season I mean it's kind of like it's your time to do what you want you know and it's on you if you get hurt so yeah yeah um yeah it's your it's your future yeah it's like you said it is uh important for you um you know you talked about your influence from your from your dad as a lifter and everything is there any power lifters that you follow like on Instagram, YouTube or not just power lifters, any lifters of any kind that you kind of follow

or have enjoyed following through your course of lifting and getting stronger? Yeah so Ed Cohn's number one for me he's the GOAT. But John Hack, John Hack, John Hack is also, I mean, he's pushing, he's pushing for that GOAT status too, and he's very close. I love watching Jamal Browner, Sawyer Klatt. Who else do I watch?

Dawson Windham. Yeah, we've met him before. Yeah, we met him in Kansas City that year. It's really funny. You're naming all very relevant names and stuff that people don't know if they're not a little bit engaged in powerlifting. I just can't imagine there's very many NFL players that know as much about lifting as a sport that you do. You know, we've had Coe Keeft on the show before here.

He's a tight end for the Buccaneers, and he's big into lifting, so we've had similar conversations with him before. But I just don't think there's that many dudes in the league that know that much about it. No, not at all. Not at all. Yeah, that's cool. Okay, I okay i gotta ask you about something important here you're uh and if you're madden rating do you know what it is i do not it's a 72 you're a 72 and mad not that i haven't had madden for for many years but i had to look this up out

of curiosity you started the year like i could look this up and you can see because Madden must update their ratings every week or so frequently. You started the year as a 68 overall. You're now up to a 72 overall in Madden. What do you think of that rating? I'd say that's pretty good, especially for a rookie. I mean, most rookies, when they first get it, unless you're like a first or second round draft pick,

you're going to be rated pretty low. So I feel like that's pretty good. I'm not upset with it at all. Here's what I have. That 72 could be fine, but here's what I have issue with. Do you know what your strength is rated at in Madden? It's probably like a 50, 55.

Yeah. That's insane. Isn't it? Yeah. Not that I don't agree with. It's ridiculous. Like that needs to jump up. Like I told what I think,

I mean, what would you put is incorrect? That's your weight. It's gotta be at least a 90, a hundred. Yeah. Maybe, maybe they'll fix it here soon, but I don't, I don't play men at all. So I mean, they can do what they want, but just know that the 55 strength is pretty far off.

Yeah. That one's horseshit. Yeah. I'm like 55. But I do think there is big like a whole bunch of people that work there that are like in charge of ratings and stuff like that and they're doing research on stuff so i wouldn't be surprised i'd be really interested to see after you're lifting videos like going viral and that sort of thing if that changed at some point in time that they're like oh we need to adjust something here if it was lower than a 55 before and they upgraded to a 55 after that we don't we don't have to we don't have to call people here uh yeah yeah sports yeah that's uh there is no reason it should be below 90 though like that should not be the case at all. No. How many guys in the L.A. Rams weight room can outlift you in, say, like, squatting?

I mean, you don't deadlift. I mean, nobody can out-deadlift you there. I think that there's no chance. We shouldn't say there's no chance. There's freaks out there. But, I mean, it's going to be tough for anyone to be able to out deadlift you there. How about how about squatting? You know, is there many people in there that you see thrown on more than 600 pounds for sets like that very often?

No, no. In season. No, they don't lift that heavy off season. I don't know what their numbers are. I'd have I have to wait and see. But if I had to take a guess, I don't think there's anybody on the team that could out squat me um bench wise i mean every yeah every lot like they're gonna out bench me because that's what they do that's for sure like their their job is to push other 300 pound man around yeah there's definitely gonna be some 500 pound benchers in there like i would think for sure so yeah yeah now like just lifting as a whole like yeah there's a lot of guys that can just go forever aaron donald bro that dude is just he's just a different he's a different breed yeah yeah that i don't doubt that for a second. You just got to look at him and it's kind of obvious.

Yeah. Yeah. He'll go out, practice, lift, or actually he'll go to meetings, lift, got to practice,

lift after practice. I mean, he's just so, I mean, it's unbelievable to watch just how dedicated he is to, you know, being as strong as he is and being as good a shape as he is. Like, you know, it's, it's really inspiring and, you know, he's a good, he's a good guy to look up to.

And, you know, he's also one of the greatest, if not the greatest defensive lineman to ever play the game. So, I mean, it just goes to show like how staying committed into the weight room and, you know, just taking care of yourself can take you. He'd be a scary guy to line up against. Oh yeah. Yeah. When, when, when AD's in the weight room and he's on the ox, you don't ever go touch the ox man.

Whatever he's listening to you're listening to as well. I believe that. I think that's a fair rule. Oh, for sure. Yeah. He's earned that. I think that's a fair rule. Oh, for sure. Yeah, he's earned that. Are you in the hunt to be a Pro Bowl punter this year? I mean, I've had a pretty solid year so far. But, no, I don't think so. I mean, A.J. Cole for the Raiders,

he's having just an absolutely historic season as a punter. And then the 49ers punter, Mitch Wyschnowski, he's also doing very well. But my goal coming into my rookie season wasn't, you know, to make the pro ball, although like it would have been really cool. My goal was just to come in here, have a, have a solid season, you know, do the best that I can for my team, whatever they need me to do. If they need me to hit a 70-yard punt or to hit a 30-yard short punt inside the 10, like, you know, I just focus on one punt at a time.

I don't really focus on, you know, the awards or accolades like that. I just go out there and try to execute at that single moment in time to the best of my ability and whatever the team needs me to do. Do you have any crazy punter rituals or routines every time before you punt? Like you got to pick up three blades of grass and like Aaron Rogers sort of thing. Or even you see a lot of guys now even having like a, have an ammonia nose torque on the sideline.

Yeah. Oh, oh yeah. So before, so I also kick off for a team and for every kickoff I'll hit ammonia. Okay. Nice. Yeah. So does the team provide ammonia for people, or does everyone bring their own?

No, they do. What brand do they have? Do you have any idea? I have no idea the brand. I just know it's the Snaps. Okay. I'm not – Okay, the –

Yeah. Yeah, I'm not big into the ammonia companies now. Pre-workout, all that stuff I can tell you all about. I can't take it because, you know, nfl is bad pretty much all yeah um so if you want to have caffeine before you lift what do you have uh just energy drinks like celsius or bangs or rains or something like that yeah um but in season i don't really try to take as much caffeine as I can for lift now off season yeah we'll do some I've done some pretty stupid stuff when it comes to caffeine I'm not doing that anymore but in the off season I'll up the caffeine and take for this a little

bit yeah okay if you could punt any object other than a football what would you punt anything come to your mind that would be fun to give a boot? Be fun to give a boot. I would say probably a soccer ball just because I used to play soccer, but I haven't kicked a soccer ball in so long. I'm interested to see just how far I could kick that ball around. Do you think with a little practice you could kick it farther than a football or is a football always going to be the farthest?

