The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Bryce Young Is Benched. Will He Be Back? Eagles Issues With Jon Ritchie. Plus Jon Anik Talking UFC.

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Russillo begins by explaining what went wrong in Carolina with Bryce Young, and also why he’s confident this won’t be the end of the former no. 1 pick’s time with the Panthers (00:00). Then, former NFL fullback Jon Ritchie joins to discuss the Eagles’ slow start, Young’s future, what makes Andy Reid special, and Ritchie’s upcoming appearance at Russillo’s live podcast in Philadelphia (15:49). After that, UFC commentator Jon Anik recaps UFC 306 and gives an update on the fighting futures of UFC stars Conor McGregor and Jon Jones (48:52). And lastly, Life Advice with Kyle and Ceruti, where the guys take questions about what to do after getting laid off (01:16:02). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Jon Ritchie and Jon Anik Producer: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Troy Farkas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bryce Young benched in Carolina, but is he out? We'll run through the full timeline of events and try to figure out where this is going. We've got John Ritchie from Philadelphia, a little post-Eagles stuff, bigger picture Eagles, NFC, and the development of quarterbacks, and talking specifically about a guy he played for, Andy Reid. Fresh off the UFC main event at the Sphere in Vegas, Marab's win against O'Malley with Anik,

and some more UFC stuff, and looking ahead to a John Jones headliner, life advice, and some picks. By now, everybody knows Bryce Young has been benched in Carolina. There's a lot of different things that I want to talk about here, because it's been disastrous, whether it's the start of his career, the situation that he's in, a bunch of different places we can go, but they all kind of lead in the same direction.

Was reading about it last night and this morning, Charles Robinson, Yahoo did a great job on this. Had people talking to him about this story, people involved in the NFL. And there was a few things that I thought were worth sharing. And that really right now, this comes down to the story of confidence for Bryce Young. There's a specific play in the fourth quarter where he missed Adam Thielen on a third and two, he was lined up in the slot.

It was about a five yard throw and a scout who, according to Robinson in his piece on Yahoo, who had done a lot of work on prepping for Bryce Young, who liked Bryce Young as a quarterback prospect, said, quote, that's so crazy. That's a throw he makes 999 times out of a thousand coming out of Alabama. They've got him so screwed up. Another source in this piece said, quote, this move is about, and I'm paraphrasing a bit, but I'll use the quote here, stop the bleeding and letting young heal. I'm not surprised. Maybe I should be surprised that it's two weeks in and the guys are already getting

benched after 18 career starts, but it was that bad. I'm going to get to some of these numbers where even I was looking at numbers going, God, this is like historically bad, right? But when I first heard the news and watching some of these games from Bryce and just how defeated he looked. And, you know, we can get into the body language thing, but is Bill and I always kind of mess with each other on the body language doctor thing, I just always ask like, who is playing awful that looks like they're having a great time, although if Bryce Young playing this poorly, we're coming back to the sideline after another punt going, come on guys, come on, you know, let's do it.

That would be more annoying than somebody looking completely defeated. And at this point, Bryce Young looks completely defeated because when I was thinking about it, you know, for those of you that are still big baseball fans, or maybe at one point were huge baseball fans, there'd be that pitcher, that starter in your rotation where it just break camp the first four or five starts. You're like, this guy sucks, but he's kind of penciled in for like 160 innings at least it's a little different now, but you know what I'm talking about.

Like where every team needs like seven starters and my favorite team has like four and a half starters and he's going to have to be up in the rotation. They can try to skip them here or there. Maybe they'll just send them down to the minor leagues for a quote rehab assignment and it's kind of like a mental reset for the pitcher. That's what this feels like at least to me regarding Bryce Young. Um, how bad is it? It's bad.

So let's run through some traditional 23 stats, which weren't great. 60% completion rate completion rates kind of irrelevant now because of the way the throws are designed. I mean, I don't want a guy out there completing 40% of his passes, but there's some guys that have some nice completion percentages and you go, I don't even think that guy's any good. 5.5 yards per temp, low. 11 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, sacked 62 times, and a QBR of 34.

Not very good. How about this year? Completion percentage down to 55%. Yards per temp down to 4.4 yards per attempt, zero touchdowns, three interceptions. On pace to actually be sacked less than last year, but a QER of nine. Nine is unheard of. We got in two weeks.

The team's also terrible. They spent money on the O line because it was a priority. You could also argue the money that they spent on the O line. It's like, do you have to spend that much money on those guys? Yeah, you do when you're Carolina. They drive to LaGette out of South Carolina, who I loved. They brought in Deontay Johnson from Pitt, who's had some nice seasons, but it's considered still at this point, especially with Derrick

Brown, her probably, I mean, is it definitively the worst roster in the NFL? It's in the conversation. Bryce's two and 16 is a starter. It's so bad. These first two weeks, you kind of think back and go, how'd they get the two? Uh, they had a nine, seven win against Atlanta last year, and then a walkoff field goal against Houston that was 15 to 13, um, the rest of the team. What do you want?

I could do this for an hour. I'll just sift through it in just a couple of minutes. If you look at the DVOA stuff, the advanced metrics, the kind of try to come up with a baseline comparison to everything that's happened. If you look at the Panthers offense through the first two weeks since 1979, it's the seventh worst offensive performance we've ever seen. Well, since 1979. This season, the defense ranks 30th on EPA per play allowed. Their 24th and pass block win rate, that's probably the best unit stat of any of the units. I mean, I'm digging into their special teams. 24th, they're like, oh, that's not last.

28th and run block rate. They can't really run the football. They're second to worst, not in yardage totals, but in some of the advanced metrics. And there are two, a 22 on third downs in 24. So now what? Like any QB, as you've heard me talk about too much, history prevents me from having passionate conviction, maybe about any of the guys. Or even if I really

like somebody, I'm, if somebody would say, okay, I like, by the way, for the record, I like Bryce Young. I had a lot of the same questions other people had but I liked him. And if you had told me, nah, I don't like him, he's going to be out of the league in five years. Based on history alone, I can say, well, that's absurd. But for me to really like somebody and I like Caleb Williams as much as I've liked anybody in years, maybe even all the way back to Andrew Luck. I like Trevor Lawrence. I liked Caleb Williams more than Trevor Lawrence coming out. And as much as I like Trevor Lawrence, the guy hasn't want to start in 10 months, almost 10 months.

But Caleb, I can't do a podcast and say, talk to me at the end of the year. Wouldn't be a very good podcast. We have to talk about what we've seen. He was better against Houston, but it also wasn't great. And then I thought he was terrible in the opener against Tennessee. I do think I like Caleb so much that he could have a terrible rookie season. I would still be buying stock in the summer of 25 because we've seen that story

play out doesn't mean just because your quarterback is bad that now he's going to be good, which is kind of the default setting of fans, just hanging on to any piece of hope you can, thinking, is there any way my guy that isn't good can be good later on, kind of like a Josh Allen. Yes, Bill's fans, Josh Allen wasn't good his first couple of years. As an aside to hanging on to hope,

the Bears-Fields mafia, the Justin fields bears people you guys need to chill the fuck out. Caleb gets off the bad start fields is two and oh, fields also has one touchdown this season and despite me pointing out on Monday's pot, I thought he had two terrific throws in that game on Sunday, but they were playing Denver and fields. I mean, he's 28th in pass yards, Pittsburgh's 29th in red zone touchdown percentage. So they're getting touchdowns 25% of the time

they're in the red zone, they've been in the red zone a decent amount. So even if I like a couple of fields throws, some of the Caleb isn't good, fields is good, the disease of 2-0. I mean, it's not that you don't even have to dig into what that game is. It's kind of a nice story, but it doesn't feel like an answer to me, a quarterback whatsoever. So that kind of gets baked into all the different stuff.

And even though I brought up like fields college stats and say, well, if you like fields college stats, how come Caleb Williams and all that kind of stuff? Well, look, it's pretty simple. I think field's job was a hundred times easier in college than, how come, you know, Caleb Williams and all that kind of stuff? Well, look, it's pretty simple. I think Fields job was a hundred times easier in college than Caleb Williams was, especially the last season. So what's the point of bringing all this stuff up? Well, the point is, is that we've seen it now for 18 starts with Bryce and even this is quick.

Even this is quick to pull the plug. And like I said at the beginning, it feels more like a mental reset than it is they're completely done with him. I'd be shocked if Kale, or excuse me, I'd be shocked if Bryce Young doesn't start again this season for the Carolina Panthers. All right. I also feel bad for him. If we can allow ourselves to be decent and remove the cynicism or the lack of sympathy, right? At times where it's like, whatever, it's going to make millions. He's had a good life. If everything you've worked for in your entire life is over at 23, that would be tough. Getting choked up about it. You know, 18 starts, hey man, it's over.

And it feels like, okay, it's over now. I guess, I don't know what over would be for Bryson. I guess over means he never starts again in the league. And again, I think he starts for Carolina this year. I'd be shocked that he doesn't. Maybe there's a kind of Baker Mayfield redemption arc potentially. Maybe there's some kind of, you know, everybody loving Sam Darnold right now. Actually, when I started thinking about Baker getting a little

taste with McVeigh and then Darnold with Shanahan, I was like, could Carolina pull a soccer thing and go to Shanahan and be like, can we loan you Bryce Young for a year and then get him back for 25 and see if there's anything worth salvaging here? I don't think that would actually work out in the NFL. But look, you could even be, we could all be making a mistake thinking like Darnold is a real answer.

And I think there's even a conversation about Baker who statistically put together some really good stuff last season. But the longer you're with Baker, I think you'd have to admit if you're comparing your football team to other title contenders in the NFL, you'd have to admit if you're comparing your football team to other title contenders in the NFL, you'd be like, okay, our guy probably has a lower ceiling than some of the other ones. But either of those scenarios, Darnold Baker, I mean, even Darnold, which I'm not even quite sure what that scenario is at this point.

He also started two and oath, he started two and oath Carolina when he went down there at 21. Either of those scenarios would be terrific for Bryce Young, but when you're the number one quarterback and it's wrong, it's so much worse than being wrong and like the NBA. And I was thinking about this a little bit too, like research goes number one. If it doesn't work out, like, are you going to be shocked? No, but what does it really mean? Especially for Atlanta that already has some really good players. Like, oh, that sucks. Like, he wasn't a superstar role player, but that's not what you want.