Good question. No, I don't think I can kick a soccer ball farther than I can a football. I don't think I could. Who's the best punter ever? Like, is that a unanimous choice that everyone's like? No, I mean, if you ask any punter, they'll give you a different answer. Now, there's a couple guys that would come to mind, like Shane Leckler. Like, he's definitely up there.

Ray Guy, I mean, he was kind of the first punter that kind of brought punting to the spotlight. I mean, A.J. Cole, I mean, after this this season he could be thrown up there johnny hacker is definitely up there without a doubt um yeah those are probably a few of the guys i can name off but i can't give you a unanimous decision like who the greatest of all time is yeah are uh are punters people too oh absolutely i like that hashtag uh are you as good of a holder as you are a punter are you also the holder yeah i am so i didn't hold in college and that was also another big thing as to why i thought any draft it was you know i never held and holding for those that don't know,

holding is extremely hard. Cause you have to hit a certain spot where like, wherever the kicker wants you to put the ball, you put the ball, whatever lean he wants, you lean it that way, wherever he wants the laces point. Like some guys like a straight downfield, some guys like it pointed down the middle of the uprights. Like it's just so technically sound.

It happens so fast. Like, a field goal operation from snap to kick, it happens in, like, 1.3, 1.2 seconds. So, like, you have to do all that in that short amount of time. When I first got here, dude, I was on my knees holding for like 500 snaps a day. Like every day it was just terrible. My knees felt terrible. But now I would say I'm a pretty decent holder. No, it's not as good as my punting, but hopefully it gets to that point.

Would you have more nerves to go out and big important punt on the line or to go hold for a big field goal end of the game? To be honest with you, when I'm in a game, I kind of just black out. I don't feel any emotion at all. I just go stone cold. Everything just goes quiet and I'm kind of just letting my muscle memory take over now when i first started in college dude i would be shaking throwing up i mean just nervous shits for the games like i was just a

wreck but now it's just like all right it's another day in the office go out and have fun just let it fly yeah good stuff uh tommy what do you think about overrated underrated should we jump into that let's do it. All right. We've got this little game we play with every guest. It's called overrated, underrated. It's pretty simple. We've got a special hand-picked set of topics just for you,

and it's just your job to decide if each one is overrated or underrated. You can elaborate on each one as much or as little as you want, but you can't ride the line. That's the most important part. You have to decide if each one is overrated or underrated. First one, overrated or underrated, Berserker.

Berserker. I think we thought... I think you had a shirt on. Oh, Berserk. Berserk, the manga. Yeah, you tell us. we're a little bit ignorant so you we're leaning on you a little bit but oh it's it's underrated for sure i mean it's

one of the best i've ever read and um i don't see a lot of people talking about it now if now you can find people that like know their shit about it but whenever i wear a shirt like unless somebody like really knows about they're like what's that and it's just like dude but so yeah it's definitely underrated is it just a manga or was there like an actual animated series of any kind with it um so they tried to make an animated series about it and they it was when 3d animation like first came out and the animation was just absolutely atrocious. Um, but they also made movies and the movies are really good now.

Just fair warning. If y'all don't know anything about it, it's like, it's one of the most messed up, like just, yeah, it's, it's pretty messed up. It's pretty, it's pretty graphic. Okay. So would you, would you record, But you'd recommend the Mongo over the series? Oh, for sure, yeah. Okay, good to know. All right. Overrated or underrated?

Pat McAfee. Pat McAfee. Yeah, McAfee, sorry. Oh. Pat McAfee. Yeah, McAfee. Sorry, yeah. Oh. I would say he's underrated.

Now, I know he's very popular now at the Pat McAfee show and everything, and that's kind of like what people know him for. But a lot of people don't know just how good of a punter he was when he was playing. That guy was just – he's so fun to watch like his highlights are just unbelievable uh i mean he's he goes out there and he just acts like a little kid like after a big punt he'll do a golf swing or he'll do the mcgregor walk like not a lot of people know yeah that's right that he was just he was just a just a dude when it came to playing

football and he's he's funny as shit so he's killing it are you going to take any inspiration and get like some some fun celebration dances going later in the season here uh so actually in college i had a bunch of celebrations um now i can't dance for for shit and i tried it in a game one time and my teammates were like hey bro like we don't do that again don't do that again so i mean i've done the superman celebration i've done the golf swing i've done all that um but now i just get like so like hyped up after a punt that most of the time i just go down there and scream my head off and just tell my teammates, like, good coverage and just headbutt them and all sorts of shit. After a punt as the punter,

is there any expectation for you to cover the play? You know, okay, what is the coaching? Are you the safety in that scenario then? Yeah. Or, like, what is the – Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. So my coach

he's like as soon as you punt it just start just sprint down the field as fast as you can and just try to you know just cover any like lanes that he could possibly run down so yeah you need to get that big hit on the highlight reel then you'll have that to go with the uh yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure okay overrated or underrated sumo deadlifts oh my god oh gosh it's kind of interesting as an nfl player uh question more so because not only do i not think deadlifts are all that popular amongst a lot of NFL players but even like a sumo deadlift I imagine if you did that some guys in the gym might even be like what is what is that that you're doing there you know yeah yeah um oh god

damn that's a tough question uh I'm i'm gonna i'm gonna say i'm gonna say underrated uh because a lot of people are like oh dude like it's sumo deadlift like it's not a real deadlift like a bar is only moving this far off the ground but it's just like okay like you try sumo deadlift like like you know there's so many guys out there that you know that are built for conventional death and there's some guys that are built for sumo death like dan grigsby like that dude's got the hip mobility of one in seven billion people like you know uh jamal browner like jamal brown is a good example like dude can pull a thousand conventional and he can pull 500 kilograms uh sumo it's just like uh the argument of people saying like oh

sumo doesn't count like doing conventional it's just like man it's like dude's just doing what's best for him and his leverage is like it's almost always sorry everyone's doing whatever works out best for them like it's just yeah yeah nobody's taking the high road they're like i could deadlift more sumo but i'm gonna i'm gonna stick to conventional because just because i'm a man of principle yeah now i will say this when i mean you see somebody conventional deadlift and they're just grinding out rep like that's the best that's the best thing to watch just somebody just pulling and for like eight ten seconds like just grinding those bleeds like everything like that's that's the best to watch when you see somebody sumo deadlift like they'll start pulling and if their hip shifts they immediately drop it like i haven't really

seen that many sumo deadlift grounds but conventional deadlift grounds are really fun to watch yeah i can get down with that okay last one uh this one's kind of worth all the marbles um overrated or underrated make sure i got the right one oh yeah overrated or underrated the drop kick damn that's a real tough that's also a tough one um i would i would say underrated again i know I went underrated on everything, but underrated just because the drop kick's just – like, it's so hard to do. I mean, I can do it to a certain extent, but, I mean, these Australian guys that come over and punt, like those guys can do some just magical stuff with the ball.