But there's still other stuff going on with our basketball team that's probably more important about directing who we are moving forward. When you get it wrong with quarterback, everybody's just stuck. Everybody's just waiting because you have to play them usually longer than 18 games. But at this point, you're just kind of looking at it going we are in a holding pattern until the guy we picked number one can figure it out if Alex saw went one and was a bust. It's just not the same story. Because we didn't watch Alex saw on Saturdays for multiple seasons

like we did with Bryce Young. saw if he went one or let's say see flames out of the number two pick i'm gonna be somebody that one of your buddies mentions on the couch ten years from now or maybe you have a jersey the where a chain smokers reunion show. What would basketball is one of the other pieces with price young everything is connected to him and it's the worst feeling. It's got to be the absolute worst feeling when you have one of those top picks, you have this fan base, and you're so excited and you're talking yourself into it, knowing that the history isn't very good, knowing what the negatives are, especially with somebody who visually looks so challenged physically compared to the rest of the people running out there on Sundays, you're just like, okay, and maybe some of you are still down there. And I think what I'm presenting to you is there's a sliver of hope that it could get turned around maybe somewhere else.

But it looks like right now Bryce is headed for one of those careers where he'll end up on another roster again. If he's done with Carolina after this year, he'll end up on another roster again. If he's done with Carolina after this year, he'll end up on another roster. Like somebody will throw, I think Kenny Pickett was a third for a fourth kind of thing and some sevenths were thrown in there. So it was basically like moving up around. Bryce probably gets you a little bit more than that, or maybe he doesn't

because maybe the tape is that much worse. I mean, the stats for this year are just historically bad, but as of today, the direction feels like a Bryce Young career where he's lost in the transaction confusion and you look up one day and go, oh, that's right. He's their third quarterback. Just like Zach Wilson's listed as the third quarterback on the Broncos depth chart. Or you may have already forgotten that. Kick off this NFL season with a win on Fandl, America's number one sportsbook right now.

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it's the Buccaneers minus seven at home against the Broncos. So the Broncos would be the play considering what we're trying to do there. And look, it ended up being wrong last week for the Lions on the sharp side of things against the Bucs. But that was a really, really strange game. If you look at the red zone positions, which you mentioned on Monday, Baker didn't exactly light it up.

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Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. John Ritchie's one of my guys from back in the ESPN days and of course he is part of the morning show at 94WIP out of Philadelphia. The morning show every day, 610 Eastern and a former guy who also played football professionally for money. What's up?

I did. Hi Ryan. You know, you should also played football professionally for money. I did. Hi Ryan. You know, you should have played football a lot more than you did. No, I didn't have the mentality and have the strength. I mean, we can get into this whole thing. There's a lot of comparisons lately. My buddies are like, are you a lot more like Zuckerberg than we ever realized? Kind of soft when you were younger, a bit of a fraud compensated later on. I think everyone should know that you are not soft, that you actually, you know, you

got some natural toughness, some natural aggressive nature. You think there's a switch there? Yeah. I mean, you should be proud of that, by the way. Not everyone has that. That is a gift that you can harness and you like, and you utilize that I'm sure in ways that no one realized was possible. Right coming from the guy that has one

of the greatest single pictures of him ever leaving a football field. What looks like he just got battle beating off the woman Empire in Northern England. Well, you know, that's just soft skin, Ryan. Like, honestly, if anyone actually knew the truth, right, that I wasn't hitting people especially hard, it's just that my skin was so devastatingly soft and supple. You know, it's like it didn't stand a chance against any helmet. Didn't matter. Just soft skin. It doesn't even callus. Like lift weights all day doesn't matter. I don't get calluses. Like it was a real

problem on my feet. I wouldn't get like the good calluses that prevent blisters. It's a curse, man. God, that is soft skin, but great for cuddling. Very soft, baby soft all throughout adult life. Think about that. It is, I'm not pleased about this, but you know, hey, I'm 50 years old now and I've become accustomed to it. I was reading a book about the Roman empire, um,

the year of the four emperors, kind of that, that phase. And, uh, there was this is right. Yeah, I know we didn't know. No, I'm not going to, sometimes when people read a lot, they'll But what they'll do, and I'll, I'll try not to do this, but I just think you'll enjoy the tidbit, is that it'll start with like, did you know that? And it's like, you know, I didn't know that because I didn't read the 400 pages that you just read

and you're passing yourself a- The Four Emperors? Is that a thing? Like, is this- There's a lot of turmoil, a lot of turmoil post- I didn't know that was a regularly spoken of thing. The Four Emperors thing. From Nero on, there was a lot of stuff. And then the last guy kind of,

during that stretch, focused on peace and did bring peace, whatever defines peace in that era. But he loved Greece and he felt like Greece needed to be brought back to prominence. There's a lot of weird carryover of like, I'm a Syrian, but I'm Roman but I'm also this and so I don't know I can't explain it all. But Sparta, right? It's so Sparta. Sparta and Athens going at it forever. So Sparta decided you guys think you need gym like PE, physical education in the elementary schools. We're going to take it up a notch. All of the boys are going to be essentially beaten

to the point where they are not allowed to whimper to build up their toughness. And all the girls are going to learn how to wrestle because we want our entire region from the minute you're upright walking around, it is about combat. And that's it. Yeah, Sparta, man, that shit's real. Could hold on. And that's it. Yeah.

Sparta, man. Like that shit's real. Could I choose to be a wrestler even though I'm a boy? Cause I don't want to, I don't want the, Hey, let's beat him till he doesn't whimper thing. I'd rather choose the frivolity of wrestling. You know, like we get to do that. We get to go like hang out and rattle it up. That's, that's, that's a sport. That's enjoyable as opposed to I sit in a corner and I get like beaten

upon until I stop crying. I don't want that. I don't, I don't think you would have had a choice. It was a long time ago. Is that a long time ago? You just turn off choice. I think I don't people they just do like they had common sense. Don't you think? I don't think at the parent teachers meetings or whatever that night would be, it'd be like John wants to wrestle.

I think they'd be open-minded to wrestling regardless of my, wow, now we're getting into really dangerous territory, I guess. Even back then. Even, even back then they'd be like, we can't have a guy wrestle. Anyway, full circle. All right. Let's, let's talk about your Eagles, man. Um, what's it like in Philly this week after the Monday nighter? It's bad.

Explain that. Is it bad just cause it's bad or is it feel extra bad? Like life itself is crumbling and folding upon. It's like a black hole. Like as the black hole is happening, like when all of that gravity is collapsing upon itself and space itself, the cosmos is destroying the fabric of being, that's Philly because we're one in one. That seems bad. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What'sly bad it? Well, right now. Okay. The problem is our offense was supposed to be the, the engine, the generator that drove everything. Jalen hurts was going to, you know, recover from last year because we have a great, uh, offensive

coordinator now and Kellan Moore who knows what he's doing. So now the offense with all the tools, with all of the power, with all the power tools that that offense has, they can sort of, they can steer the way for a defense that was going to have to work some rust off at the beginning of the season and figure out how to get to a quarterback. The problem is now our defense absolutely cannot get to quarterbacks. Sackage is way down and we can't stop the run either. It looks awful as we try to stop the run either. And it looks awful as we try to stop the run.

As Bijon Robinson and the Falcons shoved it down our throats, it was outside zone, stretch zone, and we're not gonna make any bones about it. There's no secrets here. It works, so we're gonna keep doing it, and you know, the Eagles couldn't stop it. That's the worst way to be dominated,

when it's right in your face, and there's no trickery, there's no, there's no, dress, they're not gonna dress it up, they're not gonna motion you, they're not gonna try to deceive. It's just here's our play. We know you can't stop it. We just ran it five times. Here's number six.

Here's number seven. Here's number eight. Your linebackers are soft. Your linebackers are getting covered up. Your D line, not only can they not get penetration against, you know, when we pass, your D line is so awful at setting an edge that we are gaining the edge every time we're seeking to gain the edge. We are outpacing your speed to the sideline and we are blowing your linebackers up every

time our guards are climbing to the second level. It was decimation for the Eagles run defense. So not only have we only achieved three sacks this year, Milton Williams and Zach Bond. Zach Bond has two of them and he's the inside linebacker that we just brought in this year to play inside linebacker. He's got two of our sacks. Milton Williams has one of our sacks, D-Tackle. No one else has penetration. No one else has disruption. It has been an absolute failure in terms of

getting quarterbacks flustered or in any way affected. And the worst part about it is we can't say that we stopped the run either. So that's why Armageddon is upon us. And meanwhile, the offense that was supposed to lift this semi-medium defense because it needs to work its way into form, The offense has been pedestrian as well, which is almost inexplicable right now. Jalen hurts needs to learn to trust the protection that he's been afforded and he doesn't because last year was such a disaster in terms of past protection.

Okay. Uh, the pass rush completely agree, especially with the resources they put in there, the names, you know, when you look at the depth charts, you go, where is this group? Like these are supposed to be premier players throughout. Um, and then even trying to upgrade a secondary that felt like that was the issue last year on that side of the football. And I was really, they felt like, yeah, you know, um, you know, two, two weeks into this whole thing, cause they had real moments in the opener where that green Bay team with

love prior to the injury, like I really liked them too. So it's a shootout and whatever. Yeah. It was a really nice win. So I think the scary thing when I look at it here is, you know, Sirianni, this happens all the time with coaches when you're a little different and it's is, you know, Sirianni, this happens all the time with coaches. When you're a little different and it's working, it's working because you're a little different. And then when you're a little different and then you can't win, the reason you can't win

is because your coach is a weirdo. And so now everything that people didn't like about him in the introduction then loved about him. And I've talked to other players that know him, they're like, dude, this guy's the best. Like he's the real deal. You would love to play for this guy. All of the things that you want to hear from guys that did this for real. And unfortunately, like these moments, like the third down pass call there,

I, I, I am steadfast about this. Do I like this call? Yes. Because if, uh, if a running back catches the football and it works, the game is over because they're running out the clock. And Saquon, as good as he's been, he drops it. So that can't now then be packaged into the Sirianni. If you don't like Sirianni, fine. Okay. Because the second half stretch of last year into carryover, what we saw on Monday night and everything, fine. But you can't get on him for that when the player, the guy that everybody

thinks the Giants were dumb for moving on from when in reality they moved on from him for a very specific, well two specific reasons. One, it hadn't been as great there as I think people seem to want to remember it and the Giants weren't very good so it's like why are we going to spend all of this money on a running back then it probably didn't really make all that much sense with the way our roster's construction, who we actually are knowing that Daniel Jones probably just placeholder for another year and all those different things. If you don't like Sirianni, fine. But if you throw that into it, it's incredibly unfair when he's not the one out there dropping the football. It was a perfect call. A guy didn't make a play. And I think I'm not sure that Sirianni has the input,

the impact to influence Kellan Moore's decision making any longer because so much has changed with Nick Sirianni's role with what he does here in Philadelphia. You know, he's sort of, wow, my how times have changed. He arrived and he was going to be the play caller, the new uber kind, and I don't even know if that's how you say it, uber kind. And that failed. He's no longer even the offensive coordinator. He is the connector. I don't even know if that's the official name for it, but now that he's branching out into both sides of the football more than he did in the past, we're sort of as a fan base learning

exactly what his role is. And right now, as you said, Ryan, when game one is one, everyone is cool with Nick Sirianni's role. When game two is lost, everyone starts asking again, what exactly is it that Nick's doing? I know it's not a fourth down and I'm glad you brought up the Kellen Moore part of it and the reduced role, which is always an awesome phrase. You said about me once, um, where, Where maybe that's just such a big spot. I wonder if Kellen checks in with Sirianna to be like, hey, I think we want to put this one in the air here.