I would never say a drop kick's underrated. I'll always say it's underrated because there's always – like somebody will always come out and be able to do another trick with a drop kick. So I'd say underrated. Do you know when the last time somebody did a drop kick in a game was? Like that doesn't come up, does it? A drop kick field goal?

I cannot tell you. Because the one i could find that that comes up is uh doug flutie it was for the new england patriots and it must have been like in one of his last his last season or his last game or something like that belichick had him had him do one i think but explain that for what it is i don't don't even understand exactly what the rule is here like so in lieu of a field goal, you can do a drop kick. Is that right? You can, yeah.

Yeah, or like for an extra point, you can do it as a drop kick instead of kicking an extra point? Yep. So that's within the rules, but nobody does it. No, because it's that hard to do, and especially doing it in front of 70,000 people. The margin for arrows is so small with that. But you bounce it off the ground and then kick it right on the rebound

up. Yep. That is so much harder if anyone's ever handled the football on any level and like the way it bounces on the ground like to be able to consistently bounce that ball like the same way is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So do you think you could ever let them talk them into letting you do a drop kick in the game just for the hell of it?

Oh, no, absolutely not. I mean, it'd be pretty baller if you went out there and nailed one. Yeah. Was your battery running dead or something? No, my Bluetooth speaker right here is just talking and all sorts of stuff. Okay. Yeah, so we'll be keeping our fingers crossed for that dropkick someday, though. Maybe one day, but i don't see

i don't see it happening like let the kicker go out there and do his job and make yeah yeah that's fair do you does the punter and the kicker have a special bond like are you guys uh doing the same are you guys in the same place a lot of time or is it not like that yeah so my roommate upstairs right now is actually my football kicker okay yeah. So, yeah, I mean, we're, we're pretty close. I mean, we spend the whole day together and meetings and then we live together practice. I mean, we're just like, we have to be like best friends just because we both rely on each other to do our jobs to a high. So like whenever he messes up, I give him advice or whenever I mess up, he gives me advice. So it's just he gives me advice so it's just you know it's a

special bond it's kind of like a frat so you know there's only 32 of us in the league so we're all pretty close do you uh do you give him any uh lifting advice no he's he's not a big lifter uh he's he he he goes out there and just makes kicks yeah that's all that's all that's all there is to it maybe you could get him kicking 60 yard field goals though if you got him squatting six plates oh dude no i've i mean he's hit an 80 yard field goal before um so he he he doesn't need a lift anymore he's he's good okay awesome well looks like you passed overrated underrated so congratulations thank you thank you those are some those are some uh tough questions there yeah it's like it's like standard nfl questions right yeah it's like yeah it's like just as uh

prestigious as like a 60 yard coffin corner punt yeah Yeah. Just as much, just as much. That's probably more. That's probably more. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, awesome.

Well, we, uh, we really appreciate you having, having you on. This is a lot of fun. Um, I really enjoy,

I'll be paying more attention to the Rams now, especially, uh, hearing how much you are actually into lifting in the community makes it even more exciting and more fun too. So, uh, that's really cool. I think a lot of people will be excited to listen to this and check it out yes sir absolutely thank y'all for having me on absolutely well we appreciate it we'll be uh

we'll be cheering for you go rams absolutely awesome thanks all right thank y'all see ya yeah Those are beans fresh from LA. Yeah. Those are LA beans. I guess we didn't really get to talk to him about the change, the LA lifestyle going from North Carolina. That's probably a big Hollywood. The glitz.

Yeah. Getting all Hollywood. Imagine he's probably, I suppose if you're busy enough, you don't even really have a feeling. You probably say, ah, no, we kind kind of probably say well the traffic the traffic seem but they probably like live really close even too so um that's pretty good yeah that was cool he's definitely a lifter yeah he does he knows he knows the guys He knows his thing. Yeah. I like that.

That's good stuff. All right. Well, are we going to continue our Crew Falls rundown, or do you need to hit us with a little ad quick, and then maybe we'll get back into a couple things? Yep. Today's show is also brought to you by Barefoot Shoes. Winter is upon us in the Midwest, or it will be very soon.

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want to also comes in black too. Yeah, available in two colors, a brown color and a black color. Now, I want to get the correct things. The brown is Kodiak brown. The black one is a black bear. We are partial to the Kodiak brown ourselves, but if you need a pair of black boots, you know, maybe you have a job that requires black. There is a black option out there. So if you want a pair of Bruin there is a black option out there so if you want a pair of bruin boots for yourself or any of the other great barefoot shoes which there was a lot of people at the crew falls meetup that had their barefoot shoes on this weekend there was a lot there was a lot of ursonomics uh big tron was wearing her ursonomics big nathan was wearing

was it abby had a pair wearing ur might have been wearing Ersonomics too. Were you wearing your Ersonomics? I didn't have my Ersonomics on. Or you were wearing. I had my black Ursus on. Ursus, yeah, me too. And you had yours on. There was more than that though.

I think I had one shot where there was like six people that all had the Ersonomics on. There was a lot with them. Everyone had. Grayson had his. Oh, yeah. Everyone had Ursus. Did anyone have low top ursus on well nate did when we went out okay i don't know if anyone had the low tops on not the was anyone wearing those

so i don't think anyone had those ones on but yeah the ursus was represented was represented well throughout the yeah there was a lot of uh barefoot shoes being worn there for sure yes so if you'd like a pair of barefoot shoes for yourself make sure to go to barefoot.store and i'm seeing right now use code santa for free domestic shipping until december 31st thank you barefoot shoes all right yeah so we were talking about our uh all right yeah so we were talking about our uh crew falls meetup we did the did the damn thing got the chicken bakes there was uh quite the crowd at costco crossco is ridiculous uh it is insane overall the chicken bake was was very good i did like the chicken so you can you can confirm that it is worth four dollars absolutely worth four dollars we bought 20 chicken bakes and it cost 80 dollars like we came away

with a ton of food and it was like not very much money relatively yeah the chicken bakes were actually on massonomics too that's important to mention on the house and then we we kind of had this uh break period planned which in my mind i was thinking oh yeah i'll be able to kick back for a while maybe take a nap you know i've been up for 12 hours at this point we're gonna have a busy night and the break it just seemed like there barely was i mean it was just the right it was just enough time to it was by the time we left costco you know you and i had a couple other things we had to sort out, so we were a little slower. But I don't know. I think I got home from Costco at, was it 3 something? 3.30 maybe?

And our plan was to meet up for dinner at 5.30, so we had two hours. So by the time you kind of catch your breath, shower, hang out for a minute, you already got to leave again. That part of the day went so fast. And we weren't sure how that was going to work out when we were planning out the schedule well we didn't realize that everything just always takes longer than what you think and so yeah i mean that ended up being just the right amount of time to just settle down for a minute and then we uh everyone made the trip to looks marketplace and we they have a brewery they have you know lots of good food,

and we had our own little room to ourselves. So we ordered our food. We got to sit down, and we got to just chill, and that's when the living easy really started. That is when the living easy really started, wasn't it? And we went there, and from there, we bar hopped to at least three other places. Yeah, we made our way downtown.

I really liked the pub bar that we were at. Dempsey's, the Irish bar? We had a few tables there, yeah. Was that Dempsey's? Sorry, Barney's. Okay. Barney's. Okay.

I know there's Dempsey's in Aberdeen, but there's one in Watertown, too. Yeah, Watertown has one. I even had a Guinness or two in Blarney. I had three pints of Guinness. Yeah, I figured you had to do it. I was standing by Stu at the bar, and I'm like, oh, what do I get? And I looked at him at a Guinness. I'm like, I got to do a Guinness donut.

He goes, well, yeah, when you're here, you got to. I mean, I feel extremely stupid for this, but it's probably someone else could find themselves in the same situation i was not paying attention to the places that were even going so little i was more i was enthralled by the people yeah and uh when i went toward my first drink i was like oh tron what are you having and he was having a guinness and i'm like i just to myself i thought oh that's an interesting choice you know i don't feel like i always see. And then I think it was Stu or someone was also drinking a Guinness. And then I was like, there's something going on here.

Are like, are these people all Guinness drinkers? Like, I'm like, I can't remember the last time I've sat down with someone and they've ordered a Guinness. Not that there's anything wrong with it. I just, and then like, it was probably a good five minutes after that that it hit me i'm like oh wait a second this is an irish pub so then i ordered so then i ordered a guinness too because like then knowing that you're like well i do kind of want one then it does just feel different uh um but it took me a while to actually put that together but in my defense it's because

i'm just like just caught up talking everyone i just and also you don't really know where we're going you're just walking down the street then someone says go in this door right here that's exactly what like you're like let me see the sign out front and read that you know i didn't even know what kind of place it was i mean once i once i realized that then i'm like oh yes this is an irish pub obviously isn't it um so that was a lot of fun then we had a couple tables in there where we all posted up and there was a lot of just living easy a lot of like lifting talking not lifting yeah there was massonomics talk just joking around just a lot i mean i know i've said

it seven eight nine ten times just a very very fun time and i saved a quote because there's a lot of you know a lot of people that after the fact in the discord were talking about it and i thought this was particularly particularly like accurate that tron said um where him for example especially like he didn't know any of these people a lot of these people maybe only for what three four months yeah and like a lot of these people in the crew maybe they know some of these people but they don't know any of these people. And he's been in the crew for, what, three, four months? Yeah. And like a lot of these people in the crew, maybe they know some of these people, but they don't know all of them. They only know a few.

Like some like him, like the West Virginia guys, they didn't know anyone there besides you and I before that. And he said it was like running into a bunch of old friends you never knew you already had. And I'm like, that is exactly what it's like. It's like you, all these old friends that you never even knew existed, but yet they are like, you're, it's like, you've been friends forever. And it's hilarious. You know, I don't even, just when I think I'm meeting up with mass and Alex people, I don't even think twice about it. So I meet up with mass and Alex people like, yeah, whatever. But like telling my wife,

she's like, who are you going to meet with? I'm like, well, well it's these when I think of even like lunch the first day right like all these two guys are flying in from West Virginia and there's a guy from New York and then uh Grayson you know she knows him because he's from Aberdeen and then there's this other guy Colton and he lives in town here and she's like but do you really know any of these guys and I'm like well I don't besides Grayson who I've you know known for right right eight years or whatever besides that it's not like i'm like have like all these memories like personal memories with the guys but at the same time but also i kind of know them you know i just know them and like the west virginia guys i'll try to talk to travis at the arnold you know

that that was like my experience with travis and stew have never met before but you sit down it's like oh no no we've known each other for years we go way back that's exactly what it's like when you get around the massonomics crew in person uh it is just immediately like that every time and it's not like that everyone's the same personality there's a wide oh yeah no there is a range of personalities but it's just like this common ground yeah some guys are quieter, but everyone just is on the same wavelength, though. Yeah, yeah. It's fun. I was interested.

It was fun seeing all the variety of Mastanomics clothing apparel that people wore between either lifting or then out on the town, like what people were choosing to wear. We had a lot of the weight weight is a number heavy is a feeling hoodie the new one yeah the camo hoodie the camo logo made quite a few appearances too but uh there was a few when we went out on saturday night there was three pocket tees bryce and i were wearing the long sleeve and toronto's wearing the short sleeve because the pocket tee is classically a going out tee it was and i thought about wearing my long sleeve but

i'm like a long sleeve maybe isn't quite warm enough because the wind's so crazy. So I'm like, I want a sweatshirt, but a sweatshirt and a long sleeve would be too much. So then I had to, I had to, and then I thought about wearing the short sleeve pocket tee, but I wanted to wear something that screamed massonomics.

Right. What did you wear? I actually had the, well, I think I wore my sweatshirt the entire night, but I, uh, I had the left,

hardly busy classic meat tea on because to me that, okay, that does really scream massonomics. Yeah. I, I sweatshirt the entire night, but I had the Lift Hard, Live Easy Classic meat tee on because to me that does really scream massonomics. Yeah, I went with the long sleeve pocket tee because I was going to be damned if I would be babysitting a coat all night going from bar to bar. Plus you had that handy pocket on you everywhere you went. Oh, it was perfect for uh tron brought crew these crew uh macaduno crew royale cigars and what i gotta say about this i was so confused he had showed me this box for the crew royale and it's cru with an umlaut uh-huh and i thought like he had showed me this

a couple times and i was pretty which I thought I thought this what I what I first thought I still thought this was cool but I thought he had like these custom made to say crew royale is like some service where you're like oh yeah here's our cigar you get to like pick whatever you want on it you know right and then later did I find out and I did smoke one of these actually this was my was a spare, so I did actually even smoke a cigar. That's probably mine. I put it in your, I put one in your. It probably is yours, actually.