Because whenever the pass doesn't work and you're fighting the clock, everybody thinks you're stupid. And there's just so many times where I see him like, hey, it was the right call. It was right there. The quarterback didn't see it. The guy didn't make the play.

Like the game is over. The game is over the catch. And I guarantee Saquon hangs onto that minutes. Oh, they were aggressive. And that's great. He closes out. They knew they weren't going to get the ball back. I just think it's, it's playing the results so much. Imagine Philadelphia complaining about the Philly Philly play. If Nick's, Nick Foles had dropped that in the end zone, um, in the Super Bowl. You know, what are you doing throwing it on fourth down on the Philly Philly, you know, reverse. It worked. So everyone lauded the play. If Saquon had caught that

and for like he should have, everyone would have loved it. And and it would have been smart. It was taking what the defense allowed and it just, it didn't work. Monday night didn't work for the Eagles and now we're licking our wounds for it. I still think the team is too talented. Yes.

Dallas is in the conversation. They get destroyed by the Saints. Maybe it's one week. It's always worth reminding ourselves that even the best teams in both conferences are probably gonna have five losses, maybe three or four weeks. You're like, what the hell happened there?

The Niners without McCaffrey, excuse me, kind of a different team. Pass rush from Minnesota has been terrific. They didn't seem like they were ready for it or didn't have, even Debo seems a little behind at this point. So look, when I look at the Eagles, yes, there are talented teams and it's the same talented team in the second half of last year, even though I still think the secondary was a huge

disappointment. I don't know, like maybe it's a summer hangover on the realization that there is this disconnect between Hertz and Sirianni. I don't know what's real. I don't know who that's on, but I just can't imagine that this team isn't gonna be in the playoffs as bad as this week has felt.

This team is going to be good. And I'm certain of that because the roster, despite the fact that, man, the pass rush is way worse than advertised, way worse than expected. The roster on the offensive side especially. And in the defensive secondary, my gosh, so talented. And it is deep.

Secondarily speaking, the Eagles, when you look at those cornerbacks, Quinian Mitchell is the real deal. We don't even know how good Cooper Dejean is going to be because he'd been injured for a lot of camp. But we in Philadelphia really feel good about the youth in that defensive secondary and the versatility. That is really something. We are well equipped on that side of things

in the secondary. We don't feel as good about the D-line, the linebackers. Man, it is about as disparate between week one and week two as you get. You know, in week one in Philadelphia, we're saying Zach Bond had 15 tackles and two sacks at inside linebacker. This is a new era of awesomeness. This is lineback, Philly's gonna value the linebacker position and we have a guy

who's gonna make plays like this. And then all of a sudden Zach Bond week two, it's like he's Velcroed to blockers and getting dominated with regularity. Uh, I have no idea if we have linebackers that are going to hold up with, with bond and the Kobe Dean. And I'm positive that our D line, which is really led by Brandon Graham in his 15th year coming off the edge. Brandon Graham is an incredible football player and he can set the edge and he's, he knows

where to be. He knows where his help is. He knows he understands leverage, but he's in his 15th year. He's not going to be able to do what you're hoping. He's not going to be able to do what you're hoping. He's not going to be able to do it all. We need an infusion of talent and youth and something else on the defensive front. If this Eagles team is going to get where it wants to be. And then on offense too with AJ out with the hamstring.

So he misses week two. Looks like it's going to be a couple of weeks. They're going to have to figure this out without him, but it is worth mentioning. I think we're good on Philly. I think we're good on Philly. I think we're good on Philly. I want to talk about quarterbacks with you because Bryce Young gets benched and it's been a disaster in Carolina. Ownership down.

Um, but at some point, like you have to get out there and make some plays and somehow it was even worse to start the season than it was for last year. As I mentioned in some of the opening numbers. But I have, I don't know. Let's start here. I don't know. I've heard all the different theories. I've heard people being very convincing about this that if you're young QB and you come in and it's the wrong situation, potentially great QB could be ruined forever. Yeah, I believe that is true. I think that that's true. Confidence absolutely matters.

And that when, if you tip that confidence scale too far, you can break someone, you know, a David Carr, David, who knows what could have been, but that was- Well, they tried to break him. They certainly tried to break him at the start of his career because he was getting destroyed all the time. But let me add it to, like, I hear that Patrick Mahomes sits out the year he's got Andy Reid.

Do you think there is a version of events where Mahomes ends up with a terrible coach, talentless roster, can't protect him, and then Mahomes is holding a clipboard year three? Like, I don't believe that that could happen. Patrick Mahomes is, is like a superhero. And I don't even think that we know all the superpowers. Like we know, I hear crazy rumors.

He's got like the idetic memory like where he can like read a book and then tell you the page number that this word appeared and how that translates to football is he can, like Richard Sherman, tell you, okay, back in 2021, in the third quarter, as I was watching Tape of the Titans, I remember in this personnel grouping, this is what they showed. You know, like, that is very useful.

If you've got that, I've heard Patrick Mahomes has that and he can use it, which is incredible. And then to top it off, he's got the most fantastic bazooka of an arm anyone has ever seen. I think he's just that special and that unique that he would have found his way through the clutter regardless, but maybe I'm naive. Maybe I've watched too many Disney movies, Ryan. Okay. Maybe Mahomes is a terrible example because he may go down as the best to ever do it back there.

All right. So here's how I would group it. The guys that were going to be great were going to be great no matter what. And I don't know what percentage of total quarterbacks it is. Maybe it's 10%, maybe it's 15 or whatever. And then there's the people that, like there's certain draft classes each year where I go, okay, I watched enough of that guy on Saturday. Like no way.

Him developing in to somebody on third and long in the NFL that I would trust, absolutely not. Because I didn't trust him ever. And he had one read and when he came off the one read, he didn't even know what the hell else to do. And now he's just going to be able to do that in the NFL. So then I'll have kind of that group where I think they're all kind of lost. I feel like that middle group is discussed as like a majority of the quarterbacks that come in now in that the

failures are more attributed to the situation that they're in. And it certainly, I would not try to argue against, cause I agree, like once you are shot, once your confidence is shot It's very hard and then it's like hey go get it back now on Sundays on that field with all these other people go find your confidence again. That's that's a huge ask but maybe my position is that I'm arguing that that middle group is as big as

As I've heard it described elsewhere. So let me ask you about Andy Reid. Okay? You played for him for a couple of years. You played for what? Gruden, Callahan, and Andy Reid. Yeah. What is it about Andy on offense? From the first day you go camp, everybody reports, this is who we're going to be on offense. These are the things that we're going to try to do. this is who we're going to be on offense, these are the things that we're going to try to do. What does he do and then add to that like obviously it works because we know his resume. It's consistency above all else with Andy Reid and it consistency on his part where you know

exactly what you're going to get every single day. And there is a respect that everyone in that building has because of his gigantic football brain. And it just, I mean, talk to him for five seconds, which is what you do when you catch a pass in practice, because you're going to run 70 yards to the other side of the field where he's standing watching practice. And you know, as you run through the end zone he's gonna be giving you a tidbit he's gonna be coaching you up in some capacity guys do that when they respect their head guy when they respect him in every way as a

person and as a coach as an X's and O's guys and also as a as a father you know as a you know just as an individual, as a person. There's a lot that goes into that, a lot that goes into gaining and captivating the respect of grown men. And Andy Reid consistently does that and continues to, and continues to be able to hold on to their imaginations

by growing his own football capacities every year. Like you watch Andy Reid, he's bringing all sorts of new stuff up and in. The guy is a genius who is so creative on top of creative and his players love and respect that. And he treats his players with so much respect. He treats his players like men and they return the favor. He just, Andy Reid is the ultimate in terms of the guy that players respect above all else. So do you have to like your position coach? Do you have to like your play caller?

Do you have to like your head coach? I think as a quarterback, you have to like your position coach and play caller. You have to respect your position coach and play caller. I think it helps for other positions. I think a lot of times though, in the NFL, there's less coaching at some positions than people might realize.

There's a lot of guys who get there and it is assumed that you know what you're doing, that you've gotten there for a reason. And there's a lot more maintenance than there is coaching and teaching and molding. I do think with these young quarterbacks though, a common theme is there's so much to learn and they are behind.

And when they don't learn it the right way, in a concise way that they can really conceptualize and utilize and apply. They get behind and there's a point where you just have to start over, Bryce Young. Unrelated. Were you able to check out Mastodon's Ashes of Leviathan tour? No, no, I haven't, uh,

I haven't done much listening or playing. Uh, I'm, I'm a teen girl dad and I get so many like Macedon. Yeah, no, I get so many eye rolls with my 13 and 17 year old daughters on a regular, I mean like hourly. I couldn't think of what's the word for like minutely. It's like an hourly basis are the eye rolls. A minute by minute basis are the eye rolls that I received from my daughters because

I'm so uncool in every way. They don't, they don't understand mastodon. They don't understand. And I'm not going to try to teach them it right now. It's about them. Kids are pretty selfish, man. Sorta. We are too. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding.

No, it's going to go down as one of the great regrets in my life when you don't have kids. I wouldn't mean not having kids. It's not seeing Macedon this summer with this tour or what I think is one of the greatest concept albums of all time. And when they were in Los Angeles, I wasn't here and I was looking at it going,

do I just fly to Chicago for the night? Do I fly to Chicago for the night? They're playing the CD for you, man. They're doing it for you. Do you go to Chicago for the night and then turn it back around? And it's just so hard with the football. I think that might be worth making that effort. I don't think I can do it. It

sounds like this is much bigger than I initially realized. It's a perfect album. It's a perfect album. It's just so good. And I love concept albums. I just don't understand why we don't have more of those. I mean, if I were in a band, that'd be the first thing we'd do. Like, all right, if I started a band this week, I'd be like, all right, guys, everybody sounds great. Let's do a rock opera. Yeah, sick pedal collection, but we need a con. First three albums are all concept based, and then we can get to singles later on.

I agree with you. Where did this creativity go? It's just automatically assumed that that is not the path. I don't know why. Probably record labels going, you know what? Can we get a couple of catchy tunes in there with a nice chorus? That pastiness, I know.