I put one in your, at the one bar. I tried to hand them out to her, but I'm like, I already have a camera, a beer. I can't hold a cigar, too, so I put it in your shirt pocket. Yes. But what I later found out, no, he was looking for, like, relevant cigars because he's a bit of a he much like brian is a bit of a cigar aficionado and uh also stew very much a cigar aficionado stew is a damn like level 10 aficionado of cigars but he found these that are called the crew royale like that's a real thing yeah with an umlaut and like even at the time i was like

talking just like this probably yelling because i'm like what do you mean this is real like i just that blew my mind and that also made me think i thought we were original like how could of all the things we could come up with how could c-r-u with an umlaut be like even a thing oh i think that's how molly crew spells it i believe oh no they do with an e though they have c-r with an umlaut be like even a thing? I think that's how Motley Crue spells it, I believe. Oh, no, they do it with an E, though. They have C-R-U umlaut E. Right. So I just thought that, I mean, it's not that crazy,

but it did just strike me as kind of crazy. But then so when we were at the final bar, we were all smoking cigars and basically almost inside the bar. You you know what this is making me think i've probably never talked about this in the podcast but how funny is it how how much significance the word crew has started to have in our lives and also my son's name is crew i think about that every once in a while like does your wife ever be like do you ever say the word like like that's just a different that would be weird for you we don't even really think of it that like, that's just a different, that would be weird for you at your house to actually say. We don't even really think of it that way because it's like a whole different thing.

But the fact that it's funny that he was born before the Discord crew even existed and his name is Crew, and now, like, this word Crew has such a major importance in my life, which is just hilarious. It almost would have been funnier, not funnier, but I wonder how it would have played out if at the time you were, like, if you were having a child today and you were thinking about naming them crew, would you be like, you probably wouldn't name them that because like, if your wife brought that up, you'd be like, yeah, that word is kind of a weird, you know, it's a very like specific thing in massonomics.

It's like a, yeah, almost a joke now doing it now, like now knowing how we have it. And then you'd be like, well, we can't name our child after this mass. It'd be like it's like a, yeah, almost a joke now doing it. Now, like now knowing how we have it. And then you'd be like, well, we can't name our child after this mass. It'd be like, I'm not naming my kids lift shorts. Not that I'd have any different feelings about the name itself, but it's the fact that we've made it into such a thing. It'd be like, well, it'd feel like, well, okay, is he really naming his kid after a massonomics thing? That's what it would feel like he'd be doing.

But yeah, that is really funny though. I have thought about that a couple of times over the last couple of years, but, uh, what an odd, uh, yeah, just how,

yeah. How that, out of all the words of that could have worked out. That was how that went. Yeah. And that was kind of originally that we started talking about the noon crew. Yes. And that,

yeah, that's where it came from. The noon crew at mass dynamics. Oh man. Uh, anything else about the crew falls? noon crew at Massanomics Geo. Oh, man. Anything else about the Crew Falls? It was a hell of a good time. Well, we left Blarney Stone. We made our way over to Lucky's,

which the bars got slightly more party-ish and college-ish as we went. Tyrone was loving it, though. Oh, yeah, it was great. We've made our final stop at Pave, and it was hilarious to me because, I mean, that is the big like party bar in town. And in my mind, the last time I was there

was probably six years ago and I must've been drunk enough and not paying attention enough that I didn't think it was like, I know it gets busy, but I didn't think it was like that busy. And it was insane when we went there. Like just crazy.

We kind of were tucked away into a spot that I could just be shitting away from everyone. We just crazy kind of were tucked away into a spot that i could just be oh yeah yeah like we did we did as good as you could to find a spot that was i kind of forgot i started to forget how busy it was yes yeah we did have our own tables but it was funny i don't i didn't really notice the thing anymore but i was bringing my camera like we were vlogging everywhere oh yeah and we're out front I'm getting a video of the front of the sign you know we're all laughing and having a great time and one of the security guys comes over he goes get that camera out of here you can't have cameras in this bar and I go every person's

cell phone's the same damn thing he goes I don't care no cameras and I tried to argue with him and finally said no cameras so then we went around to the back door entrance and uh it's one of the late one of the people that was with us big paul's wife we put my camera in her purse and while i'm standing by the back entrance you know we go back to the back the guy pops out he goes hey where's that camera at it's in my car in the parking ramp over there he goes oh, thank you. And then we walked right in. It wasn't.

Like he was trying to get you with the camera. Yeah. It's like, trust me, man. Not all the things happen at this bar tonight. Like you're trying to sneak in a gun. Yeah. I guarantee you there's way worse things that are going to take place here than me having a camera in this bar tonight. I'm like, what do you?

Yeah. Well, like you said, everyone has a cell phone. If you're trying to get some sort of gotcha journalism stuff, like the easiest thing is a cell phone. You know how many, a bar like that, how many snaps and Instagram stories and Instagram posts and Facebook posts probably come out of that bar? And I mean, do you think there's thousands that come out of there? Well, their marketing relies on it.

Yeah, that's true. But like you look at, I mean, that bar, was there 500 people in that bar? Probably, and probably like at least over half of them had sent snaps. Yeah, I mean, some people will send 10 at that bar in one spot, you know? So yeah, it's a funny, like that was a rule a long time ago.

It's not something you run into very often anymore, but it was a thing there. It was starting to get late though. It was starting to get late at the bar people were actually all along the journey people were peeling just peeling off a little journey or every uh stop of the destination people more and more will were peeling off but and and i live a little ways from downtown you know if traffic isn't bad you're probably like 15 ish minutes from downtown and i was talking to big Bryce about how he gets home because he lives kind of on the same end of town as me and he's like dude you just gotta

call that ride and hope you get it and I asked him you know once the bars start to close what do you do and he goes oh sometimes you're just screwed you just wait forever and I'm like I cannot have that happen to me like that cannot be a thing yeah and I think I called my lift around oh I think it was around midnight ish and by the time the lift got there and I got home it was a little after one so that whole process took a little over an hour by the time the guy showed up and we finally got out of there but right when I left right when I left it looked like everyone was having a lot of fun still but but I it did pain me but I knew I had to do it if I if I wanted to be able to walk the next day I proud of myself made it till after one o'clock so I was uh you know but our hotels were all just a and that was four block

yes and yeah you guys had just a couple blocks to go which was right would have been so I was uh into my hotel by like 1 30 but so I was up and adam for like 21 straight hours that day and um i was very tired when i got in there though and i was very happy to crawl into bed but when i was still there they those guys were not going to leave before the bar closed like there was no way and i thought about saying goodbye to everyone and i just thought you know it would be much more fitting if i just left right now yeah i gotta i gotta i gotta stay with the state i have a reputation to appeal so i i would always be disappointed if you said i said uh uh where did where'd you say the bathroom was at and did you actually do that one yeah and i was

like okay and then never to be seen again walked home without a coat like one? Yeah, and I was like, okay. And then never to be seen again. Walked home without a coat at like 1 in the morning into the wind, and never for a second did I regret not having a coat to babysit all night. Even in the midst of that cold, cold breeze, I was thinking, you know what, I'm real happy I didn't have a coat here. I would assume the extreme tired and the alcohol also played to your favor. Yeah, that probably helped. You might have dulled the senses a little.

When I left, I think it was Tron, Mason, Bryce, Paul, the West Virginia guys, and Alec. And I don't think they were not going to stop. They weren't going to miss you. And I was kind of done drinking. My stomach was in a place that i'm like yep i have enough thing enough in my stomach right now i'm ready to not have any more uh beers in it yeah i think what ended i still cannot remember i think it was i cannot remember it was alec or matt matt oh matt was still there too oh okay yeah i think it was matt then he got shot he bought

those skittle shots for us at that point i'm, I'm like, yeah, I'm good now. I had the Skittle shot, and then I was like, and then you had a beer. Yeah. And Co-Keef's buddy was there. We were talking to Co-Keef's buddy. I forgot about that, yeah. You're like, you know that guy? I go, yeah, it's Co-Keef's buddy.

They're high school classmates. We talked, and then all of a sudden, he was just in our group for the whole week. Yes, he was. Well, because remember, we were taking pictures and sending pictures to go yeah yeah which is funny too he's probably like all these dumbasses are sending me and sean's has that picture professor sean's has the picture from like five years ago when uh it was the night that he got went to jail yeah he has picture, so we snapped that to him too. It was fun. That is good.

So that was Crew Falls 2023. Yeah. I guess the number one question is, will there be a Crew Falls 2024? Oh, after a weekend like that, I don't know how there couldn't be. I mean, I think you could almost book it now. Like, I just can't. Maybe the dates, you know, it doesn't have to be the exact same date. Right.

Well, part of the reason we had to pick have to be the exact same date. Right. You might be. Well, part of, part of the reason we had to pick December was because you had a baby and so we couldn't move it. But, uh, yeah, it kind of works out though. Anyways, with our yearly calendar of, yeah, I don't know if we'd move it any later in the year, you know, probably not. Cause it gets close to the Arnold for us. But yeah.

But then also it's like, actually this was the conversation we had. We move it up anymore and there's Thanksgiving and people were just traveling for Thanksgiving. It's kind of a good time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is that low. I have a feeling for as great as that went, if we do it again, 20 was a really good number.

Oh, it was. It was fun. That was a really great number of people to have there, too. But, hey, who am I to say 40 wouldn't be twice as fun? It would. Maybe it'd be exponentially more fun, actually. Right. Right.

So we'll see what 2024 brings in the Crew Falls December to Remember event. I got something in the mail I haven't opened it yet was I supposed to open it first or am I supposed to open it on the podcast no you were supposed to open it on the podcast I have not opened it so I don't know exactly what is it the big rectangular thing like is that from you or

yeah we might as well do it we might as well actually do this I don't want to wait I actually want you to open this now I have not opened it yet so i assume i i have this thing that came that i kept meaning to ask you if this is what it was because it could maybe it's something like important that i was from someone else that i was supposed to open right and i i guess the package didn't say it was from me true true okay so this is a you had warned me kind of i did yes so, yes. So this is a Watson Tanner sack.

And being it... You know what? We'll just say it's a... Okay, I'll say this. It's a Watson Tanner sack. And being it's the holiday season, I'm going to tell you it's a little something for the gym. Okay? Okay.

So go ahead and open that. Can you see it back there? No, I can't see over there. No. I did actually, I put it down here a little bit ago, and then tonight I clipped the banding around it so I can get to the access. Oh, just in case you had to get in there. Good call.

Okay, Tanner's getting the package right now. He's reaching off camera. He's grabbing a large cardboard box. He's just taking his sweet time getting it. Okay. I'm back. I had a long trip to the back of the fulfillment center. He's all the way back.

He wrote a segue back there. I'm out of breath. That's why he got back so fast. He had a segue to write on. So I got this out in my sack here and i have not looked at this so this it's a map it's a map of america but this it's a push pin it is a push pin map so now you can document everyone that comes to the gym they can put their pin in oh yeah because i've been noticing we've been getting a fair number of travelers down there lately right and i figured god if we had this thing five years ago this thing would have some really cool pins in it so far yeah because people don't realize

how far everyone like between the lift hardly busy classic all the guys that just passed through you'd have some amazing pins in there right now now the only thing i wonder is is this a lot like can you do this retroactively well that's what that's you're the you're not sure what the answer is on you to decide but uh there's no right or wrong i think you just got to pick one and stick to it but what do you think about retroactively or not i don't know i think because i could go back and start to i think some of the lift hardly easy classic guys would be offended if they came and their pin was already in there you know being that they want to place their own pin yeah i think some people would take pride in that right okay and plus like i wouldn't know where to start and

end if it's right right yeah because you can just start going through the records of everybody but you know the the best time to plant a tree was was 10 years ago the second best time is today so that's the model for the board right there that's a good point oh yeah this would be a good addition you know what i've thought about before too is also having one of these um like if it was like every place we've sent an order to oh god but it would also just be like it would just be it would be impossible yeah that right but then i'm like oh but could you do a world map and then like do every country oh yeah i mean that would that would actually that'd be pretty

cool that'd be much easier to do right that would be like huge of a project but like you could do states but i'm pretty sure every state would have a pin you know like they'd all and they some of them would have just so many pins would just be filled but you couldn't do it yeah every country could be a cool idea yeah so i was conscious that it did come in multiple sizes but i know how much of a commodity wall space is so i made sure to go with the smaller size because yeah that's a good i didn't want to make too much of a project for you to have to shuffle a bunch of shit around no this this will be able to have a good it's got to also be at a level that people can actually reach it reach yes but that size can be

you know, there might be a moving of one or two things. You can get some pins in there. I don't know if you have to put directions up so people know if you're visiting the gym. Probably everything at the gym has to have a little, either printed or handwritten sign on it. A lot of directions or else I promise people will not do it right.

But I think people will like that one when they see that in there. Yeah, that'll be good. That'll be fun. Also, that's the holiday cheer for the gym. Okay, that's good. I guess we could have waited for another week, but then I would have had to make sure not to.