All right, so speaking of traveling though, Philly live show, Former Eagle, Chris Long in attendance, potentially other Former Eagles, sold out, very excited. Larger venue for us with the show. Uh, are you going to stop by? What is it? October, October 2nd, I believe. It's the first or the second. I know it's on my calendar. Right guy. It's the first I've screwed up this. Saruti is like, dude, how many times are you going to screw this up?

It is Tuesday, October 1st. Yeah. I haven't, I'm week to week guy, if that. So yeah, I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be there with bells on. Okay, all right, sounds good. That's perfect. Maybe I'll, I might wear my Stanford Richie Jersey. Maybe. Wow, I mean, that really is the only one in existence

and I'm not kidding. Wait, it's framed. I can't wear it. I can't take it out of the frame. You know how much it costs me? That's for the best. How much? Cause I was going to put together,

cause I don't have any memorabilia, but I was going to put together like all the people that played that I liked and then have them write me personal messages so they know I can't, like I can't sell a Jamal. Well, I could probably sell a Jamal Mashburn signed Jersey. I don't know if I could sell it Jesse Palmer, Florida Gators Jersey, a Richie Jersey on eBay.

So rare though. Maybe that's the sad is that finally there's one here. Yeah. Priceless literally priceless. Like it would be $0 if you tried to sell it. But I appreciate, I really do appreciate you having that man. That means something to me, like in my heart. It's frame man. That costs money.

When you, I think I left them there for a year and the guy called and was like, are you getting, I go, I've already moved. I've already moved and I didn't know where to put it in the new setup. And you've kind of been free storage for me for a little while. So he was like, okay, no problem. But I did go and pick it up. And one of the great things about getting older is when you learn about the framing industry and you're thinking, what?

That's how much that costs? Yeah. Do I really need this frame? And then I thought about you and I said, yeah, I need to frame this. I need to frame my friend's Jersey. I appreciate that a lot, man. Well, they right back.

Truly. Hey, that that place, is that where you live? Well, yeah, it's CGI. I'm actually back in, I'm in East Hartford, but this is a Manhattan beach. That is picturesque, man. That idyllic. That is gorgeous.

So, you know, I heard if you put the sun on your neck, it's healthier. Like if you go outside and expose your thyroid, like I've been trying to do this. I can tell. I'm on a health kick, man. I'm trying to be, I'm trying to like live to be an old man Okay, and I know that like a lot of what I did probably worked against that

So now I'm trying to make up for that So this whole like put your neck in the Sun thing is something I think you should try I feel like I'm having beneficial effects from it. Like I think I lost weight from putting my neck. I wasn't gonna say anything about, yeah, I wasn't gonna say anything about your shoulders, but you look smaller. Yeah.

Yeah, my shoulders, I'm skinnier. You are. I weigh like 200 pounds, two bills. How much are you? Like 225 to 25. Come on. Come on. I was I was going to get this under control, man. I'm a little light right now.

Well, because you want more mass. I'm not going to. You got to get you to send me in the mail. I'm not going to send me in the mail. I'm not going to not sign for it. You know what? Maybe I need to work on the mass thing. Because that's good for you. The muscle is important. It is. I don't know why anybody would go. I'm losing it.

Well, I have two daughters making fun of me every day. That would be terrible pre-workout. You know, I'm talking about Bryce Young. Talk about Bryce Young's confidence. You're, you're coming home. You're walking through the door, being judged immediately. You know, you don't, you, you don't even know where your reads are anymore. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. And my son, who was on my side is all the way up in Ann Arbor. So I have no support emotionally on, you know,

that have you heard of Andrew pause? Have you heard of, uh, no, it's like manapause. Oh yeah. Don't know anything about this. It's a thing. I mean, I, I think it's a thing. I've been, I've been reading about it. Yeah, man. Hey, it's, it's not a thing if you don't read about it. You're right. I should have stopped reading, man. Something to be said about not reading. John Ritchie from WIP, the morning show every morning, always a blast to catch up and we'll see you in Philly, man. See you soon. I'm looking forward to it with With bells on, I can't wait, Ry Guy. Can't wait, man.

Long time friend in the business. I love telling the John Anik story all the time. We've told it plenty of times already in the podcast, but he joins us fresh off, fresh is the correct word here. UFC 306 from the sphere and a new title holder, a Rob taken out O'Malley. Okay, man, you were on the call with everybody as you are for all of these big events, what were your thoughts about O'Malley with this kind of matchup going in?

Well, it's always great to see you and always nice to catch up with the friend who taught me how to prepare in this amazing business. So relative to expectations, I thought Sean O'Malley was underwhelming, but he And always nice to catch up with the friend who taught me how to prepare in this amazing business. So relative to expectations, I thought Sean O'Malley was underwhelming, but he was nothing if not honest after the fact, right? He just said he got out strength. And I think for a lot of us, maybe not yourself, but we've been in athletic competitive situations where we're just up against a stronger guy.

And it's not as though Sean O'Malley is a poor wrestler or an unwilling grappler. But a lot of the elite bantam weights felt as though when an elite grappler or wrestler had the opportunity to fight him, this is what was going to happen. And even though Sean O'Malley has beaten former champions like Piotr Jan, he has not beaten a world-class MMA wrestler like this. And you know, I know my broadcast partner, Daniel Cormier, isn't necessarily surprised that Marab dominated this fight. Dominated.

I don't understand. There's a couple of things from the fight that I wanna talk about. Maybe the scorecard part of it's pointless, but it was, I mean, it just was a guy whose energy doesn't decline, okay? So the way he's moving in the beginning, and you guys were talking about on the

broadcast and it's like, well, no one can keep up this pace. It's like, ah, but Rob kind of does. And then it's relentless. And it's not that he's even going to submit you. It's that he's just going to wear your ass out for every single minute. And O'Malley's obviously worried about exposing himself to take downs with every strength,s with every strike attempt, especially with his distance and what he can do. But it wasn't that he beat the hell out of O'Malley,

it's that he was physically dominating him for 25 minutes. And you could see when O'Malley's going back to the corner, it's not like I'm afraid or it's just, I don't, I, he, it almost felt like he knew what the rest of the fight was going to look like unless he was going to get lucky with a striker. Yeah. We've all seen, you know, how others survive in this world. Well, and I think that's why his head coach and his best friend, Tim Welch had the tenor and the demeanor that he did. A lot of people are criticizing Tim Welch

for not being more urgent, but I actually like the corner advice, trying to isolate one combination that he actually thinks his athlete can land to end the fight, because you're not going to out point this guy. There's so many different- Right, he was asking for the right followed by the knee.

Yeah, right? I did think that would, because at some point I thought Tim was going to go, hey motherfucker, like, all right. Because it was calming, it was don't worry, you're, motherfucker, like, all right, because it was calming. It was, don't worry, you're the champ show. All of that stuff was really good. I thought maybe at one point he would go, Hey, you've got to just let it fly now because you're so far behind. So what's, who cares about getting submitted?

Well, it's not as though Tim Welch as a relatively young coach in the business and former fighter couldn't solicit advice from someone like Ray Longo, who obviously has a decidedly different approach in the corner. But I don't know that Tim Welch in this corner needs to step outside of themselves the way the MMA masses think they need to right now. They have cornered him in big fights in adversity filled spots against Piotr Jan and they've realized success. So I just feel like he ran into the much better fighter here. Sean O'Malley is a counterstriker. He is a kick heavy guy and you can't kick a whole lot when people are diving at your legs. And still in that fifth round, if you want to criticize Tim, and I didn't intend to come on here and spend half my time defending him,

but his athlete landed a consequential blow in round five to the body. And perhaps another athlete wouldn't have been able to take it as well as Merab did. But the story here is Merab and in terms of the motor Ryan, like Colby Covington talked about being eight years old on a soccer field and recognizing he had a third lock, right? I knew I had the opposite. I was always the chubby winded kid, right? So Marab is just on a unique level when it comes to a combination of just God given ability, maybe cardiovascularly the will, and then I guess just a mental toughness and a desire that maybe normal men like me just can't relate to.

Okay. Long ago was great in the corner, by the way, your guy, because he just, we're very early on, he's like, all right, you felt his power, felt O'Malley's power, it's not there, like just run through him. Just run through him. Right, right. And I just loved hearing Ray in the background. It's like, okay, they have a different approach to this whole thing.

A question on Mara, a question about the bigger picture. Is he annoying in a good way or is he just annoying? Ha! Well, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people would subscribe to your theory or that adjective when describing our new undisputed UFC Bantamweight champion. For me, when I sort of look at his story in totality and impart that upon people, just everything that he went through to try to realize this dream and move into the US at 21 and not speaking a lick of English right, There's a lot of things you could lean into on

the Marab side that could make me maybe get someone like you to come around a little bit, but I didn't enjoy the fight, right? Like Balao Muhammad, one of my best friends in the world, his fight against Leon Edwards at UFC 304 was criticized by some. I thought that was a great fucking fight. I didn't think this was a great fight. And Marab at times against Pyotr Yan, when he attempts 49 takedowns, I think he's offensively fascinating to watch. I didn't necessarily extract a lot of entertainment value out of this fight, but at the world championship level,

when you're a guy like Marab who chooses position over submission and control, and your whole style is rooted in relentlessness and not necessarily finding a signature choke to get the guy out of there, it's not always going to be the prettiest thing to watch. But he's a great human being, brother. I promise we'll get you to come around at least 5%. No, I'm, first of all, you know me well enough that anyone that has this kind of story and in the pure joy of him in the ring afterwards and being just so happy to have that moment, you know, a moment most guys are

never going to feel. And if you're lucky enough to be one of the guys that feel it, you're not going to get it for long because it's just not the kind of sport where you're able to sustain being at the top. It's just, it just doesn't work that way. And so I appreciate all of that. And I don't even care about the fight part of it. Like to me it's, oh, so what am I supposed to do?

I physically was more dominant than this guy for 25 minutes. I basically controlled everything except for a couple of late kicks that seemed to touch him in the right spot. Um, you know, those teeps, I think they were teeps, but I just, maybe I wonder about like the UFC appeal when it feels like there's a specific fighter now where it's like, did this guy grow up training against bears? And they're just so dominant on the ground. If they're, I mean, do you feel it?

Am I wrong? Is there, are there conversations of like, there's now this, this wave of fighters where like it's not the standup stuff that everybody loves. Maybe this is just repeating itself. We go all the way back to the Gracie stuff where it's like, oh, is that actually more fun? I don't know. I'm just wondering if there's any kind of like, maybe I'm asking too much here at this

point. You already know the question I'm asking. Is there a concern about the appeal of who is now dominating some of the weight classes? Yeah, I think perhaps, right? And I think certainly there are a lot of mixed martial arts fans that just prefer the striking to the wrestling or the grappling. And we have now a stretch here in the last three months where two strikers have been rather unceremoniously dethroned by two wrestlers, even though I would stop at comparing Bala Muhammad and Murab Dwaleshwili in totality.