I know. Because I really did not know what it was, and I wanted to not cheat on the game. Yeah, that'll be fun. I'm excited to put that up there. But, yes, that was actually my first thought out even before you said it i was like well i'm gonna have to have a like a sheet of paper directions next to this otherwise people will do something different yes guaranteed in my

astronomics gym is the gym full of printed who were you and hand were you telling him were you telling jonah about that is that what yeah you Yeah. I have so many signs up of just either handwritten or computer printed things of like, do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. Yes. Yes. I have learned it's the best way if you want someone to or to not do something. If there's a sign, like not everyone abides by it, but most people are pretty good.

And if there's not a sign, never assume that people are going to. Can you imagine if you didn't have a sign on the York roundheads? How many of those would be snapped off right now? Boy, that would really piss me off. But you know what wouldn't piss me off? What's that? Lifters checking out Juggernaut AI. Take a look at juggernautai.app.

It's the training that we use. Several crew members at Crew Falls this weekend were using it. Big Colton, for example, was testing. He kind of planned his AI testing date right around Crew Falls, so he did his full squat bench deadlift testing. I can't remember his exact numbers of where he wound up there, but I'm pretty sure he hit a PR on all three lifts. And some of them were like big PRs.

I think he had like a 485 squat. And I just don't remember if it was like a five. I thought it was like a 540-ish deadlift. Yeah, a 40 deadlift, something like that. But I think it was PRs across the board. And he's been using Juggernaut AI for quite a while here and obviously seeing success from it.

Several others there too. It's the training that we use. Why not? Since 2009, Juggernaut has been your trusted training resource helping tens of thousands of athletes reach their goals. If there's anything that we all are, it's athletes. That would be what I would definitely

call myself. We are athletes. Just like our buddy, Ethan. We're all athletes. Yes. We are on the same, Ethan in the NFL and us gym rats. We're all on equal. We are all the same. We're all one athlete.

Yeah. So check them out at juggernautai.app. That's where you sign up. That's where you use Massonomics's where you use Mastonomics discount code. It's Mastonomics, and that'll save you 10% for the lifetime of the membership. This is the real kicker. It lasts the entire lifetime of the membership. Every month, 10% off, makes it about $30 a month.

Put pen to paper. You cannot afford not to do it. Thanks, Juggernaut AI. When you were telling that or when we were talking about that, it made me laugh to think of ethan also being out to breakfast with us and leaving the pancake house you know just another guy in the lineup of 20 walking out of the yeah like just another one of us like no that guy actually is in the nfl you know but also he would have just picked

you would not be out like he would just perfectly fit in the lineup at about 6'4". He would have. Yeah, that's another one of the guys there. One of the average guys there. Yeah. This episode is also brought to you by Swiss Link. In 1995, Maurice Bigmo Huffman founded Swiss Link with the mission to bring authentic Swiss Army goods to the United States and into the hands of those yearning for quality gear at uncompromised

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And you say, well, what can I save on? Well, right here on their latest drops on their homepage, they have an elite tactical assisted tan knife. They'll also have Christmas plaid blanket bundle. It looks great. It's got the leather straps to keep it all wound up they have the british od gun case they also have a bucket of figurine toys soldiers and vehicles 110 pieces for 1999 how could you afford to not get that i'm starting to wonder if there'd be a shorter list of things that they don't have at swiss lake that would probably be a shorter list of things that they don't have at Swiss Lake. That would probably be a shorter list. Oh, here they have, you want something for the lady in your life?

They have hinged double lock pink handcuffs with a carrying case. So a sexy pair of handcuffs right there. Only $21. Spice things up in the bedroom a little bit this holiday season. Yes. And, of course, they have all of the things you the normal things you expect like the mortar holder tube the czech food carriers the czech aluminum mess kit all that great stuff so i know what my kids will all be getting for christmas yeah buddy it's all here uh once, go to SwissLink.com, enter code MASS, M-A-S-S, at checkout,

and you'll save 15%. Thank you, SwissLink. The wool blankets do make good Christmas gifts. I've given those before for Christmas. So that would be a, you're struggling to think of something, a non-typical cool idea that people are going to be like, wow, this is really thoughtful. You don't have to tell them you heard about it on the Massonomics podcast.

And they have one, two, three, four. They have like over 20 to pick from. Amazing selection. Artist choice is going to be picking which one. Maybe one of each. There you go. This is, we are right in the midst, as we record this, of our 6.9 days of christmas the

massonomic 6.9 days of christmas so we did release the new brown varsity tee heather brown that you're wearing right now and if that was if there ever was a going out massonomics tee the heathered brown varsity tee is one of them remember when we were walking through costco and you had your black varsity sweatshirt on a guy goes hey nice sweatshirt yeah yeah a younger guy goes hey cool sweatshirt and there's so much going on i didn't like normally that would be so noteworthy in your life and i'd be like hey why like why do you think it's cool like do you know massonomics or you know that's probably what i would ask is do you know massonomics but it's just like oh cool sweatshirt and it was just the just says massonomics it wasn't like the lift one that looks like it's just words on it which

yeah so we must know massonomics also then when we were in looks i don't know if you saw but they're one of the butchers there he's like hey hey i think i know you from uh lifting thing in aberdeen and i assumed he was talking about the lift hard, live easy classic. And I'm like, Oh yeah. Were you there in July? And he's like,

no, it wasn't July. It was, uh, some other month. And I'm like, okay. And also I didn't reckon I could,

couldn't quite place this guy, but maybe something was creeping in the back of my head. And I'm like, I thought maybe he was just there watching someone else at the powerlifting meet. And I was like, well, at the powerlifting meet or what? And he's like, no, at the CrossFit competition. And I'm like, oh yeah. Cause I set up the booth at the CrossFit competition and he was on this team of ringers that came in and just like, uh, we're crushing everyone. And I'm like, yep, I do rec, I do remember. And that's why I told him, I'm like, like oh yeah you were on that team of badasses that was just like uh cleaning house right right and um so that was another little

massonomics uh encounter a lot of massonomics encounters that weekend really it was it was it was good it was great one for the history books yeah so the 6.9 days of christmas we're having uh a little bit a little sale every day a different little sale every day. But it is relevant because if you're listening to this on Sunday when it comes out on YouTube, that's day six. So there's still a deal that day. You're listening to this on Monday, the 18th. That's the last day. That's day 0.9. Yeah, that's day 0.9. So there'll be a separate deal that day and all purchases over this period of time.