Like right, there is no comp for Murab. Truly. Like Umar Nurmagomedov is undefeated. He's actually a striker first, a wrestler and grappler second. He's going to be next for Murab. And dude, like I don't even know if he can win the fight. Like Murab is so quick with his entries. I do think at some point, to your point earlier, like in mixed martial arts,

eventually there's a good chance Marab Dwallas-Willi gets knocked out by one of these gentlemen. But he's going to be very difficult to dethrone. And we could spend a quarter of an hour on Sean O'Malley, right? And some of the things that he now is going to have to walk into a year from now with his rebuild. This was- And he also talked about this hip surgery thing, which my first thought is, okay, is that part of the story of the fight? Are we learning it specifically? So he had a torn labrum in his hip prior. I don't believe it was surgically repaired, but I love this kid, right?

Like he's the total package, as far as I'm concerned, human being, he wants to help make the UFC money. He understands even though he is becoming a global superstar, he needs to meet them halfway, right? Not every superstar is like, what can I actually do to help you promote this event and actually make money? But I always worried about durability for him as a long-term champion. And a really bad scenario would have been had he gotten through this fight as he did, and he would have had the surgery anyways, the reigning defending champion, right?

Like Marab and Bilal are gonna turn around and defend these titles every three or four months and fight the toughest matchups in the division. So say what you want about maybe stylistically what they bring to the table. And I think Bilal is criminally underappreciated as a striker, but bro, these guys are gonna defend against the undefeated top challengers in short order. And a guy like O'Malley, whom I love, would probably be out for a year, even if he won

the fight. So there is upside to this, even though the biggest American superstar in the sport right now is no longer in a championship setting and is going to be out for a year. Okay. A couple other tidbits here. Fell in love with Diego Lopez. Oh, you know what? Actually before, well, there's, there's, there is a comment. Herb Dean, what was up with him telling Merab to get to work? Like at that point, dude, I'm way up. That shocked

me and I thought both you, Rogan and DC were great on like, you know, Herb's a legend, but it was like, you're gonna get upset with this lack, like this isn't even a lack of action. And one guy could just run around for five minutes and probably win on the card. Yeah, exactly. Get on your bicycle and don't get teeped to the body because the referee is stepping out of his lane

and coaching you and telling you to work. My whole thing is Sean O'Malley's the guy who's down four nil. Maybe look in his direction and tell him to fucking work. One of the hard things about my job is that I see Herb Dean at the next live event and I'm happy to have a conversation, but it kind of is what it is. I'm a passionate MMA fan with a professional seat that sometimes requires me to be critical. I do believe with respect to my friend Herb Dean, he injected himself in this fight in

a way that every one of us with a hot microphone found off-putting. Our coach Dean Thomas, Joe Rogan, who started round one saying Herb Dean was the best referee at MMA, and Daniel Cormier. So, you know, we sleep well at night. I just really didn't like the way he handled that fifth round in particular. And yeah, I mean, Marab was up 4-0, So maybe look in Sean's direction and tell him to work too. Okay.

I'm glad I asked about that. Now to Diego Lopez. I had no idea. That's his 32nd fight, the win against Ortega. And you want to talk about like working up on the card? Like he's like, yeah, I don't give a shit. Like I'm going to hang. I'm just going to hunt.

Like I think that was probably the first time I fell in love with John Jones in one of his fights where it was clearly he was way up. And then he's like, do you want me to fight you this way? All right, now I'm going to I'm just gonna hunt like I think that was probably the first time I fell in love with John Jones and One of his fights where it was clearly was way up and he's like do you want me to fight you this way? All right now I'm gonna be completely different fighter in this round and then even though I'm gonna win this I'm gonna go toe-toe with You the entire time cuz I'm that bad of a mother fucking dude. Like I'm just gonna do that Diego Lopez The constant and look Ortega is a good fighter I you know, unless you want to correct me at any point

I thought like that's somebody who loves to fight. I know it sounds like, dude, all of these guys, I don't know. That is a different level of like, well, while I'm in here, why don't I try to beat you up a little bit more? This dude is the man. I always try to be efficient when we talk about a fighter here on your show that we haven't talked about before, but if your audience doesn't know the circumstance at UFC 303, this dude weighed in three times, two different opponents, all sorts of different circumstances that 99.9% of elite athletes in the rankings would not

have welcomed and just would have pulled out to fight another day. Wins that fight against Dan Ege and then turns around quickly in this spot and takes Brian Ortega's number three ranking. He competed on the Contender Series back in the day, lost that fight, right? Dan Ege, and then turns around quickly in this spot and takes Brian Ortega's number three ranking. He competed on the Contender Series back in the day, lost that fight, right? Then lost his next fight. He's been trying to knock down the UFC doorstep for years and then finally gets an opportunity on five days notice last year against Movsar Iyavloyev, the hardest grappler to fight in

the goddamn division, nearly submits him, becomes a superstar overnight, and now has reeled off five straight wins to get into the top three. It's systematically insane what he has done in a short amount of time. And, uh, it really just goes to show you that a fighter like that may never have broken down the store and thank F and God he did because his next fight could be for the world title. Imagine making fun of that guy's haircut at last call. Huh?

Dude, I mean, I wonder if he's ever going to pivot off of that emo hairstyle or not. I love it. I wish it were weirder because he's a badass. Hey, did you see him grabbing at his neck during the fight? I texted you. Right. I couldn't stop. I texted you during the fight and be like, does he think he has a necklace on?

And then he put a necklace on after. I go, maybe that's your answer. So I need to have my cell phone. Somebody told me that after they saw me tweet about it, because I was so, look, I guess I was being a smart ass, but I really actually just want to be complimentary to any of the dudes where I'm like, okay, that's another level of like not giving a fuck.

But somebody had told me it's something he does regularly. So I don't know. I don't know how to touch that. So his manager texted me later that night, Diego has a scar in his neck that itches when he sweats. That's why he always rubs his neck. You know those steel rods they use to build houses. When he was a kid, he got into an accident.

One of those steel rods sliced his neck and left a bad scar. But I bring it up because like Benson Henderson, our former lightweight champion with hair down to his ass, right? In the amount of time it took him to fix his hair 20 times around, he could have thrown a jab. So I'm watching this fight, I forget that I've seen him do it in the past, wondering if it's a tick

or if he got hit in the neck, and also thinking every time he does that, he could be throwing a jab. So I don't know if there's a way for him to get plastic surgery or figure out a way to deal with it, but it's not ideal to have to keep grabbing at that every other second. Maybe some VapoRub on there, some bits. There you go.

Or something, but I don't even know if that'd be legal. Okay. A couple of quick updates. Uh, first of all, I've been in the sphere twice. You too, fish didn't see the debt. Uh, your experience broadcasting inside of there, broadcasting experience of a lifetime.

I am down on my knees begging for us to get another opportunity with the right fight card. Is it, is it, is the word that it was this one-off, which, you know, I don't know if I really believe that, but maybe that's the way it's presented. Yeah. I don't believe that. I challenged the other sporting events, of course,

to try to execute what the UFC did. It's certainly easier to execute an NBA game in there than it is a UFC fight. But a lot of Dana White's comments are rooted in just the relationship with MGM. I just sort of feel like this was a love letter to Mexico and the Mexican combat sports fan. But if you were to put our proverbial best foot forward and have this maybe be a celebration of the UFC, not necessarily annually and strategically put the right

fight card in there, I think we could effectively change the game forever and I think perhaps that sounds hyperbolic to some but if you look at our fight cards on paper Ryan for UFC 307 in Salt Lake City and UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi you drop either one of those cards in front of that fucking sphere wall that looks like a coliseum I think it ends up being maybe the greatest sporting event of all time and this was one of them but it wasn't singularly that. John Jones, we have an announcement. We have a date.

We have an opponent. Um, look, I'm in, I'm in, but I, I don't know. I don't know. Well, give me, give me your far more educated thoughts. So steep a me a chitch was 38 the last time he competed in mixed martial arts. Now, he'll be 42. But when the fight was first- It's going to be that long? Yeah, bro. So, let that marinate. But as I said, I'm a fan, right? First. So, when I saw this fight get announced, Stipe was like 40 right now 42 so

at the time I looked at the betting line and I'm like man I kind of feel like Stipe's got a shot and a lot of my contemporaries don't necessarily agree with that and now it's been a couple years later so that's the Stipe side of things he's still fighting fires and in shape and one of the greatest heavy weights of all time but time waits for no man and he's a clean athlete. John Jones has just this aura man that every time I'm around it, it just feels like Michael Jordan-esque. There's just something so special about him and that says nothing of what he's done in

the octagon as the greatest MMA fighter of all time. I just hope we get to this date and I'm pretty confident at this point that we will. Tom Aspin, a lot of people believe, our interim champion who has already been forced to defend the interim title successfully, is the best heavyweight in the world right now and not getting a chance to prove it. This is not necessarily the fight that the true MMA fan wants, even if it may be legacy wise and box office wise, one of the biggest heavyweight fights in UFC history. Yeah.

Um, John's got one fight since February of 2020, right? And it lasted a couple of minutes and that was March of 2023. Right. So he'll have fought for two minutes in what? Almost five years. And therein lies the rub. Now I am going to Bristol, Connecticut next week. Haven't been there in a long time. Tell them I said, Hey. Yeah. I mean, I've been there a long time, but Daniel Cormier, my dear friend

and broadcast partner fought Steve An and John a combined five times. So we're going up there to film a special on him fighting these guys five times. But I do wonder the veracity with which he'll speak to me about Stipe's chances, because it's just hard to wrap my head around what version we are going to see. And it's a one-off for Steepit. It's a paycheck. It's an opportunity to beat the greatest of all time and to go out as the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. But Tom Aspinall might even be favored to beat John Jones. And we have a much less competitive fight on paper, at least according to the oddsmakers

here. Okay. Last question. Yeah. Roommate game. Chatham, Cape house. There's one room left bunk bed. Three-day weekend. Rank who you'd most want to share the bunk bed room with for 72 hours out of these options, first to last.

Dana White. Joe Rogan. Bruce Buffer. Conor McGregor. All right. So I spend a lot of time with Buff Buff. So even though he's a dear friend of mine, we don't need more recreational time with Buff. So we'll put him forth. He's last. Yeah. And he's the guy who I'm probably closest with, you know, I'll put Rogan in that two slot, right? Cause we just had so much fun together rehearsing at Sphere. We don't normally rehearse and we rehearse so, so much. So that was really fun. Dana White would be number one because there's just so much that I feel like I could extract from that man if I just had like 15 minutes of his time one on one. And Conor McGregor in that third slot is I think recreational

purposes only. So we'll go buffer four, Conor, Rogan two. Uh, but as long as Dana White will take the top bunk, uh, Dana White's the number one choice. I need some one-on-one time with the boss. Yep. Smart answer. Smart answer. Um, maybe that pivots into the mirror question where it's still this lingering thing fans want to see just for the spectacle, just for the entrance.