If supplies still last, we'll get a free massonomics dashboard, sticky phases of the moon calendar now complete with all phases of the moon. 2024 calendar snowflakes on it for december 2023 pretty festive that's how you know you can't hold anything back this year so check out our 6.9 days of christmas new marketing campaign this year we'll see if it sticks we'll see if amazon hops on that concept next year. Yeah. Now, I do have a supporting our supporting members segment,

in addition to all what we talked about Crew Falls, but also just a whole big-ass list of members to support this week, of stuff going on. If Crew Falls wasn't enough, I had to be keeping tabs on all these other things, cool things that supporting members were doing. So this is a relatively new segment. It's where we give back to our supporting members. We'd love to have you become a supporting member if you're not one already.

There's a whole bunch of perks, like one of them getting to come to in-person events like we just did this weekend, like the Lift Hard, Leave Easy Classic. You get to register early to our Strongman and Powerlifting events. You get online access to our exclusive Discord community that's very active. It's going off every day. It's almost impossible to keep up with everything going on there because there's a lot of cool stuff all the time.

You get a discount code. You get early access to drops. Like today, they got early access drops. They actually got even exclusive drop items that normal people never even got to see what it was. So if you're a listener of the podcast, you'll like what we're doing. We'd love to have your support. Go to massanomics.com slash join.

Jump on there. Then we also give back by this segment each week. So this week, Big Zach from right here in western northeast South Dakota set a new family PR. Big Zach from right here in western Northeast South Dakota set a new family PR. He added a chocolate chip to the Massanomics contingency. Congrats, Big Zach, on the new family edition. Then we had Big Chris.

Dominguer did a charity deadlift event for veteran suicide prevention. He pulled 585. Well done, Big Chris. I guess that's why he couldn't come to Sioux Falls. He had a deadlift event for veteran suicide prevention he pulled 585 well done big chris i guess that's why he couldn't come to sioux falls he had a deadlift event all right then we had big joey and big steve competed together a couple of uh canadians balling out in a powerlifting meet i know that big joey went eight for nine with a 931 pound total big ste Steve, I do not have his numbers, but he did share some pictures and he was looking lean and mean.

Yeah, sounds like quite the transformation. Absolutely. So great job, Big Joey and Big Steve, both in training for the 2024 Lift Hard Live Easy Classic. It's always good to know we're being represented south of the border. That's true.

Good to know that they're doing good things down there where it's nice and warm still this time of year big noah did a charity push pull event where he benched 350 and deadlifted 625 very strong numbers from big noah big laura supporting member her husband competed in his first powerlifting meet and she put him in a massonomics singlet not sure if he even knows a massonomics singlet. Not sure if he even knows what massonomics is, but great job, Big Laura, looking out for your loved ones. You know, women know how to dress a guy, especially in that case.

That's a great case in point. I just, after that, I just make sure my wife is in charge of all of my apparel. Yes. Just everything I do, if she puts me in a massonomics singlet, it's like, yep yep you have carte blanche big Julius did his first meet ever

it was the masters open raw 90 kilogram class and he got first place congratulations obey you master big Julius big Cody he competed in the 805 strongest out there in California.

You got third place in the sub 200 pound class and he did it wearing the all go. No show. He is on the right. I also saw some all go. No show to tease this weekend. The all go. No show.

T a cult classic in massonomics lore. Absolutely. I did not see anyone wearing the get strong stay strong use your strength t though no i didn't either wow yeah big mad cow competed in a grip sport international multi-venue grip competition he got third place in the 105 kilogram class including a pr with 478 pounds on a two-handed two-inch rolling hand rolling handle implement so congratulations big cow get a grip dude yeah the also had a shirt get a qualifiers the the implement it was just the adjectives were just adding up on that one that's

it was a tongue twister. Big Eddie. This is a message for Big Eddie, and this is from Mrs. Big Eddie. She says, happy ninth anniversary, and the family appreciates everything that you do for them. Wow. Hallmark's got nothing on us. The old fake mole himself, Big Eddie, getting a shout out from uh the wife and kid there

the big davids two of the big davids by tagging each other in a polar post polar the seltzer water they each won a free case of polar the two dave and it was the two davids some guys have all perfect right yeah first they both get to be named David. Second, they get free polar. Just reinforces my theory that they're all the same guy, actually. It's just like, but what a tangled web they weave with this David thing. It's actually like Fight Club. You just, it's the end. It's the end. We find out it's, I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

Yeah, they was the same. Yeah, it was they was the same. It was just his alter alternate personality. What if that's the case that someone was that they don't even know that they're two separate people? Like I am. It really is both Davids, but he's not even aware of it. Right. What could throw people off more than anything? I'll make one of the Davids British.

No one will ever see that coming. Yes. Yes. Last but not least, Big Mo was this week's guest on our tiny little baby bratty sister podcast, Unpaid and Underrated. So check out Big Mo this week. A Brookings man, Big Mo. Check it out. That's it on supporting our sporting members. I wasn kidding i said that was a doozie i wasn't

kidding when i said it was a doozy was i that was there was a lot to cover there oh should we wrap this one up or is there anything else that we're missing here that of high importance that can't wait till episode 403 i think that's sitting pretty good i feel for our 402nd episode i feel pretty good about this one. I think so too. I'd say it's one of our best episodes in the 400s that we've done. I think we're just now that we're at 402, just starting to hit our stride with this. I think we're getting some things figured out,

really dialing and fine-tuning here. We're really getting this thing down. That's one of my all-time favorite descriptions of overrated, underrated for the guest i feel like i really you know nailed that description i could just see the clarity in his eyes that he was like man he's like okay i have no i have no questions about the rules they've been explained so perfectly he's like okay so you're saying i have my druthers yeah druthers i've heard of that word it's weird that you said it but druthers okay we're riding and i can't

ride the line my first that was my first thought. But you can just put a kibosh to that one. Yeah, I was already thinking. You said it before I could even ask it. All right. Yeah, okay. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. No questions.

And we told people about becoming supporting members. We told people about our merchandise that we've got for sale. And if there's one thing I love at selling merchandise. If there's one thing I even maybe love just as much as that, it's getting new supporting members in the mass atomic supporting member crew, a couple of great things right there. And then by ordering,

you could get one of these calendars. So really you're getting a free calendar. Like this calendar will cost you literally nothing. All you have to do is buy something else from us and you get this calendar. At no cost to you, you get this calendar. And then you can stick it wherever you want. I mean, the dashboard is the preferable place

because everyone will know you have it then, but you can also put it anywhere else too. Yeah. Make calendars dashboard again. Every episode I want to do one of those stupid sayings. Just make them dumber each week. Make even less sense. Make calendars dashboard again.

That's pretty dumb. All right. Thanks everyone for listening. Tommy, where do they find you at? You can find me at Tomahawk underscore D. You can follow me at Tanner underscore Bear. Just make sure to follow Massonomics at Massonomics.

See ya. Thanks for watching. Oh. I'm on it.