So I was thinking about entrance music the other day as DJ Shadow's album was being. Yeah. And I always think about entrance songs and DJ Shadow has a couple on, on what is one of the greatest, greatest albums of that genre to ever make it out. But, you know, being in the building for Connor is unlike anything I've ever seen. I've ever seen, I've ever experienced in sports. So just that spectacle alone,

even if you're rooting for the other guy is worth it. And that spectacle, even though it may feel fake, because I would say based on the recent footage that does not look like a guy that is locked into combat right now. So what, I mean, is there a way for you to give us a great answer on like how it's, again, I know Dana's not talking to you about this stuff

and I don't want to put you in a tough spot. I'm just trying to figure out a way and I've done a poor job asking this specific question of just how is he discussed as even a potential headliner again in the sport? Well, it's tricky, right? There were rumblings that back during the global pandemic, this dude was trying to fight at the UFC Apex, But when you're making $12-15 million to show,

you're going to be prevented from doing so. And maybe mentally, physically, recreationally, he was just in a better space than he is right now. I would go back to your point, right? There's UFC 300, right? And then there's a show at a venue-like sphere. And then above all of these things by a pretty significant margin is a Conor McGregor UFC pay-per-view. And I feel like at this point in time, I might have to eat a whole lot of crow because I have long suggested that the competitor within the MMA athlete within really wants to come back and try to get a lot of these scalps and to try to bolster his legacy so that he

would really enjoy his MMA retirement. But I do believe that he's not all in at this point in time. And maybe that's just me sort of having one eye on his Instagram page. I don't know the extent to which he's drinking or partying. I do know that alcohol neurologically is bad for basically every cell of your body juxtaposed against Michael Chandler, who it feels like has put in three training camps for Connor over 36 weeks and hasn't even fought the guy. So I am still optimistic for whatever reason that we do see him first quarter 2025.

And the only hope then is for the sake of sport is that he wins the fight because if he wins, you can open up any title fight for him, even if that's not a straight meritocracy. And then I do think you can actually, it stands to reason, see him twice in a span of seven months, as crazy as that sounds. So I think he'll be back, but you know, the visuals right now in terms of the way he looks are not great. You look great, buddy. You can check out Anik, Florian, their podcast throughout the week.

They recap UFC 306 from the sphere. And, uh, I'd love to be in New York for that John Jones thing. I just don't think I'm going to be able to pull it off. What is the date of that? Try to make it happen. If not, I'll see you December 7th in Las Vegas. Yeah, we're doing this. We talk Larry Bird's birthday, Larry Bird's birthday, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Make it happen. Well, I think you should offer the tickets to Bird first and then if he declines them. That would be amazing because you're just like, hey, there's a bantam weight, this guy from, nobody knows who he is. And then it's like, oh, there's Theo Vaughn, who Theo Vaughn may have been fucking with me when I met him a couple of weeks ago. Really? Yeah. Not sure. Not sure if he was fucking with me when I met him a couple of weeks ago. Really? Yeah.

Not sure. I'm sure if he was fucking with me or not, maybe he just misunderstood what I said and then gave me an answer that was not the correct answer. Well, I think you are perpetually misunderstood, right? And a lot of us in the public eye, I feel perpetually misunderstood. I mean, on my podcast, I'm basically trying to not get fired every week, right? But my agent said to me eight to 10 years ago, like you belong in the opinion business. But yeah, sure. But if somebody told me I was called a Super Bowl, I

figure out a way. Right? Yeah. So I, yeah, man, I look, but when I say when I editorialize on the broadcast, and Rogan's in the octagon, getting ready for an interview. And I say something about the referee injecting himself in the fight as a play by play guy, you can argue. I might get a phone call because that is maybe a little bit out of my lane, even if in a sport MMA that blurs the line between play by play guy and analysts more than most, I just felt in that moment, I had to say something and

I haven't gotten the call from the boss yet that I shouldn't have. Well, what you need to do is say if you grew up in New England, listening to Sean McDonough, it's impossible for me as a play by play person to think that I'm not supposed to inject from time to time. Like when Sean was going to get on Tim Sheeta every now and then and be like, he has not been good behind the plate this afternoon. I don't think there's, I think there's sometimes some sec games, but like, what are you fucking like calling now? Yeah. Yeah. Like I'll, I'll admit that I may go like, you could you upset with their run pass ratio. Right. Right.

Right. You know, you want to get, you want to give the cowboy hard time, get on Joe West all day. I think that's a lot of us. A lot of us that grew up, because Sean was just so good at going in the smarmiest way possible of letting someone have it. That's your defense, at least the first time if you're getting called in. I appreciate it because I know that you don't look at it as how can I be an opinion person during this broadcast, but I thought at that specific point, I don't know, it was worth it.

Hey, you see that cut? You see that cut, huh? You see a Rene Aldonis cut? Are you squeamish or no? I'll close out after a little while on a cut like that. I'm not at the operating table. I don't need to keep looking at it. I don't see it and go, oh my God, like I can't look at it again. Like I didn't like to watch Nip Tuck. So maybe I'm a little bit more screenish. Pep was always like, you gotta watch Nip Tuck.

I just don't like watching surgeries and stuff. But when I saw her cut, I looked at it. I think I looked at it a couple of times, but I don't, you know, there's no one, nobody's waiting on my prognosis so I can move on. I don't remember a time getting that squeamish about a cut. Like I seek it out. Like I want to look at all the pictures after the fact and, uh,

your chronicle of history. Yeah. It's yeah, this one hit me in a, in a different kind of way, but Hey, you know, tough sport. Uh, all right, man. We'll talk to you again soon. John Jones. Yeah, let's, let's, uh, let's talk hopefully after the John Jones fight and not before with an announcement. How's that sound? All in chips to the center of the table, buddy. Thank you. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, email address, lifeadviceRR at gmail.com. Kyle and Steve, welcome to the program. What's up? Any updates, any quick updates? We don't need it.

We said sorry, show the 48 hours ago, right? Anything new? Any divorces? No. Got nothing. No, we're good. I still got the same amount of knives as I did on Monday, so I haven't found it.

Put your knives down at, yeah. You know what? I didn't get called. That might be down at, yeah. You know what? The FBI didn't get called. That might be a good way to start the show, though. Just update us on a knife count. Maybe about three days a week, but just maybe a quarterly check-in. Keep everybody safe.

I think I probably have like four or five. That's probably about it. I just ordered myself a nice Benchmade. I'm going to give it to Chris Long as a gift. I don't know why I just gave that away. Yeah. We're going to have to cut that, dude. Was that supposed to be like a stage reveal, or can you do that stuff and? I don't know why I just gave that away. Yeah. We're gonna have to cut that dude. Is that supposed to be like a stage reveal or can you do that stuff? I don't know that

he listens. Okay. That's a busy guy. Yeah. Yeah. If he finds out maybe somebody else will give us. Maybe I'll keep it. It's a pretty sweet knife. Kyle's like, I'm interested. I don't know if I've even heard of that name. It sounds like it's too rich for my blood. Ah, they're not. Yeah, they're not entry level. I'll tell you that. They make a nice blade. Google it. Is this like tactical?

Is this for like fishing? What's the purpose? It seems like an outdoorsman sort of knife, right? It is. Well, they have a few different options. Now this is turning into a live reform, but. Knife pod. Yeah.

If you guys want to, if you want to sense them. I'd like to have one on the boat. Yeah. Okay. Cutting lines, you know, in case you, I get it. Got to be prepared for an unexpected boarding. We had a tarp situation the other day, man. Boaters get it. Like, mistakes are going to be made. The pirate situation in Manhattan Beach.

Probably not great. Probably all right. Low. Low. Good. Keep it safe. We're off to a start. I not great. Probably all right. Low. Low. Good. Good. Keep it safe. We're off to a start. I love it. Yeah. We are good to go. Okay. All right. I like this one. A little different. Making the most of an unexpected layoff. Love the show. Here's the deal. 35-year-old attorney

living in Baltimore. A few weeks ago, I got laid off from my job at a tech company. Didn't see it coming, but I wasn't exactly crazy about the place either. So not too broken up about it. I like this guy moving on, turning the page emotionally. So reliant is my area of law is in demand right now. So I'm not too stressed about finding a new role, which will probably pay more and be better for my career anyway. All right.

This guy's turning everything into a positive. That's where I could use some life advice. I'm single, never married, no kids, or really any domestic responsibilities of any kind. My legal specialty isn't tied to any specific location, so I can pretty much move anywhere in the country financially. I do or did okay. Not well enough to fuck off and not work for a year, but I'll command a decent salary wherever I end up going. I've always played it safe and made conservative, boring choices in my life and career, but I want to make the most of what I feel like a somewhat rare situation in adulthood to make a big change without really needing to think about anyone but me

and what I want to do. Of course, I'm thinking about the usual factors like finances, professional growth, et cetera, but what are some of the less obvious things that you consider professionally and or personally as I figure out my next move? Oh, wait. So I thought this guy was like severance and had some free time. He's just talking about moving. Hmm. I thought this was a little different. Thought it was a little cooler. To go find yourself period. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I had, I had a couple different, we could pretend it's like that.

Yeah. Do you want me to just pretend that's what the email? Yeah. Like you'll be fine, dude. But for anybody out there who actually is laid off, here's some thoughts. The only time I've lost a job was the layoff at sporting news affiliate in Boston. And that was oh five into six. And it's one of the nastiest things that's ever happened to me too, because the sporting news guy that was kind of overseeing this contract extension that I got, he, we, I signed, we negotiated. I had an agent sign the deal. Thought I was going to actually make like real grownup money.

And, um, there was some sort of disconnect on the other side and they were like, well, fuck that guy. Don't sign the contract. Never gave me the raise called for like four weeks. I was like, what's going on? other side. And they were like, well, fuck that guy. Don't sign the contract. Never gave me the raise, called for like four weeks. I was like, what's going on? And then they let everybody go. Basically closed down the station. Ironically, Annex stayed on there in whatever capacity,

and he was still kind of on the air. So I had like severance for a month, but it was severance based on like a $38,000 salary. So it wasn't like I was going to start like partying. And I was always, I was always worried. I think this does relate to the email a little bit, but like post the chance, the window that you could have to do something. I've had three of them and I've just decided to work.

So I did Celtics TV and then I tried out at ESPN the following February and then I just basically worked every weekend for like three years. The one where I probably could have gotten away with having a little time off, but I took almost zero time off was at the end of 17, radio show, still had like a year left in my contract, significant amount of money that I still was going to be owed because when they were switching the slot and giving Steven A my slot, it was like a third line of the front page of the contract. It was like, this can't happen unless we truly agreed upon.

So I was like, okay, well then I'm not doing this. And they were like, if you take your money and don't work, you'll never work here again. I was like, I don't care. And instead of doing that- Bill J. Cutler line, don't care. Yeah instead of doing that- Bill J. Cotterline don't care. Yeah. Yeah. And the funny thing is I actually ended up getting resigned for another year and then offered again when I didn't, I didn't go back. So just for the record,

but that was a significant amount of money, like well into six figures that I was still owed and would be paid out over the next year. And looking back, I probably should have gone to like the South of France for like three months and just said, fuck it, you need a break. Anyway, you've been grinding this whole time and this is, but instead a week after we had come to this agreement or disagreement, uh, I was like, Hey, maybe I do a podcast. So that way I don't disappear because I can't work anywhere else for eight or nine months.

What I could have done is, Hey, let's start a podcast. We'll start it like in March. And I would have been fine. But instead I was like, no, I want to start immediately because then I was like trying to write and I didn't want to do nothing work wise. That was a huge mistake looking back. And then there was also like a weird COVID stretch when I had moved into a house and there were no games on.

And I was like, pack up your car and drive up and down California, really do California gang, just like the t-shirt says, and maybe even veer off into Montana around Wyoming, Idaho, whatever. So, uh, I didn't know none of those. I did none of those things. None of them. And sometimes when I see an ad for California, or I go on Zillow and be like, what's Shady Cricket all about? I regret knowing that you could have gotten away with it, but I was always afraid of not

working and then what would be available to me. So I can't really get mad about doing it because things worked out. But in your case, I would say you seem totally okay with all of this. You're probably getting some kind of severance. You have no responsibilities whatsoever. Don't sit on your fucking couch and check your fantasy lineup nonstop because those four weeks or eight weeks are going to fly by. So if you're actually wanting to use this answers, like write a list of five cities down, go visit all of them. You know, you're young enough where it's still probably gonna be fun.

Hit up all these different places and then, you know, boots on the ground data kind of deal here where you have a little bit more input and you, you know, I'm all for just going crazy for it. But again, some people can't stand the idea of being away from family, which I totally get. I actually admire. Some people hate the idea of getting a new network because it is really,

really fucking hard unless you don't care about it. Um, some people move specifically to the job. It sounds like it doesn't even matter for you. I would get out there. I would be captain severance. I would explore, and I would just start figuring out like it'd be, how much fun would it be afterwards ranking the top five cities? You could have a little reveal with your network in Baltimore,

unless you don't have any friends, you don't care, because that's where you're gonna move. I like, I don't know, maybe it's because of my, like my age and there might be something to that, but I like kind of never feel like I deserve a vacation. Like every time I use my vacation time, I pretty much fly back to Poughkeepsie and, you know, I'm

being guilt-tripped by my parents and also it's my favorite place or whatever. But I'm never like, you know what, we should just, you know, I'm already like, God, we're spending money on tickets. So maybe that's just like the way my brain works. So like if yours doesn't work like that, like I regret that, you know, when I travel across this country, it's pretty much for work. I'm not like, should we just go see what, I don't know, New Mexico is all about?

This is why Kyle brings the whole crew to all these shows. This is my vacation. Right, I'm part of it. Yeah, if we could also find a terrible bar, that would be just a cherry on top. But I think if your brain isn't gonna stop you from doing that, you should. Maybe it's because I'm a fed sitter and it feels like I do enough wasting money on my

day-to-day, but I just feel like I would be afraid that money runs out. I can tell you it'd be easy for me to say, yeah, let's go pull the ripcord. But I know if I was in that situation, I'd be like counting my money. It's like, all right, there's no more coming in until I get the new thing. Once I get the new thing, I have responsibilities and I got places to be. So I'm with Ryan. I would do it because my brain doesn't seem to be able to let me to do it.

Yeah. If your, if your future is not, you know, cause my one, my layoff story was some, I've talked about it a million times. It happened during the pandemic. It was when I had left ESPN, started doing the show, Scallon Palace show. And I wasn't like upset I kind of knew it was coming

I think it was one of those things where I I kind of knew like early on like this show is not gonna work out for A number of reasons and then the pandemic kit and I was like, okay There's probably an excuse to get rid of us and it happened and it was shitty the whole thing happened But the world was also like really shitty the way they just basically like voided everything too But yeah me about it and it was really shitty the way they just basically like voided everything too. Like you told me about it. And it was, when you would take me through that, I felt like they treated you, wow, this guy was lucky to be on the air in the first place.

So we're not going to do any favors on the way out. I thought it was pretty nasty. It wasn't great. Don't really talk to most of the people anymore, but you know, it is what it is. But I also like didn't like it. So I guess I kind of relate to this guy of like, I didn't really care that I lost that thing.

And I thought, and I knew like long-term that I would be fine, but the short term of it, I was like, fuck man, like I want to be the guy without a job. And then like, you know, everybody didn't know if like the world was going to like, if we're going to be here in six months. So I was like, I don't know what's going on. Should I even, what like, how urgent should I be? By the way, it's really funny. Cause I was trying to get through the jobs, which I don't do very often, unless I know the person, unless I know that the person that I am recommending can do the job and is gonna be great to work with.

And since you've had this run here, which, you know, wasn't overnight that you get you the job here, but I've had like three prominent people go, why didn't I hire him? I'm like, I don't fucking know. Like I don't vouch for anybody. And I'm calling you going like, hey, bring them in.

Just bring them in and let them cook and it's gonna work and you're gonna be thanking me very quickly. And well, thank you. Well, that's not why I'm doing it though. No, I know. It was kind of funny that I've had like big names now since go, why did I not or what was that? I go, I don't know, you dragged your feet.

Wasn't like they were like, no, it was just, you know, sometimes stuff isn't available and there's just no spot for somebody that is deserving. Well, I say all that and then how's it going, Kyle? Yeah, Jesus. I say all that. My knife over here. That's all. I say all that to say like, I didn't really turn my camera off for a second. I didn't really get to enjoy it the way that it sounds like our guy here is going to enjoy

this. Like I was like, I felt bad because I was like, man, like, you know, it's like, what, what am I going to do next? Like, you know, the media industry just sucks in general. I like, I couldn't get out of my own head. So I kind of, I'm a little bit envious of this guy because he's like, yeah, whatever, it's fine. Like I have a good, I have a good enough job'm versatile enough. I'm young enough. I don't have any kids. I could move. I don't know. This is just like a little life fork in the road moment. This doesn't have to be a bad

thing. It doesn't sound like you're taking it that way. So yeah. For me, I was in my own head about what my self-worth was. I need to have purpose and have a gig. I'm just worried about all that stuff. You also feel like an asshole because you're like, man, am I a failure in life? But it doesn't sound like this guy is that. If you could enjoy this period where you don't have a job and you're still getting paid, if that's the case, then if you can get that out of your own head and do it, I say go for it. I would still be looking along the way because you're right, Ryan, like that. four months or the, I'm sorry, the four weeks or however long you get paid out for,

it does go by in the flash of an eye. And then you always will look back, you will always look back and go, I could have just gone somewhere for two weeks and reset and there was still a check coming in. But you get free. Like I think it's actually something where you'll look at successful people and go, well, I don't know, man, sometimes I see people vacationing so much now and then they do great. Then I'm like, maybe, I don't know, man, sometimes I see people vacationing so much now and then they do great

that I'm like, maybe that was the way. I could have definitely done more stuff. Now, by the way, that is the best job we have ever done of not answering the email. So let's go rapid fire. Because he's trying to think of like other things he might not think of. A 35 single, I imagine if you want a family at some point,

be honest about how attractive you are. Have you ever been the first option? Most of us never have been. Okay. Are you a second or third option? Do people hook up with you and then blow you off because they regret it so much. If you're not in that category, that's great. You know, maybe you've done fairly well for yourself or whatever, but I think if that is something that's important, then you should know the scattering report.

If you want to move out to LA and play above the rim, good luck. If you like average looking people, there's nothing more aggressive than an average looking person in Los Angeles because they know what they're competing with. So maybe that is something that you'd be interested in. If you want approachable hotness, I would say Midwest it. When I moved back to Boston for two months, I had no idea how much I missed the option to do something outdoors in the middle of the day. I cannot believe I lived in New England my entire life and knew when there was

this window of boredom at like four o'clock on an afternoon, which didn't happen very often because I was working so much, but like this window of, hey, I have nothing to do and I'm sort of bored. What can I do? Nothing outside. And when I moved back to Boston and the weather was actually good, although it was like really humid, I'd have these moments going, okay, now I'm in this apartment, what do I do now? I'm bored.

And I go, I can walk around the city that I've already walked around a thousand times. And I bend all of these museums. I do the little pizza thing, but I was like, shit. And so now that I live in a place that I love to death, having the option of the outside stuff. So you got to think about that. Hey, where do I rank on the scale of desirability? Go down to Dallas, maybe probably play a little above the rim. I'd avoid New York city, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Denver's kind of a melting pot of people from all over the place. Good Midwest stock going that way.

Denver kind of was like the big tens. SCC's Atlanta for a little while. Uh, how did you use Denver though? Right. Isn't that the deal? Well, they used to call it member, but it's definitely changed. I'd say there's just so many people now there that I, I would argue on visits. I go, this almost feels like there's too many people for the infrastructure of

the way the town was originally set up. Um, yeah. So outdoor indoor life material, material, cost of living. Maybe, look, if you're doing well enough, sometimes I look at stuff in Arizona and I'm like, can I buy a town? But I don't want to live in Arizona. I don't know, hey, do you want to speak

about having options going outside? It's the inverse of like Caribou, Maine. It's like, hey, do you want to play pickup hoops? Do you want to die from heat exhaustion? We'll go, we'll play hoops at 10 o'clock tonight. You don't, you don't see that in the bumper stickers at Arizona. All right.

That was an incredibly long answer to something you didn't really ask. I don't know that we were helpful at all. I'm confused. Are you? Okay. Let's, let's, let's do one with, I don't know.

Now this isn't this is like a Friday feedback thing that we're getting to later today. I should mention that we should tease this Friday feedback. We're taping it after we tape the pod. It'll be up in the YouTube channel Friday morning. So look out for it. We're gonna do those YouTube exclusive. Yeah. Okay. Uh, this is a good one. Unhinged youth football coach with a twist. Longtime listener, second time life advice writer. Wow. I don't know if we read his or not. Did we read one

about somebody being hit by a Chevy Tahoe? I think so. Yeah, yeah, we did. And he was like, I'm a little upset she's underselling the size of the car, the make and model, all that stuff. And I think we agreed with him. Wow, Kyle, great recall. Well, I had a school bus hit me story that I remember that just jumped in my head. I remember that.

Good stuff. OK, my seven-year-old son loves sports. He's played three years of baseball, two basketball, even tried soccer. Sorry, not for us, Steve. He watches ESPN for fun, can sit through a full baseball game without issue and loves sons basketball. It's a blast to watch him develop this sort of love for sports that I've always had. We've never been big football fans, but this fall I decided he wanted to

play, so we signed him up immediately. Before the first practice, I gave him the football is a bit more intense than baseball talk to get him ready, but boy, did I underestimate how intense it would actually be. When we showed up, the boys warmed up for 10 minutes. Then it was suicide sprints immediately. After some light running, they jumped right into Oklahoma drills, two-on-one tackling drills, then open field drills.

Mind you, this is a- Oklahoma drills for seven-year-olds? My god. I thought those were outlawed in high school at this point. Yeah, six and seven-year-olds, because he says this is a team of first and second graders, almost all of which have never played before. They're nearly all brand new to the sport being thrown into high impacting tackling

drills before even being taught how to tackle. And while the head and assistant coaches are screaming at the top of their lungs, they're not hitting, running, or trying hard enough. Things only went downhill from there with the climax being our head coach getting thrown off the field at a friendly scrimmage with a team across town over rule discrepancy. Mind you, there was no ref or scorekeeper. He lost his mind in front of the bench, leaving our players afraid and asking what they did wrong.

Jesus. We've had coaches yelling at kids for having asthma attacks on the field, for not knowing their blocking assignments and when they were never taught them in the first place, or for having to use the bathroom during practice. Again, seven year olds. Here's the question. How would you approach your situation? It's obvious to me and almost every other parent on the team that the two head

coaches have some serious problems, but I get the sense that I'm going to have to be the one to speak up. That's something I have no problem with as I don't mind a good confrontation. Yeah, love it. But there's one more element that makes things a bit complicated. I have superpowers. What? I'm just kidding. I am a pastor of a large church in a pretty small community. If this exchange goes the way I think it will, it may be a tough look for me in my line of work. I don't know. That's actually one of those physical confrontations

where you can't really lose. You're either the bad-ass pastor or the guy who beat up the pastor. Warrior bunk over here. Crazy. Yeah, right. I'd like to try your Wu-Tang style. All right. So at the end of the day, I want my son to have an experience that grows his love of the game and for him to have coaches in his life besides me who helped him shape the well-rounded young man thinks in advance for the advice. Wow. really well written and also horrifying all at the same time. I talked too much in the first one.

Kyle, you wanna go first? I mean, listen, I'm not a parent, so I won't say what you should or shouldn't do here, but I mean, I would be flag footballing it until like you're approaching middle school, not like two years out of kindergarten, but that's just me. This sounds like, you know, I mean, first of all, it sounds like maybe you pivot and go to a different team after this,

or you dig in and you get around, you're like, we should impeach this coach. I've been on a team that impeached a coach. It was pretty ugly. The guy was also a gym teacher. We all saw him around afterwards. It was weird. But I think you either decide like, if he's gonna do football, I just wouldn't do like peewee tackle football, but I mean, whatever. Again, that's, I guess, a preference thing, but I don't know if you, like you don't do

this confrontation at game day or something unless there's something way over the line that can't be helped. I think this is like an after practice, maybe a couple people get together, or maybe you go to whoever's running it and it's the director of youth sports in your town or whatever. You're like, listen, we've got like five, you know, 80% of these parents actually have an issue with this and maybe, you know, but yeah, I wouldn't just be like, I'm the guy, I'm the toughest guy here. So I'll handle this on the sideline. I think, you know, you're a pastor. You should be able to get down with the peaceful way of doing this, but I think you just go, you go up the ladder, but I would seriously

consider not doing this type of football at this age. Well, one, you're a, you're a pastor, so people listen to you. So you have that advantage and two, like I had imagined other parents feel the same way that you do, like this is a, you know, let's get everybody get together, we're stronger in numbers situation so that it's not just one of you being the asshole, it's all of you being like, cause you're a hundred percent in the right here. This guy sounds like, these two guys sound like a psycho. And I'm with you, Kyle, like flag football at age six and seven, not only is fight football seem more fun, but certainly

at age six and seven, it seems like a little bit more of a better idea overall than tackle football. So I don't know. I just think it's a strength in numbers thing. Like you don't have to go at this guy by yourself. Be like, Hey dude, like you're screw up my son. It's like a group of five parents that I've actually could round up a bunch of them and you guys can kind of talk this out. And if he's like a psycho and doesn't really want to take, you know, any advice, then I guess you kind of have your answer.

I did have, when I was 12, I had, we were playing like the little league world series, travel baseball thing. We were trying to qualify for that or whatever. I did have both of my coaches get tossed out of a game once for arguing with an ump 12 year old. And I, at the time that was really cool. And I remember just like getting older, coach loves us. Yeah.

I know. I remember just getting older and be like, yeah, that was kind of weird. Like he got tossed out of a 12 year old, you know, youth baseball travel baseball game. Like that's a little bit aggressive. And we're talking about six and seven year olds in this instance, so that's even worse. So I don't know, man. It sounds like the emailer is like kind of convinced

himself, he's like, I'm the only one that could stand up to this person and like, I have to do something soon. Like, it's not like he was saying, like, I love confrontation or I'm good with it or whatever, I thrive in it, whatever he's saying. It sounds like he's getting ready to like, he's like, it's me or we all just keep getting trampled. So I would just, I try to change your perspective

before you come in too hot. Cause it sounds like this dude also runs a little hot as well. So I don't know. I wouldn't definitely wouldn't do this game day. Maybe end of practice on a Wednesday. Yeah, your status in the community should give you probably the best starting point of any other option. Okay.

Right. So that's a huge positive. You said you don't mind confrontation, which tells me that, you know, you're willing to say what you are thinking to somebody, but one of the coolest things about confrontation is when you go into it, I'm like, I'm not gonna get mad. He can say whatever he wants and I'm just gonna be concise. I'm just gonna go, hey, I think this is for this age,

too much. And he's gonna lose his shit, he's gonna yell, he's gonna say, what do you know? And if I didn't have a knee injury and all this stuff. A lot of times these coaches that lose their mind, they're compensating for something that happened with them. Uh, I, we had a guy in my minor minor league baseball in little league baseball, uh, my little league run. Yeah.

Semi-pro. It's on the Instagram. Got drafted. I was down in, you know, extended spring training, but you know, my arms. Stood with the red team. Yeah. I decided I just wanted to be on the air because this is way cooler. Uh, he was, uh, I think he'd been in the minor somewhere.

I also think he got shot in Vietnam. So, I mean, I liked him. My dad got along with him really well. Everyone else in the town hated him, hated him, because every single little league game that he was involved in turned into some referendum on whatever. I remember, I think there was like a half an hour delay in the rain because they were arguing over whether or not like an eight-year-old was wearing the proper first base glove. I mean, it was really weird shit. Like I think back to all this stuff and I'm like, my God, this stuff was crazy. And it was just all of these parents and coaches and umps and these figures. And

like, it was just all about their bullshit. Well, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, I think I played until I was like 13. I don't know. And you just go, this isn't even about us. It's about all your bullshit. And that's really what it is. And it's unfortunate that it happens so much. Um, so I do think you, because of what you said about being a pastor, I, it's going to be tougher to yell at you, even though he's probably going to yell at you. And if you just take it and you listen and whatever, and just go, okay, you know, I said what I needed to say.

And if you're as calm as possible, which is hard to do when somebody's yelling at you, it may actually have more of an impact because of your standing than you just having it out with the guy and fucking almost coming to blows where, you know, you just walk away from it and he's probably going to get in his truck and think about what you said once he's calmed down and wonder, cause you're right. Like this is just, this isn't a toughness thing. This is stupid. Seven-year-old kids, you know, some of them would probably still figure

out how to tie their shoes. Right. You've got the bathroom part of it and like Oklahoma drills. You're right. Like I think they're outlawed at a lot of colleges or just coaches don't do that kind of stuff anymore, unless you want to go with the other option here that I thought of, and that would be start playing soccer again. Well, there's that. Wait a second. go with the other option here that I thought of. And that would be start playing soccer again.

Well, there's that. Wait a second. Can priests have kids? Depends on the religion, right? The pastor. Oh, pastor. He didn't say priest. He said pastor. Yeah.

All right. I just did a quick Google. Okay. Yeah. Well, that was talking religion on the pod. Sorry. It's like, is this fake? Is this good? Is we going to priest with kids? I don't know if this is. Okay. Yeah, well that was talking religion on the pod. Sorry. Sorry. It's like, is this fake? Is this good?

We got a priest with kids? I don't know if this is real. I should know this though. I mean, like I grew up Catholic church, you know, pastor, priests, what is the difference? Well, priest is Catholic, right? I think pastor is sort of like, I don't know. We went to Methodist church.

I feel like that was like the easiest one to be. So I don't know, but like that guy could do anything, I don't know, we went to Methodist church. I feel like that was like the easiest one to be. So I don't know, but like that guy could do anything, I think. Oh, I actually hear it says- Those guys can get hammered. I think I don't know. Churches often choose an unmarried man as, but look, if you're coming here for any of that,

we don't know any of it. Yeah, maybe we start something out there. It was just a question. Don't even email. We don't, we're not pretending we know. I thought pastors could, whatever. Uh, speaking of searching though, the other pivot could be anybody remember the committee to plan parties, not to be confused with the party planning committee.

So you get Angela in the office, complete dictatorship, rules of the iron fist and the vibes are just off. And so then Karen and Pam, probably Karen's idea, cause it was cool. Um, they decided to start the committee to plan parties and have a dueling party. It may be that you just go around to some of the other parents and go. Karen? We talking Aaron? No, Karen. Who's Karen? Karen. Who's Karen?

Karen. Who's Karen? Only the biggest mistake. No, sorry. That was Jim's. Yeah. Okay. Sorry.

Yeah. Derailed you twice. She was a manager. Yeah. Pam sitting there back there faking her sales numbers. Um, you may, are you suggesting starting another staff? No, I have, I just go, Hey, we're who wants to join flag building a new program with bathroom breaks.

This is how the USFL guy started. Yeah. Just, Hey, do you want to start a new league? It took Kyle a while, but now I think he likes the idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unless a pastor just told on himself as being the only one in the United States that has a kid, which we'll get more emails about,

but that'll be in Friday feedback. Uh, thank you to Saruti. Thank you to Troy, not the city. And thank you to Kyle. Ryan Russell podcast, please subscribe and our YouTube page. We'll have the exclusive Friday feedback on Mail It In Thursdays. But on Friday. But on Friday, Mail It In even more. Needed 24 more hours to get it done. music music

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